tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post2095864054081936725..comments2023-08-14T11:44:27.299-04:00Comments on Jeremiah's<br> Vanishing New York: Varvatos: Birthplace of PunkJeremiah Mosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11791516443125872364noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-23831061182862471152015-07-28T21:39:39.401-04:002015-07-28T21:39:39.401-04:00Sad day indeed. Reading All the hypocrisy Who is...Sad day indeed. Reading All the hypocrisy Who is walking around with white ear buds and smart phones? Someone is buying this stuff. Say what you want, Varvatos has a vision and believes in something. True to his soul its rock n roll. You don't agree, then move on. Peace Rocks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-64393681454516183762008-04-22T12:08:00.000-04:002008-04-22T12:08:00.000-04:00Before CBGB closed, they were doing "pay to play" ...Before CBGB closed, they were doing "pay to play" shows where crappy bands from the suburbs could pay money to play a show there. There was no excitement or energy left in the place, and the lack of both things led to it's closure. While John Varvatos might be trying to make a buck off of the CBGB legacy, at least he worked to preserve some of it. There is an entire wall encased in glass with things just as they were at closure. The stickers and graffiti remain. I believe that it would have been worse if it was turned into a Duane Reade or a bank (which it probably would have been), but because it was bought by someone who is actually a music fan, it makes the situation more complicated. Also, <BR/>the opening/show was a benefit for VH1 Save the Music Foundation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-29855474411051821402008-04-22T08:16:00.000-04:002008-04-22T08:16:00.000-04:00"That last comment sums it up perfectly, I think."..."That last comment sums it up perfectly, I think."<BR/><BR/>To clarify, I was referring to the comment at 9:09AM on 4/21. I didn't realize there was a bunch of additional comments cued up behind it ;)NewYorkDavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08483056012736338091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-72788851223685537102008-04-21T22:42:00.000-04:002008-04-21T22:42:00.000-04:00That last comment sums it up perfectly, I think.I ...That last comment sums it up perfectly, I think.<BR/><BR/>I played at CB's in 1987 and even back then, it felt like it was trading on its reputation from the '70s. But at least it was its <I>own</I> earned reputation, not "cred" co-opted from a previous tenant. <BR/><BR/>Still, it's not worth losing sleep over. Let Varvatos sell overpriced shit to morons. CB's is gone and the LES is (culturally) dead, with the rest of NYC following behind it. So does it really matter?NewYorkDavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08483056012736338091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-76387710771699405012008-04-21T18:01:00.000-04:002008-04-21T18:01:00.000-04:00p.s.How about a fund raiser for the people and sma...p.s.<BR/>How about a fund raiser for the people and small businesses, the homeless, etc. here in the East Village at the next fund raiser where he excluded the community and proof the money raised gets to the people?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-73514534446509854522008-04-21T17:48:00.000-04:002008-04-21T17:48:00.000-04:00let us see proof the money raised for charity gets...let us see proof the money raised for charity gets to where it is suppose to go and oh, would what's his name let charity recipients in to his next function since he is so elitist and turned away community members...<BR/><BR/>Let us see some proof and get real...forget that -- that is too much to ask.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-16507009982009366032008-04-21T16:58:00.000-04:002008-04-21T16:58:00.000-04:00The main point here is that this store/event - reg...The main point here is that this store/event - regardless of its guest list and decorating scheme - is antithetical to anything punk was ever about. I wouldn't care if the rotting corpse of Sid Vicious rose from the grave to tell me otherwise.<BR/><BR/>I went to the store yesterday. It's not only uninspiring, it's sterile and creepy. I didn't want to touch anything. The employees seemed snooty. Basically, it's a fashion boutique. At best they have chosen a tacky and inflammatory marketing angle. <BR/><BR/>This Varvatos character is out of line for beating his chest about preserving something which is already dead, even if he is not complicit in killing it.<BR/><BR/>And as to whether the time and energy of the protesters was misspent: Why should the existence of global problems discourage people from addressing provincial concerns such as this one? That they should leave Varvatos alone because they could or should be devoting themselves to something else is a fallacy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-80733618952300895512008-04-21T12:09:00.000-04:002008-04-21T12:09:00.000-04:00Before the place closed you could buy your CBGB t-...Before the place closed you could buy your CBGB t-shirt at Nordstrom's across America. CB had no credibility left. Varvatos has never had any to begin with. There is no easy way out of the mess that our money worshipping culture has created. As near as I can tell it is only going to get worse before it gets better. Think bread riots.