Wednesday, August 29, 2007

My Daemon: Laefe

Thanks to a tip from my sister, my daemon has been found. His name is Laefe and he's a chimp.

Since he's a male chimp, he'll weigh up to 70 pounds and I most likely won't be able to pick him up. Which is not to say that he's a bad fit as the physical manifestation of my soul. On the contrary, my strange fascination with all things chimp the last month or so makes this an extremely apt choice.

You can find your own daemon here.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Stay-cation 2007: Bronx Zoo

I heart the Bronx Zoo. I have been bugging the BF to go with me to check it out since I moved back to the city, and during my week off of work last week we finally went. I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked, but here are some of my favorites:

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

This Tradition Ends Now: the Virgin Festival

The BF and I, along with a couple friends of ours, headed down to Baltimore last weekend for the Virgin Music Festival. I won't even try to describe the whole thing in this post since it would be information overload. And I was generally overwhelmed so my photographic record is about nil and so I really have nothing to show you either. I went on to Flikr, but nothing really jumped out at me so you'll just have to let you imagination run wild. The general gist: Saturday was waaaaay too hot so the only thing to really occupy ourselves with were the frozen drinks being offered up at the SoCo tent. That's right, I said it: SoCo. So I'm sure that you can guess where that day went. Sunday was much better, both musically speaking and weather-wise (and, I might add, we stayed sober). All together, I had a wonderful time. But, as the BF agreed, I doubt I'd ever do it again: that tradition ended there.

Below are some brief thoughts on the music I saw in consecutive order:

Day One: the progressively blurry day

Amy Winehouse:
she is a hot tamale, that's for sure. She put on a solid live performance and she looked great, but I'm lukewarm about her music in general. Although, I was impressed to see in the paper on my way to work this morning that she played the festival in Chicago on Sunday: Balto one day and Chicago the next...she must be a powerhouse of stamina that girl. [update: or maybe not so much]

Peter Bjorn and John: they were the dark horse of the festival for me. I had no idea who they were before I checked them out and I thought they were great. I'm going to hunt down some music and see if I like them well enough to see them at the Roseland in September.

LCD Soundsystem: Mr. F, I should have listened to you sooner: these guys were rockin. Hope you got my text.

Beastie Boys: These guys were pretty rad. The BF liked their set a lot. So much so that he picked a fight with a random dude and then, when said dude wacked me while swinging for him, things would have gotten totally out of hand had the crowd not stepped in and kept them apart. I'll say it again: So.Co.

The Police: Okay. At this point I'll admit it: I was too drunk to appreciate the Police. I'm a shithead, I know. But they were the last band after an entire day of drinking. SoCo. In the sun. What can I say? I remember enough to bring to mind Sting's tight shirt and even tighter smile and I also remember thinking that they sounded exactly like their records.

Day Two: the progressively better day

Regina Spektor:
man this girl has pipes. She reminded the BF a little bit of an idiot savant with her stuffed snake, socks over shoes and random giggling, but the music could not be faulted.

Matisyahu: glad I saw him just to see him and grooved with some hippies.

Spoon: ohmygodi'mtotallycrushingonbrittdaniel. I have to say that I think Spoon doesn't translate well to an outdoor setting. I'm curious to see them in the fall in an enclosed and more intimate fashion.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: yeah yeah yeah! (as if that joke hasn't been made before!!) Every person in this band knows how to put on a show. Sex and rock n' roll. Awesome. They were definitely a highlight of the festival.

Interpol: hrm. Yet another band that doesn't translate well to an open-air setting. They really put in the effort though and I did enjoy their set immensely. I guess I was spoiled when I saw them for the first time in a tiny room in I-Town. I'm seeing them at the Garden in a couple of weeks, but I have a feeling I'm going to feel the same way about that show too.

