THE EDITOR’S DESK: About Last Night
Last night was The Rumpus Launch Party at Crash Mansion in New York. I didn’t have enough volunteers. Actually, I didn’t have any volunteers. There were people that volunteer for The Rumpus, like Juliet Linderman and Thomas Seely. But they were there to see the show. Ainsley Drew was there with her family (note to Ainsley, I’m sorry I didn’t meet your family!). But I didn’t have any volunteers that were there to like, WATCH THE DOOR.
So I needed a cashier. Juliet stepped up, along with our esteemed books editor Andrew Altschul. So did James Frey and Davy Rothbart. If you came last night chances are you gave your money to the founder of Found Magazine or the author of Bright Shiny Morning. But that’s just the way it is at The Rumpus. Everybody does his or her part. The famous people work door lines in the freezing cold, the assistant editors of the world are paid exorbitant salaries, much more than the editor-in-chief. Here at The Rumpus, we’re turning everything upside down.
Wait, I have to tell you about last night. Because two things happened. There was Rumpus, and there was not so Rumpus. There was Will Sheff and Tim Bracy and Beth Wawerna, all crooning like the world was ending to a spellbound crowd rocking gently on vinyl sofas and sitting on the floor. There was Davy Rothbart threatening Jonathan Ames to say away from his girlfriend and Jonathan Ames interviewing people in the audience. Starlee Kine did her sticky notes and Michael Showalter showed a video he made and Kristen Shaal talked about the transformation she made when she joined Flight of the Conchords. Andrew Greer was drunk and jetlagged and kind of brilliant and so good looking. It was like he was an advertisement for why it’s better to be gay and Rick Moody was there, just hanging out.
But when I was on stage I didn’t talk about The Rumpus. I talked about what was going on in San Francisco. Over the last seventeen days my neighborhood had banded together to stop American Apparel from opening on Valencia Street.
“What wrong with American Apparel?” you ask. And I say, “It’s not about American Apparel, it’s about formula retail. It’s about every street and mall in American looking the same, with the same stores and the same coffee shops.” I say, “Formula retail is the death of art and a whole lot of other things. And even if American Apparel is cool, it doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter. Because there are 250 of them in 20 countries. You can’t have an American Apparel on your street and any kind of character. And yes we have to deal with gentrification and save rent control and work harder and come together more. And we had to stop American Apparel, because they would have been a beachhead and then it would be Urban Outfitters and Gap and Starbucks and welcome to any street USA.”
And at the same time The Rumpus launch party was happening the planning commission was meeting in San Francisco. There were more people than had ever shown up for a planning meeting (or so I’ve been told). Hundreds of people, with two overflow rooms. The meeting extended into the evening. And I have to say here, because I want to give credit but also where it intersects with me, I started the Stop American Apparel campaign. I put up the posters and the website and got the local merchants together. I didn’t do the majority of the work. That would be Isaac Fitzgerald first and foremost, and the merchants along Valencia. And Chicken John. And tons of neighborhood groups and co-ops like Pirate Cat Radio and Artists Television Access. But I started it, I had a stake. It feels so good to care about something.
And at 9:33p.m., New York time, just before I introduced Will Sheff, the final act of an amazing night, (Will fucking Sheff, c’mon people!) I got the call (text, actually) that we had won. That with only 17 days (you have to put up your sign for the planning commission hearing 20 days before the hearing) we had stopped American Apparel. Stopped them cold. The planning commission had voted 7-0 against them. I started jumping on the stage. I was in New York, my fist hit the low ceiling. Everybody wanted to hear Will Sheff.
And then I explained a little. And I apologized for not talking about The Rumpus all night, which is what the whole event was really about. But then maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was about a whole lot more things. And Will Sheff, he came on the stage, and he rocked it out.
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Video from the launch party:
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Not related at all, an interview with Christina Maria on Cable Access.
February 6th, 2009 at 7:08 am
Yay Steve
February 6th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Wooohooo, Steve. Way to go, you. You’re a doer.
