Bloomberg's automated water meters and The Brooklyn Brewery's new plans

Mayor Bloomberg made an announcement last Tuesday about his plans to launch a program aimed at installing automated water meters on all city properties, and Williamsburg’s own Brooklyn Brewery was one of the guinea pigs. The main purpose: more accurate water billing.

The mayor claims that the initiative will save city dwellers and businesses money because the new machines will more precisely measure water use and provide faster news about leaks or problems. The meters will contain transmitters that, every six hours, will identify water usage.

The Brooklyn Brewery, which already pays about $12,000 a year for its water usage, does not expect its water costs to go down, however. Founder Steve Hindy says that he is looking to expand the business by moving to a larger facility (while also escaping the rising costs of its current location on North 11th Street, near McCarren Park). Another possibility for The Brooklyn Brewery: a possible beer garden.

If Hindy puts forth the water dough, I’ll pitch in by visiting his beer garden.

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Wavves – Wavves

DJ Hardcore Makeout and DJ Skinny Naked Baby: Every Other Friday at Sweet Ups

“Spinning” tracks as a DJ has taken on a new meaning – as long as you can handle spinning the wheel on your iPod. For two New York University students, that’s just the way to do it. Williamsburg bar Sweet Ups allows these two fledgling DJs to showcase their music collections without making them dust off the old vinyl in the attic.

DJ Hardcore Makeout, otherwise known as Kristen Mukai, performs with her partner, DJ Skinny Naked Baby, every other Friday night at the Williamsburg staple. Sweet Ups, located at 277 Graham Ave., is well known throughout the ‘Burg of the borough. The two DJs have made it a home for their bi-monthly gigs.

“My friend and I made up our names one night as a joke, but then we actually became DJs,” DJ Hardcore Makeout said. “And we have shorter versions too. I’m DJ Homo and she’s DJ Snob.”

The two girls play everything and almost anything. You might hear some Joy Division, maybe a Beyonce song, some old punk or blues, indie-rock, classic rock, a French chanteuse, some random Italian pop song, or whatever they happen to be into that night. One thing is for sure: they always play Mariah Carey.

“Oh, we love Mariah,” DJ Hardcore Makeout said. “We generally play her ‘Fantasy’ remix with [Ol' Dirty Bastard] because that’s a crowd pleaser. There are some artists we play every time, like Metronomy or Late of the Pier. And Snob loves Aaliyah.”

Is there anything they won’t play?

“MGMT,” DJ Hardcore Makeout said. “We will never play MGMT.”

Why not? DJ gig regular Anita Stahl clarifies: “You can hear MGMT at any club in Manhattan. People love it, but everyone plays it. DJs Snob and Homo like to play stuff that you haven't heard, or something you may have forgotten about. But they always play music that is sure to get the crowd moving.”

According to DJ Hardcore Makeout, the two girls got the gig one night when the bar was empty. DJ Skinny Naked Baby took out her iPod and requested that the bartender play it for them and their friends – the sole customers. Turns out the bartender was really into their music and offered them a trial performance. Since then, they have established their every-other-Friday set and have become part of the Sweet Ups family.

“It really is a family here,” Stahl said. “People come from Manhattan to Sweet Ups, just to revel in the culture that this tiny place has established. DJs Snob and Homo pull a lot of normal Manhattanites out here. It’s a great place to be.”

And on those Friday night gigs, DJs Skinny Naked Baby and Hardcore Makeout sit at the end of the bar with their mixer and their iPods, bobbing their heads and shouting when a personal favorite comes on next.

“We know what people like here, but we don’t cater to anybody in particular,” DJ Hardcore Makeout said. “We just play what will sound good next, or what will keep the bar pumping. It just so happens that people love what we do.”

The bar itself is a gem, too.

The wallpaper is dimly lit, and a red-wine colored pattern that looks half-Victorian and half-grandpa’s den brings out a deep maroon glow to the entire scene. Employees scatter candles across the bar to extend the glowy effect. Maybe it’s the lighting, or the liquor serving as a social lubricant, but everyone seems to get along here.

