After closing down the phone, I was in full Butthole Surfer swing, resisting the urge to sing along in public. Bleecker Street isn't one of the streets I usually walk on, and I was noticing all that was new (how many yogurt stores do we need?), and all that was old (Peculier Pub), taking it in on this very hot, muggy day. When, out of the blue, I came upon this seemingly plain vision built on the rock and roll ruins of NY, complete with a bank by its side:
Yikes. I knew it was there. I have even walked near it. But I hadn't just come up upon the street so suddenly and without warning. Not only is CBGBs gone, but the building in its place is just stupid. Lament lament, I know I'm a few months late, but sometimes things like this hit you when you least expect it.
HOWEVER the thing that was so nutty, and the thing that I couldn't orchestrate if I tried, is that the very moment that I realized I was looking at the deep-core rottenness of the "new" East Village, this song came flooding into my ears, just at the :25 second mark when the puking begins.
(Now once again I can't figure out how to post a damn song so you have to click through and listen to the last song on the list (Clean it Up) for all its vomitous glory.
AND just because I can, AND because they are coming to NY July 29, AND because we already have tickets (something that we seem to generally have trouble accomplishing), herewith is a clip of the most best thing to ever come out of Texas. And possibly the angriest song ever written
4 comments:
i was rarely home from jan 2005 to oct 2007 because of work related travel. i knew something was up as every time i took a cab to the airport there was a new crop of buildings sprouting in brooklyn and a steady turnover of storefronts on 2nd avenue each time i briefly came home. but now, i see a lot of empty storefronts on my street and wonder what changes that will bring.
even chain stores will only put so many locations in an area and i wonder who else can afford these rents? or for that matter, i wonder if the latest Starbucks news is the canary starting to sing. "over-development" is a term rarely used officially in new york as we always assume there will never be a lack of demand. the tipping point may be closer than we think.
Yeah, it still sneaks up on me too, the new 315 Bowery. Maybe that's OK. Would it be worse if we didn't feel anything walking by?
I guess it is still the same building, but that one next to it with the bank? I do remember they started to clean up the building a few years ago because it was in total disrepair. I wonder if I ever actually looked UP as all the action was DOWN.
The apocalypse is coming, and just like New York flew highest in the last boom, it will crash the hardest in the bust.
As always.
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