jinners: why do you come here? and why do you hang around?
who is jinners?
why do you come here? and why do you hang around? ...it was just to see, just to see all the things you knew, i'd written about you... oh so many illustrations...
jinners is my nickname... hopefully in an affectionate sorta way.
band: northern state is three rappin' girls - hesta prynn, spero and sprout founded: 2000 in long island, ny new album:can i keep this pen? produced by ad rock and chuck brody on ipecac records official website:northernstate.net myspace:myspace.com/northernstate
VS
band: the hedrons are four girls - gill, rosie, soup and tippi founded: 2005 in glasgow, scotland debut album:one more won't kill us on 4 west records official website:thehedrons.com myspace:myspace.com/thehedrons
yesterday i saw clips of a movie called the holy mountain, a surreal movie that was funded by john lennon and yoko ono. it was pretty amazing and disturbing. but now i want to finish watching it... here's an interview clip on youtube with the director, alejandro jodorowsky.
i've started doing a weekly music biz news roundup on lifeskooltv.com, so check out the latest one here to get the scoop on what the industry is buzzing about this week...
after almost a week of being ill, i retreated to bethesda, maryland, where a weekend of suburbia awaited me. it was just what i needed to relax and get better.
i took the vamoose bus, which literally went from penn station right to bethesda, only a few blocks from where my best friend steph lives. she's getting married in august, and i am one of her bridesmaids. this past weekend, we had her bridal shower... and it wasn't as foreign feeling as i thought it would be. julie, steph's sister and maid of honor, put the party together with their mom.
julie got these wacky bikini cups that everyone had to drink out of and steph wore a "bride to be" princess tiara.
after the party, we spent a lot of time in steph and jamie's new backyard grilling every night. they had an outdoor firepit that reminded me of campfires. we even made s'mores!
i also discovered that i love zazz, giant's brand of seltzer water, and the board game, cranium. i drank like 20 cans of it this past weekend, and was addicted to playing cranium late into the night. i also enjoyed playing horseshoe, oddly enough. and yes, i got a million tiger mosquito bug bites.... ah, the suburbs.
oh i even went to the mall! that's where i went to buy a bathing suit -- the first one i've bought in 8 years.... in fact, the last time i bought one, it was with steph too! i guess you could say she's a beach person, and i'm not. however, she informed me that i've been buying the wrong size bathing suit, and that's why i never looked good in them. she picked out a wicked dkny suit for me that is way sexy. i'm not used to showing so much cleavage, so this will be a dramatic change for me.
mike and i are getting ready to go to spain and amsterdam next month. we're going to valencia to cover benicassim again this year, and we piggybacked a trip to amsterdam -- why the hell not! i cannot wait!! the only sucky part is that i have to miss the last siren festival ever! it feels sort of wrong to miss it since i've pretty much been to every one, but i couldn't say no to spain. c'est la vie.
pinatas were flying through the air... fists were pumping... girls (and boys) were getting wet. yep, i'm talking about cheeseburger's awesome performance at jelly nyc's show at make music ny. i was drenched by the end of it, but in good fucking spirits!
cabin pressure, more than just a new book by josh wolk
so last week i went to a reading that writer josh wolk did for his book, cabin presure, about how as an adult he went back to camp one last time to serve as a counselor right before he got married. a revisit to his younger years, noting all the hilarity and self-searching epiphanies.
as he read excerpts from his book, i was reminded of the one time i went to camp. i was in 8th grade and my school sent me to attend a "leadership camp." i had never been in a situation like being plopped in a random camp far away from the comforts of suburban life with a bunch of other nerdly adolescents. but there i was, running through swarms of gnats to get to the bathroom and playing tug of war.
it was scary, but overall, definitely did help build my confidence and my social skills. of course, the only part i really vividly remember was at the closing night dance party. it was the first time i ever danced with a boy... and at the time, i was shocked... because HE had asked ME. and i never thought a boy would ask me to dance.
the world is a crazy place!
after the reading, i began to notice signs of how camp can revolutionize your life in tv and film. meatballs. salute your shorts. wet hot american summer. the simple life goes to camp. (although i think i can safely say that paris and nicole probably didn't learn much from camp, though maybe jail will be their "camp.")
how crazy??? but it makes me think about camp in a way i never had before. thank you, josh wolk.
i interviewed jewelry designer annie costello brown for gen art's fashion blog. i love her mix of metal and leather, a push and pull between tough and classic. check out the interview here.
have you ever heard that depeche mode song, "but not tonight?" it's one of my favorite songs ever. last night i was walking home from band practice, and a torrential rain began. i instantly had flashbacks to my first summer in new york when random rain would fall for about 10 minutes. i got drenched in one and i was wearing one of those long, slinky dresses. needless to say that dress was clinging to me like saran wrap and absolutely dripping. i felt like a wet dog. the same thing happened to me last night, except, i felt calm and happy. here are the lyrics to the depeche mode song, the perfect soundtrack to nocturnal rainfalls...
