balkan beats dance party

living in boston, oftentimes i'm on the tailend of the 'trends' as they say...so, on saturday night mr.man and i decided to drive our lazy bones down to nyc to see just what exactly was going on with this 'bulgarian bar' at 416 broadway and canal that we had heard so very much about. i noticed on the website that a certain dj soko would be bringing his balkan beats dance party there and i have to say, i was terribly terribly excited about it. we got caught in miserable traffic on 95, absolutely miserable...tried to use our gps to find a shortcut through greenpoint and williamsburgh,...will not try that again. (but, we did discover the greenpoint indie underbelly amongst the wharehouses and hasidic jews).

we met with some buds for a bit of dinner, then went to a bar for a spot of drink and to kill some time...ending up at the bulgarian community cultural club at around midnight to find that it was absolutely full to the gills with sweaty, dancing crazy people (although, looking very inconspicous from the street, we almost walked by it, thinking that it was just a really hopping kabab stand in chinatown). the only way to make it to the bar, was to dance...and dance we did...danced our asses almost clean off...up until 230/3am when our craving for a good slice of pizza (which doesn't exist in bostontown), caused us to pull our sweaty bodies out of the crowd and head over to macdougal. i can honestly say that if you like to dance (or just be pummeled by bodies), and you like any sort of roma/gypsy/balkan techno love, you will not be disappointed by the bulgarian bar, especially when dj soko spins. i've also heard that on certain thursday nights when they aren't on tour, mr. eugene hutz of gogol bordello fame also dj's there.

except for the terrible traffic to and from the city (may a pox be upon you, conneticut!), the trip was amazing. i would suggest to all to go support the bulgarians, drink their juice, and rub against their sweaty bodies.

beat circus at tt the bears, cambridge TONIGHT!

ok, so i know that many of you may have heard me rave about this little band in boston called 'the beat circus', and now, you, my dear friends, have your chance to see this amazing performance in person if you have not in the past had the chance.
tonight at tt the bears in cambridge, ma, a show to raise the carnies in all of us, the beat circus will perform beautiful new arrangements right before your very ears.
come and be amazed...you will not be disappointed, i promise you.

best...site...ever...

you want it, you need it in your life...go get it, the chuck norris...he is coming for you!!

pod...cast?

i suppose i'm the last one on the boat as regards to the introduction of "podcast", but i finally found one that i don't mind listening to. in fact, it's quite hilarious, and i think everyone should hear it.
it's the podcast of ricky gervais, and stephen merchant (of 'office' fame)...go here and listen ya puffs!

wear and tear

as many of you know (or maybe not) i (and my family) have been under tremendous stress these past few years...and it seems that things just keep getting worse for us. my own life, here in massachusetts, i suppose is going well, kind of slow, but well, for the most part. but the horrors that my family is having to deal with right now is almost unbearable.
so, this brings me to my health problems. so many, i can not keep up with my doctors appointments. i've seen cardioligists, neurologists, behavoural therapists, psychiatrists, and my own primary care doctor so many times that i thought i might send her a christmas card and invite her over for dinner. i've had so much blood work done, an mri, an ekg, an ecg, and so on. next week, i go into the malden hospital for a 'sleep study'. you go in at 830pm, they hook you up to multiple machines to measure multiple things, and expect you to somehow 'sleep' for them to study how well you sleep (or how well you sleep in a hospital with machines hooked up to you). my doctors (plural) all have a suspician that i'm suffering from accumulative stress disorder and panic disorder and a touch of depression to spice the pot. my one psychiatrist actually told me that i had a "melange" of psychiatric problems (a little ocd, a little add, a little panic disorder, a little anxiety disorder, a little manic depressive...sort of a 'melting pot of crazy' if you will).
so, as all good doctors do, they've perscribed me various medications to help me with my "issues"...prozac, being the drug of choice for me now.
the prozac causes it's own problems, and i'm not so sure i'll be on it much longer. i seem to have started having involuntary muscle spasms, as if i'm being shocked with an electric pulse. these spasms, which occur mostly as night, when i'm trying to relax, cause me to take more of the "as needed" xannex that they gave me. and as many of you may know, xannex is good good stuff. now i'm wondering how long i have to be on prozac before i get addicted to xannex, and how long i have to keep going to the doctor before they figure out what the hell is wrong with me.
ahh...a drug companie's dream patient.

