Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Music The neck of the bottle is more narrow than the ship!
Posted by Mark on Tue, Nov 27, 2007 at 1:15 PM
Maritime is the new (or, like, a few years old, so "current") project of Davey von Bohlen, who, as the frontman for the Promise Ring, helped a lot of people get through adolescence and shit. It's him, old Promise Ring drummer Dan Didier, and Eric Axelson, ex-Dismemberment Plan bassist/secret weapon, and, as you might expect given the band's pedigree, the songs are equal parts emotional build-ups, dramatic, quirky hooks, and bass lines that sound, actually, kinda like liquid blow. They're playing at Mercury Lounge tonight, in front of an audience likely to be comprised of older, wiser, cooler ex-emo kids.
Because the band is called "Maritime," which refers to oceany stuff, I have cleverly adorned this post with a picture of a shipinabottle. Haven't you always wondered how they got in there?
I haven't always wondered, because I already know: they build the ship first, and then build the bottle around it! Ok, not really. After the jump, the real story:
Food & Drink / Special Events Drinks, Wonderful New Friends
Posted by Edith on Tue, Nov 27, 2007 at 12:43 PM
F
Phillips de Pury is in Chelsea on 15th Street, and the party starts at 6 and goes until 9pm. There will be plenty of Takashi Murakamis and Damien Hirsts and Le Corbusiers to satisfy all on your gift list. For instance, these Damien Hirst dots will run you about $7,000. Or, as I like to call it, a hay-penny.
Talks and Readings Celebrities Are Just Like Us: Playing With Dolls, Ironing, Being in Jail
Posted by Edith on Tue, Nov 27, 2007 at 11:30 AM
There's a cool book-release party (signing) tonight. It's for Confidential, a book of photographs by Alison Jackson of famous people doing things, like Eminem knitting, Michael Jackson peeling skin off his nose, and Paris lounging on her jail bunk in a black bra while her dumpy cell mate uses the facilities. How did she get these wonderful photos? It's a mystery that involves a lot of celebrity look-alikes, some of whom will be at the event tonight.
The book would be a great present for anyone who loves celebrity magazines but finds them disappointingly frail. It's at Taschen Books on Greene St, and it runs from 7 to 9pm. Clicking on that first link for the book, by the way, will connect you to a big slideshow of the book's photos, which are depressingly engaging.
Special Events A Hundred Riddles
Posted by Edith on Tue, Nov 27, 2007 at 11:15 AM
It's Tuesday, hooray! Another day has passed when I didn't fall down the stairs and paralyze myself. What do you worry about? When I was little my biggest worries were that a green ghost would approach me, or that a killer would put a ladder up to my bedroom window to climb in and kill me. When I explained this to my mom, she told me that ghosts don't exist and that no one was going to kill me. "But it IS possible for someone to put a ladder up to my window." She said, "That's not going to happen, no one wants to kill you," and I said, "But you admit that it's possible for someone to put a ladder up to my window," and she said, "Yes, it's possible, but it's never going to happen," and I said, "You can't know that."
On the other hand, one of my greatest fantasies about my biggest crush in elementary school also involved my window. It was that I would come into my room and he would be hanging from my window sill, outside, with just his fingertips, about to die (from falling 10 feet), and I would save him. How he got there was beside the point, obviously.
What am I talking about? Great question. So it's Tuesday, and one of my favorite things to think about doing (but eventually not do in favor of sitting in a soft chair or just you know cruisin' the 'net) on Tuesdays is going to trivia at the Baggot Inn. I'm telling you, trivia is lots and lots of fun. Just check out that futuristic website if you don't believe me. It starts at 7:30pm, and you might win up to $25. You can buy nearly anything with $25 these days, such as a knife.
Film John Ford's The Iron Horse
Posted by Mark on Tue, Nov 27, 2007 at 11:00 AM
A recently completed restoration of The Iron Horse had been scheduled to premiere at the New York Film Festival; for various reasons, it was pushed back until today. It's showing at 2pm and 7pm at the Walter Reade Theater; tickets are still available for both screenings.
