For the occasion, and for no other good reason, here's a shot of a guy in an expensive suit and haircut, drinking Red Bull and smoking an illegal cigarette in the park, while wearing suede--what do you call those shoes with all the toes articulated?--these shoes. They are apparently made from kangaroos. He was also shouting into his iPhone. Enjoy.
Thanks everyone for reading and for sticking around, for all your comments, emails, and tips. You keep me engaged with this thing. And thanks, too, for whatever work you do to keep the city from becoming a total spiritual wasteland--for your writing, art, and music, for your activism, your involvement, and your steadfast love for what still is, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, the best city going.
Happy 6th anniversary also to Alex at Flaming Pablum today and Bowery Boogie for his 3rd.
I'm a recent follower and am really enjoying the blog. Congrats on the longevity, dude.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this is doable, but for guys like me that missed out on a lot of probably great posts you did in years past, I wonder if you can't have some kind of "Greatest Hits" or "Most Viewed" or "Most Commented" on the side, so I don't gotta manually look through the entire archives.
Happy birthday! Err, this is my first time writing that on a blog...
ReplyDeleteActually, I was in high school for six years.
ReplyDeleteStill!
Happy Anniversary. Thank you for continuing to inspire...
thanks guys!
ReplyDeletesorry to hear about your high school experience, Grieve, but we all know you stayed for the girls.
Anon, there is a random posts thingy on the side and i recommend you give that some clicks. it will take you into places you might not otherwise find.
happy blogoversary!!
ReplyDeleteHappy happy. Thanks for 4 years of awesome writing and inspiration.
ReplyDeleteCheers.
Happy Blogoversary! I will never forget the day I found your blog.
ReplyDeleteHere's to many more.
Happy anniversary and congratulations on four years of solid and thoughtful writing, wonderful perspectives and inspiration to all of us!
ReplyDeletehttp://twe.ly/Bnob
cupcakes, and froyos, and ramen on me
ReplyDeleteand all will be artisanal...
Happy Four-Year Blogoversary, and thanks for all the hard work you've put into this great blog! I was a high school dropout, so can only marvel at your "stick-to-it-ivness."
ReplyDeleteBrooks
Thanks for responding. I also wanted to know whether you ever wrote much about Giuliani. I don't really know my NYC history. The mythology is that he cleaned up the city and now Central Park and Times Square is safe. Everyone says that, but every time I see him it's obvious what a corrupt tool he is, so I just wanted to know your take.
ReplyDeleteThe photo and description is a fine douchebaggian reminder of why VNY is so valuable.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, sir, and may we all wake up one morning to realize the past 10 years have only been a bad dream....
try to visit everyday...ever since that guy over at MAD mentioned you when he was doing the 365 thing...
ReplyDeletehappy anniversary & many more...
rr
Brilliant photo. Costco!
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary on the blog. It's awesome.
Ugh.I hate those shoes.They always seem to be on the biggest goofballs.Apparently they're quite comfortable though.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary.One of the first things I do every morning is check in here.
Happy Anniversary.
ReplyDeleteYour passion and dedication are admirable, as are the fascinating history lessons you provide.
Here's wishing you as many more posts as you care to do, and here's hoping you can help turn the tide of what is happening to our city -- or at least hold off the floodwaters a while.
Keep up the great work. Speaking as a professional illustrator (the pen-and-ink/paper dinosaur variety) who loved New York deeply during her years there (1997-2008), your blog is invaluable to me. I check it every day to see what's at risk/disappearing - it's a bittersweet blessing, a living document of what we've lost, and what needs to be treasured while we have it. I feel as though I caught a teeny, tail-end of NYC in a past era - god, do I miss it. Keep up the wonderful, indispensable work.
ReplyDeletethanks everyone. so good to know my rants and complaints aren't falling on deaf ears out there.
ReplyDeleteJeremiah, happy anniversary, keep up the good work. Grieve, I went to college for four terms. Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary! Four is a very long time in blog years. I'm in the terrible twos and find it hard to imagine lasting till four.
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating that VNY, Flaming Pablum and Bowery Boogie share the same blogoversary. July 15th is auspicious!
No your rants and complaints are not falling on deaf ears! You make me feel less alone during this depressing era of 'vanishing ny". To know that you and others (your fine commentors)are paying attention to what is beautiful and disapearing makes me feel less alienated in this increasingly ugly, boring, suburban,insipid, college dormitory new landscape.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary!
Happy anniversary - as sad as it can be to read this sometimes, it also brings great comfort that far outweighs it all; despite the best efforts of a mayor who wants to whitewash the past away, and the pseudo creative class of summertime scarf wearing artisinal trust funders on urban adventure, the fact is that the great people and places of New York's not so distant past are kept alive forever due to people like yourself that are not letting the cupcakification of NYC happen without mention.
ReplyDeleteThank god you are giving like minded people a place to vent, to remember - and to realize that none of us are alone in this organic rooftop nightmare, sponsored by Disney.
Thank you, and please keep up the good fight.
Happy Blogoversary!! Leave it to Grand St to get the date right. (thanks Grand!)
ReplyDeleteHere's to steadfast love! I know often times I get apoplectic reading your blog, but your blog has a way of making me love this town more and more. Thanks again for all the fascinating wonderland rabbit holes to get lost in. :)
Happy Anniversary, Jeremiah! Can't imagine being without Vanishing New York. It's an amazing body of work, & very consoling in these mean-spirited days. Many, many thanks!
