Tuesday Night

Sura and I went to Bowery Electric on Bowery and Bond. It was nice inside, a little empty, but pretty chill, and mostly hip. The dj's played pretty good jams, not the typical bar music like Journey, AC/DC etc. I called up James, who lives around the corner in, get this, the old Ramoness hangout apt. His roommate happens to be the graphic artist of the Ramones, you know, the guy who invented the Ramoness logo, etc. It's basicly like living in a museum. There are all these photos of members of the Ramones in the apt, by the things they are by. For example, there is a photo of Joey Ramone standing next to a pipe, and this photo is hung by the pipe. Once there was this scrap book just lying out and inside the plastic pages were the original pieces of paper that lyrics to many of the iconic songs we know and love from the Ramones were written on. Witnessing history. The dude himself I guess is in his 60's but I've never met him.
So James came and brought Casey and we had a championship time.
Then just Sura and I went to the Inn for the Trashion party. Dimitry!!! who always seems to be djing wherever I go was... djing. When we walked into the Inn, it seemed utterly dead, there was one guy in the place, then we remembered to walk upstairs where the jamz were in full swing. I met Andre, who had ODB on his shirt.

It was luv at first sight.

Oh yeah. Walking back to the subway around 3:00 AM we spotted this gentleman asleep in the very posh clothing store on W 13th st. Very bizzare.

Brooklyn Springs!

On a whim Sura and I went to the bar right down the block from us. I still have no idea what the name of it is, but its on Underhill and Lincoln Pl. and the front is bright orange. They have the most amazing backyard space, which is kinda "crappy wonderful." Cheap (for NY) prices and locals all over. Total neighborhood bar. Highly Recommended!


On the way back there were some kids playing jump rope on our block, but in traditional Brooklyn style, they were playing with an electrical cord. It brought me back to the old days of double dutchin' with telephone cable.

Brooklyn Flea

I headed to the Brooklyn Flea Market on Vanderbuilt and Lafayette. My feelings...mixed. There was a great sense of community, and some quirky people there, which is really what you hope for from a flea market. But you also hope for junk tables to riffle through with the perfect lamp, or the table with just a few nicks in it, but for 27 dollars, it's totally a steal. There wasn't much of that. Most of the vendors were also store owners, and their prices and attitudes mirrored that. There were many thrift store clothing items at first purchase prices. Still, my roommate was able to find a nice mirror for only 25 dollars that does work really well with her room, and only a few nicks. And there was a table, that had folding leaves and an expanding middle that Nick fell in love with, but since he doesn't live in Brooklyn yet, it didn't make sense for him to purchase it. The legs were carved masterpieces.
On the way home we stopped by a stoop sale, and managed to score a reallysuperlong coat peg rack for our hallway and a cute red chair, small enough for our lovely fire escape/turned porch and bright enough for our color choices in our apt. All for 20 bucks. What a steal.

Galleries

I killed some time last evening. The weather was absolutely beautiful, I went to some Chelsea galleries, and the work was not all atrocious, the art world is getting better!

Yinka Shonibare

Tamara Kostianovsky @ Black and White Gallery

Karin Weiner @ Ziehrsmith

Zipora Fried @ Moti Hasson GalleryAnd some crazy guy at Union Square. A NYC staple.

APT

Tuesday night, every New Yorker's true party night, came a-knockin'. But not to worry, Sura and I were already armed with a plan. We went to the Meatpacking District, which is normally lame lame lame with long lines, dude-bro "grown up" frat boys, and pricey covers. However, we were "on da list" and didn't have to deal with most of that and APT didn't have too many frat boys.
The styling, true to its name, was that of an "apartment." It was swankier than any bachelor pad I've seen. It had a bed, dining room table, lounge area, etc. A nice detail included a map of the Eastern Hemisphere, no America's to be seen. Another nice aspect was a deck! Who has a deck in NYC anymore? And it was HUGE! So, for you smokers out there, and for you dancers who just need to cool off, you can go right outside without being in the street. Amazing.
The dj set was really scene appropriate, and it just felt wonderful to be dancing in the downstairs "double" bar space. We stayed until late.

Hunter MFA Open Studio

On Friday it was a hard choice for me:
Brooklyn Critical Mass, or Hunter MFA open studios. I ended up going to the open studios. First of all, one should be warned that you head into no man's land when you trek out to the studios, which are located west of the Port Authority. You have traffic, shady overpasses, and New Jersey looming in the distance to contend with, but it is totally worth it.
The studios are all hodge podged together, each one being unique. One was in a room with no windows, there were three or four all in the same space, with a second level connecting them all, much like a post- industrial loft dwelling, ones that looked like stark white gallery spaces, etc etc etc. Navigating the space itself was part of the experience.
The other expereice was, of course, the art.




Amazing couch-platform "ride"(?) that we got to participate in. That couch swiveled 360 around its center and the whole platform also spun.



Muthafukin' fort!

Inside the fort!

