Velvet Sea: July 2006

Done Deal Hogs the Sidewalk

Done Deal, whatever the hell it is, has taken up an obnoxiously large amount of sidewalk real estate with their massive convention style tented booth on E 86th Street. The sidewalks are the freeways of New York. There's a few rules of common sense that everyone should follow: don't stop suddenly- pull of to the side slowly if you need to stop and don't hog the road. Apparently Done Deal doesn't know the deal.

I don't know what they were selling since I didn't stop to get a closer look since they were not handing out any freebies other than some mystery beverage in a large container that did not appear to have an alcohol in it. I'm sure whatever it is, it's totally awesome based on the balloons- how could it not be? The guy in the tophat was a bit creepy. Looks like he's about to Punk someone.

Done Deal should have had some giveaways; I'm a total sucker for freebies, particularly ones that are total junk and I'll never use yet never throw out. Case in point from my kitchen- the uglyass VitaCoco refrigerator magnet pad with 10 sheets of unused tiny paper.

Come on baby let's go downtown

Scooter and grafitti wall on Platt Street downtown near the Financial District. Yeah, I didn't know Platt St existed until today either.

Big Brother 7 All Stars

Big Brother 7 aka Big Brother 7: All Stars aka Big Brother All Stars...yes this program has managed to change names three times in two weeks and screw up my DVR (TiFaux). The producers have put together a very exciting cast, albeit one that is heavily stacked from the most recent seasons.

The infighting and strategizing is fantastic so far. The season 6 contestants have formed a very strong alliance that looks unbeatable at this point. I predict that the season 6 and soon to be weakened 'chilltown' alliances will sort of merge and pick off all the others one by one. The eventual winner of Big Brother 7 All Stars will be Jedi Howie. You heard it here first. He is well liked and playing smarter than last year. Somewhat under the radar, but not enough to be left out of major decisions. 2006 is Howie time.

The best thing about Big Brother 7 All Stars is what they don't show you.. the jack shack. That would be a large wooden box in the backyard that normally is used to hold pool equipment but is just large enough to fit the male cast members while they release the pressure of their, well, male cast members' members. The wood box is conveniently impervious to all cameras including the night vision one. Video? Yep.

category: tv_

Upper East Side Greenmarket

I visited one of the two recently established Upper East Side Greenmarkets yesterday on 82nd near 1st Avenue at St. Stephen's (with a rose...) Church. There were four vendors who seemed to be doing pretty brisk business selling their locally produced goods despite the intermittent rain. One man gathers what another man spills:

Area woman "spills the beans" on the farmer's market.

Local businesses were not doing as good; the nearby chocolate shop was actually closed due to hot weather! The weird thing is that it wasn't really that hot. Well as I always say, if you can't stand the heat, head to Bloomingdales.

category: nyc_

Feel Feel Feel My Heat

So we go um bum bum bum...feelin hot hot hot. Tell me can you feel it...the heat is....on. The East Village is on fiya. Here are three hot items- air conditioner exhaust, camel smokes, and bimbos of the death sun. Although on second thought, these could all be considered cool too. Hot/cool:

This is from either 2nd street or 1st street, on the Noho side of the East Village.

Madonna at MSG

Velvet Sea's self imposed hiatus is over!

Madonna rocked MSG tonight. Well, technically a recording of Madonna rocked MSG while the real Madonna danced along but whatever. Astute pre-hiatus Velvet Sea readers will recall that I'm a big fan of old Madonna songs. A crowd of teenage girls and gay men (and me) enjoyed a high energy setlist of: future lovers, get together, like a virgin, jump, live to tell, forbidden love, isaac, sorry,like it or not, sorry (remix video interlude), i love new york, ray of light, let it will be, drowned world/substitute for love, paradise (not for me), music, erotica/you thrill me, la isla bonita, lucky star, hung up.

So mostly new songs, a few oldies thrown in for good measure. Madge pranced around the stage like a 21 year old, progressively shedding layers of clothes as the night went on. She had at least 15 dancers and a 4 piece band with 2 backup singers onstage. Platforms raised, lowered, and rotated on the three pronged pitchfork shaped stage. Madonna danced all about, disappearing via holes in the stage only to reappear later in a new outfit. She initially came out Mork from Ork style when a giant disco ball opened up to reveal Madonna in some S&M outfit with a whip and wig. At one point she was wheeled out strapped to a giant lit cross, at another she pole danced and gyrated on a saddle type thing.

Her large cast of acrobatic dancers were all over the place, leaping, spinning, gyrating, smacking it up, flipping it, rubbing it down. They provided entertaining interludes while Madonna changed outfits. The light show consisted mostly of lights shining off the giant disco ball but there were screens all over the place showing various images and abstractions. The crowd got a kick out of a quick montage of all Madonna's old videos.

The music was mostly pre-recorded and it was painfully obvious when Madonna would switch to live singing (which I would have preferred actually). But she does put on a show, a big performance, a spectacle of sorts. The crowd was pretty into it, dancing a lot for a non-jamband show. Lucky Star was freakin awesome. I believe there is some sort of unwritten law requiring Madonna reviewers to say how good she looked, so she looked good, very in shape for her age- dare I say fabulous?

A fun show. Due to my craptastic seats for the big show I did not take pictures...however since I know a lot of Velvet Sea visitors are not into the whole 'reading' thing, I bring you this shocker of shockers I took of the Madge merchandising machine- are you sitting down? Here is the $80 concert t-shirt and line to get one (letter O, next to the $90 hoodie H):