I hate the term conspiracy theory. It irks me. Often valid ideas get this moniker, as well as ideas that clearly deserve the term. That said, if Joe Blow murders someone, he is a murderer. If Joe Blow and Joe Shmo decide to murder someone, that is called conspiracy murder. See how that works? If more than one person conspires to do someting illegal, it becomes a conspiracy. Now when most of the city council conspires against the will of the people of New York (in this case – Greenpoint, Brooklyn) – what shall we call that? Continue reading →
Ok, here we are. This is your last shot. I’m not playin’. Either are the developers who will soon turn Greenpoint into a Disneyfied vision of Brooklyn. The last of the public meetings will take place Thursday, December 5th, 2013 and this is your last chance to do something.
UPDATE Location: 250 Broadway Committee Room 16th Floor CITY HALL Time for Commercial Street meeting: 9:30 am Time for Greenpoint Landing meeting: 1:00 pm
Anyone familiar with the politics of New York knows most of these politicians are flags flapping in the wind. Where the wind blows is the direction they point in. If you all become the wind and let them know how you feel, you may be able to get the city council to vote against this project.
Become a collective hurricane! Go to the meetings. Voice your opinions, and let it be known that you are not feeling this.
New York City is a place where change is inevitable, and where change comes, real estate development follows. It would not be the place it is without it. However the political climate during the Bloomberg era hasput this into hyper drive.
I ran into my old friend Kim Masson, who is part of Save Greenpoint, a group that is spearheading the opposition to Greenpoint Landing. Their issues with the development are not just the obvious ones most people are aware of. This is not just about being opposed to new massive buildings that will drive up rents and change the face of the neighborhood. The implications here are far more drastic.
Greenpoint is a neighborhood that has already dealt with one of the largest oil spills in the history of oil spills, and countless environmental mini disasters. I want people to be more aware of this situation so I decided to interview Kim so she can break this all down.
On an afternoon in 1988: I turned on my television set after school and saw an upcoming promo for week long “special report” on CBS about a band called Missing Foundation. The series was done by journalist Mike Taibbi, and it was dubbed “Cult of Rage.”
What caught my eye initially was their iconic symbol that was literally plastered everywhere below 14th street and parts of Williamsburg when it was a drug infested wasteland. The symbol which was an upside down martini glass with three lines below it and a strike through, was powerful and it invoked the message “the party’s over.”
That party being the rapid gentrification of the lower east side in the late eighties. I knew this symbol, but did not know at such a young age what it meant. The report was fairly inaccurate though it filled me in on some of what this was all about.
A bit sensationalized, the report basically let me know: 1. They are from the lower east side. 2. They were involved in inciting the Tompkins Square Park riots 3. They were beyond Punk Rock. 4. The singer used to set himself on fire. 5. They worshipped the devil!
As if you needed any more indication that hip hop is in a bad place right now, the Drake Chris Brown saga solidifies this fact. The music that once brought us such great rivalries as Nas VS Jay Z, Mc Shan VS KRS One, NWA Vs Ice Cube, Eazy E Vs Dr Dre, now gives us Drake and chris Brown? How sad. First of all, the Lil Kim Nikki Minaj beef was more interesting and relevant since it involved the typical bullshit that rappers beef about like stealing one’s style, trying to stay relevant, or trying to hold on to their “throne”. Plus I think Lil Kim would smack the shit out of Chris Brown and Drake at the same time in a streetfight. Continue reading →
56 years before Sean “Puffy” Combes went into Steve Stout’s office accompanied by several burly bodyguards and allegedly smashed him over the head with a champagne bottle, a percussionist named Chano Pozo went to his music publicists office in New York City and trashed it over unpaid royalties. When he returned a day later, the publicists bodyguard shot him three times in the back. Continue reading →
The most intriguing thing about hip hop music is that for at least the first 3 years of it’s existence, it was not professionally recorded. Unlike any other genre of music created since recorded music became a commodity, in the very early days of it’s existence, there are no known surviving recordings of hip hop. That is because during the formative years of hip hop you needed to go to a party to hear it spun by a DJ.
Three years ago, I went to a friend’s record release party at a club in New York City. In an adjacent room, there was a DJ playing Noel’s “Silent Morning“. I walked in, listened to this Classic record at full club volume, and it was like hearing it for the first time. I being not old enough to hear this record in a club when it first came out understood immediately why this music became huge in the first place. Continue reading →
