Pulp, who rose to fame in the UK on their anthem Common People, had an impressive career as art rockers before their monster-hit blanketed the airwaves in the early ‘90s and went on to produce the equally brilliant if much darker albums “This is Hardcore” and the sardonic “We Love Life” before calling it quits in 2002.

Reuniting for a European tour this summer, two nights at Radio City and a smattering of other US shows before they headline Coachella, last night’s show was one that was worth the exorbitant prices scalpers were hawking them for in front of the theater.

Pulp has always been as much about the stories, words and persona of lead singer Jarvis Cocker, as about the right rock riff and if the songs that they chose to perform from their catalogue was any barometer of mood, then sex was the chief topic on their mind.

From the rocket launch of Do you remember the first time? to Underwear with its passionate plea that “I’d give my whole life to see it/Just you, stood there/only in your underwear” to the sexual imagery of Pencil Skirt: “When you raise your pencil skirt/ like a veil before my eyes/Like the look upon his face/as he’s zipping up his flies.” To the unabashed arousal of This is Hardcore – “You are hardcore, you make me hard/You name the drama and I’ll play the part/ It seems I saw you in some teenage wet dream/I like your get up if you know what I mean.”

Looking gaunt as ever but greyer on top, Jarvis performed with the same frenetic energy as 20 years ago, throwing chocolate bars to people, bantering with the audience between songs, running up towards the balcony to sing Disco 2000 and working in choreograph with dancers on F.e.e.l.i.n.g.c.a.l.l.e.d.l.ov.e, while the band (much like the Pixies reunion tour) sounded as spot on as they ever have.

The fans might have rioted if they hadn’t played Common People, the song that Pulp chose to close their first set with. The story of a wealthy disconnected art school student who wants “to live like Common People” has as much relevance today as it did 20 years ago. Just transplant it the lyrics to a Williamsburg trust fund baby and you get the same effect.

The band encored with Like a Friend and Bad Cover Version of Love. Hopefully this tour doesn’t close the book on Pulp. They have a more interesting kaleidoscope to see life through than most of today’s bands and who knows what a new chapter would produce.

Residents of Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village are attempting to wrest control of their destiny.

Two tumultuous years after Tishman Speyer Properties relinquished control of the complex of 25,000 residents, the Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association is working with Brookfield Asset Management to put together a bid to purchase the 60-year-old housing community.

“Our community has been through a lot over the past five years, and we continue to live in a state of limbo, with the future ownership of the property unclear. We simply cannot and will not sit idly by and wait for our future to be determined for us,” read a letter sent by the Tenants Association on Nov. 30, 2011.

“We believe that the time is now right to put forth a conversion proposal that will give residents the opportunity to buy their apartments at a reasonable price while also allowing rent-stabilized tenants to continue renting without fear of harassment should they decide not to buy.”

Stuy Town, as it’s commonly referred to, stretches on an 80-acre tract from 14th to 20th Street along First Avenue and the East River. It comprises more than 11,000 apartments. Since its inception in the late 1940s, Stuy Town has stood as a model of affordable housing for the middle class.

In 2006, Tishman Speyer Properties purchased the complex from MetLife in a move that was widely lauded within the real estate community. Four years later, Tishman Speyer walked away from the site rather than let it go into bankruptcy.
Back when the site was first put up for sale, the Tenants Association tried to put together a bid but was outgunned by Tishman Speyer.

The group is hoping for a different outcome this time around.

East Side Council Member Dan Garodnick was raised and still lives in Stuy Town and has been instrumental in trying to help the Tenants Association in their quest to purchase the complex.

“It would be a historic win for the tenants to take control of our future,” he said. “It’s important to make sure that this will continue to be a stable place for people to live and raise their families.”

Garodnick said that without the protection of the Tenants Association conversion proposal, another real estate company could come in and create the same havoc and upheaval that happened five years ago.

To prep for the upcoming bid, the Tenants Association held the first of a series of house parties last week. At the parties, a group of residents, numbering no more than 20, discusses the bid proposal.

“We’re trying to solicit feedback and find out what’s a reasonable price that people would pay for their apartments,” said Al Doyle, president of the Tenants Association. They also hosted a recent telephone town hall where more than 2,000 people dialed in to hear about the conversion process. The Tenants Association hopes to have a bid plan together by the end of April.

Doyle said that so far, the feedback from residents has overwhelmingly been positive. “There’s a lot to work out still, but most of the residents seem excited about being able to purchase their apartments,” he said.

Part of the purpose of the meetings is also to clear up any misinformation about what might happen during the conversion process. Some of the complex’s more elderly residents fear that the process might endanger their rent-stabilized apartments.

“They have a fear because of what happened with Tishman Speyer, tossing out as many people as they could,” Doyle said. “A lot of the older residents have lived here 50-60 years and they’ve never owned property, so it makes them nervous.”

