I've been working the morning shift for the past couple of weeks, meaning I get into the office around 6:45 am and get to split around 3 pm. It's not my favorite rotation, but it does have its benefits, chief among them being that it leaves me some free time in the afternoon. Today, after clocking out of work and heading home to pay a few bills, I found it so hot in the apartment that I switched into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and bounded back outside ... sort of hoping to get caught in the thundershower that is supposedly on the way.
Earlier in the day, I'd read a post on EV Grieve's site that the Mars Bar was finally kaput. As such, I thought I'd stroll over there to take a look for myself. I walked south on Lafayette and took left on Bleecker. Time was when the strip between The Bowery and Lafayette was another one of my favorite blocks in Manhattan. Back in the 80's and 90's, it was this endearingly forbidding circuit-cable that plugged directly into CBGB at the far eastern end. That's all done, of course. The strip is now is dotted with a few shops, bistros and boutiques and doesn't exude the same sense of place it once did. A shame, that.
In any case, after I strolled down Bleecker, I hung a right on the Bowery, crossed over and walked down the still-jarringly unrecognizable 1st street between Bowery and 2nd Avenue. When I first came to know this strip (as I described back on this post), it seemed like something out of "The Road Warrior." The shot above is the northeast corner of 1st street & Bowery shot as recently as 2002. Now it resembles Emerald City in "The Wizard of Oz."
The Mars Bar remains at the corner, although its doors were indeed firmly shut. There weren't any further clues to its status. As I circled back west, a passing crusty-lookin' dude gave me a salute for the Killing Joke shirt I was wearing (and I saluted back), but more about that later.
As I returned to Bleecker Street, I couldn't help but notice a camera crew walking my way. Upon closer inspection, I recognized that it was none other than John "Bloodclot" Joseph of the Cro-Mags. As I mentioned back in this post, John's now giving celebrated walking tours of the East Village (although I believe he refuses to refer to it as such, opting instead for Lower East Side). I didn't recognize the guy interviewing him, but I was quickly shushed off the sidewalk to accommodate them. Basically, John was giving a taste of his walking tour to the interviewer. I'm not sure where this footage will surface, but do look for it and let me know if you see it. As soon as I cleared the crew, I crossed back onto the sidewalk behind them, so if/when you're watching it and you a t-shirt with What's THIS for...! written on the back in bold black font (it looks like this), that'll be me.
As I got further down the block, a pair of bemused restauranteurs stood outside Quartino looking back at the film crew. "Who is that guy?" asked one dude in kitchen-whites. I was going to launch into a laborious song and dance -- as I'm certainly wont to do -- about the Cro-Mags and hardcore and CBGB and all that, but simply smiled and shook my head. If you have to ask, you'll never know.
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