adios queens

Dear Queens,
It's been a great 2 years and 2 months. We've been through so much together: living above Cracker, the crazy man who never stopped walking the streets, McGuinness's after closing hours (love you Gary), bad pizza after bad pizza, awesome sushi, Nita's, the Colombian bakery, love for the 7, THE METS, hating the R train, Starbucks in Astoria and Sunnyside, Berry Lover, the murder-plex movie theatre, the evil lure of gypsy cabs, and much much more. After all this, I'm gonna miss you. But sometimes you gotta go big or go home, and I'm going to Kings County.

Love,

Me

are you sure this is where you want to be?

youtube videos make great metaphors for real life.

my love affair with the mta

This summer (if you can even call it that) has been wild. So wild that I invent excursions and errand running itineraries that cross town back and forth and range from UWS to LES daily. The time I would normally spend thinking and writing I now devote to riding mass transit with all the crazies in NYC, jamming my ear buds deeper into my ears and trying to read despite the stench of B.O. and the noise of loud, rude assholes. So thank you, MTA, for making sure I don't have time to digest how entirely crazy my life has become. Without you, I'd lose my mind.

HAPPY JULY

the best ever.

news on the block

1. Roger Federer announced on Facebook: Roger Federer I have some exciting news to share with you: Late last night, in Switzerland, Mirka and I became proud parents of twin girls! We named them Myla Rose and Charlene Riva and they are both healthy and along with their mother, they are doing great. This is the best day of our lives!

CONGRATSSSSSSS.

2. http://lostuniversity.org/

Do we even need to get into how awesome this is? Comic Con is happening right now, and this year ABC is giving us Lost University for the off-season. My dream in life is to stare into John Locke's Blu-Ray eyeballs until I become one with The Island.

quiero sus zapatos

Check out Adam Green's blogge (scroll down for a classik photo with Fabulous). I think it might be a bad idea for this guy to hold a gun, but I also think I totally covet his jazz flats. Man fashion=my style.

brittish 7/17/09

No excuse for this picture of Louis Garrel except that I adore sexy men with big noses.

I have no brittish list for you this week because I've literally been listening to "We Were Aborted" and "Crying Lightning" non-stop.

So play a song and send it up to Dash Snow. This week's been long and slow and sad but Saturday's a new day for summer in NYC. Smile!

OMG JULIAN SOLO ALBUM AND WEBSITE!

Julian Casablancas solo album - Phrazes for the Young
Julian Casablancas, founding member of The Strokes, is set to release a solo album!!!



Entitled Phrazes for the Young, it's coming out on his own label, Cult Records & Rough Trade in the UK and Cult Records/RCA in Europe and US.

Track titles include "River of Brake Lights," "Glass" and "Ludlow St."

Album preview 



Plans for a solo tour are in the pipeline too so keep checking the site for more news as it comes!

Source: Rough Trade Records and juliancasablancas.com

COPIED FROM OH_SOMEDAY

I LITERALLY CAN'T HANDLE IT. THIS IS THE BEST NEWS I HAVE EVER HEARD.

From NME.

JULIAN'S WEBSITE!!!!!!!!

Spin!

And, of course, it's been announced on thestrokes.com!

SO HAPPY, SO EXCITED!!!!!! I LOVE JULIAN CASABLANCAS!!!!!

more dash

those of you who know me know i'm super-sensitive when it comes to heroin-induced death, tragedies, and mishaps. so to say that dash snow's death is affecting me a lot is kind of an understatement. it doesn't matter that i didn't know him; i think that what bothers me most is that by all accounts and from the few times i watched him from afar, the guy seemed like he was living life more than all the rest of us. and now he is dead. what does that mean? he was one of the few people who live closest to the cliff of non-existence or with one foot in the abyss. "go for it" might be my motto, but dash really went for it. all i can say now is that i am praying for or thinking of everyone who has been touched and saddened by this passing.

you only live once, and we're not getting any younger. do what you want to do, and be kind. but don't waste a moment. "Moments like this never last."

Photo by Ryan McGinley, from VICE. Ryan writes, "When Dash was drunk, he would always tell you how much he loved you. And you couldn’t get him to stop singing Rolling Stones songs. Right before the verse, he’d nudge you and sing the words close to your face. "

dash snow

beautiful photo tribute @ tiny vices (by tim barber).

now dash snow?

Gawker says that Dash Snow is dead. I hope this isn't true... Peres Projects (his gallery) has yet to release a statement.

Snows tabloid/semen collages from the 2006 Biennial always stuck out in my mind, and I think my favorite article ever written in New York mag was Ariel Levy's piece on Snow, Dan Colen, and Ryan McGinley.

