New Food Blog, 2 Cooks in the Kicthen!

Posted on December 8, 2009 by killerfemme

The Spread (labled)
Originally uploaded by killerfemme

I’ve decided to spread the blogging love and have started a collaborative food blog with my favorite chef SMH. We started our blog, 2 Cooks in the Kitchen, to be a collective project to share our love of cooking, eating and outer borough culinary exploration with our friends in New York City and the rest of the world. We hope to be the blog to visit if you are looking for the perfect market in Brooklyn, an ideal summertime vegan desert, are looking for the perfect thing to do with that strange vegetable you got from your farm share, or just enjoy reading about cooking and eating. We’re just getting started and welcome your feedback, ideas, and comments.

In addition, we’ll be serving sandwiches at the Desk Set’s Biblioball on Friday, December 11th. It’s a fundraiser for Literacy for Incarcerated Teens and also promises to be a lot of fun. Read the entry about it for details!

Hope you’ll join me on WordPress and continue to follow me on blogger!

My last Venus Zine Review

Posted on October 24, 2009 by killerfemme

Sadly, Venus Zine is going to stop doing live reviews. At least for now. Before they stopped though I got the chance to see Matthew Sweet (you know, that power pop guy from the 1990’s) with Susanna Hoffs (from the Bangles!) perform a series of cover songs at City Winery. City Winery is a new venue run by the guy who runs the Knitting Factory. It is definitely for adults who grew up in the scruffy downtown scene and now want a chance to sit down and relax when they see a show with a nice dinner or glass of wine (of course, this makes the ticket prices higher too). I enjoyed the experience, but was glad I didn’t have to pay $25 for it! Here’s the review with more about the music.

Mud Jacuzzi at All Points We(s)t

Posted on August 14, 2009 by killerfemme

Dominick and I took on our biggest challenge yet, covering the three day All Points West music festival, held in Liberty State Park in New Jersey. While covering music festivals is daunting anyway, this one was made more so because of two days of rain (and lightening) that turned the festival grounds into one big mud pit that smelled like a cow farm. Dominick was a super sport and even wrote some up some of the show to cover while I had to work. Read our review and see the pictures for Venus zine here.
After you’ve soaked in the music coverage, let me point out this: I was miserable, and I got in for free! I have no idea why people who live in or near NYC would pay so much for a muddy music festival when they can see most of the bands who played in NYC fairly regularly and for that much money they can even sit down!

I think that if All Points West is to be successful with a New York audience they need to really give people an added value to their ticket. It’s not enough to book top acts in a city that’s saturated with them. Here’s my suggestions to make All Points West better:

Put it in the city proper. How about Flushing Meadows/Corona Park? At least it’s not Jersey and you can get there by bike!

If it must be in Liberty State Park, how about providing a FREE ferry service from lower Manhattan, instead of asking concert goers to shell out an additional $25 or suffer on the light rail to path to subway.

Set up the stages so that sound from different bands doesn’t bleed together.

Value your journalists! The press tent felt like a refugee camp at times, the ground was soaking wet like the rest of the festival grounds, and sometimes we weren’t even allowed to walk on a path behind some bleachers to get there. When I first got to the festival no one told me where the press tent was and most staff members didn’t even know there was one.
You can see more (amateurish) photos on my flickr stream.

Covering the 9th Annual Siren Fest!

Posted on July 22, 2009 by killerfemme

It was a perfect beach day last Saturday and Dominick and I spent it at Coney Island covering Siren Fest. We were thankful for the shade of the VIP tent and the free drinks, as well as the close views of the bands. Highlights included Frightened Rabbit, The Ravonettes, Built to Spill, Grand Duchy,and in a strange way, Thee Oh Sees. Please check out my review for Venus Zine here and Dominick’s lovely photos.

Swedes! Norwegians!

Posted on June 14, 2009 by killerfemme

At the end of last month I got to check out two newer bands from Scandinavia, the ever fertile (if frozen) land of indie pop. Those Dancing Days and I Was a King both played at Union Hall and both were great. Those Dancing Days were a fantastic discovery and will surely be the next girly Swedish pop sensation (with a good amount of young punk attitude thrown in) due to their catchy melodies and high energy live show. You can check out my review for Venus Zine (and photos, though those are nothing to brag about) here. I Was a King sounded so much like American, mid-1990’s Chapel Hill-style indie rock that I felt like I was in high school all over again. They probably were too then. Check out my review for Venus Zine here. Thanks!

NYC Popfest on the Brooklyn Vegan

Posted on May 22, 2009 by killerfemme

The lovely Dominick Mastrangelo covered the NYC Popfest for the Brooklyn Vegan last weekend and I helped him out by contributing words for night 3 at the Bell House featuring the Eux Autres, The Secret History, and The Radio Dept. among others. It was a good show, but I was so tired my review came off as pretty blase, especially considering I had to get up very early the next morning. I love shows and bands, but I am realizing that I need to go to less of them. I feel a little bit famous getting to contribute some words to NYC’s most notorious music blog and have already generated some snarky comments. Awesome! Please check out my review (and Dominick’s lovely photos) here.

Recent Reviews

Posted on March 29, 2009 by killerfemme

I’ve been going to some great shows lately and Dominick has been taking some great photos! Just this week we saw Camera Obscura at the Bell House and they were breath taking. They were much better than the last time I saw them in New York at the South Street Seaport. They’ve really grown as a band and their new album “My Maudlin Career” illustrates this very nicely. Check out my review and Dominick’s photos here.
We also saw the French Kicks not too long ago and you can read that review here.

Article about Aiko on Venuszine.com

Posted on March 29, 2009 by killerfemme

Earlier in January I wrote this article profiling the amazing street artist Aiko for Venuszine.com. I really enjoy talking to Aiko about her artistic vision, experiences, and projects. I always emerge from our conversations with new insights about living and working as a visionary and brave artist in a very male-dominated field. Please check out the article and let me know what you think!

Reflection for the New Year

Posted on January 2, 2009 by killerfemme

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I rarely write very personally here. However, today I got some news that really struck me and I felt I wanted to share some thoughts. A friend reposted this very thoughtful post from feministing.com about the recent, untimely death of young feminist Emma Bee Bernstein. I met Emma only briefly when she came to the Museum to speak on a panel about different generational approaches to feminism. She was working on a book called GIRLDrive, which will be coming out soon, about young feminists of all kinds all over the United States. She shared her reflections about the state of feminism and her relationship to it, some comments which are included in the feministing post. Though I only met her once, I was moved by her artistic vision, her drive, and her ability to move through generations- to connect to both adults and young people and inspire those she met. I am saddened by the death of this young woman like myself who didn’t make it, who was surrounded by art, community, politics, friends, and family. Though I can only speculate, I hope she has found a place more peaceful. I suppose this is cliche to say, but this put my own emotional ups and downs and dark moods in perspective and made me feel lucky for the community of friends, activists, artists, and family that surround me. Sometimes these things don’t feel like enough, but I want to say hold on, reach out, love. Time is too short and all who we know and the lives we touch are too precious. My heart goes out to the family and friends of Emma Bee Bernstein.

December Reviews