Hey y’all. Sorry I have basically fallen off the face of the planet in terms of updates. August was a great month — saw lots of good music. Here are some of the shows I witnessed:

The biggest blowout I attended last month was on August 11th for Celebrate Brooklyn‘s last concert of the summer, featuring Aussie dance party gods, Cut Copy, and California wunderkids, Foster the People. So much crazy dancing, so much fun! (And a damn near Lindsay Lohan sighting!)

Lead singer Mark Foster told a story about how when he was a teenager he approached Rivers Cuomo at a party and tried to get him to listen to his demo. Fast foward to 2011, and now Weezer has been known to cover “Pumped Up Kicks” in concert. As an homage, FTP did a cover version of “Say It Ain’t So”:

The only bummer was during the show I decided to head into the crowd to get my groove on and instead some dude burnt me with his cigarette. BAD CONCERT DUDE, BAD!

Oh and every time I went to Celebrate Brooklyn this summer I had a foodgasm because The Farm on Adderley was the fancy food purveyor. Delicious fried green beans, life has never been the same since you’ve touched my lips!

The next night (Aug 12), after Sir Jeisenhair brain explosion, I headed to Rockwood Music Hall to catch Platinum Hit reality TV cutie Johnny Marnell do his thang.

Of course the venue was packed with chock full o’ lady admirers, dreamily looking up at Mr. Marnell. Adorable! Oh and apparently the New York Times was there — explains why that less than thrilled camera dude was at the show.

The next week I had the absolute JOY of hanging out with my friend from Iceland and his friend Karl, who is the brains behind the Icelandic band, Kalli. Managed to catch his act twice — once during a stripped down solo gig at Pianos, and then another with an accompanying percussionist at Fontana’s. It was like Iceland Airwaves 2006, all over again!

Kalli at Pianos

I kinda loved these commercials that aired tonight of both David Cook and David Archuleta from American Idol doing an homage to Risky Business–even though it’s an ad for Guitar Hero.

Which one is your fave?

The Creed-ish guyliner David:

or the singing Monchhichi:

HELLOOO!!! Singing all Broadway showtunes–Andrew Lloyd Weber as the guest.

THEATER GEEK’S DREAM:

TMA fave David Cook (unfortunately) sings the most boring arrangement of “Music of the Night” from Phantom. He should’ve done something from Joseph, yo:

Watch more of the gayest AI EVAH on ONTD.

Just saw Ty Ty (aka Tyra Banks) with a ton of makeup on, Farrah hair, wearing a tan trenchcoat along w/ ANTM winner, Jaslene as well as two other model-y chicks wearing “MODEL CITIZEN” t-shirts w/ Tyra show logos on the back in Union Square. Just a bunch of gawkers, some policemen, security people and camera crew. North West side of the park.

UPDATE: Looks like it was for the Tyra Show. Celebrating her 600th episode.

So I’ve sorta been watching American Idol every week, and I basically hate all the contestants except David Cook, who I lovingly refer to as “the Creed guy” because he totally sings like one of those dudes in some “rock” band from Canada or who loves Jesus. I missed this week but was pleased to see pictures and footage of the show which showed a remarkable change in David’s outward appearance: David Cook’s “emover” (aka the “emo combover”) has disappeared!

BEFORE

AFTER

In other news, if that hippie Jason smiles one more time I’m going to punch him in the face, and the asian (who was kicked off last night) couldn’t sing, and neither can the hot Australian guy. Sadly the Irish girl needs to take herself a little LESS seriously, and that country girl gets on my nerves too. The blonde piano girl is annoying as well. I mis Chikezie only b/c I loved his name.

Tonight on the way home from dinner I walked by the Merge Gallery, which was having an opening reception for their newest show. As I strolled by the window, I got a glimpse of the artwork–and stopped dead in my tracks.

The show was called “New Blood” and the artwork was made of blood.

The pieces instantly reminded me of America’s favorite fictional serial killer/blood splatter expert, Dexter, that I had to take a closer look. The work looked like giant Dexter blood slides–blood splatters caught between layers of clear resin and Plexiglas.

The show was that of 31-year-old New York artist Jordan Eagles, who has been working with blood as an art material since college. The good news is that Eagles differs from Dexter’s work in the fact that he does not use human blood (he gets his hemoglobin from a New Jersey slaughterhouse). He pours, paints, and drizzles blood over layers of Plexiglas and seals it with resin (untreated blood turns brown).

