Dear God,

It's me Yer and I just wanted to thank you for bringing Banksy to New York.

I've admired the politicking, graffiti artist and ninja, Banksy, for a long time now since first discovering his mad hatter ways while living in London and seeing his art work canvas the city. I love his incognito ways, his graphic style, his political balls busting imagery. Can I go as far as saying, Banksy is my hero? No, because he wouldn't want me to believe in heroes. Well, let me just say he's the no. 1 badass, next to Bruce Lee, of course and I'm thankful he is a part of this generation of artists.

Bansky uses his medium to attack and question all that is wrong with today's society and he continues to say something with his art and I love this kind of sensibility. Even though there's been flack about how his art work has been selling for millions and how he's a sell out, aren't the real suckers the museums and dealers willing to pay these crazy prices, esp. since his work is mostly public art already?

I'd be content with staying in all weekend just to prepare myself for the opening on Sunday at the Vanin Holasek Gallery but the no. 1 DJ extraordinaire and overall HOTTIE, Diplo, is in town so I'll try to hit up that up, but Banksy, I'm really saving myself for you, love.

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Lazy Obsessions

-Cuts Keep Growing by Evan B. Harris at the Johansson Projects Gallery in Oakland, CA
-Urban Outfitters Lux After Sunset Dress $88
-Say I am You, The Weepies
-Camper Jackie Shoe $210
-Etsy, Mountain Trees by John W. Golden $20
-Klimt and Fashion by Christian Brandstatter $9.44

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Ladies and Gentlemen, Diplo’s back

I think I’ve made it abundantly clear on this space that I love Diplo and that some of the most off the hook soirées in my New York repertoire took place in his presence. Though I missed his last stop through town, who could forget this night at Studio B?

And how hard did we rage at his Apple Store appearance (aka the Apple Store BYOB extravaganza) the night before S’s birthday this summer?

And long before the birth of Lazy Robots, Y and I danced our faces off at the Diplo/CSS/Bonde Do Role show at the Warsaw in Greenpoint, where sweat and polish sausage mixed in the air filling it with an interesting odor like none I’d encountered before.

Simply put, it’s always a good time when Diplo drops by and he’s gracing us with his presence once more on November 30th at Studio B. Tickets are available here. I just bought mine. Don’t sleep!

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Artists and commercials

When the temperature drops and winter lurks around the corner, I tend to let laziness dominate and hole up in my apartment. So last night, I cozily curled up in front of the TV and turned on the American Music Awards. Unfortunately, because I have Tivo and fast forward through all the commercials, I missed the only interesting thing about happened during that broadcast.

Halfway through the show, a T Mobile ad aired featuring Of Montreal. The commercial, which you can check out here, revealed the band sitting in a hotel room when their manager calls a band meeting (very Murray of Conchords) and informs the group that he’s chatting with Japanese promoters about their upcoming reunion tour. A few lines of dialogue are exchanged and the spot ends with “Gronlandic Edit” playing under a voiceover.

Admittedly, I wince more often than not when I hear one of my favorite bands blaring out of my TV speakers but at the end of the day, what’s good for them works for me. These guys took a lot of heat for that spot prompting lead singer Kevin Barnes to write up a lengthy discourse posted on Stereogum defending their stance. He raises some interesting points.

If the song works with the product, I don’t object. For example, I’m a big fan of the CSS iPhone/”Music is my hot sex” combination. I love how they skirt around that lyric, the most prominent and song title, but don't use it. The one they do use however, “My music is where I want you to touch,” makes perfect sense in this context.

I’m a little confused about what Shiny Toy Guns’ “Le Disko” has to do with RAZRs and completely dumbfounded about the connection between Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Chromeo’s “Needy Girl.” I also don’t understand why Spoon’s “I Turn My Camera On” was used to sell cars as opposed to cameras. Or is that too obvious?

