Prewar Yardsale's blog

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I was on the Upper Westside yesterday so I went over to 96th Street to see if the Salvation Army had reopened. It had closed a few months ago and I could tell the space was being renovated but I wasn't sure if it would reopen again as the Salvation Army or not. The renovations looked like it could be a yogurt place or a 1950's style burger joint but it wasn't, because it was still the Salvation Army when they reopened. I looked at the LP section and they didn't have anything great, although I was tempted to buy a double LP of Sha-Na-Na on Kama Sutra in excellent condition. But then I decided against it. I also passed up a worn copy of the First Mama's and Papa's LP on Dunhill. I looked into the cardboard box full of cassettes ( it's funny they closed for a year of renovations but they kept the same cardboard box that they sell the tapes from). I found an excellent copy of Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Sleeps with Angels. I never realized how great a band name that is, it's like Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the two people, are standing next to each other. I haven't heard this tape before but I figured for 75 cents it was worth a listen. Read more »

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So Dina and I went out to Brooklyn Saturday night to see the release party show for Justin's Meatloaf-Paradise by the Dashboard Light 7 inch EP. The EP is amazing. There are four bands ( Schwervon!, The Leader, Elastic No-No Band , and Huggabroomstik). Playing the classic "mini-opera" written by Meatloaf. Did you know that if you go to the Billboard website you can click to a page that shows the top 25 selling artists of all time? Of course, or surprisingly, The Beatles are number one. Of course because everyone from Barack Obama to Charles Manson loves and buys Beatles records. Surprisingly because their ten records are great but now seem pedestrian and often poorly written compared to a lot of current 60's revivalists who now make more deep challenging music using themes, sounds, and lyrics first developed by The Beatles. Like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Greta Garbo were the first and developed the modern movie but not many movie goers even know who they are, but everyone still knows the Beatles. So Meatloaf is in the top twenty five in Billboard sales. He's barely 17, slightly ahead of the 18th top seller. Read more »

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Since I don't go out as much as I used to, sometimes on a night in I will entertain myself by going on the internet and mail ordering some records. I do mailorder from Olivejuice, I like ordering from Olivejuice because even though I own tons of antifolk records Matt and Nan always have cool new things in the distro and stuff I forgot to buy because I was so spaced out I forgot to stop at the merch table. Like right now in my cart is the new Dufus LP, Seth gave Dina a CD but it will be so great to listen to Dufus on LP, I can't wait to hear it. I've listened to the CD and it is seriously great, s I know how great the songs are, but it will be fun to spin it on my record player. Also in my cart is the new Paradise by the Dashboard Light 7". Justin put it out and I haven't heard it yet but with the line up of Elastic No No Band, Huggabroomstik, Schwervon!, and The Leader covering Meatloaf songs you know it's gonna be a yummy platter. I like to buy t-shirts online mailorder but a lot of labels don't cary XXL T-shirts, I mean I understand, fat people are cool but they're not exactly who you want wearing your shirts around representing/promoting your bands. Read more »

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Betsy is a healer, a psychic and has a great television show. It was Saturday night and Dina and I were going out to Williamsburg to Betsy's Birthday party. I wasn't feeling very well but we decided to go because Saturday night is a classic night to go out, and Betsy, who performs under the moniker The Best, is truly the best, so we knew her birthday party would be as well. We walked to the train and it was freezing out. It was literally zero degrees, We saw a homeless person and we started to talk about the pro's and con's of being homeless. Considering how freezing it was out it was difficult to think of any pro's. When you think about it though you can get so much free for doing absolutely nothing except for asking people for money and just showing up at various shelters, soup kitchens, and emergency rooms. It would be a good idea to become homeless for a year or so as an experiment and you could write a book about it. The homeless writer would be writing in a filthy gutter on a laptop. A person would walk by and be like "where'd that homeless person get that laptop?" Another person would say "Yeah, and it's a Mac, I only have a P.C. at home and it's really slow". Read more »

