NYDC.

art opening postcard images by adrian tomine, duh.

chickfactor’s main representative was just in nyc and did some stuff including:
1 going to see richard hawley at the bowery ballroom. okay, so the man isn’t really cute and his lyrics are not going to change the world and some of the songs sound the same and even I used to think he was just another (former pulp guitarist and) lee hazlewood wannabe, but this was the first time I had seen him (finally) and I loved it. the man has some soul. he has something! his jokes are pretty bad, though, but the bowery audience lapped it all up.
2 I saw margot at the wedding. okay, so this maybe was not all fun. I really liked the squid and the whale, maybe because my parents never got divorced and the kids were funny and my dad was a tennis-playing, beard-sporting guy whose favorite word was “goddammit!” but I enjoyed that movie, which was of course the best role that poor jeff daniels ever had, after a career of picking up roles that jeff bridges and william hurt turned down. (I kind of hated the ending). this margot movie was one of those roles that reminds you that nicole kidman is more than just a wax-faced red-carpet dweller. she’s terrifying, and yet she really gets inside the character, while jennifer jason leigh is her usually ace self, looking more radiant with age, and jack black is great, funny even, until the last 30% of the film, when it seems like he changes his mind, tries to avoid any real acting, and makes a mockery of the rest. what a weird one! again, the kid actors are the highlight.
3 I saw yo la tengo + versus at first night of hanukkah, maxwell’s, with josh and dawn and liz. wow! I could not have assembled a greater audience of people. it was a real homecoming kind of show for me. the music was good too, but mostly it was just supernice to see jeff cashvan, richard baluyut (who went on to tell me that just maybe, if I had not moved to london, chickfactor could have been…pitchfork, uh, I don’t think so), gerard, tim and tara, phil, etc. I had no idea I would get to see versus on this trip and it was fab to hear “river” after all these years.
4 I saw control, that joy division movie, with liz clayton. I don’t know, I had heard such mixed things about it, and samantha morton’s performance alone nearly saves the day, she is awesome in everything she takes on. but the dialogue, the boys-in-their-underwear shots, etc. had us laughing for all the wrong reasons, despite beautiful photography, natch, as the film was made by a photographer.
there were a few things I did not get to do in new york, including see the clean — it sucked to miss that. I also would have liked to attend the adrian tomine art opening at giant robot new york, but I was already heading south to washington, d.c., where I caught up with some people and did some stuff, including going to a party at dan saturday people/glo-worm/castaway stones’ petworth maison, which was as festive as you could imagine and I was able to snarf vegan dip, sip sparkly cava, and hobnob with former members of velocity girl, tree fort angst and grenadine. why, the whole week had a vague sense of 1993 about it!