Banksy Does New York (12/28/07)

I had the day off from work today and picked up a copy of my neighborhood weekly, "Chelsea Now," as I was walking out of the gym. During my post-workout- pain-reflection- ceremony on my couch, I happened to read that one of the art galleries on West 27th St was exhibiting the work of Banksy, a well-known (and pseudo- anonymous) English graffiti artist. And, there was only one day left to see it! So I hit the shower and took a walk north to meet-up with Lloyd and check it out. Ah, the joy of days off in NYC!

According to Wikipedia, "Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist in the late 1980s as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ)" and over the years got mixed attention from both the public and the art world. During the past few years he made some lucrative sales but it wasn't until earlier this year that he officially launched into another stratosphere. In February, "Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three Banksy works and reached the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction of over £102,000 for his Bombing Middle England." Over the next day, five more sold for between £31,200 and £96,000. Not bad for a street artist (or anyone for that matter!). One thing I absolutely love about Bansky is his sense of humor which is obvious from his work and his reaction to his own success. On the the second day of the auctions in February, he added the following to his website, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit." Ha!

If you're not familiar with his work, I highly recommend browsing his site: www.bansky.co.uk

Robots Final Blowout - Joris Voorn & Chris Liebing @ Cielo

All good things must come to an end even for our Robot brothers from another mother. After 3+ years and 140 parties at NYC venues like Cafe Deville, Table 50, Canal Room, Cielo and Pacha, the Underground Robot Alliance is calling it quits. But Robots don't go quietly so the 'bot boys called in the big techno guns to tear the roof off Cielo one last time. Joris Voorn played 12-2am and dropped all sorts of fun house and Detroit techno jams. After that, the Robot reigns were handed off to Chris Liebing who played the best, most intense two hours of music of the year. God damn! It was like a heavy weight fight between Chris and the dance floor robot soldiers - we'd take a punch, get up and swing back...only to get hit again! Relentless energy and emotion for two hours... neither wind nor rain, sleet or bathroom run could tear me away from the ring. It's been a long time since I took such a beating from a DJ and I loved every minute of it.

As a HUGE added bonus...my Kellogg & Barcelona best bud, KJ, was passing through NYC to visit and celebrate her birthday so we had an added reason to get nutty. So great to see you honey!! Thanks for Making Robot Party™ with me!

Lots of love and respect goes out to residents Nick AC, Bill Patrick and Dennis Rodgers for providing NYC with it's techno soundtrack for the past few years. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto!

Unfortunately I was too busy thrashing to get any videos of Chris' monster set, but I didn't manage one of Joris:


Two more vids from an unknown source:

Winter V: Disco Inferno (12/15/07)

What's better than having a bunch of funny, crazy, talented, party-loving friends? Having funny, crazy, talented, party-loving friends with a dope loft in Brooklyn that's equipped with a club-caliber sound system and a homemade illuminated dance floor (see dance floor in the making photo above). Hellyeah boyee! It's time for Winter V: Disco Inferno at the Park Avenue Lounge.

Spoony and Dave definitely out-did themselves yet again by adding to their already pimp loft and building one of the coolest party environments I've ever seen. The hospitality was amazing, the decor was OVER THE TOP, the was music on fire and the crew of party peeps and vibe second-to-none. Frankie Pep, Spoony D, Stadenco and early morning surprise guest and APT resident, Neil Aline, all rocked it. Me and the crew werked that dance floor HARD. In fact, my sober self left at 9am and the booties were still shakin! Some other highlights include: Michael's mind control and Dear Diary entries, Benke riding the white horse's neck, the walk off: white horse vs. white trash, Prop Cat's prom dress and an appearance by Dr. Moody. My only lowlights were not getting to hear a remix of Laid Back's "White Horse" or "Billy Jean." But I guess you can't have it all! Thanks again to the PAL crew for hosting!

Video of the dance floor and lighting rig:


















Thanks to Max for unknowingly providing pictures and video!

Burial, Imogen Heap & Richard Dawkins (12/13/07)

I caught on to this album a bit late in the year but that's not going to stop me from telling everyone I know to buy it. It's a really rare combination of smooth- sexy-dubby electronic sounds that are great for chillin, jammin or sexy time. Seriously, it's the most LUSH audio I've heard in a damn long time. Enjoy!

--Read reviews HERE
--Listen below (YouTube video)
--Buy at Amazon.com or on iTunes.




While we're on the topic if music, I might as well give you the scoop on my favorite female artist discovery of 2007, Imogen Heap (thanks Nora!). Imogen has actually been around (the UK) for a longtime - her first album (I Megaphone) came out 1998 and the follow-up (Speak for Yourself) in 2005. Once again, I'm slow! And once again, I'm sharing.

--Learn more on her website
--Listen below (YouTube videos)
--Buy Speak For Yourself and I Megaphone at Amazon.com or on iTunes





And finally, the best and most important read of the year for me... "The God Delusion" by British biologist, Richard Dawkins. As one Amazon.com reviewer wrote: "'As a scientist,' Richard Dawkins writes, 'I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches the scientific enterprise. It teaches us not to change our minds, and not to want to know exciting things that are available to be known. It subverts science and saps the intellect' (p. 284). In other words, the greatest crime of fundamental Christianity is to think without asking scientific questions. For those readers already familiar with Dawkins' work, it will come as no surprise that this book is nothing less than brilliant. Pity those readers, however, who either won't read this book (they should) or who will find nothing positive to say about it, because this is the work of one the greatest thinkers of our time."

