I saw Reggie Watts on Friday, who was an absolutely incredible performer. Both a comedian and a musician, Watts's performaces are improvised acts that blend stream-of-conscious storytelling with incredible beats and comedy. He used a looping machine and a piano, very quickly veering from a musical performance to comedic storytelling to everything in between.
As reviewed by Brian Eno: ""Reggie Watts is a most unusual talent: a huge vocal range, a natural musicality, and a sidesplitting wit. Is he a comedian? A singer? A performance artist? I've seen him a few times since then and I still can't decide. Whatever, he ain't like nobody else."
And that is how Reggie Watts is. See him if you ever can.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Fun New York Christmas-Related Events
I want to go to both of these!!!! Who's in?
The House of Yes Christmas Spectacular in Williamsburg and The Hard Nut at BAM in Brooklyn!
December 16th, 17th and 18th
THE HOUSE OF YES CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR: Xmas Around the World
House of Yes is at it again, with the second annual House of Yes
Christmas Spectacular! This year, producer duo Anya Sapozhnikova and
Kae Burke are bringing audiences “Xmas Around the World”, a
delightfully offensive celebration showcasing different cultures and
their customs of Christmas joy.
Featuring more talent than that other “Christmas Spectacular”,
this show will be overflowing with festive theatrics including racist
reindeer, Chinese elves, holiday aerialists, and international Santas!
Performers from the Lady Circus, Dead Bunny Burlesque, Spazz Hands,
Desert Sin, extra special guest Miss Rosewood and many more will be
bringing Christmas cheer to the stage this year guaranteeing that this
will really be the Most Wonderful Show of the Year.
Doors at 8pm, show at 9pm
$20-$40 sliding scale. Limited number of $15 tickets will be available
for the Thursday show, first come first served basis.
Tickets will only be available at the door, cash only please.
(PG13: strong language, drug references, nudity(full frontal, male and
female), sex, racial profiling, strobes.)
House of Yes Theatre
342 Maujer Street (near Morgan Ave)
Grand St. L train
All proceeds go to benefit House of Yes theatre improvements for 2011!
www.houseofyes.org/events
Part of the 2010 Next Wave Festival
Dec 10, 11 & 15—18, 2010, 7:30pm
Dec 12 & 19, 2010, 3pm
The Hard Nut is the annual Richard B. Fisher Next Wave Presentation, which receives special support from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.
Presented by BAM and Mark Morris Dance Group
Featuring the MMDG Music Ensemble with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus
Conducted by Robert Cole
Choreography by Mark Morris
"Morris' choreography is formally dazzling, uproariously funny." —San Francisco Chronicle
To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Mark Morris Dance Group reprises its irreverent and much loved The Hard Nut, a retro-modern take on the holiday favorite The Nutcracker. Morris’ rendition—which has won Ovation TV’s Battle of the Nutcrackers contest for three years running—transplants the story from the decorous 1890s to the swinging 1970s, a freewheeling era realized with panache and wit. Inspired by the E.T.A. Hoffmann story, Tchaikovsky’s gorgeous score, and the comic book art of Charles Burns, Morris captures the beauty and tenderness of this classic while infusing it with supreme musicality and raucous humor.
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
120min with intermission
Tickets: $25, 45, 60, 70
Appropriate for ages 4 & up
Set design by Adrianne Lobel
Costume design by Martin Pakledinaz
Lighting design by James F. Ingalls
Based on the novel by ETA Hoffman, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
The House of Yes Christmas Spectacular in Williamsburg and The Hard Nut at BAM in Brooklyn!
December 16th, 17th and 18th
THE HOUSE OF YES CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR: Xmas Around the World
House of Yes is at it again, with the second annual House of Yes
Christmas Spectacular! This year, producer duo Anya Sapozhnikova and
Kae Burke are bringing audiences “Xmas Around the World”, a
delightfully offensive celebration showcasing different cultures and
their customs of Christmas joy.
Featuring more talent than that other “Christmas Spectacular”,
this show will be overflowing with festive theatrics including racist
reindeer, Chinese elves, holiday aerialists, and international Santas!
Performers from the Lady Circus, Dead Bunny Burlesque, Spazz Hands,
Desert Sin, extra special guest Miss Rosewood and many more will be
bringing Christmas cheer to the stage this year guaranteeing that this
will really be the Most Wonderful Show of the Year.
Doors at 8pm, show at 9pm
$20-$40 sliding scale. Limited number of $15 tickets will be available
for the Thursday show, first come first served basis.
Tickets will only be available at the door, cash only please.
(PG13: strong language, drug references, nudity(full frontal, male and
female), sex, racial profiling, strobes.)
