Photos and text by Nick McManus
This Saturday marks the closing for Ludlow Street's art-concept-store Inutilious Retailer. (Word is the new building's owner at 151 Ludlow St. won't renew the lease.)
Opened last September by artist Adrian Miller, it has become a hub for local artists Cash4 SMELLS, Brandon Sines and Hek Tad to name a few. Over the course of the year, he has invited painters of all kinds to do work in his back yard in addition to featuring a different artist every week with on top of his basement stairs.
[The rooftop of Inutilious Retailer's building looking north]
[The backyard of Inutiliuos Retailer last week]
[Bike messenger Gary McKnight in front of Inutilious Retailer featuring a Frank Ape painting by Brandon Sine last March]
8 comments:
Good riddance cuz I bet not ONE of these people are from NYC born and raised, they're transplant hipsters who want to be among and support transplant hipsters and that's the way of it in 2016 NYC. They drive up the rents their parents pay x amount of and spare me they paid for this space all by themselves. If that was the case then why didn't people who are actually from NYC open up something like this? Cuz young city people more often than not lack the money to, unlike these people cuz who is all smiles and happy when their place closes but monied people like this?
Seriously, your place closes, and you're taking a group photo with all smiles? I'd be like "fuck how am I gonna make money to pay my rent and eat?" There was no fucking group photo of the CBGB staff with owner/founder Hilly Kristal (RIP) when CBGB closed. No one was "Hey it's been real" like these hipster fucks I think this blog mentioned maybe once or twice in its entire existence before this entry. They have this "it's all good, shit happens" vibe I resent because it certainly wasn't that for countless EV businesses.
Boycott this self-absorbed, self-congratualtory shit and boycott these people. Like that Deep End Club shit. Wow, a space with a house band which never supported local music other than them, fuck off.
When you meet someone, innocently ask him (or her but I'm gonna use the male so I don't say him/her, he/she all the time) where he is from originally (not just "from" cuz he might say NYC when he's not), and if he says anywhere but NYC, don't dismiss or even be wary of him, wonder. Wonder if he wants to REALLY be part of the city. If you get the vibe from him that it's all about being around people like him like these hipster millenials with their pseudo-tagger names, walk away. If you notice him and his friends have this "we're not like them" vibe underneath their wide-eyed wonderous gaze, walk away. Be careful of those who are too wide-eyed.
I could give a fuck if one of them is actually from here - wow they actually brought a native into the fold, it's a miracle. A hipsteracle!
It's funny - native New Yorkers like me get slagged for having their noses up to transplants when it's the opposite. There's a vicious cycle: people move here and cocoon themselves with people like them then natives say fuck them and stick with their own kind, and it never used to be that way. Iggy Pop moved here, embraced the locals, and didn't come off like he was doing them a favor. Ditto for Joe Strummer and those are just musicians who got big after moving to NYC. Madonna was cruising all over NYC for random cute guys in her white limo (so legend has it.)
Where is Vinny the native New Yorker Italian guy dating Sarah from Syracuse? Caleb from Portland, OR dating Maria from Spanish Harlem? Where is the NYC band actually made up of people actually from NYC, not two members from Chicago, one from Seattle, and the fourth one from LA? I'm talking NYC public, Catholic, or even private schools, street kids? There is such a divide and there'll always be one cuz these hipsters are already adults, too old to change their mentality, too set in their ways at 25. Don't think for a second people grow more from 25 on than up to 25, they don't, or most people don't.
Lighten up Francis
Great rant. Thanks for speaking so boldly. Maybe it is a fear of "the other" -- part of the colonizer mentality.
I'm trying to understand your point 5:05. What about all the immigrants who come to NYC and live and work among their own "kind"? Are you ranting about them, or just the "hipsters"? The cocoons are okay if you're poor? Many people's parents have money enough to support them to varying degrees, it doesn't do any good to hate them all. I never went to this space. Were they committing evil acts in the name of art? If they were rolling in somebody else's money maybe they wouldn't be closing before one year. Is Madonna allegedly cruising around in a limo picking up boys your role model for out-of-towners? Get a grip.
5:05 you may want to open your locals-only club to people from Long Island, Westchester, and New Jersey (at least central/north Jersey), and possibly even the occasional rando from Connecticut, or you are going to be pretty lonely
Regardless of where they come from and how rich they might already be, I'd rather some semi-intelligent kids trying to express themselves artistically and connect with the great tradition here, than a bunch of flipflops-and-pink-shorts-wearing, Trump-admiring, TV-golf-watching, Coors Light-swilling bros, and their clueless concubines, any day.
If the landlord isn't renewing the lease, it's not because they can't afford it, it's because the landlord doesn't want them there anymore.
A shame. All these people look pretty lo-fi and boho rather than $25-a-drink made by mixologist in a hidden speakeasy/password-accessible bar types. Artist street-level storefront enclaves like this are nearly dunzo at this point. Hipster, local or whatever, what's coming next in this spot will be soulless and moribund, something completely devoid of art and entirely forgettable. That's assuming whatever comes there can afford the jacked-up rent. Empty shops & storefronts = the new art.
Funny rant mr Anon. You should get out and see places before passing judgement.
The place quickly became a Ludlow Street fixture and community spot, welcoming everyone - wherever they were from. That's Richie in the group photo, who has lived on that block for nearly 70 years. Before the guy opened (and from what I read it's just his passion and he's not rich or a young hipster) the store was empty for 18 months, just like the one next door still is.
So yes, if you prefer an empty store to someone trying to do something positive for the local community, then ban any person from NYC adding anything interesting - musicians, artists, writers etc.
Good for you, your mom's vaginal just happened to be in nyc when you got squeezed out. It wasn't your choice or determination that brought you here. It is much harder to leave family, friends and everything just to try and make a positive life in this city. To have people like you, who just complain but probably don't volunteer for any community projects or strive to improve the EV in any practical way, just shows the vital need for people with ideas and enthusiasm for this city such as the person who made this free art store
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