I got my first real paycheck in a very, very long time this week. Having a checking account balance that has more than two digits to the left of the decimal point feels fabulous.
What does not feel fabulous is the fact that my room mate and I got our lease re-signing info today, and they’re raising our rent pretty significantly, to just under $3,000 a month. For a sixth-floor walk-up apartment in a very old tenement building. Without a living room (just a large kitchen — and when I say “large” I mean that it comfortably fits a four-person table). And where one of the bedrooms (mine) fits my bed and literally nothing else — the door, a foot of space, the bed. And where our water works intermittently. And where our oven has been broken for about a month now, and our super — who, though very nice, is either perpetually stoned or a complete moron or both — has been “ordering one” for weeks. Kind of how he’s been “fixing the pipes” since we moved in.
$3,000 a month for an apartment that is no more than 400 square feet, without a living room, and where we have to walk up six flights of very steep stairs.
Needless to say, we are moving. And I hate New York sometimes. Now, a video that cheers me up:
Pushy broads and crazy-talented kids are always pleasing.
1. Ryan Adams – Afraid Not Scared
2. Yo La Tengo – Winter A Go-G0
3. Jay-Z – Public Service Announcement
4. The Cure – Pictures of You
5. Tom Waits – The Part You Throw Away
6. Amr Diab – Habibi Ya Nour El Ein
7. Cat Stevens – Moonshadow
8. Timbaland and Magoo – Luv 2 Luv U
9. Neko Case – At Last
10. Trina Broussard – Inside My Love
Below the fold: Song I secretly love, but am too embarrassed to put on the front page. I know I’ve discussed my adoration of Beyonce and Shakira, but this is a whole new level of bad. Apologies in advance to Ms. Lauren.
Yes, that is Carrie Underwood. I know, I know. I hate the video. I really cringe when she uses certain terms (“tramp,” “white trash”). I also really, really hate whoever her stylist is, because that person does her no justice (bra straps showing? Capri jeans?).
But I love the song. And I do think she is too cute.
Dammit, Jill.
Welcome to luxury decontrol!
There’s a reason I live in the outer boroughs.
I kinda like the song, but the lyrics are annoying as fuck. I mean, her boyfriend cheats on her, and she spends the entire song insulting the girl he’s with, rather than him? And also, people who bleach their hair shouldn’t throw stones.
I agree… Carrie has a great voice, the song IS catchy- but NOPE on the message. Chuck him and his baggage out, don’t look back and hold your head high- who CARES what a creep like that does… Life is too short to waste in on a loser like that.
Better than getting arrested the next day for criminal mischief!
holy fucking shit. and, what zuzu said. you can get twice that for less than half the price in Queens.
…and no, it’s actually not necessarily that awful a commute, depending on where you need to go.
I can’t even conceptualize $3,000 a month. That’s more than twice as much as the rent on my entire 5 bedroom house. More than twice the rent of my entire 5 bedroom house in Canadian dollars. That hurts. Is there no legislation there about how much the landlord can increase the rent per year?
…i kind of love that song too. and, yeah, she disses the girl, but she also trashes his car! also i sort of think the line “right now he’s probably buying her some fruity little drink cause she can’t shoot whiskey” is kind of hilarious, does this make me a bad person?
though i think i’ve confessed my love for Avril’s “Girlfriend” (and, fuck it, the ENTIRE ALBUM is totally perfect dancing-in-your-underwear music) here before so it’s not like i keep my terrible taste a secret.
That’s pretty funny. My roommate, a young kid from a town of 400 people in the middle of nowhere Michigan loves that song (and is in love with Carrie Underwood). Of course, he’s country as hell. He plays CMT on the TV all day, and I retaliate with Miles Davis and Minor Threat.
Carrie Underwood: Bridging the cultural divide.
1. Eagles of Death Metal – Miss Alissa
2. AYWKUBTTOD – How Near, How Far
3. The Misfits – Hybrid Moments
4. Queen – I’m In Love With My Car
5. Handsome Boy Modeling School – The World’s Gone Bad
6. Crystal Method – Name Of The Game
7. The Breeders – Saints
8. Van Halen – Panama (I forgot I even had this song – nice)
9. The Rolling Stones – Time Is On My Side
10. The Roots – Rolling With Heat
Way to pick a totally misandrist song Jill. Next thing we know, you’ll be posting things like the Goodbye Earl video, like that vicious man-hater Amanda does.
I don’t know why I bother some days.
