Take another look at Claudio's Barber Shop and Italian East Harlem. [GGC]
Courtney Love might be stumbling up your walk-up stairs any day now. [EVG]
Recession pricing comes to Ray's on Avenue A. [NMNL]
Thankfully, someone is covering the demise of poor old Shea Stadium. [FNY]
Nice before-and-after shot of Village Cigars. [GVDP]
"The mass media would like to write off the widespread decrease in consumer spending as uncoordinated fear and irrational behavior, but the truth is that there is a growing movement behind this conscious consumption decrease, and we won’t stop saving our money until the whole system is rethought." [AdBusters]
10/16: A little late to be protesting the bailout with Ralph Nader--if you go, please tell him to stay out of Barack's way:
Are we at the end of hipsterism? "Hipsters are really nothing more than the latest manifestation of the disaffected, nihilistic youth population that mutates into a new form with each generation. They’re an obnoxious but essentially innocuous pocket of youth culture whose era is already waning." [Utne]
Fed-up Soho neighbors fight back against club with urine, buckets of water, and harsh words: "Fuck your hipstery little patrons!" [NYO]
Author Joel Kotkin: "I was just down in Soho; I could see all the empty restaurants. You can already see something is happening out there. I went to buy something for my youngest; and I was looking at a for-sale rack, and it was this sweater—kid’s sweater for a little girl—$1,395. And I turned around and said, ‘Who’ll buy this?’ They said, ‘Oh, yeah, people are buying this.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t think people are going to be buying very many of them anymore.’" [NYO]
Seeing these kids carrying placards on 5th Ave, I thought it might have to do with the upcoming election or the controversial bailout, but no--they were advertising a dog-friendly wine store:
so much wonderment! Particularly the golden (?) showers raining on the Delicatessen's patrons...yeeooow!
ReplyDeleteThat Observer piece on residents using direct action to fight back the hordes was positively delightful. And those photos of the scene outside Ray's truly brought me a feeling of warmth and hope like I haven't experienced in a good while. If I didn't know any better I'd say it was 1985 all over again. Up until a few weeks ago my visits to this blog were at best attempts at wallowing in hopeless nostalgia when you'd take us down memory lane and at worst (and far more often) out-and-out exercises in masochism when you'd cover the seemingly endless wave of yunnie excess and hyper-gentrification that has plagued our city. I'd usually always leave the blog feeling like shit. curious developments have been happening as of late, however. While there's still plenty of bad news to go around here, there's also been a steadily rising amount of hearteningly good news peppered in as well. I usually no longer feel like breaking something after reading your blog, Jeremiah. I don't want to jinx it, but the tide may very well be turning after all.
ReplyDeletebob, i feel your pain. and your elation. i've felt more optimistic in the past few weeks than i have in the past decade.
ReplyDeletesorry to make you feel like shit so much. sometimes, it just can't be avoided.