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So Dina and I are starting to get busy on the Prewar front. Things have been quiet for us for awhile. That extra time was actually good. We're coming off two disaster shows for us, Huggabroomstock and Virgo show, I felt really bad because people have the thought to ask us to perform, at least we could put together something reasonably interesting and entertaining. On New Years Day Bernard was over and he asked us to play at a rock show he's putting on at Sidewalk. It sounds like a great night and it will be a real rock show, Prewar, Randi, Huggabroomstick and The Cruel Shoes. I haven't seen them play yet but Bernard played me a bunch of their you-tube videos. I thought they were great, they have a New York rock Television sound and the lead guitarist is great. It should be great, Matt is going to play lead guitar for Prewar that night, we jammed recently and it sounded really good so it's really cool that he's gonna play. Brian asked us to play at BTP so that's amazing, BTP is one of the best spaces in N.Y.C. He asked us who we wanted to play with so we said Mars Chronicles and Huggabroomstik of course. Read more »

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Marina Abromovich shows I've seen over the years: (I feel I've seen a lot of them which makes me think she is a really well known and popular artist) I saw her do a performance in Soho once and it was very strange. It was sponsored by Illy and it featured Marina in a beautiful gown drinking fancy coffee and having fondue from an upside down corkscrew type fondue machine fountain. It was some kind of Illy corporate event with products and logos displayed prominently. Illy probably underwrote an exhibition or gave her a grant so she did a performance for them. A really drunk guy at the performance kept going up to her to reintroduce himself ( an old friend?) but Marina didn't even acknowledge him. She had amazing concentration on the performance because he kept reintroducing himself over and over. It was really compelling. I saw a show in the fifties somewhere of a video she did which documented a Balkan fertility dance. It was also very compelling. During a fierce rainstorm the women would run around in random wild circles lifting up their skirts and flashing their genitals. Read more »

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PART I - A HOUSE WITH AN OCEAN VIEW -To write a review of When Marina Abramovic Dies A Biography by James Wescott, I sat at a kitchen table for an entire morning focusing solely on reading the book. I was in a kitchen on Long Island in a house with an ocean view. Really! For breakfast I had a bagel and two coffees. I sat at the table and concentrated solely on the book. I fought to push thoughts of my obesity and my aversion to sunlight out of my mind. I ignored the other people in the kitchen as they came through for a snack or a cold drink. I read about half of Part One, Yugoslavia 1946-1975. I told a break at lunch and had a turkey sandwich and a diet cole. For my afternoon reading I settled into the couch in the living room. My head and feet were propped slightly on throw pillows. I tried to ignore the passing from afternoon into evening evident through the skylight and picture window and give my undivided attention to the book. Night fell and I stopped reading upon finishing Part One, Yugoslavia 1946-1975. Read more »

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It was late, but it's never too late to rock and roll so I was going to a Huggabroomstik show at Goodbye Blue Monday. I left really late and I thought I would miss most of the show but the gigs were lasting till late so I thought I could make it in time to see Sam James and Purple Organ. So I'm listening to Desire on my COBY and I have to get the M at Broadway-Nassau. Broadway-Nassau is also Fulton. I have a friend who used to have one name, so everyone would call her by that name. Then she picked a new name and everyone would call her by that name. After awhile everyone started calling her both both names combined into one name. Like the Broadway-Nassau/Fulton stop. Desire is a great tape and I lose consciousness during Isis and Joey so I really concentrated on checking each station so I wouldn't miss my stop. Of course I was looking for Broadway/Nassau but on the Broadway/Nassau-Fulton stop only Fulton is written on the placards in the station. I missed the stop. Read more »

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I was reading Rolling Stone Magazines 500 Greatest Songs Special Issue. It's funny how when you think about music magazines it always comes back to Rolling Stone. I was going to Thomas Patrick Maguire's CD release party at Brooklyn Tea Party. I love the Tea Party, it's DIY and has a roof with a great view of Manhattan. I took the A down to 14th to get the L. I was on the L and the train was going really slow. A baby started crying and people started getting annoyed. Of course the train came to a complete stop between First and Bedford. The baby of course started crying louder and I hate to say it but of course some people started yelling at the parents to get the kid to stop crying. One woman even accused the parents of mistreating their kid. I think the mom said the kids ears popped or had an ear infection or something, but the kid was hardly being mistreated. I couldn't believe so many people were angry, I mean were weren't at concert or movie or anything. So the train started and the family with the crying baby got off at Lorimer or Graham. It was funny because after the family with the crying baby got off the train the whole car was still talking about it. Read more »

