The Cake Shop makes some of the awesomest cupcakes I've ever eaten. Forgive the poor rhetoric, but I'm busy having a food orgasm, which is kind of like a real orgasm - except without the confused crying and offer to make a midnight omlette.
The Lower East Side fascinates me, as most bohemian gentrified 'hoods in this city do. Not so much because of the grit but what survives below the grit - the grit. It's true that this isn't the neighborhood where yuppies feared to tread anymore. In one block of Ludlow Street, for example, you can find a bodega, two music clubs, a sportsbar, a dive bar, a wine bar, a faux ghetto hair salon, a lingerie shop, and a multimillion dollar condo building. Let's also not forget the Donald Trump-commissioned mural of him playing dominoes with Notorious B.I.G. and William S. Burroughs. But there's perseverance here. Across Allen Street from the gourmet diner Sugar, the projects still stand. Maybe the government now calls them "affordable housing for low-income individuals." Maybe they've been cleaned up to fool recent college graduates into renting a S.R.O. from the city. Maybe, just maybe, the native dwellers have gotten used to less crackheads and more organic vegan coffeehouse indie rock bars, like The Cake Shop, but it's all still the projects. The neighborhood is still the Lower East Side. The tough still stand. The same is true in Williamsburg, the East Village, Long Island City - the spirit of New York still thrives. Capitalism be damned.
I was photographing in Williamsburg the other week, a neighborhood I have always had mixed feelings about. The best way to describe our relationship is to think of us as people who used to date in college that question being fuck buddies in adulthood. Anyway, as I was wading my way through the tattoo parlors and punk rock fitness clubs, I came across one of the most intriguing walls of graffiti I had ever seen.
It confirmed to me that there is still something more to New York's former artists enclaves. No matter how many condos get built, the people will always be there. Sticking out like sore thumbs demanding to be recognized alongside the new money. The truth is that this city needs both parties. This city is complete chaos - the yin always eating the yang. In the midst of it all, one can stand back and be fascinated by its choreography, before getting hopelessly swept away.
On a final note, how hilarious is this banner pic of Derek Jeter from the Yankees website? "A moment of the magic"? Watching Jeter squirm during the photo shoot, wishing he hadn't eaten that third bran muffin.
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3 comments:
My Feelings About This Post:
1. Where was my omelet?
2. I really really want one of those cupcakes.
3. I've been really getting into street art lately. There is so much of it, especially in NYC, that people don't even notice. What I'm saying is, I like that you put that picture up, it's cool.
4. I forget what my last point was, but I'm sure it was equally relevant. I'll go smoke a clove and think about it...
Cloves n' cupcakes are so much more awesome than Derek Jeter. Mad respect!
Iiiiiii dunno. The snark in me wants to say that the spirit of New York thrives in Williamsburg kind of like the spirit of olde Europe thrives in EPCOT.
However, the admitted awesomeness of NY's restaurants, agreed, places this town in the forefront of my heart. It also places us, decadence-wise, in the center of the new Roman Empire, but at least the fall will be exciting.
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