May 9, 2008
Eugene Mirman Stands Up Against His Neighbors
Today, in the wake of the CB6 meeting that took place last night, Eugene Mirman tells us what he really thinks of his nagging neighbors; sentiments that are surely being echoed from his speech last night. Put in some earplugs and read carefully Crow & Co.
I feel bad that some people are genuinely bothered by the noise outside the bar — and Union Hall has done a lot to remedy the situation. I don’t live on Union Street, but I live around the corner, about as close as John “I Called 911 Because I Thought Their Assembly Permit Was Expired” Crow.Mirman was filming at the meeting last night, which he tells us is for "a documentary with Gigantic Pictures on me going back to Russia for the first time since I immigrated here. We wanted to get footage of democracy in action. Which we got."Many of the people who spoke at the meeting were rude, entitled, self-righteous and over dramatic — though one woman seemed very nice and reasonable, and I felt particularly bad for her. Two people claimed the noise was killing them — not figuratively — but literally. Maybe Brooklyn isn’t the best place for someone who has a life-threatening allergy to bar noise?
Also, Union Hall does not have people shouting till 4 in the morning 7 nights a week. Sundays and week days, the bar often closes by 2 and is quiet for the last several hours. I also live above a restaurant/bar. It moved in after me. It can be very loud, but before I’d try to shut a business down, I’d maybe move — because I’m not a crazy, self-righteous asshole who believes the world revolves around me — which is odd, because I’m famous and should feel that way.
Photo of Eugene Mirman and Alina Simone at Union Hall by Bryan Bruchman.
|
Can you please quit boldfacing text? Use a pull quote if you want to highlight something. You're readers are fully capable of picking up on the more salient points of these posts.
This guys an ass
Did Eugene have you change the picture on the story? Priceless...
Ouch a face made for radio. And famous.... Is this it takes?
Now I want to close his bar.
"I also live above a restaurant/bar. It moved in after me. It can be very loud, but before I’d try to shut a business down, I’d maybe move.."
What bullshit. Everyone thinks that they'll take the high road, but when they're the ones in the shit, they change their tune real quick.
Mirman sounds like so many of these arrogant Russki implants.
The worse thing about the fall of the Soviet Union was that NY got so many these arrogant SOBs.
bless this man (from the sea).
You posters aren't interested in any ideas from people who don't look like you, don't come from the same places, don't have the same education, don't make the same amount of money as you or (God forbid) have the different opinions from you.
Go back to Ohio already.
Russian Jew transplant. Explains everything.
"What bullshit. Everyone thinks that they'll take the high road, but when they're the ones in the shit, they change their tune real quick."
This seems to be ignoring the fact that he IS in the shit, as you yourself quoted, and doesn't care. I live across the street from 6,000 Dominicans who blast their car stereos in front of their stopps until 3:00 AM. I've yet to call the cops on them just becuase I hate salsa music.
The real issue that we all seem to be ignoring, however, is that Union Hall is a terrible, terrible bar. Really, just...just awful. It's got more hipster reek clinging to it than a Moldy Peaches album.
"Go back to Ohio already." = #8
Brilliant original quote from a brilliant original mind!!
What's being lost in this entire debate is that Union Hall is whack.
I was at the CB6 meeting, too. It was pretty nuts: the people against the bar were really "energetic" with their comments (and heckling). There were more people who spoke in favor of the bar than against it, but the bar owners had a pretty strong case (it was detailed in paperwork we all got at the start), so I was surprised (naïvely, I suppose) that the board voted to recommend against the renewal. Two of the board members were vocal about their opposition to the bar, which was weird since they were ostensibly 'hearing from the public;' one of them literally ranting at least half a dozen times about smoking and, well, I'm not quite sure what else because his tirades were sort of all over the place.
More than anything else, just taking the bar and its pros and cons out of the equation for a second, the vitriol on display last night was really disappointing. The 'con' folks were just disrespectful and rude, nearly to the point of bedlam. The only mirth was the dude who screamed "snake!" -- my friend and I thought he said "Snape." Took us a second to figure that one out...
Eugene is the man. Shut up, haters.
I'm guessing that Eugene is more coherent and well spoken-- and probably better looking-- in person than most of you.
Enough with the stupid 'transplants' comments. Unless you are 100% Native American, you are a transplant. Simple and plain. Even if you were born here, your parents or their parents or their parents or their parents (ad infinitum) were not! Get off your high horse before you fall in your own shit!
To suggest that people uproot their lives for the sake of his boozeness is pretty ridiculous.
But all the ethnic slurs from various commenters is just appalling.
Union Hall is a nice bar, and I've only been there a few times and I doubt it ever gets so rowdy people are becoming physically ill from it. If it's too loud, move out to the suburbs.
"If it's too loud, move out to the suburbs."
A brilliant and original quote from a brilliant and original mind.
Damn! I had a serious thing for Eugene M. before this. So, I should call it off? He's so cute and funny, but I have no tolerance for assholes.
They look like event planners from Connecticut.
"which is odd, because I’m famous and should feel that way"
HOld on there "famous guy" ...
He looks like Quaid's old lady costume when he tried to sneak into Mars. "Two .... weeks. Two ... weeks!"
I was kidding about being famous, I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear. But it’s true, I am a Russian immigrant who, like many immigrants, is arrogantly taking your blogging and small television role jobs. And I am, from what it sounds like, an acquired taste visually. Just to be clear, here is an example of something that happened at the meeting: a man got up, spoke for three minutes about how he helps organize a free science lecture series at Union Hall where Nobel prize winners have spoken, and when he was done, several people booed him. People kept shouting, interrupting, and literally calling people names. The experience was sort of depressing, and it reminded me of the self-righteous arrogance and vitriol of college students. I am not suggesting that people uproot their lives so others can drink. I am suggesting the claims of noise are exaggerated and that New York, though wonderful, has drawbacks, some of which are constant hubbub and overcrowding. Also, if you claim that the noise is exacerbating a mysterious medical condition (as one woman did) that has caused an auto-immune deficiency disorder and is killing her, I do think you should maybe move. It sounds either very serious, strange and unprovable, or something that has such an urgency it won’t be solved before the Union Hall debate is over. I don’t know, but personally, it seemed a little over the top.
There isn’t another bar in Park Slope with a small, intimate performance space and that is large enough to accommodate big groups of people for all kinds of events. I know that sometimes drunk douches-bags are there. They are everywhere. Lastly, as it has been pointed out, I am Jew, so please be careful with what you say, or I will have a newspaper, bank or whitefish salad sandwich destroy you.
Actually,
Move to the suburbs is right.
I think the anti-bar people are he ones being unreasonable. There are plenty of quiet neighborhoods in NYC. Not all are on the fringes. If you want to live in a vibrant community, one with stores and restaurants on every avenue then you have to put up with a certain degree of noise. If you prize quiet over everything move to any number of nice really quiet residential neighborhoods.
"Move to the suburbs..."
More brilliant and original quotes from brilliant original minds.
"and it reminded me of the self-righteous arrogance and vitriol of college students. "
Getting uppity and replying to a poster's comment about something written on a blog about you is not self-rightous at all.
The trolls have it ...
Cut!
Signed ... a drink douchebag.