Resurrect Dead

September 6th, 2011 by chocko

Director: Jon Foy
Stars: Justin Duerr, Colin Smith and Steve Weinik
Genre: Documentary

This is not a zombie movie! Resurrect Dead The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles is a documentary about the Toynbee Tiles which have been found on streets in cities along the East Coast and even in some cities in South America since the early 80’s. The tiles often display the message: Toynbee Idea/In Movie 2001/Resurrect Dead/On Planet Jupiter. What does it all mean and who or what is responsible for this cryptic message? Are aliens from another universe involved? What does the historian, Arnold Toynbee and his theory of bringing back dead molecules to life, Stanley Kubrick’s movie 2001 and the planet Jupiter have to do with all of this?

Jon Foy’s debut feature length documentary follows Justin Duerr, a young misunderstood artist who has been obsessed on solving the mystery behind the tiles ever since noticing them on the streets of Philadelphia while working as a delivery boy in the 90’s. He spends years gathering clues, taking photos, and researching in libraries and the internet but things don’t go into high gear until he meets 2 other Toynbee Tile enthusiasts, Colin Smith and Steve Weinik. The trio combine their resources and brain power and come up with a list of possible suspects. Their investigation leads them to a trip to a shortwave radio convention and eventually they find themselves at the South Philly address of a highly reclusive old man who hardly comes out of his boarded up house.

I found the movie highly entertaining and fascinating to watch as the mystery unraveled. It is a movie to be enjoyed and discussed afterwards. The director and three main characters were at a recent screening at the IFC Center in New York City. After the screening they answered some questions and provided more insight into the documentary. They gave away pins with photos of NYC Toynbee Tiles on them and also announced that 2 new tiles have been placed outside the theatre by House of Hades in homage to the original Toynbee Tiles. It is believed that there are no longer any original Toynbee Tiles in NYC. There is a video featuring a portion of the Q&A below. Don’t watch it if you haven’t seen the movie already because the spoilers might ruin your documentary viewing. It’s more fun to watch the movie and be surprised and experience the thrill of the hunt. Go see the movie now…Chocko highly recommends it.

THE TRAILER

Resurrect Dead Q&A at IFC Center NYC


(from left to right: director Jon Foy, Justin Duerr, Steve Weinik and Colin Smith) photo by chocko

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Tower of Death (1981)

September 4th, 2011 by Mr. C

Director: Ng See Yuen
Actors: Kim Tai Chung,Hwang Jang Lee,Yuen Biao,Roy Chiao,Roy Horan,Lee Hoi San,Bruce Lee(Archives)
Fight choreographer: Yuen Wo Ping
Producer: Raymond Chow & Golden Harvest
Genre: brucesploitation

Tower of Death aka Game of Death 2 was one hell of a train wreck! No survivors indeed, but it does have certain elements in it that are quite appealing even for a Brucesploitation film. First off, R.I.P. to Kim Tai Chung who recently left us way too early. He notably starred in this film as well as Miss Please Be Patient, No Retreat No Surrender, and Game of Death. He was an excellent martial artist in the Tae Kwan Do realm and did a great job as a Bruce Lee clone/shadow. Game of Death 2 also contained a great deal of archived footage of Bruce Lee, edited and spliced on the screen to enhance the clone of Bruce as much as possible. The usual suspects of camera angle trickery, dark lighting, & zoomed out shots were all in effect! The editing in this film is no where near as ‘frankensteined’ as Game of Death 1 but old footage transitioned with the new will still make it look quite obvious to even the most novice of the “Little Dragon” fans that Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde have been working overtime in the labs splicing & dicing film. Scenes of Bruce Lee from Enter The Dragon, Return of the Dragon, & the Chinese Connection are rather abundant in the first quarter of the movie. However, I must admit that there were a few neat archives of film with the real Bruce Lee as a 6 yr old and teenager blended into this movie that made it very interesting. The most odd & creepy of the authentic footage includes clips of Bruce Lee’s funeral in real life with him in the open casket. Exclusive real life images of the little dragon were also on display in the film.

