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New York Loses her edge? Or Finds It Again?

daddydaddySage
I saw this today in my weekly Jonty skrufff newsletter:
Very interesting.

quote:
New York ‘Loses Its Edge’

London Times columnist Stefanie Marsh suggested Manhattan has finally embraced middle American values this week, and concluded that ‘New York has lost its edge’.

The British culture critic suggested many of the city’s creative types have long opted for Berlin and London leaving bankers living in ‘shiny faceless luxury condos’ and buying US$700 Ramones T shirts from ‘super-high end boutiques’ built out of the detritus of CBGBs.

On a brighter note she noted that Manhattan’s financiers are nowadays regarded as ‘some of the most reviled people on earth’ with some clubs actively cancelling annual corporate memberships.

“We want to distance ourselves from bankers, even if they helped to set us up in the first place,” one (anonymous) club promoter told the Times, “They’re pariahs. Money is just not cool any more.”

The article appeared just as the New York Times revealed that thousands of the America’s artists have earned less in the last 12 months with almost one in five (18%) seeing their income drop by 50% between 2008 and 2009.

5,300 musicians, architects, writers and filmmakers responded to a survey commissioned by arts organization Leveraging Investments in Creativity, which also revealed that almost all artists (94%) earned less than US$80,000, despite many having college degrees.

“A lot of the artists who were reporting were telling us, ‘I live in a recession all the time, so this downturn has really not been so different for me,’ ” study chief Judilee Reed told the New York Times.

Brit in Amsterdam techno legend Dave Clarke flew into New York this week for the first time in a while and revealed he was disappointed with the City in a typical blunt Twitter post.

“In the words of Blake Baxter "New York . . .What Happened?",” Dave quizzed.

“Someone tell me where did the scene in NY go? Don't blame the Mayor please,” he added.

On a more uplifting note, David Guetta prepared to celebrate Thanksgiving in New York this weekend (Friday November 27) with a high profile gig at Pacha. Standard tickets cost US$35, VIP Mezzazine tickets US$200, and VIP Premium Seating US$275.

http://m1e.net/c?79582943-Nu7d...822189-9TNLNkEfSf6ho

http://m1e.net/c?79582943-KhYy...822190-2TxW0q5r0izfg (New York’s decline and fall [piece by piece] . . .)



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Zazoo and SatoriZazoo and SatoriSage
Can totally believe the part about people in creative fields earning less the past year than any other. There's no arguing with data.

But the Dave Clarke comments? Makes us wonder what he was looking for and if he knew where to look.

If he was expecting to find a club like Fabric at its peak, he's not going to find it here. (thank god) If he was expecting something like the crazy little afterhours parties that pop up in the basement of an Italian restaurant 4-5 blocks from the London Astoria... He didn't look hard enough.

Satori
daddydaddySage
I guess that was always sort of true.
It's just that places like (what is now called Soho and Tribeca) WERE off the radar years ago. The only people that lived in lofts were artists and musicians. Not lawyers and Investment bankers with families.

When I first moved to New York I lived in a loft in Tribeca. On the other side of the wall from where I slept was a notorious Black Gay after hours club called "Buttermilk Bottom's" (BTW hands down best name for a night club EVER!) There was Disco music thumping all night long and into the next day.
Between that and hideous Twyla Tharp rehearsing her dancers above me there was constant noise.
However the idea of complaining about it would have been useless. Who would you call? The cops? Hardly. It was just all part of the bohemian experience I guess. I loved it.
daddydaddySage
But you know what Pickles...
Remember that little dive bar that we were in under Justin's apt. before you left?
THAT'S exactly what New York was like "back in the day".
Remember that low life nut trying to pick us all up for a 3 day drug orgy at "his place", that drunk Russian girl trying to pick us up outside before she passed out on the sidewalk, the black guy asking us if we "need anything" as we walked in the door. That could easily have been New York 1979.
It's still there in quiet little pockets.
(Of course Justin WOULD fall right into it)

Places like The Box try so hard to be decadent and outrageous but little bars like that are the real thing.
They are truly nuts and freaky.

You know who knows every bar like that on the east coast?
John Waters.

