What’s with George Will? Now he’s stargazing in Hawaii, pondering the mysteries and trotting out Terence’s favorite quote about “stranger than we can suppose” (though without attribution to Haldane.) Has he been listening to the Shamen?
Stay high 149
our kitty loves mint, he eat a little chocolate mint from the market this am, than we gave him the freash catnip, he went wild, eat a lot and went on a trip, he is still bonkers, eating twice his normal crunchies (munchies??), and the bouquet of catnip is still by his bowl but he hasnt gone back, is he having a bad trip....
had a quick tour of WD50, when finished there will be a hugh kitchen area w/skylight!!, groovey room, fireplace, big table in a downstairs wine cellar (which i tried to book for new years eve:>)...COOL RTR
WFMU, New York/New Jersey's prime purveyor of freeform radio sounds, is
sponsoring a station benefit on Saturday, September 21st, at 8:00 PM at
Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue between Sterling and St. John's Place in Park
Slope, Brooklyn.
On the bill: ESG, Outhud, Brother JT3, the Styrenes. DJing provided by David Grubbs. Tickets are on sale at Ticketweb.com, and Other Music (15 East 4th Street, New York City), and are $12 with all proceeds to benefit the nonprofit, independent, listener-sponsored station. Tickets will also be on sale at Southpaw the night of the show.
About the acts:
ESG began as four sisters and a friend emerging from the South Bronx with trancy, minimalist grooves, scratchy guitar, and heady funk rhythms that wound up influencing multiple musical camps from indie rock to hip hop to No Wave. They've been sampled umpteenth times by higher profile names than themselves (see their 1992 single "Sample Credits Don't Pay Our Bills") and rarely play out these days, which makes it more of an honor to have them on the WFMU bill. They have a brand new album forthcoming on the UK Soul Jazz label, which also issued a compilation last year of ESG's older material. The band has had quite a cult in the UK as well, even back to their inception, where Factory Records' Tony Wilson was blown away by the band and got them in the studio with Martin Hannett (Joy Division, A Certain Ratio).
OUTHUD are a New York group of transplants from Sacramento (where half of their other project !!! remains), and specialize in danceably rocking grooves laden with processed effects, heavy echo, repetitive rhythms and respectful nods to like minds as Gang of Four, Joy Division, New Order, PiL, King Tubby. They have a forthcoming disc on the Kranky label.
BROTHER JT is a true purveyor of psychedelic soul, hailing from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he also fronted garage-pop legends the Original Sins for most of the 80's and 90's. Backed by drummer Jamie Knerr and bassist Bill Melcher, Brother JT's live sets swerve from classic Nuggets fuzz rock to pure bubblegum to all-out acid-soaked psychedelic rants and are amazing events to behold. He has two new discs out right now: Maybe We Should Take Some More (Birdman) and Spirituals (Drag City, produced by Neil Hagerty or Royal Trux and solo fame).
THE STYRENES are the one band that can wear the overused publicity tag "artpunk legends" and not be challenged. Hailing from Cleveland, called the "fertile dungheap of 1970's punk rock" by giving birth to such luminaries as the Electric Eels, Rocket From the Tomb, Pere Ubu, and the Dead Boys, the Styrenes crawled from the ashes of those bands with ex-Eels and Mirrors members and now reside in our fair city. Not content to be stylized into a genre, the band melds punk, prog, psychedelia, jazz, and even pure 20th Century classical composition into its sound. There is a new release of their early recordings out now called It's Still Artastic (ROIR) as well as a newly recorded and quite rocking take on Terry Riley's famous In C (Enja Records). Members John Morton and Paul Marotta are also featured in the band Amoeba Raft Boy, whose recent release Bad Fuggum From the Mysterium (Smog Veil Records) features a healthy chunk of tunes recorded live in WFMU's studios in 1996.
DAVID GRUBBS knows a thing or two about good music, having been a member of the Red Krayola, Gastr del Sol, Bitch Magnet, and Bastro as well as producing many fine solo records. He'll be manning the wheels of steel at the WFMU benefit tonight.
On the bill: ESG, Outhud, Brother JT3, the Styrenes. DJing provided by David Grubbs. Tickets are on sale at Ticketweb.com, and Other Music (15 East 4th Street, New York City), and are $12 with all proceeds to benefit the nonprofit, independent, listener-sponsored station. Tickets will also be on sale at Southpaw the night of the show.
