The Bad New Days

People ask me, they say “Hey East Village Today, is it true things are returning to the the bad old days™ of yore?”

I tell them: “Of course not, silly! The conditions that brought about the bad old days of the 80s and 90s do not exist today — this is not a return to the bad old days, but is a step forward, into the bad new days!"

Behold, as seen on East 4th Street, on Halloween:

Burned out car.

Here is a view from behind:

View from behind.

Here is a view from the front:

View from the front.

It's really amazing that the flyer put under the windshield wiper blade, expressing shock and anger that the East River Park is undergoing renovation, didn't burn!

Didn't burn.

It's a miracle!

Reminiscing

East Villagers love to speed headlong into the future, but sometimes they like to stop and reminisce.

That seems to be happening more frequently for one person, who has taken to scrawling 30-year-old slogans on lampposts and newspaper boxes:

Newspaper box.

…and hanging up signs that used to be hung up in the mid-1980s, like these that I saw this morning, on Avenue C and East 5th Street:

Mid-1980s signs.

Here is a horizontal close-up:

Horizontal close-up.

If you're wondering, it's no easier to read in person!

Here's a vertical close-up:

Vertical close-up.

The signs and the inverted martini glass with the line through the spilling contents were those of a band called Missing Foundation. You can find their songs on YouTube!

East Villagers know that change is cyclical — these cycles do not come back exactly to where they started; they don't make a perfect circle. Instead, change is evolutionary, moving in a spiral. Which is to say that it is not 1985 any more, and no one will respond to calls to mug yuppies, or not act "civilized".

But there's always reminiscing!

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