Thursday, September 22, 2011

9_21. WEIRD NIGHT W/ DAWN OF HUMANS, PHARMAKON @ HOME SWEET HOME, NYC



PHARMAKON: was easy to photograph



DAWN OF HUMANS: fuck it, I got a video of their set to make up for this.



To my chagrin, meeting up with friends at Weird after gallery hopping in TriBeca was a challenge. Home Sweet Home, a bar/venue on Chrystie Street in which the most beautiful and most explicit of hell broke loose, was all fog and dismal lighting. Second, it's in the basement. So not only was my attempt to cell communicate one fat failure, but closing in towards the stage meant you couldn't see shit. Thankfully I've been to enough goth/darkwave club nights to fine-tune my capability of recognizing silhouettes in a smokey, dark basement and all was scarlet cherries and penciled-in eyebrows.

The night's bill was lacking in number, but the energy accumulation of Pharmakon and Dawn of Humans was on level to a four-band show. When it's past midnight and you're one of the surprising few who have to clock in at 9 a.m. in mere hours, all you really want is a happy meal show with a super-sized sensation. My friend Nick told me that Pharmakon, stage alias for Far Rockaway's Margaret Chardiet, was feeling very nervous about the performance tonight - but if anything, I was nervous about possibly being post-bewitched by her noise set!

The precedent atmosphere left an unusual playing field for Dawn of Humans, mostly because it was unusual to see someone monkey-scaling-the-ceiling-water-pipes action in the foreground of fog and strobe lights. I didn't whip out my camera fast enough to capture that, but I hope you can get my drift on how maddening this set was in the video posted above. I need someone from the show to confirm for me whether those are his real (purple) balls, or whether it's some rubber toy.

The show was not a usual one for Home Sweet Home's Weird Nights, which, in the past, has headline the label's rosters including Automelodi, Led Er Est, and Xeno and Oaklander. The inevitable finally happened during Dawn of Humans and the Weird disco ball on the low ceiling was knocked off and torn to pieces. I don't think there's any need to add words to that metaphorical gesture.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Blurred Motion: Love Brigade SS12 Fashion Show







Love Brigade premiered stage one, a.k.a. the spring/summer 2012 collection, of its Soulmates Never Die series last Thursday during New York Fashion Week. The past two weeks was a brain blaster for the entire crew, but captured in the last photo is the sudden transition into serenity. Everything comes together once the spotlight hits.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Dare You To Teller.





Happens when you're hungry, with friends, at The Meatball Shop, and Juergen Teller pops up in the conversation.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Fashion's Night Blackout


"... that awkward moment when you're posing and the camera's taking forever to shoot." - Tyler











My Fashion's Night Out was spent exclusively in SoHo. People chased after an Escalade with their smartphones because Pauly D was in the back seat. Anna Wintour was at Rag and Bone and uptown a crowd went nuts when Nicki Minaj walked in and out of Yves Saint-Laurent. FNO was less about shopping (freaking IMPOSSIBLE to pick up what you want and take it to the counter) and more about the chance for everyday people to jump into tabloid pages like some safari hunt. Oh, and the cheapest bar crawl you'll ever get out of this city. After my third and last store stop at Marc Jacobs, my purple feet and human clutter-induced hysteria beckoned me to go back to Brooklyn to call it a night. But really, my visiting friend and I split a pitcher of sangria at a swanky Spanish speaking bar (only non-Spanish there, ayo) called Bar Celona, and then gaily walked up Bedford for some gyros and the latest issue of Thrasher.

On the top photo: told Pharrell that I thought Tokyo Rising was beautiful (ps, directed by zee lovely Thalia Mavros), and Tyler came in around the time that I got into Billionaire Boys Club. (I can't imagine the reaction from the boys line when he walked in.) I gestured that he needed to be in the photo, so he agreed. He was probably most inclined to take the photo because it was also a photo with Pharrell haha. Tyler was a great sport and very sweet. Both are very fine gentlemen.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

9_5. Words by A Girl Who Couldn't Get In: Fool's Gold Day Off @ City Winery, NYC



On Labor Day a friend and I got out of Brooklyn and headed to SoHo, a.k.a. my second 'hood, for the annual Fool's Gold Day Off fest. We made it to the event... with the exception that we didn't make it INTO the event.

The website urges attendees to come out early as "attendance is based on capacity," and the flyer is proven evidence that this warning was all in the bill. Juicy J of the Three6Mafia and weed aficionado fame headlines with Just Blaze, Bros. Macklovitch (A-Trak & Dave1), Araabmuzik (see post for how awesome he is), and more + special guests. Since Electric Zoo ended the day before, it's guaranteed that the special guests were going to be real treats for the crowd - one of them being Diplo and his forever unforgivably amazing dog tee. (See this photo I copped from Facebook. Glorious.) So of course everyone and their moms are going to make the trek to this event. It seemed acceptable to arrive an hour later than the start time because a) 2 p.m. is too early to those hungover from weekend BBQs and b) doesn't the majority arrive fashionably late to these all-day events anyway?

