Flaming Pablum

Back Into Exile: Exhuming The Siberia Bar

Watch any documentary about a since-closed music venue, nightclub or bar, and you’re bound to hear some of the same stupid shit. Whether conscious of it or not, at least one of the participants will make one ridiculously clichéd remark or another about how the establishment in question was this unique confluence of poetically unlikely factors that could not, should not and never will exist again. Invariably, there will also be florid testimonials about the fabled proprietor of the place which portray that individual like some sort of star-crossed visionary from another dimension. While such declarations might even have varying degrees of truth to them, these soundbites have become so deeply and dependably rote as storytelling devices that these movies all practically blend together.

Given my blog’s brazen predilections for New York City nostalgia, I am, of course, no stranger to these sorts of films. “Life After Dark: The Story of Siberia Bar,” a 2008 documentary directed by one Jack Bryan, is no exception to the rules lamented above. That all said, you should still check it out.

I’ve written about both Manhattan iterations of the Siberia Bar here a few times, notably here and here. I honestly cannot remember who first told me about the place, but being that I worked at TIME Magazine, just down the block from the subway stop that played host to the first iteration of the bar, once I learned about it, I had to go check it out. This would have been around 1997, I’m guessing, and I swiftly became one of a cloying legion of irritating, drunk-journalist types prone to hanging out within its endearingly decrepit confines. I’m the inebriated jackass in the center of the photo above, taken at Siberia around `98, given the then-recently-procured Damned t-shirt I’m sporting (they’d played a Coney Island High — also gone, but no documentary yet — a few days prior). If you were a self-styled, world-weary, laboriously smug scribe of one stripe or another, you were bound to be found drinking irresponsibly there sooner or later.

Around 2000, the Siberia Bar decamped from its celebrated closet-sized perch in the midtown subway system and moved into Hell’s Kitchen. While the new location lacked its predecessor's seedy charm and intriguing mystique, the much roomier second version of the Siberia Bar retained the spirit of the old place … complete with those infamous stipulations about swearing and gratuitous hittin' on women.

Around the same time, however, I’d gotten married. As such, my nights darkening the already-very-dark doors of Siberia were somewhat sharply curtailed. I’d go every now and again, but hardly with any frequency. And then, sadly, in 2007, it closed for good.

I never knew of the documentary below’s existence until earlier this week. A reader named CB hipped me to it. Granted, I’m about 14 years late to the table, but for your viewing pleasure and edification, here it is….

Life After Dark: The Story of Siberia Bar from Jack Bryan on Vimeo.

Goodbye, 2021, You Cruel Bitch!

I normally do these annual surveys a little later in the year, but being that this is (once again) not the usual Christmas season, all bets are off. I’m doing my damndest to sustain any remaining semblance of holiday spirit, but suffice to say, events of the day, so to speak, are making it very hard to stay optimistic, let alone cheery. We are making the most of it and — god willing — getting through it unscathed, but we’re ultimately taking it day by day. Let’s get to it, then...

What did you do in 2021 that you'd never done before?

Well, I had a long-overdue colonoscopy. That sure was fun. And now, I get to have one every year. Oh joy.

Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t have an excellent track record with keeping resolutions, but since the pandemic first landed, I’ve been battling the tenacious “fuck it, it’s the end of the world” impetus that allows for overeating and over-imbibing. I’m hoping to step up efforts, in that capacity, come the New Year, but I’m not making any resolutions about it.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, my sister-in-law had another little boy about four months back, and one of my sister’s daughters-in-law gave birth to a little girl.

Did anyone close to you die?

The mother of a dear friend of mine from high school passed away very recently. Beyond that, a few friends of my parents died. No one in my immediate circle, mercifully.

What countries did you visit?

For a hot second, we were thinking of traveling to Montreal, but events of the day forbade. Maybe next year?

What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021?

An end to the pandemic.

What date from 2021 will remain etched upon your memory?

