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Seva Granik Tells Us About His New Berlin-Themed Warehouse Party

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Screen shot 2013-04-03 at 6.30.34 PM.pngYou might want to brush up on your ability to sprechen deutsch -- or at least learn how to say "drop the bass" in German (we think it might be "werfen die bass"?) -- because a massive Berlin-themed warehouse party called SHADE: Berlin is invading Bushwick this Saturday. Expert promoters and NYC nightlife fixtures Seva Granik and Ladyfag are the dynamos behind the event, which will feature DJ sets by Fatherhood, Gavin Russom, Wrecked and Veronica Vasicka. We spoke to Granik about the party, which he told us would be the "biggest of my little career," his opinion about how the DIY warehouse scene has been portrayed on Girls and where he thinks New York's nightlife epicenter will be in twenty years.

Tell us about Shade: Berlin. It's going to be the first in a series?


Yes. We're going to do the party whenever we can. It'll be the same space for each party because we found a fantastic space in Brooklyn that loved the idea and is going to let us come back. It's a privately-owned warehouse space in Bushwick that's been built out really well, which allows for private areas and corners for people to get away to and also a giant main dance space, a VIP area, a mezzanine and a bar space. It's really one of the best DIY spaces I've seen in a really long time.

I know the location is secret, but how did you come across the space?

By virtue of doing events constantly, you have things thrown into your lap. People constantly reach out to you because the second a new venue comes on the market, people pile on top of it and the people who run the venue [want to] reach out to well-known and reputable promoters to work on the DL to make sure it doesn't get blown out of proportion.

We're not trying to be coy about [the location] but there's been this recent wave of shutdowns of off-the-grid events and I've been led to believe that a lot of legal local clubs and parties are the ones calling the cops. Other parties feel threatened or think they're in competition, so they call the police.

That's so interesting and mafia-like that other promoters or club owners call the cops on rivals.

There are rumors going around about a club that recently opened in Williamsburg doing that. They're trying to get other parties shut down so their income and draw increases. I've also heard that about one other specific traveling party, which is curious that this traveling party is calling the cops on everyone else because they're also at independent spaces so they're inviting a lot of shade, basically. It's par for the course these days but it wasn't the case several years ago.

Why do you think that's changed?

In clubland, that's always been the case. Even back in the '80s and '90s with Palladium and The Tunnel and Limelight -- people who used to run those clubs recently told me that they'd do this. They'd call the cops on other parties at other clubs and those clubs would get shut down and their own clubs would get more people. But now you see that type of behavior seeping into the DIY productions and those communities and that's really sad and dark because it's a fragile and small community.

And it's supposed to be the antidote to clubland in many ways.

Yeah. The point was to get away from that. There was one party in Brooklyn that has since built their own club and they're now getting into the habit of doing these dirty tricks. There are ways to counteract that, of course.

Like what?

The most effective thing is to hire an off-duty police officer to do your door and, depending on which police officer you hire, you're pretty much protected. 

Tell me more about the party. Will each month focus on a different city?

It's not going to be city-based necessarily and I feel like kicking it off with Berlin -- which I've wanted to do for a long time because I'm obsessed with Berlin techno clubs -- may have given off the wrong message that that's the focus of the series. What we're going to do is have dance themes but not necessarily a specific locale. The concept will revolve around the conceptual idea -- the concept for this is 'Berlin German Techno Club.' Every event will be based around visual and presentational concepts, possibly more so than the geographical locale.

This one and the next one will have light show installations...maybe dancers.

What's the capacity of the space?

It'd be great if we had 600 [people] -- we could have more or less. I think we definitely could do 800-900. I heard they had 1,000 people at the space but I'm a little skeptical.

Did you think Girls did a good job depicting the warehouse/DIY party scene?

I feel that Girls, as an HBO show, did a pretty good job depicting the warehouse scene, considering the limitations they have to deal with. Of course it's not exactly what is going on out here but it's as close as it's ever gonna get on television. They did a good job in not only depicting those events but also picking up on this small trend here and showing it to the rest of the country. Girls is doing a good job of keeping their finger on the pulse of what's going on here, but those things have been going on since 1995. I've been going to warehouse parties here since 1997 -- giant two-block raves with no cops around for blocks.

I felt like they were pretty accurate in terms of the music they played at the party. A lot of people expect that these Bushwick parties are only playing really avant, out-there trance or electro but you end up hearing a lot of hip-hop, pop, trap and Top 40 stuff.

That is the reality of Bushwick these days. It's interesting. Even with a 600-800 person party, you should try to make the music danceable and accessible, which is what we're trying to do at our party. We're making sure our DJs understand that our goal is not to throw a party for techno heads -- I know nothing about techno. Lady[fag] knows very little about techno but we're interested and we want these DJs to come show us what they think the Berlin scene is like.

Tell me about the DJs you have lined up.

It's a really interesting group. This whole thing started with Gavin Russom of LCD Soundsystem and The Crystal Ark. He's been on board since Day 1 and I tried to round it out with people who have been to Berlin or lived in Berlin and adore everything that's happening there but can also connect things back to New York and Brooklyn and make sure it's not too far out for people who haven't been [to Berlin]. We've got Fatherhood (Michael Magnan and Physical Therapy), Wrecked -- who have their own techno party in Manhattan -- and Veronica Vasicka, who runs her own label called Minimal Wave. She's a huge Euro person and has lived in Berlin.

What do you think when people say New York nightlife is dead? 

I'm going to pull my "I grew up in New York" card and [having] gone out 15-20 years ago, I don't find that things have gotten worse. I would say they've gotten better. I can understand why people would say that they've gotten worse because nightlife has become more fragmented. If you're looking for a hip-hop party, you can find one. If you're looking for a Russian hipster party -- I throw one! You can find them all. But back in the days before the Internet, there was just one giant club -- or three -- and you went there with five thousand other kids. These days, there are more options for more people and way more people doing way more things than in the past. And that trend has been getting exponentially bigger because now pretty much everyone is a promoter and everyone I know is throwing parties. When I started ten years ago, it was just me and two other kids. I also feel like the mainstream is catching up with Brooklyn rather than Brooklyn dumbing something down. It's so pretentious when people say, "I used to live out here in Bushwick or Williamsburg twenty years ago when it used to be cool." No one has the right to say that. That's just silly. I remember in 1997 I came to Williamsburg and was wondering, "What is going on out here?" In fact, those kids were like, "Ugh, it's getting crazy."

One last question: In 10 or 20 years, where do you think the center of NYC nightlife will be?

My guess is that things will fluctuate and come back to Manhattan. Queens too.

Like Maspeth?

