Monday, February 4, 2008

*Everyday Chatter

What's with the day-glo DKNY bikes? I spotted one at St. Mark's and 2nd this weekend. This morning, it was gone. Then this one showed up outside the Meatpacking Apple store, the DKNY sticker ripped off. Racked has the answer:


Bob Arihood advises his readers to strip and steal these orange anathemas. [NMNL]

People seem to be moving in to the condo at 18th and 8th, and like other condo dwellers with giant exposing windows, they don't know how to hang curtains and have come up with creative non-curtain alternatives for gaining a modicum of privacy. In this case, they've erected a bunch of shoji screens. How's that working out for you?


Strippers are scaring the new residents around 23rd and 11th, especially the folks with a stake in this condoland. Will it really make it harder to sell to people so insulated from the world around them they'll drive their cars straight into their condos? Choice quote from the story: "It’s like putting a strip club in Disneyworld." Welcome to the new New York. [Chelsea Now]

Will Nathan's of Coney Island be torn down to become a giant wiener tower? Say it ain't so Nate! [Gothamist]

Meet Mr. Misery: Here's a guy who sells consulting services to landlords who want to evict subprime tenants quickly and efficiently. I guess he thinks of himself as an exterminator of sorts?

Into the Box has a new video about the skyrocketing real estate on the Bowery. Worth checking out for its historical images and the nauseating glimpse you will get into yunnie life on old skidrow. [ITB]

12 comments:

  1. Well, my dear, gastrointestinal distress is almost a promise if you eat in those places. And I hope that you will take the lesson of those tummy troubles to heart and decide once and for all to leave those places alone!

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  2. I'm fed up with the tip jars everywhere. I go to the bakery for a loaf of bread, and they want a tip for putting a loaf of bread in a bag, ringing me up, taking my money and giving me my change. I do feel sorry for these folks, as they are paid crap, but those positions ALWAYS PAID CRAP, that's kind of the point, it's the incentive to get you the hell out of that job and move on up to the East Side.

    God forbid they go on strike or sue for being underpaid. That actually involves work, and we know that's out of fashion in our "GimmeGimmeGimmeNoWorkie Era".

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  3. amazing footage from the shoe store is available here:
    http://www.revbilly.com/

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  4. Jeremiah I was just getting around to sending you "Mr. Misery"'s link but now you already have it ...and I also had a suggestion to add . .

    We have some wonderful trees in Tompkins Square Park . Wonderful trees with long flat and low limbs . Perfect limbs for throwing a rope over and hangin' some folks. Ideally every Saturday afternoon we cold enjoy these hangings , especially in good weather .With the likes of "Mr.Misery" and his ilk , you know developers , real estate agents and the like , in such numbers , growing numbers , we could have years of pleasure hanging and hanging and hanging ....right here at home in our Tompkins Square park . .

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  5. thanks shatteredM, i'll get that info up quick. and, bob, not a bad idea you've got there...

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  6. Regarding the yunnie practice of both buying condos with huge windows, and then not covering them. It is bizarre and inexplicable only from a logical, non-yunnie standpoint. If one thinks in terms of their collective culture, it really becomes quite understandable.
    First and foremost, I must point out that since the yunnie culture, I think, can be fairly summed up as snobbery-without-sophistication, it is naturally not remiss for them to constantly attempt to provoke envy in others by advertising their possessions and condo-living affluence, in order to compensate for otherwise low self-esteem. After all, in the perpetual-eighties-high school-movie in which the yunnie seems to live, the world is very neatly divided into “cool people” and “losers” (as has been mentioned on this site before). Certainly, as their general trend-dependancy shows, the average yunnie is not at all anxious to be dismissed into the latter category, thereby losing his/her influence with the pack. So, they do their best to advertise. This is also the reason for their obsessions about fashion, body image, etc.
    Second, I think it is worth pointing out that in the yunnie culture, the idea of privacy is somewhat different from ours. Certainly, a little thing like curtains (or their absence) wouldn’t be enough to faze a group of people who regard running around naked and performing sexual acts in the streets of various cities during Spring Break and Mardi Gras as “a right of passage”. Likewise, it’s rather common in yunnie-society for individuals to have naked pictures of themselves floating around somewhere on the internet. Whether these pictures are evidence of a drunken party, a college attempt at “Indi Porn”, or simply from a personally maintained voyeur website, is immaterial, as the yunnies are proficient (and proclivent) at all three. The females, in particular, seem to have trouble thinking of anything else to do BUT flash some part of their bodies whenever a camera is pointed at them, at least around a certain age. The famous “Gone Wild” tapes (and their sheer preponderance) speak loudly on this point. Plus, let’s not forget the thousands and thousands of home web-cams, You Tube postings, MySpace pages, and other such evidence of wide-scale yunnie narcissism. They're so anxious to be seen they even film themselves comitting crimes (and then post the videos!). Naturally, to such people, an open curtain is quite a mild thing.
    Of course, I’m sure there is a certain percentage who would like to put up curtains (like Mom and Dad had back in Mayfield, Ohio) but simply do not know how, since no one ever showed them. Somewhere during their giggly, extasy-fueled journey of becoming smart, sexy, savvy young professionals, they forgot that back home they always had Consuela to do stuff like hang curtains, and I’m sure it can be quite frightening and disorienting when they realize she’s no longer there. Thus, you know...no curtains.

