in Theaters Nationwide

Demonic toys come to life, pork-themed three-part harmonies are mocked by Weird Al Yankovich, a Santa of David Lynch-caliber creepiness orders around pants-less elf boys, a toy dog named Gaylord rolls over, a nude doll haunts a little girl’s dreams, the Ding-a-ling toy universe with its King Ding shocks some poor kid – this is not your typical holiday viewing, but the selections from the ever charming Mike Nelson and crew of previous MST3K and current Rifftrax fame for their RiffTrax Live Christmas Shorts-stravaganza!

Performing live in Minnesota but projected in many theaters across the country (we watched from the Chelsea location), they riffed on several Christmas shorts. If you’re familiar with any of their shows and projects, you can imagine the hilarity.

Make sure you try out their Rifftrax on many beloved films, such as Cocktail, Glitter, and The Happening on their site.

See more: Spend a Couple Hours Christmas Comedians Performances

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Posted on December 20, 2009

Fall/ Winter 2009 Tour

There’s a real difference between armchair analysis and actually being a part of the crowd, and when Dan and I saw Phish at MSG the other night, the experience differed, as you can probably imagine, rather tremendously from listening to a bunch of MP3s on Nugs.net.

I hadn’t seen a Phish show since Astrid and I went our during our last year of school – practically another life: this was back before the Providence Civic Center was re-christened Dunkin’ Donuts Center – so I was a bit out of step and a couple things struck me right away.

First of all, the music is front and center – for hours. Without a cluttered desktop full of stuff to do, Outlook’s auto-receive scheduled for every 3 minutes and, of course, coworkers, there are relatively few distractions (though there are definitely a few distractions) and the takeaway isn’t in the details (obviously you can’t scrub back to that amazing moment at 12:39), but the entirety of the experience.

Ebb and flow, tension and release, lighting effects and glow-in-the dark-bracelet-throw-cues; the whole thing kind of melds together, laying bare the structure nearly every song adheres to and the band’s truly unique sound-vision. Absolutely no other rock act so successfully fuses what is essentially contemporary jazz, good old fashioned crooning, traditional rock blues, tone-based alien landscapes, overly ambitious college-level compositions and unadulterated white, duct-taped-brimmed embroidered collegiate cap funk. After a couple of hours the distinct aural experience becomes more than familiar.

‘Precocious’ may seem like an unusual descriptor for someone who’s a well established virtuoso, but the personality of the playing, which I can best sum up as kind of a nerdily frustrated musical theory major (they’re just not teaching what I want to learn, dude) who happens to be super into showing off (which I guess probably isn’t all that unique a character combo), makes for alternately sublime and confounding music.

The continual escalation, the nearly infinite ratcheting up of every song, results in one ‘Can you believe I’m even playing this?!’ moment after another. This can go one of two ways: it can blister and ultimately kind of numb, like the incredibly intense David Bowie that closed the second set, or it can truly wow, like the breathtakingly necessarily over-complicated Fluff’s Travels, which was just absolutely stunning to behold as the band navigated its way through what felt like dozens of sound-scapes drawn in cartoony broad-strokes, literally turning on a dime several times a minute.

Click here for the rest of See Phish

See more: Spend a Couple Hours Concerts Guest Writer: Jim Jam Bands

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Posted on December 6, 2009

at The New Museum through Feb. 7th, 2010

The Urs Fischer exhibit currently taking over three floors of the New Museum is wonderfully unusual; every time the elevator doors opened, I was taken aback. The first floor is cluttered, to a collage-like effect, with large, mirrored boxes screen printed with non-scaled objects like cupcakes, meat, VHS tapes, CD cleaners, telephone booths, running shoes, high heels, photography books and (most oddly) an Ashanti cardboard cut out. I wrote down some of the books titles (Schweizer Sagen, Marius Pictor fotografo) to get an idea of why he picked these particular objects to display together, but I think that maybe the objects themselves are irrelevant and he’s more in awe that all these objects coexist in our world… but you’d have to ask him.

The second floor whisks you to an entirely different environment and mood. The walls, seemingly sterile and gray are actually wallpapered with photographs of the room itself. Whether through lighting or the tints in the photos, the walls offer amazing shades of color the longer you look at them – the perfect backdrop for a candy purple melting grand piano – and as you peruse the room, a few moments of unexpected humor. It’s rare to see so many gallery goers actually laughing out loud in an exhibit.

The third floor again, takes you to another world, this one full of gigantic metal sculptures made from tiny pieces of clay he pinched together then sent away to be replicated many, many times larger. Within these twirling, hulking, silvery shapes is a bright pink melting lamp post, a skeleton covered in dirt, muck, and lint, and the one piece I just did not “get” at all: a cake and travel bag floating above a subway seat with ceramic slugs.

In fact, what any of it all means escapes me entirely – but I felt transformed, like I was walking into an environment like none I had ever experienced before, and I found the whole thing fantastic.

Click here for the rest of Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty

See more: Spend a Couple Hours Galleries/Museums Soho

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Posted on November 22, 2009

It's really unlike me (and admittedly unfair) to condemn a place that I have not been to myself, but the aura surrounding Brooklyn Bowl leaves me uneasy. Actual threatening and muscle-bound door men, velvet ropes, a line of parked Escalades with yellow license plates crowding Wyeth, overpriced bowling and shoe rental and all the hype surrounding its long awaited opening deliver a singular message to us locals: this place is not for you, it's for assholes that read about it on Urban Daddy.

Even a sure to be excellent menu from the people of Blue Ribbon has yet to get me past the idea of a velvet rope… but a friend of ours did attend a recent DJ Spooky iPhone App Launch Party; let me repeat that: a DJ Spooky iPhone App Launch Party.

Some day I might bring myself to try the place out, all prejudices aside during their happy hour, and if, at that time, I find out that I'm wrong and the place is a secret shining destination of non-obnoxious good times, I promise to write a glowing review and apologize.

See more: Spend a Couple Hours Sports Williamsburg Worst of

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Posted on November 9, 2009

I may be getting old, because Jim and I used to host parties every other month or so, but now we're down to just two a year. Fortunately, they are fantastic ones – and our Halloween Bash is the best. I'm always impressed with our friends' costumes, and here are just a few photos from last year that include my sister as Andrew Dice Clay, myself as Purple Rain era Prince, my friend Laura sporting stigmata and Jim as the Love Guru…

'd like to think that I'll have the skill and patience for some Martha Stewart-caliber decorating and recipes, but my friends may have to settle for what my local dollar stores have to offer and some mad scientist shots.. which is pretty much what they've come to expect without complaint.

See more: Spend a Couple Hours Halloween Parties

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Posted on October 26, 2009