I don’t mean to get needlessly pedantic. Really, I don’t. But…always question the fine print.
When did “East Village” become a catch-all for “downtown”? I mean, yeah -- I know it certainly sounds cool, but it’s also something fairly specific. Just because something happens south of 14th street, that doesn’t immediately mean it went down in the East Village. I am reminded of that photo I highlighted from Wikipedia of some “East Village street art” that was actually snapped in fuckin’ SoHo, or Alec Baldwin describing his neighborhood as the East Village merely because he lives one block to the east of Fifth Avenue. That’s not how it works, Alec.
Once again, I hate to be that guy, but get it right. Let’s rewind, shall we?
The description for this video (which I appended to this post yesterday), once again, reads….
The first actual MTV logo I ever shot was this one by Director Daniel Nauke. Shot on a Master Oxberry animation stand camera in 1983 while I was working free-lance at Francis Lee's, Film Planning Associates in NYC, this spot combined traditional cel animation shot as a series of cross dissolves for the changing colors of the MTV logo that were laid over photo animation replacements for the East Village background and man with the guitar case. Finally back-lit colors were shot as an additional exposure for the changing colors in the buildings windows. Music is "You Missed It" (intro) by The Lunachicks.
With all respect to Robert Lyons, that’s just not accurate, even if accompanied by the unmistakably East Village-honed sounds of the Lunachicks.
While I am indeed still obsessed with pinpointing the location of the Lunachicks’ wall, and -– yea verily – finding some official documentation of both Downtown and Underground, when I watched this short bumper clip for MTV, I knew it didn’t smell right. I knew that wasn’t the East Village. But, by the same token, it looked entirely familiar.
Check out this grab from same…
It’s a great, well-composed image –- no argument there. But on a hunch, I Googled a couple of photographs from the era of the Etan Patz investigation of 1979, specifically of the northwest corner of Prince Street at West Broadway in SoHo.
Notice the similarity? If should be noted, that later in the 80’s, the edifice of that east-facing building on the west side of West Broadway was painted with the fun mural below … complete with that white streak across the midpoint of the building you see replicated in the “MTV East Village” video above.
It’s a corner I used to be quite fond of, as down that street used to be two of my favorite places, Rocks in Your Head and a bar called Milady’s – both long gone. Today, Rocks in Your Head is a real estate agency, and Milady’s remains starkly empty. The storefront on the above corner is also newly empty these days, although there was recently a portrait of Prince affixed to that wall (Prince Street,...geddit?)
My point, however, is this: THAT’S NOT THE EAST VILLAGE.
Try harder, please.
Here’s the full song from Lyons’ video, for those interested…
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