I probably looked like an idiot today. Not only was I wearing a t-shirt with French words on it (in honor of Bastille Day), but I was also walking around with a sh-t eating grin on my face ALL DAY LONG. “Why?” you may ask? Well it was simply a beautiful, glorious day in NYC. The weather was absolutely perfect — low humidity, sunny, high was in the low 80s, AND there was a delightful breeze. And to top it all off, today was the White Stripes’ birthday!

I couldn’t think of a better way to spend such a wonderful day than heading over to Pier 54 to attend the kick-off show of this year’s River Rocks festival at Hudson River Park. Over the years I’ve attended my fair share of River Rocks summer concerts, and they are always a delight to attend. Free music by the water — you really cannot go wrong, can you?

Yes, it’s true that the show started about 30 minutes after it was supposed to, with synthy Canadian dream pop band Austra taking the stage after 7:30pm. Dressed like a bunch of art school hipsters (high-waisted skirts, lace tops, glitter on their faces, huge glasses, neon hot pants, among other fashion statements that would make an American Apparel clerk blush), it’s a bit hard to take this up-and-coming band seriously at first, but make no mistake, Austra is going places.

Their atmospheric pop is a lovely thing to hear indeed — singer-songwriter Katie Stelmanis‘ voice has the ability to sound strong yet quivering, and dripping with emotion. Music that can equally serve as indie dance music AND the soundtrack to an elegant modern ballet, Austra’s sound is complex and compelling, and I urge you to check them out if you don’t know them already.

Headliners tUnE-yArDs were equally amazing. Merrill Garbus is absolutely captivating to watch as she layers and loops her vocal samples, drum beats, and various other organic sounds to create complex soundscapes that definitely get your body moving.

The perfect set of acts for the carefree, fun-loving spirit that should radiate from a free summer concert event. By the end of the night the crowd’s hands were up in the air, people were happy and dancing their little heart outs. There was a beautiful bright summer moon casting a glow over everyone, and the lights of Manhattan and New Jersey twinkled like jewels in the night. Then to top it all off, celebratory fireworks lit up the sky during tUnE-yArDs’ encore song.

The perfect way to end the night to an absolutely perfect day.

Briefly — I went to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus tonight at Lincoln Center. All around the event was a bit uneven in it’s organization and planning, but there were some highlights. For about 25 some odd minutes, last minute headliner Ariel Pink totally confused/captivated the audience with his bizarre performance which was swiftly ended 30 minutes early when he simply walked to one of the tent exits and just kept going…

With a pre-recorded music track, Ariel treated the crowd with what came across as part performance art part Ariel Pink doing Ariel Pink karaoke covers. Dressed like a one man drunken Where’s Waldo? pajama party, Ariel was a sight to be seen, slowly circling the ring with a lackadaisical walk, seemingly with no intended direction or purpose, other than to keep him from falling asleep during his own show. The act was basically exactly how I imagine it would be like if you caught Ryan Adams, during his drug-fueled days of the early 2000s, while sleepwalking and talking after a nights worth of Halloween shenanigans.

During one point of the performance Ariel decided the only way to go was up, so he started to climb one of the lighting rigs, much to the horror of the Big Apple staff:

Seemingly lost and possibly bored, Ariel also took some of the set to sit down and chat with audience members, give one concert-goer a hug, and eventually he made his grand exit by calmly walking out of the venue.

“I’ll tell you a secret — I’m not going to finish this set.”

Confounding, discombobulating, but utterly fascinating, Ariel Pink was the only act to bring a little good ol’ fashion intrigue and drama to the night.

Part of me wonders if he basically gave up on trying to compete with the herd of magical white ponies had mesmerized the crowd minutes before his own set. I’m not sure how someone is supposed to follow PONIES.

I’d like to take this moment to apologize to the girl sitting in front of me since I think I screamed “PONIES!” for 5 minutes straight into her ear while the galloping troupe of heaven sent ponies pranced around and around the ring.

Wishing you the best for this brand new year! Raise a glass to 2011!

Last night I was told by several people that I needed to fuel my growing obsession with Jesse Eisenberg by watching Adventureland again, despite my hatred for Kristen Stewart. But much to my horror, it’s not on Netflix instant. A slight setback for 2011, but I’m still optimistic.

If you’ve recently been perusing Curbed.com, you may have seen an item about some a blog post about a 2008 job done by hotter than hot interior design team Roman & Williams for “an actress, her musician husband, and their children.” Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s none other than Coldplay’s Chris Martin and actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Although the original post has since been removed, thanks to the internetz the pictures remain!

And if there was any doubt that this home was in fact the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Martin, egle-eyed readers will recognize the kitchen as the “set” of Gwynie’s most recent photo shoot with Mario Testino for the August 2010 issue of Vogue to promote her new…cookbook. Oh yeah…

Master bedroom:

Living room:

Kitchen:

The decor is aggressively pastel-y and soft. Not sure if I would choose to live in this kind of space — but for the Martins it might be a nice change from the decor of some of their other, full-time homes in England.

Could you live in such a space?

More at The Happy Home.

Today’s the day of The Village Voice’s 10 Year Anniversary of the Siren Festival. It’s hard to believe that for TEN YEARS I’ve been making the yearly trek down to Coney Island for this concert — and to stuff my face with a Nathan’s hot dog, and basically melt in the heat.

The fun starts today at 1pm. I’m getting my nails ready… see y’all there!

(I bought that “Going Green” Sally Hansen nail polish the other day after seeing Alexa Chung and/or China Chow sporting a vibrant green color a few months back, only to discover last night that green is really in right now!)

Some past Siren Festivals:
2007 | 2006 | 2005

The bands playing are:

MATT AND KIM

TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS

THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART

HOLY FUCK

NIGHT MARCHERS

SURFER BLOOD

HARLEM

CYMBALS EAT GUITARS

EARL GREYHOUND

PONYTAIL

SCREAMING FEMALES

WYE OAK

DOM

APACHE BEAT

Out of all the annoying programs and commercials that play in the back of NYC cabs, probably the worst offender is that show, “Talk Stoop.”

The woman who does the interviews is pretty much the worst interviewer ever. She always asks the most assinine questions and really, I’m not sure why she gets to host the program. (She must have something big on an NBC honcho or something.)

This past weekend I caught Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz on the show. And by caught I mean “watched on mute.” I don’t know why Mr. Ashlee Simpson-Wentz is doing cab tv, but I found it endlessly funny.

The perfect time of year in NYC IMHO. Union Square flowers.

Yesterday I went on a spring sale-fueled “shop ’till you drop” rampage, and in the midst of the retail action, I found myself in need of a snack in midtown Manhattan. I remembered hearing that there was a new competitor to the Korean fried chicken staple Mad for Chicken — situated directly across the street — so I headed over to try to find it.

What I found was the brand spanking new, futuristic-looking Kyochon Chicken outpost. With a red and white motif Jack White would approve of, the space was slick — with a striking red glass helix staircase and milky white counter tops. They was a team of girls handing out freebies to passersby. I tried out a sample of the Soy Garlic five-piece which cost me just over $6.00.

The chicken was ready in a matter of minutes and I received a bag with a packet filled with napkins, chopsticks, a wet nap, and one plastic glove (presumably to keep my hand from getting dirty while eating). I headed upstairs to find seating, but quickly realized that the upstairs level was steaming hot (someone get the AC working up there!) so I climbed back down to the main level and sat by the window.

I sat down on one of the clear red plastic chairs and I opened my box of chicken with great excitement — only to be surprised to find tiny tiny chicken wings and drumsticks inside — nowhere near the jumbo limbs you get at Mad for Chicken.

I bit into the wings — the sauce was tasty, but the chicken meat was dried out and nowhere near as delicious as the big juicy pieces you get at MFC.

All in all the chicken was okay, but definitely not the best Korean fried chicken around — I’ll save that honor for MFC. Would I return? Perhaps — but only if I was short on time and only had 15 minutes to spare. But then again, word is that there is a Bon Chon opening up on the same block — hopefully they’ll get it right.

More on Kyochon’s Manhattan outpost: Village Voice, Midtown Lunch, NYC Food Guy, Eater

Something tells me it’s going to be difficult to hail a cab today.

Last night I went to the NYPL Live event featuring a conversation between filmmakers Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach. I’ll be honest, I never was huge fans of either of them before going into the talk, but now consider me among the converted.

Their two hour long talk — where they divulged some of the details of the inspiration for their collaboration on their new movie, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and the stories behind some of their previous work — was one of the most engaging, entertaining, and absolutely fun times I’ve ever had listening to two people speak.

Hopefully I’ll have time to write about it more, but some of the most hilarious stories included a scene witnessed by Wes Anderson during a rehearsal for a concert organized by Sheryl Crow in which estranged best friends Keith Richards and Eric Clapton had an awkward moment, and another tale in which Wes and Noah were looking through the archives of Robert Dahl and Dahl’s son revealed to them a pornographic story idea that his father had written down. (“She needs a belly full of hot c-m.”)

Afterwards I was lucky enough to attend a soiree for the Young Lions donors at the library, where Wes and Noah stopped by to mingle with guests. Of course they couldn’t even get past the door jam, but they were very nice and kind to everyone who approached them to talk.

Short little video of some tiny video clips I took: