[Photo Wednesday at 51 Astor Place by Derek Berg]
Neighbors worry about what Icon might do to the former Chase branch on Second Avenue (The Villager... previously on EVG)
Best dive bars in NYC (Gothamist)
Parents remember their son, Colton Daniel Hudson, 23, who loved living in the East Village (The Villager)
A visit to Julie's Vintage on East Second Street (B+B)
Red-tailed hawk egg watch in Tompkins Square Park (Laura Goggin Photography)
[Christo on watch via Bobby Williams]
Check out the calendar of upcoming events in the Back Room at HiFi on Avenue A (HiFi)
Somehow the LES is getting another hotel (The Lo-Down)
Power-washing 190 Bowery (Curbed)
Broadway and East Fourth Street (Tower Records, the MLB Mancave) is empty again (Flaming Pablum)
Friends Seminary on East 16th Street accused of fraud to secure LPC approval for $67M renovation (DNAinfo)
Kimlau Square in Chinatown is ready for rehabilitation (BoweryBoogie)
A month-long celebration of Albert Camus (The New York Times)
NYC 2015 population increased to 8,550,405 (NY Yimby)
Cuomo: Make Julius' Bar a historic landmark (DNAinfo)
Hogs & Heifers now a vanilla box (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
... and at the 6 & B Community Garden Easter Sunday... via the EVG inbox ...
Touching remembrance of the young man Colton by his parents. Also gives an insightful glimpse into the everyday life of a millennial in the East Village today. It sounds like he really truly loved this neighborhood. It's fun to give millennials crap about how they are taking over around here but this kid really comes off like one of the good ones. RIP.
ReplyDeleteI just watched the Tower Records doc "All Things Must Pass" cited by Alex at Flaming Pablum, and was pleasantly surprised at the coverage of that location and its significance in the history of Tower's growth. The images also made me wince from unexpected painful jabs of nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteWe may forget these days how somnolent that stretch of Broadway was at the time, and the role Tower played in waking it up again. The "Mancave" by contrast was an inert lump which occupied space and brought nothing to its surroundings. (I tell a lie: it must have driven the neighbors crazy with the searingly bright signage they used at night.) I resented it every time I walked past, and I feel satisfaction at its demise. May it be replaced with something active and bustling again.
So sad about Colton. What a promising and young man. My heart breaks for his family and friends. He seemed like such a good person. My condolences to his loved ones. It is stories such as this that force you to be grateful for everything and everyone we have. Let's take a moment and tell someone you love them today. Life is too short. R.I.P in Colton. You will be missed. XO
ReplyDeleteSomeone tell that suit to show some cuff. Geez.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 11.42, Ditto.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you all about the Colton feature obituary. I liked how he called his parents after happily discovering Commodities...
ReplyDeleteRIP Colton.
That Tower Records documentary is revisionist history at its finest.
ReplyDelete1. Tower didn't carry records by unsigned local/area bands, they were strictly major and big indie label releases only.
2. Tower's prices for cassettes and compact discs were outrageous. J&R Music World, Sam Goody, HMV, Virgin Megastore, and FYE had lower prices.
3. It's 1991 and if you didn't care about Nirvana or thought they sucked, you hit Venus, Reconstruction, Stooz, Bleecker Bob's, Second Coming, Hideout, and Midnight Records plus Rebel Rebel, Rocks In Your Head, Downtown Music Gallery, CBGB Record Canteen, later Generation Records, Other Music, Adult Crash, Etherea, and other places, record stores 80% or more of Tower customers didn't have a clue or care about.
For the record I have no hatred towards Tower as I bought a decent amount of records there myself, it's just let's not make it out to be like it was an indy record store which carried 7"s on consignment by the band on tour from Wisconsin you liked at CBGB. Tower was a chain record store which had bag checks, metal detectors, anti-theft devices on stuff, rude security (sometimes), understaffed registers (sometimes), zero flyers for shows save ones put on by Ron Delsener, Jon Scher, and Metropolitan Entertainment (the Live Nation NYC/Bowery Presents/AEG Live of the '80s and '90s), and again zero support of unsigned local/area bands. Again if you wanted Nirvana's "Nevermind" you went there. If you wanted a record by a band not on a major or big indie label you hit the aforementioned stores. And if you really cared about underground music, you supported those stores instead (Dischord Records still sold records via mailorder back then.)
I will say it was a nice beacon of life on a dreary stretch. Cozy Soup 'N' Burger is the only beacon of life left on it now.
Tower Records was a very good place to pick up gay men. It was very cruisy, especially around closing time.
ReplyDelete