Short film of the East Village circa 1971

"In the late 80s and the early 90s everybody could afford to live in the East Village"

From a Q-and-A with Moby in Black Book:

People say they miss the old New York. Do you like it better now?

Only the things that I miss. it was cheaper. When you went out you never expected to spend a lot of money, so this whole bottle service, when someone goes out and has to spend $1,000 for a good night out, that’s just absurd. In the late 80s and the early 90s everybody could afford to live in the East Village, so everybody lived and worked and went out in the same neighborhood, and it just made everything a lot much nicer. So now, its almost like the NYC diaspora has happened where some people live in Bushwick, some people live in Redhook, some people live in Jersey City, some people live in Inwood, so the good old days where everybody lives on top of each other, those are gone. New York is always going to be big enough to accommodate anyone who wants to live here. There’s always going to be some new derelict neighborhood where 20-year-old artists are going to move to. That’s what Soho was, that’s what the East Village was, that’s what Tribeca was, and that’s certainly what the Lower East Side was.

Remembering the East Village of the late 1970s

In the Voice today, Lynn Yaeger recalls moving to her first apartment in the East Village on East Ninth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. (Rent: $135.)

Lots of people think that those days — the late 1970s and early 1980s —were really the best days of New York, and it's true that the city — despite (or maybe because of) the legendary graffiti, the burgeoning art scene, the clattery punk bands, and a general climate, especially in my neighborhood, of weirdness and unease — did have an undeniable louche, gritty glamour.

A Nick Zedd retrospective

A little late on this...there's a Nick Zedd retrospective tonight and Sept. 28 at the Gene Frankel Theatre on Bond Street between Lafayette and the Bowery. (Here's more on Zedd's Cinema of Transgression.)

What follows is Thrust in Me, a short Zedd did in 1985 with Richard Kern in the East Village. (Zedd has both lead roles.) The song is "John Coltrane Stereo Blues" by The Dream Syndicate.

Oh, please be warned if you're new to this. It's graphic. Very, very NSFW. Oh, and nice panoramic shot of the neighborhood at the 7:26 mark.

“Oh, God, we’re living in a hell that I can’t even begin to describe!”

That's Arthur Nersesian, the 49-year-old playwright, poet and novelist, talking about the changes in his home neighborhood of the East Village. He's the subject of an entertaining profile in the Times today.

Unlike many New Yorkers who inhabited the East Village of the 1980s, Mr. Nersesian seemed to remember every aspect of that gritty and often dangerous time with fondness. Even as he described the endless parade of prostitutes down East 12th Street or the bonfires set by the homeless in Tompkins Square Park, there was a palpable tenderness to his voice.
“There was a sense of community there,” Mr. Nersesian said. “I couldn’t walk down the street without saying hello to someone. You’d see Allen Ginsberg all over the place, and you’d see the other Beats.
“I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Beats, but there was an exemplary quality to the artist as citizen. You think about artists today in our society, and they’re kind of removed. You don’t really know them. When Ginsberg died, a definitive quality from the East Village — at least from my East Village — was gone.”
Perhaps inevitably, the East Village of today, with its fashionable bars and restaurants and its gleaming glass towers, fills him with despair. “Oh, God, we’re living in a hell that I can’t even begin to describe!” Mr.
Nersesian said mournfully that day at the diner. “It’s amazing how memory really does become a kind of curse. If I was just coming to the city today, I’d probably think, ‘Oh, this is a really interesting place,’ but it’s trying to tell people, ‘You know, there was a war fought here, a strange economic, cultural battle that went on, and I saw so many wonderful people lost among the casualties.’ ”

Also from the article:

In his 1992 play “Rent Control,” Mr. Nersesian incorporated an experience he had when he returned to the office tower that had replaced his childhood apartment.
“I tried to go to the exact same space,” he recalled, “and it turned out to be the romance division of Random House or something. I walked in and the secretary said, ‘Can I help you?’ And I think I tried to convey to her that this was where I lived for the first 10 years of my life; this space here was where I was bathed in the sink. And she looked at me like I was a nut.”

[Image: Andrew Henderson/The New York Times]

EV Grieve Etc.

[For no reason, a photo of Hilly Kristal, which was taken by Spencer Drate. Via Gothamist]

The area around 1 Jackson Square getting closer to becoming that "charming urban oasis." (Jeremiah's VNY)

Alex sees a legitimate punk rocker on Saint Mark's -- and a lovely sunset (Flaming Pablum)

Out with Madonna . . . in 1984 (Ephemeral New York)

The horror: Jill comes face-to-face with "the deep-core rottenness of the 'new' East Village" (Blah Blog Blah)

Please DO NOT take photos of the Bayview Correctional Facility. (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

"Kinda sad to see Manhattan as it is now." (Bohobait)

Overheard on the Bowery: "Bruce Willis owns a spot around here, let's find it." (Colonnade Row)

"I’d lower the rent for stores so all of the cool, small shops could afford to stay afloat"

That's Albert Hammond Jr.. who was a good sport and did the "Six Seconds With" feature in Page Six the Magazine (the content is finally available online) on June 29. The second solo record -- ¿Cómo Te Llama? -- from the guitarist for the Strokes comes out today.



The East Village resident was asked:

What’s your favorite place to people watch? The Gracefully deli on Avenue A between Second and Third. You can see the whole spectrum, from crazies to beauties, walk by.

Where’s your favorite bar in the city? In the 10 years I’ve been here, I haven’t found one. I’d like someone to build a nice one that’s not behind velvet ropes and filled with pretentious people. [EV Grieve note: Safe answer. Do you really want to tell people where you like to drink?]

If you were mayor of Gotham, what would you change? I’d lower the rent for stores so all of the cool, small shops could afford to stay afloat. The huge chains are making the city start to lose its personality.

He also said: “On the weekends, the East Village can be overrun with undesirables,” says Albert. “But I love Manhattan. I’ve been around the world and it’s my favorite city.”

Sidebar: Why is this feature titled "Six Seconds With..." It takes more than six seconds to read.

Uh, meanwhile, here's the video to "Back to the 101," a song from his debut record, Yours to Keep, one of my favorites from 2006:

Bonus: Hammond keeps a food diary for Grub Street!