TEMPTATION

Do you realize how awesome the soundtrack of Trainspotting is? It's awesome, and I'm not really saying anything new, but I was just reminded of it's awesomeness this morning when I was watching that "Alternative" show on VH1 that I DiVoed. They played Heaven 17's "Temptation" and James' "Laid" (which is my absolute favorite song to DJ). Who knew that the singer of James was so cute!?

I've been exhausted. For the past 3-4 weeks I've had someone staying in my room... for the last week, it's been 5 someone's as I couch surfed between my roommate niki's bed and Karen's futon and other forgiving friends who don't mind the fact that I like to stay up late sometimes. It's been awesome having all these people around, but totally tiring. After a while you forget why you pay tons of money to have a room all to yourself. It's so you can wake up in the morning, turn the tv on loud and prance around your room naked without scaring the beejesus out of anyone.

Wednesday night the Tarts are throwing another party since we're doing a weekly party... you know, so wednesday returns, and so does the party. It works nice that way. There is no list, no cover. So bring your pals. There's also A TWO HOUR OPEN BAR, so bring singles for tips.

This week we're having James Iha DJing. He was in the Smashing Pumpkins and now he's in A Perfect Circle and sometimes I tease him about being in a goth band since he likes to wear pink a lot. He's also Japanese and I like all things Jappy, including my upbringing.

Also joining him is DJ Special Zed, who is awesome and looks like that cute kid from Party of Five (you know, the one that dated jennifer love hewitt) and makes sure i get home safely on shabbat, and DJ Vicar -- the official #1 Tarts of Pleasure Groupie. He keeps us drunk, gives us clothes and carries our gear.

Here's the flyer:


I'm trying my best to remember the past two weeks. It's been as hard as the geometry class i failed twice in high school (well, once, but the second time around the summer school teacher didn't want to risk having me as a student again since I spent the entire time reading SPIN and talking to the black girls since there were no black girls in my school normally, but summer school got kids from all over the county... it was awesome).

Let's try from the beginning...

Oct 4:
Good Charlotte at Webster Hall. Ok, let's make something clear: I like music that most would consider shit. People think they're really making tons of fun of me when they're like "You like Good Charlotte!" when I'm like "Yeah, so? Did you happen to see me on that MTV show declaring my love for Linkin Park?" I have no shame in the bands I like that aren't considered cool, and yeah, GC is one of those bands. In all fairness, I didn't like them before. But a few months ago my office got to go to the GC management office and listen to demos of the album. I went in with open ears cause in fairness, the band wrote some pretty huge hit singles and I wanted to see if it was possible for them to do it again. I was pretty much shocked and wondered if they sold their souls to the devil. The album, to me, sounded like mall punk goodness closer to the Used than anything else. So a couple months later when I was told that I'd have to interview them for something, i popped the cd in my player and have listened to it more than i ever expected. Mind you, apart from the singles, I've never heard a GC album. What's cool is that I got to listen with more of an open mind, and so when I meet others that liked GC and find out that they dont anymore cause they think the new album is shit, i feel like i've been semi-validated in a way i cant figure out. Anyway, Karen and I got super drunk and inebriated at their show (since they dont drink, we figured we'd drink for them). At one point Joel name dropped an AOL chat room. I turned to karen and said "holy shit, did he just name drop an AOL chat room?" she laughed and said yes. I replied "That was ... keyword: awesome." We spent the rest of the show laughing at the random name dropping and looking into the audience of the old men who were scoping out little girls to molest. You can watch the show here.

After the show we, the Tarts, headed to Irving so we could dance around to the Killers. I love those boys. When we're together it's like long lost siblings reuniting, especially for me and Brandon. We stare at each other and I think in our heads we're thinking either: "damn, i make a good looking boy." or "damn, am i glad that i'm a boy instead of a funny looking girl." The Tarts threw an after party for the boys and all the fun indie bands came out and got wasted and Brandon and I introduced ourselves as brother and sister as Barry from Scotland made moves on Brandon... I think he was maybe mistaken. The highlight of the night was DJing C&C Music Factory. No, wait, it was when a couple of DJs gave us money and drugs in exchange for the chance to DJ. Neither Karen nor myself wanted to DJ anymore anyway, so we gladly took the drugs and money and tipped our nice bartender generously... by accident.

