Remains of CBGB's

Just checking in on what remains and what is vanishing still of CBGB's, I found the new John Varvatos store making headway, having installed what look like arched French windows in the old club's not-so-French-windowed space:


CBGB's back alley, Extra Place, is parked end-to-end with German engineering as it prepares to undergo its luxury transformation. The Ramones used to hang out back here--but this weekend, Marky Ramone was watching American Idol on HDTV instead:


The 313 Gallery is now the Morrison Hotel Gallery, a museum of rock-and-roll photography:


And, speaking of museums, the retail store on St. Mark's is shutting down on June 30. The sign says they are "sad to physically leave another legendary location." I'm not sure what they mean by "legendary"--the store just moved here about 5 minutes ago--unless they're referring to the fact that the totally renovated shopping mall in which they reside was once The Dom, The Electric Circus, and most recently, the All-Craft rehab center. Still, it's a mall store inside a shopping mall--let's not pretend otherwise.

There you will find one of the last remaining pieces of the club, a hunk of graffitied plywood scrawled with the word "bitch" that can be yours for $495:


If that price is too steep, you can bring home another artifact for just 5 bucks--a leftover, limited edition T-shirt from the defeated Save CBGB campaign of yore. I bought one myself, unable to resist the irony.