Yeah, the Knockdown Center [is there]. It's really happening. I don't know if I'm allowed to blow this news -- probably I am -- but Tiki Disco is going to Knockdown Center. So Maspeth is no longer a frontier. Bronx is great for the DIY scene because it's packed with warehouse spaces. No one talks about the Bronx but stuff is there! If you go there, it looks amazing. It looks insane -- exactly what Bushwick looked like ten years ago.

For more information about SHADE: Berlin, go HERE.

Photo of Granik by Patrick McMullan

10 Etsy Finds: Glittery Skulls and Cute Toast

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1. Mars Galaxy Skull Ring

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Be a glitter goth with this ghoulish statement accessory!


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This super kitschy shop paints over vintage items in neon hues. You could probably fill these vases with dead branches and they would still stand out. 


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Wait, you're not rocking a flower crown right now? Get on trend, fool!


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Love this beautiful minimalist brass cuff.


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This pretty floral maxi dress gives off major Elaine Benes vibes in THE most fashionable way possible.


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Rob Ryan's detailed paper-cuts make great screen-printed cards. Whoever you send these to should frame and cherish them.


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This toast plate is blushing!


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Love a lace necklace that manages to be modern and still feel like a vintage piece of jewelry. 


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This pretty little handkerchief includes historic love token imagery and good luck charms. 


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This butter dish needs to meet that toast plate.

Throwback Thursday: Amy Sedaris in Our First Beautiful People Issue

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We've profiled some amazing folks over the years for our  Beautiful People issue  -- just looking through our first BP issue  from 1997 shows what a knack we have for predicting just who's about to blow up. (If we do say so ourselves.) Case in point: Amy Sedaris. Her comedy series Strangers with Candy and multiple craft books make her a household name now, but in '97 she was a still relatively obscure downtown theater darling. Here's our favorite picture of her, wielding an axe, looking thirsty for blood.

DFA to Take Over Brooklyn's Most Awesome Venue

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dfagrandprospect.jpgNew York-based record label DFA is pulling out all the stops for their 12th Anniversary Party on Saturday, May 25.  It looks like every band and DJ they've ever worked with will be on hand for the big blow-out: Black Dice, Juan Maclean, James Murphy, The Rapture DJs, Pat Mahoney, The Crystal Ark, YACHT etc. are already on the bill -- plus "special guests" of course.  Don't be surprised, however, if one of stars of the night turns out to be the venue, Grand Prospect Hall, which you're likely familiar with from their amazing commercials.  The four-story," French Renaissance" building went up in 1892 and was designed by Ulrich J. Huberty -- the same guy that did the boathouse in nearby Prospect Park.  It's got over 100,000 square-feet of space packed with oak, marble, granite and crystal.  At one time it even housed a speakeasy frequented by Al Capone and recently it's been used for music video shoot, films and, of course, weddings.  Perfect place for a DFA party, right?  Tickets are available HERE.



Behind New Bar Wise Men Are Three Wise Women

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ppv.jpgThree savvy women are behind Wise Men, a snazzy new late-night cocktail den on the Bowery. Good friends Danielle Levitt, Christina Chin and Caroleyn Ng have been hanging out together at restaurants and clubs for years, and finally decided to open a hangout of their own. "The place we wanted to create was the place we all wanted to go," says Levitt, an eminent photographer of celebrities and youth culture.

Chin, the creative director at sexy S Magazine, had the idea first. She grew up in the restaurant business: her parents owned the '70s-era Chinatown steak house, Wise Men. While the current iteration of Wise Men is not a steak house, meat plays a role. What looks like red patterned wallpaper is actually a blow-up of marbled Kobe beef. On the small plates menu are steak, a patty melt and French fries.

Vegetarians needn't lose hope. Stuffed mushrooms will help cushion the potency of Rob Roys and Sazeracs. Cocktails are $12 and food items are under $20.

"We're not totally upscale," Levitt says. "We want our quirky art friends coming in -- a racially, sexually, socially, economically diverse crowd -- the way New York was in the '90s."

The Bowery was a lot more iffy in the '90s, for those who don't recall. It's not the Meatpacking District yet, but boutique hotels and happening spots have made it a fashionable destination. Plus, all three women live nearby. "It's all in the timing," says Ng, who has worked extensively in the restaurant (China Grill) and hotel (Gansevoort, Dream Downtown, Shore Club in Miami) industries. "We'd been talking about it for years and when the space became available we snatched it."

"Without her we are nothing," said Levitt, extolling Ng's know-how. "We are something. Just not this."

Wise Men is located at 355 Bowery, New york. Visit wisemennyc.com for details.

FRIEZE Announces Its 2013 Food Vendors

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1863frieze_logo.jpegVIP, super-VIP, and "collector" invites have gone out for the second edition of FRIEZE New York, returning to Randall's Island Park May 10 to 13. (We non-VIPs can buy our tickets here, by the way.) But what about the this year's food vendors? Last year, the art fair set a high bar for good eats with vendors like The Fat Radish, Sant Ambroeus and Roberta's and they'll be back this year. This year, Andrew Tarlow's Marlow & Sons is taking over the VIP lounge and restaurant hosted last year by Soho House's Cecconi's; and Mission Chinese Food -- whose Danny Bowien just made Food & Wine Magazine's list of best new chefs -- will be a new addition along with Court Street Grocers. Also, Frankies Spuntino will be setting up a full-service restaurant that will even take reservations.

FRIEZE New York will be open:
Friday, May 10th: 11-7pm
Saturday, May 11th: 11-7pm
Sunday, May 12th: 11-7pm
Monday, May 13th: 11-6pm

Will Nicola Formichetti Bring More Men's Handbags to Diesel?

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Screen-Shot-2013-01-04-at-2.41.54-PM.pngNow that Nicola Formichetti has been named Diesel's first Artistic Director, it's time to start daydreaming about all of the changes the former Creative Director at Thierry Mugler will bring to the Italian denim brand. While we have no idea whether Gaga or latex will pop up at Diesel under Formichetti's artistic direction, one area we can picture the designer beefing up is their selection of high-end man bags handbags for men.

We spoke to Formichetti not long ago at the launch of his unisex handbag for Mugler and Shopbop and he told us about becoming a handbag convert. "It's a total gamechanger," he said. "I never understood why girls had bags but after the demand from girlfriends [to create a Mugler bag], I'm obsessed. I don't have to carry a wallet anymore, I can hide everything inside it." He went on to tell us that "I think every man should wear a bag. It's not campy."

But just get the lingo straight -- you won't see any items listed as "man bags" at Diesel.

"I don't like the name 'man bags.' It's very [pejorative]. It's just handbag. It's unisex."

