Equivalents and Alternatives; Rebel Rebel Records

I think we spend much of our adult lives searching for equivalents to some real or imagined ideal. I know I have begun to do just that ever since my move from Fog City to Gotham City. I have been on the prowl for record stores that remind me of Amoeba Music in San Francisco. Cinemas that make me feel like the Castro Theatre or film archives that program films as diverse as the PFA in Berkeley. Mexican restaurants that serve veggie burritos as good as Taqueria Cancun. Neighborhoods as alive as the Mission district. Music writers who write with the panache and verve of Kimberly Chun or J.H. Thompson. Small venues that wear the smell of beer and cigarettes as well as Slim's. Free festivals that are as accessible and well-organized as the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Fest. But I have been unsuccessful more or less thus far.

More or less because today, I discovered Rebel Rebel Records on Bleecker St. and I bought four DVD's at a steal from the Entertainment Outlet in Chelsea. Consumption makes me a happy and pliant camper.

If I combine the organization, selection, and pricing of Rebel Rebel Records in the West Village, Sound Fix in Brooklyn, and Other Music in the East Village, I might have the equivalent of the Amoeba Music in Berkeley. If Mondo Kim's Mediapolis was still around, it would be darned close to the Amoeba in San Francisco. Spanish Harlem and parts of the Bronx are equivalents of the Mission. The Angelika Film Centre is the equivalent of the Landmark at the Embarcadero Center. The Film Society of Lincoln Center is an alternative to the Pacific Film Archives. The New York Public Library is a cheaper alternative to Netflix.

The above photo was filched from Nick Piggott's Flickr page.