A little news outside the neighborhood in case you haven't heard ... the Disc-O-Rama on Eighth Street between MacDougal and Sixth Avenue is closing on April 28.
Sales are up to 40 percent off now.
Disco-O-Rama first opened in NYC in 1976, per their website. I recall the location on Union Square and West Fourth Street closed some years ago. Not sure about the Moscow location that was always present on their signage.
I thought they were all long gone a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteI used to buy music there in the 70s-80s, had no idea they were still around. Haven't been on W. 8th in years, no reason to go. Anyone remember when Azuma, Shakespeare & Co., Baskin-Robbins, Eva's Diner, and/or the fabulous 8th Street Playhouse movie theater used to be on that street? Worth going then.
ReplyDelete@ Gojira
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the fun and fabulous Patricia Field!
Isn't Eva's still there?
ReplyDeleteYes, Patricia Field, had forgotten! Thanks, @Anon. 4:27! And of course the late, lamented Grey's Papaya...@Eden Bee, the Eva's Health Foods that's there now is not the same one that was there 40-odd years ago, that was an old sit-down diner with the best Greek avgolemono soup I was ever privileged to eat.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I posted at 10.52 anonymously, but it's me. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteThat block of West 8th Street died a thousand deaths a long time ago. Absolutely NOTHING worthwhile there, with the exception of Eva's, which is not all that different from what it was in the 1980s -- they still offer good and reasonably-priced healthy food.
ReplyDeleteThat was the block to hang out on a Saturday night back in the good old days. You would start out in Crazy Eddie's across 6th Ave. looking at the Pioneer, Mcintosh and Marantz stereo equipment which was stacked on shelves up the the ceilings in the glassed in "sound proof" rooms, check out the new Technics turntables, Sony Trinitrons and Onyko reel-to-reel tape recorders and mixers and boom boxes crammed into any available space. Then back on 8th Street you'd pop into FLIP to check out the vintage clothing in shop run by an alleged coke head with a ponytail who imported cheap thrift shop clothes from London and sold them at huge markups. Many of the female employees claimed the owner constantly hit on them. The dressing rooms were so bad you couldn't avoid seeing people naked, Madonna and Cher used to shop there, but it later turned into a PX for pimps and hookers on their way to work up in Times Square. Then you'd hit the Disc-o-Rama and the old cramped Barnes & Noble, which was about 5 storefronts in from the larger corner location where it moved to later on. Then you'd hit some crazy shoe store or Azuma or go see a movie. But no visit would be complete without a stop on Postermat, which had hundreds of posters mounted up on big panels mounted on the walls which you could rapidly flip through. Every kid wanted cool posters for their bedroom walls with their favorite band, Jimi Hendrix, or sexy posters like that famous Jamaican girl in a wet t-shirt, Farrah Fawcett, Bo Derek, or Day-Glo blacklight posters perfect for a drug den, King Tut at The Met or a Star Wars movie poster. Then if you were hungry you hit Grays Papaya or head up 6th Ave. to the Original Famous Ray's Pizza with half a pound of hot gooey mozzarella on every slice. Times have certainly changed.
ReplyDelete