Methinks good ol’ Dex would be proud.

MTV.com reports: Former America’s Next Top Model contestant and prolific LiveJournal-er Elyse Sewell has been cleared of all charges of domestic violence against now ex-boyfriend Marty Crandall of the pop group The Shins due to insufficient evidence. Crandall will be arraigned on Wed, and it is assumed all charges against him will also be dropped as well. The couple were both arrested on Friday night after having a fight at a Sacramento hotel.

On Saturday, Sewell posted a detailed account of the argument on her LiveJournal blog, which sent the blogosphere a twitter. Today Sewell posted the following in response to the intense media attention surrounding her and Marty’s arrest:

Update: The D.A. has rejected the case against me. I am free. I wish the same outcome for Marty and have no intention of pursuing any further legal action. I would not wish entanglement in the widening gyre of the American legal system upon my worst enemy.

It was incredibly naive of me not to realize that my blog entry about this incident would become tabloid fodder. That was not my intention. I consider the small circle of people who frequent this LJ to be a support group; the much larger world of tabloid readers is certainly not. I will never speak of this again, nor malign Marty in this space. And tomorrow this’ll be fishwrap.

Expect few updates to this journal in the next couple of weeks as I will be untangling the web of seven years of cohabitation with my ex-boyfriend, packing up my shit, and thickening up a plot to travel and work in more temperate climes.

In an interview with The Oregonian, supervisor for the domestic violence unit of the Sacramento County D.A. Paul Durenberger expressed his surprise over the noticeable interest in the Crandall/Sewell case: “I’ve never heard of [Marty Crandall] before, but (the Shins) are probably not big for people like me, in their late 40s.”

Good luck to the newly incarceration-free ex-lovers. Stay out of trouble, kids.

Yes I know, my will to blog has been slowly waining. Heck, it’s the holidays, time to relax and be lazy, right?

What did I do over the holidays? During Christmas shopping I fell in love with two cool local stores: Sweet Tater and In God We Trust. Note to friends: Expect a steady stream of presents from these two shops from now on!

On Saturday I had “Fake Christmas” with one side of the family. The BSB brought yummy Christmas cupcakes. Mmmmm… Me and the fam played Wii for a good portion of the night. I almost fell over playing boxing– I was punching so hard.

Santa got me a television. I have been living without a TV for the last 3 years or so–not having a TV has forced me to be semi-social in order for me to be able to watch “my shows,” but now that I have a television of my own I have a fear that this is the beginning of the end. I’m probably going to break down and get–*gasp*–cable so I can really be a hermit for the winter.

I looked up the cable prices and DEAR BABY JESUS, Time Warner is SUCH a rip-off, but it seems like they are the only ones who service my area and have a cable/internet bundle that I’d want. Uuuughhhh. Time Warner = so evil.

Well maybe this will be a good thing. Now I can host TV and movie nights if anyone wants to come over. And my apartment has been relatively neat for the last month and a half thanks to house guests and family visits. This little crack house is becoming a crack home slowly but surely.

Over the last few days I’ve watched: Surf’s Up (adorable!), Funny Face, Alpha Dog (Justin Timberlake actually… not bad???), a good number of episodes of “Californication” on Showtime and “Project Runway Canada” on YouTube (Iman is scary!), one episode of The Tudors, and Hairspray (the 2007 movie musical- LOVED IT!)

I watched some Yule Log on the internet and then on Christmas Day I had a virtual Christmas (via webcams) with folks far away and then I went out to have a family brunch at the Mercer Kitchen.

I still really want to see Atonement as well. I did a book on MP3 and it was really good.

Right now I’m hoping to start planning some trips for 2008–wow is it really going to be 2008 in less than a week’s time? That’s crazy!

But if you are going to be in town for the start of the new year, head over to the After the Jump Festival at the Knitting Factory. Good tunes, good people, good cause.

10:14PM
Ok, so I didn’t plan on live blogging the Top Chef finale, but I nearly crapped my pants when the sous chefs walked out for the final cooking showdown between Hung, Casey, and Dale. Holy crap! Rocco Dispirito (looking kinda foxy), Todd English, and Michelle Bernstein. Top Chef live finale is in Chicago, which is Dale’s hometown (hmmmm??).

