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• Pete’s Mini Zine Fest (7/29/10) [View | Hide]

  Just a heads up, this Saturday is Pete’s Mini Zine Fest. There will be $2 pints of Yeungling Lager and $3 pints of Brooklyn IPA and over 20 zinesters, graphic artists, photographers and bookmakers attending. PLUS performances by local singers, bands, bookmaking demonstrations and more! FEATURING: Esther K Smith, author/designer of HOW TO MAKE BOOKS, Magic Books & Paper Toys and THE PAPER BRIDE And music by Scott Magri Rad Unicorn sarah y su cochito —– Full attendance list: Andria Alefhi – We’ll Never Have Paris (http://neverhaveparis.blogspot.com/) Paul Assimacopoulos – Strangers Gate Books (www.strangersgatebooks.com) Darryl Ayo – Little Garden (www.letsgoayo.com) Joseph Carlough – Displaced Snail Publications (http://www.josephcarlough.com/) Matt Carman + Kseniya Yarosh – I Love Bad Movies, Oh My / Oh No (ksen.tumblr.com) Alexis Clements – Dance Away Your Debt, Your Own Personal Apocalypse (http://www.alexisclements.com/) Marguerite Dabaie – The Hookah Girl (hookah-girl.margoyle.net) Tea Fougner – Pygmalion, Different Comics (http://www.antagonia.net/) Alan Grow – The Devil Made the Dinosaur Bones Katie Haegle – The La-La Theory (http://www.thelalatheory.com/) Andrew Hoepfner – All Kinds of Bees (http://www.facebook.com/andrew.hoepfner) Lola Batling – Sweet Angel, Suicide Kiss (http://stores.lulu.com/inkigirl) Josh Medsker – 24 Hour Zine (http://twentyfourhourszine.blogspot.com/) James Molenda- FOUND Magazine (www.foundmagazine.com) L. Nichols – Jumbly Junkery (www.dirtbetweenmytoes.com) Rachel + Sari – Hoax Zine, You’ve Got a Friend (http://hoaxzine.tumblr.com/) Redguard – Absent-Cause Zine (http://www.absent-cause.org/) Kenan Rubenstein – Drought, Tick, The Oubliette (http://www.underthehaystack.net/) Esther K Smith – Purgatory Pie Press (www.purgatorypiepress.com) Joe Younglove – Oculomotor

• THIS WEEK IN BIRDSONG 6/27-6/30 (7/27/10) [View | Hide]

  by Tommy Blah blah blackstreet I’m tired.  I would do a more extensive list but this is officially layout week for birdsong #13!!!  It wouldn’t be altogether more terrible than normal, except that my computer’s hard drive crashed, erasing almost everything I own (movies, music, pictures, design files, etc) and there’s a lot of re-dos to be done.  So back up yr shit (that’s what he said) and I’ll see you in a couple weeks with a new zine and the reading at the end of the month (though I’m not sure where, as 3rd Ward is suspending events at it’s Metro location!!!).  If you have any leads on spaces, give me a heads up! nom nom nom Tuesday – Gerrification As a part of Dixon Place’s Hot! Festival, “Gerrification” is an interactive, multi-media show by writer/performer/photographer/style icon/radio show host Gerry Visco (who Max Steele interviewed for this very blog!).  As I understand it, audience members are encouraged to volunteer to become “Gerrified”: to join the Gerry party by donning a characteristically outlandish platinum wig, cat-eye glasses, and bright clothing.  Gerry will outline her platform for a better world, give some tips on how to live a more fabulous self-loving life, and narrate some of her experiences moving to New York in the 1970′s.  Cast members are numerous and include Fritz and Christina (from HiChristina, where we used to hold the Birdsong Reading Series) and Joseph Keckler on video.  Get tickets here. Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie Street, NY NY, $1o (advance) $15 (door), 9pm "I'm sorry I gave you crabs." "s'cool, dad." Wednesday – LIT 18 Launch Party LIT, a literary journal published by the New School which counts our very own Katie Naoum as one of it’s editorial staff, is having a launch party for their latest issue at powerHouse Arena in DUMBO.  Readers include Mike Young, a contributor over at HTML Giant and co-editor of the free print/online NOÖ Journal. powerHouse Arena, 37 Main Street, Brooklyn NY, 6:30-8:30pm Thursday – CUT + PASTE Writing Workshop My friend Nikki Burst (who had a poem in birdsong #2 and read for us two! years ago!) is co-hosting a writing workshop at WE-ARE-FAMILIA’s pop up gallery and event space in Brooklyn. It seems there there will be actual cutting and pasting of words happening (which, if I remember correctly, is a skill Nikki and I exercised in a workshop with Kathleen Ossip two! years ago!) so come with goo gone and a strong hand. RSVP to art@we-are-familia.com WE-ARE-FAMILIA, 539 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn NY 6-9pm Friday- Nurses in New England This week at the Ohio Theater, a birdsong fave downtown performer Erin Markey is in the cast of Nurses in New England, “a musically-enhanced glimpse into an idiosyncratic coastal hospital where female nurses run surgeries, secret-smoke, and balance friendship, forgotten love, and conflicted ambition—with the daily stakes of life and death. A comedic and poignant look at the desire to make amazing miracles.”  Get tickets here or by phone, (212) 868-4444 The Ohio Theater, 66 Wooster St., NY NY, $15 (general) $10 (students/seniors), 7pm