Buy it on Amazon.com

I Can't Believe It's Not Fabio! (12/7/07)

Just another day in the office...this time hanging with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spokesperson, Fabio. What a sexy beast!

John Tejada @ Sullivan Room & The New Museum Opening (12/1/07)

I've been laying relatively low lately, but somehow Nora managed to get me out of the house for a bit on Saturday night. We hit up Sullivan Room which had a nice vibe going on the early side for the Samsara boys. Unfortunately when headliner, John Tejada, came on with his live PA the sound and the vibe took a turn downward. Maybe it was just me or maybe it wasn't, but I thought his first hour was pretty boring. Oh and I never thought I'd see the day when there would be a break dancing circle at a live minimal show... what?!!? The good news is we had other plans at 3am...





Earlier in the night a good buddy of ours mentioned she had extra tickets to the the New Museum, which was having it's 30-hour (all night) opening at its new location on the Bowery. Our tickets were for 3am entrance... only in NYC!

I'm not going to lie, I think a lot of contemporary art is bullshit. And I admit that may very well be because I have a simple mind and/or unsophisticated taste in art. Unfortunately the exhibits in the opening were right in my sour spot - I'm sorry, but a bunch of junk thrown in a heap just doesn't do it for me. The lead exhibit, "'Unmonumental', is an exhibition about fragmented forms, torn pictures and clashing sounds. Investigating the nature of collage in contemporary art practices, 'Unmonumental' also describes the present as an age of crumbling symbols and broken icons. Inspired by the art it presents, 'Unmonumental' grows over time like an assemblage."

Cough*bullshit*cough*cough*

The good news however is that no matter where Nora and I go we somehow entertain ourselves. It all started on the top floor where there was an indoor/outdoor dance party. We made friends with a girl who had been at a bar mitzvah all day and stuffed our faces with candy. Then we made our way to the exhibits taking pictures on the first floor before realizing photos weren't allowed. Not to be denied, we just started messing around with security and before he knew what hit him, he had on the supersonic glasses and was posing for pics! As we were making our way to the second room, people kept asking us where we got our sunglasses. I told them "the 9th floor" to which they responded, "there is no 9th floor." I promptly replied, "you have to take the Hogwarts Express." Nora and I were doubled over in laughter. Maybe you had to be there. In any case, we ran around and caused trouble on all floors...laughing at the art the entire way.

Now that was an *interesting* night!

The Box (11/29/07)

If you live in NYC then you've definitely heard The Buzz about The Box. I first heard mention of it about a year ago with anticipation of it's opening in early 2007. I was in Chicago at the time and didn't think about it much about it until I got back to the east coast and heard a few first hand accounts. For those who don't know, The Box is the brainchild of Richard Kimmel (The Wooster Group), Randy Weiner (The Donkey Show), Simon Hammerstein (of last name fame) and Serge Becker (La Esquina, Club Area). They spent a few million bucks to convert a historic Lower East Side sign factory into a dinner theater-performance-lounge space that would serve as home to their fun and freaky burlesque show. Cordell Lochin (La Esquina, 205 Club) is also involved in the venue as designer and man with the deep celebrity rolodex. I read that he got his start as the doorman at Twilo before becoming special events director at Life - ha! In any case, now that you have the background, let's get to the good stuff!

The Box is not at all easy to infiltrate. Apparently it's very tough to get on the list which is run through the owners and even if you do, you're gonna drop some serious coin. Most bottles will run you *at least* $500 and you *could* drop $50,000 on a bottle of Dom Pérignon if you're a real baller. If you're on a budget don't worry because you can stick to the martinis which are a steal at $19. Normally I wouldn't even consider going to a joint like this, but the promise of vaudeville and the list were enough to lure me (thanks Dale!). We warmed things up in the bar area and then hovered in the front room before being whisked upstairs by one of the owners to the front, right box overlooking the stage. We were greeted with bottles, popcorn and french fries (yes!) and a birds eye view of the action which included: a woman with a bloody vaheen straddling a mirror, a man pulling a balloon out of his arse, a cowboy doing lasso tricks, a beat-boxing-break/tap-dancing duo, a fire eater, aerial dancing gay batman and robin, a jazz band and the act of the night... The Porcelain Twins (pictured). I can't even describe what they were doing (my mom reads this!) but I'm guessing your dirty minds can read between The Box(es).

The show was obviously very fun and entertaining, but the patrons provide their own, separate drama. That place has everything from booty spanking and fry flinging to waiter humping and goth girls gone wild... and that was only in our booth! Downstairs there was even testosterone rage vodka bottle chugging and couch grinding, among other things. All in all an extremely fun and entertaining night out...I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND it especially if it's on somebody else's dime (-:

On a separate, but related note... we started the night up the street at 205 which I mentioned earlier. I was really digging the vibe during our short stay at that place and would love to go back. And now I know why... an article I just read quoted Creative Director, Aaron Bondaroff, as saying "we just wanna bring in junkies, faggots, skaters, and weirdos.” Love it!