New York in the 70s

August 14, 2019

Sometimes I think I was supposed to be in New York City in the 70s. I don’t know why. Maybe I was supposed to be there for the birth of hip hop and American punk rock. Maybe I was supposed to do graffiti and dance disco I was supposed to party at, like CBGB and Studio 54, do coke with Lou Reed and Jean-Michel Basquiat and ride the S train to poetry readings by Patti Smith and watch XXX movies in Times Square. I was supposed to witness urban decay, the crumbling tenements, the gangs, the blackouts and be inspired to hang out with artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and Keith Haring chillin with Andy Warhol at The Factory, musicians like Afrika Bambaataa and The Ramones, Grandmaster Flash and The Velvet Underground, The Talking Heads, Blondie, The New York Dolls, transvestite queens and kickin it with some chick named Madonna. Jazz funk world fusion oozing out of warehouse lofts in the Bronx while Son of Sam is runnin around shooting people, the first gay pride parades, dancing to the first DJs at The Loft, reading about it in The Village Voice and Interview, breakdancing to giant ghetto blasters on cardboard with mixtapes by DJ Kool Herc... If anybody knows of a cool warehouse loft space where I can like, do art and be inspired by a bunch of multi cultural freaks and artists and start creating new forms that will resonate across the next few decades of art, music and culture let me know, I’m looking for a place