Friday, March 22, 2013

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor


I went to the George Bellows exhibition at the Royal Academy this morning - big, tough paintings of a big, tough city at the start of a big, tough century; a teeming New York, still being built.

Made me think forward eighty years, to this...

Manhattan's sinking like a rock
Into the filthy Hudson what a shock
They wrote a book about it
They said it was like ancient Rome


Lou Reed - 'Romeo Had Juliette' (1989)

Course, that was before Starbucks came to Times Square.

16 comments:

  1. Ha. Great post Davy. Keep up the good work.

    I saw Lou Reed on the tour to support the new York album, summer 89 I think. It was alright y'know. Alright, not great.

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  2. I saw him on that tour too. And the one for 'Magic And Loss'. At the latter he got v. testy with some wag who kept on shouting for 'Sweet Jane', which only made the wag worse, of course.

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  3. Never seen Lou Reed and can't say that it troubles me much. Have most of his solo stuff and had to think long and hard about when I last listened to any of it, still can't remember. But listened to the first VU album this morning.

    I am quite enthused at the prospect of the Moon Duo remix album for RSD, also the Shangri-las maxi single and the Jamie xx edits 12". Looks like Max and I will be getting up very early on 20th April.

    Pint anyone?

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  4. We've nothing in the house. Mrs H is making me go out to the shops in the fizzing rain. Bah.

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  5. lou's another who's a mystery to me post velvets. you're a proper broad knowledgey lot really you are. an education or something. i like that picture too and shall try and pop in.
    here there's a sparrowhawk feasting on a pigeon just by the back door so we're trapped in.

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  6. Well somebody needs to go out or it will be a very dry Friday!

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  7. Off to see Johnny Marr. But first Isaac has to be dropped in Stretford for a respite weekend away and Eliza has to be taken to a school disco, from which she has to return and 'be settled' so we can go out. And the gigs at the Ritz were everyone always comes on earlier than at other gigs and....

    I need a drink. I'll get some beer at the offy on the way back from Stretford eh?

    Record Shop day annoys me a bit. But I want the Asphodells remix thing.

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  8. Garden carnage at ally's AGAIN! Sheesh.

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  9. Aspects of it annoy me SA, the gets who only buy to make a profit on ebay. But anything that helps to keep record shops open is worth supporting in my book and I know that the owners of Monorail and the others in Glasgow enjoy it and there really is a buzz about the place and Max gets a big kick out of it.

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  10. Kids love record shops. Keep mine occupied for, ooh, minutes sometimes.

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  11. there's even a couple of jazz records amongst the rockist hordes too. and a 7" of the bottle. which is nice. do they make a day of it in second hand shops too? then again i'm thinking of blowing the housekeeping on a copy of jimmy radcliffe singing my ship is coming in

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  12. There was talk of an Otis Clay repress, Ally but it doesn't seem to have been true, alas.

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  13. btw Ally, a ex+ copy of Jimmy doing My Ship Is Coming In on MusicStack for a very reasonable £33.60

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  14. Every day is Record Shop Day far as I'm concerned. My attitude when I go to my local emporium on that day is to look askance at the hordes of customers and think "Where are you buggers the other 364 days of the year?"

    There's a comic section in the record shop I go to so I my girl sits there looking at the Archie comics while I'm browsing the racks. I also promise her ice cream after if she doesn't moan about how long I'm taking.

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