Official Folklife Q&A is Trampled by Turtles

Official Folklife Q&A is Trampled by Turtles

I live everywhere now

Men is a Brooklyn band that, like everyone promoted by Indichik's friends at Arthur, are a lot psychadelic. Plus, Joshua Tree? My gosh?
OFF OUR BACKS by MEN

Margaret Atwood Twitter contest

Margaret Atwood herself posted this press release on her blog today. Instead of wasting time grousing about "what-has-the-world-come-to" I'm going to get busy tweeting. I suggest you do too, because the prize is unbeatable: MA's entire Virago back catalog, which are gorgeous.

Virago/ The Year of the Flood Twitter competition – announced 19^th July. Opens 29^th July

Margaret Atwood has one of the largest literary Twitter followings with 66,718 followers to date. To celebrate her Twitterati and the publication of the Virago edition of The Year of the Flood, Virago are delighted to announce the ‘Publisher for a day’ Twitter competition.

The competition – be Publisher for a day…

Margaret Atwood considered five titles for The Year of the Flood before choosing ‘The Year of the Flood.’ You: Propose a different but appropriate title. Then write an imaginary back cover quote — from a newspaper, from a celebrity, from one of your friends, from your cat — it’s wide open! Word limit: 140 characters each for title and for quote. (Like Twitter!). Then email your entry to the Virago website.

What to do…

The competition opens 29^th July. On this date, head to http://www.virago.net where there will be a special page for the competition as well as the original cover blurb. The competition closes on 12^th August.

The prize…

Virago will then decide the winner and the runner ups. The cleverest tweeter will win £100. The second and third prize winners will receive copies of Margaret Atwood’s backlist with the new Virago jackets. Honourable mentions, as well as the winning three, will be posted on the Virago website and shared via Twitter.

For further information please contact Zoё Hood, Virago, 020 7911 8070, zoe.hood@littlebrown.co.uk

I'm probably the least qualified person in this lineup

Vol. 1 Brooklyn’s Birthday Party: The Greatest 3-Minute Record Reviews Ever

Vol. 1 Brooklyn Presents

The Greatest 3-Minute Record Reviews Ever

With special musical guests: Xray Eyeballs

Aaron Lefkove (LiveFastDie/Creator: Summer of Megadeath)
Adam Wilson (The Faster Times)
Andrea Bartz (Stuff Hipsters Hate)
Ben Greenman (The New Yorker, new book called What He’s Poised to Do)
Bill Pearis (Sound Bites NYC/Brooklyn Vegan)
Brenna Ehrlich (Mashable/Stuff Hipsters Hate)
Brandon Stosuy (Stereogum/The Believer) Canceled/had a baby/mazel tov!
Claire Shefchik (The Faster Times)
Emma Straub (Author)
Jared Bloom (The Full Ginsburg)
Jason Diamond (Vol. 1 Brooklyn)
Jason Orlovich (Brooklyn the Borough)
James Yeh (Gigantic Mag)
Jed Smith (My Teenage Stride)
Jens Carstensen (Limewire/The Giraffes)
Jeremy Krinsley (Impose)
Jesse Hlebo (Swill Children)
Maggie Serota (New York Press)
Maris Kreizman (Slaughterhouse 90210)
Marisa Meltzer (Author of Girl Power: 90′s Revolution in Music)
Marty Beckerman (Online features editor at Esquire/author)
Maura Johnston (The Awl)
Rob Tannenbaum (Playboy Magazine/Rolling Stone)
Sara Jaffe (Writer/musician)
Scott Lindenbaum (Electric Literature)
Tobias Carroll (The Scowl/Vol. 1 Brooklyn)
Zachary Lipez (Freshkills/Author of “Please Take Me off the Guest List”)

At: Bar Matchless – 557 Manhattan Ave. Greenpoint, Brooklyn

7 PM, no cover

Reunited

Not only is author Eric Davidson an accomplished music journalist who's written for CMJ and the Voice, he is, in fact, a member of the legendary New Bomb Turks, who are reuniting tonight at the Bell House for one night only to celebrate the release of We Never Learn, Davidson's firsthand account of the punk underground of the '80s and '90s. So you get to see him read and play. And if that's not enough, I'll be selling the book, so you can keep me company. There's nobody lonelier than the merch girl during a good show. And wait, what's this about gourmet barbecue?

If he can't catch it, nobody can

So the good old boys at Underwater Peoples' records, they of all of your favorite vaguely folksy indie rock acts -- Real Estate, Woods, Islands, etc. etc. are planning some epic hootenanny up in the mountains this July 24 featuring all those bands and more, but they need your pledge or it won't happen. I'm broke so I can't help, obviously, but maybe you can make this happen. This event is all but guaranteed to feature flannel shirts and beards galore-- how could you say no?



Also, I don't have a car and have no idea where Saratoga Springs is, but if I'm really lucky, maybe I'll be able to hitchhike up there in the Woods Family Van. I'm stoked.

Take the plunge

Friday night, possibly for the only time in history, you'll be able to experience me, Ben Greenman, David Hollander, shipwrecks, burlesque theater pieces, the 19th century maritime painter Thomas Chambers, and the mournful gothic-roots music of Richard McGraw (whose album Burying the Dead is out now on Non-Utopian Records, and whose single "Hurting Heart" is stream-able below), all in one place. Plus more, all in celebration of the wacky and vaguely disturbing, in some cases, objects lurking beneath the waterways of New York.

It's a reading-theatre-music-art blowout at the American Folk Art Museum, and it starts at 5:30. The museum is located at 45 W. 53rd St, between 5th and 6th Avenues. Did I mention that it's free? More information can be found at the official UNY site.

Stream - Richard McGraw - Hurting Heart