Oct 5: Tuesday provided for another Tarts Do Mall Music Adventure. We went to see the Good Charlotte instore at Tower so i could interview the band afterwards. They were super nice and dressed like they were in Interpol.

Speaking of Interpol, once that was done, Karen and I met up with Vicar and went back to Irving to see Gay Interpol. There was a rumor that David Bowie would be there so Brandon was giddy as fuck. As he was fashioning himself in the mirror i turned to him and said "Aw! I feel like a proud mom! You're like my son." And he pleaded "You mean i dont look like a rockstar?"

The second show was so much better than the first... infact, it was better than any other show i've seen them do. For one thing, they brought out the big guns for Bowie (who showed up... causing brandon to sing pretty much exclusively to the balcony... his excitement is endearing), that included sampling, new sounds, and a breakdown into a Pink Floyd number at end of one of their songs.

After the show we went to SNITCH for what appeared to be Los Angeles Rock Night. Total cheesy crowd. Huey from the Fun Loving Criminals didnt want me to DJ (even though it had been arranged that I would). I didn't want to piss off Huey cause he's huge. Eventually the Killers asked that I be put on the decks, and I dropped some Neil Diamond. The dude from Fuel who is part owner of the club walked by the booth and Vicar said that he gave me a look that would kill. He was pissed. I was having a good time. Buh buh buh buh. Good times never felt so good.

Oct 6:

About a month and a half ago I went to see Franz Ferdinand at Roseland. I love Franz a lot. But the best part of the show was when a woman came up to me and told me that her daughter Jordana was a huge fan of my column and blog. I said "Wow! That's so awesome! How old is she?" She told me that her daughter was in high school and I freaked out... "You gotta stop her from reading my blog! It's bad for her!" but she laughed and said that she also reads it (Hi Amy!). Anyway, I met her son Jonathan (hey dude!) who was adorable and her daughter and was just totally in love with her immediately. She reminded me of a really good friend of mine from high school and just seemed so sweet. So I gave her my email and told her that she's gotta keep in touch. Anyway, I got invited by her 11 year old brother to join the family for his birthday dinner. I immediately accepted the invite and on Oct 6 I joined the family for dinner. More families should be like this one. They're so friendly and sweet and open with each other and they made me feel totally comfortable. And Jordana is so fucking cool... I wanted to steal her iPod since mine is broken and hers had everything mine had and more. It even had the Oohlas, Morningtheft and the Madison Strays. How is she so cool?

Oct 9:
My date book says I didn't do anything until Oct 9th, and so I'm sticking with that. Imran was in town and so we went to Kates for lunch and he went yarn shopping with me so I could knit a scarf for a friend, meanwhile he was getting text messages from his hometown of London from friends talking about drug outings that just occurred. Yarn Shopping Vs. Doing Coke in a bathroom... which is more rock and roll, you tell me.

We met up with Miss Modernage in the park who was telling us about running into Ryan Adams and how she wanted to deck him or steal his bag or something. And then I went home so I could tidy up a bit before Apartment and their manager showed up the following day. Later that night we went to see Morrissey and I ended up coming about 3023 times in an hour. The man played as many Smiths songs as Morrissey ones... and they were all my favorite ones!

Then we went to Misshapes since that's what you do on a saturday night. Here are photos from that.

Oct 10: (I'm almost done with this update! Yay!)
Interpol played a secret show and Apartment showed up on my doorstep. I was exhausted and hungover and needed to finish up some art work so GregtheBoyfriend came and got them and took them out. In return I sold Greg the extra Interpol ticket I had. I danced like a spaz as the band played the songs that made me cry and the songs that saved my life... Then the Tarts went to DJ the show's afterparty. We're available for weddings and Bar/Bat Miztvahs too, you know, not just afterparties. And we bring a Vicar with us!

Oct 11: Went to see Napoleon Dynamite for the third time with Niki, Imran, and Apartment. Knitted.

