pics from my househaunting party, some by amy, some by carl, some by me, and one by jami. it was a great party, if i do say so myself; thanks to everyone who came! a whole bunch more pics are here....

happy halloween! for your special treat, i've got a PUNK SONG OF THE WEEK/DAY! enjoy, or i'll send glenn danzig after you....

::: The Misfits, "Skulls" ::: i did, of course, have several misfits songs all set to go on my ginormous halloween party playlist. which i was only able to play for a while before the dance-music demanders started up. luckily i had the shit ready to go. you've gotta give the people what they want!

but! we did get a nice betsy visit last-last weekend, which included lots of brooklyn-based shopping and eating and drinking, and this past weekend i hosted a fantabulous halloween "house haunting" party (more on that, and pics, if i can ever get them off my camera, soon).

and more fun is on the way, too, with catherine's pita having been somewhat miraculously granted a CMJ press pass, despite its recent identity as a wedding blog. here are my picks, excluding (mostly) any bands i'm seeing in the next month or so; anyone going to any of these?

tuesday
-halloween parties
-jay bennett at joe's pub, 7 pm (i'm seeing him tonight at union hall)
-birdmonster and irving at pianos, 10 and 11 pm
-the rapture at bowery, 11 pm
-we are wolves at fontana's, 12 am
probable itinerary: halloween parties, with perhaps a late-night visit to fontana's

wednesday
-someone still loves you boris yeltsin, the io's, and professor murder at pianos, 6:30, 7:30 and 9:30 pm
-swearing at motorists* at fontana's, 9 pm
-mussels at magnetic field, 10 pm
-get him eat him at r&r, 10:15 pm
-dr. dog at bowery, 10:25 pm
-man in gray at the knitting factory, 11:15 pm
-the knife at webster hall, 11:30 pm
probable itinerary: swearing at motorists and mussels (hoping they go on late)

thursday
-oxford collapse, the elected, css, the thermals, the shins at bowery, all night long. if you can get in. luckily there are tempting alternatives:
-mellowdrone at r&r, 9 pm
-sean na na at lit, 11 pm
probable itinerary: subpop showcase, early arrival?

friday
-brah records showcase at tonic with home and dirty faces at 8:30 and 9:30 pm, and oakley hall at 11:30 (but i'm seeing them in a week anyway, so i can go home and sleep)
-the decemberists at hammerstein, 9 pm
-jon langford at the living room, 9 pm
-cloud cult at merc, 10 pm
probable itinerary: brah, duh, followed by cloud cult

saturday
the fall at hiro, 9:15 pm
bobby bare jr. at mercury lounge, 10 pm (i'm seeing him in a couple weeks too)
oakley hall at irving, 11 pm
probable itinerary: just the fall.

sunday

*this is my must-see pick of the festival. oranges band are also playing. some people like them.

and as i'm sure all good little indie rockers know, brooklyn vegan as well as gothamist are having several day parties with bands and booze and, inevitably, bloggers. plus, soundfix records has a bunch of free in-stores, too, and is a fine place to see a show, what with the cozy little coffeeshop atmosphere they've got goin' on. and of course there's the day stage shows if you have a badge.

as for flavors of the month, i've heard the names the horrors and white whale dropped. who else do i need to know about in order to appear cool? tip me off in the comments.

i reached wedding nirvana early on saturday. i was kind of ready, as it had been a trying time leading up to our arrival in wildwood, what with travel plans being changed at the last minute and us accidentally crisscrossing the state and all. but we made it, to the very tip of new jersey, finally. cape may is a cute town! i wished we had come down friday night and made a whole weekend of it so we could have hung out more. the ceremony was on the beach, and it was a lovely day, in the 60s and clear and sunny. pretty much exactly what you hope for when you plan an october beach wedding. the bride wore white flip-flops and the biggest smile you've ever seen. holly never stopped looking gorgeous all night, actually. mark's vows blew the crowd away, so heartfelt and powerful. that's when the tears spilled over. everyone all burst into applause. holly could only say, "wow." i think she might have said, "that's gonna be a hard act to follow." the sentiment was definitely there, but her vows were just as emotional. (UPDATE! a wedding guest has uploaded video of the vows, and says he has video of holly and me dancing. ruh roh. hope donŐt look stupid!) with the the sun glinting off the ocean in the background and the ruffly fabric arch billowing in the wind, it was one of the most beautiful ceremonies i've ever had the privilege of witnessing.

