Apartment Renovation: Before

Last year, my wife and I purchased the studio next door with the idea that we'd rip down a wall, put up a few closets, and transform our current 550 square foot 1 bedroom into a true 2 bed, 2 bath combo. Flash forward twelve months and we are finally starting construction. It's not that we've been dragging our feet -- it's just that choosing the architect, contractor, floor plans and building materials and obtaining Dept. of Buildings and co-op board approval takes time.

So, here are a few shots of the studio (I estimate it at 400 square feet) that I took before our contractors started demolition:

Yes, the bathroom was perhaps the grimest room I've seen since hitchhiking thru the Sinai back in '94. We've asked the contractors to make sure that room gets demo'd first.

More on Changing Manhattan Neighborhoods

My neighborhood has changed a bit since I moved west from Yorkville around eight years ago. OK, maybe not so much ... my favorite bodega closed down two years ago; Sesso, the restaurant where I took my future wife on our first date, has since gone out of business; and hole-in-the-wall bars like the Snug and the Raccoon Lodge West have changed into the Dead Poet and Crossroads.

Anyway, it looks like our little corner of the Upper West Side is right on the cusp of a significant transformation. There are half a dozen high-end luxury condos going up. The Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle is acting like an anchor and seems to be pushing brand-name retail (Pottery Barn, Best Buy, Brooks Brothers) up Broadway towards the heart of the UWS. Celeb Chef Daniel Boulud opened a new wine bar across from Lincoln Center, while Lincoln Center and West 65th Street are getting a much needed facelift.

I don't see neighborhood change as an altogether bad thing - sure, I would prefer fewer Starbucks, Duane Reades and retail banks in my neighborhood, but I surely wouldn't want the neighborhood to be restocked with the SROs, junkies and prostitutes from The Panic in Needle Park days. Not everyone agrees, of course:

Gentrification as "Benign Ethnic Cleansing".

Ethnic Cleansing. Umm, OK. Just as long as we don't get hysterical or anything.

Changing Manhattan Neighborhoods

Another day, another New York Times article about developers changing the face of a quiet Manhattan neighborhood.

It looks as if the quiet of the upper west side is to be rudely broken into by the building of several playhouses. The latest step toward the transformation of that neighborhood into another Rialto is the probable purchase of a lot on Sherman Square, at Seventy-third Street, by Thompson Dundy, proprietors of Luna Park, Coney Island.

Oh wait, that article is from 1904.

UPDATED:

Anyone get the "Rialto" reference from the last post?

Bands I've Known - Part 1

I've been playing guitar since I was thirteen -- just about the time that Def Leppard's Hysteria rocked the charts. I been in a number of bands since then. A couple of those bands got to the point were they played a few live gigs. Some lasted for several years and developed decent catalogs of original material, while at least one was more of a poster band than an actual musical ensemble.

Anyway, here's a list of the seven greatest bands I've played in over the years (why seven? Because I refuse to be bound to a base ten narrative):

1. Ground Zero - a bunch of Catholic school kids playing eighties hair metal and hard rock in my parents' basement. As with many high school bands, we lacked both a drummer and bass player.

2. Mutel - Alternative weirdness with the townies, from back when "alternative" was just called "college rock." Our musical inspiration was Jean Paul Sartre. Yes, this was our band in 10th grade (sophomore lit, existentisalism, get it?). My friend Pete wrote a great original called "Screaming Purple Hellhounds." To this day, I can't remember the words, can't remember the melody and can't remember the chords.

3. Genetalia* - My first real experience with a live gig. We played the Alumni BBQ at Homecoming. Drunk alumni rocking out to our covers of "Dazed and Confused," "Love Me Two Times" and "Sweet Child O' Mine." A gaggle of black robed monks at the back of the gymnasium yelling at us to turn it down. The thrill ... the stench of grilled meats, cheap beer and the boys' lockerroom. I went home that night and told my parents I wanted to play music for a living. I'm an attorney now, so you know how that conversation went. An audio tape of this one exists, somewhere...

* We actually never had a name for this band. Genetalia was the name of a rival band of underclassmen at my school. They were actually much better than we were, plus they had fans. So we used the name on the flyers.

4. Moab and the Cannonites - My sophomore summer in Hanover, New Hampshire. We played an ice cream study break in the Hitchcock dorm. Pretty good turnout and a decent performance on our part, except the lead singer, Matt McGill, couldn't remember the melody to Runaway Train by Soul Asylum. He had to run upstairs and listen to the tape while we covered with Jazz Odyssey. I still have video of this gig.

Historic Photos

We live across the square from the 72nd Street Subway Station. Actually, the station isn't really a station at all -- it is a "control house" -- one of only three left in all of New York City. Here are a few old photos from the Library of Congress.

First Steps

Greetings and hello from Sherman Square. You might be thinking, "Where the hell is Sherman Square?" Fair enough.

Quoting Wikipedia:

Sherman Square is a diminutive public space at the intersection of West 72nd Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in New York City. The small parcel of land, acquired by the city in 1849, was named for William Tecumseh Sherman, who had once resided nearby, in 1891.

Diminutive? Sure. Litter prone? Check. Inconsequential? Probably. But this tiny park, probably one of the smallest in the five boroughs, is where I live. And so I love it. Otherwise what kind of neighbor would I be?