Reverend Jen's Really Cool Neighborhood/Les Misrahi

by Reverend Jen

Printed on pink papers, Reverend Jen's Reverend Jen's Really Cool Neighborhood is a travel guide for the poor, deviant and bored, which takes readers on a whirlwind tour through the Lower East Side where they will gain valuable insight into where to obtain the cheapest Budweiser, the greasiest pizza and the fanciest porcelain unicorn heads. Filled with personal anecdotes of hellish roommates, loneliness and delusions of fame and peppered with delightful illustrations and sultry photos, it is both educational and entertaining. Flip the book over and you'll find a bonus - Les Misrahi, an epic musical puppet show which tells the story of Jen Valjean, an ex-convict who has just been freed after serving three years for stealing a glue stick from Kinkos.

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Reverend Jen got her B.F.A. in painting from the School of Visual Arts in NYC in 1990 and has since experienced no financial success whatsoever. She is a performer, painter, playwright, columnist, ASS Magazine founder, Troll Museum curator and Patron Saint of the Uncool. For 12 years she hosted the Anti-Slam, a weekly open mike on Manhattans Lower East Side. She has performed all over the world at venues that include PS122, the Soho Theater in London, and the Kunstverein in Munich."

Reviews

[Sam Jayne]

update- finished Really cool neighborhood and moving into the puppet show. you see, the book is half drunken les time capsule and a play/puppet show which is also a pretty good LES timecapsule.

...

I'm still reading this but it's totally hilarious and reminds of when I first moved to new york and was so poor I drank 25 cent beers

[Ayun Halliday]

Twin this with the Zinester's Guide to NYC and you'll have a hot ayuss visit to New York. Not all of the places mentioned will have survived, but that's the nature of the beast. It's an historic record by a true original. It'll make you want to write one of your own. Comes with a play that you can perform in a cardboard box. That's what I call excellent value.

[Lindsay]

This book is delightfully bizarre.

[Stephen Bird]

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.

[Rudy Waltz]

Reverend Jen is a funny time funny. I read this when I was living in Seattle (2006) with a girl who was becoming increasingly jealous of this strange "Reverend" chic who was making me laugh so much.
I had been a participant at her Anti-Slam in 1996 but had not been in New york since, so it was a bit of a melancholic read. Also, behind the zany humor and wacky hyjinks I sensed a disconcerting amount of isolation and exisitential dread; but maybe I'm just projecting. It could be she really is that enthusiastic about Troll's and television sitcoms. Either way, she is a true free-spirit and spending time with her uniquely warped perspective is a gift.

[Sarah]

Totally awesome. The only thing I didn't like about it was knowing that the neighborhood has already changed quite a bit since Rev. Jen wrote this. Call me a curmudgeon, but I kinda wish the LES could stay as it was when this was written.