Pinisi and Punks

Since moving to Brooklyn, I have not gone out nearly enough to Manhattan to discover gems of note- until recently. With my friend Nish, much adventuring was underway earlier this week. We walked around the city for hours- HOURS, and were pleasantly surprised by many different shops and such we stumbled (not literally) into. One place in particular that had a really great vibe was Pinisi Bakery that has a few locations around the city. We had some delicious cupcakes there after eating dollar pizza- health schmealth, and were very satisfied. The bakery is adorable and has couches in the back along with a bookshelf with many different titles- you can even learn Russian! The feel is reminiscent of an artist's living room, devoid of that sterile, conventional, corporate callousness of starbucks. There's original artwork on the walls and they painted the florescent lighting panels with pretty primary colors. Also, the guys working there were very friendly.
Before that we went to a small book store on 1st with a great women's studies and political theory section. Of course, I have forgotten the name of the bookstore, but when I'm not feeling completely and utterly lazy I'll look it up and post its whereabouts/website.
So, remember my aversion to the lower east side? I'm kind of over it. I had an awesome time hanging out down there so I have since changed my staunch stance (hehe) on it. Though it is filled with insensitive idiots, there is a really cool scene there as a whole. Maybe cool's not the word for it- um, interesting. Yes, there's a fascinating collective of people/ideas in the lower east side- a conflicting mass of bigotry and "liberalism." We (my friend and I) experienced this amorphous, confused reality when we were at a bar dancing around like fools. It was interesting seeing who would approach us, who stared at us in amusement and terror, and who avoided us. There was one guy in particular that was wasted and probably on numerous drugs who felt the need to tell us, "If you can't dance to rock music, then you can't dance. You have to be able to dance to every type of music." Mind you this was after the DJ (who was shitty that night) was playing bands like Empire of the Sun, Passion Pit, and even some hardcore- but mostly he played horrible 80s music that was not made to be played at a dance party. Anyway, he said this and we stared at him in disbelief, realizing he was drunk and an idiot. He then proceeded to ask us how to dance like "black people," when a hip-hop song came on. This guy was a true asshole, completely oblivious to the ignorance pouring out of his mouth. It's annoying to be in a situation like that because you really are powerless. This guy was intoxicated so no amount of reason was going to permeate that thick skull of his, we were just trying to ignore his insults and continue our fun. Luckily, as the universe would have it, he was an awful dancer and had been flailing around the dance floor like a madman, bruising himself in the process and without aid showed his ugly insides through his grotesque dancing style-buffoon. I don't like to judge people when they're dancing, but when they admit ignorance willfully I let myself go. It's funny because he swore he was lord of the dance.
It's so frustrating running into people who are so small-minded. I've been around such amazing people, I forget those foolish people exist. It was depressing. I'm over it though, there's no way I'm letting one person make me lose hope in humanity (I almost did that night haha).


I'm out.