Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong continue sorting through their archives of punk-era concert footage as it’s digitized for the Downtown Collection at N.Y.U.’s Fales Library.
Time’s a funny thing, especially where musicians are concerned. If the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones doesn’t scare you, perhaps the realization that we’ve shared nearly 36 years with Bono and 29 with Madonna will.
Still, it’s a little surprising that a mere 21 years separates the release of “Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely” in 1958 and the above video of Iggy Pop covering the LP’s iconic track, “One for My Baby,” at Hurrah’s in 1979. At first glance, the culture wars of the ’60s would seem to render irrelevant the bars, broads and bruisers ethos that Ol’ Blue Eyes represented. But for the generation that made up the original punks, those childhood memories of cigarette smoke, parents’ late nights and Sinatra’s music ran deep. Read more…
Carl Guadalupe Physical Graffiti, a vintage clothing store located in a building that was featured on a Led Zeppelin album cover (below) and in a Rolling Stones music video, will soon close and re-open next month as a tea shop.A lonely pink high heel lay atop a basket of embroidered scarves, its beautiful gold toe pointing away from a box marked “Moving and Storage.”
Outside, on St. Marks Place, it was raining; inside Physical Graffiti, a vintage clothing store, which occupies a landmark site on the block between First Avenue and Avenue A, workers were packing up the contents of the shop.
The clothing store is closing its doors after 16 years because of the bad economy, but will re-open in March as a loose leaf tea shop under a slightly different name – Physical Graffi-tea – and the same management.
“It’s so sad but there is just no market for the clothes,” said Ilana Malka, 45, the store’s owner.
“Teas are affordable,” she said. “People eat and drink anyway even when the economy is bad and there are a lot of people out there who are looking for good fresh loose tea.”
On Wednesday Ms. Malka was busy packing boxes along with Holden Bucy, 24, a seamstress who had worked at the store for the past year. Ms. Malka picked up some of her favorite pieces that were still on display— a yellow taffeta dress and a 1950’s Persian fur coat, as Ms. Bucy filled bags with men’s collared shirts.
“Everyone was concerned that we were closing,” said Ms. Malka, reminiscing as she made her way past boxes holding in her hand the floor plan for the new shop. “But a lot of people are also excited about the teas.”
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Carl Guadalupe The front steps of 98 St. Marks Place today (above) and as it appeared on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 album “Physical Graffiti.”The buildings’ stony expressions look out over this last leg of St. Marks Place going east, between First Avenue and Avenue A. At first glance these two buildings look like standard East Village stock, but, eyes wide-open, the facades of 96 and 98 St. Marks Place have witnessed musical history taking place on their very stoops.
They are the iconic buildings featured on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 album Physical Graffiti, and also in the 1981 Rolling Stones music video, “Waiting on a Friend.”
Bobby Pinn, the creator and host of Rock Junket walking tours, “In the 70’s, Led Zeppelin were big fans of New York City. They partied here a lot and they played the Garden quite a bit, so they really had a close tie to New York. The cover was designed by Peter Corriston, a graphic design artist from New York. Peter said that he was looking for a building with a lot of character, which this building has with all the kings’ faces and it has that tenement-style feel with the fire escapes. He wanted a building that had symmetry and a lot of windows.”
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