Something about Dash Snow really intrigued me and compelled me to create. I often saw him at concerts with his polaroid camera, taking photos of his friends on and off stage, but in a quiet and not annoying way. After reading Levy's article, in which he talked about walking underground in the subway tunnels with his ex wife, artist Agathe Snow, I wrote this poem:

dash and agathe

i think of us beating around

new york slugging scotch

from your flask on the subway

and you egg me on to swallow more,

"you're going to taste it

either way," and i tell you

my lip gloss will ruin

the taste. "it kills the burn,"

you say. we transfer and wait

for the f train at bryant park

and talk about an article

in new york: one cold night

dash and agathe snow

stood on a downtown subway platform,

freezing in their ripped jeans

and flannel shirts, but excited

to be alive. they walked to the next

station through the tunnel

and came out covered

in soot. "they must be lying,"

i say. in law school you studied

a case where a man walked through

the tunnel alone and sued the city

when he lost his leg. "see,

it's possible." you lean out

to look for the lights of the f.

(photo by Dash Snow from tinyvices)

brittish 7/10/09

In this week of great new (free!) music, I have another tip for you: Ida Maria recently did a Daytrotter session that kicks major ass. So go ahead and d/load it, and while you're at it, check out the latest Zane Lowe show to hear Ryan (chilling with his rabbit) introduce "Cheat On Me," the 1st single from the Cribs' forthcoming album Ignore the Ignorant, and to listen to Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner talk to Zane about the new album Humbug and recording in the desert.

If you're in NYC and need something to do on this fine summer evening, check out Adam Sullivan at Googie's (above The Living Room @ 154 Ludlow) for FREE tonight. Show starts at 7:30 and Adam goes on at 8:30. This is Adam's last show before he embarks on his US tour tomorrow.

brittish list for this week:

1. With Strangers- Little Joy

2. Evaporar- Little Joy

3. We Were Aborted- The Cribs

4. I Wanna Die- Adam Green

5. I'll Try Anything Once (You Only Live Once)- The Strokes

6. Short Fuse- Black Lips

7. Ghost In You- Counting Crows

8. The Breeze- Dr. Dog

9. Oh My God (Daytrotter Session)- Ida Maria

10. Near You Always- Jewel

11. Teeth (Daytrotter Session)- Bowerbirds

12. Everybody's Always Alone (Daytrotter Session)- Ida Maria

And the official song of the week is CRYING LIGHTNING by Arctic Monkeys.

Photo from here.

if only you, if only now

i bet you're wondering how i knew/that this would come to an end/he stole your heart from you/so you tossed me out to the wind/i keep pretending not to care/but the winter scent in her hair/compels my hands to do the things my heart wouldn't dare/i'll keep holding on to you/see no use perfecting lives with strangers/if only you, if only now/and in the twilight of this hour/when fools are mistaken for men/this shadow suits me well/my regrets, i'll face in the end/i'll keep holding on to you/see no use perfecting lives with strangers/if only you, if only now/i'll keep holding on to you/see no use perfecting love with strangers/if only you, if only now.

best part of the best movie

1:55- 2:25 pretty much explains everything.

Crying Lightning: Arctic Monkeys new track

Crying Lightning from the forthcoming Humbug. Listen HERE. (NME is on FIRE today!)

make love to me, ryan jarman

http://www.nme.com/photos/27-things-you-never-knew-about-the-cribs/131406/2/1

I adore The Cribs, most of all crazoid Ryan Jarman. Click above for a new feature from NME on the 27 things you never knew about the brothers Jahhhman.

And go to http://thecribs.com to d/load a free new track "We Were Aborted" from the forthcoming album Ignore the Ignorant.

Love it!

Obsessions

by Denise Levertov

Maybe it is true we have to return

to the black air of ashcan city

because it is there the most life was burned,

as ghosts or criminals return?

But no, the city has no monopoly

of intense life. The dust burned,

golden or violet in the wide land

to which we ran away, images

of passion sprang out of the land

as whirlwinds or red flowers, your hands

opened in anguish or clenched in violence

under that sun, and clasped my hands

in that place to which we will not return

where so much happened that no one else noticed,

where the city's ashes that we brought with us

flew into the intense sky still burning.

i love you fed WIN WIMBLEDON

win tomorrow, baby.

brittish 7/3/09

Happy almost 4th of July, aka my favorite holiday. Why is this my fave day of the year? I'm not the biggest patriot ever, I hate mosquitoes, and I don't eat burgers or hot dogs! But I love the summer, and I love fireworks. So even though for the past few years the rain has obscured the light show, and the years before that some asshole boy(s) always fucked over my plans (fucking potheads!!), and I have NOTHING going on tomorrow night, I still love the 4th. So here's a toast to the land of the free and the home of the brave!

My favorite national monument, for obvious reasons.

Weekly tunes:

1. Little Girl- Julian Casablancas w/ Dangermouse (official song of the summer)

2. Pretty Little Mess- Young Lords

3. Shelter- The Dead Trees

4. 12:51: The Strokes

5. Someday: The Strokes

6. Pieces of What- MGMT

7. Play the Part- Little Joy

8. Never Tear Us Apart- INXS

9. With Strangers- Little Joy

10. Stratford-On-Guy- Liz Phair

11. No One's Better Sake- Little Joy

12. Keep Me In Mind (Daytrotter Session)- Little Joy

13. Go West- Liz Phair

14. Pale Blue Eyes (Live): Hole