Reminder: Tonight!

The Wombats hit the U.S.

It looks like The Wombats are doing a mini-tour in the U.S. in August. It's about time. I've been bopping around to their catchy hooks and witty lyrics for months and months. When they played SXSW back in March, they didn't play any other U.S. gigs, which I found a little surprising. However, I am hoping they are going to post a few more U.S. dates on their MySpace page, because I also finding it surprising that they are playing three dates in Los Angeles, and only one date in New York...at The Annex.

http://www.myspace.com/thewombatsuk

Aug 6 2007
8:00P
The Roxy
Los Angeles

Aug 7 2007
8:00P
Cinespace
Los Angeles

Aug 8 2007
8:00P
Spaceland
Los Angeles

Aug 9 2007
8:00P
Popscene
San Francisco

Aug 11 2007
8:00P
Mod Club
Toronto

Aug 13 2007
8:00P
Great Scott
Boston

Aug 15 2007
8:00P
Annex
New York

Ticket Giveaway: epo-555 at Union Hall 6/25

I am giving away 2 pairs of tickets to the epo-555/Taxi Taxi show at Union Hall this Monday, June 25th.

I've never had a giveaway before. How exciting is this? So the first two people to email me at uglyfloralblouse@gmail.com are the winners. You have until Monday afternoon to email me. You guys really should check out epo-555. Don't make me beg. Do you wanna see me down on my knees? Or bending over backwards now would you be pleased? I should actually give the tickets to the first two people who guess those song lyrics, but come on, that's an easy one!

************************************************************************
Monday, June 25th - 8:00pm

epo-555

Taxi Taxi
look at the cool poster Taxi Taxi made

with DJ French Toast playing tunes all night long
@
Union Hall, 702 Union Street at Fifth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn

Cost: $7.00

Directions
Union Hall is located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, right off the corner of 5th Avenue on Union Street.
R train to Union Street. Walk 1 block east.
F train to 4th Avenue. Walk north on 4th Ave and turn right on Union Street. 1 block up.
Q, 2, 3, 4, 5 trains to Atlantic Avenue. Walk south on 5th Ave. Make a left on Union Street.

DeLuxe* 2 Year Anniversary Party tomorrow night

DR MAZ

invites you to DeLuxe* - a night of the best new and classic indiepop, britpop, swedish pop, french pop, twee, c-86, and dance-pop

in beautiful New York City!

COME CELEBRATE OUR 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY WITH SPECIAL GUEST DJs:

SHIRLEY BEANS (NEW YORK NOISE )

CHRISTIAN (LABRADOR RECORDS / SWEDEN)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

lolita bar

266 broome street

lower east side

saturday june 23rd

9 pm - 4 am

free

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"DeLuxe is a monthly night at Lolita helmed by Dr. Maz, one of the DJs behind Mondo, Luke & Leroy's smashing dance party. It mines similar musical terrain as its sister party. Want to hear the latest single by soon-to-be U.K. superstars du jour? Or that Wedding Present song you haven't listened to in five years? Or a track by Scottish tweesters the Boy Least Likely To? It'll play at DeLuxe, an indie anglophile's wet dream of a hoist-a-pint-and-chat-with-your-friends evening."

- Gabby Warshawer, AOL CityGuide

http://www.myspace.com/deluxenyc

Come out come out

Denmark's epo-555 plays NY, NJ and MA

I've written about epo-555 before. They are coming back to the States to rock your world with their blend of shoegaze, pop, electronica, jangle, indie rock and dreaminess. There are some epo-555 mp3s posted below, but you have to promise you'll go buy their albums, deal? I'll post more epo stuff soon. It's an epo blitz.

The lineup has changed a bit since they were last in the US. Tine Winther has joined the band. Camilla left the group, since she and Mikkel now have a baby boy. However, Camilla and Mikkel have started another project called Oliver North Boy Choir and, of course, I am going to post about them in the future.

epo-555's records, along with albums from various other Crunchy Frog artists like Junior Senior (well, in August) and Power-Solo, are now available in the US via Ryko Distribution. You can buy some epo-555 albums here and on itunes too. You can also still buy all their material from Vibrashop. Vibrashop is one of the coolest international mailorder sites around. For instance, they also carry albums from awesome European labels like Apricot, Elefant, Labrador, Siesta and Tricatel.

