
There’s been a bit of an exodus, in recent days, of folks leaving Instagram and Facebook, put off by Zuckerberg’s brazen sucking-up to Trump. I, too, have courted the idea of leaving — which is saying something, given the ridiculous amount of crap I post on both platforms. I even opened a BlueSky account (find it here, should you care), but ultimately find it a bit too similar to the original Twitter (before Elon Musk took a giant, Hitler-heiling shit all over it). I never really warmed to Twitter, but we’ll see how it goes.
Personally, the notion of leaving those two Meta platforms is difficult in that it invariably means falling out of touch with a veritable nation of folks who I pretty much only know online. That’s tough to step away from, but again, we’ll see how it shakes out.
In any case, in perusing my Instagram page, trying to decide what my next step was to be, I happened to click on the roster of images I’d tagged in my “saved” column, like the excellent shot above of the intersection of Lafayette and Bleecker Street, which was taken in 1990 by my friend Gregoire Alessandrini. In doing so, I was reacquainted with several images that spoke to posts I’ve logged here, over the years. I thought I’d take a moment to share some of those, so here goes.
Below is a photograph of the old interior of Downtown Beirut circa 1989. This photo was originally snapped by a photographer named Eff Norkinhardie, but I prized if off the Instagram feed of Lara B. Sharp. This photo struck me not because it captured what the bar was like on a busy weekend night, but I'd swear to God the tall fella chatting up the lady in the foreground in the cheetah-spotted coat is my friend Brent Butterworth, although he can neither confirm nor deny that. I wrote about Downtown Beirut here.

I couldn't say what periodical the page of club ads below came from, but this image is courtesy of the Instagram feed of DaveW61. Long lost ventures being touted here are places I've scribbled about her before, like The Ritz, The Peppermint Lounge, Privates and more.

The below image came from the Instagram feed of the great Legs McNeil, although I believe he originally got it from the amazing Instagram feed, Blondieisaband. In any case, back in 2014, I put up a bunch of posts speculating on the location of the photos in question, aided and abetted by photographer Roberta Bayley, I managed to track it down. I wrote about Legs McNeil back here.

The shot of Third Avenue & St. Marks Place comes from the feed of UrbanArchiveNY. I did a series of posts postulating about the dinosaur signage of the old Continental Divide, on this now-unrecognizable strip. Find the culmination here.

Not a super notable one, but here's the exterior of the Greenwich Village iteration of Crazy Eddie's as found in the feed of MikeSaes. Personally speaking, I was more partial to the uptown iterations of Crazy Eddie's, most specifically the ones on East 57th Street and on East 86th Street. You can read about both of those here. Today, this space below is a Chipotle.

The below is an amazing artifact prized from the feed of Richard Boch's Muddclub_Book, proving that the Modern Lovers played live in Lower Manhattan in 1975 (and "blew the doors" off the Kitchen). I wrote about The Kitchen here, and the Modern Lovers a few times, most recently here.

This is the fabled jukebox of the late, lamented Lakeside Lounge on Avenue B. I wrote about this place quite a few times, but most floridly here. This was from the feed of my friend Joe Bonomo.

Another one from Gregoire's NewYork1990s, here's a shot of the window of Norman's Sound + Vision, which I wrote about here.

This is an amazing shot from the feed of James and Karla Murray of the exterior of the P&G bar on the Upper West Side. I wrote about it a few times, but most notably as the location of a certain photograph of Joe Jackson. James and Karla, meanwhile, released a great book about NYC bars earlier this year.

Okay, stay with me, now, because this one is a bit confusing. From the feed of Recordrun, this is shot from the mid-`80s of the interior of Record Runner on Cornelia Street. Some short years later, Record Runner would move a block to the west to Jones Street (where it remains today), and this space would turn into Subterranean Records. I've written about both concerns many times here (too many to link, but Google it, if you care). This space as Subterranean Records closed in about 2008 and has been dormant ever since.

A tantalizing collection of flyers from the Rock Hotel, which I spoke about here. This shot was poached shamelessly from the feed of AlexisTMorrow

Taken from the feed of RecycledSounds_Omaha, here's an ad for my beloved Rocks in Your Head on Prince Street in SoHo. I've written about it thousands of times, so Google it if you're curious.

The below is a shot of the rear exterior facade of the Roseland Ballroom from the feed of retronyc. It was never my favorite venue, but I do miss it, and wrote about it here and here.

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