McLaren Park 4
LOWER EAST SIDE Where gritty urban history meets Manhattan glamour
The Lower East Side’s ongoing gentrification has done little to blunt its razor-sharp edge. Perhaps best known as the home of the mighty Bowery Ballroom, the equally impressive C-Squat, Cake Shop and Arlene’s Grocery (the original home of live Big Band karaoke) are all great music venues in the area. Vinyl lovers should equally check out Parkside Lounge’s Funk Fest night on a Monday, a weekly music soiree, which invites the swapping of records with likeminded souls. Nearby, film lovers shouldn’t miss Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema, not least for its indie and classic movies but mostly for its fine popcorn offerings (complete with eight separate seasonings). Film buffs can wax lyrical in the cinema’s über-quaint Japanese rock garden, before heading to the newly opened Painkiller – as Manhattan’s second tiki- themed bar, it offers all- you-can-eat hot dogs, alongside a killer array of cocktails,
ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
I O N Y
CORN MO Musician in .357 Lover
In Manhattan, there’s a place called The Parkside Lounge. It’s the first venue I began to play in regularly. Magic Brian and I did a lot of variety shows, hosting sideshow performers, circus artists, burlesque dancers, comedians, solo musicians, ventriloquists and other performers of excellence. It’s a great place to hang out during the day if you like empty bars, which I do. In Brooklyn, the Knitting Factory is good. The venue is accommodating to different kinds of shows: bands, burlesque, movies, kids’ shows, comedy shows. There’s also Barcade, which houses a host of 80s arcade games; they also have really good beer. For food, there’s a place in my neighbourhood, Bushwick, called Roberta’s. The owners shipped a brick oven over from a relative in Italy, built a greenhouse to grow herbs, built an apiary to make honey and opened an excellent restaurant and bar. Sometimes they have BBQs in the patio area. It’s nice to see so much heart put into making something amazing. ■ www.cornmo.com; www.357lover.com
FIVE OF THE BEST: NEW YORK WEBSITES
★ gawker.com Takes celebrity obsession to a new level of bitter irony. This acerbic blog is now one of the world’s most popular.
★ www.brooklynvegan.com Well-chosen tracks and Brooklyn’s relentlessly excellent band scene have combined to make this one of the quintessential hipster music blogs. ★ www.overheardinnewyork.com ‘Oh my god! Can you even imagine being obese in this weather?’ and many, many other gems overheard on NY streets.
★ www.artfagcity.com Art blog that’s desperately trying to out- irony New York’s desperately postmodern art scene. Hilarious and informative in equal measure. ★ thesartorialist.blogspot.com Superb street style blog that has many fans, including our own equivalent Les Garçons de Glasgow blog.
8–22 Jul 2010 THE LIST 21
Kiss and Tell
supped from custom-made ceramic Scorpion Bowls, so named after the 1970s NYC street gang. Enough said. While we’re talking food and drink, no trip to the Big Apple would be complete without a visit to the unrivalled Katz’s Deli, where the pastrami is once tried, never forgotten.
Those looking to keep things on the
down low would do well to gallery hop for a day. The Heist Gallery, Lehmann Maupin, Sunday L.E.S, Thierry Goldberg, On Stellar Rays and Angel Orensanz Foundation come highly recommended, so too does the LES Historic Tour, which runs throughout the day. For a true historical journey though, New York’s Tenement Museum focuses on America’s urban immigrant history and offers some great (free) talks. Those with shopping money in reserve are in for a treat. Metropolis
offers 80s and vintage leanings and has garage like decor while thrift shop heaven can be found nearby courtesy of Mock Vintage, which also, incidentally, offers up some knock out menswear. For more vintage wears and stylish nick-nacks, head to Random Accessories or Amoskeag XX.