the pretty little patter of a seaboard town

Just about one week ago I was heading off to Newport, RI with team T.E.A.M. (tiffany, eve, ana, and [myself]) for the Newport Folk Festival. Our drive was never too traffic-y (thanks, John!) and our hotel was kind of ridiculously oversized for the 4 of us.

On the surface, Newport is a really typical waterside vacation spot. All the buildings have the same look and feel and themes, but what sets Newport apart is its insanely prep-bro visitors. It's like being smacked in the face with a Ralph Lauren catalog. Despite the almost pathetically stupid things that some of the drunk dudes on the street said to us, the town was cute and I'm sorry we couldn't spend more daylight time walking around. Rather, our day on Saturday was spent out at Ft. Adams State Park for the festival, which was a beautiful location and delightfully breezy. We ate and drank and possibly got too much sun exposure. It was fantastic.

Musical highlights of my day included Gogol Bordello, Delta Spirit, and the Decemberists. Colin Meloy (jokingly?) mocked the "party flotillas" out in the water catching the concert for free (or rather, for the price of already having a boat you can sit on all day). We missed Earl Scruggs because we were eating hotdogs (necessary). We also sat in the shade tent during Gillian Welch and I let her gorgeous voice lull me into an almost-sleep.

Sunday we attempted to visit the Breakers before heading back to NYC, but were very sad to find out that it costs $19 a pop to get in. We walked past a lot of the mansions, though, and I have grand dreams (probably to never be realized) of living seaside now.

my life as a Vanderbilt (ha!) #gpoy

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!

summer lovin

Happy first day of summer!!

While it has certainly been warm enough already to qualify as summer, today is officially the first day. To celebrate the longest day of the year, I have a pretty long mix prepared for you all. I'm excited for some of the trips and things that I know will be summer highlights already:

• Newport Folk Festival
• the final installment of the Harry Potter movie franchise
• the first wedding I'm going to of a friend/peer (rather than a family member, etc).
• plus, visitors & housewarming parties & whatever free outdoor shows still exist in New York!

[image found via the Glamourai]

so fresh and so clean

For over a month it has felt like I've been in a state of perpetual motion. Starting with a new company, looking for apartments/signing/moving/unpacking, and now I am finally starting to settle in. There is still a lot to be done with the apartment, but most things are out of boxes and have a home. Until I manage to get a new couch and frame some of this art, things are more or less how they'll be for good. Thank goodness, because during that stretch of time I had more-or-less sequestered myself into a life of packing and unpacking and trips to Ikea/The Container Store/Bed Bath and Beyond. Now that things are less hectic, I'm getting back into the swing of things, including working on a summer mix.

Over the weekend I (finally!) saw some of my friends and two movies (and, of course, The Dodos concert). I saw Bill Cunningham at IFC (smallest theater I've ever seen!) which was amazing. The man is an icon and so endearing. I also saw Bridesmaids which really was just as funny as everyone told me it would be. I was nervous to see something with so much hype, but all of those ladies knocked it out of the park (and Jon Hamm, who had such a ridiculous character...). We also went to the new-ish home of the Brooklyn Flea in Williamsburg, which was a little surreal. The entrance is near one of those newer waterfront condos, and it really looked like an architectural mockup of the "outdoor space" with people lounging in the grass, sitting on benches, with dogs and children interspersed. I picked up a bottle of ginger syrup for Morris Kitchen (insanely delicious), and an old 7Up crate that I'm now using as a spice rack:

As a visual reference, this post is being written from this corner of my living room where I've set up camp. Here's a before and after:

 (as you can see, I really need a real couch...I ditched the futon frame during the move, so now I just have the mattress which is looking pretty sad these days).

what I want, what I need

Gauntlet Hair:

The Dodos:

After what feels like a long hiatus, I went to see a show on Friday night. We went to see The Dodos play at Music Hall of Williamsburg, and despite not getting there terribly early, I found myself breezing right up to the stage. Front row!

Gauntlet Hair opened, and while their name is a little silly, their sound was really good and the crowd seemed really into them (we were, too). When the Dodos took the stage, it was just as fantastic as I thought they would be. It was difficult to hear the vocals, probably due to being so close to the stage/the drums, but overall the experience being so close was amazing. The guy behind us realllly wanted them to play Jodi, and he finally got his wish during the encore. I hoped they might play Fables (which is my ringback tone!), but they left that one out. C'est la vie. I love all of their songs, so there was no wrong turn in my book.



Summer is more or less here now, though the weather is still pretty spastic, and the various concert series have kicked off around the city. It seems like the pickings for free shows are sparser than in years past, but I'm still excited for my favorite musical time of year in NYC.