What It Is

Ever wondered what was behind the imposing urban facade of 190 Bowery? NY Magazine has this slideshow accompanying their article claiming that photographer Jay Maisel pulled off “the greatest real estate coup of all time”* when he bought the former Germania Bank building for $102,000 in 1966.

For years I was under the mistaken impression that the coup had been pulled off by poet John Giorno, who lives in the former YMCA building up the street that also once housed William S. “Uncle Bill” Burroughs and is known as the Bunker. Probably I got the wrong idea from an ex-boyfriend of mine who misrepresented it that way while bragging about hanging out there with Uncle Bill back in the late 70s. Poseur.

* I think NY Mag is wrong. The greatest real estate coup of all time is Joseph Papp, Public Theater (the former Astor Library), 1967, $1.

Perhaps it’s a Northeast-centric sort of thing, but I love concord grapes. Something about the dichotomy between the sweet, intense grapey-ness inside the skin and the sour slippery-coolness of the fruit. I love their black skins, I love teasing out the big, easy-to-spit seeds. They remind me of other funky foods I adore, like oysters and caviar and peas. I remember my first taste of those crazy grapes in upstate NY as a child,and I still eat them every fall.

Having lived almost all my days as a hardcore urbanite, in childhood I wanted to be a pioneer, an Indian, a cowgirl, a farmer or pretty much anyone that knew a lot about the outdoors and got to hang out with animals. I dream sometimes of a future gardening self, with a kitchen garden full of vegetables and herbs and a lovely Concord grape arbor.

Then I reflect on how I’ve pretty much killed every houseplant I’ve ever owned and how I’m almost as allergic to sunlight as Dracula, and I return to my indoor pursuits.

My loved one, raised in the great state of Texas, thinks these seasonal treats are absolutely disgusting, disdaining all grapes that dare to contain seeds. Fall has barely begun, and I’m close to polishing off 2 pounds of grapes all on my own. On this autumnal equinox weekend, I can’t recommend them highly enough.

Listening to you tonight at the RNC, I was struck by something you said.

Referring to the Republican position on reproductive choice, you intoned (and I do paraphrase), “We believe that the sanctity of life begins at conception.”

Yes, Mr. Huckabee, ain’t it the truth. Begins at conception, ends at birth. After that, you’re on your own. And that unkind philosophy is surely the reason why your party is against everything that parents really need to prosper in this country: child health insurance, adequate day care for working mothers, equal pay for equal work, universal health care, civil rights, education, reproductive rights, immigration reform, prison reform, the environment, renewable energy, social security and in fact everything except war, torture, small government, no taxes and no accountability for the rich and powerful?

Just sayin’.

xxx

TuraLura

PS You might want to stop calling for change like that. It just reminds everyone that y’all have been in power for f*ckin’ ever.

You probably weren’t paying real close attention to the music that was performed at the DNC on Tuesday, but the tremendous, just-on-the-verge-of-blowing-up-huge Alejandro Escovedo played “People (We Only Gonna Live So Long)” from his new album Real Animal, a great documentary story-telling epic about the old days of the late 70s in New York. Alejandro is so cool he has roots in Texas, New York and San Francisco, and he’s been on stage with Bruce Springsteen recently. That’s pretty big stuff for an artist who was well-known and respected in Texas, but barely known at all anywhere else. And now he’s played at the DNC!

Another thing that makes his newest album particularly delicious for me is that it was produced by the legendary Tony Visconti, producer of T. Rex and David Bowie, among many, many others…including, ahem, me. I had the ridiculous good fortune to work with Tony a time or two during my low-level rock star period (though sadly, none of those recordings was ever released), and it was a whole education just to have dinner with him. He had these beautiful photos of him and Bowie hanging out back in the day that he had decided to hang in his bathroom. So cool. And that he was married to May Pang at the time made it even more fabulous.

Anyway, check out Alejandro’s website: http://www.alejandroescovedo.com.

PS His previous albums A Man Under the Influence and Bourbonitis Blues should be required listening for everyone. Yeah, everyone.

Here’s the Turalura Hanging Kicks Tshirt. What do you know about the Hanging Kicks?

When I was a little kid and I saw a pair of sneakers hanging over a lamppost, I assumed that this was something bullies do: steal other kids’ kicks and then throw them up there so the kid couldn’t get them back. The kid would be forced to go home shoeless, certain to get in some very big trouble. The diabolism of the bully mind: humiliate you in front of your peers and then send you off barefoot to be punished by your parents

I never actually saw this happen, but the hanging kicks were an ever-present part of the urban landscape.

Now I understand that the hanging kicks may actually be a street code for “Drugs Sold on This Block”. However this interpretation has not been verified. If you know something, say something!

Weeds growing up through the sidewalk cracks is another omnipresent urban environmental element. When we turn our backs for a second, nature encroaches in even the unlikeliest places.

I think that’s very cool.

100% cotton Tshirt hand embroidered with 100% cotton thread. Design from original photograph.

Buy it here.