Bloggers Marty and Melanie star in a story by Mick--don't worry, it's SFW, no exchange of body fluids. [MAM]
The replacement for Ray's Pizza on Prince has opened--it's a pizza place run by Italians. And "The former site of the Ray's restaurant alongside the slice shop will become a luxury spa." [DNA]
Enticing and mysterious photos inside the abandoned Avenue A theater about to be demolished. [EVG]
Inside Lucy's Bar on Avenue A. [Eater]
The Times checks in on Little Wisco: "a Wisconsin accent [is] both out of place and right at home in Greenwich Village, 'Is that unbelievable or what?'" [NYT]
Check out the women photographers of the Lower East Side at the 14th Street Y.
That was a nice surprise by Mick, I'm honored!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeremiah for putting me up, much appreciated ;)
ReplyDeletepatti smith has always seemed to be a kind of social climber, latching on to things and people who could help her. haven't heard her much on tibet recently- is that phase over as it is amongst young people who once had prayer flags? and her now seeming yearly appearance at the metropolitan museum smacks of the worst kind of sell out. she is truly a phony punk rocker.
ReplyDeleteshe is similar to yoko ono in the generation before her, and kim gordon in the one after her for transparent opportunism.
Love the story, Mick!
ReplyDeleteHi..I am honored as well.
ReplyDeleteOther Packer bars in NYC:
ReplyDeleteTom & Jerry's (E. Village)
The Grand Saloon (23rd St - is that still around or did it vanish?)
Angry Wade's (Carroll Gardens)
A lot of old school NY Packer fans - it being Vince Lombardi's home town.
Go Packers!
Very nice group of city slickers here. ;)
ReplyDeleteJust ridin through. Via con dios.
Funny how Packer fans can go root for their team here in NYC, yet if New York fans were to do it in Green Bay, they'd be lynch. NYC is dead. Long live the MidWest. Whites win.
ReplyDeleteContinuing my trend of being a completely one-note commenter...Kettle of Fish has nothing to do with the current "little Wisco" thing. Its history as a meeting place for Packer fans goes back to the 80s. It's a nice little NY tradition that kind of makes me with I cared more about football.
ReplyDeleteJust some reading that seems relevant...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.truth-out.org/do-you-have-sign/1326307220
Anon 1:40 pm...HUH?!?
ReplyDeleteBrendan...that's because there is no "Little Wisco." The only place I see that term anymore is this blog. One Wisconsinite jackass restauranteur whimsically called it that in one article, and now it's overhyped as an invasion if the Mongolian Empire were at the gates.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, NYC has a bar for just about every team. I think that's a great thing about this town. Also it bears mentioning that you can find Packer bars around the world.
The Giants and the Packers have special ties. Lombardi was a famous son of Brooklyn and Fordham alum. And if not for the benevolence of large market teams like New York, the Packers would not exist today - because of revenue sharing in the NFL.
As for the Anonymous 1:40 comment - I hear citizens in Green Bay lynched a dozen visiting Giant fans after the game last night.
Sounds like Little Wisco exists in the mind of one man (in this case I don't mean you, Jeremiah, heh heh). And even so, if it's on a banner selling brats, in a shop window, and on a beer can, that hardly amounts to cultural imperialism. Nobody makes anybody but that stuff, just as nobody made anybody buy noodles in Chinatown.
ReplyDeleteJ-Moss, et al,
ReplyDeleteI can dig taking this whole "Little Wisco" thing with a grain of salt, though a quick perusal through the J-Moss archives breaks down pretty well how it's the canary in the coal mine of a city that has been increasingly morphed away from something with its own real NY culture built up over generations into an archipelago of emphatically non-urban enclaves.
The funny thing is that I visited Madison, WI, for the first time last month at the invite of a friend, a native of that city. Part of my reason was to get some perspective on the Midwest. I thought it would take the edge off my hateration, and oddly enough, it did. I realize Madison is, like Asheville, NC, different than other parts of WI, but among all the different types of people I met there, I actually enjoyed how crazy nice everyone was, and definitely felt the city had its own unique identity and pride. What I found particularly telling was that one trend of recent years that I identified with hipsterism seems to have been a longtime thing there: ugly sweaters! They're on sale everywhere.
And flying the WI flag is fine; there's room in this town for all types. The pitfall that this blog warns against is coming to NY and reforming your entire environment to match what was at home, to the point that NYC itself is erased.
These little slices of the homelife can be a good thing for the homesick, but they should be a minor part of one's transplant experience, "don'tcha think?"
Little Wiscos of all stripes can be the gateway drug to the Luxury City. Years ago, people uprooting their lives had to make friends in an unfriendly city. In the last 10 years, there are many more people here who rarely leave their safety zone; if you move just to be friends with the exact same kind of white people as at home, what's the point? That's why I see dozens of Whole Foods bags on the train every time I'm taking the train in Brooklyn or Queens.
I really liked Madison, and other places in the US I visited, I cannot consider this movement to transform NY (conscious or unconscious, the results are there) anywhere equivalent to immigrants coming from all over and enriching the five boros with their restaurants, businesses, street life, etc. It's somehow not the same.
The questions in my last post were not rhetorical. I actually want to hear answers from J, and now from Filmatix, who seems to share his belief that "Little Wisco" is a real thing and not one (non-Wisconsinite!) man's personal branding slogan.
ReplyDeleteBTW I am from just outside Milwaukee and have mixed feelings about Madison. It's very much a college town and not really anything else. Milwaukee is more what you all would recognize as a city, though the Midwestern "friendliness" is still noticeable.
I have spent little time in the exurban and rural parts of the state, which confuse and frighten me, so I can't really talk about those.
Brendan, i am not sure how to answer you, except to say that i don't take such a literal-minded approach to it. do i think thousands of Wisconsinites are taking over the Village? of course not. do i think we're at the early stages of a massive suburbanization of the city? yes, i do.
ReplyDeleteIt is a literal place though, and my home. Not a metaphor for you to make a confused point about suburbs.
ReplyDeleteThere is a Yelp review of the new Fedora that calls it "very New York." Doesn't that kinda piss you off? But it's a lot more accurate than associating it with Wisconsin. New York City has dozens of restaurants like Fedora. The state of Wisconsin has none and probably never will. Nor does any suburb anywhere
This is not about suburbanization, whatever that may mean. It's about money. Nothing really makes any sense if you don't start from there.
Anyway I'm giving up on defending Wisconsin 'round these parts. I'll just keep hanging around for the bits of NYC history.
I can dig Brendan's point about "Little Wisco" being an imaginary construct. I've also heard lots of good things about Milwaukee, actually, and would love to check it out. Ironically, I'm told that so many of the things that have made NY vibrant (lamented on this blog) actually are still going strong there--like unpretentious places to eat, go out, or simply hang (for free).
ReplyDeleteAnd it is all about money, rather than some cultural imperialism emanating from any particular geography. But whatever the reason, the symptoms are the same: this hipsterish/artisanal monoculture alongside the upscaled/douchebag monoculture, and their respective hybrids. The wealthier the city becomes, the more creatively and morally bankrupt. There are many things to appreciate about the "Portlandia" trend here, but a balance would be nice. It's tough, though, given the money involved.
Of course, there are vibrant scenes happening and lives being lived; only they're not on blogs or being blown up by Time Out/NYTimes/NyMag or any of the other forums.
Please stop calling it Little Wisco. I live in the middle of it and NO ONE calls it that nor wants it called that. Please stop giving it any legs.
ReplyDelete