Watch Kenny Scharf Paint an Airplane for "The Boneyard Project"

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Yes, we've been obsessed with Kenny Scharf since the '80s, and we still love the guy.  He's opening a new show tonight, April 4, 6 to 8 p.m., called "Kolors" at the Paul Kasmin Gallery (515 West 27th Street) and it's up until May 4.  There will be ten new paintings on view, along with three large sculptures.  If you missed seeing his piece called "Squirtz" when it  popped-up outside the Standard Hotel recently, you've got another shot to check it out during the Kasmin show.  To put you in the right "Jetson's" frame of mind, check out this short clip of Kenny out in a Tucson, Arizona, airplane graveyard working on a piece for "The Boneyard Project" curated by Eric Firestone, Carlo McCormick and Medvin Sobio for the Pima Air & Space Museum.  All types of old airplanes were turned into canvases for artists including Shepard Fairey, Futura, Daze, Erik Foss, Ryan McGuinness and Lee Quinones and several of the "nose cones" were shown at Firestone's gallery in the Hamptons in 2011. Above, check out Scharf at work on a plane for the Boneyard Project







Booksellers Team Up for the Downtown Literary Festival

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Fans of You've Got Mail might be surprised by the cordiality flaunted by McNally Jackson and Housing Works bookstores, located two blocks apart in SoHo. Although the two have exchanged joking Twitter jabs, they've also collaborated on literary events. Next Saturday, April 14, they will join forces to host the inaugural Downtown Literary Festival. The daylong (10 a.m. - 5 p.m.) extravaganza will include readings, panels and a walking tour about literature below 14th Street, all followed by a Russian lit-themed after-party. Participants include Rachel Dratch, (PAPER 2013 Beautiful Person) Kristopher Jansma, Eileen Myles, Luc Sante and many more. Check out a complete schedule, re-printed with permission, below:


10:15 a.m.-11:30 a.m. On the Grid: Stories In Our Streets
Begins at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, moves to McNally Jackson Books at 11AM.
 
A tour of the literature of downtown New York City, with LitCrawlNYC, through stories, poetry, and essays. With Rachel Dratch, Amor Towles, Joanna Smith-Rakoff, Sarah Schulman, Jami Attenberg, David Goodwillie, Rosie Schaap, Brendan Sullivan, Lev Grossman, Adam Wilson, Jennifer Gilmore, Kristopher Jansma, Hari Kunzru, Katie Kitamura, and Amy Waldman.
 

11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m. DISH presents Russ & Daughters
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
 
DISH is a sumptuous four-course feast of readings and stories, as told by New York's hottest chefs, restauranteurs, mixologists, food authors, bloggers and critics. Each "course" -- Aperitif, Appetizer, Main and Dessert -- features an expert in their respective field, guaranteed to provide a session of mind-watering entertainment. Join us for a brunch o'clock preview of DISH with Mark Russ Federman, author of Russ & Daughters: The House that Herring Built.

12:00 p.m.-12:45 p.m. Having a Coke with You: Lunch with Frank O'Hara
McNally Jackson Books
 
Join us for a lunch hour celebration with selections from Frank O'Hara. With readings by Eileen Myles, Colm Toibin, Wayne Koestenbaum, Christopher Schmidt, Paul Legault, Elizabeth Willis, Timothy Donnelly,  Corina Copp, Macgregor Card, John Coletti, Corrine Fitzpatrick, and more.
 
12:30 p.m.-1:15 p.m.The Recital: The City
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
 
What text would you choose to burn into your brain if you could choose any at all? The Recital is a new literary series that answers that question, with a new theme each time. This time it's downtown NYC. Writers and performers will each recite a 1-3 minute piece of their choice. The only real rule is that the memorized text cannot be their own; otherwise, anything goes. Hosted by Rachel Syme and Maris Kreizman.
 
1:00-1:45 p.m. Fast Talking: Downtown Writing from The Paris Review Archive
McNally Jackson Books
 
Selections from The Paris Review's archives, on the occasion of the magazine's sixtieth anniversary, will include readings of Jim Carroll's The Basketball Diaries and the poetry of Anne Waldman, and a performance of Jack Kerouac's 1968 Art of Fiction interview. Readers TBA.
 
1:30 p.m.-2:15 p.m. New York à la Cart: Veteran Vendors Dish about Life on the Streets
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
 
Join Siobhan Wallace and Alexandra Penfold, authors of New York à la Cart: Recipes and Stories from the Big Apple's Best Food Trucks, as they lead a discussion with Red Hook Food Vendors' Executive Director, Cesar Fuentes, and Vendy award finalists Nick Karagiorgos, second generation owner of Uncle Gussy's Greek Truck, Fauzia Abdur-Rahman from Bronx-based Fauzia's Heavenly Delights, and Jonathan Hernandez from Patacon Pisao, New York's only Venezuelan food truck. Stories, street food history, and signature dishes from the acclaimed carts and trucks, which will be parked outside.
 
2:00 p.m.-2:45 p.m. Is the New York Bohemian Dead?
McNally Jackson Books
 
Is there still a meaningful tradition of literary bohemianism in downtown New York City, or has that tradition vanished into the Bugaboo West Village? How have our values surrounding art and money and free spiritedness changed the writers' experience of the city? Is there anything we can learn from the lost traditions of bohemian literary culture? Join Katie Roiphe (In Praise of Messy Lives),  Lucas Wittman (The Daily Beast), and James Atlas (president of Atlas &  Company) for a conversation about the ghost of bohemianism in today's downtown NYC.
 
2:30 p.m.-3:15 p.m. Road Trip with The American Guide
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
 
A project of the Federal Writers Project between 1935 and 1943, the American Guide series was a collection of books and pamphlets from all fifty states, designed to encourage Depression-weary Americans to explore their own backyard. For our exploration of the American Guide, we're joined by Erin Chapman and Tom McNamara, creators of The American Guide Tumblr, which aims to capture the spirit of travel and discovery fostered by the original guide. Gabriel Kahane, composer of Gabriel's Guide to the 48 States, a piece based on the American Guide, which will have its world premiere at Carnegie Hall on April 27th, will also join the discussion. Moderated by Michelle Legro of Lapham's Quarterly.
 
3:00 p.m.-3:45 p.m. You Should Have Been There: Stories of the Best Show Ever
McNally Jackson Books
 
Alan Light, Thurston Moore, Ariana Reines, and Nikolai Fraiture (bass player for The Strokes) tell us about the best NYC show they ever went to.
 
3:30 p.m.-4:15 p.m. Slaughterhouse 90210: Downtown Edition
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
 
Maris Kreizman of Slaughterhouse 90210, the lit/TV Tumblr, presents an NYC-themed slide presentation, and has asked writers to talk about their favorite NYC-based TV shows: Carlene Bauer, Austin Ratner, Jason Diamond, and Jessica Soffer.
 
