Customer Reviews

Reverend Jen's Really Cool Neighborhood/Les Misrahi

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I cringed when I read the so-called review in which the reviewer launched a personal attack on the author rather than discussing the book. That was extremely inappropriate, and the person who wrote that should be ashamed of himself or herself. Then again, another reviewer, in response to that out-of-line review, wrote something that praised the author but again did not address the book itself at all. I think some people are missing the point of a review.

Lest I too become one of those people, I'll now talk about the book: I liked it.

The Lower East Side is a fun place. As Manhattan becomes more uniformly upscale and sanitized (you *know* things are changing when even the Meatpacking District becomes fashionable), the Lower East Side is the last bastion of hipness and nonconformity. I thought "Reverend Jen's Really Cool Neighborhood" captured the feel of that very nicely. As the author says, it's quite likely that some of the places she mentioned will no longer be there by the time the reader reads the book, but that hardly matters. The value of the book is not in its usefulness as a travel guide. Rather, I think it serves as a snapshot of a certain place at a certain time - a neighborhood somewhere between the old dangerous-but-fun New York and the new safe-but-bland New York.

Every city guide should be as funny and personal and filled with wisdom and real experiences as Reverend Jen's Really Cool Neighborhood. This book is poetry of the ridiculous. I highly recommend it, especially to anyone who's ever struggled in New York. You will laugh with recognition.

By the way, Les Misrahi, the companion play that comes with the book and was apparently performed by the author with puppets outside her landlord's office is also hysterically funny. It tells the story of the author's alter-ego Jen Valjean, who was imprisoned for stealing a glue stick from Kinko's. Silly and brilliant.

I for one hope and pray that the Rev has got rich parents who will look after her. Pointy ears don't grow on trees, you know! And neither do troll museums. She's a gentle genius and this book will heal you. No, this doesn't mean you can stop taking your lithium or your amoxicillin (you know who you are.)

Saint Reverend Jen, partron saint of the uncool, makes the Lower East Side, tenement to the world, seem like shangrila. She has a way of making the depraved seem sweet and the bizarre seem like common sense. This guide may not tell you what beds Washington slept in, but it may tell you what beds you can.

This is truly a "guide" to not just the Lower East Side, but to NY's creative history of earnest rebellion and unrelenting honesty. That NY's true blood flows through the crevices between the Starbucks, the $12-sandwhich French restaurants and the faux-dive lounges that have muscled their way in is the potency behind this spirited L.E.S. tour-guide. I admire Rev Jen, a woman who has worked a record number of different and strange jobs and hosts an amazing open mic in order to be the most prolific artist ever and a bane to the spiteful and impotent.

Saint Reverend Jen has fostered my performance-art career when All i had was a wig, a box & a tutu. "RJ'sRCN"(--her book, printed on pink paper which makes it very easy on the eyes) begins with a map of the Lower East Side, where it all takes place, like Tolkien's Land of Morder, above Houston Street is the "rest of the world."
she references her influences, Danté (as she is your guide), & Mr. Roger's Neighborhood... as she is in her Own land of make believe... which most paranoid-delusionals may mistake as, is, in fact, Reality.is it? . . . .Her Work is a true historical documentation of NYC, & chapter 9: the 2 greatest open mikes, Faceboy's Sunday-night, & her own Wednesday "Anti-Slam." I laughed out-load as she describes `just when she thought she'd seen it all,' she windexs the violated mike stand from unsaid male performance artist's naked spread buttocks. ...& myself being the unsaid unactual woman who painted a p.... onto canvas with her menstrual blood (p.97), & pull an onion out of her v... (p.99), i was like, me, me, me, i did that! (La Ruocco) Rehashing as i read, the day i used my fingers as a gun & said 'This is a stick up, everyone give me your wallets,' & pre-rehab took their money... 'now i need a hostage' (ref: p. 96); ... the audience, themselves a group of performance artists; we transcended. -- Jen was my icon -- for building the forum.
i especially enjoyed chapter 6, & the painting illustration, about pizza coating the walls of your stomach like "Pac-Man, which gobbles up the excess beer floating around inside me." i thought that was particularly Laruoccan.
I know that she is very well respected in the local community (which in the city, is a few million people) because i can't walk through that part of town, without people mistaking me for her, as i (sans/ wig) do bear a striking resemblance to her (sans/ elf ears). Sometimes i let them think im her, because she is so cool. {but im not her, im !plug: L a. Ruocco [author of "Xero, turn-of-the-millenia" ]!