Smashing Pumpkins: So, Billy Corgan is arrogant. I'll admit that. But then you'll have to admit that he's crazy talented and the Smashing Pumpkins will rock your face off. Ha! In all seriousness: I was a ridiculous SP fan in high-school and never had the opportunity to see them live so, perhaps, my opinion is a bit biased when it comes to the following claim: SP were the best act at the entire Virgin festival. In fact, they were the best act I've seen in a long time. They were tight, they had a great mix of new and old, and Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin are undeniably masters of their respective crafts. So what if Billy purposely hired a female bassist and an Asian looking guitarist to replace his other band mates (low-blow in my book, for the record)? So what if he made a somewhat presumptuous allusion to Jimi Hendrix in his first guitar solo of the evening? I'm willing to forgive arrogance in the face of sheer talent, it would seem. If they come out on a solo tour, I am definitely there.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Woody Allen: Manhattan

If you have the opportunity today (Thursday, August 2nd) you must go catch the screening of Manhattan at City Cinema Village East. Tonight is the last day that they are showing it as far as I can tell and you really ought to catch this beautiful film on the big screen. Although, to be fair, they are showing it on a rather small screen in an intimate theater. But still!

This movie is one of my favorites (and might even be my favorite Woody film) and it is absolutely stunning to watch (it was shot by Gordon Willis, the man perhaps most known for shooting the Godfather). The opening montage alone is worth the price of admission: I've seen it more times than I can remember, but to see it in a theater with the Gershwin score building around you is a special treat. Mariel Hemingway will make you ache. Diane and Woody are in top form together. And Meryl even makes a couple appearances. The writing (co-written by Woody and sometime-collaborator Marshall Brickman) is unbelievably good in this film and, even though the plot will devastate you in the end, you'll leave the theater satisfied and gorged on visual beauty and witty dialog. Cliche as it might sound, they really don't make movies like this anymore. So go. Today. See this film.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

McCarren Park Pool: Sonic Youth

So, I've been a bit reluctant to write this post since I know I'm probably not in the majority on this one. But, last Saturday night I went with a group of friends to see Sonic Youth at McPP. I had initially planned to attend this show with the BF, since he's the one that is actually the Sonic Youth fan: once it was announced that they were playing their seminal album Daydream Nation front to back to celebrate 20 years since it's release, I rushed right out and scored some tix to surprise him. Unfortunately, it turned out that he was already booked that weekend to hang with his guys in the woods upstate somewhere. So I hitched my star to the gathering crowd of Itha-trons instead.

I saw Sonic Youth play last year at McPP (completely by accident, I must admit) so I wasn't entirely in the dark about what I was in for. However, since I'm in an admitting kind of mood, before I started fanatically listening to Daydream last week like a student cramming for an exam I wouldn't have been able to pick out a song from that record for the life of me. I'm not sure that I could now, either, as such is the case with cramming. Not to mention that the album has an overarching stamp on it that can make it difficult to tell one song from the other. Which is not necessarily a bad thing and, I should say, if you are going to have a stamp it might as well be this one. Overall I thought it was a great record and now I am probably inclined to agree with everyone (the BF included) that claims this album opened the gates to the contemporary independent music scene. Whatever that means, right? Ha.

At any rate, I had done my homework and was duly prepared (after I navigated the various lines of entry, beer tickets, and actual beer) to be awed at the feet of Sonic Youth. And, while I thought the music was great, I was not that impressed with my concert-going-experience as a whole. First: the sound at McPP could stand some improvement (although, really, outdoor venues are not that great anyway) and the beer distribution and selection could really be improved (two lines? really?). In the grand scheme of things, these might be mere flies to be swatted away but (Second) I bring up my point again about the overarching feel of the record and how one thing can bleed into another....I'll come out and admit it: there were moments of boredom mixed in with the great parts. And as long as I'm technically dissing the album I'm supposed to be lauding, let me also admit that I much preferred the newer material that Sonic Youth closed the show with than the entirety of the Daydream set. But hey, that's just me.

In short, I might see these guys again: I remember enjoying them last year and the newer stuff they played was really rockin' last Saturday. Perhaps they were caught up going through the motions by playing an entire album like that? Who knows. My bigger concern in this moment, is how I'm going to navigate the Pool for the upcoming Kevin Drew show I already have tix for...hrmm.