The Brooklyn-based fusion of 60′s garage rock bands and post-punk minimalism that is I Am The Heatwill premiere their new music video for their song “Ghost Bear” this Thursday night at 10 p.m. at Monkeytown (58 N 3rd. St).
Led by director Stephen Spencer, “Ghost Bear” was filmed around Williamsburg and Bushwick with the band, their girlfriends, friends and extended social acquaintances all lending a hand and having fun. It’s got a healthy mix of snuggling females, pillow fights, fuzzy bears and a chase scene all thrown together with a Matt and Kim-esque level of intensity and color.
Here’s the trailer video (it’s live now):
For more on the band, I e-sat down with Jameson and Kevin Fey to talk about shooting the video, their favorite local haunts and their favorite bands. That interview, my friends, is after the jump.
After their Thursday premiere at Monkeytown, I Am The Heat will play July 11th at Clash Bar (NJ), July 12th at Union Pool, and July 31st at Lit.
The Opposite of Hallelujah indeed. From Lekman’s blog, via
I picked home one last souvenir from South America, it’s called the H1N1 virus. Wrongfully known as the Swineflue.
I was crossing the Atlantic when things started getting really bad, the fever was hallucinogenic and shaking me like a leaf and I grabbed the sleeve of the Air France steward. “I’m not feeling well, I should see a doctor” I said and the reply came as a brilliant mix of death anxiety and french rudeness: “Uh, yes… Terminal D… go there maybe… when we land”. After that the stewards and stewardesses took long detours. A ring of empty seats formed around me. Peoples eyes were kind but determined, they read “Poor you, I really wish you all the best but if you come near me or my kid I will have to stab you with this plastic fork”. I got up and went to the bathroom where I fainted.
Now I’m in quarantine for ten days. I can see the summer through my window and it’s just perfect. Summer is always best through a window.
It’s (almost) official: Al Franken is Minnesota’s newest senator, says the state’s Supreme Court. Sure, it’s possible that Norm Coleman may appeal and keep his now 238-day-old fight going. And, yeah, the Dems having 60 votes in the senate probably won’t be quite the magic cure-all some hope it will be. Still, for any of you (fine, us) hoping to reduce monthly health care bills by, I dunno, 100 percent at some point in the future, this is some damn fine news.
Here’s to you, Al. You’re good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, voters like you.
image via
From our mailbag. If you have pix or video, send them along.
Was arrested by police at L train today – ffor a 15lb pug that I took out of his tote bag for throwing up and overheating. Held for very long time – photos and video and about 12 cops involved. Pug okay,. but me, very sad,. They gave me 3 tickets – recesssion that bad?[...]
I took the day off of work, because my wrists are so swollen from the handcuffs that I’ve had trouble typing. Basically, I had my pug in a tote bag, but he overheated and threw up in the bag on the L Train btw 1st ave and Bedford. I took him out and had him in my arms – he’s a foster pug with a few health issues for curlytailpugrescue.org.
As I was walking up the stairs a transit cop grabbed my arms and pushed me up against a wall – I couldn’t produce ID (left my wallet at home) he handcuffed me. From there it went downhill fast and people were calling the police and taking photos and video.
They took my pug and he told me he was taking him to the pound where he would be “put down.” I was taken to the J stop headquarters. I wasn’t allowed to call a lawyer and I was put in a cell.
I was given 3 tickets: failure to produce ID, disorderly conduct, and failure to have dog in a containter. I have a court date in July and August.
My pug was returned. They had him behind their desks and were playing with him. [..]
I think that because so many people were yelling at the cop – it made him more angry, but he was yelling at me – “If you’re going to act like a woman I’m going to treat you like a woman.”
-name withheld by request
According to [Name Withheld], the arresting officer’s name is Witriol (badge number 942838). After seeing a photo, she identified him to us as Joel Witriol, who in 2006 became New York’s first Hasidic cop. [Name Withheld], 32, says Witriol would not accept her explanation that she was carrying the pug because it was sick, and she believes that the disturbed crowd that gathered to witness the arrest only made him angrier. She tells us, “He punched me in the back (there are bruises), he handcuffed me, and in the scuffle grabbed my breasts and pinched them.”
Melissa Randazzo, a speech language pathologist who lives in Williamsburg, witnessed the arrest and tells us, “something about it seemed very wrong. The cop’s tone seemed really inappropriate and he kept saying things like, ‘Are you going to act like a woman?’ She tried to walk away, and then he grabbed her and pushed her against the wall outside the turnstile.” Randazzo ran up to the street level to call 911 to, as she says, “call the cops” on Witriol, and soon some 20 officers had descended into the Bedford station. They then ordered the witnesses to disperse.
…will be performing on the Williamsburg Waterfront on July 26. If you’re already missing the McCarren Park shows, fear not. The pool parties return to a new location next month. Fuill schedule at www.freewilliamsburg.com/h2oshows.
Last night, I headed down to the bastion of avant garde theater and music St. Marks Church. There, I witnessed a collaboration between Kria Brekkan and fellow Icelandic performance/video artist √Åsd√≠s Sif Gunnarsd√≥ttir. Unfortunately, I only was only able to catch it halfway through the performance, so I was not able to completely comprehend the costumes, spoken word and video component. I think the title “Experimental Existence” is a pretty good clue as to what they are trying to achieve; in any case, the mood was very ethereal (as you would expect in such a setting). From Experimental Existence, Image c/o the Artists
As far as the music accompaniment goes, this was one of Brekkan’s better performances–very light and languishing the way I like her. She just so happens to be playing another show at the newest music spot at the Sycamore in Brooklyn on Wednesday. It’s a very intimate spot, so it should be a good show. More details here.
Sorry to be such a downer but here’s another obit, although one a little closer to home:
via Gothamist
Graffiti legend Iz the Wiz (real name Michael Martin) died at age 50 on June 17th, and has finally received an obituary from the Paper of Record. The artist tagged subway cars in the 1970s and 80s with his signature in “fat capital letters spray-painted on a door, below a window, across an entire car or even along the full length of a train.” Throughout his career as a graffiti artist, he got his tag on every line in the subway system more times than any other, which means if you didn’t ride in a car with his name, you probably saw one in a movie. He even did a two-car homage to John Lennon after he was killed in 1980, and was one of the first to work on the Phun Phactory building (now 5 Pointz).
After the jump is a video of Iz bombing his last train:
I’ve got a new piece over at The Morning News. I’d sworn off writing about hipsters, but got sucked back in by all the rage they still evoke. Here’s a taste.
You get the sense that if Jimi Hendrix were to show up in Echo Park today, he’d be publicly mocked in a style section piece on blipsters for wearing a feathered fedora. Duchamp would have given up as soon as he appeared on dadaist-or-douchebag.com. And Warhol would be demonized as a hipster gentrifier for setting up his factory in a Brooklyn warehouse. Critics continue to complain that we live in an era where all art is derivative and devoid of substance. But if Hendrix, Duchamp, or Warhol were alive today, we’d be doing our damnedest to derail their self-expression, dismissing them as fucking hipsters.
It’s (almost) official: 
