Marty After Dark - Almost Live...From New York

Entries in Funny Cry Happy Gift (1)

Friday

Nov182011

November 18, 2011

I was looking at an old picture today in my apartment of a store that used to be on 14th Street called, Funny Cry Happy Gift. It was one of those kooky stores that sold everything from bags to batteries, to knock-off fake designer perfume, to wacky-ass plastic toys that fell apart five minutes after you bought them. I loved the name of the store and often wondered who thought of it and was there any meaning attached, or was it just something random. I remember one day about six years ago walking down 14th Street and—BOOM—it was gone. It was replaced by a cell phone store, I think. It was one of those heartbreaking New York moments when you wish you’d have taken the time to research and document the place. I’m glad I’ve got the one photo and tonight I thought I’d walk down there and take a photo of it today. It’s changed hands quite a few times since the Funny Cry Happy Gift days and I don’t even know what’s there today. I guess we’ll find out.

Goddamn, it's cold out here tonight, I dread old man winter coming.

The Empire State Building is purple tonight. Somewhere, Prince is happy.

"Talk To The Hand, Part I: She Knows I'm Taking This Picture."

"Talk To The Hand Part II: Lights, Camera...Arms?"

This makes me think of this headline.

What the fuck does this even mean? I've been standing here for over five minutes staring at this goddamned ad. Why does turkey luncheon meat need protecting? It's already dead for fuck's sake, what else are you going to do to it? Plus, what the fuck kind of sandwich is this? It's too tall to pick up, unless you have the hands of Herman Munster. I could probably spend my whole life standing here staring at this, but it's too cold, so let's move on. Who the fuck protects turkey luncheon meat? Okay, I'm out of here.

And here's the fork in the road.

Okay, we're almost there, it's up ahead, just beyond the golden arches.

There it is, let's go take a closer look.

Jason & Co, what the fuck kind of name is that for a store? And they buy gold and diamonds. Really? In this economy? Who's got gold and diamonds laying around waiting to sell? What kind of weirdness is this? And they also pawn. I wish they had a window so I could see what's going on in here, I need to stop back during working hours, this is a far cry from what it used to be. And speaking of that, let's take a trip back in time and look at my photo of what this store front used to look like.

Looking at this photo brings me right back to the day I looked at it and it was gone. Vanished, poof, wiped off the block and replaced with a fucking phone store and now it’s a gold trading store, whatever the fuck that is. When friends of mine came to town I used to always take them to the Stoned Crow bar and on the way I’d point out the Funny Cry Happy Gift store. More often than not we’d go in and buy some goofy trinket from the Chinese couple that owned the place. Funny Cry Happy Gift closed and then the Stoned Crow followed suit last year. Nothing lasts forever, we live in a world where where everything has an expiration date. I guess the lesson to be learned is to enjoy and savor things and people while they’re still here. Funny Cry Happy Gift, magical words.