On a non-rainy day in June, I braved the annoying crowds of tourists in Times Square to attend a mostly New Yorker filled event: the annual Bubble Battle!
The idea is really simple – just show up…
blow bubbles…
and enjoy!
Check out the bubbles in real time! Who knew there could be so many bubbles in one place?!
Click here for more of my photos from the bubble battle!
It’s hard to write about the good times you have when there are so many good times going on at the same time! I went to Boston two weekends ago to participate in the Second Annual Boston Scavenger Hunt put on by the elusive Banditos Misteriosos. I was living in Boston this time last year and attended the first one and had so much fun that I had to go back! I ended up staying in Boston an extra day, and then came back to NYC to work on the always amazing Siren Festival, and didn’t have much time to blog between 8-14 hour days consisting of alcohol runs, buying all the plastic cups Kmart had to offer, counting out beer tickets, winning $10 in a foosball bet, and sorting out band gift bags! It’s hard work you guys!
So back to Boston! Teams are formed in groups of 10, and since I only had three friends coming to meet me we got some friendly strangers on our team, but they were all a lot of fun! We all admitted to not really knowing much about Boston, but as we got our manifest with our checkpoint clues, we all pretty quickly seemed to figure out most of the answers! Some questions were as follows:
Hooray! Round of applause! L’chaim! – Cheers!
“How do you expect to win the race when you are walking along at your slow, slow pace?” – Tortoise & the Hare statues in Copley Square!
For three hours we ran all over Boston, allowing for the two clues that only had fifteen minute windows, and snapping pictures for our Photo Challenges in between checkpoints! At each checkpoint you are given a Photo Challenge, and if you’re able to get a photo of that challenge you get an extra point towards your total score. Some of our challenges were things like “Arm wrestle a stranger”, “Find an oxymoron”, “Person with the most Red Sox gear” etc. It was fun and we were able to get a photo of every photo challenge!
At 4pm we made our way back to the park where we all gathered in the beginning and awaited the tallying of the scores, and to our surprise we came in THIRD place! About 50 other teams got beaten by The Ugly Stick (our team name, haha!). Unfortunately there were no prizes to be awarded, but simply having a day of fun is reward enough ;)
The rest of the weekend was filled with hanging out with all my Boston buddies I don’t get to see enough! Good times for sure =D
This past weekend was the 4th of July, which in the US brings thoughts of fireworks, parks, BBQs, beaches, and to us this Saturday morning, a HOT DOG EATING CONTEST!!! Yes, the world famous Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Competition takes place at Coney Island in front of Nathan’s flagship store each yeah on the 4th of July. It’s been a tradition since 1916 to have the contest at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island, making this year the 94th annual hot dog eating contest.
We arrived about two hours before the event started, getting our place in the large crowd that was to grow even larger as the competition neared. They had some cheesy entertainment before the big event; trampoline jumpers, dancing hot dogs, bunette cheerleaders, and even one of the contestants rapped about eating food. There was even an announcer who ended up on a riser that rose at least 40 feet above the crowd. I felt like I should be at Kaiju Big Battel or something, but I love it when silly things are made even more over the top.
Though there were about 20 contestants total, the main bout was between Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut who have been battling it out for number one the past few years. Kobayashi had won six years in a row until 2007 when Chestnut won two years in a row. Would Kobayashi be able to come back after a two year absence of number one, or would Chestnut continue to reign supreme?
The video I took above is of the last 30 seconds of the race, though somehow without the zoom on. It was a close race with Kobayashi coming out with a lead in the beginning and ending up being just bites behind Chestnut for the remainder of the race, but the end total ended with Kobayashi 64.5 hot dogs, and Chestnut eating 68 in 10 minutes – a new world record!! The previous record had been at 61, yet the Nathan’s billboard said 66 since apparently the two champions went into an overtime dog-off last year because they tied, and the first to eat five dogs (Chestnut) won! A very exciting race this year, and if I end up going again next year I definitely plan on getting there early to get a better view.
