In Hey Baby, the New York Times' Seth Schiesel writes, "men approach you and say something, and you can either blow them away, leaving tombstones inscribed with their affronts, or you can say, 'Thank you, have a great day,' and the man turns around and leaves in a cloud of floating pink hearts."

Its designer, Suyin Looui must live in the neighborhood as Schiesel, another neighborhood resident, notes "several of the storefronts are drawn directly from small businesses on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn." As you'll see above, I took that screenshot after shooting one particularly aggresive fellow right outside The Bagel Store.

The game itself is terribly strange, frightening as you stroll around the block and zombie-dudes from all corners say things like, "You're fucking beautiful," or, "Nice crotch."

So ladies: Ever wanted to shoot that guy saying, "Hey gurrrrl" right in the face right on the corner of Bedford and No. 7th? Fire away.

Posted by Brian Ries at 06:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For its latest issue, The Neighborhoods Issue, GOOD asked a handful of designers & illustrators to "create flags celebrating their neighborhoods." Both Greenpoint and Williamsburg are represented in the project, with flags designed by Playlab, a design company here in Brooklyn.

Below left is Williamsburg, below right is Greenpoint:

I reached out to the studio to get the story behind each flag -- what they represent and how they came up with the ideas. Here's Playlab's response:

We designed two flags for GOOD Magazine, representing the neighborhoods we live and work in. One for Williamsburg, and one for Greenpoint. The flags show extreme generalizations of what comes to mind when the majority of people think about the two places, whether or not they frequent the area. For Williamsburg, this is plaid and tapered, skinny and cuffed jeans. For Greenpoint, it is Polish sausages and the Polish flag.

Check out the whole grid at GOOD.

Posted by Brian Ries at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

ROA has a solo exhibition opening at Factory Fresh tonight. From Wooster Collective:

Tonight ROA comes to Brooklyn and the "inside becomes the outside" at Factory Fresh. After searching for scrap materials and painting furiously inside Factory Fresh for the last eight days and nights the doors to ROA's concrete jungle will open at 7pm (Friday, May 14)

Factory Fresh is located at 1053 Flushing Avenue between Morgan and Knickerbocker, off the L train Morgan Stop

ROA will be on view through May 30th.

Posted by Brian Ries at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Earlier this week the New York Post wrote about a new trend among women in the city -- celibacy. One, Katie Jean Arnold, was said to have hooked-up with somebody on the L train platform. I wrote, "Sex on L Train Platform Leads to Celibacy Pledge," and everybody was all like, "Nahhh, not that kind of hook up." The Post's usage of the term "hook up" caused mass confusion among millions of people worldwide, as humanity struggled to understand whether or not an act of sexual proportions occurred on the L train itself, or if the hookuppery happened later at a private apartment.

Well, guess what. We reached out to the celibate musician, Katie Jean Arnold, who tells us that yes, indeed, a hook up DID occur right there on the L train. This was more than a simple meeting of the minds.

From the musician's mouth: "We kiss until the train comes. We kiss from the Lorimer stop until the Jefferson stop. He takes my hand, leads me to his room, plays me a lullaby and then we make sweet love..."

So here, in a breathtaking FREEwilliamsburg exclusive that's bigger than Gizmodo's iPhone scoop, let's get to know Katie and what happened that fateful day on the L train platform, how both Katie and her sister lost their underwear and her future as a sex advice columnist.

For reference: FW is me, Brian, and KJA is Katie Jean Arnold.

FW: So you are the singer/songwriter/comedian from the New York Post celibate story who "hooked up" with someone on the L train platform, yes? Give us the "real story." What is a "hook up" as in, was it a meeting in old people speak, or did you jolly rancher right there on the concrete?

KJA: I walk to the platform. I see an attractive man sitting all alone with his guitar. We make eye contact and I sit right next to him. He immediately starts kissing my neck...

[CONTINUED AFTER THE JUMP!]

Continue reading "An Interview with Katie Jean Arnold, Celibate Musician & L Train Hooker-Upper" »

Posted by Brian Ries at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

Do you kinda feel, I dunno, strange inside after having watched that? More to Nike's point, do you feel bad, just a little bit, for Tiger, having to listen to his Dad's voice from behind the grave scolding him for his public wrongs? That'd be Nike's goal here, I believe. You feel bad. We all feel bad. The world sees him through the ever-glistening shot glass of humanity. And we all move on. There's golf to play, damnit. Go watch.

Posted by Brian Ries at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Graffiti artists Rui Amaral, Onesto and Binho cover the streets of São Paulo, Brasil (a.k.a. Sampa) in a fight against urban gray monotony.

A Slice of Sampa by Jared Levy on Vimeo

Posted by Brian Ries at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A friend of mine, the artist Borbay, is hosting a one-night only exhibition at M&T Bank, Flatiron branch, tonight at 6pm. I suggest you go. Not only is he a fantastic individual with a broken leg (an injury sustained in a Friday night beer league hockey game), he is a fine painter who's done everything from the Brooklyn Bridge, Neils Coffee Shop, and the Woolworth Building. AND, for those of you who like magazines and the things they say, he was recently named the Most Creative New Yorker by Time Out New York.

And as for why he's holding this thang in a damn bank?

“I decided at the inset of my art career I was not going to be another one of a thousand artists begging a gallery to put my work on their walls once a year, be 100th in-line for promotion and give them a 50% cut. Instead, I decided I can be my own business and promotional entity - so what better venue to host my first show than a bank? You like that painting? Good, there's an ATM behind you, withdraw $500 for a down payment and my manager will send you a contract tomorrow. Warhol said, "Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art." I fail to recognize how joining some sterile gallery in Chelsea with no interest in my work or brand at the price of 50% a pop is good art.”

So, come check out the exhibition, Urbania, tonight at M&T Bank, the Flatiron branch (200 5th Avenue). It runs from 6 - 9PM.

Disclaimer: As I said in the first four words of the post, he is a friend of mine. But an intelligent, creative, and fine-looking friend at that!

Posted by Brian Ries at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

In the beginning, there was just Phoenix's official Lisztomania video. Shortly thereafter, someone decided the song sounded like the soundtrack to every 80's teenage angst-y movie ever made, and the brat pack mash up tribute was born. Then, some cute Brooklynites had too much time on their hands and a nice roof at their disposal, and the Brooklyn Brat pack tribute to a tribute was created. Now, some even cuter kiddos in the Phillipines made a tribute to the Brooklyn tribute.

Where will this Lisztomania tribute video arms race end?

Posted by Jackie Snow at 12:24 PM | Permalink

Welp, I've been obsessed with the Uniform Project going on four months now, time you fall for fellow Brooklynite Sheena like me.

The Uniform Project Trailer from The Uniform Project on Vimeo.

If you haven't seen the blog, check it out and make sure to look back through the archive.

Posted by Jackie Snow at 10:52 PM | Permalink

(Daddy's + Wavves) x The Black Lips = Friday night chaos. My only wish is that, Hipster Runoff, you will treat this with such poetic justice as you have done so before.

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 05:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The guys at Mikey's Hook-Up alerted us to their recent Ed Hardy-wearing shoplifters, and we say double no. No Ed Hardy, and no stealing. The duo took some Macbooks from the shop on North 6th, but got spotted right on the security cameras. If you recognize either of these d-bags, notify Mikey's and the police.

