This weekend our neighborhood is serving up an almost overwhelming amount of cultural goodness. The Cult of MJ Chapel opening tonight, the TROUBLE Maze at Death By Audio, Bushwick’s new Castle Braid space and the Brooklyn Artillery Fall Kickoff, and Brace For Impact at the Front Room Gallery are particularly on our radar.
And oh yea! There’s also a free show going down at Bruar Falls on Saturday night. Brooklyn’s own Lady Magma, Pass Kontrol and the Nasties are playing. The sets start at 9 pm, and there will be a down ‘n dirty dance party afterwards.

The Farm-to-Table Chef for Busy New Yorkers: Sweet Deliverance from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

A cool, local video about Chef Kelly Geary, founder of Sweet Deliverance in Brooklyn. A Blue Hill trained chef with a soft spot for small organic NY farms and New Yorkers with busy schedules.
She’s on a mission to help locals who want to take advantage of the farm-fresh produce in their area, but just don’t have the time to cook. Sound familiar? Plus, all the food gets delivered right to your doorstep.
You can sign up for the winter season food deliveries that start in October. It’s organic. No stress. Worth looking into…

Brooklyn’s Pearl and the Beard just posted this cute little temptation to their Myspace:
ATTENTION! ATTENTION! CALLING ALL PEOPLE WHO’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE IN A MUSIC VIDEO OF DYNAMIC PROPORTIONS!!!
Dear PatB bestest friends ever (Are you still wearing your necklace? Because we are.),
We are filming a music video for our WILL SMITH MEDLEY in collaboration with the Goddamn Cobras, and we need your help!
In our song, dedicated to the artistry of dear Mr. Smith, we include 8 of his most beloved and well-known songs. We need 8 different locations to perform this song live to 8 different groups of people. Filming will take place in one day, guerrilla style, on Saturday, September 19. Think of it as a Will Smith Medley Musical Scavenger Hunt.
We are asking you, our most trusted allies, to choose the 8 locations at which we will perform and film the video. Does your workplace need a 15-minute Pearl and the Beard break? Do you know a group of fireman desperately in need of a cameo? Does your boss’ birthday party need a surprise pick-me-up? Be creative! Not only will your idea be chosen if it’s totally awesome, but you, your grandma’s bridge class, your marching band troop, your co-workers, or your pack of Chesapeake Bay Retrievers will get to be in our music video! It doesn’t matter if people know Will’s work or not; in fact, it makes it more interesting if they don’t!
Your submission must have the following:
1. Name of location and address/description of location.
2. Contact name and phone number.
3. If your location is time sensitive (i.e., building availability, synchronization with crashing a pre-planned event, etc.), please include a specific time preference.
4. Tell us about your location choice, and why you think we should choose yours over someone else’s.
5. Send your responses to pearlandthebeard@gmail.com
The Rules:
1. It’s got to be legal (sorry, kids).
2. It has to be on the island of Manhattan (sorry, Brooklyn).
3. Be creative! Want to wear wigs? Sport all blue? Choreograph a dance routine with The Rockettes? Bring your favorite Will Smith memorabilia? Teach a group of kindergartners the songs? It’s up to you!
4. Our rule: Pearl and the Beard has to perform our Will Smith Medley at all 8 locations within the course of the allotted time frame! Give us a challenge. Make us sweat!
-LISTEN TO THE WILL SMITH MEDLEY HERE!
Alright, get brainstorming!
The last day to send us your submissions is September 15th, next Tuesday!
With so much love it’s gross,
Pearl and the Beard

Image c/o Gowanus Lounge
In Jack Goldstein and the CalArts Mafia, Robert Longo relays how crazy and different Jack Goldstein was for making his studio home-base in Williamsburg during the 1970s. Like many others of his time, Goldstein was one of the first wave of artists to take advantage of its cheap rent and massive spaces, a situation that gave birth to one generation of artists and musicians to the next.
Jumping to present day Kent Avenue’s glass tower promenade, it’s hard to imagine the opportunity (and poverty) that infiltrated Williamsburg at that time; it seems that those days–if they still exist– are numbered. Loren Munk of the James Kalm Report recently spoke to Art:21 about the last days of artists in Williamsburg. You can read/watch here.