I’ll give a quick understated synopsis of the film before writing about the main stars of the movie, the fight scenes! Billy Lo (archived footage of Bruce Lee + Kim Tai Chung) is back again accompanied by his Master martial art friend Chin Koo (the great Hwang Jang Lee) as he demolishes challengers with his left and right foot while casually sipping tea. Everybody is having fun until suddenly Chin Koo is mysteriously murdered? Billy Lo then goes on a CSI hunt in Tokyo to find out what had happened. At the gravesite, a helicopter appears during the burial and hovers over the coffin to suddenly dropping down a lift with claws to take it up to the sky! Tragically, Billy will lose his life while attempting to hold onto this lift. Talk about dramatic! Who, what, & why would someone whisk away the coffin? Conspiracy? Fake death? Bobby Lo (also played by Kim Tai Chung?) is Billy’s brother and he will certainly have revenge on his mind!!

Now to the more important parts of the film! Hwang Jang Lee puts on a grave display of dynamic TKD kicks onto his unfortunate opponents! His leg combinations, control, flow, & execution is really something to behold! HJL is probably the most skilled kicker onscreen and probably off screen as well of ALL TIME! He plays such a great villain in all of his movies! The end fight between him and Bobby Lo is tremendous! The great Yuen Biao (Jackie Chan’s kung fu brother) makes a fighting cameo with him battling a fellow shaolin monk with a bamboo pole! Good scene which basically left me wanting to see more of Biao in the movie! Roy Horan plays a crazy ‘gwai-lo’ who is the master of his domain known as the palace of death. Horan greatly admires the fierceness of the Tiger while adoring the swiftness of a peacock! He definitely would put that on display while he ripped apart one of his Hung Kuen (Tiger-Crane fist) foes! Bobby Lo (Kim Tai Chung) would exchange fists with an enraged chinese tarzan before moving on to the more formidable Shaolin monk opponent played by the great Lee Hoi San! The end fight between Kim and Hwang Jang Lee left me salivating for a Game of Death 3, no just kidding! Like I said earlier, the fight scenes in this movie were the clear stars of the film as the story was just pure WTF! Trust me, I didn’t even scratch the surface with some of the other silly scenes! It makes you want to scratch your head and ask, did Raymond Chow really approve of all these edits? The Godfather of Golden Harvest Studios? You’ll just have to see it to believe it! The Tower of Death definitely qualifies for the it’s so bad that maybe this could be pretty good scale!

The fight choreographer of the film was the venerable YUEN WO PING! No wonder there was an overflow of great fight scenes! I’ve also heard through reliable sources that Cory Yuen Kwai and Sammo Hung also had a hand in this dance! Is this a good movie? NO! Was this a good tribute to Bruce Lee? HELL NO! Should you see this film if you are a fan of martial arts? Hells Yeah!

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Justice League Reboot

September 1st, 2011 by chocko

I was never much of a DC Comics kid growing up and I can’t even remember the last time I picked up a DC book, but with the recent news of DC relaunching 52 titles, you can’t help but want to check it out. Justice League #1 recently hit the stands with many comic book shops celebrating by holding midnight sales of the title on its release date.

Geoff Johns is the writer for Justice League and I guess his job is to reintroduce everybody to the heroes that will later form one of the greatest super hero teams of all time. Jim Lee provides the art work which will knock your socks off…every panel is superb. OK…lots of spoilers so you have been warned. The story starts out by establishing the fact that super heroes just aren’t accepted in the world, they are dangerous and the government is willing to take down caped crusaders. Batman is seen chasing some alien who’s been seen trying to plant a bomb in Gotham City. Military aircraft are firing away and making the chase a bit of a challenge, but Batman keeps his cool. Hal Jordan a.k.a. Green Lantern comes to save the day with his super powers and ring…acting like a total dick, but he gets the job done cleaning house. They eventually follow the alien who detonates a bomb while yelling, “For Darkseid!” Green Lantern and Batman have no idea what that cry meant, so they decide to take a trip to Metropolis to visit another alien that might know. We get to see a cameo of Vic Stone a.k.a. Cyborg on the high school football team, before Green Lantern and Batman meet up with Superman. The comic book ends with Hal Jordan getting his ass kicked and it looks like the showdown between Batman and The Man Of Steel is going to be interesting.

