The Knitting Factory's Gonna Have a New Address

Submitted by cobwebsandstrange on 12/22/08 1:17am

When Tonic closed in April of 2007, New York lost an indispensible outlet for creative music that might not have had other avenues. It was an historical venue, even considering its rather short lifetime as a club.

The Knitting Factory doesn’t play the same role as Tonic did, but this coming New Year’s Eve will find that venue closing its doors as well. In the next week and some change, there are five scheduled shows, including the Three Floors of Ska event which was previously described here.

The Cro-Mags, a NY hardcore institution have a show scheduled as well, but the last show, curated by Akron/Family, looks like it should be a good way to say farewell. The psych inspired rock ensemble has figured that Deerhoof, Dirty Projectors as well as a few others would play a fitting swan song for the club. They’re probably right.

The catch is that, even with the LA location open, the New York Knitting Factory is just moving. It’s simply moving to Brooklyn. It seems that this clubs decision to move is only going to expedite the cultural shift from Manhattan to a borough – and even though this borough is larger than a great many American cities, it seems a curious idea.

Has Williamsburg (that’s a section of Brooklyn for all of you NYC challenged individuals) really become that much of a draw to move a club out there? I suppose that the decision was considered very seriously and given the relatively recent population boom out that way, it makes sense. I’m sure the rent’s cheaper at least. And in New York that’s really nothing to scoff at.

The King of Beer Pong Rears His Head – Nobody Can Top This Guy!

Submitted by Michael Jon Lazar on 12/22/08 12:51am
I found myself at my younger brother’s twenty fourth birthday party a few months back—held at a nice home he and his girlfriend are renting in central Phoenix, Arizona. When my family gets together to celebrate birthdays, the whole lot is invited: friends, family, neighbors, our dogs, and the whole enchilada. So there I find myself sitting around about fifty or sixty other people in my younger brother’s sprawling backyard (of which I am extremely jealous of because my backyard is freaking tiny) and setup in the middle of the yard is a beer pong table. That is when I am invited to play with my brother on my team and two of our friends on the other. And of course, it should go without saying that a keg if ice cold beer was on tap for the drinking; and boy was it being drunk. Let me Bring you up to Speed on the Rules The rules of beer pong are relatively simple and are thus: each table has about twenty five cups (pint sized party cups) set up in a triangle. Each cup is filled halfway with beer. There are several ping pong balls that are used for playing the game. One of the sides shoots first. The object: to toss the ping pong ball using your hands, across the table and get it to land into a cup of beer. If you do, then the other team has to drink that cup of beer, and you get to keep playing your turn. If you miss, the turn changes to the other side. This keeps on going until one side loses; all of their cups are empty and their tummies are filled with malted brew. The Self-Proclaimed King of Beer Pong So that being said, I found it’s really quite hard to do. Before I knew it I had about five full cups on my side of the table, and they had a full tier of cups on theirs. And the more you lose, the more you drink. The more you drink, the drunker that you get. The drunker that you get, the less hand eye coordination that you have. So the loser will continue to suck as they are forced to keep on drinking beer, as per the rules. It goes without saying that I awoke with quite a headache the following morning. However, after browsing around online I found this video that is from a self-proclaimed ‘King of Beer Pong.’ And boy does this dude fully deserve the title. Check out his Youtube video by Clicking Here See What All the Hoopla is About This guy can shoot a ping pong ball from nearly anywhere into a half full cup of beer. In the video he is throwing one over his head into a cup that is about fifteen feet away. He rides on a skateboard and kick-flips a pong ball into a cup as he is busting the trick over the cup. He can throw two, and three, even four balls at once and they will all land in the cups perfectly. Yes indeed, the world has its first official beer pong king. For all that it really matters in the end.