Finally, we’ve all seen M.I.A.’s “Galang”/Honda spot, (a questionable combo) but did anyone notice that she’s still doing some free advertisement for them with the lyrics “ Barbarella look like she's my dead ringer / When I'm dogging on the bonner of ya red Honda” from “Bamboo Banga?” Is this her FU to anyone who accused her of selling out or is she just trying to score more dough? Genius!

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Drum and bass is alive and well...in Budapest

Last Saturday night, I hit up a dubstep night in the Slope and ran into a friend of a friend who also happens to be a regular reader of our blog.

He gave me some slack for posting an old Treasure Fingers mix last week and I replied that TF primarily produces drum and bass and had been focusing on that and touring Europe recently. I was then faced with an interesting question.

"Drum and bass? Does that even still exist?"

It turns out that it does. In Budapest, as evidenced by the video above where a 3000 strong showing came out in support of Mr. TF himself, spinning under his dnb alias, The Enemy (of Evol Intent.)

In fact, all of Europe still has a really good drum and bass scene but Eastern Europe takes it to ridiculous levels. As though pyrotechnics and S&M dancers on stage weren't enough, where else would you expect to watch a magician saw a girl in half in front of you right in the middle of your DJ set, revealing all his tricks to you as his victim glances over and winks at you?

Be on the lookout for a full length LP from the Evol Intent crew entitled Era of Diversion which is slated for release February 11 (UK) and February 12 (US). The album will consist of 19 tracks total with only 7 being drum and bass. The rest will be idm, downtempo, glitchpop and post rock and Evol Intent will be doing a live instruments tour to support it starting March 7th.

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A cultural affair

It's not often that I step foot inside a church or attend a performance involving any sort of classical music, both of which happened last weekend. And as if that weren't enough of a culture shock, on Sunday afternoon Y, Jake and I checked out a whopping three art exhibits in Midtown and on the Upper West Side.

First on the agenda was the Museum of Art and Design for the "Pricked: Extreme Embroidery" exhibit. Pieces ranged from a set of wings made out of black gloves to figures embroidered on a light silk fabric that looked as though they'd been sketched in pencil. This very unique and interesting show will be up until March 9th and is well worth seeing.

Next, we wandered uptown to the Neue Gallery for a Gustav Klimt exhibit: “Gustav Klimt: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections.”

It’s primarily a collection of Klimt’s drawings, as well as some photographs, most notably one of him in a large blue robe cradling a cat in his arms, and a replica of one of his studios featuring original furnishings. Some of Klimt’s most famous paintings are also present, including “Lady With Feather Hat,” and “Adele Bloch-Bauer I.”

I saw a number of Klimt's drawings at the Met two summers ago and one of my favorite things about his shows is people watching. There’s nothing like seeing the look on an 80-year old, wheelchair bound woman’s face as she gazes upon Klimt’s sketches of nude women exploring themselves.

This exhibit will be up until June 30th.

Finally, Y offered to take us over to the Met to check out Damien Hirst's “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living,” AKA, The Shark.

I'm not a huge Damien Hirst fan and generally find myself scowling when I come across his work, but being the kind of girl who stayed up all night watching Shark Week as a kid and whose idea of a dream vacation is South Africa to cage dive with Great Whites, this particular piece attracted me.

The shark is massive and when looking at it, I can't help but to try and envision the story that brought this animal from its home deep in the ocean to this giant formaldehyde filled tank inside a museum in New York City. Where and how did Hirst even get a shark? It's an impressive feat and certainly worth seeing in all its gruesome glory.

The Met will house it for the next three years so there's plenty of time to see it.

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Warm-up, Project Runway Season 4

It's too early to pick favorites (although I'm a bit partial to the New Yorkers) or predict who's a style maven or just a fashion faux pas but I do have to say season 4 players are quite the hard hitters. Check out my quick list of player stats and tune in tomorrow night to the season premiere. May Tim Gunn be with all of you.

