Results tagged “bjork”

              

This past Friday night a small crowd gathered for an intimate show at Housing Works Bookstore, where Björk and Dirty Projectors performed a suite of six songs written by Dave Longstreth specifically for the occasion. Amongst the nearly 300 lucky ones in the room were David Byrne, MIA, members of the National and Vampire Weekend, and even Haley Joel Osment. The night began with two openers handpicked by the headliners—fellow Iceland native Olof Arnalds and Kurt Weisman from Vermont. Starting a little after 8, the sound was soft for them, with notes hanging in the humid air and often not making it to the balcony above—but once the main event began, Longstreth, Björk & Co. belted it out amongst the books. Here's more on the evening, and the suite's muse: a whale hailing from Northern California.

By now you have most likely heard of Housing Works, the largest community-based AIDS service organization in the U.S. (where there is currently a waiting list for volunteers!). While there are many facets of the organization, their Bookstore Cafe has set a high standard in the booking department, boasting a calendar jam-packed with diverse, must-see events. Susie Luppert, who started out as a volunteer and is now the Executive Director, has had no small part in making the Cafe a hotbed of activity. Coming up next month, Björk and the Dirty Projectors will play an intimate show in the space, and the Cafe is currently auctioning off some front row/center tickets. We recently checked in with Susie, who told a little more about the organization, and of course her dream line-up at the Crosby Street outpost.

This is pretty cool: Brandon Stosuy at Stereogum has put together a one-of-a-kind charity event at Housing Works in May. Björk, she of (most recently) MSG and Coachella headlining fame, will be performing at the 300 capacity bookstore on Friday, May 8th to benefit the non-profit. She will be joining forces with The Dirty Projectors, and performing a new suite of music created by lead-Projector Dave Longstreth. Ticket prices are a bit steep, ranging from $100 standing room tickets to $400 VIP balcony spots, but considering the cause, size and uniqueness of the show, it's surely worth it if you can spare the coin. They go on sale officially April 1st (no joke) on their venue’s website and at the store, but there are some tickets available right now if you act fact.

The new video for Bjork’s song Wanderlust premiered last night at Deitch Studios in Long Island City; it features Bjork surfing down a river winding through a Himalayan landscape on the back of some kind of woolly yak, while a clay doppelganger bursts from her backpack to grapple with her and a quasi-Tibetan demon coaxes her toward the edge of a waterfall. Then things get really far out.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A perp search at Roma Road and St. George in Staten Island, an overturned car at 2nd Avenue and 36th Street in Manhattan and a shark DOA in the Rockaways.
• The FDNY responded to an apartment fire and found a 4-year-old child who apparently witnessed her mother's boyfriend kill her mother then himself this morning.
• Why won't the city fix a sinkhole in a Staten Island street? Because the leak causing the sinkhole started under a private residence.
• Ready the presentation copies of PlaNYC! Mayor Bloomberg will attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors' summit on climate change in November.
• Shorpy's has a photograph of the Red Hook Houses wading pool from circa 1942.
• We guess this means he's not running: Retired general and Metrotard Wesley Clark has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, saying, "She's the right person."
• Former NJ governor James McGreevey claims he can't afford his ex-wife's child support demands. Keep in mind, the man lives in a 17-room mansion.
• If you love Bjork's music and large jazz ensembles, then you may be interested in Bjorkestra - "The Music of Bjork Gudmundsdottir for large jazz ensemble" - which has some shows coming up.

Not too long ago Ronen Givony started the Wordless Music Series, which is pretty much just what it sounds like it would be. Sonic worlds collide and fuse classical with indie, jazz with electronic and listeners with instrumental-only music. In the next week audiences will enjoy the sounds of Do Make Say Think and Beirut from an intimate setting for just such an experience.

FILM: A tribute to Jean Genet on film begins tonight at BAM. The focus will be on films inspired by the French writer, as well as Genet's own Un Chant D'Amour. BAM describes the festival further:

There has been much to-do about the anti-establishment efforts of The Arcade Fire at their recent Radio City concert, urging the fans to rush and outnumber the security guards keeping the aisles clear. What was overshadowed was that this is perhaps the best live band touring right now, and they were absolutely at the top of their game this week, playing each of these shows as if it was the last they'd ever do and merely asking the fans to react with an equal enthusiasm. While the debate will continue as to whether the band should have toned their calls to riot down a smidge, or why they were even playing a sit-down theater tour in the first place, what shouldn't be lost is that these guys seem to get better and better as their popularity grows. The inevitable MSG show their next time around is sure to be quite the spectacle.