and the reception was pretty fun, too, especially when uncle joe was on the dance floor. (check out my full set of photos; it's the triumphant return of my flickr page!) everyone please raise your virtual glass to holly and mark hettinger: theirs is an inspiring story, one of those that just makes you go awwww. they met as kids, were partners on double dare (we were at the "double dare" table), dated in high school, went their separate ways, kept tabs on each other, and finally got together again after college. i always say, the couple who gets super sloppy together, stays together. cheers, holly and mark!

digression: check out ikea hacker, a blog that features all sorts of modications people have done to their ikea stuff. it's addictive. i read the whole archives. i now want to be buried in a billy bookcase.

continuance of story: and then this morning, carl made an astonishing score on the streets of carroll gardens, and promptly called his friend erik, who helped him load it into his car and spirited it away to his office for safekeeping. dudes, it is an absolutely beautiful piece, a midcentury modern glass-topped teak coffee table. carl estimates it costs about $600. and some rich person just left it on the street. it is so sweet. have i mentioned I LOVE BROOKLYN?! the place is really coming together, with the help of carl, who in addition to scoring awesome period furniture has taken to doing things like coming over and alphabetizing my cd's, then waking up and unpacking my books, when he is not tilling the land. for those of you who have read this far, here's a treat in the form of a look at my new coffee table:

tomorrow i will post about music, because i have some very interesting items for discussion. now, i must go meet eileen and holly, pet kitties, and eat crabcakes.

huge weekend, just huge. i moved and allison and brandon got married. but i only have pictures of the wedding, so i'll start with that. now, i already knew i was dealing with some cool people, but then when asked if she did, allison almost yelled "hells yeah!" and the two of them recessed to "you shook me all night long." i reached wedding nirvana (new term!), which basically means crying. yay! meanwhile, carl managed to tear it up on the dance floor with women of a certain age while manning the ipod without any major snafus: good showing. and the setting, at the palm house at the brooklyn botanic garden, was gorgeous, especially when it stopped raining and the sun came out (basically right when the ceremony started). the afterparty at commonwealth (in my new hood) continued till the wee hours; we were wedding-ing from 9:30 a.m. till about 11-something. that's a good party! so congrats to the happy lenihans, everybody!

the day before that, saturday, i moved. people, as good an idea as it seems at the time, do not piecemeal move. phase one: i had my parents return all the stuff they shuttled to new jersey the weekend before. they arrived in the slope at 7:00 a.m., only to find carl and me locked out of the new place. carl did not want to castrate himself by going over the rickety fence to get in the open back door, but howard, a former firefighter, and 65 years old, quickly assessed the situation and went over the fence like a cat. problem solved! the rest of the move-in went relatively smoothly, and then carl and i spent hours cleaning the place. phase two: getting the rest of my stuff at the rivington street apartment. for this i had enlisted vanessa, who has a car but does not, it turns out, have trunk access, due to some long and involved story that i, as usual with vanessa, still do not quite get. we did two trips in her car; traffic was horrendous; i still had stuff at the apartment. phase three: various cab and subway trips with small amounts of stuff. i completed the last one only last night, hauling a vacuum on the f train and up (well, down, i guess, geographically speaking) seventh avenue. so now i can reply "yes! thank god" instead of "no, it's not!" when people say "at least it's done" in response to my tale of moving woes.

and i am quite loving my neighborhood. monday night carl and sean and i had dinner at java, an indonesian restaurant across the street. and last night we met brandon and allison and lissy at the gate, and then had a "welcome to the neighborhood/yay you got married!" dinner at stone park cafe. the steak eaters were disappointed (i guess raw meat will do that to you), but the chicken with butternut squash puree was delish. also of note: carl has stayed over two nights in a row and has been tilling the land before 9 a.m., harvesting basil and turning the compost, each morning. once i get some olive oil in the house (and perhaps some rhubarb in the ground), i think i'll be set for life.