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Monday night I decided to go to Bowery Poetry Club. I brought my COBY so I could listen to tapes and the radio on the trip downtown. I'm not sure about COBYS, the radio is good and stays functional for a long time but the cassette player gives out after a couple of months. I was listening to a tape and it would play at normal speed, then it would really slow down. I would press stop, fast forward for a few seconds, then press play and the COBY would play at normal speed, then it would slow dow, repeat the process...etc...etc...etc. I'll buy some new batteries and see if that helps but I seriously doubt it. It's strange that the COBY is the only portable cassette player I can ever find retail in New York because the Sony Walkman is an amazing, durable, long lasting cassette player that can last for years, and doesn't eat tapes as often as COBY. The only reason I have the COBY is I got it as a gift. I was going to return it and order a Walkman online but I thought maybe the COBY had improved ( I had one once a long time ago and it was the same poor quality) but it hadn't at all, but since it was a gift it was cool just to check and see if the COBY had made any improvements. Read more »

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I was in the Bronx on White Plains Road. I wanted to visit some of the record stores on White Plains Road. A few weeks ago I had bought Social Class Volume 2, Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown at Moodies and I was in search of Social Class Volume 3. I had thought I'd seen it in a store up the road, but I knew that it could now be a health food store. The last time I had been there it had been half record store half renovation. Now it was half heath food store half renovation. I walked up the road some more to Moodies to double check if it was there, it was not. I walked up the road some more and went to Millennium. I like Millennium, it has many varieties of used records so it's always interesting to browse. I ended up choosing Joy and The Isaac Hayes Movement. I bought Hot Buttered Soul on the street in Soho a few years back after reading a Chuck Eddy book. He considered it an important record and included it in the discography. The book is great, it connects music from all different pop styles through lyric similarity. Different and fun. Millennium had run out of shopping bags so my records were rubber banded together. I hope it doesn't rain. Read more »

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The Saturday before Christmas is the busiest shopping day of the year. So Saturday night Dina and I decided to do some Christmas shopping. We walked up to 125th Street to shop for CDRs. We were shopping to buy some Jazz mix CDRs from the street merchants set up all along 125th street. It was getting late so with most of the merchants packed up we had to go on shopping elsewhere. We took the A train downtown. We went to the Columbus Circle Holiday market. The market was also closing(I guess people like to shop mostly in the daytime) but we quickly shopped the booths. There was jewelry, leather goods, scarves, candles, t-shirts, and even beauty products made out of salt from the Dead Sea. What a cool idea. I have been watching a show called The Rift on Natural Geographic Wild which is awesome so when I saw the Dead Sea products it made me think of the show. Flamingos have adapted to live and thrive in inhospitable and toxic habitats along the Rift connecting/disconnecting Africa and Asia. I thought it was cool that people had the ingenuity to create something beneficial from another inhospitable habitat like the Dead Sea. Read more »

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It was cold as I left for Bruar Falls Sunday night, but this is the Northeast in December, so why not? I got on the D train and was reading a copy of Art in America that Jon Glovin gave me. I love to read art magazines, between all the pictures and all the words I don't know the meaning of, they're really a quick read. At 14th Street I transferred to the L train, I had to stop reading Art in America because I didn't want to be ridiculed for reading Art in America instead of the art section of the Brooklyn Rail. I got off the train at Bedford but I had forgotten to get a hop-stop so I asked for directions. While I was getting directions I must have been blocking the sidewalk because someone shoved me out of the way. I made it over to Bruar Falls and it was cozy. I saw Toby end his set with a ballad. Preston showed a video he made for Toby. It is really a great video. An animated, personified, Hindenburg flies through all this great old footage of N.Y.C. Anyway, the video was fantastic and really enjoyable. Sam and Simon played next as The Wowz, it was understated and precise. I felt like i was listening to the third VU record. I listened to Read more »