We’ve been devouring this record. Here’s the first single:

We’re looking for writers on all topics: music, fashion, NY events, performance art plushies. Clips are helpful. Drop us a line at mail@freewilliamsburg.com, subject: blogger.

You don’t need a farm to raise chickens.
Meet Megan Paska and Katrina Mauro both Mother Hens to four curious egg-laying chickens in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. They decided to raise chickens for the first time in their tiny urban backyard as a way to live more sustainably. What they discovered is that raising chickens is easier than raising a dog…and just as rewarding.
Come take a peek into their backyard operation and see for yourself why keeping chickens should be something more urban dwellers (with a backyard, of course) should entertain.
To read up on or possibly purchase your future backyard egg-layer, visit My Pet Chicken: http://www.mypetchicken.com
By Liza de Guia

Was pretty #fail this morning, but looks like it was b/c someone jumped in front of a train at Atlantic early this morning. That’s unfortunate. Our hearts go out to whomever that was.

Bedford Ave

From Vice:

If you’ve lived in Williamsburg for a while, you know how IMPERATIVE it is that you drop what you’re doing and go to Leon’s IMMEDIATELY. For the rest of you, Leon’s is a burger hut owned by a wizened old Lion of Judah who is excellent at burger craftmanship, but not so hot at the whole regular-business-hours or sometimes-ANY-business-hours game.

If you’re a Time Warner Cable subscriber in New York, we encourage you to copy & paste this email and send it to their Office of the President:

Subject: Remove CBN From My Cable Package: Hate Speech on 700 Club
To: twc.cotp@twcable.com
cc: Julius.Genachowski@fcc.gov, Michael.Copps@fcc.gov, Robert.McDowell@fcc.gov, Mignon.Clyburn@fcc.gov, Meredith.Baker@fcc.gov
On Wednesday, January 13, 2010, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) aired an episode of Pat Robertson’s 700 Club that I found deeply offensive. In the wake of potentially hundreds of thousands of deaths in Haiti — the most devastating natural catastrophe since the 2004 tsunami — Pat Robertson asserted that the citizens of this impoverished country were being punished by God for making “a pact to the devil.” Here is the entire quote:
“[S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French, you know, Napoleon the Third and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story. And so the devil said, ‘O.K., it’s a deal.’”
To any sensible person, this amounts to hate speech.
The 700 Club has aired similar assertions in the past, most notably following 9-11 when Jerry Falwell asserted that al-Qaeda’s slaughtering of innocent Americans was God’s wrath:
“The abortionists have got to bear some burden for [9-11] because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’”
As a Time Warner Cable subscriber, I am writing to request that the CBN be unbundled from my cable package until they agree to stop airing the 700 Club.
I am a firm defender of the First Amendment and free speech, but as a customer of Time Warner Cable I should not have to pay for what I believe constitutes hate speech.
If my request is not addressed, I will have to consider terminating my service.
Sincerely,
INSERT NAME

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And in case you missed it, here’s the video:

This is just awful:

Memphis musician Jimmy Jay Lindsey Jr., better known as Jay Reatard, was found dead in his Midtown home this morning, according to family and friends.
Memphis police have opened a death investigation, spokesman Jennifer Robinson said. Lindsey was found around 3:30 a.m. in his bed, Robinson said.
“Yeah, it’s true,” said Alicja Trout, a friend and former bandmate. “I don’t know much about it yet, because I haven’t been able to get in touch with the police.”
Added Eric Friedl of Goner Records: “Yeah. He was found at his house. That’s all I know right now.”
On the Web site of Goner Records, the following statement was posted this afternoon: “It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our good friend Jay Reatard. Jay died in his sleep last night. We will pass along information about funeral arrangements when they are made public.”

I recently went fishing with Dean Ween which was, well, awesome. From Vice:

Since getting his captain’s license last summer, Mickey Melchiondo, better known as Dean Ween, has been leading fishing tours off Long Beach Island, New Jersey. He’s the kind of skipper who also kindly gives shelter to anglers when there’s room in his trailer the night before and books it all himself through the magic of a lo-fi internet information page, mickeysfishing.com.
Mickey also has his own online fishing series called the Brownie Troop Fishing Show that’s kind of like that old Fishing With John series hosted by actor and musician John Lurie, but without the irony. The Deaner is dead fucking serious about fishing.
‚”Lurie’s show was more about the guests,” Mickey told me. ‚”Mine is about the fishing.”
So far Mickey’s posted 11 episodes on brownietroopfs.com, a site that also looks like a 16-year-old designed it in 1996. Go there to watch guests like Butthole Surfers’ own Gibby Haynes get blind drunk and say stuff like ‚”I dunno where the fuckin’ stern is.”
Like the rest of the world, I’ve been a fan of Ween since the early 90s, so of course I had to sign up for a Mickey-helmed fishing trip. As a committed landlubber with wobbly sea legs, I was plenty OK when Mickey called and said he’d prefer to surfcast. He had just returned from tour and finds it more relaxing. But at $300 a whirl, you might want to consider making him hoist the anchor instead.

More over at Vice. And you can check out that Gibby Haynes video over at www.brownietroopfs.com.