Film A Post About a Movie. I Saw a Movie Once. It Was Called "Who On Earth Is Tom Baker?"
Posted by Mark on Tue, Nov 27, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Tonight, BAM is screening Forbidden, directed by Frank Capra and starring Barbara Stanwyck. In it, "Stanwyck portrays a repressed librarian* involved in a relationship with a married man. Capra worked on the script, and the picture is full of fascinating autobiographical overtones referring... to his affair with Stanwyck..." All of which sounds intense in anguished in the great Hollywood melodramatic tradition, with a nice bit of vintage gossip thrown in, but still begs the question: who the hell has a torrid extramarital affair with Frank Capra?
Also, because it happens that I really like the dining options available around BAM, I'm going to start including dinner and drinking recommendations with posts recommending their events. (Edith isn't the only person on this blog who eats, you know.) Tonight's recommendation: Cafe Lafayette, on South Portland Street just off Fulton, for low-ceilinged casual-French atmosphere and creative, reasonably priced and moderately sized staple fair. BYOB.
* Also, there really ought to be more movies about the voracious passions simmering behind the starched blouses, square-rimmed glasses, and sensible shoes of your local librarian.^
^ Sorry, I realized as I was looking over this that it comes off a bit more fetishistic than intended.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Special Events Must Love Dogs
Posted by Amanda Park Taylor on Mon, Nov 26, 2007 at 4:30 PM
A note from our Conscientious Objector...
Happy Cyber Monday! If you haven't already blown your credit limit on Black Friday, feel free to shop-till-you-drop from the comfort of your own cubicle. Woo hoo! And by "woo hoo!" I mean "Omigod, there's now a special internet shopping day? Wtf!?"
If you'd like a special deal that's actually special, go to the New York CACC (the button's at the bottom of the page) and buy a real live Pound Puppy his or her own bed. At a discount of course.
Special Events Free Art.
Posted by Mark on Mon, Nov 26, 2007 at 3:00 PM
That stack of windowless, gray, yet curiously vivid blocks on the Bowery at Prince Street (pictured, obvs) is the new home of the New Museum, which was founded in the late 70s by Marcia Tucker, shortly after the Whitney fired her for curating shows that were too esoteric slash controversial slash I guess New. (A couple of winters ago, you probably went to its sprawling, dazzlingly seedy East Village USA show.) Yes, it's another big new downtown building that's not really in keeping with the architecture around it, but the institutional modernism of the new building seems weirdly appropriate amid the restaurant supply wasteland that is the Bowery just north of Chinatown. (And before you go on chuckling to yourself at how the blogger thinks he's an architecture critic, keep in mind that I'm actually Frank Gehry. Also this dude agrees.)
The new New Museum opens, officially, this weekend. It's going to be open for 30 straight hours, from noon on Saturday until 6pm on Sunday. And it's going to be free. Sadly, however, you can't just go out on the Lower East Side on Saturday night and then show up after last call — you sorta have to get a ticket. Do that here, please.
Oh, and after the jump is a picture of Edith making a painting.
Film "Wait, is that...?" "Yes. We'll get to that, but it's not really the focus of the post, so please be patient."
Posted by Mark on Mon, Nov 26, 2007 at 1:45 PM
The Gotham Awards, the Independent Feature Project's annual honors, are this year paying tribute to the mercurial, powerhouse Spanish leading man Javier Bardem. They've been showing a selection of his films at BAM; tonight, they're spotlighting his starring role in Before Night Falls, Julian Schnabel's biopic of the Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas (this was the movie you wanted to see in high school because it had Johnny Depp in drag, but it never came to your town. Yes the picture is of him).