House of Yes Theatre
342 Maujer Street (near Morgan Ave)
Grand St. L train
All proceeds go to benefit House of Yes theatre improvements for 2011!
www.houseofyes.org/events
and ...
The Hard Nut
Part of the 2010 Next Wave Festival
Dec 10, 11 & 15—18, 2010, 7:30pm
Dec 12 & 19, 2010, 3pm
The Hard Nut is the annual Richard B. Fisher Next Wave Presentation, which receives special support from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.
Presented by BAM and Mark Morris Dance Group
Featuring the MMDG Music Ensemble with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus
Conducted by Robert Cole
Choreography by Mark Morris
"Morris' choreography is formally dazzling, uproariously funny." —San Francisco Chronicle
To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Mark Morris Dance Group reprises its irreverent and much loved The Hard Nut, a retro-modern take on the holiday favorite The Nutcracker. Morris’ rendition—which has won Ovation TV’s Battle of the Nutcrackers contest for three years running—transplants the story from the decorous 1890s to the swinging 1970s, a freewheeling era realized with panache and wit. Inspired by the E.T.A. Hoffmann story, Tchaikovsky’s gorgeous score, and the comic book art of Charles Burns, Morris captures the beauty and tenderness of this classic while infusing it with supreme musicality and raucous humor.
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
120min with intermission
Tickets: $25, 45, 60, 70
Appropriate for ages 4 & up
Set design by Adrianne Lobel
Costume design by Martin Pakledinaz
Lighting design by James F. Ingalls
Based on the novel by ETA Hoffman, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
This NY Love & Hate Relationship
I made my way, early this afternoon, to Manhattan to indulge in a facial at FineLiving New York, purchased weeks earlier from Lifebooker Loot. Enthused to redeem my deal and have my face soothed from winter's harsh effects -- especially at a place so focused on a holistic, all-natural approach -- I tried to block the cold from seeping into my thoughts and my fingertips as I briskly walked along 14th St. Then, literally out of nowhere, right by Union Square, a man kicked my leg, suddenly appeared by my side, glared at me and growled, "Don't you EVER walk up behind me like that again!"
Completely taken aback, my heart pounding from the realization that I had so suddenly and quickly been mildly accosted and assaulted, I literally froze. I saw the man cross the street and disappear. My instinct was to dial 911. After an aggravatingly long talk with the operator -- "You're where exactly? It happened where? You want to meet the police, where?" -- I stood in the exact spot where the man had so quickly appeared and then evaporated, waiting for police officers to show up. Then I saw a man with a "Union Square" work-related jacket, and I asked him if he had seen what had just happened. I wasn't hurt from the incident at all, but I was -- and am -- more shaken up from it than I had expected to be. He seemed mildly concerned for me but said he hadn't seen anything. There obviously were witnesses -- streams of people were walking all around me -- when the incident happened, but in characteristic New York fashion, not a single person stopped to offer their sympathy, ask if I was okay or offer to be a witness.
The only descriptors I have for the man are vague: he was black, about my height, of unidentifiable age, and wearing a leather jacket. How infuriatingly, maddeningly stereotypical. I realized that I should have opened up my phone and snapped a picture of him with it, if I would've even had time for that. At this point, my plan to stay relatively immune to the cold before I reached my destination had proven unsuccessful, and police were still nowhere to be seen, so I simply continued my walk, trying -- unsuccessfully -- to recompose myself.
Finally, once at my ayurvedic spa, I managed to fully calm down and sink into facial-inspired bliss maybe 10 or 20 minutes into the treatment. Poor, disempowered, possibly mentally ill and/or drug-addled man, and heck if I was going to let someone as desperate and angry as him make me not feel safe or become angry and vengeful because of one ignorant, angry act. And so I made myself forget about him for awhile and relax into my little afternoon pampering session.
Ironically enough, when I returned home, I found in my mailbox the newest issue of New York Magazine: "Reasons to Love New York". The last reason given, Reason #59, "Our Most Notable Recent Exile Can't Stop Thinking About Us," quotes author Jonathan Lethem. Here is an excerpt of what Lethem had to say: "I love and hate, disgorge and devour, exalt and revile my old-and-always home just as fiercely and the same way each time I've fled, only to find it stalking me around my mental corner."
Sigh. New York.
Completely taken aback, my heart pounding from the realization that I had so suddenly and quickly been mildly accosted and assaulted, I literally froze. I saw the man cross the street and disappear. My instinct was to dial 911. After an aggravatingly long talk with the operator -- "You're where exactly? It happened where? You want to meet the police, where?" -- I stood in the exact spot where the man had so quickly appeared and then evaporated, waiting for police officers to show up. Then I saw a man with a "Union Square" work-related jacket, and I asked him if he had seen what had just happened. I wasn't hurt from the incident at all, but I was -- and am -- more shaken up from it than I had expected to be. He seemed mildly concerned for me but said he hadn't seen anything. There obviously were witnesses -- streams of people were walking all around me -- when the incident happened, but in characteristic New York fashion, not a single person stopped to offer their sympathy, ask if I was okay or offer to be a witness.
