GenEx

I've Loved These Days

As the 4th of July holiday is just about upon us (I leave for East Hampton Wednesday) its time to release my annual summer cd. Like all these cds, they start with an inspiration. I was very inspired by a special edition of Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" that contained a cut of Life In Technicolor that included lyrics. It sent me down the road of finding what I called "anthematic alternative" songs. But like every year, warm weather brings me back to another love of mine - dance music. So this year I tried to blend the two thoughts. All songs can be purchased on itunes; here's where I netted out:

1. Life In Technicolor ii / Coldplay

I always liked this instrumental intro into the "Viva La Vida" album, but wondered why it didn't have lyrics. Now it does.

2. Did You Hear Me Coming / Pet Shop Boys

The second single off their new album "Yes," The Smiths' Johnny Marr does the guitar intro which is unmistakable. It also acts as the perfect foil to the previous track, bringing the tempo up. 

3. Fragile Tension / Depeche Mode

One of the more upbeat songs on their new album. Great guitar and synth hooks. 

4. What Do You Want From Me / Monaco

This is an old track from the band Monaco which is Peter Hook's (from New Order) personal project. The great thing is that whoever he has singing sounds exactly like Bernard Sumner. But better than that is the track itself - crashingly big and beautiful. 

5. Summer / Vocal Mix / Michael Cassette

With this track the cd gets dancier, but the lyrics and the synth hooks keep it sounding alternative. 

6. Paranoid / Kanye West 

This track is very Kanye but again has hooks with an alternative sound. 

7. America / 12 Inch Mix / Full Intention

A total throwback dance track to the mid 90s when Out magazine released their album WorkOut. A big house track if ever there was one.

8. Jai Ho! You Are My Destiny / A.R. Rahman & PussyCat Dolls

A blatant pop dance track, I do love Rahman's chorus. Catchy as all hell. 

9. Black Satin / Raveonettes

For a sonic break from the previous dance tracks, I tossed in this surfer rock track.

10. I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You / Black Kids

I still can't get enough of this song. Bridges the Raveonettes track towards the dance tracks that follow.

11. Poker Face / Jody Den Broeder Mix / Lady Gaga

Again, I'm generally not into this type of diva pop, but this mix throws in some early-Madonna hooks that feel a bit 80s.

12. Magnificent / Adam K & Soha Mix / U2

Great, great, great dance mix of one of U2's newer tracks. Crashing, trancy, but with full vocals. Wraps up the anthematic feel of the disc. 

Happy Pride

Proud Marys!

In a city as large as New York, there are as many ways to celebrate Pride Weekend as you can imagine. I can't possibly list them all, but here's where you'll find me this weekend.

Friday night's Blowoff at the Highline Ballroom is arguably the best (or at least, most crazy) of the year. Bob and Rich will spin a great set as usual - with a Michael Jackson song tossed in I suspect - while bizarre videos display on the big screens. 

Saturday will find me relaxing mostly with a casual drink in hand with out-of-town friends. The two dueling parties that night are the official event H.O.P. is throwing at the Nokia ("LoveBall") and the We Can! party featuring Peter Rauhofer at Roseland. I'm taking the night off.

After the Parade, Sunday finds me at the Dance on the Pier 23. And why not, though I wouldn't hold your breath for any spectacular "surprise" performance. Rumor has it no one big was available as in years past. 

And because one party is never enough (especially when I'm barely working):

Gustavo spins SuperSnaxx 6 at Cielo. Has it really been 6 years? This is - in my opinion - one of the hottest parties of the year. Just down a triple-espresso after the Pier and suck it up and go. Great music, great crowd, GREAT space. Promises to be the best sausage-fest of the year.

Happy Pride, bitches!

Jackson Dies

Michael Jackson's death comes as a massive shock today. I've long been an admirer of his incredible talent. The freakish side of him always upset me given how fantastic his music and dancing have always been. A child of the 80's, I grew up with Thriller and Bad and all the wonderful #1 singles he had throughout the years. Such a major loss.

I've Seen The Light

I finally saw Bill Maher's documentary "Religulous." Im sure the religious won't find it one bit funny but for the rest of us: hysterical!

Pride

It's time for my annual rant about Gay Pride. Actually, it's not an annual thing but that makes it sound more legitimate. Not that I need an excuse to say how I feel about the topic. After all, this is my blog and I can say whatever I want, just as you fine readers can choose to read someone else.

I understand that "activism" isn't everyone's thing, if you can call watching people march down 5th avenue activism. That even though you're gay and you've been marginalized your entire life that you "don't want to get involved." Conversely, activism has always sort of been my thing. Not in the sense of joining Greenpeace (well, actually I did join Greenpeace once) or being on the board of the Empire State Pride Agenda or anything, but you now - I get stirred up by shit. Be it environmental, political, cultural, whatever. Anyone who read this blog through the fall election season knows what I'm talking about; I've already got my room reserved for this October's March On Washington.

What I'm trying to say is that I know just because we're all gay doesn't mean we like to do the same things. I'm willing to acknowledge that. But what drives me crazy are all these guys that act like Pride Weekend (and really, it's a more a day - this coming Sunday) is a giant nuisance thrust upon them. It's silly that I still have this reaction at 36, but I'm always amazed at how many people "skip town" or escape to the beach or are even working that day. What are they all running from? 

I'm quite fortunate to have a great group of friends that love to celebrate. And what better excuse to do so than on a day where drinking at 10am is the norm. No, you don't have to drink. Or go to all-night dance parties and do drugs (tho if that's your thing, there are more than enough opportunities to knock yourself out). But would it kill everyone to show a little respect to the hundreds and thousands of people who year-round devote so much of their time to fighting for your rights? Yes, the parade is boring. Festive, but dull. You don't have to stay for all 5 hours of it - I never do. Just go and be part of it. Or at least, cut a check to the Heritage of Pride before you get on the Hampton Jitney. And for others that are staying in town, would it kill you if you missed out on the Eagle Beer Blast one Sunday? The party's a bit further downtown.