• VOL. 1 TURNS 1 (7/21/10) [View | Hide]

  as you may or may not have noticed, it’s the weekend again (thank goddess)! if you’re looking for something to do thursday night (the saturday night of the weekday), consider brooklyn-based culture blog vol. 1‘s first birthday party at bar matchless; it’s free and there will be 25 live three-minute record reviews and special musical guest xray eyeballs. still not convinced? one of the record reviews will be by sara jaffe. there. all details here.

• SUPPORT GYPSE EYES! (7/20/10) [View | Hide]

  gypse eyes is a self-described zine that investigates the hilarity and loneliness of sex, love, and relationships. now, as far as i’m concerned, these are the only topics i’m ever really interested in reading about. if that weren’t enough, though, gypse eyes, designed by tyler lafreniere, is absolutely gorgeous; i can’t think of one zine that is designed any better. and right now, tyler is fundraising to push the production value of the next issue even further into greatness. won’t you head over here and pitch in a few bucks to bring this beautiful project to fruition? yes, i thought you might!

• THIS WEEKEND IN BIRDSONG: SUNDAY EDITION (7/18/10) [View | Hide]

  A couple cool things are happening later today that you should consider attending.  Mary Literary, whose inaugural issue we reviewed earlier this year, is hosting a hip hop party at Home Sweet Home at 6pm– Join us as we make over the Home Sweet Home bar into a gay hip-hop paradise. Mary Literary Quarterly, in conjunction with the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund, will be serving up a night of hip-hop inspired mayhem. We will be kicking it old school, new school, and even pre-school st…yle if we have to! Hip-hop artist extraordinaire, LastO will be performing a special set, and DJ Black Female Executive will be spinning head-bobbing beats. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund, a 501(c) incorporated non-profit that provides merit based college scholarships to college-bound NYC students of color committed to the fight against racism, sexism and homophobia. Sunday, July 18 from 6-9pm Home Sweet Home 131 Chrystie Street between Delancey & Broome New York, New York 10002 Attire: Wu-tang/Roxanne Shante Realness. Suggested donation: $10.00 Also later, KOOL A.D., Xenia Rubinos and Girls in Trouble are playing a show at Coco 66 in Greenpoint.  Ms. Rubinos has been getting a lot of praise recently for her “unique blend of bi-lingual punk, soul, and electronica,” and you may also know her from the Gowanus Creative sessions.  She actually picked up the very first issue of birdsong at the now defunct Stain Bar where we used to have our reading series, and sent us a very sweet note (THAT WAS TWO YEARS AGO OMG HOW TIME FLIEZ!). Also Victor Vasquez (KOOL A.D., Boy Crisis, Das Racist) grew up in the same nabe –maybe even on the same street maybe even on the same block I’ll have to ask– as birdsong-er Max Steele (small wurld!) 10pm, coco 66, Greenpoint

• happy winds-day (7/14/10) [View | Hide]

  i hope i’m being redundant here, but for the uninitiated, the title of today’s hump day post is in reference to winnie the pooh and the blustery day. i wholeheartedly (i know no other way) encourage all of you to take flight in today’s inclement weather, visiting all of yr friends and wishing them a happy winds-day (especially cancers you know who might be celebrating their birth): of course, winnie the pooh isn’t the only winnie in my personal cosmology, and i can’t really mention one without mentioning the other.  moreover, i, for one, find incredible romance in ugly weather. so, after you’ve done yr winds-day well-wishing, you might want to indulge yr amorous inclinations / imaginations (perhaps over a dark ‘n’ stormy): as you may have guessed by now, winnie is one of those subjects to which this applies. i’m gonna go ahead and help myself out here sister girlfriends and change the subject: happy bastille day, frenchies! traditional forms of celebration include setting off fireworks, imbibing fine wine, and running naked through the streets. but you could probably also do right by the french by partaking of whatever you consider to be fancy. for myself,  i’ll probably celebrate by listening to the following song whilst looking at pix of the following french (canadian) beauty: in closing, i leave you with a french tribute to ingmar bergman, whose birthday it is today: p.s. our prayers go out to our homegirl max, as his teeth are finally returned to their original, pristine state of a year ago.