The only descriptors I have for the man are vague: he was black, about my height, of unidentifiable age, and wearing a leather jacket. How infuriatingly, maddeningly stereotypical. I realized that I should have opened up my phone and snapped a picture of him with it, if I would've even had time for that. At this point, my plan to stay relatively immune to the cold before I reached my destination had proven unsuccessful, and police were still nowhere to be seen, so I simply continued my walk, trying -- unsuccessfully -- to recompose myself.
Finally, once at my ayurvedic spa, I managed to fully calm down and sink into facial-inspired bliss maybe 10 or 20 minutes into the treatment. Poor, disempowered, possibly mentally ill and/or drug-addled man, and heck if I was going to let someone as desperate and angry as him make me not feel safe or become angry and vengeful because of one ignorant, angry act. And so I made myself forget about him for awhile and relax into my little afternoon pampering session.
Ironically enough, when I returned home, I found in my mailbox the newest issue of New York Magazine: "Reasons to Love New York". The last reason given, Reason #59, "Our Most Notable Recent Exile Can't Stop Thinking About Us," quotes author Jonathan Lethem. Here is an excerpt of what Lethem had to say: "I love and hate, disgorge and devour, exalt and revile my old-and-always home just as fiercely and the same way each time I've fled, only to find it stalking me around my mental corner."Sigh. New York.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Christmas Cheer in Williamsburg!
So I missed the Santacon barcrawl/party this Saturday, but in honor of both having recovered from a cold and having an old friend in town, I went out this weekend and had my fair share of holiday cheer.
The weekend started off on Friday at Happy Ending, my favorite LES dance bar, which fully lived up to its reputation. And Saturday we kept it local, even though, as my friend remarked, as Brooklyn seems to be getting trendier, perhaps "Manhattan is the new Brooklyn" in terms of weekend parties.
But I ended up Saturday at Whiskey Town, which apparently started in the East Village but is now open right on Berry Street in Williamsburg. And we danced the night away with Santas.
'Tis the season!
The weekend started off on Friday at Happy Ending, my favorite LES dance bar, which fully lived up to its reputation. And Saturday we kept it local, even though, as my friend remarked, as Brooklyn seems to be getting trendier, perhaps "Manhattan is the new Brooklyn" in terms of weekend parties.
But I ended up Saturday at Whiskey Town, which apparently started in the East Village but is now open right on Berry Street in Williamsburg. And we danced the night away with Santas.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Post T-Day Haze
Always nice to get away from NYC for a few days, and at the same time, returning makes me appreciate it all that much more.
Post family-Thanksgiving fun, I am still in a bit of a food coma.
I had my fair share of this turkey!
Thank you, Anna Maria's, the lovely pizza place right by the Bedford Ave. L stop.
I was even craving their pizza so badly one night that I made up a rhyme: "My name's Maria Rosaria, and all I really want is a slice of pizza from Anna Maria's pizzeria." If you haven't tried pizza from this place, I recommend it. The staff's humor is an added bonus.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
372 Ten Eyck...
... was the location of the fabulous Thanksgiving-themed loft party I attended in last Friday!
Hmm, was my favorite part the potluck, the outside bonfires (and spelling like a campfire afterward), the incredible live music, the vibe...? I'd have to say, everything!
Here are a couple pics I took.
This incredible band was Amour Obscur. They call themselves "weimar punkaret" and truly gave a spirited, gypsy-worthy performance. That lead singer, Dee Dee Vega, can really belt out tunes in her wonderfully deep, sultry voice.
According to Amour Obscur's Myspace site, "Half human, half magical being, Dee Dee Vega emerged from the ashes of the streets as a denizen of the glamorous nightlife and gilded stages of New York City and Berlin. She is the lead vocalist of Amour Obscur and also makes her mad visions into art as a creative writer. When not on stage, she can be found jaunting around the Lower East Side with her tiny (and insane) dog Marcel Duchamp. Her interests include the art of lockpicking, whiskey, Dada art pranks, Coney Island, mind control and generally behaving like Henry Miller." And it shows in her performance.
Amour Obscur teamed up with a burlesque singer for a full-on Cabaret-Luxe performance.