Here are your epo-555 links:
Myspace
Website

Here are your epo-555 tour dates:

Monday, June 25
8:00P
Union Hall
Brooklyn, New York

Tuesday, June 26
8:00P
200 Orchard
New York, New York

Wednesday, June 27
8:00P
Maxwell´s
Hoboken, NJ

Thursday, June 28
8:00P
PA´s Lounge
Somerville, Massachusetts

Here are your epo-555 mp3s:

From Mafia:
Examinor No. 39
Maid In China
Harry Mambourg

From the Radioaktiv - Mafia Fallout 7":
Sugarspiced Suicide featuring Lise Westzynthius

From the Depeche Mode tribute album, DMDK:
Stripped

From Dexter Fox:
Le Beat's on Fire
Dakota

A lone, lonely, loneliness mix

No, this lone, lonely, loneliness mix is not a cry for help. It's not even a particularly gloomy mix. The other day, I wanted to hear "Are You Lonely?" by LaBelle, and typed "lone" into my music player to search for the song. When I saw a bunch of songs come up, I figured there was a mix somewhere in there. The song genres are all over the map. Obviously, I am not posting every song I own that has "lone" in the title. For instance, there's no "Only the Lonely" by The Motels. No "Lonely Boy" by Andrew Gold. I feel like I only went with one really obvious song, but you can't leave Gilbert curbside. There are two songs that I downloaded from full album blogs that specialize in out-of-print records. Both blogs are excellent. You will see where I posted the links. I apologize, by the way, that the volume levels are not consistent. The American Anthem song is particularly low, but so worth it. Go, Mitch Gaylord, go.


Labelle - Are You Lonely?
Buy Nightbirds here

The Divine Comedy - Lonely at the Top
Buy some albums by The Divine Comedy. If I knew where you could buy this, I would tell you.

Twisted Nerve - When I'm Alone
From the Caught in Session single - I don't know where to get it

Kristoffer Ragnstam - Lonely Lane
Buy Sweet Bills here

Nick Garvey and George Hann - Love and Loneliness
Buy the American Anthem Original Soundrack here

Futurisk - Lonely Streets
From Player Piano 7" EP - I don't know where to get this either

Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone Again (Naturally)
Buy The Very Best of Gilbert O'Sullivan here

Dogs - Lonesome Hearts
Buy Different here

Skeeter Davis - Mine Is a Lonely Life
Buy The Essential Skeeter Davis here

The Godfathers - Lonely Man
Buy Hit by Hit here

House Party Show on Friday with My Teenage Stride

I can't go, but you should. I have to say that I never paid much attention to Pants Yell! before, but they sounded great at the NYC Popfest recently. Oh, go see The Pains of Being Pure at Heart too. It's Peggy Wang East's other band (She's also in The Metric Mile). I make note of her location, because I am seeing Peggy Wang West soon, I hope. Lastly, do I really need to stress the awesomeness of My Teenage Stride?

FRIDAY JUNE 15
9:00 pm
$5 (FREE + 1 w/ RSVP to KIPBERMAN@GMAIL.COM before 6:00 pm Thursday, June 14)

Pants Yell!
My Teenage Stride
A Sunny Day in Glasgow
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
DJ Maxwell Williams (Hugpatch)
+ KEGS, KEGS I SAY, KEGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ONLY $5! (GET A FREE + 1 w/ RSVP to KIPBERMAN@GMAIL.COM before 6:00 pm Thursday, June 14)

The Carriage House
1027 Grand St.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(off the GRAND St. L stop)
MAP TO PARTY
(you have to walk through the main doors, go to the courtyard and make a hard right to an ivy covered door to find the secret home of this most excellent party)

The 1900s play New York

I meant to post this a while ago, because The 1900s have been playing a few East Coast dates. It's too late for me to mention the gigs in DC and Philly, but they are playing tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday in Brooklyn.

Friday the 8th - Magnetic Field
Saturday the 9th - Union Hall

I wrote about The 1900s last year. They are delightful. I don't know why they haven't blown up in some huge way yet. They are playing Lollapalooza in their hometown of Chicago in August though.

I would post another mp3, but I think I'm gonna make a mix instead with the webspace. Eh, maybe not. Well, you can listen to the band at their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/1900s.

My Teenage Stride on tour with A Sunny Day In Glasgow

Ch-ch-ch-check it out! My Teenage Stride is going on tour with A Sunny Day in Glasgow, and you should go see them play. I have written about My Teenage Stride before on this blog. Oh yes, hello there. I am still alive. Yeah, it's been a while since I've written anything. Anyway, they are going to be driving a lot of miles, so go to their gigs and give them your money, ok? I mean, buy their record. You can randomly give them money too. Everyone likes random and unexpected money.

