Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Brooklyn”

Sarah Dances – “The Rhythm of the Night”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_NhyjXgdmE

It’s been a little slow around here since I’ve not been working, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been sitting on my thumbs the whole time. Just, you know, most of the time.

Sarah and I made another dance video because why the hell not. Here it is. Enjoy.

I did learn one thing while doing this video: the DaVinci Resolve does not work unless you have a CUDA enhanced GPU. That means that the powerful ATI card I put in my Mac Pro will not allow me to run Resolve. That is incredibly annoying. I was going to use these videos as an opportunity to learn the software, but that will not be happening unless I pony up for Apple’s 1100 dollar Nvidia Quadro card (not going to happen).

Another thing! Why is Color rendering out so much extra? I have handles set to zero frames, but it’s still rendering out as much as a minute extra for clips that are only in the timeline for 5 frames. Bothersome. It makes what should be a fairly fast render into one that takes hours. Luckily, AMA in Media Composer 6.0.1 makes it really easy to overcut the ProResHQ renders without having to wait to reimport everything at 1:1.

God, don’t you love it when I ramble on about shop? Enjoy the video and look out for the next one.

The Click Clack Boom’s “Cryptic Condition”

I have these new buddies who have this band called The Click Clack Boom. They’re damn good. I like to describe them as a spacey, modern, prog-rock jam band if that makes any sense. Actually, that description sounds like complete bullshit, but go see them live and I think you’ll understand what I am talking about. I am totally right in this.

Today, during a slow moment at work, I youtubed them to see if they had any music videos. Lo and behold, they did. This is it. They have some other performance videos on their channel, but this is the only legit music video. I like it. It’s simple and beautifully shot and cut nicely. You should watch it and, if you live in places where they play, you should go see them. Check out their Facebook page. Support them.

Now good. Spread their names to the corners of the Earth.

Jeff Magnum is coming back to Brooklyn!

Man, I was super bummed when I missed Jeff’s Town Hall show recently. The show sold out within seconds and I was not nearly quick enough on the uptake to make it happen. Even worse, Charles ended up not going (what an asshole) and then didn’t even tell me he had extra tickets! WHAT AN ASSHOLE! But he made up for it yesterday when he sent me the link to the listing for Jeff’s January show at BAM. Everything is ok now, Charles.

Now, I don’t know if you’re a Neutral Milk Hotel fan or not (you should be), but I am so excited by the possibility of this show that I felt compelled to share it with all of you. Of course, I feel compelled to share all the time which is what has made this blog stay alive and bristling with nonsense.

Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea was one of those records that resonates strongly with people of a certain (read: my) age. I defy you to find anyone between 27 and 32 with even decent taste in music that doesn’t rank it as one of their all time favorites. Go, now! Before I get angry! Find someone! Anyone!

You can’t do it. That’s because they don’t exist.

Here’s a selection of my favorite tracks from the record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iipO9Tvk1EI

Don’t you want to go right now?!? I know I do.

Allswell, Williamsburg

Some folks I know are opening a restaurant in Williamsburg the week of November 7th called Allswell. It’s housed in the spot formerly occupied by Raymund’s, a Polish joint that was hardly worth venturing into, so no real loss with its demise.

They’ve been generating a fair amount of press based on the reputation of head chef Nate Smith’s work at The Spotted Pig. Check out some of the links below for a sampling of what people have been saying about the restaurant’s imminent opening.

New York Magazine – What to Eat at Allswell, Opening Next Week in Williamsburg

Brooklyn Exposed – Allswell That Begins Well: Pub Fare on its Way to Williamsburg

Eater – Nate Smith to Open Allswell in Williamsburg This Fall

Zagat – Nate Smith Opening Brooklyn Restaurant This Fall

Nearsay – All’s Well: Nate Smith Opening New Williamsburg Restaurant

Timeout New York – Slide show: What you’ll be eating this fall

That’s a lot of articles for a restaurant that isn’t even open yet, right?

This summer, while getting the restaurant business in order, Nate did a bunch of pop-up dinners around the neighborhood to generate interest. Successfully, too, I think. The food was certainly good, and, after hearing about the restaurant for so many months, I can’t wait for it to open and proceed to kick ass in the North Brooklyn restaurant scene.

