The changing 'hood

(I am now blogging while watching Monty Python. A new dorky low, or an attempt to balance out an otherwise cool, in both the hip and pleasant senses, evening?)

The Lower East Side has changed, man. Last time I was there it was all hipster bars, and now it's all hipster bars, but with more of them, and with a few yuppies along with the hipsters, and with a few more hipster coffee shops and hipster boutiques. As I noted earlier, hipster neighborhoods have a way of all blending into one, so I immediately thought, "Wicker Park," just as I thought, "Lower East Side," when last in Wicker Park. The differences are that in New York, people are more put-together and drinks are more expensive. Oh, and that in NYC, thin crust pizza is readily available, and celebrities are everywhere. In Chicago (OK, at Chicago) enough people came up to me and knew who I was that I might have counted as a very minor celebrity; no chance of that in New York.

Tonight was, as I mentioned, cool. Masha led me to the Mercury Lounge for a show. We were carded, and as usual out came the passport, which reminded me, as if I needed reminding, to get on that learner's permit thing. We also stopped by Two Boots, passed a dumpling restaurant which we're totally going back to, and passed a certain Star Wars star eating at a mediocre Spanish restaurant I'd eaten at with Jen (not to be confused with Jenn) a while back. If I were the divine Miss P. I'd go somewhere better, like, say, Chickpea.