Monday, October 10, 2011

*Everyday Chatter

On the Bowery: "generic glass-and-steel towers, trendy hotels, art galleries and chains like Whole Foods have been chipping away at the street’s character, threatening to make some blocks resemble the sleeker stretches of Avenue of the Americas or Third Avenue in Midtown." [NYT]

Bad news for Joe's Bar in the EV? [EVG]

You can help get Occupy Wall Street billboards up in Times Square. [RS]

Amusing the Zillion announces a Coney Island "Countdown to Corporatization," counting the days "Until 7 Mom & Pops Are Kicked Off the Coney Island Boardwalk!" [ATZ]

Part three in remembering Cornell and the Flower Stall. [HNY]

Lisanne follows artist Edith Raw, the walking tin-can lady, down 14th St. [youtube]

"Notwithstanding its reputation as a sex palace, the Continental Baths was a home and haven for many people who lived, played, danced, and socialized... It was a place where doctors, lawyers, clerks, waiters, and the wealthy intermingled with each other at the lowest common denominator of human existence." [Advocate]

Mike Albo's Unitard, the Blowdryers, the Cockettes--check out what's happening this month at HOWL at Theater 80 St. Mark's. [HOWL]

On St. Mark's, a "greasy scourge" says the Post as "Drunken patrons of twin 2 Bros. Pizza places have left a sad trail of paper plates, crusts and soda cans"... "It’s ruining the neighborhood!" [NYP]

In Williamsburg, fishing for children to get hooked on iPhone apps. [NYS]

photo: New York Shitty

Because it's never too early to become an iPhone zombie:


Restless asks: Didn't Steve Jobs "just like a heroin dealer, make it a whole lot easier for people -- who naturally gravitate to the lowest common denominator -- to become zombies?" [Restless]

8 comments:

maximum bob said...

Speaking of zombies: Ten years ago I used to spend a lot of time at an Irish bar named Fitzgeralds, at Third Ave and 25th st. It used to be the local saloon in the neighborhood where I worked. It had darts and the clientele all knew each other. This was before the Baruch campus opened on 25th st. It was all locals and working people from the neighborhood.
I dropped in recently and was delighted to find a lot of the same bartenders still there. But the clientele? Couples together, each staring at their phones, ignoring each other. The dart area,
people still playing darts, but then gazing hypnotized into their phones. Hardly any interaction between people. Hardly any barroom
bonhomie and conversation. If this is your Brave New World you can stick it up your ass.

JAZ said...

Sorry if this is old news to you, but I didn't know that Peep World on W33rd was scheduled to be closed down and the space turned into a rooftop bar. This story about it is from June, and it states that the store will be closing 'later this year'. I passed by last night, and although not all of the neon lights are working, Peep World was most definitely still open for business.

Does everything that's even a slightly edgy/gritty reminder of pre Disney New York City have to be removed and replaced with one more cliche of Bloomberg's neutered tourist trap fantasy?

http://www.dnainfo.com/20110623/midtown/peep-world-porn-shop-become-rooftop-bar

Jeremiah Moss said...

thanks JAZ. i did see that. been meaning to get back up there.

lauran said...

smart phones what ever.......people are like this! remember when TV was invented? years later it was on in peoples homes "all" day. sometimes people keep it on when they sleep. its not the device, its not steve jobs, its what people choose to do. next came cell phones, all day. then text all day. i have a laptop which i leave home. a cell which i take w/me to call a cab. or see if some arrangements were changed, or call a store to see its its open late. i have never kept the cell "on" in the street, & never have had a social conversation while doing other things. only in an airport yes with a long stop over, i can relax & pass the time & call a friend. people suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder. usually its stress related. & the constant yapping thinking & mindless interruptions make the stress worse! its a choice. it is easy to break these afflictions. i dont have the same afflictions, but when i am very anxious i myself do compulsive things. some tech related. but i know when to pull the plug, as i cant function normally. cant imagine this tech stuff becoming an everyday lifestyle for society, but it is. also..... look @ compusive eating, shopping, malls. this blitz of noise etc is what people want & choose do. dont blame mr. jobs. even a dog would run away from all that stimulous if it could. what does this say about the human condition?

Anonymous said...

I'm torn. I find the smartphone extremely useful at times but I'm also troubled at the prospect of becoming a zombie. On the other hand, I won't lie sometimes you just need to tune out the world in order to cope, it is something we will always seek to do. Long ago people buried their faces in a newspaper. The smartphone is mighty useful but yes, it does possess an evil power. God help us.

lauran said...

anon 11:39am, i dont know much about smart phone as i dont have one. i assume its internet, games, phone movies, music, etc etc all in one. dont worry, this does not possess an evil power. this is exactly what drug addicts say about their drug of choice. of cause the corporations want you to feel this way. if you need to tune out, disconnect! this is harder o the eyes then a newspaper. & for god sakes if youre not in real estate or youre not a doctor, keep it turned off. its a fxxking machine. its not part of your body. as for the zombies, let them do what they do. america is a nation of senility. whether its the obese watching snooky, or the starbucks crowd trying to "find" & "create" messages.......people are doing what they are told. for all JVNY readers: dont be obedient.

esquared™ said...

here's a 1-yr. old zombie: she plays with a magazine like it is an ipad

http://mashable.com/2011/10/13/baby-magazine-ipad/

Jeremiah Moss said...

sweet jesus, that's terrifying, a perfect glimpse of our idiot, totally touchpadded future in which books are dead and so is delayed gratification.

what do we have, another decade or so before the so-called upgrade is complete?