JSHNYC

Does This Blog Still Exist?

2011-02-12T13:49:00.003-05:00

Well, sorta-kinda, slightly.

After the NYC triumph of my surrealist (actually, I prefer to say Incoherentist) papier-mache puppet production of William (maybe) Shakespeare's Birth of Merlin, I've been layin' low and lovin' livin' in the land of Louisville. As I detailed in my look back at 2010, I took a year off from the frantic pace I'd been going at exponentially since 2005; stopping to smell the roses, and to drink the Four Roses.

However, I'm back in black like Saucy Jack this year, ready to rock and roll, 1918 style. But I need your help, Noo Yawkers. This is a wakeup and a shakedown to lend a hand and help me get this show on the road. Help me help you.

The numerologists say this year may actually be one of "intolerance and regress". Fortunately, I think numerology is a load of old applesauce, and I'm having roast beef for dinner instead.

(Makes telephone-shaped hand gesture to side of head, mouths the word "Call me".)

Merlin: It's on!

2009-11-05T13:04:00.003-05:00

Dear reader, I put it to ye thusly: what better holiday season entertainment fare can you think of, besides seeing a Shakespeare puppet play that most scholars disown, starring a clown, a pregnant woman, and Satan, held in a charming NYC warehouse?

Can't think of any, can you?

"The Birth of Merlin" in NYC!

2009-10-31T07:06:00.002-04:00

Catclaw's NYC debut will be The Birth of Merlin, allegedly written by William Shakespeare and William Rowley, presented here as a surrealist puppet show. Watch this space, as well as the Catclaw blog, for further details!

Farewell to Conan

2009-02-20T09:41:00.005-05:00

We're going to miss our friend Conan O'Brien, who's made NYC a wackier place to be for years. He closes the doors to his Late Night set tonight (if there's any set left to close - he's been systematically smashing it into pieces with an axe!) but we look forward to seeing him transplanted to Los Angeles, where he'll finally take over The Tonight Show at long last.

Shepard Fairey busted in Boston

2009-02-08T20:06:00.006-05:00

Internationally acclaimed graffiti-graphics king Shepard Fairey, who recently achieved new fame as the designer of Obama's "Hope" campaign poster, has been arrested in Boston for alleged tagging.

Fairey was on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art to DJ at a sold-out party kicking off his first solo exhibition, "Supply and Demand". Unbeknownst to him, two arrest warrants had been issued on January 24 after police determined that he had tagged property in two locations with his street art campaign featuring Andre the Giant and the word "obey," according to Boston police officer James Kenneally.

Fairey was released a few hours after his arrest, and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday.

Fairey may or may not have actually done the tagging while he was in town, but my question is, exactly how did the Boston police determine that he was directly responsible? Fairey makes his stickers and stencils widely available worldwide, and I daresay that 90 percent of the Andre/Obey tagging being done out there nowadays is done by persons other than Fairey himself.

Boston, you may recall, is the same place where police and the mayor went completely batshit crazy in 2007, and tried to treat a lightbox guerilla-marketing campaign for "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" as a "terrorism hoax" and shut down portions of the city at great expense. The mayor and the police crassly attempted to position themselves as valiant crime-fighting heroes for this surreal debacle of their own making. Of the 10 cities in which the Lite-Brite-like LED displays were placed only Boston saw them as a matter of concern, and the installations had been up for weeks prior to the hysteria.

It's A New World

2009-02-05T23:01:00.002-05:00

Obamatinis at Bloomingdale Road!

2009-01-20T23:37:00.005-05:00

I just found they're serving Obamatinis at Bloomingdale Road! I wonder if it's too late to get an Obamatini? And I wonder what's in it??

George Steel headed for NYC Opera

2009-01-17T20:58:00.003-05:00

Source: Dallas Morning News.

Eyebrows rose last summer when the Dallas Opera named George Steel its new general director.

Oh, sure, the opera board was proud of landing a "star" from New York.

And there was boo-hooing in the New York media at the loss of one of the artsy crowd's darlings, acclaimed for 11 years of imaginative programming at Columbia University's Miller Theatre.

But with the Dallas Opera facing daunting financial challenges with its impending move to the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Winspear Opera House, savvy operaphiles wondered why Dallas was hiring someone who had never run an opera company. And it wasn't long after Steel's arrival here, in October, that whispers of discontent became a crescendo of complaint.

Then, on Wednesday, came confirmation of what had been rumored for the last month: Steel is leaving at the end of January to take over the New York City Opera.

Abuzz with gossip for weeks, opera blogs have gone nuclear over the news. (If you don't mind some adult language, check parterre.com.)

Whatever his gifts, and the good intentions of the Dallas Opera board, George Steel was miscast here.

He was right to advocate more adventurous programming. For a company with a history of imaginative offerings in decades past, the Dallas Opera has gone bland in recent years. The 2008-09 season is about as daring as macaroni and cheese.

But, in a challenging economy, when audiences hesitate to take chances on anything but sure bets, Steel was making noises about booking really obscure French operas and Leonard Bernstein's generally dismissed A Quiet Place.

Voraxica!

2009-01-14T23:44:00.004-05:00

Now there's a blog for the 21st-century space-age quasi-burlesque entertainment genre known as Voraxica, hosted by The Catclaw Theatre Company's associated steampunky secret society known as The Voraxium.

Click here to visit the Voraxical Theatre blog.

Fuel To Build A Fire

2009-01-11T21:38:00.004-05:00

Four of my favorite New Yorkers, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss of KISS. This painting was acquired by Simmons and Stanley's KISS Coffeehouse in Myrtle Beach after my art show Fuel To Build A Fire there in 2007.

Village Voice Dumps Nat Hentoff

2009-01-10T15:54:00.006-05:00

It didn't really come as a big surprise to me this morning to learn that the Village Voice has laid off the legendary Nat Hentoff. The Village Voice has pretty much been an ineffectual dinosaur for too many years now, and has long since outlived its meager usefulness. Now they've laid off the one person who still gave their rag a shred of credibility.

Think I'm being hyperbolic? Check out their website, or the screenshot I just took of their front page. These people consider an interview with scumbag gossip-columnist Perez Hilton to be front-page news. Other scintillating articles considered vital by their website at this moment include "How tacky will the inauguration balls be?" and "My boyfriend became an ugly fatty, help!"

Newspapers are dying all over the world at a rapid rate, and the Village Voice looks poised to be next on the list, having committed seppuku with this extremely bad play. Good riddance to 'em, I say.

Crispy Cards

2009-01-09T01:23:00.001-05:00

Banjer (Crispy)

2009-01-08T16:54:00.003-05:00

Patrick Amsterdam

2009-01-05T23:55:00.005-05:00

I've just put the finishing touches on a brand new comedy-drama play entitled Patrick Amsterdam. The title character, Patrick, is a failed washed-up lounge singer determined to succeed but increasingly watching his chances slipping away.

There's a good possibility that this will be the next Catclaw production in NYC after Toulouse-inations.

Coming Soon: PANOLA

2009-01-04T23:55:00.006-05:00

A few years back, I did a deliberately crappy, stream of consciousness, done-in-ten-minutes weekly comic project called Window Comics. Each Sunday morning, I'd slap out a crude comic and paste it up in the window of my studio for passersby to gawk at.

A recurring feature was Panola, originally begun as a mini-serial inside the Window Comics project.

Never one to let go of old half-baked ideas, I'm pleased as pie to announce that Panola is being given a new life as an independently syndicated comic strip! Look for it to debut in worthy publications later in the year....

105 Riv

2009-01-03T23:40:00.004-05:00

Ever been to 105 Riv? I was there only fleetingly and didn't get to try the drinks spoken of at Shecky's:

Try one of the zany house cocktails guaranteed to start a conversation. How about, Good Night and Good Luck? It's loaded with Absolut vodka, berry puree, Red Bull, and Pop Rocks. It might sound cheesy now, but in the future people will be sitting in a floating eco-thermal café on Rivington, sipping non-alcoholic, soy-based, decaffeinated green teas, asking, "Where’s the Pop Rocks and vodka?"

Adventures in Parking

2009-01-02T23:06:00.002-05:00

Remind me to try this sometime, because parking in Midtown is hell, I tell ya.

"Toulouse-inations" is coming to New York!

2008-12-31T02:08:00.005-05:00

Toulouse-inations is one step closer to making its Off-off-Broadway debut - a Catclaw Theatre planning meeting is scheduled for January 4, and toppermost on the agenda will be taking the show on the road. Toulouse-inations will play in another major city (possibly Washington, D.C) before coming up to the Big Rotten Apple late in 2009 or early in 2010. If you're interested in taking part, contact us!

Katie and Suri spotted in Manhattan

2008-12-30T01:16:00.004-05:00

Katie was back onstage tonight at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater for a special 8pm performance of All My Sons.

Mister Softee

2008-12-28T23:34:00.004-05:00

Spotted this on Google Maps at 592 W 146th. Who can say it isn't beautiful?

"Urban Pirates" living on Ferry

2008-12-27T17:59:00.004-05:00

According to The New York Times, a small band of "secretive and resourceful people" are turning a rusty old ferry into a home. I don't know how much longer it'll be secretive now that the Times has covered it, but if these folks are reading this, please contact us - we'd love to discuss the possibility of having an art exhibit on your ship!

The Smacks!

2008-12-26T23:15:00.005-05:00

The Smacks! must always have an exclamation point after their name or they'll cut you. Their lead singer brian dresses in women's clothing, but not in drag. there's a difference. I have never seen them play but hope to next time they make it up here. I think this song of theirs makes a better Cramps song than any Cramps song. Download it and love it. It's called "Gentle be my Bomb".

NYPD Priority To 'Publicly Humiliate' Monserrate

2008-12-25T14:05:00.002-05:00

From New York Daily News:

Sen. Eric Adams, who, like Senator-elect Hiram Monserrate is a former NYPD officer, is the first Senate Democrat to release a formal statement expressing support for his soon-to-be legislative colleague and also raises questions about the "unusual handling" of Monserrate's assault case.

And, in his standard style, the Brooklyn senator pulls no punches, basically accusing the NYPD of wanting to get back at Monserrate because he has been an "outspoken advocate of police reform."

"As a former NYPD Captain, I have some serious concerns regarding the unusual handling of the case against Councilman Monserrate," Adams said. "The primary goal of investigating a complaint of domestic violence is to ensure the safety of the innocent victim."

"However, the police department and the DA appear to have ignored Ms. Giraldo’s repeated insistence that the injury she sustained was the result of an accident, a fact that has been publicly supported by Ms. Giraldo's family in interviews with the press."

"Second, the department departed from standard operating procedures by requiring a public ‘perp walk’ past TV cameras, rather than following the normal routine of taking someone out the back door through the precinct’s private lot. A 'perp walk' is used when the the NYPD wants to expose a suspect to public view."

"These questions raise serious doubts regarding the motivating factor behind the arrest and charges against Councilman Monserrate. Specifically, these facts suggest that the Police Department’s priority is to publicly humiliate the accused rather than following the evidence."

"It is well known that Councilman Monserrate has been an outspoken advocate for police reform. I believe his role as an agent for change cause him to be denied his rights and a thorough investigation.”

Creeps Records mp3 blog

2008-12-24T00:42:00.004-05:00

Creeps Records, founded by Jeffrey Scott Holland in the early 1990s to document low-budget, low-fidelity primitive musics, has a new mp3 blog. Check it:

http://creepsrecords.blogspot.com/

Chum

2008-12-23T01:17:00.004-05:00

Monserrate Falsely Accused

2008-12-21T22:48:00.003-05:00

From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City councilman accused of intentionally slashing his girlfriend in the face with a broken glass called it an "unfortunate accident" on Saturday.

"I have been charged with offenses that I did not commit and am not capable of committing," Hiram Monserrate, a Democratic councilman and state senator-elect, said in a statement a day after he was arrested on domestic violence charges.

Monserrate got into an argument with girlfriend Karla Giraldo, 30, early Friday at his Queens house, according to a criminal complaint. Giraldo said Monserrate broke a glass in his hand and cut her face with it, causing her to need 20 stitches around her left eye.

In court papers, Monserrate has said he tripped while holding a glass of water, and the glass accidentally hit his girlfriend.

During Monserrate's arraignment Friday, a prosecutor said Giraldo had changed her story, also saying the injury was an accident and asking not to proceed with charges.

Lost RV&OI comic fragment

2008-12-20T21:17:00.006-05:00

This was a page for an RV&OI Easter comic special that was commissioned by Moist Doorknob Comics (the world's most primitive comic book company) in 2006, but the issue never went to print. We suspect it's because Moist Doorknob, which operates from the storage unit of an alcoholic in Newark, can't get organized enough to plan ahead sufficiently to release seasonal material on time.

Can't Stop Eating Toast

2008-12-19T00:57:00.001-05:00

Meow

2008-12-16T01:54:00.000-05:00

NYPD's Patrick Pogan: Busted!

2008-12-15T22:21:00.004-05:00

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer has been indicted after being caught on video knocking a bicyclist to the ground.

Lawyer Stuart London says Patrick Pogan must report to the Manhattan prosecutor's office on Tuesday morning.

Cyclist Christopher Long was arrested in July during a Critical Mass ride through Times Square. The monthly bike rides are meant to draw attention to alternatives to motor vehicles.

Police said Long was obstructing traffic and deliberately steered his bicycle into an officer. Charges were dismissed.

A video of the body-check that knocked Long over was posted on YouTube and has been viewed more than 1.6 million times.

Pogan has been stripped of his badge and gun and been assigned to desk duty.

"Weird Kentucky" at St.Marks Bookshop

2008-12-14T21:15:00.004-05:00

Next time you're in the Lower East Side, check out St. Mark's Bookshop, where Jeffrey Scott Holland's book Weird Kentucky is available on the shelves now!

Shecky's 10 Biggest Nightlife Rip-offs

2008-12-13T00:01:00.005-05:00

Shecky's has a great article listing 10 Biggest Rip-Offs in NYC Nightlife in his opinion. Some I agree with ($40 for a 40-ounce malt liquor at The Imperial), some I don't (I think Ko rules, and has every right to charge full price for no-shows on reservations).

New JSHNYC format!

2008-12-12T13:43:00.001-05:00

We're experimenting with using a blogspot-powered blog for JSHNYC posts, as opposed to the old made-from-scratch caveman method we've been doing for the past year. It remains to be seen whether we'll go with this way of doing it, but in the meantime, you can get our RSS feed by breaking out of the frame from our main site and visiting jshnyc.blogspot.com.