Balkan Beat Box and Mucca Pazza Live at Lincoln Center Out of Doors

by baad lamb

“It’s just not a party unless people dance!”

I don’t remember when I first heard this, or if I fully believe it, but I do agree with the reverse corollary: If everyone’s dancing, it must be a good party. So Balkan Beat Box threw a great party last Saturday night.

There were two bands at Damrosch Park Bandshell for Lincoln Center Out of Doors on a sticky summer night in August.

Mucca Pazza, left;  MC Tomer Yosef of Balkan Beat Box, right

Mucca Pazza, the opening act, was entertaining in a novelty way: competent, fun, funny and fully entertaining. Their geeky routine consisted of knowledgeably eclectic musicians wearing high-school band uniforms, playing music and jumping about the stage accompanied by four cheerleaders. If a category had to be assigned them, perhaps it would be Om-Pa-Pa-Klezmer.

Their set was just the right length – ending before enjoyment of their novelty wore off.  Most fun (or most gimmicky, depending on your perspective) was an audience participation number where the Band’s “Conductor” directed us, along with the musicians, and we all became his own personal instrument. He literally throws his whole body into this, so we appreciate the effort and play along. And, this being New York, listen as what could be just a single shouted crowd note in other venues becomes a four-note harmonic chord here, even briefly surprising our conductor...

This, plus pix and five live Balkan Beat Box videos after the jump

The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side

"The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side" presented by The Amoralists Theatre Company at PS 122, July 31, 2010

(photo: Larry Cobra)


Returning to the NYC stage after an earlier successful run, The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side tells a tale of a poly-amorous foursome led by an ersatz Che Guevera wannabe, Billy (James Kautz).  His housemates/lovers include Wyatt (Matthew Pilieci), Dawn (Mandy Nicole Moore) and Dear (Sarah Lemp).  Dear and Wyatt run a vegan restaurant on the street level of the building in exchange for free rent of the apartment.  Dawn was accumulated by the three others when living on the street, singing songs for tips.  She continues this as the group's only source of cash.  Billy's brother Evan (Nick Lawson) turns up for a visit, bringing an added level of chaos to the proceedings.

Brooklyn Living

Sure, they're all the same, except for the giant satellite dish.

Lemon Verbena Ice Cream

By West Village Bill

The summer has been flying by, and what with my crazy move, I've been too busy to make ice cream or get to the Jersey shore. To rectify the latter situation, I'll be heading to Cape May with my New Jersey buddies Dan and Paul on Friday. Woot! And over this past weekend, I made my first ice cream since the official start of summer. It was flavored with lemon verbena, and it was fantastic.

I first made Lemon Verbena Ice Cream last summer after seeing a sign at the Berried Treasures stand at the Union Square Greenmarket suggesting that that herb was terrific in ice cream. Berried Treasures is the only stand I've come across that offers LV, maybe because around here it has to be overwintered inside. Or so I've read on the Internets. I should ask the woman from BT whether she does that or protects it from frost in some other way.

See Tommy G for all your Stained Glass Needs

By Beau

(Artist: Elizabeth Devereaux, St. Thomas More Parrish & Newman Center)

Once again I'm reminded that unlike just about anywhere else in the world, including Tampa where I've been since May for work, if you need something, you can most likely find it in New York City (or Brooklyn, if you're willing to travel).  Case in point, I've had a bug up my ass to do some crafty shit with collaged items between glass slides soldered together and worn as a necklace.  Or something sort of like that. I don't know why these things occur to me but it becomes something akin to taking the train to crazy town until I actually try it (and more typically fail at it).

Cellar Door

What lies beneath the blue tile door?

The People I’ve Slept With – A Crayon Mona Lisa

By Tony Adams

What is it about gay indie films that keeps us coming back despite frequent disappointment? Their style is usually not refined because their budgets are small and their makers are relatively inexperienced with the machinery of filming. Usually, their subject matter is naïve love and first awakenings because their makers are often young and inexperienced as lovers.

When I watch an indie film, my expectations are therefore low, but I always hope to find something of promise that will bode well for future viewing. I hope to be arrested by writing that is not studied in a popular style, by unsophisticated but clever cinematography, by surprising directorial perspective, intriguing new music and fresh artistry. I look for performances that are wise beyond the age of the actors delivering them.

