NYDiscovery

Hotel Bar Discovery: Library Bar at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers

It's been a while since we visited a hotel bar for the last time - many other things were going on in our lives. But it's time to revive the project and on Wednesday we had a good opportunity. This was the night when the Yankees were in the process to claim their 27th world series and bars around Times Square were packed with people watching the game. But were out to meet a friend from San Diego and were in need for a quiet place.

But then there was the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers. Elke remembered it as the place where Mike Bloomberg celebrated his reelection the day before and we were speculating that a hotel packed with tourists may not necessarily put the local baseball team on prominent display.

True. The TV sets at the Library Bar right off the lobby were muted and the place turned out to be quite pleasant. They have a bar there but also a lounge area with leather sofas and chairs and a fireplace (which came handy on such a chilly night). It was not crowded at all and we could comfortable sit next to the fire and chat the night away, sipping – of course overprices – drinks.

All in all this was a surprisingly nice place in an area that doesn't necessarily need to motivate patrons to come back ever. But we note this place as a good addition to our Midtown bar repertoire.

NYC Marathon 2009: She did it!

Congratulations to Hillary, who finished the marathon with a smile on her face.

Exporting a New York Soundtrack - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Exporting a New York Soundtrack

By Simon Akam

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times Steven Van Zandt, a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and a cast member of “The Sopranos,” chose his ultimate New York playlist.

In Sunday’s Metropolitan section, I wrote about sending the ultimate New York City care package to my best friend, an officer with the British Army in Afghanistan.

Alongside salami from Katz’s Delicatessen and boxer shorts from Saks, I included an iPod loaded with a playlist of classic New York tracks.

To build the soundtrack, I enlisted the help of Steven Van Zandt — longtime Springsteen collaborator and sometime “Sopranos” actor. He picked 20 songs — yes, it includes Sinatra — and added some whimsical liner notes (below).

But such a list can never be definitive, so we would like to turn the matter over to our City Room readers. What’s on your list for the ultimate New York play list? What do you think of the Van Zandt 20? Were there any scandalous omissions?

via cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com

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Apparently Steve Van Zandt has a different taste of music from me (he certainly likes Bruce Springsteen much more than I do), but it's still an inspiration to come up with my at least top five New York songs.

1. Cat Power - New York, New York: I like Frank Sinatra's version very much as well, but Chan Marshall's interpretation is simply ultra-cool.
2. Market - M6: Well before we moved to NYC, this song was always quintessential New York for me. Only after we moved here, I learned that M6 is a bus line (along 6th Ave. from Central Park to the south tip of Manhattan). Market disappeared long ago and surfaced again as Masolit this year, when I had a chance to meet them.
3. U2 - New York: First, it came out around the same time we moved to NYC. Second, the lines "In New York summers get hot, well into the hundreds/You can't walk around the block without a change of clothing/Hot as a hairdryer in your face/Hot as a handbag and a can of mace" just resonate well when sitting in a small room without A/C on a very hot summer night.
4. Richard Ashcroft - New York: Just a very good song, which also came out around the time we arrived in this city.
5. Fun Lovin' Criminals - Southside: It's about our 'hood, Delancey Street in times much wilder than we've ever experienced.

Now if only Fever Ray would do a New York song...

STARK at Webster Hall

On Saturday, Elke and I pretty much missed the Little Joy concert at Webster Hall – when we hit the big hall, they were just wrapping up the encore. But then we were just right in time to see Lani Ford's STARK playing at the Studio downstairs.

Here's a video showing Lani doing some acrobatics. Unfortunately sound is not that great - the LX3 couldn't deal with the loud music.

Not only my favorite concert of the year: Fever Ray at Webster Hall

Six days now have passed since the Fever Ray concert at the Webster Hall and I still have the music and visuals in my mind. So I'm declaring this event as my favorite in 2009 (at least).

It was a unusual show, equally concert and art installation. Quaint lamps flickering on the stages. Laser beams cover the stage (who's still using laser these) days. The band was masked and playing behind a back-lit curtain of thick fog. That sounds pretentious, but it wasn't.

For three reasons: first, Fever Ray's music is not at all over the top artsy. It's rather straightforward electronica with catchy melodies that can stick in your head for days. Then there is Karin Dreijer Anderssons voice: by all means unique, even if it's not electronically altered.

And then there is the artist's persona: on stage like a ghost, most on the time in the shade and only occasionally letting a ray of light flicker over her painted face. How does she look like in reality? Difficult to say: a Google image search reveals only a handful of pictures that could very well all show different women. What makes her even more mysterious is that in real life she's married, mother of two and gives pretty sane interviews.

At the concert is was to dark for taking pictures, but here are some links to photos, videos and reviews:

• Prefix magazine
• More reviews
  
• Video of "Seven"
• Video of "When I grow up"
• Video of "What Else is There" (Röyskopp ft. Karin Dreijer Andersson)

Discover NEW MUsic: Muse "The Resistance" - A Five in One Deal?

