BLONDIE
Debbie Harry
Photo Copyright Daniel Bellino Zwicke
Just walking back home from my Chiropractor. East Village to Greenwich Village, and came across this great mural of Debbie Harry (Blondie) painted on the side of a building wall on Bleecker Street, just east of The Bowery. Great job to the artist who did it. I'll have to take note of that the next time I walk by
Debbie Harry and her band Blondie were icons of Punk Rock, Pop, and Rock Music in the late 1970s and 1980s. Debbie Harry was a major fixture of the Downtown New York Scene of the 70 & 80s. Debbie Harry was immortalized by Andy Warhol, who did several paintings of Harry's image.
This mural on Bleecker Street is just feet from where the famed Punk Rock Club CBGB'S once sttood, and where Debbie Harry played on several occasions. The song "Rapture" by Debbie Harry is one of the 1st Rap Songs ever, though Harry was not a Rap Artist at all, it was just this one song, "a One Off." On the other hand, much of Debbie Harry and Blondie success comes from the fact that her music crossed many genres, including: Pop, Punk Rock, Disco, and Rock Music. Debbie Harry / Blondie hits include: Heart of Glass, Rapture, Call Me (American Gigilo), and The Tide is High.
"Keith Andy & Jean Michel"
McSORLEY'S OLD ALE HOUSE
East 7th Street
New York NY
McSorley's Ale House, or simply McSorley's as most people have called it, is an Irish Bar on East 7th Street in New York, first opened its doors in 1854 and his been operating as a bar ever since.
McSorley's has some famous motto's, including; "Be Good or Be Gone," "Good Ale, Raw Onions & No Ladie," aluding to their Ale, the raw onions on their Sndwiches served with Irish Custard (Mustard) and no ladies referring to the face that McSorley's was one of the last bars in New York that had a no women allowed policy, which held true until they were forced by a court order in 1970 to permit women into this famous old men's bar.
Some of the famous people who drank at McSorley's over the years include' Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, Peter Cooper, and artist John Sloan who did some wonderful paintings of the old bar.
I first drank at McSorley's on St. Patrick's Day of 1975 with my friends Jay Fahy, his brother Richie, and my buddy Jimmy Ryan. I was just 17, had the most wonderful time singing Irish Songs that my friend Jay led and got the whole place singing along. That's McSorley's.
MILANO'S
East Houston Street
New York NY
FISH BAR
East 5th Street
New York NY
I walked past the Fish Bar (Kastro Lounge) today. The Fish Bar is another old haunt of mine when I used live on Avenue A & St Marks Place in the East Village from October 1982 to 1993. I was working at Les Halles, then Park Bistor back then, and the Fish Bar was a regular Friday Night stop after work. It was a small, serious drinking bar that was famous for their Martini's. The Owner Fran, who was a bartender at The Blue Bar in The Algonquin Hotel open this little bar on East 5h Street called Kastro Lounge. The place was reminiscent of a little bar that you might find on a Greek Island, with its over-head garage door and Fish decorations all over the bar, the customers disregarded the real name of the place Kastro Lounge, and just called the place the Fish Bar. The name stuck, and that was that. Fran's brother Johnnie was the main bartender, the friendly face of the joint that was filled with many hardcore regulars. I'm talking serious drinkers and a lot of Coke snorting in the bathrooms. That was not me. No Cocaine, and I've never been a big drinker. I like a cocktail here and there, and I love socializing out at a nice bar, and I never get drunk. I don't mind getting just a little buzz, which I actually like, but I never ever get drunk. I drink slow and nurse my drinks, as not to get drunk. My main reason for being there is to hangout, chit-chat, and have a nice time, without getting drunk.
One of my favorite things about the Fish Bar was their take-out menu. No they didn't have a kitchen, and they didn't serve any food. They had a loose-leaf binder that was filled with about 20 menus of local places that delivered food, and I used to love to go to there on Friday and Saturday nights after work, order my Mount Gay & OJ from Johnnie, call up the diner around the block, order a Cheeseburger, and wait for the guy to deliver it to me at the bar. I just loved that, and along with hanging with friends, and bull-shitting about this and that, and sipping my Rum, I just loved to order my Cheeseburger, have a guy deliver it to me at the bar, and schomp down on it.
These were my times at Kastro Loung, aka "The Fish Bar."
Basta !
Debra Harry
Just Another Picture
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