Posted by Elizabeth Brady at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

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.

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After watching this sex tornado short trailer for Heads & Tails, an indie TV pilot about a handful of bi boys and girls who sleep with the same handful of boys and girls that looks to have been shot at Huckleberry Bar, I have to admit, I am curious!

As self-described, the show "follows seven intertwined New Yorkers grappling with love and relationships as their views on sexuality collide." The site's profile then asks, "Can you handle both sides?" I don't know! After watching that trailer, I don't think I can? Not that it's bad or anything but it needs a dog or a grandma or someone to offer a stabilized viewing position where I can be like, OK, she's off limits, no one's going to make out with her, or love on her. Otherwise it's kinda like LOST, and everyone's fucking Sawyer. Basically, we need a Hurley here. Maybe I'll go see if one exists later tonight.

Until we hear more on this sloppy love cycle of Hucklesex, we'll be keeping an eye on the bathrooms. Or our hearts. Because it seems that after all, this story is "really about the messiness of love - no matter whether you're gay, straight or somewhere in between." Aw, lessons to be learned!

The filmmakers will be screening the pilot tonight at Huckleberry (588 Grand St.) at 7pm. And yes, they have a Twitter.

Watch two more clips after the jump!

Continue reading "Everyone is Merry at Huckleberry!" »

Posted by Brian Ries at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Remember "Bored to Death," that upcoming series on HBO that's about a bored writer living in Brooklyn who puts up an ad on Craigslist to become a private detective? Well, it's kinda hitting close to home. The show was created by real-life (and no longer bored?) Brooklyn writer Jonathan Ames, was shot in Fort Green, and stars Williamsburg residents Olivia Thirlby and our beloved Zach Galifianakis. Zach, it's worth noting, rides/rode his bike to work every day and hurt his knee! So, he's limping, and they had to write his injury into the script. But of course, Ames says it "isn’t really about being a writer, or living in Brooklyn, or being a Brooklyn-based artsy person." That's all an aside. It's a detective show! But in Brooklyn.

Posted by Brian Ries at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Whoa. Street artist Judith Supine scaled the Williamsburg Bridge and installed his latest piece, “Above the City in a Summer Night Dream,” right up there at the top.

(Wooster Collective via Animal)

Posted by Brian Ries at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

So the media is in full sha-wing over this subway flasher story, with headlines ranging from the Village Voice's Have You Seen... Stroker on the #3, the Post's Lazy Cop Is A Jerk, and 1010 Win's Woman Jerked Around By Cop?. Who comes up with these things, and why isn't there a reality show competition yet? Luckily for us, HuffPo threw them into a poll gauntlet so we all can happily vote for the best ourselves...no need for Survivor: New York Post Headline Dept. yet.

Posted by Brian Ries at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Tonight marks the closing party of the Bushwick Biennal at Nurture Art, so if you haven't had a chance to check out the survey of local emerging artists, you have until Sunday to do so.

Below is another artist on artist interview featuring two of the participants in the biennal: Kevin Regan and Radek Szczesny.

Kevin Regan: So tell me about the artist collective you were in with Lolo. What was it called? Is it still active? I heard something about it from Jeremy. This was something you were doing over in Williamsburg, no?

Back in Gainesville, Florida, in the mid 90s, just before I moved to New York, I opened an alternative art space with a couple friends of mine (John Cason and Matt Roberts). It was called Blank Space. I was involved in it for a year and then I moved to New York. We did 10 art shows during that time. We also lived in the space. It was a blast. The whole set up was a little unusual for Gainesville which is more about old houses than industrial spaces. Sometimes Bushwick reminds me of Gainesville.

C/O Kevin Regan

Continue reading "Antennas of the Race: Kevin Regan vs. Radek Szczesny" »

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Gawker is reporting that artist Dash Snow has died of a heroin overdose. They credit several sources in the article. If you are familiar with Snow's work, you could never really delineate between his intense lifestyle and his artistic output.

I hope the old Irak crew does a befitting memorial.

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This just in. Good is reporting that the German government has banned the Fixie!!!

In Berlin, fixed-gear bicycles are now illegal. The news comes from The Local, and English-language German news site:

In a country where cyclists are expected to have a working bell on their bikes, it was probably only a matter of time before fixies fell afoul of the law in Germany. … Since there’s no freewheel on a fixie, the pedals continue to rotate as long as the bike is moving forward. This means the rider either has to slow the bike by fighting the momentum or brake by locking up the back wheel to skid to a stop.

Seeing what they considered a growing danger to traffic safety, Berlin police announced this spring they would begin cracking down on fixie riders. Since only April, they’ve confiscated 18 bicycles.

Clearly, fixies are more difficult to ride (and stop) than any conventional street bikes. I’ve heard many an accomplished cyclist explain how he or she tried a fixie once and that was enough. And plenty of city-dwellers bemoan aggressive biking (which is sometimes associated with fixie-riders). But are the bikes really so dangerous that they shouldn’t be street legal? Is this a setback for bike culture in general?

Who wants to organize a protest?

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 01:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

The entire time that I have lived in Brooklyn I have only had one lady touch my hair and that person is Jess Stover. (And, I wouldn't have it any other way.) While she has spent most of her time spreading joy around Williamsburg at the Beehive Salon, she has finally struck out on her own and is opening Adelaide Salon.

To celebrate there will be a little soiree on Friday (see flyer). This will give you the chance to put your name down on the soon to be very long waiting list. Man is she worth it!

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Last night, I was fortunate to check out the Ólöf Arnalds show at the Scandinavia house. I say fortunate because I had never had a chance to see the Icelandic songstress live and it was by far one of my favorite shows this year. The setting was intimate, and she used it to her advantage--engaging the audience many times by having us join in the chorus. She is definitely one to check out if you have a chance. While Arnalds has played four times this week, I am sure she will be coming back soon.

Before the show, I was able to have Arnalds answer a few questions--from her place in music history as an Icelandic singer to her role as a musician during a tough economic climate.

Continue reading "An Interview with the Great Olof Arnalds" »

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I want to let this change my life

hrstudioplus

Posted by Lauren Mooney at 06:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"Epic Fail", Lolcats, and Denial of Service Attacks are all presents that have be granted to us by the lovely 4chaners. If you have never been introduced to 4Chan, then now is the time to definitely learn because Moot was just voted Time's most influential person. And, this was no small feat. Anonymous spent many man hours hacking the website. Music Machinery has the full story.

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

When I first moved to Greenpoint, there were two publications I checked out to get my bearings. The first I now write for-- the second was the Williamsburg Greenpoint News & Arts. Proving that it's never too late to go digital, the publication has just launched its new website. Here's what they had to say:

The site features a blog covering neighborhood happenings, along with some of the stories from our monthly paper. We'd like people to still pick up the print edition when they see it, so we'll probably be keeping a few stories offline, at least for the first couple weeks that the paper is out. (But it's free anyway, so we're not asking too much, I hope.)

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Feedbag noticed that Lazy Catfish needed a little bit of motivation from the Department of Health to get that dang hot water problem checked out. In a sign (below the jump) posted by the DOH, it appears the Catfish is closed for unknown health/hygene related problems. But in another, management blames the hot water problem. Perhaps they're related? Can't boil the vermin germs off the plates no mo'? So, this is a bummer. Get off your lazy asses and get that heater problem fixed! <3 u.

