Yeah… I appreciate that you think that you know what I am thinking or meaning, but you don’t.
Catalyst records is not a substitute for Bleecker Bobs, Hideout, Generation or Venus. Nor is Parkside Lounge a substitute for the Continental or The Pyramid. 2A is not Collective Unconscious. Nor is Smithereens a substitute for Odessa. Especially for someone allergic to fish.
Not sure why you want me to embrace all change as good change or progress and gentrification stripping cultural landmarks as “the way of life” but some of it was what made New York worth loving and not everything is replaceable.
I guess our slogan could be, “Sorry you missed it when it was at it’s best. The cool people are gone.”
I don’t. There are certainly places I miss that have no equivalent now - the Cedar Tavern, for instance, and Danceteria, and Love Saves the Day. But my perspective is that a region is not dying just because it wasn’t preserved in amber during the time you personally think it was at its best. Didn’t people tell you when you moved to New York that you’d missed all the good stuff? That the seventies were way better, and the sixties even better than that? I heard it all the time. Hell, I heard it about the music scene on the Jersey Shore when I was a young teenager. And then you go out and you find your own cool things so that you can tell people younger than you that THEY missed all the good stuff.
No, I was born in New York and have stayed over half a century. I just constantly hear how this much more generic version of New York is better-- safer, cleaner than the bad old days. Shrugs.
Most of the people I hear from sound more like you than me. Parts of New York are safer and cleaner, but anyone who’s been on the subway lately (which is as bad again as it was when I moved here) would know it’s not exactly Bedford Falls.
As my friend says, restaurants in NYC are like movies. If you really like it you might go back and see it again, but don’t try a third time…it with be gone and a new one will have replaced it.
@backyardchef and @small_h are making me miss my youth. So many hours spent in places like Pyramid and Danceteria. The 4:00 am lights on and it’s time to move on is something that I am not likely to experience again. I’m usually passed out in my warm and comfy bed with how ever many hundred thread stitch count sheets. But I do miss dancing away the hours with the bass beat thrumming through my body.
As a total non sequitor to the original thread, for anyone who might be interested in an 80s parody flashback here’s something to watch. I thought it was funny but then again it’s a bunch of people in my world making fun of the industry. The best bit is at the end so those who don’t find finance bros amusing might want to skip ahead to the 5:40 point. The number of movie and video references it hits from the 80s is really funny at least to me.
Looking at this thread reminded me that there was a note about Hen House - has anyone tried that yet?
i guess I need to make personal notes instead of relying on this board as my notepad. Anyone checked it out yet?
What are the good live music venues in the East Village and Lower East Side now? In the last couple of years, we’ve seen good shows at DROM (a favorite), Sala de Pepe (I’m not sure if live music is standard there), and Parkside Lounge. But with the closing of Rockwood Music Hall (mixed quality but lots of options), it does seem like there are fewer options in that LES/East Village area. At our age, the standing room only places don’t really work for us.
And at the risk of getting in trouble for branching out beyond food and beyond the East Village, the closing of the Owl Music Parlor in Prospect Lefferts Gardens was a huge loss. That place knew no boundaries. (I say this even though during our last visit there, the proprietor came over and asked us if we were the parents of any of the acts playing that night).
Was a very very regular patron at rockwood - super sad about it. Owl as well.
I’ve been able to sit down and see music at bitter end a few times, and while I am not a jazz head, there are occasionally acts I like at the village vanguard. you specified the LES/village, but I’ll also add that Bar Lunatico in bk has gotten more of my money since rockwood closed.
This is depressing, but I was going to highly recommend Mama Tried in Red Hook, which we love. But Yelp says it’s closed now. That’s really sad. That patio in the summer was wonderful.
With Rockwood, the Owl, and now Mama Tried, it’s enough to make me hate change.
So true. I remember an old guy saying this about the East Village to my Dad when my family emigrated to the US and made a stop in NYC to buy Indian spices and things that we weren’t going to find in the Midwest. And Luc Santé talked about people bemoaning the death of the LES as far back as 1900.