The People I’ve Slept With is a charming romantic romp with some of those elements that I hope for in a gay indie film. It is about a young Asian-American woman named Angela who has a picaresque sex life and a best gay friend named Gabriel.  Angela is an unknown/unshown artist  who uses crayons and is a sexual conquistadora. Gabriel is sparkly cute guy with a winning smile and a twinkish mind that match like a sweater set on Archie’s Betty. Both of them change for the better in the course of the film. If the maturity lessons of the young are of no interest to you, you should skip this movie and rent Autumn Sonata, but I can give you several reasons for seeing The People I’ve Slept With.

The River Garden at the Union Square Greenmarket and in Martha Stewart Living

By West Village Bill

Before I moved to Manhattan, I was only slightly acquainted with The River Garden, which has, hands down, the most beautiful display of flowers at the Union Square Greenmarket. I'd occasionally catch these flower farmers at the market on a Friday when I was off or able to leave work early. Now that Union Square is my local Greenmarket, I've come to realize that TRG is here every day the market is open: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.

The August issue of Martha Stewart Living has a wonderful, eight-page article on TRG, which is in South Cairo, New York, and its owners, Bernadette and Walter Kowalski, who met cute while manning neighboring stands at a farmers market 20 years ago. (There's no link to the story on marthastewart.com. And TRG doesn't seem to have a website of its own.)

TRG's Union Square stand compels you to approach. There's such a tremendous variety of beautiful colors, and the mixed bouquets are so striking and imaginative. At today's market, I bought a bouquet of pink and green zinnias for my bedroom and some sunflowers, which I paired with some unusual-looking rudbeckia from another stand, for my living room.

A Little Night Music (revisit)

"A Little Night Music" at the Walter Kerr Theatre, July 30, 2010

(photo: Joan Marcus)

With an impressive pair of replacements, I returned to see ALNM.  I'm so glad I did.  As much as I enjoyed the original cast (review: here), it is so nice to see how a change of actor can enhance a show.

Taking on the mantle of Madame Armfeldt from Angela Lansbury, Elaine Stritch gives a two-level performance, though perhaps unintentionally.  It reminded me of when I saw the revival of "Nine" a few years ago and Eartha Kitt had taken over the role of Liliane LeFleur from Chita Rivera.  Then, Ms. Kitt as Ms. LeFleur was dreadful, BUT Ms. Kitt as "Eartha Kitt as Liliane Lefleur" was fabulous.  The effect is similar here with Ms. Stritch.  Her classic deadpan line readings don't quite deliver the sophistication one expects from Mme Armfeldt, but taking the performance as a whole, she does make a success of it.  There were a few bumpy moments along the way in "Liaisons" but only the truest fans who have the score memorized would have realized it.

PROP 8 Overturned by Federal Judge

by Maurice Michaane

Earlier today the Prop 8 ballot initiative was overturned by a Federal Judge in California. The picture above is of the NYC Pride March Director and his partner at the kick-off of the 2009 NYC LGBT Pride March. It's court rulings like today regarding marriage equality that make the images of pictures like this even sweeter! This is what we are fighting for, the liberty for all people, gay or straight, to love without prejudice.

Algae in the City

Perry Brass: Lost Gay New York: Truckin’ at the Trucks

1970s picture of the trucks in the Village

I heard about the trucks my first summer in New York, in 1967. One of my older friends from Julius’s informed me that guys went to a certain street on the west side of the West Village “to suck cock. It’s sometimes called, ‘the Express,’” he informed me. So you might hear men say, “I’m taking the Express tonight.” Meaning, they were dispensing with all the folderol of going to the bars, and just getting down to business at the trucks. 

It’s kind of hard to imagine, in this age of the very yuppified West Village (we’re talking $7 mil duplex apartments on West Street) what the area was like when it was still working class, you could buy a whole building for $70,000 (the going rate in the mid-60s), and there were warehouses along the waterfront, which necessitated working loading docks for—what else?—trucks.

