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We have quite the week ahead of us and I hope you are rested and ready to take on some of these amazing events! Tonight Tom Shillue will perform his stand-up act at The Green Room. He makes me nostalgic for Seinfeld; check out this clip from his act:
Also tonight, at The Half King, there will be a book reading of the spicy variety; Evan Wright will read from his book ‘HELLA NATION: Looking for Happy Meals in Kandahar, Rocking the Side Pipe, Wingnut’s War against the GAP, and other Adventures with the Totally Lost Tribes of America.’
Evan Wright is the New York Times-bestselling author of Generation Kill, recently an HBO miniseries, for which he served as a writer and consulting producer. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair, he has also written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, among numerous other publications. He is the recipient of two National Magazine Awards, and for Generation Kill he received a Los Angeles Times Book Award, a PEN Literary Award, a J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, and a General Wallace M. Greene, Jr., Award. He lives in Southern California.
On Tuesday experience the Urban Poetry Slam, starring Jaylee Aldee at the Bowery Poetry Club:
Known as the Teddy Bear with a razor blade under his tongue, Jaylee Alde is a young prolific poet who commands his audience with grit and grace. A bay area native and all around slam champion who combines classic verse with his truthful raw honesty. In St. Louis 2004 at the National Poetry Slam he placed 2nd in the Individual championships and as a member of the Berkeley Slam team placed in the top four teams in the nation. Jaylee is also a member of the Asian Bay Area collective Proletariat Bronze.
Also on Tuesday The Bell House hosts three fantastic bands for a night of awesome music; I predict that the chandeliers will be shaking by the end of the night. The bands are El May, Wye Oak and Crooked Fingers. Here’s the video for Crooked Fingers’ ‘New Drink for the Old Drunk’:
Also on Tuesday, if you know the right person to sleep with you might be able to get into The Dead Weather’s concert at The Bowery Ballroom:
The Dead Weather are a brand new rock outfit consisting of Dean Fertita, Jack Lawrence, Alison Mosshart and Jack White. The impetus for the band came when Mosshart’s band The Kills opened on a few US tour dates for The Raconteurs. Recognizing immediately the musical synergy between Mosshart, White and Lawrence, the trio devised a plot to record together during some down time in White’s own Third Man Recording Studio in Nashville where White enlisted the addition of erstwhile Raconteurs’ touring accomplice and Queens Of The Stone Age collaborator Dean Fertita. What was initially imagined as a one-off collaboration for a 7” single release turned into a full blown album project once the quartet switched on the recording tape. The Dead Weather’s menacing sounds were so electrifying that they couldn’t help but keep the tape rolling. In three weeks they had recorded a full length album, Horehound produced by Jack White, to be released on White’s Third Man Records in June. The album features the band’s explosive debut single, “Hang You Up From The Heavens”, which is currently available through iTunes, backed with a dirge driven cover of Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric?”
ALSO on Tuesday (I know, it’s very overwhelming), Hebrew School will have their Record Release Party at Public Assembly. David Griffin has reworked Hebrew School classics with an indie rock bent. I’m a fan of his previous work with Nous Non Plus (you may recall my rave review of their concert at Mercury Lounge), and I’m excited to see how cool he can make the songs of my childhood.
On Wednesday you have another chance to speed date with a soundtrack of music by The Smiths, at Black Rabbit. I posted their last speed dating event and sources tell me it was good fun.
Wednesday is also the first day of the Lincoln Center Film Society’s series ‘First Light: Satyajit Ray from the Apu Trilogy to the Calcutta Trilogy.’ Check out the NYTimes article to read more about this talented Indian director and the films that will be showing at The Walter Reade Theater through April 30th.
Satyajit Ray
A and I are going to see ‘Humor Abuse‘ at the City Center on Wednesday; it’s a play about a very unusual childhood- growing up at the circus. This is your last week to check it out so if you’re interested don’t wait for my review!
Lorenzo Pisoni in Humor Abuse
On Thursday Brit Boras and the Cavalry play at Pianos. I love her voice, it has all the intensity and breathy sexiness of Alanis Morisette, but she’s also backed up by a talented group of musicians playing instruments you don’t often see in rock concerts, like a cello. Check out the music video from ‘Cassandra’:
Stay tuned for more events!