Festival of Lights: Chanukah Specials

Submitted by msarko on 12/22/08 12:50am
Last night was the first night of Chanukah 2008. For seven more days, people around the world will be celebrating this most visible of Jewish holidays. While most seasonal programming concerns Christmas and to a lesser extent the New Year, there's always a little dab of Chanukah on the tube when the weather gets cold. Here are a few Chanukah TV specials past and present to fill you with that other holiday spirit. A Taste of Chanukah In 1999, the good people at the Public Broadcasting Service put together what ended being a pretty big spectacle, at least as far as Chanukah is concerned. Hosted by Oscar-and-Tony-nominated entertainer Theodore Bikel, A Taste of Chanukah features a variety of mostly musical performances from The New England Conservatory of Music, The Boston Community Gospel Choir and even a traditional klezmer band. Humorist Chasia Segal acts as a stand-in for everybody's Yiddish grandmother as she demonstrates how to cook potato latkes and Bikel gives a full Hebrew reading of "Oh Chanukah". This particular holiday might not get its own Bing Crosby special, but A Taste of Chanukah is no slouch. The Rugrat's Chanukah Special One of Nickelodeon's first original series, The Rugrats was always full of subtle Jewish references, like Tommy's old-country grandparents. Those references became less subtle in 1991 when the children's programming network first aired a lush and imaginative Chanukah special of the popular show. Following the usual format of any Rugrats episode, the story goes back and forth between real life and the kids' fantasy adventure. While the adults engage in a traditional Chanukah play at the synagogue, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil and Angelica re-enact the story of ancient Jews rising up against their Syrian Greek occupiers. The cartoon version is considerably less violent than the real historical event, but the attempt at delivering some cultural history via children's media is successful nonetheless. Chanukah on Planet Matzah Ball While far from the most accurate depiction of Jewish culture, this bizarre puppet show from 2003 at least attempts to bring some of the spirit of the holiday to TV. In it, an alien named Oogy self-educates about Chanukah by spying on Earth's take of the festivities through a telescope. There's a singing dreidel and maybe the only example of anyone on television being excited about life in Cleveland, Ohio (except Drew Carey). South Park's A Jew on Christmas One of the things that has kept Trey Parker and Matt Stone's vulgar cartoon comedy so interesting over the years is their propensity for unexpected musical numbers. They aren't thrown-together, either. Most of South Park's songs are well-written and expertly arranged, not to mention funny. While the boys got their start with a paper cutout Christmas short featuring an abominable snowman Santa fighting to the death with none other than Jesus, that revolutionary quickie already planted the seeds for what would become a new Chanukah classic. After the series took off, we got a nice little song sung by South Park''s resident Jew, Kyle, about what it's like to be part of the Hebrew set on Christmas. Happy Chanukah, everybody.

My Fingers Hate Life

Submitted by msarko on 12/22/08 12:31am

Have you ever sat at home or at work or in the waiting room of the methadone clinic thinking, "Ya know what I could go for? A horrible, worthless game that isn't even entertaining." Well, I have. Nothing distracts me from my withdrawal shakes quite like the worst flash games ever made. Today, I'll be sharing two of those such games with you, playing them so you don't have to.

Max lol

Max lol is one of the lowest-rated games on Kongregate. At one and a quarter star of a possible five, it barely qualifies as a game. What astounds me is that enough people got some amount of enjoyment out of this insulting pseudo-animation to give it that quarter star above the lowest possible score. There are enough people who visit Kongregate daily to offset the five stars the creator, juank4ever, likely gave it. According to the counter on the site, Max lol has been played 476 times by the moment of this review. I don't care if juank is a 13-year-old boy, that's no excuse for this piece of crap. There is no start button and the whole thing plays on a continuous loop. Rather than actually animating his characters, Mr. 4ever has them traversing large spaces in three giant frame skips, occasionally punctuated with a scribbled command to "touch here". Occasionally, if I do venture to "touch there" the result is the same as it would be if I did absolutely nothing. The challenging final stage requires us to guide our stick man through some vague wall-breaking, the mechanics of which I have yet to figure out. Like the hotel room culmination of a full prom night's worth of dancefloor grinding, Max lol concludes with The End? For the sake of all that is good in the world, I hope so.  

Cops and Robbers

Newgrounds is simultaneously the home of some of the most talented flash artists in the world and the garbage dump for the worst amateur projects ever conceived in the medium. Now, there are many definitions one can have for what makes a "bad" game. Crappy controls, annoying sounds, unimaginative premise, etc, etc. But in mrkewl's design, Cops and Robbers, the problem is all of the above plus what seems like an inability to grasp the very concept of what a "game" is. The instructions explain that the point of C&R is for the red "robber" car to avoid touching the "cop" car for 30 seconds. Seems pretty intuitive, right? Well, that would be true if one of the cars was controlled by an artificial intelligence. Rather than actually creating a program with computer controls, mrkewl expects the player to handle both vehicles. Now, I don't know if this is some sort of post-modern art project or just a horrible excuse for a flash game. Either way, this game is actually next to impossible to accurately control and there is no way you can win or lose, unless you're some desperately bored shut-in who decides, "Today, I'm gonna be the ROBBER!"