-The boys outnumber the girls by one.
-The average age is 34, the youngest being 21 and the oldest, 46.
-One designer has dressed celebs such as, Fergie, Jessica Alba, Erykah Badu, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan .
-Three went to Parson's School of Design and two went to the Fashion Institute of Technology.
-One designer co-wrote a D.I.Y. book on t-shirt makeovers while another is a model with a joint degree in Sociology and Fine Arts.
-One designer has 13 siblings and designs the label, Lizalde.
-Of 15 of the designers 10 have their own professional clothing lines and one has their own florist shop .
-There are two international designers, one from the West Bank and one from Korea.
-One designer has her own Wikipedia entry.
-And does anyone care about the models? Not really.

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Múm plays Wordless

While sitting at my desk Friday afternoon, getting schooled in no less than five games of Scrabulous, I got a last minute invite to check out Múm, whose latest album Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy was released on September 24, as part of the Wordless Music concert series.

I saw Múm (pronounced "Moom") back in Atlanta in 2004, but this was an entirely different show. It was my first time seeing them without Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir. Also, the venue, St. Paul of the Apostles Church, puts the now defunct Echolounge to shame. The comfort level, however, left a bit to be desired. The pews were not the most pleasant to sit on for four hours but that's a small price to play for a beautiful experience like this one.

The turnout was impressive and organizers had to line up rows of chairs in the back because there wasn't enough seating room in the pews. By the time Múm came on, people had begun sitting on the floor close to the stage in the center aisle. The ambassador of Iceland even came out.

This was the first of two back to back nights for Múm playing this series in NYC and our performance was the more chill session whereas they said the following night would be more of a rocking out one. Recordings and set lists for the shows are available here: Friday night / Saturday night. (These are in Flac format which can be played on a PC via Winamp and converted to play in iTunes on a Mac.

I also really enjoyed opener the opener, Torngat, a trio from Montreal, particularly their more drum intensive numbers. Sadly, their cd's had been confiscated at the border and were unavailable for purchase at the show.

There are three more Worldess shows in this series. On November 28, Max Richter plays the Good-Shepherd Faith Church and on January 16 and 17, the Wordless Music Orchestra will debut Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver at St. Paul. Maybe Johnny can partially redeem his band for me after the disappointing fiasco that is In Rainbows. (They're trying.)

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Guitar art show

I'll admit it, if you place a guitar in front of me and it isn't made of plastic with five big rainbow colored buttons on the fret bar, confusion ensues. But last Thursday night, I took the N train down to M1-5 in Soho to meet up with John and Christina for the Syrup Kids’ first art show where starter acoustic guitars served as blank canvases for 18 local artists. The result was interesting and possibly the most fun I’ve had with guitars not attached to my Playstation in weeks.

We perused the various interpretations for a few hours while sipping on the drink special ($3 Bud Lights) and listening to Postal Services remixes and Cut Copy. Every piece was highly original with materials ranging from acrylic and spray paint to metallic markers, paper-maché and googly eyes.

In case you’re in the market for a custom guitar, all the pieces went up on Ebay the day after the show and can be found here. If I had some extra scratch, I’d snatch up one of these in a heartbeat (my favorite is the last one in the slideshow) so don’t sleep! And from what I hear, Syrup kids have more shows in the works (Custom toasters? Snowboards?) So be on the lookout for more things from these cool cats in the future.

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$26.76

One of my ultimate favorite things to do EVER is thrift store shop. I long for those long weekend days that would start out with a Krystal Spicy Chik a coke and a drive to the several Value Villages in Atlanta. My best friend and I (Tom C. Lee) would raid the shop coming out with garbage bags full of jackets, sweaters, dresses, belts, hats, purses and jewelry. It was truly a dream and I miss those days terribly since moving to New Yawk. I gotta say as much as J'adore the NYC I really hate the thrift stores here. Charging over 25 bucks for a thrift store dress that you would normally purchase for 2.99 is absurd. Help a sister out! I work in nonprofit and go to grad school, one more strike and I'd be a fashion faux pas the rest of my life.

This weekend's trip to New Haven, CT granted a chance to hit the few thrift stores around town and the last Salvation Army Jake and I visited resulted in a handful of great items all for the blowout price of $26.76. WHAT A FRIGGIN STEAL!

