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I know this little piece is for the special New York edition, selling that same old
story about the Rotten Apple: the most cutting edge of cities, the most menacing of
municipalities, how all the greatest creative elixir is brewed in a mix of its grit and
ambition. Well let me pull your coat on a little secret. All of that shit is a lie. I’ve lived
here half my life and I’m calling bullshit. Sure, maybe back before you were born, when
you could still rent a closet in the L.E.S. for 20 bucks a month so you didn’t have to have
any bread or “career ambition” in order to survive, maybe then “artists” had the room to
think and create, and maybe then it was at the forefront of some sort of radical cultural
output.
What I’m saying is, New York nowadays? Please. Fucking boring. The people. The shit
they make. The things they do. Yawn inducing. Trust me. Am I saying it’s better to live in Phoenix or Philly, or Antwerp or Adelaide? Oh Hell no. Sucks there too. Probably worse. Just pointing out that New York has the rat race disease same as any other place, where people are more concerned with status and creature comforts than with creating something that challenges and changes our current cultural landscape. Add to it that NYC is one of the most expensive cities to survive in, which eliminates most people’s free time, and you know it’s a losing battle. All of which leads me to believe you’d be just as likely to find some Gnomes or Yetis or Gurney's slug-eating Pitta, as you’d be in spotting some truly creative, original, real, really real, non-jerkoff, non-newjackcornball New Yorkers.
But then again, perhaps because it is such a big city, a worldly city, a genuine
cosmopolis, perhaps there’s still enough people, and enough variety, with enough
secret treasure troves and hide out spots, that if you’re lucky, if you search hard and
long enough, and perhaps most importantly, if you remain patient enough, that then
you’ll come across a true original, that rare breed, that strange species that only the
day before you worried yourself into thinking might be extinct. And that my friends
is precisely what people feel when they meet The Rickster, aka Rickford J. Powell,
the Bummy Sophisticate, Hip Hop’s answer to WeeGee, the Funky Uncle, the Cool
Substitute Teacher, the Lazy Hustler who made homeboys far and wide throw in the
towel, the Horny Dog Walker, the Illy Funkster, the honorable and esteemed Professor
Pumpernickel. When they get graced with the presence of Sir Ricky Powell? They get
nervous, ‘specially people from Idaho or Canada, like he’s gonna start snappin on ‘em
(which he will, lovingly, but still) because they know, intuitively, intrinsically, they’ve
stumbled across something that they’ve only heard about in books, something scarcely
if ever to have been seen in the flesh. And they know they’re going to treasure the
memory. That it will be a moment they’ll never forget. Because they know characters like
this don’t come a dime a dozen. A character like Ricky? One in a million. A standout.
Something remarkable. Something like gold dust.
— Ryan Monihan
Favorite Neighborhood: West Village
Best cheap eats: Mamouns Falafel
Favorite bar: Don’t go to Bars but IL Bagato for the Red Wine
Favorite coffee shop: Joe on Waverly Place
Best record shop: A! on 6th st.
Favorite place to buy threads: I don’t shop, I rely on free gear
Favorite tourist attraction: the Promenade along the Hudson River
Favorite bike shop: don’t have a bike anymore
Best place with outside seating to get a drink: The Riviera
Best museum or gallery: MoMa
Favorite place to ride your bike in the city or skate spot: Central Park
Favorite food spot: Westville
Favorite hidden gem in NYC: La Taza de Horo
Favorite skate shop: Don’t Skate
Favorite locally produced food or beverage: Lifetyme
Favorite living NY legend: Walter Frazier, Joe Namath and Dr. Lonnie Smith
Favorite annual event in the City: NoNE
Guilty pleasure in NYC: Ladies of the evening
Best live music venue: Central Park Summer Stage
Favorite park: None
Best pizza: Arturo’s
Best barber shop: None
Best camera rental: K & M Cameras
You’d only find this in New York City: The City for Street Photography
Yankees or Mets? Mets
