Upcoming Shows!! APW and Erykah Badu

NYC, I have missed you during my travels in Peru! (Although I already miss the jungles and mountains and overall lushness of Peru; to remedy it, I plan on taking myself later today to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, which has free admission on Tuesdays!

Beyond that, I am absolutely thrilled about this coming weekend, when I will be going to the All Points West Festival all three days, from Friday July 31 to Sunday, August 2.


AND, two days later, I will be seeing Erykah Badu! She is playing at the beach on Governors Island! (For tickets/show info, click here. And for info on Governors Island beach shows, click here!)

Ah, NYC, I have missed you.

Tribeca Grand Party This Saturday (GBH Hosts!)

Aww, the good old days of the GBH parties... they are back!! And I will actually be in town to possibly enjoy one, especially as the line-up looks rather promising.

From the GBH website:

Terrible Records... Fixed... Daryl from Head Automatica DJs... Lemonade Live... Free Energy (DFA), Riton... JDH & Dave P... Nick Hook... Class Actress Live... Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear... and more
Tribeca Grand - Saturday July 25

It's going to be a bigger night than usual this Saturday, as the Fixed guys join us for a night of music so epic that it almost all didn't fit on the flyer.
We are really excited by Class Actress who will be playing live upstairs, and Lemonade, who will be playing live downstairs... (hopefully not at the same time)... and Riton (who is on Erol Alkan's record label) and Daryl Palumbo of Head Automatica who will be DJing... and then there is Nick Hook of Cubic Zirconia... Free Engergy (a new DFA signing, who will be playing live), Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear, Ethan of Terrible Records, JDH and Dave P. of Fixed and of course, our own Alex English.

It will be like Coachella... but smaller... and more comfortable... with nicer bathrooms...

And let's not forget the drinks special:
$8 Red Stripe and Jim Beam shot combo all night (Red Stripe and Jim Beam shots are both $5 if purchased separately).

FREE WITH RSVP: CLICK HERE

Tribeca Grand: 2 Avenue of the Americas
Doors 10pm. 21+ w/I.D.

Last Days in Peru & Rooftop Films This Summer

I RETURN this Friday to NYC!! It doesn´t seem quite real, as I have been in Peru for two months and am currently traipsing around Iquitos, gateway to the Amazon.

NYC seems especially unreal to me when compared to my day here so far, where I hired a motorboat, enjoyed the lush beauty of the Amazon, visited a local native community where the women go bare-breasted (and no, I didn´t ¨go native¨), and explored a mini-zoo where much local wildlife roamed freely and monkeys went horse-back riding on a dog. Anything is possible, but both realities seem a little fantastic, especially their co-existence.

ANYWAY, I received an e-mail requesting I publish thelatest events from Rooftop Films, so here they are (and I will even be in town the 25th!)

We have two great film screenings this weekend I thought you might be interested in! On Friday, July 24th Rooftop Films is screening a series of animated shorts in partnership with the Animation Block Party film festival, dedicated to exhibiting the world's best independent, professional and student animation. On Saturday, July 25th, Rooftop Films presents Stay The Same Never Change, celebrated video artist Laurel Nakadate's first feature-length film, a hilarious and horrifying work starring a series of teenage girls in their own rooms and clothes, in a world in which the banal becomes extreme and the normal is infused with a chronic and discomfiting strangeness.

Here is some more information about both screenings:

Animation Block Party:

Venue: On the lawn of Automotive High School
Address: 50 Bedford Ave. @ North 13th St. (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
Directions: L to Bedford Ave. or G to Nassau Ave.
Rain: In the event of rain the show will be held indoors at the same location
8:00PM: Doors open
8:30PM: Live music by Teengirl Fantasy, presented by Sound Fix Records
9:00PM: Film
10:30PM: Filmmaker Q & A
11:30PM-1:00AM: After-party: Open Bar at Matchless (557 Manhattan Ave. @
Driggs) Courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner
Tickets: $9 at the door or online
Presented in partnership with: 5 Gum ® , Cinereach, New York magazine,
City Council Member David Yassky & Automotive High School
Ticketing Link:
http://rooftopfilms.bside.com/2009/films/animationblockparty_rooftopfilms2009

No refunds. In the event of rain, the show will be indoors at the same
locations. Seating is first come, first served. Physical seats are
limited. This means you may not get a chair. You are welcome to bring a
blanket and picnic.

Stay The Same Never Change:

Venue: On the roof of the Old American Can Factory
Address: 232 3RD St. @ 3rd Ave. (Gowanus/ Park Slope, Brooklyn)
Directions: F/G to Carroll St. or M/R to Union Ave.
Rain: In the event of rain the show will be held indoors at the same location
8:00PM: Doors open
8:30PM: Live music by Stars Like Fleas presented by Sound Fix Records
9:00PM: Film
11:00PM–12:30AM: Reception in courtyard including free sangria courtesy of
Carlo Rossi sangria
Tickets: $9 at the door or online or $20 for the combo ticket which
includes admission to the outdoor performance by Michael Gira
Ticketing Link:
http://rooftopfilms.bside.com/2009/films/staythesameneverchange_rooftopfilms2009

Presented in partnership with: Cinereach, New York magazine, & XØ Projects

No refunds. In the event of rain, the show will be indoors at the same locations. Seating is first come, first served. Physical seats are limited. This means you may not get a chair. You are welcome to bring a blanket and picnic.

