Although we waited until the quick monsoon passed to leave our house and found a rainbow over McCarren Park, we were disappointed to find that tonight's SummerScreen was canceled due to the rainstorm, and we heard, some equipment damage. People were still around, though. Vitamin Water was being sold at highly discounted prices, and so was some food. The contents of freshly ordered pizza boxes were being eaten standing up. SummerScreen's hard-working intrepid photographer would not be affected by a mere thunderstorm. We think he should be paid a bonus for tonight. The Iranian band, YEllow Dogs, whom we had been excited to get to see perform, have faced a lot worse in Tehran.
When a cop bicycles over to a band there, they usually don't have the good intentions of this member of New York's Finest as the band packed up. Some people abandoned drenched blankets. We are so old and cheap that the thought crossed our mind that we could take some over to the Metro Community Laundromat dryers, but nah, we're not that old and cheap. So we walked home with some Vitamin Water and our trusty umbrella. We were grateful to hear that Wayne's World has been rescheduled for August 17.
We had an unsettling experience at this afternoon's kickoff of Dickies and Jelly Present Saturdays! at Rock Yard that made us think the people behind this series of six free Shabbos shows in Williamsburg, bringing back the Pool Party slip 'n' slide that's been verboten at East River State Park, must be worried about bad publicity. Someone talked to us. So far our age (sixtyish) and nondescript appearance, like the ring found by Dylan and Mingus in The Fortress of Solitude, have given us the superpower of invisibility and kept any hipster from saying a single word to us at the events we go to. We like it that way. About twenty minutes after our arrival (the Q59 bus - be warned! it's been re-routed - took us from Metropolitan and Union right to the front entrance of the Rock Yard - is it "the" Rock Yard or just Rock Yard?), a young man came over and asked us if we had the time. Who doesn't know the time in 2010? Look at your phone, dude! But we're old and slow and said, "3:16." Then he asked us if we lived around here ("Yeah") and where we got the DVD ("Someone gave it to us at the entrance" - we'd thought it was a CD) said, "So what do you think of this?" Our first thought was actually of the Bible salesman in "Good Country People":
“Mrs. Hopewell,” he began, using her name in a way that sounded almost intimate, “I know you believe in Chrustian service.”
“Well, yes,” she murmured.
“I know,” he said and paused, looking very wise with his head cocked on one side, “that you’re a good woman. Friends have told me.”
Mrs. Hopewell never liked to be taken for a fool. “What are you selling?” she asked.
But instead we said that the first few people to use the Slip 'n' Slide didn't get far in it because the black mat on the gravelly ground of the Rock Yard wasn't long enough to give them an adequate running start. Some people had only gotten about a quarter of the way through it. Then we said, "What do you think of this?" He told us it was a great thing for the neighborhood, great music, place to hang out, cheap beer, etc. although he allowed that it was very hot today. Then he said he was actually a friend of "the people putting it on" and he told us his name and asked us ours and shook our hand. We were so nonplussed that we found a seat in the shade. Was it that in a small crowd a gnomish old man in a Brooklyn Law School T-shirt taking cell phone pics sticks out like Sissy Hackshaw's thumbs? Did the people at Jelly keep photos of bloggers in the back room the way restaurants keep photos of Sam Sifton? Did they think Gawker is now sending out elderly Jews undercover to gather snarky comments? Did they think we're Anonymous at Brooklyn Vegan? Did they realize this blog covers children's puppet shows, press conferences at synagogues, lectures on African-American history, Christmas shopping at rural Wal-Marts and openings of skating rinks? We'd cover the opening of an envelope! (Even one from Vito Lopez.) And didn't they realize that we like everything like Larry King or Mikey in the old Life Cereal commercials? That we don't write about the events we go to but have been bored at, walked out on, or were treated badly at (this means you, Union Pool)? That we're old enough and uncool enough to actually wear Dickies? That we use our first-person plural persona only to recite banal fawning superlatives? Everyone seemed to be having a (genuinely) fine time at Rock Yard, and we think the pics here prove it. The cornbread was tasty. People seemed to be enjoying the beer and other drinks. The DJ was just fine. The portable toilets were spotless (but there weren't many peers who preceded us). All the bands - Thee Oh Sees, The Beets, Xray Eyeballs, Gun Outfit, Tough Knuckles - both the ones we saw and those on after we left - were really, really excellent. We think you're crazy if you don't get out to Rock Yard on one of the next five Saturdays. Truly. What's not to like?
We got to the first of the 2010 Williamsburg waterfront pool parties at East River Park pretty early and hung out for the first two opening acts, Fang Island and Pictureplane. It was a really nice day with lots of hipsters out, and improvements have been made in the venue since last year. Most obviously, as we noted at the Fear No More show, the new, bigger, sturdier stage has been moved to near Kent Avenue. This loses the romantic backdrop of the river and skyline when you're watching the performers but gains a lot of open space by the shoreline and just generally makes more sense. Also, maybe the new stage won't collapse. The new, innovative entrance procedures were modeled after TSA's at JFK's JetBlue Terminal 5. A big deal, though hardly of interest to us teetotalers, was the new, bigger, improved, much more people-friendly beer garden for those with yellow tags on their wrists. There were lots of things going on. Vans was making custom T-shirts and tossing them away for free as they were hot from the presses or whatever. It wasn't deadly-hot, but it was humid, and this cool mister fan at the Vitamin Water booth chilled these little kids, a lot of sweaty hipsters and us. Early on, there was a short wait for the water to stop being as hot as the pool partiers. The dodgeball has been moved to a smaller cage near the river, making it feel more confined, open and intense for the athletic masochists. And how about this innovation? ATM machines! No bank affiliation, just the high-fee ones we first spotted on Bedford Avenue, well, it seems like decades ago. There was food for carnivores. And for thinking people, too. Pictureplane is the stage name of the Denver-based 26yo electronic musician Travis Egedy, who first made a name for himself at the warehouse where he also lives, Rhinoceropolis. His 2009 album, Dark Rift, got some good reviews.
When Pitchfork's Amy Phillips caught his set at SXSW, she had this to say: "Pictureplane reminds me of that time in high school in the mid-1990s when all the punks I knew suddenly turned into ravers." Treble named Pictureplane's Dark Rift its album of the week and wrote:
Those in need of a dance record that emphasizes the bizarre without sacrificing beats or soul need look no further than Dark Rift. Pictureplane's approach is disorienting and grimy, but just so carefully measured as to provoke the senses without completely blowing them out. Dark Rift might just keep this freaky and freakish summer going all year long.
And he did have people dancing this one summer afternoon. The next performance came from Fang Island is the Brooklyn-based, Providence-formed band made up of guitarists Jason Bartell, Chris Georges and Nicholas Andrew Sadler, bassist Michael Jacober, and drummer Marc St. Sauveur. Andrew Sadler, bassist Michael Jacober, and drummer Marc St. Sauveur. Their self-titled debut album on Sargent House was released in February. Pitchfork called "Daisy" - to us, their best song of a nice set today - "deliriously infectious. . .", an emphatic crossbreed of the Go! Team and the Promise Ring's "Is This Thing On?" The dance routine in the song's video feels like the only natural reaction to hearing it."
[I]s Fang Island worthy of your unexpected attention? Damn right it is. If I were allowed to write a one-word review, it would read: Exhuberant. Trust me, you know you have heard this kind of enthusiasm before and it always comes across as special. Think The Unicorns, The Go! Team, or Andrew W.K. Fang Island come across a notch above enthusiastic, inspiring images of someone carrying the Olympic torch up a mountain, planes landing in Top Gun, a badass fatality in a Mortal Kombat tournament, a party montage that involves lots a beer spilling and men hugging each other.
Wandering around the park, we wondered if the old McCarren Pool feels lonely on summer Sundays. There was, as always, interesting stuff to look at besides onstage. The view is more gorgeous than ever without the rickety old stage to block it. A lot of people had a lot of other people to look at. And with Veoba joining Jelly as the people behind the pool parties, the old blue JellyNYC thin balloon guys are gone. Miss them much? As usual, we were the oldest man there not running for re-election to the United States Senate. (We are, however, currently running for running for the House of Representatives.) We saw two of our students from the School of Visual Arts from 2007 separately and then together and it only took us two hours to recall their names were Zach and Nigel, both good animators. By the time we were leaving, around 4 p.m., there was a large crowd of hipsters, hipsters, hipsters. We didn't stay, of course, for the excellent band Why? but we don't have to answer the question for you. And we missed Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof, whom we've seen before and know were great doing the songs from Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures,
