The Awl's Totally Gay Dance Weekend Party Radio: Episode 1 @4:49 PM
You would have no reason to know that all winter I've been attending night school, in pursuit of my Master's in Gay Mixmastery. (This is over at the Finishing School for Homosexualist Gentlemen, which, naturally, closed down for much of the week after the death of Alexander McQueen. It is in Chelsea?) In furtherance of my degree, I had to turn in a final class project, which, because it is now the weekend, we will share with the Internet for no good reason. READ MORE 29
Difficult Listening Hour, with Seth Colter Walls: I Let You Touch Me Every Now And Then: Last Chance for Isabelle Huppert in 'Quartett' at BAM; First Chance for Annie's 'My Love is Better' @3:15 PM
Coming up as a cinema snob in adolescence, your average hetero boy's sexual desire—the hyper-wattage of which tends to outstrip FCC broadcast regulations, thereby causing a lot of, um, fritz on the signal—is thankfully managed by a chronological succession of fantastic Parisian lips. Anna Karina (in early Godard), Deneuve (in everything), and then: bam. The modern era. It belongs to Isabelle Huppert. Forget Courtney Cox's insulting Cougartown weaksauce. It's enough to make you believe in a God, the way Huppert gets more dangerous—and more unbearably desirable—with every passing year. You thought she was peaking as a labial cutter in Michel Haneke's film adaptation of Jelenik's The Piano Teacher back in 2001? That was dumb of you. Naturally, Huppert upped the erotic ante by signing on for a film adaptation of a Georges Bataille incest tale, Ma Mere. READ MORE 7
Difficult Listening Hour with Seth Colter Walls: Come Ye Despondent Cable News Watchers, And Restore Your Faith In Things @12:22 PM
So have you ever started writing your annoyingly irregular music column for some website, and been sorta bummed about the long delay between your last post and the one you're about to work on, but still remain enthusiastic because you've lined up some sexily exclusive audio you're pretty sure people will be interested in… only to discover the same night you were gonna send everything over to Choire that the label in question released the mp3 for free on the internets in an uncoordinated panic over an illegal leak of the entire, soon-to-be-released album?
Oh, wait. Maybe not enough people can IDENTIFY with this opening. Well, don't worry, I found something else for us all to listen to. And probably I should back up and explain my aborted train of thought. But while I do that, go download what is, for my money, the highlight of Sufjan Stevens's BQE project over at the Asthmatic Kitty website, why don't you? The whole suite is worth hearing, but I actually enjoy the mp3 they've posted—"Movement VI—Isorhythmic Night Dance with Interchanges"—more than anything else on that joint, which is why I'd wheedled with them to have it here first, supposedly. READ MORE 0
Our Rockingest, Remixingest Wishes For Your Weekend @3:58 PM
Our new pal who so wonderfully contributed our theme song is really giving the home studio a workout. For you, a new punk remix follows! But before we leave you with this truly awesome bit of audio entertainment for the weekend: can we also please give you all a Hill Street Blues style "let's be careful out there"? You know how I hate drowning more than cancer and other equally bad things. Yes, the 15-foot waves coming East Coast-ward look awesome, and thanks to the dissipating Hurricane Bill, but speaking as someone who just drank a few cups of salt water on his lunch break (and it's still calm out there basically): swim with a buddy! Anyway, whatever you do this weekend, and whomever you're doing it with, definitely don't panic. (And yes, I do mean "in bed.") READ MORE 24
Difficult Listening Hour: The BBC at the Stone, Newspeak, and Things To Hear This Weekend–Plus Bonus MIA Cover @10:31 AM
By avant-music metrics, last night was pretty star-studded over at The Stone on Avenue C. Someone said Mike Watt of Minutemen and fIREHOSE fame was all up in the joint. And I spied Ches Smith from Xiu Xiu, in addition to club doyen John Zorn. Jenny Scheinman, a talent in way too many musical genres, was on the guest list. There were about a hundred or so other lesser-known folks crowding the tiny venue-which employs only a single, stationary electric fan for AC purposes. That fan at The Stone, it's almost like a really genius art installation that calls into question and then subverts the very construct of cooling off indoors during summer-that's how little it helps when the place is at standing-room capacity. But so: why were we all eager to endure that kind of punishment on a non-monsoon July 2009 eve? Maybe because Time Out and the Times both gave The Stone some love this week. Or was it due to the fact that last night's guitarist has a day job with Wilco? I can't say what impact these data points might have had in terms of the place being packed. I just listed them to get your attention, in case you normally tune out writing about avant-garde music. See how I did that? READ MORE 6
