Buycott No. 4: THE GUTTER in Williamsburg, Wednesday December 3rd at 7pm

Buycott No. 4: Back in Business

In honor of Obama’s promise to replace the White House bowling alley with a basketball court (so awesome), let’s go bowling at….

THE GUTTER

Williamsburg
Wednesday December 3rd at 7pm

3 Reasons for Buycott

1. The Gutter runs on 100% Wind Power. Wind power is reliable, uses no fuel, emits no greenhouse gases, and causes no acid rain.
2. They carry a ton of local draught beers. Draught beer kegs are returnable, refillable and recyclable. According to Treehuggr.com, “draught beer, due to its “bulk” packaging has lower impacts with an estimated overall environmental load that was 68% lower than bottled beer.”
3. When was the last time you went bowling??

This could be you!

Come and rock the lanes, have a drink, and enjoy the company! And please - tell your friends too!

Transportation:

L to Bedford Ave, G to Nassau Ave

View Larger Map

-Josh

BuycottForChange.org

more info:

The Gutter

200 N 14th St

Brooklyn, NY

(718) 387-3585‎

Two of 'em!

fuuuuck......2010-2010-2010!

Bush's Pardons Announced

There Will Be (Shattering) Dunks

hell yeah, MJ, hell mothafuckin' yeah.

How Far We've Come...

This is what Al Harrington said this weekend after he was traded to the New York Knicks....

"I wanted to be around when this thing turns around, and everyone is starting to look at the Knicks as a team that wants to be on top of basketball. I think that's the way everyone around the league is feeling."

Obama, Knicks, Guns N' Roses. What is going on???

The Cutest Web Show

Mornings in the Mini - Episode Four from carly ciarrocchi on Vimeo.

Egyptian

He has 260 horsepower, but his dad, wow, he had 840 horsepower. I wonder how he died?

Will Smith. Sigh...

Beyond the Karate Kid and Oldboy remakes. What is his deal? His new movie Seven Pounds is described as this....

Academy Award nominee Will Smith reunites with the directors and producers of The Pursuit of Happyness for the emotional drama Seven Pounds. In the film, Smith plays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent with a fateful secret who embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.

Doesn't that just sound like, um, Legend of Bagger Vance, Hitch, and I'm sure a ton of other Will Smith movies? Get over yourself man. Stop changing the lives of other people.

Do You Smell What Barack Is Cooking?

from cnn.com today

Woodrow Wilson's 1913 Inaugoration

from my new favorite blog shorpy.com

Troll 2: Sandwich doble de mortadela

its not cool anymore to like Troll 2, but you cannot NOT love this scene.

Will Smith's remake of Karate Kid

this guy is amazing

James Brown - Night Train Dance!

must give credit to Stephen and Alex on this one. this will never be surpassed. night!

BRANDON ROY BUZZER BEATER [I Love This Game]

Houston up 1 in OT, Portland's ball, with 0.8 seconds left.

Eat it!

Stephon Marbury Just Doesn't Get It

"I think I'm going to start practicing with my high school team," Marbury said after practice Thursday in Greenburgh. "Seriously. I've already called the coach to see if I can run up and down with the guys and at the same time help teach the younger guys the NBA game."

Those poor children...

First Great Idea Post Election

If we really believe in "Change" these things are going to happen on a technology powered grassroots level. Nothing embodies this better than Change.org's new Digg-like "Ideas for Changing America" site that allows you to submit and vote on what problems Obama should tackle in his first 100 days. It's exciting to think we're going to have a president who wants to solve things...

Anyway check out this site and vote on whats important to you. I really think we're on to something big here.

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

I <3 Fort Greene So Much

This amazing photographer caught the scene on South Portland and Lafayette, right outside Moe's. He took some beautiful shots, which broke my heart that I couldn't be there. This guy pointing at the camera deserves some type of award. I can't believe how incredible my neighborhood is.

Hilarious German Collection of Bush Photos

very funny. Germans are soooo funny!

My Favorite Blog On Obama

The Big Picture has amazing photos.

Matt's I-Didn't-Vote Mix

1. Excepter - If I Were You (Live)
Ah... I had to vote absentee. I had the ballot sent to my apartment.

2. Psychedelic Horseshit - Nothing is Revealed
I thought I had my mail key, but I could not find it. I went on tour without getting into my mailbox. The ballot would be sent to me on the road.

3. The Dead C - Power
Where are those keys?!

4. Landed - War / Us vs. Them (and You)
I called my landlord. He got my mail for me. But my ballot wasn't there. There was no time to send another one. Too close to the election.

5. Fat Worm of Error - Petulant Bureaucrats Being Pummeled With Peanut Butter
I watched all of the election stuff happen on TV while sitting in my hotel room. I felt pretty dumb. I really dropped the ball on that one.

