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EAST_OF_THE_EAST
August 16, 2003
February 15, 2007
As usual it all comes
back to authenticity. AUTHENTICITY
What's the real deal,
that's always the (Feb 15, 2007)
question with me. Consider:
And has New York 40s/50s: beat / avant classical / bop
lost it? 60s: folk / hippie / free jazz
70s: punk rock / hip-hop
(And what's "it"? 80s: new wave club culture
Can you say what it is? (goth, etc.)
Do you need to be able to?)
Then in the 90s?
The Esperanto Cafe (Greenwich
Village, MacDougal near Bleeker) Perhaps "downtown music"
clearly ain't got it. Had my leg (Zorn, etc.)
up on a low table (my leg, not my
foot, mind you: I don't put shoes And then... what?
up on tables, and don't stick them
in other peoples faces) and the What has New York
waitress asked me to put it down, done for *you* lately?
because the boss doesn't like it.
You can have beat up funky An engine
furniture and *still* have a stick of culture
up your ass. Too bad, I like the has been
fact that they're open 24 hours, broken...
and the Encyclopedia of Philosophy
set they've got in the back is a STALLED
funny touch.
Alt.coffee is a much more comfortable
place for me to be (over on Avenue A (Note: as of 2008,
across from Tompkins Square in the "alt.coffee" is no more.)
East Village), though sometimes I get
that funny New York vibe from some of
the people there: they seem like COMMERCE_IN_CULTURE
professional hipsters, success-driven
instead of chasing some internal
compulsion to be what they are...
Last time I stepped in the door of the
place, I found this very pretty woman
with a lipstick-and-camo Glamour Punk
look chatting furiously with her
friends. I generally like having Do I complain that she broke
people like this around, but she just off what she was saying to
didn't ring true to me somehow. lock eyes with me for a
moment? Well, no. I won't
I wonder sometimes if I'm being complain about that bit.
screwy for being put-off by these
folks. It's not like I think (Though she was
there's anything *wrong* with making probably just trying to
a living doing your art. I don't figure out if I'm a
have any ideological fixation on the record company exec.)
idea that "money = bad"... it's just
that all too often the people with
cash seem to be making unacceptable
compromises to get it.
But this trip to New York, Dangerbaby
finally got me to take a serious look at DANGERBABY
Williamsburg over in Brooklyn....
I've been hearing about the
coolification of
Williamsburg for years now In the early 80s I'd heard about
of course, but I wasn't sure a "Hoboken Renaissance", but as far
what to make of it. as I could tell it was still just
the same old Hoboken.
And some years back I
decided to look at
Williamsburg myself, and
rode over on the J to Marcy
Ave. I looked around
briefly, and came to the
conclusion that it was
still pretty much Brooklyn,
and the cool factor was I followed a kid dressed
very diffuse. I figured in black to see where he
you'd need an insider to was going, but he went to
guide you to the action. ground in an apartment
building only a few blocks
away.
This time, the Dangerbabe had
some info on the location of
good thrift stores... (e.g. the mighty
"Beacon's Closet")
We figured out the "trick":
the subway maps say
"Willamsburg" down south
near the Williamsburg
bridge, but where you want
to be is up north against
the border of Greenpoint.
So you don't take the J over,
you take the L, and get off There's an
at Bedford Street, which is events-zine that
in fact a classic Strip: took the name
drowning in cafes and coffee "L Magazine".
houses and most of them are
definitely the real deal.
I was particulary interested in
the Form Fit Girdle Company, which
is a small-scale implementation of
an idea I had some time back, "the
hipster shopping mall": Used
bookstore, coffee house, net cafe,
computer accesories, vintage
clothing, and a hair salon, all
hung off of a common hallway/lobby
decorated with touches of
industrial-style art.
We were also in this place down
at one end of the strip called
"The Fixx": this was just great, I was looking this place over, feeling
a huge place: coffee joint with envious of New York: there just aren't
a computer game parlour enough people in San Francisco to
attached, plus a magazine rack support something like this, it's the
and so on. kind of thing that people try because
it seems so neat, but they go out of
It's the kind of place where business fast.
young intellectuals can
gather to ask each other the Then I talked to the guys running the
eternal questions. Like, place: it turns out that the Fixx has
"Hey, do you know any bass only been there for a few months, and
players?" they're getting annoyed at all the
people who come through who look at
everything carefully and never buy
anything.
(As of 2007,
it's long gone.)
THE_BRIGHT_GRAY_LANDS
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