This week I’ll be taking a short hiatus from The Inn to play a set at Le Royale with Kele, lead singer of Bloc Party, and New York mainstay Roxy Cottontail. Roxy does the jump off, then Kele bangs it out, and I finally take the crowd in for a landing. A part of me really wants to open my set with this song:
Katy Perry vs Bloc Party - I kissed a banquet
What do you think?
In other news, I’m closing on a new condo in Williamsburg next week…Brooklyn beware. More on that later.
Double Masters is in two places on Halloween…scary, isn’t it?
Aaron’s at Arlo with Fancy and a grip of other DJs, flying in at prime time (12ish) to rock a superhypermegaspecialscary set, then the whole squad is rushing over to Cabanas to dance with the newly deceased slain by me……Horrifying….
Entry to Cabanas is free before midnight on my list…$15 afterwards. Costumes highly encouraged! Here are some tunes to get you in the mood:
I’m DJing some killer CMJ events this week at Le Royale (my favorite venue in NYC). On Thursday I’m playing with CSS, and if you’ve been to any of my gigs, you know how hard I sweat this band, and its remixes. On Saturday I’ll be playing with Andy Rourke of The Smiths (although not with so much as opening for). What I’m most excited for is Friday night, when I get to be on the other side of the DJ booth and rock out to some of my favorite DJs. I’ve caught most of them before, but I’ve always wanted to see Treasure Fingers. His remix of Snowden’s Anti-Anti is still one of the top 25 tracks played in my itunes.
The Wombats - Kill the director (CSS Remix)
Treasure Fingers - Come true tonight (dub mix)
And one of my favorite Smiths tracks: Last of the Famous International Playboys
Tonight I’m spinning with uber-DJs Alex English, Dimitry!!!, and Sujinho at Highbar. What a wild ride it’s been! I had no intentions of DJing seriously; however, the last two months have brought many welcomed surprises. I even had a gig at Marquee Labor Day weekend…WHAT? Though this wasn’t a part of the plan, who am I to stop the momentum (read: PARTY!).
If you were at Le Royale last night, drop me a line…I’d love to hear from you.
See you tonight at Highbar. I’m there at 5 and am on from 7-9.
Much Love
I’ve got two events for you to check out this weekend. Tonight, head to The Inn LW12, a small place in the meatpacking district with a laid-back vibe unlike the rest of its surroundings. I’ll be playing a mish-mosh of tunes for a diverse crowd. Arrive early and claim a seat or show up late and dance on tables.
I’m pretty excited for the next announcement. GBH, who brings you parties at Hiro, Le Royale, and The Inn, has invited me to DJ the Robot Rock party this Friday at Le Royale. J.D. Samson of Le Tigre and Sia (who i totally crush) will be DJing upstairs with resident Alex English. I’ll be manning the decks downstairs all night, so expect an eclectic mix of indie dance tunes with a sprinkling of hip-hop, classics, and the occasional guilty pleasure.
Here’s a sampling of what you could expect to hear:
The Presets - This boy\’s in love (Life Like remix)
MGMT - Electric feel (Justice remix)
Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris - Dance wiv me
Last Friday when I DJ’d at The Skinny, I played Weezer’s new single ‘Pork and Beans.’ Only today did I see the video, which pays homage to some of the most famous/notorious internet memes. References include the Daft Hands/Bodies, Chris Crocker a.k.a. Britney Fan Crying, Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain”, T-Shirt Guinness World Record, Ninja flip gone bad, Numa Numa Guy, and others.
I love seeing major artists using media in a thoughtful and relevant manner. If nothing else, I think Weezer has taught us when all else fails, you can always rely on pop-culture references to spread a message. Considering all the music blogs I follow, it’s funny that I saw the video on Chris Brogan’s Social Media Blog. Chris always has his finger on the pulse and if you have any interest in social media, building community for your site, or finding better ways to collaborate, his site is a must-read.
I just came across this hilarious top 10 list by Charlie O’Donnell, who I met at Mashbash last Friday. Charlie is the CEO of Path101, a startup focused on career discovery on the web, and founder of NextNY; he’s also a really awesome guy who is always ready to help out entrepreneurial newbies like me.
I’ve got a lot of posts in draft phase that will soon be published. Until then, I’ll leave you with some chicks that rock:
The Ting Tings - That’s not my name
The Slits - Heard it through the grapevine (Mike B’s edit)
Lykke Li - I’m good, I’m gone (Sumo Re-edit)
UPDATE: I just won one of five VIP Passes for T-Mobile’s Launch Party tomorrow and a free phone to boot. Fool’s Gold MC Kid Cudi will be there along with Chester French and Kid Capri. Now you get a bonus banger:
For the last 7 years I’ve organized an annual trip to Killington, VT. Last month, 27 friends came together for a weekend chock full of activities and antics. This trip is a chance for us to escape the city, participate in fun activities, and bond - over group dinners, in the hot tub, and at the foot of an ice luge. Every year the accommodations improve, and this year we stayed at the Hideaway Chalet. The Chalet slept 24, had three kitchens, an outdoor hot tub, and a foosball table to boot.
