Though it doesn't fall on the calendar until nearly four weeks later, Memorial Day typically marks the beginning of summer. At Lazy Robot, we tend to always be one step ahead, so we welcomed it early with an eventful and memorable three-day weekend last week.
Friday night, I finally checked out Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's "Grindhouse." Complete with gritty, less than stellar quality film and fake previews for such enticing upcoming flicks as "Machete" and "Don't," the directors made every effort to successfully recreate an authentic drive-in, B movie double feature experience. (We did our part by sneaking booze into the theatre.)
Both movies focused on strong, powerful women such as machine gun-legged Rose McGowan in "Planet Terror" and Australian stuntwoman Zoë Bell in "Death Proof". If you can still find this movie at your local theatre by the time you read this, I highly recommend checking it out. Oh and big thanks to Freddy and Quentin for finally punishing Fergie for recording the inexcusable stain on humanity that is "My Humps." She deserved what she got.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Welcome back summer
Make Way for the S O B: Lady Sov embarks on a tour of shame
A couple of weekends ago, my friends in Atlanta told me they were going to see Lady Sovereign at the Drunken Unicorn. A twinge of jealousy fell over me. I thought they were lucky to catch her at such an intimate venue.
When Monday rolled around, I asked them how the show went and their reviews were less than glowing. She only played four songs, fifteen dollars for four songs? That's on an entirely different level of wrongness than one-song encores.
So when Sov brought her four-song routine to Studio B last Friday, in no way, shape or form did I feel the need to attend. But what took place that night now makes me wish that I had.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
LCD Soundsystem and Yacht rock Webster Hall
Monday night, I met up with my favorite neighborhood bloggers, A Brooklyn Life’s E and D to catch the LCD Soundsystem show at Webster Hall. We grabbed some tasty Ethiopian food at Meskel in the LES, drank a quick beer at Kate’s Joint around the corner and we were off to Webster Hall for the LCD action.
Once inside the spot, we situated ourselves near the front, an easy task because the place was quite empty and waited for Yacht to come on. We didn’t know anything about Yacht so we entertained each other by guessing how many people would be in the band. E said 2; I said 3 and D joked with 1/2. We waited for what felt like hours and questioned the accuracy of the time slots we’d seen posted outside.
What kind of fuckery is this?
The genius in naming your blog “Lazy Robots” lies in the fact that when people raise eyebrows because you haven’t posted in days, even weeks, you can simply point to the name and say, “You were warned.”
To make up for my recent blogging slackery, I bring you not one, but two posts about a few shows I caught recently.
Last week, I checked out a new music venue in the meat packing district called the Highline Ballroom. This venue opened just slightly over two weeks ago on April 30th. According to the press release on their website, the decor is inspired by the forthcoming High Line Park and they plan to donate “$.25 from every ticket sold to Friends of the High Line, the non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and reuse of the High Line elevated rail structure.”
That’s a concept I feel pretty good about supporting. It’s a nice, clean good space, with new lighting and sound that holds 700 people. We were there to see miniscule, gigantically-coiffed British singing sensation Amy Winehouse. Opening up for her was the elfish, red glittery-haired Patrick Wolf.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
We Heart Beer Gardens!
We had such a Laissez-fair weekend! I won't go into the boozing details but I do have to say the bots finally made it out to the Bohemian Beer Garden in Queens this weekend and the verdict was that if we ever win the lottery, we'd spend a portion on it constructing our very own booze garden in Brooklyn!
Just some tidbits:
Czechovakia is comprised of the regions Moravia and Bohemia - best known for their lager beers and hella damn good hops and barley! Some famous Czech beers: Pilsners and Budweiser Budvar (not the crappy American Budweiser)
The Czech Republic has the greatest beer consumption per capita in the world! Something like 161 liters per person, yikes!
At one point in NYC history there were 800 beer gardens, 3 in Astoria. (Lucky bastards!)
The Czechs call beer: "Liquid Bread"
There's an old wives tale in the C.R. that dark lager will make your boobs get bigger
Did you know that there are Beer Trips all over Europe? Whaaaaaaaaaaat!