BANNED!
i don’t know, i mean she throws a few insults at the girl– the ones jill mentioned– but i thought the bulk of the song was going after him. i mean, there’s the obvious, trashing his car was clearly a means of punishing him, but her description of him on the whole makes him sound pretty sleazy (getting a girl drunk in hopes of getting lucky). and there was that comment “maybe i’ll save some trouble for the next girl” which i took to mean that the new girl might catch onto the fact that he’s a cheating asshole.
i’m probably reading too much into the song, and don’t feel any particular investment in it either way, but my thought at the end of the song was ‘wow, she spent more the song trashing him than the girl!’ which seemed like progress. but maybe that’s me.
I thought paying $900.00 was crazy. Damn, a house payment is cheaper and you can get a lot of house for 3000 per month. Well at least in Houston.
Wow. I think I’ll stay right here in the Emerald City, thank you very much.
Jill, that blows. Moving sucks, and moving involuntarily is the absolute worst. You have my sympathies.
Seems like everyone is moving these days. Good luck.
I found the first video kind of weird, because I couldn’t help but notice all the Adidas everywhere. Just MASSIVE product placement.
And while this is post-Americanization Shakira, I think this video beats yours for sheer car-destroying awesomeness. It also is one of those weird songs (like Natalie Portman’s “Jealousy”) that talks UP the other girl. Hmm. (for those not youtubin’ it, the video is Shakira’s “Don’t Bother”. If you like girl-on-guy’s-car violence, though, I recommend clicking on through.)
(‘course, it also has some cringey moments. The spoken word part…”For you I’d give up all I own and move to a Communist country…I’d learn about football.” Urk.)
$3,000 a month is one and a half times more than we pay in LONDON, in a really nice area, for a flat twice that size, and all of our appliances work great.
Your landlord is mental if he/she thinks anyone will pay that. I’m so sorry to hear about this.
béyonce is the BEST lol
In my part of the planet, $3000/mo would get you more house than most people need.
Manhattan really sucks…..too damn expensive and too much congestion. What kills me is that people always say, “but oh there are so many things to do.” Yeah, and they just about all require $$$$.
I live in Westchester, and it’s cheaper, but still way to expensive. I’m going to be paying $2200 for a two bedroom right on the metro north line. Although my town is trying to turn into a freakin’ mini Manhattan, it sucks.
I really need to get up off my rear end and get another job…..
Well, there are rent-control laws, and rent-stabilization, but about 8? or so years ago, the city rent control board (under Giuliani, who was pro-landlord), instituted “luxury decontrol.” Meaning, while there were limits on how much a rent-stabilized apartment could be hiked per year with the same tenant and between tenants, luxury decontrol allowed landlords to toss stabilization once the rent reached $2000. So the upshot is, you have a lot of crappy tenements renting for exorbitant sums because they’re considered “luxury” buildings.
Holy mother of god. I thought Boston was expensive!
You know, maybe I’ve been watching a bit too much CSI, but every time I hear that song I can’t help but think, “Um, Carrie? That’s vandalism. A FELONY. And you SIGNED THE TAB. No man is worth going to jail over.”
Granted, I do have some affection for the song, if for no other reason than it sits perfectly in my vocal range. :o)
Jill, move to washington heights or inwood! Cheap, huge apartments, gorgeous parks, express train and bus to downtown.
Holy crap, excuse me while I never complain about rent in downtown Toronto ever again.
You know, if you just call it 10 cents per square inch, it sounds a lot better.
1. Le Palais de nos Chimeres by Charles Aznavour
2. Lonesome Road Blues by The Kentucky Colonels
3. Crying Sun by Radio Birdman (a great Australian pre-punk group that’s blowing through Texas for the first time ever this month)
4. Ruthless by Amon Tobin
5. Mountain High, Valley Low by Eartha Kitt
6. Everyday by Black Sheep
7. Good Times by Spiritualized
8. Just For You by The Blazers
9. Waiting Room by Fugazi
10. Becoming by Monade
P.S. That bonus video made me want to get my ears bleached.
$3000 a month! Let me add to the WTF? posts.
And here I thought I was being ripped off for $575/month (including utilities) for my 2 bedroom lower in a house (includes huge backyard, parking pad, w/d…) in Calgary!
I see how it is. You just can’t handle dissent. You can’t ban me! I am stomping off in a huff to whine about mean feminists and their echo chambers.
Naturally, I will be back in a couple of hours to whine some more.
(I think I need to go have a drink and get away from the trolls.)
Tell them the good news though – the new apt. is only a 5th floor walk up! Gotta love Manhattan.
Frankly, Cecily, as a mustang owner and fan, it caused me physical pain to watch that car being destroyed. Now if they had picked a late 90′s model, I would have been ok.
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