One of the things I quite like about pride - Sunday's sanctioned events, specifically - is that it brings a rather diverse crowd of gays together in one place. I find more and more a growing intolerance among gay men for others that are not like them. All the bears hide at the Eagle, the fabulous set under the tents at Ono, the young twinks at G. New York has the luxury of being so big that different scenes don't need to intersect. And that is often the reason for the rolled eyes and quick dismissals I receive when I ask who is going. It's not your scene? Well get over it. 

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. But beyond that, the amount of legislation being considered around this country - both for and against gay rights - has really brought these gay pride celebrations into greater meaning. In years past I've sometimes thought it was just a big party. But in a way I'm glad that events like the passage of Prop 8 have galvanized the community to a degree and given greater purpose to the actual march. It is a march in defiance. And I think it's important we all take part in what hopefully will lead to the greater good.

Joe will always rant better than I.

I love James Perse

I'm aware that in the midst of a recession, one shouldn't be going on about retail design. But perhaps we all need the escape now more than ever. And one thing great retail design does is transport you into the brand and make you want to not just buy the products they are selling, but adopt the entire brand lifestyle.

Any James Perse store - particularly the new Malibu flagship - does just that. I was recently in the East Hampton store and often peek into the two Bleeker street boutiques he has here in the city. The combination of beachy style and modern effortlessness is evident in every fixture, display and photograph in the store.

If you're not familiar with James Perse, he's an LA based designer who takes the every day and makes it rather extraordinary. A walk through the mens section reveals mostly white tshirts, v-neck sweaters, a hoodie or two and a few tank tops and shorts. But the cut and the cottons and the hand of these items perhaps make them worth their absurd prices. 

Every store also includes a library of art and photo books. And littered about are random surfboards and old record players - but these props are not just every day items. The East Hampton store has a bicycle painted a matte black finish that appears both vintage and sleekly modern at the same time. The thought put into every aspect of the design is incredible, and the result is basically a wonderful beach house you want to spend a lot of time in. 

Round Swamp Farm :: East Hampton, NY

There's something about getting out of the city and into the country that improves ones general outlook on life. Particularly if you like food and can take advantage of friends who have homes in East Hampton.

Round Swamp Farm is everything you want a farmstand to be, provided you have idyllic visions of farmstands. Albeit one that charges $6.50 for a pint of strawberries. But oh what strawberries!

A pair of lovely women have run of the place, and most produce and comestibles are grown/made locally such that you practically pull them out of the ground before paying. Michael Pollan would be proud.

Did I mention the berries?

It was here we procured the ingredients for what turned out to be a pasta dish with fresh peas, fava beans and baby artichokes topped with shallots and marscapone. Followed by grilled filet of beef and an asparagus arugula salad drenched in shaved parmesan. 

Round swamp farm also bakes pies such as strawberry rhubarb and blackberry raspberry. We couldn't decide so we bought both. You pretty much surrender your life savings upon entering the place, but I'd rather give my money to these women than many of the overpriced restaurants in the area. 

Plus the farm just makes you feel good.

Dadhattan

Cheers need to go out to my on-again-off-again partner in ad-crime Chuck Pagano (a.k.a. "my copywriter") for getting a piece published in the New York Press. Titled Welcome To Dadhattan, it profiles his entry in the world of stay-at-home fathering via (another) layoff from the wonderful industry we call advertising. 

Chuck and I first met while working at Hill Holliday in Boston back in the early 2000's; back when we had self-respect, actual clients who listened to us and even an award or two every now and again. We partnered up towards the end of our stay there. And after both moving to New York, re-partnered at DDB. Driven to near insanity we both fled, landing different places but then reconnecting once again as freelancers.

In short, Chuck to Dadhattan is Patrick "Prom King" Wilson to Little Children. It's an entertaining and funny essay on the realities of the new economy and the influx of daytime dads in and around the world Manhattan babies occupy. To quote the essay: 

"When the economy finally collapsed a few months back, my short-lived run as the only stay-at-home dad in the neighborhood evaporated along with tens of thousands of jobs. Dads began popping up everywhere. At the park. At the library for Storytime. At Baby Gap. (What? $24 for a Star Wars tee? I would never pay that much…if my son’s name wasn’t Luke.) Those who weren’t pushing Bugaboos were wearing Baby Bjorns. No matter where we turned, they just kept appearing. Like the liquidy silver guy in Terminator 2. And they all looked the same. Short hair, perfectly parted on the side. Clean-shaven. Button-down shirt. Always dressed properly in case a call or email about that bank job showed up on the BlackBerrys they were constantly checking.

I didn’t have a BlackBerry. It would’ve clashed with my shaggy, uncombed hair, week’s growth of stubble, track pants and T-shirt. Still, as alien as these guys seemed to me, there was one thing we—and all new dads—had in common, in addition to our kids: We had absolutely no interest in becoming buddies with one another."

I even have a cameo in the piece:

"America’s most overtly named baby store would be dad free, right? I mean, it’s in Chelsea, for chrissake. (I met a gay friend of mine for lunch after one such outing. Spying my Buy Buy Baby shopping bag, he said, “You know they can kick you out of Manhattan for carrying that around, right?”"

Come on it was funny! Congrats again, Chuck!

Six!

Granted it was a few weeks ago, but my nephew Max turned six. This picture of him playing with his best friend couldn't be cuter! Max lives in London but spends time in Basel as well with his dad. They come to New York in August where we celebrate his belated birthday. The super-soaker water blasters are awaiting his arrival.