Brooklyn Skeptic

Last night I met with the greatest book group ever, Booklyn (yeah, you wish you’d thought of that clever name), at South Slope’s Quarter Bar. Located on 5th Avenue and 20th Street, the bar has been up and running for less than a year, and is a real find.

What they have been getting the most credit for is their cocktails. Yesterday I drank both an Old Dame and an Old Fashioned. The old fashioned that the guy made me was delicious, made with fresh fruit and a ton of bourbon. The bartender, who was friendly and liked answering the questions I asked about his drinks, used a pestle to crush fruit and sugars together, and seemed terribly embarassed when he spilled a little bit (I did not care). The drinks are not cheap (they were both around ten dollars), but the atmosphere of the bar and the friendly clientele made it worth it. I didn’t get a look at their jukebox (I remember them playing some Joy Division and The Police), nor did we get to sit in their back yard area, but I snuck a peak and it looks like it would have been nice and comfy out there had the weather been warmer. In addition to their drinks, they apparently sell savory D.U.B. pies, as well as meats and cheeses.

This would be a nice place to go out on a date. The lighting is nice, the drinks are fancy and it’s pretty classy. Extra points if you can use their word of the day (yesterday was atavism) in a sentence. It’s a great way to impress a date and get half price off a drink. By the end of the evening, the bartender made his way around the bar with a pizza they had ordered offering people free slices.

This was a very pleasant experience. It’s sort of like the Beer Table of liquor bars in that it’s a calm, classy and comfortable all at the same time.

Pros: Relaxing, great drink menu, friendly service.

Cons: Music can be a little loud, drinks are a little expensive.

Quarter Bar

676 5th Ave

South Slope, Brooklyn

For some reason, there’s barely anything coming out this weekend. I think it’s God’s way of telling you to go outside and fly a kite.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The Plot: The kids return to Narnia. One of them has sex with a fawn. It’s awkward.

Is it worth eleven dollars?: No. There are going to be plenty of blockbusters this summer, so I suggest you take a weekend off. The first installment in the series, in my opinion, was pretty bland. All the subtlety that the book had was abandoned in exchange for bad special effects, intense religious themes and forgettable acting. Plus, the only two actors who were on the right track last time, Tilda Swinton and James McAvoy, are now gone. While this one has the potential to be darker and more mature, I’m still not going to pay full price to see it in theaters. I’d rather see the BBC version again. The Ice Queen made me shit my pants.

Where is it playing in Brooklyn/New York?: Pavilion, Cobble Hill Cinemas, United Artists on Court Street.

Reprise

The Plot: Two writers try to get famous, with different levels of success.

Is it worth eleven dollars?: It sounds like it. I’ve been reading some interesting reviews of this film so far (especially here). This is Danish director Joachim Trier’s first feature length film after having directed two award winning shorts.

Where is it playing in Brooklyn/New York?: Landmark Sunshine.

And that’s it. The midnight movie at Landmark Sunshine tomorrow is Dazed and Confused, and at the IFC Center it’s The Beales of Grey Gardens. Also, check out BAM’s website for some upcoming screenings.

Clinton wins…with 0% reporting. Okay.

West Virigina votes today. It’s interesting to see how this has all been shaping up lately. Each of the candidates trying hard to connect with the hard working types of the midwest…ish..ness.

First, Obama picks up a masculine centric game that doesn’t end in embarassment. Pool.

By the way I’ve tried that behind-the-back shot several times. I’ve missed every one of them. So this should mean something to the electorate. I have also been thinking about the “masculinity off” of last election and how as far as the most recent ones go (bowling and pool?), they are rather wimpy ones. Even metro sexual. Very low chances of getting out of breath or breaking a nail. There’s less of that gun wielding and football throwing.

Now I hope I’m not showing my bias too much, because I blame Hillary for the lack of testosterone so far (this is surprising because as some of you may have heard, she has three testicles) I’m sure she’s turned down any of the challenges of a nice cage match wrestling event (editors note: turns out this was incorrect), and instead has really hidden away in the drink. This is a really clever way of avoiding the more physical pandering maneuvers, and clinches last year’s segment of “I’d like to drink with that candidate” vote. Which really, turns out to be a great test for president.

Either way, she is set to win West Virginia. A thing of note is that West Virginia has a claim to fame. They like claiming, “Every nominee has carried the state’s primary since 1976, and no Democrat has won the White House without winning West Virginia since 1916.”. It’s a beautiful sentiment: That the quaint, nice, sometimes misinformed (come on, secret Muslims can’t play pool!), hard working West Virginians, are microcosms of American Democrats everywhere! The truth I found much more amusing. Turns out, they’re just always last at these things. So by always being last, they get to choose the presumptive nominee any ways. Well spun West Virginia, well spun. You deserve it though, after years of feeling like the “other” Virginia…you need something to hold on to!