The rest of my day was a bunch of fun. We all went to have a beer at Cha Cha’s on the boardwalk, and then went to see the Coney Island Side Show which I had never attended. That was pretty fun and funny and I would recommend checking that out as part of your trip to Coney Island (most of my friends were surprised I had never been, seeing as how I go to Coney Island at least twice a summer).
Then since we were in the area and I had free admission my friend and I checked out the NY aquarium! I almost forget that NY has an aquarium since it’s so out of the way from the other main museums in Manhattan, and even though I’ve lived in NY for most of my life I had never been! I do love aquariums and water and looking at fish, but this was probably the least impressive aquarium I’ve been to. Since we went later in the afternoon some of the animals had gone in for the day, we could barely catch a glimpse of the penguins all the way in the back, but we did see an otter, seals and walruses (walri?), and of course lots of feesh!
And what is the 4th of July without fireworks? Specifically fireworks from a rooftop in Bushwick. I was super bummed to hear that the Macy’s fireworks were moving to the Hudson this year (another reason to hate Jersey), but we were still able to see parts of it by the skyline. And there were fireworks from all other directions to keep us entertained as well. Oh and the smoke from the building in Williamsburg catching on fire too! How crazy. Usually my July 4ths are pretty dull, but this year was an action packed day, hooray! Good times indeed.
How nice has the weather in NYC been the past few days?! I’m completely exhausted from walking around all day on Friday, Saturday, and today. In two days I enjoyed some time in 7 different parks!! Hopefully everyone else found excuses to be outside this weekend!
So continuing from my last post, after we visited the Cathedral of Junk, we made the 30-40 minute drive outside of Austin to visit Hamilton Pool, part of a collapsed grotto with a still-standing pool of water and a trickling waterfall. After paying admission into the camping ground, you could hike a little ways to get to the pool area, or you could hike in another direction to make your way over to Hamilton Creek. We only had time to visit the pool and took our time hiking through. On the way, I took a picture with the cacti because, along with palm trees, I’ll always enjoy “foreign” flora.
We finally got down to the pool and it was kind of odd to see a mini little beach area with beautiful green water underneath a cavernous overhang. After taking some pictures, I noticed that a turtle had come up to the beach. I went over slowly and he shrunk halfway back into his shell, but stayed out enough that I don’t think he minded me picking him up, and Mai and I took a couple pictures petting and holding the turtle. Though he must have had enough of us, because when I put him back in the water he promptly swam away! (I think only a film photo was taken of this since my digital camera was dying.)
I had been picturing more waterfall action to be going on, but I guess because it was still early in the season there were just a few areas of steady water flow. You can also swim in the water if you want to, and the woman who we spoke to on our way in informed us that it was “a chilly 64 degrees.” I tried not to scoff, that’s nothing when you’re used to swimming in the cold Atlantic ocean! However there was one problem, I didn’t have my bathing suit! There was only one other guy there and he had brought his trunks to go swimming, and I was jealous. Finally Mai convinced me that I’d regret not going in, so I took off my pants, knotted up my shirt and jumped in! It wasn’t too cold to start, but it always ends up hitting you a little once your torso is immersed.
Even though I had to walk back up the trail and sit in the car for about 40 minutes with a wet butt, it was definitely worth it! What a great place to go on a really warm day to sit and relax for a while though! Check out this video to see how peaceful it was:
Once we made our way back to Austin, we had sushi for dinner which was delish, then to Annie’s for ice cream and photobooth photos, and then to meet up with some other friends at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for Music Mondays. I was pretty excited to go to this theater because you can order food during the movie and they bring it to you in your seat! So I passed on ice cream at Annie’s and ordered a milkshake at the movie theater that they brought to me during the movie. And this time I didn’t have to feel bad about sneaking it in (I’ve sneaked many foods into the movies, including Taco Bell, haha).
All in all, a great way to end my Austin vacation! I am anxiously awaiting to get back all the film I shot while in Austin (getting the rolls back on Wednesday!) so I will definitely post a link to those photos if they turn out to be any good!
– Alix!
Sorry for the lag in between posts, but this story comes in two parts! Part deux will be added soon so as not to kill your already waning attention span.
