I really like this audio compilation because I imagine/remember myself in all of the stations. It’s like nostalgia for something I still experience everyday.

NYCSubwaySounds1.alexreisner.com.mp3

From the author’s blog entry…

Part of the job of a subway conductor is to announce station names and explain delays and route changes. But some conductors do much more. Especially on weekends riders may hear about what attractions are near the current stop or a brief history of the neighborhood. But my favorite aspect of the announcements is simply the variety of tone and timbre in conductors’ voices. As the announcements on the subways become automated (as they are now on most 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and L trains) we will unfortunately lose this art, and so I have decided to document it for my own (and now your) enjoyment by making recordings.

From Michael G. via his roommate

Connie and Dom (new roommates) are curating/selling/hosting a sale of vintage mid-century furniture from an old Catholic church and school in Greenpoint. They’re having a sale this coming weekend and an open house on Friday (i’ll be making cupcakes!). Check out more HERE.

The video below gives you an idea of where Jay-z stands on the issue.

I wonder if he’d feel differently if he watched autotune the news…

The Whitney is hosting some fun bands in honor of their exhibit on Dan Graham. I thought you should know. I kind of love Vivian Girls- I might try and make it to that show.

WHITNEY LIVE: FOUR FRIDAY EVENING CONCERTS IN JULY

Titus Andronicus / Real Estate
Friday, July 10 at 7 pm

Abe Vigoda / Grooms
Friday, July 17 at 7 pm

Wood / YellowFever
Friday, July 24 at 7 pm

Vivian Girls / These Are Powers
Friday, July 31 at 7 pm

Check it out here

Are being played in East River Park this summer actually and on a real body of water instead of an empty pool. I don’t remember if I posted the dates before but it’s worth reminding everyone again. Enjoy.

The Schedule (thus far)

Sunday, July 12 — Mission of Burma, Fucked Up, Ponytail, Jemina Pearl of Be your Own Pet*
Sunday, July 19 — Dirty Projectors, Magnolia Electric Co., White Denim*
Sunday, July 26 — And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, The Black Lips, Health, Grupo Fantasmo*
Sunday, Aug 02 — Round Robin show w/ Deerhunter, No Age and Dan Deacon*
Sunday, Aug 09 — Simian Mobile Disco (DJ set), Fiery Furnaces, Dark Meat, The Netherlands*
Sunday, Aug 16 — Del tha Funky Homosapien, Gravytrain!!!, DD/MM/YYYY, Kenan Bell*
Sunday, Aug 23 — Girl Talk, Max Tundra, Wiz Khalifa*
Sunday, Aug 30 — Beach House & Grizzly Bear*

* A free Pool Party: For eight consecutive Sundays in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (July 12th – August 30th), party-goers will be regaled with on-site dodgeball, three-on-three basketball, and, oh yeah, rip-roarin’ live performances on the main stage.

From FreeWilliamsburg.com

Wow. Two of my favorite things in the world right now, the Brooklyn Museum and HBO’s new series True Blood, just blew my mind a lot. According to the Brooklyn Museum’s blog, the Bird Lady artifact featured in the first episode of season 2 is a replica of an artifact in the museum’s collections and was just featured in an a recent exhibit. holy shit. The most awesome Shelley Bernstein had the honor of talking to the production designer about the statue. Read the interview HERE. And another BK Museum blog entry HERE.



ps. i just learned from the brooklyn museum blog that HBO has made a True Blood wiki. Play with it HERE. wow. i feel super nerdy for posting that now.

I’m a big fan of Yinka Shonibare and am really really excited to see the exhibition that opens today. Some of the pieces are a bit more graphic than the one above but the victorian costumes made of Dutch wax prints are totally worth seeing. Apparently when Shonibare showed up for the official preview, he arrived with two friends in victorian drag. See here. 

From the BK Museum website…

June 26–September 20, 2009
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 4th Floor

Period Rooms, 4th Floor
Robert E. Blum Gallery, 1st Floor

This exhibition is a major midcareer survey of work by the UK-based Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare MBE. Shonibare’s artwork explores contemporary African identity and its relationship to European colonialism through painting, sculpture, installation, and moving image. Shonibare is best known for his work with visual symbols, especially the richly patterned Dutch wax fabric produced in Europe for a West African market that he uses in a wide range of applications. His tableaux of headless mannequins costumed in this fabric evoke themes of history and its legacy for future generations. Through these works he explores the complex web of interactions, both economic and racial, that reveal inequalities between the dominant and colonized cultures of Europe, Asia, and Africa. A site-specific installation created for this presentation titled Mother and Father Worked Hard So I Can Play will be on view in several of the Museum’s period rooms.

Another site-specific installation, Party Time—Re-Imagine America: A Centennial Commission by Yinka Shonibare MBE,  will be on view at the Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey, from July 1, 2009, to January 3, 2010, in the dining room of the museum’s 1885 Ballantine House. 

Cafe Grumpy, the beloved coffee shop below my apartment is opening a new store today in Park Slope at 7th Ave between 11th and 12th streets. If you visit today you can get a free drink or something. Also they are running a nifty promotion where if you buy a bag of coffee or finish your drink punch card, you can enter to win a drawing for a free espresso machine.

Thanks Grumpy!

So one of my most favoritest restaurants in my neighborhood is Papacitos. It’s an amazing Mexican joint with many veggie and vegan options, awesome fish tacos, and cute delivery boys. They also have an amazing outdoor patio and right now it’s byob because they somehow lost their liquor license. Anyways, recently Gothamist reported that they got their shit fucked up and robbed of $10k and their sound system (see below).

After Black Betty’s and several other restaurants/favorite bakeries going out recently, I am going to do whatever I can to support Papacitos and keep it from going under as well. I was there this afternoon for a quick brunch and it was a little sad without the classic rock they usually pump through the place but my breakfast burrito was A+. I strongly urge everyone to eat there because the food is excellent (the chef used to work at Brooklyn Label), the patio is beautiful, and i don’t want to see another one of my favorite restaurants go out of business this year. sad face (i hate emoticons).