Well, gosh, January 6 was certainly pretty memorable. Fuck Trump.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Staying healthy, getting my kids vaccinated (although Oliver’s not eligible for a booster, yet) and staying productive and appreciated on the work front.

What was your biggest failure?

There are things I wish I hadn’t done or said, but that will always be the case. I am human.

Did you suffer illness or injury?

I have thus far managed to continue to dodge COVID-19, but that won’t be the case for long, if the news is to believed. Beyond that, however, I have been grappling with a host of unsavory travails that come with aging, ranging from the discouraging results of the afore-cited colonoscopy to graduating up to a proper pair of “progressive” lenses, which is a gentler way of saying “bifocals.” I’m also now on blood-pressure meds, occasionally experiencing “visual auras” (which are linked to migraine headaches, allegedly) and have a hammertoe problem that’s kind of a bitch. Sorry you asked?

What was the best thing you bought?

I honestly haven’t the foggiest idea.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

Beyond the medical community and essential workers, everyone who got vaccinated and boosted and continues to adhere to COVID protocols for the benefit of the collective.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Trump supporters, anti-vaxxers, science-skeptics, conspiracy theorists and SantaCon participants.

What did you get really, really excited about?

A few months back, things seemed genuinely like they were getting better. Life opened back up. Things were getting re-scheduled. Options were appearing. Live music was back. So much for all that.

Where did most of your money go?

We spent a lot on prospective college visits.

What song will always remind you of 2021?

As with 2020, I can’t say that I’ll want to be reminded of 2021.

Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?

At the moment, I am worried and depressed.

Thinner or fatter?

Can’t say that I’ve been keeping track, but probably fatter.

Richer or poorer?

About the same as before.

What do you wish you'd done more of?

Oh crap, who knows? I worked quite hard this year and got to spend a great amount of time with my wife and kids. I have no regrets, on that front.

What do you wish you'd done less of?

Stressing out about COVID.

How did you spend Christmas?

It hasn’t happened yet, but we’re *PLANNING* on spending it here at home, then leaving Christmas Day to go visit my mother out in Quogue. After that, we *MAY* go visit my sister-in-law’s family in Pennsylvania, but this is all contingent on a number of fluid factors.

Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?

Colleagues from work.

Did you fall in love in 2021?

I have been married for 20 years and remain very much in love.

How many one night stands in this last year?

See above.

What was your favorite TV program?

I’m inclined to again cite “Succession” as the best thing we watched this year, although I’m invariably forgetting some of the other shows we watched.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

Well, hmmmm.. I still vehemently hate everyone in the Trump Administration and those that continue to support the cause of Trumpism.

What was the best book you read?

“The History of Bones,” the memoir of John Lurie.

What was your greatest musical discovery?

I already devoted a post to my favorite albums of 2021, although I was remiss in not adding both Big Paul Ferguson’s debut LP and the debut album by The Wind-Ups.

What did you want and get?

Joe Biden sworn in as President, albeit not without a lot of friggin’ idiotic fallout.

What did you want and not get?

Donald J. Trump being arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned.

What were your favorite films of this year?

I quite enjoyed both Apple TV’s Velvet Underground documentary and “Belfast.” I saw “Spencer” with Kristen Stewart, and that almost put me off movies for good. Yes, it was that bad.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 54 and had a few friends over to ring it in. Overall, very low-key.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Reports of Donald J. Trump being vigorously and repeatedly molested by his fellow inmates in federal prison.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2021?

Face masks are the new black

What kept you sane?

Who said anything about being sane?

What celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I think Dua Lipa is quite striking, but to say I “fancy” her would be inappropriate and repugnant.

What political issue stirred you the most?

If you had told me, during the scariest moments of 2020, that there was going to be pronounced pushback upon the arrival of vaccines, I would have scoffed, but Americans are stubborn, selfish and fucking stupid.

Who did you miss?

President Barack Obama

Who was the best new person you met?

Ummmmmm…. probably my new little nephew.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021

Don’t put off a colonoscopy.

Song lyric that sums up 2021

History shows again and again How nature points out the folly of men - Blue Oyster Cult

Get Back? Get Fucked!

The older I get, the less tolerance I harbor for any high-maintenance bullshit.

I still have an interest in watching the Beatles’ “Get Back” documentary, for example, but I am immediately pointedly put off by the notion of having to subscribe to Disney+ in order to do so, and the fact that it’s not immediately simple to accomplish that makes me unreasonably irritable.

If it’s even remotely complicated or involves more than a paltry two steps, you can seriously go emphatically fuck yourselves. I lose all interest.

Similarly, if a piece of technology fails to immediately deliver that which I am desiring, my first inclination is to take a fucking hammer to it. You fail me and you have to pay the price.

The Walrus Goes to Hell's Kitchen

In honor of the anniversary of the death of John Lennon, a friend of mine posted a picture of the man they’d been given by a photographer named David Gahr. The photo in question was a great shot of the man standing on the median strip of an avenue in, presumably, New York City. Intrigued, I immediately did a bit of Googling to see if I could pinpoint the spot, and sure enough, it was over in Hell’s Kitchen. You can see images from Gah’rs shoot here. But amidst those images came pictures of Lennon standing in front of a landmark near to my heart.

Here’s John standing in front of The River Diner, formerly at the corner of West 37th and 11th Avenue. Why is this significant to me, you ask? Well, this is the diner, as I discussed here, that Martin Scorsese used as a primary location in -- WAIT FOR IT -- “After Hours” (and not, as widely misconceived, the Moondance Diner that formerly stood at the corner of Grand Street and Sixth Avenue in SoHo).

Pour one out for John, gone 41 years today. And, yes, I know the Walrus was Paul.

After All These Hours: Griffin Dunne Looks Back

Vulture’s Matthew Jacobs’ intro to this interview with Griffin Dunne is glibly threadbare, but since I’ve devoted such an inordinate amount of bandwidth to this particular film, I figured it was worth sharing. Read Griffin Dunne Asks Every Question We Have About “After Hours.”

I’ve probably mentioned this on any one of the qaudrillion entries I’ve posted about the film, but Griffin Dunne and I used to live on the same block (that being East 12th Street between Broadway and University Place – don’t look for either of us there today, however, as we’ve both vacated our respective apartments there). I used to routinely see the man traversing this way and that and, on occasion (usually fueled by copious amounts of alcohol consumed at the then-nearby Cedar Tavern, also long gone and over-documented here), I would duly accost Dunne and badger him with logistical quandaries about the plotlines of “After Hours” and why a proper Criterion Collection release of the film had never transpired. After one of these encounters, the man used to pointedly look away from me when he spotted me walking in his direction. Can’t blame him, really.

Here was my last post on the subject, with full list of earlier entries.

Actually, that’s not true. This was the final post about it.

… And May All Your Christmases Be … Black

While I technically have a Twitter account, I am not in the habit of regularly tweeting, much less reading others’ tweets, so I only heard about this in passing, but evidently Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre posted last week that he was launching a campaign to prevent Elton John and Ed Sheeran’s new Christmas song from attaining the coveted UK Christmas No.1 position (y’know, like that Bill Nighy thread in the otherwise strenuously indefensible “Love Actually”) by emphatically advocating for that position to instead be taken by 1985’s “Black Planet” by the Sisters of Mercy. While he was invariably just being snarky, suffice to say, I support this endeavor with every fibre of my very being.

For the uninitiated, here it is now. Tune in, Turn out, Burn Out!

My Favorite Posts of 2021

Yes, I know we’re still only halfway through November, but let’s face it --- by and large, 2021 is over. I mean, sure, maybe I’ll post something in the next month and a half that I really like, but who knows? One can’t count on these things.

