4/29/2008

Book Signing at Picturebox * Wednesday

This JUST in! There is going to be a book signing at the fab new store that is at the corner of Bond and 3rd Street called "Picturebox Departmental Store". Yes, this is something that picky F.I.B actually likes, it seems to be very Gary Panter amongst other cool artist centric! Too bad one has to walk by that stupid construction fence with the poem about "young revolutionary soldiers"! OK, OK, I am digressing, here is the scoop.

WHO is going to be there? Rob Lowe (no, not THAT Rob Lowe!) the Rob Lowe that is a Chicago musician who currently performs solo as Lichens and was was also a member of 90 Day Men and formed Dreamweapon with the members of Town and Country!

Well, truth be told, F.I.B doesn't know much about THAT but the reason he will be at Picturebox is to sign copies of Gyromancy. Which is a book of art created by Lowe and Rose Lazar, with an accompanying CD of music recorded by Lowe, called "Psygning Off". Lowe will be signing and decorating copies of the book at the PictureBox, and those copies of the book will also already have been signed/decorated in advance by Lazar for the occasion.

Check out some of his music here

Read more about his book here!


Opening is on Wednesday April 30, 6-7 pm.
PictureBox Departmental Store
121 3rd St. (Corner of Bond and 3rd)
Brooklyn NY 11231

4/26/2008

Atlantic Yards Rally * May 3rd

The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and Brooklyn Speaks are organizing a massive protest to call for no more demolitions, no more subsidies and no eminent domain. Elected officials at the local and State levels will be there to speak. Please try and attend and spread the word!

4/25/2008

The Anabolics & The Insomniacs Saturday!

OMG! The Anabolics are releasing a new CD! AND they are playing with the fab Insomniacs over in Williamsburg at the Lucky Cat with cool DJ's and everythang! Here's the skinny..

You've been warned!!

Our record release par-tay is so close we can taste it...

This Saturday, April 26th...
The Anabolics Record Release Party for our second album, "Anabolically Correct"! at the Lucky Cat (245 Grand St. bet. Driggs & Roebling, W'burg) with the Insomniacs & DJs Jumpy & Mic-Lo spinning assssss-shakin tunes 9pm
We'll be selling CDs at the dirty cheap price of $5 at this show only so get one while the gettin's good...

Oh, and check us out in the July issue of Guitar World, on sale early May! The lovely and talented Yngwie Malmsteen is on the cover so we're in good company.

xoxo
The Anabolics
Anna, Christina & Marcelo


Guitar World? I'm impressed!

You know just as an aside, F.I.B gets tons of emails from bands and people with stores and such that want me to pimp them. I only pimp what I like (unless you PAY me!). I like REAL ROCK & ROLL and these kids are doing it!

4/23/2008

Record Stores - Let's Go Back in Time

I regret that I didn't find out about Record Store Day until AFTER it happened. It would of been the perfect opportunity to show off this cool photo of "The Record Pit" in Greenpoint and reminisce about my favorite Brooklyn Record store that has been gone for a few years. Everyday should be record store day so I'm doin' it anyway!

Does anybody remember Don's Music on Amity Street near Court Street? The Village Voice named it "Best Record Store named after it's memorable owner" in the year 2000. I wrote the following AFTER I read that blurb. It's all pretty true, Don's Music was more than about music! It was one of the last businesses with any character in the area. It was difficult to go in there without ending up gabbing for at least an hour. Many times I didn't go FOR THAT REASON!!! I know it's bad! I was a loyal customer and many of my albums and CD's were purchased there, he always knocked a couple dollars off if you bought in bulk, WHO does THAT anymore?! His dollar bins were not all junk either. My best find was "Sounds of the Zodiac", an amazing album with a psychedelic go-go song for each sign of the zodiac. The songs all have a sinister edge, which makes it awesome. Anyway Don became a good friend, one of those "friends for life" types. Once I was invited to his annual Christmas party, I was "in". The man liked to throw down a party with D.J's and everythang. He moved out of that spot which later became a high priced bootery (now gone) due to a rent increase and also to follow a woman to the west coast. He is still out there, he opened another Don's Music, and I’ve heard it's almost a replica of his funky shop on Amity Street. If you remember Don, say hello to him on his MySpace site and if you are in Los Angeles, take a trip to the Eagle Rock area and pretend it's record store day. He's taken the store to the next level, having block parties, art shows and he is DJing like crazy all over L.A. Always with a gift for words, he has told me that L.A is like a "prison with palm trees". It's beautiful and too cheap to leave. It's sad that a born and raised NYC boy can't afford to come back, which, he would like to, or at least that is what he says. Currently the old store sits vacant, waiting for the next boutique to move in and fail.