 

Amount of Time Likely to be Wasted: A grand total of one minute, thirty seconds. These games are so wan they aren't even frustrating. They're here, then they're gone. Or, in the case of Max lol are here, gone, then here, then gone again.  

Likelihood to Result in Arrest in Real Life: Probably not going to result in arrest, but certainly litigation. If a legitimate company contracted either jaunk4ever or mrkewl to create a game for them and they produced either of these atrocities, they'd be looking at a hefty breach of contract suit.

MCDR: A good ten or fifteen minutes of Cave Story should do the trick.

Internet Depth by Preposition: In, sort of. Neither of these so-called artists will ever achieve anything of worth in their lives, as evidenced by their laziness and desperate lack of critical thinking skills. Thanks to Kongregate, Newgrounds and unfortunately me, these games are the only notable things either of them will ever do. is over with in a ridiculously but mercifully short time, followed by a screen that reads

Sufganiot: Jelly Doughnuts for Hanukkah

Submitted by lisala on 12/22/08 12:27am

Jelly doughnuts are a Hanukkah tradition, one that I for one think should have much greater exposure. Hanukkah commemorates the 165 B. C. victory of the Maccabees against the much larger Seleucid empire. The Jews had had their religion outlawed, and their temple desecrated. After their victory, the Jews proceeded to purify the temple, only to discover that there was only enough consecrated, pure, oil to light the temple lamp for a day. They lit the lamp, and sent a messenger to procure more oil. Miraculously, the lamp continued to burn for eight days, thus inspiring the eight-day "festival of lights," Hanukkah. And yes, there is a jelly doughnut connection.

As commemoration of that miracle, there is a tradition of cooking with oil during Hanukkah (for other explanations of the tradition, look here). Jews of Eastern European extraction often serve fried potato pancakes, latkes. But for many Israelis, Hanukkah means jelly doughnuts. Like latkes, the doughnuts, in the form of small round balls of dough, are fried, filled with jelly or other sweet fillings, and dusted with sugar.

In Israel, bakers start making sufganiot (pronounced "soof-ghani-oat") as much as a month before Hanukkah officially starts. Fortunately, they're easy enough to make that you don't have to start that early, though you might want to. A few tips before I send you off to the recipes:

  • It much easier to fill a sufganiya ball if you have a kitchen syringe, or an icing tip of the sort you'd use to make cream puffs or eclairs. If not, make a slit in the side of the sufganiya, and use a small spoon.
  • You're going to be cooking these in hot oil; you might want to make the kitchen off limits to small children for a bit.
  • Sufganiot are best eaten fresh; if you have to make them ahead of time, pop them in a warm oven for a minute, to re-heat them.
  • The traditional fillings are jelly; particularly strawberry and raspberry, but Nutella, custard, lemon curd, and ricotta or cottage cheese have been successfully consumed by many.

Now for the recipes! This is a basic, easy to follow recipe. This one uses cottage cheese as a filling. This recipe uses the traditional method of joining two rounds of dough, sandwiching the filling—no kitchen syringe needed! This recipe makes a very large quantity of sufganiot. This sufganiot recipe is parve. Here's a sufganiot recipe designed for a bread machine.

To Rent an Apartment or a Home? The Breakdown of Amenities!