• THIS WEEK IN BIRDSONG: 7/12-7/18 (7/12/10) [View | Hide]

  compiled by Tommy Monday July 12 Novelist Brando Skyhorse, whose The Madonnas of Echo Park came out last month from Simon & Schuster and getting a lot of good buzz, is reading at Half King in Chelsea tonight.  Despite the questionable imagery of Half King’s logo and namesake Native Appropriations, anyone? come keep me company and let’s maybe do the wave or start a chant or a slow clap.  Oh and just fyi, if all goes according to plan Mr. Skyhorse will be one of the birdsong #13 Five on It interviewees. the Half King, 505 West 23rd St, NY NY, 7pm FREE Tuesday July 13 If you’ve ever thought about starting a non-profit but were too intimidated by the process, Danny informed me that there’s a workshop tonight, “Nonprofit Incorporation and Tax Exempt Status Class, New York City” (I know, mysterious title right? What the hell is this class about?).  You can register through the website, http://www.vlany.org/calendar/july.php or via phone at 212.319.2787 x1  Here’s a lil description – This three-hour introductory class introduces individuals, organizations and practicing attorneys to the basics of nonprofit incorporation and federal and state tax exemption. Class includes course e-book with this pertinent information, along with information on fiscal sponsorships programs as well as sample forms and documents. This class provides individuals, organizations and practicing attorneys with valuable information about starting a nonprofit organization. State issues to be covered include articles of incorporation, bylaws, and the first organization meeting. Federal issues include the Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) and corresponding regulations, application for employer identification number, IRS disclosure rules, unrelated business taxable income, charitable contributions, and restrictions on lobbying. VLA requires all applicants seeking Nonprofit Incorporation and Tax Exempt Status services through VLA to attend this class before a volunteer attorney can be assigned to them. VLA, 1 East 53rd Street,  NY NY, 1-4pm Wednesday July 14 it's the bomb I’ll be reading some new work at some point on Wednesday night at the Bowery Poetry Club for Verbal Pyrotechnics– a young adult/teen journal started by my friend Elizabeth Dunn-Ruiz and a few others.  There is a $5 cover, but it gets you a raffle ticket for some prizes.  Plus you’ll get to hear some of the short shtuff I’ve been laboring at, recently.  It’s supposed to appeal to a teen audience IE I’m probably not going to read my poems about straight fuckin, so expect it’ll be tamer. Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery st. NY NY, 8-9:30pm $5 Thursday July 15 (NSFW!) it shrinks? Jessica Yatrovsky, the mega talented photographer who shot me for East Village Boys last year, is doing a live performance at the David Cooney Fine Art Gallery this Thursday for “Performance and the Male Nude no. 6.”  I’m not exactly sure what to expect, but I found a Performance Rules of Engagement pdf on her site to give you some idea.  First of all I love puns and “transgressica” (her site name) is no exception.  Also, I like rules and rules like, “only a woman performs the part of photographer.” 511 West 25th Street, Suite 506, NY NY, 7pm get into my van all ye youthz ALSO that night is the exciting first performance of the new goth-glitter rap-nailpolish band BODY H1GH– comprised of birdsong managing editor Daniel Portland and my my my starry-eyed surprise Max Steele.  I have crashed their band practices a couple times and tried to lead them into a “Give Me One Reason” sing along that went nowhere (don’t worry, much like my 2nd grade self-choreographed dance to “Black Cat” by Janet Jackson– it’s all on videotape).  It’s a part of Thain Torres’s HEX BOYFRIEND a hoodoo cabaret. Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie St. NY NY, 10pm Friday July 16 give me yr lunch money punk Cat Glennon, the woman responsible for making BRD SNG look so good and golden (Cupid’s Sparrow, above) is showing at Storefront Gallery in Bushwick under the auspices of THE HOTEL with some people I don’t know (and her boyfriend Ken Madore, who I met a couple times and is a total sweetheart and they gosh make teh cutest couple!).  In the front of the gallery is a bunch of new work by Wayne Adams and Jimmy Miracle.  I’m going to be there and my mouth is going to be wine-purple and amazing and I am just so happy b/c I think it’s about time Cat got famous, you know? Storefront, 16 Wilson Ave (Morgan L stop), Brooklyn NY, 6-9pm