For more information about these events and others, please contact:

Danielle Kourtesis
Music and Outreach Manager, Rooftop Films
232 3rd St, #D101
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 417-7362

We appreciate your help!

Julia Friedman

NYC, I miss you but am traversing through Peru!

My apologies for not updating my blog this summer, I am sure there are some AMAZING shows and such going on the city that never sleeps. Sadly, I am not there to experience it, until the end of July when I return.

For now, I am trekking and eating my way through Peru, and perhaps Ecuador as well...

Peaches at Webster Hall!

So I am a little preoccupied currently with my very quickly approaching sojourn to South America, and thus I have been neglecting this blog of mine. I will probably not be updating my blog so frequently during the next two months; and if I do, it will be about the magic/mystery/mythology of Peru, and all my adventures & misadventures there.

So I have been packing the fun in before the upcoming departure date (May 21!!).

Peaches at Webster Hall last night, May 16, ROCKED! She fully delivered on all raunchy, musical promises made in her albums. Categorized on her Myspace page as Electro/Rock/Hip Hop, Peaches was simply fun: she was tough, yet vulnerable, and cheeky, yet clearly working for the love of the crowd.

Rooftop Films Opening Party This Weekend

So, checking my e-mail this morning, I noticed the following listed on myopenbar:

Rooftop Films Opening Night afterparty
Radeberger Pilsner, $9 cover / 11:30pm-1am
Fontana's
105 Eldridge Street,
btw. Grand and Broome
Lower East Side
(212) 334-6740

Thank you, Pitchfork, for yet another tepid "Best New Music" call on Cymbals Eat Guitars – the band that's performing here tonight before the films. Oh, the hype.

The open bar isn't actually at the screening but at the afterparty, over at Fontana's. You might have to buy the ticket to the screening to get in on the booze, or pay $9 at the door.

Well, that's the after-party.

The Rooftop Films opening night actually begins, as the myopenbar listing metions, with live music by Cymbals Eat Guitars at 8:30.

See the Rooftop Films Listing:

FRIDAY, MAY 15
THIS IS WHAT WE MEAN BY SHORT FILMS
Opening Night ! Open Bar After Party!
We kick off our 13th year with short films that don’t take long to astonish, amaze and inspire.
CYMBALS EAT GUITARS
Venue: on the roof of the Open Road Rooftop
Address: 350 Grand Street @ Essex (Lower East Side, Manhattan)
8:00PM: Doors open
8:30PM: Sound Fix presents live music by Cymbals Eat Guitars.
9:00PM: Films
11:30PM - 1:00AM: Open Bar at Fontana’s (105 Eldridge St), courtesy of Radeberger beer
Tickets: $9 at the door or online at going.com


Also, note that in the event of rain, the show will be re-scheduled for Sunday... does that mean that this applies to the after party at Fontana's, or not...?

The Danger of Underground/Danger Parties

So, last night there was going to be a huge take-over of a building in the Wall Street area, with the theme: "Beautiful things come out of desperate times." True enough, but not in the Financial District, apparently.

We arrived around 1 a.m. and the Danger party had already been shut down by the cops, who were blocking off the entire street from entry, unless you seemed to clearly live there. "It's a fire hazard," they said.

And were the people at the Danger party hoping it would open up again?? -- because despite the ability to send mass e-mails via even a regular cell phone these days, there as yet *hasn't* been any mass e-mail to the would-be party-goers of the party's shut-down. Not impressive.

I have to say, though, their party did sound well worth it; but next time, I won't try to attend underground debacles in such havens of convention, but rather try to stay in Brooklyn and seek out the abandoned warehouse parties closer to home, where they will be less likely to be shut down!!!

The Danger's original post follows... :sigh:, I wish it had really been able to live up to all of the hyped-up glory!

TheDanger, Lady Circus, Space Haus, UnderandAbove & DjProAudio present a
late night adventure enveloping five floors and a roof deck with saucy
antics, grace, music, beauty, humor, fanfare and scandal.

This Saturday, May 9th you are invited to explore...

Multiple floors of hip-hop to tech house to gypsy funk featuring: Alex
Dirttt of Halcyon, Adultnapper, dj Grimace, Zemi17, Jesse Mann, Vintage DJ
and the notorious Joro Boro.

The half-constructed space will be alive with roving bands, live acts,
strong drinks and dark corners infused by: The Lady Circus bringing
beautifully explicit acts accompanied by the gritty, whiskey-soaked songs
of the Stumblebum Brass Band and That Handsome Devil's infectious
rockabilly funk.

Plus the artistry of Jessi Klien and Zev Deans in the Bordello lounge, the
rooftop fire-arts of Pyrophorus Pixxie and video projections by Sebastian
Patane Masuelli.

$15 with RSVP at: http://www.thedanger.com/
(RSVPs close at midnight tonight.)
$20 for the uninitiated.

Doors open at 10pm : 21+ exclusively : Arrive early.

17 Rector St. between Trinity Place and the West Side Highway
Way-Down-Town Manhattan.

Take the: 1 or R train to Rector St, the 4 or 5 train to Wall St., The JMZ
train to Broad St or the A,C,2 or 3 to Fulton St and walk a bit.

This event has no official name and very few boundaries. Our goal here is
simple; to reinvigorate a forgotten corner of Manhattan with the passion
and promise it was built from. The space will be dark, a little decrepit
and exquisitely out-of-control.

But it wasn't as out out of control as planned!