Thursday, May 28, 2020

A Brazilian journalist searches for trends on St. Mark's Place in 1985



First, a thank you to our friend Alex at Flaming Pablum for uncovering this gem: A 13-minute clip in which a Brazilian journalist named Ernesto Varela does some reporter-on-the-street interviews to uncover the latest happenings along St. Mark's Place circa 1985 ("Desperately Seeking Susan" era!) ...











And it goes as expected at times...



The East Village portion commences near the 5-minute mark as Varela arrives in the East Village, "the most trendy place in New York nowadays." Look for excursions into Trash & Vaudeville and Astor Place Hairstylists. Other highlights include someone looking for a safety pin to pierce Varela's ear and the reporter asking people if they are capitalists...


17 comments:

dwg said...

Wow- great fun!

Laura Goggin said...

That was a fun trip, thank you!

Catze said...

wow! that person with the pink hair was actually IN Desperately Seeking Susan. walking behind Roseanna while she chased Susan. i always remember a face, and hers was one of the first to inspire me to go to Saint marks. so sad its all just a mall cafeteria now.

luciamel said...

wow I miss the yellow cabs :(

creature said...

That was great. I'd love a "where are they now" version.

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a snap shot in time! Waiting in line at Astor Place was always a trip and the best cruising. I wonder what happened to those people he interviewed. Are they now investment bankers? Its always funny to me that the millennials that move here think its cool because of what was. Instagram replaced creativity and soul. I am glad I was young then!

Begging Naked said...

This was so great to see. It was a great time to live in the East Village back then. I loved every minute. If you want to see more Astor Barber, I made a feature=
-length doc on the place. : https://www.amazon.com/Astor-Barber-All-Stars-Enrico-Vezza/dp/B07FZQ17GT

Anonymous said...

Wow, does anyone recognize any of these people? Are any of them still around?

Anonymous said...

This is amazing.

sam_the_man said...

Are we sure the interviewer isn’t actually Arto Lindsay?

Anonymous said...

All u need is gringo to skateboard by

Anonymous said...

The big guy was Big Charlie, he died some time ago. Used to go to the punk and hardcore shows He was cool. But he could also be a dick to people too, he was actually being real nice to this reporter. The middle finger guy was peace punk Brian, just a guy from that end of the street. The pink haired chick I don’t know but she was a regular face from the area too. Those people stayed over more East I preferred WSP and W8 than the St Marks and Alphabet City. I rarely crossed Astor Place. A lot of junkies on the east side and I didn’t want to mix with that. Some of the people that hung out on SMP were just there to scam on the people that went there to shop. Which was much more punk than shopping in a “punk store“ for a 198.00 bondage coat ;)

Anonymous said...

Looks like Daang is still designing Tripp with her husband/owner of trash and vaudville. Pretty cool! https://www.instagram.com/p/BDMNX3jLSyq/

Unknown said...

The token entry jacket is the shit

Anonymous said...

You know some off their instagram accounts?

Unknown said...


do you know what happened to the pink haired girl? if she is alive if she is already gone? answer please

Anonymous said...


do you know what happened to the pink haired girl? if she is alive if she is already gone? answer please