"my analyst told me, that i was right out of my head,
she said i'd need treatment, but i'm not that easily led,
she said, i was the type that was most inclined,
when out of my head, to be out of my mind,
and she said i was nuts, that i'm crazy,
but i'm not" -joni

ok kids, listen up!

dearies, if you are bored with current weather conditions in your area, or just need an all around cheering up, i've found that live music usually does the trick.
here, for your parousal, a few shows i would recommend to you:
(it's not a complete list, but most of the good ones)

Jan.24, Tuesday: Deerhoof @ Middle East down
Jan.25, Wednesday: The Walkman w/ Mazarin @ Middle East down
Jan.26, Thursday: The Beat Circus w/ Alek K. Redfearn w/ Guignol @ TT the bears
Jan.27, Friday: our old friend Robbie Lee @ the Zeitgeist
Jan.28, Saturday: NYC show: Balkan Beats Dance party, Mehanata (bulgarian bar, nyc)
Jan.29, Sunday: NYC show: The Beat Circus w/ Guignol @ Mo Pitkins, NYC
Feb.2, Thursday: Low w/ His Name is Alive @ the Somerville Theater
FEb.10, Friday: Supergrass @ the Paradise
Feb.10, Friday: The Beat Circus @ Cafe9 New Haven, CT
Feb.11, Saturday: The Beat Circus @ BAM cafe, Brooklyn, NY
FEb.20, Monday: Edith Frost @ PA's Lounge, somerville
Feb.21, Tuesday: Animal Collective @ the Paradise
Feb.27 & 28: Monday&Tuesday: The New Pornographers w/ Belle & Sebastian @ Avalon
Mar.19, Sunday: Silver Jews @ Middle East down
Mar.23, Thursday: Mates of State @ Middle East down
Mar.26, Sunday: The Gossip @ Middle East down
Mar.27, Monday: Magnolia Elec. Co. w/ Destroyer @ Middle East down

updates to come.
cheers.

part of the story...

this is the link to my little brother's art site.
his name is nigel watkins, as many of you know, he's been through hell and back these past few years (story will come later, it's a serious tragedy, i'm not so sure is tellable in blogspace, but it should and will definitely be told). please, if you can, check out his work, if you'd like to purchase any of it, let me know...he'd also be happy to hear any positive comments from anyone.

monkey!!!!

a surreal trip to one of the only antique stores open on cape cod the day after new years...the nice man offered to sell us this delightful porcelein monkey mask for a mere ten bucks, but i was much too afraid of the 'monkey hauntings' that would occur after the purchase. i've known a few to have the 'monkey hauntings' and they aren't pleasant. 

knitting, tea and nice, knee length skirts...

i've been secretly reading an an old friends blog, and she had written a piece about growing old, and fully realizing that she was, in fact, getting older. sometimes, depending on my mood, this is a pleasant realization, but usually, it's a thick punch in the stomach, that causes me to run to the nearest bed and hide, shaking under the comforters.
and yet, as i sit here, waiting for my loverly husband to cook breakfast at 1pm on a saturday, listening to npr, drinking whole leaf green tea, and wondering which knitting project i should start on today...i think, huh, this isn't so terribly bad at all.
maybe it was my recent new years eve experience (which is a story in itself, but summed up, it basically consisted of ernie and i going to an illadvised party on cape cod, with many teenagers, two kegs, and some yagermeister and when we lied to a butterfaced little 18 year old and told her that we were 23 and 25 years old, she looked at us with her little drunken eyes and said, "oh, that's ok", as if we had just told her that we both had cancer), that caused me to not, in any way, miss my youth...maybe it's my two (count'em), two therapist..who knows.

so, being 30, not having done many of the things that i was most positive that i would do in my youth, i honestly don't think that i would go back. i am happy sitting her in my robe, husband frying up some veggie sausage, sipping on my obsessively brewed whole leaf green tea, and waiting patiently for 'this american life' to come on while i do my laundry.

the graveyard of the gashlycrumb tinies. 

new years on cape cod.