    Wonderful article as always!

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  7. Well Jeremiah , we have to create and support events that will bring real progress to our city .We need to take positive actions that will bring about a better future .With such an event in Tompkins Square Park we would be creating a sort of "raindance" , you know ... dangling , dancing feet at the end a rope...to help bring down that "real rain that will wash this scum away" .

    There's just too damned many of these "bottom-feeders"like "Mr. Misery" around this city today .We could put them to good use pushin-up TSP daisies .

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  8. Joshua, good points. I think this posting:
    http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2007/11/random-shots_29.html
    does a good job some of reinforcing them.

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  9. Thank you Jeremiah.

    In support of Bob’s idea, may I point out that as their feet twitch, their flip-flops all flying through the air at once might give the impression of falling leaves, or maybe um...let me think...”empty space filled spontaneously”, or something like that. The whole thing could be justified artistically based on that title alone.
    The Art establishment could certainly have nothing to object to on the point of taste, as human corpses, bought cheaply from third-world morgues, are quite popular in American art these days. We’ll say our bodies are a bit higher quality, having come directly from Dawson’s Creek. I bet you they’ll like this project even more!
    One final suggestion. Could the project be expanded to Washington Square Park as well? Did you know they were tearing it up (something to do with NYU, and making the circle smaller)? Naturally, the locals are upset, the City couldn’t care less, and the Yunnie feels we should accept “change”. Expanding the project to Washington Square could send a nice message of support to our besieged brethren over in the West Village.

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  10. I hope that folks realize my proposal here is a modest one ...we could afterall just have a "Terror" and attempt to kill all the rich .

    No , I don't even propose anything radical concerning babies as Mr. Swift did even though we have a similar militantly oppressive class ,here and now an aggressively burgeoning one ,that hopes to get their boot on the backs of the neck of more and more of us .A new power elite that wants it all ...and wants it managed efficiently and mercilessly too.

    No, without question the innocent must be protected .

    But then we are not writing here of punishing or ridding the earth of the innocent . The target of our wrath creates misery for so many . Our target just takes because he or she can .They profit from the misery of so many others ...and they feel no shame in doing so (they care nothing for us you know , they don't even see us on the street as they pass us ... unless ,of course , we have a gun in our hand ) .He or she use all the tools and techniques of the Global Business Elites to efficiently and reliably sate their socio-pathic appetite for more wealth and power .

    So Mr. Swift offers babies , I offer hangings , responsibly and respectfully conducted in a park for a select few . A modest proposal indeed.

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  11. http://www.observer.com/2008/boy-developer-ben-shaoul-wants-live-forever?page=2co%2C1g. ... check it out !

    eg. Jeremiah, just another familiar example of an interviewer that allows a little monster to seem human . Check him out at Google or Yahoo .

    another candidate for a park tree , right ?

    Check him out at NMNL ,use the "Blogger"search feature .

    this guy is part of your favorite "Yves" on 6th ave.

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  12. thanks bob--i saw this today. amazing. i plan to get it up on the blog tomorrow. really a mindblowing interview.

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