June 13 - Boston, MA - Great Scott (w/Hands & Knees)
June 14 - Brooklyn , NY - Union Hall (w/ Palomar)
June 15 - Brooklyn, NY - Bushwick Loft Party -- 1027 Grand St.
June 16 - Pittsburgh, PA - Brillobox
June 17 - Chicago , IL - South Union Arts
June 18 - Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Club (w/ White Jazz)
June 21 - Seattle, WA - Crocodile Club (w/ Arthur & Yu)
June 22 - Portland, OR - Towne Lounge (w/ Gingerbread Patriots)
June 23 - Davis, CA – Delta of Venus
June 24 - Los Angeles, CA - Pehrspace
June 25 - Tucson, AZ - Vaudeville
June 27 - Austin, TX - Mohawk
June 28 – New Orleans, LA - TBD
June 29 – Atlanta, GA - 11:11 Teahouse
June 30 - Athens, GA - Caledonia Lounge
July 1 - Chapel Hill - The Cave
July 2 - Washington, DC - DC9
July 3 - Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery
July 5 - Philadelphia - Johnny Brenda's
July 6 - New York, NY - Cake Shop

http://www.myteenagestride.com/

NY: Check it out tomorrow night

My Teenage Stride record release party

with The Secret History (ex-My Favorite)

Friday, March 2nd

Doors 8pm

$7

Cake Shop - 152 Ludlow Street, NYC

http://www.myteenagestride.com (click on the music tab for mp3s)

http://www.myspace.com/myteenagestride

The new MTS album, Ears Like Golden Bats, is out! Come see my friends Jed, Brett and Jeff play. I've written about My Teenage Stride on here a few times over the past couple of years. The new album is fantastic. It's nice to see Jed finally getting some recognition for his talent (via blog action and print articles). There are four bands on the bill tomorrow night. I don't know anything about Skybox, but one of the members of Hands and Knees, Scott, produced and engineered the new MTS album with Jed. I was supposed to write about Hands and Knees about a year and a half ago on this blog. I'm no good, no good at all.

This will be The Secret History's first gig, and if you don't already know, the band is basically My Favorite minus the lovely and sweet Andrea Vaughn. Or rather, 5/6 of My Favorite plus two girls equals The Secret History. Please don't mistake the slapdash and last minute nature of this post for lack of enthusiasm. This is going to be a great gig, so please come out. Yeah, I know I need to start posting again on this blog. When I actually have the time to write, I find that someone has already blogged about the same things I had planned. Then, I sit at my computer, and wave my fists in the air and curse the blog gods. And that flailing around is usually accompanied by some sounds that are kind of like, "AAAAAAAAARRHHHHHHHHH!" So yeah, more posts coming if I can get my crap together and decide that I don't care if my posts are redundant.

IDOLATOR: Feb 12, 2007, My Teenage Stride Gives Us The Chills Jedediah Smith is the Brooklyn-based songwriter behind the band My Teenage Stride, and listening to the band's third full-length, Ears Like Golden Bats, you have to wonder just how much time he's spent obsessing over the Trouser Press; Ears wears its influences like one-inch pins bearing the logos of Orange Juice and the Go-Betweens. We've been especially charmed by the haunting "Reversal" (think of what would happen if the Chills' "Pink Frost" were turned upside down) and the manic, pogo-worthy "Chock's Rally"

THE DELI MAGAZINE: Striding Towards a New Record and Release Party With perfectly plucky bass lines, shimmering guitar work, a drum groove that moves along at a sprinter's pace, and luscious harmonies, My Teenage Stride's "To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge" is the perfect kind of song to convince you that you may not be as old as you think you are…which is good. Most folks have probably wasted a bit of time pining for lost days that have since passed them by. And I can't imagine Jedediah Smith, leader of the Brooklyn outfit, is an exception. But with his extremely recognizable guitar pop… no doubt the grand result of long evenings where The Kinks, The Velvet Underground, Joy Division, The Smiths, and Belle and Sebastian wore out the needle of his turntable… Smith and his band mates churn out the kind of classic kitsch that should have you feeling like there are plenty of glory days still to come. One such day, March 2nd, the band will be showing off new tunes from their forth-coming release Ears Like Golden Bats (Becalmed Records) at The Cakeshop. - David Pitz

BIG TAKEOVER: January 21, 2007, DAVE HEATON’S TOP TEN 1. My Teenage Stride – Ears Like Golden Bats (Becalmed)The best 2007 album I’ve heard yet – smart, funny, stylish, catchy indie-pop.

Urgh redux

Especially since I didn't have time (or energy - me sick plus my eyes are all swollen so I look like I have been crying for three days) to write anything substantive about Urgh! A Music War in my last post, I wanted to direct you to Bill's nice entry on the documentary. I was wondering the same thing as him about what version of the film they will show tonight. I am hoping it's not heavily edited.

If you like the Klaus Nomi section, I would recommend renting The Nomi Song as well. There is a very interesting part where they talk about Nomi filming his segment for Urgh! A Music War.

Oh, and regarding the whole TV show conflict thing, if you were planning on watching the new Cracker movie with Robbie Coltrane on BBC America. BBC America repeats their primetime programming after midnight usually. I wish more channels would do that.