Oh God, it's raining But I'm not complaining It's filling me up With new life
The stars in the sky Bring tears to my eyes They're lighting my way Tonight
And I haven't felt so alive In years
Just for a day On a day like today I'll get away from this Constant debauchery
The wind in my hair Makes me so aware How good it is to live Tonight
And I haven't felt so alive In years
The moon Is shining in the sky Reminding me Of so many other nights But they're not like tonight
Oh God, it's raining And I'm not containing My pleasure at being So wet
Here on my own All on my own How good it feels to be alone Tonight
And I haven't felt so alive In years
The moon Is shining in the sky Reminding me Of so many other nights When my eyes have been so red I've been mistaken for dead But not tonight
this weekend i was in a soggy mood, but somehow mikers got me out of the house. my knee feels like it is sprained. my joints are achy like arthritis. i am exhausted from the busy week (that's new york for ya). the weekend arrives and all i want to do is catch up on sleep. but, on sunday i took the train all the way up town to go to the bronx zoo. i have seen plenty of ads for this place on the subway so i'm hoping that the visit will dispel my dreary expectations...
however, i think there were more children at the zoo than there were animals, and i only like being around kids i know. i felt sad when i saw a poor, sad-looking monkey sitting in a glass box with stupid people yelling at it to do something amusing.
i've been to a lot of zoos in my day but the bronx zoo was sort of ghetto. if you're going to have animals caged up, perhaps you should think about expanding the zoo so that they can actually live in a microcosm of the world they should be living in - more space to romp around, more animals in each part of the zoo... and maybe put a little bit of snow in the polar bear exhibit. it all seemed plastic and fake, and i'm sure the animals can tell the difference, too.
i wrote my second fashion article for genart on this relatively new fashion line called snoozer loser that i adore. my favorite item is the kamal dress pictured above. check it out here!
i went to see dinosaur jr at the fillmore new york last night. it was a great show but i was expecting something a little more. mind you, i was still breaking out some headbanger moves when the hits came out. i was happy they played their cover of the cure's "just like heaven." that cover is so fierce with its scary-ass mascis growl, and shit, even scarier live!
afterwards a bunch of us went to 99 miles to Philly on 3rd avenue to get... Philly cheesesteaks!!! holy shit. i got a whiz/without/pizza sauce. sorry to say it, but the cheesesteaks may have upstaged dinosaur jr. or i was just insanely hungry because i had only eaten a salad all day.
katy is in town this week from LA, so i met up with her last night at her job, which also happens to be a place i used to intern at back in 2001. i was the dot-com's first intern so i guess i hold a special place in history. hehe.
i said hello to the few people i still recognized on staff and met a few new ones, including the hilarious annie barrett. we found we shared a love of desserts as she talked about sweets, and i informed her of my dessert club, sugar high social. oh the goodness! i like annie because while the rest of us hit the whole foods salad bar for dinner, she went and totally scooped up a key lime dessert for din din. that is hardcore treatin' in my book. this girl gets my stamp of approval. and she's funny to boot - the kinda girl who can make apolo anton ohno seem funny. (note: he's not funny. i've interviewed him before and he's soooo vanilla, so annie totally won! plus that sparkly dress is CLASSIC.)
francisco and marc, my favorite gay librarians at EW, were also in on our picnic in the park. they made me miss having a gay boyfriend. i kind of love having a dude around that you can joke about boobies with and it's not at all sexual. we talked about how ridiculous and unattractive the people featured on real sex usually were because somehow we got on the topic of masturbation and group masturbation. we talked about that documentary series about severely obese people called inside brookhaven and how fucking depressing it was. we talked about some hbo special where the hookers were servicing johns behind dumpster or getting phone calls in the middle of fellatio sessions. we talked about how great taxi cab confessions was.
as we scoped the scene in sheep's meadow, we found a lot of frisbee throwers. i said, "why do people in the city throw frisbees anyway? don't they know that's a thing for the 'burbs? go to pittsburgh and throw a frisbee."