The interesting thing I always thought about the trucks was that they were left open at night after they were unloaded, so guys could play in them. I didn’t actually go to the trucks until somewhat later, after I had joined the Gay Liberation Front in 1969, when GLFers used to leaflet them. This was again another interesting aspect of “the trucks,” a generic term that specifically referred to these huge open empty Mack rigs where scores of guys went to congregate and have sex. (In other words, you had “the trucks” just like you had the “tubs,” another simple term for the baths.)

Anyway, another interesting aspect of the trucks was that lots of men went to them for social purposes as well as the obvious sexual one.

Empire State Building vs. Watertower

I sometimes ponder which better represents NYC.

A Sunset from the East

Occasionally, we are blessed with afternoon thunderstorms in the summer, yielding a beautiful view after they have passed over; having washed away all the dog crap from the streets.

Upper West Side: Don't Even Think of Parking Here

Monday and Tuesday will be fun for local car owners as film crews take over chunks of parking spaces on three main north/south arteries. On Central Park West the permit is for C-Y-E (Curb Your Enthusiasm - I had to google it). Just one block away, another  permit will prevent parking on Columbus Ave to shoot the cryptically named "TD". And over on Riverside Drive, there'll be no cars, but there's bound to be plenty of Gossip Girl fans.
Where they gonna put all those cars?
Oh I know: Central Park.

Please give it one more try.

By Tony Adams

I appreciate the scuttled efforts of those who tried to support my run for gaytravel.com's travel guru but had trouble voting. Would you try once more? Here's the step-by-step:
(and remember, the site allows one new registration per email address.)

Go to gaytravel.com homepage.

In the upper right hand corner, click "join now".

fill out name, email, alias, password, country , agree to terms, and then click "sign up".

You'll get the confirming email and when you click on the link in that email, you'll see a message that you have activated your registration.

Now you go to the homepage,

login using your email and password.

Then go to "guru" under "meet new people", hit vote, find my application and click the little blue "vote for tony adams" letters next to my name.

Be sure to vote the full five points.

That's the complete and "road tested" map! Let me know if it works.

Baad Lamb photo - (Can you ID the Hell's Kitchen restaurant? Without zooming the menu!)

Plain White T's and *Gasp* Boat Shoes Are the Fashion Trends of the Summer

By West Village Bill

I've been marveling at all of the guys I see wearing a plain white T-shirt out and about this summer. Is it mostly because it's been hotter than hell? Or has everyone also decided it's cool to wear an undershirt as your only shirt? And these are undershirt-type white T-shirts I'm talking about. Not classier-looking T-shirts with a little heft to them.

In my wanderings so far this summer, I've seen a woman wearing her (presumably) husband's or boyfriend's white T-shirt with a bra visible underneath and a guy lift up his white T-shirt to wipe the sweat from his face to reveal ... another white T-shirt underneath. Here are a couple of photos I took to document the trend.

Well I just don't know what to say...

Sometimes you see something and are left scratching-your-head-speechless.  Do you respond with snark? Sarcasm? Sympathy? Or just plain silence?
Not everyone is gifted with the blistering wit of Dorothy Parker, but perhaps you, dear reader, would have the correct responses in the following situations...?

Seen on Amsterdam Ave, but appears all over the City.
FYI, only the paper is free. The on-line classes will cost you.

Dec. 09 CPW. From the outside...                                    ...on the inside

QNY Words To Live By

If you wear a leopard coat in a black and white picture, that's all the audience will look at. 

-- Brooklyn's Shelley Winters

Have you voted yet for Tony Adams?

Hey QNYers,

One more week of this! (See my earlier post for details about this.)

It looks like I'm in second place, but a few dozen 5 point votes would help me zoom forward in the gaytravel.com gay travel guru contest.

I'd be deeply appreciative if you would you take a moment. If you have not yet registered on the site, you'll be asked to do so. Then comes the usual email verification that you are not a spambot. Then you log back in. Then you vote. Let me know if you encounter problems.

Here's the link.

And if you would consider Facebooking or Tweeting this, I get some points for that too:

http://www.gaytravel.com/guru/judge/app/application-14200

Thanks!

Tony

Overheard in QNY - Against The Odds

by cscfon

At a diner in Chelsea that is popular with and usually filled with gays.

