Urban Outfitters donating to BAM this weekend

You know how much I shop at Urban (more than I like to admit) and how much I love BAM (something I will gladly admit). Now one love can help another, this weekend only at the new Urban Outfitters store in Brooklyn. It is walkable from the Bergen G stop, which makes me happy!

Urban Outfitters opens its first store in Brooklyn today (166 Atlantic Avenue) and 10% of the first week of sales (through March 18) will be donated to BAM.

BAM has provided me with such amazing entertainment like Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, soon to be Paul Simon, as well as a great movie theater. Hopefully I will shop my heart out this weekend for them. <3

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Well, I ended up donating 20 buckaroos to BAM (and picked up a few cute items for Spring). Store was nice overall, but thought their shoe selection was lacking and there is no housewares section. And where were the bathing suits?!

Muzi Quawsom photo exhibit

Press Release on Yossi Milo Gallery website:

Focusing on “outsiders”, Ms. Quawson explores the various social, financial, and political structures that define American society. With photographs that possess a cinematic style, Ms. Quawson investigates the identity of Amanda Jo Williams, a young musician and mother in Woodstock, New York. After a chance meeting in Manhattan in 2002, Ms. Quawson created Pull Back the Shade over the course of the following four years while staying with Amanda in Woodstock and traveling with her around the country. By photographing Amanda’s relationships with her partner and young twin daughters, Ms. Quawson’s photographs comment on the frustrations of young motherhood, domesticity and social alienation.

The style of the photographs recalls the cinematography of New American Cinema of the 1970s and its aggrandizement of the anti-hero. Pull Back the Shade was first shown at the Tate Britain in London where the works were displayed as a slideshow, bringing their collective effect closer to that of a film. For this exhibition, the color negatives have been developed as Duratran prints and placed in light boxes; the result is a series of illuminated photographs that resemble stills from a color film.

Yossi Milo Gallery (525 W. 25th Street)
February 21, 2008–March 29, 2008

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I saw this exhibit last weekend and just had to say that I thought it was really great. Having the photographs illuminated in light boxes was the perfect touch and really did lend to the idea of film stills. I highly recommend checking it out while it is still at Yossi Milo.

Nick Cave Melted My Face

I saw Nick Cave seriously rock Terminal 5 at the 2008 PLUG Awards. I mean, seriously. Also saw Jose Gonzalez perform maybe 15 feet from me, which got me really giddy for this coming Wednesday's show at Brooklyn Masonic Temple (I still have an extra ticket, so I better find someone to go with me!).

Also in PLUG Award news, Jesse and I got caught by the Dell Lounge camera crew:

Wow, Jesse is way taller than me.

I feel a Rick Astley "Never Gonna Give You Up" Moment fast approaching!

Yesterday was a drunken affair with a microphone at Duet, Kyle's I-am-temporarily-back-in-Manhattan bash in Midtown. It was an amazingly fun time and Jesse and I both agree we need to do Round 2 with the Brooklyn crew. So Sunday, March 2nd it shall be. Why not waste away another Sunday afternoon in a small room with about 10 of your closest friends? Sidenote: the establishment does not take kindly to patrons that bring their own alcoholic substances. Solution: just be even sneakier about it the second time around.

Duet's Website makes me want to laugh, but then I feel like I am laughing at someone, and not with someone:

Everyone can be "Britney Spears"
and everyone can be "John Toravolta."

Aww, Duet. Please don't kick us out again.


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This was the most fun I have had in a long time. Having the chance to be a complete (drunken) goofball in the privacy of friends was just what I needed. Plus, Jesse and I's heartbreaking rendition of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" was a show-stopper. I suspect we shall be doing this again very soon!

Matthew Rogriguez; an unexpected delight

This past Saturday, Chrissy and I went to more galleries then I can count on one hand (though I think two hands would suffice). We stuck to the exhibits we had predetermined, with the exception of one that was in the same building as Scott Schuman's. I was struck by the window display of a giant, plastic lobster with a huge ashing cigarette in it's pincher, so I decided to explore further. What I found inside won me over. Descriptions written in pencil (sometimes erased and re-written) next to the art work displayed on the walls. "Monsters" that were more endearing than scary. A Christmas tree laid out in the middle of the floor with an angry, cartoonish face at the tip, and a bloody stump at the other end. Colorfully painted 8x8 baking pans. Every piece on display made me smile and laugh, all for different reasons.

Who was behind this feel-good scene? Urban-artist-turned-multi-medium-dabbler Matthew Rodriguez; that's who. Check out more of his art here on Flickr. Even better, check out his exhibit, Scruffy Kitty, at the Rare gallery until March 8th. I hope it makes you smile/laugh, too.

A Plethora of Photo Exhibits

Thank you, Christine, for the long list of photo exhibits!

John O'Reilly | Echo: Recurrent Themes 1965-2007
Julie Saul Gallery (535 W. 22nd St.), Closes February 16, 2008

Ken Heyman | Humanity
Sundarm Tagore Gallery (547 W. 27th St.), Closes February 23, 2008

Nicholas Nixon | Patients
Yossi Milo (525 W. 25th St.), Closes February 16, 2008

Sarah Pickering | Fire Scene
Daniel Cooney (511 W. 25th St.), Closes March 15, 2008

It shall be a busy, busy weekend!

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Saw them all; probably enjoyed Ken Heyman's the best even though it was very overwhelming with the amount of photographs on display!

Joanna Newsom, after the fact

I saw Joanna Newsom perform with the Brooklyn Philharmonic at BAM last night. It was a breathtaking performance and now I forever want to be Joanna's friend and learn to play harp so we can play harp duets (if people do such things in real life).

The reason I am writing an after-the-fact blog is to point out that there was an empty seat next to mine. In the second row! (So close, I felt I could jump up and pluck her harp strings). And my ticket was only $35. Someone could have joined me to share in the experience. Too late now. Sigh. No one will believe how great it was.