Oct 12: DJed a show that Vicious put on that was called "A Concert for Change." I dont know what they wanted to be changed... so i changed my underwear just in case that was the change they were looking for. I knitted some more, while DJing, and by the time all that was done, I'd missed The Five O'Clock Heroes and went up to the Syndicate party to see Murder By Death instead. They're awesome, but I'm short and so I could only hear how awesome they were and see how awesome the tips of their heads were. This guy that I talk to on AIM came up and introduced himself to me. The next day he commented on my harem. I'm actually disappointed by how small it's been lately, so i'm taking applicant for more boys. After the show I went to the Darkroom with the Vicar, since that's what the hipsters do. I got to send off Antony of the Heroes since he was packing up to go to Europe for a month in hopes of meeting a sugar momma that would give him lots of money that he could use to shower me in gifts and lavish vacations and give me the wedding I want, but don't necessarily deserve.

Oct 13: THE TARTS OF PLEASURE PRESENTED... STOLEN TRANSMISSION.
Whoa. What a fucking night. We'd been stressing about this for quite a while, making sure we had all the gear needed and the the visas and all that shit. We were sure the whole thing would be a total disaster, but it actually went without a problem (save for Apartment's guitar pedals totally exploding or something). This was Aparment's first ever gig in NYC and besides the fact that they sounded wonderful and had the passion in them to put on a great show, but David, the singer, is really good looking. I know this cause the whole night straight dudes kept on coming up to me saying "Wow. That guy from Apartment is like, ridiculously good looking." The Madison Strays played second and while it wasn't their strongest ever show, it was still quite good and I'm impressed with them. The Bravery played last and they sort of remind me of INXS a bit more than the Killers now. The bassist is super hot with amazingly complicated eye make up. At one point during the show he got off stage and started dancing with me. Then he fell into my arms. We're gonna get married as soon as I can remember his name. So many weddings... so little time. Anyway, here are photos from the night... hopefully this will work. The photos suck cause i'm bad at taking crowd shots. Anyone wanna do that for us?

Oct 14:
I went home to eat dinner before going to see the Music and Hopes of the State, however, my roommate Niki found me asleep on the floor of my room at 1:30am. I had passed out.

Oct 15:
Went home for shabbat dinner and then headed back into the city with my mom's sweet ride. I picked up Elhaam and her friend and took them driving around Brooklyn so they could run errands and then picked up the Vicar and went to the Darkroom to meet up with Imran and Apartment and Karen. Then we went to the Jane Magazine Addvice party. Waited in line for a LONG time and eventually got let in only to get thrown out about 2 hours later when the cops raided the place. But it was open bar, so who can complain? Here are more photos.

Oct 16:
(my brain is nearly broken now) I spent all of Saturday playing "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" by the Arcade Fire over and over again while driving. I drove from Karen's house to Englewood, NJ for my dentist appointment in about 20 minutes and listened to nothing but this song. And then I drove from the dentist to target and played it on repeat some more. This song is perfect fast driving music. The roads fly by and it's fun to yell out "Jesus Christ i'm getting pissed!"

I went to see Apartment at the Delancey and then the Vicar and I tried to see Tegan and Sara at the Bowery, but we missed them, so we went uptown to see Giant Drag at Plaid. Giant Drag is awesome and Annie, the singer, is not only hot but a total comedian as well. She's something totally different from anything else... and I can't stress enough: go see them if you can. Then we went to my friend Pauline's wedding so I could DJ it. I love DJing weddings. I shit you not. I love it. If my wedding DJ career ever takes off, I'm leaving my current job behind. Then we went to Misshapes and danced.

Oct 17:
I spent sunday night recovering as much as I can... which meant watching movies and kind of just staring into space and having acid flashbacks. Apartment totally cleaned my uh... apartment. They left it looking nicer than I left it for them. I love them and want them to come back as soon as possible. I then took Niki to see Giant Drag and she was in total awe cause they're awesome. We returned home and once again, i passed out prematurely, but this time on my couch. I think it was about 10pm when I did this.

OK, if you got this far, you should Watch This and read this.