Sebastien Grainger is the hirsute ex-drummer and singer of the insanely awesome Death From Above 1979 (which disbanded a few years ago), now appearing with a band of three called “Sebastian Grainger & the Mountains.” I checked him out at the Lexington in London a couple of weekends ago, and he's like a sweaty rock god, moving into guitar driven rock 'n' roll with aplomb. There was a room full of indie kids, with the DFA 1979 double elephant head, dancing like veteran moshers even without Jesse Keeler's stomping bass. You can check Grainger out on his Canadian and American tour, starting March 6. Here are his thoughts on his Canadian hometown of Toronto:

You're originally from Toronto, right? Did you grow up there as well?
I grew up in a big mega-suburb called Mississauga. They still have the same mayor they've had since a few years before I was born -- she's almost 90 years old! Mississauga is basically two towns over, so as soon as I was a teenager I was going downtown...staying up all night, sleeping on benches.

What did you get up to when you started socializing outside of school?
I went to French school most of my life, so our community was pretty small. I didn't have any friends in my neighborhood really. All my friends were school friends, and eventually I started a band with those friends. Aside from lighting fires and biking around, music is what kept me busy.

Was Toronto fairly chilled-out, or is it more of a big-city vibe?
Was or is? Toronto is a big city, so it has that vibe. If you live in a city though, you can always find peace if you want it. Toronto is very much like a big American city, but with far less rubbish floating about.

A lot of good bands have come out of Toronto. What is it about Toronto that inspires so much creativity?
I can't speak for the scene in Toronto...I can only speak for myself. What I love about Toronto, is that there is a tradition of world-class music. It's not just NOW, it's always. And it shouldn't surprise, it's the cultural hub of a very vast country, so artists from all over gravitate towards Toronto. I'm at a point now though, where I feel like I want to get away from it...I still love it here, but i feel it's time to take what I do and try and do it somewhere else…

Do you reckon Toronto's directly influenced your sound? It seems that there's a pretty big range in the kind of noise coming out of Toronto - you've got Rush, Dragonette, Broken Social Scene, and The Russian Futurists as well as your sound - so it must be a diverse place?
It's an extremely culturally diverse city. You can find anything you want here. Personally I've never felt a real creative attachment to the city itself, I've always felt like my music comes from somewhere far away...further than the top of the CN Tower.

How would you describe Toronto to an outsider or a tourist? Is it an easy place to get into, or do you have to dig a bit for the good stuff?
Depending on when you visit. For an outsider the winters might be a little much...But spring/summer, as with Montreal… is a glorious time to be in the city. It gets really hot and sunny and people basically stop wearing clothes.

How does the music scene compare to big cities in other countries?
I have no idea. I'm not from other countries.

What about the art scene? Is it as buzzing as the music scene seems to be? Any galleries or artists you can recommend?
There are tons of artists and galleries. Some of my fave artists are Andre Ethier, Ted Tucker, Jesse Harris, and Josh Reichmann. Some good galleries are Le Gallery, Studio Gallery, Clint Roenish...I should also mention Bad Day Magazine, which is a quarterly arts and culture journal that promotes Toronto artists but also international artists ...It's a great mag.

What do you most miss when you're out of Toronto?
My girlfriend, our bed and my dog.

Are you a pub or bar kind of guy? Any decent places for a drink and dance in Toronto?
I am lucky to live in a good neighborhood for bars. There's always The Dakota Tavern, The Communist Daughter, and Sweaty Betty's.

How about getting something to eat? What's your favorite restaurant in Toronto?
Swan and Terroni. My faves. Swan is a diner-style restaurant with a menu of mostly rich comfort foods. Terroni is southern Italian food...Both are incredible.

Is there anything else about Toronto that deserves special mention?
My studio is here, so if any bands ever want to record in Toronto, look up Giant Studios Toronto!

~Chris Harding

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 11:10 AM | Permalink

Rising from Allen Street is the newest cool downtown NYC hotel – Thompson Lower East Side. It’s a jarring yet undoubtedly strong structure: blocky, boxy and gray. Inside it’s the hospitality equivalent of black on black on black, with shiny mod surfaces and ambient music. And it’s Thompson’s raison d’etre (as we showed in an earlier review of The Libertine, at their Gild Hall hotel in the financial district) to put a star chef in a cool restaurant.

Here, they enlisted Susur Lee, Chinese star chef (and “Iron Chef America” participant), to head up the hotel’s eatery, Shang-- a big, red-hued space with bulbous, oversized light fixtures, expensively glossy paneling and draperies, and curvy leather banquettes that were clearly conceived (like the whole hotel was) in an economic boom.

In this incongruously extroverted 130-seat space, Lee served up Asian fusion cuisine. Yes, Asian fusion. That is very 1997. The menu is as uneven as it is cheeky – my friend and I saw that in the dim sum alone. Taro puffs with curried beef were insanely tender and delicious. But tiny scallion pancakes were boring and dull. Soy miso flavored cucumber salad was intensely bright and bursting with subtle flavor; yet fried oysters with Kung Pao sauce were greasy with no payoff. The salads looked interesting – the one my friend and I tried, Singapore Slaw, has 19 ingredients, from jicama and daikon to roasted hazelnuts,, carrots and even pansies, and a plum dressing that was a perfectly-spiced delight.

Wish the entrees had been as good. The slow-cooked pork belly I had was very disappointing … the pig is already dead, so there was no reason to kill it again. It may have been slow-cooked, but it was over-cooked well past the point of tenderness. The apple puree on the side was nice, but that didn’t save it. My friend called his sablefish – admittedly not an easy one to prepare -- “just bland – disappointing. Not bad but not memorable.”

And now a note on service. Thompson people: get it improved, quick. Our waiter came to the table, and said, “Hello and welcome…” then apparently he received a signal from another staff member, and immediately said: “I’m sorry – please excuse me,” and did not come back for approximately three minutes. This is the time when I should point out that the bill, with one drink each, was around $150. This is a very bad bill total to combine with being abandoned by a waiter for several minutes. After the initial abandonment, service was relatively rushed, with the waiter doing that annoying thing where he said “excellent choice!” after every choice.

No need to go too far into the economic situation, but let’s just say that we know it’s not great, and high-end restaurants have to be absolutely first-rate to be true survivors. This one isn’t first-rate. It’s interesting, and has potential, but for now, it’s in the gray zone.

Shang, 187 Orchard St., 212.260.7900

~Stephen Milioti

The Final Verdict

Taste- 7/10
Value- 5/10
Looks- 7.5/10
Service- 5/10

Total... 24.5/40


First, third, and fourth photos by kathyylchan via Flickr
Second photo by Lois Seigel

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 02:07 PM | Permalink

In an era where dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony saturate cyberspace, love-based reality shows run rampant (from "The Bachelor" to "Flavor of Love"), and speed dating has become mainstream, it seems the lovelorn have their fair share of unorthodox opportunities to meet the “One.” But what happens when a young woman wants to find love taking the traditional route–- with a twist?

Tamara Duricka -- a 31-year-old, New York City-based TV writer for "Good Morning America" -- recently challenged herself to a dating adventure: a project to date 31 different men in 31 days – and document every minute in detail on a blog. As if that task weren’t daunting enough, she added the vital guidelines that each date must last at least 31 minutes, cost no more than $31, be in a public setting, and omit drugs and alcohol. Duricka’s dates ranged from bowling, indoor rock climbing, a Knicks game, tacos in Spanish Harlem, dumplings in Chinatown, the petting zoo, to playtime in FAO Schwarz–- and were with men aged 21 to 40. At the end of her month-long project, Duricka chose an auspicious second date via online poll–on Valentine’s Day.

Now in the process of transforming her dating project into insight for the masses-– writing a book to come out later this year, and in movie talks-– the blogger joined psychoPEDIA to talk about love and marriage and why she’s fine with breaking The Rules:

What made you decide to do this challenge, and put it on the Internet for the whole world to see?
I was looking for a project to get me out of my schlump of break-up after break-up. I couldn’t keep trying to reassess what I was doing wrong in my relationships without starting at the very beginning. I thought, what could happen on first dates? I didn’t anticipate the emotional side of it at all. Unfortunately, I fell in love with half of them! And there were times during the dates where I’d think, I could seriously fall in love. And with a few, I thought, I could marry this guy. I get into these dates, and no matter how bad they are, I believe there’s something great about every one of these guys.

Do you think the guys were on their best behavior realizing you would write about them?
I hope so. I say that with regards to regular dating. If we treat our dates with respect and demand respect for how we’d like to be treated, our best will come out no matter whether we’re writing about it or not. I’m taking the time and energy to get to know you, so you should at least respect that: that’s Dating 101. If dating serves a purpose, not just to meet the love of our lives, but for our friends to, it’s worth the investment of a few hours. One of the guys I went out with has already met someone from being on the site.

Have you read He's Just Not That Into You or other dating books?
When the book came out and women said, “It’s so right,” I was appalled at how women viewed themselves. I’ve read The Rules, and I’ve broken all the rules. But some of my girlfriends live by The Rules. One of the guys from my 31 dates said, “This isn’t the best way to look for the love of your life,” and I was heartbroken. I guess telling the entire world how you feel isn’t the way to go. Guys will know exactly how I feel about them. I have no game, but I just need to tell the truth. If nobody wants to date me after this, I have to deal with it. I don’t go by any rules, but I’m not a forlorn woman who can’t get a date.