4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. South of Power: Sub-Houston Manhattan and the Vanishing Fringe
McNally Jackson Books
 
Stories of public transit, private connections, and what happened when the lights went out, with Kathleen Alcott, Sophie Blackall, Charles Bock, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Luc Sante, and John Wray. In a city whose demographics and geopolitics change so rapidly that a given neighborhood may bear three or more names in a single generation, does the notion of "downtown" still retain a trace of meaning? Writers whose fiction investigates the city, both as a place and as a concept, read from work that confronts and plays with this question.

5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Happy Hour Mingle at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
 
Unwind after the festival with drinks and mingling at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. With boozy sweet treats from Spirited Brooklyn!
 
7:00 p.m. Pravda After-Party, Sponsored by HarperCollins
281 Lafayette St. New York, NY 10012
 
Master and Margaritas, Crime and Punish-mints, and more Russian literature-themed cocktails at DLF discounts, with films featuring Berlin and Odessa in the early 20th century are projected onto Pravda's walls. The first 100 cocktails will be on the house, courtesy of HarperCollins.

Conan O'Brien and Chelsea Handler Had a Shower Fight

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1.  This Chelsea Lately sketch, which features Chelsea Handler and Conan O'Brien getting into a nude cat-fight in the shower, has got to be one of the weirdest things we've seen on the late night circuit in a while. Props to Chuy, who comes in at the end and is hilarious. [via Just Jared]


cdn-media.nationaljournal.jpeg2.  In today's biggest "what the what?" news, the National Republican Congressional Committee is completely redesigning their site to be like BuzzFeed. According to the National Journal "the new NRCC.org does away with all the typical features of a political website, emulating instead the style of the Web juggernaut whose top headlines currently include '10 Easter Bunnies Straight From Hell' and '14 Photos Of George W. Bush Touching Bald Men's Heads.'" We would think this was an April Fool's joke, but it's three days too late. [via Slate]


136703607_custom-67f21887024c8051bd41a1bf5bea502997e5acc6-s40.jpg3.  Hillary Clinton is coming out with a memoir in 2014, y'all! She'll be writing about a bunch of her most dramatic moments as Secretary of State. [via NPR]


daddy_yankee_4.gif4.  Daddy Yankee was rumored to have come out this morning after some incriminating photos were taken at a gay nightclub. He took to Twitter to deny the rumors while we thought about how many times we've danced our butts off to "Gasolina." [via HuffPo]



5.  Cat Power's new music video for "Manahttan" makes us love New York so, so much. [Thanks Gary!]


Udo-Kittelmann-venice.jpg6.  The director of the State Museums of Berlin, Udo Kittelmann, isn't happy that Ai Weiwei has been chosen to exhibit in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He argues that "the other artists could easily be overshadowed by his presence. It is my belief that one must take great care that the playing field is level." [via The Art Newspaper]


sandy-tree-house.jpg7.  This Saturday, a tree house made entirely of wood damaged or thrown away in the wake of Hurricane Sandy will open at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. [via DNA Info]


People Struggling to Define "YOLO"

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Jimmy Kimmel sent a crew around to ask people if they know what "YOLO" means. We have to say, their definitions are way more fun than the original. [via Towleroad]

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog hung out with some of the Real Housewives of Atlanta on Conan the other night and it was amazing. Our favorite part: When Triumph tells Kenya she'll have "a lightly attended funeral." [TastefullyOffensive]
 
tumblr_mkques5VHy1r0wqrdo1_500.jpgReal talk from Darth Vader. [via Humor Train]



Aw, love this cute outtake clip of Siskel and Ebert talking about McDonald's. [via Gawker]


tumblr_mks4hp7y6r1rn7bzro1_250.pngNow I remember why I hate flowcharts. [via knusprig.titten.hitler]




Here's that James Brown/Game of Thrones theme song mash-up we never knew we wanted. [via Mashable]


dollar99.jpgCheck out this insane collage made out of dollar bills by artist Mark Wagner. [via Laughing Squid]


tumblr_mkootnZaq71ry46hlo1_250.gifThis is how we want our breakfast all the time. [via The Clearly Dope]


tumblr_mjbjhehFuT1s5ked2o1_500.jpgUs, on the L train every morning. [via Afternoon Snooze Button]


tumblr_miouj1VVL01rq8oryo1_500.pngWe always feared it would come to this. [via Coin Farts]




David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" Is Still Fun to Funky

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Fans of David Bowie's new album, The Next Day, should appreciate the fact that the album's producer,Tony Visconti, also produced today's oldie-but-goodie. "Ashes to Ashes" came out in 1980 on Bowie's Scary Monsters album and, though it reached #1 in the UK, it only managed to make it up to #101 here in the States.  The lyrics mention a Major Tom, a character that first appeared in Bowie's 1969 track "Space Oddity" and would pop-up again in 1995 on the single "Hallo Spaceboy."  The clip was directed by Bowie and David Mallet.  Also, be sure to note the proof that Bowie is a time-traveler, since he appears in the video playing with an iPad mini. The David Bowie exhibit at London's Victoria & Albert Museum is up until August 11. And, if you want to start your weekend with even more vintage Bowie clips (and, really, who doesn't want to start their weekend with some Bowie?) the singer just released a bunch of old videos on a Vimeo channel in conjunction with The Next Day. Check them out here.

Cool Kids Travel Far and Wide to Party at Steeldrums

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ppv_stee;drums2.jpg It's 1:30 a.m. on a frigid Saturday night, and about 50 people are mashed into the courtyard of an industrial building somewhere between Greenpoint and Bushwick, waving their phones like emergency flares. Beyond the door, hundreds more fill a long, narrow room pulsing with LED lights and slow-burning hip-hop. Through the haze, you can just make out a DJ onstage, surrounded by fuschia-lit dancers and guys howling into microphones. A scrolling sign overhead reminds you to "HAVE FUN."

This is Steeldrums, a new DIY club that opened with a bang -- that is, with a Thunder Horse-designed event featuring Dev Hynes, Sky Ferreira and Inc. (pictured above) last November. More recently, it hosted the London DJ collective Night Slugs, as well as homegrown DJ Venus X's Ghe20 Goth1k party.

ppv_steeldrums1.jpgMichael Potvin, a lighting designer and former Boston DJ, launched Steeldrums with fellow Brooklyn artists Josh Haris and Joey Asal. Their choice of location -- uncharted nightlife territory a mile north of the Morgan L that's mostly occupied by Chinese produce distributors -- has proven that people will go to great lengths for a good party.

