The show is on behalf of Amnesty International and will also benefit the American Red Cross and other Hurricane Sandy relief efforts! Tickets available here.
Lonely camel from one of the playgrounds on Riverside Drive.
Awning ripped off of a restaurant on Broadway in the 150s.
Awning on the ground on Broadway.
Compared to many parts of New York City and New Jersey, my section of Washington Heights fared very well. There were some felled trees and awnings ripped off of area businesses, but to my knowledge, no one in the West 160s through the West 140s lost power. Same for the 180s.
(Click on the photos to see them in full size.)
Field turf soccer field in excellent condition. Score for artificial grass!
A MTA bus running before the projected 5 p.m. start time. Buses are running on a Sunday schedule.
River Bank Park is CLOSED.
Side lot of my building. Downed tree from the building next to ours.
Lots of yellow cabs in the hood. And NYPD is a steady presence.
Marathon is on Sunday, Nov. 4, so runners can’t stop training now!
Skunky looking down, hoping we could hit the greenway, but I felt safer staying on Riverside.
If you follow me on Twitter you know that I have a neighbor who sings, and trains others, in opera. (And also other styles, such as Broadway show tunes.) Her name is Carmen Elisa Cancél.
It’s the coolest thing because it’s like living in a musical. One time, she was training a guy on West Side Story (one of my favorite musicals) and I spent a couple of weeks constantly humming along while he rehearsed “Tonight.”
Anyway, I ran into her in the elevator today and she’s performing this very weekend and it’s for a good cause! Here are the details:
WHO: Hailed as a singer possessing a “crystalline timbre and intense acting ability,” Puerto Rican soprano, Carmen Elisa Cancélis quickly establishing herself as an artist in the lyric soprano repertoire.
What isn’t there to like about a week of live music events in New York City?
Just as some people look forward to Fashion Week in the Big Apple, I look forward to the CMJ Music Marathon. The four-day event brings 1390+ bands to 90+ stages throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. You’ll go to see one band and catch about five others, whom you may end up liking, in the process. And sometimes there is free booze involved. You can’t go wrong!
Here’s a mini-round up of the bands I saw (all photos by me except for Making Movies):
there’s a chance we could meet under the likeness of summer and there’s a chance we could fall under the highlight of winter there’s a parked car that won’t let me over and there’s one thing i’ll regret, but you’d be the last
This trio is super approachable and I was able to chat them up about their first time in New York City. Goldy, the band’s drummer, and Sarah Lynn, who plays stand up bass and the banjo, had a blast and it showed. Recently signed to ORG music label, you can check out their EP, “Four Steps in Corsets,” here.
Kansas City’s Making Moviesat Desmonds: Bilingual indie rock? Yes, please. It’s as if this music was made for me– a kid born in the States to Colombian parents who instilled in me a love for amazing Afro-Latino music!
Founded by brothers Enrique and Diego Chi, Making Movies fuses Afro-Cuban rhythms with indie sensibilities and bilingual songs. Currently, legendary artist and producer Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, is producing their sophomore album. In the meantime, check out “Hangover Blues” off their EP (with its cool album art) Aguardiente here. Buy the EP on iTunes. Read my interview with lead singer and owner of awesome dreadlocks, Enrique Chi, at Sounds and Colours here. And check out this short video of them covering Aguanile, one of my favorite Hector Lavoe songs of all time, here.
New York City’sPillow Theory at Bowery Electric: Kelsey Warren from Pillow Theory and I go way back, when my brother, Richie, stumbled upon one of their shows in the late 90s. These guys have been rocking for quite a while and it only gets better. I’ve had friends compare them to Living Colour (whom they opened for at Central Park’s Summer Stage) and even Bush– both bands from the 1990s. True, yet Pillow Theory finds a way to keep their sound relevant. Seriously, they get better, they rock harder every time I see them. And Kelsey sounds like Seal. (Hear his solo album here.)
Kelsey tells me their critically acclaimed EP, MELTDOWN, will be re-released November 5th via Europe’s FILTER label “with some extra spices on it.” In the meantime, check out 2007’s Outpatience here. You can watch their latest music video for Blipsters & Buppies (yep, you guessed it–black hipsters and black yuppies) here.
Also at Bowery Electric:
From Brooklyn — The Disappointment: It’s quite the opposite. You’ll be pleased with this foursome that play rock-n-roll tinged with blues and soul. Reminded me of Black Crowes with a New York edge. Listen to their EP, Damn Righteous, here.
From New York City — Man on Earth: The folks at CMJ once described Man on Earth as “Glistening, wide-open arena rock with spirited choruses and a charged romanticism.” Yet I also hear something new wave in them (listen to “Sometimes.” You’ll see what I mean.) Add to that an energetic stage show and therein lies your reason for checking these guys out. (Bonus points for the lead singer who sang right into my camera!) Check out album, Things They’d Never Believe, here.