February 7th, 2009 at 8:09 am
“It may be that we have become so feckless as a people that we no longer care how things do work, but only what kind of quick, easy outer impression they give. If so, there is little hope for our cities or probably for much else in our society. But I do not think this is so. ”
— Jane Jacobs, The Death And Life of Great American Cities, 1961
Stephen Elliott and the Stop American Apparel Campaigners: 180 from feckless.
February 7th, 2009 at 10:36 am
I want to give a shout-out to Isaac. I saw him whilst I was there and had know idea how responsible he had been for getting the word out. I certainly wouldn’t have known to when and where to show-up if it hadn’t been for his efforts. Rjv.
February 9th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
There are only “better” and “worse” corporations? Interesting. I’m wondering if my husband’s “corporation” falls into the “better” or “worse” category. It’s an 11 person company that happens to be incorporated (as far as I know most companies, however large or small or good or evil, are incorporated and are therefore corporations). He started it six years ago with no venture money, and ran it for the first five years on a salary of exactly zero. It’s a pretty fun “corporation” as far as I can tell, a web site where kids build cool shit using lego-like tools, either for free or for five bucks a month. A place where kids go to get interested and have fun and interact with their friends. Kind of like what writers and readers do at the Rumpus. Only the intent is that some day it makes a profit. I, for one, hope it does. I hope it moves from being “better” to “worse,” in your parlance, that it gets big and gets bought and entertains a whole generation of kids and creates a whole bunch of jobs and “turns into a machine” and “stops feeling,” and sends our four living, breathing, feeling, very human kids to college.
February 9th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
it’s amazing how verbose i usually am HOWEVER regarding my experience at the Launch Party (my first time at that venue despite living in nyc awhile) i must say i am speechless. i was so profoundly disappointed and shocked at how “off” the whole night felt, was, lingered. and not in a good way. i felt such a connection and that bond with offbeat writers, lit types etc who put stuff on rumpus that felt ‘right’…so imagine my displeasure at forking over $20 for my ticket plus another $20 on my debit card (bc guess what? the douchebags have a frekaing TWENTY dollar minimum for credit cards)….and then being subjected to the worse singer i’ve heard in my life (on guitar, trying to sing oh-so-fervently) while a more talented accordian player accompanied him. that was the start then you had mr frey who is like A-rod for the lit set, aka FRAUD….who should not be able to so easily put that whole debacle behind him. and then some guy from ann arbor (really! i mean c’mon…i thought they MUST be kidding) who also began cliche and annoying right from the start by talking total cliche crap about how he struck up a chat with some girl on the plane and told her, golly gee why yes i am going to the gosh darn big city, oh why? you ask well i am a real live writer, by golly”…i mean honestly the whole night was so bad i kept looking for the candid camera. honest to god. the only regret is that i didn’t realize Rick Moody was there. holy shit! now that woulda been worth $20 to see…but alas i was over to the right of the stage under the litup Crash Mansion sign. and then even worse, with my $20 min. i was forced to get drinks that were horrible and then starving (i’d come straight there from my job in Hoboken full of the most positive excited anticipation) so i ordered what were the worst mozzarella sticks and marinara EVER. i stayed til almost the end only bc i had paid $20 to get in so while in Rome…ya know? i felt a connect from the moment i discovered rumpus. i think i first found out about it from a Margaret Cho email i got that had a link to the interview she did with rumpus. i just feel so sad, like a first date that had so MUCH potential yet fell so flat, so very flat.
in short, let me put it this way–you KNOW it’s bad when despite all the “illuminaries” and guest speakers, the most entertaining, talented, engaging person was a random guy from the audience who talked about waking up covered with what could have been shit, his own maybe, and how it tasted like PLUMS….or plum pudding….
if only i could get the $20 back. i guess my only recourse for ‘revenge’ for the time and money lost is to write a well-written diatribe and purposefully leave it somewhere in HOPES that someone sends it into FOUND…which of course is mailed to the seemingly-Eminem-wannabe who lives with his parents in ANN freaking ARBOR…i think i make my point.
