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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