Warning: Rant Ahead
Today is the final day of a two-day strike by NYC cab drivers in protest of a city order that they install credit-card readers and global-positioning systems in their vehicles. Oh my, the poor babies. In retaliation, the cabs that are still on the street are charging double their zone rates for all fares. As far as I’m concerned, anybody who pays that jacked-up fare is an idiot and all the striking cabdrivers can bite me.
RIP Hilly Kristal
Former owner and founder of now-defunct pioneering rock club CBGB, Hilly Krystal, died yesterday, August 28th, 2007, of lung cancer. He was 75 years old.
I will always remember CBGB for its super scary toilets (pictured above: the Men’s Room)! At least they were not as “Trainspotting-esque” as those at The Continental!
Bargain Hunter’s Paradise
This past weekend, Geoffrey (aka Other G or “OG“) and I went downtown to Pearl River Mart to shop like maniacs. OG has been listening to me rave about Pearl River Mart since he was an egg, and this was his first visit to the wonderful Palace of Asian Delights where I would shop every day if I could. Of course, he fell head-over-heels in love with place right then and there. Because, let’s face it, Pearl River Mart is the shit. Continue reading The Two Gs Go To Pearl River Mart!
I’ve Been Deaf Now I Want Noise
It’s fairly old news at this juncture that singer-slash-rock god, Chris Cornell left Audioslave a few months back to do the solo thing again. I can’t say that I’m terribly heartbroken about the move. Rage Against the Machine was always one of my least favorite angry pinko bands on the planet, and being as Audioslave was 3/4’s of Rage, they didn’t really know what to do with the more subtle textures of Chris’s voice anyway. Good riddance.
Chris has a new CD coming out in June and I’m trying to snag an advance copy of that as I type. But he played a show last night at NYC’s Irving Plaza and thanks to my friend Jason Sutter, who is also Chris’s new drummer, I was there. Thanks, Jason. You rule.
I knew I must be seriously starved for The Rock when I was able to get all wet and crazy over the opening song of the evening, “Spoon Man” — which, for me at least, is not one of Soundgarden’s best songs. From what I heard last night, Chris’s new disc sounds like it will be worth buying, but the jury is still out over whether it will even be able to touch his last solo album, Euphoria Morning, which is just insane.
I would like to now personally thank Chris and his band for doing “Outshined,” “Rusty Cage,” “Jesus Christ Pose,” and the shocker of the night, “Loud Love.” Wow. Chris Cornell is awesome.
The Ramones Standing Outside CBGB in 1975, By Bob Gruen. Worth a Thousand Words, at Least (This Photo by Gail)
This past Sunday night, a few of my more rock-savvy friends went downtown to the place where Bleecker Street meets The Bowery for the final concert performance at CBGB before that legendary club closed for good. While I’m not generally a huge supporter of people who don’t pay their rent (and think they can get away with it), it’s a shame that club owner Hilly Kristal made the tragic mistake of thinking he’d be bullet proof to eviction in a town where real estate is more precious than gold or diamonds. But that’s hardly the point anymore. Continue reading The End of An Era: CBGB Closes Its Doors