I know there’s a 1 in 176 million chance of winning today’s record-breaking Mega Millions lottery for $500 640 million, but there’s something about buying that ticket (or multiple tickets) that really makes you think it’s going to be you.
Naysayers are mostly talking about how the odds are impossibly against you. “You are not going to win the lottery. Your lucky numbers are not going to hit. Your quick pick is not going to be special winner. Your investment in lottery tickets is not going to pay off,” writes Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan. According to one stat, imagine you have a friend in Canada and put that friend’s name in a container with the names of everyone else in Canada. You have a 5 times greater chance of choosing your friend’s name than winning this lottery.
But while so many writers are talking about the crazies who think they can win big, fewer are talking about the camaraderie this brings to our city and others. Where I work, for example, everyone is bonding over our office pool. Even my FedEx delivery man said “of course” he bought his ticket, and added, “See you Monday. Or hopefully not.” As one of my friends tweeted, “Lotto talk is on par with weather talk this week.”
Actually winning an amount this big might not be so great anyway. Since this is a record-breaking sum, the winner or winners will no doubt be immediately thrust into the public eye. It is 2012, after all. They will have to abandon social media, hire security, and appoint the best economic advisers. For the rest of their lives, they will have to go into seclusion, forever wary of relationships with others who may just want a slice of the cake. Where’s the fun in that? Maybe the conversation this brings around the watercooler today really is the best part.
But when I do win – and I’m pretty confident that I will – I’ll move to the south of France and start dressing like mid-’90s Michael Jackson. So if I suddenly stop posting on here, you’ll know why.
Hundred Waters was woven together under the spell of a viscous Floridian summer, from a home on its own in the woods amidst a city. The music sets sail into ancient seas, subtly shifting through worlds of howling silence, borealic tales, and briarpatched exotica, ultimately arriving into the arms of a caring embrace.
Nicole Miglis narrates the journey alongside Trayer Tryon, Paul Giese, Zach Tetreault, and Sam Moss, in Hundred Waters’ debut release. The album was composed, recorded, torn apart, reshaped, spat on, shined, and tucked in at their Gainesville home through a method of remote collaboration and thoughtful solitude, reconvening at the helm to gather their threads into rope, and pull.
Mr. Scruggs and Mr. Flatt probably reached their widest audiences with a pair of signature songs: “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” which they recorded in 1949 with their group the Foggy Mountain Boys, and which was used as the getaway music in the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde”; and “The Ballad of Jed Clampett,” the theme song of the 1960s television sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies.” (Mr. Scruggs and Mr. Flatt also appeared on the show at times.)
But he also helped shape the “high, lonesome sound” of Bill Monroe, often called the father of bluegrass, and pioneered the modern banjo sound. His innovative use of three fingers rather than the claw-hammer style elevated the five-string banjo from a part of the rhythm section — or a comedian’s prop — to a lead or solo instrument. What became known as the syncopated Scruggs picking style helped popularize the banjo in almost every genre of music.
Mr. Scruggs, who had played banjo since the age of 4, got his big break when he joined Monroe’s band, the Blue Grass Boys, in 1945. The band included Monroe, who sang and played the mandolin; Mr. Flatt on guitar; Howard Watts (a k a Cedric Rainwater) on bass; and Chubby Wise on fiddle.
Our friends over at Brooklyn Bass are throwing themselves a one year anniversary party that you should probably go to tonight. Its free!
From the invite:
As part of our one year anniversary, Brooklyn Bass will be hosting a night of House, Bass, and Techno music, starting the evening off right with DJ sets from the editors.
It’s gonna be super fun, come party with us!
EVENT: Brooklyn Bass 1 Year Anniversary
BILL: Braille, Background Sound, Spectacal, Judge Wise, Thomas, Evan Michael
DATE: 03/29/12
TIME:10PM-LATE
VENUE: Public Assembly Loft
VENUE ADDRESS: 70 N6TH St.
SUBWAYS: Bedford Ave. [L Train], Marcy Ave. [J, M, Z train]
Osekre & the Lucky Bastards - Photo by Chris Mather
This past weekend was an absolutely unreal weekend for music, fueled by our very own Aputumpu music festival. I just want to say thanks to everyone who was able to make it out. If you did, maybe we got to chat for a bit in between sets; I was there three of the four nights.
I had to miss Japanther on Sunday. Sorry guys. Word to the wise… don’t ever eat a pancake wrap for brunch. Sure, an omelet with sausage, ham, bacon and pepper jack cheese wrapped in a buttermilk pancake, doused in syrup SOUNDS awesome (and to be fair, it TASTED awesome), but it doesn’t mix too well with a stomach that just got done processing a lot of PBR and vodka clubs. I’ll spare you guys the details. But hey, I did manage to make it out to the other nights. SOME HIGHLIGHTS:
Osekre and the Lucky Bastards, who booked Aputumpu, stole the show Thursday night at Shea. My man Osekre knows how to get a crowd pumped up, no doubt.
Gothamist reports that police have charged Ryan Beauchamp with attempted assault (a misdemeanor) and harassment (a violation), not murder, for his involvement in last Friday’s deadly Bedford L station brawl. A misdemeanor carries a maximum of 1 year of jail time, while a violation is up to 15 days. Beauchamp has priors, including an Occupy Wall Street arrest in October and an earlier arrest in Connecticut.
This is the latest development after police first released a sketch, then a video, and then took Beauchamp in for questioning on Tuesday. As of yesterday afternoon one of the “WANTED” fliers still hung in the 1st Avenue L station.
With these charges come new details about the incident and Beauchamp’s background. While initial reports made it seem that both men were to blame and later accounts said Beauchamp was at fault, new witness accounts say Basin initiated the fight after Beauchamp bumped into him. One witness says “there was a point when it was over and Basin followed him.”
Beauchamp is 33-years-old, homeless, and originally from Westchester.
We previously posted about the Open Space Alliance moving this summer’s Waterfront concert series from East River Park to an industrial lot on Kent Avenue between N. 11th and N. 12th. Now OSA has announced that the new space will be called Williamsburg Park and released the first renderings of what the venue will look like.
Granted, the images have graphics right out of a Nintendo 64 game. And a major change is that this season’s venue doesn’t have a waterfront view of Manhattan. But some changes are good, like how there will no longer be a restricted area for drinking beer.
OSA also made its first band announcement, Swedish punk band REFUSED, who will be performing on June 18th. The series begins on June 1st.
The long anticipated return of the McCarren Park Pool - which opened in 1936, closed in 1983, and hosted some of the best summer concerts between 2005 and 2008 – is scheduled for June 28th with a ceremony at 11 a.m. According to Geoffrey Croft of the group NYC Park Advocates, the pool will accommodate 1,500 swimmers. Renovations to the pool, recreation center, bathhouse, and entry arch cost $50 million. Some of the rec center may even open in time for Memorial Day on May 28th.
Amenities at the new facility will include a volleyball court, beach, and spray showers. The rec center will have a basketball court, weight room, dance studio, cardio room, and “multipurpose community space.” Make sure to keep an eye out for decorative wood panels, which developers recycled from the Coney Island boardwalk.
As we previously posted, locals can enjoy the space year round, as the city has put out a call for proposals to turn the pool deck into an ice skating rink in the winter.
