 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007Alley street
Hello: Is an "alley street" more like an alley than a street, i.e. narrow, or what is it exactly? Thanks. Marius Hancu >Hello: > >Is an "alley street" more like an alley than a street, i.e. narrow, or >what is it exactly? Normally, in a residential neighborhood in the US, an alley is a service route. It allows access to garages facing the alley, backyards, and trash containers picked up by refuse collection trucks. In a commercial neighborhood, it has much the same function but sometimes businesses (shops, bars, restaurants) open up facing the alley in older areas where space is at a premium. There are some like this in New Orleans, for example. The alley never becomes a street with regular vehicular traffic, but it becomes more than just an alley. Rather than an established type of thing, an alley morphs into a street of sorts.  SignatureTony Cooper Orlando, FL > >Is an "alley street" more like an alley than a street, i.e. narrow, or > >what is it exactly? [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > it becomes more than just an alley. Rather than an established type > of thing, an alley morphs into a street of sorts. OK. I assume alley streets aren't assigned names/indicators as regular streets, then? Thank you. Marius Hancu >OK. I assume alley streets aren't assigned names/indicators as regular >streets, then? Here (well, about 20 miles north of here as the crow flies) in Boston, they are identified as "Public Alley XXXX" where XXXX is a four-digit number. -GAWollman SignatureGarrett A. Wollman | The real tragedy of human existence is not that we are wollman@csail.mit.edu| nasty by nature, but that a cruel structural asymmetry Opinions not those | grants to rare events of meanness such power to shape of MIT or CSAIL. | our history. - S.J. Gould, Ten Thousand Acts of Kindness >> >Is an "alley street" more like an alley than a street, i.e. narrow, or >> >what is it exactly? [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >Thank you. >Marius Hancu Quite a few Blood Alleys in the USA. >> >Is an "alley street" more like an alley than a street, i.e. narrow, or >> >what is it exactly? [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] >OK. I assume alley streets aren't assigned names/indicators as regular >streets, then? Alleys in downtown areas frequently have names. I have always been a bit fond of Billy Goat Strut Alley in Louisville, Kentucky. I don't know if it got urban removaled, though, since I lived there in the 1960s. Signature************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen@cox.net) ************* * Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow * * My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps * [snip] > Alleys in downtown areas frequently have names. I have always > been a bit fond of Billy Goat Strut Alley in Louisville, > Kentucky. I don't know if it got urban removaled, though, since I > lived there in the 1960s. [snip] Nashville has a couple of famous streets named "Alley" -- Printer's and Kid Pan; see http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&q=alley+Nashville&btnG=Search+News Re Tin Pan Alley in NYC; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Pan_Alley [excerpt] Probably the most famous Tin Pan Alley was the name given to the collection of New York City-centered music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The start of Tin Pan Alley is usually dated to about 1885, when a number of music publishers set up shop in the same district of Manhattan. The end of Tin Pan Alley is less clear cut. Some date it to the start of the Great Depression in the 1930s when the phonograph and radio supplanted sheet music as the driving force of American popular music, while others consider Tin Pan Alley to have continued into the 1950s when earlier styles of American popular music were upstaged by the rise of rock & roll. Tin Pan Alley was originally a specific place, West 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. The name "Tin Pan Alley" was originally derogatory, a reference to the sound made by many pianos all playing different tunes in this small urban area, producing a cacophony comparable to banging on tin pans. With time this nickname was popularly embraced and many years later it came to describe the U.S. music industry in general. The term is also used to describe any area within a major city with a high concentration of music publishers or musical instrument stores - a good example being Denmark Street near Covent Garden in London. In the 1920s the street became known as "Britain's Tin Pan Alley" due to the large number of music shops, a title it holds to this day. The Tin pan alley festival is held there each July. [end excerpt] Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego [quoting] >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Pan_Alley > >[excerpt] [...] >The term is also used to describe any area >within a major city with a high concentration of music publishers or [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >title it holds to this day. The Tin pan alley festival is held there >each