Here are the photos:

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Our robot competition

Well not really. If the lazy robots (mostly me as the laziest) were a little less lazy maybe we would be more like the Cardboard Robots, check out their blog here, Cardboardrobot.com. We could be on our way to world domination by now. Note to self: start buying cases of energy drinks.

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I became a volunteer

Anxious for Hot Chip to dazzle us with a new album? I know I am. But my fave Brit nerdy lap poppers have found a way to appease me in the meantime by offering us a free download, "I became a volunteer." It's been available on their site, which I obviously never visit, since the end of September.

You have to sign up for their mailing list to get the song but if you dig Hot Chip like I do, it's information you would want anyways. And if you just want the music minus the marketing, just go ahead and enter fake info into the form or the name and email of your enemies. Have some fun, it's Friday!

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You win some, you lose some

My corner of Brooklyn has suffered a few tragedies this year on the Red Hook side. We lost the beer milkshakes at Schnäck and we lost Lido’s entirely. But we have gained some things on Smith Street that have made me a bit more optimistic. Bar Great Harry got a middle and last name (as well some good beers on tap) and now Sample is serving Absinthe.

Apparently, I’ve been living under a rock because I didn’t even realize until last week that Absinthe had been readily available in New York City since June. The liquor was banned in the United States in 1912 because of the hallucinogenic effects of its primary ingredient, wormwood.

So what say you neighbors? Shall we give this “Lucid” a go? I wonder if it’s as tasty as the homemade stuff we used to drink back in Atlanta.

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Help This Kid Out!

Putting the New York bitterness aside, it's nice to hear stories of love at first sight and the crazy things that we do to obtain this love. You have to admit, most of the time we end up shrugging the cute guy on the train off or looking down when our eyes lock with a potential tenderoni. Not Patrick Moberg, he spotted the GIRL OF HIS DREAMS the other night on the 5 train and started a website, NYGirlOfMyDreams. The site is a plea for a meet and greet with the rosy-cheeked girl writing in her journal wearing blue tights, that got off at Bowling Green stop.

I'm just passing this on to help him, secretly hoping that fairytales and romance do seriously exist. Check out a video of him here, (he's cute, ladies!) and he may or may not interview with CNN tomorrow?

UPDATE: He found her, hopefully there's a love connection.

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She cleans up well

After a pit stop at the Coliseum Friday night to wish a friend who quit his corporate job to pursue his dreams good luck, I cabbed it to the airport, en route to Atlanta for a wedding.

My old roommate, partner in crime and all around good pal, the legendary DJ Little Jen tied the knot after many years of playing the field.

If anyone wonders why Jen and I are such good friends, I offer you this: a) the left half of the above photo speaks for itself. And b) For their first song, Jen and her new husband Jason slow danced to Björk's "All Is Full of Love." Perfect.

Weddings in Atlanta are always fun because I get to catch up with old friends and rave scenesters. This one was no exception. Since I've been gone for a while, I asked my friend Eddie what the ATL was feeling these days in the club. His reply: Treasure Fingers.

In case any of you haven't heard of Treasure Fingers, it's an electro funk side project of The Enemy (who makes up one third of drum and bass outfit, Evol Intent.) Treasure Fingers has remixed artists such as Snowden and Ocelot. His original "Cross the Dancefloor" is pure class.

He put out a mix last summer entitled "40 Minutes in the Champagne Room" which you can still download on his Myspace page. So go there now, grab it, rock it and hopefully someone will bring this man to New York very soon!

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Halloween Mayhem

I know I'm lame for going out on Halloween and not dressing up but I did capture a few festive New Yorkers out on the town, prowling the streets of the East Village having a good o' time. At the end of the night I had big dreams about next year and what lavish costume I would wear, what kind of team costume I would have, a dance routine, perhaps, to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" (even though nothing will ever top the "Thriller" routines of yesteryears). Anywho, I'm high off all the office candy, till next year, Happy Halloween!

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