Continue reading "Lazy Catfish Taking a Break" »

Posted by Brian Ries at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

In artist Simon Evans' world, the stories that we tell ourselves are the most important part and often the only way that we can find meaning in where we’ve been, where we are and where we might wind up eventually. His appropriately named exhibit, “Island Time,” showing at the James Cohan Gallery through April 4th, hints at the loneliness inherent in life when home becomes nothing but a reconstructed memory. We’re left searching for an allusive sense of belonging and purpose in an entirely new place and all we’ve got is a nearly endless succession of days ahead.

Continue reading "Simon Evans, Living on "Island Time"" »

Posted by Scott Lachut at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The act of people failing at things will never be not funny. Fail humor is timeless and universal, transcending cohorts and cross-cultural boundaries to unite humanity in a single lol. I mean, even the most basic human behaviors like having sex and eating are done way differently around the world, but it is pretty much as instinctive as breathing to lol at the misfortune of others.

That's why I get excited when new sites emerge to attract the sacrificial virgins of Internet humor. This one is especially good: an interactive site called FMyLife — fuck it! — allows users to recount those rock-bottom moments when everything goes wrong in a way that is devastating to them, hilarious to onlookers. Below every bag-over-face confession is the opportunity for readers to weigh in on whether they sympathize ("yes, your life is f*****") or take sadistic pleasure in reading about the dumbassery that brought it all on ("you deserved that one"). There's a lot of input from awkward teenagers but regardless, every tale is a glorious /facepalm. Come on, we've all been there.

From FMyLife:

Continue reading "Feel Better About Yourself" »

Posted by Lola Wakefield at 09:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Housed in a wedge-shaped Meatpacking District building with a checkered past -- former tenants include a Civil War Hospital and three S&M bars -- the Ivy Brown Gallery provides the perfect backdrop for photographer Julian Hibbard’s show, “The Noir A-Z,” on display now through April 16th. The exhibit features ten limited edition photographs laced with enough impending peril and shadowy intrigue to transport the audience to the seedy underbelly of life. Populated by classic archetypes come to life from the pulpy pages of hard-boiled detective fiction, we’re introduced to a world filled with seductive femme fatales and faceless calculating killers.

Continue reading ""The Noir A-Z": Photography Packs Glamour and Grit" »

Posted by Scott Lachut at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Artist Statement is a new series where we feature the work of up-and-coming artists accompanied by their artist statement. We hope to have one person a week for you to check out.

First up, we have the photography work of Gregg Evans. A Brooklynite for several years, Evans work spans multiple mediums: photo, performance and video. However, it is photography that is his primary medium and first love. His recent book I Could Walk Away Now And You Wouldn't Care. is available at Opening Ceremony, Dashwood Books and Spoonbill & Sugartown.

2006, 16” x 20”, Film Negative, Digital C-Print. David and Keith. 6/06

Statement:

As a stranger in a fellow gay man’s home, the opposition between foreign characteristics and familiar ones associated with their belongings is oddly comforting. I walk through the apartment, often led with a personal tour; “Here is our bedroom… this is our bathroom. Isn’t the tub amazing?”, making observations. I find I generally want to touch things as I walk, though usually feel obligated not to. I can’t help but wonder what happens to the objects scattered around the house after their owner has moved passed them, after he is gone. Often, after one has died, families sell the belongings of their relative which they carry no emotional attachment to in order to pay back the debts of their estate. At the estate sale, what is the significance of this object to the person who buys it after it’s original owner has died? Once one is no longer physically surrounded by their collections, what becomes of one’s identity? When one is no longer a part of their home, do their objects still reveal a sense of who they once were? Or, upon disappearance, do one’s worldly possessions leave the visiting stranger with a name, and what that name once owned?

[While photographing, a close friend tells me his father took out a life insurance policy in his name after he came out of the closet. Framing the photograph, I release the shutter, wind up the end of the roll, and write his name on the outside. At that moment, I feel like his partner in crime.]

More info. here and here.

Continue reading " Artist Statement: Gregg Evans" »

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last night was Big Terrific's last show at Sound Fix because the lounge is totally closing. For over a year the N. 11th St. venue served as a mainstay of free comedy and music in Williamsburg, and Big Terrific was the weekly keystone thanks to common appearances by acts like Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, and Eugene Mirman. It was basically the closest you could get to "Adult Swim Live" without blowing $75 on the "Cartoon Network on Ice Tour 2009." All that past tense, so depressing. Good news after the jump!

Continue reading "Big Terrific Moves" »

Posted by David Bernstein at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Earlier this evening, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz sent out a tweet, saying, "I need to think up some new slogans for Brooklyn. Does anyone have ideas?" Well, do we? Let's help him out! Throw your best ideas in the comments and we'll publish 'em in a memo to Marty.

update: oh dear. could this be an imposter? Brooklyn Based just wrote: "Just learned from a trusted source that @MartyMarkowitz isn't really Marty. Who's behind it? Fess up!"

update2: my my my the account is now deleted. twitter sez "That page doesn't exist!" what's going on marty man?

Posted by Brian Ries at 06:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

C/O Dan Gould

My initial reaction to the MoMA installation at Atlantic Ave. was mixed. I concede that people are inundated with advertising, and this was an opportunity to offer people something more cultured. Still, the motivation seemed a little suspect.

Seeing Poster Boy and Aakash Nihalani, however, remix the works made me very excited about the installation. While the public display makes the work vulnerable to vandalism, it also provides for the images to be appropriated and enter the larger cultural dialogue. It, therefore, brings a new life to the pieces and provides for more social commentary.

C/O Doug Jaeger

What I don't quite understand in this story is why Doug Jaeger, the advertising brains behind the original campaign, was photographed participating in the vandalism? The move reduces Poster Boy's street art to a publicity stunt. This makes the project seem calculated and doesn't bode well for the MoMA or Poster Boy.

Update: NY Mag has the scoop. MoMA denies authorizing the vandalism. CBS Outdoors believes otherwise.

Update: MoMA is now lashing out. Police are seeking Doug Jaeger for questioning.

Hat Tips: Vulture, PSFK

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Record Tables at Eye and Ear

If you look at the life cycle of any 'scene'--Hippies in San Francisco, Krautrock in Cologne, Punk in D.C.--their rise is always met with a climax. In the aftermath they usually remain vital. The media just chooses to turn their heads to something 'newer'--to another corner of the country waiting to be excavated. I don't mean to overly romanticize this phenomena. But, I think over the last decade New York (and Brooklyn in particular) has received its generous helping of attention and praise. At some point you stop and think: Has the the wave of creativity finally crested?

I would actually like to revise this notion that creativity might be turning its gaze away from New York. What has been so interesting in the rise of the blogosphere is the ability to continue the documentation process that in an earlier age would have been less available. The ability to do so provides for multiple areas of the country like Portland, Austin, Baltimore and New York to coexist and continue to inform each other.

This brings me to the Eye and Ear festival that I attended in December. The Eye and Ear Festival is a biannual New York-centric music and record festival that brings together some of New York's most interesting talent (Zs, Ducktails, Cult of Youth and Symbols) with many of the labels (ESP, Wierd Records) that continue to support them.

