I started this blog, because I thought “Hey, that would be a good idea.”

Then I realized how labor-intensive of a proposition it would be, even with my great contributors. In addition to my gig as a copywriter I also do some potatographing, which leaves not much time for les affaires du blog.

So, rather than leave the corpse of this blog swaying and rotting on the ramparts, I come to you today to deliver the coup de grace.

I may start another one at some point, something less ambitious, like trying to catalog everything that everyone says as they are saying it.

In any event, thanks for your eyeballs, it was fun while it stalked.

Kos

There isn’t much in the way of launchiness to this post, but hey independent rock has feelings too.

Last October I shot the Atlas Sound concert at the Music Hall of Williamsburg for Time Out, and it was comprehensively dope. One track in particular, which I wasn’t familiar with, was so good that I switched the D90 from still to video mode. After the concert I went through everything Atlas Sound has on iTunes, and even snooped around the interwebs trying to track down the song, so I could, you know, buy it.

Couldn’t find it anywhere, so I dropped the matter.

I was trying to organize my photos on the computer last night and came across the video file again, and was again overcome by frustration, sadness, so I put it up on a website, and then started pounding the Facebook pavement and the Thomas Morrison pavement. Thomas Morrison aka “the Gandalf of Indy Rock,” aka the coolest bartender in New York, aka the Idiotarod martyr.

Thomas may have gotten to the bottom of it.

Via electronic mail:

“OK. so searching the Morrison mental database, this is indeed one of his (Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound, Deerhunter) own songs called “The Screens”. It was a b-side to a Virtual 7″ (he releases singles all of the time from his website for free). The A-side is a cover of a song by The Five Discs called “Doctor” (an old 50′s doo-wop band from Brooklyn). Often, live, he plays songs “more electric” and vice-versa, more “acoustic”, depending on who is playing with him. Indeed, I think it sounds better with the heavy guitars

For reference:
http://deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com/ Check out the website. There is a ton of stuff on there. including some amazing mixes or other peoples songs that they listen to on the road.

He is by far one of my favorite musicians out there right now. They (deerhunter) will be playing the Williamsburg waterfront this summer. Date t.b.a.”

I listened to the song Thomas says the mystery song is, and I’m not convinced it’s a match, although Thomas is a smarter and better person than I am. They sound dissimilar.

Which means the mystery remains unsolved. Maybe I’ll try to ignite a storm of electronic mail through that blog Thomas referred to. If you have any ideas about the provenance or title of this song, please feel free to enlighten me.

Thank you.

So, it’s good to be back, we love the shit out of you, etc.

7 Rivers of India
203 E Houston at Ludlow

via Bowery Boogie

peacheshothouse.com
415 Tompkins Ave at Hancock St.
Brooklyn, NY  11221
(718) 483-9111

Answer: Probably working on their deltoids at the Dave Barton gym on 23rd Street.

OK, now to put the wheels bag on this post. EV Grieve (the tireless blogger) announced that a rare thing is evolving over on Avenue A between 5th and 6th streets, in the form of a used book store. Looking at a probable launch date of May 1, according to the Grievester. No name as of yet for that puppy.

Yay for used book stores!

Back in January, Thomas cajoled me into participating in the Idiotarod, a race/pub-crawl featuring a variety of themed teams pushing decked out shopping carts that is an annual rite of passage for people who like to get shit-faced in costumes in freezing weather. We signed on to a mock-German, leder-hosen-clad team that billed itself as The Master Racers.

Get it?

Our team distinguished itself as the sole group to have as part of its cart an actual keg of beer. We also had a small stove and sausages. (See associated photos.)

The Master Racers (most of them) shortly after crossing the Pulaski Bridge into Queens. The legal aggression went down not long afterwards.

Well, unfortunately, there were imperial entanglements in the borough of Queens. There were cop cars, full of allegation-leveling, citation-scribbling cops. The police affected criminal charges on two of our team’s members, Thomas and Kelly.

Kelly has had her day in court, today it appears, and the cops failed to show.

Thomas sent me a text, and I’ve decided that, to salute his courage, his resolve, and his leder-hosen, I’m going to update you, the reader, on his status as his case winds its way through the halls of justice.

And now, in Thomas’s own words and images, via text message:

TM: I am about to head into Queens County courthouse to defend the Master Racers’ right to drink anywhere they damn well choose. May the beer gods rest on my shoulder and humankind prevail.

LS: If there is any fine let me know.

12:03 p.m.
TM: After reporting to face trial the judge looked my way and proceeded to call for a two hour lunch break. I think he’s scared. I’m off to McDonald’s to continue my work on my defense.

LS: Can I blog this? Can u give me periodic updates?

TM: Be my quest. Perhaps you can add it to your restaurant blog [editor's note: we do more than restaurants, but, let's not get bogged down here]. There is an incredibly long line at McDonald’s so I might try what appears to be a new restaurant called Pasta Lovers. There is a large sign out front which reads “Now serving traditional breakfast” perhaps the judge will be dining nearby and I can offer him a Danish

Picture by Thomas Morrison and his cell phone.

TM: Starters: bread by a local bakery named Wonder.

TM: my friendly waitstaff eager to serve. Supposedly they are natives of a small town in Northern Italy I’ve never heard of called Oaxaca. I am so excited.

Upon recommendation of the head waiter, Jose, I started with a true Italian tradition … a Greek salad.

TM: While awaiting my main course, I always enjoy inspecting where the kitchen staff does their prep-work.

1:40 pm
LS: Thomas, on behalf of both of Launch Stalker’s readers, I must protest these unseemly images (but still post those motherfuckers lolz)

TM: While awaiting the judge’s return, the line begins to form. Drunk in public and aggravated assault on the left, marriage bureau to the right.

3:13 pm
I am free!!! Thank God almighty on this indeed Good Friday. A very astute looking wise old judge eager to get home for the holidays ruled that I am free to be excused due to insufficient evidence. Apparently wearing lederhosen in sub-zero weather with a plastic boot filled to the brim with tasty Gaffel Kolsch, and pushing a large shopping cart resembling a giant beer cask with an actual keg in side is not sufficient evidence. The beers are on me tonight as I dance through the streets probably in a toga.

Velvet fucking ropes? Are you fucking kidding me?

Too depressing to write about; trying to put this into some kind of perspective.

Via Downtown Diaries.

Hold on to your free-range underpants, there’s a new vegetarian food option that’s about to splode all over 154 Bleeker Street.

On April 19, Otarian, an Aussie outfit, will commence operations, and its operations apparently are greener than an Irish shamrock, judging by the company’s “core marketing materials,” and by its frankly vaginal logo.

If you are a carnivore or an omnivore who tends to sneer at veggie restaurants (like me, for example), take note: Carnival of Delights in the East Village, for instance, has some deeply great and not irritating food. So, let’s make an effort to be open-minded about this new place, even though it sounds like a hair-metal band, ok? Thanks!

Via Fork in the Road.

Update: you may want to sit down before reading this, but Midtown Lunch is reporting that another Otarian branch is opening on 56th Street and 8th Ave. Hot!

Sidenote: the building, 122 Ludlow, apparently has bed-bug issues. Sexxxy!

Bowery Boogie via Racked.