If you were planning on watching Two and a Half Men, I don't think I want to help you. Oh, I kid, I kid. Who doesn't love Duckie and Melanie Lynskey?

Urgh! A Music War on VH1 Classic tomorrow night

Yeah, hi there. I know I haven't posted in quite a while. I don't know who is still checking this blog. I hope to be posting more regularly soon, but we can discuss that later. More importantly, VH1 Classic is showing "Urgh! A Music War" on tomorrow (Monday) night at 9pm. I can't tell from VH1 Classic's website if they will be repeating it after that, so I would say catch it if you can. If you don't have dvr and you feel the need to watch "Heroes", nbc.com streams the current episode after it airs plus the Sci-Fi channel reruns that week's episode at 7pm on Friday. If you have a conflict with another show, email me directly and maybe I can help you out. I'm like a human TV Guide, man. If you have a large social calendar and won't be home tomorrow night, well, good for you. I guess you are just better than me, eh? I have added two links below in case you haven't heard of the film. If I had more time, I would give more background.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urgh!_A_Music_War
http://www.urgh-dvd.com/



photos taken from:
http://www.kristianhoffman.com/recordings.htm
http://www.urgh-dvd.com/urgh-gallery.html

Cambridge, MA: Shepherdess plays with Beirut tomorrow night

Saturday, August 26th

The Critique of Pure Reason and The Middle East Present
Beirut (Ba Da Bing Rec.)
Get Him Eat Him (Absolutely Kosher Records)
The Curtains (Asthmatic Kitty Records)
Shepherdess

at The Middle East Downstairs
$12
18+

Tri-state people, go see Shepherdess. My friend Emily of the bands The Operators and The Tricunx plays the violin. Here is a mp3 from the band's myspace page. Actually there is no violin that I can hear on this track, but you should still download it. Shepherdess is fronted by Hilken Mancini of the bands Fuzzy and The Count Me Outs.

The Feeling - North American tour dates

We're very pleased to announce that The Feeling will be playing the following 16 US/Canadian dates in October.

OCTOBER
8th - Seattle, Crocodile Café
9th - Portland, Berbati’s Pan
11th - San Francisco, Café Du Nord
12th - West Hollywood, Key Club
14th - Denver, Hi Dive
16th - Minneapolis, Varsity Theatre
17th - Aragon, Ballroom - supporting The Fray
18th - Grand Rapids, Deltaplex - supporting The Fray
19th -Detroit, State Theatre - supporting The Fray
21st - Toronto, Kool Haus -supporting The Fray
22nd - Montreal, Le Spectrum - supporting The Fray
23rd - Boston, Orpheum Theatre - supporting The Fray
25th - New York, Hammerstein Ballroom - supporting The Fray
26th - New York, Hammerstein Ballroom -supporting The Fray
27th - Philadelphia. Electric Factory - supporting The Fray
28th - Washington DC, DAR Constitution Hall - supporting The Fray.

Write up about their previous NY gig found on Bill's site with a hot mp3. Some not so hot photos taken on the Treo found on my flickr account.

Sparkle Motion this Saturday

Brooklyn: Tomorrow night

Oppenheimer
The Metric Mile
Saturday, August 5th
9pm
702 Union Street at Fifth Avenue, Park Slope
$6

Directions:
R train to Union Street. Walk 1 block east. F train to 4th Avenue. Walk north on 4th Ave and turn right on Union Street. 1 block up.
Q, 2, 3, 4, 5 trains to Atlantic Avenue. Walk south on 5th Ave. Make a left on Union Street.

Elmo's parents

I'm so not kidding. That's his dad and his mom. The Sesame Workshop produced a dvd to help military families talk to kids about deployment. I guess Elmo's dad is going overseas or something. I suppose it could be his mom, but his dad's is wearing a tracksuit...which means, um, nothing. My powers of deduction are pretty weak. My sister and I started discussing how a tan muppet and a red muppet could have produced Elmo, who is purely red. However, my sister thinks muppet genetics may be different than human genetics, which cracked me up.

Life on Mars starts tonight

Check out "Life on Mars" on BBC America tonight. I would have posted a picture from the series, but Blogger is $&#**#^&$&#

Three reasons to at least watch the first episode:

1) John Simm is the lead, and he's a very likeable actor. I think he's grand. You may recognize him from when he played Bernard Sumner in 24 Hour Party People. He was fantastic in the BBC mini-series "State of Play". I highly recommend keeping an eye out for a repeat airing of this on BBC America or a possible dvd release. John Simm was also in Human Traffic if that helps. He was in a straight-to-dvd/cable movie with Christina Ricci called Miranda. I hate Christina Ricci in that movie. However, Julian Rhind-Tutt from "Keen Eddie" and "Green Wing" was also in the cast, so it's not all bad. John Simm appeared in probably the best episode of "The Canterbury Tales" adaptations with Keeley Hawes and Chiwetel Ejiofor. I think the first time I saw John Simm was in Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland, a very beautiful and sad film, and not in anyway related to the Wonderland starring Val Kilmer as John Holmes.

