After Hours AOC

Despite appearances to the contrary, this post is not really about AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), but — since I just invoked her — I might as well concede that I think she’s pretty great. Sure, she’s young and probably still has a lot to learn about the office she now holds, but anyone who is capable of speaking truth to power with her level of conviction — to say nothing about causing so much angst and indigestion among key figures on the Right — is a-okay with me. You, of course, may beg to differ. That’s all.

In any case, a friend of mine recently posted the above photo on Facebook of AOC, posing with her signature, unblinking intensity on a weathered New York City stoop, her impeccably sharp, green ensemble creating a striking dichotomy with her otherwise rough-hewn surroundings. At first glance, I found it strangely familiar, but then I realized … there are doubtlessly thousands of stoops just like the one she’s depicted sitting on.

Then I thought back to an evening several weeks back. I was going to meet some out-of-towner friends who now live on the other side of the globe. They were briefly back in the city for a wedding, so we decided to meet up an at age-old favorite haunt, the Ear Inn on the westerly edges of Spring Street.

I’ve mentioned the Ear a few times here. It passively vies for the title “Oldest Bar in New York City” in meaningless competition with joints like Pete’s Tavern and McSorley’s, although — to my mind — it’s way better than either of those over-hyped establishments. Whether it’s genuinely the oldest bar in New York means nothing to me. It’s just a great place to meet friends and have a few beers. Long may it stay that way.

In any case, because I’m deeply neurotic and punctual to a fault, I arrived in the neighborhood ahead of schedule, which left me plenty of time to roam around the surrounding environs before assuming my place at the bar.

Time was when part of the Ear’s charm was that it was in such a remote, desolate backwater of a neighborhood. Apart from a deli or two, a couple of fellow bars (notably McGovern’s and the Emerald Inn) and, later, rock club Don Hill’s, there was practically nothing. The streets were empty and quiet. It’s for this reason that Martin Scorsese chose this patch of SoHo for many of the locations in “After Hours,” because it exuded such an eerily quiet, empty ambiance.

Suffice to say, this is no longer the case in 2019. These days, the westerly edges of Spring Street are a densely populated Emerald City of exclusive condos and monied luxury. Somehow, the Ear Inn has managed to hold on, but the days of it being a remote outpost are decidedly over.

This all said, there are still whispery elements of the neighborhood’s old vibe, if you look hard enough for them. As I circumnavigated the area on foot, I snapped a few pictures, trying to capture that rarified essence of place.

Circling the block on Renwick Street, just a street to the east of the Ear Inn, I came upon a certain stoop at the tail end of the building that formerly housed the Emerald Inn, the bar Scorsese re-cast as the Terminal Bar for “After Hours” (which I wrote about back here). I was struck by how grim and forbidding the stoop in question looked, so, I took a picture.

Sure enough, it’s the same stoop AOC was photographed on. Now, what was she doing there?

Hell if I know.

Comments

[ROBERT W. EGAN]

Great find.

[DrBOP]

Thinking that much of the attention that AOC is getting is due to the fact that she is:
1) Young
2) A women
and in that order.
(I know those are THE 2 obvious factors, but I really think it starts with her youth first, and then that she's female)
Let me explain:
It is STILL the case whenever ANY government/industry/military?university governing body is shown in most media....
IT'S A BUNCH OF OLD (mostly white) (mostly BALDING) MEN!
Makin' decisions about net regulations, abortion, driver-less cars, daycare. university policy and tuition, etc. Old. Old. Old.
They're a bunch of OLD men who are beyond whatever the hell it is they're discussing. Do they even HAVE a smart-phone? Do they know what one IS? And don't get me started on Prez candidates (T-Dupe is 72; Biden 74: Bernie, lost count)....WHO under 30 gonna vote for Grandpa?)
So to most of these seniors it's like who is this punk kid trying to tell us Titans what to do? Why do they upset EVERY meeting they're in? And wotthehell is a TWITTER?

I'M an old balding white guy, and I wouldn't want me in charge of ANYTHING!
BRING ON 'DA YOOTS fer chrissake!
GO AOC!
(This comment works better if imagined in the voice of George Costanza ;>)