About the acts:
ESG began as four sisters and a friend emerging from the South Bronx with trancy, minimalist grooves, scratchy guitar, and heady funk rhythms that wound up influencing multiple musical camps from indie rock to hip hop to No Wave. They've been sampled umpteenth times by higher profile names than themselves (see their 1992 single "Sample Credits Don't Pay Our Bills") and rarely play out these days, which makes it more of an honor to have them on the WFMU bill. They have a brand new album forthcoming on the UK Soul Jazz label, which also issued a compilation last year of ESG's older material. The band has had quite a cult in the UK as well, even back to their inception, where Factory Records' Tony Wilson was blown away by the band and got them in the studio with Martin Hannett (Joy Division, A Certain Ratio).
OUTHUD are a New York group of transplants from Sacramento (where half of their other project !!! remains), and specialize in danceably rocking grooves laden with processed effects, heavy echo, repetitive rhythms and respectful nods to like minds as Gang of Four, Joy Division, New Order, PiL, King Tubby. They have a forthcoming disc on the Kranky label.
BROTHER JT is a true purveyor of psychedelic soul, hailing from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he also fronted garage-pop legends the Original Sins for most of the 80's and 90's. Backed by drummer Jamie Knerr and bassist Bill Melcher, Brother JT's live sets swerve from classic Nuggets fuzz rock to pure bubblegum to all-out acid-soaked psychedelic rants and are amazing events to behold. He has two new discs out right now: Maybe We Should Take Some More (Birdman) and Spirituals (Drag City, produced by Neil Hagerty or Royal Trux and solo fame).
THE STYRENES are the one band that can wear the overused publicity tag "artpunk legends" and not be challenged. Hailing from Cleveland, called the "fertile dungheap of 1970's punk rock" by giving birth to such luminaries as the Electric Eels, Rocket From the Tomb, Pere Ubu, and the Dead Boys, the Styrenes crawled from the ashes of those bands with ex-Eels and Mirrors members and now reside in our fair city. Not content to be stylized into a genre, the band melds punk, prog, psychedelia, jazz, and even pure 20th Century classical composition into its sound. There is a new release of their early recordings out now called It's Still Artastic (ROIR) as well as a newly recorded and quite rocking take on Terry Riley's famous In C (Enja Records). Members John Morton and Paul Marotta are also featured in the band Amoeba Raft Boy, whose recent release Bad Fuggum From the Mysterium (Smog Veil Records) features a healthy chunk of tunes recorded live in WFMU's studios in 1996.
DAVID GRUBBS knows a thing or two about good music, having been a member of the Red Krayola, Gastr del Sol, Bitch Magnet, and Bastro as well as producing many fine solo records. He'll be manning the wheels of steel at the WFMU benefit tonight.
Test run of brunch went very well last week. AKA will be open to the public for brunch this week (and forever on...) on Sundays (probably do Saturday's too shortly) from 11:30. Omlettes, egg in the hole, french toast, hanger slider... Mmmmm.
out to eat w/ marianne nowottny
Axis of Evel
One (fleeting) regret on the Montana trip was missing Evel Week in Butte. That’s Evel as in Knievel, favorite son of the tapped-out town. NY Press sent a reporter. Paints too pretty a picture if you ask me. But what do I know: I went to Maloney’s.
One (fleeting) regret on the Montana trip was missing Evel Week in Butte. That’s Evel as in Knievel, favorite son of the tapped-out town. NY Press sent a reporter. Paints too pretty a picture if you ask me. But what do I know: I went to Maloney’s.
Sad to hear that Bill's beloved mutt, Mother, has died. I'm not the biggest fan of dogs, but Mother was as sweet as they come. Good owners make for good dogs, and maybe she was grateful for being rescued from a hard life, but she was about as laid back as a canine could be. I'll always remember tromping around Buck's County with her in the Autumn leaves. Our sympathies go out.
In better pet news, we hear that Polycat is doing well in Montana, and two slightly irregular kittens have found a home…
In better pet news, we hear that Polycat is doing well in Montana, and two slightly irregular kittens have found a home…
Larry Rivers is dead.
