Week Around the -Ists

Brock Keeling — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:06:52 GMT

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits to his then-mistress (now wife) were billed to obscure city agencies - and how his wife used the NYPD like a taxi service. And on a final note, the New York Public Library faced some people (mostly Republicans) upset over an exhibit that includes mugshots of George Bush and his administration.

Big announcement for LAist this week: Editor Tony Pierce will be moving over to the LA Times to run all their blogs. Congratulations Mr. Pierce -- the -ist community is so proud! Other big news in Los Angeles came in the form of the unfortunate shooting of Rodney King (he's okay though). In books, dog whisperer Cesar Millan presented his book by signing only, disappointing some fans waiting to hear what he had to say and in the fine arts, they saw the most offensive Christmas show. They also found that Hollywood industry parties are a bust, that sex is safer in a Nevada brothel than on a Valley porn set and that G4TV's Olivia Munn is as wicked cool as we all hoped she would be. And what's December without the Best of 2007 lists? DJs from KCRW start it off.

Phillyist got some family dirt but survived it with the aid of a little wine. They also checked out a great model train display, saw green, and brightened some kids' holiday seasons.

Sigur Singers

Matt Baume — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 15:27:15 GMT

If you're wondering, Tuesday night, where all the cool kids have gone, look no further than 111 Minna's free Sigur Ros

iTunes Prudery: The iTipper

jackson — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 13:05:54 GMT

Fast forward to the 21st century: We finally resurrected our PowerBook from beyond the grave (thanks for not putting in the motion protection for hard drives in the 12" model, Apple -- we lost our pirated music collection all our pirated applications), we installed all our software updates and got the fancy new iTunes 4.9, and decided to play with the new tool for subscribing to podcasts. First stop -- SFist Violet's Open Source Sex.

Of course, we had to wade past all the content from KCRW and the BBC, but when we found Violet's feed, it was marked 'explicit.' The latest episode, where she read from her teledildonics prezzo at Dorkbot, had more to do with creating open source standards for the software and more hygenic hardware. But Steve Jobs thinks that porn is bad and evil and dirty and something that Apple would never want associated with their brand -- though we're sure he has no problem selling hardware to all the creatives in the porn industry. This 'concerned parent' wants them to go further and install parental locks, you know, for the children.

When all is said and done, marking stuff 'explicit' is going to be great -- it'll make the good podcasts so easy to find! Kind of like how the packages addressed to your parents in non-descript, brown paper packaging were mysteriously lost by the postman or stolen from your front porch.

Via BoingBoing and Fleshbot.

and

Interview: Nic Harcourt

emily — Fri, 06 May 2005 15:37:07 GMT

There are approximately 3300 Bay Area Dwellers who listen to subscribe to an LA radio station. While SFist has our own beef with local radio, we were a little curious about what makes KCRW good enough for folks here to tear themselves away from those Fogheads, or that No-name whatever. If you ask the folks at the station, or a few of SFist’s SoCal dwelling informants, they often implicate Nic Harcourt’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic” show.

Although we question some of Nic’s beliefs about LA (where the nicest people in America do NOT actually live), as well as wonder what exactly it was he did during his two months living in the Sunset, we appreciate anyone who wants to see Barry Manilow interviewed on SFist. We’re working on it!

What radio station in SF/Bay Area would you most like to work at?
KFOG, yeah right.

Why do you live in LA?
It's where the nicest people in America live

Photo by Larry Hirshowitz

On The Road with The Ditty Bops

krissy — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:02:40 GMT

The Ditty Bops are Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald, two modern LA twenty-somethings celebrating yesteryear with their self-titled debut album [listen here]. Both their record and their live show are a must-hear, featuring bell-clear vocal harmonies, finger picked guitars, and upbeat melodies that'll have you partying like it's 1929. These KCRW-darlings have already appeared on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and are currently touring the country with Tegan and Sara.

Catch their opening set tonight at The Independent. SFist caught up with Amanda and Abby en route to our fair city.

We saw your SXSW showcase at Crowne Plaza, a clean venue on the top floor of a posh hotel, the perfect scenario for a Ditty Bops show. How do you feel about playing sweaty rock clubs on tour?
Amanda: We passionately dislike sweaty rock clubs. But we love sweat. Depending on whose sweat it is of course. The biggest problem playing in clubs outside of California is the smoke scene. We're not used to it and it gets to us after awhile.

Abby: My preference for venues are theaters. I like having a captive audience so we can play some odd ball numbers that aren't just peppy and upbeat.

More with The Ditty Bops, after the jump.

KCRW - SFist - San Francisco News, Restaurants, Events, & Sports

Week Around the -Ists

Sigur Singers

iTunes Prudery: The iTipper

Interview: Nic Harcourt

On The Road with The Ditty Bops