I’ve been teased a number of times already with the familiar ring of ice cream trucks in my ‘hood. And looking at the weather app on my phone gives me hope that the winter just might be over… Let’s keep our fingers crossed, kids. And until the fire hydrants start their annual transformation into sprinklers, we can all thank The L Magazine for something to look forward to until the sunshine, sweat, and Turkey’s Nest margaritas are a thing of the now:

This has been a long time coming, but we at The L Magazine are pleased to finally and officially announce the first annual Northside Festival. Taking place from June 11-14 in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, it is, as we’ve grown accustomed to saying, a four-day celebration of the independent music and art scene that thrives here in New York City, with live music being held at nearly every venue in the area (including some that haven’t even opened yet), and art events at some of the most relevant galleries in the neighborhood.

So close, and yet, so far away…

Photos by Clarissa Roudabush

Now that it’s Friday, I feel like I can talk about my wanna-be weekend Wednesday at Glasslands. We’ve all been there before– when its past your bedtime, but all you really wanna do is dance. Although warmed up by the musical stylings of Neon Coyote and DJ Mike Dextro (and a few vodka sodas), all I wanted in my life was some Alaska in Winter. Before I could catch my fix, a pleasant surprise named Charlie! took the stage. In the fashion of more recognizable man duos such as Chromeo, these boys summoned their inner if-Kanye-was-a-Power-Ranger-that-had-to-sit-still. Listen, if you add a 2-step to NIN’s ‘Closer’, no matter how much I think I’m going to hate it, you’ve pretty much got me sold. It just really makes me miss the days when I lived with three dorky sound engineering boys.

Finally the one man band Alaska In Winter (aka Brandon Bethancourt) appeared, and the presence of the ladies in the male dominated room became apparent. But past the fact that Alaska’s frontman looks good in fur, his artful performances are exactly that– performance art. Details such as the removal of a tie in his video orchestra to Brandon’s real time clothing removal on stage showcase some crossdisciplinary skills. Put him in a glass box and this boy could make it at P.S. 1 any day.

We caught up with Bethancourt about tex mex, deep space, and crashing at Zach Condon’s place before the show. Check out the interview, as well as some AIW wardrobe changes, after the jump…

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Seems ridiculous, right? Only in Brooklyn, right? Well, apparently these championships have been happening all around the world in the last few years. Here are some gems from one of the contestants:

Leonardo Gomez, 25, of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, will be in the Recession Beard category because he started growing his fuzz in September, just as the economy began to fizzle.
“If there’s anyone who can change what’s going on right now it’s a beardsman,” he said, evoking Abraham Lincoln.
“I really think if President Obama would grow a beard, we’ll really start to see some huge progress in America.”

Can I also say that I came across this in the physical version of the Daily News, as in, this event made it to print– loves it. Here’s the web version.
So, go be a part of history this Saturday at Public Assembly. What do you have better to do?
PS- If you RSVP on Going.com, you get $6 off admission & Open Bar from 7-8pm.

Photo via
Help a fellow Williamsburger out, y’all:

adamdiy posted this on March 10th, 2009 @ 3:18:28 am
hello, i am driving across the country soon in a 1994 minivan with only a cassette player. i thought it would be fun to listen to old mixtapes the whole way. it seems many people keep around old mixtapes even when they have no way to listen to them.
do you have an unloved/ unlistened to mixtape from back in the day? want to donate it to a cross country road trip? message me!
postcards available from the grand adventure from anywhere in the US or Mexico we go through!

via williamsboard.com

As I’m going to be Tokyo!-bound this weekend, and because some of my fellow FREEburgers have jumped on the East meets Brooklyn bandwagon (check out David & Lisa’s posts below)–here’s another reason to love/be jealous of our cross Pacific friends:

Oh, and has anyone coined the term FREEburger yet? Because, if not, well… done & done.

I might be being hard on myself here. But this seems like a serious missed gift-giving opportunity. I’m thinking about all of the Secret Santa parties I went to just a few short months ago (one of which I received the best gift of 2008). And now, even Valentine’s Day has passed and I can’t bestow the joy of Williamsburg pin-up to all those deserving of it… But I guess two months late is better then never… Paypal here I come!
Get your own here.

If you know me, you know that I’m a big slut for a good magazine layout. But with prices of specialty &/or foreign mags running at around $15 a pop, websites for Chinese hipster inspired print such as M-Style scratch the itch just as well. Over at the Shanghaiist, they seem to agree:

Hipsters get a lot of flack in the U.S. and Europe for fetishizing elements of fringe movements and regurgitating them into something completely sterile and inauthentic – all of the style and none of the substance, so to speak.
And yet (for us, at least) the cheap beer and great music is a welcome escape from the whisky-and-green-tea, Eurotrash house, everybody clad in some skimpy shade of black scene that’s dominated Shanghai so far.

Bombarded with the now long dead pop culture trends of yesterday’s East, some Hong Kong-goes-Brooklyn gems passed under the radar. These kids might as well be living in my building, no? But we’ve always been fans of the Asian aesthetic. I mean, McDonald’s is giving away Hello Kitty watches in their Happy Meals nowadays (which I know one FREEburg writer is super excited about). It’s no wonder Michel Gondry loves him some Eastern city lights….
(Exciting news & a peek at Gondry’s newest, Tokyo!, after the jump)

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European discount airline RyanAir (and it’s PR people, apparently) have got their panties in a twist after one blogger’s discovery of a supposed free flight bug. Check out the angry staffers comments on Jason Roe‘s blog:

“It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again.”
“Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel”
“…what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they’re mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!”

Hat tip, Consumerist.