Woman One: So it turns out he’s straight AND he has his own apartment AND he has big hands.

Woman Two: SCORE!

They high-five.

Poet Profiles: Vato Lovers and Down Low Uptown

By Charlie Vázquez

One of the joys of networking in the queer people-of-color writer’s world is unearthing new talents from the fringe—whether they be from the Bronx (where I grew up) or the Southwest. I discovered two talented queer poets recently; Aaron Powell from the Boogie Down, and Joe Jimenez, who was included in the queer Latino poetry anthology Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry (Floricanto Press, 2009), edited by my queer Latino warlord brother Emanuel Xavier.

Joe Jimenez, who is an educator currently living in San Antonio, teamed up with Los Angeles-based filmmaker Dino Dinco to produce a short film based on his poem “El Abuelo” (The Grandfather), a lusciously sensual look into the eroticism inherent in t-shirts and bandanas—and in this case, Jimenez’s boxer shorts, torso, and tattoos. This lovely masterpiece weaves through Latino identity, family history and loving his first “vato.”

Take a look.




Entertainment publicist Aaron Powell’s new poetry collection Behind Concrete Doors (Karen Hunter Media, 2010) touches upon the sex scandals rocking the world of Hollywood, but its “real meat” explores the fireworks residing within the homoerotic “down-low” sex culture of uptown New York. Fantasizing about barbers and getting down with hot-thug dudes, this collection reveals the intersecting and often clashing politics of “Blatino” sexual identity and more. Developed from over ten years of journals, these poems shine a light on true desire and conflict.



More info here.

Cuisine de L'Agneau Méchant

Baad Lamb Cooking

Brussels sprouts, red and golden beets, ginger, garlic, scallions, shallots, turmeric, and a habanero

Make Mike Diamond Queer Of The Year!

By Tony Adams

Mike is in the running to become "Queer of the Year". I really can't think of anyone else more suited for this. And his contest video is, as expected, delightful. Vote here.

Oh and I thought you'd enjoy my video of the shy and demure Michael during our Key West trip.

(photo by Baad Lamb)

A Request for Help.

From Tony Adams

Dear readers,

I'm in the running for a six month gig as the new "Gay Travel Guru" for Gaytravel.com.

I've made it into round two of the competition and now I need your votes. Here's the link. ( http://www.gaytravel.com/guru/judge/app/application-14200#vote ) In tiny blue letters next to my name, you'll see the invitation to vote for me. A "five" is the best rating.

The first video I provided is a compilation of fun moments from recent interviews. Making this vid made me realize how much fun I've had in the past several months. The guru gig is a paying one, an element not overlooked by my less leisurely husband, in which I'll travel and report.

Looks like their are six serious contenders against whom I'll need your boost.

Thanks for your help!

T

NYC Triathlon 2010: "Swim, Bike, Run, Finish, Party, Go Get Your Bike"

These triathletes get up early! Five-thirty Sunday morning, and many New Yorkers are just getting home, or heading to a 24 hour diner, or even on their way to an after-hours dance party. Meanwhile, everyone here was jumping into the Hudson river to swim for 1.5K, then bike 40K, then run 10K to finish in Central Park (and today, in oppressive 90 degree heat!). I did not get up at 5:30, even though I went to bed early planning to (Sundays are for leisure, no?). By the time I was up, showered, coffee'ed and muffin'ed, and had walked to 72nd street, it was already 8AM, and the winners had crossed the finish line at least a half hour earlier!

From the New York Times:
More than 3,000 people participated in the race Sunday. Filip Ospaly of the Czech Republic won in the men’s division in 1 hour 46 minutes 28 seconds, while Rebeccah Wassner defended her title in 2:00:25, beating her twin sister, Laurel, who finished just under two minutes later in second.

Race Map interactive graphic here

Official website: http://www.nyctri.com/

Right:

"Triathlon themed 3D glow in the dark stress reducing artwork. We ship anywhere in the world."

Lots more pictures and some video after the jump...

Photo of the Day: The Scene from the set of the "Roaring 20's" on Cherry Grove

by Maurice Michaane

The cast and set of "The Roaring 20's" - The 14th Annual Doctor's Fund Benefit for the Elmer A. Lindsay Memorial Center on Cherry Grove, Fire Island. Was an amazing event that transformed you back to a more simple and gentle time!

