tributary

Just a quick post to note the assembly of covers over on Stereogum as they tribute The Strokes' first magical album, Is This It.

You can stream all the covers, or download the whole thing. I'm partial to the Morning Benders' version of "Last Night" which turns an originally semi-frenetic song into a breezier jangly summer jam. Also, Owen Pallet's take on "Hard to Explain" is beautiful.

"New York City Cops" unfortunately gets treated as merely a sample to be rapped over (and really, its inclusion in this track seems really unnecessary). Chelsea Wolfe accomplishes what she intended to do with "The Modern Age", but I find it barely recognizable anymore. I feel similarly about Wise Blood's version of "Someday." Also: where is "When It Started"?? It seems like an odd omission, especially since they already had bands who were unfamiliar with the album doing covers.

Otherwise, I'm just spending some time with my (free version) of Spotify and preparing to head to Newport Folk Festival this weekend! It'll be nice to get out of NYC - and particularly to go somewhere that's a bit cooler. It's a miracle that my ice cream did not melt en route to Bushwick for my friends' housewarming last weekend.

ice cream mania

Summer thus far has been full of lots of great things, but rising to the top of the list is the amount of ice cream I've ingested. And it's all so good. I took an ice cream making class over at Brooklyn Brainery and am on a quest to re-create Homer's fresh peach ice cream (or at least make one that's better than the other peach ice creams parading around NYC which are all far inferior to Homer's). On top of learning a slew of ice cream-related historical factoids, possibly the most important takeaway from the class was a rather intense discussion about everyone's favorite ice cream places in the city. Challenge accepted. I am slowly going through the list I made during class:

- Blue Marble (had black cherry--I think-- which was okay, but I think I'll try something else if I go back. Pro: they do mini-scoops or regular sized scoops!)

- Ample Hills (LIFE CHANGING ICE CREAM. I had Salted Crack Caramel, and there are so many other flavors I want to go back to try. It's a good thing I live over two miles away or I'd be in there every day and gain 20 pounds)

- Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

- il laboratorio del gelato

- plus, my go-to in the East Village: Sundaes and Cones, where I have seriously never had a bad scoop.

- Graeters (to be eaten on my trip to Columbus in August for a wedding! Perfect timing)

My friends are having an ice cream-themed housewarming party this weekend, and I'm planning to make a bourbon-peach cobbler ice cream (and hoping it doesn't melt en route in the almost-100-degree heatwave that's headed our way). My first attempt at making peach wasn't quite peach-y enough, so I have a few ideas about how to change things up this time for better results. It still tastes pretty awesome, though, so I don't mind eating my way through the test rounds:

what it means to be a firework

Happy (belated) Independence Day! No, not the movie, though that potential for alien invasion has come up multiple times over the course of the weekend. For the 2nd year, my friends and I took to Brooklyn Bridge Park for some picnic-ing. While cooler out than last year (pathetic but true), it was still sweltering and by the end of the picnic the icing on my cake had given out to the point where the layers were sliding around freely. Our celebration of America included a discussion of the popularity of the song "Firework" (what does it mean to be a firework? Baby, you're sparkly and only last a few seconds? Baby, you're a huge civic expense? Baby, you played a large role in the movie Mulan?), a few rounds of Bananagrams (difficult to play on a blanket, and when you feel that your brain might be melting), many types of (spiked and regular) lemonade, and at the end: a bucket of fried chicken. It was a hot, sweaty mess, but my sunburned back and I still call it a success.

EDIT: my magical flag cake was taken from this genius blog post. It's not as hard as you'd think!