The Times obit reflects his mixed reputation. He was gifted and inventive, but produced a lot of truly awful work. Even his good stuff was done better by Rauschenberg. Still, he played his role to the hilt, and managed to be both highbrow and vulgar at the same time, which remains a popular ambition in the art world. I was never attracted to his work, but he was the biggest name on the Parsons faculty when I went there. My friend Steve DiBenedetto did excellent Rivers knock-offs, even to the point of carrying around stencils as part of his life drawing kit. Larry didn't prove to be much of a teacher though, making no more than an occasional appearance, breezing through the senior class studios. My favorite memory is of the one time he was made available to our third year class, but got upstaged by the pope. JP2 was making his first visit to NY, and the whole class was leaning out of the windows to catch a glimpse of the pope-mobile going down 5th Avenue, ignoring Larry, who pouted and leafed through a book, refusing to pay any attention to the pater. Maybe it was principled anti-clerical bohemianism, but I think he was just jealous of a bigger celebrity.
The Times obit reflects his mixed reputation. He was gifted and inventive, but produced a lot of truly awful work. Even his good stuff was done better by Rauschenberg. Still, he played his role to the hilt, and managed to be both highbrow and vulgar at the same time, which remains a popular ambition in the art world. I was never attracted to his work, but he was the biggest name on the Parsons faculty when I went there. My friend Steve DiBenedetto did excellent Rivers knock-offs, even to the point of carrying around stencils as part of his life drawing kit. Larry didn't prove to be much of a teacher though, making no more than an occasional appearance, breezing through the senior class studios. My favorite memory is of the one time he was made available to our third year class, but got upstaged by the pope. JP2 was making his first visit to NY, and the whole class was leaning out of the windows to catch a glimpse of the pope-mobile going down 5th Avenue, ignoring Larry, who pouted and leafed through a book, refusing to pay any attention to the pater. Maybe it was principled anti-clerical bohemianism, but I think he was just jealous of a bigger celebrity.
saw The Good Girl last night. cant say that i would recommend it outright but i thought it was well acted. it was written by the guy that wrote Chuck and Buck and possesses a similarly droll and dire perspective. and while i enjoyed the farcical elements, the story itself seemed a little unoriginal and despite the fine acting you never really cared about the fate of the characters. but then i wasnt concerned with much by the end of the night as the champagne hangover began to wreak havoc on my brain. in general i would say i would have been better off with total sobriety or further inebriation, and maybe thats true of the movie as well. heres a salon review that seems about right.
NY Post gossip guru Neal Travis, the original Page Six editor, is dead. The Post is no longer a down-and-dirty tabloid, having repositioned itself as a secondary read to the Times. I guess it's the "ironic" paper. Guys like Travis, shown here (at right) with drunken Steve Dunleavy, a fellow Murdoch running-dog, were transitional figures who retained something of the aura of the old dailies.
a guy i work with runs this site. he mentioned to me that he is always after new contributors, so thought i'd post in case anyone (tom?) is interested.
Last night at Felidia confirms they are one of my fav's spots...
"I used to ridicule the Riedel fetishists. Then I became one. Riedel, for those not in the know, is the world's trendiest brand of wineglass—the Manolo Blahniks of stemware. Wine geeks tote their Riedels to restaurants, dinner parties, and pretty much any place else where quality bottles might be uncorked."
better killing through chemistry
the sunny side of the street
I was wondering about those ubiquitous Chevy ads, the "walking on the sun" campaign. Did they buy a Zombies song and re-write it? No, Christopher Caldwell of NY Press explains that it's Smash Mouth, in the process of selling out. (see "In Any Event" down the page) But I don't buy his critique. It's not that these folks don't understand irony; the situation is the height of irony, or what irony used to mean. In fact, it's so ironic it's subversive, but in the wrong direction. Nowadays irony is just the echo chamber of meaninglessness; postmodernism's aversion to any commitment requiring a value judgement. 'Course I knew that years ago, which is why I thought the Clash were a joke even then. Smash Mouth and the admen are all of one condition: nobody sells out anymore; they just buy in. And the moral is: the only thing you have to pay the Zombies is homage.
Get your war on, page 13: Get your Exx on.
This week, to accompany the Food Issue of The New Yorker, here is a selection of New Yorker food writing from the past. In this Talk of the Town piece from 1945, Lillian Ross writes about what was at the time a novelty: frozen dinners.