Perry Brass: Lost Gay New York: Sunday in Lost Gay New York

Perry Brass hangs out in Southhampton, 1976. Note: Mark Spitz mustache.

Sometime in the mid-60s and into the 1970s, Sunday became “the” gay day. I know, the idea sounds a bit crazy. Why would God’s day, once dedicated to church, family, bad food, and other mortifications of the flesh become queer as 3-legged goose? I think there are lots of solid reasons why. A few would be:

By the mid-60s and especially by the mid-70s, there was enough of an urban gay culture that a lot of men, myself among them, started to really resent the fact that they could not come out at work. In the 50s, your greatest hope was not only that you’d never be out at work, but that no one on American soil got a whiff of what you did in your bedroom. Or any other places. But in the next decade or so, it became apparent that work = closet was miserable. Pure shit. The weekends were for you (and many of my friends actually began their weekends on Thursday nights, knowing that they could coast through Friday if they had to) and Sunday was the last day you had to be your real self.

After that, it was indentured servitude inside the closet for most guys.

There was also the idea that Sunday was for you and your friends. It might turn romantic, especially at the bars that offered free buffets on Sundays (more about that later), but staying overnight Sunday with a new friend (or “trick,” not a word I’m crazy about if you read my book How to Survive Your Own Gay Life, but it works, too) was often not in anyone’s cards—which meant that Sunday’s trick could turn even more romantic because you might make another date with him, if you’d not had enough of him Sunday evening.

So Sunday in New York became this great gay-licious holiday, and there were so many ways to do it, depending on where you lived and at what point in the calendar you did it.

Rufus Wainwright at the Bandshell in Prospect Park

By West Village Bill

This Tuesday, Rufus Wainwright will be performing a benefit concert for Celebrate Brooklyn! at the Prospect Park Bandshell off Prospect Park West near 9th Street in my old stomping grounds, Park Slope.

Rufus's opening act will be his father, Grammy Award–winning folk singer Loudon Wainwright III.

I've seen Rufus live twice, including once at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, back in 2001. Toward the end of that show, I threw a knotted pair of my briefs onstage. Rufus remarked that he hoped they were dirty and put them in his pocket. They were clean; I'd actually written a note inside in marker that said my then-partner and I were big fans. And I gave the e-mail address and URL for the bed and breakfast/organic farm we ran at the time. We never heard from Rufus, but I had fun shaking things up a little bit in stodgy Princeton.

Photo from Celebrate Brooklyn! website

Who knew the MTA is a Galactic Republic toady

By now I'm sure most everyone has either seen or heard about the Improv Everywhere's "Princess Leia adventure" on the NYC subways.  I'm dropping the clip in here just because it's all geekitude goodness.  Also, if I had been on that train (and oh how I wish I had been), I would have gotten total dork-wood with all those storm troopers.  Just sayin'.

But I have a question I keep asking over and over again, which I think says more about the emotional state of post-9/11 New Yorker's and at least my belief about the current state of affairs when it comes to the toleration for anything out of the ordinary to become a possible terrorist or pre-terrorist event:  When we're not even allowed to take pictures in or on subway cars, how could IE get a legion of masked Storm Troopers and a Darth Vader onto the train and film this whole skit without the NYPD swarming them and tear-gassing the hell out of the crowd?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for IE's kind of entertainment and you can see in the video how much most of the riders were enjoying this little departure from an otherwise hum-drum commute, but still, how did someone not report this.  Even knowing that masks and costumes aren't illegal, this is the kind of thing I'd think the NYPD would be going bat-shit crazy over.

New York Apartment Hunting

Normally, the idea of apartment hunting in New York is enough to put most people all the way to Crazy Town.  The hunt for Monica and Rachel's mythical Greenwich Village pad is what drives most and is the sole cause for utter despair when the reality of its non-existence is finally accepted.  But then throw in this summer's 100+ heat index and I'll tell you exactly what you get: rationalizing why we are staying put "for just another year".

This kind of lazy is just about the last rung on the ladder before it's time to give up the ghost and just move to Oshkosh, by gosh.

