Bartenders Skills with a Manhatten continues his treatment of Nyack New York. But first here’s a shot from part one where BSWAM documents the moment when brutalism hit Nyack, and after it, a shot I took of the Curtin University library yesterday. Uncanny. I also like that we are displaying homes from Padbury and Nyack New York on the same day.
BSWAM continues…
“And the poor of the community shall be swept into a cinderblock housing project, whether they like it or no.”
“And the mansions and gardens and parks of Nyack shall be interspersed with apartment buildings of terminal mediocrity and unpleasant visage.”
“And the great 200-year old estates themselves shall become apartment dwellings; and the gardens thereof shall be paved with parking lots; and many the basketball hoop shall sprout among them.”
And lo it was done, and sucked the Hairy Root of legend.
But lo (again)! For the hippies came up through the mighty Tappan Zee!
And the massage/yoga parlors and African Arts Centers did flourish.
And the independent bookstores, supreme in their order.
And the spirit poles painted kinda as if they were sorta by, like, you know, Indians and shit.
And even the garbage cans did take on the aspect of joyous artistic endeavor.
And the yuppies did follow in the wake of the hippies and built a fine pile of Postmodern whatever the hell that is.
And did seize the ancient mansions of the 1700s and 1800s and 1900s and that cool house from 1958, and did paint them, to borrow a phrase from P. J. O’Rourke, “colors unfit for the posteriors of baboons.”
And the people did rejoice and retire to the great bar and feast upon the craft beers and persimmon sorbets and New England lobster rolls, choice of fries or garden salad.
And the young Jennifer Connolly did run in all her beauty through the streets in the first 3 minutes of the film “Labyrinth,” in what might be described as an “in-joke” in that the people of Nyack have been off to see the wizard since wizards there were to see.
And they all lived together happily ever after…Or so they said.
The Worst of Perth 
Very good. “Terminal mediocrity” – it applies to so many things.
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The Teamsters & The Soviet Union Today. Outrage would be all over the bookshop like flies on a blanket.
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Also, growing up republican.
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50% off. He may already be on his way.
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Disappointing that there have been two posts on Nyack without mentioning that it is the only town in the USA where the world ended in 1908: http://timestraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/disappointment-in-nyack-as-world-goes-on/?_r=0
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Padbury, although somewhat later, was the arse end, not sure about world’s end.
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Padbury is an example of everyday mediocrity: Perth is chock-full of half-arsed rental houses like that. Terminal mediocrity takes a bit more effort.
An example of Terminal Mediocrity in a TV show would be Sunrise, or pretty much the entire programming output of Channel 10. Architecturally… maybe the East Perth train terminal?
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I love EP station.The surfboard is what makes it. What is it? I was first assuming letterbox.
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You can’t diss
TWoP HQ, come the revolutionKGB Headquarters, MY.LikeLike
And where’s Rosie O’Donnell’s House?
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They have a copy of The Purple Decades! It’s an omen for tomorrow!
I bet they have Macca books there too. Probably a quarter (that US for 25c) each.
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Growing up Macca. That would be a book.
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*Ahem*
That would be Helen Hayes’ house. Rosie, yeah, lived there for a while, installed the security cameras, fat bitch, etc.
http://aradergalleries.net/prettypenny/home.html
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Things have not much changed in Nyack. Only the women in white are babbling about the Goblin King and the rude citizens’ eggs are $5 more for cage-free.
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Please tell me that backhoe in the last picture is not a proposed improvement in progress.
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I think that’s the point of the whole thing.
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Super-storm Sandy damage – they’re replacing the terrace, which had washed partially away. I just thought it was hilarious that the backhoe is the size of the house.
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Frack Nyack ?
What is the padbury connection supposed to be again ?
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