Ok people, listen up. I don't want to make this a full fledged blog,
but I do want to get something off my chest. I can't talk about how
downtown has changed so much anymore. Yes, I do miss the days when
Greenwich Village meant queers and pot parades. I do miss the days when
Bleeker Bob would yell at you for coming into his place with a bag from
another record store. I even miss the days when you could urinate in
between cars of the subway, or when you could buy switchblades on Times
Square without them having a Disney logo on them. But I think it's time
we forgave Giuliani for outlawing dancing in non-dance zones and move
on with our lives. How many more times can I walk down St. Marks Place
with someone, and talk about how the Japanese have taken over? Let's
give it to them already! They bought it, let them have it! I mean, I
long for the days that the East Village resembled a Jim Jarmusch movie
too, everybody walking around in black leather jackets looking for where
the Sonic Youth/Swans gig was. But that's over. We can't have that and
Pinkberry at the same time. Don't get fooled by the few punk stores
still on that block. Walking into one of them gives me the same warm and
fuzzy feeling that walking into Strawberry Fields in Central Park on a
Sunday afternoon gives me. "Awww, look at all the people from different
countries coming together to celebrate the Beatles. Maybe there IS still
hope!" Quaint. Come on folks, it's either Korean War-era combat boots
and the Sonic Youth/Swans gig OR
limited edition sneakers and hipster-rap. You can't have both.
Who remembers that
Gringo mural
that was on St. Marks for so long? Right now he'd be looking at a sign
that he couldn't read, and this time it would be because it's in
Japanese. Does it make sense? I mean Santa Claus selling Coca Cola
makes more sense than the Easter Bunny selling Vitamin Water, doesn't
it? And don't tell me about how much Willimasburg has changed either. I
know.
(Yeah I know this is old, and that I wrote it many years ago and salvaged it from Myspace)
