The Williamsburg Nerd

Note the use of the word "Hipster" from a 1966 anti-drug film:

What color is the rainbow of passion?

My friends Barry Hoggard and James Wagner too have put together this upcoming show which is opening next Friday:

Dangling Between The Real Thing And The Sign In The Window

Dam, Stuhltrager
Williamsburg / Greenpoint
38 Marcy Avenue
718-387-9818
October 13 - November 13, 2006
Opening: Friday, October 13, 7:00PM - 9:00PM

"The art world of today appears to be dangling between the real thing and the superficial. Barry Hoggard and James Wagner, the curators of this show, have invited a small diverse group of artists whose work is about what they think and feel, and whose artistic vision is not bent toward what they think the market wants this month or this year. This approach was rewarded in their experience working with Susan Dessel during the months she was creating the work installed weeks ago in the gallery's rear garden, when the pair become keenly aware of the difference between what the artist does and what is accomplished by someone who is only concerned with the surface of things."

Also check out Barry's killer website ArtCal.net!

All across the land Tower Records is closing their doors. To me the Tower Records store in the village was one of the treasures of my youth, it seemed to be such a magical palace stocked with several floors of goodies. But to be honest I hadn't returned there in a few years except to buy gift certificates for others. However my last visit was sort of a recap with everything that was wrong with the store, and with the music business in a larger sense.

A few months ago I had a bad craving for George Harrison music. As any Beatles fan knows poor George passed away in 2001, and not only can't you find any Beatles music on iTunes but you can't even find any solo Beatles music on iTunes either! Faced with this gap and a hunger for Harrison I set off on a quest to Tower Records to find a "Best of..." CD collection.

Well going to Tower Records I was quite disappointed with what I found, or didn't find. There were only several Harrison solo records in stock, and of course they didn't put out a "Best of..." collection. Worse yet the CDs that I did find were getting into the $20 range. Harrison had a good song or two about every album, but to be fair there were quite a few weak tracks as well, so the idea of paying $20 for a song or two was very unappealing to me. What's worse is that I would have to spend $100 to get half a dozen decent tracks, which assumed that I knew which albums to get and that Tower might have had them in stock.

Well I left Tower Records empty handed that day with no George for my iPod, and Tower didn't have any George in their cash registers either. At that point I had started to wonder what the point of the store was and now I'm seeing via the ugly side of capitalism that the store no longer had a reason to exist. Part of it wasn't the fault of Tower Records, it's the music industry that doesn't quite get it. I had my credit card handy, would have spent perhaps $50 for a few songs, but the goods weren't there.

Related article:

Tower Records USA to be liquidated
punknews.org/article/20164

A "nerd meets hipster" event worth checking out:

Blip Festival 2006
Nov. 30 - Dec. 3

"THE TANK and 8BITPEOPLES are pleased to present the Blip Festival, a four-day celebration of over 30 international artists exploring the untapped potential of low-bit videogame consoles and home computers used as creative tools. Familiar devices are pushed in new directions with startling results -- Nintendo Entertainment Systems and Game Boys roaring with futuristic floor-stomping rhythm and fist-waving melody, art-damaged Sega hardware generating fluctuating and abstracted video patterns -- and that's only the beginning.

An exploration of the chiptune idiom and its close relatives, the Blip Festival is the biggest and most comprehensive event in the history of the form, and will include daily workshops, art installations, and nightly music performances boasting an international roster larger and more far-reaching than any previous event of its kind. Small sounds at large scales pushed to the limit at high volumes — the Blip Festival is an unprecedented event that is not to be missed."

With the expanding poplation of Williamsburg isn't this a step in the wrong direction?

City's hot to sell off closed firehouses - for millions

"Shuttered firehouses in some of the city's hottest neighborhoods could soon end up on the auction block with multimillion-dollar price tags. Three years after Mayor Bloomberg outraged some neighborhood leaders by closing several firehouses to save money, City Hall is quietly preparing to sell several of the buildings, officials said yesterday.

Engine 212 in Williamsburg, Engine 204 in Cobble Hill and Engine 36 in Harlem have been declared "surplus property" by the Fire Department and will be unloaded by City Hall - even though activists are still clamoring to have the buildings reopened, city officials said. Real estate agents said the firehouses could fetch at least $2 million each from developers seeking to build luxury homes."

Uniqlo is a new fashion store from Tokyo that's just opening up in Soho. As I was was walking to work I spotted this very interesting promotion that they're doing on Houston and Crosby Street, they havea mini-version of the store in an industrial shipping container. It looked very cool and got my attention:

This is a collage of photos that I took as the L train rolled into the 6th Avenue station (click to enlarge the image):

Photos created with my not-so-trusty Treo cellphone on October 14th, 2006.

After 27 episodes the Live from thwe WB podcast is still going strong!

The latest episode is on shopping in Williamsburg:

Live From the WB

Below: Jenna and Toby!