FRICTION NYC » jimmy-hat

HOURS of entertainment….

jimmy-hat — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:41:41 +0000

Poor little guy – THIS is way too much fun…..

Radio Perfecto: CLOSED

jimmy-hat — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:53:35 +0000

Radio Perfecto, also commonly known on this blog as “the place next to RueB” is closed!

Opened in 98, serving the EV’s best darn roasted chicken and frites and some tasty G&T’s, Radio was an East Village staple where you could still get 3 plays on the jukebox for a dollar and chill out in the huge backyard!

It is always sad for Avenue B to lose one of its little bistros – all I can hope for is that RueB is not next and maybe they will open a massage parlor there now.

After much prying of the RueB bartender last night, I was not able to extort why it closed – just that the Manager called the girls last night and said they need a new job and will stay open until Halloween – they were closed last night…..must be some of the EV funny business going on – hopefully on update to come….

want a Second Life? sorta….

jimmy-hat — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 20:27:25 +0000

OK, so I know our president is complete moron, the Mets should have won Game 7, and we all want to be reincarnated as a women’s bicycle seat, but I just came across this website/game called Second Life that begs the question of “does my life really suck that bad?”

Imagine a game where you start your life all over, buy land, get jobs, meet new people, build buildings, go clubbing, pay your Maintenance Fee, walk the dog, cash your paycheck…..all with the ability to turn off the world by turning off the monitor.

I will be the first to admit I was a video game dork growing up and still look at the newest Final Fantasies on the shelf at Best Buy. I loved SimCity and watching all the little cars drive around the city I built and getting pissed when the crime was too high. I even remember the little handheld toys girls had growing up with the virtual baby you had to feed by pushing a button when it screamed at you.

I of all people love to escape this crazy world with bad movies, reading 1984 every year, squashing ants because I can, and occasionally dressing up as a little school girl and getting spanked……..

Really, why would I want to play a game where I can “party at nightclubs, attend fashion shows and art openings or just play games”. Is it really that hard to put a pair of shoes on and walk out your door and do the same thing?! OK, so I can live with the agoraphobics of the world who want to sit in front of a computer till their butt osmosises into the chair, but I get even more creeped out when the (real) companies jump on this and are now advertising throughout the (fake) world of Second Life (of note: 20th Century Fox held a movie premier, Starwood Hotels is building a virtual hotel there, MLB and ESPN have home run derbies , BBC had an online concert with Gnarls Barkley/Bloc Party/Franz Ferdinand, and Harvardâ€™s Berkman Center for Internet and Society owns an island there to host events and conferences on the diplomacy of the whole Second Life premise, irony?!)

On the other hand, I guess there is finally a world where Ray can skate and not break his foot, Justin can be Thomas the door guy at Misshapes, Nghia can buy a titty bar, Christian can date the strippers, Pablo can continue to hold my hand, Theo can marry the Olsen Twins, Paul can hook up with Mary Lou Retton, Patrick can join the paparazzi, , Dave can quit operating on nipples, and Leroy can join the Silversun Pickups.

This thing really creeps me out….so much so I think I will have to join it just so I can open a casino or build a Pappasito’s and eat queso and fajitas every night since the TexMex sucks so bad in NYC –

Custome Ideas

jimmy-hat — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 23:43:59 +0000

In case anyone needed any help with their costume this weekend:

Marie Antoinette – review

jimmy-hat — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:43:17 +0000

Well, good soundtracks donâ€™t always mean good moviesâ€¦.apparentlyâ€¦.

Saw the flick this weekend and was not impressed. good job of directing and some great scene shots, but the adaptation was very lacking of substance outside the beauty of Versailles and the opulence of the time.

The songs seemed very forced into the plot – almost like she created scenes just to put poppy new songs over them. Who really wants 5 minutes of movie or her taking the carriage back to the palace after an all night of partying?

It is very disappointing as any type of historical biography of her and really dwells too much on her extravagance and lack of compassion for the people in her early years.

Perhaps there will be a sequel where they actually talk about how humanitarian she actually was in her later years and how her death was actually more of a result of her standing up for her royalist ideals and not for her excessiveness (as the movie suggests).

