First Avenue | October 24, 2005

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="288" caption="Scars on Broadyway sticker promo"][/caption]

Kurstin and I have been working on the Scars on Broadway promo. They sent us 300 stickers and we were supposed to get at least 1 picture for every 3 stickers we put up. The winner gets 2 VIP tickets to the show at First Ave on November 4th. So far we have over 250 pictures.

The Hollywood Undead show is today but it sold out and Kurstin and I can't find tickets anywhere. There's someone on ebay who has 9 of them and was over $50 each. The show is at the 7th Street Entry (which is tiny) and the tickets were originally $12. I'm willing to bet those tickets go to waste. Chris works at First Ave and he said there wasn't even an employee guest list to get into this show.

Today I have some stuff to do for work. Tomorrow I Am Ghost's new album "Those We Leave Behind" hits stores. You should definitely pick it up. It's an amazing album. I'll also be in class from 12:00 - 6:00 tomorrow. Wednesday I have a Symbolic Images midterm. I have 28 pages of notes (typed in 10 point font) to study. The midterm is from 9:30 - 12:00 then I work at 1:30. I'll be glad to get the midterm over with. It's been a while since I've taken an essay format test.

Work has been going well. I'm really happy with my job. It's something I enjoy doing and my boss is really open to new ideas. It's great not dreading going to work.

Minneapolis will be an especially exciting place in October & November

October

• 6th - Hollywood Undead @ 7th Street Entry
• 7th - I Am Ghost CD Release "Those We Leave Behind"
• 12th - Escape the Fate, Silverstein, Chiodos @ Epic
• 31st - Halloween

November

• 2nd - Atmosphere @ First Avenue
• 4th - Election Day / Scars on Broadway @ First Avenue / Warship CD Release "Supply and Depend"
• 5th - Saosin, POS @ Myth

I suppose this makes up for no good bands touring Minnesota all summer. (I don't do warped tour).

I'm going back home for the weekend. I'll leave Thursday night after my class is over at 9:00. For some reason I like traveling better at night. Maybe its because it's 200 miles and I rarely stop in between. So by the time I made it I'm pretty tired. Then I can just go to sleep. I'll probably be heading back to Minneapolis Sunday night.

Upcoming shows & other sweet stuff:

• Oct 6 - Hollywood Undead @ 7th Street Entry
• Oct 7 - New I Am Ghost Album - Those We Leave Behind
• Oct 12 - Silverstein, Chiodos, Escape the Fate @ EPIC
• Nov 2 - ATMOSPHERE @ First Avenue
• Nov 4 - Scars On Broadway @ First Avenue
• Nov 5 - POS, Saosin, The Devil Wears Prada, Underoath @ Myth

It's not too often that Minneapolis gets so many decent shows in a two month period. Crazyy it should be a lot of fun.

First Avenue | August 7, 2008

Dopo aver perso la serata clou al Nikki Beach che inizia alle 11 am di ogni domenica e finisce alle 4 am del lunedi, seguendo le informazioni del sito ufficiale, abbiamo deciso di fare l'happy hour che inizia alle 4 pm fino alle 7 pm di ogni mercoledì, giovedì, venerdì e sabato.

Dopo una bella giornata a prendere il sole a South Beach, ci siamo appiedati verso la 1st di Ocean Drive dove c'è il Nikki Beach salvo poi scoprire che nn c'era praticamente anima viva.

Optiamo per un mojito ma a bancone come sempre chiedono un documento identificativo, mostriamo la carta d'identita italiana e ci rispondono che accettano solo passaporti, id americane e id militari... Ma che gli prendesse un caghetto fotonico a loro e al Nikki Beach.

First Avenue | May 27, 2007

*Haterade: Bjork hates Pitchfork even more than you do. "just read that pitchfork.com credited nico muhly for the choir arrangement of “hidden place” from vespertine . also that he has done string arrangements for me . this is not true . journalists : please read the creditlist before you write your articles" [music slut]

*Jazz: Second-graders fall in love with jazz legend John Coltrane. Then they try to save the house in which he wrote "A Love Supreme." [fark]

*Streaming: You can listen to Metallica's new single, "The Day That Never Comes," on MySpace legally, without being sued. [pop candy]

*Local: Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue has redesigned their website. Now with 50% more pulsating! The history section is worth a read. They also twitter when shows are announced or sold out.

*Viral video: Rob Walker looks at Blendtec's "Will It Blend?" YouTube series. Personally, my favorite part is when a lot of toxic dust comes wafting out of the blender.