Trust me Pickles, you've seen a lot.
sevensevenSage
Sorry, but that article is stale. Fact is, there is actually a re-boot raging in the small-sized party scene. Daddy said it a long time ago, no one is even looking for that factory club experience now, except B&T and tourists.
I think a lot of Brits try to expect something out of the Rave era and it just shows, far from being in the know, their expectations are as middle class as the party scene they want to be dissapointed with.
In the last month I've been at parties with people fucking in the banquettes, vending 'do you need enything' from the 'ticket booth', running past 6AM, etc. Some nights there are as many as four or five preferred parties on the schedule and I just give up trying to get to more than one.
It's like there are two New York's happening now, the Rudiani/Puff Puff Bloomberg version of corporatebottlebar for the bitchy socialite airport set, and the pros who know how to pull off a real party on the right scale -or no scale.
Yes NYC ain't what it used to be but what it used to be also got just as good or better, and that to me seems to be as about New York City as it gets.
And as for a financial survey of artists here, puhleez -art in Europe has a very different status than it does in the US and the only common ground is the 'capital intensive industry.' Anyone who has practiced their art here knows from their own delight at experiencing how they are regarded when they go to Europe that here an artist is basically a tollerated low-life kept around by people with money as a kind of midget dog that does quaint tricks people will pay for, sometimes, while in Europe your abilities are just as much seen as an important contribution to social discourse.
5,000 artists make less than 80 grand a year even with a college education, shit, there are millions of artists here who do not make anything near even a poverty level income or living even when the economy is fat.
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P Pickles2Sage
It seems the people who complain are usually not dong anything to change what they perceive to be true. If you ask them "Oh have you been to this that or the other?" the response is usually, "Oh that's on a Wed? Who can stay out late on a Wed. night???" I feel like things are just starting to get more interesting now and at times it can feel like it's heading to a real good place. Cross fingers...
Zazoo and SatoriZazoo and SatoriSage
quote:
Sorry, but that article is stale. Fact is, there is actually a re-boot raging in the small-sized party scene. Daddy said it a long time ago, no one is even looking for that factory club experience now, except B&T and tourists.


Seven you are right, we were thinking that it actually sounded like an article written in 2005 or 2006, maybe even earlier. And that's from our experience in the dreaded Midwest. (lol)

We're betting the real source of Dave Clarke's comments were that he didn't pull the crowd he was unrealistically expecting. Instead of blaming it on NYC, he really needs to take a look at his relevancy in today's scene(s). And not just in NYC, but across the entire US. We noticed there are no other US tour dates, wonder why? ("Techno DJ?")

Also, let's do a huge reality check... who the hell can afford LONDON? Seriously?

Re: B&T - I know we are going to open a huge can of worms, but who says all the best parties in NYC require crossing a bridge or tunnel into Manhattan? Wink

Satori
sevensevenSage
I used to go to a no-name party on the border of Queens populated by totally neighborhood people, who smoked like a coal burning power plant, handed out cases of Tequilla, had three mariachi bands and this old guy who did a floor show with two trick chihuahuas, and it wasn't rated G. Two buses and two trains later I was lucky to even cross the river back to home.
Don't even get me started on the subway train parties from B'way Lafayette to Coney Island (the last one was stopped one station from the beach by a police riot squad and the promoter had to quaff a whole jug of mushroom tea on the spot!)
Well, maybe the city isn't quite back to that level yet.
I mean, there's party, and then there's Anarchy.
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P Pickles2Sage
There is also the fact that there have been so many incarnations of nightlife that it is trickier to come up with something original or that has been done in the past 10 years. Obviously some promoters are happy to just regurgitate what they have done in the past over and over till it leaves no fingerprint, but others try and do different things and it can be difficult to get people to get into new things, i.e. She-Haw. I'm sorry, that is a brilliant idea.
Zazoo and SatoriZazoo and SatoriSage
Funny enough, Time Out NYC just released some information on the best "Quirky" and "Secret" parties going on right now.

One of our favorite parties "Cheryl" was featured in the "Quirky" section.

And look at me now eating my previous post about Techno with the now-likely-to-be-raided techno focused Blkmarket Membership parties among the featured "Secret" Parties.

And who would have guessed that the raunchiest secret queer sex party in Brooklyn (SPAM) is tucked away somewhere in our "stroller central" neighborhood.

(We had a feeling those lesbian moms were kinkier than they were letting on.) Wink

Satori
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sevensevenSage
I get a chuckle out of those kinds of articles.
The Danger List has tens of thousands of addresses on its email list, so 'secret' is total B.S.
The Baronness' latex parties have been around for over ten years ....secret?
Be thankful the real secret parties can't be found by that rag's flacks.
But at least they are promoting the recent flood of hedonism.
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YvonneYvonneRaconteur
Here's a writer who thinks NYC night life died somewhere in the Giuliani days, kinda interesting talk about some bars from back when.

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/when-libido-ran-wild/

Funny thing, when I went to my first club,, GG Barnums, I met a guy there that told me the scene was dying and there was no more fun in bars and clubs. This talk about dying scene and parties is repeated every year by someone.

People either get bored or too lazy to search for the places for the best fun.

Fun parties can be found anywhere, OK maybe not in Utah, but fun can be found anywhere, one just has to look for it.
YvonneYvonneRaconteur
Thanks Bobby, I didn’t know the author but I did find this short hr wrote interesting. I kinda have trouble reading books, my mind wanders and I lose myself,, some kind of mental thing but I will find this authors book(s) and try reading them. Sometimes things are written that bring back memories of my past, I kinda lost some of my memories. Bad stuff happens,,, lol

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