Well so tonight we’ll see how this primary turns out. But it’s still more than likely that Obama will clench the nomination, giving me hope that I might see Obama and McCain have an arm wrestling match for the general election. Then we’ll know for sure who is tough enough to be the President of the United States.

About a year ago I was invited to see Monster Eiffel Tower, a Brooklyn Rock trio who were playing at the Knitting Factory. I was not particularly excited to go to the show. For starters, their music was described to me as being a little harder and more experimental than my usual tastes. There was a period in my life when I was going to Mars Volta shows, but I never knew what the fuck they were talking about (exo-skeletal junction at the railroad delayed?) and have since become far wussier in my musical selection.

Also, I know two of the people in the band. This is not to say that the two band members aren’t intelligent and charming people (they are), but in my life I have rarely enjoyed my friends’ bands, poetry sessions and, especially, improv groups (maybe improv in general just pisses me off). Anyway, up until this point, I had never seen these two with instruments, and assumed they were as bad as my friend in eighth grade who wrote a bizarre Bob Dylan knock-off called “Story of a Dead Man” which pretty much featured one verse and a lot of mumbling (he made me listen to it over one thousand times).

To say that I was proven wrong is an understatement. It would have been one thing if the band had been simply tolerable, but the fact that I actually like them? Weird. Since that first show, I’ve seen them play multiple shows at Lit, Galapagos, Arlene’s Grocery and Trash Bar. I have their album now (available here), and I have since found myself quietly singing the lyrics to Dock War, or humming the tune to the amusingly epic Skyscraper Halo while riding the subway. The album clearly defines the band’s stronger points: the ways singer Andrew Kennedy’s voice can go from a whisper to a resonant, throaty yell to match the insanely quick rhythm changes from bassist Peter Squires and drummer Caleb Webster, who can instantly turn prog-metal into anthemic pop-punk without skipping a beat (pun intended). It’s difficult to tell which direction any song is going to go, and that’s a lot of the fun.

In any case, I recommend checking out the album. I know that I may be biased due to my friendship with them, but in the past my relationship with musicians has only made me more skeptical of their music. And seriously, this shit just rocks.

The lineup for the Sirens Festival (aka the sweatiest, smelliest festival in Brooklyn) has been announced. It includes bands like Broken Social Scene, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks (which I recently learned is a combination of the words “dick” and “jerk”), The Helio Sequence and These Are Powers. Sounds fun. The festival is at Coney Island on Saturday, July 19th from noon until 9pm.

My previous discussion of the Brooklyn Blogfest was marred by the assertion that the event was awash in “self-congratulation and self-promotion.” Not that I actually wrote that - Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn did - but that was the general idea behind one paragraph. I think that probably hurt some feelings.

The actual point of my short review was that it was great that the Brooklyn blogging community got together and talked a little bit about the issues surrounding our chosen pursuit. And I’d like to spell it out here that that opportunity existed because of the hard work of Ms. Louise Crawford, of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn.

In her latest post, Louise ends with “it makes me wonder if there needs to be another blogfest and, if so, what the blogfest needs to be.” I’d like to take a second to put in my two cents about that question.

Yes, we need another Blogfest. There is clearly a huge interest among bloggers and blog enthusiasts in getting together and having an IRL discussion about, well, blogging.

But what if next time, the speakers from these great blogs address not the greatness of blogging, but the issues that they face specifically as great Brooklyn bloggers? Within the speeches given Thursday night, several people touched on their own challenges. I think this is where the meat of the next Blogfest is.

• Bed-Stuy Banana talked about the flack she gets on her blog from people who question her legitimacy as mouthpiece for her neighborhood.
• A few people, specifically Petra from Bed-Stuy Blog and Robert from Gowanus Lounge, mentioned the need to address the lack of diversity among bloggers - a particular tragedy given the diversity of the place we all live.
• Gersh, from Brooklyn Paper, asked us to think about “the hate” not just in our commenters words, but in our blogs in general. And I think, there, he was speaking about rampant, passionate subjectivity in blogs as a journalist trained in objectivity, rather than as a producer of a new media that lacks clear professional standards. As bloggers, what sort of ethical issues do we face? Is “news” what happened, or how we reported it, or that we reported it?

