OK Go!

Scissor Sisters Homecoming Hits A New High

The Ferd Rocks The House!

Wow-ee! energy blast! electric musical moments! Franz Ferdinand kicked major posterior at Roseland last night (pictured right). A highly kinetic display of charimsa, sharp playing, formidable songwriting, and fey-scotch-art-student-chic. Five hundred spectators became one surging, bopping, singing, saluting mass as FRF dazzled with their instant classics, 'Take Me Out,''Matinee,' 'Tell Her Tonight,' and, best of all, their homoerotic ode to the pleasures of dancing closely with 'Michael.' Shimmering multicolored lights bathed FRF and its warm-up bands, which were: the Futureheads with by-the-numbers guitar new-wave with a-capella overtones, and the Delays, two 'right on time' sets of british brothers with intriguing melodies and arrangements, crowned by impossibly beautiful and high-pitched lead vocals and good playing.More concert pictures to come. Up tonight: Scissor Sisters, the gay pop sensation that's rocking the nation. This will be the third time this summer I've seen them with Thomas, this time, at Irving Plaza.

Pardon My French / Pour Mes Amis Français

Wash In The Rain...

Apples Are The New Cows

One recent morning I noticed there was a giant apple in front of the Starbucks in the lobby of my building... ...and a few feet away, another mammoth apple, with an "I Love New York" logo, seemed to befuddle a local bag person (see below)... I quickly realized that this was no coincidence. Similar to the Cow Parade competition of years past, painted apple sculptures were popping up everywhere like, well, apple trees...

With a little luck, today might be foot surgery day for my sister, marking the end of two weeks of waiting in a nursing home and the beginning, I hope, of her road to recovery... Crossing our fingers here.







Spotted these two apples while walking near Lincoln Center with Pat Stumpp on Saturday:

Wolverine Humor:

Future-Rama

File Under: "Why didn't I do this sooner?" I finally visited MOMA QNS, Museum of Modern Art's temporary digs in Queens on Labor Day Monday. At Thomas' wise suggestion, I feasted by senses on the banquet of visionary skyscrapter architecture in models and computer-generated images that is "Tall Buildings." Featured are 25 mammoth buildings, both finished, underway, and shelved. If you're in or near NYC, don't miss this - it closes Sept 27. MOMA QNS is in Sunnyside, and is easier to get to from Chelsea than the Met at 81st & 5th - literally 25 minutes door to door, via the 1 and the 7. See it!

This is Shanghai's Pagoda-like Jin Mao tower, 1350 feet and 88 stories, with pagoda-like structure and motifs in octagonal sweep. I saw this building close up while touring there with my Mom in August 2002.

And this is Beijing's future Central Chinese Television Tower, recently designed with projected completion in 2008. It's a novel continuous loop of a structure, with a central cavity. The concept is one of permanent interconnection, 'to promote solidarity rather than isolation, collaboration instead of opposition.' I like it.

Leaving New York's Never Easy...
... I Saw The Light Fading Out...

French Adrenalin -- Adrenaline Français

Red Light Green Light 1,2,3... What a movie! "Red Lights", hailing from France, is an utterly gripping thriller, a witty, observant character study, and a subtle puzzle. It literally puts you in the passenger seat for some of the most harrowing - and fascinating - reckless driving ever filmed on a European highway. At its center are a marital crisis, an escaped convict, and the vagaries of French transportation... See it. (For Christian: Quel film! "Feux Rouges" melange plusieurs genres avec success: le thriller, l'etude de character très observatrice, et la devinette. ça te fait vivre la randonée la plus fascinante et terrifiante jamais filmée sur une autoroute europeéne. Il s'agit d'un couple en crise et les hasards des transports français. va le voir!)