Josh Reisner dot Com

Jessica and Erik are in Antarctica right now to do research for their Shackleton Project.

More pictures at their blog.

I've been full time listening to The Joy Formidable since mid-December, and even went to this excellent show at Union Hall in mid-Jan, but then I got so distracted with my trip to Colombia that I didn't post anything about them.

Until now that is! They're really great and you need to listen to them all the time starting right now! You can buy their record here.

Also they're playing in NYC again on Saturday 5/1. They sound really great live. Get tickets and meet me there!

The Joy Formidable - Whirring

I just got back from Phil and Dina's wedding in Cartagena, Colombia. It was a blast! Here's my gallery of low-res telephone photos.

Lovely new music video from Ok Go, album to be released 1/12!

UPDATE 1/19:
This album is really great! It sounds very mature, not quite as charts-focused as earlier ones. Nice progression. Buy it now on iTunes or Amazon. Here's a review.

Ok Go - WTF?

This post won't apply to everyone. If you're a web developer like me and you have a local MySQL database on your Snow Leopard Mac, you'll have noticed that every time you upgrade your OS it breaks MySQL, and the specific nagging error I get after it's up and running again is that a transfer has "exceeded MAX_ALLOWED_PACKET bytes."

Here's the incredibly simple way of dealing with this:

1. open terminal
2. sudo cp /usr/local/mysql/support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
3. edit /etc/my.cnf (this step assumes you're using textwrangler, use whatever you like)
4. max_allowed_packet is on line 31, change it from 1M to something more respectable, such as 12M
5. save and restart mysql

No more packet errors!

In case you were thinking that Jay-Z's awful new single Empire State of Mind is ripping off Asamov's Supa Dynamite you'd be correct. But em *technically* not, because they both sampled and sped up The Moments' Love on a Two-Way Street. To Jay-Z's credit, his producers obviously did go back to the source material, because they're using more of it than Asamov did.

Asamov's song is 1,000 times better, but they didn't sell any records probably because they're from Jacksonville, and then they got sued by the estate of Isaac Asamov, and now they're gone.

Magic moment #1: Mr. Lif's rap (you're six strokes on par four)
Magic moment #2: Giving a shoutout to everything in the world
Magic moment #3: No Alicia Keys

Via Boombox.

Asamov - Supa Dynamite (Feat. Mr Lif)

Had coffee this morning with former members of the Youth International Party, who were reminiscing on this spring-like day in New York about how, in April of 1968, they ceremonially removed the hands of the iconic clock in Grand Central Station.

They poured into the vast main concourse of Manhattan's Grand Central Station 3,000 strong, wearing their customary capes, gowns, feathers and beads. They tossed hot cross buns and firecrackers, and floated balloons up toward the celestial blue ceiling. They hummed the cosmic "Ommm," snake-danced to the tune of Have a Marijuana, and proudly unfurled a huge banner emblazoned with a lazy "Y."

The Yippies—1968's version of the hippies—were celebrating spring. Hardly had the equinoctial orgy begun, when it turned as bleak as a midwinter blizzard. A dozen youths scaled the information booth, ripped off the clock hands, scribbled graffiti and defiantly passed around lighted marijuana "joints" in full view of the Tactical Patrol Force. The fuzz charged, billy clubs flailing, and arrested 61 demonstrators. Battered but unbowed, the celebrants coursed off to the Central Park Sheep Meadow to "yip up the sun."

Time Magazine

David Peel & the Lower East Side - I Like Marijuana

I was listening to Boy Wonder's excellent set last night on KSHU in northern California and was blown away by this song from local Arcata band The Cutters.

They sound like The Hollis Wake or Dressy Bessy. Lots more mp3s at their site above. No good pictures though! That's their tour van pictured. Note the reversed Cutters bumpersticker—it's the little things.

The Cutters Swing Set

My man Inkee in Chicago has posted a righteous old-school IDM-style drum & bass mix -- really takes you back. Or me, at least! To underground bars and windswept avenues.

Rollin' by inkee

Now's as good a time as any to promote a small site I did for a local NYC politician who narrowly lost to Sheldon Silver last year for NYC State Assembly, which is no small feat in my neighborhood.

Actually, it's a better time than most, because you can vote tomorrow (Tuesday, September 15th) in the Democratic Primaries. Here's your polling place. While you're at it, I also recommend voting for Pete Gleason for City Council, Richard Aborn for District Attorney, and Bill Thompson for Mayor (although come election day I hope you consider switching to the Reverend Billy Talen).

NYC can be a dispiriting place to follow local politics because of the corrupt elections and ridiculous term limits, but if you support these candidates everything will be better and you will get a pony¹.

Update 9/17: Gleason and Aborn lost, but Newell won! With 66% of the vote, winning 29 out of 30 election districts. We're going to put up some kind of community resource website soon.

1. offer not actually valid [↩]