Monday, September 12, 2005

Long time no see...

Ok, yes, it's been a long while since I posted anything on this blog. To be honest, I started a new job that keeps me busier than f**k. But more to the point I've been really fucking disappointed in NYC lately. We seem to be a City intent on destroying itself by systematically denuding ourselves of any character, guts and edge we once had. These were the qualities that appealed to me and not least among the reasons for my leaving my safe little North Cackalacky home. The words sanitized, gentrified and strip mall come to mind to me now as the perfect descriptions of NYC. Just look at what's happening with CBGBs. I spoke to someone about this last year before there were real rumblings about the possibility of it closing. I had read that their lease was up in the summer of 2005 and I was worried shitless. A friend of mine who played there regularly in the 70s and beyond tried to assure me that CBs would never close. Well, guess what? He was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Are we as a City willing to turn our heads and avert our eyes to the possibility of an icon disappearing? The writer David McCollough has said "History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are." Are we willing to forget? To allow landmarks of a seminal time in NYC, in fact, in many ways the thing that still embodies the spirit that this City once embraced; the idea that you could do anything and be anyone you wanted, are we really willing to let that die?...CBs closing is not just about a building or a club that perhaps no longer attracts a crowd or future big-name bands, it's about the ideals that it represented - that some schmucks from Queens in leather jackets and bowl hair cuts could be one of the most influential bands of our time and only came into our consciousness because of a guy who was willing to give them a chance as the house band at his then-struggling club, that an era could be defined by people not willing to roll over for Disco or get scared away because of a few Bowery bums. DIY is dead or at least gasping for its last breath...

6 comments:

Gern said...

Didn't realize there was a comment on my other blog, so I apologize for the delay in replying.

Found your blog by looking at other profiles that listed Ramones (One of my long-time personal faves). Just happened to be bored that day and read your post about Blade Runner.

Gary said...

Grace.. regarding Pete Townshend link, links get cut off when included in a post. We are unable to see the link you are peaking of. What I do is seperate out parts of the URL

www . bbcamerica . com

This usually gets around the blogger truncation problem.

I do hope Pete corresponds and you re-post the link.

Lee Bird said...

Gary, you should still be able to see the links. Click and highlight and see if that doesn't reveal the whole thing.

Tommy DisCool said...

Ahh, "As I lay Dying," my mother is a fish! Not that there's anyhing wrong with that. Once you have mastered Faulkner, it's time to move up the ladder and try Gilbert Sorrentino on for size. Just another New York writer with a view. First up, Mulligan Stew. Then watch him trash the trendy in "Imaginatative Qualities of Actual Things."

Used to be a time when I could play many songs over and over and over again and into the 70s. But now, only one remains - "And I Moved," by Peter Townshend. Oh wait, there are actually two. "Somewhere Down The Crazy River," by Robbie Robertson, the Indian-Jew.

Tommy

Tommy DisCool said...

Peter - check your mail...important disclosure.

Your Good Friend,

TOMMY

Gary said...

I think it was fixed, it was ending in a .j and it should have been .jsp - a bit hard to locate, right on the left side of the page, under About Anglophenia, LINKS

http://www.bbcamerica.com/
anglophenia/anglophenia.jsp