The back of the book features sketchbook drawings of the new updated costumes by the master, Jim Lee. Wonder Woman…pants or no pants? We shall see. It looks like Aquaman’s costume also gets a reboot with a little more body armor making him look a little tougher and meaner. You go Aquaman, King of The Seven Seas! I’m looking forward to their reintroductions along with The Flash and seeing how Darkseid ties into the plot. The sketches in the back also features the various stages of how the cover came to be. Definitely worth the $3.99 cover price. Wowzers, when did comic books get so expensive? Next issue: Batman Vs. Superman. I’m gonna predict that Batman gets his ass in a sling, but I guess we’ll have to wait to see what happens in issue #2! To be continued…

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BLVD. WARRIORS (2012) directed by Rene Carson : Trailer

August 27th, 2011 by Mr. C


“I am not teaching you anything.
I just help you to explore yourself.”
– Bruce Lee

I wanted to flashback to a documentary film that I neglected to mention on my initial writeup of Ric Meyers’ Kung Fu Extravaganza program at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con. The trailer of BLVD. WARRIORS was previewed at the startup of Ric Meyers’ program and it really brought back some great memories of the 1970’s & 80’s kung fu craze! Rene Carson (Director/Writer/Producer) of the film recently provided us with some awesome still images and information about the film which got us all excited about this project again! I’m not sure if I can wait till early 2012 for the release of it! The trailer opened up with something very familiar & soothing to the ears!
Fans of the Drive In Movie Theatre on WNEW’s Channel 5 in the NYC area which aired from May 1981-July of 1988 will instantly recognize this intro and be transported back to a time when Saturdays 3pm were golden! This 2 hr time slot would be booked with a colorful demonstration of high flying martial artists with a tunnel vision for revenge in the name of brotherhood & morality to protect their families, community, & honor. When I watched the trailer for BLVD. WARRIORS, it conjured up that same type of feeling and nostalgia. Blvd. Warriors documents the tale of how martial arts and asian culture would impact the lives of blacks and urban Americans alike. Inner city folks that joined the military would get stationed in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, & Vietnam. When they came back to the States from service, they were armed with a whole new philosophy in fighting, mentally & physically. In parallel, asian martial art movies shown in grindhouse theaters in poor to working class communities and films that aired on public TV like the ones promoted by Drive In Theater provided another outlet for our youths to digest a new culture in the arts that would eventually manifest itself onto other avenues of expression. The important thing to note is that urban americans now had something positive to grasp in the form of asian fighting arts which would be the vehicle that they will use to aspire for something better in their lives within the turbulent cloud of social, economic, political, & family duress. City life & everyday survival tactics coupled with a militiary background and martial arts thrown in the mix would be a heavy source of discipline leading to a righteous path of self discovery. This documentary serves as a way to celebrate these local urban warriors who took this vehicle to a higher level and being the pioneers that they are, they propagated their teachings through their martial background whether through dojos, temples, or films to help inspire people in other fields such as music, dance, the arts, education, & other countless forms of media. This movie would also pay homage to the old school martial art films and the artists/actors who indirectly sparked a bonfire of hope for their fans giving them something to cheer for when everything else around them looked bleak. Many a breakdancer, hip hop artist, movie director, actor, blue collar worker, corporate mogul, and the average Joe & Jane were influenced one way or another by the asian fighting arts movie craze! I know that’s what got me into the weekend warrior training mode at the time. Other good examples where musicians utilized kung fu culture into their realm includes hip hop groups like the Fu-Schnickens and the Wu Tang Clan hailing from the slums of Staten Island, NY with which the members of the Wu affectionately dub SHAOLIN as a synonym for Staten Island! Wu Tang Clan’s classic debut album, “Enter the Wu-Tang – 36 Chambers” including the song “Da mystery of chessboxin” is clear evidence that the fusion of hip hop with kung fu is a key ingredient to their magical elixir! RZA, a founding member of the group has made it well known that Bruce Lee was a tremendous inspiration in his creative endeavors!

