North Korea + Funkytown

North Korean People's Army Funky Get Down Juche Party

I know President Carter is currently in North Korea on a humanitarian mission to free American teacher Ajalon Gones while Kim Jong-Il is gallavanting across China. But this video is pretty amazing.

HNH BBQ @ Trophy Bar

We're back at trophy bar for our monthly residency tonite and not only are we celebrating the one-and-only Dennis Ngo's birthday but we're also debuting our first fall special -- Four-Meat Texas Chili!! Sweet Tea Cocktails for $5 and Brisket in the Backyard. Sebastian, Don and EPak on the wheels spinning new wave!!

Happy Birthday MJ

A year later and I still get emotional about MJ's passing. This Sunday, Spike Lee and DJ Spinna are doing it again with the Michael Jackson birthday tribute. Come through Prospect Park and help us sing it "ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa!" Check out the clip below of from last year...Rest in Power MJ!

Sissy Bounce @ PS1

Long Island City's PS1 Warm-Up series has been a summer institution. Young architects get the whole run of the front courtyard to design into an adult playland for NYC party people and DJs and obscure art bands get to play a museum (not necessarily a museum crowd.) This coming Saturday, the Queen of New Orleans bounce, Big Freedia and her sidekick DJ Rusty Lazer bring a little bit of the Third Coast to the East Coast. They recently tore it down at a party with Ninjasonik in BK but I got put onto the subgenre, "sissy bounce" from a recent NYTimes article. The sound is familiar from growing up hearing underground beats in Houston but this bubbling culture is gender-bending, female-centric, fast, and LIVE! I might brave the crowds this weekend to check it out! Read more from the Times article below.

If “gay rapper” is an oxymoron where you come from, how to get your head around the notion of a gay rapper performing in a sports bar? What in most cities might seem plausible only as some sort of Sacha Baron Cohen-style provocation is just another weeknight in the cultural Galapagos that is New Orleans. Sometime after midnight on the sweltering Thursday before Memorial Day, the giant plasma-screen TVs at the Sports Vue bar (which “proudly airs all major Pay Per View events from the world of Boxing and Ultimate Fighting”) were all switched off, and the bar’s backroom turned into a low-lit, low-ceilinged dance club, where more than 300 people awaited a return engagement by Big Freedia, who by day runs an interior-decoration business and who is, to fans of the New Orleans variant of hip-hop music known as “bounce,” a superstar.

At 1 a.m., though, Freedia (pronounced “FREE-da”) was still a mile or so away, fulfilling a paid celebrity-hosting gig at Club Fabulous. The fabulousness of Club Fabulous, on this night at least, seemed a function mainly of its Mardi Gras-themed décor, conceived and executed by Freedia herself. Otherwise the crowd was sparse, largely straight and listless. Freedia looked weary as she leaned back against the bar with her dyed, diagonally cut bangs over one eye, holding a cordless microphone. (Freedia, who is about 6 foot 2 and very powerful-looking and dresses in a fashionable but recognizably masculine style, is genetically a man; but neither she nor anyone who knows her uses masculine pronouns to refer to her.) When “Rock Around the Clock,” one of her signature songs, came on the sound system, a few women walked over to Freedia and stood with their backs to her, but the atmosphere wasn’t quite electric enough for them to really start dancing, and the men just continued playing pool. After a while, Freedia’s D.J. and de facto manager, who goes by the name Rusty Lazer — a whippetlike 39-year-old white man with a salt-and-pepper beard — let Freedia know that it was time to move on to the next show.

NY State of Mind

I cant stop thinking about this amazing spread in Elle's September issue. Thanks Sai!! For full spread check here.

Timeless in the Park

The lovely folks from Mochilla are taking over Saint Nicholas Park tomorrow night for a screening and jam fest with Bobbito, Jazzy Jay and Lean Rock! J. Rocc is flying in to do a "Timeless" Video Mix. In case you missed out, Timeless was an unforgettable orchestral concert series that brought together composers like Mulatu of Ethiopia, Arthur Verocai and J. Dilla (RIP) with a 15-piece orchestra interpreting their classic work during the Spring of 2009. This is a really unique way to experience the shows and enjoy the end of summer! Buy the boxed set here!