Anyway, It's sad that there are so few record stores left. "Holy Cow" in Park Slope was pretty good and later "Something Else" gave it a good go but alas it's also gone. Growing up, I liked "Venus Records" when it was on Eighth Street, when they moved to St. Marks they weren't as good anymore. Freebeing on 2nd Avenue near St. Marks was pretty good too, now that's going waaaaaaaaaay back!

4/21/2008

"Gowanus Transformations"

FROGG (Friends and Residents of the Greater Gowanus) members Christine Mackellar and Margaret Maugenest have curated an exhibit that will open on May 8th at The Brooklyn Historical Society. The exhibit is called "Gowanus - Transformations" and it's a celebration of 150 years of manufacturing around the Gowanus. They spent some time canvassing the area interviewing and taking photographs of the many interesting businesses (special effects designers, bicycle makers, just to name a few) that are currently active in the Gowanus area.

There will be a walking tour with the curators on Saturday, June 21st from 2 to 4pm.

The Brooklyn Historical Society is located at 128 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights.

Exhibit Dates: May 9- August 24th.
Opening Reception: May 8th, 5:30-7:30.

I will remind closer to the date!
AND speaking of Gowanus area businesses, I received this email from Makeville Studio about their new woodworking/D.I.Y studio which is open to the public. They've got the space and the powertools (jigsaws,bandsaws and all that fun stuff!) for you to make your OWN furniture and whatnots. PERFECT if you'd rather make your OWN bookcases rather than shelling out the money to IKRAPA oops I mean IKEA!They've got classes and workshops too!

Makeville Studio
119 8th St, Unit 208
Brooklyn NY 1121

4/20/2008

"You snooze, you lose, buddy!"

The ecstatically happy Markowitz's.
The other night a friend invited me to what I thought was just a regular Brooklyn style house party. Little did I know that hosts of the party Director/Cinematographer Steve and the fabulous wardrobe lady Sabine seduced it's attendees with food and alcohol and then cast us to act in an episode of the "Brooklyn vs. Bush Television Comedy Hour". Yup that's how it happened (to me anyway!). This photo is a little teaser from an upcoming episode where Jamie Markowitz's infamous Takashi Murakami placemat stealing incident at the Brooklyn Museum Ratner Gala is reenacted. Elliot plays Marty and Nancy gives a command performance as Jamie Markowitz. F.I.B makes her acting debut in this episode as the "Rich Lady" who becomes so livid with Jamie for taking her placemat swag that she morphs into a Murakami type super heroine! Wrestling and hair pulling ensues! I can't WAIT to see it!!!!

Check out Brooklyn vs. Bush T.V here.
On regular TV you can watch the show in Brooklyn and Manhattan on MONDAY NIGHTS.
BKLYN Mon at 11:30 pm on BCAT ch. 3 Time Warner ch. 56 CVision ch 69, no box: 10.
MANHATTAN mon/tues midnight MNN1/Time War 34 RCN 110.

4/17/2008

4/14/2008

Sunday Afternoon in Fort Greene

I was at the Brooklyn Flea all day on Sunday, glad that Brooklyn can provide a replacement for the 26th Street Flea Market in Manhattan with a whole lot less attitude. The 10 AM opening is the only quirk. Most flea markets pretty much start at dawn but maybe it has to do with disrupting the neighborhood. The setting is perfect between the Church on Lafayette Street reflecting the school with the Williamsburg Bank building in the background. Check it out if you get the chance and bring cash!

4/10/2008

Obligatory Spring Photo!

The view out my window.

4/05/2008

Carbon/Silicon,High School Memories and The Toll Brothers Converge. True Story.


