November 2008

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Roundup Postscript

November 9, 2008 in Music, Politics by Bryan | 1 comment

Alex Ross has this to say, in light of the spontaneous singing in Union Square the other night (see his original post if you want more links to follow):

A quick search of YouTube reveals that young crowds across the country broke into the national anthem in the early morning hours. You can find videos for the East Village, Times Square, Berkeley, Portland OR, Amherst, Ann Arbor, Seattle, Madison WI, and Harvard Yard (with band), among others. Two obvious conclusions: 1) contra Palin, the entire country is “pro America”; 2) increased support for music education would be nice.

One more musical angle: Bob Dylan announced the outcome of the election by playing “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

If you’re like me at all, you’ve been thanking your favorite deities (or Barack Obama, whichever you prefer) that you haven’t heard Sarah Palin’s voice in the last several days. If you can handle it, though, check out this final note, so to speak, on the Couric interviews, also courtesy of Alex:

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Post-election Roundup

November 7, 2008 in Neighborhood Scenes, Politics by Bryan | 2 comments

Highlights from some of my favorite bloggers’ reactions to the news that we won the election:

Jeremiah Moss, from Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York (my favorite anti-gentrification blog), has a great account of the spontaneous parades that could be heard roaming below 14th street until 3 am on the 5th. He was at Union Square for the sing-along I posted a video of the other day. From his post, composed around 2:30 in the morning:

In the streets of New York, crowds are still cheering, shouting “Yes, we can!”
Cars honk their horns. People bang pots and pans. They cannot stop.
Don’t want to stop. When the announcement came over the television that
he had been elected, cheers erupted from the streets. A crowd gathered
on 8th Street and 1st Avenue, taking over the intersection. Police
pushed them back here and there, but otherwise left the celebration
alone.

People in cars stopped and the crowd rushed to shake their hands and kiss them through open windows.

Garbage men riding the backs of honking trucks waved and pumped their fists.

City bus drivers honked and slowed down so passengers could stick their hands from the windows and high-five the people on the street.

At Union Square, the park was packed. People climbed lamp posts and hoisted flags atop. We sang God Bless America. We chanted “U-S-A” and “Yes, We Can” and “O-Ba-Ma!” Strangers hugged and kissed strangers.

The
celebration went on and on, a wave that rose and fell, then rose again,
for hours and hours. Down side streets and avenues, in pockets of
jubilant people.

For Jeremiah’s photos of the night — a fantastic set of images — click here.

Alex at Flaming Pablum (which has its own recurring feature on NYC’s Vanishing Downtown) has my favorite rubbing-it-in image:

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Alex also has one of my favorite Obama/pop culture mashups as part of his GOTV post:

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(Sidenote: As his penchant for Bowie imagery would suggest, Alex is a serious 70s rock aficionado, with a specialty in the NYC downtown scene. If you wander over to his site, don’t miss his series of posts on NYC in rock videos and on album covers. I thought I’d throw that in since I know some of our readers share similar tastes.)

Gowanus Lounge collects accounts and photos of Obama celebrations in Brooklyn; Gothamist reports on arrests from one such street party in Williamsburg. (h/t to Jeremiah for the last two.)

Meanwhile, our friend MaNNaHaTTaMaMMa posts on intergenerational euphoria spilling over into other areas of life.

Are there other accounts from NYC blogs you think we should know about?

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Where’s the Times?

November 6, 2008 in History, Politics by Cyrus

nytimes_barack.JPG The newstands were bare yesterday — if you were looking for a copy of The New York Times, that is. One of the maintenance guys in our building (which is in Union Square) told us at about 9:30 a.m. that he’d been to six different newstands in the area, and the Times was nowhere to be found.

I confirmed that myself a little while later on the way to Washington Square. The only copy I saw anywhere was in a vending box in a student residence hall — and I was a quarter short, having off-loaded almost all my change the night before. (By the way, those newspaper vending machines seem to have become very scarce in my neck of the woods. Is that true all over the city?)

The New York Post must have done well yesterday. They seemed to have printed extra copies, and many would-be Times readers (I wasn’t the only one searching) were settling for the Post. (I bought two myself.)

Luckily, our copy of the Times had been delivered in the morning, but I wanted two more pristine copies for posterity — to give to my sons when they turn 21, perhaps. A friend of ours who works for the times told us that employees were lining up at the delivery trucks to buy copies, and he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to get one. (He finally managed at the end of the day, apparently, when one truck happened to return with copies.) The Times apparently printed 35% more copies than usual, but there was still a nation-wide shortage. There’s an article about the shortage in today’s Times.

If you didn’t get a copy (or if you live outside of NYC and realize now that you want a copy), the Times online store is offering copies (limited supply!) at an unreasonable mark-up of 1000% (14.95). It does, however, come with a “n a resealable plastic envelope.”Go to http://www.nytstore.com.

Union Square, 1:45 am, November 5 — Obama Day

November 5, 2008 in History, Neighborhood Scenes by Bryan

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Change You Can Listen To

November 4, 2008 in Music, Politics by Bryan | 1 comment

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Have 
you voted yet? Well, what are you waiting for?

If you’re searching for thematically appropriate music to listen to while you read political blogs all day, you won’t do better than WFMU’s Electile Dysfunction stream. If you don’t know WFMU, it’s Jersey City’s freeform radio station, now celebrating its 50th year serving the NYC area (and now the globe, thanks to the intertubes). No one does better or more eclectic themed playlists.

At the moment, DJ Hatch — formerly of WNYU — is finishing up a set. Click here for the stream; you can also check here for the entire day’s schedule, which will be archived and available to listen to whenever you get a hankering to remember this historic freaking day! (Did I already remind you to get out the vote??)

And, as an update to yesterday’s post: Hey, Lurkers! That was supposed to be a lurker amnesty post. Thanks to the folks who piped up with suggestions. Keep them coming! We also want to know who else is out there, how you found us (was it the recent feature in the Manhattan User’s Guide? one of our classes?), and what we can do to make this a place you want to peek in on more regularly.

So let us know who you are. Yes, you can!

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Pop Music as Cultural History (PLUS: Lurker Amnesty!)

November 3, 2008 in History, Music by Bryan | 8 comments

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The popular 33 1/3 series from Continuum has a new call for proposals posted on its blog.

We’ve mentioned before our affection for the series, especially those volumes that move beyond memoir or criticism to offer something like a cultural history of the time and place a particularly seminal record was created. We even asked our students in Writing New York last year to buy Joe Harvard’s volume on The Velvet Underground and Nico, one of the albums (along with Patti Smith’s Horses) we include on the course’s syllabus. We conceptualize that unit as “From the Beats to the Punks.”

I’ve long had in mind a couple titles I’d propose to 33 1/3 if given the chance — and now that it’s here I’d like to put the question to friends, former students, and whomever else may be reading this (we know have more readers than people who comment). That’s right! Consider this a lurker amnesty post: we want to know what albums you think should be recognized as cornerstones or records of important moments or movements in the city’s cultural history.

Tip: the series has until now enforced a policy of publishing only one book per band, but given that they’re dropping this rule (!), feel free to suggest albums for bands already in the series. The full list of published and planned volumes is here.

Can’t think of key NYC albums? Maybe New York Magazine‘s recent feature on the New New York Canon will prompt you.

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