Such a festival obviously is a huge undertaking for anyone; however, for Todd Brooks and his Pendu Organization, it is one part of his vision for nurturing young creativity. In the future, he hopes to encompass visual and writing mediums as well as music. The following interview touches upon his vision and is a testament to creativity thriving in Brooklyn.

How did you come up with the idea for the festival?

There are so many great labels in NY right now, and I wanted to help shine a light and make those labels more accessible to the public. Even before the recession hit, there has been a noticeable downturn in record sales with an upturn in music downloads.  We live in an age where great record reviews in blogs and magazines send people straight to P2P downloads rather than sending them straight to their local record store or mail-order.  I'm not against MP3's or the internet by any means, I think both are a great way for people to learn about new music, but it separates the music from the entire experience. A lot of hard work goes into packaging of DIY records and tapes which are put together often literally by hand.  These unique objects are every bit a part of the music.  A record or tape is an object to be looked at as well as listened to, thus fitting the title for the festival: Eye & Ear.  The record fair is meant to highlight the physical part of the music in an overly-digitalized world of JPEGs and MP3s.

Continue reading "The State of DIY: An Interview with Todd Brooks of the Pendu Organization" »

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 08:26 PM | Permalink

Not that I'm complaining.

NYU Local posted some pics of a couple self-proclaimed "Feminist Ninjas" challenging the administration with a threat of "Exposure til Disclosure." And they mean it.

Pictures of half-naked, smoking college girls proving some important political point about something after the jump. (Boob alert....NSFW)

Earlier: NYU Mistakes Itself for Berkeley in the '60s

Continue reading "NYU Coeds Prove Nothing Sells Leftist Politics Like, Uh, Boobs?" »

Posted by Travis Mushett at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Asleep on the Subway found an L-dozer, saying it "looks like [Zooey] Deschanel’s big sister is tired." But more so, the photo just reminds me of those damn service changes that are wreaking havoc in my Manhattan subway travels. Seriously, how long does it take you to fix a few breakers, MTA? Just throw some duct tape on them and get on with it. You're making me chronically late for like, everything. And look, now you're making Kate Deschanel late for her appointments too.

Posted by Brian Ries at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Which makes us love her even more. Here she is doing her version of The Aristocrats:

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is simply the most bizarre shit we have ever seen. People who fall in love with objects. [Via Jezebel]

Check out the documentary, Married To The Eiffel Tower [Part 1] , here

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 04:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Image C/O Marfaring.com

Rhizome is perhaps my favorite art and technology organization. Right now, it's affiliated with the New Museum. It's call for 2010 Commisions are out now. See below for details:

Founded in 2001, the Rhizome Commissions Program is designed to support emerging artists with financial and institutional resources. In the seventh year of funding for the Program, Rhizome will award grants, with amounts ranging from $1000 to $5000, for the creation of significant works of new media art. This includes projects that creatively engage new and networked technologies to works that reflect on the impact of these tools and media in a variety of forms. Commissioned works can take the final form of online works, performance, video, installation or sound art. Projects can be made for the context of the gallery, the public, the web or networked devices. Artists who receive a commission will also be invited to speak at Rhizome's affiliate, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and to archive their work in the ArtBase, a comprehensive online art collection.

2009's commissions included a project called Marfa Ring by Claire L. Evans, Jonah Bechtolt, and Aaron "Flint" Jamison--two of them are better known as YACHT.

In other related Rhizome news, Marisa Olson has a great review of Stage II at The Project gallery--including work by my current favorite music/art collective Lucky Dragons

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Unnatural History, Installation view from left: Michael Yaniro, Jana Flynn, Zach Ziemann

Unnatural History is the latest group show at the artist space Live with Animals, featuring Jana Flynn, Hilary Pecis, Ego Sensation, Michael Yaniro and Zach Ziemann. Loosely tied together as an investigation of man’s tension with nature, the works range from painting, drawing, photo collage, sculpture, performance and video. What is most impressive, however, is the show's craftsmanship. Moving from the heavy illustrative, psychedelic renderings that have been so pervasive in recent years, the bulk of the work plays with abstraction, form and sometimes the figurative.

Easily the standouts of the show are Jana Flynn, Zach Ziemann and Michael Yaniro. Jana Flynn’s work combines craft, pattern and abstraction in sculpture and mixed-media incarnations. Highly environmental, the meditative, repetitive process translates into colorful, delicate sublime pieces. Touching on the lithe structures of Flynn, Ziemann uses watercolor to depict “zen-like” architectural landscapes. Michael Yaniro’s large-scale drawings appropriate images from architecture, maps, religious symbols, but mostly from medical illustrations; while their meanings remain secretive, they often reduce the body to a piece of information within the total composition.

Unnatural History’s closing party occurs on February 8th. Live with Animals is located at 210 Kent Ave.

Installation view: Zach Ziemann

Installation view: Michael Yaniro

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

When I think of Vice’s Blank Issue, I …

A. Want to make a comment on their blog and tell them what I think ;)
B. Use it to plot revenge on my ex on the internerd
C. Rush write away, make a profile, forget about it until February 14th. Then, I finish it and collect the glory and the money!
D. All of the above in order of emotion

Continue reading "Fill In The Blank…(A Poem in the Form of a Multiple Choice Question)" »

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 06:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last Month, the Journal of Popular Noise released its Winter/Fall edition for 2008, featuring Pwrfl Power, Linda & Ron's Dad and Climax Golden Twins. Equal parts periodical, record and art d'objet, the Journal of Popular Noise is an intelligent take on music as a historical document--especially as music's physicality and aesthetic appears to be fading.

Byron Kalet, JPN's founder and editor, was kind enough to answer a few questions about the history of the publication, and its plans for expansion in the future.

What's the mission of popular noise?

First and foremost, I wanted to challenge the conventions of how recorded sound is produced and consumed. When I started the JPN in 2007 things were really starting to come to a head with big labels freaking out about digital distribution. I thought that in light of those changes we needed to take a step back and really think about why someone would still want to buy a physical version of a record. I drew a lot of inspiration from magazines, because at that point they were looking a lot stronger than CD sales, but of course now things are a bit different. So we might make some changes to accommodate that, I think its important not to get stuck in the conventions of ‘how things are done.’

Continue reading "Interview with JPN Founder Byron Kalet" »

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 06:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

From Sorry I Missed Your Party:

Michael F. Jacobson is the head of a nonprofit organization called the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which lobbies for stricter food and beverage regulations. The CSPI convinced five states' attorneys general that the combination of energy and booze in Sparks was dangerous, and the attorney generals brought a lawsuit to MillerCoors. MillerCoors settled and agreed to take the energy ingredients out. You can read the CSPI's press release about it here.

To be honest, some of the shit we ingest should have warning labels and calorie counts posted, but this Michael F. Jacobson guy sounds like a bit of a tight-ass who could benefit from drinking a few Sparks himself. From Wikipedia

Jacobson is a vegetarian and sits on the national board of the "Great American Meatout." He has said that "CSPI is proud of finding something wrong with practically everything." Jacobson and his organization have criticized a wide variety of foods and beverages as unhealthful. He and CSPI frequently use colorful terms to emphasize their oppositionn to certain foods. What has been called the "food cop glossary" includes Fettuccine alfredo- "heart attack on a plate," salt - "the forgotten killer," sugary soft drinks - "liquid candy," movie theater popcorn -"Godzilla of snacks," fondue - "fondon't," ice cream - "coronaries in cones," double cheeseburger - "a coronary bypass special," appetizers - "the most treacherous territory on a restaurant menu," Starbucks' Venti Caffe Mocha with whipped cream - "a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in a cup," Ruby Tuesday's Fresh Chicken & Broccoli Pasta - "angioplasta," Chipotle Chicken Burrito - "tortilla terror," and Cheesecake Factory's Chris' Outrageous Chocolate Cake - "factory reject."

