elsewhere in the blogiverse…

Benny’s been busy working his butt off in S. Africa so he can go to a really cool music festival (while i take his girlfriend to bergen bagels on the weekend)

The Love Doctor over at Metrocards and Condoms is doling out advice by the bushel… and i must say it’s quite entertaining… especially the one about “the proposal”. as a wise (bejeweled-jean wearing) friend once said… “marry for love”… oh and just watching that clip from swingers makes me happy.

M-Rod’s throwing one of those wooden planes (the kind you used to buy at the local toy store that was so awesome, but would inevitably break easily) off the roof of his building in SoHo. Not gonna lie, i got a little jealous when he told me.

Cyrus (a new edition over on the right there…if you haven’t noticed) is busy discussing the merits of subway style and his thursday night party (which i am not at right now and i am instead writing an entry to my blog… pathetic).

“hey my buddy is a better dancer than you are…”

happy sunny and warm tuesday morning from NYC… enjoy….

One of my favorite things to do was to get my buddy, MB, into dance-off’s at clubs/bars by walking up to people and being like, “hey my buddy’s a better dancer than you…”. Unfortunately i didn’t have this cute little guy to kick some serious dance-ass (and he has good taste in music…. Spoon… who knew?)

(via JWS)

Hiking the Appalachian Trail…

Here’s to wishing an old hastings buddy, Dave Maggiotto, best of luck as he prepares to venture off into the wilderness for the 2000 mile -or so trip from Georgia to Maine… otherwise known as the Appalachian Trail.

Just like the other Yellow Jackets who are traveling the world and blogging about their adventures… Dave’ll be keeping a blog (which he will hopefully be able to update frequently along his way… internet availability is a bit spotty up there as one might imagine) and i assure you that it will be extremely interesting and entertaining. Dave’s blog can be found here: www.onthetrail.lohudblogs.com (or on my links there along the right side).

Apparently Dave had some military training before going…

Ok not really, i contemplated getting a picture from pre-k (yea that long ago) when dave and i were archenemy’s fighting over rights to the swirly slide…. but i couldn’t find one…. so i settled on that one which was the only picture i could find by googling… (freaky you can just do that)

Again, best of luck Dave… let us know when you’re here for the New York portion, perhaps we can come join you for a day hike.

i told you so: a (dancing and not-so)modest mouse & (a north american)lcd soundsystem

Last Tuesday, March 23 (can’t believe its almost April) two great albums came out and i didn’t really hear or read much about either of them, but maybe that’s because i was too busy at work, well working.

Modest Mouse, “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank”

Although Modest Mouse had been rocking for years (since 1993) and yea sure you’ve been listening to them since then… It was their last big successful album back in 2004, “Good News for People Who Love Bad News”, with the venerable single “Float On” that put them on the map…

Since then, Modest Mouse went back to the studio with an addition: Johnny Marr, the famed guitarist from The Smiths.

The album is a clear evolution from their last, fusing elements from all parts of their past… with more melodic songwriting and striking guitar riffs/melodies, both of which can be attributed to Marr’s addition to the band. In the end, the resulting album is not as mellow as Modest Mouse fans may be accustomed to, though this album still has its fair share of mellow songs like “Little Motel” (…even those songs are more catchy than before). While this album is chock-full of funky rock songs with driving beats, soaring modest mouse-y strings and horns, and weird lyrics (ie first single, “dashboard”)… it is decidely more dance-ish than anyone could have expected.

To which i say: AWESOME!!! (Though i suspect my buddy FLR is probably a bit skeptical).

LCD Soundsystem, “Sound of Silver”

While living in Boston my senior year in college (ahhhh 8 Farrington Ave!!) there was a solid 3 months where we would have dance parties (a la Steve Zissou and by “we” i mean me and sam) with only LCD Soundsystem’s album playing, most notably “Daft Punk Is Playing at my House”… to the point that Frankie would come home to find us in the living room with it blasting and be absolutely unfazed.

Ok ok ok ok… point is… a new album was much needed because it was getting old dancing to that. So with “Sounds of Silver”, LCD Soundsystem returns declaring themselves “north american” in their first, and totally rocking single “north american scum”… and ends with a wonderful ode to NYC declaring that it is detrimental to their health (which i might have to agree).

LCD Soundsystem’s coming to NYC 4 times in the next month and a half… there’s no way you should not catch at least one show, they’re guaranteed to make you dance!

the act of falling in youtube love…

after spending my whole morning laying in bed hungover with a headache and watching videos of Damien Rice & Co perform live because, well, i absolutely love their music… i realized that i have youtube crush on Lisa Hannigan (the female singer who accompanies Damien)… then i got to thinking, i have officially fallen in youtube love. Have you?

so you may ask yourself: what is a youtube crush/love?

