Last week, author and journalist Amy Rose Spiegel asked me to make a diary of my Saturday for her site Enormous Eye, where writers record the details of their Saturdays, including people like Luc Sante and Tavi Gevinson, and a whole bunch more.
Here are a few photos to accompany my Saturday diary, which you can read here, should you so desire.
Fantastic Enormous Eye read - thank you for the link, I really enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete- Love the Nissun seafood crayfish, but I can only imagine how the developers must salivate over the parking lot next door. When Madison St. is more exclusive than Madison Ave. it really will be time to shuffle off this mortal coil.
- I completely agree that artists are the shock troops of gentrification, but I think true gentrification starts rolling when artist 'followers' and scenesters pick up the scent and dilute what it is all about when they inevitably turn it into a movement which fetishizes grittiness (you've heard this plenty of times I'm sure: "I went to a gallery show in an abandoned staple remover factory in Gowanus, mahhn") - and this is when a neighborhood becomes 'hip', 'hot', or the most insulting/classist put down of all - 'discovered', and eventually gets re-branded with a cringe worthy real estate abbreviation. At that point, snarky baristas with 120k degrees are right around the corner.
- When the sociologists of whatever life form comes next take looks back at the fall of western civilization, that 'frat-bro/ teen acting cul-de-sac princess showing way, way, wayyy too much' mating dance should get a course all its own.
I enjoyed this tour and read it while listening (as nearly every day) to white noise via in-ear headphones. There is a universal experience going on here, where beloved New York is sometimes the lover, often the bitter opponent - always inseparable.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDelete"When Madison St. is more exclusive than Madison Ave. it really will be time to shuffle off this mortal coil."
Too true.
I wandered Madison Street in search of photo ops between 5 to 15 years ago and thought I found an architectural city that time forgot. A good place for a 1920s film set. But a recent tour found a lot of storefront turnover and facade reno. You could feel the rents rising ever higher and old traditions ending.
ReplyDeleteJeremiah, thank you for this glimpse into one of your days. The photographs intrigued me so much that I headed straight over to your diary, and it was just as compelling in its wonderful concision.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part had to be your search for the elusive crayfish. In the back of my mind, though, I immediately thought, it may soon become more elusive, like everything original and distinctive in New York, because some greedy real estate billionaire is probably salivating over the prospect of tearing its building down and throwing up a glass box luxury condo.
Thank you and great work, as always.
Thank you John K. I worry about that crayfish, too.
ReplyDeleteWonderful read - thank you for sharing a day in your life.
ReplyDelete