Flaming Pablum

The Downtown Dozen Addendum

Not that anyone noticed, asked or cared about the first batch, but here are a few more great NYC-entric music vids from eons past. Which ones am I missing? Speak up!

Beastie Boys - "Holy Snappers"

Biohazard - "Punishment"

Belfegore - "All That I Wanted"

Missing Foundation - "Burn Trees"

H20 - "What Happened?"

Little Steve & the Disciples of Soul - "Forever"

The Cult - "Edie (Ciao Baby)"

Freedy Johnston - "Bad Reputation"

 

There are also a couple I'd love to add but cannot find, namely "Green Light" by Firewater (rife with footage of mid-90's Tribeca) and "Off the A-List" by Surgery, featuring a slew of great Manhattan locales.

Any others?

The Downtown Dozen

I've discussed all of these clips here before, but for some reason, I felt like revisiting them again here today. Herewith the Downtown Dozen: 12 great videos featuring footage of a Lower Manhattan that largely no longer exists. Enjoy.

Addendum: Okay, so "Cosmic Slop" by the mighty Funkadelic was filmed in Central Park and Times Square, neither being "downtown." Regardless, it's a great video.

The Psychedelic Furs - "Run and Run"

The Undead - "My Kinda Town"

The Candy Snatchers - "Why I Drink"

Kajagoogoo - "Big Apple"

Depeche Mode - "Policy of Truth"

Funkadelic - "Cosmic Slop"

David Bowie - "I'm Afraid of Americans"

Beastie Boys - "Hold It Now, Hit It"

Sick of It All - "Potential for a Fall"

Surgery - Maliblues

Clowns for Progress - "Killing Time"

Luna - "Slash Your Tires"

Oh, to hell with it, here's one more...

I Go SoHo

In recent years, I've largely sworn off going to SoHo, unless it's on a manageable weekday or something. SoHo on the weekends -- or at least since it's become an exclusive, high-end shopping district in the last couple of decades -- is a complete headache. `Twas not always thus, of course. I've written pieces about it here and there before, but I'd sooner steer you in the direction of my comrade Yukie's excellent SoHo Memory Project, a much more authoritative blog on the subject.

In any case, I spotted the below video yesteday, and thought I'd share it here. While the photograph above depicts the SoHo of the gritty 1970's or so (I sadly have no idea who snapped it, nor the exact year), the brief snippet below gives a fleeting glimpse of the SoHo of 1989.

I was actually spending a fair amount of time in SoHo during this era (as I describe in the links above), visiting Rocks in Your Head on Prince Street (long gone, now a real estate agency), SoHo Zat (a comic shop on West Broadway, now a deli) and a few other likely spots (most which are also long gone). I still have a few favorite places in SoHo that are still there ... notably Milady's on Prince Street and the Ear Inn on Spring Street, but by and large, the place has transformed way beyond the neighborhood I used to be so enchanted by.

Incidentally, I have no idea who Janine is, nor why she wanted you to call her about SoHo, much less why she insists on speaking in a remedial rhyme scheme.

Oliver in the East Village

Sunday morning, I brought my son to a long-delayed soccer cataclysm (think a diminutive "Braveheart" with fewer swords and Scottish accents) over on the field is in the shadow of the looming, Terry Gilliam-esque Con Ed plant on 14th Street (y'know, the one that exploded when engulfed in the flood waters of Superstorm Sandy, plunging downtown in abject darkness). I brought my camera and snapped a few pics along the way...

Here's Oliver on the steps of the recently-rhapsodized former Ritz/Webster Hall on East 11th...

Oliver, again on East 11th, brandishing a giant spoon leant by an all-night-partygoer at Webster Hall's belated Halloween fete the night before.

The field on East 16th, east of Avenue C. Muddy, brown and strewn with odd bits of detritus, but still playable. We passed a few abandoned cars that had clearly been fully flooded and drained of salt water. Surreal.

Tompkins Square Park...

Oliver unwittingly pays tribute to dad's preoccupation with a photo of Television...

Oliver poses for yet another shot in front of Gem Spa...|

...in requisite homage to the New York Dolls....

Oliver in front of what was Rockit Scientist discs on St. Marks Place...

Oliver throwing the goats on the steps of Search & Destroy on St. Marks Place. Yes, concerned British true-crime afficianados, that is indeed Ian Brady and Myra Hindley tastefully pictured behind him. Blame Search & Destroy for that.

And, lastly.... Oliver pays tribute to ...umm..er... Foghat's Fool for the City...

Back to Station Break

I’ve mentioned Station Break, the long-vanished video arcade in the bowels of Penn Station, a few times here before. I remember several ill-considered expeditions to same with my friend Jeremy back in the early 80’s wherein we’d waste our collective weight in dubiously-earned quarters playing mind-numbing rounds of "Berzerk," "Tempest," "Joust," "Dig-Dug," "Defender" and several other favorites of the day. Places like Station Break just don't exist anymore, or not in New York City, at least.

At one point a couple of years back, I stumbled upon an article about someone designing a virtual Station Break, and that seemed like a cool link to build a post around, but I never got around to it and lost the link and blah blah blah.

Back in August, meanwhile, I penned a post about Penn Station, which prompted a reader named Fossil to post the below video of the very thing I’d original seen the article about. It’s a bit clunky, but the guy really did a nice job. Watching this video accurately captures the experience of walking around Station Break … albeit without all the noise, smell and glares from one’s fellow shifty patrons.

Cheers to Fossil for sending it my way.

