Thursday, August 7, 2008

*Everyday Chatter

Slacktivist Penley makes peace with Bowery Wine--takes aim elsewhere. [Grub St]

Mickey Mouse may take over your subway station and turn it into a Magical Kingdom of corporate ownership (...he said, looking at real estate listings for other towns, other cities.) [Gothamist]

Very, very bad news: Nikos, the fantastic and ramshackle and overstuffed magazine shop on the corner of 6th Ave and 11th St, is closing. This was the only place in the entire city you could find the best selection of literary journals, including hard to find ones like New York Quarterly. [Gothamist]

Nikos' empty racks, photo Sarah Weiser, NYSun

But, look, a new used and rare bookshop just opened on the LES. Oops, my mistake, that's a complete impossibility. It's actually a super-exclusive nightclub. [Grub St]

Long-term EV/LESers, get ready to be rezoned, evicted, and rent-hiked out your ass. [SLES]

Someone asked why does Bald Man Chocolates repel me? Sure, it's subjective, but watching a sidewalk packed with kids and tourists gulping down buckets of melted chocolate, I don't know...it's kind of scatological. Says the menu: "...like a child's fantasy...smell it...lick it slowly and passionately. Make love to it." Not that there's anything wrong with scat play, but call it what it is. Freud would agree:


Tim gives etiquette tips to out-of-control tourists on how not to interact with NYC dog-walkers. [CR]

Brooks provides another etiquette lesson for city behaviors. [LC]

Which means it's a good time to plug the VNY Urban Etiquette Signs flickr group. Join and add, there's no shortage of signage out there.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

that sounds about right; yunnies have no need for literary journals, so in addition to being priced out, Nikos closed.

Rambler said...

That sucks about Nikos. Wonder what will happen when all these banks and chains start closing too...then what will the landlords do?

Anonymous said...

This is terrible about Nikos, though I admit I've been worried about it for a while. It's quite intellectual and liberal in the reading material it stocks (Nickos is where I got my copy of Adbusters Magazine) and makes no attempt to court the yunnie in it's presentation: I'm sure the local developers have been annoyed by it's stubbornly un-fabulous presence for some time. I know for a fact that I never see yunnies there (they're probably afraid of it).
Now where am I going to get my copies of Ghostly Phenomena?

Anonymous said...

That etiquette list is great but he missed a few:

1. Talking real loud on a phone in a public place.

2. Walking down the street texting/talking and not paying attention to where you're going. (I LOVE these people)

3. Drivers who think stopping at a red light translates to pulling all the way into the crosswalk (FUCK YOU)

4. Drivers who inch into the crosswalk while you're crossing, even though the "don't walk" sign hasn't even begun blinking yet, and when you walk around to their window and ask them what their problem is, they stare straight ahead and act like you're not there.

5. People who ride bikes on the sidewalk.

Anyone else?

Jeremiah Moss said...

i walked by a couple days ago, too, and had the same worried thought. kicking myself now i didn't go in one last time.

Ken Mac said...

Nickos had every UK music, camera and hifi mag, and he kept the place nice and cold!

ee said...

If only the SATC girls hung out at Nikos, instead of magnolia bakery, then perhaps there'd be a line at Nikos for the literary journals, thus would spare them from closing.

Anonymous said...

I cannot believe Nikos is closing.

L'Emmerdeur said...

The bald man's chocolate sure does taste like shit.

Anonymous said...

Another great place that I didn't get to go to and saw for the first time the day they were closing. I saw a sign that said "Journals on sale", and stopped and went "What is this place? Awesome, they sell literary journals!" then saw they were obviously closing. Shit. The Village is under assault... It is pretty obvious. I do know it is always capable of come backs though. Rambler made a very good point... What will happen when the banks and chains close...?

Anonymous said...

re: Chains closing. Exactly! 2 Barnes and Nobles closed - Astor Place and 6th Avenue in Chelsea and nothing has replaced them yet. Supposedly there's a David Barton gym for stuck ups going on Astor, but I haven't seen any movement there. Some how I doubt that the David Barton will bring in more revenue than the B&N but maybe I'm mistaken. re: The Banks. I honestly can't tell what the revenue model is for having so many banks when most of them are simply very expensive ATM lobbies. I can't wait to see them fall on their faces. Such a soulless waste of neighborhood space.

re: Etiquette. Yes! Here's another:

1) People who don't let the passengers off the train before they attempt to get on. Popular variation: people who don't let the people out of the building/store/elevator before they attempt to enter. It's totally illogical! 2 people can't occupy the same place at the same time, yet these people try to walk through you like you don't exist. I hate them.

2)Playing your iPod so loud that your everyone can hear every lyric of every song. Thanks, dude, cause everyone wants to hear your lame ass playlist.

- BN