Tuesday, April 17, 2012

*Everyday Chatter

Marty recaps the St. Mark's Bookshop Cash Mob--and it was a success! [TWM]

Romy: "The exterminator told me that the worst cases he's seen of bed bugs have been in new, rich buildings. The people call him SCREAMING, he said, and we laughed and laughed together." [WIC]

"Is artisanal Brooklyn a step forward for food or a sign of the apocalypse?" [NYM]

Anarchists tried smashing the windows at the Astor Place Starbucks this weekend. [NYDN]

They giddily succeeded at the despised St. Mark's 7-11:


By now you've heard: The Lakeside Lounge is shuttering. [NSTAW]

And their fantastic photo booth is for sale. [EVG]

A 60-year-old Judaica store gets pushed out of the Lower East Side. [JDF]

After 73 years, a shoe store shuts down. [CR]

A 28-year-old quilt shop is closing on the UWS. [WSR]

Crown Heights loses the great Maiman's neon sign. [NYN]

Photographer James Maher sends in this haunting shot of the demolition at 3rd Ave and 12th St:

7 comments:

  1. I can't NOT say this: you constantly criticize [and I tend to agree on this] the importation of the Midwest to the city. Yet, the article about Lakeside mentions that "Marshall and Ambel wanted to import a Midwestern cottage-on-the-lake vibe into grimy Alphabet City," and you have no comment about that?

    Is this somehow different from Little Wisco because the place dates back to the previous millennium?

    On another note, the article about artisanal Brooklyn made my head spin on so many levels. I do appreciate that a distinction was made between the "creative crescent" [the first time I came across this term, but it makes so much sense] and the rest of Brooklyn, especially the mention of the intern from East New York. Not everyone is or from Brooklyn is on board or even understands this old-school, high-end food fetish phenomenon, even those of us who do appreciate fine food and think about where it comes from and how it's made. An excellent, thought-provoking read, for sure.

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  2. i didn't actually read the story about Lakeside carefully. i do a lot of fast linking due to time constraints.

    but i think, with a lot of these things, they don't bother me when they're minimal. like chain stores. i had no problem with chain stores until the past 5 years when they started multiplying exponentially, insanely.

    so i guess i'd say i probably would not have cared about the Lakeside Lounge importing some Midwestern sensibility. it's when it became a trend, rather than a one-off quirk, that it became a problem, at least to me. and today it's a trend with a certain edge to it, an entitled edge, loaded with socioeconomic power. so that just feels different.

    anyway, that's my answer just off the top of my head.

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  3. Luckily for all of you, there is not now and has never been a trend of bringing a "Midwestern sensibility," whatever you think that is, into New York! You can rest easy about that.

    Try Connecticut and California sensibility.

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  4. Yes, yes, Brendan - since California and NE arrivals outnumber Midwestern arrivals, the latter have absolutely no influence/impact on local commerce. "We" must all be delusional.

    #Wiskpeticism

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  5. Check that:

    #Wiskepticism

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  6. No one has ever explained what elements of Midwestern culture are supposedly coming to New York, except for the one bar in Williamsburg with cheese curds. NONE of the stuff regularly complained about on this blog even exists in the Midwest. At least it didn't when I was growing up there. Maybe it does now, but if so, it came from here first (or Portland or wherever).

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  7. Hey @ Brendan, I guess you are new to this blog. Use Jeremiah's Blogger search engine and enter “Wisconsin”. See that wasn’t so difficult, was it?

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