I guess it is the end of an era in Rock N Roll. The news reports say Hilly Kristal, the founder of CBGB’s punk rock club in New York City on the Bowery has passed away. It is almost as if he could have predicted the date of his passing with the closing of the well known club last year. I am not sure what much I can say about CBGB’s that has not already been said about what it embodies and represents in its history as a club for some sort of freedom in music. Only that may he rest in peace and that this marks an end of an era, not only for CBGB’s, but for the Bowery and the New York Citiy real estate scene in an era of gentrification. Maybe the legend will live on somehow, though New York may never be the same. A cycle that is ever changing.
Category Archives: New York
Chico
I have been reading the local papers often and finding myself commenting on interesting articles I read in them lately. And one interesting sentence in an article that caught my eye today was “You never see me draw guns. I want to make the neighborhood something nice to look at. If I see a negative message or mural, I go up to that person and say we need to change something.” That sentence is an excerpt in this weeks The Villager titled “Still keeping it real on L.E.S.: Chico’s message is indelible.” Chico makes his mark a positive on the Lower East Side. Antonio “Chico” Garcia is a graffiti mural artist who has painted thousands of colorful murals on walls throughout the Lower East Side neighborhood in New York, now the East Village for real estate marketing purposes maybe, over the past few decades. The neighborhood is his gallery and he is recognized as a pioneer in graffiti art. The article goes on to say that Chico is tired of graffiti that glorifies drugs and violence, and even made the personal decision some years back to stop doing the neighborhood mural memorials to those lost to violence that launched his career. This article sticks in my mind because Chico speaks for peace and end to violence. As I have written in what seems like every other blog posting, who invented guns? Guns are the worst invention ever. And the news stories are endless of persons losing their lives on a daily basis as the news story was yesterday and the news story will be tomorrow with no end in sight for no reason at all. I could cut and paste my appeal to banish the gun industry and guns from every human being on planet earth and to end the use of the images of guns in all forms of advertising and marketing as I have written in blog posts of the past. I am only one blogger, one voice. Is another world possible. Peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind. And what does this have to do with a No Police State?
Parking in a No Police State World
What is is about having an automobile and parking in this town? I’m still stuck in bicycle land as a pedestrian. New York is a pedestrian town. One needs a full time job just to afford a car here. I realize the troubles of having a car in New York from hearing horror stories from friends and by riding around with them in their cars sometimes. Between looking for parking spaces and driving around in circles for hours at a time and then when you finally do find a parking space, half of the parking meters are broken, and then you are subject to parking tickets and having your car towed just for parking and the towing of cars and parking tickets is the biggest money racket I have ever seen in New York. And the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us can be your worst nightmare. One can consider renting monthly parking garages for parking space but their monthly rent costs more than the rent for my apartment. And then one has to arrange their life around their car with these off the side of the street parking rules, another money racket, by having to get up at insanely early hours every day just to move you car across the street. And the insurance rates here are one of the highest in the nation to where one considers getting out of town license plates just to save money. And that’s not even including the cost of maintainence. Cars are great, they are helpful, but if I ever got one, I would need to find a job just to support it. Have a great day.
No Police State Girl 