Rebel Rebel Shuttered

VANISHED

Earlier this month, I first reported on the impending closure of Rebel Rebel records on Bleecker Street, pushed out by rising rent. According to owner David Shebiro, the landlord opted to let the luxury clothing chain Scotch & Soda expand into the record shop's space.

Now it's gone.



The windows are covered in newspaper. A photograph of David Bowie, the inspiration for Rebel Rebel records, salutes passersby. A #SaveNYC sign hangs in apparent futility -- as City Hall continues to ignore our pleas and do nothing to protect the cultural and locally commercial streetscape of New York.

For his farewell note, Mr. Shebiro quotes from Bowie's "Future Legend":

"And in the death
As the last few corpses lay rotting
on the slimy thoroughfare
The shutters lifted in inches in Temperance Building
High on Poacher's Hill
And red, mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City
No more big wheels

Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats
And ten thousand peopleoids split into small tribes
Coveting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers
Like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love-Me Avenue
Ripping and rewrapping mink and shiny silver fox, now legwarmers
Family badge of sapphire and cracked emerald
Any day now
The Year of the Diamond Dogs

This ain't Rock 'n' Roll
This is Genocide"



"Love Me Avenue" has been replaced in red by "Bleecker Street." And at the end, a final note: "BEWARE OF CORPORATIONS."