“It’s our music,” DJ Hardcore Makeout said, half-joking. “Our music puts everyone in a good mood. I hope! I mean, beats. We got ‘em. You want ‘em!”

The wallpaper under dim lighting at Sweet Ups
Photo from www.jaunted.com

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Solid Gold – Who You Gonna Run To?

Brooklyn in Tokyo

I left my mark on Tokyo! BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

I just came back from a nine-day trip to Japan, including Kyoto and Tokyo. Independence Bar in Asakusa (an area in the north-east side of the capital) is something to see. It was a gem among dive bars, like something you might find in Williamsburg around the Lorimer or Graham L train stops.

Independence has cheap beers – at least in comparison to the other parts of the city. Happy hour runs from 10-12 and the two lovely little Japanese girls who own/run the place will churn out both good and bad hip hop until dawn. Hell, they'll even let you DJ off of youtube if you want. They asked us to tag their billboard and the huge barrels they had. So, I did. Several times.

If you ever go there, tell them I say hi.

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Bat For Lashes – Prescilla

A Personal Narrative of Drugs and Youth and 9/11

I guess the events of 9/11 will always be fuzzy in my mind. Not fuzzy because of confusion or disillusionment, but fuzzy because I have never had a clear idea of what happened there. I visited the site a week ago and took a walking audio tour of the surrounding areas, a program run by the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, to get a better idea of the tragedy.

On September 11, 2001, two hijacked planes hurtled into the two World Trade Center towers in downtown Manhattan. It was an apparently coordinated suicide attack by al-Qaeda. An estimated 2,749 people were murdered that day.

All that is clear to me. They are the basic facts. But, when this happened, I was all the way in Los Angeles, just waking up to a normal school day. I was in the eighth grade.

Anything that happens when you’re 13 is less important than you are. And years later, even the most vivid memories always seem to glaze over with uncertain details and missing bits. The only memories I have from that day are as follows:

My parents called to wake me up for school. Our family had just added a second phone line to our house, one for the kids, one for the adults. A ringing phone was my alarm clock.

One parent (I can’t even remember which) said: “Good morning, it’s time to get up for school. Oh, and a plane just hit the World Trade Center.”

Fuzzy from sleep, that meant nothing to me. Even passing by the television to the kitchen for breakfast didn’t thrill me; I was 13. And I had never even known what those two towers were. I had only seen them in pictures.

After that, things blur again. I remember that our teachers weren’t allowed to show the news to us during school hours, and I remember the image of the smoking towers and the scrolling news lines. But that’s about it. The rest is lost in my 13-year-old mind.

Last week, when I went to the WTC site, I was drugged up, and not on purpose. I had been really sick during the previous days and was trying to clear my lungs by using Mucinex. But, of course, I’m one of those rare cases that experiences stronger-than-normal side effects with this particular drug and I was actually high. Lightheaded. Confused. Blurry eyed. And fuzzy.


So, even though I had an emotive voice narrating the whole event from start to finish, I could hardly concentrate. The $10 tour seems obscure and distant to me now. My notes from the day are scribbles of quotes and random details. I was tipsy! I could hardly walk straight! How was I supposed to take in the enormity of the tales and tragedies displayed before me?

All I know for sure is what anyone can see there right now: that the remains of 9/11 are a sad and unfortunate shadow of what used to tower triumphantly into the sky.

But I look at it another way. The remains are beautiful. And on a sunny day, you can see the beautiful reflection of the sun bouncing off the glass buildings surrounding the site, while cranes and rusty metal arch in front of them, indicating the rebuilding of a new monument, a new downtown, a new America and (we hope) a new world.

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Julie Doiron – Will You Still Love Me In . . .

Book Review: Pete Hamill's "Downtown: My Manhattan"

Pete Hamill knows New York. There’s no arguing that. His book Downtown: My Manhattan, first published in 2004, is a crash-course in New York history and culture, both for natives and outsiders. He skillfully blends nostalgia with New York now, giving readers history while making his present-day activities somehow relevant.