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Normally, we find listicles pretty lazy, but the Beast's year end wrap-up of 2008's worst people is a gem. The list is spot-on and the writing is hilarious. Case in point, #29 Mary Matalin:

Charges: Surgically mortified face creates the impression of a barely passable “earthling” mask worn by an insectoid alien.... Matalin has served in more unholy positions than Jenna Jameson. To this day, Matalin simply denies the well-documented story of Atwater’s deathbed repentance, which is not surprising considering her main skill is obscuring reality. Matalin’s main contribution to undermining the truth and bolstering closet racism this year was publishing World Net Daily plagiarizing lunatic Jerome Corsi’s Obama Nation, a collection of blatant falsehoods that didn’t come close to meriting its non-fiction categorization, in her role as “Editor” of Threshold Books, a conservative imprint that inestimably diminishes Simon and Schuster’s prestige by its simple existence. Matalin called the book, riddled with easily debunked lies, “a piece of scholarship,” claiming it “does not set out to be a political book,” while Corsi himself said “the goal is to defeat Obama.”

We were happy to see that neck-choker-wearing hack M. Night Shyamalan made the list. And here's our #1, Hank Paulson. (Their number 6)

6. Hank Paulson
Charges: From Chief of Staff for original Mayberry Machiavelli Lee Atwater to Adviser to George W. Bush, Counselor to Dick Cheney and member of the best sales team in history, the White House Iraq Group, Matalin has served in more unholy positions than Jenna Jameson. To this day, Matalin simply denies the well-documented story of Atwater’s deathbed repentance, which is not surprising considering her main skill is obscuring reality. Matalin’s main contribution to undermining the truth and bolstering closet racism this year was publishing World Net Daily plagiarizing lunatic Jerome Corsi’s Obama Nation, a collection of blatant falsehoods that didn’t come close to meriting its non-fiction categorization, in her role as “Editor” of Threshold Books, a conservative imprint that inestimably diminishes Simon and Schuster’s prestige by its simple existence. Matalin called the book, riddled with easily debunked lies, “a piece of scholarship,” claiming it “does not set out to be a political book,” while Corsi himself said “the goal is to defeat Obama.”

Exhibit A: “This is a crime and -- and he did not commit a crime. He had a mis-remembrance of when it was that he heard about it, but clearly he's not one of the guys that revealed it in the first place, which the revelation of such was not a crime.”

Sentence: Sex with James Carville.

A special thanks to rumproast for the hat tip..... go vote for them. They are in the running for best small blog over at the Weblog Awards.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Plus she likes "When Animals Attack!"

Anne Hathaway keeps getting cooler. Now, if we can just keep her from dating Devendra Banhart, making a Tom Waits covers record, or appearing in movies with Jim Carrey....

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

via TheCrane.tv

Hi creative ones. TheCrane.tv is a site that will launch in the next month or two, and once it’s up and running it will serve as a resource for fashion, lifestyle, art, and other aesthetic forays. They’re currently accepting submissions for their video competition, so if you want Karl Lagerfeld, Ora-Ito, or Flavio Albanese (among others) to judge your short film, then send it over their way.

Per TheCrane.tv:

“TheCrane.tv, Discovery Campus and Reelisor.com are hosting a film competition for creative talents from all over the world in the categories: Culture, Art&Design, Lifestyle, Fashion, Ideas, Travel and "Green". We reward creativity and encourage you to offer fresh, insider perspectives into your topic of choice. We would like to feel inspired and enriched by your contribution.

“There are no boundaries to your creativity. The short videos can be non-fiction, fiction, animated or could be in a journalistic or documentary style….. The winning films will be selected by our accomplished jury and announced at the international launch of TheCrane.tv in March 2009. The rewards for Laureates include cash, equipment and TV broadcast.”

Posted by Elizabeth Brady at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If this is any indication, 2009 is going to be fucking weird. From Bitten&Bound

Rapper Soulja Boy is keeping relatively quiet about being robbed at gunpoint by six men who entered his Georgia home last Tuesday. The singer, whose real name is DeAndre Ramone Way, and several of his friends were in the home at the time of the attack.

On Wednesday a video turned up on the internet with two masked men claiming to be the robbers. Not only did they admit to the crime but they also said this isn’t the first time they have encountered Soulja Boy. The criminals said that they “stalked” him at the release party for his latest album iSouljaBoyTellem and followed him to his home after the party.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

MTV launched its new reality show "The City" last night and since we generally like any show/film intended for teenage girls we tuned in. In case you missed it, it’s a spin-off of the network’s popular monstrosity "The Hills," only it takes place in Manhattan. The first episode revolves around Whitney—a fish-out-of-water with a brain that's fittingly about the size of a herring's. This big-eyed star of “The Hills” has evidently just moved to the city and is trying to make it in the fashion industry. Along the way she meets Olivia, a self-proclaimed "uptown girl" who habitually rolls her eyes and throws catty cocktail parties where nobody has any fun. Whitney also gets courted by a creepy Australian "bad boy" who has calluses from tussling his hair. This Russell Brand-wannabe could be the new Fabio for pubescent girls.

About fifteen minutes in, around the time Uptown-Olivia begins waxing poetic about the downtown crowd's lack of sophistication, we began feeling nauseas. But ironically it wasn't because the show felt contrived. Au contraire. We felt nauseas because "The City" was nailing it. Manhattan actually feels this dumb and inauthentic. Our city (or at least Manhattan) has become a velvet rope playground where the freshly transplanted nouveau riche try to be bohemian by staying up-to-date on trendy restaurant openings. It's become a place where L.A. jetsetters, like Whitney, can feel right at home and feign bohemian by drinking $12 cocktails beneath Houston street with the edgy "downtown set."

Of course, we’ll stay tuned. Now that we’ve been avoiding Manhattan like the plague, “The City” will be a great way to keep track of what’s happening on the island.

video c/o Gawker

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Susan Cheever

Maybe you're just going to the wrong parties. Or perhaps your friends have gotten more skilled at being alcoholics. Sure, New York has been annoying overrun by hedge funders and people who look like news anchors, but plenty of people are drinking in NY. In fact, that seems like all we do here. From an article by Susan Cheever at the NY Times' booze blog, Proof:

As dessert ended, the woman in the red dress got up and stumbled toward the bathroom. Her husband, whose head had been sinking toward the buche de Noel, put a clumsily lecherous arm around the reluctant hostess. As coffee splashed into porcelain demitasse cups, the woman in the red dress returned, sank sloppily into her chair and reached for the Courvoisier. Someone gently moved the bottle away. "Are you shaying I'm drunk?" she demanded. Even in the candlelight I noticed that the lipstick she had reapplied was slightly to the left of her lips. Her husband, suddenly bellicose, sprang from his chair to defend his wife's honor. But on the way across the room he slipped and went down like a tray of dishes. "Frank! Are you hurt?" she screamed. Somehow she had gotten hold of the brandy. "S'nothing," he replied, "just lay down for a little nap. Can I bum a smoke?"

That dinner party was almost 10 years ago; it was the last time I saw anyone visibly drunk at a New York party. The New York apartments and lofts which were once the scenes of old-fashioned drunken carnage -- slurred speech, broken crockery, broken legs and arms, broken marriages and broken dreams -- are now the scene of parties where both friendships and glassware survive intact. Everyone comes on time, behaves well, drinks a little wine, eats a few tiny canapes, and leaves on time. They all still drink, but no one gets drunk anymore. Neither do they smoke. What on earth has happened?

[...]

Maybe environment is the elephant in the room. In an environment where it is not attractive to get drunk, no one gets drunk. In the old days, drunkenness was as much part of New York City society as evening clothes. This is the city where Zelda Fitzgerald jumped wildly in the fountain in front of the Plaza, the city of "Breakfast at Tiffany's," written by another fabulous alcoholic, Truman Capote. It's the city of late nights with sloshed celebrities at the Stork Club. It's the city that gave its name to Manhattans and Bronx Cocktails, the city of John O'Hara and Frank O'Hara, of drunken brilliance and brilliant drunks.

UPDATE: And as Travis mentions in comments: "The woman is a recovering alcoholic (wrote a book about it called Note in a Bottle). My guess is that since she's not drinking anymore, all the sudden it's gauche and unfashionable."

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Jenn2.0 Trailer from Rob Lewis on Vimeo.

Above you will find the trailer to some show (wonder which network is picking this up) that stars a social media consultant who is too busy living her internet life to make connections in her real life happen. I know we all use Facebook, blogs and Twitter to meet peeps, but who wants to sit through a show watching some self-indulgent person live out their anti-social fantasies stalking friends of friends? Epic fail.

Hat Tip: @DanGould

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

From PageSix

At around 3:30 on the morning after Halloween, two dozen twentysomething hipsters linger at a loft party in East Williamsburg. The kegs are dry, but die-hard stragglers are still dancing drunkenly in the main room. Dave Summers, a 29-year-old grad student at the Bank Street College of Education and one of the party's hosts, has dressed as a cloud for the night -- his baby-blue T-shirt and baseball cap covered in dozens of white cotton balls. While several guests have come as Sarah Palin, one is in a furry yellow duck costume. Another is Bill Murray's character from the 1980 film Caddyshack.

Suddenly, one of Dave's guests runs over to tell him: "The real Bill Murray just walked in the door."

"You're joking," Dave scoffs.

"No, really, he's here." [...]

The whole scene is kind of goofy and light-hearted until a young male guest approaches Bill, who is probably his dad's age, and says, "I think you're making bad life choices." [...]

Later, Dave found out that Bill had been party-hopping with the band MGMT, the hot Brooklyn duo featured on the November cover of Spin, after attending their concert at the Music Hall of Williamsburg that night. "There he was in my apartment, just having a good time like everybody else," Dave says now, still amazed. "I felt something between excitement and incredulity that he was there--and that my party must be pretty fun because he didn't just leave."

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 01:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

picture by Billy Parker c/o Gothamist

Gothamist actually got to go and check out the Real World house down in Red Hook, where they took lots of fun pictures for everybody! So, here they are. And look, they like graffiti and rat tails just like you! Go take a peak at who you'll be hating for the next three months if you still watch MTV.

Posted by Brian Ries at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dustin Klare, Journey to Somewhere Like This,2007

NURTUREArt has been a bastion for up-and-coming curators and artists since 1997. It's current group show Present Perfect Continuous marks the strong curatorial debut of Denise Wong. Taking its cue from the grammatical tense present perfect continuous, the show's premise revolves around two ideas: migration and memory. Here, the audience sees artists from diverse backgrounds congregating together in New York; in so doing, this migration of sorts provides the backbone for each work's narrative.

On a purely aesthetic level, the works are quite gripping. Many of the pieces touch upon the new psychedelic movement that has been prevailing for the past several years, pairing a colorful palette with painstakingly crafted abstraction. Perhaps one of the most interesting pieces is Sarah Julig’s interactive photo collage installation. Julig invites the viewer to share in her personal history by submerging himself/herself inside the piece for a short period of time; the result is intended to communalize the artist’s experience with that of the viewer’s.

Present Perfect Continuous also features: Yasemin Kackar-Demirel, Andrew Eklund, Dustin Klare, Elizabeth Knowles, Hilary Lorenz, Nesta Mayo and Gelah Penn. NURTUREArt is located at 910 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY. Check out the show before it closes on Saturday, December 13th.

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 11:13 AM | Permalink

Ducktails

SSPS

While everyone was lounging on their sofas from eating massive quantities of food, I was at the Cake Shop checking out a small but amazing show last night with Bob Bellerue, SSPS, Ducktails, HD (members of WZT HEARTS). Most noteworthy of the night were the sets by SSPS and Ducktails.

SSPS is Porkchop from Excepter’s solo project. Taking his cue from German minimalist house, SSPS is equal parts dirty beats and experimental sound exploration. Often marrying the two can prove challenging to create something with substance, SSPS was up to the task--ladling abstract vocals over a dark, dance backbone. (He even got a few members of a slightly reserved crowd to dance.)

Ducktails is the solo project of Matt Mondanile (with the occasional live collaborator). Best described as poppy surf rock informed by avant garde music a la The SKATERS and Kemialliset Ystavat, Ducktails is the type of warm music that will get you through the Winter and keep you happy year round. Touching on the pop and the more abstract, Mondanile divided the set between a meditative, outdoors instrumental and an anthemic surf rock ballad (that was unfortunately cut short due to technical difficulties).

In addition to Ducktails, Mondanile also collaborates in Predator Vision and Real Estate—both are in keeping with the good vibes. Real Estate is playing tonight at the Cake Shop at midnight if you can make it out.

Posted by Lisa Baldini at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

From tomorrow through Sunday, Brooklyn Industries is having a huge sale. According to Racked, it includes "Menswear, womenswear, and bags are up to 75% off—meaning the average price is about $25." Our closest location is 162 Bedford Ave. [Corner of N 8th].

Update: looks like this offer is only at the Broadway "pop up shop". thanks patrick!

Posted by Brian Ries at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

From Kayrock's website

Espeis archetype invited Kayrock Screenprinting to create a mural outside their gallery. With Halloween and the presidential election just around the bend, we created a wheat paste mural that combines 35 looming issues with 20 leering monster heads. All prints are 3 colors on text weight 19"x25" paper.

Monsters were drawn by Wolfy Part II, Karl "Kayrock" LaRocca, Zach Lehrhoff, Anna Haifisch, Christeen Francis and Brady Dollarhide. Looming issues were provided by the times, the media, the presidential candidates and you.

Barack Obama has a plan that addresses 25 pressing issues. McCain's plan only deals with three.

