Rocking, Biking, Hanging and Shopping: Another Delicious NYC Weekend!

It has officially been a NYC weekend for me.

My weekend has featured everything from seeing of Montreal (with an opener by the fabulous Janelle Monáe) on Friday to partaking in a wonderful housewarming party in Park Slope Saturday, to catching up over cocktails and shopping in the L.E.S. today.

Janelle Monáe, as always, was a soulful, sci-fi diva with mesmerizing dance moves ranging from skat to seizure-like break dancing moves. And Of Montreal put on a top-notch, trippy performance, with lead singer Kevin Barnes in a buttless skirt for the first half of their show. Alien-like creatures abounded, and though, unlike a prior performance I had seen, there was no live horse on stage, they did bring out a horse-muppet-dragon creature with Barnes striding on top.


Of Montreal's show featured a heady mix of classic songs and tracks from the newest album: it was definitely a hyped up dance party at Terminal 5. Though I have to say I prefer the intimacy of smaller venues, it was incredible to be a part of the massive energy at Terminal 5 on Friday.

Friday's show ended with several covers of Michael Jackson songs, with Barnes on vocal, and a crew of dancers onstage, including Janelle Monáe.

The funny thing is that the next night, at around the same time as the previous evening, the house party I was at featured a slew of old school Michael Jackson songs. MJ time, apparently. My 45-minute bike ride to Park Slope was well-worth it for the experience of mingling to MJ music at my friend's gorgeous new apartment. When people ask me my line of work these days, I am beginning to add "writer" to my list; hopefully I will shortly be not just a writer but a published one! I am finding conversations with new acquaintances and social networking to be more meaningful now that I am seriously pursuing my writing. I love meeting friends of friends in this city.

So I definitely had apartment-envy on Saturday. My friend's Park Slope apartment features two balconies and the master bedroom has its own bathroom. Meanwhile, I am sharing a bathroom with two guys, in my run-down apartment building in Williamsburg! But, now I know I am a 45-minute bike-ride away from my friend's Park Slope place... It's a small world, NYC, especially on bike.

And today I spent the morning writing, then met up for my weekly writing workshop with my new friend (who I met at the mediabistro personal essay class I attended!). Spending the afternoon over a cocktail at Schiller's Liquor Bar in the L.E.S., discussing writing and life, I felt like a true New Yorker. And of course, I ended my afternoon jaunt in the L.E.S. with a splurge at Steven by Steve Madden! Hello, sale! Funny, and the writing piece of mine that we discussed this afternoon is about how I am learning to balance being thrifty with indulging.

And, in thriftiness, I returned to Williamsburg the way I had arrived into Manhattan earlier today: by bike. And there was my NYC weekend.

These Metro-Sci-Fi Times

Here goes my current list of sci-fi meets NYC's urban landscape:

5) The Freelance Whales, as seen yesterday, on Cinco de Mayo at Webster Hall

("The Freelance Whales is a series of unfinished thoughts, confused sensory experiences and convoluted yet composited emotions...the lighthearted sound is overshadowed by lyrics that make you smile to yourself and wonder if your dreams can be as fulfilling as the sound from The Freelance Whales." - Wes Soltis, HEAVEmedia) The surreal harmonies somehow make it sci-fi to me... beautifully so.

4) Mars 2112, the underground Martian-themed restaurant by Times Square. A surreal tourist trap, it is yet somehow deliciously quaint and somewhat of a throwback to old-school sci-fi concepts. Also, the 2112 is remarkably similar to my zipcode in Williamsburg: 11211. Coincidence...?

3) Dr. Sketchy's Anto-Art School. According to the website, "The Next Dr. Sketchy Is... May 8, 4-7 pm - Dr. Sketchy's is proud to present another fantastic Art Star series with the epic Kenny Scharf! Featuring the lovely Sequinette, this will prove to be Sketchy's most surreal session yet." We'll see about that...

2) "Manorexia," as described in NYMag.

So the article begins: "One of the side effects of metrosexuality seems to be the affliction of men with the same unrealistic body images that women have been dealing with for years."

Strange times we're in. Male mannequins are being reduced to a 27" waist -- that's just wrong.

1) Janelle Monae last month at the Highline Ballroom. Bizarrely exquisite. Ok, yes, yes, there's Lady Gaga, and the lady deserves some credit, but somehow Ms. Janelle Monae is a little more authentically sci-fi, or maybe also just more groovy/soul/funk sci-fi, while Gaga is a little more produced and glam...

And the point against NYC's inclination toward the sci-fi:

-1) Colossus: As described in NYMag, "Jean Nouvel’s Tower Verre was going to be the biggest thing to hit the midtown skyline since the Empire State Building. Then the city told him to chop off 200 feet. Scoffs the French architect: Why is Manhattan, of all places, afraid of heights?"

According to Justin Davidson in another NYMag article, "The Point of the Skyline," "Manhattan’s skyline was wrought by the single-minded pursuit of profit and boosted by a spiritual lust for height. To erect a tall building is to proclaim one’s faith in the future," which is why the height reduction of Nouvel's Tower Verre is so disappointing.