Patience.org

It would be disingenuous for me to get nostalgic about the demise of CBGB‘s last year – I only went there three times in the past 11 years, as far as I can recall. But like so much in NYC, when you live here with young kids, you not so much go to all these places any more, as live vicariously through those that do. And just knowing that they’re there if and when you need them, all conveniently close by (a bit like a pharmacy if you live in the suburbs, but we have those too!) is some comfort.

Except when they disappear, of course.

And so walking up the largely-gentrified Bowery with the lad the other week, we passed this:

The graffiti says something like ’20 years ago we were all sedated….CBGBs forever!!’ because of the strong links with the Ramones. The corner of Bowery & 2nd St is now called ‘Joey Ramone Place’.

Not much of a fan of the Ramones either – always struck me as even more rehashed 50s rock n roll than the Sex Pistols, without the upfront anger and dark humor of the latter.

But again, knowing it was there was comforting, in an urban-vitality kind of way.

But interesting to note that about 9 months later, they haven’t rented it out to anyone else. Perhaps the cleaning took longer than expected?

UPDATE: I had no idea when I posted this that CBGB’s founder & owner Hilly Kristal had just died, in fact it was announced today more or less at the same time I posted it. I took the photo more than a month ago. Now there’s a coincidence. Or something.

Well Morrissey certainly makes his position quite clear on the matter of a potential reunion of The Smiths:

“Finally, in an effort to stop the speculation and kill off the rumor mongers who seem to use these things to take advantage of committed fans, we can tell you that one thing the future will not bring is a Smiths reunion tour. Per recent reports, Morrissey was approached during the course of the summer by a consortium of promoters, in the wake of the success of the Police, U2 and Rolling Stones tours, with a $75,000,000 offer to tour in 2008 and/or 2009. The offer called for Morrissey to do a minimum of 50 shows all over the world under the Smiths’ name, with the only proviso being that Johnny Marr was also in the band. The offer has been refused.”

No wonder concert tickets are so expensive.

Still, we’ll be seeing him here in NYC in October.

The lad and I went to see NY Red Bulls vs LA Galaxy on Saturday night – his first MLS game and David’s first start for the Galaxy. I thought it would be a good opportunity for him (the lad, not Becks at this stage of his career) as he isn’t yet comfortable being surrounded by large numbers of people screaming, howling, cheering & booing. I mean, it’s MLS – home of the soccer moms and teenagers cheering everyone hoping someone ‘shoots a goal.’ How wrong can you be?

More pictures here.

Our seats were at the back of the second tier, seats that would normally be empty in a normal MLS game, where 12k or so supporters would be rattling around in the ~80k-capacity Giants Stadium. We had a low roof over us and were one section to the right of the official standing area, where the boys that make most of the noise are. So the sources of noise were nicely in place. All they needed was a catalyst, and they got one with three goals in the first eight minutes. It went on like that and we had to leave when the score was 4-3 to make sure we got on a bus (I’ve been stuck there for hours before) and by the time we got on the bus we found out it finished 5-4 to NY.

Beckham was almost equally cheered (at the start everything he did, even a simple 5 yard pass was gushed over) and booed (each time he took a free kick this rose to a crescendo). But I don’t think they really meant the boos. The whole thing was something of a circus, and the crowd were just playing their roles. No doubt some of them would dispute that.