Think back to March, after SXSW ended I still had a couple of days to hang around Austin. That Sunday we went to Flatstock, the poster exhibit that they have going on during the last few days of SXSW, featuring lots of poster designers and many many different styles of gig posters that you can buy. By the last day there were slim pickins left, but I still got a cool 18×24″ poster with copper ink for $5!
That Monday we went out to brunch, and then made our way to the Cathedral of Junk. It’s usually closed on Mondays, but we didn’t know that until we got there. Luckily the man who owns the place was working in the back and let us in. Apparently he has been building this large “cathedral” literally of junk for over 20 years.
The structure is pretty impressive, actually. At two or three various points you can climb up higher into the structure, and it’s cool to really look around and see what kind of junk has been incorporated into the building, like road signs, bicycles, typewriters, CDs, toys, holiday lights, chairs, guitars, car parts, etc. There were even some soda can windmills that reminded me of how they made the sensors fly in the movie Twister.
I’m curious as to what made this guy start working on this, and I’m really amazed at the skill he has to make a pretty sturdy structure out of these old, rusty materials. I love seeing “random” things like this and was so happy that my friend knew how much I’d would love checking this out.
Click here to see more photos of the Cathedral at my Flickr photo gallery. I also have more photos to add once I get the rolls of film from my Holga back!
So that was my Cathedral of Junk experience! I’ll post again in a day or two with part deux of my last day in Austin!
I can finally think about SXSW last week without feeling exhausted! Below is just a fraction of the bands I saw. The week is such a blur that I’m already forgetting all the bands that I saw, both good AND bad! But I tried to provide links, pictures and video of all the bands I saw so it’s almost like you were there with me (except you were probably much less drunk ;)! This is a long one, so beware!
I actually arrived in Austin the Monday before the the music part of SXSW started. That was cool because I was able to go out and see my friend Marko DJ for a little bit, and also where I met a couple people I’d hang out with for the rest of the week! We danced to his set and then made our way to a few other places throughout the night to get our groove on which was a lot of fun and we ended up being out until 4am (note: bars in Austin close at 2am, I forgot that seems to be the norm outside of NYC) drinking free beers at the PureVolume House! And there was a group of guys dancing who were basically having a dance-off and they were AMAZING to watch. I wish I had half of their skills!
White Denim
On Tuesday night I saw White Denim at Ms. Bea’s. I had only heard of them, though figured that since they were playing a Todd P event that they were probably going to be good, and they were great! Their music sounds a lot different on their site than it did live (I’m hoping this is the right White Denim that I linked to!), but I really like both! Live it was much more jangly garage rock, and had I had any friends there I probably would’ve been in the back spasm dancing along! Then I spent the rest of the night at Red 7 where I saw Mike from MXPX’s new “alt-country” band which was cute and upbeat, then saw my friend play in Death in the Park, which is the singer from Hot Rod Circuit’s new band. I stayed a little longer to see a Minor Threat cover band with members of Gallows and Rise Against taking turns singing songs. While I’m definitely not that punk, it was still interesting to watch people (and the singer from Gallows) go crazy during the songs.
Yelle
Wednesday was finally the first official day of music at SXSW and I started it off (I think) by seeing Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head at Maggie Mae’s. I had heard about this band for a while but didn’t really know what they sounded like, and they turned out to be really fun upbeat dance funness! I really enjoyed their set and was bummed I wasn’t able to catch them again during the week. They have pretty random songs like “Sophisticated Side Ponytail” and “Iceage Babeland,” but these songs make me dance, not think, so it’s okay!
Right after NPSH, Yelle was up next! I’ve loved Yelle for a while and was finally able to see her this past September in Boston, and since she is from France I took this opportunity to dance my boots off, even though it was still quite early in the day. I think I started a dance party up in the front, and I even introduced Yelle to my friend who hadn’t heard of her before and ended up loving her once it was over. I ended up seeing her close out the Perez Hilton party at the end of the week too and didn’t spare any dancing there either!