The son of Irish immigrants, Hamill incorporates his own Brooklyn-born past with the immigrant tale. He takes readers on a walking tour of his downtown, pulling us from Battery Park to Times Square (and beyond!). He weaves through history, narrating the Knickerbocker tale, revealing Herman Melville’s Pearl Street birthplace, reporting the mysterious appearance of the angry bull in front of the Stock Exchange and telling about the founding of the Village Voice. There’s just so much to take in!

Nostalgia is key, mostly because of the constant loss – and acceptance of loss – that New Yorkers face every day. Hell, I become nostalgic for New York’s past, and I have only lived here a few years.

His style is conversational, but still eloquent. His stories are informed and sentimental, and they add context to a city that over eight million people call home – eight million people who probably know little about its amazing story.

The only drawback of the book is that the reading can sometimes become tiresome or heavy. This is not because of Hamill himself, mind you, but because of constant facts and historical details that weigh down the narrative at times. Well, sometimes it's Hamill's fault. He gets a bit too sentimental every once in a while, which might distract readers (like me). But it isn’t long before he makes his next reference to the film Black Orpheus or to playwright Harold Pinter or some other fascinating detail, pulling readers back into the glorious past of New York.

It’s a good read, definitely. Still, not as good as Miroslav Sasek’s children’s book, This Is New York.

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Telepathe – So Fine

"Orpheus and Eurydice" by the Brooklyn Repertory Opera + special depression ticket prices!

You may have just lost your job — but the last thing you want to sacrifice is your opera tickets.

But next week, thanks to the Brooklyn Repertory Opera, you won’t have to, as the mostly volunteer-run company offers the unemployed a $5 ticket to “Orpheus and Eurydice.”

Read the rest of my story at The Brooklyn Paper site here.

(Yeah, it's not in Williamsburg, but hey – that's pretty cool. I am definitely going to try to check it out, if only because the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice is one of my favourites!)

And, speaking of Orpheus and Eurydice, here's a clip from one of my favourite films, based off that tale. It's a Brazilian film: Black Orpheus.

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Asobi Seksu – Nefi and Girly

Self-Guided Graffiti Tour in the Burg

Who doesn't love vandalism? Last month, I took a self-guided tour of graffiti in the Burg.

The great thing about graffiti in Williamsburg is that it adds so much to the environment. Banksy-esque stencils of giraffes and old radio sets, little and big, can be found emerging in between cafés and vintage stores. Bedford's bricks are decoratively painted, but the most interesting pieces are beyond that main street.

Far from Bedford, there is a clump of works by a group called Mötug (Monsters of the Undaground). This area is a bit less welcoming, probably because it has less life to its streets and a few huge warehouses. One warehouse, on the corner of Keap and Hope streets, is full to the brim with graffiti. The colors are brilliant and blended so artistically – blue splattered on a red base with a yellow band across the top.

And imperfections are not bad. With posters, excess glue comes out of the sides. Painted graffiti sometimes has chips in the paint revealing an under layer of slightly faded, older graffiti. Pictures of geishas, subway trains, angels, break-dancers and more cover the walls in an artistic way. It's much different than when a kid with a can of spray paint just scribbles his name.

It's not so much a feeling of vandalism; it's more about art and community. Graffiti in Williamsburg lies interspersed with local gems – restaurants, bars, shops and cafes – and adds flavor rather than "vandalism" to the area.

Posters splattered with paint. (A secondary thought?)

My friend Anita in front of the Keap/Hope warehouse.


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Appaloosa – The Day (We Fell In Love)

Review: Tapes 'n Tapes at Music Hall of Williamsburg

Tapes 'n Tapes played to a full and energetic crowd at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Feb. 26. I was lucky enough to be there to photograph the show.

See my review on the Washington Square News blog here. (Right now, there is a grammatical error that wasn't my fault. I emailed my editor, so he should fix it soon.)

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Love Is All – Last Choice