Trailer of BLVD. WARRIORS


The trailer of this film revealed eye opening movie clips and interviews from some of the most well respected martial artists like Michael Jai White (Black Dynamite), Grandmaster Ron Van Clief (The Black Dragon), Grandmaster Ronald Duncan (The Way of the Winds/Ninjitsu), & Sifu Carl Scott (Soul Brothers of Kung Fu). Images of Bruce Lee, Cheng Pei Pei (Come Drink With Me), Wang Yu (One Armed Swordsman), Etsuko Shihomi (Sister Streetfighter), Gloria Hendry (Black Belt Jones, Hell Up in Harlem), Lo Meng vs Wai Pak (5 Deadly Venoms), Lo Lieh (5 Fingers of Death), & Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill) would provide a kickass picture worth more than a thousand words! Stills of the Paramount Theater in Newark-NJ, Fox Theatre, & The Pagoda in Chinatown from the teaser trailer further wet my appetite for this film! An interview with Grady Hendrix, an asian movie historian and co-founder of Subway Cinema in NYC will also be an invaluable resource added to this melting pot of wandering warriors!

Rene Carson (Director) is targeting to premier BLVD. WARRIORS at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2012! We’re hoping to get a glimpse of this documentary shortly thereafter!

This project was solely an entity of passion fueled by Rene Carson. He produced this film without any studio financing or support, completely based on his own interest in the subject. You can clearly feel that passion seep through to the viewer upon watching the trailer which makes us anxious to see the entire feature!

As a last statement, I can attest that BLVD. WARRIORS will not just appeal to urban folks! It will also get some of us eclectic suburban creatures, pretty jazzed up too! From the immortal expressions of Bruce Lee, “WATTAH” *While swiping the nose with my thumb* !!

~Way of the inspired fist~

*ALL images in this post provided by Rene Carson

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Pooperazzi: photos from outer space

August 23rd, 2011 by chocko

here are some chocko photos from the vaults…


Laura Marling at Housing Works


Coco + Ice-T at Barnes & Noble (Union Square)


Kathleen Hanna and Joan Jett at MoMA


Wild Flag at Johhny Brenda’s (Philadelphia)


David Johansen of New York Dolls at Best Buy (Union Square)


Chrisette Michele at Rockefeller Park


Gregory And The Hawk at Littlefield


Marky Ramone at Chef Central (Paramus, NJ)


Ani DiFranco at Music Hall (Tarrytown, NY)


Paul Simon at Webster Hall


Sasha Grey at Housing Works


Henry Rollins at Joe’s Pub


Madeline Follin of Cults at House of Vans


Elias Rønnenfelt of Iceage at Other Music

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The Bad Artists Imitate, The Great Artists Steal : Olek’s Crochet Art exhibition

August 21st, 2011 by Mr. C

The Bad Artists Imitate,The Great Artists Steal
Exhibition at the Jonathan Levine Gallery @ 529 West 20th Street NY, NY
Tuesday-Saturday August 10th-27th 11am-6pm
Artist: OLEK

Folks, only one more week left to get a glimpse of NYC’s own crochet artist extraordinaire Olek with her solo exhibition: The Bad Artists Imitate, The Great Artists Steal! You might have seen some of her crochet art in the streets of the east village and lower east side. Her works include yarn inspired sculptures, canvases, yarn covers for shopping carts, bicycles, & everyday objects. Olek even crochet ‘bombed’ the famous bull sculpture by Wall Street! She wrapped the entire greedy beast with yarn! Her latest work includes covering the “Walk Man” sculpture created by Scott Taylor at Tompkins Square Park with her signature knit work, but the piece had to be taken down because it was vandalized. Olek also did a crochet tribute to Banksy by knitting his well known “Balloon Girl”. Check out some of her work at the Jonathan Levine Gallery if you can, it’s amazing! FYI: “The Bad Artists Imitate, The Great Artists Steal” was a quote by Pablo Picasso. Banksy had an art piece with a stone inscribed with this quote, but crossed out the crediting of Pablo Picasso’s name to input his own.