The Irritated Side Of Staten Island, or, Why Eating At White Castle Is Bad For Your Health

By Tony Adams


I bring you this report not only because it describes a possible hate crime but because of the fascinating comments it acquired. In addition to the usual gay/straight choosing up of sides, you'll find folks who say "They should have known better and just ignored that gang.", others who criticize the cops, others who are well acquainted with the turf wars that are raging on that side of Staten Island, others who make Lebronalogies, others who criticize the Gothamist reporter, and best of all, an extended and entertaining gripe-and-retort over local dialect and style of communication. This comment string has all the dirty dishes that one would find in a kitchen sink. On Staten Island. It does not, however, have the kitchen sink: better reporting (reposting?) about gay New York. I recently emailed the site owners about this. I have not received a reply. Gothamist claims six million monthly visitors. Unless that number is a vast exaggeration, they're big enough to to do better in their coverage of gay issues.

Kirk Wagner/DJ ChaotiQueer of Skulk, the Hulking, on their Phoenix Debut

Back during Pride Week I posted a piece announcing the inauguration of the Phoenix’s queer live music night and the success of its kickoff. I’m even happier to announce that the live music will continue and one act to keep an eye on is Skulk, the Hulking, an electro/hip-hop/hardcore three-piece that features the tinkling keyboard designs of one Kirk Wagner—otherwise known as DJ ChaotiQueer—the engineer of the audiovisual feast party “B-List” held at sister bar Nowhere.

Kirk took a few minutes to tell me about his journey as an out and queer musician and how DJ-ing informs his music compositions.



CV: So tell us a little about your journey as a queer musician…

KW: I started playing music at the age of 15, although I didn’t come out until I was 24. That’s when music began to have a greater impact on my life, as I was starting to write about the real things happening in my life without having to worry about what the “straight” band members were thinking—this was in Seattle. Since then, I’ve been involved in everything from glam/alternative rock and speed metal to gayboy electro. New York has been the best part of the journey so far.


CV: How does being a high-profile DJ inform your music?

KW: It keeps me clued in to the “now” of the music world. Composing on my own sometimes sees me living in my own bubble, so DJ-ing is a way for me to stay in touch with things that are current. I pick up quite a bit of production tricks just from listening to the stuff I play.


CV: What can we expect from Skulk, the Hulking’s live show?

KW: High energy. While we have a pretty wide range of styles that we perform, it’s always a set that leaves you breathless and wanting more.


CV: How can folks be reminded about your B-List party?

KW: Search for me on Facebook as “Kirk Wagner – DJ ChaotiQueer.” Add me as your friend and say hello. I’ll make sure you get all my monthly invites!


Skulk, the Hulking performs with Lord and Master at:

Courage, my Love
@ The Phoenix
447 E 13th St.

Thursday, July 29th
9pm
no cover

with DJ Damian [Buddies], all night long

Broadway Barks

By West Village Bill

Shubert Alley was overtaken by pooches and kitties yesterday during the 12th annual Broadway Barks. BB is an event started by Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters to promote animal adoption, and if I didn't already have two woofers of my own, I would almost surely have taken home one of the dogs that were first walked around to meet the public by volunteers from rescue organizations and then introduced onstage by Broadway stars.

My nonanimal companion—hee hee—Tony and I had fun petting on some wonderful dogs. I found myself drawn to the gentle-giant Great Danes from the Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League. And also to some adorable mutts, including a shy collie mix named Sam who was chided by Memphis's Chad Kimball for lying too far downstage and facing away from the audience.

Tony liked the beagles from Cascade Beagle Rescue, East, best of all. The CBRE volunteer in the photo at right told us she thought the beagle in her arms had been about ready to fall asleep because she had felt her getting heavier and heavier. Aww.

I was happy to see the BARC shelter in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, well represented at Broadway Barks. I got my terrific and now completely irreplaceable basset hound, Rudy, there a little over three years ago. I told some of the BARC volunteers that I had adopted Lewis—Rudy's name at the time—the basset, and a couple of them said they remembered him. Adopting Rudy was one of the best things I've ever done.

