I have a friend who was born here, moved to the suburbs for a while, and has recently returned. Whenever someone from another part of the world wants an explanation of this one, he turns to me and says "Charlotte, tell the brick story."
You know how the more affluent suburbs like to adorn the crosswalks of their main avenues with inlaid brick, to add a quaint-yet-cultured flair to their streets? Well I'm from a place that's neither quaint nor cultured. In the interest of my quickly evaporating anonymity, I'll refer to this place as 14-A. The town officials of 14-A clearly wanted the same dignified charm added to their city. So they singled out a few crosswalks and promptly removed the top layer of asphalt. So far so good, right? Rather than lay bricks, the city then decided to lay a fresh layer of asphalt, trace a brick pattern into it, and then paint it brick-colored!
As if this isn't enough, the daily deluge of automobiles wears the paint off at a rapid rate, such that any money that 14-A may have saved via this ridiculous cop-out is quickly spend on the continual process of repainting.
That's the brick story.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Scene and be Seen
So the thing about the New York music scene is... well come on, it's New York. See, the bitch about being a native of the most talented and imposing art scene on the continent (don't complain to me, west coast. Even the Beats hung out in Patterson)
is that breaking into it in a meaningful way is damn *hard*. The scene here is so big and well-developed that you need to be popular somewhere else before you can run with the hip crowd here. Usually that somewhere else is wherever it is your from (for instance, The Hold Steady hails from the midwest). That works fine, unless you're from here. And yeah, technically I hail from hudson county, and yeah Hoboken had a scene for a while, gave rise to some noted greatness, but the damn place is so yuppified and stroller-friendly now that the chances of the next big thing in rock getting a start in Hoboken are pretty bad.
There are bands that make it though. That work hard for years until a scene that digs them comes into being and then *bam!* they're locked in to an environ of adoring fans, positive press, general rock-star-dom. Yes I'm talking about TV on the Radio, and yes, I'm talking about Williamsburg. And this brings me to something I was thinking about the other day, talking to a fellow musician about the potential of a scene of the same magnitude forming in Bushwick.
Architecture.
SOHO, Greenwich Village, Hoboken, Williamsburg--all these locations that go through an artistic renaissance before their inevitable fall into yuppification--have some unique architectural features. Lofts, abandoned warehouses, old industrial architecture that can be put to public purpose, that can become venues and galleries and studios. Look at downtown Jersey City, which was mostly brownstones and vacant lots, five or six years ago: it skipped the "scene" step entirely. The more and more I think about it, the more it seems that pre-existing architecture is the dominant factor in determining the path of gentrification, at least in this part of the world, already well flooded with individuals wanting to make art.
is that breaking into it in a meaningful way is damn *hard*. The scene here is so big and well-developed that you need to be popular somewhere else before you can run with the hip crowd here. Usually that somewhere else is wherever it is your from (for instance, The Hold Steady hails from the midwest). That works fine, unless you're from here. And yeah, technically I hail from hudson county, and yeah Hoboken had a scene for a while, gave rise to some noted greatness, but the damn place is so yuppified and stroller-friendly now that the chances of the next big thing in rock getting a start in Hoboken are pretty bad.
There are bands that make it though. That work hard for years until a scene that digs them comes into being and then *bam!* they're locked in to an environ of adoring fans, positive press, general rock-star-dom. Yes I'm talking about TV on the Radio, and yes, I'm talking about Williamsburg. And this brings me to something I was thinking about the other day, talking to a fellow musician about the potential of a scene of the same magnitude forming in Bushwick.
Architecture.
SOHO, Greenwich Village, Hoboken, Williamsburg--all these locations that go through an artistic renaissance before their inevitable fall into yuppification--have some unique architectural features. Lofts, abandoned warehouses, old industrial architecture that can be put to public purpose, that can become venues and galleries and studios. Look at downtown Jersey City, which was mostly brownstones and vacant lots, five or six years ago: it skipped the "scene" step entirely. The more and more I think about it, the more it seems that pre-existing architecture is the dominant factor in determining the path of gentrification, at least in this part of the world, already well flooded with individuals wanting to make art.
The Rumor About the True Things
So I'm going to try something. I blog often, on other blogs, under other names. But those are intended for friends, people I know and who know me. This is for others. People who know me will immediately know who this is. But this isn't written for them.
So allow this to be our introduction. In this site I'll generally not use real names, but I will discuss true things. insofar as they exist. I dont know.
I am a student of philosophy and theories of government, returned to my native urban New Jersey to find a place rapidly gentrifying, changing, growing--whatever you want to call it. I am a guitar player in a band trying to "make it" (whatever the hell that means) in the same landscape. I am trying to make art after four years of academy, trying to feel for an ever elusive home... also trying to keep my car running. Trying to live and work and create in a way that each is copacetic to the other two.
A note about the title: "the rumor about the true things" is a phrase employed by the German-Jewish thinker Walter Benjamin in a letter to a friend regarding the genius of Franz Kafka. It is a product of the modern decay of wisdom--one if its few remainders. "A sort of theological whispered intelligence dealing with matters discredited and obsolete."
I like that.
So allow this to be our introduction. In this site I'll generally not use real names, but I will discuss true things. insofar as they exist. I dont know.
I am a student of philosophy and theories of government, returned to my native urban New Jersey to find a place rapidly gentrifying, changing, growing--whatever you want to call it. I am a guitar player in a band trying to "make it" (whatever the hell that means) in the same landscape. I am trying to make art after four years of academy, trying to feel for an ever elusive home... also trying to keep my car running. Trying to live and work and create in a way that each is copacetic to the other two.
A note about the title: "the rumor about the true things" is a phrase employed by the German-Jewish thinker Walter Benjamin in a letter to a friend regarding the genius of Franz Kafka. It is a product of the modern decay of wisdom--one if its few remainders. "A sort of theological whispered intelligence dealing with matters discredited and obsolete."
I like that.
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