Submitted by Michael Jon Lazar on 12/22/08 12:24am
If you are about to find yourself looking for a new place to call your humble abode, there are some factors that you may want to consider when it comes to choosing between and apartment or a home. Each has its own array of pros and cons to offer, and each can be the ideal or tragic situation for the individual. Here is What You Get With Most Apartments Generally speaking, you will get quite a few decent amenities with the average apartment when you rent one. Sometimes, however, they are amenities that many people overlook. For example: a pool and a Jacuzzi are commonplace at any decent apartment complex. You do not have to pay for the water for them nor the maintenance; they are included in your rental rate. Another overlooked amenity is covered parking and barbeque areas. Finally, some apartments will even pay the electric bill for you included in your rent, depending on where you rent from. The usually fare of amenities also applies: dryer and washer, or pay ones in the complex, full bathrooms and decent sized bedrooms, and in some cases real fireplaces and nice balconies. An important note is that most apartments only allow small pets, so you folks with the big dogs are up the creek without a paddle. What You Get With Most Home Rentals You do get quite a lot when you rent a home as well. Most homes are void of upstairs and downstairs neighbors – that is a huge amenity. You get your own backyard and front yard, but you must maintain it yourself. You get more privacy. You may even get your own pool and barbeque pit – at an additional monthly cost. Of course, in most homes that you rent, you will also tend to get more space, more parking, sometimes a nice garage and obviously more room overall. But, you will tend to pay more for it, most of the time. And, you will have increased monthly bills from other costs like pool maintenance and landscaping, and so on. The Differences in Cost There is typically a decent difference between the costs of renting an apartment versus the cost of renting a home. For example, an average, amenity-rich apartment in Phoenix, Arizona, that has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and some other add-ons like covered parking and so forth, will run about $800-$900 per month. Whereas a similar home with similar amenities will cost about $850-$950 per month, not to mention landscaping and other added monthly costs that you have when you rent a home, but that you do get with an apartment rental. Which Makes More Sense? Really its all about what your needs are. For those with large animals, who need a backyard, an apartment makes no sense. For some, the added space and privacy of a home, as well as the increased amenities, far outweighs the difference in cost. When considering which makes more sense, it’s really about your individual needs, and not a generalization.

Anticon: Creepin' On Ah Come Up

Submitted by cobwebsandstrange on 12/21/08 11:51pm

There’s no good way by which to explain the Anticon label, the music that they produce and release or the people that run the show. Luckily, there’s Youtube. And a recent video (well, actually a lot of videos), that condense the history of this label into digestible tidbits.

If you’re not familiar with the Anticon crew here’s a brief primer.

Label honcho Sole, white rapper supreme, found that he needed an outlet for this ramblings that had been relegated to freestyles, battles or shows. He decided to start releasing his own music with the assistance of a few friends.

The list of albums produced by this crew is really astounding. They count Sole’s own Bottle of Humans, the first Sage Francis full length and a few discs by multi instrumentalist Dosh. This last fellow doesn’t necessarily fit into the definition of hip hop, IDM or rock. It’s just good creative music. And that’s really what Anticon traffics in.

They’ve even begun to branch out into re-releases with Darc Minds’ near perfect Symptomatic of a Greater Ill.

Anticon and its affiliated crew haven’t yet reached the masses in the way that Atmosphere has. But the super group, if that term is applicable here, Subtle has become something of a media darling – in the underground at least. That hasn’t translated into a much expanded vision of Anticon as of yet, but only the future knows what’s in store for these transplanted east coasters. At least Oakland seems more promising than Maine or Ohio.

