Saturday, June 01, 2013

"A Party Spinning Happily Out of Control"

"Then there are his origin stories. Strausbaugh offers Village roots for flash mobs, cabaret laws, Occupy Wall Street-like park protests and New York University’s lack of popularity with locals (its land grabs have been controversial since at least 1832). Rather less convincingly, he entertains the theory that costumed revelers migrating from the Waverly Theater’s midnight showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” straight to CBGB begat punk fashion. (This story begs for photographic proof—perhaps Debbie Harry in Magenta’s maid uniform.)"

Ada Calhoun in The New York Times reviews John Strausbaugh's The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues.

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