This one from 2nd and 10th says, "This neighborhood of Bird and Ginsberg, junkies and fags, troubadours of the land, vanished like smoke from the towers. It's so lonely here now...gimme back my city and its ghosts..."
The last line echoes Kerouac, reading with Steve Allen from On the Road: "Walking off alone, the last I saw of him, he rounded a corner of Seventh Avenue. Eyes on the street ahead, intent [or bent] to it again. Gone!”
Is this a kindred soul, this voice crying in the wilderness, "Oh Manahatta, why have you forsaken me?"
You might not see these notes in the jumble of ads and other paper junk taped to the lightpoles and mailboxes and plywood walls. But keep an eye out for them. If you find one, please take a photo and post it on the Vanishing NY flickr page. I feel compelled to collect them.
How moving. I think you might want to clarify your request, though. My initial reaction was that you wanted people to send the actual *notes* to you, which I quickly realized wasn't the case, but still...
ReplyDeleteSee, why can't NYT publish stories like this instead of that No.96 blog? If they do, then maybe the yunnies will read and know about the neighborhood that they're destroying.
ReplyDeleteThere is some schadenfreude when I hear that NYTimes are laying off staff and are down in circulation.
The star wars tower on Orchard street posted yesterday forced me to do some online research on some of my beloved record shops yesterday.
ReplyDeleteSadly it appears that Breakbeat Science is no longer in business.
According to ther website The Sound Library is still there but I do not know for how long.
There were at least 2 other stores located on the same block as Breakbeat Science but I do not remember their names right now.
Has this blog covered the vaishing of local record shops within the past 2 years?
There have been over a dozen alone that I can think of. Perhaps maybe even more. Very sad.
These notes are a reminder that NY's creative spirit like its cockroaches, can't be killed off. After Trump, Macklowe et al are dead, that spirit will live on! BTW, today's Times: B'berg is considering upending term limits (hello, Rudy?) Four more years of the Elfin Mayor & glass towers! Almost as good as four more years of Bush & war. Mikey destroys Manhattan while W obliterates Iraq; their pals get rich, rebuilding both!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. NYC, especially the East Village, used to be a place where I can be alone by not being alone and feeling lonely. Now, I feel much more alone, and lonely, here in a crowded city, than I am alone being alone.
ReplyDeleteknicks, i haven't done old record shops, but a couple guys i know are interested or have done some. check out:
ReplyDeletehttp://vassifer.blogs.com/alexinnyc/vanishing_downtown/index.html
and
http://theworldsamess.blogspot.com/