Jim's Metalection Mix

Wasted Years - Iron Maiden
In which the Hero, in his travel to the polling site, is charged with feelings of both remorse for the stasis he has felt and the optimism infusing his sense of possibility and progression.

Electric Eye - Judas Priest
In which the Hero, in a darkened moment, recalls the gross invasions of privacy and unmitigated proliferation of technologically augmented policing practices, bringing him to present day circumstances.

Revolution Calling - Queensrÿche
In which the Hero ponders the alternatives presented by challenger, a figure maligned by the incumbency and shadowy to the general electorate, who promises a cure to his malaise through radical alternatives to the present model.

Last in Line - Dio
In which the Hero develops a richer understanding of his own empowerment in the election process, as he stands, literally last in line, as the final numerical stalwart for his candidate. The immediate presence of facility brings him to a final confrontation with the cloudy and ambivalent competition from the desire to do good with the desire to be an unquartered agonist to the powers that be.

Extra Man - The Fucking Champs
In which the Hero awakes to the first day of the new regime, bought and secured. Initially, his elation is evident. However, the realization that his problems transcend unimpacted the potency of a regime, that they are indeed issues of his own authoring, possession, and eventual exorcism, bring cataclysmic discord to his world. Then, he resolves that his actions have always been about a quickening of the utile self, rather than of a representative figure, and he looks to his true winnings with hope.

Fanfare for the Common Man - ELP
Epilogue - In which the hero gets motherfuckin funky all over Chariots of Fire

(link)

"my mix has SO MANY MORE GUITAR SOLOS than the other mixes"

John's Election Mix - WE CAN BE HEROES

1. Cuttooth - Radiohead

2. With Got On Our Side - Bob Dylan & Joan Baez

3. Only One Way Out Of This Mess - Sly Stone

4. Please Sunrise - Supermayer

5. "Heroes" - David Bowie

(link)

Talking Heads - 11.Naive Melody(This Must Be The Place)

seriously nothing makes me happier than this song

Adam's Election Day Mix

1) What's Goin' On - Marvin Gaye

2) Positively 4th St - Bob Dylan

3) Strange Times - Black Keys

4) Changes - David Bowie

5) What Light - Wilco

Anthony's Election Day Mix

1. James Brown - The Boss
2. Bad Religion - Modern Man
3. Black Sabbath - National Acrobat
4. Turbonegro - Rendeavous with Anus
5. Ghostface Killah - We Celebrate

OMGAMA

Stephen's Election Day Mix

Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) - Brian Eno
Run On – The Electrifying Crown Seekers
We Are Neighbors – The Chi-Lites
Success – Iggy Pop
Funky President (People It’s Bad) - James Brown

(link)

george clinton - paint the white house black

gotta give credit to alex on this one, but it really is amazingmazing

Something I Made...

... at TPM was printed in today's Metro.

Janessa's Election Day Mix

rolling stones - you can't always get what you want
heart - barracuda
stevie wonder - signed, sealed, delivered, i'm yours
ti - whatever you like

TPM and metablogtography

Nihal's Election Day Mix

intro: tanner 88 theme ("exercise your right to vote") [somehow unavailable online]

1. queen - "i want to break free"
2. neil young - "revolution blues"
3. bjork - "there's more to life than this"
4. jens lekman - "people who hate people (come together)"
5. sam cooke - "change gonna come round"

(link)

[ed. note: if you have tanner 88 theme, please send along!]

Dan's Election Day Mix

here's mine. there's a narrative here, see if you can find it:
1. Jimmy Cliff - You Can Get It If You Really Want
2. Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up
3. Flaming Lips - Race For The Prize (Remix)
4. Vangelis - Chariots of Fire
5. Blue States - What We've Won


Bonus List!
Titles of Talking Heads Songs, Which, If You Try Real Hard, Could Be Construed To Be About This Election:
-Thank You For Sending Me an Angel
-The Girls Want To Be With The Girls (California's Prop 8)
- New Feeling ("and that's what it's about")
- Don't Worry About The Government
- Found A Job
- Once In A Lifetime
- Life During Wartime
- What A Day That Was

(link)

Björk talking about her TV

"it looks like a city."

Alex's Election Day Mix

1. Phil Collins - In the air tonight.

there is no better metaphor for voting for barack obama than this iconic scene from miami vice. obama is tubbs, minus the gun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdHG-c-1kJM

2. Stevie Wonder - Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away.

when stevie sing, "Why can't they say that hate is 10 zillion light years away? Why can't the light of good shine God's love in every soul? Why must my color black make me a lesser man?" pray that hate is 10 zillion light years away from pennsylvania.

3. animal collective - people.

because this election is about PEOPLE!!!

