Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Exploring Greenwich Village: Bleecker Street

For the past year, where Wife and I lived, one of our cross streets was the famous Bleecker Street. Bleecker Street is a famous street in New York City's Manhattan borough. It is perhaps most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street is a spine that connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but was once a major center for American bohemia. Nearby sites include Washington Square Park and music venue Cafe Wha?, where Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, Kool & the Gang, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, and many others began their careers.

Here are a random list of interesting cultural references to our beloved Bleecker Street.

* 11th and Bleecker is mentioned in New Line Home Entertainment's 1990 production of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

* Japanese pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki visited Bleecker Street during recording of her (miss)understood album. The pictures were later published in Hamasaki's famous "Deji Deji Diary" that is published in each issue of ViVi Magazine.

* Bleecker Street is the name of a trail at Hunter Mountain.

* The Saint of Bleecker Street, an opera by American composer Gian Carlo Menotti, earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1955.

* Long-running television series Friends featured Bleecker Street signposts in several cut-scenes.

* Humorous web comic Alien Loves Predator features Bleecker Street in some episodes and also on an "AlP" T-Shirt.

* Bleecker Street is mentioned in the Steely Dan song "Almost Gothic" from the album Two Against Nature.

* Simon and Garfunkel have a song titled "Bleecker Street" on their album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.

* Bruce Springsteen, frequent visitor of the Bleecker Street club Cafe Wha?, says "Cat somehow lost his baby down on Bleecker Street" in his song "Kitty's Back" off his album The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.

* Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Punkrocker", featuring Iggy Pop, by The Teddybears.

* Bleecker Street is referenced in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, notably in The Wolves of the Calla.

* Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum is located at 177A Bleecker Street.

* Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "New Amsterdam" by the band Travis.

* Bleecker Street is mentioned in the songs "Cindy's Cryin'" and "Phil" by Tom Paxton.

* Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "What Do You Know About Love?" by Lloyd Cole.

* Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Underground Town" by ska band The Toasters.

* Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "New York Girls" (aka Can You Dance The Polka) by British folk rock band Steeleye Span.

* Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Bleecker Street" by Joie Blaney of Joie/Dead Blonde Girlfriend.

* Much of the 2007 film No Reservations (starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart) is set in a restaurant on the corner of Bleecker and Charles streets. The name of their fictitious restaurant is 22 Bleecker.

* In The WB series What I Like About You, Holly and Valerie live in an apartment on Bleecker Street.

* Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Tin Angel" by Joni Mitchell (on her 1969 album Clouds), and in her "Song for Sharon" from the album Hejira.

* The Marc Jacobs store on Bleecker Street is mentioned in the novel Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes as hangout for emaciated young women.

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