Friday, July 7, 2017

The East Village artists behind the Danceteria time capsule from 1984 that prompted a bomb scare in 2017


On Wednesday, an unexploded, World War 2-era bomb briefly shut down 21st Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.

As you may have read, the suspicious-looking device turned out to be a bomb-shaped time capsule that belonged to the now-shuttered Danceteria.

In various published reports, John Argento, who owned the club until it closed in 1986, said that the capsule was an "empty practice bomb" that was buried in 1984 in an alley adjacent to the club ... to be unearthed again in 5,000 years. (Construction at the site ruined things for partygoers in 6984.)

Via The Beat, we learned that East Village-based artists James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook were instrumental in creating and then burying the time capsule back in 1984 as part of a party to say hello to the year 6984.

As Van Cook wrote on Facebook:

We buried the time capsule which had one of Diana Ross’ fake eyelashes and Chi Chi Valenti g string among thousands of messages to the future. All the messages read ”fuck you” which seemed to be the only sentiment that people came up with. We had the ceremony in the adjacent alley to Danceteria ... I broke a bottle on the bomb casing! Wow!


[Image via the Beat]

And this may have a happy ending of sorts. Per CBS New York:

It isn’t exactly police protocol to give someone their old bomb shell back, but police say in a few days once it’s thoroughly searched, Argento can likely pick up whatever was inside.

The CBC has more on the story here.

Previously
at

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 7, 2017 at 8:52 AM

    As an early 80's Danceteria regular the sentiment found in this time capsule sums up the attitude of 1984.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 7, 2017 at 9:00 AM

    many years ago an "artist" planted fake bombs on the fire escapes of several buildings in soho and the east village.

    the bomb squad closed off the blocks and removed the "bombs".

    the daily news covered it.

    long story short, our building wanted our bomb back but the police told us they belonged to the artist,

    ReplyDelete
  3. CosmoJuly 7, 2017 at 12:38 PM

    Hahaha, good times.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJuly 7, 2017 at 7:22 PM

    Madonna's talent and edge are in that time capsule.

    ReplyDelete

Your remarks and lively debates are welcome, whether supportive or critical of the views herein. Your articulate, well-informed remarks that are relevant to an article are welcome.

However, commentary that is intended to "flame" or attack, that contains violence, racist comments and potential libel will not be published. Facts are helpful.

If you'd like to make personal attacks and libelous claims against people and businesses, then you may do so on your own social media accounts. Also, comments predicting when a new business will close ("I give it six weeks") will not be approved.