From Brooklyn — The Last Royals:If your lead singer’s style reminds me of INXS’ Michael Hutchence at all, I’m going to listen, and chances are, I’m going to like it. This Brooklyn duo, who make “beat-laden indie pop,” had the lower level of Bowery Electric intently watching as writer/singer/producer Eric James dropped down to the floor once or three times. According to their Wikipedia page, James and drummer Mason Ingram first met in 2010 while recording a record to benefit Restore NYC, a charity focused on ending sex trafficking and restoring the well-being and independence of foreign-national survivors. For that reason alone, you should give their stuff a listen here!
From New York City — Bear Ceuse: They describe themselves as LOUD ASS ROCK. Sometimes. But I also thought frat party, and not in a bad way! A fun way. Let’s just say this band had the girls dancing right at the front of the stage. Check out their tunes on Bandcamp here.
There are so many bands who played the CMJ Music Marathon to discover!! Visit CMJ’s website for a great roundup. Their site is a great resource for music year-round.
A not-so-great cell phone pic of Christina Greer moderating the debate discussion at The Apollo.
I got to watch the second presidential debate at the world famous Apollo Theater in Harlem tonight. It was my first time there.
It’s a lot smaller than it looks on television, but it’s a sight to be seen. Especially the outdoor sign. It’s so bright!
One of Fordham’s political science professors, Christina Greer, was asked to moderate a panel discussion before and after the debate. The panel included Esther Armah (WBAI-FM), Herb Boyd (The New York Amsterdam News), Michael Brendan Dougherty (The American Conservative), Mark Riley (WWRL 1600 AM), William Tucker [The American Spectator], and Armstrong Williams (SiriusXM’s The Power).
My colleague Janet will blog about the discussion, which touched on several topics, but a comment by Dougherty of The American Conservative stayed with me. When asked what will the candidates NOT talk about tonight, he predicted they’d avoid: the unemployment of black males; the war on drugs, which leads to the incarceration of an overwhelming amount of black males; the use of drones, civil liberties and guns.
Well, he was wrong on guns, since it came up in a town hall question. Too bad neither candidate came up with a real solution or promised to get real “tough” on guns since we know there are a lot of people in this country who would lose their minds if you dared threaten the 2nd Amendment or the gun industry.
But, Dougherty was dead on about all the other things he predicted they’d avoid. Yet I am not surprised.
I’ll admit it–I’m a pessimist (let’s all be thankful I’m not a politician running the country). But I just can’t see ALL or even most of America demanding that the unemployment or incarceration of black males come up at the dinner table, let alone in a national discussion.
And did you notice none of tonight’s questions directly dealt with the poor or the disabled? Many people jumped on Mitt Romney for his 47% comment. But sometimes I wonder why most of us–the middle class that is so often mentioned in campaign stump speeches and debates–go right along ignoring issues that are not personally affecting us. (And are they not affecting us in the long run?)
Some moving words by Fordham professor and activist Mark Naison about the Rev. John Flynn, known as the “street priest” who made a difference in the Bronx:
There are not that many people you meet, in real life, whose personality is so incandescent they light of the world. Father John Flynn, pastor of St. Martin of Tours Church in the Bronx who passed away on Sept. 23, was one of those people. I met him at the height of the crack epidemic when gun battles and beefs were taking an incredible toll on young people in the Bronx. I was part of a group of religious leaders, and community activists who met as his church to try to do something about the violence, which was making normal activity impossible for many people in the Bronx because they literally feared to leave their homes and apartments.
Father Flynn’s parish, only 8 blocks from Fordham University, was in the heart of that zone. He had officiated at more than 20 funerals of young men between 17 and 25 in a single year.
Father Flynn, white haired and in his 60’s, walked the streets without fear, talking to those young men. He knew their pain and desperation. And he asked those of us present to work with him in developing a program for out of work, out of school young people, that would rescue them from the street economy.
If you had a heart and a conscience, you could not help but respond to his plea and his example. So we came together to form the “Save a Generation” program. I spent the next year with Father Flynn and several other great Bronx leaders, among them Sister Barbara Leniger of Thorpe Family Residence, and Dr. Lee Stuart of South Bronx Churches, writing proposals, giving talks, walking the streets, even going to Washington to lobby Congress. During that time, I never saw Father Flynn lose his composure, his optimism, his ability to inspire people with quiet eloquence, whether it was talking to the Borough President, or throwing footballs with local youngsters in the street outside his church. And he was as kind and thoughtful when he was alone, in his parish house as he was in his group. He had been in Latin America before he was in the Bronx and he had a deep empathy for the poor along with an equal level of respect. Working with them was his life’s mission and he did it with joy and a wonder at life’s ironies and life’s mysteries.
I spent nearly four years working with Father Flynn helping to get Save a Generation off the ground, and watched it become a life changing program that offered 35 Bronx youngsters a new chance at life. When the crack epidemic eased, I moved on, but kept in touch until he retired.