• double feature! savage forest and psychedlic summer (7/9/10) [View | Hide]

  savage forest dani golomb photocopy on paper, 82 pp: (4.25 x 5.5 in.) bloomington, in: microcosm, 2010 http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/3109/ i’m not above judging a book by its cover. in fact, i advise it. if it sounds pretty, then it oughtta look pretty, too. savage forest (i just typoed savage garden, natch) looks neat, but it sounds . . . problematic. i gotta say, as a rule, i’m kinda wary when it comes to the word savage (even when in reference to dante) and especially when it’s accompanied by primitivist graphics on top of a photograph of ferns. so i can’t say i was surprised to encounter elements of the racial imaginary — talk about nature and africa and deep understanding — in the content. when talking about the banalities and difficulties of work, or musing on dion and the belmonts, or critically engaging her own subject position, however, the writing is moving. the layout, organized seasonally and interspersed with intaglio-tinged drawings, is great to look at. finally, compiling over three years of writing, what comes across is the substantial amount of time and care this took to make. choice line: ‘another night getting loose and sappy telling people whom i love that i love them and that they make me happy.’ psychedelic summer john malta, cassie ramone, c.m. ruiz, matthew volz newspaper, unpaginated new york, ny: rare gallery, 2010 http://www.rare-gallery.com/ http://cmrtyz.com/ psychedelic summer accompanies the summer group show and pop-up shop of the same name at rare gallery. here are some of the things it has going for it: the name, john malta’s spread of pizza being birthed accompanied by the words gross gross, and horoscopes (speaking of birth, mine says control it). while some of the humor bespeaks a breeder mentality, in the end, what i’m left with is the queerness of a rebellious dolphin who groans, ‘fuck you, mom + dad!’

• Hump Day Grab Bag: San Francisco Edition (7/7/10) [View | Hide]

  by Tommy & Wilkes PEAS OUT, NEW YORK [editors note: this was actually written during a brief Birdsong HQ hiatus last week.  But now we're back in the sweltering city because who wants to miss a good heatwave?] Teebs & I are in San Francisco and now that I’m 3000 miles away allow me to say: fuck you New York.  Fuck you in your fucking oily ear, you squalid hellhole. Have you ever been really into a dude only because he makes you feel like you have to prove yourself to him?   Yeah doi you have, we’re all totally messed up.  So you understand the kind of relationship I have with New York, as invigorating and seductive as the guy who your friends are all, “woof, stay away from him” about. New York is unstable and likes to make  you feel bad about yourself because he knows it’ll make you love him more.  It took fifteen years of that city acting like a dick to me before I finally figured out that shit isn’t love. San Francisco, on the other hand, is nice.  He opens doors and pulls out chairs.  San Francisco remembers what you say because he was actually listening when you were talking, not just waiting for you to be done so he could talk.  The only reason I don’t live here is because I think I’d be bored, but you know what?  Maybe boring isn’t so bad. That said, the theme for this week’s Grab Bag is THE CITY BY THE BAY, Y’ALL. u wanna see a dead body? T:  Godamn this is a hilly city!  My poor frickin ankles, there were times when I felt like I was actually scaling the street.  Lauren and I tried to walk to the Golden Gate bridge but it got cold and we had far too much fun watching a gang of seagulls fight over some spoils.  Seeing the bridge in the distance and Alcatraz to my right, I remembered that time in X-Men 3 when Magneto commandeered the bridge so he and his army of mutants could walk to The Rock.  I started wondering just how many times has the GG Bridge undergone some kind of celluloid destruction?  The SF Weekly has a handy lil guide about the 10 Best Movies that Wrecked San Francisco.   Surprisingly, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus didn’t make the list, nor did the television mini-series 10.5 – (that’s not a scale model!) Generally I stay away from Youtube comments because they remind me that, under the thin veneer of interpersonal civility, everyone is the damn worst.  BUT every now and then there’s one so deep and amazing that you realize why comment boards exist.  In response to the above clip, “beenierose” says– this was a movie i thought i was real. Been there, beenie.  Been there. JUST FOR A LARF here’s a collection of home movie footage from the 1989 earthquake L: As you fellow 80s babies know, Full House was set in San Francisco.  Generally, I’m the first passenger on the Nostalgia Express but it just so happens that I hated this show as a kid: hated their  stupid problems and I hated the schmaltzy music that played when their stupid problems were being resolved.  Why are all the children in white sitcom families virtually always blonde no matter what their parents look like?  That’s a real question, lemme know. To those who say sarcasm is the lowest form of humor allow me to enter Humor Based on 1-Liners From Precocious Children as a late contender into the unfunny arena.  A baby getting laughs?  Dudes, babies aren’t funny and let me tell you why. Let’s say you and 2 of your friends decide to do mushrooms one night while you’re in college.  You’re walking down Broome Street laughing about how weird everything is when suddenly one of your friends gets a really serious look on her face and is all “oh my GAWD, stop making me laugh.  Oh my GAWD I’m going to PISS MY PANTS,” but you can’t stop laughing and in fact now are laughing even harder, which makes her laugh even harder and then OH MY GAWD she is actually doing it, she is actually pissing her pants and the kind of jeans she’s wearing makes it totally obvious that she’s just pissed herself and that’s just kind of it you know?  You’re pretty much dead, you’ve just died from laughing.  Babies? Not so much. When a baby’s on mushrooms CPS starts asking questions, which isn’t funny at all.  When a baby pisses it’s pants it’s just like…  Yeah you have piss in yr pants?  Tell me something I don’t know, baby. Plus child actors bum me out.  Seriously, someone tell that toddler in yellow to wipe that self-satisfied look off of his face because that’s it.  This is a photograph of the moment his career topped out.  Show business is that cruel mistress y’all.  What do you think he’s doing now? I'M SO FUCKING FUCKED UP RITE NOW T: Dang Wilkes, there was a nerve and then the nerve was hit!  Well there’s no other way to end a post on SF then with the 1967 hit single and “generational anthem” (thx, wiki), “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair).”  Neil Young is that you?  Ooohh it’s just Scott “Not the Mama(‘s & the Papas)” McKenzie.  I like ending on this because I’m imagining Lauren “Hippie-Hater” Wilkinson’s mammoth eye roll during this whole song.  Whatever he has the voice of an angel stop hating and wear some flowers in yr hair. OVEr and ouT

