UPDATE: More photos of the Coney Island Sandy aftermath posted

Coney Island this morning (via @dimkas79)

As you might expect and/or saw on the news, Hurricane Sandy hit Coney Island pretty good with major flooding, including the New York Aquarium whose entire 14-acre facility was entirely "under water". They won't be able to access the damage till the water recedes but we sure are worried about the sea otters and other animals there.

The Cyclone made it through intact, which is more than we can say for 'Jersey Shore' stomping grounds Seaside Heights, NJ whose boardwalk was almost entirely destroyed by the hurricane and the Jet Star roller coaster, well you can see for yourself::

Jet Star roller coaster hanging into the Atlantic Ocean in NJ (via NBC4)

Atlantic City, as you probably heard, was also hit very hard too.

UPDATE: More photos of the Coney Island Sandy aftermath posted

Animal rescuers voiced disappointment on Monday that President Barack Obama and his family chose a purebred dog from a breeder over rescuing an unwanted animal from a shelter.

Bo, the first family's new Portuguese Water Dog, is six-month-old puppy who was returned to his Texas breeder by a previous owner.

"I think all of us who work trying to place homeless animals had hoped that they would choose a shelter dog," said Steve Gruber, spokesman for the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals in New York City.

"His choosing to go to a breeder is a disappointment. Choosing a shelter dog, that would have been a really powerful message to the American people," he said.

The Portuguese Water Dog was chosen in part because the breed is hypoallergenic and Malia Obama has allergies. [Reuters]

Continue reading "Dr. Dog & Phosphorescent playing free Prospect Park show"

DOWNLOAD: Neko Case - People Got a Lot of Nerve (MP3)

Today, we are especially happy to bring you "People Got A Lotta Nerve," the first single from Neko Case's forthcoming album Middle Cyclone (out March 3), because for every blog that reposts the song and/or iLike user who adds it to their profile, Neko Case and ANTI- will make a cash donation to Best Friends Animal Society.

The promotion will run from January 13 to February 3, 2009. Five dollars will be donated for every blog post and one dollar for every user of iLike that adds the song to his/her profile.

Video for Neko's slightly older song, "Maybe Sparrow", below...

Continue reading "new Neko Case MP3 - download & post it for charity"

Never one to shy away from controversy, PETA US has offered to pay Aretha Franklin's $19,000 home foreclosure tax bill... on the condition that she ditches the fur for good and donates her unwanted furs to PETA US like Mariah Carey and Kim Cattrall have done in the past. I think that's a pretty fair deal, don't you? [PETA Europe]

photos by Leia Jospe

Down and feathers are very popular fill choices for pillows, but one which unfortunately is associated with numerous animal rights issues. The material is collected from ducks and geese in one of two ways. Feathers are either plucked while the animals are still alive, or they're gathered after the animals have been killed for meat, says Karen Davis, president and a director of the advocacy group United Poultry Concern. Ducks and geese who are killed for their meat are typically raised in large factory farms where animals are raised in filthy living conditions and deprived of access to water and the outdoors.

Because of the animal rights issues associated with down, Pier 1 Imports recently decided to cease using it in all of their pillows. They had been purchasing the down from a subsidiary of Maple Leaf Farms, one of the country's largest poultry producers and one which is known for unsavory living conditions for animals.

Some companies advertise that their down comes from "free-range" animals and gathered during the animals' natural molting phase. However, "free-range" is not a certified label and does not provide any assurance that the feathers were plucked humanely. [National Geographic]

Continue reading "Union Square NYC pillow fight pictures (March 22, 2008)"

Waggytail Animal Rescue is a non-profit organization that rescues and rehabilitates animals from the NYC shelters. All proceeds from this show go directly to the care of the animals.

