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An Angolan Singer Tells Us About Luanda's Awesome Music and Nightlife

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coreondu_photo.jpgEach week in our new column, "No Sleep Til...," we'll be talking to cool kids around the globe, asking them to fill us in about the bands, DJs, music venues and night spots they and their friends are obsessing over. Next time you visit their home city, leave your Fodor's and Lonely Planet guides behind and go party like a local instead.

Name?

Coréon Dú

Age?

28

Where do you live?

Between Luanda, Angola and the world

What do you do (profession or school)?


Musician & Creative Entrepreneur. [Ed note: Watch one of Coréon's music videos HERE.]

I'm a singer and [have been] doing it professionally since 2008. My debut album The Coréon Experiment came out in 2010. I also do creative direction and production for many advertising and TV projects in Angola. My most exciting project has been writing/producing my first telenovela, Windeck.

What Angolan bands or DJs do you like and think that Americans should know about?

I'm a big fan of a lot of the classics -- two of my all-time favorites are Carlos Burity, who does a traditional style of Angolan popular music called semba, and the late, great André Mingas who did a fusion of traditional Angolan rhythms with jazz and soul music. I've also just discovered Angolan rock from the '60s through '70s and I'm really into Vum Vum and Lilly Tchiumba who have some pretty electrifying songs. In terms of newer generation artists, there is a wonderful artist that does kizomba music called Yola Semedo (both as a solo artist and with her family's band Impactus 4). She has an amazing voice and it's incredible to see her performances where it's just her singing and playing the keys. I also really enjoy a jazz artist called Sandra Cordeiro -- she's very demure and petite in person but has a soulful, powerful voice. Matias Damasio is a great singer-songwriter, and Kizua Gourgel has a really interesting sound -- a very distinctive, raspy baritone.

As for DJs, [I like] DJ Silyvi who does a style of dance music that mixes traditional Angolan rhythms with house music and an Angolan electronic genre called kuduro. I've also just discovered two really cool young DJs, DJ Satelite and DJ Ketchup, who both started as kuduro producers/DJs and now really just have their own sound, which is indescribable but will definitely keep you dancing.

How did you discover them?

Carlos Burity and André Mingas I discovered as a child listening to my parents' vinyl records and they were on radio and TV a lot when I was a kid. I also had the pleasure of working with both of them, which is really cool. I've produced shows with Mr. Burity and André Mingas actually wrote a song for my album.

Vum Vum and Lilly Tchiumba I discovered through research. I was researching for a show and compilation about how music is a big part of our "brand" as Angolans. It was a project where young artists were challenged to reinterpret songs from the past from the 1960s to 1990s. Impactus 4 have been around since my childhood -- they were a band of young kids doing music for other kids so I guess my generation grew up with them. I moved out of Angola when I was 8 and they moved to Namibia for a while and I was really happy when they came back to Angola and were still making great music. Yola Semedo -- the lead singer (and youngest sister) -- now has a really successful solo career. Her voice is flawless.

Sandra Cordeiro, funny enough, I discovered when I was producing an awards show for women called Divas Angola in 2007. I was looking for up-and-coming artists that brought something different to the table. The show's musical director was producing her debut album and I fell in love with her music the first time I heard it. Matias Damasio won a singing competition where aspiring singers mimic well-known performers, but after that he became known for winning every song-writing competition that exists in the country basically. When he finally released his debut album, I knew I had to have it. I actually have all of them, because he has great music, writes great lyrics whether it's something to make you dance, think about love or a socially conscious song.

I first heard Kizua Gourgel playing live at a local club, and the first time I ever performed in Angola was with him up on stage. Coincidentally, he and I are cousins. His cousin, my uncle Beto Gourgel, was a musician and one of the best-known Angolan comedians.

I discovered Silyvi at a local nightclub where he was a resident DJ, and then he did a song called "Let the Beat Run Free" with an incredible singer named Irina whom I grew up with, and I've been hooked on a his sound ever since. DJs Satelite and Ketchup were people I kept running into in kuduro blogs and bootleg street compilations.

What does their music sound like?

They are all very different, as I have really eclectic musical taste. Angolan music is hard to explain -- you have to experience it to know what I'm talking about. Musically we are a big melting pot where you will get an African element mixed with a lot of Latin flavor that comes from us being a former Portuguese colony and our affinity with Caribbean and Latin music. But you also have a lot edgy electronic music influenced by a blend of our own heritage with European and American influences, influences from anything to Bollywood movies to trance and hip-hop.

Where are the cool places to see live music in Luanda?

There are plenty of good places and it all depends what kind of music you are into. Most places, the music varies depending on the day or night you go. The most famous place for live music would probably be Centro Recreativo Kilamba, which plays a lot of traditional music and a lot of big acts but there's also a lot of big, local pop acts that play there. King's Club, which is owned by the band The Kings, has a really intimate, neighborhood vibe. There's also Miami Beach Club, which has a lot of different live acts, as well as Espaço Bahia where they have anything from live concerts to open mic nights and poetry shows. That's a really cool one for up-and-comers and alternative artists.

Describe your perfect night out in Luanda.

I'm a bit of a goody-two shoes so most of my weekends are spent at home. Since in Angola we are very family-oriented, we usually have a big, long lunch with family, which starts around 2-3pm and then turns into a party around 10pm. Usually after that some people go clubbing or they party until the morning in their backyard with their family and friends. Backyard parties are a big thing here in Angola. I actually like the Angolan way because you get to eat really nice food, enjoy good company, and dance.

What's your favorite bar/nightclub in Luanda? What are the cool neighborhoods/areas in Luanda to hang out?

I can't quite say I have a favorite because there are a lot of really good ones. There are some really nice beach clubs at the Ilha do Cabo (Cabo Island), which is near the Luanda bay where you can have anything from a regular club atmosphere to a down-home backyard style experience. There are some really nice bars and clubs downtown in the city center. My recommendation downtown is a place called Fortaleza that's right beside the Fortaleza de São Miguel (or Saint Michael Fort -- the Fort of Luanda) and is a restaurant that I think is one of Luanda's best kept secrets. In Ilha do Cabo is Shogun restaurant, a Japanese restaurant with sushi and hibachi. It also has a nice quiet beach. The Bay Inn Club has a great view of the Luanda Bay and Tamariz is a popular daytime hangout. (A word about beaches: the best ones are outside the city, toward the south, like Sangano Beach, which has miles of white sand and clean sea and also Cabo Ledo where local surfers go.)

Aside from clubs, the best places to get traditional Angolan food are Quintal de Tia Guida, the best place to have mufete, a dish that includes grilled whole fish with a homemade onion sauce accompanied by steamed sweet plantains, yucca and beans in palm oil sauce. Funge House, in the city center, is where you can enjoy the traditional funge, which is comparable to polenta or foufou from other African countries. It's often made with cassava (yucca) flour or corn flour and accompanied by various meat, fish or vegetable dishes. The best place for caldo -- a fish stew made from fresh fish, sweet potatoes and yucca, often with a side of palm oil beans -- can be found at Multibocas or Jango Veleiro, which is open late for an after-club shift. Caldo is enoyed as a family dish as well as a hangover cure by some of my party animal friends.

What's a bar or nightclub you would NEVER go to in Luanda?

I don't think there are any -- I've been to a wide range of different places and different crowds all over the city and the country, and it´s nice to discover new ones.

Check out Coréon's band and DJ recs:

Carlos Burity -- "Malalanza"


André Mingas -- "É Luanda"


Vum Vum -- "Muzangola"


Lilly Tchiumba -- "Mona Ki N'Gui Xissa"


Yola Semedo -- "Injusta"


Sandra Cordeiro -- "Luandense"


Matias Damasio -- "Kwanza Burro"


Kizua Gourgel -- "Tetembwa ya mwenho ami"


DJ Silyvi -- "Tambuleno"


DJ Satelite -- "Trombetas De Angola"


DJ Ketchup -- Ezio ft. DJ Ketchup "Uzaru Uzau"




Check out Coréon's nightlife listings:

Centro Recreativo e Cultural Kilamba, address unknown

King's Club, R. António Feliciano Castilho, Vila Alice, Luanda

Miami Beach Club, Av. Murtala Mohamed, S/N, Luanda

Espaço Bahia, Avenida 4 de Fevereiro 183, Luanda

Naquele Lugar or Fortaleza, Calcada de S. Miguel, s/n, Cidade Alta Provincia de Luanda, Luanda

Shogun,
Próximo ao Banco BCP, Ilha de Luanda, Chicala, Luanda

Tamariz,
Rua Murtala Mohamed, Ilha do Cabo, Luanda

Quintal de Tia Guida, Ilha de Luanda

Funge House, Avenida Lenine, Luanda

Multibocas, Rua Murtala Mohamed, Ilha do Cabo, Luanda (across the street from Tamariz)

Jango Veleiro, Av. Murtala Mohamed, Ilha de Luanda, Luanda

Bird Is Opening a Pop-Up on Shelter Island

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bird_shelter_island.jpgThough Shelter Island residents probably feel a little queasy at the thought of thier laid-back weekend community becoming Montauk 2.0 (see these photos of André Balazs playing ping pong with Pippa Middleton at his Shelter Island hotel from last summer), there's one cool addition to the scene that's sure to be welcomed with open arms: Beach Bird. The Brooklyn-based boutique with shops in Williamsburg, Cobble Hill and Park Slope is opening a Shelter Island-friendly version of their 'high fashion-with-an-L Train twist' store. The pop-up will emphasize "easy dresses, pretty jewelry, sandals and swimsuits" over the more conceptual fare found in their city locations, owner Jen Mankins tells us. "I want the store to make sense in the context of its community and being by the beach," she adds. Mankins, who herself has been going out to Shelter Island for over a decade, tells us the store will also carry travel-friendly items like toothbrushes and soap -- though don't expect Dove or Dial. (In this case, it's saltwater soap from Sweden.) Vacation goers can also find hostess gifts like Turkish hamman towels, East African beach blankets, art and design books and hand-dyed ikat pillows.

Beach Bird will be located at 183 North Ferry Road and will be open from June 1 through September 1. 

beach bird.JPGPhoto of the uncompleted store


Map by Kate Diago

In the Mix with Little Mix and Missy Elliott

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We're working on our Summer Music Issue and having big debates about who gets to be included. Should it be Jake Bugg or Disclosure? AlunaGeorge or Palma Violets? And what about Little Mix? They're the girls that became the first group to win on X-Factor in the UK and their new single, "How Ya Doin'?," features Missy Elliott. What do you think? Would you use this song on your answering machine?

Two Glorious Daft Punk Video Mash-Ups to Start Your Weekend

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The best thing to come out of all the breathless Daft Punk coverage online this week? These two mash-up videos featuring DP's new duet with Pharrell, "Get Lucky." Viral clip "Daft Train" matches Soul Train footage with the track while "Goat Lucky" injects yelling goats into the chorus. Obviously the goat video is the better of the two because yelling goats sound just like Grampa Simpson and are always, always funny, but both are worth a watch.


Daft Punk x Soul Train, via Laughing Squid.
 
Goat Lucky (Feat. Pharrell Williams), via Morning Funnies.
 

Throwback Thursday: Anthony Weiner, Splattered in Phagwah Dye

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weinerweb-phagwah.jpgSince there's mounting evidence that he will be running for New York City Mayor (NBC News caught him filming a campaign video this morning) and in light of yesterday's New York Post  story on him --  replete with sexxxier puns than usual -- we'd like to devote our Throwback Thursday post to Anthony "Big Weiner" Weiner. PAPER photographer Rebecca Smeyne took this picture pre-sexting scandal at the annual Indo-Caribbean Hindu celebration Phagwah, where getting splattered with dye is par for the course. Smeyne recalls: "It was very rowdy, I think he had just made a speech and was on the way out.  A bunch of teenage boys crowded around as people were posing with him for photos and kept shouting 'Big Weiner!' And Big Weiner didn't seem thrilled about the phagwah dye on his fancy suit. He was ready to get out of there."

The Most Depressing/Genius Vine of All Vines

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Sorry, Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal, but this is our new favorite Vine video. [Gawker]



Grab some Kleenex and watch these farewell interviews with the cast of The Office, which had its series finale last night. They'll make your heart soar like the eagle's nest.



You're probably not planning on doing much at work today because it's Friday and obviously not a real work day, so here you go: A mega Office blooper reel. [TastefullyOffensive]

R1W3.jpgBug with a blog. [Mlkshk]

20002347_6d98_1024x2001.jpgMust...own...this. [LaughingSquid]
 

This super-cut of small children rocking out in the backseat = instant heart explosion.That tiny guy who knows all the words to "Thinkin' About You" is our favorite. [Jezebel]

tumblr_mmuychItII1qzmowao6_1280.jpgtumblr_mmuychItII1qzmowao2_r1_1280.jpgNew Favorite Tumblr Alert: Apreensão e Arte, which features artfully arranged photos of drugs and apprehended items seized by a Brazilian police force. Hope that dog is the one doing the arranging.

tumblr_l5qn3yMl1E1qzvqipo1_500.jpgTrue. [JuliaSegal]



These chefs, farmers and bakers are so ahead of their time, we had to make up a new word for them.

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There's plenty of good food in New York, but it's on the West Coast where food movements really take shape. From Los Angeles to Washington's Lummi Island, it's not enough to be 'artisanal' anymore. We found the young chefs, bakers and farmers who are changing the dinner conversation.

foodtivists_thankyou_landing.jpgThank You For Coming / los angeles, CA


foodtivists_joseybaker_tile.jpgJosey Baker / san francisco, CA


foodtivists_blaine_landing.jpgBlaine Wetzel / lummi island, WA


foodtivists_littlecitylanding.jpgLittle City Gardens / san francisco, CA


foodtivists_thoughtlanding.jpg
Thought For Food / san francisco, CA


RuPaul and Lady Bunny's New Video Is Amazing

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Just the Friday pick-me-up we needed: the music video for RuPaul and Lady Bunny's newest single "Lick It Lollipop" -- available on iTunes, of course -- was just released today and it's a must-watch. Between Ru looking hawt (and especially Tyra-esque, we must say), Lady Bunny fellating some very long and hefty lollipops, and that male model looking good enough to lick while licking himself, we can say with assurance that this will be the highlight of our morning. Enjoy it above.

Catch a Livestream of the SCAD Fashion Show

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SCAD fashion show image #2.jpg
Spring is the time we pack away our chunky knits and pull out our hot pants and tank tops. It's also the time that I make my yearly pilgrimage to Savannah for SCAD's fashion show. Savannah College of Art and Design was founded in 1978 and is considered one of the leading art and design schools in the nation. The fashion school has a reputation for attracting top talent and fashion icon Andre Leon Talley is a member of SCAD's Board of Trustees and each year gives a Lifetime Achievement Award to a fashion legend like Miuccia Prada, Tom Ford, Manolo Blahnik and this year to Calvin Klein Collection designer Francisco Costa.

The fashion show offers a glimpse at some of tomorrow's fashion stars and if you can't make it down to Savannah you're in luck. You can catch the Live Stream of the show here on Saturday, May 18th at 8pm. It's the next best thing to being there. Now if they could only figure out how to live stream me eating some hushpuppies and collards.


Wayne Coyne on GoogaMooga: "I'll Stand There and Sing Emotional Songs to People Who Are a Little Drunk"

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wayne-coyne-interview-vegas.jpg"I kind of like Las Vegas now. It's over-the-top, and that's appealing," says Wayne Coyne when I tell him I'm calling him for our phone interview from outside a gimmicky restaurant in the Mandalay Bay Hotel. "It's a place that's better when you're older and have more money." The Flaming Lips frontman -- who, over his band's 30-year career, has performed in everything from "blood"-splattered white suits to a giant (and patented) clear plastic "space bubble" -- is certainly one who gravitates towards the over-the-top.

Coyne, in New York for tonight's performance at the kick-off event for the Great GoogaMooga in Prospect Park, as well as last night's concert at the Wellmont Theatre in New Jersey, had a few minutes to spare on set at the Jimmy Fallon Show ("I have to warn you, it's loud in here. And I don't know how to use this BlackBerry") to talk about the band's hypnotic thirteenth album The Terror, the allure of punk rock, and why doing whatever you want sometimes leads to success.

I spent all night listening to The Terror. It's haunting, electric, psychedelic and feels different from anything you've done before. Where did all this grit come from?
I don't think it's a permanent switch. We've made so many records. We've been lucky doing our thing. One record leads to another, and freedom and curiosity. What our desire was was to mostly make music we felt we wanted to make. We didn't consider making a record when we were messing around with sound and synthesizers. All ideas start in a free area. It doesn't matter what you do.

You've put out thirteen albums now, but 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots remains one of your most commercially successful works. Why do you think it resonates with so many fans?
I absolutely do not know. Popularity is mysterious. I don't know why we made it so polished and commercial sounding. If you heard this and not our other music you would think we were so organized. There's something about the story, and just the way the songs work on people. In the first month it was popular. One strategy is that it is used for weddings and funerals, for people who don't want to play standard songs.

It's been a long road, but it sounds like Yoshimi is finally going to hit Broadway.

It's been in the making since 2003. It's not really my creation, but it really hits on a personal level. When we play it we present it like a concert. I think people will really love it, but musical theatre isn't for everyone.

You're getting ready to take the stage at GoogaMooga. Anything you can reveal about that performance?
At some of these shows, a lot of people are there because it's a party, and they're drinking with their friends. I think it's about the music at GoogaMooga, and being in that moment. Sometimes I don't really think we're doing a show. We're setting up our stuff, we're doing new things. Obviously things happen, but I don't know if anything's going to happen. I'll stand there and sing emotional songs to people who are a little drunk.

Punk rock has been a big influence on you. Have you seen the "PUNK: Chaos to Couture" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art while you've been in town?
I haven't, but if I do get a chance I'd like to go, completely. I love the British stuff for sure, and the Minutemen. It made us think that we could do this. Now, punk rock has become such a cliche, but then, punk rock meant we were weirdos who could do whatever the fuck we wanted. Or we took it that way.

You spent many years working at Long John Silver's in Oklahoma, up until you secured your Warner Bros. deal. What was that fast food era like?
I worked there from 1977 through 1990. The way that we lived then was how most of the people we knew did. They did their music with virtually no hope of living off of it. We had our jobs and our art, and we thought that's how life would be. When we signed, all that we lived and thought about ourselves changed. We could really make records. We would be recording artists.

Photo: Benjamin Lozovsky/BFAnyc.com

Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" Is Still Pretty Groovy

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What at first glance could be an old aerobics video -- or an ad for the Broadway show Kinky Boots -- is actually Nancy Sinatra's hit from the '60s, "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'. " Nancy is, of course, Frank Sinatra's daughter and she was also signed to dad's record label, Reprise. Fun fact: the song's title was taken from one of Sinatra's films, 4 for Texas. "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" went to #1 around the world and was the first of a long sting of hits written for her by Lee Hazlewood. Are you ready now, boots?

The Best, Worst and Weirdest of the Week

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crystal truck.pngThe Only Thing We're Looking Forward to at This Weekend's Electric Daisy Carnival: this Swarovski crystal-encrusted ice cream truck from HeartsRevolution, which will be making its debut at the EDM fest. No word on the ice cream flavors being offered but we do hear that the truck will make scheduled stops throughout NYC this summer, including a stop at The Standard. -- Abby Schreiber

Weirdest Contest of the Week:
King's County Bar's small penis contest, which seeks to find the least endowed men in Brooklyn. -- Max Kessler

Most Counter-Revolutionary Music Management:
Lupe Fiasco's, after his management took over his Twitter following a series of tweets from the rapper about Marxism. -- Jonah Wolf

popsouk2013.pngEvent We're Going to Be Blowing Our Paychecks On This Weekend: Ladyfag's annual Pop Souk, which returns this Sunday to the Standard Biergarten from noon-6pm. You can expect the usual glittery array of nightlife denizens, artists, musicians, designers and DJs selling clothing, jewelry, furnishings and crafts. -- A.S.

Best Video of the Week:
Jim O'Heir's (a.k.a. Jerry Gergich from Parks and Rec) video in which he shows how plus-size people can shop at Abercrombie & Fitch, in light of the resurfacing of an old interview in which the company's Chief Executive Douchebag, Mike Jeffries, implied they don't want fat people shopping at their store. -- M.K.


juliannemoorefeet.pngFashion Victim-y Photo That's Been Seared In Our Brains All Week: Julianne Moore's squashed toes, as seen on the Cannes red carpet. -- A.S.

Best Flow Chart: The Indy's "Guide to Your Future In Media." -- J.W.

Most Childhood-Ruining -- But Kinda Awesome -- Re-Imagining of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves:
Artist Paul McCarthy's upcoming show at the Park Avenue Armory, WS, which will feature "a massive, fantastical forest" and a video showing pantsless dwarves with "penises flapping in the air like pompoms." Oh boy. -- A.S.

GIFs of the Week: Die Hard Tobias Fünke + The Best Fake Cat Ever

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Welcome to our Friday GIF roundup, featuring a collection of this week's most important, amusing and/or newsy GIFs and GIF sets by Mike Hayes of Buzzfeed and Gifhound.

Tried something new this week. GIF free word association.

tumblr_mmwglikCvU1r064gzo1_500.gifArt. [via SFMOMA]


tumblr_m9dkmiZKKT1qb8rsoo1_250.gifLies. [via Buffalo of Lies]


tumblr_mmy8xbXK8K1r7y4e6o1_500.gifAH! [via Us Weekly]



tumblr_mmxd62Qvre1qcuxfvo1_500.gifAppetizing. [via Soulful Sock]


tumblr_ma1zxtt3ig1qd48zdo1_500.gifVermin. [via ancient and holy things fade like a dream]


tumblr_mmworkRLJO1rs9ul6o1_500.gifFear. [via Roger von Biersborn]


tumblr_mmvpkkFrGT1qdlh1io1_250.gifHero. [via 4Gifs]


tumblr_mmuig4JYZc1qz4u07o1_500.giftumblr_mmuig4JYZc1qz4u07o2_500.gifMisandry. [via Topherchris]


tumblr_mmfzwg8uAi1so4mq8o1_500.gifDemon-spawn. [via TLC]


   

   



Victory. [via Mini Kraid]
 

Vegan Problems Meet Lana Del Rey

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ldr-thin.png29998297_480x480_f.jpg



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









 Everyone's got that friend of a friend at the BBQ who, just as you're picking up your juicy burger for that first delicious bite, says something like "ew, you're eating that?"  That smug vegan is now me. My newfound veganism has ostracized me from my friends, has kept me up (starving) at night, and has left me standing, many times, before an open refrigerator wondering what the fuck I can actually eat. I feel the same way about being vegan as I do about Lana Del Ray songs - it's good for me and I love it, but I wish we had some more options to choose from. This week's edition of Five n Five is, in part, a cry for help. Will some more experienced vegans come to my rescue?  I've outlined some of my new diet, along with my fave LDR remixes below.

 
Vegetable Juice: "Blue Jeans" (RAC Remix)

Have you seen Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead? Only watch it if you want to buy a juicer and hundreds of dollars in vegetables, have every surface of your house covered in bits of celery and pee red. I drink this daily. "You're so fresh to death..."

TVP: "Summertime Sadness" (Nick Warren Remix)


Texturized Vegetable Protein is a space-age meat alternative and it's what they made Morningstar Farms faux chicken nuggets out of.  I eat these as a midnight snack regularly.  Super-smug vegans will tell you how bad these are for you. "Nothing scares me anymore"

Kale Chips: "Born to Die" (Woodkid and the Shoes Remix)

If you're craving junk food in a totally bonkers crazy way you can sprinkle some salt and pepper on kale leaves and throw them in the toaster oven for fifteen minutes.  This is what is called "kale chips" and vegans will swear up and down that they taste better than Pringles.  "Come on, take a walk on the wild side"

Seitan:  "Video Games" (Jamie Woon Remix)

Seitan or "mock duck" is another word for wheat gluten. It's grey, it's chewy, it's flavorless.  I love this. I eat it on weekends at one of the three restaurants I go to. "It's better than I ever even knew"

White Wine: "Ride" (Active Child Remix)

It turns out that (organic) white wine is actually in line with the vegan lifestyle.  Pour a little (organic) club soda in there and you've got a sprintzer -- who you calling a smug vegan now?  "Every night I used to pray that I'd find my people, and finally I did..."

Stefon's Wedding Was Everything You Could Have Ever Asked For

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Oh man, Saturday Night Live's season finale was also Bill Hader and Fred Armisen's final episode and it was a doozy. First, Stefon got an amazing send-off on Weekend Update, complete with a marriage to Anderson Cooper interrupted by Seth Meyers a la The Graduate. Can you spot the human fire extinguishers, puppets in disguise, Jupids, Ferkels and Hobocops? 

 

Then Fred Armisen performed a song as his punk alter ego Ian Rubbish. Backed by Bill Hader on bass, Jason Sudeikis on drums and Taran Killam on guitars, the trio was joined by Carrie Brownstein, the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones, J. Mascis, Aimee Mann, Michael Penn and Kim Gordon (our eternal bangs-piration).

kanyesnlgoodbye2.gif And then while the whole SNL cast stood around crying and hugging at the end of the night, music guest Kanye West made this face because SNL's season finale was really about himmmm! [Dlisted]



One more SNL clip: This ad for Gay Wedding Xanax, or how to cope when you go to an excruciatingly flawless, perfect-in-every-way gay wedding.
 


Official Anchorman 2 trailer alert, fatface! [LaughingSquid]

tumblr_mn18roEOpE1qewacoo1_500.jpgSummer wardrobe essential. [TastefullyOffensive]

tumblr_mm6hwh6rZv1qj26eao1_500.jpgHmm... [PleatedJeans]

tumblr_mmpfldDH6S1snnvilo1_1280.jpgRightladies? [Ratsoff]

tumblr_mmx9q5vsOr1qz6f9yo1_500.jpgThe joy and sorrow of Ronald Reagan in sweat slacks. [ThisIsntHappiness]

tumblr_mmxcmssD5C1qz6f9yo1_500.jpgMonday motto. [ThisIsntHappiness]



DFA to Take Over Brooklyn's Most Awesome Venue

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dfagrandprospect.jpgHEADS UP: Though the big DFA-a-palooza has been sold out for a month, we just got word that additional advance tickets will be released TODAY (5/20) at 2pm EST HERE.

New 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? 

The Lonely Island Rap About Diapers, Marital Sex and Grave Plots In New Video

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It's not #WackWednesday yet but the Lonely Island guys have decided to release their latest music video a few days early (ostensibly for YouTube's Comedy Week...we think). Their newest audiovisual offering is a trap-inflected track called "Diaper Money" in which the dudes rap about such gangsta topics as the titular diaper money (for, you know, your baby's shit), sex (or lack thereof) with your wife and buying grave plots. Basically, this video is what we imagine would happen if 70% of Park Slope dads were allowed to live out their hip-hop fantasies for a day.

Check out the Lonely Island in the latest issue of PAPER HERE.

Marcus Samuelsson Reveals His All-Time Favorite Harlem Fried Chicken Joint

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marcus_chefs_off_duty.jpg Each week in our Chefs Off Duty series, we talk to some of our favorite chefs and industry folk around the country to find out their secret late-night spots where they like to grab a bite and a pint when their kitchens are finally closed. Next up: Marcus Samuelsson, the chef/owner behind Harlem's wildly popular Swedish-meets-soul food emporium, Red Rooster and its sister subterranean supper club, Ginny's, and the author of the James Beard award-winning memoir Yes, Chef, which comes out on paperback tomorrow. 

Where is your favorite place to go get a bite to eat when you're leaving your own restaurant?

I love Charles' [Country Pan] Fried Chicken, which is on 150th and Eighth Avenue. It's tiny -- it's a classic mom and pop. It's an all-day, American Southern soulfood restaurant. Most people don't really eat in but I eat in or take the meal across the street. It's a staple of the community. People come after work, bring the box home or go eat it on the way to work. People are there all day. I have a little bit of collard greens and a little bit of peas and then I go over and watch basketball. There's a legendary outdoor basketball court here in Harlem where basketball players like Kobe Bryant go in the summer to play with the street guys. It's one of my favorite things.

How did you first come across Charles'?


Before I opened [Red] Rooster, I biked and walked a lot around the neighborhood to learn what the community was about and to learn the DNA of the community -- just going there and finding out that this is where the really good fried yard bird is. I'd read about it and done a lot of research. They'd been there for a while and [I] just stumbled upon it seven or eight years ago when I was really thinking about [opening] Red Rooster. That's the great thing about walking or biking in a community, you can stop and participate.

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What do you like to order there?

Fried chicken -- they fry it in a cast [iron] skillet. I'll get a little bit of collard greens, little bit of black-eyed peas and a little bit of hot sauce and some mac 'n' cheese. Then I'm good. It's very traditional.

Any fun memories from having meals at Charles'?

One of my favorite things is to go over there and always check with [Charles] if I'm ever having doubts about how a fried chicken or fried yardbird should be done. I always go over there. When I was about to open Rooster, I thought about the fried yardbird constantly and knew it was going to be a staple of the restaurant. It was at the point where my friend John Legend told me I was over-thinking it. He said, "Fry the goddamn bird. Put some flour on it and fry it. Don't overthink the bird." You want it to be a little bit different but not so different that the community can't recognize it. John was like, "You're overthinking the goddamn bird. Just fry the damn bird."

Charles' Country Pan Fried Chicken, 2839 Frederick Douglass Blvd., New York; Open daily, 9am-11pm

Photo by Charlie Perry/BFAnyc.com

Recapping the Mad Men Recaps: "The Crash"

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DANCING-COSGROVE.gifEach week PAPER will help you sort through your feelings about Mad Men by rounding up the best and brightest of the MM recaps. Read below so you can compare, contrast, and ponder while doing a tap dance routine on speed in your office.

This episode is all about drugs.

Mad Men's own Don...doesn't need a baggie of mushrooms or peyote buttons to have a reality-warping hallucinatory experience, just a vitamin superdose injected directly into his gluteus. -- EW

Jim Cutler brings in Dr. Shelly Hecht to infuse the staff with "24 to 72 hours of uninterrupted creative focus, energy and confidence." Honestly, they did better when they drank whiskey and smoked joints all day long. -- Rolling Stone

Hell, I'm exhausted after that episode, and all I had today was a multivitamin. One thing is for certain: I never need to see Don Draper on drugs ever again...I've had enough death, doorway and whores-are-mommies imagery to last me until Mad Men reaches the 1970s. -- Rolling Stone

Even though Dr. Hecht's is supposed to be a silver bullet to increase productivity, it does just the opposite.

Seriously, though, have you ever tried to collaborate with someone who's overdone it with stimulants?...I loved when an exasperated Ted marvels that even "Chevy" is spelled wrong. -- Slate

Peggy and Ginsberg are not impressed by Stan's stream-of-consciousness Chevy taglines or Don's stirring -- though ultimately empty -- declaration about his ultimate idea. "That was very inspiring. Do you have any idea what the idea is?" Peggy says with the weariness of a woman who's probably thinking, "At least he's not puking all over his shirt and then falling asleep in my lap this time." -- TV Line

Ted [fumes] over the weekend's pathetic lack of productivity: "Half of this work is gibberish. Chevy is spelled wrong." -- Rolling Stone

Was this episode too disjointed?

Mad Men has gotten trippy before...but "The Crash" is a funhouse-mirror nightmare that pretty much lasts an entire episode...Everything's so chopped up and disjointed that it's like he's living through a full weekend composed entirely of non-sequitur "Next Week on Mad Men..." snippets. -- EW

Turns out all [Don's] dull sulking and sniveling and raging this season has been a build-up to your drug-induced peak and subsequent crash. It's glorious. The nonsense spouted off by Don last night is among the funniest writing this season, and maybe in the show's entire run. -- Complex

If last week's "Mad Men" was packed with satisfying scenes...then this week's episode was all agitation and mania with much less pay off. -- Salon

Mad Men itself seemed to be under the influence, stumbling around sweating and yammering, desperately trying to come up with a Big Idea, like Don and the gang slaving for Chevy...More so than any Mad Men episode I can recall, it doesn't quite feel like a Mad Men episode, but a bunch of half-formed ideas for a Mad Men episode...[or a] TV-drama version of one of those papers that every halfway-smart student writes when they're exhausted and can't come up with an idea, and decides to write about their inability to come up with an idea instead, and hope they'll be so clever that they'll get an A anyway. -- Vulture

Don is now obsessed with Sylvia...

When Sylvia cuts off the affair, [Don] becomes a man obsessed, hanging outside the Rosens' apartment and lighting cigarette after cigarette with the torch he holds for her. Where he was once detached, he has now become unstuck. Don's sexual fantasies may have included power games, but everyone knows real power belongs to the one who loves least, and his need for Sylvia sends him into a head-on collision worse than Ken's Impala joyride. -- EW

Don is also flashing back to losing his virginity. Enough with the flashbacks already!

As [Don] coughs into a handkerchief, he flashes back to when he had a chest cold in the whorehouse and one of the prostitutes showed more compassion for him than his stepmother ever did. (Spoiler alert: That hooker was also Don's first woman, and when his stepmom found out, she beat him with a wooden spoon.) -- TV Line

And all that vitamin injection did for Don was cause his head space to be occupied by his teenage memory of Ms. Swenson, the blonde hooker who had been making eyes at him from the day he moved into Uncle Mack's brothel, tending to him while he battled a nasty chest cold. So it's no wonder Don's perception of women is so skewed: The only female who had shown him any sort of maternal comfort up to that point was a prostitute. But Ms. Swenson resumed her duties as soon as young Dick's lungs cleared up, relieving him of his virginity and any hope that he could ever separate the idea of a mother figure from that of a whore, especially after Abigail beat his ass for sleeping with the merchandise -- Rolling Stone

I've always found that Don's childhood flashbacks never really gel for me. The straight-backed man with the corner office is a long way from the boy who grew up on a farm during the Depression, or the gangly teen who ended up in a whorehouse once his alcoholic father died. It's hard to connect the dots between these individuals on an emotional level, even when the psychological through-line is highlighted in neon... -- EW

Come on, isn't all this Don-mother-whore stuff too much?

Seriously, Matthew Weiner, do you think we're grasping your point about mothers and whores and friends and whores and brothers and whores and mourning daughters and whores, or do we also need Betty calling Sally a whore? ("Where'd you get that skirt?" "I earned it." "On what street corner?") Do we need Michael Ginsberg urging Don to "Promise them everything. You've got to change their life, you've got to take away their pain!"? Do we need Don announcing his unwillingness to yield his life to Chevy's high-paying whoring schedule, and then piously telling Ted Chaough, "Every time we get a car, this place turns into a whorehouse"? Are we really meant to throw our sandwiches at the screen, yelling, "But YOU are the whore, Don Draper!"? Sometimes I wish Don weren't quite so covered in whoring whoremongers and the whoring whores who whore for them. I mean, this dead horse was beaten to a pulp months ago, wasn't it? Every time they flash back to that whorehouse, I can't tell if I'm watching "Mad Men" or "Boardwalk Empire" or "The Sopranos" or "Game of Thrones" (where at least the whores have biting words and little vials filled with poison). "Mad Men" is too smart and modern to send us somewhere we've been a million times before (and will be a million more times in the future). What if Don Draper just had a stoical dad who drank too much and beat him, like so many kids of his generation? Wouldn't the specifics of that have to be a little more artful? Have we learned or seen one intriguing or interesting or artful detail about 1) young Don, 2) his stepmother, 3) Mac or 4) the nurturing whores in his midst? Given the rich, unpredictable nature of so many "Mad Men" scenes, these flashbacks are, in contrast, utterly flat and colorless. There were whores around, and it was confusing. Next! -- Salon

Letting us into Don's past, connecting his encounters with prostitutes to his recklessness today lets us know Don in ways that don't work. They feel too obvious, plain as a connect-the-dots puzzle. -- Complex

Don is still in crisis because of course he is. And as such, we were treated to a number of whorehouse flashbacks, Weiner's favorite Dick Whitman resting ground. Don has unresolved issues from his childhood, we get it. -- Collider

The less said about Don's flashbacks, the better...Don's childhood-issues-as-explanations-for-his-adult-dysfunction would seem played-out by this point, even if the flashbacks weren't consistently poorly acted and written ("I defy your accusations!") and integrated with present-tense material in a film-schoolish way. -- Vulture

Has Don officially lost his edge?

[Don's] speeches, usually inspiring and grandiloquent, [have] become rambling and alarming. -- EW

Reduced to his essence, [Don] was revealed to be nothing more than a glitchy, half-absent patriarch, a fugue of uplifting nonsense, a fraud who lied his way into someone else's life and took them for all they were worth....Sanctimonious as ever, he'll take the high road to his own doom. -- Salon

Don hasn't had his brilliant breakthroughs like in the past. There was no Kodak Carousel moment at the end the episode, even though it was teased a few times (as it has been in other episodes, where Don sounds like Old Don, but is now bordering on Crazy Don, like his ad that everyone read as suicide). His three day drug trip resulted in nothing except the idea that he's not sure if anyone loves him, and that the key to life is not a Chevy. -- Collider

Stan hits on Peggy and sleeps with that mysterious hippie chick, who we thought was a hallucination of Don's for most of the episode.

When he wasn't challenging Jim to race him around the office, Stan was hooking up with late CGC partner Frank Gleason's hippie daughter Wendy -- but that was only after Peggy spurned his advances. -- Rolling Stone

Stan was a really interesting case this week, because when he reveals to Peggy about the pain he feels having lost his cousin months back in combat, Peggy tells him to let himself feel that pain, and not to dampen it with drugs and sex. And yet, near the end of the episode that's exactly what Stan does. It's also exactly what Don has always does. -- Collider

Please, Mad Men, don't let this be the only payoff for all of the Stan-Peggy build-up. Please revisit them in the future. But first, please let her forget about watching him get it on with hippie Wendy -- who we later learn is Frank's daughter -- on an office couch later in the hour while Jim Cutler pervs out beside her. (Beside Peggy, not Wendy. Even in this oddball episode, that would've been a little too weird.) -- TV Line

Peggy's intimate moment with Stan was exquisitely observed. Despite his drug-addled inappropriateness and her sisterly feelings toward him, there's real chemistry there; you can feel it. "You've got a great ass," he tells her as she's leaving. "Thank you," she says simply. Also: "You're lucky I don't like beards." Expect a clean-shaven Stan next week. -- Vulture

Peggy rolled her eyes at Don, comforted Ted, and turned down Stan's advance. And good lord, have we ever seen Peggy turn down an advance before? Pete, Duck, Abe, Ted... Peggy has always been the girl who says yes to half-hearted passes. Maybe this means she's finally an adult. -- Salon

What did that "Grandma Ida" incident mean?

While Don was off figuring out the perfect ad campaign to present to his mistress, his children were being terrorized by a deranged woman who managed to slip into the apartment and rob the Drapers of their valuables - all the while claiming to be the kids' grandmother (not an easy sell, considering she was African-American). But in true Don Draper fashion, come Monday morning, there's no remorse for his actions, only his usual "this never happened" attitude. -- Rolling Stone

Why not throw in a woman pretending to be Don's long-lost nanny and "grandmother," who's really just a thief in disguise? Because then we've got matriarchs who steal stuff -- gold watches! Time itself, stolen! We've got motherly frauds who will turn on you the second you don't give them hugs and trust them and tell them everything. This is the embodiment of what Don thinks will happen if he's honest and gives his heart to a woman: she'll steal everything that isn't nailed down. -- Salon

Burglar Mammy was horrendous, a confirmation of every harsh judgment levied against Mad Men for being too much of a white upper-middle-class historical fantasy, a show that's not willing or able to really go where it labors to convince us it's going. If Burglar Mammy were a dream figure attached to a particular character, and if Mad Men had shown any inclination to go anywhere substantive with its allusions to civil rights and racial anxiety, and if it hadn't given us a black Playboy bunny, a black prostitute, a black mugger, and other disreputable minor characters over the years, but no people of color with personal or even narrative substance, I might feel differently about her. -- Vulture

Overworked metaphor alert: Don frets that Sylvia will "close the door" on him; he swears there's "an answer that will open the door"; and when his vulnerable home is robbed, he apologizes, "I left the door open. It was my fault." As the episode closed, it felt like Don had slammed and deadbolted all the doors to his heart. -- Slate

Ken tap dances, a thousand GIFs are created.
 
With a scratched-up face, a show-business cane, and a limp, Kenny just screamed out, "Pass the drugs, please." Once tweaking, he dances a jig -- is Matthew Weiner writing scenes knowing that they'll be turned into GIFs? -- Complex

Ken Cosgrove's desperate, angry tap dance for Don sums up the Chevy people's thuggishness, but it also feels like yet another metaphor for what's it's probably like to work on Mad Men (the poor bastard's dancing as fast as he can, so that sonfoabitching recappers can write about what a rotten dancer he is). -- Vulture


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Oh, and Betty's skinny again. More Bugles for the rest of us.


The sudden weight loss just goes to show how self-centered Betty still is: She "struggled" with her diet for a year and a half, but once the term "political wife" became within her reach, she managed to put down the Bugles and drop the pounds in a matter of two months. I have a sickening feeling Sally is about to get a crash course in eating disorders. -- Rolling Stone

Betty's blonde and svelte again, by the way. -- TV Line



DIY Guru Bre Pettis Has Invented the First Affordable 3-D Printer

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tech_inventor.jpgBre Pettis (and other items) printed in 3-D. photographed by Ryan Kobane

"Be very careful if you make a great slingshot for your hovercraft," advises Bre Pettis, DIY guru and a founder of the first affordable 3-D printer company. "My experience with that was what inspired me to get health insurance."

Wild ideas like these are a dime a dozen from Pettis, the self-proclaimed "tinkerer" and how-to video podcaster, whose 3-D printing innovations have won him attention from an audience far wider than the open-source geek crowd he attracted with his hacker collective, NYC Resistor. In 2009, Pettis, who studied mythology, psychology and performing arts at Evergreen State College, co-founded MakerBot, a Brooklyn-based company focused on making affordable 3-D printers that are changing how we think about DIY or "personal manufacturing," as Pettis -- looking every bit the Williamsburg resident with thick-rimmed glasses and shaggy, prematurely gray hair -- calls it. MakerBot's printers, which construct plastic products based off of digital blueprints, bring new dimensions to manufacturing within the medical, home-building and even fashion industries.

Much like the Internet in the mid-'90s, 3-D printing (and the "maker" culture that surrounds it) is still finding its role in society. But in 10 years' time, last-minute Home Depot runs or fruitless shopping trips searching for the perfect pair of shoes could be a thing of the past. For its part, MakerBot now employs 200 people and even has a demo and retail store in Manhattan. But before you start thinking that you're going to put the sex toy industry out of business or become the next Steve Jobs of home manufacturing, take a look at Thingiverse, MakerBot's website where users share designs for 3-D printing.

"My favorite part of the day is looking at Thingiverse," muses Pettis, finding constant inspiration in the idea that visitors are able to share and download more than 70,000 3-D designs ranging from brass knuckles to robotic hands for children born without fingers.

"My life's mission is to create tools that creative explorers can use to make wonderful things," says Pettis. "What will you make?"

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