Listening to Reel Around the Fountain by The Smiths on record as I type this. I also just found out Galapagos Art Space is moving to Detroit. What the fuck is going on in this city?
This city is simply becoming a place that is unaffordable for people to live in and enjoy. I moved here in the winter of 1997. I know that is a long time ago. Yet, my best friend and I were able to find a real two bedroom apartment for $800 in Greenpoint, a toxic wasteland. In the past, I've written about the peach tree we had in the backyard. We could not eat the peaches, as the entire neighborhood is encased by a superfund site. Now, according to Zillow, that shitty apartment on Kingsland Avenue is $2600 a month.
I'm not against a city growing.....not at all. I'm for a city having plenty of great things to do in it for all. That is why we live in cities; at the same point it is why we leave some of them. New York used to be filled with tons of independent businesses. I will find the data (just lazy right now) that shows how grossly corporate this city has become. Or maybe, that last sentence just shows how lazy I am.
It seems like something in New York, more specifically, Brooklyn is closing down/gone altogether due to the cost of doing business here anymore. I get it. It is so safe, so beautiful, blah, blah. It is forcing so many people out. That is what it is doing. And, if you choose to stay........you feel poor. I'm an adjunct instructor at a very wealthy school and it drives me nuts how much more they spend on their grass than they do on me and my colleagues.
Look at the growing Northeastern PA population boom. Check out the license plates near where you are. See how many are from out of town. They are visiting because they had to leave.
So, back to the turntable, especially the whitest possible band to think of mentioning in this post. The Smiths evoke a sense of privilege. I know nothing of their real existence. Yet, I know what they evoke in my existence. We were well-off white kids listening to lyrics that hated our parents and what they stood for. Or, we listened to them because they were so against our majority peers. As white folk, they incorporated the weirdos, outcasts, goths, and people who had no idea how to really say "fuck you" except by dressing oddly. Fuck, they were from England and so far from angry American punk rockers....whom I loved equally as well.
NYC is a record. The first time you play a record, the vinyl changes somewhat. The more you play it, the more it degrades. It becomes a loss as soon as you open it. The more you play it and become familiar with it, the less you want it to change. Then, there is a skip, a blemish......that recording you loved so much sounded so different before. It can never go back to what it was. NYC is your favorite record you take good care of, but is never in mint condition. Ever.