and i am sorry but i just HAVE to add that honestly, people were chuckling over how inappropriate and annoying as FUCK it was to hear that incessant RANT about that fucking American Apparel. one of the FEW moments of genuine wit of the night was when the one guy (sorry i can’t rem his name) got up there and finally, oh FINALLY he talked about the proverbial elephant in the room (i.e. the uncomfortable, annoying repeated mention of the american apparel issue) by joking that he felt almost beholden now to go to san francisco and begin ranting about a coffee shop on his block in brooklyn. and he was right, like you know, how that NYC Launch got to be about the fucking ridiculousness of something that happened in san fran a gazillion miles away. don’t get me wrong, i am not centrist, i mean i get the whole we are connected one and all thing…but my GOD…couldn’t that guy take a hint and STOP BARKING about fucking san fran? god i hate west coast bullshit like that. do you see me ranting on about NYC local issues when i visit my mom in san fran? no sir.
i also loved the one guy who got up there and showed his jacket and turned around and showed it was sweater in the back, so he coined it a “swacket”…now THAT was funny. and he was very handsome.
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS. THIS WAS MY EXPERIENCE. I MEAN NO MALICE. I JUST FIND IT CATHARTIC TO WRITE AND DESPITE WHAT YOU TAKE FROM MY COMMENTARY ABOVE, I DO TRULY WRITE WELL AND ONE DAY I HOPE PEOPLE WILL READ MY STUFF…..but not in an american apparel in san fran!
and for the record, i am RIGHT THERE with you about the greater issue of retail takeovers….i don’t care for american apparel either, or the gap, etc.
February 10th, 2009 at 11:22 am
For in that place of Time,
Where memories meet
In fullness trenchant,
The waters flow into the delta wide.
And beyond, lies the open sea.
February 10th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Oh, and one more thing. I just orderdered a pair of jeans, size 14, straight leg, washed denim, for my son from the Gap. They cost $22. It took me forty-five seconds. And gosh, if I were instead shopping at some funky neighborhood shop 1) I would NEVER have found his size and 2) I would have been out in the rain with my kids SHOPPING. So here’s one suburban mother not the least bit afraid to celebrate F***ing Gap on-line.
February 11th, 2009 at 7:15 am
Maybe you can shop for American Apparel online too?
February 12th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Jan …. your shopping online is the very reason that we need stores in neighborhoods to fill the empty spaces …. your Gap sale took $$$ out of a neighborhood and the city where you reside. It does not matter if it is American Apparel or Jimmy’s Pizza …. the stores need to be rented and the stores need to be supported by the people who live and shop in the area. American Apparel was a poor choice to fight in my opinion as Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, etc. are better wars in my opinion. Glad that you found some pants for your son.
February 22nd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Dear Jimmy,
I also buy stuff on line from all kinds of mom and pop shops that have literally been created by the internet. I may be taking money from my neighborhood when I do that, and I may be putting it right smack into yours. Maybe the guy I bought my superman cape from on-line is your next door neighbor. He’s got a bunch of stuff in his garage and he’s making his mortgage selling it through Amazon. More power to him.
April 8th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Stephen is a hypocrite.
He says: “Formula retail is the death of art and a whole lot of other things…we had to stop American Apparel, because they would have been a beachhead and then it would be Urban Outfitters and Gap and Starbucks and welcome to any street USA.”
Interesting, since I don’t see Stephen yelling and screaming for Starbucks to remove his pull quote from their coffee cups:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdong/2920117453/
I guess *sometimes* corporate shilling is okay, as long as it benefits him.
Hey, anyone else notice that the Valencia storefront remains vacant? Hey, Stephen: in your zeal to “protect” the neighborhood, did you also make sure that the property owner was compensated for the deal you cockblocked? I guess he’s not a human being who deserves to make a livelihood.