Do you watch any dating shows?
My girlfriends and I used to have "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" parties! I’ve really got to hand it to these guys. On my dates I think, “I’m really lucky I’m not on one of those shows.” I think you can find love that way, but I don’t know if I’d recommend it.

In this day and age, do you think finding love the 'traditional' way is still possible?
I took a lot of elements out of my dates that are regular now in society. And some people suggested I should speed date, but it’s counter intuitive to what I’m doing. I don’t want someone to judge me based on looks and resume only. I want someone to open his heart and try to look at me for who I really am, because those are the things that you base life and true love on. Internet dating is fine for introduction and to find common links. But you still have to do the investment. And if you’re invested in just meeting and getting to know someone, you have to do some sort of ‘traditional’ dating. Just because your profiles matched, you’re not going to live happily ever after. That’s where magic plays a role.

Have you gotten negative backlash from readers of your blog?
Yes, but most of them have been from perverts who critique my looks. I’ve had some people leave comments saying I needed to be honest about how I didn’t like some of the guys. But dating is about finding the best in everyone. Each one of these men has his own fan club. I’ve had women message me about every one, saying, “If you don’t want him, I do.” Who am I to judge just because he’s not my Prince Charming? I also got comments that I was narcissistic-– that the project was just about me. But instead, the guys I went out with commented back and fought for my honor. It really showed their character.

As women constantly complain that 'all the good ones are taken,' do you still feel this way after your challenge?
No way. I’m fascinated with people that have wonderful marriages, though, and I always ask them how they met. With marriage and love, a lot of it is magic, but most of it is choice. We choose to be with these people and to continue to be with them.

What’s the best response you’ve gotten from the project?
The feedback I’ve been getting from a lot of women is that they’re now giving more guys a chance. And if that’s all it is, I think that’s great!

~Leann Peterson


All photos courtesy of Tamara Duricka

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 05:46 PM | Permalink

If there's one business that largely defies the current climate, it's fashion-– or at least, its aesthetic. Even though a global economic slowdown’s in full force, predictions of a season of austerity and anti-glamour have still failed to come true. With London Fashion Week here, an almost audible buzz has begun to spread amongst those in the industry. Will London-– a city obsessed with recession-– follow suit? How the capital’s designers will react remains to be seen, however it’s hard to imagine that LFW’s trademark eccentricity will let up in 2009.

Currently preparing for this month’s showdown is Tim Soar-- creator, designer, driving force behind menswear label Soar. A relative newcomer on the scene, Tim avoided the usual route to the catwalk. Without any formal fashion training, he arrived on the London scene via various careers including DJ, music consultant and one-half of graphic design studio POST, alongside the legendary Neville Brody. Soar’s first collections had an almost immediate impact, snapped up by Liberty and cult boutique b Store. His priority was creating something that had the visual impact of more experimental design whilst, importantly, maintaining the standards and fit of tailored menswear. Simple. Perhaps that’s the key to Soar’s increasing popularity, a label that avoids the usual pretention and posturing and just, well, gets on with it.

We asked Tim-– whose show is happening tomorrow at LFW-– to give us an insight into the upcoming season and find out why Picasso’s Blue Period just isn’t his thing.

How have you found the run-up to LFW? Does it get easier with each season?
No, no and no. To quote cyclist Lance Armstrong when asked if it gets easier after so much training, he replied, “No, it never gets any easier, you just go faster.”

What’s in store for AW09?
Well, we’ll be showing alongside B-store’s own label again, but this time on schedule in the BFC tents. We like to think of it as the two-back beast of London menswear.

Who/what are your influences when it comes to your work?
I have been seriously into men’s fashion for 30 years and that acts as a huge repository of references and influences. I like to make clothes that feel old and modern at the same time. Not “classic with a twist”, but there must be some flavor of the past mixed with something very modern. Menswear is about nuanced progression.

Is there always a clear theme to your collections?
No, I really do not understand the “my collection was inspired by the Pieros in Picasso’s Blue Period paintings” school of thought. That way, it seems to me, you end up with costume, not clothing. I start very organically with really broad themes. How things develop is what’s exciting.

Characterize this upcoming collection…
Dark, a bit gimpy, with floaty touches.

What do you do when you get ‘designers block’?
Suffer like a mother fucker.

Describe the London fashion scene right now.
There is a really good London scene for menswear right now. Lou Dalton, Omar Kashoura, B-Clothing, Carolyn Massey. If you step back and look at your contemporaries you realize they all have the same struggles, trials and tribulations you do, and so you have to tip your hat to all of them. “Chapeau.”

If you could see any public figure, past or present, in your clothes who would it be?
I think George W Bush in a one-off tar-and-feather suit that I would make especially for him. Probably with a lining of dried shit.

Talk about the transition from your previous career to becoming a designer.
No transition, I still have my previous career in music. My career before that as a graphic designer has many similarities with fashion. In general, everything I have done-- interiors, graphics, music and fashion -- has been about trying to describe a certain bittersweet nostalgic emotion that I find very beguiling. The medium varies, but the message is the same.

And finally, your plans for the future of the label?
Not to go bankrupt, obviously! Lets just say that currently I am in the gutter looking up at the stars.

~Lena Dystant

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 08:17 PM | Permalink

In an industry that's often referred to as a complete sausage-fest, the acts we're most excited about have names that, well, refer to women. Mind you, they don't necessarily have female members in the band -- it's really all in the name. So we asked a few of these acts "What gives?" One thing's for sure-- it ain't nothin' but a 'she' thing. Here are our favorites for 2009:

Vivian Girls
If one were to physically plot out the Vivian Girls industry buzz over the past year, you'd be hard pressed not to utilize the term 'sky-rocket.' Truth is, this Brooklyn trio of Cassie, Katy and Ali have yet to rest on their proverbial laurels and are continuing their upward trajectory. They released multiple 7"s and a full-length debut album in 2008 and have subsequently been gigging their asses off (channeling Nirvana and covering Brian Wilson when called for) around the world ever since. For a Vivian Girls primer be sure to track down "Wild Eyes", "Where Do You Run To" and our fave, "Second Date." The girls have undeniably 'broken through' as indicated by landing a coveted slot at the Coachella Festival in Palm Springs this May.

What's your take on all these male bands with female names, like Women and GIRLS?
We're impartial. Henry Darger's Vivian Girls were actually girls with penises, so us naming our band after them is a pretty similar thing to male bands naming themselves Women or Girls.

What's in store for Vivian Girls in 2009?
Lots! We are going to tour relentlessly-- so far we have a full US tour and two European tours booked. We are going to South by Southwest. We're recording our second album in LA in March, then release it in the fall on In The Red. We're also going to take the summer off and hang out in Brooklyn for three months, which is going to be amazing considering how we tour pretty much every month.

The Morning After Girls
One of our fave purveyors of blessed-out dirty guitars rife with the creased leather of heavily zippered motorcycle jackets, the Morning After Girls have emerged from the studio with a new album. This NYC-based band rolls with- count 'em-- no less than 5 guys, with nary a girl in sight. We're willing to overlook a glitch in data because, well, they have one of the best band names for a t-shirt ever (we dare anyone to attend a show and not walk out with 'Kill the Morning After Girls' merch). We caught one of their live gigs a few weeks ago showing their new take on the gospel according to reverb. This time around there are way more hooks and melodies-- as in, they’ll stick in your head regardless of whether you know the damn lyrics- best displayed in the title track off their upcoming release, 'Alone.' Not to worry; it still comes complete with plenty of fuzzy riffs, tamborine bangin’ loud as hell and yup, haircuts that could cut glass. Got noise? Bring it on.

Do you get a lot of people doing a double take when they don't see any girls in the current lineup? People are very hasty to label something, and they really do believe everything they read. I've always been interested in human beings’ tendency to take for granted "a priori" meanings and definitions of words or a group of words. So, yes, many people do indeed do a double take. But c'mon people, you can do better than that.

Best advice for avoiding awkward morning-after moments? (Sorry, we had to go there.)
Moments get awkward when you veer from your own path. Don't avoid what the moment demands.

What's in store for the Morning After Girls in 2009?
We are going to tour our second album, ("alone", which will be released soon), extensively and prodigiously, both throughout the USA and the rest of the world.

Screaming Females
If Twitter and instant messaging are a gauge of critical hotness, Screaming Females take the cake. Straight outta New Brunswick, their three-piece party gigs are burning up the blogosphere-- or as a friend of ours simply texted at 3 AM last week-- "Screaming Females are THE SEX." Don't believe us? Get a hold of the slow burnin' single "Cortez the Killer" and see if you don't agree.

Have you ever gotten screamed at by a woman because of your name?
If someone has a reaction to our name it is usually just a laugh because only one of us is female. I try to point out that it isn't 'THE' Screaming Females. Each person in the band is not a Screaming Female. Screaming Females should be taken as an idea by itself. There are a lot of meanings it could have. I wish that people would first think about what the idea of the phrase 'Screaming Females' could mean before thinking about why a band made up of two males and one female would be called that. One time a girl did yell at me about the name but that was only after she yelled at me for wearing a fishing competition shirt that I had gotten for free at a clothes swap. She thought I was supporting killing fish. I was in fact supporting free clothes. Other than her no one has taken offense.

