Long have I wondered about the photo above with regards to its location. Obviously, that's the great Iggy Pop, but I'd always speculated as to what bar he was depicted sitting in with such solemn, stoney-faced stoicism.
Given his longtime residency in Lower Manhattan (to my knowledge, he's lived in at least two apartments downtown -- one on Mercer Street between West 4th and Bleecker and one at the Christodora House over on Avenue B, a tenure he devoted an entire glum album to, 1999's Avenue B), I'd assumed it could have been any one of a hundred mostly since-closed neighborhood bars. Lucy's? Sophie's? Lakeside Lounge? Manitoba's, The Park Lounge? Mars Bar? Which one?
I actually encountered the great man at Sin-E on St. Marks Place, one rainy evening, back in the 90's. I was still a single guy, at the time, and had been out with three friends at some random party over on Avenue C -- which was a markedly wilder patch of real estate, in those days. In any case, fate decided that all three of my comrades would find themselves in beguiling entanglements with willing members of the opposite sex, that evening, leaving me to my own devices. As such, I ended up walking home -- in the rain, fittingly -- across Tompkins Square Park and up St. Marks Place. Soggy and sour of mood, I happened to glance up right as I was walking by the long-since-shuttered Irish spot, Sin-E, and who should be sitting right by the open door enjoying a beer, but Iggy Goddamn Pop. I immediately exclaimed his name out loud, and he looked up, gave me a big goofy grin and a thumbs-up, which immediately decimated my self-pity-party.
Anyway, the photo doesn't look like Sin-E. But, I was fairly resigned to never figuring it out.
As it happens, the photographer responsible for the sombre shot, one Steve Rapport, disclosed the location on his website (and you can buy a nice print of the shot, among many others, here).
Just a stone's throw from his old haunt at the Christadora, Iggy is seen here imbibing within the confines of 7B, otherwise known as Vazacs Horseshoe Bar, which I've discussed here.
These days, Iggy lives in Miami. 7B, meanwhile, is still going strong.
Time to dust off Iggy's old tour of that neighborhood.....
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