2) David E. Kelley bought the U.S. rights to "Life on Mars", which means he will be creating a U.S. version very soon. He's going to muck it up. I'm not a huge David E. Kelley fan. I will watch his shows some of the time, because he does have a knack for using interesting character actors. He tends to write outrageous material, and I think a lot of actors are attracted to that, even if it is just a guest spot. Those kinds of roles are fun to play, and get you noticed and possibly nominated for awards. However, I think Kelley always casts too many actors in his shows, and then doesn't know what to do with them. I also think he is more interested in being shocking than being true. He always ruins his own shows.

3) It takes place in 1973, so, you know, good music and fashion...

Sam Tyler (John Simm), a cool, sharp young detective, is working hard to keep the streets of 21st century Manchester safe from crime. But his world is turned upside down when the hunt for a serial killer becomes a personal vendetta after Maya (Archie Panjabi, The Constant Gardener), his girlfriend and colleague, goes missing. Desperately afraid she has been kidnapped by the killer, he sets out to find her, only to become involved in a near-fatal car accident. When he wakes, he finds himself in a different era - 1973. Is this reality, madness or a dream? Sam struggles to understand what is happening to him.

Disoriented and traumatized, 21st century Sam is completely bewildered by his new environment. As all attempts to return to his own time fail, Sam falls back on what he knows best - his job. Each episode features a different case, some of the toughest Sam has ever tried to solve - partly because of what seems like archaic police procedure. This is a world without cell phones, where cops rely on paperwork and memory instead of computers, there's no DNA profiling and what forensics do exist take two weeks to process.

Furthermore, his 1973 colleagues are insensitive, unreconstructed cops who regularly intimidate witnesses and are happy to nail suspects irrespective of whether they have evidence. Sam's new boss is hard-nosed Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), the antithesis of everything Sam believes in. He gets results by trusting his gut instinct and, all too often, sheer brute force. Most of his team have similar attitudes towards their work including detective Ray Carling (Dean Andrews) who is suspicious of Sam and his 'new-fangled' ideas. At least detective Chris Skelton (Marshall Lancaster, Clocking Off), despite being clueless, is more affable and keen to learn.

The only person in this alien world who reaches out to Sam is a young police officer, Annie Cartwright (Liz White, The Street), an educated and open-minded woman who helps Sam in his quest to find the truth about his new circumstances, as well as battling to lock up the criminals of 1970s Manchester.

In the first episode, it becomes clear to Sam that the killer who is holding Maya in 2006 started his killing spree here and now in the early '70s. Could catching the perpetrator be Sam's key to returning to the future?

Another show tonight

Tonight, Wednesday July 19th
8pm
The Besties, The Metric Mile, Shumai and Lil' Hospital
Tommy's Tavern
1041 Manhattan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
718-383-9699



Sorry for the last-minute notice, but it's sure to be a lovely evening of twee pop.

Brooklyn: Friday night

www.magneticbrooklyn.com

Tune: Song of Ultraman

Misuzu Children's Choir - Song of Ultraman

I noticed that the first volume of Ultraman: Series One was released yesterday. There seems to be a lot of complaints about this particular release. Honestly, I know next nothing about Ultraman. I just like the theme song. It's super catchy. A big bear complained I only post pop music on here, but he's wrong.

The Feeling play NY tomorrow night

I have a ticket to see The Feeling tomorrow night at The Mercury Lounge. If I can just fight off this bug, I'm going. Anyone else gonna be there?

I like this review from Harmonium:

Several years ago, The Feeling were little more than a ski-resort cover band in the French Alps. Now, they’re British pop-rock architects, having left the snowy slopes behind in favor of b-b-baby’s, na na na’s, and other pop-tastic building tools. Twelve Stops and Home is what they’ve constructed, and debut albums rarely sound this precise.

In the vein of Supertramp (and, more recently, The Darkness and Scissor Sisters), The Feeling are unapologetically happy. Their hook-laden songs bop and bounce around Dan Gillespie Sells’ voice, and the multi-part harmonies evoke ELO without making the listener laugh. Even the bittersweet Sunday-afternoon-strut of “Kettle’s On” and “Sewn” sounds optimistic when filtered through the band’s British poise. And then there’s the really happy tracks – “I Want You Now,” “Never Be Lonely,” “Fill My Little World” – which burn through pop-rock tricks like the entire Beatles catalogue on fire. Apparently, The Feeling learned a lot from their cover-band days, and Home often sounds better than the bands they used to emulate.