“If residents don’t want to take part in the process or purchase their apartments, they don’t have to and nothing will happen to them,” Garodnick said.

Part of the reason for making a bid, according to Doyle and Garodnick, is that it would actually protect these vulnerable rent-controlled residents, something an outside company might not feel obligated to do.

Joan Hamilton, a longtime Stuy Town resident, is leaning toward supporting the Tenants Association’s bid, though she doesn’t know if she will purchase her own apartment.

“We would be more in charge of our own destiny,” she said. “It would certainly be better than the rent going up every 10 minutes like it seems to do now.”

Tenants Association board member John J. Sheehy said that the group is striving to return the community to the stability of solid ownership.

“It removes the fear of what happen if rent stabilization were removed in Albany and creates a sense of comfort,” he said.

At the end of the day, Doyle said the residents have to do something.

“One way or another, we have to gain control of the property,” Doyle said. “We can’t wait for another Tishman Speyer.”

- With additional reporting by Sean Creamer

Today, that online vision comes to fruition with the launch of a newer, faster, more in-depth NYpress.com. Our new site provides readers with the same thorough nightlife, cultures, music and arts coverage that readers have come to expect, but builds on that with the addition of a new crop of writers and original columns devoted to sex, music, theater and television that will present a view of our city unlike any other available.

We’ve also beefed up our breaking news coverage with the addition of Manhattan Media newspapers Our Town, Our Town Downtown and the West Side Spirit. The content from those papers is available on the site, as well as new blogs and op-eds from some of our favorite writers.

Cherry picked content from our other sister publications will give you even more reasons to visit the site.

• City & State will provide up to date political coverage from their award winning team.
• New York Family will serve as the go-to guide for every Manhattan parent.
• City Arts will break down the eclectic and creative culture of New York City, as well as provide weekly reviews from everyone’s favorite controversial film critic, Armond White.
• AVENUE Magazine will keep you updated on the city’s nightlife

Our goal here is to create a site as rich and diverse as the city that we cover.

We hope you will stay with us as we foray into the future of online press with this exciting redesign of NYPress.com. Let us know what you think!

The Upper West Side’s newspaper boxes are under assault by a group of pernicious scrap metal bandits. In January 2012, the West Side Spirit had 17 of its metal boxes stolen from locations between 59th and 96th Street on the West Side. AM New York was even more heavily hit, losing 70 boxes, mainly along Broadway, since December. Metro New York had 45 of their boxes swiped. The boxes retail for roughly $240 and can be sold for up to $60 in scrap.

Upper West Side Council Member Gail Brewer has heard so many complaints about disappearing news boxes and other scrap metal that she wrote a letter to Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway on Feb. 2 asking him to look into the disappearance of newspaper boxes as well as city trash cans or “litter baskets.”

“These thefts waste taxpayer money and can affect the quality of life and health of residents,” she wrote. “I am sure that the Upper West Side is not the only neighborhood impacted by these losses.”

Brewer said that an unusual combination of factors has made this situation more high-profile than most cases.
“You’ve got the freedom of press being infringed on. The rising cost of scrap metal and recycling is making street furniture theft a more common occurrence in the city.”

Anthony, a circulation director at AM New York who didn’t want to give his last name, said the thefts first occurred around the holidays in December.

“That’s when we started seeing them,” he said. The majority of news boxes were taken from the Upper West Side, but there were also some taken from Lexington Avenue.

Joseph Lauletta, circulation director for Metro U.S., said in an email that so many of that paper’s boxes had been stolen that they were thinking of moving to plastic ones.

“We’re losing a couple a week now,” he wrote.

Brewer said she has also received complaints about metal trash cans being stolen from street corners, but the city Department of Sanitation said that it wasn’t aware that any litter baskets had been stolen from the Upper West Side. A spokesperson for the Parks Department said two trash cans disappeared from Riverside Park in the last year, but he wasn’t able to say whether they had been stolen or moved to a different area.

Scrap metal is a hot property right now. Prices for metals have risen dramatically since 2008, according to the Institute of Scrap Metal Industries. Multiple calls to the 20th Precinct to discuss scrap metal theft weren’t returned in time for print.

“Most publicized scrap thefts are copper, but anything can be scrapped,” said Gary Bush, director of materials theft prevention for the organization. Bush, a former Florida law enforcement officer, has over 30 years’ experience in scrap metal theft.

Laws vary from state to state regarding the sale of scrap metal. In New York, scrap metal processors are required to photocopy a person’s license if they bring in over $50 worth of material, while New Jersey requires that scrap metal businesses keep records of all specific purchases and the identity of those they bought from.

Bush said that owners of high-value metals such as copper should be particularly diligent in making sure that the metal is protected.

“Thieves will go after the quick, fast and easy-to-sell materials,” he said.