We’ll be dancing Friday night away at (where else!) The American Museum of Natural History. Why? Because it’s another night of One Step Beyond, the dance party in the Rose Center for Earth and Space that has hosted past DJ sets and performances from people like Simian Mobile Disco, Talib Kweli, Switch, and Kanye West.
Per the AMNH peeps:
‚”One Step Beyond returns on October 10 featuring Mattie Safer of The Rapture and DJ Mehdi, the French hip-hop and electro producer known for bridging the gap between dance music genres.”
Starts at 9 pm Friday, see you there!

img c/o nymag
It seems the reader who wrote in yesterday about that vicious knife attack who really, really wanted to remain anonymous, is having a bit of trouble from CBS reporters. After she declined to be interviewed on camera, they went ahead and sent a news crew to her parents house anyways.
From her comment on our earlier post:

It’s probably just the painkillers making my thoughts a little jumbled but I really just wrote to the blog so that people in the neighborhood would be more aware than I was last Thursday night. I didn’t think ahead and realize that my statements would become fodder for the commenters. If I could do it again I wouldn’t have bothered writing to Brian.
Lee Kushnir from CBS is a monster and sent a news truck and reporter to my mother’s home on long island (I don’t know how she got the address) in an attempt to get some sort of statement. She is disgusting.

Hey, CBS, that’s so not cool. She wrote in to warn her fellow residents after a nasty mugging to be smart, which is great, but now she’s wishing that never happened. I can’t say I blame her.

Just in case you didn’t know how old he is…let a jelly donut explain the state of things.

The line, “Obama be Facebook, McCain be Friendster” is freaking beautiful. I tried to find my old Friendster page (I had one!), but it’s lost in the interwebs. Shame.

Department of Eagles‘ new album comes out today, and they played last night at The Bell House, so we figure it’s a great time to post a video of them and share their goodness. Some of you may be familiar already, especially because singer Daniel Rossen also happens to be in a lil’ band called Grizzly Bear. Listen, watch, enjoy:

video c/o 4AD Records

img via roboppy
A quick congrats to Fette Sau (best BBQ) and Dumont Burger (best burger) for bringing some Zagat medals home. From NYDailyNews:

Fette Sau in Williamsburg, which earned 24 out of 30, offers the city’s best place “for pigging out” on barbecue, according to Zagat. “That’s nice, very cool,” said owner Joe Carroll, who opened the restaurant a year and half ago. The barbecue is so good, Carroll tells customers not to use a lot of sauce on his tasty meat – including such unusual offerings as pork belly, pig’s tail, lamb shank and tongue. The city’s best burger – served on a brioche bun with house-made pickles – was found nearby at DuMont, which also earned a 24 rating. “[That's] nice but not surprising,” said James Garvey, manager of DuMont, which opened in Williamsburg seven years ago. “We’ve worked really hard.”

We’re proud of you

…. even though we don’t condone violence either. Okay, in this case maybe we do.

Beloved Brooklyn blog, Gowanus Lounge, is back after a brief hiatus. Yay!

photo c/o brooklyn paper
Williamsburg’s Edge dipped its toes into the Palin pool last week, putting up a sign for Sarah Palin (and yuppies).

‚”Sarah Palin/Live here/See Wall Street,” read the sign, which was posted just before the vice presidential debate last week on the side of the Edge, a high-rise project going up on the waterfront at North Fifth Street.

via Brooklyn Paper

Fleet Foxes, c/o Mark Iantosca
In the case of Fleet Foxes, it’s easy to distinguish the dominance of their lead singer Robin Pecknold, and he possessed a profound ownership of Sunday’s concert at Webster Hall.
The group’s signature is a modern take on a chamber choir blended with western/Native American influences, and it was implemented wonderfully by all five members. Nevertheless, Pecknold held the reins for the most moving portions of the night, as his vocals skyrocketed through ‚”Your Protector” and ‚”White Winter Hymnal.” Perhaps the most spellbinding moments were when the other band members took a respite, and left him to serenade solo and acoustic. It was then, as he performed ‚”Oliver James,” and during the encore when he sang ‚”Katie Cruel” without even using a microphone, that the audience was fully captivated and attentive.
That said, he wasn’t at all cocky, or undeserving of his role of hub to the rest of the band’s orbit. They’re a young band, and Pecknold a young singer ‚Äì just fresh off the release of their self-titled album, and he freshly able to drink alcohol legally. This is what makes Fleet Foxes even more striking ‚Äì their stage demeanor was so comfortable and gracious, you’d think they’ve been doing this for closer to a decade.
Amid songs, jokes were cracked ‚Äì and I’m not talking your standard, awkward band banter ‚Äì Pecknold and co. were hysterical. Discussing his first-ever foray to our fair Williamsburg (‚”it’s… an interesting place…..”) and talking about their erroneous preconceptions that Webster Hall might be a haughty place (but that in the end, ‚”Webster Hall just sounds like a show on the CW.”) the band had the audience infatuated. And with good reason – because it’s clear that Fleet Foxes are on the path to do great, great things.
Click for more pictures!

(more…)

img via flickr

A reader wrote in to warn us to keep our wits about things after she was attacked with a steak knife on Orient Avenue around 7:30pm on Thursday. It sounds scary as shit, so I’ll let her do the talking:

I’ve lived on Olive St. for a little over a year and have loved just about everything my off the beaten path neck of the burg has to offer. My love changed slightly on Thursday evening. At 7:30 pm I was walking home along Orient Ave., listening to my ipod, checking out some of the furniture that had been put out for the trash, doing my usual stuff when I was approached by a guy with a steak knife in his hand. I initially did not see the knife and thought that he was approaching me for directions. He demanded my bag and as I dropped my groceries and tried to take off my messenger bag it became tangled with my headphone cord. The man (age 20-22, biracial, approx 6ft and 170lbs,wearing a Mets hat) yanked it from me, and started to leave. When he was a few steps away I panicked and began screaming at the top of lungs. He turned back around, ran the few steps back to me and proceeded to stab me once in the chest – perforating a lung – and once in the arm. Luckily for me the blade broke and was left hanging out of my arm. I think that he would have continued attacking me if this had not happened.

She’d like to warn everybody to keep a heads up, “so that my hip neighbors will know to keep their wits about them – no matter what time of day and no matter how safe the street seems. Converse, ipods and black jeans make you a target to some people.” She’d also like to thank her neighbors on Orient for being so neighborly, “holding my hand, applying pressure to my wounds, keeping me awake until the ambulance arrived, calling my friend from down the street (my cell was in my pocket), basically just making me feel not so alone.”
Keep an eye out for angry Mets fans with steak knives, everyone, and of course, be smart. Our neighborhood’s as safe as any in the city, but we all have our crazies. We’re just glad you’re OK, anonymous reader.
*Side note – Orient Ave’s been a hot spot in the news recently, as it hosts Michel Gondry’s recently purchased condo, and is also the site of the back-and-forth squatter drama in the run down house from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (See Gothamist, The Brooklyn Paper)