Five Minutes on St. Mark's Place

St. Mark's Place is known around the world as the epicenter of the East Village — it is the ground-zero of coolness!

Recently, the beloved CD store Sounds closed for good. Or for bad, but definitely forever. Their stairs are now free for all to sit on and watch shoppers make their way up and down the street.

Here is a video of five minutes and twenty-four seconds on St. Mark's Place, complete with soundtrack:



Saint Mark, evangelist and martyr, and patron saint of coolness… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #stmarksplace #sounds #steps

Sounds No More

By the time you read this, the beloved Sounds, the last CD store on St. Mark's Place, will be closed.

These signs on the stairs today announced their Grand Closing:

Signs announcing the Grand Closing of Sounds.

This was the view inside this afternoon:

The view inside.

Today, I discovered for the first time that they had classical and opera CDs — I never knew that!

I picked up a couple, and after looking through everything else in the store for over an hour(!), I took a last look through the popular music section, thinking "If they have any Neil Young that I don't have, I'll get it."

Wouldn't you know it? They had Comes A Time! (which I used to have, but it disappeared some how), so I took my selection: Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven's Fidelio, and Young's Comes A Time to the register.

The man at the register leafed through them quickly and said "Twelve dollars".

I tell you: my jaw dropped, my eyes popped, and I said "I'll be right back!"

I pulled out of the bins the others CDs I'd been thinking about getting but thought, even with a sale price, they'd be more than I wanted to pay. I got Beethoven's complete piano sonatas, Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte, Bach's Cello Suites, and since the prices were so good, Vivaldi's Four Seasons and collection of concertos for violin, cello, and oboe.

I went back to the register. He whisked through them again and said "Thirty-five dollars." I gave him my money, and was gone!

But not before getting this picture of an East Villager announcing to the world his tremendous savings:

"I saved so much money… in the East Village Today!"

Time will tell what new store will take the place of the now former, beloved Sounds. East Villagers will miss these great savings, but

We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind

…in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #sound, #sign, #stmarksplace

Arched Federal-Baroque Doorway

Who knows where this is?

If you said Sounds, on St. Mark's Place, you're right!

Here's more information, if you're interested: