Okay, I’m no architect, but this seems kinda strange, no?
The dreadful 82 University Place is sporting a fresh new patina of scaffolding this week, despite the fact that the building is only five years old. How can that be? How much wear and tear could have transpired? From what I can tell, the building still boasts many vacant apartments. What’s going on here?
New readers may be wondering aloud: “Why does he give a fuck?”
Well, the ugly eyesore at 82 University Place stands in the former footprint of the late, lamented Cedar Tavern (which I’ve written about here quite a few times, notably here and here, to cite but two). If anything, the closing of the Cedar Tavern jumpstarted my preoccupation with the transformation of downtown.
The actual space on the ground floor that technically was once occupied by the Cedar Tavern remains thoroughly devoid of any activity whatsoever. It’s a cruelly telling example of this city’s avarice and disregard for history and community.
This won't mean much to most of you, but given my affinity for both Firewater and the mighty Cop Shoot Cop (two bands I've written somewhat obsessively about here over the last seven or so years), it's certainly noteworthy.
On a recent tour stop in, I believe, Cleveland, Tod [A] did the relatively unthinkable and re-visited an old C$C standard from the good ol' days of 1993 (specifically from the Ask Questions Later album), that being "Everybody Loves You." It's not something he's ever been inclined to do in the past, as far as I can remember. Here it is...
And, for the sake of context, here's the original...
I'd started a number of differetn posts for today -- the day of demarkation of my ... ugh ... 45th year -- but they all ended up sounding windy, weepy and woefully self-indulgent (or at least more so than usual). Suffice to say, while I've joked about it in the past, now I genuinely do feel old. Strangely, however, my wardrobe is still filled with ridiculous band t-shirts, leather and sneakers and my face still boasts the irritable complexion of a teenager. C'est la vie, I suppose.
The last I'd officially heard on the matter was in January of 2011, that being that Max Fish, the storied bar on Ludlow Street had been granted a stay of execution after it had been read the proverbial riot act. I'm not entirely sure what's transpired since then, although my pals at Bowery Boogie recently reported some doomy goings on over on Ludlow. Things probably aren't looking too swell for the future of the `Fish.
I've mentioned it before, but time was when I was a Ludlow Street regular. Those days are long over, of course, since I become a dad twice over and, well .... old. In any case, I spotted this clip on YouTube this morning and thought I'd share it here. If you don't make it down to the art-splattered walls of Max Fish any time soon, let this serve as a reminder of what it is/was like.
Way back when, I used to routinely post round-ups of interesting little tidbits I’d spotted around the internet that I called – awkwardly and presumptuously – Stuff You Might Have Missed. I’m not quite sure why, but I stopped doing that some time ago (the last one I put up was in 2010). In any case, there’ve been quite a few little things I’ve wanted to call out here, but haven’t had the time to, so I’m now going to revive the practice. Hooray. You’re welcome.
First spotted on the Facebook page of SWANS (the whole notion of Michael Gira sitting at a keyboard logging onto Facebook never fails to make me furrow my brow), "Viva Loisaida" is a visual trek through the East Village, Tompkins Square Park, Alphabet City and surrounding L.E.S. neighborhoods circa 1978.
Across town, meanwhile, the SoHo Memory Project exhumed this film from 1975, depicting SoHo as the comparatively barren and endearingly ramshackle backwater it was in 1975. Click on over to the post to see some further captivating stills from the era.
I can't speak for you, but I've always been hugely enamored of leisurely strolling around the Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side ... preferably on days when it wasn't choked to the rafters with tourists and children. I do seem to remember days in my youth when it seemed I had the entire museum to myself, but I'm not sure those sorts of days exist anymore. In any case, I was intrigued by this article in Gothamist (with video) about how the Museum restores its fabled animal dioramas.
The solution of this quiz (which started here) has been a long time coming. You knew he was going to get it anyway, but Bob Egan of PopSpots has done it again. Herewith the great man on his detective work:
Hi Alex,
This is how we figured out the exact spot.
To my astonishment, my hunch about the Johnny Thunders spot being taken on
53rd turned out to be accurate. I sent the picture to a PopSpots correspondent names Anne Raso, a music writer, and asked her is there was anything to tie Johnny Thunders to 53rd Street. She Facebooked some friends, and one, a punk designer named Natasha, said that Norma Kamali lived on 53rd street and had her first store there in the early 70’s and that Norma also sublet her apartment in the building to Johnny Thunders and Sylvain Sylvain. This checked out on the internet. And the address of the Norma Kamali store turned out to be the basement of #229, so I am figuring she lived upstairs.