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-52014541340583391942008-04-21T04:09:00.000-04:002008-04-21T04:09:00.000-04:00What is a better fate, the transformation of CBGB ...What is a better fate, the transformation of CBGB or the literal collapse of the Mercer Arts Center? I.e. that used to be x or that's where x once stood?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-66160060676089026472008-04-21T02:06:00.000-04:002008-04-21T02:06:00.000-04:00Having a party that raises over 30 thousand bucks ...Having a party that raises over 30 thousand bucks to buy musical instruments in NY public schools is a "heinous act"? You're overreacting.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-22504724805819921462008-04-20T14:11:00.000-04:002008-04-20T14:11:00.000-04:00Cool, that is what the mega rich do -- shelter the...Cool, that is what the mega rich do -- shelter themselves behind their charities and they have good $$$$$$ friends to run interference and every thing else. <BR/><BR/>Money is their god and that is what makes them able to be so arrogant and crushing. They have amazing tax shelters that make raising money for charity and giving big bucks to charity so slimy but better in the hand of charity although you never know if they money ever really gets to where it should go but the bad asses get to kid themselves they are good citizens and their heinous acts are given or somehow justified.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-55728710509099600722008-04-19T14:28:00.000-04:002008-04-19T14:28:00.000-04:00This anger at John Varvatos baffles me. I've been ...This anger at John Varvatos baffles me. I've been involved in the punk rock scene on the business and press ends since 1986 and I think the protesters' anger is misplaced. Protesting the price of a pair of jeans? A silly waste of time. The strongest protest is simple: don't buy them. <BR/><BR/>It would be a better use of your time to focus on the number of mentally homeless and illiterate on the streets outside your apts, or take to the streets -- or better yet, to the voting booth -- to protest the fact that the Bush junta has put thousands of 19 year olds in the American Midwest in a position where they are joining the Army because they can't get a job anywhere in the states of Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. <BR/><BR/>If you took the $10 you spent making the signs to carry outside the gig and actually spent it on a ticket to see Morello, Kramer, Slash, Farrell, Sen Dog, Breckin Meyer, Cantrell, you'd have put it to better use. They have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Food Not Bombs, Road Recovery, unionizing immigrant hotel workers, and so many more needy charities in the last two years. If they want to jam in a landmark building that some of them actually helped make a very profitable reality for <B>only</B> Hilly Kristal, then they should go for it, especially if their efforts have charitable results. <BR/><BR/>Varvatos is honoring the past but at least he's not stuck there. I would venture a guess that the performers had no clue of the protesters out front so late in the night.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-36611674121482013152008-04-19T11:41:00.000-04:002008-04-19T11:41:00.000-04:00I don't care what punk rock celebritiesshowed up, ...I don't care what punk rock celebrities<BR/>showed up, they are sell outs. Village<BR/>people? LOL. How appropriate for a venue<BR/>like varvatos.<BR/>Guys, stop fighting it, just don't go to these<BR/>yuppie theme parks and stay real. <BR/>Just don't become one of them, like <BR/>invasion of the body snatchers. Freaks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-83773994895984687342008-04-19T03:57:00.000-04:002008-04-19T03:57:00.000-04:00wait, was that tom "voice of the proletariat" more...wait, was that tom "voice of the proletariat" morello playing inside?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09424992603270663151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-52170144896653182212008-04-19T02:09:00.000-04:002008-04-19T02:09:00.000-04:00I completely agree with 2:43, it's all done. The L...I completely agree with 2:43, it's all done. The Lower East Side/East Village is somewhere in Brooklyn right now, and has been for a while, let's enjoy that one while it still exists.....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-46294814821800534362008-04-18T18:06:00.000-04:002008-04-18T18:06:00.000-04:00a clarification. there were places to go: max's, c...a clarification. there were places to go: max's, club 82, club 57, irving plaza, hurrah. later the world, danceteria, pep lounge, 8bc, save the robots etc. but cb's was like the mothership. you always went there a some point in the evening.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-10423419846535531322008-04-18T17:59:00.000-04:002008-04-18T17:59:00.000-04:00I can't tell you how many I heard say, "It's not s...<I>I can't tell you how many I heard say, "It's not so bad. It could be worse. It could have been a bank or a Starbucks."</I><BR/><BR/>These are our only choices now? One manufactured, prepackaged shopping experience over another?<BR/>Couldn't it have been a nonprofit performance space, or a community space(like Charas was)? Or it could have been a thrift shop, which is where all of those $800"vintage" jackets & t-shirts came from.