ReplyDeleteyou know i love your blog. you inspired me to come up w/ that phrase "wtf-ication". what you notice is so awesoome, bub. pls keep going. - stef
ReplyDeleteWhat you're doing is incredibly important - always remember that. It's the "secret histories" that are always the most reliable and yours is as valuable as it is entertaining. Partly because of you, I'm holding out hope that we can hold down the fort, wait this whole thing out until the depression finally takes its toll and the parents of the YUNNIES stop sending them here and then we can get our city back. Keep up the good work!!!
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the view!
hi j;
ReplyDeletei keep waiting for your writing to suck and it never does! it's SO refreshing and reassuring to find a blog that consistently has something useful to say and says it well, amidst so much horrible, endless, painfully bad and pointless blogging out there.
j, to you remember a studio in Soho, this is going back 3o years or so, you may not be old enough, where an artist worked in neon; the studio was called David Made Me. i remember it. nobody else seems to.
happy birthday and keep going, KEEP GOING!
Pissed Off Mother
Happy Birthday you! Don't feel bad about dropping out I was kicked out of high school, of which I am proud of. Still a few decades later I enrolled in Columbia Univ but that's another story. Write on!
ReplyDeletei have to say, i am really enjoying all this virtual love. i should have a birthday every day. thanks so much for all the good wishes. i'm so grateful for the connections.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is part of my daily morning coffee drinking routine. Rage, rage against whatever it is that is trying to kill the soul of the people who make NYC what it is. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHey Jeremiah (yes, I know that's not your real name!),
ReplyDeleteI always discover places I'm not familiar with here (at times before they are in danger of being vanished, yes) and your writing and this blog help me to better understand what is happening in our city and feel better knowing that there are kindred spirits out there who don't believe change is always better or necessary. Or at least the kind of monumental change Mayor Bloomberg considers a benefit to NYC (and has accelerated) -- isn't it time for him to be out of office yet?
Best wishes going forward!
Cathryn.
Happy Blogoversary!!
ReplyDeleteI've read every single entry!
I truly love your labor of love!!!
I was thinking the other day, "when did I start really feeling miserable here?" I'd say it was 2005, when my 2 douchebag, harvard/yale frat boy neighbors moved into my east vill apt building. From that point on it was endless "kegger" style parties with the most inane conversation (as well as "hooting" and "whoo-hooing") I've ever heard, coming out of their guests mouths which filled my bldgs hallways and stairwells. I currently find myself very sad most of the time, The NYC I moved to and loved in 1991 is looooong gone, and I doubt will ever return. Your blog is important. It's sort of a "release" and a shared experience of the grief I feel over the destruction of this once fantastic city. Happy B-day and keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on four years well done, I hope it continues for many more, and how about a book as well? (Y'know that kind on paper.) You could wear a mask at the signings.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I'm leaving the city and moving to the suburbs where there are more artists and eccentrics (did I just write that?)
Air hugs and kisses for all that you do!!
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary and thanks
ReplyDeletegreat photo; considering the shoes, a phoot-o.
have never understood people wearing flip flops in the city. "Now This!!!" ( in some high pitched cartoon voice)
Congratulations. I follow your blog daily and though I don't always agree with what you say I appreciate what you do. Here's to four more years. Skoal!
ReplyDeleteJere-
ReplyDeleteIf I'm at all responsible for the "heads up," the credit really goes to Marty, who mentioned your first post a week or so ago. The date somehow stuck in my head. (I'm like that.)
Anyway, to echo so many others, stay with it.
JVNY is my morning cup of coffee, too (and sometimes my beer at night).
Best,
Grand
happy blogaversary to you..... happy blogaversary to you, everyone sing along. jeremiah, you didnt finish high school? how about a short bio? we dont know much about you..... mystery man in vanishng city
ReplyDeleteHappy blogoversary, Jeremiah. I like your omg-I-can't-believe-it's-gone blog the best because you're the crankiest. xox
ReplyDeletelook at all of us here. when the hell are we going to revolt?
ReplyDeletehow about a twitter flash mob of middle-aged, cranky people wreaking havoc (or just being really cranky) on Avenue A?
Your blog is great. I hope it never vanishes.
ReplyDeleteMany happy returns, JM, keep it up!!!
ReplyDeleteHappy JVNY Bday!!Jeremiah--your's was the first blog I ever read!!
ReplyDeleteI'm late to the party, but Happy Blogoversary! I really enjoy reading your posts and you've inspired me to go out and document things around the city and to participate in preservation. Here's to many more years!
ReplyDeleteHappy Blogday! Here's to many more...
ReplyDeleteI found this blog two years ago and read it avidly from London and Manchester UK - I have been a frequent visitor to New York from 1978 at the age of 17 to last month & let me say I prefer some of the darker edgier days when it wasn't so sanitised etc; but London & Manchester are the same except we have more history so developers can't just rip our history apart - maybe you guys need to look into that it saves on eyesores being built
ReplyDeleteBelated happy anniversary, Jeremiah. You are the headquarters.
ReplyDeleteHAPPY ANNIVERSARY and thank you so much for what you do. NEVER DOUBT HOW VALUABLE IT IS!
ReplyDelete