Rechov Sumsum: Muppets B'Ivrit

Submitted by msarko on 12/21/08 10:47pm
With Chanukah upon us, I began contemplating Israeli media. There have been a number of cultural entertainment exchanges between The United States and Israel, the most recent being HBO's tense, intimate therapy drama In Treatment based on Hagai Levi's Betipul. Way back in 1979, long-time Sesame Workshop employee Dr. Lewis Bernstein pitched the idea to bring the popular Sesame Street muppets to Israel. The result was a series of shows, beginning with 1982's Rechov Sumsum. Rechov Sumsum is a literal translation of "Sesame Street". Its main characters are Kippi, a giant hedgehog who acts as a surrogate Big Bird and his friend Moishe, a brown version of Oscar the Grouch. The show ran for four very successful seasons and the characters remained popular long after the last episode aired. In addition to original segments, some American-produced portions were dubbed in Hebrew and put together with Kippi and friends. After the original Rechov Sumsum finished its run a collaborative US-Israeli production called Shalom Sesame aired in the mid-80's and early-90's. This version featured both Rechov Sumsum characters as well as the very recognizable muppets from the original American Sesame Street. It's always fun to listen to Burt and Ernie carrying on in a foreign language. Following Rechov Sumsum and Shalom Sesame was a short Israeli-Palestinian co-production called Shara'a Simsim, the name simply being the Arabic equivalent. This version proved less popular and it lasted only a single season. After the relative failure of Shara'a Simsim a more segmented program called Sippuray Sumsum ("Sesame Stories") replaced it. Rather than attempting to combine the various cultures of the Middle East into one show, three separate shows were produced to be aired in their respective territories. More recently, the attempt to make a Sesame Street-like program representing modern Israeli-Palestinian cooperation has been more successful. A 2006-2007 rebranding of Rechov Sumsum features characters that speak both Hebrew and Arabic, some Jewish, some Muslim, even some who have immigrated from Eastern Europe. Even today, it's considered fairly progressive to market and make a show accessible to children on both sides of the divide. It's strange for those of us in The United States to think of children's programming like that, but in many parts of the world there are strong political implications to even the most innocent-seeming media. The conflict in Israel-Palestine has spilled over into the lives of the young on multiple occasions. Last year there was significant international concern over a Hamas-produced program called "Tomorrow's Pioneers" featuring a Mickey-Mouse-like character named Farfour that often espoused militant political opinions. In the final episode, Farfour was depicted being graphically beaten by an Israeli official, followed by the co-host, a little girl, reading the names of other martyrs to the cause from a note card. Whereas many Western kid's shows follow a stage-production model, These sorts of things often open up dialogues concerning the role of children's programming in their education. Is it entertainment? Is it moral and political indoctrination? While it is certainly absurd to believe a mere television show could sway a child one way or another on complex social issues, it is still valid to contemplate the impact an early encouragement toward cooperation might have on a rising generation.

Dance Craze

Submitted by cobwebsandstrange on 12/21/08 10:41pm

Merging lounge, soul rhythm and blues with ska and reggae made for Hepcat’s ability to take to title of rightful ruler during much of the nineties. After the release of Right on Time there was a line-up shift. But that shift only allowed the group to come back in 2000 with Push ‘n Shove. Although critically, that album may not have faired as well as previous releases, fans found that disc a welcomed step forward for the group – there were even a few dub inspired interludes that allowed the band to further delve through Jamaican musical history.

But since that time, little has been heard from Hepcat. There are sporadic gigs in and around L.A., sometimes at the Bluebeat Lounge – which is run by scene veteran and songwriter Chris Murray.

That last release, in some ways was the end of the 3rd Wave of ska. And although Hepcat can’t be counted as a ska-punk band, they were part of the resurgence of the genre during the ‘90s.

But just last Saturday, Hepcat performed at the El Ray in L.A. Again, not a far flung engagement, but it is at least well documented through photography here and here.

Of course the gig doesn’t ensure further touring or even another recording. It just serves to remind fans what an incredible live act Hepcat was and still can be. It was just a fleeting holiday treat. The only way it could have been better was if the show preceded a lengthy cross country tour. Oh well.

Mythblazers, Episode Two - Coming Soon to a Computer Near You

Submitted by cobwebsandstrange on 12/21/08 9:28pm

The Smoking Section just had its seven millionth page view. It probably has to do with the wide ranging and in depth coverage of anything and everything hip hop related.

And you know what else is hip hop related? Getting high. There’s really no way to get around that one at all. And if that’s something that you find near and dear to your heart, then just wait until tomorrow for the second installment of Mythblazers.

What’s Mythblazers, you might ask? Well, friends rapper Curren$y hosts a web based show about how to get high under difficult circumstances. There’s been a time, when you’ve been ready to smoke, but are left without any normal means to do so.

And in the first episode, knives are heated on a stove and after they’ve reached a great temperature, weed was placed between them. It was able to get the guinea pig coughing enough that he had to excuse himself to go to the bathroom. I guess that means it worked.

In another segment, a taste test with weed, parsley, sticks and stems were sampled to see if they were all appropriate to smoke – you can already guess the answers.

Mythblazers is kinda like watching your friends do ridiculous stuff – its Jackass without the injuries. And that’s why it’s good television. But just wait for tomorrow to find out what other inebriated stunts will be perpetrated. If you can’t wait that long though, Episode One is still online. It’s only about ten minutes long, but you won’t be sorry you stole those ten minutes from your employer.

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