Go like them on Facebook: Allswell

EDIT\\ I’ve updated the date of the restaurant opening. Looks like I got a little excited there.

A Letter to My Landlord Frank That He Will Almost Definitely Never Read

Dear Frank,

First, let me just say thank you. You’re the best landlord I’ve ever had.

Now, let’s jump backwards a little bit. For 5 years I lived in an apartment at 310 S 3rd St. It was a fine enough apartment and I was basically happy with it. I lived there with my former girlfriend and life was mostly good. I liked the neighborhood (except on Puerto Rico/Dominican Republic days when it was constant Reggaeton until dawn—yuck) enough and everything was close and accessible and easy.

But as soon as we had problems with the apartment, we ran into roadblocks. Since my girlfriend was generally less employed than I was during that time, it often fell on her shoulders to make calls and see that repairs were taken care of. Unfortunately for us, she was a woman and good luck getting our old landlords to listen to a woman for anything. Even when we spoke to women, nothing ever happened. Repairs went untended to and things fell into our laps. A prime example, when we first moved in the apartment was newly renovated, which was nice but it also meant that we had no stove or refrigerator for like 2 weeks. Pretty annoying. And when they finally did drop them off, that was all they did. I had to figure out how to connect the stove to the gas, purchase a tube and thread goop from the hardware store, and do it myself. I imagine that this isn’t up to code, but call me crazy.

At some point in our tenure in that apartment, our bathroom ceiling started dripping. It was a pain, and we called about it. No response. As the months of dripping went on and the damage it was causing to the bathroom ceiling became evident, we started calling on the regular. No response. So we wrote letters. No response. I spoke to the super. No follow-up. The drywall of the ceiling became wetter and wetter and moldier and stained and fucked up, but they didn’t care enough to send someone over to fix it.

The final straw with them came the day I lost my job in June 2009. It was an overcast day and I had to go to the office to turn in my ID and keys and sign some paper for our corporate overlords agreeing to the shitty severance package I was getting and that I wouldn’t sue them. Spirits were high. Jesse, who I worked with at the time, picked up a bunch of beers and headed back to my house to mourn the loss our of employment. We arrived home just in time for the bathroom ceiling to explode into a great torrent of water that spread all over the floor of the kitchen and into the living room. I called my old landlords furious, yelling and cursing that this problem had gone on a year and now, on the day I got laid off, I have my ceiling exploding water all over the place. I yelled. A lot. The woman on the phone was afraid and they actually sent someone right away. It still took them weeks to fix the now gaping hole in the ceiling.

I was glad to move out of there.

When I moved into your building, Frank, I was prepared to have the same sort of shitty landlord/tenant relationship I had always experienced while living in New York. They are, generally, a bunch of assholes. Luckily, you are not.

On the wall of the kitchen of my then-new apartment there was a mirror, which is cool and everything, except that I intended to put a kitchen island against that wall and the top of the mirror only reached my collarbone. I suppose the previous tenant was much shorter than I am. I very carefully attempted to remove the mirror from the wall, but when you’d painted the place the wet paint had dripped behind the mirror and glued it to the drywall. I used a knife to remove the mirror, like a surgeon, but I was unable to take it down without damaging the wall. And then there was a giant unpainted rectangle mirror ghost. Oops!

I went to Richie, the amazing super intendant, and told him what happened. I offered to fix it myself if he could provide me with the tools, since it was totally my fault. I went to https://toolsduty.com/best-portable-tool-box/ and bought a tool box so I wouldn’t lose anymore tools. He told me it was no problem and that you’d take care of it. The next day before I returned fro work, the wall was patched and painted.

Amazing! I had never in my adult life experienced such rapid turn-around on a repair in my apartment. I expected the damage to mar my wall forever. I was glad to be wrong.

But it doesn’t end there.

One day I was here at work and I got a phone call from Jesse (same one) around 4:30, 5 o’clock. He told me he had good news and bad news. I told him to give me the bad news first.

“Your doorknob fell off.”

“What?”

“Your doorknob fell off. You can still get into and out the apartment, though.”

“What’s the good news?”

