Friday, July 11, 2008

*Everyday Chatter

Donuts and death threats, plus free pizza: Don't forget the Slacktivists demonstration tonight at 47 E. 3rd (and many, many, many more sites around the neighborhood). Get the full-on crazy scoop at Bob Arihood's NMNL.

...Ekonomakis responds and Penley promises no guillotines.

One NYU student asks the Slacktivists and "other folks upset with NYU: make NYU students your allies. They have more in common with you than you think." [PAP]

Miracles do happen: 57-year-old shoe store, Lord John's Bootery, is saved! [Urbanite]

More miracles: Woo-hoo, rollerskating at Coney! [GL]

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

You mean to tell me some people are actually going to PAY to rollerskate indoors during months where the weather is nice outside where one can rollerskate for FREE?

Anonymous said...

Have you seen today's Times? Rangel and Paterson and rent stabilized apartments.

Anonymous said...

Please do a piece on R&L Restaurant, so that you ma inflict your j-reaper power on them.

Anonymous said...

J, read bit on YOGURTS. Again, your name was cited. If this keeps up, the assistants to pols and real estate vampires will pull them away from their conjugal trough and make them aware of VNY. They'll demand in a very miramaxian way to know WTF is going on and WhoTF is this Jeremiah! May see them around your building, going thru garbage, attempting to know who you are. The Elf Mayor may label you a terrorist. (Understand he called Critical Mass a terrorist group!)

Anonymous said...

Indoor skating and outdoor are two different endeavors. Figurer skaters (such as my parents were) don't practice skating down the street.

Anonymous said...

That's an interesting statement from that NYU student. Once again, the insinuation is that they are victims of our inexplicable predjudices (ie: we're all crazy), and the realities of gentrification (and the very clear contempt in which our fabulous new gentry regard our views on it--documented many times over in their blogs) don't exist. Somebody has to tell these kids that not everyone is as spaced out as they are, and their behavior does not go unnoticed.
Either way, like I said before, if these kids find our distaste for them offensive, well...the power to change that lies with them, not us.

Anonymous said...

What NYU student? I'm lost...

Anonymous said...

Thank God for the internet, where we can wallow and commiserate about our lack of power to the point we have a new neuroses. I only wish I had the internet in 1985 when everything I knew and loved about New York was being pushed out or shut down!

Anonymous said...

The third story in the row where the NYU student criticizes the protesters.

Jeremiah Moss said...

why knock the nyu kid? he's saying that many students at nyu are critical of nyu and that he is part of something called "Students Creating Radical Change, and other groups interested in challenging our school on student democracy, gentrification and worker’s rights."

there was a time when radical politics and protests came from college students. today, it seems most college kids mock the whole idea of protest.

shouldn't we be glad to see that the spirit of protest is still alive in some of these students?

Anonymous said...

Joshua knocks the NYU student because he's a tool.

Anonymous said...

NYU blows!

I really HATE that school along with its entire student and former student body.

So many people choose to go to school there just so they can look cool and hip to their peers back home in the midwest.

NYU is currently the epicenter of all things flip flop, huge sunglasses and annoying cell phone yapping.

mikecarloooyeah said...

This might be one of my new favorite blogs. My family is originally from Williamsburg, and we all know how that story ends. It's cool that someone is on top of all this nonsense.

Anonymous said...

I am an original New Yorker--got a National Merit scholarship and would not choose NYU for nothing!

Anonymous said...

College kids wanting to compensate for others' failings is soulful--we need more soulful feelings around here!

Anonymous said...

Sorry to be so late with my explanation (hectic weekend).

Anyways, I am aware of the historical role college students have played in the promotion of liberal causes, and I’m also aware that such attitudes are fairly rare today, with many college students basically acting like more giggly versions of their older yunnie brothers and sisters. That’s what annoyed me about his quote in the first place.
However, since he did specifically mention gentrification, I guess in hindsight my criticisms of the NYU kid were unjustified. Still, I dislike his phrasing. It reminded me of many other apologist-type statements that I’ve run into on the subject of gentrification, that seek to absolve the yunnie rank and file of their role in gentrification in favor of faceless institutions or abstractions.
After all, in the article itself, he put his statement as a "challenge" to the protesters, because "I know a contingent of them [NYU students] willing to sign on to challenge the school we attend". That’s fine, but that doesn’t erase their daily experience of the legions of obnoxious, infantile students with Social-Darwinist attitudes flouncing around the Village. The way he phrased the statement, I thought he was trying to deny the frequency of this archetype amongst his fellow students (and thereby denying the validity of the protestors’ complaints).
It’s a petty point, I suppose, but I think it’s an important consideration.
Nonetheless, I probably misinterpreted him, and I guess I shouldn’t have knocked him so bitterly. So, if he should happen to read this thread: I apologize.

Now, in regards to Anon#5's theory, I’m intrigued. I have to ask: of whom am I a tool, exactly? Please explain.