From BarackObama.com

On August 24th, Brooklyn for Barack is partnering with JellyNYC to co-host the Last Pool Party (ever) at McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Held one day before the start of the Democratic National Convention, the event hopes to not only raise money for Barack’s campaign but to celebrate the increased participation of youth in this election. The Pool Party is an all day concert, featuring Yo La Tengo, Titus Andronicus, Ebony Bones, and other special guests. Although the Pool Party is free to enter, there is a suggested donation of $20 that will go directly to Obama for America. There will be a free concert poster- designed by Jessica Hische- for the first 1000 people who donate $20 or more. Please donate by clicking [here]!
Note: donating here does not guarantee your entrance to the concert! Please arrive early! When the event reaches capacity, they will turn people away.

And oh yeah, David Cross and Syd B (Les Savy Fav) will now be DJing as well. (Even though we’d rather see some stand-up from the former). Other surprises are rumored. More information at mccarrenpark.com.

Grand Archives
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Yo La Tengo

Nick Lesley is a video artist and a drummer for the band Necking. He most recently occupied drum set #43 at the Boredom’s 8/8/08 drumming event (known as 88BoaDrum) on the Williamsburg waterfront. His fellow Necking band mate Dong-Ping Wong was at #44, and after only 20 minutes of practice time the normally improv Brooklyn band joined 86 other drummers in a structured performance that can only be described as “massive”.
Next week, Nick is doing a live-feed, generative video project that incorporates choreographed dancers and sound as part of the one-night Power 2 show at the Issue Project Room (232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor). I shot a few questions via email to Nick earlier this week to get an idea of what it was like preparing for a crazy event like 88Boadrum, and what we can expect from him in Power 2.
You can catch Power 2 at Issue Project Room next week. Doors are at 8:30, show’s at 9pm; $10 suggested donation; on Saturday, August 30th. The following video is a *test video* for Power 2, shot w/o sound but gives you an idea how the dancers affect the generative video on screen. The actual show will of course feature a sound element, more screens, and that sense of real-world interactivity that never fully comes across in web video.
After the video, click on through the jump to get behind the scenes at 88BoaDrum, Necking, and Power 2 in our e-interview with Nick Lesley.

Power 2- rehearsal pt. 2 Aug. 17 from Power Series on Vimeo.

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The Muslims
This evening’s show at Union Pool will be a splendid one, headlined by The Muslims. The San Diego-based group plays likable, stripped down garage-punk, in the tradition of Iggy or Richard Hell, with even a touch of Jonathan Richman or Dinosaur Jr. here and there.
While they spent the past 2 nights opening for The Walkmen at the Bowery Ballroom, tonight The Muslims are playing with Howlies from Georgia, and Brooklyn’s The Gang. The three acts compliment each other perfectly, and I’m predicting a rowdy, rock ‘n roll Wednesday involving lots of and PBR and sweaty people.
8 pm, $8.

Needless to say, this is going to rule. More information here.

image via flickr user leobard
Gothamist is reporting that GRL founder James Powderly has been detained in Beijing as of 3am last night.

When Boing Boing reported the news at nearly 8 this morning, he had been held for around 19 hours already. They were tipped off by Students for a Free Tibet, who learned of it via a Twitter message that read “held since 3am.” There’s no further word about the status of this situation, and Beijing officials have yet to acknowledge he’s being held.

Students For A Free Tibet has the back story, so stay tuned to their site for breaking info.

photo via flickr user dantekgeek
Saturday night, hundreds of Pandas converged on Bedford Avenue in route from Union Square, as part of a planned “street party of the summer”. Organizers Pandamonium, who are a self-described “costumed, roving, street party, apocalyptic, dance, rock, battle” announced the event details on their site yesterday morning, saying:

Today is the day! Pandamonium 8:30pm Union Square South.
Bring your friends, a boombox, your panda outfit and lets get down!
see you there!
-the panda posse

So, dressed in Panda suits and armed with music they took the L from Union Square to Bedford Avenue. As we all know however, the NYPD doesn’t really care for costumed, roving, street parties, apocalyptic, dance, rock, battles, so they set up a strong presence around N. 6th and met the Panda Parade with a bit of resistance. Lola Wakefield from Stuff Hipster’s Don’t Like wrote in this morning with a great first hand account of the insanity, including a story on how that very boom box met it’s fate. Here’s that:

The last straw for the police was when a really good song came on a boom box that this guy was holding on his shoulder a few feet away from me. The cops must have known that something sinister was taking place because there were at least 10 people dancing to the music. Then a cop grabbed the guy with the boom box by the back of his arm and yanked him into the street, pushing him to the ground and making him loose grip of the stereo. Now, I know that dancing is illegal and also a sin, but I think there was excessive force used in this situation. The stereo fell, batteries flying everywhere, and when a few of his friends picked it up, a woman cop angrily lunged for the boom box and tried to further dismantle it!

She also found this video on youtube (by froozalicious) featuring some NYPD-famous smackdowns. I’m sure their will be plenty more of these suckers popping up over the next two days, so keep your eyes out, and hide your boom boxes. As with all NYC happenings, Gothamist has the story and a few more pictures of the Pandamonium.
Oh, and that picture above…man, how would you like spending the night in the tombs wearing a Panda suit?! Something tells me they don’t serve Bamboo…

UPDATE: Pandamonium sent a message out on Twitter saying, “Hey pandas! Vlad@glassbeadcollective.org looking 4 footage of arrests 2 help lawyers. Up the pandas f*ck the nypd!”
Send ‘em if you got ‘em.

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image c/o nytimes
The fire dancing troupe NYC Sparkworks has been practicing on a Williamsburg rooftop overlooking the BQE all summer long as they prepare for the late-august Burning Man festival.

There’s the art, there’s the planning, and then there’s the performance. Several members of Kostume Kult are also part of a fire dancing troupe, NYC Sparkworks, that will perform at the climax of the event. Throughout the summer, they have rehearsed on a rooftop in Williamsburg.

nytimes via animal; photo by michael nagle

Vice Record’s newest signee, the Japanese Motors, will be playing a free show at Glasslands (289 Kent) tomorrow at 8:30pm. And speaking of Colt 45, they’re giving them out for free from 10-11pm, so there’s no need to steal them from your local bodegas and run around hosting beauty pageants or anything. RSVP at viceland.com/japanesemotors, and if possible, sport a make-believe Williamsburg trend (like old Christmas sweaters) because they’ll be filming for vbs.tv.
Japanese Motors – Single Fins & Safetyp Pins MP3
Info from Vice; image by Dan Monick.