10:15PM
Jude Law in this new movie, Sleuth, with Michael Cane, looking hot, WTF. I love that platinum hair. Too busy looking at how he looks to figure out what the movie is about.

10:28PM
Wait, where the hell are they going!?!? Where is Tom taking them?

10:29PM
Ooohhhsnnnaaappp! A forth course! They are so mean.

10:30PM
Ahhh… here come the old contestants. Hahahah Howie. I hope he doesn’t yell at Casey.

10:39PM
Ok commercial now. Enough of this Better Half. No matter how many times I see this effing commercial, I still cannot figure out how the show works. Maybe I’m too stupid to watch reality tv?

10:40PM
Uh oh, they are back. I’m scared for Casey, she seemed kinda nervous. Oh look! Brian Malarkey gets to weigh in on the final meal.

Hung is starting with a hamachi fish as a play on “fish and chips,” Dale is serving up a foie gras mousse with peaches, and Casey has a scallop and foie gras with apple dish.

Hung has a shrimp with palm sugar and about 10000 other ingredients, Dale has a seared scallop surprise dish, Casey poached prawn in lobster mushroom sauce.

Uh oh, Casey is getting slammed with her prawn dish. They are not digging it at all.

10:45PM
Third course is up. Hung has a sous vide duck , Dale has butter poached lobster and gnocchi, and Casey has crispy pork belly over pea shoots

They are loving Hung’s duck A LOT. Poor Dale’s dish, they are kinda hitting it. Casey’s pork belly is overdone.

10:48PM
Hung’s got his surprise chocolate cake, poached lamb with eggplant puree, Casey seared sirloin with potatoes (her addition plate). They are liking Casey’s dish, and liking Hung’s dessert–although they find that it’s disjointed and unimaginative.

10:51PM
Back to Padma, I think she’s maybe said the same three sentences telling us to stay tuned for the live final about a billion times by now.

10:55PM
Aaannnd, we’re back with Judges’ Table. Dale feels as though he’s “cooked like himself” for the first time. Casey has some regrets–there are some things she wanted to change. Hung feels like he cooked his way.

Ughh.. they are slamming Dale for the gnocchi dish.

Casey is talking about how rattled she was, Padma is all like surely you came with one or two dishes in mind. Oh man, Casey sounds like she’s going to cry. She sounds really upset. And she’s semi-blaming Howie and the curveball of the extra dish. Tom looks really disappointed about the pork belly.

Hung is on the hot seat now. Hung is talking up his food, of course. Gale zings back with a “your rice was bland” about the second dish. Burn. They’re lauding his third dish. Tom tells Hung that he should carry the dish around with him, like Dale’s lamb. Hung admits his fourth dish was “playing it safe.” Tom tells him he needs to balance the classic by putting in a modern twist.

Two courses for Hung, two for Dale.

Back to the chefs in the back. Judging from Hung’s wine glass, they’ve cracked open the booze.

It’s sounding like Casey’s definitely not the winner.

11:05PM
“One of you, is Top Chef,” Padma coos. Now we’re back to the live finale. Seriously Padma, why the off the shoulder ruffle thing? Yuck.

11:06PM
The winner of Top Chef….after the break.

11:07PM
These Bertolli commercials are making me hungry for some pasta. ME WANT CARBS.

11:11PM
58% of voters want Casey to be Top Chef.

Ted Allen gives his kudos, now Gail, Tom asks each of them how they feel now that they’ve seen the show. Dale gives the awe-shucks, Casey admits it just wasn’t her challenge–seems like she doesn’t think Top Chef is in the cards for her. Hung admits to being super nervous and he’s proud to be here.

Tom tells Casey that she’s been a great competetor, but the meal just didn’t come together. Tom tells Dale that they are glad he finally found his voice as a chef. Tom tells Hung it’s been great eating his food.

AND THE WINNER OF TOP CHEF IS…

HUNG!

HAHAHAHAhah. Marcel just gave the “awwww yeaaahhh” hand throw.

Hung is speachless for now. He’s jumping up and down, fists in the air.

Next week is the reunion show!

Planet Unicorn + ANTM = AMAZING LAUGHS.

Brilliant.

HEEEyyyyyy.