#NYC

The Siren Festival at Coney Island (Summer/2010)

The Siren Festival w/ Matt & Kim – July 17th – Coney Island, NY
   
My love Ana & I took the loooong subway ride out to Coney Island for our last weekend before she sadly returns back to Spain.
I wanted to show her CI and I usually attend the Siren Festival every year and its always a good time and Coney Island in the Summer time is the best.
However today was not only the hottest freaking day of the year, it may have been in the running for one of the hottest ever. Freaking stroke inducing.
We get off the subway and into the heat, and their is no cover anywhere, and are trying to enjoy the street performers and sidewalk fare on our way to see our first band of the day: The band Ponytail who are part of that wave of awesome talent that’s been coming out of Baltimore as of late.
 

We check them out for a bit but its not long before Spanish Eyes maintains her motif of constant hunger, and hello we were 10 yards from Nathan’s Hot Dogs, and we were at Coney Island, so is their more of an obvious choice? – Nathan’s is the very spirit of CI and the site of the World’s Hot Dog Eating Competition (that ironically took place just the previous weekend). So we step out of 98 degree weather and into a kitchen that had to be over 100 degrees. First their were sooo many people packed into this sweat locker, and with the grill and steam it was stifling in there. Normally this has an adverse effect on me (as I NEVER drink water) but other than just being a bit warm, I was fine. My Spanish companion however..? – Not so much – I can laugh about this now, (and it was funny) but as it was happening I was more concerned than entertained. I had alot to carry with two LARGE lemonades and our food so I went to give her the drink and go back for the rest. When I came back, as funny as this looked haha, she was dizzy and stumbling like a drunk person and falling fast. Before I could say “Hey, are you alright?” – down she went! – The normal apathetic New York public even looked on with a little concern as I rushed to keep some napkins to swipe the condensation from our drinks and apply it to her forehead and neck. My memory of this is largely hilarious, and made for the joke of the day and the next.

So what’s the natural next step from coming this close to a pukey heat stroke? Walk 10 more yards to one of the most famous rollercoasters in the world and the jewel of Coney Island – The Cyclone.

Now to know, you will know that I am not afraid of shit, but you also can’t miss my historic stomach issues and hyper-sensitivity to motion sickness. However I wasn’t gonna let any of that get in the way of us having the fun you are supposed to be having at Coney Island. So onward we march and conquer that sucker. An odd occurrence happened while in line. An especially douchbagger from last Summer says hello to me – whom I previously had envisioned would come to blows if I ever saw this fucker again – oddly the person that introduced us, I ran into her at Monotonix just the night before and she said that they were having a party soon for said douchbag and that jokingly, I should come. So today I see him and also mentions the party, and non-chalantly tells me that the party is designed as condolence as he’s been recently diagnosed with Lyme Disease. Fucking weird and couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

So after I nearly puke off the side of this safety hazard we head to the mainstage right next to us to see the always fun Matt & Kim.
These two live down the street from me so I see them often and I would never be in the mood to listen to their music outside of the live setting, but in concert, what a blast. It could be said that alot of people came just for the festival, but it seemed everyone was there to see them and look how many came!
 


 So what does one do after a long and super hot and sweaty day? – Go to another concert! Before we had met, the senorita had already planned to attend and purchased a ticket to tonight’s after-party at the Music Hall of Williamsburg with We Are Scientists. I didn’t have a ticket, but I can usually get around these things. We get there and I have blogged and lamented at length my feelings towards the entire staff of elitist rabble that run this place and tonight the problems only increased. I really didn’t give a shit anyway, so I told her to go on and I went next door and had a beer and checked email for the duration of their just over an hour performance.

So a few days later on our final night, a la Before Sunrise we had a gorgeous day and evening. We spent the whole day at one of my fave places in NYC, the Natual History Musuem and to hit a few other places I wanted her to see. At dusk we hit a perfect sunset while riding the Staten Island Ferry.
 


     I took her to Rockafeller Plaza afterwards and we just sat in the fountain and talked until it was time to part. The notion that we may never see each other ever again, but with the promise of doing our best, but also just simply enjoying the moment. Whatever may be, a Summer love affair with a beautiful European girl is something we all deserve and one I won’t soon forget.
 

