Sunday, April 30, 2006

LIC


IMG_6133.JPG
Originally uploaded by clayfox.
Today I visited my old 'hood, LIC with a friend of mine. It's still a bit on the desolate side, however new lofts are going up. Ten years ago when I lived on 44th Drive, it was up and coming and called the "next hot neighborhood." The buzz is getting a little louder, but time will only tell if this riverfront area will truly live up to the hype.

Sure, there are more restaurants and bars, but the only supermarket is still that crappy C Town at the Ely stop. Living in an area that needs to be (re)built from scratch isn't stopping hipsters who declare Williamsburg as "over" from coming here, so maybe LIC will (finally) be the next big thing.

inside my shopping bag


inside my shopping bag
Originally uploaded by omnia.
Gotta love Flickr - found this pool of photos that shows the contents of people's bags. I must say I'm getting hungry by looking at the contents here.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Whole Evidence

Remember that episode of Seinfeld with the library cop? Well, this incident of an unsuspecting nibbler totally reminds me of it...
http://thecompanybitch.blogspot.com/2006/04/banned-from-whole-foods.html

I can picture Agent Doe with the spotlight on our meatball-tasting heroine, grilling for reasons before banning her from her beloved Whole Foods forever.

Bringing Some Magic Back

Old Navy has just started a nationwide search to replace former canine mascot, Magic. Magic really lived it up in the Old Navy spots from about 10 years ago, lounging around with celebrities, participating in fashion shows, and just hanging poolside with his fashionably smart budget conscious pals.

After a run of lackluster ads that were over-kitschy, it looks like Old Navy is trying to recapture the fun that made their spots entertaining to watch. Starting next Friday, they will have "Canine Casting" buses coming to LA, San Francisco, NYC, and Chicago. The casting events will have a doggie photo booth, nomination kiosks, a custom dog tag station, among others. Sure, it wouldn't be Old Navy if there wasn't just a little kitcsh, so I guess that explains why Betty White is on the celebrity judge panel, but it honestly looks like they are trying to get people to remember that Old Navy is a fun brand.

Cake on Their Face

You just gotta love the rich and spoiled - throwing temper tantrums to secure the location, gleefully rejecting "loser wannabes" from the velvet ropes, and anxiously awaiting their fill-in-the-blank model luxury car. Coming of age is such an ordeal! MTV's My Super Sweet 16 is a total guilty pleasure because it's just so ridiculous and over the top. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are dropped, with these brats barking demands to their parents and party planners. The vision is HUGE with carefully calculated themes and the party being a complete celebration of self. So, are Millennials THAT full of themselves that they need to feel like Paris Hilton for a day, being famous just for a few hours? Do they need the validation that, yes, they are indeed special by throwing around the bling?

Sure the rich love to show off their money, especially the teens. They want to have the best party ever. One teen on the show said that they were so happy that their party is the first and she was thankful to her parents for having her early in the year because "no one will be able to top this! I dare them!" One girl wanted to secure a very specific location on a beach that cost $50,000 a day (and it was a 2 day affair) and her father was a little reluctant. What's a girl to do? Create a sales presentation of course! What happens when the centerpieces are not high enough? Call your mother a bitch and cry to daddy!

Millennials are probably the most marketed to generation that we've seen to date. From the days of "baby on board" they have been coddled and protected as precious cargo. They don't know of a time pre-internet and they are extremely brand focused and aware with product placement and in game advertising as part of their everyday world. They must have the latest, the greatest, most up to date thing.

What does this say to the rest of America that cannot afford such luxe affairs? Will we have a generation of neo-yuppies who aspire to be rich and fabulous? Will they all turn out to be Republicans?

Monday, April 24, 2006

Apartment Hunting

For the past month or so, Marc & I have been hunting Craigslist, getting an idea of how much our apartment would be in Williamsburg. My lease is up at the end of May, so I am really looking forward to getting out of Jackson Heights. We knew what we were looking for - a 2 br, railroad style apartment near the Lorimer or Graham stops on the L. We also knew that it was probably going to be around $1500, based on the "shopping around" that we've been doing.

So, on Friday morning, I see a posting on the list for a 2 br pretty much stating the afforementioned for $1350 through a broker: King David Realty. Sure, it's an old-school Williamsburg Hasidic office - everything is done manually, and the guy is speaking Yiddish on his cell phone. We go to the place - right off of Grand Street on Manhattan Ave. and it's on the top floor of a walk up & perfect (the only thing is, no sink in the bathroom). We took it immediately - and I'm glad we did, because there were other people waiting out in the rain to see it after we got back from our showing. That just goes to show you that the early bird gets the worm (and the sun came out after we left, so there's a sign right there!).

One thing I noticed by researching the broker afterwards - there were a couple of people that had an awful experience, but I honestly think that those 20-something hipsters are a) not native New Yorkers, & b) not familiar with Williamsburg. I think the reason why we were so comfortable with the broker was that we knew the lay of the land already - Marc has been living in East Williamsburg, further down on Grand Street for almost 2 years, and I'm a native New Yorker too. Sure, the projects aren't far from us (right around the block), but that project has recently been declared a landmark, and the Developer's Group is building a luxury condo right next to it. It's a strange juxtaposition, but it just works. I lived in Long Island City in 1997 and it was downright desolate at the time (and still is). In Jackson Heights where I am now, I feel like I don't belong - there is absolutely no sense of community. Leaving Queens after living there practically all my life (I moved to not-so-kid-friendly Bayside when I was 6) feels like a release. At least I now will have places to go after work besides my living room, plus I have a bigger buffer zone between me & my parents.

The hipsterization of Williamsburg is dwindling down, but most brokers are glamorizing and extending it. Bed Stuy is not South Williamsburg, the Montrose stop on the L is Bushwick, not East Williamsburg, and Greenpoint will always be Greenpoint (not "North Williamsburg," or "Steps to McCarren Park"). To anyone that wants to live in Williamsburg, here's a hint for you - it doesn't all look like Bedford! There are sub-neighborhoods which I like to describe as follows:
Bedford is the Soho, with high-end shopping, restaurants, and attitude.
Lorimer is like the East Village. Lots of restaurants and bars & it's accessible to pretty much everything.
Graham is like Bleecker Street - very Italian, very residential and charming.
Grand Ave. definitely has the Lower East Side vibe going, where it's slowly getting gentrified, but still edgy. This is the area we're moving into, and this is where a lot of people are moving into now - lots of bars, live music, coffeeshops, restaurants (including the infamous Mexican Diner).
Southside is also like the Lower East Side, circa 10 years ago. (ie - if you don't really know the area, you'll probably freak out and think it's a slum, but bars and cafes are slowly creeping in).

Whatever the case is, I'm happy to finally get out of Queens - it's been 25 years since I've lived there, but watch out Brooklyn, here I come.