There Goes the Neighborhood, Updated

Oh crikey.

Looks like people are already up in arms about the slight Duane Reade Williamsburg invasion I talked about recently.

Two Facebook groups already:
Boycott Duane Reade in Williamsburg
and
I'm Boycotting the Bedford Ave. Duane Reade/Walgreens

Three and it's a trend.

There Goes the Neighborhood

On the way to do my laundry last Saturday, I wandered past one of the various half-completed steel-and-glass condo buildings going up on Bedford. But wait-- a development. For the first time, it looked... sort of almost done. And there was a big old shiny sign hanging over the lintel; apparently, there's a Duane Reade going in.

Aha! I thought. So.

King's Pharmacy, which is a Williamsburg staple, lies directly (literally) across the street from the future site of bad customer service and jarringly sharp overhead lighting. There also happens to be another new Duane Reade a few blocks away on Kent, squatting in one of the huge condo buildings that will be forever destined for actual squatters and I-Banking rich people who live there.

It went up this summer amidst great fanfare and free water handouts during the Pool Parties. King's has had "keep local business alive" signs hanging since then. I just assumed they were leftovers from the Kent Ave store opening. No one told me there'd be another addition to the neighborhood, and so soon.

Here's my dilemma: at the risk of sounding Brooklyn, let's keep business local.* I wouldn't choose Starbucks over a Fabiane's coffee, for example. I get my stupidly overpriced foreign magazines from bodegas on Bedford instead of Barnes and Noble.

(*I do, however, occasionally patronize my local Subway on weekends. Sometimes I'm too tired/gross to brave a crammed lunch place.)

HOWEVER. King's Pharmacy... kind of sucks.

They never have what I need. My typical drugstore shopping trip: I go to King's, truck down the same aisles a few times because the layout is confusing, not find what I came there to buy, and then walk to the Duane Reade. I'm nostalgic for local business, but come on: if King's doesn't have the lotion I want, then I flip the realist switch and just go to fucking Duane Reade.

But will a new store brazenly stealing local business change my mind? Maybe I should just put up with sullen service (yes, EVEN worse than Duane Reade service, if you can imagine that) and poor stockage practices. Look on the bright side, me-- the King's playlist always sprinkles in a few gems. They play The Smiths on rainy days! That's got to mean something!

Most importantly: will I be shot on sight as I attempt to enter the new Bedford Ave Duane Reade? I am guessing yes.

My decision is probably made for me.

(Image via)

Boromir Tackles the Plague

My oft-documented super power of immediately zeroing in on the nerdiest thing ever came through again this afternoon. There I was, innocently leafing through the abandoned Variety I found in the hallway, when my eye settled on this.

Horses? Armor? Old-tymey shit? Golden.

It's a sickness, this thing I have.

The movie's called Black Death and it looks fantastic. Boromir really rides that horse, eh?

(image via)

Live From SoHo

Nope, I can pretty much guarantee the acoustics were not primo, Phoenix-flattering ones. Good show in any case.

... Where No Font Has Gone Before

And... I'm dead sexy.

Eating With Your Eyes

There's nothing like a gorgeous brand identity to make me about 95% more likely to eat at a place. Behold, two of my recent discoveries:

Want to try the Schnitzel and Things cart.

And Schnippers is fantastic.

Food in general is pretty good, right?

To Sakura... And Beyond!

Thanks to a generous discount courtesy of Seoul Diva, I finally bit the whatsit and went to Sakura for a manicure.

Long suffering Katie got dragged along to keep me company, but she ended up with a pretty cool set. Result.

My half-moon with bows:

 

And Katie's French manicure with blue tips (apologies for the excellent quality Blkbrry camera phone):

Come ON. Right? You know?

Oh, you don't?

I think it turned out fantastically well. Thanks, Sakura, for feeding my love for doing bizarre shit with my nails.