Saturday, August 2, 2008

*Everyday Chatter

Due to a Blogger glitch, I and many other bloggers got locked out yesterday on suspicion of being spam bots. The lock has been lifted, so here's a belated post:

Bobby Steele calls for the death of "Die Yuppie Scum," gets his fingers threatened by Jerry the Peddler, and vows to attend the next "political indoctrination rally" in Tompkins Square Park. [Villager]

Read this excellent article on yunnie parents: Judith Warner sums it up when she says, "My worry is for the rest of us...and for our children, who are likely to come out the losers in a society dominated by sharks." Sharks: amoral, voracious, dangerous. [Times]

The Eldridge creator is compared to a murderous sociopath: Skinning, butchering, and cutting the throat of the Lower East Side. [Curbed]

An entire race of monsters is taking over Montauk! They're creeping through the dunes and lying on the sand, soaking up the sun. Wait. This sounds familiar. Weren't those monsters recently identified as the Yachtini?

"What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?" --Yeats

from olaus magnus' carta marina

"The Mallification of New York is proceeding apace, on a road paved with Mom and Pop skulls." [Gothamist]

"There's no question in my mind that there's far more national chains here in the city today than five or 10 years ago." What happened in the past 5 - 10 years to attract/permit all these chains? [NYDN]

Buy a piece of the East Village: As Veselka expands, they're selling their mural. [Stupefaction]

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you're back!

I missed that Yachtini article the first time around...Probably a good thing. I didn't make it past the 2nd paragraph:

"Lauren Morris’s gold lamé high heels kept getting stuck between the planks of the patio deck.

A male friend who shares her rental house in Southampton had warned her on a recent Saturday night to wear flats to Surf Lodge, the trendy new nightspot for the Hamptons crowd. But she was not the type of woman to have packed party shoes without heels."

Nick said...

"Substitute “Yuppie” with “Jew,” and you see what I mean. About 70 years ago, Hitler rallied his National Socialists against the Jews — mainly because the Jews could be easily singled out, but also because they were successful, and it was easy to convince the Germans that the reason for all of their feelings of loss or oppression were caused by the “rich Jews.” It’s nice to sneak hate in through the back door, isn’t it?"

OK, that has got to be the most ridiculous invocation of Godwin's Law I've ever seen on the Internet.

Hmm... maybe he's one of the anonymous trolls who haunt this site periodically...

Anonymous said...

Bobby Steele, please shut up.

Jeremiah Moss said...

i would love to understand where bobby is coming from. i can get behind a plea for tolerance and diversity, in general, but his feelings are so strong and seem so contradictory to his personal circumstances as a struggling punk-rocker in the super-gentrifying LES, it's hard to grasp.

the idea of a yuppie-supporting anarchist makes me very curious.

Anonymous said...

bobby steele just proved to me some old time punk guys are conservative republicans in disguise. george tabb is another one. both tough talkers.

Anonymous said...

Jeremiah,

I changed my comment. Hope you'll publish this version!

Well, the comparison to the plight of the Jews in pre-war Germany is absurd, but Bobby Steele has fought the good fight for quite a while and frankly, has earned the right to an opinion regarding the LES -- even if it diverges from the "correct" stance.

I think it's absurd (and I'm a fan of this blog) that of all the people to take issue with, Bobby Steele is a target.

And threatening to break a musician's fingers so "he'll never play again" is offensive to me and the antithesis of "peace-loving."

Maybe, he finds it intolerable to have any opinion forced down his throat, or maybe he's pissed about being labeled a traitor for taking part in the CBGB/Vavartos store opening. Maybe, he just keeps his own counsel and forms his opinions accordingly.

Trish

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised nobody brought out the term "PC" yet. Usually it's the conservative/libertarian/independent or what I'd like to call Republican Lite who dallies around the PC term.

Anonymous said...

Bobby,

It's a joke; it's irony.

'Die Yuppie Scum' is no more inciting violence than saying 'drop dead' is an incitement to suicide.

p.s It's slow at the Villager this week. Maybe we need Ed Gold to write another column on DeSapio. At least he makes sense.

Anonymous said...

The concept of "hate speech" is one of the most absurd of all the Orwellian thought crimes.

Anonymous said...

Think any mothers out there were offended by the lyrics to "Last Caress"?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, hate speech as a thought crime is right up there with expecting everyone to pony up and agree to the letter 100% of the time with your opinions on a topic, say gentrification!

Anonymous said...

Glad you're back too, Jerry! I was worried there for awhile.

Jeeze, don't tell me these yuppies think they're oppressed. And at an equivalent level as the Jews in Nazi Germany no less! It's very disturbing that a grown person could wrap himself in a self-serving cocoon like that and conveniently ignore every reality that makes he and his soioeconomic group anything less than innocent victims of inexplicable prejudice. I guess if one were to ask him about rent hikes and wage gaps and all those other un-fabulous things he would just stare blankly. Or maybe he'd say we're trying to oppress him and his frieds by making their realestate investments less profitable. His way of thinking suggests many interesting scenarios.
I hope he doesn't REALLY believe these things he says, for his sake if nothing else.
But a few of these Anons seem to agree with him, that it is in-fact PRO-gentrifiction people who are pressed to conform by a hostile extremely powerful outside force (us). Boy, we're not just povincial and nostalgic, we anti-gentrification people are quite evil! Those poor rich people, we hurt their feelings with our unreasonable anger over their colonizing our neighborhoods and pushing us out! Don't talk to them about the Holocost, slavery, or colonialism: they're experiencing something a million times worse then all of them put together--and it's happening right now!
I guess this is what the yunnie means when he complains about the "mean people" who criticize him. I mean if we're as bad as Hitler, that's pretty "mean" isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Reminder: Politic rhetoric, left or right, has nothing to do with anarchy.

Anonymous said...

I thought Aarchism was inherently leftist?

Anonymous said...

Anarchy is technically to the extreme right, no government is further down that side of the spectrum from small goverment.

That is, if you're talking traditional right, and not the social conservatism we have.

Anonymous said...

Well, I picked up my encyclopedia again and looked it up, and tecnically I think we're both right. Anarchism is usually associated with the left due to it's theory that all governments are subject to corruption and domination by tiny elites, though it is also attractive to those on the right who idealize life without any authority with power over "our own affairs".
So I suppose ShatteredMonacle is right: Anarchy is a far more ambiguous beast, and is thus difficult to classify.
Perhaps it should suffice to say that Anarchism appeals to people with a grievance against authority.

LJP said...

Gee I thought the term "Yuppie" died a long time ago. Bobby hates bistros and anything 'liberal' but hating "yuppies" is somehow "hate speech"? Bobby is an idiot! Just like he supports the same kind of Repuglicans who don't even care about him or his disability. Hey Bobby, why don'cha go home and rot?