Muse's new album "The Resistance" reminds me of a "2 in 1" or better yet "5 in 1" deal and can it get any better than that?

Perhaps!

Even after having listend to "The Resistance" for more than 10 times, the songs don't really warm up to me.

Granted, "Uprising" is a sure fire hit! It's one of the big, stomping songs and reminds me in its drive and hit power of "Starlight". It's a great song and all you'd expect from Muse. "Undisclosed Desires" could have been written and performed by Depeche Mode in all its moody- and tenderness.  A truly beautiful song. You can hear Queen on "United States of Eurasia", a song, that I had in my ear the whole weekend long. So much for catchiness! And eventually, "Guiding Light" reminds of early U2, and the last three songs Exogenesis part 1 to 3 are classic pieces.

It's a strange album. I might love it one day, but I currently don't yet. I am still much too much in love with Black Holes & Revelations and I am an advocate for complete albums. I don't like the concept of buying songs without the whole album, because every album keeps hidden treasures that only unfold after time. Let's see how this will work with "The Resistance".

Recommended for: Due to its strange mix, it's hard to recommend this album to somebody. Then again, maybe that's exactly the appeal of it. So: everybody!

My favorite songs on this album: "Uprising" and "United States of Eurasia"

Reminds me of: Muse playing Queen, Depeche Mode, U2, and fellow UK and Irish bands.

My iTunes rating: 3 stars

Album Release Date: September, 20th 2009

-- By Elke

Manhattan Bridge Turns 100! - Gothamist

via gothamist.com

Manhattan Bridge is only our third favorite, but it's a great bridge nonetheless. Happy birthday!

Fever Ray @ Webster Hall, NYC 9/28/09 - Photo - Stereogum

via stereogum.com

Fever Ray is my favorite musician for this year and I'm very excited to see them tonight at Webster Hall. Yesterday's show was apparently great and apparently Blonde Redhead was in the audience. My two favorite bands in the same room! How could I miss that. But let's see what happens today.

Time to reveal the BIG decision

Look at the above picture... It's me, when I was 16. I looked for this picture yesterday, found it and took a picture of it with my phone camera, easier than scanning - LOL!

So... already as a small child I wanted to play guitar and started to get lessons when I was 7. Yes, THAT young! I never in my wildest dreams thought of doing anything else than playing accoustic guitar. I am coming from a small place, where you don't have wild dreams. The biggest dream one might have in that little town is to get married and have children by the age of 23.

I always loved music! And "back then" taped music from the radio onto my radio recorder, and later from records onto my tape deck.

I just remember, I did have some more exotic dreams: I mixed tapes to become a radio DJ and I also passed the entry exam to become a sound engineer. I had to travel 300 km to go through a 2 days test for this sound engineering school, but I failed. I neither got a radio nor a sound engineering career...

Somewhen along that journey, I stoped playing guitar and other things became more important. Learning how to deal with computers for example (Anybody remembers DOS - except for Washek and me here?) and writing my master thesis and finding a job...

Until recently. When I stopped doing thousands of things, and really listened. Listened closely to what my heart tells me. And I really want to try again! I want to play an e-guitar. Play around with sounds. I also want to learn bass. I'll start with the guitar and then we'll see. And yes, I want to do my own music - currently using the recording functionality of my iPhone for sound ideas that I have and a note pad for lyric pieces.

We'll see how this goes. But I am overly excited and the best? Oliver is on board with me! This is something we'll be doing together and in contrary to writing scripts (which we do in our spare time) this is something we can do TOGETHER.

I'll keep you posted...

-- By Elke

From big stadiums to intimate setting: GLASVEGAS at the Webster Hall Studio

Following my favorite radio station - yes, I am still listening to radio in the morning - 101.9 RXP on twitter, I learned that they're giving away free tickets for an intimate gig of the band GLASVEGAS!

The only catch?
That was a lunch time gig, starting at noon at the sound studio @ Webster Hall. I could easily walk there in less than 15 minutes from my office and found myself waiting with less than 20 other people until their sound check was over. Then we could enter the studio, takes seats on comfy leather seats and anticipate awesome sound.

GLASVEGAS (http://www.glasvegas.net) are currently touring with KINGS OF LEON, they are opening for them in the USA and in the UK, where they are from, they were opening for U2! Can you imagine?! For me it hardly gets better than this!

The quality of the sound in that studio was just mind boggling good. Glasvegas played a 5 set show, and they did so as if they were playing in front of a 5,000 people audience and not just 20. Afterwards, the singer James Alan shock hands and he started with me. I was that perplex, that I couldn't say a thing. Then they had a little Q&A and again, I couldn't think of a single question to ask and that me. I was really in awe about the concert we've just attended - it was THAT good!

Sadly, I didn't have a camera with me and a couple of mediocre iPhone shots is all I got but better than nothing, they are at least original and mine :D

Watch out for Glasvegas, they'll be BIG! Check them out on Myspace!

-- By Elke