*Namaste.

First Avenue | November 21, 1998

*Sap: A few months old, but a 33-minute NPR interview with the couple from the movie "Once." [buzzsugar]

*Bands: Paste magazine takes a look at up-and-coming bands: Bon Iver, Wale. [pop candy] (Thanks for the dumb-ass interstitial ads when I try to go out the door Pop Candy!)

*Rich people: Forbes lists hip-hops richest moguls of 2008. [daily swarm]

*Local: Read the Reveille review of Bon Iver's recent concert at First Ave: "I’ve been to sold-out shows at First Avenue before, but not like this one. Even in the back of the room, the fringes of the crowd were just as rapt and reverent as the ones at the front." (At this rock club, they will shush you if you so much as rustle during a Low set.)

*Huh: Toby Keith is a Democrat.

*Off topic: Shoes that look like waffles. [neatorama]

*Olympics: Race Usain Bolt with your fingers. [jimray]

FROM THE NY TIMES'

CITY ROOM BLOG

This much can be agreed on: An Orthodox congregation established by Eastern European Jews in 1888 occupies a lovely but crumbling neo-Classical building with a two-story Victorian Gothic interior at 415 East Sixth Street, between First Avenue and Avenue A, on the Lower East Side — a neighborhood where real estate prices have been soaring, placing pressure on owners of old buildings to sell their property to developers for retail and commercial uses.

Everything else — including even the question of how to correctly render the name of the synagogue — is contentious in a bitter dispute that has erupted in recent weeks over the fate of the building.

This afternoon, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Lower East Side Conservancy and several other nonprofit groups held a news conference outside the synagogue, to draw attention to a plan by the synagogue’s board to enter a partnership with a developer, which would demolish the structure and replace it with a mixed-use building that would contain apartments, as well as a new synagogue. In a letter [pdf] to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, the society has called for the synagogue to be designated a landmark, which would prevent it from being demolished.

The congregation has filed demolition plans with the city’s Department of Buildings, but insists that it wants to preserve the character of the congregation and that the current structure is in desperate disrepair. The demolition plans were reported by The Villager, a weekly newspaper, late last month. The synagogue’s board voted on July 7 to approve a deal with the Kushner Companies, which would build a new six-story building on the site, with a synagogue on the first two floors and 10 apartments on the top four stories.

It is not quite clear when the building at 415 East Sixth Street was constructed, but twoarticles in The Times from November 1903 refer to the building as a “four-story dwelling,” and a January 1911 article said the building had been the home of “wholesale confectioners.”

In any event, the Adas Yisroel Anshe Mezritch, or Congregation Mezritch, which was founded in 1888, drastically renovated the building and began using it as a synagogue in 1910. The society said in a statement:

The handsome neo-Classical building (which has an even more impressive interior) was one of the Lower East Side’s many “tenement synagogues,” so named because they filled narrow lots sandwiched between tenements and served the poor immigrants who populated the surrounding buildings. While a few such tenement synagogue buildings remain in the East Village, including the former Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Anshe Ungarn Synagogue at 242 East Seventh Street, which was recently landmarked by the city, Congregation Mezritch Synagogue appears to be the sole remaining operating tenement synagogue in the East Village, and thus is an important link to what was once perhaps the most significant Jewish community in America.

Andrew Berman, executive director of the historic preservation society, said that “buildings like this — at once humble and grand — really speak to the profound aspirations of the generations of immigrants who came through the Lower East Side, and the impact they had and continue to have upon our city and country.”

In a statement, Shelley Ackerman, whose father, Pesach Ackerman, has been the synagogue’s rabbi for more than 40 years, defended the board’s plans. She said:

Our synagogue is not and never has been for sale. The pending proposal (if in fact it moves forward) would help to preserve Anshe Meseritz and provide a much more comfortable, welcoming, and accessible space for our beloved congregants. We are acting along these lines to guarantee the securing and survival of this synagogue.

Those who instigate these activities are fueled by a romantic notion of preserving an old structure, one in desperate need of renovation. And without that renovation is likely to fall. Some are motivated by ignorance, others by greed.

Dozens of other beautiful similar (landmark-worthy) synagogues in much better or worse shape than this one on the Lower East Side have been sold and/or destroyed in the last 20 years. These sales were motivated by the greed of a few parties who benefited. In almost every case, the synagogue in question did not. This case is completely different. There is no sale pending, only air rights to build apartments that will provide needed income to sustain the synagogue and congregation going forward.