After Yelle we high-tailed it over to the next venue to try and catch Superdrag, but unfortunately they ended up being late and had to cancel their show, and I wasn’t able to see them the rest of the week either which was sad. But that left me time to go over and see The Thermals! I’ve seen them a couple of times since CMJ in 2006, but they still put on a good show and it’s so fun to sing along to their songs live. The new songs also sounded really good and I’ve been enjoying their new album on Kill Rock Stars.
The Thermals
Thursday was a bit of a slower day. My friend Mai and I ended up getting into this VIP party where they had free food off of a fixed menu and free breakfast drinks, so I overindulged and had a HUGE burger and 4 bloody marys. I mean, when the bartender asks if I want a free refill on my bloody mary, how can I say no?! So that slowed me down in the morning for seeing bands that seemed to be on the opposite side of Austin from where I was. But I ended up over at Stubb’s for the Spin party where I caught the end of Passion Pit, and was very excited to see Justin from the Darkness’ new band called Hot Leg and they didn’t disappoint! They weren’t quite as over the top as The Darkness was, but Justin still rocked the black studded leather jumpsuit unzipped to the belt as seen below:
Hot Leg
I was not expecting, but secretly hoping that they might play I Believe In A Thing Called Love, but luckily they didn’t, because if they had I would have exploded. I rock that jam at karaoke quite often, and wouldn’t have been able to resist jumping over the front barricade and trying to claw my way onstage to sing with Justin. So yes, it was good for all of us they didn’t play it! Moving on… I spent some time at the Fader Fort and saw Late of the Pier who I thought were kinda meh, and I also saw Tricky who was good, but a little too mellow for my mood at the time. I eventually ended up going to Austin Ballet to catch Ninjasonix, The Death Set, and Monotonix (who I wrote about earlier). I don’t really need to explain much more about that one, but if you still need clarification, it was definitely the best show I saw all week.
The Matches playing on the street
Friday morning I went to the Village Voice party where I was able to get my free food intake for the day and listened to Bear Hands who I thought were pretty good. I need to check out more of their stuff myself. A little while after that I was FINALLY able to catch King Khan & the Shrines after at least 3 or 4 failed attempts! They have a girl who just dances onstage. How do I get that job? Life goal: be in a band where my job is to DANCE!!! So awesome.
Then I went to see the new supergroup Tinted Windows (with Taylor Hanson, James Iha, Bun E. Carlos, etc). I was talking with a few people there about them and I didn’t think they were anything great, but for a power pop band they aren’t too bad (though I’m personally not a huge fan of Taylor’s voice). Check out a video I took of them covering The Buzzcocks’ “I Don’t Mind”
Then later that night I ended up at the Red Bull Moontower party. I had to sit through some terribly boring bands, and then The Von Bondies played, I didn’t realize they haven’t had a new album since Pawn Shop Heart, so they played a lot of material from that, along with some new stuff. I’m excited to hear a new album from them! Been listening to them a lot recently. While there I also abused the free photobooth privledge while waiting for friends to show up, haha.
The Von Bondies
Saturday was a good day, we had another free burger and drinks, I ran into Bryan and we checked out Flatstock. I tried to get into the Rachel Ray party since there was a pretty good lineup for the show all day but wasn’t able to make it in. I was, however, able to watch Alex from Ima Robot’s new band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros through the open window at Maggie Mae’s. Their sound wasn’t what I expected from him, it was much more similar to Broken Social Scene (especially with so many people onstage). But they were fun and I need to listen to their songs a little more on their MySpace.
Peelander-Z
After that I went to see Peelander-Z again and they were as much fun as the first time, even if I didn’t get to go onstage with them this time!
