Monkeys and Aliens

Apes and Android- according to their myspace page, this futurist orchestra (?) plays pyschedlic rock and electronica. I like it a lot! I'll be catching their January 30 show at Music Hall of Williamsburg. 

You say I'm crazy, I got your crazy

Here are two covers of B.Spear's song "Womanizer"

Womanizer: French cover 

Womanizer: All American Rejects 

Both from Perezhilton.com. 

Sparks Thirty

When it's that time of night and you need a pick me up you can no longer turn to Sparks. Back to Sugar Free Redbulls w/ Svedka :( The MillerCoors company owes a bunch of money and the caffeine drink with 6 or 7 percent alcohol is illegal in 25 states. 

Check this article: R.I.P SPARKS! 

Staten Island Style

Staten Island's afro funk collective Budos Band played at Mercury Lounge December 19. These guys are on the Daptone Record label and some of them also play in the Menahan Street Band. 

Budos...yum..

Here is a link to a NYT article about the label. 

And video from the evening from my Flip....

Meditation at MOMA

Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist's "Pour Your Body Out" at the MOMA is the perfect combination of post modern joy and contemplation, relaxtion and a youngster's Gymboree. 

Here is video of some older kids stretching and flexing in the center of the installation.

I fell asleep for an hour and woke up feeling touched in a beautiful way...not in a creepy sense. 

 

Party like a rockstar...

These are some underground parties I must attend.  I miss the costumes, pyrotechnics and community feelings of some of the parties in San Francisco. I'm confident New York City can represent.

The Danger: The Lost City party on New Year's Eve is my choice to ring in 2009. 

Address in Time Out NY: 

January 1: 2am - Sunrise, $30

341 Scholes St. between Bogart St. and Morgan Ave., Williamsburg

www.thedanger.com, newlostcity.com

********* Update: Full details for the Danger party are now up at the link above.  The theme of the party: New Year's Eve 1929. We're already in an economic recession, why not party like it? I'll be drinking gimlets out of a tea cup in a flapper's outfit at 5am, I'm sure. 

Rubulad: Discovered from a Yelp recommendation here's a link to an article about a previous party and here's hoping to attend an event sooner than later. Also from a different source some more information.This is a party warehouse space in Flusing, Queens. Awesome, i hope they throw hip hop nights. 

Resolute: Throwing an 18 hour party at Public Assembly for NYE. Their web site says it'll be the best techno party of the year. There's a DJ from Berlin so this is very tempting competition.

The Party Hard Social Club: Can't find a lot of info on this party but it's worth noting.

 

BZZZZZZZZZZ.....

Thanks Zagat.com for these updates about new openings:

Greenhouse

150 Varrick Street

212-807-7000

Six thousand square feet of eco-friendly walls, lights and general mayhem means NYC's first green nightclub. This new SOHO club is officially L.E.E.D certified. I bet the drinks are still pricey but how San Franciscan of the owners of Home and Guesthouse to bring us this destination where vodka flows from recyclable packages. 

Shang

in the Thompson Hotel on the L.E.S. 

187 Orchard St. 

212-260-7900

Moderately priced Chinese fusion small plates on the Lower East Side brought to you by Toronto's Susur Lee. 

 

What the hell is the internet?

These are some web sites I recently discovered: 

www.break.com: 

Web site that broke the Australian kid who threw a house party while his parents were out of town's "I look good, I'm not taking off my sunglasses" while on a news program. 

www.fimoculous.com:

Discovered this web site as part of NY Magazine's "The Approval Matrix" section. It put their list of year-end lists in the section headed towards lowbrow brilliant. 

www.thedailybeast.com

Tina Brown has had an amazing career in publishing from Vanity Fair to the New Yorker. This is her website for observations and news links.  

Hanukkah...I like

Erran Barron Cohen, brother of Ali G's Sasha Barron Cohen, just released a Hanukkah album entitled "Songs in the key of Hanukkah" and it's not half bad:) Certainly a better jewish equivalent than the singular "Dominic the Donkey." 

Here's some highlights:

Track 1: Hip hop beats featuring Jules Brookes and Y- Love

Track 7: A lovely song with the incomparable Idan Raichel 

Stitch and Bitch

Alas, fabulous music venue The Knitting Factory will be closing it's NYC location come January 1, 2009. The club, which also has a location in Hollywood, will supposedly re-open in Brooklyn. 

