Pound Sign

New York City, pop culture, art and nightlife. Because nobody else is blogging about those things.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Burlesque, making art and cocktails in the afternoon

So yesterday I had the great pleasure of taking part in just the kind of DIY cultural venture that is my favorite thing about New York: braving the frigid windswept streets of Williamsburg to go to Dr. Sketchy, the bi-monthtly figure drawing salon at the Lucky Cat Lounge. Co-organized by A.V. Phibes and Molly Crabapple, a pair of classically New York multi-hyphenates (illustrator-comics artist-sideshow performer and illustrator-sideshow and burlesque performer-model), Sketchy is a three-hour figure drawing session in the intimate back room of the Lucky Cat. On this Saturday's session, gorgeous burlesque star Scarlet Sinclair reclined and posed onstage in pasties, stockings, and a brief amount of red and black lace and silk topped off by perfectly arched eyebrows and a spray of black feathers. sketch pads open, a group evenly divided between men and women sprawled around the stage on the floor or on worn couches and rickety easy chairs, lounge music playing, beer and cocktails flowing...frankly the perfect way to spend a blustery February afternoon. By putting together a couple of fun disparate elements, A.V. and Molly have fashioned a unique, laid-back creative outlet for artists and non-artists alike. Get online at DrSketchy.com to check it out, before it gets bigger and less intimate-it's been written about all over the place and there was some talk this week about listings in the New Yorker...

Sunday, February 12, 2006

If you find yourself in the Bronx...

Just a heads-up to my vast community of readers, I curated a group exhibition for the Bronx River Art Center that is open for several more weeks, until Feb. 25th. For the Bronx, it's really easy to get to, mere steps from the 1 and 5 trains-seriously, you can see the place from the platform.

The show is called Seeing Is Believing, and I was lucky enough to bring together an amazing group of artists: Nicola Lopez, Josh Dorman, Zoe Sheehan Saldana, George Pfau and Leah Tinari. All of their work is worth the trip. You can check out the BRAC website for directions, hours etc. at bronxriverart.org.

If you check it out let me know, I'd love to hear any feedback!

And while we're at it, do we need another blog?

Well, here's the thing; I'm working hard to make an impact in the New York art and culture community, and I'm surrounded by talented and driven (many of them more driven then me) people who are doing the same, and I hope that this will be another way to get the word out about everything we all have happening! And, to talk about the behind-the-scenes aspect of making things happen in NYC. If you have an idea for something you want to get in front of an audience, chances are, in this town, there's an audience for it! So I want to show you my experiences doing same...

And hey, if you're at work you've already read Gawker, Gothamist, Curbed, MUG, Overheard in New York, Brooklyn Vegan, Cityrag, Lindsayism, Brownstoner....

Why Pound Sign?

Several years ago, one drunken night out with my wife Jen and our friend Libby, it was proposed (I think by Libby) that we should pool our varied talents and creative resources and start a magazine. We actually talked about this seriously for, oh, at least a couple of weeks. That night however, we got about as far as plotting out the masthead: we'd all be co-publishers! So, who's name is first? Alphabetical by last name, that puts Jen first, Libby last with me in the middle. So I said that I was changing my name to Aahab, no last name (like Cher!), to be first in line. That double "a" ensures that nobody gets in front of me. So Libby said she's changing her name to #. Dammit.

So now I stole it from her. I win!

And you know, think about what we use the pound sign for...it's what you push for more options. Or when you finish entering your code. It's like the pregnant pause before we move on to the next point. Am I making too much of that? Probably. But anyway, that's why Pound Sign.