In a phone interview, Ms. Ackerman said the synagogue was in an advanced state of disrepair. The exterior steps are so steep as to be unusable during inclement weather, she said. Parts of the interior are crumbling. There are inadequate bathrooms, poor climate control and no kitchen, she added.

The hubbub has become personal — and divided the 40 or so members of the congregation.

“Anyone who is familiar with Rabbi Ackerman’s role in the synagogue for the last 40 years knows that despite no wages, he has been present seven days a week and has done everything within his power to make sure that the synagogue survives,” his daughter said in the statement. “He is devoted to the preservation of his temple and would never do anything to endanger the future of the synagogue.”

Several former or current members of the congregation have weighed in on the side of the preservationists, including Joel Kaplan, executive director of United Jewish Council of the East Side, and William E. Rapfogel, chief executive of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

Freda Fried, whose father was active in the synagogue for decades and whose mother was on its board, said the board’s vote in July was held on a Monday morning after the July 4 holiday weekend. “It provided little information about the sale in its mailing, so members could do any due diligence or even consider it important to give a proxy to anyone else,” she said. “If there was a real process and search for a development partner, little or no information was provided about any other choices.”

Gerard Wolfe, a retired art historian credited with “rediscovery” of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, called the Mezeritz synagogue “a jewel,” and added, in a statement, “Its demolition would be an irretrievable, unforgivable loss.”

Andrew S. Dolkart, a professor of historic preservation at Columbia who is not involved in the dispute, said the East Sixth Street building was an outstanding example of vernacular architecture and reflected the neo-Classical influence of the 1897 synagogue built by Congregation Shearith Israel, also known as the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.

“It wasn’t designed by a sophisticated architect,” Professor Dolkart said. “It wasn’t a pioneering building. It was an architect who was looking at what sophisticated designers were doing and then adapting it in an inexpensive and not so sophisticated manner, to create a kind of folk classicism, almost.”

In a phone interview, Professor Dolkart said he favored preserving the Lower East Side structure, because cities should preserve “architecture that not only reflects the lives and history of the rich, but also the incredibly history of common people in New York.”

First Avenue | August 15, 2008

First Avenue | August 7, 2008

First Avenue | August 7, 2008

K'Naan is one of those artists from the Hip Hop generation. Growing up on the dusty streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, even from an early age he was listening and dropping verses from Nas and Rakim. His is an authentic voice forged by civil war and refugee experiences and strongly influenced by Somali culture and family history.

K'Naan's music excites me because it offers a different vision beyond himself; it's socially aware and uniting people under tight beats while raising awareness for those without voices. Very few artists can do this, but K'Naan speaks to me like Jurassic 5, Guru, or even Rage.

He takes Hip Hop and presses the bounds mixing English and Somali; he's a poet in any language. Catch K'Naan on closing night of the Pan African Festival at the First Ave Main Room.

Monday, August 11
First Avenue Main Room
7 PM (Doors open)
18+ show
$16 advance; $20 at the door
Ticket Info: 612-338-8388 or Ticketmaster

K'Naan - Soobax

K'Naan - Hardcore

*Talk: Interview with Fleet Foxes – " We’re not trying to pull the wools over anyone’s eyes so if people want to call us hippies that’s totally fine." [largehearted boy]

*Lollapalooza: AT&T will stream some of the festival live from here. If you are too old to go.

*Pics: Words and photos from the recent Hold Steady thing at First Ave. (Disclosure: I work with the byline dude. He's tall.)

*The Beat: The Frisky rounds up masturbation songs. For your pleasure. (Wait, wasn't that Green Day song about this activity? Hello?) [buzzfeed]

*Mashups: Notorious B.I.G. vs. The Rolling Stones = Poppa Was a Rolling Stone. I can't get a lot of satisfaction out of the way you call me Big Poppa. UH.

*Found: An unreleased recording of the Beatles was recently discovered in a Liverpool attic. Is it weird that I have cited news items on Dylan, the Stones and the Beatles all in the past two days, a couple of them regarding the discovery of previously unreleased materials? At the day job we talk a lot about the emergent age of near-infinite information persistence, but it seems that a marked lengthening of captured data's life began 50 years ago. Also, I have been getting up at FIVE FUCKING THIRTY IN THE MORNING, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!

*Local: MFR reminds us all that Minneapolis hip-hop band Atmosphere is the musical guest on CBS' Late Night with David Letterman tonight.

*Off topic: Jerry Lewis has been carrying a gun in his luggage. And that is not a euphemism. (No idea.) [medialoper]