Funny February w/ Eddie Izzard, Chelsea Handler, Henry Rollins & more (Feb/2010)

Eddie Izzard – January 21st   – American Airlines Arena – Dallas, TX

I’ve always wanted to see Eddie Izzard, so tonight I couldn’t have been more excited. Like most Americans I wasn’t introduced to his brand of Info-tainment till his first HBO Special – Dressed to Kill in 1998. It was so unique and original that I had to see/know more and was thrilled when I discovered he was very prolific (and has continued to be) and this whole wonderful catalog of stuff for me to discover. Naturally of course, most Americans don’t even know who he is as British transvesite comedians re-telling the history of the world in hilarious detail, might just be the most un-American thing I think of sadly. But there are also plenty of people like me, for him to fill an entire sports arena like the American Airlines center. I had just got to Dallas a few hours prior and went straight to the arena, grabbed my ticket and got to my seat just minutes before he came on. Their was a real excitment in the air, as it was certain that most people here were seeing him live for the first time. He doesn’t tour the States frequently and when he does its usually sporadic shows on both coasts, so this being his first extensive tour of the States and clearly his first visit to Dallas. He hits stage and the place explodes – he didn’t have his trademark makeup and transvestite gear on, but its not like he would show up anything less than stylish. However it did seem like he was going for a matador theme 🙂

      While his material is anything buy linear, his theme is always apparent and this show his brilliance was in full gear as the show revolved around him trying to make some sense of the history of civilization. Pretty ambitous for a two hour show. I have seen everything I could get my hands on of his but yet still seeing him do this whole self-referential pantomime thing in person was a thing of wonder. I literally laughed till I couldn’t breathe, and just a one of a kind class act. Long show too, he did about 90 mins, then an intermission and then a second set with an encore, all in total almost 3 hours.
Henry Rollins – February 24th – Lakewood Theatre – Dallas, TX
   I was excited about this show for several reasons – namely, I’m a Rollins person (whatever that means) though over the years he and his output have changed considerably to various degrees to my liking, I’ve followed his career pretty closely. In the early days I can remember being a teenager and leaving his shows exhausted (they often ran 4 + hours) and inspired. Inspired in a way that nothing else quite could, and it would be unfair to say that I still patronize his wares as a residual to capture that old feelings because he still always brings something new to the proverbial table, but it would also be inaccurate to say that he has the ability to still move me in that same way. And why is that? Sure I’ve grown up and no longer impressionable, and his output is now largely dialed in to a political format that I often don’t agree with. However I still get a good deal of milage out of Ol’ Hank, and the reason is, that he is still a master storyteller, and maintains a zero bullshit disposition that is impossible for me not to be drawn to. And this was a good show. I’ve seen literally dozens of his spoken word shows, and as many Rollins Band shows and though the last few I’ve seen, though coming close, I’ve never felt downright dissapointed.
He did a 6 night stand a few years back in NYC with Jeanane Garafolo and Marc Maron that just didn’t work, and I think if asked he would say the same thing. I went to the first 3 nights and it just never improved and it was weird hearing him repeat stuff verbatim. I’m not naive and know that his show is a bit and he has to rework stuff night after night, but this is the closest I’ve ever seen the lines blurred from Spoken Word to a straight up comedy act.
Then about a year later I saw some solo shows in NYC and in Austin, TX and these were better but still lacked inspiration by comparison to some shows I had seen not that long before. The act seemed tired and I had heard alot of the material before and it seemed he had developed some bad habits that kind of made me feel uncomfortable. If you have been to a few of these, you know at some point he’s gonna get serious and talk about the importance of life and your assured a reference or two to his own inspirations of the Ramones, Devo, or P-Funk. Over the years as he’s become a seasoned performer he’s also mellowed considerably  (to his benefit) and realizes that posing for pics and signing autographs just comes with the job and I like that, and don’t miss the “angry Rollins” that some do.
What had been missing was what seemed the inspired Rollins, and thankfully on this night, that’s just what we got. He’s also become practical and even effiecient instead of droning on for 4 hours no matter how enticing the story he’s able to do a healthy show that you can take from and do it in just under two hours.
His unique sense of humor and crushing wit were in full effect much to my hilarity and told some orginal stories that I hadn’t yet heard. Doesn’t really matter actually, he could have sat on a paint bucket and read Moby Dick, and the next time we were in the same city, it would still be hard to resist going.

Photos – 

Roy Turner