Who exactly is in your lineup?
Our line up has always been the same. Marissa on guitar and vocals. King Mike on bass. Jarrett on drums. Marissa is a female, the other two aren't.

Any cases of mistaken identity because of the gender issue?
While on tour gas station attendants have a tendency to call Marissa 'Sir' or 'Mister.' She always wonders how that happens considering she has breasts.

What's in store for Screaming Females in 2009?
We have our third full-length album, Power Move,coming out April 14 on Don Giovanni Records. We are headed out for a month-long US tour in April and May, which is shaping up really well. We are also going to be releasing a split 7 inch on Infinity Cat Records with JEFF the brotherhood sometime in the spring or summer.

GIRLS
We've only ever seen GIRLS-- aka Johnny LeValley and Mikey Jones-- under the cover of night in sweaty club gigs, which is totally fine. As F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote "In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning" - the same can be said for GIRLS' sound. With songs that swoon from early New Order pop ("And If You Go") and the simultaneously energized and apathetic ("Gottogetaway") there are big things in store for these downtown denizens of Electric Avenue. We're not the only ones to think so-- they've already been interviewed on BBC Radio. We asked the lads to clarify a few things:

Your name is in all caps I take it?
Y E S.

Have any cases of mistaken identity?
We get mistaken for people who love all the time. Our love is a synthetic psychotic dream. Dreams are a symbol of random identities as well. We are working on a dream configuration machine that will allow us to communicate with our other identities, and in turn make us understand we are someone else. We will soon be able to talk to the assassin in us.

What do your moms think of the name?
Johnny's mom is a lounge singer in New Orleans and Mikey's mom is a masseuse. They love the name.

Also keep an eye on:

Women
With a debut album recorded on ghetto-blasters and old tape machines in a basement (with production helmed by none other than Chad VanGaalen) and released on Flemish Eye/JagJaguwar Records, Women pretty much have the indie community in the palm of their hand. Exquisite harmonizing via the Beach Boys with the lo-fi anthemic malaise (and we mean that in the best way) of the Velvet Underground, Grizzly Bear better watch their back. I'm just saying.... Download "Black Rice" now and impress your friends. They're on tour in the UK now but will be back stateside in time, of course, for SXSW next month.

Girls
Girls out of San Francisco-- not to be mistaken with GIRLS out of New York-- are high on the heat index and definitely a band to watch at SXSW this year. Remember the famous album cover for James' Laid? The blokes in dresses leaning against the wall and eating bananas? If that photo were a song, it would be Girls' "Lust for Life." Download that and "Hellhole Ratrace" asap. They'll be playing the Neon Lights Party on March 20th with yet another hotly tipped band, none other than Portland, Oregon's Parenthetical Girls. You can't make this stuff up.

Theoretical Girl
A goth-pop solo chanteuse out of the UK (unlike all the other North American bands listed here), Theoretical Girl spins straight-to-the-heart ballads over infectious beats with a debut album due soon on the Memphis Industries label. Download "The Hypocrite" and "The Boy I Left Behind" and get in on the fun.

~Abbey Braden

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 06:16 PM | Permalink

“I love that the New York Times said, ‘Clearly Mr. Rosenthal enjoys going over the line.’ Because I’ve enjoyed going over the line since–- forever–- that’s why I had to leave The Rouge,” says Mark Sam Rosenthal. This month, the Baton Rouge native performs his one-man show, "Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire,” at the Soho Playhouse. It’s Rosenthal’s humorous and moving account of the tragic events of Hurricane Katrina, told through the eyes of Tennessee Williams’ Blanche Dubois. Along with 200,000 other New Orleanians, Rosenthal’s extended family took refuge in the nearby town– his mother had a full house for months.

Rosenthal recently sat down with psychoPEDIA to share some of the city’s lesser-known charms:

Were you born in Baton Rouge?
Born and raised. My parents are from there. My dad’s been dead a long time, but my mom is still there.

Describe Baton Rouge to someone who’s never been.
It’s really hot and humid and flat. It’s not like the old south-- like Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans-- there are a lot of strip malls, it’s a very industrial place. We have one of the largest Exxon refineries in the world. But it’s also so green down there–- it doesn’t get cold so almost everything is evergreen. Palm trees everywhere, it’s tropical–- sub-tropical, so the vegetation is really lush all year. But you pay for it during the nine months when it’s hot as hell. And there are some lovely neighborhoods.

What are they like?
They formed my ideal of what’s beautiful. Even with all the places in the world I’ve been, some of those streets are still the most beautiful. Especially Reymond Avenue. It’s a really wide boulevard with gorgeous live oaks coming over it like a canopy. And the houses, the style down there, even if it’s just a house in town, looks like a plantation-– columns, porches and balconies.

Is there a big nightlife scene?
Not really. It’s not a town that thinks of itself as a city. When I was growing up the downtown was shuttered. Nowadays, there’s stuff downtown, which includes some nightspots.

What did you do at night when you lived there?
In high school? (laughs) I guess I lived at home one summer during college. Well, there were some gay bars. Those were some scary-ass places. One was called Argon-– their slogan was, ‘It’s a gas’– it has since closed. This is the classy nightlife of “The Rouge” as I like to call it. Only those in the know call it The Rouge. One of the two gay bars downtown called George's, is literally under the Mississippi River Bridge; you have to buzz in because someone was once shot there.

Is it still there?
Yeah. But I don’t know if you have to buzz in. I haven’t been in years.

Where do you go when you visit?
The Rouge has great food. All that good Louisiana stuff–- lots of seafood. There are a couple of seafood giants in town. One is Mike Anderson's and the other is Ralph & Kacoo's, which is like 20,000 square feet, Pepto-Bismol pink and right on the Interstate. My mom likes this relatively new place called Parrain's.

Your favorite part of town?
The lakes in the middle of town called the University Lakes-– because LSU is there. It used to be a swamp. In the ‘30s they drained them for a make-work project and made lakes and built houses around them. It’s a place where people go jogging, walking, bike riding. When I was growing up there, my bike was my freedom so I’d go there to be by myself.

Anything you can do there that you can’t do anywhere else?
It’s the only place you can go see an LSU football game. There are 93,000 people there. It’s insane. The whole town comes out. Everyone’s a football fan–- even me. We had season tickets, I mean, there’s no opera.

Does The Rouge have any unique history?
It’s home of the tallest state capitol building in the country-– an Art Deco skyscraper! Huey Long was shot to death in it. He was the Governor of Louisiana in the ‘20s and ‘30s and then he was our senator. He was a populist demagogue, kind of a socialist, but everyone was so poor they loved him.

Who shot him?
A doctor from New Orleans named Carl Weiss.

Kind of like Harvey Milk…
Totally. You can take school trips there and put your fingers in the bullet holes. He’s buried underneath a giant statue of himself in front of the capitol in these huge ornamental gardens. That movie [based on the book] All the King’s Men is a fictionalized account of his life. But my favorite thing about the state capitol building is-– first that it’s a skyscraper-– 34 stories I think, but there’s a gift shop on the observation deck called the Shop on Top.

Do you shop there?
My brother and I have a Christmas tradition to get our grandmother a tacky gift from the Shop on Top. She loves that stuff, and every year we try to get something worse than the year before. It’s the thing we look forward to opening most.

Oh, and the one other thing you can only do in Baton Rouge is watch both your mother and father be king and queen of the Mystic Krewe of Achilles, a local Mardi Gras organization. I’ve seen them both parade around a ballroom to the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” wearing rhinestone crowns and waving rhinestone scepters. And in the case of my father– red velvet rhinestone-encrusted knee breeches and stockings. Fucked up and awesome!

~Lisa Germinsky

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 11:04 PM | Permalink

In the age of the all-powerful pocket-phone, another little black box just for making videos could seem superfluous. After all, as well as being able to essentially run our lives, sing us to sleep and perhaps morph into crime-fightin’, tough-talkin’ super-robots, phones are now capable of capturing perfectly acceptable moving pictures.

If, that is, you only ever want to watch them on a screen about as big as a business card. I cannot be the only one who has whipped out my phone at some perfect moment, only to find that once transferred to my computer, everything comes out as a series of greyscale squares.

That’s where the Flip Mino comes in. As an object, it’s fairly unbecoming as it first slides out of its box. The big red record button is inviting, but other than that, it’s just a black box with a screen. But turn it on, and it lights up like a runway, all blue and twinkly. Lovely. It also has an awesome little flip-out USB key, which snaps upright with the nudge of a button at the side. I totally freaked out a friend of mine with it, asking him if it were a defect, then almost poking him in the eye with the USB key when he got close to check.

The Mino is weirdly light, which does little to inspire confidence. You find yourself tiptoeing around it, scared that if you were to drop it then it would shatter. But I guess the lightness is also a good thing, making up for the fact that it is a little more cumbersome than an average phone or iPod.

One of the advantages of its size is that it does have a flat bottom, which meant I could balance it on a book whilst I filmed a guy I’d just met in the pub reading a letter by James Joyce about farting. The film is surprisingly high-quality, even picking up smoke in fairly dark lighting conditions. The sound, too, was unexpectedly clear and could even pick up the groovy subtleties of a reggae gig I went to later that night.

From a marketing perspective, though, the Mino is hanging precariously between two different types of filmmakers – the casual one who just picks up the occasional funny moment, drunken antic or happy-slapping, and the more serious filmmaker who worries about focus and depth of field and that sort of stuff. For the casual enthusiast, a phone is still pretty much adequate and they are only going to get better, so there’s little point in having another box to weigh down your pockets, particularly one which costs around $160. And for the more sincere video jockey, the Mino just isn’t high enough quality. It’s decent, but it doesn’t approach the quality of even a middle-of-the-road camcorder.

In sum, the Mino has missed its moment. Though it was fun to have the camera for a couple of weeks, I did stop taking it out with me because it was ruining the cut of my coat and wasn’t useful enough to justify making me look like I had a hip tumour. A couple of years ago, prior to five megapixel phone cameras and ever-smaller handhelds, the Mino would have had its niche. Now, it’s barely present-proof, let alone future-proof.

~Chris Harding


The Scoreboard:

Looks: 6/10
Value: 4/10
Quality: 7/10
Convenience: 6/10

Overall rating: 23/40

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 10:14 PM | Permalink

Anita Blay -- aka “cocknbullkid” -- unashamedly describes her music as ‘pop.’ Her songs about life and love have slowly earned her attention from respected musicians such as Jools Holland, whose live-music television show she appeared on late last year. But the up-and-coming musician, on the cusp of an album deal, has another love: TV. And not necessarily British TV. We spoke to the East London resident about her music and her obsession with American sitcoms:

You describe your music as ‘pop’ -- can you elaborate on that?
Well I don't mean it ironically. I've been hearing recently that saying your music is 'pop' is a modern way of trying to be cool. I'm honestly not though; I just love pop and have been trying to champion it for awhile now.

Where did you get the name 'thecocknbullkid’ from?
I just liked the play on calling myself a bullshitter.

If you had to 'pitch' a cocknbull album to convince a record exec to sign you, what would you say?
Hopefully I won't need to convince anyone, as I’m just about to put pen to paper. But don't ask me who with, because I'm almost certain I'll jinx it!

What are your favourite three American sitcoms?
"Seinfeld," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and "Martin."

Who is your favorite American sitcom character and why?
Oh God. I can't choose one; can I choose 3? Larry David, George Costanza, and Susie Greene. Larry David is an extension of every being walking this earth, whether we want to admit it or not. You don't know where his character starts and real persona ends. He's a master stroke. George Costanza is almost identical. He is actually based on Larry David. And Susie Greene makes being an angry and unreasonable woman, acceptable and funny.

What do you think are the differences between American and British sitcoms?
I just have to admit Americans do sitcoms better. We have brilliant shows like "The Office," "Bottom," "Brass Eye," but in recent years, our only triumphs seem to be "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps" and "My Hero." Americans have given us "Seinfeld," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Cheers," "Arrested Development," "Frasier," "The Cosby Show," and "Friends"-– which, even though it's a blatant rip-off of "Seinfeld," it was still funny.

If you could be a character from any American sitcom past or present, who would you be and why?
I have aspirations to live a life like Susie Greene from "Curb Your Enthusiasm." How she manages to remain adorable whilst screaming that her husband is a "Fat Fuck" is a feat in itself. And I have always secretly envied the lifestyle of Jewish housewives.

What's the worst American sitcom you've ever seen?
Do you remember "Malibu?" It was like "California Dreams," but shit. And not even in a good way. They wouldn't hire anyone ugly or people who could act.

What's your favorite ever scene from an American sitcom?
In "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry meets an ex of Jeff's who claims Jeff had a small dick, but Jeff says it was in fact her who had a big vagina. In Jeff's words: "These big vagina ladies are getting away with murder." The hand gesture used to demonstrate the big vagina was grossly brilliant.

~Donald Crunk


First and second photos by Dan Wilton
Third photo by Phil Gay

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 05:23 PM | Permalink

In 2004, photographer Alec Soth released "Sleeping by the Mississippi" -- a visual chronicle of the deadened landscapes and rooted lives found within that giant, overlooked mass of Southern and Midwestern America: aspiring preachers, mother/daughter prostitutes, faded religious iconography, and a population that appeared to be blindly reaching for one final grasp of God as their savior.

Soth returned in 2007 with "Dog Days, Bogota" -- a collection of images taken while in Colombia adopting a baby girl. Scenes filled with stray dogs, teenage parents, broken-down cars and armed forces, we're shown a hardened world, though not without momentary glimpses of hope.

And now, Gagosian Gallery is exhibiting Soth's "The Last Days of W." Taken between 2000 and 2008, Soth presents to us an America very much exhausted -- a worn, misled country that is just now beginning to absorb the scope of damage done. Through empty gazes of disillusioned soldiers, abandoned hotel rooms and pawnshop facades, Soth's latest work embodies that intangible sense of renewal that so many are struggling right now to feel.

Outlining what's shaping up to be a busy gallery season in NYC, Soth recommends some shows that-– besides his own-– will leave an indelible impression on the viewer:

Paul Graham, "Photographs 1981 -- 2006" at Greenberg Van Doren Gallery: March 18th - May 2nd
The UK-bred, NYC-based photographer credited with being one of the originals merging the sociopolitical edge of British documentary photography with contemporary color work will be honored with a decade-spanning exhibition. Whether you prefer being pulled down to earth with Graham's sobering images of unemployment offices -- taken from his '84-'85 body Beyond Caring -- or entering the ethereal with his blown-out daytime suburban landscapes from the '98-'02 work American Night, this show is a guaranteed epic.

Andrew Bush, "Vector Portraits" at Yossi Milo Gallery: April 23–June 6
L.A.'s own brings us a work comprised almost exclusively of photographs taken while driving 70mph in Southern CA and the southwest between '89 - '97. Moments of high-speed transit, seemingly frozen, reveal that passive expression and the accompanying state of mind we often take while barreling down the road from Point A to Point B.

Candice Breitz, "Him & Her" at Yvon-Lambert Gallery: February 19 -- March 21st
The Berlin-based video artist brings us "Him & Her" -- a multimedia montage spread over 50 plasma screens starring (sort of) Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Breitz has extracted scenes of 23 Nicholson and 28 Streep performances, and blended them into one continuous, looped conversation with themselves. It’s a Hollywood-induced, schizophrenic fever dream exploring the strange, unquestioned phenomenon of the celebrity, and the identities they seamlessly switch to from one moment to the next.

Andrea Zittel, "single strand, forward motion" at Andrea Rosen Gallery: February 6 -- March 7th
The famed American installation artist who once explored total isolation while living on a concrete island anchored to the coast of Denmark, now returns for her ninth exhibit at Andrea Rosen. Wall drawings, black paintings and loose ephemera tethered to a huge hook-based installation, Zittel continues her ongoing fascination with everyday functional tools serving as fleeting glances into her own (and our) subconscious.

Francis Bacon, "A Centenary Retrospective" at The Met: May 20 -- August 16
This spring, The Met will be the only venue in the U.S. to host what will surely be one of the most comprehensive Francis Bacon exhibits ever assembled. (Yes, the same Francis Bacon whose Triptych 1976 sold at Sotheby's for $86 million.) Combining the famous and the obscure with a strong penchant for the grotesque, A Centenary Retrospective will display more than 150 of Bacon's paintings, drawings and archived works. A vital chance to see some of the most psychologically nightmarish imagery ever set to canvas.

Alec Soth is represented by the Gagosian Gallery in NYC, the Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis and is a member of Magnum Photos.

~Ben Zoltowski

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 08:41 PM | Permalink

PBR thief, party thrower, New Age Healer, DJ, part-time Cuban immigrant: many titles can describe Misha Calvert (aka DJ Baby Bunny). Her parties – and events, including the Mr. and Miss Williamsburg Pageant, which she originated – are legendary amongst the hipster set. Here we got to the root of her mustache obsession, and why her job makes being sober completely worth it:

Between you and Mischa Barton, who would win a fight?
Please. First of all, she can’t act her way out of a paper bikini. I don’t hold anything against her, but I’m so sick of the comparisons. I can’t tell you how many people have actually called me Mischa Barton when my last name is so clearly different from hers. I don’t hold a grudge, but obviously, I would win.

When was your first party and what was the theme?
When I was ten I had a roller-skating party in my parents’ loft in downtown San Diego that in about 20 minutes devolved into a kicking, shrieking frenzy. One girl fell and was bleeding. So the theme for that party was just “Carnage.”

But my first official theme party was when I was leaving San Diego: I was 15, moving to Colorado, and it was called “Beach Fantasy,” and I made little flyers with a picture of Snow White in a bikini, running on the beach, because I look like Snow White, or so I thought back then. And people came and I thought, “Wow, I’m never going to throw a non-theme party again.”

What do you think was your best party?
I did love the re-virginization party, because it incorporated installation art, video art and worked around the holiday period. My favorite party was actually called “Misch-Vegas” and it was back when I was living in the West Village. It had a really great flyer that’s one of my favorites so far; I had bought a mini roulette table and people were playing poker, people dressed up, and I pretended that I was some obnoxious Atlantic City transient. And people were smoking cigars all night; everyone got unexpectedly into character and it was really fun.

Why is it that you don’t drink or do any drugs in an industry that seems to be filled with drinkers and drug users?
I don’t throw parties just to throw parties. I throw parties because I love people. And I love themes. I’m more the director than the host. Directing is talking to the press, talking to venues, buying props and all that shit. It’s exhausting. All those things require a lot of work and I’m a one-woman show for the most part, and if I were intoxicated in any way it would not get done. I mean, it barely gets done when I’m sober, working 20 hours a day. And I hate cigarettes, I hate smoking, and I can’t drink anymore. I don’t do well with hangovers.

Can you explain your mustache fetish?
I’m a little embarrassed to reveal this, but, a few months ago, my roommate saw a photo of my family from about 15 years ago, and he goes, “Whoa, your dad has a pretty sweet stash.” So, it all kinda fell into place. It’s kind of Oedipal, poetic, full circle that I’ve come in to… I won’t say outright that I’m in love with my father, but uh… I certainly seem to be seeking him out. Through mustaches. And personality traits exactly like his.

What is your favorite style of mustache?
It used to be handlebar. Not the huge handlebar, but the skinny one. Now, any man in his 20s with a pencil mustache is doing really well in my book just right off the bat. It’s very hard to pull off, hard to maintain, and it’s just hard to not look ridiculous with one.

So you’d like a mustache ride?
I think I already made it clear that I would. So, if you know anybody, please give me their number.

If your life was a fortune cookie, what would your fortune read?
The best is yet to come.

If you own a mustache and would like to determine if it’s up to snuff, please Facebook Misha Calvert. Yes, Facebook.

~Liz Black

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 08:02 PM | Permalink

Jimmy Smith is the guitarist for the Oxford band Foals, and grew up there. Nowadays, he lives there when he’s not touring, and when I met him at one of the good-but-kind-of-shit bars on Oxford’s High Street somewhere between the band’s massive tour and their sell-out shows with Bloc Party at the London Olympia, I decided it’d be a good idea to grill him for info and educate people wanting to have a good time in this student-infested university city:

Right, then… Oxford. What's your earliest memory of out-of-school socializing in our fair city? Did you go along the St. Giles-and-pool-parties route, or more of a Gloucester Green and Port Meadow thing?
I remember we used to go to 'shitty' parks and drink tequila. I think it’s actually City Park right next to Little Clarendon Street. I got in a ruck with a bum who called himself Dad there once -- he held me up by the neck against a wall, just for a cigarette. We just hung around everywhere really.

What is it about Oxford, do you think, that engenders so much creativity? - for such a small place, a lot of high quality people have come out of Oxford: Radiohead obviously, but also Julian Opie, Supergrass, Young Knives etc. and now Foals.
I think because of the size of the city everyone ends up bouncing ideas off each other, with Youthmovies for example. There is always something inspiring and creative going on, and in Oxford you don't have to look very hard to find it.

Would you say Oxford's influenced your sound? The amount of academic and intellectual energy in Oxford surely had some kind of effect?
I don’t really know what influenced our sound at all. Just our surroundings I guess, writing songs cooped up in a tiny room in St. John's. Our biggest influence was each other. But Oxford always represents a place of refuge and escape for us -- we treat it like the Shire, so it will always influence us as long as we stay here.

Now for the more basic stuff, I guess. How would you describe Oxford to an outsider who knew nothing about it?
Shit nightlife, good people.

What's the music scene like?
Once you filter out the crap it’s a healthy scene. People who care about the right things seem to pull the strings.

Student population -- good or bad?
Annoying sometimes, but essential for Oxford.

How about art? Any galleries or Oxford artists you particularly recommend?
I only went to MOMA twice, but that’s a pretty cool space, always some good things running there. Andrew from Youthmovies showed me this book he's making with friends, a collection of art and words called "Midscene," I think that’s pretty much the best thing happening right now.

What do you most miss when you're out of Oxford?
Being able to stand in the center, walk for 10 minutes in any direction and be in a field. I miss my friends too, so much.

Oxford's got a lot of pubs and bars, considering its size. Which are your favorites, and why?
The Star is my favorite, it’s like Cheers for me there. I like some of the old pubs. We are way more of a pub band than bar band, I hate shiny yuppie bars. But if you like them, Oxford has a whole heap of them.

What about eats? What's the best restaurant in Oxford?
The Old Parsonage is good, Gee's is supposed to be amazing. Both are hugely overpriced, but give you a fake feeling of success. Try the Oriental Cafe and Mongolian Wok, cheap and awesome.

Anything else you think deserves a special mention?
The river. People should spend more time on and around the river, it’s so calming. Best thing to do is get a row boat and row to the pub up the river, the Victoria Arms, take a shandy and then head out for the great unknown. Or just go to Primark.

~Christopher Harding


Foals play the Olympia in London on 11th and 12th April with Bloc Party.

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 05:13 PM | Permalink

The urban gastro-pub is a very tricky tightrope act to achieve. It has to be down-to-earth but not grubby; homey but not kitschy; and the food has to be two steps above standard pub-grub, but not so highfalutin as to be inaccessible.

The latest gastro-pub to aim for the mark is Wilfie & Nell, a West Village spot that’s brand new but already looks nicely worn, befitting the old-world vibe of the immediate area: dark wood-paneled windows, exposed caramel-colored brick, creamy-gray velvet banquettes. It’s sort of American-Irish hybrid in aesthetic, more masculine than feminine but friendly to both. The effect is a regular local bar, just scrubbed extra-fresh. The place is named for the grandparents of owners Mark and Simon Gibson, two Irishmen who also own Bua in the East Village; Joaquin Baca, formerly of Momofuku, worked on the menu, with much thought going into the details.

The food on that menu is squarely in the gastro-pub safety zone mentioned above – better than standard pub food, for sure, but not annoyingly Top Chef-like. And dieters beware: it is very, very fattening. The only greens here are the pilsner logos on the bar tap. The big beer selection is designed to soak up the greasy food – and my friend and I came hungry. Luckily, much of it is not just greasy, but flavorful – when you’re eating so unhealthy, you want payoff. That comes in dishes like the Berkshire pork sliders ($9) – delicious crumbled pork on buttery little rolls, with McClure’s pickles and grain mustard. Completely smile-inducing, as is the corned beef grilled cheese with onions ($10) – it all comes together with a perfect crunch on the outside and meltiness on the inside – this type of sandwich can easily fall into sogginess and blandness, and not so here. Delicious.

Unfortunately, some dishes were not as good. Of the other two we tried, one – the shepherd’s pie ($10) – didn’t rise an iota above boring – and the malt vinegar-soaked fries ($5) were too soaked, almost inedibly greasy. Less vinegar and they would have been fine, but they were so pungently vinegary, it almost hurt, and sent us frowning back to our pint of lager.

Service was average to good – we were served by a fellow who was relatively expressionless and seemed somewhat depressed, yet was quick and efficient. It’s not a welcome-you-with-open-arms place, but certainly there is no velvet-rope chill.

Despite the missteps, there’s enough good to recommend the place overall – start with those pork sliders and you’ll be happy. Also, this place suits the current economy – a couple can get well-fed and liquored up for under $50, which is a nice idea for anything from a cheap date to a gathering among friends where you don’t have to worry about splitting a Nobu-sized bill.

Wilfie & Nell, 228 W. 4th St. near 7th Ave. South (phone 212.242.2990)

~Stephen Milioti

The Verdict:

Taste- 7/10
Looks- 8/10
Value- 9/10
Service- 7/10

Total ... 31/40

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 06:45 PM | Permalink

A lot of us find ourselves too busy to realize, when Valentine’s Day comes around, that-– oops-– we’re not dating anyone. This can become evident when catching a glimpse of someone walking around with flowers and a smile on V-Day, or seeing two star-lit lovers holding hands on their way home from dinner. Well, there are options for single folk. Here are some choice events and places that’ll get you through V-Day and maybe even get you a date:

Events:

Catch The Virgins at The Music Hall of Williamsburg (Doors, 8PM, Show, 9PM. Tickets, $16 advance, $18 at the door. 66 North 6th St, Brooklyn). Just because you’re seeing The Virgins doesn’t mean you are one. Take solace in this fact. And it should be a great concert, plain and simple. Plus, attendance at this hipster haven gives you automatic street cred, which might encourage people to sleep with you.

Laugh it off with your other singleton friends at Jon Friedman’s annual Rejected: Valentine’s Day Heartbreak Haven. (Doors, 10:30PM, Tickets $10, Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, 307 West 26th St). The cult-favorite live comedy series, The Rejection Show, is celebrating the release of its new book, Rejected: Tales of the Failed Dumped & Canceled, with a night of heartbreak-related performances and stories from the book. For $10, you can drink beer (free after paying the cover), engage in love-song karaoke, and giggle at the heartbreak woes of others while simultaneously forgetting and/or contributing your own.

It’s not just Restaurant Week in NYC – it’s also Chocolate Week… Head to Chocolate and I to see participants and catch events ranging from a Luxury Chocolate Tour, to a chocolate menu (including themed cocktails) to indulge in at select W hotels. Chocolate contains phenyl ethylamine, which releases endorphins, so even though you may be single, you’ll get a sensual rush.

Raise a glass to the single life at Gen Art’s Anti-Valentine 09. (Doors, 8PM. Tickets, $5 suggested donation at the door. Sidebar @ M2 Ultra Lounge. 530 West 28th St). They don’t promise roses or chocolate, but they do promise a few hundred of your nearest and dearest soon-to-be friends. Plus, where else in the city can you get $5 vodka cocktails without having to promise the bartender a little something special afterwards?

