thoughts on shots

theparisreview:

What We’re Loving:

To read Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York is to understand that New York is in the process of going extinct. Pretty much every day, a little piece of the city dies. And when it’s all gone, what will be left? Starbucks and 7-Elevens. It’s awful, properly awful. Happily, the New York City Department of Records recently made their photo archive  available online, so you can experience old New York from 870,000 different high-resolution angles. It’s a nice dose of nostalgia, but in the end, they are just photos, and they won’t fully cure your sadness. For that, there’s only true tonic: go down to the oldest bookstore in your borough and buy Up in the Old Hotel, sit in the oldest bar you can think of, and read about the old Bowery, the taste of an oyster, “the smoky riverbank dawn, the racket the fishmongers make, the seaweedy smell, and the sight of plentifulness.” New York may be going extinct, but Joseph Mitchell is forever. —Arthur Holland Michel