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Legends of Folk: The Village Scene

August 20th, 2011 by Mr. C

I saw a great documentary on PBS called LEGENDS OF FOLK: VILLAGE SCENE which was about the folk music movement during the 1960’s in the Greenwich Village section of NYC! The film had awesome footage of live performances from relatively unknown folk musicians at the time in the process of becoming the great legends that they turned out to be which includes Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Simon & Garfunkel, Peter Paul & Mary, The Mamas and the Papas, The Lovin’ Spoonful, & many more! I’ve been to a number of Richie Havens performances in the past and it was always amazing to hear him tell stories about the folk music vibe in the village in the 1960’s up in the cafes on Mcdougal & Bleeker streets and performances at Washington Square Park! Richie Havens, if you didn’t know was the 1st act to perform at WOODSTOCK on Friday August 15,1969 at Yasgur’s Farm! Richie slayed his performance with his 2hr 45min set! Havens really set the tone, mood, & rhythm of that historic weekend! Getting back to the documentary, the Village was a hotbed of creativity in folk music due to the turbulent times of the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement. These topics bred songs of unity, love, & anti-war sentiments. These folk legends would gather in the many cafes that ran rampant on Mcdougal street & surrounding area such as the Gaslight Cafe, Night Owl, The Folklore Center, The Fat Black Pussycat, Folk City, Cafe a go go, The Bitter End, & Cafe Wha to just name a few! Cafe Wha & The Bitter End are still in operation to this day! The current Fat Black Pussycat lounge/bar on West 3rd street is not the same as the Fat Black Pussycat theatre of yesteryear. The original location of the pussycat theatre was on Minetta street which is being occupied by a mexican restaurant at the current time. The documentary didn’t mention the Bottom Line on west 4th street because it was erected in the 1970’s but that also was a good venue to check out great musicians up until 2004. The 1960’s sure was a golden era for music in downtown NYC!

Visit the PBS website to find out more about this fascinating documentary!

Watch the full episode. See more PBS Specials.

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Bang Bang (2010)

August 19th, 2011 by Mr. C

Director: Byron Q
Cast: Thai Ngo,David Huynh,Jessika Van,Walter Wong
Genre: gangster

This film really surprised the heck out of me! Bang Bang chronicles a day in the life of an asian american gang and the different paths in life that a few of the members would take. This is the 1st feature film for Byron Q (director/producer/editor/writer) and he delivered a raw and gritty heavy hitter in his debut! It wasn’t a documentary but it was filmed as such, complete with the fuzzing of car license plates & faces with an extreme slow down in camera speed compounded with posterizing/choppy effects to distort some of the gang fight scenes. The stereotypical low rider vehicles, distracting soundtracks of blaring hip hop music to mask substance in favor of style, and the wife beater/guinea tee look that some west coast gang movies are known for are NOT of influence in this piece. Instead, the relationships between the gang members, the confrontations, and the interaction or lack thereof between them and their families get the most screen time as opposed to glorifying gang violence with all the cliches attached to the lifestyle. It was described pretty well by one of the movie promoters present at the screening when he stated that the movie was like you being a fly on the wall in the day to day operation of a local gang. What was really amazing was that most of the cast of Bang Bang are not professional actors but real life gang members. David Huynh who played Charlie and Jessika Van (Jenn) were 2 of only a handful of professional actors on the set!

The story centers around Justin (Thai Ngo), a vietnamese american who is heavily involved with a gang but wants to get out to pursue better pastures in the music industry. On the flipside, Charlie (Justin’s good friend) is living in the comforts of a wealthy Taiwanese family, wanting desperately to be part of the gangster scene to rebel against the lavished lifestyle bestowed upon him. As Justin & Charlie go in opposite directions, they both get caught up in a back and forth web of silly nonsense with a rival crew that will eventually lead to not so pleasant things. The leader of the SD gang, Rocky (Walter Wong) was also another centerpiece of the film that shined through with his strong presence and performance on the screen. The movie lends to the struggle of 1st & 2nd generation asian americans & their family issues which further influences them to a life of self destruction.