These are just a few of the questions that have already been raised, and questions we should think about and try to answer as blogging becomes a greater fixture in the way regular people communicate and gather information.

As a medium that is already pretty deep in its meta-ism and self-reflection, I think it would be apt for us to take these questions out into our community and openly discuss them. And it’s so fun to do that in the actual world, accompanied by delicious free fudge.

Last night, a wee faction of Brooklyn Skeptic attended the Third Annual Brooklyn Blogfest - an event which featured our three favorite things: free beer, free vegan cupcakes and Brooklyn blogging. The event was held at the Brooklyn Lyceum, which is a building on Fourth Avenue, seemingly crafted out of the ruins of the Berlin Wall.

Ten or so minutes into the presentations, Oneiroi correctly pointed out that this had a real lot in common with masturbation - metaphorically of course. One by one, local bloggers stood up to congratulate themselves on the totally mind-blowing awesomeness that is blogging. Brooklyn Skeptic, itself, went up on stage, shook its hand and declared a blogging beef with its new nemesis, Brooklyn Optimist.

Self love aside, a little part of me died when some new-media-style frat boys behind me actually boo-ed the lone representative of print media - Gersh Kuntzman from the relentlessly populist Brooklyn Paper. And, as all bloggers know, Gersh had a pretty rough week.

Now, what I like about this Gersh fellow, is that he stood up in front of a crowd of post-hip bloggers, openly questioned the value of commenters on blogs and asked what was up with all the “hate.” This is an important question, but I think equally important here is the distinction between hate and “snark” or skepticism, if you will.  There is a powerful distiction between being a hater (as for sure, a huge number of commenters are) and being skeptical and offering subtle critique of things that suck. I think Oneiroi put it best:

Recklesley: I’m a little worried about saying something bad about the Blogfest.
Oneiroi: We’re the front line of the new media. We have to be honest. We can’t be plagued by the same patronage system that infects the media we live with today. Without our brooklynesque voices, who will stand up and say, “That sucked”? Tell me Recklesley, who? We’re not just people, we’re the voice of the people. The people of Brooklyn. America itself.
Recklesley: Okay. You win.
Oneiroi: Really? Because as I was typing that all I could think of was…”I’m such a dick”. But that’s usually running through my head anyways.

This Blogfest got me thinking about the rights and privledges of bloggers and the revered position we hold in our society/own minds. I am a huge proponent of open commenting (within the confines of acceptible human speech - as opposed to hate speech), even if the commenters are dumb, wrong, or annoying. Conversations are essential and they are the most valuable aspect of this kind of media. So yes, I welcome your comments about how bad you want to hit it with MK Olsen.

In conclusion, I think what we all learned from this night, was that, collectively, Brooklyn bloggers are self absorbed, but violently protective of free speech and free media. That seems pretty dead-on to me.

This is Marilyn Manson’s new brand of absinthe, “Mansinthe.” I didn’t make up that name. It’s what it’s called. Mansinthe. Pretty clever– not. I don’t know what MM actually has to do with this product, except that it has his name all over it.

Marilyn Manson is so predictable. Of course he wants his name attached to absinthe. We get it, Marilyn. You’re dark. Good for you.

Anyway, Manson’s girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood, recently tried the soon-to-be-legalized substance and this is what she had to say about it:

“For my birthday, I did one shot to try it, and that was it,” Wood said. “I was drunk immediately. Being who he is, Manson wanted to make it as strong as it could possibly be, so it’s got the highest amount of wormwood that you can have legally. One shot of it, and you’re out for the night. Three shots of it, you’re dead.”

Is it just me, or does Mansinthe sound totally awesome? Just kidding. (Just kidding about just kidding.) No, but seriously. Three shots of it and you’re dead? Mansinthe sounds strikingly similar to wheatgrass shots. I know they’re supposed to be healthy, but after three shots of w-grass, I assure you, you will want to die. Or be dead. Also, I wonder if Evan Rachel’s age has something to do with the effect Mansinthe has on her. Since she’s like, fourteen.

Not Right

Whatever. In the end, I think it’s safe to make the assumption that I will most likely try this product once it’s available. Well, I might not, since I’m a wimp. But I’m sure someone I know will. I’ll let you know if it kills them.

McCarren Park Pool released their summer film schedule yesterday. We went to a film or two out here last year, and while the atmosphere and view aren’t as nice as the Brooklyn Bridge Park series, there are fewer people there (you don’t have to worry about showing up early) and it’s much more relaxed. The films this year are a nice mix of dramas and comedies.