This NY Life

Thanks to our friend, and Planet of the Geeks chief Mike, we were given some tickets to see Cat Power a few Fridays back at The Town Hall. Some thoughts on that to come, but first a word about The Town Hall.

The building finished in 1921 seating about 1500 people and listed as a National Historic Site since 1980, is my new favorite venue in NY. We have been there many times before for shows like Wilco, Liz Phair (Cat Power opened), Aimee Mann and Pink Martini, but it never hit me until last time we were there what a treasure the building is. If you ever find yourself there, make a point to go to the balcony level and look at the presentation of shows past. The gallery features historic reproduced programs of shows by 21 year old Bob Dylan in 1963, Billie Holiday listed as vocalist for a “Jazz Concert” in 1942, Ravi Shankar, Thelonious Monk, and the list goes on.

In addition to musical acts, The Town Hall also was (and is) a place for presentation and political debate. This year Al Gore was in town talking about global warming and plugging his movie An Inconvenient Truth. However in the past there have been such topics debated as “Should the Communist Party be Outlawed in the United States” with speaker Joseph R. McCarthy in 1947 and “What is Humanity’s Greatest Need Today?” in 1938 with author Pearl Buck among others. The earliest meeting shown was with Margaret Sanger in 1921, who was a very outspoken proponent of birth control and is credited as being the founder of the “birth control movement”. 1921! I find that amazing. There was a great deal of controversy attached to Ms. Sanger’s speech, as would be expected considering the time, but the photograph of her shows her mouth covered with a piece of tape (put there by her) in addition to her short flapper style haircut considered at the time to be a symbol of dissent in and of itself. Really fascinating stuff.

You can see more of the gallery at The Town Hall website, and though it will be closed for July and August, I highly recommend seeing a show there and can’t stress enough the importance of supporting such an important, historic contributor to New York City and the entire country.

“I heard on NPR some time ago that its a marketing ploy big large brewers to serve and market beer ice cold to deaden the tastebuds so I drink beer at room temperature ergo I don’t drink beer when I am hot, I would much rather have water or a cocktail”

My eyes rolled pretty much instantly, particularly at his use of the word “ergo”. The thought of having a Bloody Mary or a Makers & Ginger after a long summer bike ride is gross, but I think this guy got the story pretty much right. There is no doubt in my mind that “large brewers” (Anheuser-Busch, Coors, etc.) market their beer to be consumed ice cold, and white wine manufacturers sometimes bet on their wine being served cold as it hides imperfections.

That being said, there is nothing like a co-cold one on a hot day and nothing like a 45-50 degree Hennepin on a cool day. Its all about choosing the best beer for the job.

HI:   Need a beer, Glen?

GLEN:    Does the Pope wear a funny hat?

Hi considers this.

HI:   ... Well yeah, Glen, I guess it is kinda funny.

Every weekday I walk through Times Square, and see the “Hey, do you like stand up comedy” guys, trying to snare people, and wonder if that method actually works. The only people I have ever seen speaking to them always have one half of their body pointing in the opposite direction.

Also regarding Times Square, I wonder if it will be like VJ day when the war finally ends? A romatic thought, but not likely since NY is not the end point for a lot of soldiers coming back from overseas as it once was.

I was left in awe after I saw this article yesterday and, despite the inteviewers goading, Mr. Berg remained calm and rational.

Matthew Friedberger (The Fiery Furnaces) has two (yes, two) upcoming albums and fluxblog has some thoughts on them. Matthew is incredibly prolific, like in a Robert Pollard sort of way, and given he is one half of one of the most interesting bands I have listened to in the past few years, I’m really looking forward to checking the records out.

Here is some information on a planned tribut to one of the most important people regarding moden urban planning, Jane Jacobs. Sad that she is gone now…

This weekend is the 4th Annual Big Apple BBQ Fest and if the weather holds out, it looks to be bigger and better than years past. The organizers have expanded the streets that the fest wll be on adding 24th street between Madison and Park. We have gone the past three years and have always had a good time, plus its for a worthy cause, the Madison Square Park Conservancy. Pictures to come.

If delicious slow roasted pork is not your thing, theres alsways the Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Though there is some tweaking still to be done, I think I have settled on a WordPress theme, any input is most definitely appreciated.

Finally, I took the advice of a friend recently to try a beer in the shower, and I have to say, it was indeed a treat. My beer of choice was a Brooklyn Pilsner.

Happy Weekend!

Bare with me, still trying to figure it out.

Anyone have any good resources?