Peelander-Z
After that I didn’t have much else scheduled so I just hung out at the Fader Fort for a while, drinking free beers and talking to some people around me. Diplo DJed for a while since Rick Ross didn’t show up and his set was really good. And finally Kanye West took the stage. He put on a good show and performed for almost an hour and a half, however he only played two singles, and they were the last two songs that he played. After about 45 minutes I was getting quite bored with all the music that I didn’t know and had he thrown in a single here and there I think I would have enjoyed the set much more. Check out a video of Heartless below:
After that I jumped in a cab to head over to the Perez Hilton party, which was apparently quite exclusive (and I’m still not sure how I managed to get into that one!). It took place in an old Safeway building which was pretty cool. I think I got there when Solange was playing, and didn’t really care to see any of the bands playing that night (I had already seen Little Boots earlier in the week, she’s too pop for my taste) except for Yelle again. A little while later my friends and I staked a spot on top of a swingset they had set up in the back, and Perez came out and announced that Kanye West was a surprise guest. By this time I had consumed more free alcoholic beverages, so I was much more excited when Kanye came out this time. I believe he played 5 songs, and at least this time he played Stronger along with the two singles from his new album. Check out Heartless from the Perez party:
After Yelle played around 3am we went home to finally sleep in for a little bit!
Sunday we took it easy and met up with Mai’s friends in Hymns as they took some photos and filmed for a music video. Then we ended up at an art space / free BBQ where the So So Glos played. I’m glad I saw them because they were really fun. We totally made their set a thousand times better by bringing in the strobe light that was going on in an empty room into the room where the band played. So much better!
The Perez Hilton party in between acts
Then we ended up eating a late dinner at Maudie’s Tex-Mex which was filled with people, including all of Hot Leg! I wanted to say something to Justin but never found the right time, and then before I knew it they had left already. Totally missed out on my chance, I’m still regretting not saying anything sooner, haha. Ohh well, I’ll get over it.
And I believe THAT was the last thing relating to SXSW that I did while in Austin! Phew!! I’ve got an update coming about what I did my last day in Austin though, which has nothing to do with music at all! But they were still some very good times.
So thanks for reading this if you did, I know it’s excessively long. If you were at SXSW did you see any of these bands too? What did you think? What were some bands I missed that I should have seen? Let me know in the comments!
Oh and don’t forget to check out a few more of my photos from SXSW over at my Flickr set!
– Alix!
It’s the last day of SXSW! Obviously I have much to update on but definitely no time for that right now. So I will give you a preview of two videos that I did not take of Monotonix from Tel Aviv, Israel, who I saw Thursday night (or should I say Friday morning) starting at 2:45am. The show was at Ballet Austin and inside it was the sweatiest thing you can imagine, you can even see the windows all fogged up. The show eventually got shut down by the cops, but it was still a great time while it lasted. These videos can explain way more than I can in words, but still doesn’t capture the essence of being there::
Awesome, right?
I also recorded a quick voice recap yesterday morning that you can listen to by clicking here and it will stream.
Rad! I will definitely catch everyone up more in depth but for now I gotta run!
– Alix!
When I heard about The Great Ice Box Derby going down in Central Park two weekends ago, I thought it was going to be something as amazing and crazy as the Idiotarod, though this being the first annual Ice Box Derby should’ve given me a hint. It was an awkward sight to see as there were more photographers than racers, however the racers who showed up were full of spirit and raced multiple times and still made it a good time!
I believe the main point of the race was to create your own “vehicle”, using a base like a skateboard (or two!), big wheel, shopping cart, etc. The above was my favorite, an un-aerodynamic cardboard triangle! And yes, someone was riding in there too (note the shoe sticking out in the front)! Unfortunately this one barely survived the first leg of the race and didn’t make it to race the next few times, as pieces flew off left and right. I give it points for creativity though!
The above was my favorite racing vehicle: a sweet lawn chair on top of a skateboard (see a better picture of it here). I’m sure it’s easy to move side to side for steering, the only thing it’s missing is a cup holder! The big wheels stole the race in terms of speed but I think this one held its own as well. The racer also had a good style that matched his chair board.
For more photos check out my Flickr set here!
Who knows if this will happen again next year, but if it does I may try to build something myself, perhaps involving an office chair and streamers! Something with pizazz and flair! Haha ;)
Last week I saw the Japanese band Peelander-Z for the first time at a private party. I’ve had multiple opportunities to have seen them live before, but last week was the first time I actually did. Now I am KICKING myself for not having seen them every chance I’ve had. They were SO much fun. I didn’t know any of their music going into it, all I knew was that it was punk, which it was. But their songs are super fun as well, and easy to yell along to. Songs like Mad Tiger, S.T.E.A.K. and Karaoke Party have easy repeating choruses that they encourage you to chant along with. And if you aren’t sure what you’re supposed to be saying, they have signs to go along with some of their songs!
