Let's start at the very beginning (
a very good place to start). Met up with the lads for greasy fried bar food at the Blarney Rock, then off to see
Team America. When the bouncer checked my ID at the door of the theater, I knew we had walked into the goddamn Twilight Zone. Turns out the 8:00 show of
Team America is also a Lavalife.com "singles event." The dude is checking IDs because
beyond the theater door is a bizarre world of bad house music, cheesy people, and a free bar serving various flavors of Svedka vodka. Seriously.
In the theater. Despite the retarded name, the vodka's not bad, and now we are four drinks in. Unfortunately, that wasn't drunk enough to make the movie any good. Don't get me wrong, we were laughing pretty hard at first, but after the whole "puppet" thing wore off, the jokes were just stale. Making "fun" of Kim Jong Il, Michael Moore, and Alec Baldwin is pretty fucking weak when you get right down to it. I mean, who cares?
Puppet sex is hilarious, but this was no
South Park movie.
Anyway, after the movie we headed down to Snitch (a "rock & roll sports bar") for the Tarts of Pleasure's (
link and
link) new weekly, Stolen Transmission.
The pitch: open bar and James Iha and others spinning records.
The reality: open bar once you get this big dude in a leather jacket to write a little "x" on your hand, and full-volume Yankees-Red Sox game. They won't let the DJs start until the game is over. Allow me to reiterate:
FUCK BASEBALL. They finally relented somewhere around the eighth inning, and the DJ proceeds to play "Debaser"...
twice. Hey, works for me. Right about the time everyone I went with disappeared, the music got excellent, the Yankees lost, and I ran into some fun "party acquaintances" who wanted to talk about do-you-know-this-person and Pulp-is-so-great and all that goofy open-bar shit talk.
It was so weird having a fun night out totally hijack a mediocre night out and punch it in the face. It was like watching Joey Ramone reach down from heaven and bitch-slap the lead singer of The Killers.
Speaking of the DJ, James Iha was just wandering around the DJ booth, good-naturedly talking to everyone and just being Mr. Former Smashing Pumpkins Normal Guy With Blonde(?) Hair. The guy who was actually spinning did the simple excellent-DJ trick: "other" songs by the usual bands. Everyone plays Franz Ferdinand, but he played "Auf Achse." Everyone playes the Ramones, but he played "I Wanna Live."
Thumbs up, my good man. Well played.
Aaaanyway, I'm happy for the Red Sox and I'm so glad all these fucking Yankees fans had to eat shit. That sounds a little harsh, but the management strictly enforces a no-Yankees policy. (BTW, if you're really interested, here's a
"Curse of the Bambino" timeline.) The management is also drooling over the start of basketball season.
How awesome is the first week of November??? November 1: Le Tigre show at Irving Plaza. November 2: Election Day, Deerhoof at the Knitting Factory, and the release of the new DFA compilation. November 3: The Futureheads at the Canal Room. November 4: The Magic Johnson's play an Urban Professionals Basketball League double-header on the same day the NBA season starts (Good fucking omen!!). November 5: The staff reception in the
new MoMA! November 6-7:
WFMU Record Fair.
Best. Week. Ever.
**UPDATES** Talk about good news!
Graham Coxon and Blur are getting back together!! Also, last night the L train was shut down and I was so pissed I wandered into the Virgin Megastore and bought the Bloc Party EP and the new Ted Leo + The Pharmacists album,
Shake the Sheets. Reflections and musicrit musings forthcoming.