Bardem and Schnabel will both be around for a post-screening Q&A. Maybe they'll talk about their collaboration; then again, since both Schnabel and Bardem have high-profile (and slightly overrated) holiday movies coming out or in release, it seems like that the conversation will also touch on The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and No Country for Old Men. And Bardem's haircut in No Country for Old Men, in all likelihood.
Special Events Ugly, Dumb, Fat Tree Becomes Pretty Tree
Posted by Edith on Mon, Nov 26, 2007 at 1:02 PM
It's finally here: the Holiday Tree-lighting at Lincoln Center--that multi-faith holiday evergreen crucial to religions around the world. At 5:30pm this early evening, your best friends Mickey and Minnie Mouse will press a button to light up the most beautiful tree in the world. There will be opera singers, ballet dancers, a brass band, and Dar Williams to help you feel and understand the spirit of Holiday. The ballet dancers will perform "The Dance of the Candy Canes" from the Nutcracker, and opera singers will sing an excerpt from new opera Hansel & Gretel.
And then after the lighting it will be Winter's Eve all around Lincoln Center, where jugglers, stilt-walkers, musicians, and other performers will fill the streets to entertain visitors. Plus restaurants, stores, and other locations in the Upper West Side (from Columbus Circle to 68th Street) will hold events like food tastings and "activities and kids' activities," all of which will certainly have many things available for you to buy, phew! Visit this website for a list of places offering things for you to do and eat.
Music Hello again, everyone. How was your holiday? Oh, jeez. Sorry.
Posted by Mark on Mon, Nov 26, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Also, memo to the young woman from the elevator this morning: leggings do not, in fact, count as pants.
Street Stories NYC
Posted by Edith on Mon, Nov 26, 2007 at 11:15 AM
I met Sano under the scaffolding surrounding a church near my apartment. It was Thanksgiving and I was distributing some food from our dinner to homeless people in the neighborhood. There were four other men staying under the same scaffolding, but Sano had the best rap. He said I could use his words but not his image, so the photo is of the homeless encampment I found him near under the scaffolding. If you look closely, you will see there is a body sleeping in what looks at first glance like a pile of garbage.
What are you doing here?
Most of the people in the street are mentally ill, they just can't afford a psychiatrist. Most of the people in human resources think they're helping, but they're just helping themselves.
How long have you been on the street?
Twenty, 25 years. I lived in the subway for 3 months in 1994, then they kicked me out.
Where are you from?
Bed Stuy. Brooklyn.
Do you have any family?
I got family all over the east coast here to Florida, over 100 first
cousins. The few that lived in Bed Stuy are a little off the wall. The
rich people want to live there now, and in Harlem, in the brownstones.
Do you have any siblings?
What? No. I never lived with my parents. I lived with my aunt and her
boyfriend. I got the best childhood any child could ever have; a lot of
freedom, I was smart, had my own key. I was told don't bring any
friends upstairs. Simple as that.
It's getting colder now, what will you do?
I love the cold weather. Less people, less murders. In January and
February there's less murders. In July and August there's the most
murders.
Are you ever harassed out here on the street?
Yeah, daytime working people will harass me. They're crazy too, they
just have a job. Some people don't understand the word ‘no'. They just
give me money and I say ‘no'. One guy the other day dropped some money
in my bag and I said ‘I'm going to throw it away.' I'm celebrating 13
years not using money. It just happened I was in a drop-in center for 9
months. I realized I didn't need to use money. It's no big deal. I
don't need it. I have God, that's all I need.
What did you do for Thanksgiving? Did you go have a meal somewhere?
It's just another day. Most holidays seem like Sunday. There's less traffic.
I've been here since October. Before that I was at the Bowery Mission
for a year, being around people I tried to avoid all my life. People
who drink and smoke. I never been a slave.
Have you ever had a job?
Nothing much really. Grocery store, candy store. No big deal. I didn't
know that it wasn't necessary at the time. I was working for WEP for 6
1/2 years without missing any time. Welfare stopped paying the
landlord. They kicked me out.
What do you do all day?