Match Over on University Place

I've always had something of a like/hate relationship with the place, but I just learned (via my ever-savvy next-door neighbor David S.) that the Rugby store on the corner of East 12th & University Place (just across from what was the University Diner) is soon going to be kaput. That might explain why they've been having a lot of sales of late. Sure enough, I dropped in today and asked, and a smartly-dressed, barely-post-adolescent staffer confirmed it. Come February, Rugby -- not just this one store, but the entire brand -- will cease to exist.

Being that I think Ralph Lauren is an oily bag of pus, I initially didn't think much of Rugby, but after being gifted with an item or two from the joint, I gradually warmed to their wares (despite being initially informed that they pointedly catered to "a younger clientele" than myself). Sure, there's inarguably a withering degree of indefensible douchiness to the whole Rugby aesthetic (that sort of affected "Royal Tannenbaums" schtick that also afflicts the Tommy Hilfiger brand), but in measured quantities -- and paired with the right ensemble -- some of it works quite well, for whatever that's worth.

In any case, while they've only been there about seven years (occupying a historic corner address that formerly hosted an antique shop), they'll be gone in February.

Two questions begged: What will take its place? And what's happening to University Place?

Now that the Dust has Settled

Oooh, lookit that pretty blue building!

Despite being largely a lefty on most issues, I usually try to keep this blog fairly politics-free. A surprising number of my closest friends "in real life" differ with me on political issues, although we still have huge amounts in common. I pretty much extend that to Flaming Pablum. I'd rather concentrate on the common elements that bring us together than be deliberately divisive about it. There have been exceptions. I had no problem calling out New York Post cartoonist Sean Delonas for being a flagrant racist and devoted a few posts to Sarah Palin back in the day, but she was such a tempting, easy target, how could I not?

In more recent years, however, I've kept proceedings more focussed on areas that have pretty much come to define this weblog. I'm lucky anyone reads this thing to begin with, so why go scaring them off with politics?

I do inherently think there's something lame about someone simply parroting their favorite pundit/political commentator's words (after all, isn't that the domain of the 'dittohead'?), but when I heard Rachel Maddow recite the below live the other night, I just felt it summed it all up beautifully. As such, I'm passing it on here if you happened to miss it. Click on it to enlarge.

That's it. I only hope I can defend my positions with similarly eloquent clarity when I'm surrounded by my Fox-watching family at the Thanksgiving table later this month, but I'll cross that perilous chasm when I get to it.

I'll get back to my regular menu of brazenly nostalgic and unquantifiably trivial ruminations shortly.

Thanks & please keep reading.

Andy's Chee-Pees R.I.P.

Sorry for the recent silent patch, but in the wake of Sandy, Election 2012 and the approach of this afternoon’s Nor’easter, my usual ruminations about bands, bars, record shops and album covers all seem indefensibly trivial. I’m sure I’ll get back to all that soon, but it hasn’t felt right in recent days.

That all said, I did notice yesterday that Andy’s Chee-Pees on that ever-troubled strip of West 8th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues is suddenly gone. Behind the glass is a puzzling mess of abandoned items (they left behind a bunch of their vinyl LPs, it looks like) and some sundry Halloween material, but they’re otherwise gone. Perhaps that couldn’t handle Sandy’s imposed week off? Strange.

Truthfully, I never shopped in this incarnation of Andy’s Chee-Pees, but did only just recently get rid of a blazer I fetched at their old St. Mark’s Place incarnation back in the early 90’s.

Our Week in the Dark

These pictures probably won't have that much personal resonance for me until weeks or months from now, when I can look back on the whole experience with some distance and perspective. Right now, like everyone else, I'm just incredibly glad the power, heat and hot water are back on, and my heart goes out to those who are still without.

But, as mentioned in the previous post, here are some of the images from this very long week.

Monday night around 10 p.m.

The apartment

University Place on Tuesday morning..

My little ones on Union Square on Tuesday...

Trudging to midtown in search of warmth, food and supplies. Note super-pleased expressions on my kids' faces from all the walking.

Briefly camping out in a midtown Duane Reade, planning next move. Tuesday afternoon.

Wife and kids in front of the heroic oasis of nourishment that is American Gourmet Foods on 6th Avenue...site of our first hot food. My new favorite deli!

Trees down in Union Square, Friday AM...

Con Ed guys, diligently working Friday evening...

Our main tools of survival this week: Beer, candlelight and my Sing-a-Long-With-Brak transistor radio!

Out Went the Lights

Like many New Yorkers, I’ve documented a lot of this past week in photographs. Honestly speaking, however, by this point in the proceedings, I’m pretty fucking sick of it all (as I’m sure you are too). Given my knee-jerk bitch-&-moan reflex (let’s face it, what is this blog other than one long, seven-year complaint?), I’m really trying to keep myself in check. Sure, it’s really sucked having no power, no hot water, no heat in our apartment, no phone signal and no school for our kids (we’re all a little stir-crazy or, to use a Britishism my wife is fond of utilizing, “woodsqueer”), but we’re all ultimately safe and sound. The same cannot be said for large swathes of New Jersey, Staten Island, the Rockaways and elsewhere. I try to keep that in mind before I start whining about my comparatively paltry problems.

In any event, while everyone is sick and tired of that bitch Sandy, I thought I’d pass on this telling time-lapse video from Monday night. Relive the bummer at 1:02 when the lights go out.

Like I said in the previous post, walking around a neighborhood plunged into absolute darkness on Monday night was indeed eerie and otherworldly. Five days later, the mystique of that experience has truly worn off, and I’m hugely fucking sick of it. That said, the photographs of that very experience on this post by Animal NY really capture the vibe quite well.

Here’s to everyone recovering from the friggin’ nightmare and moving forward.