“I cleaned your apartment. I got on the phone with my mom and instead of just sitting around, I cleaned. For an hour and a half.”

“Ah, uh, cool. Let me call my landlord.”

So I called and left a vou voicemail and by the time I got home from work around 9, the doorknob was back on. And, thanks to Jesse, I had a sparklingly clean apartment. Awesome!

And then there was the time I got home around 2:30 in the morning and you had locked me out of my place and you can all the way from Queens to let me in and then we discovered that I had not been given a necessary key when I moved in. And then I had a copy of the key on my counter the next day. Amazing!

Most recently, I noticed that my microwave kept losing power because I kept having to reset the clock. Then I noticed that my fridge was also losing power, which was a drag since it meant that a whole lot of food in my fridge spoiled, but that’s no one’s fault. It’s a good thing I rarely have food in my fridge. I called and left a voicemail the next morning at work saying that I think the outlet was bad, even though the breaker is not switching off. When I got home, I saw that you’d run an extension cord from the fridge to another outlet in the kitchen. Smart. And though this is all starting to sound repetitive, the next morning at 9:30 while I am getting ready for work you show up with an electrician. Who does that? Awesome. That evening, the outlet was fixed.

So, basically, what I am saying Frank is that you are awesome. I appreciate how readily you take care of problems around the building. You respond right away and you treat every issue as if it were important, even if they are relatively minor. And then not raising my rent this year? Never ever has that happened before.

Wow. I am never moving out.

Sincerely,

The Black Laser.

Get Drunk Tonight – TBD

TBD – Greenpoint, Brooklyn (Franklin & Green St)

Suppose that it is a nice day outside and you think to yourself, “What would be better right now than ruining the rest of my day by getting way too drunk after forgetting to eat anything? Oh, right. Nothing. Where to do my day drinking?!” And then you start to think of different places you might want to go have a drink or 17. Berry Park is full of shit heads. Nope. Radegast is terminally full. Nope. Ditto for Spitzenhaus. Nope. Loreley in Williamsburg is stuck under the freeway and the service sucks. Nope. Loreley in Manhattan is ok but tiny and gets packed. Nope. Züm Schneiders only has seating on the street which is not my favorite thing. Nope. The Bohemian Beer Garden is a bear to get to. Nope. Beer Island is great, but Coney Island is similarly hard to get to. Nope.

Where is a man with the desire to ruin his day supposed to go? The answer is TBD. Oh, how I love TBD on a perfect afternoon. The first drunken Sunday at TBD of the year is the sign that winter has broken and warmer days are ahead. This year it happened in April. I look forward to it.

Saddled with an unfortunate name and an even more unfortunate interior, one quick glance in the door at TBD and you might think, “No way, Get Drunk Tonight, you’re full of shit.” But trust me here. Go inside. And then go all the way to the back past the ping pong table, past the shitty furniture, past the bathrooms, and out in the glorious backyard fill with umbrellad picnic tables. It is a magical wonderland of empty tables and quiet and sunshine. It’s one of my favorite places to while away an afternoon with a couple good friends, my credit card at the bar, and a plan to be asleep at my house by 10pm.

TBD always has a good selection of interesting beers, usually one per variety so your palate will be tickled. They also have a grill in the back which is good, but can take quite a long time which is not a problem, of course, if you’re settling in to spend the next 6 hours assaulting your liver with foamy beer sodas. It’s a little out of the way for Manhattanites, but right near the Greenpoint G for those of you who live in real places. It’s never so packed you can’t find a table. The crowd is relaxed and diverse. TBD is just a great place to get your drink on. Just don’t go during the winter. The inside is the worst.

Also posted at:

8 Hours in Brooklyn

Holy shit. This is sick as hell, though I am not convinced the slip-n-slide on the concrete’s such a great idea.

More about the project.

All footage was shot within an 8 hour span in Brooklyn, NYC. Several of these shots will be used in part w/ a series of spots we are directing/producing which will be released sometime in the near future.

Check out our blog for more info:
nextlevelpictures.com/​blog/​2011/​8/​11/​8-hours-in-brooklyn-w-the-phantom-flex.html

Awesome track too. It’s Skream’s “Where You Should Be” from Outside the Box.