Even though I'm much more of a dog lover, I can't overlook the kitties. There were a half dozen or so trucks from rescue organizations lined up along 45th Street with cats in need of homes. Lisa, a volunteer with NYC Siamese Rescue, told me about Maximo, a Ragdoll/Snowshoe/Siamese mix who fell out of a window and onto the FDR Drive and had to have one of his front legs amputated. Lisa said she has helped foster Maximo, and he's a very sweet cat.

Before I roll out more pictures of dogs and celebrities after the jump, I'm thrilled to report the encouraging statistic that two out of every three animals brought into city shelters now find homes compared with a horrific 74 percent that were euthanized in 2002. Peters and MTM said that reversal was thanks to the efforts of the wonderful groups taking part in BB.

For sale: $30 million

So this is what she was referring to when she issued the invitation to "come up and see me sometime." The Upper West Side mansion of Mae West is available.

Sing it Now While You Still Have a Song

by baad lamb

1975. Pop radio. Year of the Captain and Tennille and the Three Degrees. The meteoric rise of Barry Manilow, and the beginning of the long, slow descent into irrelevance of Elton John. FM radio was not yet micro-segregated by style and target market, nor corporate-pre-recorded and computerized, with identical set lists broadcast to 150 “local” stations across the country. Waybackthen, actual local stations still had local program directors and DJs that could determined what would be played and how often. But they did have the occasional syndicated show, and Sunday nights meant one thing - well two: First, evening church service (mandatory), and then, trying to rush my mother away from the lingering old folks (“it’s called ‘fellowship’, honey”) as fast as possible to catch as much as possible of American Top 40 (or Casey-mental-Kasem, as my brother preferred to call him). Why? Because there were songs that had important positions and they needed to be recorded in notebooks. With luck, I might get at least the top 25 songs of the week written down.
Disco, Fire, Proust and video after the jump...

The New York Comic Shop

Green Lantern, DC Comics

Overheard this afternoon as I was walking the wall at Midtown Comics in Times Square, picking up my weekly stash:

Tourist: "Wow...we don't have comics like this where I'm from."
Friendly Comic Shop dude: "Where are you from?"
Tourist: "California."
FCSD: "You don't have comics in California?"
Tourist: "We don't have a comic shop like THIS in California."

I'm almost positive there are some pretty amazing, kick-ass comic shops in California, but I would note with pride that Midtown Comics is about as close to the Hub of the Universe for comic geekz as one can get.  And I even bumped into Heidi Klum there one day...so I don't even know how many fanboys heads just exploded.  Only in New York.

Annual Invasion on Fire Island

Check out the ordinarily more reserved New York Social Diary for the most delicious photos anywhere of the annual drag invasion on Fire Island.

(All photos by PatrickMcMullan.com)

Overheard in QNY - Ron-Ron Juice?

by cscfon

Three true Jersey Shore girls on the E train. (They are all overly tanned and vividly bleached. Each is showing midriff and their stylish tramp stamp tattoos. They are wearing tiny tight outfits. And those accents!) One girl starts to climb up and pretend to dance on a vertical metal pole in the subway car. The other two chat.

Girl Two: And I woke up naked and wet with an empty beer bottle in my hand and I had no idea where I was.

Girl Three: (completely serious) Oh my God. I am SO jealous.

Arctic Sheep Meadow - Blizzard of February 2006

Now where did we put that igloo?

Ahhhhhh, that feels better.

Venice for the Day

As you probably know, New York City is experiencing its second heatwave of the season (not counting the three July days we had in April).  In Harlem, where many people can't afford air conditioners or the accompanying bills, they have to find other ways to cool off.  Opening up a fire hydrant is a popular one, and kids aren't the only people I'll see cavorting in the resulting streams and fountains.  The one up the street from my place almost always gets opened and since it's right in front of a Fire Station, I suspect it has official sanction.

Yesterday, with the temperature edging towards 100F, and the humidity pushing it still higher, every single hydrant I passed in the neighborhood was open.  Every street had been turned into a creek.  Corners had pools where two or more rivers met, and at least one storm drain had been temporarily blocked to create a small pond.  There may have not been any gondolas, but for the day Harlem was a shallow Venice.

Below is the scene outside my building.  

Brooklyn Bill ----> West Village Bill, Part 2

By West Village Bill

I left Park Slope on Saturday, and I'm now in the West Village. Woot!

