YAPPY HEW NEAR

Apathy, banality, boredom..... television.

What a town!

When I was 13 I spent a lot of time by myself mostly shredding trails on my bike in the woods. I grew up in a suburban NJ town and had already understood that it was not the place for me. By then, I had already commited Walk Among Us, The first Ramones record, and about 85% of Iron Maiden and Metallicas catalog to memory. Nirvana had just released In Utero and they were my favorite new band. I heard on the radio that they were playing at Roseland Ballroom in the neighborhood of New York City's notorious Times Square. So, I rode my bike to this video store that sold tickets and bought one single ticket for myself. Grossly underestimating my immegrant parents, I left the ticket in plain view to be confiscated by my mother who refused to let me follow through with this plan. Thankfully, I had an older brother who's friends were also going and it all eventually panned out. The walk from Port authority to Roseland in 1993 was not what it is today. That night I saw many things I had only heard of. Trans-sexual prostitutes, prostitutes in general, porn theaters, guys whose faces had been contorted by who knows what, and maybe some other things I was too young to understand. As fucked as street life can be it was great that there was a place it could all go down. If you wanted to participate then there was a wealth of resources at your disposal. And I think it's even more great that people went there each year to celebrate the coming of a new year.