Some of the lessons I’ve learned from organizing these trips:
Though all of my pictures are on Flickr, here’s a snapshot of the trip:
Coffee, check - bread,check - chicken poppers, check - 4-pack of spicy mustard, WTF?
Sharon and Jocelyn meet us in Ramsey, NJ for the road trip to VT
Jack, Maker’s, more Jack…that seems about right
Sharon christens the hot tub toting a pack of Newports and a glass of Franzia. My friends be classy!
Lauren arrives and rubs my lucky helmet. Little does she know that it leads to…
spontaneous combustion of ones clothes and an unrivaled state of arousal
Luciano, the house mascot
When you google “Ian Springer” I hope this is the first thing that comes up. It will also be the last thing you see once you turn to stone. Fortunately, all the house members saw this move coming and scurried to there rooms for a good night’s rest.
Many of us actually managed to ski all three days despite our typical 4:00am curfew.
By Friday evening just about everyone had arrived at the house. Since there were many groups of people meeting for the first time, Arlyn had the (brilliant and equally nerdy) idea to develop an organizational chart of the house. Leave it to a Columbia MBA student to break out a flow chart between games of asshole…
How else would people get to know one another but play ‘Never Have I Ever.’ Please appreciate the box of Franzia in the foreground
Friday night’s dinner included such delights as Arlyn’s spaghetti and meat sauce served with a healthy side of love and regret
Shortly after dinner, the 90s dance party commenced. As I was setting up the camera to take a cute picture of Pawel and Luci dancing together, Sharon burst on the scene to show us all the true meaning of doggy style. In so many ways she lives up to the expectations of a Jersey girl. And that’s why I love her. Drinking + dancing + a house on the Killington Access Road = a night at the Wobbly Barn…
Jad and I perfecting the skill of alienating any woman within a 5-foot radius
The charm of Ian Kaplan is irresistible across the nation. Friday was a relatively slow night at the Wobbly, so we called our driver to take us back to the house at 2:00 and what followed was a pretty natural progression of the evening…
Shots of Jack as Jocelyn cringes in disbelief. This was followed up by a continuation of our 90s dance party (and some not-so-discrete-intimate-encounters…as per usual).
By Saturday evening, everyone had become acquainted, new relationships were budding, and therefore more drinking was to be done. I felt like a proud father when I took this picture. Speaking of relationships budding…
I’m as surprised as you are Ruth Ann
Saturday night Ian Kaplan whipped up some chicken curry and rice…which Danielle seemed to enjoyed
Vishal shows off the skills he learned at his mixology class. There’s nothing more natural than a man in camo overalls drinking a cosmo.
Nominee for most industrious use of cleavage in Killington
Onlookers gather for the first Killington ice luge
And if you start the night with shots from an ice luge, you’re likely to end up at…
The Wobbly Barn…that’s right
Killington - bringing people together since 1999. For your last Killington moment, I leave you with Ian Kaplan covering the Styxx at The Wobbly. Simply Glorious!
When a company listens to its consumers’ wants and needs, it generally produce a better, more useable product or service (that often, in turn, yields higher profits). The neologism that describes this collaboration between a company and its consumers is called crowdsourcing. Starbucks just launched MyStarbucksIdea.com, which is basically an open call to consumers to submit their own ideas or vote or comment on others. Here’s a description from the company’s refreshingly simple site:
“What would make your Starbucks experience perfect? We know you’ve got ideas—big ideas, little ideas, maybe even totally revolutionary ideas—and we want to hear them all. That’s why we created My Starbucks Idea. So you can share the ideas that matter to you and you can find out how we’re putting those ideas to work. Together, we will shape the future of Starbucks.”
The “Ideas in Action” pages announces just that - ideas that Starbucks chooses to implement. There are none so far, but I’m interested to see what they do implement. Of all the ideas submitted, the most popular (by votes) include:
Starbucks has opted not to compensate users if their ideas are chosen and implemented. I agree with the company’s strategy. Would free coffee really determine what convinces a person to voice their opinion? There is much more utility in Starbucks actually implementing a useful change than compensating a few people for coming up with (for the most part) obvious ideas. In fact, recognition would be a more appropriate and genuine reward.
Developing a dedicated customer feedback/idea site like MyStarbucksIdea is unlikely to be an effective tool for most companies. Don’t misinterpret my statement - I am an ardent supporter of Starbuck’s move. Companies with such a loyal community can generate voluntary participation; however, most cannot. The pervasiveness of web2.0 and blogs often blinds companies to the preexisting wealth of customer feedback within the firm. See my previous post on Staples.com, which illustrates the type of conversations a company should be reviewing and addressing.
