fake trends - Gawker

posts about #faketrends more →
Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
How New York Times Trend Stories Get Made: Glee Edition
Fake Trends Morph Into Old Person Sex Thing
Unlike Crack, Which Is Totally Back!
Aspiring Young Whites Found in Neighborhood Full of Same
But What Will Parenthood Mean For Your Yuppie Fitness Routine?
Three Disparate Events Prove: Civility Is Dead
How One Journalist Killed Facebook
Real Newspaper With Real Reporters Finds Fake Trend
Hamptons People Wear T-Shirts

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

DinaRonson : Elizabeth Cady Stanton
11/20/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
After moving to what I swear to Jebus is called on the Shitysearch map "South Central Midtown" I now know why there are so few residential buildings.
Kill me now.
Reply

RollsRoyceRevenge
11/19/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
The New York Public Library
Bryant Park
Grand Central Terminal
The Oyster Bar
The Campbell Apartment
The little gardens at Tudor City
That crazy bar in the Equitable Building
The Waldorf Astoria
MoMA
The Algonquin Hotel
The Morgan Library
Etc, etc, etc.

As long as you see Midtown as a varied collection of landmarks, public spaces, services and whatnot as opposed to a "neighborhood" I see nothing wrong with the place.
Reply

RollsRoyceRevenge was starred

badasscat
11/18/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
I like how Alphabet City is apparently in Greenwich Village according to that map.
Reply

badasscat was starred badasscat was unstarred

TheBusinessGuy
11/18/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
I had no idea my doctors and dentist are so cool.
Reply

TheBusinessGuy was starred TheBusinessGuy was unstarred

Mike Jahn
11/18/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
This would explain all the amusing Eurotrash and manque models I see daily using the free wireless at Subtle Tea on 30th and Madison.
Reply

Mike Jahn was starred Mike Jahn was unstarred

DinaRonson : Elizabeth Cady Stanton
11/20/09

@Mike Jahn: I know; GET OUT.
I live here - go back to your hotel. You know the one who's trash is picked up at 4AM weekdays.
Reply

yourfriendandneighbor
11/18/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
I blame Chuck Bass' new hotel.
Reply

lostarchitect
11/18/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
Midtown is a place you have to go sometimes, unhappily and with no lack of complaint. There, you fight through the hordes of (lost?) tourists to get to your destination, and then back again. Someone asks you for directions every block or so. The streets are numbered. THE STREETS ARE NUMBERED. When you get home, you crack a beer and weep quietly.
Reply

lostarchitect was starred lostarchitect was unstarred

Unsolicited Advice
11/18/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
As always, follow the money to determine why a lot of well-heeled vampires are lurking. Proximity to Cthulhu is of the utmost.
Reply

Unsolicited Advice was starred

Senor_Wences
11/18/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
The sleeping giant that is Midtown awoke the minute that Red Lobster opened. Hush puppies!
Reply

Senor_Wences was starred Senor_Wences was unstarred

Sergio Hernandez
11/18/09

@Senor_Wences: Cheddar bay biscuits!
Reply

Sergio Hernandez was starred Sergio Hernandez was unstarred

gawkimo
11/18/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
Back from what? I always liked Midtown. It's the fucking middle of Manhattan, where all the skyscrapers and theater are. The only people who don't like Midtown are those fucking hipsters and people who utter platitudes about tourists.
Reply

gawkimo was starred gawkimo was unstarred

Aatom
11/18/09

@gawkimo: exactly.
Reply

Aatom was starred Aatom was unstarred

eatsshootsleaves
11/18/09

@gawkimo: Ironically, any hipster that has moved to New York City from the outside has moved there because of a trip they took to Midtown as a little kid.

I get it -- you want to distance yourself from the tourists. You were one, once.
Reply

eatsshootsleaves was starred eatsshootsleaves was unstarred

Steverino Begins
11/18/09

@eatsshootsleaves: I know a lot of New Yorkers who have a love/hate relationship with Midtown for that very reason. I don't think it makes them hipsters.