• pounding the pavement (6/24/10) [View | Hide]

  ladies, BRD SNG, which is our new broadsheet publication that has popped up a couple of times on this blog already, is rapidly making its way to a FREE location near you. keep an eye out for it, so you’ll be sure to pick one up whilst the getting is good. alternatively, if you ask super nicely, we might be able to help you get one. and just a reminder for those of you in locales near and far, you can pick up a copy of the latest birdsong at the following locations: in new york city at bluestockings, cinders, and st. mark’s bookshop in phildelphia at wooden shoe books in san francisco at city lights in los angeles at false start in other news, if you’re looking for a way to beat the heat in the next few days, coolest band ever, PAPS, has a couple of shows coming up: thursday, 24 june, 8 pm at cake shop (w/ landlady, miniboone, and miracles of modern science) friday, 25 june at northeast kingdom

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helloadam

Comment left on: 10/22/09 6:00 PM congrats on the exposure/recognition for you and your collaborators EVB is my secret favvv

AustinArtaud

Comment left on: 6/28/09 4:46 PM howdy! I like your page. You seem nifty. I'm coming to New York on Thursday. yay!

ElGaucho

Comment left on: 5/14/09 3:31 PM my, the wonders of our technological age.

rockitout86

Comment left on: 5/14/09 3:27 PM Loves the platinum! I will be reuniting my fair haired friends very soon. I miss it. Brunette is nice, but Blonde is BEAUTIFUL! :)

ElGaucho

Comment left on: 5/13/09 8:31 PM It should be illegal to be forced inside on a sunny day. And, might I say you have some charming eyes.

ultramaricon

Comment left on: 5/12/09 9:29 PM new ink new ink new ink !!!

QueerTrash

Comment left on: 5/12/09 4:12 PM Yay got it...and stickers and more to boot! I feel so spoiled. :D Now I feel obliged to promote around. Btw LOL at that rock of love bus gif..that girl cracked me up.

dan_dy

Comment left on: 5/11/09 1:26 PM That gif is AWESOME.

ElGaucho

Comment left on: 5/10/09 11:24 AM Hey you. Que tal?

randomlemon

Comment left on: 5/5/09 9:39 PM tell me about it, i've done it once before...never again. looks bad on me and my scalp can't take it. i'm so excited to enjoy the summer. it's gonna be a good one.