What's Lizzie Seeing: Saturday

Motel Motel

Top Pick: Motel Motel @ Market Hotel w/ Ava Luna, 500mA, TV Partyhouse, Yva Las Vegas. God help me, I will make it to this concert tonight. According to the Facebook event for this gig, it is also the birthday for one of the guys (Mickey) in the band, so put on your party shoes and come to good ol' Bushwick for some fun!

Sydney Wayser @ The Living Room
Baby Soda @ Moto
Loney Dear @ Union Hall
DJ Rafter @ Union Pool

I'm sure there's more going on out there, but this is what's tickling my fancy at the moment.

Happy Saturday!

Lykke Li & Bon Iver doing 'Dance Dance Dance' in L.A

Lykke Li & Bon Iver doing 'Dance Dance Dance' in L.A from Lykke Li on Vimeo

I've loved this video for such a long time, I thought I would finally share it today. This lovely and simple version of 'Dance Dance Dance' almost makes the sleet in NYC bearable.

Almost.

:)

Baby Soda & Burlesque @ The Glasslands (Last Night)

Baby Soda @ The Grasslands Gallery. Photo by Lizzie.

There seemed to be no better way to relax after a long days work yesterday than with some "hot" jazz music, wonderful Italian food, great friends, strong drinks, and of course, burlesque! This is what The Glasslands Gallery brought us last night for $10, and I think it was quite a wonderful deal: The Bearded Heart Cabaret and Dinner Theater Soiree. Baby Soda (see above), brought us down to the streets of New Orleans with some good-old-fashioned street-marchin' jazz music that you just had to swing your hips to, and then the lovely Coco La Pearl and Della Dare provided us with some slightly awkward but rambunctious and uproarious burlesque. We laughed, we cried, we drank much wine. It was lovely.

Soda Baby is playing again tonight at The Glasslands Gallery for their "Dancing Party" Debutantes and Suitors! Costumes required! Free beer from 10-11! I suggest everyone gets all fancy and comes on over!

Change :) GO OBAMA!

Barack Obama, created by Joe Crimmings Photography

I am a huge Obama Family fan (that's right, not just the Barack, but Michelle, Malia and Sasha) and today I was insanely verklempt to see that lovely African American First Family, all smiles and bounces in their steps, stand in front of the American country and say to us "thank you for giving us this opportunity".

I had to go into work today, and around 10am, my office set up a hi-def televsion in one of our conference rooms, and everyone gathered together with our laptops (to 'work' ) while we watched Biden and Obama swear in to office, and Obama give him speech, and I swear guys, I nearly bawled. Even during Yo-yo Ma (who I adore) and the poem about love (which was so new agey...but I like that haha), and Aretha Franklin (love the hat. seriously.), I was tearing up and going verklempt all over again. I was texting my brother, and my dad during the whole thing (who kept sending "goosebumps" over and over to me, until I asked if his phone was broken, and he responded, "No, lots of goosebumps."), and gmail chatting my friends... We were all 'together' for this amazing day.

The only down side? It has been a really hard day to work, knowing that America is on to some BIG changes. Some of my friends insist they will not celebrate Obama's presidency until they actually see some kind of change come from the white house and the hands of this young man. I agree that Obama has alot to prove, based on his own extensive promises and how Obama truely does need help from the citizens to make things happen (make things change).

For me, the change I'm excited about is how the spirit of a broken country can be healed, and how emotional rifts between different races, cultures and social class (well, maybe less of the last) can be repaired and we can once again have a strong and steady foundation for our country to grow from! I'm excited about knowing there is a person leading our country whom thinks of American citizens first, and not himself. I'm excited for change; I love change. Change has been my life, and I've leaved to embrace it because it allows you to expand your knowledge, intellect, tolerance and love for all things.

Oh, and did I mention I'm excited for Bush to be out of office? I think that this one fact is something out ENTIRE country can get behind and smile about!

GO OBAMA!!

ps - I'm becoming a HUGE fan of Joe Crimmings photos of Barack. So amazing!

'Anti-Oxidant' Video Salon @ Northeast Kingdom

Marissa Nadler - Famous Blue Raincoat from Greg Eggebeen on Vimeo.

In my little corner of Bushwick, we have this wonderful restaurant called Northeast Kingdom, and for awhile now, it was the only reason that young, hip adults of Brooklyn to venture over to the Jefferson stop on the L. Like a little bubble in this otherwise fairly non-gentrified neighborhood, Northeast Kingdom serves a variety of exquisitely produced comfort foods, all compiled from local and organic farms. They also have lovely beers on tap (like Allagash, a personal favorite for the summer). It takes all of 3 minutes to settle into Northeast Kingdom and feel like you are in a wooden lodge somewhere far away from Brooklyn, eating food cooked by your cheek-pinching grandmother as you converse with long-lost friends.

So, how does this relate to Greg Eggebeen's video done to Marissa Nadler's cover of Famous Blue Raincoat? Well, according to BushwickBK (my fav Bushwick website), Northeast Kingdom hosts (randomly, really) an event called the 'Anti-Oxidant' video salon, and it has only been getting better and better. The event has really taken shape since local artist Christina Medina has taken over, and this weeks videos were all centered around local music (hence Marissa Nadler!) Man, oh man, if Eggebeen's video is any representation of the caliber of art being show at these events, I will NOT miss the next one on February 11th. It's beautiful, flowing and haunting yet still lovingly nostalgic. Eggebeen did an amazing job of capturing the subtle emotions at play behind Nadler's cover.

Other videos/artists showcased that night:
Opening video by Fritz Donnely.
Drew and the Medicinal Pens (who performed live afterwards!)
Matthew Dunehoo (formally of Baby Teardrops)
A/D
Ryan Power of Burlington, Vermont
Worm

Kids Who Love Obama

Young Obama Supporter in Des Moines, IA, originally created by Joe Crimmings Photography

The NYtimes did a great piece today on letters from children (ages 6 to 12) to president-elect (until Tuesday!!) Barack Obama.

Left: "Dear Barack Obama, you look too skinny", from NYtimes.com. Below, a letter from Holly.

Dear President/Mr. Obama,

The best thing about living in the White House would be running around like a maniac. The thing I would like least is the work.

— Holly Wong, age 9, San Francisco

So, so adorable and really, quite interesting. Kids are just so endearingly smart and simple-stated. I'm currently reading The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker, and the majority of the first chapter is centered around first language acquisition and how children inherently know how to speak English grammatically correct. And he points out many times, that when a child says something that seems to simply be a babble of words stuck together, there is actually massive intelligence behind what they are saying

i.e. - "I don't want it because I spilled it of orange juice."

Technically, the sentence is fine, based on all of the grammatical rules a child would have inferred from hearing other people speak. We just have come to accept a sentence (semantic construction like this) to sound off and that it is not acceptable to us.
...

Hopefully, this isn't just me being a linguistics dork :)

Can't wait for Tuesday!!

What's Lizzie Linking to in Brooklyn?

a bright day in brooklyn, originally created by 6161810

Curbed.com reports on the controversial Walentas Dock Street project, which got its first okay yesterday with a 30-7 vote. Bye-bye beautiful Brooklyn Bridge view if this goes through!

I'm extremely excited about the Brooklyn Flea Winter Antique Market that has opened in DUMBO! Located in the ground floor store at the corner of Front and Washington street, the market will be open for 12 weekends (starting last weekend).

BushwickBK reports on what REALLY makes a vintage store cool (i.e. - clueless-ness!)

If you have not see Fifty People, One Question yet, please please do. Happy, sad, bittersweet and uplifting, fifty Brooklynites were asked the question, "Where would you like to wake up tomorrow?"

Head over to NYTimes.com for their new section titled One in 8 Million that will explore a unique story from a different New Yorker each week. It's GORGEOUS. Finally, the NY Times is using this medium in the right way with wonderful photography and crisp audio recordings. Sensationally satisfying!!

My wonderful father, founder and owner of the Brooklyn Stained Glass Conservation Center, was featured in an article in the Brooklyn Eagle for his wonderful craftsmanship in reconstructing the 7 stained glass windows that were blown out of the Bay Ridge church on August 8, 2007. Remember that terrible storm that flooded all of the subways lines? Yup, that's the one. which also created Brooklyn's first recorded tornado that touched down in Bay Ridge and subsequently destroyed all 7 windows in the church. Work from a single digital image taken some time in the mid 90s, my father recreated the windows (including a 23 foot chancellor window) from scratch, using only his own artistic skills to get the job done.

Ciao Ciao!