First Saturday Polaroids

That last one is all fam fam, the cat and the brother.

back track

Every first Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum is a party. They open it late and have dj's and bands and lecturers to welcome in their new exhibit which this month was Murakami!He's such a visually exciting artist, combining all sorts of mediums and references to create this other world. An "other world" where women jump rope their lactate out of their colossal breasts. I first saw his work a few years ago at the New York Asia Society (if I remember correctly). There was a entry fee for the Murakami part of the museum and everyone basically snuck (sneaked?) in , because paying for art when you think its going to be free is the suck. On the other hand Murakami is le shit even if there is a Louis Vuitton store in the space. I think the store just gives more context to the work in a unconventional sort of way. It celebrates his entry (by now it's less of an entry and more of a placeholding) into the mainstream/commercial world, and by embracing it, he almost destroys the negative connotations, and lets us laugh with him.
My roommate and I always host a little wine drinking gathering and check out some art for free.

Afterwards, our shindig was a pretty good time.

the city of endless concerts

Two nights ago I went to a Spoon concert with Barbara. Spoon live was alright. I probably would
have loved it more if I loved Spoon, but I find them just okay. However their lighting designer did a stand up job, and I wish I had brought my camera to show some photos of how nice it looked. The band would be lit from the front in bright RED! and the backdrop would be lit BLUE! and it was just stunning. All the color combinations chosen were perfect, Yellow and Orange, Green and Purple, and all super saturated. The concert was at Terminal 5, the newest most shiny hip venue that is located so far west in the ManHat, it might as well be in Jersey. I'm alright with T5, but not with their latest promoter of choice, Camel cigarettes. They covered the entire interior of Terminal 5 and there was not one place in the entire venue that you could be without seeing something Camel related. So as the Handsome Furs (opening band, and amazing) sarcasticly said "Smoking is cool, go smoke alot."
Since I don't have photos from the Spoon concert, here are some other ones from Nora and Barbara's concert series.


Kristoffer Ragnstam at Pianos
Me and Barbara were the ONLY people there who seemed to know who he was, but they made a good show, for sure. We even got to very awkwardly tell him that we are huge fans right after the show, I think we both stumbled over our gushy words.


Quintron and Miss Pussy Cat with...


The Black Lips! It was my second time seeing them, and they still put on an energetic show, and they have the perfect length of any set list, not too long, just long enough.
Now the important question tonight is...
do I go to another concert (MAN MAN and YEASAYER) or go to the Hunter MFA Open Studios or Brooklyn Critical Mass? And that is only for the evening...
Never Bored in New York.

Brooklyn Biking and Bowling

Last night I rode my bike the 3-ish miles to Melody Lanes in the South Slope to meet Rebecca, Konstantine and co. It was a really nice ride, almost all the way down 5th ave. One can see the change, almost as a linear time line. The posh nice bars and restaurants are closer to Flatbush and as one continues down 5th ave it becomes a little less posh, and then there are more corner stores (I don't know what you are talking about when you say bodega, every New Yorker knows its a corner store) and then it starts to get a little run down, there are more pot holes, but then it becomes completely desolate when you hit the Greenwood Cemetery. It's bizzare to think all these people live right across the street from this MASSIVE cemetery. The 3-ish miles back was almost all uphill. I got a work out to say the least, but it was amazing bike riding weather.
When I was a young girl everyone had their birthday parties at Melody Lanes. It was my first time back in 12+ years. They have since painted the walls hella 80's Miami vice colors complete with matching ceiling and floor tiles. And it looks like they still have cosmic bowling. I lost pretty bad, I think my highest over all score was 34. My personal best.
Action shots to come.

Night and Day, you are the one.

I went to the Dark Fair last weekend, which was basically an Armory rejects show with a neat theme. Every presenter was given a black booth (as seen in the photo above) to show their work, which allowed viewers to sit with the artist and have a conversation about the piece, should they choose. It also gave the artist a context in which to create/display their work in an irregular gallery setting. The space had no overhead lighting which gave the entire space a cool/erie underground vibe (even though it was on the third floor) and also allowed for the presenters to really have absolute control over the amount of lighting they wanted. My favorite was the ghost playing a record in front of a painting of a ghost playing a record. Fortunately or unfortunately the Ghost piece was the first booth one saw when entering the space, kinda ruins it for the rest of everyone else. Although there was a cool glow stick portrait thing by Ports. I'm not sure what happens to the photos once they are taken, but anyone who wanted could pose next to the glow of many glow sticks and the photographer would take your picture after his assistant shined a flashlight at you.

Earlier that day I went to the Met to see a lecture by very popular fashion bloggers including my absolute favorite, The Sartorialist. There was also this amazing woman who was waiting in line to get her admission to the museum. I assume she was attending the same lecture as I, as she was wearing a bunch of different plaids (including plaid genie pants), a fez-esque hat and loooong shiny shoes.



And on Wednesday I went out with some lovely folk in Alphabet city. We went to a bar called which the bartender/owner (?) informed us that the dj was the one who makes all these UFO tags in the city. I happened to have this photo on my camera at the time, and was able to confirm that it is indeed him. FABULOUS!