It helps, however, to stay connected with the Bushwick hive. "Everyone that's hanging out down there is like, 'Cool, that's right up the street!'" Potvin says. "So they're willing to include us as part of the whole community of new spots that are popping up, like the Bossa Nova Civic Club, Fitness and Body Actualized Center. The community's great."

ppv_steeldrums3.jpgWith winter finally melting away, Potvin and Co. plan to open up the roll-door, pull back the front gate and start bringing together art exhibitions, DJs and food. So keep an eye out for Steeldrums (or #steeldrumz), and remember what the sign says: Have fun.

Steeldrums is located at 35 Beadel St., Brooklyn, NY

Gaz Regan on How Bartenders Can Save the World

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gaz regan points 2012 by Jimi Ferrera.jpgNearly one billion people worldwide lack access to clean water. Legendary, British-born bartender and author Gaz Regan is trying to do something about that. He has organized a week-long charity event starting next Monday, April 8th, called Just One Shift, benefiting Wine to Water, a nonprofit organization founded by a bartender named Doc Hendley. Bartenders from 25 countries, as far-flung as Cyprus, India and Finland, have signed up to donate 100% of their tips from working one shift. Regan himself will be donating his tips from two shifts; Monday night he'll be at the Dead Rabbit in the Financial District and on Thursday at the Lower East Side's Experimental Cocktail Club. This morning he took some time out from organizing to chat.

At last count, how many bartenders have signed up to donate their tips?

200. People are still waiting to find out which shifts they're working next week so I expect the number to go up massively by Monday.

How much can a bartender in New York make in tips in one night?

The last shift I worked at the Dead Rabbit there were three of us behind the bar and we made $900 on a Monday night. In Europe, where tipping isn't so much a part of the culture, a bartender might only make 15 euros. But even that small amount can help buy a water filter for a family in Haiti, which will supply them with clean water for five years.

I know you travel a lot doing bartending workshops, but how have you gotten so many involved around the world?

It's because of my reach -- over 8000 followers -- via Facebook and Twitter and email newsletters.

As well as filtration systems I read that Wine to Water raises money for digging wells in Cambodia and trucking water to displaced people in Darfur, and on and on.

The guy who heads it up, Doc Hendley, is on site helping them drill the wells. You'd be blown away if you met this guy. He's covered in tattoos, rides a Harley Davidson, he's a real character.

And Wine to Water is a play on a Biblical reference, about how Jesus turned water into wine. Are you a religious man?

I refer to myself as a New Age asshole.

What's your favorite bar in New York?

You're not going to nail me on that one.

What's your favorite bar in the world?

A pub called the Bay Horse in Thornton, Lancashire, England, the last pub my parents ran. It's still my local whenever I go home.

You're famous for stirring Negroni cocktails with your finger.

It's just a bit of schtick. It started when I was judging a competition. People love it.

You must wash your hands first.

No, never.

I hope alcohol kills the germs.

Maybe.

I was touched by how many bartenders in Greece are participating when that country has so many economic problems.

Fifty-seven [bartenders]! I have a friend in Greece who's a bartender -- I met him at a competition a few years ago -- and he has spread the word. It's all over the press in Greece. 'It's because we can change the world, Mr. Regan,' this bartender said to me.

Does Wine to Water have any affiliation with Matt Damon's Water.org?

I have no idea.

He got a lot of attention in February when he said he was going on strike from using the toilet to protest the lack of sanitation in developing countries. Some people took it seriously but he was using humor to get attention. Will you be telling jokes behind the bar?

I will get laughs by stirring everybody's drinks with my finger.

Photo by Jimi Ferrera

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Keep It Real (Housewives-Style)

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In this weekly column, MC/DJ Hesta Prynn pairs pop culture stories with an original playlist.

Imagine a world where a one-shoulder leopard-print dress is appropriate attire for a five-year-old's birthday party; where new "face work" is an acceptable reason for a party; where women screaming at each other while dressed as Tina Turner circa 1985 is just a typical Friday night. That world exists, and it is the world of the Real Housewives. As we move through the cycle from ATL back to the OC, another over-the-top female performer prepares to debut new music at next weekend's Coachella Festival. This week's Five 'n' Five pairs the music of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with the casts of the RHs.


1. Atlanta - "Phenomena"

If demanding that your friends show up to your party in costume and then having one forcibly removed for dressing like Halle Berry from Introducing Dorothy Dandridge instead of Halle Berry from B*A*P*S is wrong, then I don't want to be right. What I know for sure: Nene Leakes is more Grace Jones than Grace Jones.

2. Beverly Hills - "Gold Lion"

On this week's reunion show, David Foster's fourth wife explained that she "lives on a budget" moments before declaring that she'd "rather stay home than fly coach." "Gold Lion" would be Adrienne Maloof's MC name, obviously.

3. New Jersey - "Date with the Night"

Back in the day, Karen O was known for acting crazy and pouring drinks all over herself. Back in the day, Teresa Giudice was known for acting crazy and pouring drinks all over other people. This is the show that gave us table-flipping and such gems as "Prostitution whore!" and "Let me tell you something about my fam-bily!"

4. NYC - "Heads Will Roll"

No matter how safe you think your job is, if you shit-talk Bethenny Frankel you will find yourself out of work, replaced by a one-legged psychopath or the woman responsible for bringing House of Dereon to the masses. Think before you speak: there is no job security in the world of the Real Housewives.

5. The OC - "Sacrilege"

Orange County is the kind of place where you may find yourself dating a man with a name like "Brooks" or "Slade." You may find yourself attending a black-tie affair from which a woman is tossed for eating a piece of the bow on another woman's "Name Cake." You may find yourself swinging from a vine in Costa Rica while screaming "My Love Tank Is Full!" and you may ask yourself, "How did I get here?" To leave this all behind would be sacrilege.

Karen O photo by Jim Baldwin on Flickr; Teresa Giudice photo © Patrick McMullan Company


Upstream Color director Shane Carruth: "It's All Just a Massive Lie"

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Shane Carruth wrote, directed, scored, produced and starred in the 2004 time-travel mindfuck Primer, and then did it all again for his poetic fantasy Upstream Color--opening today in New York--for which he has also taken on the tasks of marketing and distribution. We spoke to him about Upstream Color, whose two main characters (played by Carruth and up-and-comer Amy Seimetz) are drawn to each other and to other creatures by an "ageless organism" that forces them to reconstruct their careers and identities.

You've said "I would choose to not really say much at all" about the film. So why are you talking about it?

Well, I'm trying to negotiate two things in my head. One is that, which I don't know if there's much that can be said, or that an author should be saying. But then there's the fact that I somehow have to get this film out and get it seen by enough people that it has a chance to live on its own for a bit. So that's what this is. This is a constant negotiation between those two things.

Is it difficult doing interviews about the film?

I mean, not compared to actual manual labor, it's not, but yeah. It's not easy. It's weird. It's just difficult to know what can actually be said. I feel like because we're sort of cut off from getting into the meat of the story or the substance or its intentions, then that means we end up talking about all of the other stuff around it. I write from a point of trying to make something that's universal and hopefully relevant for a long time so when it comes to the temporary-type stuff it's harder and harder to get my bearings as to why that's important. We just did the Blu-Ray and DVD combo pack thing and I was doing the artwork and stuff and people were asking, "Well, what kind of extra materials will be on there?" And I don't want any! I don't want a director's commentary, I don't want behind-the-scenes stuff. I don't want any of that. I've gotten to the point where I feel like that's a distraction from the actual purpose of the narrative to cultivate this idea that the experience has something to do with being behind the scenes and getting into the production and stuff. In that sense it's difficult but at the same time we live in a place where culture is part of the currency it seems like.

How do you imagine people experiencing Upstream Color, then?

Well, I really do like the marketing elements. Trailers and media that you put out and key art and posters. I feel like these are all really good ways to contextualize the narrative, and you're still sort of in that mode of non-verbal communication. I really enjoy that and I think that can be an extension of storytelling. In an ideal world, I would be working on a budget that could manage that, that could get that out and in front of people and then let that be the end of it. We'd make the film, we'd create these bits of media for people to watch. I think of those as like the cover of a book. If you're a novelist you get to pick the cover of your book and the font and the texture of the paper and all that stuff, you get to craft how an audience receives it. That stuff seems fun to me and, again, an extension of the narrative. I'm not a personality, obviously, I'm no big deal at all. Even if I was, that doesn't seem appropriate, to be cultivating that sort of following or whatever.

How did the film change from the script you had and how much of that was in the editing?

There's a few concrete ways that I know that it changed. In the music, I know that I had written a bunch of music at the screenplay-writing stage and that I ended up throwing something like half of it out. It happened gradually. It became more and more clear to me that the music needed to represent the subjective experience of the character that we were following and not trying to force the experience of the audience, or represent the experience of the audience. I do think that that's an idea that became more and more clear in my head that I should have known from the beginning but for some reason it took a while to come around to. That made the music a lot less orchestrated and a lot more atmospheric and ethereal. In my mind, more emotional. The visual language that came together, there's a real tactility to the way we started using the camera. I only had the first hint of that in the script. So as that became more and more clear it became the sort of thing where we could start paring back bits of dialogue that were in the script. I could let some of that go because I felt we were doing a pretty good job with the visual language of explaining that the characters were being affected at a distance that we didn't have to talk about it in dialogue or in other means that were visual.

So was the original script more verbal?

That's what's so hard. There is no easy answer to any of these questions. People want to say, "Where'd you come up with the idea?" We all want this story, like, "Oh, I saw a girl on a carousel and it suddenly dawned on me." That never happens. It's never that easy. It's always an accumulation of a thousand different moments and ideas that all end up morphing into one thing. But yeah, in the same way, I don't know the difference between the script and the final execution. I don't think it's any more or less different than any other story. Film is film and it's never gonna be just the visual version of a book. It needs to be something else of its own.

What was the first thing you wrote down?

I'm sorry, I just don't know. I can tell you my little talking points about this but I should also just tell you that it's all a lie. It's all just a massive lie. I could tell you something that's completely true, I could tell you where the story came from, that it started with personal narrative and my being consumed with them and how they work and whether you could change them once they're cemented and I wanted to break down these characters and strip down their identities and have them build them up from what they found around themselves. I can tell you all that, it's completely true, but I have no idea what the first thing was that I wrote down because it's a process. It's a process. I hope I'm not making this too difficult.

Do you think that idea of building an identity is in any way analogous to your own identity as a filmmaker?

I don't know. Two things about that. One, I know that I have this, I mean everybody does, this idea that you've built up an identity, you have your political, religious, cosmic beliefs, whatever. Everything that you see and everything that you say seems to be framed according to this identity. I know that I'm guilty, if that's even the right word, absolutely. But as far as my identity as a filmmaker, I really don't want one or have one. I don't want a career. I've been telling all of the people that would care that I'm not trying to build a career. I'm trying to be consumed by whatever story's in front of me. It was Upstream Color, I'm currently writing something else right now that I cannot wait to sink into. I don't want a personality and any time I use my name as sort of a brand I'm really just trying to do what I can. If there's any value in it at all to get the project out and raise awareness of it.

Were you always an autodidact?

I don't know. It just sort of started, it always starts from a place of having no power or money really and just trying to solve the problem. With the distribution, this wasn't really the plan until last summer when I have this film I'm really proud of, I need to get it out there in some way so there's the typical, "let's try to hit the major festivals and see if we can get an acquisition." And then everybody always has a plan B, what if that doesn't happen. So I started exploring plan B and that, combined with the experience I had with Primer and having a distributor, which wasn't necessarily a negative experience, but it was something that informed me about the level of control that I would ever have on what an audience would know about the film before they got to see it. I just started taking it apart piece by piece and it just turns out that there's something else that's possible today that wasn't before. I sort of tripped into that from a place of not really having power or money and then suddenly realized that, if I go down this path of distribution I get to make the choices about all of the media and all of the way that it's contextualized. Picking a poster that's not gonna have pigs and worms and guns on it but that's gonna have two broken people fully clothed in a bathtub, that's something that, I can't really give that up now that I know that I can do that. With the music, I didn't set out thinking I wanted to compose music for film but when I know what I want the music to sound like exactly it just makes more sense for me to spend the time it takes to get it done instead of trying to explain it to somebody and then really frustrate them when they don't deliver precisely what's in my stupid head. It's like future creep, basically, it just gets bigger and bigger.

You've said "on Upstream Color there's a language that came to be and I'm not done with it."

The best way I've found to try and verbalize what it is that I'm trying to do, and I don't even know how new it is, I just know that it's new for me. That's not true. I do think it's new. I do think there's a way to really push this far. It comes down to there being a core story and a core set of characters and a core thematic exploration and I think of that as the architecture of the house. The frame of the house. But then the way that you explore it, the way that you bring the audience through it, can be much more lyrical if the architecture is really sound. You can screw with chronology as long as you're being respectful to the viewer. I'm really right now playing a lot with connecting moments that are emotionally relevatory instead of moments that are chronologically dependent on each other. So I know that's part of it. For me it's really really hard to verbalize and that's why I'm happy to have Upstream in existence because I like being able to point at that as the first step toward the new thing. I just want to push that even further. I'm calling it a visual language or an emotional language but I have to admit it's difficult because we're talking about things that...if we could talk about them we wouldn't have to put them in a movie. We could just write them down. I just know that the same brushstrokes that are used for that film, I want to use them on an even bigger canvas and push them even further on this next one.

Is that connected to your ideas about myth?

