Another View of New York - Manhattan

A week or two ago I was again on the train and wandering back down to Grand Central. This time meeting a business contact who happened to be in the city on a Saturday. He was staying at the Palace, which is behind St Patricks. certainly seemed to live up to its name; an opulent place but the thing I noticed is that the New York is not what it once was.

Earlier this year, Walmart conceded defeat regarding Manhattan. It had tried and tried to bring a store into the city and in 2007 it waved the white flag and confirmed that it was no longer pursuing such a goal. It had enough of negotiating with community groups, various city boards and God knows who and what else-all required for opening a giant megastore in the city limits.

That said regarding Walmart, they are the only megastore. NYC might have kept Walmart out but every other retail, mall, and outlet store appears to now be downtown or midtown. Not only do we have every retail store in the city today, but we have multiple versions of these stores-every few blocks. So New York really is like one giant mall today, with multiple versions of the same mall stores. If you missed the H&M over in Lexington, well you can find another over on Fifth or Sixth Avenue. and the same is true of the Gap and Bed Bath and Beyond, Victoria Secrets and every other store you find at the local mall.

At one time, and I am not sure when it was, but New York was that which preceded the rest of the US in regard to fashion. Today, however, New York is basically as bland any mall. I am sure there is still something unique about New York, but I am not sure what or where it is. It was certainly hard to see among all the mall stores i saw in midtown. I do wander into the city now and again but never really realized what filled all that space. I remember reading of how midtown was becoming a giant mall. What was it before? Maybe it was not all retail space, though I doubt that. What was NYC before the Gaps and H&Ms and the Victoria Secrets moved in?
On top of that you have the Starbucks all over, but that is a different article, a different essay. No today, I leave with curious observation that in my travels through NY, on my way to the Palace, I took in a dizzying number of retail outlets, all of which I have seen before in any mall in NJ, CT or CA. I feel something has changed regarding NY. My vision of what New York is and what I found just do not mesh. Maybe it is me. I do not think that New York was always a giant mall, but I really do not know what it was before this transpired. I am pretty sure it was not that, but damned if I know what it was.

So I leave it that it was simply strange that the city I have been circling for the past forty years had somehow evolved into that which I thought it was not-that which I was in part trying to escape. . .the burbs.

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Two Takes on the Music Biz. . .

Something different today-two very cool comments on music and the music business.

The first, from a recent Chris Rock interview in Rolling Stone and his take on then music and rap business today. He might be focusing on rap but much of the same can be said of rock, alternative, and certainly the tradtional ‘labels’.

The second is a reader letter from Bob Lefsetz’s Blog Lefsetz's Letter.

Chris Rock: Music kind of sucks. Nobody's into being a musician. Everybody's getting their mogul on. You've been so infiltrated by this corporate mentality that all the time you'd spend getting great songs together, you're busy doing nine other things that have nothing to do with art. You know how shitty Stevie Wonder's songs would have been if he had to run a fuckin' clothing company and a cologne line?

RollingStone: Plenty of rappers say, "I'm not a rapper, I'm a businessman."

Chris Rock: That's why rap sucks, for the most part. Not all rap, but as an art form it's just not at its best moment. Sammy the Bull would have made a shitty album. And I don't really have a desire to hear Warren Buffett's album - or the new CD by Paul Allen. That's what everybody's aspiring to be.

We live in a weird time. No one knows who's smart - we just know who makes money. "Hey, somebody invented Viagra! We don't know their name, but we know Pfizer, because they make the money." That guy made a pill that keeps your dick hard, and nobody knows who the fuck he is. The pharmaceutical companies are like fuckin' record companies. There's literally the Bo Diddley of medicine walking around, not getting his royalties. He signed all his fucking pill publishing away.

("Rolling Stone", Issue 1039, November 15, 2007, page 157)

Now the second one, a letter from a reader of the Bob Lefsetz’s Blog, which focuses again on the music business. The note was in response to a blog regarding the old southern rock label, Capricorn Records, but I share the note for its and their attitude towards music and music promotion.

Hey Bob:

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. My dad (Tim Lane) opened the west coast office for Capricorn around 1971-2, and was the #3 exec for about 3 years. In that short time, he had many great stories (e.g. being on the road with the Allman Bros., a White Witch promotion disaster, and other "Almost Famous" incidents). He was previously head of Album Sales for Atlantic from 1966-70, and seemed to have a knack for being where the great music was happening, and getting it to the fans.

My dad used to bring home lots of albums and promotional material from Capricorn, which I shared with my friends. At home, he would play the albums over & over again, enjoying every note as much as any fan could. He had band members over to the house and took our family to their concerts. Working at Capricorn was not a job to him -- it was fun... a passionate hobby. He thought it was a privilege to promote the music!

Although he saw great sales on his watch at Atlantic and Capricorn, his main thought was not about how much money was being made, but how he was going to get the music to the people. The music was his religion and he was determined to convert the masses.

When my dad passed away 2 1/2 years ago, I went through his album collection, reminiscing on the familiar album covers & promo materials of Livingston Taylor, the Allman Bros., Wet Willie, Marshall Tucker Band, White Witch, and Captain Beyond. They were old friends, hanging around to remind me of those magical days with my dad.

I've since sold my dad's albums to an avid collector because I don't own a record player & would probably not get a chance to play the vinyl again. It was tough to say goodbye to my childhood friends & a big chunk of my dad's soul. But I no longer needed the physical albums. The music had already made a lifetime impact on me, constantly reminding me of a special time -- a time when the music mattered.

Regards,

Mike Lane
4 Entertainment

Two different times - two different places, two different takes on music and the music business. All I know is that the second hit home for me.

Bob Schaffer
11/08/07

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A Different View of NYC

I have in recent weeks passed thru midtown NYC a couple times. Midtown is different from my usual haunts down in the Village, or over in Williamsburg Brooklyn, and now and again an occasional race over in Central Parks. Rarely is this resident of Westchester down in the midst of the concrete and glass, the crowds, and the traffic of midtown. I do pass thru Grand Central now and again but then onto the 4 Train to the either Fulton Street or Brooklyn Bridge, And usually I am traveling with a specific plan in mind, in and out, and I am watching my watch and checking the train schedule as opposed to taking in the environs around me.

This time though was a little different. I was coming in for a race in Central Park, which was happening at 8:00 Sunday morning, I routinely do races at that time in the park. Usually when I do this, I am driving in. This time, though as we have one car, which was needed to get elsewhere this weekend. So I agreed to take the train into the city and get over to my race that way.

Well I made my train and got into Grand Central, arriving there at 6:30 Sunday morning. I was planning to take the subway up the 4 line this time and then from Lexington cut over to the Park. Instead, once I got there, I decided to walk up Fifth Avenue. Now I have been on 5th Avenue before. Lots of folks have walked up and down Fifth Avenue, but not at 6:30 in the morning.

It was pretty amazing, barely dawn in early October. Just a hint of light, walking up Fifth Avenue. I could look and down 5th Avenue, and see no traffic, not a car, not even a cab. No one was around. One group of contractors was about all I encountered it in my trip up town from 42nd up to the Park. About twenty blocks and seeing barely no one. I saw less than 20 people perhaps on 5th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

I have seen various movies, Twilight Zones and so forth of such moments-moments where the normally packed streets of midtown are empty, but as they say is it one thing to see it on TV and quite another to experience it, Here I was walking past Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's and Sachs 5 Avenue, All were empty. The doors of St. Patrick were open but no mass, no throng of people entering or leaving.

I found that Sunday morning at 6:30, a moment where the city was at least nodding off. It was a quiet moment in the midst of all this concrete, pavement, neon and steam.

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