Rusel Parish, a Michael Jackson artist and now leader and spokesperson for the newly arrived Cult of Michael Jackson, is opening a chapel for worshipers on North 6th this Friday, “despite the tragic passing of the object of its obsession.”
With his “years of experience and study working in the image of Michael Jackson through paintings, drawings, and sculpture,” Parish hopes to recruit “believers” to help turn the late singer’s songs into scripture, spread the love, and “move forward with plans” that he’s been working on since 2008. Those plans, I hope, are not apocalyptic, and rather focus on making the world a better place for you and for me.
The Cult of Michael Jackson chapel, located at 168 North 6th Street, will open this Friday, 9/11, at 6pm and stick around through October. Like every good cult’s chapel opening in Williamsburg, they’ll be hosting an after party. It’s at Hope Lounge, with BBQ & drink specials from 9-11. It’s gonna be thrilling.

One of Jordan Seiler‘s National Bestseller pieces recently popped up in the phonebooth at Metropolitan and Lorimer.
On his site, he explains the project:

National Bestseller is an ongoing project happening on a bi-weekly basis in NYC Phonebooths. Each piece is created using a single national bestseller or popular modern title. This book is then released of its spine and wheat pasted back together into a single sheet. For every 9 regular pieces I put up there will be a tenth like the one pictured below. These images, accompanied by a red treatment serve as a counting system for what will surely be a large project. If you see a red one, know there are probably 9 others nearby.

It is constructed of wheat-pasted pages from Elizabeth George’s 1993 murder mystery For the sake of Elena, which follows the winding last path of a murdered deaf student at Cambridge University.
Here’s a photo via Wooster Collective, and below the jump feel free to peruse the embedded book preview.

(more…)

Driggs and North ?

Union Pool is screening Ruthless Films’ “Wildwood, NJ” – a 1994 documentary and unintentional precursor to MTV’s “True Life: I’m a Jersey Shore Girl” – at 9pm tonight. @UnionPool also announced that Maker’s Mark will be providing cocktails.There’s probably no better way to bid adieu to summer than by sipping whiskey and laughing at beach-folk’s personal problems and social myopia, so post-Labor Day Tuesday is perfect timing to see the movie.
Watch the video below for a sample of the amazingness that was mid-’90s Wildwood. SPOILER: fake nails, heterosexual whimsy, and girls who love physical altercations abound. If you can’t be on hand at the screening tonight, you can also buy a copy of “Wildwood, NJ” directly from Ruthless’ website (highly recommended).

Today!
| Golden Triangle
|| K-Holes
||| Knyfe Hyts 81
|||| Cult of Youth
||||| Barry London and Brad Truax
|||||| Georgiana Starlington
||||||| X-Ray Eye Balls
|||||||| DubbKnowDubb
||||||||| Trilateral Commission
|||||||||| Buckets of Blood
||||||||||| Bezoar
|||||||||||| TRYCRYTRY
||||||||||||| Andrew Deutch
|||||||||||||| Psychothriller/ Big June and the Supple Moon
||||||||||||||| Advaita Vera
|||||||||||||||| Knives Everywhere
||||||||||||||||| Backoff Track
|||||||||||||||||| the Yes Way
||||||||||||||||||| Lionshare
|||||||||||||||||||| Le Rug w/ Fiasco
||||||||||||||||||||| Animal
|||||||||||||||||||||| special guests and more
|| dj Hairwaves, Artur, and Matt Mikas
|| 2 ART OPENINGS OUTDOOR INSTALLATIONS ALL DAY BBQ
| MONSTER ISLAND |
210 Kent Ave @ Metropolitan Ave | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L-Bedford, G-Metropolitan, JM-Marcy | free | all ages | 3pm-midnight
[pictured: Cult of Youth]

Greenpoint’s transformed little record shop, EAT Cafe, is now doling out CSA shares to neighborhood locals looking to enjoy farm fresh goodness.
Until November, you can sign up (on a weekly basis) to pick up a “Straight Out of the Ground” box full of the latest vegetables coming into season in the NY area. And, apparently, the food is picked the same day it’s delivered. We just signed up. It set us back only $30. Looking forward to seeing what comes in next week!
FYI – Weekly pick-ups happen on Wednesdays from 6-10pm.