Bang Bang was definitely rough around the edges cinematically and dialogue wise but maybe this was an intended feat by the director? The delivery of the story in its documentary like shell was also very refreshing to digest. The cast in the film were very likable as they sloshed through the crap of gang life with the very intentions of getting out…except Charlie! My only gripe with the movie was character development. Personally, I wanted to know more about the backgrounds of our lead players! Also, more screen time and development of the leading lady would of been optimal as well. What was pretty neat about the film was that even with the intense and heavy scenes there were light sprinkles of comedic relief added to the fray. Some funny situations that came to mind was the fermented cactus scene, the break-in to Justin’s own home, the molly pill (X+), & Charlie’s acting out of being a gangster while holding a gun with all the opera like music as the soundtrack!

Go and support this film, folks! It tells the tale of the other side of the asian american coin.

Thai Ngo who played Justin in the film is a real life hip hop artist based out of Portland.

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The Mighty Peking Man (1977) – another Shaw Brothers production

August 18th, 2011 by Mr. C

Director: Ho Meng-Hua
Producer: Shaw Brothers Studio
Actors: Danny Lee,Ku Feng,Evelyne Kraft,Hsiao Yao
Genre: fantasy,monster

Yes, yes, y’all, The Mighty Peking Man in the flesh! We know it’s a campy, plenty cheesy, but a real doozy of a midnight-channel 5 WNEW drive in type of movie offering lots of terrible special effects to boot to go along with the bad acting which is precisely why we gravitate towards it! Our main man, Danny Lee (Super Inframan,The Killer,Oily Maniac,Killers on Wheels) is back at it again, this time to try and tame the beast of a chinese king kong on the throne of demolishing Hong Kong with a vengeance!

Lets rewind the story a bit without divulging the spoilers. Our supersized gorilla (ah wang) lives in the Himalya Mountains with a Bo Derek-esque lady that we will call Tarzan girl played by Evelyn Craft! Only this beauty can tame this beast so to speak. Sounds like a familiar story, doesn’t it? The gorilla defends himself from the village people attacking ah wang out of fear and the unknown. Meanwhile, in the money making city of Hong Kong, Johnny Feng (Danny Lee) a research-expedition specialist, is enraged by finding his lady friend romping in the sack with his brother. With that in mind, a sleaze bucket show promoter played by the one and only Ku Feng, hears of this 50 foot beast living in the himalayas so dollar signs immediately explode in his mind! Lu Tiem (Ku Feng) anxiously hires Johnny to capture the big gorilla and ship it back to Hong Kong so he can display it as a paid sideshow (ka-ching) in HK stadium! Johnny plays ‘dapper don’ with Tarzan chick so he’s definitely in ‘like flynn’ with the gargantuan big foot! This helps with transporting the big fella via a ship to the shores of HK in a somewhat peaceful state of mind! You can imagine the rest of the story once this beast steps into HK because what chains can really hold this gorilla down? His only weakness is the sight of Tarzan Girl. That, coupled with people messing with his woman can only incite rage!

Some of my favorite scenes from the movie include Danny Lee sexing up Tarzan lady in the cave while the big gorilla peeks in on with interest and slight jealousy which was hilarious! Also, I swear the left nipple of Tarzan chick kept one eye opened for us throughout the screening?! The scenes when elephant, tigers, and cobras attack also peeked my ‘what the bleep’ scale, too! The sequence when The Mighty Peking Man scales the famous highrise and tallest building in HK, the Jardine House was also pretty entertaining as well. I guess the Jardine House was the tallest structure in HK at the time!