Look for food.
Where do you look for food?
In the garbage. It's a throwaway society. It's been a throwaway for 40 years. They even make throw away cars, you know that?
Can I take your picture?
This guy wanted to take my picture, down in Battery Park. About 12
police came. He said, "I'm going to take your picture." He didn't ask.
He just said it like that. Some people don't understand the word ‘no'.
He was following me around a garbage can, so I kicked him. Then he came
back with like, 4 friends. I said, "You better help your friend ‘cause
I'm gonna kick him again!" Then I kicked him twice and he said, "I
can't believe you just kicked me." So, you know, I had to kick him
again. The ambulance came, and they took me instead! I went to Bellevue
and saw the psychiatrist and he said, "You're alright. There's nothing
wrong with you. Get outta here!"
Do you have friends out here?
Everyone I met out here is crazy. That's why they're out here.
And you?
I'm on an extended picnic.
Is there anything that you're thankful for today?
Being alive.
Thanks for your time.
You're gonna love my movie.
Special Events Skating on Regulation Thickness Ice
Posted by Edith on Mon, Nov 26, 2007 at 10:45 AM
Hi guys! Welcome to the work week, it feels so good to finally be back working. I had a great Thanksgiving, I hope you all did too. I made cornbread using this recipe, it turned out really well.
Ice skating season started last week in New York City, meaning that now you can go skate on Wollman Rink in Central Park, or on Wollman Rink in Prospect Park, my favorite park. In Prospect Park, it costs $5 for one adult to skate, and $6 for that adult to rent skates. Visit this website for more information about rental fees and schedules. Just like in a movie.
A picture of me and my boyfriend ice skating after the jump.
Whoopsie!
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Film Do Look Back. Over and Over Again.
Posted by Mark on Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Happy end of Thanksgiving weekend to everyone. Have you seen I'm Not There yet? You should. If you have already, and are hungry for more! like the kids say, the Walter Reade Theater is screening something called The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1965, a recent NYFF sidebar which is pretty much exactly what its title says it is. It's alternating showtimes with the 1981 music doc Transes (also a one-time NYFF selection), a portrait of Nass El Ghiwane, "the Rolling Stones of Africa."
As long as we're keeping tabs on this season of Dylania and I'm Not There spillover programming, I should mention that The Other Side of the Mirror will open in early December at Cinema Village. And and AND, at this end of this week, IFC Center will start showing 65 Revisited, compiled by D.A. Pennebaker from footage shot for, but not included in the final version of, Don't Look Back. A title card on I'm Not There says that the film is "inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan," so all these different views now on display seem kind of appropriate.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Film Dinner and Two Movies Though Maybe Not in That Order (Unless You Have Brunch Instead of Dinner Maybe? Not To Micromanage Your Life Or Anything...)
Posted by Mark on Sat, Nov 24, 2007 at 10:00 AM
If you go to the Museum of the Moving Image, in Astoria, there's this place across the street called the Cup Diner that has the tile floors and leather-topped counter stools and boths and retro wall-hangings of a diner, but is also enormous and has enormous portions of everything (most of the food is quite good, ambitious at times) and has a pretty functional bar (with not inconsiderable Happy Hour specials). So really if you're going to the Museum of the Moving Image today you should stop by before for breakfast or after for foodanddrink.