I've seen a Xui Xui concert here, when some guy opened who billed himself as "Your mother has cancer" proceeded to yell that over and over into a microphone. I also had a ridiculous party night here and snuck into a reggae show/Queer as Folk hardcore party!? 

Yep, you could pretty much find the craziest stuff at this three floor venue. I'm dying to see a final show before the doors close for good, I just pray they don't turn the space into condos or apartments. 

I can't believe I missed Q-tip play here with Busta Rhymes in October. Damn. 

Here's some greatness coming up before the end:

1. December 17:  Michael Showalter, Jon Glaser and Eugene Mirman bid farewell to the Knit, music from Tigers and Monkeys

2. December 19: Rakim and other great hip hop and rap acts

Santacon NYC 2008

I want to say 2,000 people but I'm bad at approximating numbers so I'm just going to say A LOT of people converged on NYC dressed as Santa Clause on December 13, 2008. Among many landmarks we hit the public library, Rockefeller Center for the X-mas tree, South Street Seaport and the Staten Island Ferry. Drinking commenced at 10am at 33rd street between 6th and 7th and I'm sure did not end until much later. I took a name around 6pm. This event happened around the country but my friend Julia in San Francisco said the NYC one looked way bigger. 

My favorite part of the whole day: everyone was asked to bring canned food to donate at the beginning of the crawl. I brought three items but I saw people with entire sacks of food to donate. That's a lot of baked beans :) 

David Wain's Show: Wainy Days

There are so many cameos in the web series Wainy Days by David Wain- creator of Wet Hot American Summer and Role Models.  Start at the beginning but start now as you'll be somewhat caught up for the timely return of STELLA -  that's David Wain, Michael Showhalter and Michael Ian Black, all friends at NYU.  They're playing at the Nokia Theater in NYC tonight.  

Parody Wednesday

So this is from one of my favorite blogs out of San Francisco, Laughing Squid. 

It's "Jizz in my pants" - by The Lonely Island, the group includes Andy Samberg and they've made over 30 digital shorts for SNL. 

Favorites include: Jizz in my pants, Giraffe and Dick in a Box.  

According to their blog linked above, The Lonely Island's debut album "Incredibad" hits stores 2/10/2009.

** Update: New video for "Best look in the World"

Space Olympics

      "Iran So Far" - Cameos by Adam Levine and Jake Gyllenhal

People getting punched before eating

Extreme Challenge

Cloister and Fort Tryon Park

Even in winter this Bronx park is an oasis from the stress of life in an urban jungle. 

The Cloisters are a satelite of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's ancient relics collection in the middle of Fort Tryon park. Less crowded that central park with views of the river and bridge. You can drive here up the Henry Hudson Parkway. You can take the subway or a bus. But anyway you can get here - just do it. It's a beautiful little secret for a lot of people. 

Lady Sovereign is ... back?

Last I read about Lady Sovereign, the female British Eminem is how she was branded a few years back, she was yelling at a crowd in Williamsburg that they were nothing and stormed off stage after playing only 2 songs. 

Well she's got a hot new song. Looks like Britney isn't the only one making come backs! 

Song is called "I got you dancing." You bet you do LS. 

Pop Champagne

Jim Jones laid it down last night at Mercury Lounge.  He played some old school hits like "Certified Ganstas" and "Jackin Swagga From Us." The performance was re-scheduled from an earlier date and it finally sold out. Jones was joined on stage by Ron Browz of "Pop Champagne" fame who's coming out with his own album sooner than later. The crowd went crazier for Browz than Jones. People had their cell phones and cameras out but only a select few were really getting down :( Come on NYC! 

The opener Sun Ra (different from Sun Ra Arkestra) came complete with flashy outfits and go-go dancers. Gotta love the live band and hip hop crew combination. Reminded me a bit of Digable Planets. Can't find them online but they said it was rare for them to be together. Only identifier- "we're from the land of moo." 

Streamers

David Rabe's play Streamers is currently on stage at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater. The Roundabout production highlights wonderful actors and an ambitious script about 4 young soldiers at bootcamp in 1965 Virginia coping with timely issues of anxiety, fear, sexuality and race relations. I was pleasantly  surprised to see an old friend, Hale Appleman, in the lead role of Richie. I went to summer camp with Hale ages ago and it was fun to see him again on stage.