I was reading the blogs yesterday and found a post to a freshly flickr’d collection of New York photos taken during those apparently magical years of 1979-85. Removed from the steam cloud of New York’s particularly extreme sense of self-mythification, they’re actually quite boring, but of course lit up the blogosphere like a neon sign in a 1983 coffee shop on the corner of Ave A. The fashion looks sort of dumb, the people don’t look particularly interesting (a couple hobos, someone squinting, a jogger), and there were fewer cars, which actually was an interesting difference. Oh, but wait, that’s right it was the real New York back then before the East Village became Hollywood East and CBGB’s still reigned. That’s why we’re all interested in them.
It’s probably too late for Manhattan to outgrow that mythical time now, the whole area below 14th street has become a kind of enclosed tourist shrine to 79-85. The outer burroughs are where the green shoots are.