Best Bars for Singles on V-Day. Some ideas:

Happy Ending (302 Broome St, (212) 334-9676). This former erotic massage parlor must have preserved some of its mojo, because the scene here is hopping any night of the week. Dance your troubles away at this LES mainstay, which is always packed with singles ready for an anonymous make-out session in the bar’s old steam rooms.

Down the Hatch (179 West 4th St, (212) 627-9747). The only bar in NYC that seems genetically programmed to receive the young, the horny, and the restless. Throw back some cheap drinks and see how many phone numbers you get. Just stay away from the bathroom.

The Anchor (310 Spring St, (212) 463-7406). This ultra-cool Soho bar brings new meaning to the singles scene: one that doesn’t involve $1 shots or $2 PBRs. Decorated with classy blue and white stripes and funky antler chandeliers, Anchor boasts shots named after its famous clientele. Hey, it wouldn’t hurt for your Sig. O to be famous, would it?

And for single non-straights, and their straight friends: Go sing show tunes at the top of your lungs at Marie’s Crisis (59 Grove St, near Seventh Avenue, 212-243-9323). Life is better with booze and Broadway, and this famous gay piano bar’s a real piece of New York history. And it’s cheap -- you can drink at least 20 bucks worth of alcohol before someone has to carry you out as you slur the words to “Anything Goes.”

~Sarah Jacobson

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 04:52 PM | Permalink

In a past era, dating was genteel— a man spent a long time talking to a woman, called her, then they went on several dates, then several more— and, after all that, sex finally happened and a relationship was officially confirmed. Today things are much different. It seems that in recent history we've been moving consistently toward a more primitive way of dating—one where lust is the cart before the emotional horse. Among 20- and even 30- to 40-somethings, the typical new-aged relationship evolves much differently— phone numbers are exchanged, and the first real date happens, AFTER hooking up. It happens both in real life and in the movies.

Is the mate-before-we-date trend here to stay or will it be out the door faster than ABC's Hole in the Wall? And what exactly has caused the change of the dating climate? Text messages? Facebook superpokes? Global warming?

Julia Barnes, a dating psychology professor at NYU, has a theory – she believes the mating-before-dating trend is a mix of technology, privacy and human nature. “It's no secret that dates, especially first dates, are very awkward. As human beings we are hardwired to want to avoid pain—and awkwardness, believe it or not, is a type of emotional pain,” says Barnes. “An inebriated hook up doesn't just break the ice, it completely shatters the ice. And everyone desires shattered ice.”

Barnes also credits the last decade's technological developments for revolutionizing the dating game. “Technologically speaking, we have a tremendous amount of privacy nowadays in the sense that gadgets and devices are strictly ours,” says Barnes. “We don't have to worry about calling or leaving any sort of vulnerable private voice message on a community-shared entity anymore.”

Tausha Brown, 40, a single mom who owns a West Village boutique – and who has experienced the New York dating scene on both sides of the mobile coin -- agrees with Barnes' assessment. But she thinks dating has become too private. “When I was in my 20s, there were no 'drunk dials',” Brown laughs. “If a guy was calling your parents’ house phone or your apartment phone sober, you knew he was interested. Today, it takes no effort and less courage to send a drunk text or an email at any hour.”

As long as daters can masquerade themselves behind technology to avoid awkward pangs, they will, but according to Barnes, people like Tausha Brown have little to be worried about. “Technology has totally reinvented the falling-in-love process,” says Barnes. “However, in love, the ends always justify the means.”

Why not start mating this coming Saturday, Valentine’s Day? Try these NYC pick-up joints:

Plan B: 339 East 10th Street (at Avenue B), 212.353.2303
Chloe, 81 Ludlow St. (at Broome), 212.677.0067
Haven, 244 E. 51st St. (btwn 2d and 3d Aves), 212.906.9066

~Matt Alesevich

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 06:39 PM | Permalink

Over the last half-decade, we’ve fetishized and cannibalized all manner of accidental viral-video semi-stars via endless e-mail forwards, copycat versions and cable-countdown fodder like VH1’s 40 Greatest Internet Superstars. The primary beneficiaries (or victims) of our fleeting, prankster-voyeuristic obsession have included the “Numa Numa Kid,” the “Star Wars Kid,” and just about any snippet that features a hapless, overweight teenager inadvertently caught in a moment of impromptu private indulgence.

But let’s not overlook that YouTube, College Humor and other depots of self-generated content have—much like MySpace’s relationship with the music world—offered a red-tape-free environment where one can find an occasional gem. And while such clips occasionally feature their creative braintrust as on-camera talent, there’s a thick line in intent between Noah Kalina’s eerily scored, cannily-edited self-portrait project called “everyday,” and an America’s Funniest Home Videos-style happenstance in which a dog pisses on its owner’s crème brulee.

Unfortunately, with a few worthy exceptions, the true viral visionaries are generally deprived the kind of face time that, say, the John Kerry taser-guy received. And if anything, they often suffer the consequence of having their concept thanklessly re-packaged.

“It’s the evolution of inspiration. You see something and you like it. But it’s annoying when so-called creative agencies... sit around browsing YouTube looking for concepts that have been proven successful and then they just lift it and put in whatever brand they want to,” admits Kalina, who also offers: “‘Everyday’ has certainly helped me in the sense that it’s put a lot of attention on me and people know my name and have seen my work.”

Sam Reich, Director of Original Content at CollegeHumor.com and Executive Producer/ Director of MTV’s "The CollegeHumor Show", concurs that the tradeoff is probably worth it in the end, because otherwise, “you would probably find [videos like Kalina’s] at talent shows and in art galleries.” He adds that such success stories epitomize “the magic of the Internet. It makes the whole world an audience for what's essentially a quirky variety show.”

So whatever did happen to that guy responsible for the iPod Touch ad? Or the Dramatic Chipmunk craze? Here are five of the more visionary, or just plain unique, viral sensations that infected us—and how they either changed, or made minimally discernable impact, on their creators’ careers.

The Video: "Everyday"
The Mastermind: Noah Kalina
Life Before Viral Success: Kalina had been finding steady work as a photographer for various publications, and snapping countless interiors of restaurants and bars for websites like AOL City Guide.
Where’s Noah Now? While he hasn’t been plucked out of semi-obscurity to edit the next Scorsese picture, Kalina has gotten enough mileage from the “Everyday” exposure to establish a comfortable career shooting for magazines such as Seed and snapping press photos for punk icons like Bob Mould. And as for where to place the credit—nearly 12 million YouTube hits or several years building his portfolio—he suggests that, “It’s one of those things: If I were to take it away, who knows where I’d be. Maybe I’d be in a better place.”

The Video: "My Whole Family"
The Mastermind: Bo Burnham
Life Before Viral Success: As indicated in this 2006, DIY clip, the then-16-year-old musically comedic hopeful (think a cross between Allan Sherman and Demetri Martin) was more or less stumbling out of bed and posting videos of himself performing songs that could only have been crafted with his mother safely out of the house running errands.
Where’s Bo Now? Maybe the ultimate YouTube disciple, due to his utilization of the site strategic for self-marketing and dumb-luck attention-swarm, Burnham has flipped his inspired—if a bit juvenile—brainstorms into genuine near-fame. Comedy Central released his EP, Bo Fo Sho, in 2008, and is following it up with a full-length this March that will coincide with the network’s airing of his stand-up special. And he signed a deal with Universal Pictures to work on a Judd Apatow-produced flick. Seems like you’ve got an even better shot at breaking through in comedy via that guy’s talent factory, than by YouTube itself.

The Video: "iPod Touch Ad"
The Mastermind: Nick Haley
Life Before Viral Success: Like the Shawn Fanning of the viral era, Haley was merely a student (and only 18 at that!) in the U.K. when he decided to take advantage of YouTube’s then-loosey-goosey copyright oversights. The audacious audio/video manipulator lifted advertising footage of the iPod Touch from Apple’s website and re-worked it to the soundtrack of Brazilian indie group CSS’ “Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex.”
Where’s Nick Now? He’s a hard man to pin down, but one has to guess that Haley’s been resuming his studies with a whole new influx of savings that will afford him some enticing entrepreneurial options upon graduation, if Apple doesn’t snatch him up first. The monolithic computer-hardware giant not only bypassed wholly justified legal action against the kid, but rewarded Haley by selling his concept to an ad agency and airing his revamped version of their idea during the 2007 World Series. What a world.

The Video: "Here It Goes Again"
The Masterminds: OK Go
Life Before Viral Success: The Chicago power-poppers had a modest radio hit in 2002 with the catchy “Get Over It.” But like so many bands that fall gracelessly in between Weezer and Fountains of Wayne, they found themselves back in the salt mines of fledgling mid-range success. Where Are OK Go Now: Let’s see: Their choreographed treadmill rockout not only garnered an astonishing number of YouTube views (over 43 million, or about four times as many as Kalina’s “Everyday”), but launched 2005’s Oh No out of its sophomore-slump stasis; they became a hugely popular touring attraction; were asked to perform on awards shows; and are in the studio working with acclaimed Flaming Lips/MGMT producer Dave Friddman on a new LP. Not bad for a bunch of guys that seemed destined for modern rock’s buzz-bin graveyard.