They run into the audience a lot which is always fun. At one point they had a huge rope and had some people limbo under it and others jump rope. Later, Peelander Red jumped on top of the bar, and the bartender just kept pouring drinks like nothing was happening (and it was a pretty small bar area too!). They even had a bowling pin costume and set up 10 pins and Peelander Yellow (as the huge bowling pin) ran and slid into the bowling pins! Ridiculous and fun!
They also bring people onstage to play their instruments while they jump into the crowd for the human bowling, so I volunteered to play bass and it was awesome! Did I mention that I went to this show alone? Haha. Thanks so much to the dude who I handed my camera to for taking pictures!
Definitely check out Peelander-Z next time they come through your town! Even if you don’t know their music going into it (like I did) you will still have a good time guaranteed. Click here for more of my photos from the show!
Over the past four days I have gone to five shows in a row! Keeping in mind that they would all be a good time, I made an effort to try and give you some visual aids to help you feel like you were there. Let me know if you dig ‘em, and if so I will continue to try and take some A/V samples for y’all. Let me tell you about the good music times!
First on Friday was Tim Fite. I first saw them at SXSW last year playing with Man Man on the recommendation from my friend. I was very impressed with his live show, both entertaining, and a little weird (at first), but very fun! Since March last year I’ve seen him 8 or 9 times, including booking him to play at my school. His shows are always a good time, and even though I know what to expect by now, it’s always fun to see how other people react. Along from watching him and “Sexy Leroy” onstage, he has some video shorts in between songs, and cloned backup singers that show on a projector that add to the visual stimuli. Plus the songs have a great musical range, from acoustic to hip hop to rock. Check out a video from when he played at my school in September (audio NSFW):
My favorite line from this song: “Even though we both sound exactly alike, is that Jadakiss or is that Tim Fite?!”
Also it’s a bummer you can’t see how they use images on the screen :P
Saturday night I hit two shows, but the first was a little meh, so I won’t mention it. But from there I ventured with some friends back into Brooklyn to dance the night away to Chicago remix duo The Hood Internet. I saw them open for Flosstrodamus at CMJ two years ago and they had some great (and unexpected) remixes like The Thermals vs. Katy Perry and Estelle vs. the Ting Tings. You can download all of their mix tapes at their website and have your own dance party!
Sunday night I went and saw Vince from Army of Me play acoustic. I’ve been a fan of his/AOM for many many years now and he still doesn’t disappoint. I am generally not a fan of acoustic stuff, but Vince makes it hard to resist. He played songs from AOM’s most recent album acoustic, some of the new demos that are on their MySpace, and debuting “the greatest song I’ve ever written – so far.” I wish I had gotten that one recorded because I also think it’s a new favorite. But here’s a video of one of the new songs that I also like a lot, tentatively titled Song for a King:
I also have to give a shout out to Lights Resolve who headlined the show. I’ve seen various forms of this band over the years, and I must say I was impressed with the progression of their music to its current state which has dropped the pop and gained the rock. Definitely keep an eye out for them in the future.
Then tonight I saw Jimmy Eat World play Clarity in its entirety, and then some. I’m only a couple steps above a casual JEW fan, but tonight’s show was phenomenal. Clarity is definitely my favorite album of theirs, and it was great that they played the whole thing from start to finish, and the album was released exactly 10 years ago today (2/23/99!). All of the songs sounded amazing, so full and rich. After playing Clarity straight through, they played a handful of other songs, and No Sensitivity was one of them! I’m thinking they may rotate the songs they play after in each city, but I’m glad that was one of them, it’s a good one. Check out a clip of Goodbye Sky Harbor that I took:
Phew! I hope you aren’t audio/video overloaded! I definitely recommend you check out all of the bands I mentioned since they are probably coming to a city near you very soon!