A tipster sent us this picture from Saturday’s Pandamonium march on Bedford. Christ, don’t the cops have something better to do than go apeshit on a bunch of drunk panda-hipsters? More images here. And our original post is here.

image by matthew nauser & nymag
Benjamin Shih, owner of Sweet Up’s and Royal Oak, talks with New York Magazine about his life in the National Guard, and how a $150,000 “Patriot Express” business loan helped him expand what New York Mag calls his “hipster-bar mini-empire”.
How does one go from Williamsburg to the front lines of the war of terror? According to Shih, It’s all a part of the American Dream.

Shih’s family arrived from Taipei in 1968. ‚”It was the American Dream,” he says. Shih went on to get both a law degree and tattoos, and then worked for Lexis-Nexis. He wanted to be his own boss, and in 2002, he used his savings to open Sweet Up’s. But he always wanted to be in the military, too; he identifies with his fellow soldiers. ‚”They’re often poor, they value education, obligation‚Äîthe social contract,” he says. ‚”I have a foot in both worlds.”

He’s likely to be shipped off to Afghanistan next year.
Read the rest at New York Mag.

This looks like it will be a blast. If you plan on attending, RSVP now. The list is nearly full.

On Thursday, August 21st, Drambuie and Myopenbar present the third installation of Cinema 16. An avant-garde New York film society originally established in 1943, Cinema 16 has recently been revived in Brooklyn, in a mission to celebrate and explore the experimental spirit and ambition of a bygone era.
The evening’s program features a selection of short films by Czech surrealist Jan ≈†vankmajer, each with a live soundtrack performed by music collective Hundred Eyes. Complimentary Drambuie cocktails and hors d’oeuvres from Greenpoint’s Eat Records will be served.
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
21+, no cover with RSVP, 8:30pm
Starr Space, 108 Starr Street
Bushwick, Brooklyn

Next week will mark an end of an era as JELLYNYC’s free Pool Party Sundays come to an end. Thankfully, they’re going out with a bang with Yo La Tengo. Titus Andronicus and Ebony Bones will be opening. More information at mccarrenpark.com.
Speaking of McCarren Park, don’t miss tonight’s premiere of the documentary Sync or Swim:

Join the filmmakers and Olympic synchronized swimmers for a Pool Party followed by a screening of the first-ever behind the scenes documentary about Olympic Synchronized Swimming. Viewers will dive into the world of elite synchronized swimming as they watch dedicated young women compete for spots on the U.S. Synchronized Swimming team and train relentlessly in pursuit of an Olympic medal.

More information here,
Here’s a shot of Aesop Rock from yesterday’s show. We missed it. Let us know how it was in comments.

image c/o BrooklynVegan and Jason Bergman

photo via flickr user dantekgeek
Saturday night, hundreds of Pandas converged on Bedford Avenue in route from Union Square, as part of a planned “street party of the summer”. Organizers Pandamonium, who are a self-described “costumed, roving, street party, apocalyptic, dance, rock, battle” announced the event details on their site yesterday morning, saying:

Today is the day! Pandamonium 8:30pm Union Square South.
Bring your friends, a boombox, your panda outfit and lets get down!
see you there!
-the panda posse

So, dressed in Panda suits and armed with music they took the L from Union Square to Bedford Avenue. As we all know however, the NYPD doesn’t really care for costumed, roving, street parties, apocalyptic, dance, rock, battles, so they set up a strong presence around N. 6th and met the Panda Parade with a bit of resistance. Lola Wakefield from Stuff Hipster’s Don’t Like wrote in this morning with a great first hand account of the insanity, including a story on how that very boom box met it’s fate. Here’s that:

The last straw for the police was when a really good song came on a boom box that this guy was holding on his shoulder a few feet away from me. The cops must have known that something sinister was taking place because there were at least 10 people dancing to the music. Then a cop grabbed the guy with the boom box by the back of his arm and yanked him into the street, pushing him to the ground and making him loose grip of the stereo. Now, I know that dancing is illegal and also a sin, but I think there was excessive force used in this situation. The stereo fell, batteries flying everywhere, and when a few of his friends picked it up, a woman cop angrily lunged for the boom box and tried to further dismantle it!

She also found this video on youtube (by froozalicious) featuring some NYPD-famous smackdowns. I’m sure their will be plenty more of these suckers popping up over the next two days, so keep your eyes out, and hide your boom boxes. As with all NYC happenings, Gothamist has the story and a few more pictures of the Pandamonium.
Oh, and that picture above…man, how would you like spending the night in the tombs wearing a Panda suit?! Something tells me they don’t serve Bamboo…

UPDATE: Pandamonium sent a message out on Twitter saying, “Hey pandas! Vlad@glassbeadcollective.org looking 4 footage of arrests 2 help lawyers. Up the pandas f*ck the nypd!”
Send ‘em if you got ‘em.

hat tip bwe; suchmann’s got the original video.

The Brooklyn Paper published an article today interviewing the filmmakers behind “Cult of Sincerity”, a straight-to-youtube feature documenting the lives of a bunch of 20somethings living it out in Williamsburg. In what not only marks the end of the straight-to-DVD route, “Cult of Sincerity” is also trying a different strategy to make back some bills.
The film is totally free, you can view it on youtube, or, catch it on Channel 13 on August 23rd. Don’t have cable or internet? Well, It’s screening at Stain Bar that night as well, where “important scenes in the film were shot”. All the filmmakers ask of you is that you go to aimestreet.com/cultofsincerity and sign up…they get 2 bucks a pop for that and you get free music.
Here’s the trailer, and if looks like it’ll keep your boat afloat go watch the full feature on YouTube.

Read the full article at the Brooklyn Paper, and go watch the film on youtube.

…is fucking retarded. This is lamer than Lou Dobbs.

[hat tip Rumproast and iceberg wedge]. The first one was pretty damn funny too.

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ON FRIDAY
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ON SATURDAY
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Kelley Polar

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ON SUNDAY
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Aesop Rock