Trust, I'll add a photo to this post this weekend - or in the next few days to illustrate the sheer lameness of these lights; considering that Voodoo Jive has become my bastard child blog, unfortunately, with my posting theatre reviews on
The Fab Marquee and trying to maintain
Ornery Woman and the gang of fabulous women on there, my own blog that I originally started over 4 years ago has declined into hardly anything. I hope to get the music back...soon...for that is what a main part of this site was for quite a while.
My
Song of the Day was something that I looked forward to every day. Then, as work got more hectic and my time to do things outside of said Clark Kent gig became shorter, things like picking my tunes, uploading the mp3 to my server via an FTP that wouldn't crash my archaic fucking computer, searching for and adding photos and bio info as well as purchasing info (I must always show where to buy the album if I'm going to put up an mp3) as well as photo credits, etc - all seemed to take forever...and eat time I didn't have.
But anyway...I digress - as usual. Today's bitch? The fact that Greenpoint has decided to chinch it out this year and instead of putting up the regular green and red light wreaths that extend across every intersection down Manhattan Avenue, making the holiday season awesome (it makes Greenpoint look like some cool Bedford Falls, literally, with the Xmas lights aglow) - instead of that, they are putting up these cheesy blue lights that just wrap around the individual lampposts. It barely registers as "holiday" anything. The fact that the lights were also like a month late is also kind of a horror show.
The Greenpoint Gazette
seems to disagree with me. I'm wondering who, if they really live in the neighborhood and know what they are talking about, would write so cheerfully:
"...holiday lights will include green garlands and sparkling white lights wrapped around the street light poles...In keeping with green values, Town square arranged for LED lights to be used this year, which will save almost 90% in energy costs compared to the older incandescent lights." (you can almost hear the exclamation point at the end of that sentence).
First of all, the lights are
blue, not white. So it looks like one huge very lame and cheaply-thrown together Hannukah celebration up and down Manhattan Avenue, which if anyone who lives there knows is hilarious, because the majority of the native Polish population of the hood (we're talking pre-hipster move-in) are...how can I say this? Anti-semitic is too harsh (and not altogether accurate), however the vibe is definitely Catholic or Polish Christian Orthodox, and I have heard many of the Polish people make a point to say "this person is a Jew, etc..." in THAT way. Whatever - the older generation haven't even learned English and leave it to their adult children and youthful grandchildren, who are bilingual now, to translate what's going on outside.
So, we've established the lights are blue...and apparently it almost didn't happen at all (if you read the article). I mean...wtf? I've been here 7 years, we've had them every year, and it wasn't going to happen? We should be happy to have some tacky-ass looking lights that don't look like they have anything to do with Christmas or the "holiday season" anyway? I know economic times are hard, but this has always been a poor neighborhood before all the trust fund kids/artists/hipsters (see trust fund kids)/Manhattan refugees moved in. It was rough and it wasn't pretty. But during the holidays, they had these lovely lights that would go up around Thanksgiving, and would line the streets of Manhattan Avenue, making you not look at the trash and the belligerent drunks on the corner, and enjoy the beauty of the Holiday spirit.
This year, we get lights that look like they came from the lobby of a used car dealership.
My first thought was: is this some PC thing? Have enough hipsters and atheists moved into the neighborhood that they wanted to take away Christmas and simply throw up some lame lights and call it a night? I hate to sound like one of those whackjob rabid Hard Right bloggers, but there is something to that "Anti-Christmas" thing; my nephews can't even celebrate Xmas in their school anymore (but Muslim kids can leave class to go pray). I think it's lovely to do both - but not pick one and discriminate against Christianity...or Christmas. It's not fair, honestly. And I blame two groups: the Hard Left, who are as bad as the Hard Right, and the current administration for attaching Church and State and pissing everyone off so that anything having to do with Christmas and/or Christianity is looked down upon.
But that's a whole other rant. I'm talking about these fucking lights.
So, then I thought "well...economic times are hard..." -- but to be honest, this neighborhood has more money flowing into it now than the last 20 years put together, and they couldn't come up with the beautiful Xmas lights they have every year? Those lights make this an actual neighborhood instead of just another area in the big city. And now...we're stuck with these tragically pathetic lights that don't speak Christmas at ALL (next thing you know, they'll stop selling trees). What I find hard to swallow is the horseshit that the
Greenpoint Gazette is shoveling in the article; as if we're supposed to be happy about it? I mean, I'm paying 1540 in Greenpoint now for a tiny one-bedroom in a neighborhood that used to be considered too scary to walk through. They couldn't afford the lights?
All I have to say is that it sucks...and I miss the Bedford Falls (no relation to Bedford Avenue, people) look; the feeling of Christmas in Greenpoint, and being able to invite my folks over and show them how beautiful the neighborhood can be. Now, it's just another neighborhood in Brooklyn that couldn't cut the mustard.
Labels: economics, Greenpoint, holidays, lame decorations, NYC, PC bullshit