4. Todd Rundgren - Just One Victory.

just listen and you'll know.

5. Black Flag - Rise Above.

(link)

Woah... Opera Looks Awesome!

this was in the new york times today.... holy crap!!

Election Day Playlist Challenge

This goes out to Cosmodrome and all my other blog buddies out there.

Election Mix Challenge! 5 Song Mixtape For Election Day.

In five songs, create a mix that will reflect the weight of this Tuesday. Use Sendspace or Songza to link it.

The Day The Earth Held Its Breath, or How I Learned To Worry For Two Years & Love The 'Bam

1. Ennio Morricone - Il Grande Silenzio (Restless)
2. Animal Collective - People
3. Curtis Mayfield - (Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go
4. M83 - Noise
5. Marvin Gaye - What's Happening Brother

(link)

Stevie Wonder-Heaven Help Us All

get it Stevie!

Robotic Water Snake (NOOOOO!)

As many of you know, I'm most afraid of water snakes. I'm just scared shitless by them. So unless this robot is used to infiltrate Water Snake gangs and murder them all, I am NOT cool with this.

Speed Racer

I just watched Speed Racer for my third time. I cannot stress how genuinely amazing this movie is. While people laugh at this assessment, I need to stress that this movie is a art-house blockbuster. It is about the sheer love of speed and color. It might be the fastest movie you will ever see, and certainly the most colorful.


The experience of this movie is like having the opportunity to see Star Wars for your first time. Do you remember how fast things felt when Luke flew his X-Wing through the trench of the Death Star? Do you remember how fascinated you were by Luke realizing he had the Force and how it would guide him?

These feelings are now lost on us. What blockbuster movie since Star Wars have had the ability to transform us into the children we were when we first met Luke, to believe in magic, and to so successfully connect us to our hero?


As an arbitrary measure, let's just look at the 20 biggest movies of all time...

1 Titanic
2 The Dark Knight
3 Star Wars
4 Shrek 2
5 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
6 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
7 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
8 Spider-Man
9 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
10 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
11 Spider-Man 2
12 The Passion of the Christ
13 Jurassic Park
14 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
15 Finding Nemo
16 Spider-Man 3
17 Forrest Gump
18 The Lion King
19 Shrek the Third
20 Transformers

Let's now eliminate the movies that I think we can fairly call horrible:

1 Titanic
2 The Dark Knight
3 Star Wars
5 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
8 Spider-Man
9 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
10 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
11 Spider-Man 2
13 Jurassic Park
14 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
15 Finding Nemo
17 Forrest Gump
18 The Lion King

What movies on this list would you really call exceptional? My list...

2 The Dark Knight (2008)
3 Star Wars (1977)
5 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
10 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
13 Jurassic Park (1993)

To make this a little more challenging, I'd like to add a few more to this list: Die Hard (1988), The Matrix (1999), Blade Runner (1982), 2001: A Space Oddyssey (1968) and Toy Story (1995).


I want to ask the question Which of these movies did you feel like you've NEVER seen a movie like this before? Not which are just great, which of these movies were visually stunning and challenged your ideas of what a movie should look like?

I would argue Star Wars, Return of the King, The Matrix, Blade Runner, and 2001 would fit into this category. Star Wars was a fairy tale set in space, Return of the King a sprawling epic set in Middle Earth, The Matrix revealing life was only 0's and 1s, Blade Runner painting a gritty Orwellian vision of the future and 2001 turning technology into poetry. Am I missing anything here? This is all arbitrary, so please, let me know.

Speed Racer belongs among these giants. The critics most often hit the movie on its anti-corporate plot, revealing the irony of making a movie about an independent motor company racing against the corrupt majors. Being a major studio movie, they claimed, isn't this hypocritical? This type of movie criticism is fair, I suppose, but to me says more about the reviewer than the film. A major studio can't make a movie that is anti-corporate? Who says? This movie could not have been made without major studio financing and technology, so for that reason these artists shouldn't make it? Answer me that. Anthony Lane of the New Yorker called Speed Racer "insidious" - I would argue any movie that is not transgressive is potentially "insidious." A hamburger is potentially "insidious" - does that mean it can't be delicious? My impression of Speed Racer's reviews was that sober older movie critics came to a psychedelic kids movie and were turned off by the effort to believe in a movie like this (also there is a possibility that one must know what "ghosting" is, something that anyone who has ever played Mario Kart or F-Zero knows). But everyone I know who has given that up, that shield we put up, has lost themselves in this world, and isn't that what a movie is supposed to do?


I beg you all to give Speed Racer a chance. If anything, it will not look like anything you've ever seen before.

This review may continue into other posts, as I have a lot to say about this movie. Let me know if your thoughts, on this review, on Speed Racer, on anything!