CBGB's closes tonight for good.
To make sure the last night feels as inauthentic edgeless as possible, television crews are perched out on the Bowery, talking in the squarest terms possible about how the building behind them is a piece of rock and roll history. It's enough to make you side with the callow, punkish poseurs hooting on the sidewalk behind them.
The joint coaxed one of its era's legends, Patti Smith, to play the final show. The owner still wants to move the place to Las Vegas, where culture goes to lose its soul. Better just to let it die and have the building become part of New York walking tours.
Rest in peace, young rockers.
Walking from one newly up-scaled neighborhood of Manhattan to another -- how many bored millionaires and high-end boutiques can be crammed onto one island before it sinks? -- I was thinking it won't be long before that faux New York casino in Vegas is more authentic than the "real" thing.
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