A surprise to many, it turns out that this was housed in a confined backyard of the City Winery with capacity of what must have been a teeny number. Long lines for both general and VIP admission were in queue and hopefuls stick around waiting to get in on the fun. A small crowd of kids in front of me grew agitated as event staff members and Fool's Gold representatives tell them that entry is closed due to capacity and fire hazard regulations. Fool's Gold wristbands were distributed among those in lines in hopes of alleviating the tension, though I didn't see them as guaranteed admission but symbols of a lost cause.

The metal gates are locked and what was once a linear line became a cluster and eventually a terrifyingly annoying cluster of teens/"adults" scheming to "stick it to the man." The premonition of madness laid in these words said by the king of brainstorming next to me, "There's more of us than them." Next thing you know, the whole front successfully plowed through the gates and failed an attempt to run to the event. I then see an event staff who previously tried to work with the crowd come out breathing fire through words, telling everyone that the event is indefinitely closed and no one will get in. Speechless and shaking heads at what just happened, the lingering crowd finally dispersed.


So it's almost like I was at the event. A piece of 2011 history for my autobiographical scrapbook.


So I'm going to say what's been on everyone's mind at that point, but may have not been said: the event organizer(s) needs to change the way these free shows are done. This whole ordeal took me back to December, when Fool's Gold hosted a free-for-the-public, admission-limited holiday party at Tammany Hall of which was headlined by Manny Fresh. Boom! Line down the street, barely moving, vips with an entourage of too many were cutting through, and those arriving on time suffered near hypothermia just to try their luck on getting in. Those in line got rowdy because they're freezing their asses off, and (surprise) authorities arrived to tell the crowd that they should go home.

I LOVE the label and its roster, and I'm sure these events were fantastic to those involved and those who were lucky enough to be a part of the crowd, but if you know that your events are going to be this big for the love of God please do not book them in small venues and, while doing so, advertise it as a free event for everyone. Either do what Mad Decent does with their block parties and book them in open air venues in which people can easily come and go, or host an admission lottery. I vehemently condemn the behavior of those who roughed it up with authorities and bum rushed the gates, but precautions could have eliminated this stupidity. If those in VIP can't even get in, then I say this is a problem that needs to be addressed and fixed at the next event. That's just my two cent.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

9_3. Swimming with Sharks, Le Bain @ The Standard, NYC









+

KAWS


Trouble & Bass took over Scion's last Swimming with Sharks event and turned this night time hotspot into a Common music video - sans Common. Leave it to this sharp-dressed crew to make Labor Day weekend feel as labor-less as possible.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

8_31. DIS_RT W/ #HDBOYZ, ARAABMUZIK, GLASSPOPCORN @ MoMA PS1, NYC


Ryan Trecartin "Any Ever" exhibition



Glasspopcorn
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Araabmuzik
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#HDBOYZ


My friend Shannon and I took a cab north to Long Island City to check out the DIS_RT event at MoMA PS1. This was the closing party to LA-based artist Ryan Trecartin's first large-scale installation in New York titled "Any Ever." It's the internet culture of today coming to life: there's too much to see, hear, and feel that even the most jaw-dropping evoking sensation comes and goes like a passing Farrari only to be shown up by something new and flashy. There was a wait on the headphones that accompanied the installation, and I managed to snag a pair after 7 minutes in queue.

Outside, however was a throng of some of the gaudiest, sexiest, trippiest, and hippest kids (and I mean to list these adjectives in separates) of New York City. After having to first drown myself in this human sea to get a Brooklyn Lager tall can, Shannon and I gravitated toward the hip gyrating trannies with heels planted on an Escalade. (We love 'em.) I haven't heard of Glasspopcorn and his Tumbularity until tonight's show, and this odd popularity and fascination surrounding this kid that I was somehow oblivious to suddenly made me feel old - especially since he's 15-year-old and putting his rap career under the spotlight at freaking MoMA PS1.

The two draws for me, other than checking out Trecartin's exhibit before it closed, was #HDBOYZ (who I'll get to soon) and seeing turbo-fingers himself Araabmuzik pretty much recreate his work with seeming ease that we may as well have him draw a straight line on stage. This guy's works have been the voice nets of artists like Dipset, Busta Rhymes, and Fabulous, and you'd be an idiot to not check out "Electronic Dreams" if you're into this stuff. To prove that his live producing performance wasn't just putting a laptop on deck, there had to be a brief intermission during his set because I'm sure his fingers would swell to prunes otherwise. I knew there was a reason to stand up front, and I'm so glad I did.

So I'm beyond anxious for a video of #HDBOYZ to hit Youtube, Vimeo, whathaveyou because I don't think some words on a screen would do its justice on explaining how this 20-minute set made the highlights of my summer list. They are, according to their first interview with DIS, "the world's first boyband in high definition." I could not refrain from bursting out in fits of laughter over the brilliance in the execution of their performance. If you love a throng of handsome man serenading words like "HDMI in love?" to you, then you better not sleep on their next potential live appearance. I can't guarantee that a spectacular fireworks performance would soon follow.

Images source (except for the blurry phone pics) and more photos at: Weirdmagic.biz