To which i will respond: i cannot tell you what youtube love is, but i can tell you what it feels like through my own personal experience…. so have you ever searched for every video where said love/crush is in, even if for a brief moment… and then after each video you convince yourself that love/crush is perfect for you.

You start thinking about your shared sunday morning’s eating brunch as she reads the newspaper and you do the crossword puzzle… and you relish the comfortable silence you share… one that is only broken by cracks she makes about the current political scene and you asking her for a 7 letter word for “without flaws”, to which she responds “perfect”. Perfect.

Anyone know what i’m talking about?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA i can’t believe i wrote that… i need to get a girl life. So without further adieu, i leave with you this video of Damien & Lisa singing “The Professor (et la fille danse)”, a personal favorite…

(just watch Lisa in her chair all weird and fidgety…)

….oooh and shake shack is open.

how did i forget that!!!! i wrote the “looking forward to spring…” entry specifically so i could put the fact that Shake Shack opened on Monday… they say they opened yesterday (but they were serving on monday the 19th). So run down there cause… it’s probably the best time to get a burger without having to wait online. Or check out the shake shack webcam to see how long the line is.

Double shack burger, cheese fries, and a creamsicle float.

looking forward to spring…

As the first full day of spring wraps up (brrr that was cold, wtf?)… i’ve decided to write a list of things to look forward to as we venture forth:

- getting out of work when the sun is actually out (given i am not working late like i have been lately)

- the first day that it is unusually warm and all the girls at FIT break out the tank-tops and mini-skirts (WOOOO… couldn’t come any sooner… err… i just read that back to myself, ah forget it)

- passover Coca-Cola, apparently they use real sugar to make it kosher. Real sugar in coke makes it taste like Coke in Europe, which if you’ve noticed, is better. One problem: it doesn’t last as long, hence the use of high-fructose corn syrup here in the states.

- NY Yankees Opening Day!!! (not looking forward to A-Rod saying more stupid-ass shit, can he just stop talking and play baseball?)

- All the bars with “gardens” (also known as concrete backyards) getting swamped with people.

- Spring Fashion (also known as an excuse for me to spend $$ from tax returns)… In case you were wondering, I’m really digging G-Star, Scotch & Soda, John Varvatos, Paul Smith Shoes & Nudie Jeans…. The look here is nyc urban-prepster…

- Concerts… A lot of great bands are coming through NYC in the coming months, most notably: Bloc Party, LCD Soundsystem, Amy Winehouse…

- Dinershack… the 24-hour extension of Cattyshack (yes… that Cattyshack) opens in April. I can just picture us going out til 4am and having banana splits at Dinershack before coming home…

Overheard in the Slope…

Girl browsing the shared itunes music on her computer… comes to S&P (Salt ‘N Pepper) “Push it”  and starts laughing…

Guy: Dammit, how’d she find my naked-time song?

Amy Winehouse… Neo-Jazz/Blues/Soul and Oh So Cheeky.

New music alert… coming from across the pond (it seems as though there’s been quite a few of them).

Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black” (released in US 3/13/07, in UK in 2006)

Sounds like: 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s soul/jazz/blues (a la girl groups of said era and female jazz singers as such… nina… billie… etc etc) + modern day UK cheekyness.

At first listen after a lazy-sunday 2.5 hour brunch of strategizing, Amy Winehouse was extremely perfect for the time… and I really dug the vintage-y sound… in fact, i thought it was vintage. I didn’t quite listen to the lyrics or anything, just simply lounged and grooved to the music and the inherent scratchiness of her voice.

With a sampling of her music in hand, we left… a week later after hearing m-rod play it all week, i started really listening to the lyrics and reading up on Ms. Winehouse…. and, let’s just say, boy was i f-ing surprised!! Aside from adding a genuinely new and refreshing twist to a lacking genre of music (by that, i mean that it simply does not occupy the same space as it once did) mostly dominated by popular artists like Joss Stone and John Legend , who are both great in their own way, but the fact is, something that really characterized this genre at its inception was its attitude and roughness… something Joss and John, who are polished, just can’t achieve.

So how does Amy Winehouse achieve this? Well in addition to having grown up in a family of jazz/blues musicians, she has made some really great musical decisions with her direction, choice of producers, and choice of collaborations. She can sing with an extremely unique sounding voice… but she can also write a song with the vim and venom fresh young and strong woman and the sarcasm and cheekyness that the english are known for…

The sometimes-explicit and graphic lyrics (“he left no time to regret/ kept his d*ck wet/with his same old safe bet”) coupled with the updated music and her voice from another era create a really unique musical experience.

All in all, she’s coming to NYC in May at the new venue over by the Highline…. i’ll be there, let me know if you want to join.

St. Patrick’s Day is to the local American Legion Talent Show as…

New Year’s Eve is to Showtime at the Apollo…

Meaning, it’s amateur’s amateur night in nyc.

Cheers to that, slainte!