"The Tub Project" in DUMBO - Sept 29, 2007 (CRED)

I've always liked the DUMBO Arts Under the Bridge Festival. I don't get "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass" that often, so it's always a good excuse to visit the neighborhood. The art-stuff ranges from painting & photograph galleries, to political messages, to random people doing weird things in the street. DUMBO is always getting better - for instance Galapagos is moving there, and it's always getting worse - do any artists even still live there? Even with all the real estate development though, I still like to think of DUMBO as a progressive place - not the kind of neighborhood to overlook a blatant act of animal cruelty happening right on their own streets.....

Dondi the elephant in DUMBO - Sept 29, 2007 (CRED)

Using her massive trunk to hold brushes, Dondi the elephant paints and showcases her artistic prowess. A presentation by renowned artist Vitaly Komar, who established an elephant art academy in Thailand with fellow artist Alex Melamid, will follow. Special project initiated and exclusively sponsored by Two Trees Management & Dumbo Improvement District.

And in somewhat related news.....

A production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” will replace a hip-hop festival next summer in a DUMBO venue controlled by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy — and organizers of the rap show believe that race played a role.

The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival — which brought thousands of people and big-name rappers to the park-and-condo waterfront development site in 2006 and 2007 — had already scheduled its 2008 production for the weekend of June 22.

But organizers were shocked last month to discover that the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy had given those days to St. Ann’s Warehouse to stage a Polish rendition of that Scottish play. [The Brooklyn Paper]

XYZ Affair - All My Friends

Debut video by Brooklyn band, The XYZ Affair, starring Marc Summers (Double Dare, Unwrapped), Jason Zimbler (Clarissa Explains It All), Danny Cooksey (Salute Your Shorts, Terminator 2), Michael Maronna (Pete & Pete, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Slackers).

What else?

this little lamb was found in the bronx yesterday...

The whole new Spoon album is now streaming for free.
Tour dates and what not HERE.

DOWNLOAD: Cocorosie - Rainbowarriors (MP3)

Cocorosie has always been a polarizing force - not as love-them-or-hate-them as their friends Antony, Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart, but definitely a band that generates a lot of disdain among music fans. This is especially true in the U.S. In Europe, especially France, they seem to more often adore Cocorosie. When I saw Cocorosie open for Antony in French-speaking Montreal, the crowd even gave the Cocorosie Cassady sisters an amazing reception - something I wasn't used to as a New Yorker. U.S. music fans are more likely to use words 'art school' and 'pretentious' when describing Cocorosie. The Cassady sisters don't help the matter by aligning themselves with the controversial Williamsburg, Brooklyn "Pumpsta" scene.

I'm personally somewhere in the middle. I kind of have/had a fetish for all things Antony-Devendra-Cocorosie-Newsom - the extremity of it has worn off a little, but I still support most of Cocorosie's endeavors - I play their music on my Sirius radio show, regularly post their tour dates, and am quick to explore anything else they have going on like their record label & store Voodoo-EROS, and their side project Metallic Falcons. I enjoy their music, but don't often find myself listening to their albums. I am not offended by their live shows, but sometimes do wonder how authentic they are. Overall I am more FOR them than against them. Sometimes that makes me feel alone - especially among those closest to me. ha.

Pitchfork was sort of on Cocorosie's side when Sam Ubl gave their 2004 Touch & Go debut La Maison de Mon Reve a 6.9. Sam was much less kind in 2005 when the score for Noah's Ark came in at a 3.4, and now - for their brand new album The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn - an album Drowned in Sound called "a sure contender for album of the year" - Cocorosie received a lowly 2.3.

...Too bad it seems as if the more self-impressed CocoRosie sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady get about transcending genres, the less patience they have for mere mortal concerns like, um, songs. True, Ghosthorse and Stillborn begins with CocoRosie at their most radio-ready, on single "Rainbowarriors" (MP3 above), where Bianca speak-sings impishly about finding "the rainbow trail that's deep inside ya" over beatbox schmaltz. It's something like Vitamin C's 1999 Top 40 hit "Graduation (Friends Forever)", only with neighing horses, buzzing synths, and Sierra's operatic soprano instead of Pachelbel-derived orchestral Radio Disney pomp/circumstance....

