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3 Very Bushwick and Very Fabulous: BEN SHAPIRO AND HIS FRIENDS IN BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN (July 18, 2010)
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2 6 3 Very Bushwick and Very Fabulous Ben Shapiro and His Friends in Bushwick, Brooklyn JULy 18, 20 10 Ben Shapiro, a 26-year-old drummer and film student, with friends in a former beer baron’s mansion in Bushwick, Brooklyn. (Benjamin Norman for The New York Times) 2 7 Acentury ago, when the Bushwick section of Brooklyn reigned as a center of the American brewing industry, a beer baron likely lived in the prim black-and-white mansion topped with a steeple on Bushwick Avenue; at least that’s what local historians believe. But even in his wildest dreams, this Victorian captain of industry would never have envisioned how much the stately old place would rock a hundred years later. He would never have imagined that nine artistically inclined 20-somethings—“Renaissance men and women,” as they were once described —would use the premises to create hipper-than-thou music and art. He would never have imagined that crowds would pack the family manse for an installation called When All through the House, for which video screens projecting ghostly images flickered in every room. Or that a black-metal band called Liturgy would blast away in the musty, lowceilinged basement, surrounded by an army of amps and dozens of dead Christmas trees. (Don’t ask; it’s a concept.) Or that a young math genius named Morgan Silver-Greenberg would be ensconced in the apartment in the steeple and that visitors to the house would trip over the flotilla of bikes and skateboards parked in the once sedate foyer. Bushwick may not exactly be East Williamsburg, as real estate brokers like to describe the area. For people seeking the newest Bohemia, however, this neighborhood is arguably the coolest place on the planet. And in this epicenter of hip, few places are cooler than the white brick building with black trim that its residents call Cedar House, courtesy of its location on the corner of Cedar Street. Given the house’s slightly decrepit state, some locals are under the impression that the place is abandoned. The parents of the young men and women who live here might regard both the premises and the neighborhood as slightly squalid. But for Ben Shapiro’s generation, the question is, How fast can I sign up? “Really, there’s nothing like this house anywhere in Brooklyn,” says Mr. Shapiro, an original resident and the one who provides much of the glue that holds the place together. “Everyone’s so creative and so talented . We’re all friends, and this is such a fun place to play music.” Not to mention the fact that in a city with a paucity of the garages and basements that have spawned countless bands, an entire floor in which to practice and perform is an almost undreamed-of luxury. [44.220.41.140] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 23:00 GMT) V E R y B U S H w I C k A N d V E R y fA B U L O U S 2 8 Mr. Shapiro, the son of two musically inclined parents from Providence , is 26, and like most of his housemates, he has a lot going on. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence, he spent two years touring the world as a drummer for a band called Asobi Seksu (the name is a colloquial Japanese term for playful sex). He also toured with a hardcore band called the Fugue, although one drug- and violence-soaked night when the Fugue was performing in Spiceland, Indiana, made him wonder whether living the rock-and-roll life full-time was really for him. At this point he decided to go to graduate school. These days, along with completing work for a master’s degree in film history at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and drumming with the bands Scary Mansion and Chris Garneau, Mr. Shapiro works part-time at Film Forum, the venerable downtown art house. If you’ve ever seen a dark-haired young man scooping popcorn at the concession stand while waiting for a Godard marathon to start, that would be him. Thanks to an intimate knowledge of Brooklyn’s music scene, notably venues of what Mr. Shapiro describes as “questionable legal status,” he also contributes to The New Yorker’s pop music listings. “Plus,” he points out as he conducts a little tour of the mansion, which dates back to 1901 and sometimes looks it, “living here...