Whatever the case, The Mighty Peking Man aka Goliathon aka Xing Xing Wang aka Le Colosse de Hong Kong is a b-movie goers wet dream and cream of the crop of everything bad! Maybe the marketing folks should of labeled this movie a comedy as well?! I still find this chauncy entertaining and it really looked like a whole new movie to me when viewing the IVL/Celestial import remastered version of it! Go and get this joint! Monster film fans, assemble!

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Deer Tick Played Pier 54 NYC

August 16th, 2011 by chocko


John McCauley of Deer Tick

Deer Tick

DOM

Last Thursday, Pier 54 was the place to be to catch some free indie music and the last installment of the 2011 Hudson River Rocks series. Translations opened up the night…gotta catch them next time. We got caught up watching Obama drive by in a cavalcade of cop cars and secret service in the West Village. New England party rockers, DOM got the drunken asses shaking with their grungy surf pop-music from outer space, keyboards cranked up and new band members in the lineup. Big up to the cover of the Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry.” DOM has a new EP on Astralwerks, “Family of Love.” Check it out for some chill, dreamy tunes.

Deer Tick headlined the night led by guitarist and singer John McCauley and a band that included Ian O’Neil who used to be in the NJ indie rock band, Titus Andronicus. Also in the lineup were Rob Crowell (keyboards and saxophone), Christopher Ryan (bass) and Dennis Ryan (drums). The band played everything from blues, garage rock, punk, and a little bit of folk and country music. These guys put on an awesome live show playing crowd favorites including “Baltimore Blues No. 1”, “Easy”, “Little White Lies” and “Dirty Dishes”. Their new punk song “Let’s All Go To The Bar” is sure to be a highlight on their forthcoming album. Deer Tick sure know how to please their fans…taking requests from the rowdy audience. The band also played their share of fun covers. It was just too bad nobody knew the Tom Waits’ song “Innocent When You Dream” which didn’t really start off as a good sing along, but McCauley schooled the crowd who sang along by the end of the song. Now, if we could get some of those youngsters out there to buy a Tom Waits record or two the world would be a better place. They played a couple others covers too including “La Bamba”, “Maybellene”, The Replacements’ “Bastards of Young” and a Townes Van Zandt song, “White Freight Liner Blues” which they closed out the show with. Be on the lookout for their album titled “Divine Providence” on Partisan Records which drops in late October!




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Street Art

August 15th, 2011 by chocko





From top to bottom: most of these photos were taken in Brooklyn…the skull is by DUST LUST, the creepy hands (too bad the piece is starting to peel) is by GOATA, a dope piece by ELLE, and the subversive ad campaign popping up everywhere in NYC by EVIAIR. The two bottom photos of the OSGEMEOS art were taken in San Diego, outside the Horton Plaza mall across the street from Ralph’s. (photos by chocko)

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Tompkins Square Park Riot Reunion

August 14th, 2011 by chocko


Triangle Fire

Wombat In Combat

Hammerbrain

Last weekend marked the infamous 1988 Tompkins Square Riots where NYPD’s worst swarmed in on a downtown park, enforcing a midnight curfew that didn’t exist…clubbing away at the homeless park residents and bystanders that stood in the way. Tompkins Square park became a warzone and police brutality ran rampant. Much of the surrounding neighborhood has been gentrified over the years, but the survivors and residents soldier on to make sure nobody forgets about the riots that happened not too long ago. August 6 and 7, 2011 marked the 23rd anniversary and punk rock bands played in the park and vendors at tables sold merchandise and alternative media such as The Shadow and World War 3 which features underground political comics and cartoons.

Chocko stopped by the park on Sunday and was able to catch some killer sets by Triangle Fire from Athens, Georgia; and NYC’s Wombat in Combat and original gangsters of the punk scene…Hammerbrain! It was definitely cool to see Paul Kostabi, original member of Youth Gone Mad and White Zombie, rocking out in the lineup. It was good to see punk rockers, junkies, and misfits of society shaking it up in the pit. The next free punk show at Tompkins Square Park is on September 24 from 2-6 pm and features Iconicide, Fed Up!, Crybaby, Deans of Discipline, Nothing But Enemies and Blackout Shoppers.



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