I have a theory that Times Square is like New York's foyer. It's nice as a welcoming and meeting point, but when people want to hang out there exclusively it just seems silly (especially if they haven't even seen the rest of the house).
Reply

Steverino Begins was starred Steverino Begins was unstarred

badasscat
11/18/09

@Steverino Begins: Well, "midtown" is huge to the point that the word doesn't really mean anything. I don't think anybody meant to use it as a definition of the neighborhood's personality - midtown has no personality of its own, because it has so many different ones.

Times Square is a place most New Yorkers (native or transplanted) avoid, but there are other parts of midtown that we certainly don't. Say what you want about Ippudo, but midtown still has the best ramen shops in the city, for just one example. Ah, ramen.
Reply

Edited by badasscat at 11/18/09 7:18 PM badasscat was starred badasscat was unstarred

gawkimo
11/18/09

@eatsshootsleaves: I don't want to distance myself from the tourists. Tourists are good for the local economy! I went to kindergarten in the UWS when heroin addicts were knifing gays on W 83rd St., raised by a good Queens man who was a cab driver when cabbies were struggling artists not struggling Subconties, and I lived in NYC as an adult.

And, yes, I've been a tourist too :^) Love it!

#tips
Reply

Edited by gawkimo at 11/18/09 7:22 PM gawkimo was starred gawkimo was unstarred

Understater
11/18/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
Is Hell's Kitchen considered Midtown? Because I love that area.
Reply

Understater was starred Understater was unstarred

Brian Moylan
11/18/09

@Understater: I love it so much I live there--down the street from Cheyenne Jackson, Christopher Meloni, Rosie O'Donnell, and the famousest Julia Allison!
Reply

Brian Moylan was starred Brian Moylan was unstarred

Kissinghim
11/18/09

@Understater: Are you also generic to an unspeakable degree, like the nabe?
Reply

Understater promoted this comment Kissinghim was starred Kissinghim was unstarred

Understater
11/18/09

@Kissinghim: I'm so generic I don't even have a name in real life.
Reply

Understater was starred Understater was unstarred

sanyucat
11/18/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
Agreed. I was first alerted to the burgeoning midtown cultural scene by the constant line of tourists waiting behind velvet ropes outside the Abercrombie & Fitch on 5th. The whole block smells like cologne; it's everything I had hoped for when I moved to the city.
Reply

sanyucat was starred sanyucat was unstarred

Sergio Hernandez
11/18/09

@sanyucat: The entire block on Broadway between Houston and Prince Street also reeks of cologne, thanks to the newly-opened Hollister.

(Although anywhere on Broadway south of Houston is a bad example of Places in New York City That Should Be Sacred)
Reply

Sergio Hernandez was starred Sergio Hernandez was unstarred

sanyucat
11/18/09

@Sergio Hernandez: Someday we'll be able to tell our grandchildren magical, sepia-toned stories of our years in the city. The bedbugs, the time I was chased down Lexington by a galloping rat in the middle of the night, the shirtless teenaged "models" shivering outside of Hollister during Christmas season, the time someone pressed a boner against my leg on the subway . . . ahh, memories.
Reply

sanyucat was starred sanyucat was unstarred

downwithdebbie
11/18/09

@sanyucat: And occasionally they have their catalog models welcoming people in from the street. See! Models on the street! Sooo New York.
Reply

sanyucat promoted this comment downwithdebbie was starred downwithdebbie was unstarred

Sergio Hernandez
11/18/09

@sanyucat: Speaking of sepia-toned memories... when I was a child, I — no joke — used to think the world had actually been in black and white until whenever it was color television came along.
Reply

Edited by Sergio Hernandez at 11/18/09 1:17 PM Sergio Hernandez was starred Sergio Hernandez was unstarred

sanyucat
11/18/09

@Sergio Hernandez: That's awesome! Like there was a worldwide "Wizard of Oz" moment. Except without the terrifyingly earnest representatives of local guilds, leagues, etc.
Reply

sanyucat was starred sanyucat was unstarred

sanyucat
11/18/09

@downwithdebbie: I swear, EVERY time I walk by that place those guys are outside. Go away teens! I don't want to see nipples at 10 in the goddamn a. m.!
Reply

sanyucat was starred sanyucat was unstarred

Sergio Hernandez
11/18/09

@sanyucat: Ha, exactly.

