Hey Everyone! I'm known for locating movie locations and found myself fascinated with these nostalgic videos. Therefor I was eager to find these locations and see how they look now because NYC is so gentrified and quickly changing. However, in case you're interested or visiting the city. They are standing in front of Miss Lily's (109 Avenue A) and the coffee shop in the background is now called the Yuca Bar and restaurant located at (111 Avenue A) I also want to point out that the pole with all the flyers and stickers is still standing in that very same location and stickers and flyers are still being posted on there.
Absolutely right. I work everyday in this area. After I started work for UberEATS in Manhattan and especially East Village I know every location and bar and restaurant it's amazing to see how it was in 80's.
For those people bragging about "it was so much better back then" - Don't you get it? Life is change - time can't be stopped.. The past only seems stable from the present, and the future was unknown for them when it was filmed, too. It's about making the most of today, and embracing the random minute here and there, because at some point we will look back at this uncertain moment and think "It was nice". You can have this feeling now - if you start living in the present. The randomness of this video is just amazing. Back then, film and video equipment was still expensive and people only vidotaped their "ideal" life, weddings, festivities, holidays.. but happens is everywhere. This video inherits a deep, relaxed happyness - so far from the orchestrated reality that is put on screen today as it was back then. They key to happiness is in your mind, not in the "if...".
Well said, plus we can look fotlrward to what's next in society and new memories. The moment. Your advice reminds me of what yoda said in empire strikes back. I think I actually like the present now a lot more lately. Plus like you said, you can take a moment to look back without having to feel unhappy. Plus more can be done to record your life or moment with the ease of a cell phone, and youtube upload. I think society was way more laid back in the 80s, but you are saying that is a point of view, and perspective of the person living in that moment. Very good observation.
Bullshit, I got a time machine and I went to Wichita falls Texas on April 10 ,1979 600 pm, I was 7. And I was in tornado took our house and paw.i miss paw one of the worst to ever hit bitch 🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵
It's like he recorded it how people 30 years from his time would want to see it. He didn't take any routine details for granted and thought everything mattered... If not now, it would later.
I'm loving these videos a real trip down memory lane. I was 18 to 19 in 1987 and had the best time ever. Life was simple decent music etc and no tech and people talked. To each other. Sad that Nelson died two years after this. He would have been in awe with RU-vid. He truly was before his time the first vlogger.
Charles Lawson Nothing wrong with that. Just a leading indicator that at the time the lower east side was already gentrified or at least the process was underway with the first wave of art schoolers
Freedom! No cell phones, no texting. life without the internet. People just being people. The better days of social interaction. These where the simple times.
@@rawrvintageisclassic People just being people. Enjoying the fresh air. The better days of social interaction. No zombies staring at no phones. Because all that stuff wasn't invented yet until 20 years later. Look at the life we live in now.
Where did those days go?! Nobody staring into their phones checking their emails or playing candy crush or whatever, just people having normal conversations with each other. Love it
exactly. having social media is a blessing and a curse. but I really do miss the times where people were havin pure conversation on the street, school, everywhere and it was just beautiful more meaningful tbh.
Bobby8451 I know. Everyone has became so antisocial and lost touch with actual human conversation. I tell people don't text me if you are at home, for Christ sakes just frigging call me,that's what the Damn phone is for! lol! I miss the 80's and 90's.
Being born in 1975, I was a yong boy and a teenager during the 1980s, those years were so EXCITING for me that I NEED a 1 way ticket for a time travel machine and never come back to the depressing 2010s...THAT was MY world, a sadly bygone era that won't come back 😓
@liquid lsd could be.. But nah, everything pretty much sucks right now because that's the reality. We are literally living in the "idiocracy era" Things are getting worse by the year.. People are getting dumber, lacking ethical and moral standards, the state of our food supply is worse than ever, products are made cheaper, pollution is progressively destroying our planet, diseases across the board are on the rise, crime is at an all-time high.. I could go on.. the world is in serious trouble and if you don't see that then you must be living in a cave and therefore, good for you.. After all.. Ignorance IS Bliss !!! 😎
This is the intersection of 7th and Ave A, I literally walk around this area everyday and holy shit how it has changed. Interesting to see what hasn't though. That Coffee Shop is now a Mexican food resteraunts, that diner they're sitting in is now Ms. Lily's a Jamaican food resteraunt, the vacant looking lot across the street from them is now The Niagra Bar... I mean just wow, what a trip. It's sad to see certain things go you know, and I see and hear from a lot of people everyday who complain about the current state of the neighborhood, and the gentrification and the yuppies. But things change and not always for the better, it's sad but there's no point romantacizing the past.
first thing I notice people are actually having conversations with each other. No one staring down at their smart phones. While I do like the technology of today, there are some things I miss about the days before smart phones and social media.
This is really something. I lived on 7th & C from '86 to '97. Hung out in the Wah Wha Hut across the street, celebrated birthdays at Avenue A Sushi, gigged at the Pyramid (both a couple of doors down). Sophie's, Mona's, Vasac's, Chameleon, Lucy's,Beirut, Tompkins' tent city. The Sunday swap meet went for blocks on B. A flood of memories. Thanks for the trip back.
I’m addicted to these videos even though I’m an English guy living in China. I did live in Albany NY for a year from 2006-2007 (on a study exchange) and even though I loved visiting NYC, even then it felt pretty disneyfied. These videos take us back to a time before then.
NYC is a pretty hollow shell where everything is derivative and everyone is trying to live the NYC life they were sold by media and people keep thinking they are different, but they really aren't. Real New Yorkers who actually grew up here get pushed out and the new transplants that replace them make me want to punch people.
Cafelogis lol so true. I live in philly and it’s happening the same exact way. And these jerkoffs/ suburbanites think they are just so cool now because they live in the inner city. Makes you wanna start Teeing Off of em 😂
My old neighborhood. Seeing these actual videos of this time and people & place is very accurate. Details of my younger life. Thank you Nelson for having the vision!
Has someone said "how refreshing to see people not looking at smartphones" yet? Because I'll be blowed if I don't see that EXACT SAME COMMENT on every "blast from the past" video on RU-vid.
I was the same way when I was a teenager for the late sixties and early seventies. I think mine started with my love of older music when somebody tries to turn me on to something new I would say I'll check it out in 20 years then I say I'm sure by then I'll like it. But with RU-vid and access to any damn song you ever want to hear kind of running out of new old stuff pretty soon I'll have to settle for new older sounding stuff I guess
I would like to visit New York City but only if I could find a time machine that would take me there in 1989 before the corporate gentrification started. My dad went to NYC on business in 1989 and said there is nothing quite like being in manhattan and seeing the sun reflect off of the buildings in the early evening. At the time it was still raw and real, dangerous and yet there was wealth and decadence all together. Art, culture, fashion from all over the world and there was crack and cocaine in the alleys and streets as well as in the Wall Street offices. The finest authentic New York restaurants and not corporate chains like today. That is the city I would like to see.
The only thing I can say is thank God for Nelson! He was ahead of his time in terms of video recording everything! I’m sure the people around him maybe sometimes got annoyed and maybe they thought he was recording just the Average boring day but what he did was make a priceless Time capsule of memories that not only the people in the videos can look back at but for people like me who was born in 77 and just missed out on those days can watch and see what it was really like! It’s so sad that he passed way before his time but he left something to this world that’s going to last for so long and be a gift to so many more people than he would’ve ever imagined!
Female 1: “OMG he’s getting us on camera! 💃” Female 2: “Yeeah... I don’t even know why you’re so excited. We are on tape so what? 10 or 20 of his friends will watch us in his living room? It’s not like we’ll be watched by hundred of thousands of people ya know? 🤦♀️” ... 30 years later...
I'm a Brit and watching this is fascinating. But let's not forget one thing: this was New York at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic and it was one of the most violent cities in America. But saying that, it's that dangerous edge that gave it the great arts reputation known throughout the world. From the mid to late seventies and eighties, the city gave us New Wave, hip hop, flim makers like Jim Jamusch. My sister was lucky to visit New York in 1987 when she was still 17!! But London was kicking in the 80s so that sort of makes it up. There's only one New York, though........
Really? Cause I started off at South Ferry and finally went into Eisenberg's on 23rd Street, which isn't a diner nor a coffee shop. The coffee shop in this video is now the Yuca Bar. Too many phony places in NYC.
I don't mean foofy hipster coffee shops with frapafuckingchinos and a fucking tip jar on the counter. I mean a place where you can get shitty drip coffee and a fucking cheese Danish!
In short, a "Coffee Shop" was not a place where you would get a double mocha latte with 2%. And if you were getting your "regular" (milk and one sugar) to go, it was coming in a blue and white cup with faux Greek letters that would say, "It's our pleasure to serve you." But you would want to stay... for the Belgian waffles.
i was out in tompkins yesterday, finally in the 40ºs after days of it being below 20º. people were just like this! walking around, talking, buying food at the market, enjoying the weather.
No Google. No internet. No cell phones. No fake bullshit. No selfies. No "reality" TV. No distracted idiots staring into their hand. I MISS MY 80s!!!!!
Life seemed simple and laid back in them days. Too bad I was still and infant in 87'. Born in NYC raised in Philly, this is the NY I remember before my mom moved us down to Philly.
How I could do with some fried perogies from Leshko's right this minute. And a bowl of borscht. Then get an egg cream a few doors down on Ave A. Get a bag of dope, and pass the afternoon listening to Bowie, looking out the window. Kidding about the dope. Maybe.
I watch these videos often, but I've never noticed the vintage They Might Be Giants posters at around 3:15... back when they were still (sort of) a local act!
nothing beats the 80s. there will never be another decade like it unfortunately. I liked everything about that decade ..lol Even the pastels. I never wore any but it screams 80s still yet...lol 🤘
I often wonder what I was doing when this was filmed, as in the exact same minute, what was going on in my life at the time, my exact location, like if you could switch a camera on in your life when this was filmed, what would you be doing, are you creating a memory for the future, it is it just a bog standard day you’re having in 1987.
ahaha its a real trip watching this because it shows that folks in East Village were always "hip" lol now when you walk through neighborhoods like East Village you see the new generation of "hipsters", the ones that are the children of these folks. haha doing the same shit that their parents did over 20 years earlier. fascinating
I doubt that the assholes who live in the East Village today are THESE peoples children. These guys weren't the type to have trust funds for their kids.
what a beautiful time capsule. life before air travel, radio and television. and to think Grover Cleveland had to face the annexation of Hawaii the following year. Sad really.
Others have mentioned Leshko's across the street. The cafe at hand is the 7A Cafe which had nice eggs florentine in the AM. Of course, Odessa just a bit out of camera range further up on A. Mr. Ray's of course. On the east side of A was a nightclub of some sort, but a take out slice pizza place next to it. Down the 7A Cafe was the Pyramid Club. It was a happening time, though by 1987 getting a bit long in the tooth in terms of the crazy art and party scene. I lived on 7th just east of A. Before my building was a basement after-hours spot. Pretty crazy...and yes, before the cell phone, random street conversations were the rule. Of course, it wasn't all a romantic art paradise. Toxic smoke from homeless burning tires and shit would waft into my apartment overlooking the park, which was a very iffy place then. Lots of abandoned buildings east of B, sometimes I'd even take a cab home from a party on C somewhere back to A, though mostly in the early 80's. Things shut down early east of 1st Avenue. And lastly, the Park something or other (edit: The Park Inn I think) on A between 7 and St. Marks...the only place open for a couple blocks, total old school dive bar. Lots of Dos Equis consumed there.
I love these videos. My hey days. I was a young vibrant teen. Always look at these videos and also see if I happen to catch myself walking somewhere in the background. I miss those days.
Ah...the days of waking up, socializing, playing, smoking, taking drugs...not a care in the world. No plan, no future...just today. And then one day you wake up and it's all over.
