A flash in the pan?

Lizzy Goodman's Meet Me In The Bathroom was on my reading list - but I'm not so sure since I came across this piece about an art exhibition inspired by the book. Not only does she sound a little too closely (and uncritically) connected to the early-noughties New York scene about which she was writing - as a long-time pal of The Strokes' Nick Valensi - but there's something troublingly glib about describing 9/11 as "inspiring".

What's more, the exhibition's recreation of "a disgusting super gnarly dive bar on Second Avenue, with famously foul toilets" hints at the scene's artifice - in many cases, these were posh kids playing at being punks.

I like a lot of the bands that the city turned out during that period, including The Strokes, but many were overhyped and I'm not sure that their cultural legacy is as great as Goodman seems to claim - other than influencing the landfill indie that the UK was awash with later in the decade.