Summerscreen: Mean Streets

Alex drove up from Philly with Rachel, Bryan and Bryan's younger brother to come to summerscreen. It was a blast.





The rest of the set here.

summerscreen (HOLY SHIT)

Sorry, had to stretch the page for this one.

The turn-out for this was INSANE. Our publisher says "8000 (Eight THOUSAND)" came through last night. It was probably not 8000 but whatever, more people showed up than for Feist when I went last year, and that was a sold out show.

I was put in charge of photography so here we go...


Britt, Nick, Elizabeth and Mike


Some hipsters


Danny introducing...


Joe Lo Truglio, Michael Showalter and Paul Rudd


Susannah and Hesper


Mike, Gretchen and Lauren


Some random girl, Paul Rudd, Jen and Nadine


Justine and Linda during magic hour


Nadine, Jen and I


A capacity crowd!

Mercedes and Sandy also came but I couldn't find them in the crowd.

Also, Brooklyn Vegan put up 2 of my photos. Now I'm Brooklyn blogger famous! Woo!

We kinda kicked it in the chill out tent

Photo Margaret Conklin

I went to the free Hold Steady show at McCarren Park Pool today. What a shitty day for a concert. The weather messed up what would have been a great show. It rained twice- hard and fast. The rainfall around 2pm probably didn't really have any effect except deter a few people from showing up. I totally missed the first band, but saw the second band- J. Roddy & the Business

Andrea and Becca came at the end of their set with a stacks of postcards to promote the Block Party and Summerscreen (July 8, ya'll!). I walked around with them a bit while they handed them out. Then it started to rain. They stopped setting up the stage. Then it really started to rain. I met up with Sandy and we went to Alligator Lounge to wait out the rain. Then I got a taco at YALA's cafe (now I'll never forget the name of this place). The taco wasn't as good as the first time I had it. But to be fair, I was drunk after the L party and it was like 1am. Mexican food is always better when you're drunk and hungry.

We decided to stop by the pool to see if the Hold Steady was playing. I thought they might have just canceled the show. I drove by and heard Craig Finn's unmistakable voice. "They're playing!" So I parked the car. Sandy and I walked over and caught the last half of their set. There were still a ton of people there. I was surprised people came back after the rain...or just stayed and waited it out. Well, if any band has that kind of loyalty amongst Brooklynites, its the Hold Steady. The show wasn't as "OMG CRAZY" as Mike made it out to be. I missed all the songs they played off of Boys and Girls in America, if they played any. I bet it would have been a lot more packed if the weather was nice all day.

As I stood there during J. Roddy's set, I was thinking about the pool and how it epitomized hipster culture. It's going to be hard to explain to anyone not native to NYC because "hipster" can mean totally different tiers of stuff to different people. Like someone not very fashionable would think anyone with bangs or skinny jeans are hipsters, which is totally not the case (those people could be fake hipsters).

I'm sure someone better with words then me has already wrote a dissertation on the pool parties. In fact, I remember readying an article about it 2 years ago when they first started the pool parties and the parallels of it to the French and their fancy Sundays when the rich would go to the park and see and be seen. It's the same principle here really. Everyone is dressed in their best. It's hot, less cloths, better for everyone to see and be seen. Dodgeball and the slip and slide add to the "WHY NOT GUYZ" and "spontaneity" of being a hipster.

Too bad the first free show of the summer had to be rain on twice between sets!

This Beer is Now $6 Dollars

I saw Feist at McCarren Park Pool last Wednesday and the first thing I did when I got inside was go buy a ticket for beer. Getting beer at the pool is a three step process. You have to show ID, get in the line to buy a ticket that you can redeem for a beer and then get in another line to actually get beer. They must have done a ton of research and analysis on what the most efficient way to sell beer was.

Anyway, at the Blond Redhead show, the beer (which is all Brooklyn btw) was 5 dollars. When we got up to the ticket line, I noticed a really haphazardly '6' in written over the '5'. Someone had taken a sharpie and turned the '5' into a '6'. You can imagine they only made the bottom half of the '5' into a circle to look like a '6'. They didn't even try that hard, as it was very obvious they had jacked the price up. I guess they felt like they could get away with it. What, being the end of summer and all. Right? Actually, I don't know why, all I know is that I didn't tip the them because of this.

McCarren Crazyness

Liz and I went to the Blond Redhead show yesterday at McCarren Park Pool. It's a free concert every Sunday with the "hottest up and coming" indie bands. This was a pretty big show, as Blond Redhead's new album has been pretty well received.

Pretty much half of the Williamsburg population (and their mom) was at this show it was so packed. The entrance to get in is at the main gate at the middle of the block. The line stretched from there to the left, made a U-turn back past the entrance and all the way to the right end of the block. Then it hugged the right side all the way almost to the end of the block. That's how long the line was. It took us about an hour on line to make it to the entrance.

There were so many hipsters (to be expected). It got pretty ridiculous standing there in line and watching all of them. Sometimes I wonder if they all still think they are "unique". Jackie says, "I think they do". If they do, they really are delusional.

When Liz and I got inside, we pretty much went straight to the beer line. The only beer to be consumed was (what else?) Brooklyn Brewery. I tried the Brooklyn Summer Ale and the Antwerp. I'm not really that into Lager anymore. Not on a hot summer day anyway, the taste is too distinct.

Blond Redhead was okay. Their music isn't something you can dance too so... After the show Liz caught a bus back to Astoria. Just then, Jackie texts me and says she's in the area. I sat down in McCarren and watched hipster kickball till she got there. The entire park was filled with "big-ass" foam cups, either in the trash or people sipping on them. They are all TO GO beers from the Turkey's Nest. They cost 3.50. "This is only 3.50! It's 32oz! That's almost 3 beers!", a hipster shouted out as we walked by me. No doubt, he just discovered the (awesomeness?) of Turkey's Nest. It's so funny because almost everyone in the park was sipping beer through straws in these big-ass foam cups. Awesome.

WillyB really is something else. It's sorta turning into Disneyland.