Two of the album’s best tracks have already topped the U.K. Singles Chart. It’s hard to say if these sugary riffs will find a place on American radio, but does it matter? It’s rare that pop songwriting is this tight, this genuine, and actually written by the band. The Feeling’s off to a great start here, and Twelve Stops and Home is one of the best pop-rock albums in recent memory.

http://www.myspace.com/thefeeling
http://www.thefeeling.com/

I feel I may resemble a certain well-known blogger here by simply pasting what someone else wrote, and not writing anything of my own.

Not my pictures

My sister returned from a trip to Israel about a week and a half ago. I've never been to Israel. She went with a group to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. Obviously, considering recent events, I am glad her trip ended when it did. Our cousin lives in Haifa, so she had dinner with him one night on the beach. It looks like a really beautiful city. I am not going to use my blog to talk about the political situation right now. It's not something I feel comfortable writing about for a variety of reasons, but my sister let me post some of her landscape photos so people can "see the beauty of the country just about now and that it's not all about bombs, guns, etc."

Port of Haifa

Bahai Gardens in Haifa

Sunset on the beach in Haifa

Jerusalem

Atop Masada

Sunrise from Masada

RIP June Allyson

I remember my mom dropping us off some weekends when my sister and I were kids to go see movies at some place in Concord. I can't recall if it was a library or not. They used to show films like Pippi Longstocking, Pollyanna and Little Women, the later version with June Allyson as Jo. I don't think I saw the earlier George Cukor version with Katherine Hepburn until later, so I always kind of think of June Allyson as Jo March. Ha, I just realized that I was watching Little Women in the town where Louisa May Alcott grew up. Oh, and speaking of Pollyanna, I sat next to Haley Mills recently at the theatre.

June Allyson had this very raspy voice, and they kept casting her in musicals. I have a cassette of the Words and Music soundtrack that I listened to a lot as a teenager, and there are some nice musicals on there like Lena Horne singing "The Lady is a Tramp" and Judy Garland performing "Johnny One Note". Then along comes June Allyson singing "Thou Swell". The actual song is a cute Rodgers and Hart tune, but her voice sounds like a bleating sheep. I suppose it was a bit endearing.

Most people probably know June Allyson as the lady from the Depends commercials. I actually didn't know much about her life until I read the New York Times obituary.

June Allyson, Adoring Wife in MGM Films, Is Dead at 88

By ALJEAN HARMETZ

June Allyson, whose perky wholesomeness made her the perfect girlfriend in a series of MGM musicals during the 1940’s and the perfect screen wife during the 1950’s, died on Saturday at her home in Ojai, Calif. She was 88.

Her death was announced yesterday by her daughter, Pamela Allyson Powell. The cause was pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis, she told The Associated Press.

Cheerful, blonde and petite but with a husky voice, Miss Allyson turned from chorus girl into movie star when she melted into the arms of Van Johnson in “Two Girls and a Sailor” in 1944. For the next decade, Miss Allyson and Mr. Johnson were a romantic team, co-starring in “High Barbaree” (1947), “The Bride Goes Wild” (1948), “Too Young to Kiss” (1951), and “Remains to Be Seen” (1953).

She also starred twice opposite Robert Walker — in “Her Highness and the Bellboy” (1945) and “The Sailor Takes a Wife” (1946) — and played a bouncy Jo March in MGM’s glossy 1949 remake of “Little Women.”

By 1950, Miss Allyson had made the segue from adoring girlfriend to devoted wife. She was happy to leave musicals behind. Although she had started in the chorus on Broadway, she told an interviewer in 1951: “I couldn’t dance, and, Lord knows, I couldn’t sing, but I got by somehow. Richard Rodgers was always keeping them from firing me.”

She was the steadfast wife of James Stewart’s one-legged baseball player in “The Stratton Story” (1949); the widow left behind by Mr. Stewart’s bandleader in “The Glenn Miller Story” (1953); the worried wife of Mr. Stewart’s baseball player recalled to active duty in “Strategic Air Command” (1955); and the understanding wife who loses Alan Ladd’s jet pilot to honor and duty in “The McConnell Story ( 1955).

In “Executive Suite” (1954), she assured her husband, played by William Holden, who was vying for president of the Tredway Corporation, “Darling, if it’s something you really want, that’s all that’s important to either of us.”

Ms. Allyson was always modest about her star power. “Women identify with me,” she said in a 1986 intervew, “and while men desire Cyd Charisse, they’d take me home to meet Mom.”