Although I guess our equivalent of the munchkins and lollipop guild would be the FCC, heh.
Reply

Sergio Hernandez was starred Sergio Hernandez was unstarred

eatsshootsleaves
11/18/09

@Sergio Hernandez: @sanyucat: I used to think that they invented color movies partway through the filming of the Wizard of Oz.
Reply

eatsshootsleaves was starred eatsshootsleaves was unstarred

Atilla the Bun
11/19/09

@Sergio Hernandez: You should download the This American Life radio episode called "A Little Bit of Knowledge." The first several minutes of it are about people who thought certain bizarre things were true until it was revealed otherwise later in life, like a college-age girl who asked at a keg party "when did unicorns become extinct?" The anecdotes are hilarious, quite like your b&w world story.
Reply

Atilla the Bun was starred Atilla the Bun was unstarred

sanyucat
11/19/09

@Sergio Hernandez: @Atilla the Bun: I love that episode, especially the unicorn part. My sister thought until very recently that the two-headed llamas from Dr. Doolittle were real, because our Nana used to always refer to the llama farm near our house as the "push-me-pull-you farm."

Which begs the question -- why would someone farm llamas?
Reply

sanyucat was starred sanyucat was unstarred

sanyucat
11/19/09

@eatsshootsleaves: I think I thought that until just now.
Reply

sanyucat was starred sanyucat was unstarred

sanyucat
11/19/09

@Atilla the Bun: I replied above, out of order. I am a moron.
Reply

sanyucat was starred sanyucat was unstarred

SidAndFinancy
11/18/09

In reply to Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks
Isn't that like saying all of those people were spotted using a restroom? Every has to go to midtown from time to time.
Reply

SidAndFinancy was starred SidAndFinancy was unstarred

muppet_baby
11/18/09

@SidAndFinancy: Also, what does "midtown" even mean? North of 14th? Is Flatiron part of midtown? Where's the northern border? So many questions, that I only marginally care about answering.
Reply

Edited by muppet_baby at 11/18/09 12:51 PM muppet_baby was starred muppet_baby was unstarred

sanyucat
11/18/09

@SidAndFinancy: Stars: They're Just Like Us!
Reply

sanyucat was starred sanyucat was unstarred

City_Dater
11/18/09

@SidAndFinancy:

Yes! In so many ways...

And as long as there are movie stars in Broadway shows, there will be celebrities hanging out in midtown. Stars: they're just like us -- they don't want to stagger more than two blocks to begin their after-work drinking!
Reply

City_Dater was starred City_Dater was unstarred

quotidian
11/18/09

@muppet_baby: I always thought of it as 34th to 59th, and maybe 2d to 8th.
Reply

quotidian was starred quotidian was unstarred

laurasaurus
11/18/09

@muppet_baby: I definitely wouldn't say Flatiron is Midtown. There's a feel to places between 34th and 59th and 2nd and 8th as mentioned by quotidian.
Reply

daveyjonesisdead promoted this comment laurasaurus was starred laurasaurus was unstarred

Steverino Begins
11/18/09

@SidAndFinancy: You hit the nail on the Naked Cowboy's head.
Reply

Edited by Steverino Begins at 11/18/09 2:20 PM Steverino Begins was starred Steverino Begins was unstarred

daveyjonesisdead
11/18/09

@laurasaurus: It's the fact that the bedrock is close to the surface that defines midtown - 18 feet down in Times Square, hundreds of feet down in Greenwich village. You can build tall buildings on it cheaply relative to other parts of town, where you'd have to dig much deeper; the same goes for the the financial district. But I can't find anything that shows the depths against streets.
Reply

daveyjonesisdead was starred daveyjonesisdead was unstarred

Joe Mitchell's Secret
11/11/09

In reply to How New York Times Trend Stories Get Made: Glee Edition
So a media end-times freelancer is blessed with a shot writing for the Times and he meets the opportunity with hitting up Help a Reporter Out. How about trying to leave your apartment next time deadweight? #faketrends
Reply

Rozelle’s Bagman
11/11/09

In reply to How New York Times Trend Stories Get Made: Glee Edition
Does the Carrie Prejean viral video suddenly make it, yes, COOL, to masturbate? NO OFF TOPIC RESPONSES PLEASE #faketrends
Reply

Rozelle’s Bagman was starred

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

SUBSCRIBE TO Gawker

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment