Who is running around like a chicken with their head cut off? Me. I am. And yet, some how I find the compulsion to post something here that I found yesterday while doing some research for the show.
Hypeful, a great MP3 blog, did a post about Gay musicians... You guys, hit pause on that Ani cd and go listen to or download this mix! [image: Hypeful] (The above photo features, from left to right: Chris Garneau, Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, Dan Gillespie Sells of The Feeling, & Patrick Wolf.)
Ok, back to packing for gay mecca. And thank you Hypeful for saving me about two hours of uploading.
Where is the only place in LA that you can hear everything from Kevin Aviance to Yelle, watch Paris is Burning and Xanadu on four large screens and if you're out late enough catch a performance that brings back serious Limelight/Palladium memories? Mustache Mondays.
Yes, some patrons take their fashion cues from the extras in Party Monster (the DJ even spun Waldorf), and a fair share of flaghags BUT as far as LA parties go... this is one Monday night I wouldn't miss.
Watch out, Freddie Mercury: Club 740 is all about your tunes, your sexual preference and—most importantly—your 'stache. Every Monday night, Downtown's Club 740 presents "Mustache Mondays," a gay-friendly night of drinking, dancing and 'drancing' (yes, that's a combination of drinking and dancing), with DJ sets by Dino Dinko, Fresh S and Josh Peace. Expect drink specials all night, tarot card readers and "loads and loads of unprotected mustache action."
Feldman and I spent 7 hours on a ride that should have taken 3, thanks to a bevy of rubberneckers on the 15s. Luckily our playlist extended well past the 5 hour mark and we weren't in my car so we had air conditioning. I think we clocked in at 118 degrees outside at the height of the afternoon. Whirlwind is the only way to describe this weekend, a whirlwind of heat. The schedule looked something like this:
It still shocks me that people moving to Williamsburg and Greenpoint don't know (or care maybe?) that one of the biggest oil spills in US history happened there and it was never fully contained. Erin Brockovich is on the ground... Not Julia, Erin... the real deal. You guys, seriously... This is one not to be missed. You can choose to believe all the "Pro-Corporation" comments on other neighborhood sites about people exaggerating the issue, but just because there aren't oil slicked penguins weebling around North 6th & Bedford drinking latte's and wearing purple kaffiyehs doesn't mean it's non-existent. Well... actually I've never seen a penguin in anything other than the traditional black and white kaffiyeh... but you know what I mean.
Vice, an outfit mostly known for spotting hipster do's and don't has an excellent series on toxic cities. Go figure... here is part one of Toxic Brooklyn, head over to the Vice site to watch the rest before you invest in some waterfront property.
Vinny has never seen the wonder that is Two Girls One Cup, I'm not going to link it here because it's so gross. Back on New Years Day James and Poz video taped a bunch of us in NYC watching it. I must have been drunk on bloody maria's because I don't even remember the contents of the video... Which is probably a good thing.
I love how lil'bro tries to keep it together and nearly pukes on my head. Classic!
Raimy: I've been on the phone with these assholes for hours and I keep getting disconnected. Mom: That's because government programs are designed to fail. Raimy: Right. So poor people stay poor because they just give up. Mom: Keep calling. Raimy: I don't understand how California can legalize gay marriage and have such archaic unemployment policies. Mom: Stop talking to me and call them back. Raimy: Meh...
I'm really happy that we legalized gay marriage, it's great, a step forward. You have to wonder though, with a state budget deficit hovering around 15 billion dollars and the all mighty gay dollar set to generate over 200 million dollars in revenue from LA country alone. It makes sense.
So... who wants in on the drive thru chapel on Robertson and Santa Monica?
Thanks to YouTube people are watching music videos again... The viral video movement has also spawned a barrage of homespun music shows, from the Porter Report to Takeaway Shows and the Black Cab Sessions, audiophiles can enjoy these stripped down performances without the hoopla of a proper video. Maybe it's just me, but seeing musicians actually play (and not playback) their instruments is a turn on. Add it to my list and enjoy Lykke Li from the Black Cab sessions:
Our friend Megan Ghiroli did a photo shoot for Oak NYC. Check out her flickr photostream here. If my urging you to do so isn't enough, how about this hot photo of Jamie Karate and Co.