The Video: "Dramatic Chipmunk"
The Mastermind: YouTube poster “cregets”
Life Before Viral Success: More or less posting traction-less videos like a building implosion in Vegas, before exploding with the revelation that out-of-context snippets from bizarre Japanese variety shows are funnnnny.
Where is cregets now? “Dramatic Chipmunk” inspired legions of copycats and remixes, like the nearly-as-popular James Bond-theme twist. It even got spun off into Hot Topic T-shirts, which have now been drastically reduced in price to a paltry $8.98. So OK, maybe he’s not doing so well after all.

- Kenny Herzog

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 09:49 PM | Permalink

It’s safe to say that professional snowboarder, Nicolas Müller, likes cold weather. After all, his livelihood is spent snowboarding on mountain tops worldwide. He also grew up in Zurich, Switzerland-– a city known for having a few chilly nights here and there.

Burton Snowboards, where Müller sits on its global team, has an eco-friendly namesake snowboard, rightly called EcoNico. It’s made from recycled materials, lessening his carbon footprint while creating a new paradigm in snowboard construction. Nico, as his friends call him, is known for having the smoothest style around-– dribbling across the snow with complete creativity. His skills are seen in some of the biggest snowboarding films, notably, It's Always Snowing Somewhere and That's It, That's All-– X-Dance winner at Sundance.

During a short break from filming next season’s films, Nico chatted with psychoPEDIA from his apartment in Zurich, by phone. He shared his love of growing up in the land of neutrality, and why the best food on the planet just happens to be vegetarian:

How was life growing up in Zurich?
I had the best of both worlds, because my dad lived in Zurich and my mom lived right outside, in a town called Aarau. It’s about 45 kilometers from Zurich-– I had a big city and the suburbs in a way. The country side and city culture. I would go back and forth on the weekends between both parents.

What’s so special about the city?
If it’s one thing, it’s the culture here. In a big city, like New York City, yeah, there’s culture everywhere and some of the best events happening in the world. But the thing about Zurich is that it’s the number-one cultural area per square meter. You really feel it as soon as you walk outside your apartment. There’s something going on everywhere. You really feel the connection and contact with people. There’s always an art opening or just something happening just within walking distance.

Which art galleries do you frequent?
The Kunsthaus is great. It’s this really old building that has collections of artwork, and also has new exhibitions and openings all the time. One time they had a collection of artists come in that had artwork featuring the Alps. My friend Ari Marcopoulos, who has photographed snowboarders through the years, had a space at that exhibition featuring his work. It was really cool to hang out with him-– the vibe of that place is really nice.

Where are some great spots to see a band?
Well, there’s a bunch of places. As far as the big arenas go, where I’ve seen The Beastie Boys-– it’s this arena called Hallenstadion. It’s the top place in the city for huge concerts and sporting events. Madonna…everyone has performed there. It can fit around 10,000 to 15,000 people – it’s huge. On a smaller scale, however, there are a bunch of intimate places too. There’s another place called The Rote Fabrik. It’s this really old factory near the lakeside. A bunch of events and concerts and happenings go on there-– there’s also a restaurant.

Any especially good bars?
First, it really depends on if it’s summer or winter in Zurich. When it’s the summer there’s a whole new world of places to go. There’s this one place called Longstreet. It’s a pretty sad area of the city with crazy people and hookers. Once you get inside, though, it’s a whole different world. Tourists can’t really get in and you won’t see a lot of drunks either. Every block has a bar-– it’s a really shitty area. Lots of drugs too-– but once you get inside, it’s great.

I’m sure you have your favorite restaurants…
One of my absolute favorite restaurants is called Hiltl-– it’s all vegetarian. It’s this huge buffet that’s like 20 feet long! There’s a warm section, a cold section, salads. They have everything! It’s fresh and organic. No meat at all. You go in, load up your plate, weigh it at the register and pay. I brought a friend there from Los Angeles who was visiting and we met up with another friend who was in town from Austria. We went there three times in three days! It’s never boring! The food is so good. I can go there almost every day to eat.

Switzerland is, well, considered neutral to the rest of the world. What’s it like on the inside? Any political battles?
I don’t really follow politics and know every detail, however Switzerland is a very small and very rich country and we’re not a part of the EU (European Union)-– lots of workers try to get passports from Switzerland to gain citizenship. There are parties here in Zurich that are racist against immigrants coming in from, say, Yugoslavia; and in the past Italians were considered cheap workers. Now it’s Turkish people. There are people here who want to kick out them out of the country and say they’re just here to get a free Swiss passport. On a local level, a law just passed making every bar and restaurant smoke- free. I hate smoky places, and still in a few countries you can smoke in bars, which I hate.

If you could share one bit of insider information with someone who is visiting Zurich for the first time, what would you tell them?
I’d tell them to come in the summer and not winter! It’s an entirely different world. It’s cold and foggy in the winter and people tend to stay indoors. In the summer it’s a 180-degree difference in the atmosphere and environment. Also, don’t rent a car. Parking is horrible. Get a bicycle while you’re here! And oh yeah, public transportation is great – take the trains all over the city and country.

~Jessica McMenamin

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 04:20 PM | Permalink

Villainess is a Tennessee-based body care brand whose catchphrase is "redefining bad." And from a casual glance at their assortment of nefariously-named products like Asphyxiate, Blood, and Silk & Cyanide, it would seem like their definition of "bad" comes straight from the repertoire of a split-personality femme fatale who could seduce you with her ripped stockings and murder you with the same material.

But take a closer look at the labels’ fine print list of ingredients, and there’s nothing but granola goodness. Despite a line-up of mostly vegan, cruelty-free products with ecologically sound ingredients-– including palm, castor seed, grapeseed, cherry kernel, and coconut oil, shea and mango seed butter, and "peace" silk-- the entire line is still inexpensive, from $5 for large hunks of soap to $15 for perfume oils. Armed with a winter-appropriate arsenal, I stepped in the shower ready to test some curiously dark, spicy, and sweet scents.

While I tend to be anti-soap-- as the act of rubbing a soap bar against my body seems masculine and conjures gritty images of Brad Pitt mixing tubs of lye in Fight Club-- I wanted to diversify my regimen and give soap a shot. So, I opened the first bar, Shrapnel-– a cream-colored soap scented with "sugared cranberries laced with ozone and incense and spiked with cracked peppercorns." Villainess soaps are cut large and aren't contoured, which make them slightly unwieldly in the first few uses. Also, the feel of the bar against my skin was initially foreign, as I'm used to foamy shower gels applied via loofah. And though I would've liked a frothier consistency (since I tend to equate suds with cleanliness), I could instantly feel that the soap was doing double duty-– cleansing and moisturizing in one swoop-– which besides my disdain for 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioners, I’m always a fan of products that multi-task.

After easing in with the mild aroma of Shrapnel, I opted to tackle a more incendiary scent, Pyromania, described as “warm black pepper, sweetened with brown sugar, and touched with a veil of smoke”–- of which the illicit odor could easily justify the allure of arson. And as for my favorite scent, Anti-Hero, a gray suede-colored bar that the label describes as "well-worn sweaty leather, the acrid smoke of cigarettes, and a soft side of honey and vanilla," I felt faintly imprinted with the incriminating scent of a seedy, downtown dive bar-- and I liked it.

After the cleansing process, and now a converted soap lover, I move on to the “dessert” stage and exfoliate with Dulces En Fuego Smooch warming body scrub, a raw sugar and sea salt concoction laced with crushed botanicals and jojoba beads which smells of “musky bitter chocolate sweetened with vanilla, touches of citrus, and inflamed with black pepper and nutmeg.” Taking a greedy two-finger scoop of the grainy mix, with only a touch of moisture, it immediately heats up when rubbed lightly. I could feel the warmth opening pores, especially on my face, and yet the mixture isn’t overly abrasive like a lot of salt scrubs. But as another dual-action product in the line, the best aspect of Smooch comes at the end, when it melts down into a light lotion that leaves a thin veil of moisture even after it’s rinsed away.

Finishing with a light layer of Wasabi Whipped-– the velvety-textured lotion scented with green tea, black pepper burn, and a brisk splash of citrus–- provides the literal icing to the Villainess experience, although I could’ve done without based on the moisturizing effects of the shower alone. Therefore, to ration my Whipped reserves, I save it to apply to my winter-wind-beaten knuckles, as ironically enough despite its name, I’ve found it’s one of the few products that won’t burn my chapped skin upon application.

As for the final verdict: while I was first roped in by the charming and cleverly-named items Villainess offers, the complex and often peculiar combinations worried me that I’d encounter olfactory overload, which I get at Lush or The Body Shop. But to my surprise, despite the fragrances being distinct and multi-dimensional, none are migraine-inducing, and they layer nicely over each other with integrated use. So while I never thought I’d want to smell like I had a criminal record, Villainess makes smelling bad seem so good.