We will have monster head prints for sale at:
Prints Gone Wild
Supreme Trading
213 North 8th, Williamsburg Brooklyn
Saturday Nov 1 (6pm-midnight) and Sunday Nov 2 (12-6pm)

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 03:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

img via gawker

When Gawker posted some paparazzi-style photos of a hooded man wearing glasses yesterday, they thought that maybe, just maybe, they finally nailed Banksy. In the post, they say, "David Steele Overholt took these pics of a hooded figure who seemed to be supervising a new rat mural on Houston St. yesterday. The guy denied being Banksy, but then walked away suspiciously. Possibly him?". However, Banksy's overseas, so the dude on film is just R. Nicholas Kuszyk, a Williamsburg artist! He wrote in to Gawker to clear things up.

the photo of the hooded person is not banksy. it's me, r nicholas kuszyk, a williamsburg brooklyn based artist informally affiliated w banksy and colossal media. i was consulting the paint crew on behalf of banksy who was too busy to oversee the entire process. this might sound like shameless self promoton (the name of the game) but at least i had the foresight, well banksy and i had the foresight, to plan on wearing something that covered my face yesterday in the case of people like david noseypants photog acting all paparazzi.

Self-promotion deserved. Check out his website, RROBOTS, and below the jump enjoy a few pictures of his non-Banksy art (hint: its still awesome).

Continue reading "Williamsburg Artist R. Nicholas Kuszyk Gets His 5 Minutes (More Banksy)" »

Posted by Brian Ries at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Jay McInerney has a great article in the current New York. It gives a quick shout-out to FREEwilliamsburg founder, Robert Lanham's The Hipster Handbook

Hipsters believed they were the ultimate anti-yuppies. Unlike their forebears, they wanted to be known not by their job or ambition but by their self-conscious disregard for either. If anything, the cult of connoisseurship was even more exaggerated in this subgroup. Their code, enshrined in Robert Lanham’s hyperironic 2003 Hipster Handbook, was inherently elitist, defining itself in opposition to the mainstream. Hipster consumerism championed the notions of alternative and independent, rejecting the yuppie embrace of certain consumer brands in favor of their own. So it was vintage T-shirts rather than Turnbull & Asser dress shirts with spread collars, Pabst Blue Ribbon over Chardonnay. But ultimately, whether you love Starbucks or loathe it, a world in which we are defined by our choice of blue jeans and coffee beans owes more to Alex Keaton than to Abbie Hoffman.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We've been meaning to give a shout-out to Joy Apparel who was nice enough to send us a complimentary shirt featuring the face of Roger Smith. Here's their story:

Every face on a Joy T- Shirt has been inspired by a real person. When you wear your shirt you are encouraged to think about that person and how your everyday actions can affect others and the world we live in. After you purchase a shirt you may then upload a photo of your own visage via the participate link to have your face drawn by hand and worn on the hearts of others. It is about taking an active stance against racism and discrimination while being an advocate for peace and equality... because in someway or another, we are all connected!

Cool concept. You can grab your own here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:53 AM | Permalink

We've always deified Kool Keith and are excited to hear "Dr. Dooom 2" will be released this month. The first track [below] sounds like more of the same, but that's not necessarily a bad thing since the original Dr. Dooom record is one of our favorite hip hop records. Ever. It's an underrated classic that's even better than its progeny "Dr. Octagon." Here's a tune from the upcoming "Dr. Dooom 2":

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Michel Gondry is missing!!! At least that's what someone wants you to believe, after they've taken to the streets to post messages of a lost Gondry (who recently moved into a house on Orient Ave. in East Williamsburg) all over town. Gothamist found a whole bunch of photos, Rex at Fimoculous saw one outside of Freemans in the LES, and the reports keep coming in. I saw the above message scrawled in red tape on North 6th by Bedford this weekend, on the plywood of the construction site across from Surf Bar. What's going on?!

From Gothamist:

Unless Michel Gondry somehow went missing without it making the news, then this is either a marketing campaign, or some crazy fan trying to make contact with the director. Signs that have popped up in Manhattan (Gondry now lives in Brooklyn) state, "Have you seen French film maker Michel Gondry? Any infos please be kind and send email" (our email to the address has yet to get a response).

See more images on Flickr.

Posted by Brian Ries at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Rendering by Elizabeth Bolognino/Learned Evolution

We found a few renderings of Brooklyn Bowl, the new 20,000 square-foot bowling alley opening on Wythe St. in Williamsburg later this fall, and it's looking like they won't be holding anything back. Aside from being a 16 lane 600-person capacity bowling center, Brooklyn Bowl will be a place for events, parties, concerts, screenings, corporate schmoozing, a restaurant, and hopefully layers of that famous Brooklyn debauchery that we've all refined so well. Design wise, it sounds pretty cool. Not only will they have audio designed by Harmon Kardon, and Dolby engineer Paul Sacco, it's going green. Here's some more from BizBash:

Design-wise, the 600-capacity Brooklyn Bowl is not looking to hide the rough interior of the 1889 building, rather the design will accentuate it with custom ironwork, furniture, and other pieces. For example, for the lanes the venue's designer, Tristam Steinberg, is using old leather Chesterfield couches and iron coffee tables instead of typical alley seating.

Click through the jump for a rendering of the bar, and get your bowling shoes ready for some neighborly competition to The Gutter, although I think the two will end up serving different clientele in the long run. Until I see the place, you'll probably find me with the rats.

Story via BizBash

Continue reading "A Look at Williamsburg's Other Bowling Alley" »

Posted by Brian Ries at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

RideTheCity is a really great tool for getting bike directions in New York City. And, it was created by three bikers!

TechCrunch reports:

RideTheCity is a cool mash-up application that allows you to plan bike routes based on safety and speed. By typing - or selecting - a start and end location in New York City, the application will find the safest and quickest routes by factoring in bike routes for “safest” trips and the shortest travel distance for the quickest trips

RideTheCity via TechCrunch

Posted by Brian Ries at 03:22 PM | Permalink

photo via flickr user skimaskprod

Fate, in Williamsburg, works in funny ways. Last week when we posted about Misha Calvert of 'Mr and Miss Williamsburg' fame, and Lola Wakefield, of Stuff Hipsters Don't Like, we had no idea that their post proximity on FREEwilliamsburg would equate to real world conversational relations and a potential publicity allegiance between the two rising stars of Brooklyn Internet. But, it happened. From Stuff Hipsters Don't Like:

I e-met this hipSTAR after our pet projects were featured 2 posts away from each other on FREEwilliamsburg.com, which I’m sure you all check daily, if not by having the page perpetually open and refreshing the screen every few minutes or so. (ed: thank you lola) .... One day, Misha said, “I’d love to do an interview.” My narcissistic inclinations shining through, I asked when she wanted to interview me. Her narcissistic inclinations trumping mine tenfold, she explained that she was asking me to interview her.

In the publicity stunt...er, interview that follows, Misha and Lola exchange questions, compliments, and comparisons as they explore the pretentiousness of the New York media to the reality of Facebook stalkers. I'll let The Allegiance take it from here.

FREEwilliamsburg presents: The Misha & Lola Interview

Posted by Brian Ries at 11:20 PM | Permalink

Williamsburg's is called, of course, the hipster and is shaped like a guitar. From NYTimes.

The city’s Department of Transportation, in partnership with the art gallery PaceWildenstein, announced today that it had installed nine temporary bike racks designed by the musician and biking enthusiast David Byrne.