Megan recently shot a series of photo's called "The Girls at Commack Inn" for Ourchart and you can see that if you click right here.
"Welcome to this online repository for the ramblings of professional chancer and well-known leisure pirate Russell Porter. A notorious loud mouth, Russell is also the feckless presenter of The Porter Report, an ongoing series of programmes from the front line of popular culture-"
Did you know that when We Didn't Start The Fire came out on Long Island, some school districts were using it as a learning tool in history classes. Just a little bit of useless information as you go about your Thursday. My little brother loved to sing, "I didn't fart you liar/ we were in the deli it was really smelly," in lieu of the real lyrics. Times!
This song has been following me all week... no joke.
It started here...
and has been relentless since. Though this is not the first time this song stalked me. If I remember correctly, this was one of Mona's vacuuming songs. It was on a mix tape with Al Jarreau, Michael McDonald, Basia, Toto and Manhattan Transfer... My Mom has cleaning OCD, it was on all the time, sometimes peppered with the Original Broadway soundtrack to 1776. And you wonder how I turned out this way.
Eddie DC rolled into town this week, he's staying with us at the poop colored townhouse and going to see Billy Bragg at the El Ray tomorrow night with Dick Racey. Having him here reminds me of this night, and makes me miss you know where.
I just have to keep reminding myself that there is no way I could afford to live in a place with a vaulted ceiling in New York.
The 2008 Sushi and Sake Festival is being held on Saturday, June 14 at the beautiful Seawalk Village at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. Festival hours are 10AM - 8PM. The event features music, food, sushi making demonstrations, sake and beer tasting, tea ceremony, sumo demonstration, taiko and much more!
Admission price: $21 - includes admission to the festival, admission to the Queen Mary and its exhibits, all stage performances, sake classes and cooking demonstrations. Kids 11 and under are free when accompanied by a paid adult.
If I remember correctly from 9th grade Earth Science, thermometer mercury is less flavorful than some nice Maguro.
I'm prone to making comparisions between New York and Los Angeles, I know it's like comparing apples to oranges but still, I can't help myself. Something keeps irking me from this past weekend... It's the cab situation here. Someone in my chosen family had a birthday on friday and instead of carpooling we decided to cab it so everyone could enjoy safely. I get the fact that L.A. is a series of suburbs connected by highways, I get that. It really, really sucks having to wait 30+ minutes for a cab on 7th St and Alameda at 3:30 in the morning and you begin to wonder if you are actually safer driving... but I guess if you analyze this photo long enough... probably not.
How we were able to wrangle the line up for our last show, I have no idea. It was really an awesome shoot, a little homage to our first "season" and now we've got a little break. Which for me is totes perf, because this little lady is very very good at procrastinating and I have a lot on my plate to finish before July. Cross your fingers.
So... Warpaint is an LA band, I mentioned a band called Bat For Lashes, but they're also drawing comparisons to Jawbox and Blonde Redhead. You should check all these kids out if you don't know them yet.
We wanted to do a bit about bands with actresses in them and aside from the obvious Rilo Kiley there is also She & Him. That's Zoe Deschanel collaborative effort with one of my fav's M. Ward. Juliette Lewis has a band called Juliette and the Licks and Toni Colette has her own outfit named Toni Colette and the Finish... and yes, Scarlett Johansson did a Tom Waits cover album this year.
I wasn't allowed to drive until the end of my senior year of high school, and when I wasn't hitching a ride with someone or waiting for my Mom to pick me up from school, I sat at the very front of the bus listening to Pulp's Different Class... cursing the day we moved to the suburbs.
Something I did not do however, was go home and watch Star Trek cartoons. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
If you're in Los Angeles, and read this blog well... you're probably booked up with gay things. Because it's pride here in LA and nothing says pride like being publicly intoxicated... wearing Roy G. Biv.
