Category: Multi/Media

Aeroplane Pageant Flies Up The Charts

By Karen Bolipata

After searching for Aeroplane Pageant all night at Brooklyn The Party last week at Public Assembly, I found them at the table furthest from the stage, where they had been sitting for quite some time. The members, all six of them, towered over this diminutive reporter as they simultaneously answered questions, shared moments of deep insight and rarely gave a straight answer. Read ‘em after the jump!

Viva Variety! Artist J.T. Yost Spreads the Wealth

By Kat Irannejad

Brooklyn The Borough enjoyed a raucous chat with the Yost, where we found out more about his work, his move to Brooklyn, and why the mural he’s been working on for his soon-to-be born daughter features a pigeon and an everything bagel. Trust us, it will all come together.

Amy Sohn Yells About Hollywood Liberals, Takes Harvey’s Name In Vain

By Staff

Last night Amy Sohn crossed Brooklyn’s psychic divider – Flatbush Avenue – into Crown Heights. At Franklin Park’s Reading Series, the Park Slope maven read from her book Prospect Park West, which has caused a stir among the swanky slope set.

After reading a passage from her novel that takes place at Southpaw – whose investors also own Franklin Park – she read a passage that references a character’s fixation on Roman Polanski, which was written and released before the 76 year-old director was jailed recently on a 30 year old charge of statutory rape. Sohn made sure the crowd knew she doesn’t share that fixation with her character. Watch the video after the jump.

VIDEO: Jonathan Lethem Christens Greenlight Bookstore

By David Bukszpan

The unofficial present-day Bard of Brooklyn stopped by Greenlight Bookstore last night to christen the borough’s newest independent bookshop. Jonathan Lethem, author of such notable Brooklyn titles as Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude, read a portion of his new Manhattan-based novel, Chronic City, to a packed house as latecomers squeezed through the door like rush-hour riders on the 4 train. Watch our exclusive video from the event after the jump.

Bob Woodward, Robert Redford, Carl Bernstein and Brian Lehrer Walk into a BAM

By Nicole Brydson

“Great reporting and great journalism have always been the exception to the rule,” Carl Bernstein said after a screening of All The President’s Men at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Saturday night. For more of the discussion, click through to watch a short video clip.

Amy Goodman Raises Her Independent Voice at Book Fest

By Nicole Brydson

The description for the Independent Media Voices panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival was slightly more in depth than the subsequent discussion between Amy Goodman (host, Democracy Now!), Pamela Newkirk (author of Letters From Black America), and Richard Nash (publisher, Soft Skull Press), moderated by Dennis Loy Johnson (publisher, Melville House Press). Though the speakers were a little bit disjointed after a last minute change that replaced zine guru Jessica Hopper with Mr. Nash, Ms. Goodman stayed on her point that the corporate media is in bed with war profiteers. Video after the jump.

David Cross and Jonathan Ames Lock Lips At Brooklyn Book Fest

By Nicole Brydson

The Brooklyn Book Festival set up shop in our literary left bank utopia on Sunday, and it was a typical day in Brooklyn: David Cross yelled about Jews, Amy Goodman yelled about war profiteers and then things got a little gay. Video after the jump.

Flatbush Idol! Singers Belt It Out Along the Avenue

By Nicole Brydson

Dollar Van Demos, a YouTube upstart founded by Brooklynite Joe Revitte, seeks out and promotes local singers by filming them in the most local form of transportation: the dollar van. Brooklyn’s next generation of talent could be belting it out next to you on your way to work.

A Beirut Walks Into A Bar

By Nicole Brydson

“It’s awesome to play at this theater and have people up front,” said Beirut frontman Zach Condon (above, right) to a second sold out crowd at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Opera House last Saturday. “It’s better.”
Not everyone in the seated audience agreed as hordes of fans rushed to the stage to get just a little bit closer to the folksy wunderkind, whose orchestra arrived halfway through the performance armed with glockenspiels. The two shows kicked off the Sounds Like Brooklyn festival last Friday, and the $20 tickets were fetching a hefty price on Craigslist.
After the first performance, we hear Zach and the band headed over to No. 7 bar for a drink, nearby on Greene Avenue, to find that the whitewashed walls weren’t the only stark contrast in the room full of show-goers.

Rossen on the Road with Department of Eagles

By Nicole Brydson

Daniel Rossen, of Grizzly Bear and Department of Eagles fame, talks about juggling two successful bands.

Notorious Premiere Ends in Love Fest, Lil’ Kim Still Mad

By Nicole Brydson

Voletta Wallace, mother of the Notorious B.I.G., along with the cast, director, and writers of Notorious, which she co-produced, spoke to a captivated audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music about the process of making the biopic of her son.