Apparently there's a beer that people are describing as Liquid Gold in the C.R. called Vendelin and described as: "a bouquet of apricot blossoms with a note of fresh-baked bread, like fruit jam on sourdough toast. The taste is rich and sugary followed by a long, crisp finish." TASTY and on top of it all it has a distribution zone of 2 mountain meadows in South of the Czech Republic. I'm totally going there!
Okay I'll stop obssessing about Czech beer + gardens now, happy monday!
Friday, May 4, 2007
TOM AND ROSS IN NYC, Cherry Blossom Festival, Hip Hop @ Blk. Bettys
Oh I know, a friggin week late! Tom and Ross were in town from Athens so I spent the majority of the week showing them the greatness that is called New York and then I've had work and school and somewhere in between it all, I've had no more than 6 hours of sleep every night. Oh Geez!
Thursday, May 3, 2007
More Bjork Shenanigans
Sorry afterparty at the Japanese Yakitori place with meat on a stick and pitchers of beer and raver sticks (glow sticks for people down south).
More Bjork Shenanigans
C and I looking pretty calm here, we were really going crazy during the show, I apologize to the 1st mezzanine for their lameness and for our loudness, L to the O to the S.E.R.S!
More Bjork Shenanigans
Bjork and the Icelandic Brass Ensemble: I always thought, "Bjork, never stray from the strings!" I love Bjork and her adamant love for string instruments, there's something in the sound of a cello or violin that brings me to such an emotional state, or shall I say a state of EMERGENCY. BUT, I do have to say last night's performance with the Brass Ensemble was A-MAZ-ING!
More Bjork Shenanigans
Bjork and Antony from Antony and the Johnsons. Such a beautiful, beautiful song, I thought, "dear lord please don't let me cry," the track was soooo pretty and Antony has an amazing vocal presence, no thunder was stolen from eachother they sounded amazing together. There was an awkward moment between them while they were singing and swaying with eachother but I think it made it so perfect and probably why I loved that song. Both of them are so quirky and extremely passionate about music. One of my favorite numbers :)
B to the J to the O.R.K.
Bare with me, I'm having technical difficulties. LazyRobots have been hella lazy about posting till (drum roll please) Bjork comes to town. The show at Radio City was Magnifique and I can only recall goosebumps forming during every song, even during tracks from her new album. "Innocence" was by far my favorite from Volta and I can not wait to get the album next week when it sets to debut in the US. But the most breathtaking part of the night was when she performed Joga . . . I don't even have the words to explain how gorgeous that song was . . . geez how I love bjork :)
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
One word: BJORK!
Bjork! Yeah I'm just that excited to see her. Yes this is pre-game my friends. I was just so excited I had to share some of it with our loyal readers. What like two of you besides the authors, dosen't matter how many *I love you*. Check back though I'm sure there will be lots more to read on the subject from the three of us though the robots will be divided 2/3 of us tonight (probably no where near each other) and the other third later on in the week.
UPDATE:
I love her...I love her...I love her...I love her! Can I just say I almost cried TWICE. I had a permanent grin on my face and I clapped and yelled despite the silence from most of the 2nd mezzanine at Radio City Music Hall. Despite the fact that ushers were actually walking through the crowd and asking people to take their seats and not dance I squirmed rhythmically in my seat. Despite the fact that the guy next to me fell asleep! during the opening band (which really wasn't warranted) and looked like he was going through hell during Bjork's set I was excited and happy enough for us both. Her voice was phenomenal! The new stuff she performed was great, the oldies but goodies awesome, the interpretations of Medulla with a live band and not human voice band (?) good except for one song...admittedly this was after a fan had been tackled on, and escorted off stage right behind her. Hell, even I would have been a bit upset. Oceania, Pagan Poetry, All is Full of Love, Wanderlust and The Dull Flame of Desire (with Antony!) stand out as being some of my favorites from the night, but of course they are all my favorites or I wouldn't have been there. She even ended with a protest song, Declare Independence,urging the audience to fly their own flag, make their own currency, and shame on anyone if they let The Man keep them down. Ahh she's awesome!