So that would place Johnny Thunders at 229 East 53rd. But what about the half-arc railings? Could we get proof of that? Anne remembered Thunders getting in a limo in the film "ALL DOLLED UP" by Bob Gruen the photographer. She tracked the film down online, and sure enough, in the film, Johnny Thunders, wearing the same white jacket and square black buttons, exits a building that matched up to the original photo. And the curved railing on the front steps matched up too. With the following pictures you can see the all the clues that match up and how I’m 99.99% sure that was the photo location. As final proof , there was a sign next to 229 East 53rd in the movie that says “A Step Ahead”, perhaps a shoe store. I looked for that in the 1973 phone directory at the NYPL to see if it said 231 East 53rd, but could not find it. When I get that address, I will be 100% sure.
Here's Bob's crazy meticulous photo research. Click on each to enlarge:
For no real reason at all, I started exhuming reams of photographs from the past and putting them up on Facebook over the weekend, probably as some sort of subconscious reaction to my impending demarcation of my 45th year. In any case, I came across these two pictures of Collister Street in TriBeCa from quite some time ago (sometime between 2000 and 2002, I believe) and thought they were worth re-posting here. That's the wife in the one below.
I haven't walked down that way in quite a while, so I've no idea what it looks like these days.
I talked about him pretty extensively in this post from way back in 2009, but with all this recent news of Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga vomiting onstage -- and the ensuing media coverage -- I couldn't help but think back to GG Allin (who did a whole lot more than simply vomit onstage -- believe me), which, in turn, had me revisiting a few favorite old, ridiculously indefensible chestnuts of the Geeg's on YouTube, notably "Die When You Die" and the perennial favorite, "Bite It You Scum." I was also surprised to find the Special Edition of "Hated" -- the film that prompted that previous post -- in its entirety on YouTube, inarguably the definitive document of the life and times of GG Allin.
Given that so much of the film takes place in NYC (largely unrecognizable this many years later), I then figured it was time to throw caution and good taste to the four winds and post it here. Even if you're not a fan --- let alone even remotely aware -- of GG Allin, the film makes for entirely provocative viewing. I feel that it's somewhat necessary to COMPLETELY WARN YOU that the below film is chock full o' truly disgusting, depraved, revolting and utterly unbelievable footage that will invariably blow a new part in your hair if you're not prepared for it. GG's words, lyrics, antics, deeds and misdeeds WILL offend you. Consider yourself warned.
Remember this photo quiz? Honestly speaking, I'd pretty much chalked it up to unsolvable after it was correctly pointed out that the appearance of subway grates rendered the notion of it actually having been captured around the St. Marks Place vicinity largely unlikely. Hell, it might not even be New York City!
But that Bob Egan ... he's one tenacious cat. Get an idea in his head and he's off and running.
So, while I'd thrown in the towel (not that I really tried all that hard), Bob's evidently been still wrestling with it. He wrote me last night, and here's what he had to say:
I was walking along 14th today and saw similar grating to the Thunders shot and looked to see if any resembled the pictures, but the gratings weren't close enough to the buildings, as the sidewalk is wide. Then I thought of 53rd between 3rd and 2nd where the E+F TRAINS go east, and the sidewalks are thin.
The entrances look a little similar. But if they weren’t, the article from Wikipedia about the Ramones song “53rd and Third” says the buildings on that strip razed west of Third were stripped for Citicorp or something. Maybe there were inexpensive hotels on that strip that Mr. Thunders might have been staying at?
From Wikipedia:
53rd and Third - Ramones
The song, written by bassist Dee Dee Ramone, refers to what was then a well-known spot for male prostitution in New York City , known as "the Loop." [1] The area was a center of gay nightlife decades before the West Village became prominent, and was home to well-known hustler bars, most notably Cowboys, Rounds, and Red, from the 1970s through the 1990s.[2] In the bridge, sung by Dee Dee, he is finally chosen but he kills his customer with a razor blade . The police are now chasing him, but at least he "proved [he's] no sissy".
Shortly after the song was written, the block between 3rd and Lexington avenues was cleared to make way for one of Manhattan 's tallest skyscrapers, the Citigroup Center . Years later, the Lipstick Building was built on the east side of 3rd Avenue at 53rd. However, gay hustlers remained in abundance at bars on 53rd between 3rd and 1st avenues.
I then wrote back to Bob, saying he was truly a master, to which he replied...
But I don’t necessarily think it’s the spot. But it seems to fit. It could also , for example be on Lex on the ppe east side near say 86th street where the eisde walks are thin.
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