Greatness takes many forms. It is not always associated with wealth and power and fame. In the Bronx, it may have reached its highest point in the person of a parish priest who walked the street with the lost boys of the community while bullets were flying. And who those boys learned to love as much as everyone else who knew him.
R.I.P. Father Flynn. You will always live in the hearts of everyone who knew you.
Read the New York Times’ story on Father Flynn here.
People can travel many miles before they find their true selves.
Camilo Rodriguez traveled roughly 2,496 of them. That’s the distance between where he grew up (Bogota, Colombia) and where he discovered his adult voice (Jackson Heights, Queens).
“When I came to New York, I needed to find out who I was in the middle of all this madness,” Rodriguez says. “I found out through the music of where I came from.”
Hello amigos. I’m back with some music recommendations:
Heavy Hitter DJ Yonny (NYC) just posted this great remix of Alex Clare’s “Too Close,” otherwise known as the song in the Microsoft IE9 commercial. Cop it while you can. We all know Soundcloud caps the number of downloads.
This World Carnival #3 mix posted by Hipsters Don’t Dance has been my gym music since I downloaded it last month. It’s an incredible hip-shaking, tropical bass mix. Download it, play it, close your eyes, move yo ass and pretend we’re drinking something with rum at CARNIVAL!
Speaking of Hipsters Don’t Dance, their party for World Carnival featured DJ So Shifty, who is responsible for one of my absolute favorite salsa mixes here.
My Argentinian-from-the-Bay Area homeboy Juan Data, who frequently picks his favorite mixes for Remezcla, has given us a new remix! Download Gloryhole 2 (heh!) here. For this mix, Juan Data says he wanted to “focus mainly on current releases, modern stuff … to give a promotional extra push to all those record labels who truly love music.”
Keeping with the Bay Area theme, Los Rakas (and AOL Spinner) are giving away a free download for the bass heavy banger, “Bien Ribetiao.” Cutie Raka Rich explains, “Bien Ribetiao’ means ‘swaggin.’ It’s a Panamanian slang word.
“The beat is a style of hip-hop originally from Oakland, California. Songs like Drake‘s ‘The Motto’ and Tyga‘s Rack City,’ which have been popular over the last year at a mainstream level, are drawn from a Bay Area-sound. One example is E-40’s ‘Tell Me Where to Go’ from 2005. This style has never been done in Spanish, so we wanted to do it really well and visually have it rep all our styles being born in Panama and raised in The Bay.”
“In the beginning of our working relationship Tom was fond of giving ‘assignments’. In essence, these were creative devices intended to jumpstart the process of writing a song or a way of focusing on a musical element to lay the foundation for the jam to come. With this song we were instructed to take the bass-line from Metallica’s ‘Seek & Destroy’ and make it the bass-line of our song with the exception being that it would be played backwards. That’s right, the same bass-line note-for-note but with the notes in opposite order. The song was also to be fast tempo and needed a gang vocal saying ‘BO!’ in the chorus.”
I’m soooooo not a fashion person, but I do enjoy people watching those who are. Fashion Week in New York City is a great for that. I get all creeper and stare at people because the fashion-oriented put extra effort into what they wear, the tallest of the tall models hit the night clubs and there is free booze a plenty.
Tonight is Fashion Night Out in New York City (and around the globe), where retail stores in nearly all boroughs hold events which include musical acts, appearances by celebs, lots of freebies, SALES and a first-look at the next season’s collection. Check out some FNO recommendations by my girl Roz Baron, aka Punkrose, here.
If you can’t partake in person, you can follow along thanks to the wonders of internet. If you search for #NYFW on Twitter, you’ll see lots of first hand accounts of what is going on where, including what celebrity is hanging out at the fashion shows.
For more coverage, here are some cool people I think you should follow:
Former Fordham News and Media Relations intern and friend Nadine DeNinno is moving up in the new media world as a fashion/celebrity writer extraordinaire at the International Business Times, where she busts out several stories a day. Check out her coverage here. (By the way, she designed that #NYFW home page.)
Festivity queen Michelle Christina Larsen is doing her thing over at Hey Mishka. She started up a YouTube channel for the occasion and she won’t just document what she’s covering, but give Do-It-Yourself tips on fashion and other things, like this amazing quick fix elixir, which I should just take intravenously all year.
And, because she’s funny and ALWAYS at the best parties, follow former Ridgewood News intern and hilarious gal Thea Palad on Twitter. She’s the Senior Fashion Editor at Women’s Health, which means she focuses on fun and active fashion! Go stalk her at: @theapalad or her work account, @WHealth_Style.
My really good friend and amazing vocalist, Kelsey Warren, of the New York City based band, Pillow Theory, will be singing in the BAD BRAINS tribute at The Bowery Electric in NYC on Tuesday, Nov. 6, with Jesse of Killswitch Engage, Kyp from TV On The Radio, Jesse Malin, Vernon Reid of Living Colour, and the lead singer of Bad Brains, H.R., with other punk rockers in crime!
periMENTAL 