“With free bagels and pancakes, what else do you want?” teases Greg.
Greg explains that for them, Rock ‘n Shop is not about money (a typical booth costs an average of $50 for the day). “It’s a community thing,” he notes. “We didn’t gouge our friends. We sell next to them. We know that everyone there needs to spend every cent wisely. And there is chemistry.”
“These people are helping me, too,” he adds. Greg further explains that curating for the marketplace enables him to meet a lot of other “good” people and to have “a lot of interesting conversations” with them.
For him, making music, Rock ‘n Shop and art–these are all part of the same thing. It is about communication and, perhaps, a little about survival, too.
“I often say I was already a slut and New York made me a whore,” Greg figuratively describes the general feeling of desperation.
Love In a Whorehouse is the upcoming record from The Bushwick Hotel. Expected to be released in 2016, the record, they explain, will pose “a lot of questions but offers no answers” to finding “love in a time of abundance.”
“How do we maintain realness?” he asks. “Everything’s for sale…In a place and time where there is so much good stuff, there’s a lot of bad that comes with it too,” Greg suggests. Technology and wealth. Both are supposed to give us one thing. Freedom. But are we really free?
“Freedom in America usually comes with this sort of indentured servitude.” He expounds that Rock ‘N shop allows The Bushwick Hotel and all the vendors who participate in it to “live off art.”
“We want to be free to behave like ourselves, to express, and to make music. This is an extension of us being ourselves. We work. But we don’t feel so much of an asshole because we work for ourselves.”
Rock ‘N Shop is organized and hosted by The Bushwick Hotel and The Paper Box weekly on Saturdays and Sundays. Each week offers an intoxicating blend of live indie rock, delicious food, singular wares, cheap tattoos, and cheaper booze, seducing a growing contingent of Brooklyn locals and outer neighborhood and even international visitors. And where rock has gone, standup comedy will follow. Every Sunday from 12 to 1 pm, host Ajai Raj welcomes a hand-picked lineup of the best up-and-coming talent New York City has to offer.
Take advantage of a funkylicious private RV that takes visitors to and from the subway stations and The Paper Box. Admission is free. Just be ready to rock, shop and feel a whole lotta love.
ROCK ‘N SHOP @ THE PAPERBOX: Sat & Sun 9 am to 7 pm | 17 Meadow Street, Brooklyn, NY 11206
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