I have to say, having been on both coasts for this celebration... L.A. has a little leg up over my beloved NYC, simply put... there is more room, which as you know, is just true. Though this weekend I'm tied up with my friends birthday celebrations. Watching PDA's taken to a new level of uncouth on Sunday is probably in the works, BUT if you have no interest in going to OZ and you're not invited to Zoe's, and you're here in town GO SEE THIS MOVIE:
"A modern-day incarnation of 1983's groundbreaking Style Wars, graffiti documentary Bomb It moves past the boroughs of New York to survey the global community of spray-paint artists. Twenty-five years later, the questions remain the same: art or eyesore, vandalism or political voice? Although this film doesn't settle any of these issues, it does provide a tantalizing look at graffiti's history, from late-'60s pioneers Cornbread and Taki 183 to contemporary artist Blek le Rat. The most entertaining aspect of the film is the juxtaposition between scorning Graffiti Blaster-types and the bombers who consider their work an art form." [Info Source]
– Suzanne Niemoth
Thanks to Flavorpill for the heads up on that one. Turk 182 was one of my favorite movies growing up. There has got to be a Queer Crew bombing shit somewhere, that would be so awesome! Pink hearts and unicorns, if anyone knows anything about that (DJ Tanner) let me know. Here are some other photo's from my outing with DJ Cutlet:
My parents like to chat in stereo, you remember when Mom and Dad would do this with phones? They both pick up the phone from different parts of the house, and talk over one another. Well... I helped them create AIM handles and now we're really cookin' into the 21st Century.
Mom: is dady driving u crazy
Raimy: no, it would be easier if i wasn't typing on a typewriter and i could see you both
Mom: she likes us she really likes us
Raimy: well. you did bring me here after all. I could have been golfing on pluto but NOOOOOO
Listening to The Black Angels makes me feel the same way I felt the first time I heard Black Rebel Motorcycle Club... like bathing in sin. These days, even when I try, efforts to maintain any semblance of edge makes me feel like the forgotten chipmunk that Alvin ousted when he realized he could control Simon and Theodore but not me. You know... come to think of it Battles kind of sounds like the chipmunks on trailer meth. Perhaps there is something I'm missing.
Here are two things you are missing if you don't know about them. There are places in the world where having an existential crisis isn't an option. You can't reminisce about your future and what kind of Danish modern chairs you're going to have around the dining room table... It doesn't work that way for most people.
Sarah Maple and Kali Arulpragasam know this already. I'm not an art critic, I just know what I like. Both these women challenge your threshold for comfort in two completely different ways... a collaboration between the two might result in the planets aligning, George Carlin coming down to a Circle K parking lot in a phone booth to tell us that all is well in the universe, Wyld Stallyns are at the top of the charts and Alvin, Simon and Theodore finally kicked the habit. Think of the possibilities.
I'm just sayin'.
Ok, off to think lovely thoughts with Feldman... that sounded like I was off to an afternoon self-actualization group with a guru named Feldman. Hey, you never know.
Ok, I should never wear that Cats t-shirt again. I should have worn my Goldmine Shithouse t-shirt since that is part of what I was pimping this week... So, yeah, I wasn't in jail. That's not to say I haven't been in jail... recently... for a weekend... two months ago... for doing something stupid... on the lower east side... but we won't go into it.
David Hochbaum is one of my favorite people and not because he's incredibly cute, because if his paint brush and your paint brush got into a WWF wrestling match with one another, his paint brush would put yours in a full nelson and crack its back. Though, come to think of it... does David use a paintbrush?
Anyway, he's incredible and does work on commission, so for any of you lades or gents who are ready for the not so typical wedding photo, I'd give Hochbaum a call. He's based in New York.
The Goldmine Shithouse will have a silk screening party in San Fran this June. Get on their mailing list to keep updated on all the fun. While you're up in NoCal check out the DeYoung... woah, just, woah.
Music this week, we talked about Dominique Leone and Julianna Barwick, but there were so many other bands I wanted to tell you about who are working "Outside The Box". I did mention Animal Collective and Deerhunter, both amazing bands. Indie nerds are rolling their eyes at me, but for those of you who don't know about albums like Sung Tongs and Cryptograms your lives could be changing at this very moment and you wouldn't even know about it! Does that make any sense? I dunno, but I'm leaving it like that anyway. Because I studied the beats... and they don't erase.
Here is a band so far outside the box, they had to contain themselves in one just for this video. Battles are from Brooklyn and they are playing or have already played a Myspace secret show with Gnarls Barkley in New York.