Apparently the Italians are still not too fond of the Frenchâ€¦.rent this one –

Sheet of Paper Art

jimmy-hat — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:41:51 +0000

I just saw some of these photos – it is too incredible to not pass along. I tried on my lunch break and all I got was …

I so heart Explosions.

jimmy-hat — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 01:17:29 +0000

So a while back I posted about the startling excitement I got when awoke to CU-favorite Explosions in the Sky on a Cadillac commercial and I have been trying to search for the video on the web ever since to prove to Neal it actually exists when I came across this on someone else’s post. I so heart EITS.

I decided to post their entire comment on our blog as a blatant attempt to keep you from going to other websites. (and maybe to get some comment love too from Explosions too…)

dear you.

some of you have already noticed a couple of commercials using our music. many people have also noticed our music in televised golf tournaments and tennis matches and god knows what else over the past months, and that’s something we have no control over thanks to some broadcasting bylaw. but the car commercials are different–we did actually agree to them, much to our own surprise.

when we were first approached, it was honestly something we joked about. we have been approached about using our music in a good number of commercials over the years, and we’ve turned them all down (except for a new balance ad that never aired on tv as far as we know). we hope you know that we make our music because we love it and because it means everything to us, not because we want to help sell products. when we started as a band we were dubious that we would even play a show, or tour, or make a record, let alone make four records… and so on. and it certainly never crossed our minds that we could make this band our livelihood, our careers. but somewhere along the way that happened. for most of the last two years none of us have had any jobs other than the band–coming to practice every day, daydreaming about album art, song titles, et cetera, et cetera. none of us is well-off or remotely close to it, but we have made enough to live long enough to make a new record, for which we will tour next year, assuming all goes well.

it would be hard to overstate how much this band means to us. it is quite literally our lives. that we have stumbled across this way to express ourselves in such a pure way is nothing short of miraculous to us (who were previously a somewhat confused and depressed bunch for most of our adolescence and twenties, and in some instances still are). and, ideally, we want to be able to keep making music this way for the rest of our lives. but things change. families start growing, time starts becoming scarce, circumstances change. we are not ignorant. to think that we will be able to tour every year to make money for the rest of our lives is impractical at best. we are an instrumental band with a comparatively small audience. so then the questions begin: what are we going to do with our lives afterwards? none of us has any skills other than playing one instrument in a rather specific way that will probably only work in this one particular band. to think about the future is daunting and a bit frightening. to think about the end of something you truly love doing is fatalistic and very depressing. but unless you want to be blind to it, it must be done.

we might be going overboard with this–maybe nobody even cares about this sort of thing anymore. but we look at you, the listener, as someone close to us, thus the explanation. in many ways this decision was even more complicated than this makes it sound (welcome to the inner workings of a strange band). but in another way there is a fairly straightforward bottom line: they offered us a good amount of money and we accepted it. we are not going to buy cadillacs now. we are going to use it in the same way anyone else at any job would use it–to work towards buying houses, to paying the bills, to helping our families, and to hopefully save some. if for some reason our making this decision lessens your appreciation of our songs, then we are sorry.

forever and always yours.
love, explosions

Fatasha Ruffin

jimmy-hat — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 19:08:09 +0000

After a failed attempt to sell my PSP on Craigslist this week, I took a quick look for a new flat screen TV. I figured why not take a look and see if some divorsee in the West Village or something has one they are dying to get rid of. Monday I found this listing:

THIS HAS 2 MONTHS OF VERY LIGHT USE AS ITS BEEN IN STORAGE MOST OF THE TIME SINCE I GOT IT, AND THERE IS 2 YRS WARRANTY ON IT, ORIGINAL RECEIPT AND WORKS GREAT. IT ALSO COMES WITH THE CABLES AND WALL MOUNT. Iâ€™M SELLING IT BECAUSE I NEED SOME MONEY URGENTLY TO SETTLE SOME ISSUES. EMAIL ME IF YOU HAVE INTEREST. $450

Jimmy-hat thought to himself: “why not email and see if it’s still available and if they are in the city for a pickup”…“darn this thing is cheap”…“When you choke a smurf, what color does it turn?”…I get a response the next morning:

The TV is still available for sale and in great condition it also includes the warranty which is having 2yrs on it.I’m selling it so cheap becasue I need an urgent payment to take care of an issue I want to assure you of one thing that despite the fact I’m selling it so cheap it is still working perfectly and I have only used it for 2 months. It is at fedex location in wyoming . Please don’t get confussed about the TV at fedex location in wyoming the reason is due to the fact that I almost lost it to a scammer there so I had to instruct fedex to hold it up for me at their office. If you are interested in buying it I’ll not be able to receive cash because I’m kinda busy working on a case in Florida right now. all I will need to proceed is your contact info so I can get it shipped to you. As for the payment Money order or Western union will be ok. But, I would prefer you making the payment through western union money transfer because that will be much easier and convenient to me. once I get the TV shipped to you, I will provide you the shipment label and tracking number for you to confirm it has been shipped. Once you confirm it has been shipped you will send ($150) part of the payment upfront and when the TV gets to you, you then send me the remaining balance. you can reach me at (850)3030084 or email me if you are still interested and ok with my terms and conditions.
Thanks

So a couple thoughts came across my little brain: “If she is working on a case in Florida, she must be a lawyer and have enough $$ to buy 3 more flat screens”…“Why is she so trusting of me to wait for me to receive the TV before I send the the final payment”…“who the hell lives in Wyoming?”…“what hair color do they put on the driver’s licenses of bald men?”…so I ask her for more info on the exact payment instructions before I commit and I get back a response in a few hours:

I will arrange the shipment to your address. once I ship it to you I’ll provide you the shipment label and tracking number so you can verify it has been shipped and will also provide you the payment info you are to send the upfront payment to via western union. Once again I want to assure you that the TV is working in good condition and I really hope I can trust you sending the remaining balance when the plasma gets to you.
Name of Receiver: Paul Richardson
Address: 21 Kingsway Avenue
City: Ikeja
State: Lagos
Zip Code: 23401
Country: Nigeria
Test Question: Favorite Sport
Answer: Baseball
Amount you are to send: $150

Red Flags are popping up all over the place…“I want an LCD, why is she talking about a plasma?”…“how many people in Nigeria are named Paul Richardson?”…” how does she make any money after spending $350 to send me a TV she is only charging $450 for”…“why isn’t the number 11 pronounced onety one?”…“everyone knows the favorite sport in Nigeria is soccer not baseball”…

So then I decide to get off the darn blackberry, wait until I get to the office and Google our little friend Fatasha. I find this as a #1 hit.

Awesome.

Even with my past experience, I still love Craiglist!

TV-licious tunes…

jimmy-hat — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 15:16:54 +0000

So, being sick this weekend and spending most of it in a drug-induced stupor in front of the tube, I was magically awoken Saturday afternoon by the sounds of Explosions in The Sky. I immediately thought I had the best girlfriend in the word and she somehow knew the best medicine to cure any illness is to listen to Your Hand in Mine over and over again- so you can imagine my surprise when I opened my eyes to a Cadillac Commercial!

Part of me wanted to hate on EITS for selling out to the Ad world, part of me was so happy to hear these guys really get their sound out there (since no one ever saw Friday Night Lights), and part of me just wanted another shot of Thera-Flu to crawl back into my shell (that’s 3 parts…is that possible?)

I started bitching about it to a guy at work and he said he was listening to the radio this wekeend and came across an Outback Steakhouse commercial with a stellar remix of Of Montreal’s Wraith Pinned to the Mist. True songwriting talent comes out with TV-licious, re-made lyrics like “‘Let’s pretend we’re at Outback Steakhouse”…

In a frantic search to find these videos, I came across another blogger ranting about The Black Eyes posing themselves for a Nissan Xterra commercial with Set You Free.

This can all only lead to one feasible outcome = Indie Rock is taking over the world!!

And one feasible question = what is your favorite ripped-off TV commercial song?

If you disagree and really want some quality, moralistic, good family-entertainment advertising I would suggest my favorites: Trunk Monkey or 1-800-Got-Junk.

If Pablo were still in NY…

jimmy-hat — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 19:55:47 +0000