Monday, August 8, 2011

Yesterday in Tompkins Square Park

Thanks to Steven Hirsch for sharing these photos from yesterday in Tompkins Square Park, Day 2 of the Riot Reunion shows...





Find more of Hirsch's work here.

15 comments:

Marty Wombacher said...

Great photos! Love the trashcan shot and the Pete Townshend like guitar leaper!

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the folks in these pictures have a substance abuse problem.

Richard Liotta

chris flash said...

I wonder if AnonymASS has an identity problem....

Scott said...

I was thinking of staging a counter-protest where some friends and I would gather for a wine & cheese picnic on a blanket in front of the stage wearing our finest polo shirts and driving moccasins, but then I realized two wrongs don't make a right.

john penley said...

Anonymous and others... Whether you Neo Nazi Yuppies like it or not we have been doing our thing in Tompkins Square Park for over 23 years so we are not going to stop because you want only upscale white people and NYU students in the neighborhood. So, gutless jerks who are so cowardly they will not sign their full names to scummy comments this DIE YUPPIE SCUM is for you.

Anonymous said...

May we please feed that first guy to the Tompkins Square Park rats? Thanks.

abe vigoda said...

LOL...bongo-playing trust fund hipsters calling out yuppies? What's the difference...

Anonymous said...

Bongo-playing trust fund hipsters invade the EV and they think yuppies are the problem...hilarious.

Anonymous said...

Steven Hirsch is a great chronicler and photographer. His "crustypunk" series is outstanding work.

Anonymous said...

There were too many olds at this show. I was afraid someone was going to break a hip. What's the deal with that? Is it a New York thing? Punk shows in Boston and S.F. attract younger crowds.

chris flash said...

AnonymASS: You obviously weren't there or you would have seen that the audience was composed of folks ranging from their teens to their 60s. Punk is timeless and it NEVER gets old, like YOU!!

EVERYone dug the Saturday + Sunday commemorations of the infamous 1988 TSP Police Riot, whether or not they were there in 1988 or even born yet!!

Anonymous said...

The "punk" of today is not the punk of the 70s. That's when the movement meant something. Now it is just a bunch of kids with no talent.

gecko said...

Flash failed to notice that one of his "AnonymASS" critics (note: that typographical joke has gotten old) signed his name at the end of his puzzling message (if this is the first that Mr Liotta has heard of the possibility of drugs in popular culture, he must be a recent immigrant from North Korea).

Nevertheless, in spite of himself, Flash does have point. The shows were, in fact if not in explicit name, "all ages" shows, and "all" does not mean "too young to shave" (cf Jim Testa's song "Punk Rock is not Day Care"). Nobody should be surprised that the generation that invented punk still likes it.

And some people don't like it, so they throw some tired rhetorical brickbats.

If Flash is right about the music being "timeless" (I might say "classic," instead, or even just plain "old,"), the same is true of the criticism. Everybody's playing out the same roles, over and over agin.

chris flash said...

Gecko:

I saw Liotta's name after I responded (why sign as "Anonymous" AND put your name in your post?)

Since I've been involved with hosting political events in the park with punk music, it has amazed me that the bands I knew in the 80s are still playing today, just as well and energetic as then, if not more so. I've also been encouraged by the wide demographic range of our audiences, who clearly love the stuff, AnonymASS attacks not withstanding....

By the way, it was nice seeing YOU at the show, Mr. Gecko -- you're no spring chicken either!!

Dr Gecko said...

@Flash:

Kind of sweet the way you admitted you hadn't read all of Mr Liotta's comment before you responded. It's probably bad form for me to carry on a personal feud in the comments here, but I have to point out that you're way too impatient (which is typical for a mammal).

It's a little appalling that kids listen to the same music that their parents do. We didn't do that, and neither did our parents or their parents; I don't know about earlier generations.

Anway (@ one of the anonymi): Punk was always about a bunch of kids with no talent, until the kids grew up, so now it's a mixture of kids + adults with no talent. Exhibit number one: The Sex Pistols. Anyway, some very talented people have managed to take up residence in the music; inevitably, they're a minority, but talent is a minority everywhere.

Incidentally, I'm too polite to use my title socially, but this is business, and it's actually "Dr. Gecko." I shall endeavor to be more awe-inspiring in the future.