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Apparently yesterday was a very stressful start of the week for a number of you and I had a harder time than I expected finding someone to come along to Mercury with me. In the end I recruited my friend A with the added complication that she has a friend visiting who she wanted to bring along. So I go down to Mercury Lounge to find out if I can get a third ticket. The glum troll at the door tells me there are no “tickets” and I cannot have my hand stamped and return; they have a “no reentry policy.” She says there “might be” tickets still available at 10:00 when Nous Non Plus comes on. I pout. I cajole. I reason with the troll, all to no avail.
A+1 arrives and we wander around the LES to find a place to eat. We end up at ‘inoteca, which is owned by the same people who own ‘ino in the W.Village. I’m going to state for the record that I vastly prefer ‘ino; it’s a better value, more creative, and has more of a neighborhood feel.
At any rate, we munched on over-priced salads and panini and then marched back to Mercury to confront the troll once again. Now she tells me she won’t know if she has an extra ticket “until the last band [Nous Non Plus] hits the stage, which of course totally blows because it means I can’t see any of the opening acts and have an hour to kill. I do a bit more pouting and then the three of us walk down to Pianos to have a few drinks.
Pianos has very positive connotations for me; I saw some of my first concerts in NYC there and I feel like the atmosphere is generally cheerful. We were approached by this very random group of guys, one of whom decided to tell each of us what profession we were suited for. I am apparently destined to be a professional badass. If anyone has advice on how to pursue that goal do let me know!
Finally we end up being given the privelege of purchasing a third ticket and find our way into the back of Mercury to see Nous Non Plus. Luckily they were really awesome and totally worth the nonsense, though I will probably avoid that venue in the future. They were bouncy and faux french and one of the girls was wearing a bodysuit and the other had on a top hat and opera gloves and I was altogether charmed. Here are two (sadly not very clear) pictures:
Nous Non Plus
Nous Non Plus
Here’s the music video for their first single from their new album, Menagerie:
I think it’s awesome that Americans are singing in French, such a cool parallel with all the French musicians singing in English. I’ll be keeping tabs on them!
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Having spent the day sleeping, making myself grilled cheese and dancing around naked in my apartment to Passion Pit (thank god my roommate is never home), I believe I am prepared to survive the week on 5 hours of sleep a night!
On Monday, according to The New York Rock Market, the show to go to is Nous Non Plus @ Mercury Lounge. As a francophile anything described as
a (faux) French rock band that plays upbeat, joyous tunes ranging from simple love songs in French to parodies about Paris Hilton.
is pretty much ok by me. I’ve picked up two tickets and the first person to tell me they want to come along can have the second!
Tuesday is my grandmother’s 84th birthday so I’ll be out in Queens attempting to fit a giant sized sandwich into my mouth at Ben’s Kosher Deli, however, you may be interested in attending Pop Rally at MOMA. I really like the idea of artists as curators and I’ve been meaning to attend one of these for some time. Actually if you don’t have a day job (ex-investment banker?) you should get to the museum before it closes for the day and check out the Marlene Dumas exhibit; I saw it a few weeks ago and I really liked ‘High Heeled Shoes’
High Heeled Shoes by Marlene Dumas
Wednesday I’m going to the new 92Y Tribeca for You’re Doing It Wrong: Creative Misuse of Technology, a series of short films featuring ummm… creative misuse of technology. I will probably always love the 92Y Tribeca because that is where I first saw Tiny Ninja Theater. I saw tiny ninjas perform ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and it was without a doubt the most hysterical Shakespeare I have ever witnessed.
"Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!" Mercutio (Trevor Bigfoot) vs. Tybalt (Brice Leigh)
When the puppeteer walked in holding two white boxes (like the kind you get munchkins in from Dunkin Donuts) and said “Two households, both alike in dignity…” I knew my understanding of Shakespeare had changed forever.
Thursday I will probably try to see one of the Oscar movies I haven’t made it to yet; top of my list is Waltz with Bashir, which I’ve heard is fantastic. What I’d really love to do is check out one of the two photography exhibits I’ve been meaning to see but the museums aren’t open late enough for office lemmings to make it during the week. I want to see the new Walker Evans exhibit at the Met:
Walker Evans Postcard Exhibit @ Met
I also really want to get over to the International Center of Photography to check out some of the amazing photographs discussed in the NYTimes recently, for example, this one:
Tim Walker photograph
Friday I’ll be at Grassroots Tavern celebrating my friend S’s birthday but I want you to tell me all about your plans in case we need an awesome afterparty!
Have a fantastic week everyone!
The Big Red Apple 