I mention this because: you are going to the Museum of the Moving Image today, right? For today's entries in their ongoing Technicolor series? Both of which star Judy Garland (like, wholsome teenage Judy Garland, not pill-popping gay icon Judy Garland) and are, if anything, even more steeped in Americana than your Thanksgiving was? Specifically, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Wizard of Oz, both of which are made with flair and nostalgia and joie de cinema and thus actually pretty un-hateable, even if you hate America. Which is cool, obvs.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Film Watch Humphrey Jennings Listen to Britain
Posted by Mark on Fri, Nov 23, 2007 at 7:00 AM
This evening and for the remainder of the weekend, Anthology Film Archives will hold a retrospective featuring the films of the British documentarian Humphrey Jennings. Jennings applied the "city symphony" impressionism of prewar documentary to his portraits of the British nation during the second world war. Poetic realism, with a very left-leaning emphasis on the daily existences of the lower classes, was a dominant intellectual and artistic mode of the time; working during the war (in particular the London Blitz) makes Jennings a particular exemplar of the form, in that his focussed on civilian populations during a war that was endured, and fought, by all British citizens, at a time when his nation's values (and art) were very much at stake. Tonight's program features several shorts, including his seminal Listen to Britain, and a separate screening of his sole feature, Fires Were Started (pictured), "a story of one particular unit of the National Fire Service during one particular day and night in the middle of the London blitz".
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Film Happy Thanksgiving
Posted by Mark on Thu, Nov 22, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Why are you reading this? Shouldn't you be with your family or watching football or something?
No? You hate your family and you're so cool that when you're looking to emptily pass the time while awaiting death you read thelmagazine.com rather than lower yourself to watch sports? Ok, then.
Hey, if you're in the city today because you didn't go home, or your family is close by and you just did a day trip, and you're looking for me to tell you something to do because this is after all an NYC listings and events blog, then, ok: the IFC Center is doing midnight screenings of Blue Velvet this weekend. Which, aside from being awesome, obvs, is one of the best movies I know of about returning to your bucolic Middle American hometown and discovering that the reality of the place is much different than your memories of it. You can't go home again.
Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for the ex-L employees who quit their jobs and moved away from New York, thus ensuring me gainful full-time employment, and saving me from having to look for a job since I'm not really qualified for anything.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Food & Drink Happy Thanksgiving to All From Your Very Good Friend Gary Stedman
Posted by Edith on Wed, Nov 21, 2007 at 2:30 PM
It's Thanksgiving in our office, which our publisher has hilariously dubbed Kegsgiving due to the massive keg of beer he purchased for the office and set lightly on the tabletop. You can see it in this candid photograph. Believe me when I say that all 95 of us at The L Magazine are all very drunk and that playful music is playing quietly on a speaker, although at the time of this writing I have already been put back into my corner. Why, don't you wish you could be here with us today?
Follow the jump link to find out just what I've been up to these past seven minutes.
Ha ha! I swear I've never done this before! Ha ha! Where does the thing go? Down my throat? It tickles, and I think I taste my own delicious liver!
Holiday Gift Guide! Out Now!
Posted by Edith on Wed, Nov 21, 2007 at 12:30 PM
The latest issue of The L Magazine is in a little orange box somewhere near you. It's our Holiday Gift Guide, in which we recommend various incredible gifts for the 12 people in your life at three levels of thrift. Curious who we think should get a pony? And who some bacon? Check it out digitally, or pick it up physically.
Other highlights include:
- Where to hide when you're shopping and need a drink, a used book, a drink, a sausage, or a drink.
- When a pet gets too close to your sex life.
- What to do with that burdensome leftover lobster you're always going on and on about.
- Why it's hard to eat Cuban goat cheese without bread.
- Who is buying $20,000 alligator-skin purses because sometimes it's the only thing that will make us feel like a woman.
- What we think of Jay-Z's American Gangster.
- What music editor Mike Conklin wants for Christmas.
- And what to give people if you care about the world.
Special Events Hey, Balloons
Posted by Edith on Wed, Nov 21, 2007 at 11:00 AM
So who's still in New York? I am. Are you?
For today, why not watch the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons being blown up? If you're interested, go to Central Park West, between 77th and 81st Streets between 4 and 7pm to see flat cartoon animals like Sponge Pants and Blue Clue and Hello Kitty assuming their familiar forms, slowly. I can't think of anything more fun than a balloon, not even hugging my best friends or feeling my mother's cold fingers touching my face before she asks me if I'm going to cut my hair. No, I'm not planning to.