When Miss Allyson tried to move beyond Peter Pan collars and sugary characters as the harsh and nasty woman who pushes her husband (José Ferrer) into a nervous breakdown in “The Shrike“ (1955), her acting was praised but audiences refused to accept her, and the movie was a box-office failure.

June Allyson was born Ella Geisman on Oct. 7, 1917, in the Bronx. Her alcoholic father skipped out when she was 6 months old. When she was 8, she was crushed by a falling tree limb while riding a bicycle. After four years in a back brace, she taught herself to dance by watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies.

The expensive therapy the injuries required tumbled the Geisman family out of genteel poverty into desperation. In her 1982 autobiography, “June Allyson,” written with Frances Spatz Leighton, Miss Allyson said she and her mother were forced to move countless times. The best months were when her mother had a job in a restaurant, she wrote, “because sometimes she could bring home food.”

Recovering from her injuries, she tried out for and won a chorus job in a 1938 Broadway revue, “Sing Out the News,” taking the name June (for the month) Allyson. Between 1938 and 1941, Miss Allyson sang and danced in several Broadway shows, including “Very Warm for May,” “Higher and Higher” and “Panama Hattie.” As understudy to Betty Hutton, who played the comedy lead in “Panama Hattie,” Miss Allyson took over the part for five performances when Miss Hutton came down with measles. In a plot development worthy of an MGM musical, the producer George Abbott saw her performance and offered her a small featured role in his next musical, “Best Foot Forward.” MGM bought the movie rights to the musical, and Miss Allyson was invited to Hollywood to play her role on screen. She stayed at MGM for 11 years and 25 movies.

“The only parental authority I had was the studio,” Miss Allyson said in 1972. “When I was a star, there was always somebody with me, to guard me. I was not allowed to be photographed with a cigarette, a drink, a cup of coffee or even a glass of water because someone might think it was liquor. When I left the studio I was already married and had two children, but I felt as sad as a child leaving home for the first time.”

A second-tier star at a studio that prided itself on owning “more stars than there are in heaven,“ Miss Allyson defied the studio boss Louis B. Mayer in only one thing. She fell in love with the married movie star Dick Powell. Mr. Powell divorced his wife, the actress Joan Blondell, and married Miss Allyson in 1945, despite Mr. Mayer’s opposition. Although the marriage was rocky at times — Miss Allyson once filed for divorce — it lasted until Mr. Powell’s death from cancer in 1963 at age 58. In her autobiography she touched on her struggle with alcoholism after Mr. Powell’s death.

Miss Allyson and Mr. Powell co-starred in two mediocre movies in 1950, “The Reformer and the Redhead” and “Right Cross.” Miss Allyson recalled being told that because of her childhood accident, she would never be able to have children, so she and Mr. Powell adopted a baby girl, Pamela, in 1948. Two years later, she gave birth to a son, Richard.

Pamela Allyson Powell now lives in Santa Monica, Calif. Richard, of Los Angeles, also survives Miss Allyson, as does her husband, David Ashrow, a dentist whom she married in 1976. A previous marriage, to Mr. Powell’s hairdresser, Glenn Maxwell, in 1963, the year Mr. Powell died, ended in divorce.

Miss Allyson’s film career had petered out in the late 1950’s with a remake of “My Man Godfrey “ (1957) opposite David Niven, and a sudsy Ross Hunter melodrama “A Stranger in My Arms” (1959). From 1959 to 1961, she was host of and occasionally starred in “The DuPont Show With June Allyson,” a dramatic anthology on CBS. After replacing Julie Harris as the star of “40 Carats” on Broadway and touring for a year in a revival of “No, No Nanette,” she returned to the screen and to MGM in 1972 as a lesbian murderess in “They Only Kill Their Masters.” She also appeared on “Love Boat,” “Murder, She Wrote” and other television shows.

In 1985 she became the national spokeswoman for Depend, a diaper for adults with incontinence. Still wearing her trademark pageboy hairdo, she broke one of the last taboos by bringing this uncomfortable subject into the nation’s living rooms by way of television commercials.

Writing about Miss Allyson’s autobiography in The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote: “Miss Allyson presents herself as the same sunny, tomboyish figure she played on screen. Even the tough parts of her life — the death of her husband Dick Powell and her subsequent bout with alcoholism — are described in a relatively blithe manner.” Ms. Maslin added that Miss Allyson sounded “like someone who has come to inhabit the very myths she helped to create on the screen.”

New York Times

So I know I haven't posted a ton lately, and when I do, it's usually NYC-centric or just pictures or a mp3. I am planning on writing more. I have been feeling kind of unmotivated, which, if you know me, isn't that unusual. I still watch a ton of TV, and always plan to write about the stuff I watch. It's probably easier for me to talk about TV, film and theatre than music, anyway. I could talk about TV all day, highbrow and lowbrow stuff. I wouldn't know how to write a regular review. I would just mention things:

I've been meaning to point out how BBC America is running episodes of "Spaced" at 11pm at least twice a week. If people only know Simon Pegg from Shaun of the Dead, they are missing out.

