Lower East Side Story - Part II: Crossing Houston
Originally created 3/4/2002Crossing Houston (pronounced "how-ston" in New York, not hju-ston) Street, I am in the neighborhood of East Village.
A neighborhood I’ve always considered as my favorite neighborhood, in a city I formerly considered a favorite one in the world.
Interestingly, after crossing Houston Street, almost every street changes its name: Avenue B becomes Clinton Street (where I live); Avenue A becomes Essex St. (a recently installed "Don’t Honk" sign blocks 'Es' part of the street sign and makes it look like "Don’t Honk – sex" Street); 1st Avenue becomes Allen Street, etc. Even the number of streets are different on north and south sides of Houston: It is a long blocks between 1st Ave. and Ave. A, but with Orchard St. and Ludlow St. (both streets are full of chic and happening places now) sandwiched between Essex and Allen Streets; Between Essex and Clinton, there are Norfolk and Suffolk streets. Usually walking home along south side of Houston from the 2nd Ave. subway station, I have to walk about 9 blocks to get home. If I take the north side, it would be only 3 (long) blocks. You do the math.
Being so status conscious about the neighborhood you live like New Yorkers, telling people you’re from Lower East Side seems to justify people’s stereotypes about newly arrived Asian immigrants (LES is historically famous as being new immigrants’ first residence in New York). If I tell people I live in East Village, then, people might assume I am one of the bohemian-hipsters-turn-young-professionals. Even though actually I feel a little bit of both, I am physically a Lower East Side resident.
Spiritually, I feel more like an East Villager. Constantly, I cross Houston Street to 'the other side' for entertainment and good restaurants. Pioneer Theater, on 3rd Street near Ave. A, is possibly the theater I spent most of my money on movies. It is part of a pizza parlor-video rental store called "Two Boots" (mix the tastes of 'two boots' –Italy and Louisiana- into slices of pizza). Many second-run art-house movies have been shown here, including the re-release of Wan Kar-Wai’s "In the Mood for Love." Being a member of the Theater, I am also invited to many free screening. Just last week, I was able to see the screening of "in the Bedroom" and "Memento" for free. The weekly Tuesday night special new film screening series (this one is not free) is one of my favorite activities in New York. The pre-screening party includes unlimited pizza and beer (until the supply runs out). Very often the screened movies are really bad, but at least I get to have free food and drinks!
Two blocks away (long blocks, since this is the north side of Houston), Film Anthology (2nd St. and 2nd Ave.) offers a selection of even more obscure art-house movies. I finally had chance to see the full length of Theo Angelopoulos’s "Un Regard d'Ulyssis" (3 scary long hours!) this past January. They even hosted a "New movies from Taiwan" last May and had retrospective for relatively unknown Taiwanese directors like Wang Tong and Lee Hsing. There are several small film festivals taking places at Film Anthology every year. The New York Underground Film Festival will begin this Wednesday (March 6). I am ready for some dose of very bad experimental movies now (it might help me to appreciate the Oscar over-extravaganza later this month).
In addition to Pioneer Theater and Film Anthology, there are also Angelica theater and Village East Cinema for art movies. I saw Tsai Ming-Liang's "What Time Is It There" at Angelica, possibly earlier than any of my friends back in Taiwan. When I think about the movies I can see here, I feel fortunate to be in New York.
Dining outside is fun in East Village too. Unlike many other parts of Manhattan, restaurant prices here tend to be more reasonable. Few restaurants offer entrée price higher than $20. Varieties also rule here. I can find great Polish, Japanese, French, Thai, Moroccan, Tibetan, Indonesian, Peruvian and even vegetarian restaurants on or around Avenue A. When I want to have (very) cheap Indian food, I can go to 6th Street. There are possibly 2 dozens Indian restaurants on the block between 1st and 2nd Avenues (With that many Indian restaurants on the same block, I really doubt if they all share a same kitchen. I feel they all taste the same...). Another good thing to report, waiters in east Village restaurants tend not to be as snob and rude like those in SoHo or Chelsea. Dining out finally might actually turn out to be a joyful thing as it should have been in life.
And life just becomes much easier after I moved into Manhattan. East Village is no longer 30 subway stops away. After a night out, walking across Houston Street, I am back home, at Lower East Side.
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