According to the band's website, "Emerging from the dark corners of New York City's underground, Cabaret Luxe brings to the stage acts of sinister hedonism inspired by the nightclubs of Weimar Berlin, the advent of American punk, Dada, decadence and art born from the liberating freefall of economic uncertainty."
Amen. The gypsy hippie ethos is alive and well in NYC, in the dark corners of Bushwick.
Hmm, was my favorite part the potluck, the outside bonfires (and spelling like a campfire afterward), the incredible live music, the vibe...? I'd have to say, everything!
Here are a couple pics I took.
According to Amour Obscur's Myspace site, "Half human, half magical being, Dee Dee Vega emerged from the ashes of the streets as a denizen of the glamorous nightlife and gilded stages of New York City and Berlin. She is the lead vocalist of Amour Obscur and also makes her mad visions into art as a creative writer. When not on stage, she can be found jaunting around the Lower East Side with her tiny (and insane) dog Marcel Duchamp. Her interests include the art of lockpicking, whiskey, Dada art pranks, Coney Island, mind control and generally behaving like Henry Miller." And it shows in her performance.
Amour Obscur teamed up with a burlesque singer for a full-on Cabaret-Luxe performance.
According to the band's website, "Emerging from the dark corners of New York City's underground, Cabaret Luxe brings to the stage acts of sinister hedonism inspired by the nightclubs of Weimar Berlin, the advent of American punk, Dada, decadence and art born from the liberating freefall of economic uncertainty."
Amen. The gypsy hippie ethos is alive and well in NYC, in the dark corners of Bushwick.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
This Week in North Brooklyn Wanderings...
And the week isn't even over yet!
So last night, after I finished working late tutoring, my friend called me and asked if I was going to Drink n' Draw at 3rd Ward. I'd forgotten he was planning on going, but as I didn't have any plans, there I was 20 minutes later, along with another mutual friend.
(some of my sketches from this Wednesday)
As always, it was a fun, pleasant time, with plenty of drawing and drinking PBR. Even the model partook in the beer-drinking.
After 3rd Ward, my two friends and I stopped for a drink at Tandem Bar, another Bushwick restaurant and bar I have just discovered.
(Tandem Bar, above. Photo credit: Melissa Hom)
I'll have to return here for both the food and the reputed dance parties...
Then this afternoon, I discovered that a little chic grocery in Greenpoint is also a wi-fi cafe. And serves breakfast all day. And doesn't get exceptionally crowded. I'm in love. Urban Rustic, I will be coming back to you!
After a delicious brunch, class prep and tutoring, I made it tonight to the City Reliquary's "Thurd THursday" Show n' Tell night of collectors' items. The evening featured such showcased items as border patrol dog trading cards, paperclip sculptures made by a dog, an old top hat box in remarkably good condition that originally belonged to James G. Gould, and a device specifically made to slice English muffins. I'd brought my NYC 70's Flashmaps book with me, but chickened out when I decided I didn't have enough of a story on it. Oh well, maybe next time: the evening will be curated once a month, so stay tuned!
And finally, tomorrow holds many more Brooklyn promises to come. Hello, Goods' Beer, Wine & Heat Party and a crazy, semi-private on-the-down-low Thanksgiving-themed E. Williamsburg/Bushwick party!
So last night, after I finished working late tutoring, my friend called me and asked if I was going to Drink n' Draw at 3rd Ward. I'd forgotten he was planning on going, but as I didn't have any plans, there I was 20 minutes later, along with another mutual friend.
(some of my sketches from this Wednesday)
As always, it was a fun, pleasant time, with plenty of drawing and drinking PBR. Even the model partook in the beer-drinking.After 3rd Ward, my two friends and I stopped for a drink at Tandem Bar, another Bushwick restaurant and bar I have just discovered.
(Tandem Bar, above. Photo credit: Melissa Hom)Then this afternoon, I discovered that a little chic grocery in Greenpoint is also a wi-fi cafe. And serves breakfast all day. And doesn't get exceptionally crowded. I'm in love. Urban Rustic, I will be coming back to you!
After a delicious brunch, class prep and tutoring, I made it tonight to the City Reliquary's "Thurd THursday" Show n' Tell night of collectors' items. The evening featured such showcased items as border patrol dog trading cards, paperclip sculptures made by a dog, an old top hat box in remarkably good condition that originally belonged to James G. Gould, and a device specifically made to slice English muffins. I'd brought my NYC 70's Flashmaps book with me, but chickened out when I decided I didn't have enough of a story on it. Oh well, maybe next time: the evening will be curated once a month, so stay tuned!
And finally, tomorrow holds many more Brooklyn promises to come. Hello, Goods' Beer, Wine & Heat Party and a crazy, semi-private on-the-down-low Thanksgiving-themed E. Williamsburg/Bushwick party!
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