Allow me to draw your attention to two very bizarre magazine articles from this week.
First, you must read this interview with Lou Reed from this week's New York magazine. You know what a big fan I am of his music -- he's a living legend, one of the most influential musicians in rock n' roll history, and a New York icon -- but ... wow! He's got some thin skin! In this interview, he's promoting a new show called "New York Shuffle" that he's hosting on Sirius Satellite radio. When the interviewer asks a question that Lou Reed doesn't like, he goes off on the interviewer in a very Lou Reedish way.
Second, the always opinionated Christopher Hitchens posted this article on the Vanity Fair website, "Last Call, Bohemia." Mr Hitchens bemoans the gentrification of the West Village and how "Bohemia" in this town is dying. It's a very nostalgic article and he makes a good point about how when major cities loose their artsy, edgy, hipster neighborhoods -- or Bohemias -- the city as a whole suffers. I agree. A city is not great just because it has lots of people and big buildings and the opportunities to strike it rich, but because the human spirit is unleashed to imagine, create, discover, reform, revise, recognize etc. etc. etc. Sadly, if the Bohemians cannot afford to live here, than an important part of our city's spirit dies. Unfortunately I think Mr Hitchens is a little late to what I'll call the "gentrification wariness" party. The West Village hasn't really been Bohemia since, oh, about 1989. For that, you need to leave Manhattan and go to neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Sunnyside, even go to the Bronx and Staten Island. Bohemia is not dead in NYC, it's just ... relocated.
First, you must read this interview with Lou Reed from this week's New York magazine. You know what a big fan I am of his music -- he's a living legend, one of the most influential musicians in rock n' roll history, and a New York icon -- but ... wow! He's got some thin skin! In this interview, he's promoting a new show called "New York Shuffle" that he's hosting on Sirius Satellite radio. When the interviewer asks a question that Lou Reed doesn't like, he goes off on the interviewer in a very Lou Reedish way.
Second, the always opinionated Christopher Hitchens posted this article on the Vanity Fair website, "Last Call, Bohemia." Mr Hitchens bemoans the gentrification of the West Village and how "Bohemia" in this town is dying. It's a very nostalgic article and he makes a good point about how when major cities loose their artsy, edgy, hipster neighborhoods -- or Bohemias -- the city as a whole suffers. I agree. A city is not great just because it has lots of people and big buildings and the opportunities to strike it rich, but because the human spirit is unleashed to imagine, create, discover, reform, revise, recognize etc. etc. etc. Sadly, if the Bohemians cannot afford to live here, than an important part of our city's spirit dies. Unfortunately I think Mr Hitchens is a little late to what I'll call the "gentrification wariness" party. The West Village hasn't really been Bohemia since, oh, about 1989. For that, you need to leave Manhattan and go to neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Sunnyside, even go to the Bronx and Staten Island. Bohemia is not dead in NYC, it's just ... relocated.
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