we watched people make out on blankets. we heard the "cold beer" guy mutter as he wheeled around the vast field. it was chillier than i hoping for, so we wrapped it up, said farewell to francisco and annie and headed for the hudson hotel, where katy is staying. i've never really been in this place, but damn, was it swank. we were scared of the drink menu because there weren't any prices listed. usually that means they are going to cost a shitload. i said fuck it and ordered a passion fruit caipirinha for dessert. three of them to be exact. whoever was picking the music at the hudson hotel needs to be treated for schizophrenia. one minute it would be JT. the next MJ. then some wack dancehall. some 90s r&b... then the kicker was when they played pulp's "common people" and cut it off before the chorus. WTF. if i'm paying $15 for a drink, you better finish the damn song! people in suits got up and started doing the white boy dance. couples were making out and then subsequently leaving to "get a room."
we went back to katy's tiny-ass but expensive room and made ourselves vodka clementine and sodas. yummy. but it sort of put me over the edge!!!
marc, katy and i went over to the library bar in the hotel and fingered through a book of vintage nude shots of women. we were trying to figure out which boob looked like ours. later marc and i bid adieu to katy, and i walked marc over to his hotel. his room was only slightly bigger than katy's and slightly cheaper. hotels in the city are so bizarre, but i guess it don't matter much when you're expensing it. haha.
interpol at bowery ballroom concert review on lifeskooltv.com
here's another concert review i did of interpol at bowery ballroom. it was my first time really seeing them (the first was at a carson daly taping a few years ago, which i don't think really counts...). i walked into bowery ballroom not sure about how i felt about interpol. i walked out of bowery ballroom a changed woman. read my review on lifeskooltv.com.
the thermals and eugene mirman chat on haystack.com
hey everyone, here is the interview series on haystack.com that i helped coordinate. the thermals chat it up with eugene mirman. check out their IM convo here...
i was fiddling around with a bunch of video footage i took recently of bands and other random shit. here is a video i edited together of dirty on purpose performing live at rubberlip in brooklyn. i have a lot more footage that i am working on editing together and will post them here too. i know, i know, i went a little too crazy with the special effects, but what are you going to do? i haven't used my film degree in years, so this is me falling back into that bubble. the band is performing a new song called "ways to drown."
this new magazine that my friend carol has been working for is pretty awesome. it's called good magazine and it covers a lot of worthy topics that young and informed people would be into... even including moi, and i'm not even that informed. yet somehow this magazine inspires me to be more so.
see below, i guess "loving day" is something i should be happy about since i'm in an interracial relationship -- though i never think about it like that, strangely enough.
i'm sad to say that ra ra riot drummer john pike was found dead after he was reported missing after a party on friday night in fairhaven, ma. may he rest in peace.
Die Romantik CD release show tonight w/ The Big Sleep
Don't miss Die Romantik's CD release show for their debut LP, Narcissist's Waltz, at The Mercury Lounge in New York on Saturday, June 2nd! Die Romantik will be joined by friends Mancino, La Laque and The Big Sleep:
The Big Sleep (11:30) Die Romantik (10:30) La Laque (9:30) Mancino (8:30)
songwriter spotlight with jason friedman of the boggs
i interviewed jason friedman of the boggs on his new album, forts, on gigantic records. the boggs are playing a free show tonight at union pool and then going on tour.
slim moon performed at "real fun" book party last night
real fun is a book of polaroids from the independent music scene by ashod simonian. the book comes with a custom-made soundtrack with music from bands like califone, stereo total, jason lytle, dios and more...
at the party presented by the fader, slim moon performed, and i honestly didn't know what to expect... but it turned out to be pretty awesome. the show was at a venue called boucareau, which i guess used to be starfoods (omg, how i miss thee!) -- i totally didn't recognize the place. it is now some swank bar that serves steaks. anyhoo, slim and a female vocalist were up on the stairs off to the left of where i was standing. then a couple of percussionists were set up to my right on the floor at the back of the bar. they started playing... slim started singing "i wanna party with you. do you wanna party with me?" then i saw fon lin (ex knife skills) carrying around a toy piano and inviting people to make noise with it. it was a very hippie affair... and i loved it.
there will be special one time screenings around the country of the "the jesus lizard live" to help promote the release of this concert dvd. i wrote about it for lifeskool tv. check screening dates and a clip from the dvd here.
somehow over the years, i have been lucky enough to come to know some talented photographers. here are a couple of exhibits from two very lovely photographers for those of you who love and appreciate the art of snap-snapping!
LIMERENT Photography by Ebru Yildiz June 1 - July 01
Opening reception: June 1, 2007 | 7pm-9pm @ Pratt Photo Gallery 144 West 14th Street 2nd Floor
AS WE SEE IT Third Annual Exhibition of LGBT Photographers (Ed. Note: including my friend Scott Dwyer!) June 4 - August 16, 2007
Opening reception: Thursday, June 7, 2007 | 6-8p.m. @ The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center 208 W. 13th St. (btw. 7th and Hudson) New York, NY 10011