Man, did the move itself ever suck. I'll write up the whole crazy, long-ass story—with multiple tangents suitable for footnoting, which is my favorite kind of story :-)—over at Hawleyblog sometime in the days ahead. I'm just relieved that it's mostly over and that I'll soon be finished unpacking and will be able to focus on the fun job of enjoying my new neighborhood.

Midsummer Night Swing with LA 33 and DJ Turmix at Lincoln Center

The summer parade of free events has arrived. Just get yourself outside, and live music and dancing and party-crowds will be impossible to miss. Say it with me, everybody: "I Love New York City".

One of our favorite events is the Midsummer Night Swing program at Lincoln Center. If you want to be on the real dance floor and close enough to really see the band, it'll cost ya. But if  you just wanna jump and jive, salsa and meringue, tango and twist, there is plenty of extra space to show off, and the free party stretches from the Damrosch Park bandshell all the way back to the New York State Theater building.

The sound is good enough to hear the music wherever you are, but every year these events gets more popular, and Lincoln Center has continually made changes to accommodate the ever-growing crowds. If you expect to see the band up close, pay the money, because the huge sets and the dance floor obscure the stage. Otherwise, stay down in the steerage with the masses, and have a ball.

A few more photos after the jump...

What a Difference a YEAR Made

Last year, just after the opening of the newly gentrified High Line, my very first exploration there gave me this tantalizing peek onto the "rooftop terrace" of a nearby building. The fascinating collection of junk was only partially visible, even while I was standing in the forbidden planted area (wow, those rangers are quick!). Multiple mannequins, obsolete TVs, plastic furniture, the top half of a Statue of Liberty replica, old signs, and plenty of rusty metal seemed not just collected, but almost arranged. The place was a mess, for sure, but as one half of two who never met a homeless piece of junk they couldn't put in storage, to me it seemed oddly welcoming. And I just loved the ever-so-helpful "cracked" graffiti.

My mind wandered and wondered: Who lived here? Starving artist? Crazy old man? Starving crazy old artist? Did anyone still live there? Did they have junk parties where friends came over with Miller Lite pony 8-packs and smoked Larks while the "upper terrace" neighbor grilled stagnant-pond-caught bullheads and punkinseeds on his rust-covered tar-beach barbecue hibachi from W. T. Grants?

After being shooed away from the edge by the Heil-Line Gestapo, I was soon distracted by some new shiny thing and thoughtlessly left behind my dirty-rigid-foam-insulation and broken-scaffold-collecting friends to finish their feast without me.

Before and after photos, Dinah Washington and "Ronnie" Reagan as the story continues after the jump...

The Kids Are All Right

Tuesday night Bill and I attended a SAG advance screening of  The Kids are All Right.  Written by Lisa Cholodenko (who also directed) and Stuart Blumberg, starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo, the film is a quiet little gem that may end up getting a lot of people riled.  I suspect it will be a flash-point this summer in the ongoing debate over same-sex marriage.  I'm all for it, but I hope the lovely film involved doesn't get lost completely in the discussions it may inspire.  Like any good art, this movie never sacrifices complexity or nuance for the sake of an agenda.

Bening plays a high-powered physician (apparently both a surgeon and an ob/gyn), Moore (or 'your girl' as Bill calls her, knowing of my crush) plays her new-agey, somewhat lost wife.  Each of the women gave birth to a child using the same anonymous sperm donor; now eighteen, daughter Joni is eligible to request contact with her biological father, and though she is initially reluctant, she eventually gives in to her younger brother's urging.  Enter Ruffalo, a local restaurant owner and organic farmer, who proceeds to shake up the family, and expose fault lines in the mothers' marriage.

Overheard in QNY - No More Frowning

by cscfon


At a restaurant in Hells Kitchen during lunch. Two effeminate men chatting.

Man One: If you had told me that at 35 I’d be burying my 18 year-old son, I’d say you were crazy.

Man Two: Did you up your Tina?

Man One: No. I took up swimming instead.

Man Two: Great. Now you get to keep your teeth.

Still More Pride Photos

When they saw what he was wearing under his kilt!

(more after the jump)