I could mention that "Project Runway" is starting another cycle tomorrow, even though it seems like we just saw Chloe win Season 2.

We could talk about that new show on Showtime on "Brotherhood", which wasn't bad at all.

Someone could explain why I find the preposterous "Rock Star: Supernova" fascinating to watch, even though it's a train wreck. Dilana and Lukas Rossi were good, but everyone else was painful.

I could agree with all the articles about how "Rescue Me" seems like a show written by men for men, and that it crossed the line into misogyny way before the infamous "Tommy forces himself on his estranged wife" scene. I could then explain why I still watch the show despite its faults.

I could write about how I like "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" on BBC America, but can't stomach the other show on TV featuring Gordon Ramsay, "Hell's Kitchen" on Fox.

We could talk about the upcoming fall TV shows.

Or the Emmy nominations.

Maybe I will write more in depth about these later.

Siren Festival After-Party

Saturday, 7/15
10pm
UNION HALL
702 Union St @ 5th Ave, Park Slope, Brooklyn
Free
DJ French Toast spinning with friends Torquil from Stars and members of Dirty on Purpose

Tintin

PBS schedules tend to vary depending on your local affiliate station, but "P.O.V." is supposed to have a documentary tonight at 10pm about Tintin.

Why does the comic strip The Adventures of Tintin, about an intrepid boy reporter, continue to fascinate us decades after its publication? "Tintin and I" highlights the potent social and political underpinnings that give Tintin's world such depth, and delves into the mind of Hergé, Tintin's work-obsessed Belgian creator, to reveal the creation and development of Tintin.
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2006/tintinandi/

Brooklyn: Show this Friday 7/14

Has anyone missed Michigan J. Frog?

The WB will end its life with a look back at some of its biggest hits, re-airing the pilots of several of its signature shows one last time before ending its 11-year existence.

The network, which along with UPN will be folded into The CW in the fall, will treat viewers to showings of the first episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Dawson's Creek," "Felicity" and "Angel" on Sunday, Sept. 17, its final night on the air, Variety reports. The CW is scheduled to sign on the next night.

"How do you end a network? This will be an homage to our shows," WB Chairman Garth Ancier tells the trade paper.

WB affiliates cede five hours of airtime, from 5 to 10 p.m. ET, to the network on Sunday nights, so airing the four pilots ("Buffy's" first installment ran two hours) won't be a problem. The night will begin with the first episode of "Felicity," followed by "Angel" and the two-hour "Buffy" debut. The premiere of "Dawson's Creek," which had the longest run on The WB of any of the four shows -- six seasons -- will end things at 9 p.m.

("Buffy" ran for seven seasons, but the final two aired on UPN after The WB and 20th Century Fox, which produced the series, came to an impasse over the show's license fee.)

Shows like "Gilmore Girls" and "7th Heaven," which have also enjoyed long runs on The WB, won't be part of the look back since they're continuing on The CW in the fall.

The final night, which will also include a look back at the network's promotional history -- including the resurrection of long-time network mascot Michigan J. Frog -- was a little tricky to put together, since rights to most of the shows currently rest in the hands of other networks. Ancier tells Variety that The WB will air promos for the cable airings of the shows, along with spots hawking the DVD sets for each series to appease the studios that made them.
(Zap2It.com)

Tonight in NYC

DeLUXE *..................... is back again this Thursday!

Join DR MAZ and very special guest DJ SOJU (Club Par Avion) for one fantastic night of indiepop, britpop, & french pop! Come get your DeLuxe birthday cupcakes!

This is a VERY SPECIAL ONE-YEAR BIRTHDAY of DeLuxe * - we are thrilled to have guest DJ SOJU from the global supercool CLUB PAR AVION gracing the decks! Club Par Avion is a dance craze of sensational and entirely seductive Global Indie Clubpop, Indiepop, Cutepop, 60's Twist and yé-yé! from Japan, Spain, France, Hong Kong, Mexico, Germany, China and Bollywood, conductive to dancefloor exuberance and flirtacious alcoholic consumption.
See for yourself - www.clubparavion.com

When
thursday! june 29th @ 9 pm
Where
lolita bar 266 broome st ( @ allen st)
lower east side, nyc
www.lolitabar.net
* FREE FREE FREE!*

be our friend @ www.myspace.com/deluxenyc

UPCOMING INDIE POP GOODNESS
MONDO - NYC's best indie dance party on Friday, JULY 7th!
More @ www.mondo-nyc.com!