~Leann Peterson


The Soapy Score
Looks- 9/10
Value- 10/10
Quality- 10/10
Convenience- 9/10
Total ... 38/40

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 10:03 PM | Permalink

Having an M.S. or PhD in psychology isn’t a legal requisite for being a celebrity hairstylist, but it very well could be: Besides the techniques of cutting and coloring, you have to have the right personality –- knowing when to speak, when to listen, and when to do neither. Giannandrea Marongiu, originally from Italy but now based in Los Angeles, has mastered the art and science of handling celebrity hair, as a quick glance of his client list boasts: Mariah Carey, Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, Rosario Dawson. He just did Drew Barrymore’s subtly retro, sexy ‘do for the Golden Globes, and Kate Hudson for the recent January cover of Harper’s Bazaar UK. Here he talks to us about his life as a celeb hairdresser, and a little advice for those entering this exceedingly difficult-to-infiltrate field:

How’d you get to where you are now?
I’ve been through all the layers of the hair industry. I started in Italy. Then in the late ‘80s I was doing modeling shoots in Miami – magazine and editorial shoots. Then a lot of things started shifting to New York – everyone in the field started to live there, so I moved there in ‘94. I did fashion shows and shoots for Steven Meisel and others. Fashion was always my focus. I stayed closest to fashion until 3 years ago, I got momentum doing celebrities. I started realizing it wasn’t about fashion models as much anymore – the celebs were taking all the magazine covers. They were selling more copies. So I went to LA and started doing celebrities.

What are the latest hair trends?
Right now it’s about sexy hair – teased, backcomb, pulled up, chunky bangs, pieces falling, messy French twists. There’s a certain sassiness going on that I like.

Tell us about your recent Harper’s Bazaar cover with Kate Hudson….
That was the first time she worked with me. Her PR wanted something different. They wanted new, as did she. The guy who did her last InStyle cover did the same thing as always. For this one they wanted something fresh; I gave them that.

Craziest experience you’ve had?
I was in Madrid doing Ben Stiller’s hair for a media tour. It was 7 days of madness. I was in a motorcade with him and his people, and paparazzi were chasing us, so my driver was trying to box him out. This was in the middle of the evening in Madrid, 9 or 10, when everyone’s out for dinner. We were swerving around. Scary….

Ben Stiller? You do men’s hair too?
Oh yeah. Richard Gere, Val Kilmer, Josh Brolin….

What are essential qualities for being a celeb hairstylist?
You have to have very good manners and be sensitive to the person’s space. If they are on the phone don’t start chatting with them. Be polite, but above all, focus. You have a short amount of time to execute an idea. Concentrate on what to do. You become a part of their branding.

How do they deal with the trust issue?
Their personal life is in front of you. Always a sensitive matter. If they’re talking to their PR or agent you’re not part of the conversation although you’re right there. That can be a bit odd. Have a good time, but always concentrate on what you have to achieve -- you’re not there because you’re just hanging out as pals. .Amateurs make that mistake. From a technical perspective, focus on every angle… you have to consider the weather wherever they are going to be, and are they going from A/C to 90 degrees? Find out where they’re going. If their hair curls after an hour, they’ll have your head.

Any other advice for those trying to break into the industry?
Work hard. I’m getting my fame and respect through my work and with my clients – a common respect of artistry. I’m not seeking commercial fame. I focus on my art. To me that’s a key to success.

That seems contrary to the out-there nature of the profession today – it’s all over TV, with more than one hairstylist reality show…
I’ve been asked to be on some of those shows; I kindly declined their offers. I’m not commercial in that way. Those guys cannot compete with me technically.

What’s the hardest style to do?
An up-do. It’s hard to make it look modern without being matronly. But I can do it.

~Stephen Milioti

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 03:24 PM | Permalink

At first glance, the all-girl London 3-piece, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, are not what the usual music journalist or A & R man would refer to as consumable. They are not dressed in the latest trendy items, they swap instruments, and they don’t harmonize or dance. Yet they embrace who they are -- making them instantly noticeable, original and one of the most talked-about bands in London. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, pretty much every major newspaper supplement, music and style magazine frantically clambered to their gigs to be the first to announce them as the next new thing.

This most recent scramble for rights has led to the birds being the leaders of namely the grunge, Goth, ethnic band, and riot grrrl revivals. In reality -- although the birds carry elements to fit into any of these categories -- they are individual enough an outfit not to have the need to belong to any one movement.

psychoPEDIA caught up with the drummer/bassist/guitarist/vocalist D-bird, to lay myths to rest and discuss life, love and labels:

Your name comes from the famous Joseph Wright painting. How do you feel about appearing higher than your namesake on the Google search engine?
It works both ways -- our band are obviously highlighting a painting of old -- if people become curious and seek where the name comes from, then hopefully they'll find out about an amazing painting they didn't know about. As for search engine rankings and the Internet generation, I think the Internet is a great source of information and knowledge, and isn't any less of a medium than a library. However I do prefer the physicality of the non-Internet world, like vinyl to downloads, and books rather than online ones. But it's the way forward and we can't really suppress it.

Do you feel your band also depicts a revolution in how people perceive all-girl bands?
We feel that our music and democratic band approach (e.g. no front woman, instrument swapping) is something that hasn't been done before. We're quite surprised that people have embraced our music and us (we are far from the stereotypical-looking girl band) so much. I think it's a great thing because we are real women creating real music.

I’ve read more than one article that refers to the band as ‘scary’ -- do you think this is related to you all being strong women?
The strong misconception of us being 'scary' has come from, I think, our pure, raw attitude. I don't think people have experienced this from a lot of other recent girl bands and therefore don't know how to process it when they see and hear us for the first time.

You have been heralded as spearheading the Goth and grunge revivals among others. Is it hard for you to have this pressure on your shoulders?
We're definitely not trying to spearhead any type of movement. The grunge thing is a contrived antidote to the Goth thing. Our music is influenced by both those genres as well as pop music, soul music and swamp music. I'm obsessed with social experiments and people being told what to like, and this is just an exploration of that.

Are your lyrics actually from past experiences, or are they part formed to tell harrowing tales that match the mood of your music?
Personally, my lyrics all come from personal experiences and challenges. 'Smear' is about an awful experience and the stem of it coming from the physical side of a relationship that was going wrong at the time, and 'Unveil' is about the faux happiness a lot of people I know get from one-night stands. I'm not into that and it's just my way of telling people wake up and see what you're doing as the momentary pleasure will fuck you up in the long run. We're all worth more than that.

Do you have any relationship tips for our readers that will help them avoid these kinds of situations?
Unfortunately I don't think anyone should listen to my tips on love. If I were lucky in love then I wouldn't be writing some of the songs we do. I'd be churning out songs like that brother and sister duo who almost won "X Factor." The world would be a very different place for me....

~Kevin Soar

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 06:30 PM | Permalink

The Kemistry are a new three-piece band from London who describe themselves as ‘a new-wave Massive Attack,’ and their music to be like listening to ‘a Mary J Blige and Roots Manuva collaboration whilst on speed.’ Their name came from a nickname for the band’s lead singer, Kemi. The latter, a Hackney-based band member, filled us in on how they met and her East London hometown:

How did The Kemistry form?
It was kinda random, actually. A mate of mine from college put me in touch with her boyfriend’s brother and he sent me a track, which I then wrote lyrics for. We recorded it and it sounded wicked, so we decided to make more tunes and started playing them live. There are 3 of us who make the music – myself, MC/musician Smokey, and our producer Bare Beats.

What do you think are the essential qualities a good front-woman should have?
For me, vocals are the most important thing. I’d never buy an album by a singer who was actually bad at singing. It’s pointless. I think individuality is a good thing. Someone who is themselves, and isn’t a replica of something that once was. It all starts to get a bit boring.

If you weren’t in the band, what would you be doing now?
I’d probably be working in a boring 9-5 job, or unemployed looking for a boring job…

You live in Hackney -- where are your favorite places to eat out there?
Me and my mates go to a Turkish restaurant called Testi. The food is great and we like the fact that it’s called Testi, as it reminds us of testicles.

Where’s your favorite drinking spot?
I’m not sure, as there are so many places, so it really depends on what kinda vibe you’re after. I think I spend most of my time hopping from venue to venue. The good thing is that there are a lot of club promoters in Hackney, so if you know what’s going on, you know where to go.

Describe Hackney to someone who’s never been …
Hackney is a borough, so it’s got the elements of most other boroughs. Poor parts, rich parts and hipster parts. And there’s a Tesco on every corner.

Has Hackney changed much over the years?
I’ve lived in Hackney all my life, so it’s home to me. It’s definitely changing now though, because all the rich kids are moving in and making shit expensive. And they’re starting to build new apartments, so it’s getting ‘trendy’ and annoying.

Have you ever had your heart broken or fallen in love in Hackney?
Well, I’ve been here all my life, so I’ve done the same things I would have done if I had lived anywhere else in the world?

If you can change one thing about Hackney, what would it be?
The inflation of rent prices due to the influx of hipsters moving into town.

What do you love most about Hackney?
It’s home so it’s all I know, I guess. If I lived somewhere else, I’d probably experience all the same things. It’s probably got a higher crime rate than most, but the hipsters seem to find that cool.

~Donald Crunk @ Styleslut


Go There:
Clicia, 97 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16 0UD, 02072541025
Bungalows Café, 80 Mare St, E8 3SG, 02089851467
Rasa (Indian), 55 Stoke Newington Church St., N16 0AR, 02072490344
The Dove Freehouse, 24-28 Broadway Market, E8 4QJ, 02072757617
The Spurstowe Arms, 68 Greenwood Road, E8 1AB, 02072544316
The Albion, 36 Lauriston Road, E9 7EU, 02089854064

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 08:24 PM | Permalink