Lonesome van, by Diego Cupolo, from the BushwickBK.com flickr pool
School Is a No-Go: A lot of kids in Bushwick don’t go to school on Halloween “because of increases in gang related activity.” Apparently it’s the Bloods’ “birthday.”
Vat a Schlep, This Bushwick, You Could Plotz: Lubavitchers are looking to convert Bushwick’s hipsters of Jewish heritage. The only inroad I see is someone participating in an ironic experiment possibly getting sucked in. Otherwise, petticoats and (non-brightly colored) wigs don’t seem like the proper lure.
The Primal Loft: The loft lifestyle lives on, and no place is the tradition carried out more faithfully than in Bushwick.
Mexican Parallels?: The gentrification of Oaxaca reminds this blogger of Bushwick, but with older white people and better architecture.
Get With It, MTA: What is with the continuing problems with the L-line’s “next train” system? The subways of Third World countries (maybe even in Oaxaca?) have had these notification systems on every line for decades. New York is only the biggest, richest city in the world.
Dresden November 3rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Lubavitchers approach me and as soon as I tell them my mother is Irish, they say, “have a nice afternoon.”
My father is a Jew. That makes them totally, completely and entirely racist.
They’re disgusting, in my humble opinion.
Joseph November 3rd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I am not an appologist for the Lubavichers but I think you may be missing something.
They see their mission as getting wayward Jews to be more observant. By their definition (and the definition of most observant Jews) a Jew is someone with a Jewish mother. i.e. matrilineal descent. By their definition, you are not Jewish and thus they are not interested in getting you involved.
I don’t see this as a racist position. It is simply that you do not meet their qualifications which they determine based on their interpretation of the Bible.
I hope you understand that I do not believe that the Lubavitchers position is acceptable and many other Jewish denominations such as Reformed or Reconstructionist would welcome your participation.
Dresden November 3rd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Joseph, I was raised in white trash America where I was persecuted far more than any hairy-faced fanatic with a bald wife.
You sure do sound like an apologist – and guess why they go with a maternal line to define their backward, pre-historical religion?
Because you can always tell who the mother is – so they’re basically calling all women sluts.
Two words: fuck them.
Steve November 3rd, 2008 at 7:21 pm
New York is the biggest city in the world? Are you joking? Is it even in the top twenty anymore? Ah, here we go, thanks to Google… if we go by metro area, New York is number #5. Also according to Google, New York is #11 in terms of wealthiest cities (measuring average wage earners). Of course, many suburban municipalities are much wealthier than New York City by any definition, since places like Greenwich and Scarsdale don’t have many poor people. I’m pretty sure more of the richest of the rich hang out in London (easier to evade taxes) and Dubai (more pure decadent pleasures) than Manhattan (of course they don’t bother with Brooklyn). But, yes, we should have a decent transportation system, and its amazing ours is only good when compared to the non-existent systems in most of cities in the US.
Dresden November 3rd, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Yeah Steve, Mumbai is the biggest. Followed by Karachi.
Imagine.
Jeremy Sapienza November 3rd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
No, I wasn’t joking, only trying to provoke some hapless reader into wasting their precious time fact-checking a troll post, and not at all taking a bit of artistic license to make a point.
Man November 4th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Let’s see if I can say something without sounding dickish.
Halloween was always an iffy school day, up to JHS it was fine but then a group of high school thugs waited at the bus stop and train stations with Nair and light bulbs and started throwing them at us, mostly at the girls. There should have been cops since the 83rd was 1 block away but the bus driver saved us by opening the back of the bus.
After that I never went to school on Halloween until college.