I am still tight with my girl posse from high school days and we got together friday night to see Carbon/Silicon at Irving Plaza. Carbon/Silicon is Mick Jones from the Clash's latest band. D,M & I pretty much ALWAYS get together when anything Clash related is happening and we are beginning to become like those middle aged women that follow Tom Jones around! I actually met D & M because I was wearing a Clash button back when everybody else was either into disco or bands like Styx, Journey or REO Speedwagon. (barf!) This girl (D) walked up to me in the MASSIVELY crowded high school hallway and said "you like the Clash?!" and I was like, "yeah" and then she told me they had an extra ticket to see them at Bonds International Casino in Times Square and we've been friends ever since. The Clash were playing a two-week residency there with matinees on Saturday for the underagers like us. I think the tickets were only 5 bucks! That show actually got cancelled due to overselling of tickets and "riots", which were highly exaggerated in the press and from the way I saw it and were made worse by the cops on horseback charging into the kids, go figure! It was a bit crazy. Anyway we went back again the next weekend and finally saw them, it was so amazing to me to be surrounded by kids my age from all over the city who were into the same stuff I was. I didn't feel like a misfit for once. I found my people!!! AND the Clash was EVERYTHING we imagined them to be. That show was the first of many that we went to together, not only did we see the Clash many times but we also discovered the NYC underground and the lower east side punk hardcore punk scene. Also much later in life I actually got to meet Joe Strummer and again he was exactly how I always imagined. He wanted to know where everyone lived, what we did for a living, normal stuff like that, here was a rock star actually INTERESTED in people! I was just about to leave NYC to move to San Francisco and he said, "WHY? New York is where it's at, you'll see." It's true! He said that to me! and then he kissed me. yup!

So anyway, Carbon/Silicon were surprisingly great. I really didn't expect much except to enjoy seeing my old friends. One surprise was that Tony James from Gen X was also in the band. If you don't know Mick Jones, he was the one that wrote and sang "Lost in the Supermarket" and one of my favorite soppy sentimental rock ballads "Stay Free". If you know that voice and guitar style you have a good idea what the show last night sounded like. It sounded like that but with of more of an easy "hey let's have a good time tonight" kind of vibe. The band just seemed so damned happy to be there as was the crowd. I looked around me and wondered, are all these middle age men the dreamy punk rock boys that were at the Bond's matinee show? I was experiencing some serious flashbacks!

The video above is them doing a song which probably is called "The Truth" and was the most Clash sounding song that evening. I loved all their other material but this is the only video that I was able to capture on my cheap camera. Jones also had another great band that I loved called Big Audio Dynamite and there were shades of them in this band as well. I believe that this band holds many of the same beliefs of the Clash as many of their songs have a sort of socialist "for the people" type of view. Y'know they're for the little guy, the underdog, the moms & pops, the average Joe, which made the night ultra surreal when I saw the Toll Brother's VP for Development David Von Spreckelsen at the front of the stage! Yup, it was him. This girl has been to one too many community meetings regarding the Toll Brothers and never forgets a face. I had to do about 5 double takes. I guess he wasn't always a corporate tool, and if he wasn't, it's too bad that he sold out just soooo badly! He needs to apply "the truth" to the reality of building condos on a toxic swamp.

In another note on how everything in my life is interconnected these days, today I had to take an exam as I may be going to grad school to get my art teaching certification. The topic of the essay? "The pros and cons of regulations and limitations on construction and development, examine each side and state your opinion" I kid you not. Needless to say it was a no brainer and I think I aced it!

Not Tall Enough.

I was in Manhattan today and passed by these sweet buildings on 2nd Avenue and 20th Street which look like they are ready for the wrecking ball. Just thought it was sad.

4/02/2008

Art Show at Vox Pop * Opening Thursday


This month's installation of "Vox Pop's '08 Local Art Movement" is opening up tomorrow night and will be up until May 6th. And if you look closely at the invite you will see that I (that's Lisanne McTernan!) am one of the participants.

Come check it out if you can, Flatbush is beautiful in the Springtime!

Vox Pop is located at 1022 Cortelyou Road. The opening is from 7 to 10pm.

Hope to see you!

Brooklyn a Go-Go!

I recently came across a truck load of very interesting old photos of Brooklyn people, places and things. This one of is definitely one of the more peculiar. Not only because this man does not look like the type to do the frug but also because his partner appears to have changed her clothes during the course of the evening. Who knows maybe she spilt something on her groovy paisley dress during her Twiggy super model poses.Or maybe they just got carried away while dancing to Dick Clarke on the T.V.Or maybe she just likes to pose. YOU GO OLD MAN!!!!