READINGS: Papermag points out an interesting reading tonight for "Queens of the Kingdom: The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks."

It's been something like 9 years since the last time Faithless played in New York. Considering that the band is one of the largest in England and the rest of the world, selling out soccer stadiums and headlining major music festivals year after year, their return to the States is a pretty big deal. Hitting a couple club dates on their way to Coachella, they stopped by Webster Hall earlier in the week and completely blew the roof off the place. Read more at Music Snobbery. If you're in Indio tonight, make it your business to catch these guys before they leave the continent. (pic via ultrahi's flickr)

One of the nice things about being a music fan in New York City is that you rarely have to wait very long to see a band you're recently missed. The Black Lips famously played about 6,000 shows at SXSW this year, yet despite our interest in checking them out, we managed to catch them exactly zero times (with our final chance being cut short by that whole collapsing balcony thing.) So we were stoked to discover they were going to play last Monday back home at Bowery Ballroom. The show lived up to our ever inflated expectations and managed to bring the house down with their drunken-fried punk. While their "wild boyz" antics may seem a bit forced at this stage in their careers, the music more than holds up on its own. It's not easy to play such sloppy rock and roll so precisely. (Pic via Sandwich!)

My first experience with a famous musician in my cab was unpleasant at best. I was a fan of Bjork’s “It’s Oh So Quiet” Spike Jonze video, because I’m a sucker for a dancing mail box. So I was excited when I saw she was hailing me out front of Lombardi’s Pizzeria (she hadn't eaten there, it was 2 a.m.).

So, we can admit it, today has been a pretty scary day over here at Gothamist HQ. We've had tatoos, snuff tapes, gore-filled photos, a birthing Britney, Bjork, even some way overpriced real estate. After all that, we need to laugh a little, don't you? Luckily Michelle found just the thing. Watch this and try not to laugh:

And it's a Wednesday Addams doll in the image...get it?

Check out Fox's page that "sells" robots. And Cunningham's prolific video work is out on DVD, on the Directors Label. Dark City is pretty good, but the DVD is amazing.

Overpaid comedic actors with serious depression issues aside, the real question is whether the competition will cause a pricing war, causing the fake profits to disappear (where will the Monopoly money go?). Gothamist believes that both companies will grind each other into the dust and end up getting acquired by a Japanese USB noodle cooler manufacturer, a subsidiary of Bratz, or an internet casino.

whatevs pointed out criticism of the dress yesterday (the Daily News saying, "The blond glamazon gave bed sheets a bad name when she wrapped herself up in one and tied her middle with what looked like a dishrag.") And Uma did change after the ceremony, into something more sparkly and less-criticism-prone.

There will be a Quirkyalone party for Quirkyalone Day this Saturday at DT/UT on Avenue B. While it could be construed as a "Screw you, couples," even couples can participate in Quirkyalone Day.

The Onion A.V. Club's least essential albums of 2003.

So far, the work of Charlie Kaufman has only been adapted by two directors: Spike Jonze, with Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, and Michel Gondry, whose Human Nature was tepidly received but has directed the eagerly awaited 2004 release, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Eternal Sunshine stars Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, and Mark Ruffalo, with Carrey as a man trying to erase memories of ex-girlfriend Winslet from his mind. And by the looks of the trailer, it looks like vintage Kaufman AND Gondry, with tiny human bodies in normal size enviroments.

Again, we'd like to thank all the people that came to the Gothamist and 601am Happy Hour. A great time was had by all though only remembered only by some.

Bjork's new look: Do we attribute it to her usual lovable nuttiness or can we say it's Matthew Barney? A close-up black and white shot of Bjork's new bowl cut, which Kelefa Sanneh called "fetching."

The Matthew Barney show. At the Guggenheim. Go. Michael Kimmelman loves it but that shouldn't stop you. Neither should claims that Barney is the most important artist of our time. You can buy a Cremaster poster from Film Forum. And what does cremaster mean? Support his equally praised and possibly equally wacky paramour, Bjork.