The following is a list of posts from the last eleven months that I really liked putting together. It’s not that they’re necessarily the best-written or the most viewed or the most-commented on (not really that informative a metric here, alas). They’re just the ones that I enjoyed researching and was pleased with how they turned out. Results may vary and you may beg to differ, but this is my list. Feel free to make your own.

JANUARY

    Goodbye to Sammy’s

    Christadora House Through The Trees

    A Prize from The Priestess

    “No Comment”: Reacquainting with Squid

    Goodbye, Mr. Puspurica

FEBRUARY

    Beyond The Valley of 84 Thomas Street: The Search for Plasmatics World Headquarters

    Central Park … After Dark

    Be Cruel to Your Pool: The Search for The Cover Location of New Hope For The Wretched

    The New York Nobody Sang

MARCH

    “Everyone is Going to Be Severely Burned & Naked”: Don Rauf of Life in a Blender Looks Forward

    Goodbye to Brooks Brothers

    In the City: Urban Navigation in “The Warriors”

    Sole Asylum: My Incrementally Futile Quest for Nike SB Black and Tan Dunk Lows

    Charly Clicks with Fran in the Alley

APRIL

    For the Love of The Dictators

    SOLVED: The Whereabouts of Wendy’s Wall

MAY

    A Way Back to Wendy’s Wall

    Oliver Takes On Time Travel

JUNE

    Back to The Basement

    Punks in The Peppermint Lounge

    What’s In the Box?

    Catching Up with Squeaky

JULY

    Back … Reluctantly … To the Korova Milk Bar

    Searching for George

    Sounds in the Summertime

AUGUST

    Suck It Up: Re-Exhuming Sucking In The Seventies

SEPTEMBER

    Ecstatic Pizza: Thurston Moore’s Favorite Slice

    For Those Not About to Rock: Redux

    Notes from The Ghost Walk

OCTOBER

    Back Again to Club Berlin

    Goodnight & Godspeed, Eileen

    Back to The New York Comic Arts Gallery

    SPINning Out: 102 More of The Best New York City Music Videos

    Welcome Back to The Pleasuredome

    Ten Compact Discs I’ve Bought During The Last Quarter of 2021

Back to NYC `94 with "NY SCENE"

For whatever stupid reason, 1994 still doesn’t seem *THAT* long ago, to me. I still regularly listen to some fairly crucial albums that were released that year – Portishead’s Dummy, Jeff Buckley’s Grace, Nick Cave’s Let Love In, Massive Attack’s Protection, Release by Cop Shoot Cop, Pandemonium by Killing Joke, Orange by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and many, many others. It was a great, great year for music. I was still technically living on the Upper East Side, at the time, but spending most of my time downtown. I would have just been starting my gig at the TIME Magazine News Desk and freelance writing for various music periodicals.

But, obviously, once I take off my rose-tinted shades, I realize that 1994 was freakin’ 27 years ago. Pre-O.J. trial. Pre-Oklahoma City bombing. Pre-Princess Di death. Pre-9/11. Pre-Afghanistan. Pre-Iraq War. Pre-Indian Ocean tsunami. Etc. Etc. Etc. On a personal level, it was before I met the woman who’d become my wife, before our wedding, before we moved to our current apartment and, very obviously, before we had kids. It was verily several lifetimes ago.

Never is this more apparent than in the video below. Shot in 1994, “NY SCENE” was an “alternative” New York City tourism documentary. Here’s the official description:

NY SCENE is an alternative New York City travel documentary from 1994. As the tape says, "How to do New York... without looking like a tourist." Ripped from a VHS tape that I found while rummaging through The Thing thrift store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Featuring many defunct and some still-functioning New York City establishments, local alternative music from the time and a superfluous use of the word "funky," NY SCENE is an incredible snapshot of NYC culture in 1994.

