ShapeShifter Lab
Posted: November 27, 2012 Filed under: Brooklyn | Tags: TUESDAY TOILET TALK Comments Off on ShapeShifter Lab“Should we sit in the first row?”
We settled on the second of the five rows in the front section, as that would require only 80% focus on the music, according to Jack. Jack provides emergency tech support for us and restored the blog when I inadvertently made the entire site crash. He once again saved the day by assessing that the requirements of front row seating would be incongruent with our 80% brain capacity to pay attention to the band, after an early morning of Black Friday shopping and an even earlier morning at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade a day prior.
Though waiting for over three hours with popsicle toes, surrounded by angry people wanting to see oversized balloons of Hello Kitty and SpongeBob was worth doing once, parades are more fun when viewed on television—but not so with musical performances. Live performances are incomparable to recordings and I was excited to see four different bands live Friday night for the OutNow Records release party.
I was particularly interested in seeing drummer George Schuller again, remembering his gig years ago at Korzo in Brooklyn and thinking to myself that I would want my group to sound like his. RIBBS, the quartet he performed with this time sounded nothing like my memory of his group. The Yoni Kretzmer 2Bass Quartet that followed them had bassist twinsies with matching beanies, glasses and earth tone tops. 9 Volt, the last group we stuck around for rocked.
Jack photographed the men’s room for us. The men’s room seems a bit cramped, with similar square footage as the women’s room but partitioned off into three sections for the toilet, urinal and sink.
The women’s room felt open, bare and white, like the rest of ShapeShifter Lab. It had no mirror but perhaps they are still working on finishing up the restroom, as it is a somewhat new venue. The flower-shaped tiles on the spacious cement floor was a nice touch.
At ShapeShifter Lab, you can choose to sip on tea and use the free Wi-Fi at one of the back tables by the bar while listening to live music—like a jazz café of sorts. Or you can sit in one of the rows and admire the color changing light against the white brick wall behind the performers. Dress warmly because it gets chilly in there. I suppose the cool air is a part of its Brooklyn converted warehouse space charm.
I’m glad our West Coast emergency tech support, as well as another college friend Amy, could join us for this assignment. I love Jack and Amy so much that I may start an indie rock band named after them.
Dorjee from Tibet tells us how to say, “Where’s the restroom?” in Tibetan –
Thanksgiving
Posted: November 22, 2012 Filed under: Ken® | Tags: voicekwon Comments Off on Thanksgiving
JAZZ TOILET is more than just a girl and her Ken® doll. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d like to acknowledge the team that has been helping this blog run:
Eunice, Graphic Designer/Analyst
KMac, Men’s Room Correspondent
Angela, Advisor
Casey, PR Guru
Jack, West Coast Emergency Tech Support
Jo, Unprofessional Legal Advisor
Thank you also to the dedicated readers, the welcoming clubs and musicians/friends who contributed translations of “Where’s the restroom?” in their native tongue. I must head downtown now to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Smoke
Posted: November 13, 2012 Filed under: Upper West Side | Tags: TUESDAY TOILET TALK 3 Comments »Despite the nor’easter that followed on the heels of Sandy, I braved the first snowfall of the year last week to check out the ‘round midnight session at Smoke. I hadn’t had a chance to wear my snow boots yet, except once and very briefly last year’s Halloween weekend when it unexpectedly snowed, so I was feeling rather excited about getting bundled up. I purchased those boots along with several thermal shirts for an East Coast winter while still back in Cali, in faith that I would get into grad school in the city. And I did, but that winter didn’t come.
No longer merely the brunt of small talk, the weather has been noteworthy with life-threatening storm conditions one week and t-shirt and hoodie wearing afternoons the next. I do now feel justified for checking weather.com every hour. You never know what’s going to happen.
Saxophonist Roxy Coss led the late Wednesday night session with pianist Chris Pattishall, bassist Dave Baron and drummer Luca Santaniello. Dave and Roxy accompanied the toilet team on our first assignment to the Vanguard and Smalls back in February so it would have been a JAZZ TOILET reunion had our men’s room correspondent KMac made it out that night.
KMac felt bad he couldn’t come and not only that, he also felt ‘unmanly’ at my calling him delicate and weak sauce for not being willing to schlep his drums uptown in the snowstorm after his gig to hang. I’d like to issue a formal apology and say for the record that our men’s room correspondent conforms to conventional notions of masculinity with his diet of copious amounts of red meat and his robust physique. But make note that he can be particular about his moisturizer, as his skin is sensitive.
Smoke has one restroom directly to the left of the stage, which the horn players linger in front of when they’re not soloing. It’s a quaint restroom with a celestial lamp hanging from the ceiling that matches the décor of the rest of the small rectangular club. I appreciated that the door lock is the kind that tells you whether the restroom is red for occupied or green for vacant.
There is another door to the left of the restroom door marked off for employees. Dave told me that when the room gets really crowded, he has to go through the door and down the nearly vertical stairs to put his bass in the back. Can you imagine trying to walk down a ladder with an upright bass in your hands?
Ahmed from Saudi Arabia tells us how to say, “Where’s the restroom?” in standard Arabic —
Friday Flush, Issue 3
Posted: November 2, 2012 Filed under: Ken® | Tags: FRIDAY FLUSH Comments Off on Friday Flush, Issue 3Hey, did you all make it through Frankenstorm? I’ve been chillaxin’ on hurrication on the Upper West Side and couldn’t believe the pictures of Sandy’s work in other areas, like lower Manhattan and Haiti. It’s a bummer that it didn’t wash out all the rats from the city along with everything else.
They say this might be the beginning of ratpocalypse, with the storm driving underground rats up to spread infectious disease. Should I be worried? Check out the Huffington Post video below for the deets.
–
Staff writer/model Ken® has appeared in the short, Hawaiian Vacation (2011), and numerous other features, making his first appearance in the 60′s. He has been named (the boyfriend of) one of the most influential cultural icons of the century and is a true renaissance man, with skills ranging from leading safaris in the wild to shaving without gel in the concrete jungle. Ken® currently resides in Manhattan but vacations frequently at his dream house in Malibu.