RE: Soho: Snobbism, exemplified
PODESTA,Lesley (Lesley.PODESTA@deetya.gov.au)
Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:37:27 +1000
Aaah Tim. You make a small contribution onto the list into a moving
experience.
Thanks, she said with no hint of sarcasm, irony or anything but utter
reverence for your continued kindness.
LP
> ----------
> From: Tim O'Connor[SMTP:tim@roughdraft.org]
> Sent: Thursday, 19 March 1998 12:27
> To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
> Subject: RE: Soho: Snobbism, exemplified
>
> > On Thu, 19 Mar 1998, PODESTA,Lesley wrote:
> >
> > > Umm Andrew. I think Brendan was being ironic when he asked the
> > > question.LP
> >
> > You sure you mean ironic? I think you may have meant to say sardonic
> or
> > sarcastic. This may very well be the case, and even if it was, I
> still
> > loved going off on SoHo like that. It's always nice to slam
> fake'ness.
>
> SoHo is ghastly (sociologically) but aside from the aforementioned
> galleries, it's also the world's largest collection of cast-iron
> buildings.
> Some of them are exquisite. When I was a kid it was a deserted zone
> at
> night, and so it was lovely to walk around there in the desolation.
> (If
> you've seen the movie "Basquiat," or know the artist's work, he used
> to
> write graffiti there under the name SAMO; I used to love to spot his
> work,
> though by now it seems all gone, either eradicated or painted over.)
>
> The neighborhood has another strictly New York distinction: it's the
> only
> place that has experienced the theft of a building! An owner of a
> cast-iron building dismantled it -- either to move it or to do
> renovation
> -- and left the pieces in an empty lot. He came along one morning and
> found the empty lot -- empty. They never found the pieces, and the
> chances
> are that they were simply melted down for the scrap-metal value.
>
> Most of the neighborhood (because of the cast-iron architecture and
> the
> bluestone sidewalks) is designated a historical zone. It's wretched
> on the
> weekends, but tolerable during the week, especially early in the day.
> I
> still like it at night, though -- it's cleaner than it used to be, but
> that's the price of success. At least the old buildings and sidewalks
> remain.
>
> --tim
>
>