#31. Street Shreds, The Best, Mission Music, Home Options, A Smiling Shark
Throw these into the conversation.
FOCUS PEOPLE!
Tickets are going fast for my upcoming shows on 11+12 Nov. at the Crazy Coqs, London’s chicest comedy / cabaret venue. Frankly, with the high stakes election upon us here in the US, it’s the perfect moment to get out of Dodge. I’m looking forward to being back in the Big Smoke. Tickets here. Hope to see you there!
1. Rip it up.
One of the things I love about NYC are the shredded posters on the street. I’m referring to the advertising posters affixed directly onto exterior walls or onto the walls on subway platforms. Although, the content and design of these posters is rarely interesting, the colourful abstracts that remain in the wake of their removal is always fascinating. Apparently, these posters are tricky to take down and seem to typically come off only in shreds. Once partially removed, they reveal a collage of older posters underneath in crazy, random compositions. It’s a weird form of street side contemporary art - immediately striking and more compelling than the colourful scrawls that adorn most corporate lobbies.
I’m a fan!
2. Steel Claw
In the not so distant future, the aliens will come down from outer space and sift through the burnt out remains of human culture. They’ll find piles of plastic rubbish, out-of-date technology, disconnected personal items, reams of documents covered in indecipherable script and countless ‘recyclable’ coffee pods that somehow survived the apocalypse.
When they finally succeed in restarting our old machines and unspooling the forgotten digital cultural artefacts from humanity’s hey day, someone - something - will stumble upon Tina Turner. When they do, they’ll finally understand what the most extraordinary humans were truly capable of. They’ll sit in awe, watching this exquisite 43 year old woman, performing with a joy and abandon only accessible to the most gifted and hardworking artists. One who honed her chops over decades, smashing it over and over, in venues big and small, from crummy back rooms, to main-stage theatres. Always bringing her A game. Always hitting her marks. Always kicking ass.
In that moment, those beings from another planet will finally glimpse the sheer, irresistible excellence of the Best.
3. Bop Spotter
22-year old Riley Walz is a sort of digital prankster. He was one of the brains behind New York’s now infamous Mehran’s Steak House, which garnered stellar reviews despite being entirely fictional - until it wasn’t. Later he developed RouteShuffle which provides random routes for runners, walkers and cyclists to help vary their exercise routines. He’s also created a fictional candidate for Congress on Twitter and this fascinating archive of newspaper front pages.
Now for his most inventive stunt, Walz’ has installed a box high up on a pole somewhere in the heart of San Francisco’s bustling Mission District. Inside he placed a crappy, solar-powered Android phone running the Shazam app 24 / 7 with a mic pointed downward towards the busy street below. The result is Bop Spotter, a living time capsule / playlist of all the music heard in that specific spot all day, every day. What a way to capture the pulsing vibe of a specific neighbourhood!
Walz says ‘This is culture surveillance. No one notices, no one consents. But it's not about catching criminals. It's about catching vibes. A constant feed of what’s popping off in real-time.’ A quick scan of recent plays reveals a diverse selection of genres that reflects the mixed-up demographic of the neighbourhood. Rap, Latin-flavored hip hop, 2000’s era rnb, classic rock, and the occasional Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter anthem feature. It’s a more varied and contemporary mix than most conventional radio stations, for sure.
Catch the full playlist here and get transported to the Mission District, San Francisco, 2024 in real time. Enjoy!
4. The Contemporary Castle
Time for our semi-regular feature on tacky celebrity homes up for sale. Always refreshing to be reminded that the 1% typically have terrible taste. From the looks of things, a mix of Succession beige and Trump-style excess continues to plague the homes of the rich and famous.
Take for example, the cliffside compound of first generation, computer magnate Darwin Deason, listed for a cool $108 million. Sitting pretty in a wealthy San Diego suburb, the mini-Versailles sequestered behind a fortified hedgerow, makes absolutely no sense in the context of the mostly modest neighbourhood.
In truth, such sprawling mansions can be tricky to get right. Where is a multi-billionaire supposed to turn for design inspiration if not the court of Louis XIV? Well, how about the 26-acre Long Island Waterfront Estate of New York rocker, Billy Joel, currently on sale for $50 million? While it’s not as over-the-top as the previous example, the faux-English country mansion looks like the set of Rivals.
Meanwhile, I like the street side exterior of this charming contemporary, LA bungalow, previously owned by Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee, and now on sale for just under $9 million. The interior has been stripped of decorative details so it’s a blank slate. Personally, I’d rehouse the Spiderman sculptures, but that’s just me.
Let’s be realistic. I’m a struggling actor, writer, comedian. I’ll be lucky to live out my days in a solar-powered, decommissioned wind turbine. (See below.) If nothing else, it looks cheap to heat and who knows, maybe it floats. The way things are going, floatation could come in handy.
No word on the cost of one of these, up-cycled, tiny homes. Apparently, the designers envision much larger versions in due time. (Room for my cold plunge?) I don’t hate it. Any Spiderman sculptures can stand guard outside.
5. Leta Powell Drake
I'‘m obsessed with Leta Powell Drake, the kooky entertainment reporter for Lincoln, Nebraska’s 5 City TV where she hosted the long running program, Live & Learn in the 80’s. She had a long and storied career as a reporter in Nebraska but it’s her celebrity interviews that still create buzz. The supercut above show just how ‘straightforward’ (or rude) she could be.
We’ve heard a lot about the ‘Minnesota Nice’ of Democratic VP-candidate, Tim Walz. Think of the gritted teeth behind a friendly smile. Drake practiced her own version of plainspoken Midwestern charm. Is there a term for this funny forwardness that happily and efficiently cuts even popular Hollywood celebs down to size? ‘Nebraska Nice?’ ‘Midwest Manners?’ ‘Cringe Kind?’ Whatever you call it, Leta Powell Drake has it in spades and I love it.
There are many more awkward celebrity moments with LPD on YouTube that are absolutely worth checking out. She’s a gas!
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Final word from MONO
parting shot
