For three nights a week, Richard Kuo and Frederik Berselius operate this tiny Brigadoon of a Scandinavian restaurant in the back of Kinfolk Studios, a Williamsburg gallery. There are just 18 chairs. Reservations as staggered as gradually as at any four-star restaurant, but there is no four-star restaurant in New York that serves a seven-course tasting menu for $45. It may represent the city’s best bargain in fine dining.
“It’s 11 tracks, because some of the tracks don’t have drums to begin with. It’s all the pop songs without drums… I think people will have a lot of fun with it because everyone keeps remixing ‘Birds of Paradise’ because there were no drums on it… I also mastered an instrumental version of the entire album. I always master multiple versions in case I want to collage or edit them later. I was really liking the way the vocal mixes sounded with no drums and I think that the drums on the album are so heavy, that it’s interesting to hear the record as this almost-empty, almost-a cappella kind of thing.”
Mr. Kiernan has spent the last year lobbying to fill Regis Philbin’s seat on “Live! With Kelly,” and he has had a handful of guest host appearances on the morning show in the last two months. It is precisely this timing that helps make Mr. Kiernan’s move seem, on the face of it, rather odd.
Here he is, a local celebrity, pounding on the door of one of the most coveted jobs in broadcasting, the glitter of national-talk-show fairy dust sprinkled in his neat blond hair. And there he goes, moving from a fabulous penthouse on the Upper West Side to a house with vanilla-colored siding that is across the street from a hardware store and costs half as much as the place where he lives now.
No, the choice is not obvious. But on a walk through their new home on a rainy afternoon last week, Mr. Kiernan and his wife, Dawn, explained that at first sight, the house, its garden, the neighborhood and even the L train got under their skin.
“We’re under no illusions that it could be confused with a trophy property from the front,” Mr. Kiernan said, explaining that the location and the pristine interior were much more important to them. “We’re not trying to build a showy property. We just want a comfortable place to live with our family.”
And it will be comfortable, indeed.
The kitchen opens up into an immense back garden, all warm reddish brick and leafy trees. The couple’s daughters, Lucy, 10, and Maeve, 7, will have their own floor. And the 2,600-square-foot home was fully renovated just over a year ago by a family that planned to stay for the long haul, Mr. Kiernan said. The structural steel, the plumbing, the electrical systems — all were spruced up.
While you were busy yesterday sleeping off your Cinco de Mayo hangover, France was electing a new president. Socialist candidate François Hollande won 51.6% of the vote, beating incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, who had 48.4%.
So what should you know about Hollande? One of his biggest challenges will be dealing with European and national debt, which he plans to address by raising taxes on the rich and corporations. He also wants more teachers, judges, and houses, and supports gay marriage. The mother of his four children, Ségolène Royal, is also an important French Socialist politician.
Oh, and his official campaign video is set to “Ni**as in Paris.” Quite a different direction from Sarkozy’s politics.
Hollande may take office as soon as May 14th. At least Sarkozy can always fall back on his wife’s singingacting career.
It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam “MCA” Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer. He was 47 years old.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Yauch taught himself to play bass in high school, forming a band for his 17th birthday party that would later become known the world over as Beastie Boys.
With fellow members Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Adrock” Horovitz, Beastie Boys would go on to sell over 40 million records, release four #1 albums–including the first hip hop album ever to top the Billboard 200, the band’s 1986 debut full length, Licensed To Ill–win three Grammys, and the MTV Video Vanguard Lifetime Achievement award. Last month Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Diamond and Horovitz reading an acceptance speech on behalf of Yauch, who was unable to attend. Read the rest of this entry »
Today marks the beginning of a new era for My Social List. From this day onward, we will be known as MI SCILL LIIST. We really don’t give a fuck about the name. We originated this project in a bedroom with no internet and didn’t know it would ever leave.
We’re taking a cue from DIIV, formerly known as Dive; aka Zachary Cole Smith of Beach Fossils’ side project. Apparently, he’s changing the name out of “respect” for some early 90s industrial act from Belgium.
Come on dude, how have you never heard of Dive? Their experimental sound, consisting of abused drum machines pulsating through crackling distortion influenced everyone from Frontline Assembly to Klinik.
If that all sounds ridiculous… it’s because it is. My guess? The guy never heard the “original” Dive in his life, and Wikipedia’d his band name before his LP came out. Dude. It’s totally ok. I have idea who the hell Dive is either. The last sentence of the previous paragraph is a combination of Wikipedia’s “Dive (Belguim Band)” page and industrial acts from Allmusic.com.
Maybe this perceived insecurity over not knowing obscure foreign bands from dead genres is some sort of sad commentary on the resentful post-internet era we live in. Who knows? Maybe he just wanted a more stylized name? If that’s the case… they should have totally went with ▲DDIIVVEE▲ instead. Or maybe he realized “Dive” was un-google-able?
Somewhat ironically, I’d like to use this opportunity to announce the launch of the MII SCIIL LIIST iPhone app (get it here) It launches TODAY, and it’s 100% free. Now you’ll be able to access our buzz list right on your phone, buy tickets to shows, find shows near you (via current location), and text them to your friends. Really, there’s no better app for tracking buzzworthy shows in the city despite my INTENSE bias.
The lineup for this season’s waterfront concerts at Williamsburg Park is finally beginning to take shape. On Monday event organizers announced four concerts that we can look forward to, three of which are ticketed and one of which is free:
Pretty Good Friends with Eugene Mirman and special guests OK GO – July 19th (free)
Cake – August 10th (ticketed)
My Morning Jacket with Shabazz Palaces – August 19th (ticketed)
Sublime with Rome, Cypress Hill, and Pepper – August 24th (ticketed)
It’s almost summer which means we can begin to regularly use our favorite mode of transport: The East River Ferry! They’ve just announced that starting this week, they’ll be offering a variety of Brooklyn-sourced food & drinks including cupcakes from Butter Lane Cupcakes, retro-style u-bet egg creams in chocolate and vanilla, and hot and iced coffees from the Brooklyn Roasting Company.
“We’re very excited about it,” Paul Goodman, CEO of Billybey Ferry Company, which operates the routes on behalf of the city, told DNAinfo New York ahead of the launch.
Goodman, who teamed with restaurateur Marc Murphy, of Tribeca and the Time Warner Center’s Landmarc bistros and Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Ditch Plains, said that, after the success of last summer’s coffee service, he wanted to expand the selection for riders, with a focus on local fare.
In addition to the cupcakes and coffee, the menu includes potato chips from McClure’s, the famous pickle purveyors, and pastries from Murphy’s Benchmarc Events.
“Now East River Ferry goers can enjoy the scenic ride, and take in the amazing skyline views while snacking on local Brooklyn eats,” Murphy said in a statement.
Jim Munson, president of the Brooklyn Roasting Company, said he plans to offer ferry-riders a variety of single-origin hot coffees and cold-brewed ice coffees throughout summer, with service kicking off at dawn.
“We think it’s a great alliance. We want to promote alternative means of transportation, so we’re working with the ferries,” he said.
The menu, which will be available seven days a week, on all routes, beginning at 7 a.m, is also easy on the wallet, with prices ranging from $2 for chips and pastries, to $3 for coffees, cupcakes and egg creams.
The team is also considering the possibility of adding beer and wine to the menu at some point in the future, Goodman said
A sunset ferry ride with beer or wine without paying tourist prices? We’ll take it!
