Here's the description via YouTube:
The Lower East side, 1991, NYC. I weep when I see this. I used to live here. 13th street between B and C. With Khusenaton, on flute. I see him step right in here, he used to do that when I read. Intense, beautiful fantastic. Dead. He died that winter. I can remember the way he used to say, "here comes James." "Hardcore. too deep." A beautiful human being. He told the truth, and was my friend. It seems long ago, and like yesterday.
H/T to Neighborhoodr for first posting this video several weeks ago.
This is when I moved to NYC! Ahhh, nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteBEAUTIFUL..tears are falling..TO ALL THE UNSUNG HEROS OUT THERE..YOU MATTER AND MATTER TO ME!!!!
ReplyDeleteMELANIE NEICHIN
Just beautiful.
ReplyDeletea rougher yet gentler time
ReplyDeleteharmonious yet dangerous
Funny how she's blantantly mocking the neighborhood poors to their face in the first song:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lyricstime.com/alan-price-poor-people-lyrics.html
One review called it "a manual for the ruthless go-getter, with a sneer of despair". Stay classy lady. Don't change East Village.
I love this. 1991 feels like yesterday but looks like 100 years ago. But 13th Street past Ave B is where the projects start. Think Copper Building. There aren't any stoops there. I'm confused about where this is.
ReplyDeletethat was beautiful. to think that was how it use to be... so weird, looking at it now, it doesn't seem real, it looks like it's from a Hollywood studio, with actors perfectly placed and on cure.
ReplyDelete@ Jill, you're right. I think that's between A & B.
ReplyDeleteLoved this video, reminds me of when I first moved here, thanks for posting it!
ReplyDeleteTo all of the suburbanites and nouveau riche who have invaded and displaced old NYC... this is what you helped to destroy... and nothing you can do or say will ever replace it or recreate it.
ReplyDeleteThe easy grace of a lazy summer day in the old EV.
Beautiful and bittersweet.
"Nobody's gonna know." Perfect. Nobody's gonna know days that fine again.
ReplyDeleteI think it could be 535-537 E 13 St.
ReplyDeleteCompare to 0:53
http://goo.gl/maps/bY2o
The stairways appear wider than on the Google view, but I think that may be an artifact of Google's camera. I checked in person and they look wider in real life.
But at 1:04, we're missing a doorway at 539 E 13. http://goo.gl/maps/fP8x It could have been removed, but it gives me some pause.
The one negative of all the trees we have now is that they obscure the view of some buildings. 1:45 should be a telling view, but there are too many trees now to see the buildings that clearly. The open area in the background of that shot could be where 525, a new building, now stands.
Where are all the cars? And no traffic whatsoever? Odd. It looks like a movie set.
I agree with the previous anon about looking like a movie set. Still love it tho.
ReplyDeleteYes it does match up pretty well with 535 E 13th, there are 3 buildings to the left and then an empty lot, which now has that new brick building (which is one of the very few new buildings in the area that fits in and looks like it belongs.)
ReplyDeleteAnd where are the parked cars, why would there be absolutely none if it wasn't a movie shoot? It's so strange. And why are there cops in the middle of the street just standing around chatting?
After writing all this I notice the youtube description says between A&B, not B&C.
There are other videos there taken on the same street.
I don't remember that scene from "RENT"
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to sample her voice - and do a track where she drops in during the chorus - like what Eminem did with Dido.
ReplyDeleteThis street singer's voice is enchanting and beautiful. It's angelic.
It's bizarre to think this was going on 3,000 miles away at the same time in Seattle... different worlds!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB3c2_UP5dc