July. [end excerpt] Wikipedia strikes again. I suppose Denmark Street is "near Covent Garden" in the same way it's "near Holborn" or "near Mayfair" -- a ten-minute walk or so away. But what¡s the relevance? Denmark Street is actually off the top end of Charing Cross road -- near Centre Point -- and just outside the north-east corner of Soho. And it's Soho, not Covent Garden, where all the music publishers and record companies traditionally had their offices. Covent Garden is musical inasmuch as it's where the Royal Opera is (with the ENO and St Martin's in the Field nearby), but its connections with Tin Pan Alley are pretty much zero. SignatureArchie Valparaiso [alleys] > Re Tin Pan Alley in NYC; see > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > playing different tunes in this small urban area, producing a > cacophony comparable to banging on tin pans. [...end excerpt] You mean, they were played tympanally? > Re Tin Pan Alley in NYC; see > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Pan_Alley > > [excerpt] > Probably the most famous Tin Pan Alley was the name given to the > collection of New York City-centered music publishers and > songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in > the late 19th century and early 20th century. The start of Tin Pan > Alley is usually dated to about 1885, when a number of music > publishers set up shop in the same district of Manhattan. Hmm. If that were the case, it seems strange that the first mention of the name in the _New York Times_ (in quotes, no less) isn't until December, 1913, the first in the _Los Angeles Times_ is from an ad from September of that year, and there are no hits in the _Brooklyn Daily Eagle_ (through 1903). The first hit in Google Books is from a Franklin Pierce Adams poem, "The Tired Business Man's Song", published in 1914, which includes Play from some ragtime lyrist, Whose songs gush'd Heav'n knows whence; As wilful and naughty children Will write with chalk on a fence. Who, down in Tin-Pan Alley, Or elsewhere I may not hint, "Composed" the commonplace "music," Or the words unfit for print. Plus ça change, ... (I especially like the Areffian quotes.) It may be that the concept dates back to around 1885, but the evidence would suggest that the name itself didn't arise until 1913 or shortly before. SignatureEvan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |"Are you okay?" 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 | Palo Alto, CA 94304 |"I'm made of felt....Add by dose |cubs off." kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com (650)857-7572 http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ > Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Thanks. > Marius Hancu In Britain, an "alley" is generally a a narrow road or path between buildings. Sometimes a building will have front entrance on a main street or road, and a back entrance in an alley, where one may well find dustbins (trashcans), rubbish skips (dumpsters), restaurant staff smoking cigarettes, etc. In Yorkshire they are called "ginnels", and in Lancashire, "backs". Hypothetical criminals are prone to taking people down "back alleys" to rape, murder or rob them, especially after dark. >> Hello: >> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >Lancashire, "backs". Hypothetical criminals are prone to taking people >down "back alleys" to rape, murder or rob them, especially after dark. Gracie Fields, 1931, Sally, Sally, pride of our alley Sally, Sally... Don't ever wander Away from the alley and me Sally, Sally... Marry me Sally And happy forever I'll be When skies are blue You're beguiling And when they're grey You're still smiling, smi-i-iling Sally, Sally... Pride of our alley You're more than The whole world too-oo me... The skies were blue When he met you, Sally You were his gal His little pal, so true You came along Made life a song, Sally... If he lost you He wonders what he'd do Sally, Sally... Don't ever wander Away from the alley and me Sally, Sally... Marry me Sally And happy forever I'll be When skies are blue You're beguiling And when they're grey You're still smiling, smi-i-iling Sally, Sally... Pride of our alley You're more than The whole world to-oo me... > Gracie Fields, 1931, > > Sally, Sally, pride of our alley I was much taken back, as a child, to find the lyrics of that song included in a book of poetry much praised by my father, called "Palgrave's Golden Treasury". My father was wont to praise certain books, and proudly display them on a bookshelf, without feeling himself under the necessity of taking them out and reading them. There was an enormously heavy "Complete Works Of Shakespeare" in a very gaudy scarlet red binding, with a bookmark consisting of a length of cord with a little tassel at the end attached at one end to the top of the spine. It was there throughout my childhood. As far as I could see I was the first person ever to open it. I remember my pubescent prurience being excited by the Rape Of Lucrece. > > Gracie Fields, 1931, > > > > Sally, Sally, pride of our alley > > I was much taken back, as a child That's taken aback... |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.