Adam Green, where has your love gone

4.25.05: NEWS ITEM HERE.
So, unless this "Greenpoint, NY" happens to be a little rural farming county somewhere upstate, I'm going to be VERY angry.

Adam, my dear, do your loyalties stray? What is this?
That boy is South Brooklyn royalty; he is our representative to the indie rock community, and even now that he spends most of his days in Germany, he is an honorary South Brooklynite.
Now what irked me initially was that the webmaster emphasized the Greenpoint part, very clearly with intention, by calling it "Greenpoint, NY"..... speaks for itself, doesn't it? Obviously the people over at Adam Green Co. determined that Adam's decision to shoot the video in Greenpoint (of all places) was not only mention-worthy, but worthy of an unabashedly boastful declaration. How else would one explain how such heavy importance is put on "Greenpoint" that it needs to be succeeded by ", NY" for FURTHER REITERATION of its enormous significance? Like it deserves to be acknowledged as a separate geographical entity unto itself, that it must be referred to, with all due respect, as Greenpoint, NY? It couldn't merely have said "Brooklyn", or, if the webmaster absolutely must, "Greenpoint, Brooklyn"? Really, Adam Green Co.?
And, you see, what the webmaster neglected to say was:
After Adam finished the filming on his new video, he headed on over to Enid's for a bite, where he camouflaged easily into the congregation of Enid's patrons that had gathered there like they do on any given day, indescernible from every other skinny, mussy-haired, blazer'ed indie rocker in the place.

This is not so simple a matter as Adam Green shooting his video in Greenpoint, no, this is Adam Green committing treason, in essence. On a large scale, this is about the enmity between Brooklyn's two major artist colonies, separated by Fort Greene and connected by the G train. These are serious matters of F train vs. L train, of Smith st vs. Bedford ave, of Banania Cafe vs. Enid's. Now we all know many South Brooklynites look upon North Brooklynites with disdain -- their deplorable living conditions, their obscure little socialist establishments, their, um ambitious "artistic" endeavors. And in this rivalry, Greenpoint/Williamsburg has steadily maintained their status as victor, because even while South Brooklyn encompasses more neighborhoods, North Brooklyn occupies more space and its bohemian population is generally more concentrated. There is a greater sense of unity and community as the threat of gentrification that developers and developments bring loom dauntingly near. Oh, but that's exactly it: that is a defining attribute of the Carroll Gardens/Redhook/Boerum Hill/Park Slope/DUMBO beatnik, dissident, urban bohemian, what have you. They see themselves as less of a whole or network and more of a republic. Not to say that there's any scarcity of neighborhood pride within those respective artist enclave communities, it's just... that they're less militant about it. Adam, oh Adam, one time ambassador to South Brooklyn, HOW COULD YOU? If not Adam, somebody oughtta show South Brooklyn some love!

Now, neighborhoodies -- that's one institution that's doin' things right. I walked into their Brooklyn store a couple weeks ago, the Boerum Hill branch, and immediately several clocks arranged in a vertical column captured my interest; each was labeled with its own plaque. They lure you to examine them closer, and you approach curiously, expecting to find London, New York, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, etc; instead you get Redhook, Park Slope, Dumbo, Fort Greene, and either one or two of the following: Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Clinton Hill, and.... possibly Caroll Gardens, but I think I distinctly remember acknowledging its absence on the Time Zone Clock wall. (And no, obviously there are no time differences between clocks.) Located at the very back of the store, opposite the door, the plaques above their respective clocks draw you deep into the store to the back wall and tempt you to read them. Very clever. Props to them for conceiving that idea. But the first thing you notice, after marveling extensively at the brilliance of the idea, is the void on that back wall. They chose their neighborhoods with care and consideration, and the absence of any clock representing either of the North Brooklyn neighborhoods was no accident -- rather, it was a gesture of disrespect and ill will. You looked at that column of clocks and you just knew they had deliberately excluded Williamsburg and Greenpoint. But really, would you have expected anything less of them? This was neighborhoodies, after all! And I was delighted. I was nothing short of elated to see that North Brooklyn love had no place in the good Neighborhoodies community. If you've followed Neighborhoodies and its growth and expansion as a company for as long as I have, you know that they have at no point in their history ever acknowledged Greenpoint, and they CERTAINLY have never acknowledged Williamsburg. It's against their nature. They have just gone along ignoring the two neighborhoods like nothing north of Fort Greene or Clinton Hill is even worth recognizing. (And blessed we are for this; thank you Neighborhoodies.) They have deliberately avoided the inclusion on their website of people pictured wearing anything that reads "Williamsburg" or "Greenpoint" across the front. No, indeed there is no north brooklyn love to be found over at Neighborhoodies. And understandably there isn't. Just think how ludicrous it would be to put "williamsburg" on any article of clothing. That... would be dangerous territory to be wandering into. You'd be hanged within but two minutes of stepping outside, regardless of where you live.

Huge kudos to Neighborhoodies for setting up their staging area/HQ in DUMBO... their preference of DUMBO over any of Brooklyn's other industrial districts reflects directly on where their geographic loyalties lie and their feelings toward the giant mutant unified artist super-community that is Greenpoint/Williamsburg. And how 'bout the decision to put the Brooklyn store in Boerum Hill, huh? We all know that neighborhoodies is selective as hell about location so it comes as no surprise to me. You broadbandless bitches gotta haul your asses down to Atlantic ave. for your neighborhoodies fix, or order online and wait for your crap to be delivered..... ha, they're punishing you.
Neighborhoodies: representin' South Brooklyn, baby.
(Unlike Adam Green.)