anyways, it was good to read how she got from `art school' to there. It's kind of a coming-of-age book. (to find more on Jen, Kim's Video rents out her movies.)(p.s. i follow my own religion: "is what it ism" Laruoccco©2OO3; yet im also a devote Reverend Jen disciple.)

I have been attending Rev Jen's Anti-Slam since 1997 or possibly 1996. I was diving into chairs at one point at this event when it was located at the Collective Unconscious "Art Space" on Ludlow Street, LES--I'm sure I broke the rules numerous times and was anarchically disrespectful--it was the follies of youth. I was also a producer, participant -- and at one point a member -- of Collective Unconscious. And now, 8 years later, I will attempt to step back from the canvas and strive for objectivity. First of all, I have great respect for Reverend Jen, her work ethic and her prolific nature as a Renaissance woman (not to be confused with a "Renaissance Fair" woman). Secondly -- as a long time resident of downtown NYC and Manhattan, I have seen the changes resulting from gentrification and bourgeois-ification of the East Village / Lower East Side and it makes me sad -- but c'est la vie -- nothing stays the same forever. I am repulsed by the Food Court (Chapter 14 of "Really Cool Neighborhood") and never step inside Ray's Pizza (and hopefully never will). As Reverend Jen advises in RCN: "Go to Rosario's instead" (sorry no spoilers--to find out who Rosario is, read the book).

The new East Village / Lower East side is plagued by vomit-producing weekend hordes of GAP-inspired party people of the Bridge and Tunnel / Joisey varieties, making it a "neo-Potterville" (as in "It's A Wonderful Life" and not "Harry Potter"). It's neighborhood that I know longer recognize--but then, NYC has been backwater for at least 20 years. As Reverend Jen states in "Really Cool Neighborhood" -- "we live in an artistically boring time" -- some of her friends tell her she was born 30 years too late. And yet, she, like all the rest of the Art Stars, must make the best of "the here and now", as much as one would like to crawl back into the womb-delusion of finger-snapping beatniks or acid-taking hippies.

That being said--now that Manhattan has become mundane and no longer an artist magnet -- this is why I preferred the second half of this book, "Les Misrahi" -- written as puppet theater -- although I could see it being performed by humans in the best sense of "Way Off Broadway". I especially enjoyed the nasty cynicism of the porn-watching character "Larrondo Newmane". "Les Misrahi" is an absurd-over-the-top-surreal-satire with some great lines and laugh out loud moments (though not LOL in a wax museum-Facebook kind of way). The play is a microcosm of the eternal struggle of the artist against the mostly negative, non-supportive influences of the surrounding society. In closing -- I also recommend Reverend Jen's latest literary venture -- "Live Nude Elf" -- which I have purchased but not yet read.

Stephen C. Bird, author of "Hideous Exuberance: A Satire"

The best part about Rev. Jen's really cool neighborhood is that it represents the long deserved recognition of someone who has worked hard for their craft their entire life. As any of her fans that have read her other works can tell you, Rev. Jen has literally slaved at some of the most thankless and unglamorous jobs available from the time she could legally work until now. It is nice to see someone who has actually made their art their life get some attention before they die. Anyone who enjoys this book should *definitely* check out her first novel, "Sex Symbol for the Insane," hand-bound in fun fur from Jen's personal sweatshop in her kitchen, available from Printed Matter.

I want to be Reverend Jen. She is a genius. She's like Van Gogh, but with two ears. Actually, more ears. More ears = more cool. She's like Andy Warhol, but not gay and much less pretentious. Her dog is cute. She has a really nice singing voice. Buy this book.

If you've ever enjoyed slumming on the Lower East Side, you would totally understand this fun book! This is the best "downtown-related" book I bought this year since THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez. But decide for yourself! Take my word, one look inside and you'll be sucked in!