From the back of the VHS tape: NY SCENE is the ultimate insider's guide to New York City. This 52-minute travel documentary is a sonic blast of New York sights and sounds. Price down peddlers at the 25th St. flea market, feast at an Indian row restaurant, breeze past the ropes of Manhattan's hottest clubs. It's much more than the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. NY SCENE will show you where to find the New Yorker's New York. A few more NY SCENEs: Day Activities: Street art, funky museums and Central Park like you've never seen it. Cheap Eats & Dining Out: Bagels, falafels, coffee shops, Indian, Mexican, Sushi... and more! Night Out: From performance poetry to Showtime at the Apollo... and everything in between. Tips Around Town: How to get around and get by- without getting taken.

Travel expert Julie Karlin walks you from St. Marks to Soho and real-life cabbie Clinton Herrington gives you the tips for a change. Fueled by a soundtrack from some of NYC's hottest bands, NY SCENE is for those who want to be part of the scene... even before they get there.

So, yeah.

For all its bluster, the recommendations herein are nothing too especially radical, but it’s fun to see several since-vanished concerns again, like Howdy-Do, the Sixth Avenue flea markets, the Yaffa Café, Magical Childe, the Ludlow Street Cafe and the old Japonica and invocations of since-closed ventures like Wetlands, Downtown Beirut, Club USA and even my old neighbors at the 24-hour pool hall, Le Q (which is now a sedate antiques emporium). It's a very different city. 

Enjoy the trip back in time…

Back to The Bowery: Minor Threat at CBGB, 1982

I’ve spun this yarn a bajillion times here, but I used to be next-door neighbors with noted photographer Glen E. Friedman. In case you’re unfamiliar with him, I last described him on this post as "the incredibly prescient and endearingly outspoken photographer that documented the crucial gestation period of skateboarding culture (seek out "Dogtown & Z-Boys" if you're unfamiliar with same) and some of the most iconic photographs of the then-still-percolating eras of hardcore punk and Hip-Hop. You've doubtlessly seen his handiwork on album covers by Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys, Slayer, Minor Threat, LL Cool J, Ice-T, Suicidal Tendencies and countless others.” He’s also just a super cool, funny and thoughtful guy and a fellow New York City dad.

These days, while we don’t live down the hall from each other any more, we are still both in the same neighborhood, and do periodically run into each other and catch-up. Given our similar interests, Glen’s usually got something compelling to report. I ran into him today on my way back from running a couple of stupid errands, and true to form, he had coolness to share.

Glen recently stumbled on some video of a Minor Threat show at CBGB in 1982. He took some amazing photographs at that show — some of them now legitimately iconic images of the band. But the video acts as a striking testament to Glen’s skills as a photographer, as it demonstrates the complete chaos of an early `80s hardcore show. It's frankly astonishing that he was able to frame such distinct, singular, isolated moments during the complete mayhem that was doubtlessly swirling around his lens. Here’s what Glen had to say…

I made photos of Minor Threat during this show. It’s total bedlam… can’t believe I did.

The quality of the video is pretty horrible, but still worth checking out. I never saw it before today. It’s incredible how it brings my mind and body feeling right back to the intensity of the moment.

Check out the video below, and Glen was nice enough to allow me to share a couple of his pictures from that day underneath.

As the saying goes, THIS is hardcore!

Some of Glen's work...

Lost in OldNewYorkLandia

Tumblr is a platform I don’t find myself using, too often (although I do still maintain my own space there, that being Get Back to Work). That said, there are a few specific Tumblr users who cotinue to raise the bar. One of my very favorites is OldNewYorkLandia, which is an astonishing well curated aggregation of archival images from eons past, mostly all responsibly credited. The one below is one such image, taken by Leonard Freed in 1954 or 1955. This is, of course, Jersey Street in what was then technically known as Little Italy but is now perceived more as just part of SoHo. Indie cinema heads might recognize it from the opening scene of Jim Jarmusch’s “Permanent Vacation” or from the video for “Down By Law” by Madball.

For more amazing vintage New York City pics, definitely check out OldNewYorkLandia, but be warned … it’s easy to get sucked in and spend hours scrolling.