Yeah. I think so, yeah. The only thing that I really have passion about when it comes to narrative is doing something that is universal, that has a chance of being relevant in the future at some point. I would never do a story that would be about the Obama administration. I could never really do that, because that's too temporary, but what I absolutely would love to explore is how power corrupts. Things that are just much more universal. That's why I end up with these plot elements. I'm typically in cities that are not named. Bits of plot that could be repurposed in all sorts of other forms, hopefully. So anyway that's what I think of as the architecture. It's like the tortoise and the hare version of the story that could just be told in a thousand different ways. It needs to be that solid and then the film itself, the exploration itself, the music, all of that is something that can be led by something else. Just knowing a piece of music so well that it's internalized and you can start playing with the chord structures in a second-by-second way that hopefully is enjoyable or informative.

Other than identity, it seems like Upstream Color's other main theme is this kind of symbiosis, or connectedness, or coupling. How do you think that kind of symbiosis plays out in everyday life?

I don't know. The reason that that stuff was in there was an extension of, "Okay, we've broken these characters down, they're rebuilding their identities and they're doing it wrong." Is something that we see, they don't quite see that.

How are they doing it wrong?

Well, Kris wakes up and thinks that she for some reason gave away all her money, didn't show up to work and a few other things. Basically can't really explain why and comes to the conclusion that she has a, let's say bipolar disorder. It's not spoken about in the film, it's just that she now needs to take meds. And she becomes this person who isolates herself. At first we see her, she's a very Ally McBeal-type career woman and then she becomes this isolated person. Jeff has something like the same experience where he wakes up and realizes that he's been stealing money and attributes that to some sort of a drug problem or something and so they build up these sort of versions of themselves that are different from their previous versions. I guess that's what I mean.

The film is about identity and yet there are a lot of doublings in the film, like the opening scene with the two boys who are making the same movements but also all kinds of other pairings. What's the relationship between that kind of symbiosis and one's own individual identity?

Well, essentially we're going to end up in a story where our lead characters are being affected at a distance. Let's just concentrate on Kris. She eventually gets to a point where, she doesn't have children but because she's connected to this pig and the piglets are being drowned, she is experiencing the psychosis and mania of losing her children. That manifests in her swimming and trying to pick up these pebbles off the floor of the pool. She is experiencing the emotions of somebody whose children are lost but she couldn't objectively point to what was causing that in her. So that's one of the many examples of, everybody's being affected at a distance in this film, so they are somehow linked up with something else. The kids in the beginning, that's our first little taste of what that looks like, that there is some invisible bond between two things. Once they're part of this lifecycle, once we're in the world of believing that this power can exist, then that gets us into how people are being affected at a distance or linked up or whatever. And to me the reason that it's important to identity is because I think that's a large part of people's personal narrative is religious belief systems or even when I was talking about pharmacology, there's a lot that we think we know and there's a lot that we don't. I think these offscreen forces represent the things that we don't but think we do know. Anybody who believes that there's a fate at play or they are part of some plan or some sort of a religious or faith-based belief or anything else, there's always this concept that I am the way I am or things are happening the way they are because of something else that I couldn't point to in this room but it's out there somewhere and it's effecting my life here. That's why those things are in the film.

So is the idea to try to overcome that in some way?

I don't know. I'm not trying to tell that story. I'm not trying to sum it up or claim that I've got some kind of answer to it. The thing that interests me is the exploration. I'm scared half to death to even bring up the stuff that this film goes down. It's very purposeful but if I explain what its purpose is then it completely negates the story. It has something to do with, there's a comedy of errors in the last third of this film. It takes on sort of a heart of darkness type situation where Kris and Jeff come to understand who they think is responsible for this unspoken mania that they're experiencing. And so when Kris goes on and exacts her revenge on the Sampler, that's meant to be a whole other question about whether somebody who we only see as an observer is culpable for what he is observing or involved with in order to observe. There is no moment where characters wake up from their slumber and then come to understand some universal truth, if anything it's the exact opposite. She winds up overcoming one false belief with another. The way she's left at the end is yet another attempt at being pretty subversive in that her subjective experience is pretty positive. And I think the music and cinematography and Amy's performance and everything about that last scene with the piglets is a pretty positive, peaceful resolution to this story but the text of it I think is really horrifying and melancholy that the best she's gonna hope for is, she's not gonna have kids, she's gonna have these piglets that are never really gonna return any kind of real affection for her, so it's like that moment that's subjectively positive against a landscape that realistically could never really be that for long. That's where my head goes when I'm trying to come to the end of an exploration because I don't necessarily believe in endings.

Five Possible Ways Charlie's Departure From Girls Can Be Explained

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1798266.jpgWe were mildly devastated to hear that, as the Post put it, the "cutest boy" -- Christopher Abbott -- was leaving Girls. Not only does this mean that our predictions about Marnie and Charlie getting hitched and becoming marital guinea pigs for their single friends are way off, but it also means that the saccharine scene between the two of them outside of Roberta's during the finale was an effing red herring. Though we don't know all of the details about why the actor is leaving, we've been left with a pretty fun parlor game guessing how his absence will be explained. Below, we humbly submit five suggestions to Lena Dunham and Judd Apatow.

1. Charlie and Marnie decide to move in together and throw a big housewarming party at their new walk-up in Clinton Hill. They decide that, as an "adult couple," they'll skip evites and Facebook and send real paper invitations to the party. Charlie and Marnie see some cute stationary being sold at a stoop sale in their new neighborhood and buy it. Marnie tells Charlie she'll send the invitations but, at the last minute, makes him do it with the excuse that she has to go to this "super important art opening so I can meet David Zwirner." When Charlie starts licking the envelopes, he feels sick and gets taken to the hospital by Ray, who calls Marnie. Marnie rushes over but it's too late -- Charlie died of toxic glue poisoning.

2. Now a couple again, Charlie and Marnie move into a fancy loft apartment in DUMBO at the urging of Marnie, who is still unemployed. Even though Charlie's app has just received a huge investment from a Bay Area angel investor, Charlie is having liquidity problems and cannot afford to pay their rent. He starts embezzling money from the company and, for a few months, no one is the wiser. Finally one night shortly before Memorial Day weekend, he gets confronted by his pretty, blonde bespectacled colleague, Laura, and he confesses. He assures her he will fix everything if she doesn't tell anyone. She tells him that she's going to go to the board and ask for his resignation. Over the holiday weekend, Charlie comes into the office and hangs himself from his office door. His decomposing corpse is discovered after the two angel investors (played by Jon Hamm and Vincent Kartheiser), who have come in for a meeting, notice a terrible smell coming out of Charlie's office, prompting them to bust open the door.