I have a musical crush on Antony, but, factual errors aside, I don't believe any musician should ever take on a critic. Where's it going to get you? You'll always look bad except to your most die-hard fans.

I'm also not sure if it is ethical to publish (theoretically) private letters on a blog. I'm not sure if it's even allowed - especially if the letters were written to and/or on behalf of your employer (is it OK Gawker?).

That said, I considered not posting this at all. Honestly, I'm not sure why Marc Hogan was allowed to post letters from Antony to Pitchfork on his personal blog....

dear Ryan Schreiber

I am writing in regards to the very unpleasant review of Cocorosie's new album that was printed in yesterday's Pitchfork.

I was bitterly disappointed when I read it. It was filled with inaccuracies. For instance, I do not even appear on the record, and yet Hogan snidely referred to a guest appearance he somehow imagined I had made.

But It is an album I would have been proud to be a part of. Please assign writers who are open and receptive to understanding the work of America's more challenging young artists, instead of printing reviews that try to cover up their lack of comprehension with bad wit and cynical one-upmanship. We desperately need artists who will take risks and put their hearts forward in this cultural climate, now more than ever. Why would you print a review that only seeks to oppress performers who are among those taking some of the biggest and most generous risks?

Please assign writers with some sense of vision to review Cocorosies work in the future. Marc Hogan, a financial analyst (!!), is completely in the dark about Cocorosie; he cannot even fathom their intent or the usefulness, the generosity, and the deep originality of their work. I remember the Pitchfork review of their last album in which the writer even admitted that he was panning the album simply because he didnt understand it. Cocorosie are a brave pair of visionary young Americans who are pushing the dialogue forward. They are treasured by their peers, many of whom are artists that you have written about with respect, and by audiences around the world. We all read Pitchfork, and rely on it as an important outlet of information for independent artists. Please rise to the challenge and represent Cocorosie fairly, instead of publishing checklists of incomprehension that are tinged with misogynist resentment.

I did send an email that was a little hot under the collar to Marc Hogan, which should be laughed at and disregarded. I send this now to you now in all earnestness.

yours sincerely

Antony Hegarty

BUT WAIT? What does this post have to do with the wombat-loving Mountain Goats (aka John Darnielle)?

WELL, as we already knew, John - owner of "one of the best music blogs on the interblock" according to Pitchfork - LOVES Cocorosie. He loved them in 2006. He loves them in 2007 - John recently blogged:

....Still. Objections constitute dialogue; Lou Reed used to know this & it's why he owned the seventies. The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn is my favorite album of the year so far. At its lyrical best, it inhabits its own country, unashamed of real poetry and willing to put in the hard work necessary to inhabit a space unlike anybody else's.

Now let's all love one another..

I love John because of the following awesome upcoming shows:

05-05 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
05-11 Brooklyn, NY - Sound Fix (in-store) (John Darnielle solo) **
06-16 Watkins Glen, NY - Farm Sanctuary (John Darnielle solo) (info) *
06-17 Watkins Glen, NY - Farm Sanctuary (John Darnielle solo) (info)*
06-20 Chicago, IL - Metro (Eff Cancer Benefit) #

** with Nothing Painted Blue's Franklin Bruno AKA an Extra Glenns reunion
* with Peter Hughes, Perry Wright
# with Superchunk

I love Farm Sanctuary for being one of the coolest, most compassionate places anywhere. Go there to see The Mountain Goats - the John Darnielle ones (see dates above), and the real ones (actual goat at Farm Sanctuary pictured above). Go there to pet pigs (the pigs are seriously one of the highlights). Go there to spend a night out of the city. They serve vegan breakfast.

More pics of Antony & CocoRosie - like those you see above - here.