Photo via Bowery Boogie

​In November, our Fork in the Road sister blog reported on the what was to be the fate of the old Downtown Music Gallery space, which owner Bruce Gallanter vacated after the absurd Bowery rent got too high and he found a cozy little spot down on Monroe Street, in Chinatown. That fate? To be the city's absolutely crucial and long-awaited 134th Subway Restaurant. Which is now open apparently. See that photo? Doesn't it make you just want to rush over there? New York is so wonderful now that those awful CD vendors have been chased off the streets. Lunch! At last! [Bowery Boogie]

This work permit would fit nicely next to the FBI logo on future CDs

​What happens to record stores in the great hereafter? They become Subway Restaurants, of course. (Unless they become discount Nordstroms, or whatever the former 4th Street Tower Records is when it's not a Halloween costume shop or an empty boarded-up eyesore.) Downtown Music Gallery abandoned their old space on the Bowery in favor of Chinatown late last year; the rent was too high, owner Bruce Gallanter told us back in June, plus down on Monroe Street, the store has a nifty backdoor you can knock on, even on days when they're ostensibly closed. Now their old Bowery location will become the city's 134th Subway, because sandwiches are just that hard to find in this town. [Fork in the Road]

In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that sold in the last week at a store near you.

Scott Friedlander

Michael Blake, Kreston Osgood, and Oliver Lake perform at Downtown Music Gallery

You won't find much off the Billboard 200 at Downtown Music Gallery in Chinatown. "We don't sell pop music, metal, or any commercial crap," says Bruce Gallanter, 55, who opened the store with partner Manny Maris on Bowery and 2nd in 1991. The store moved to a more much wider, rent-friendlier basement spot in Chinatown last year. It specializes in avant-garde, free jazz, and progressive music, and is supported by a base of faithful regulars and online sales. Gallanter organizes free in-store shows every Sunday, which have featured modern jazz headliners like John Zorn and Nels Cline. Gallanter also runs a label from the store, DMG Arc, and acts as an archivist/critic, writing more than 6,000 reviews for the store's weekly e-mail newsletter. The store is technically open Thursday to Sunday, but there are exceptions. "Monday or Tuesday I'm here, so I'll let [customers] in anyway," Gallanter says. "As long as they knock on the door."

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