3. Wanting to grow his start-up, Charlie is in search of the "next big app." While attending SXSW, he meets a guy named Michael (played by Paul Dano), who works for a rival app firm, ZapMe. Over bourbon, the two start talking about the tech industry and Michael tells Charlie about an idea he has for an app that rates and ranks all of NYC's public restrooms. Charlie is intrigued and, back in NYC, has an existential crisis: he changes his name to Omar, and decides to steal Michael's idea. He tells his software team to start coding the app immediately and, once it launches, RateMyRestroom becomes a runaway success. Michael, understandably, is not happy and threatens litigation but his suit goes nowhere since he never filed a copyright or patent. Flush with success, Charlie (now "Omar") decides to have a big blow-out party at Top of the Standard in celebration of the app's one millionth user. While leaving the party to grab cigarettes at a Korean deli nearby, Charlie/Omar notices a young, eager-looking teenager staring at him. He assumes he's an intern and pays him no attention. While Charlie/Omar pays for his cigarettes, the young man follows him inside and shoots him in the back of the head. Charlie/Omar dies. It turns out the teen was a summer intern at ZapMe and was sent by Michael to seek revenge.

4. After pissing off everyone in the series -- except for Marnie -- Charlie will get shot by an unknown assailant in his office. No one will know who shot him and Girls' season 4 promos will include the catchphrase "Who Shot Charlie?" While the audience assumes that Charlie has died of his wounds, Lena Dunham and Judd Apatow will secretly reach an agreement with Christopher Abbott and he will decide to return to the show after all. Season 4 sees Charlie recovered from his wounds and the shooter revealed: his ex, Audrey. 

5. Charlie and Marnie decide to get a summer share in Montauk. On the last weekend of summer, they drive out in Charlie's newly-leased Audi convertible with their brand new Wheaton terrier puppy, Matthew (whom they affectionately call "Mattie"). After a day spent at the beach, Marnie returns to the house to get ready for dinner while Charlie decides to drive to the local gourmet market to pick up a rhubarb pie for dessert and vegan dog biscuits for their pup. On his way back to the house, relaxed and blissed out, he decides to get off the highway and take a shortcut through a scenic, wooded route. Thinking of Marnie and with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, he doesn't notice a car approaching him on the road from the other direction. The camera cuts to Marnie holding Mattie, cooing to the dog that Charlie will be back soon with some biscuits. While slightly-ominous music plays in the background, we see a driver get out of his BMW SUV, scratch his head, and look for the passenger whose car he just smashed. The final shot is of Charlie lying on the side of the road, dead and pinned underneath his Audi.

RELATED:
Where the Characters on Girls Will Be In 10 Years

Tomorrow Is Pillow Fight Day!

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International-Pillow-Fight-Day-5.jpgIn case you're looking for something different to do, April 6 is International Pillow Fight Day and fights will happen in over 100 cities worldwide. New York City's 8th edition takes place between 3 and 6 p.m. in  Washington Square Park. Though the fights had previously taken place spontaneously or as "flash mob" events, two University of Toronto students, Kevin Bracken and Lori Kufner, have been credited with uniting them into one, big global day of mayhem. It's free and open to pillow fight lovers of all ages. Just don't forget to bring a pillow! For a complete list of all the cities that are participating, go here.


There Will Be A Kitten Bowl in 2014

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puppy-bowl-animals-08-625x450-1.jpg1.  Attention, internet and everyone else: there will be a Kitten Bowl -- yes, like the Puppy Bowl, but with kittens -- in 2014. It'll be on the Hallmark Channel and involve an obstacle course/agility test. Prepare yourselves. [via Vulture; image via Animal Planet]


tumblr_inline_mksffd1gCm1qz4rgp.jpg2.  Karl Lagerfeld's line of shoes for Brazilian jelly shoe company Melissa are available in the brand's Soho store and Bloomingdale's starting tomorrow. May we reccomend the shoes with the ice cream cone heels? [via Style File


tumblr_m5vun5mmvz1qzun8oo1_1280.jpg3.  Rhizome and Tumblr have created an art competition called the Internet Art Grant, in which they give grants to three winning artists' proposals. The size of the grant will correlate with the scope of the project, which must involve Tumblr. The jury includes Massimiliano Gioni of the New Museum, artist Laurie Anderson, and Tumblr's editorial director. They're accepting proposals starting today, so hop to it! [via GalleristNY]


meat-names.jpg4.  Your favorite cuts of pork and beef may be getting a name change at the supermarket. The USDA approved a measure that will urge retailers to change the names of meats in markets from their body-part names to restaurant names. "Boneless shoulder top blade steak," for instance, will now be called "a flatiron steak." Cool. [via Gawker]



5.  We never thought about Sandra Bernhard and Wendy Williams hanging out but now we want to see a lot more of it. [via K212]

9a13a1a6.jpg6.  Miguel will release three new volumes of his Art Dealer Chic EPs this summer, along with "limited-edition apparel." [via Pitchfork]

7.  Everything about this sentence from a WSJ article is too much: "On Thursday, at Open House Gallery downtown, Bugaboo, the Dutch stroller that has become synonymous with stylish, upwardly mobile New York moms, planned to show off its new collaboration with the Andy Warhol Foundation with accompanying frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity and tunes by 9-year-old DJ Fulano."

The Best, Worst and Weirdest of the Week

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beyoncepepsi.gifBest GIF of the Week: This GIF of Beyoncé destroying the Beyoncés of the past, proving she is the One True Beyoncé, during her latest Pepsi commercial. -- Rashard Bradshaw

Best Comeback: Maybe this is cheating, because it hasn't happened yet, but I'm excited to see autor Renata Adler -- who hadn't published anything between 2003 and 2012 -- tonight at the Strand. -- Jonah Wolf

dog_pantyhose.jpgStrangest New Meme: Dogs wearing pantyhose. Some questions:
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
How?
Why?
-- Elizabeth Thompson (h/t Alexis!)

tumblr_mi2rdfLtfP1r1c3jbo2_r1_500.gifBest Person Who Joined Tumblr This Week: Dolly Parton. -- Abby Schreiber

Best Dad of the Week: Basketball icon Magic Johnson on accepting his son EJ's homosexuality brought tears to my eyes. -- R.B.


WTF Trailer of the Week: James DeMonaco's The Purge takes home invasion to new heights and the result almost gave me a slight heart attack. -- R.B.

Best Combination of People Hanging Out Together On Easter: Vampire Weekend and Steve Buscemi, who hung out at the parade and did a duet rendition of the band's new song "Diane Young." -- A.S.


barbienomakeup.jpgImage That We Know Is Good For Girls' Self-Esteem Yet Will Haunt Our Dreams: This rendering of what Barbie might look like without make-up, by artist Eddi Aguirre Cendejaz. -- A.S. 



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