<BR/><BR/>It's been much more convenient for a lot of people to reduce it to an argument about CBGB's alone, rather than address the issues behind it. Creative space & small businesses closed all of the time in "the past", but were replaced by others. Now the only things that can afford to replace them are pre fabricated mall stores for the wealthy.<BR/><BR/>But don't worry folks, there are plans underway to turn the back alleyway behind CBGB's into a nice polished shopping promenade, promising a "community experience" (with a proper, test marketed kind of community, of course)<BR/><BR/>NYC-sanitized for your protection.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-24430190669944725282008-04-18T17:43:00.000-04:002008-04-18T17:43:00.000-04:00i moved to the east village in 1977 when i was 19 ...i moved to the east village in 1977 when i was 19 years old. i would say for the next 10 years it was a very rare night that i wasn't at cb's. don't forget, there really weren't that many places to go. i used to mourn, but it was clear by 1988 or so the writing was on the wall. <BR/><BR/>now i am with luc sante. screw it tear it all down. it's all over and has been for a long time. if you are looking for something like what was hear, you are going to have to go somwhere else to find it. and also, not that i can articulate a cohesive punk philosophy - there really wasn't much of preserving the old in our attitude.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-81679086192193120252008-04-18T15:13:00.000-04:002008-04-18T15:13:00.000-04:00He's been around the block a few times.I think thi...He's been around the block a few times.<BR/><BR/>I think this whole CBGB thing is basically a sort of emotional flashpoint for everyone trying to deal with the stuff Jeremiah writes about everyday. And we all (try to) live with.JamesChanceOfficialhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04517788409617221144noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-3176914549938511472008-04-18T14:42:00.000-04:002008-04-18T14:42:00.000-04:00thank you for the misfit identification. he did sa...thank you for the misfit identification. he did say something about dealing with evictions himself, and we should perhaps give the guy a break, considering this story:<BR/><BR/>http://www.thevillager.com/villager_149/guitaristgetshardcore.htmlJeremiah Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11791516443125872364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-17304954969423096572008-04-18T14:21:00.000-04:002008-04-18T14:21:00.000-04:00The ex-Misfit is Bobby Steele of the Undead. Why i...The ex-Misfit is Bobby Steele of the Undead. Why is he being such a wanker?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-64100451141137339172008-04-18T13:26:00.000-04:002008-04-18T13:26:00.000-04:00Yeah, it sucks, but punk piety is pretty annoying ...Yeah, it sucks, but punk piety is pretty annoying also. When CBGB closed, they were charging a $10 cover to see high school bands from New Jersey, and a bottle of Red Stripe was like $7. "Punk was an egalitarian movement, it was about low prices, and it resulted in this very culture that these moneyed people are now enjoying." Sure, but CBGB sure wasn't. Now that we're 30 years removed from the beginning of New York punk, there's as much navel gazing and self-congratulation as there was from the hippies and boomers that the punks were rebelling against. Things change, move on.<BR/><BR/>I agree that the "At Least It's Not a Bank" sentiment is aiming pretty low, but what are you gonna do. CBGB could still be CBGB if they hadn't completely lost touch over the last few years.<BR/><BR/>All that said, I'm generally cool with Rev. Billy, and self-congratulatory fashionistas are no less annoying than smug old punks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-45864848745592263292008-04-18T12:22:00.000-04:002008-04-18T12:22:00.000-04:00Yeah, great music but they have forgotten their ro...Yeah, great music but they have forgotten their roots, soul and are more in love with the rope that excludes them from the real people that made them their money as much as their talent and that is fans.<BR/><BR/>It is all gross and we might as well have an American Idol chain of stores as well. At least their stuff they sell under 800 dollars a pop. Somehow all so gross...ugh. The great news I won't be shopping there.<BR/><BR/>Great reporting.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-43467138504764001062008-04-18T12:00:00.000-04:002008-04-18T12:00:00.000-04:00who else performed: ronnie spector, cj ramone, i'm...who else performed: ronnie spector, cj ramone, i'm pretty sure i heard david byrne singing "psycho killer," someone else (mott the hoople?) did "all the young dudes," debbie harry (maybe) sang "dreaming" -- mind you, i was outside and couldn't see who was singing what, but it all sounded like the real thing.<BR/><BR/>yes, the music was good. there's no denying that.Jeremiah Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11791516443125872364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-68554189204570639022008-04-18T11:52:00.000-04:002008-04-18T11:52:00.000-04:00Hear, hear, NewYorkDave!I'm interested to know - w...Hear, hear, NewYorkDave!<BR/><BR/>I'm interested to know - who exactly performed at this event other than Joan Jett? Does anyone know?JamesChanceOfficialhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04517788409617221144noreply@blogger.com