Stuff You Might Have Missed, Slight Return

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.

• This was making the rounds yesterday, so I might as well pass it on. Check out The 6th Floor's rundown of Manhattan's most-mourned bars, not too unlike my own list of 5 great missing NYC dive bars from back in April.
• 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.
• I can't remember where I spotted this, but true to my tireless affinity for old record shops, I feel compelled to pass on this trailer for a British documentary of endangered record shops, not too unlike the one recently posted about our own Bleecker Bob's.
• I can't walk by it now without scowling (as is much the same case with countless other addresses), but check out the disparity between then and now on 5th Avenue and 14th Street. Disheartening.

• Speaking of "then and now," check out this blog -- NYCCorners -- first hipped to my by EV Grieve. Good stuff.

• Finally, here's an official video from the new Firewater album. Crank it up!