The nine racks -- in shiny red, black and silver -- are intended to promote bicycling, which has been a main emphasis of the current transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan. That emphasis includes Summer Streets, the program to close off a 6.9-mile north-south route for six hours on three consecutive Saturdays (this Saturday is the last day); the Cityracks program, which provides free sidewalk racks for short-term bike parking; and a design competition for newer, sleeker racks.

Continue reading "David Byrne's Bike Racks" »

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Looks like d.b.a. will be giving Radegast Hall a run for the money. From a tipster.

I went to dba last night on 1st ave, and there was a sign there saying a new d.b.a location will be opening up on north 7th street between Berry and Wythe.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This new series looks pretty funny. It premieres September 28 on HBO. More clips here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 05:35 PM | Permalink

Taking inspiration from the blog-to-book deal wunderkind Stuff White People Like (which just listed Facebook 12 days ago), Williamsburg's own Stuff Hipsters Don't Like is an ongoing archive listing things that hipsters just don't get along with. It's young, having only started about two weeks ago, but its charm is not yet it's "stuff", rather, the ever-familiar conflict that so many Williamsburg residents themselves face. I'll let the author, Lola Wakefield, explain her "hipster dilemma":

I began frequenting the local internet cafe and going to Tuesday night movie showings at McCarren, anxious to observe them in their natural setting. “Oh the ridiculous hipsters,” I would think to myself, smiling on the inside. But then something unexpected happened - I began to encounter people who described me - ME!- as a hipster. “Nonsense,” I thought. But I began to worry that what they said was true.

So far, her journey deep into identifying, or denying, her inner hipster do-not-wants include smiling, being spontaneously photographed, and the hipsters themselves. I'm looking forward to seeing extensive listings including bananas, switching guitar hero guitars with rock band's and vice versa, and Pabst Blue Ribbon bottles, but we'll just have to wait. Lola, keep us updated. Oh, and if YOU have photographs of hipsters not liking things send them over to El Dubs at lola.wakefield@gmail.com, and tell 'em FREEwilliamsburg sent ya.

follow closely at Stuff Hipsters Don't Like

Posted by Brian Ries at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Full schedule at HBO.com.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This promises to be a great event and FREEwilliamsburg founder Robert Lanham will be part of the panel. RSVP at 800.304.5226. It's free!

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

There's a new article on Millennials over at Radar by FREEwilliamsburg founder Robert Lanham.

Millennials are younger. Healthier. They got to do anal in high school. They think updating a spreadsheet while posting to a Twitter account about gossip on perezhilton.com is an essential corporate skill.... An egregious example of generational bias lies in Gen X's stigma as the "MTV Generation," a title that was always intended as a pejorative. … Ironically, when applied to the Millennials, who are similarly affected by the Internet, possessing a short attention span becomes an accolade. They just call it multitasking.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Rapture thrillers, '70s style!

Given all the craziness in the world right now--war, cyclones, earthquakes, the plummeting dollar--the Jesusy lunatics at RaptureReady are worried that the end may be near. In fact, the Rapture Index is currently at 170. That's seven points higher than the record highs of 2006 and 2007 and just 12 points beneath the all-time high of 182, which occurred in September of 2001. It's time to get your rapture letter mailing list in order.

Here's some of the reasons the RaptureReady.com gives for the sudden jump in the probability of the Apocalypse's arrival (below). Ironically, some of the shit they list is the result of the polices of their patron saint, George Bush:

-- False Christs - A gentleman in Florida has made news by claiming to be Christ.
-- Inflation: Consumer prices continue to soar.
-- Debt and Trade - The U.S. federal debt reaches the $9 trillion mark.
-- Ecumenism - A key Italian political leader proposed the creation a "palace of religions" in Rome.
-- Beast Government - The EU pens a new treaty.
-- Volcanoes - Chaiten volcano has erupted in southern Chile
-- Wild Weather- Bad weather is putting millions of people at risk.
-- Plagues - A new drug-resistant strain staff has been linked to sexually-active gay men.

After the jump, another hilarious rapture video.

Continue reading "Rapture Index Way Up!" »

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:19 PM | Permalink

This is fucking weird, but don't worry, the video is bizarre but carnage-free. [hat tip Buzzfeed]

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:56 AM | Permalink

From the Washington Post

The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer. The new findings "were against our expectations," said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.

"We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," he said. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect."

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:30 AM | Permalink

We can't wait to see David Cross' new show David’s Situation. Currently in production, Vanity Fair has the scoop:

It’s taken 10 years, but Bob and David are finally have a new show of their own. They’re returning to HBO this fall with David’s Situation, a sitcom about a standup comic named David Cross (played by--wait for it--David Cross) who leaves Hollywood to live in the suburbs, where he writes for in-flight airline magazines and argues with his roommates, one of whom is a bleeding-heart liberal and the other a fire-breathing conservative. Co-written with Odenkirk, who also directs, the show is a big departure from the sketch-based madness that made them cult-comedy gods. Still, in a sign that they haven’t completely abandoned their Mr. Show roots, every episode will be interrupted by parodies of commercials. “There could be ads for scissors or a new fictional movie or a public service announcement,” Cross said. “It could be anything.”

David Cross: Take something like Arrested Development. I wish it wasn’t the case, but I do have some empathy for the network. Fox is not a charity. As much as I hate the idea that commerce should come ahead of art, it’s true. I wish they could say, “Hey, let’s just take some of that Simpsons money and put it into Arrested Development,” but that would be the dumbest fucking move ever. That’s not how a business operates.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 02:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

We met Sloane in 2003 and had the honor of having her be the publicist for our first book, The Hipster Handbook. Her debut novel I Was Told There'd Be Cake was published last week and we couldn't be happier for Sloane. Her collection of essays is smart, hilarious and will delight fans of David Sedaris and Sarah Vowel. The collection opens hysterically: “As most New Yorkers have done, I have given serious and generous thought to the state of my apartment should I get killed during the day," and it never slows down. In short, you should go buy this book now. (The buzz for I Was Told There'd Be Cake has been huge thus far.)

Sloane will be reading Monday night in Tribeca at 7pm:
Monday, April 7, 2008
7 PM
Barnes & Noble Tribeca
97 Warren Street [Map]
More information and Dioramas at SloaneCrosley.com

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

From CHUD, hat tip The Vulture

I'm hearing that... a massive reshoot is what is on the table right now. And it's not because of technical issues, unless you want to consider the lead kid actor and the script technical issues. Sources tell me that the suits at Legendary and Warner Bros are not happy with Max Records, the actor playing Max, the mischievous boy who is crowned King of the Wild Things. Worse than that, they don't like the film's tone and want to go back to the script drawing board, possibly losing the Spike Jonze/Dave Eggers script when they do it. Apparently the film is too weird and 'too scary,' and the character of Max is being seen as not likable.

Where The Wild Things Are screened for a test audience in Pasadena late last year; my friend BC, who watches a horror movie a day, caught the screening and liked what he saw, but I've also been told that the movie is 'subversive,' which is just the sort of thing that drives studio suits up the wall. The film, I keep hearing, is pretty great at this early stage of post-production, but it could very possibly not be a commercial movie. You can imagine the panic at Warner Bros when they realized they'd made a reportedly 75 million dollar kiddie art house film.

What did they expect from Jonze and Eggers, a cookie-cutter Shrek movie with dancing penguins? Here's the leaked clip:

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)