“They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” (1969, Sidney Pollack)

All of the action in this film takes place during a dance marathon on the Santa Monica Pier in 1932. Contestants dance for as long as they possibly can, with a ten minute break every two hours. The prize at the end is fifteen hundred dollars, though some just dance for the free food (which they must consume while dancing), or in order to be noticed by the Hollywood scouts they’ve been told will be in the audience. A film about exploitation, people’s perverse willingness to be exploited, and our insatiable interest in watching the results, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They,” is a great movie to watch when you have the recession blues, because, hey, those suckers got it way worse than you, don’t they?

New Visual Artists, originally uploaded by sloatie.

Holly was the start of the party last night, as Print magazine honored her and a bunch of other soon-to-be-somebodies (Holly already is a somebody, PS). Check out this set of party photos! Look carefully in mirrors and the reflection in Jay-Z’s sunglasses for some 801A surprises.

Info below….

DINOSAUR EXHIBITION!!!!
Opening Party April 19th, 2008 6-9pm
89 Walker St #2F, New York, NY

We’ve transformed Barometer into a prehistoric wonderland!! Come check out some dino tessellations, ascii art, airbrush action paintings, silkscreened posters and a group DINORAMA.
We’ll be rocking to T-Rex all night long with buckets of swamp drink to keep the party rolling.
Tasty vittles graciously provided by Whole Foods!

www.barometernyc.com/dino

ARTISTS
Warren Bennett, Lauren Bergholm, Brett Beyer, Patrick J. Campbell, Christopher Connolly, Matthew Cumbie, David Dawson, Lisa di Donato, David Geiger, Holly Gressley, Aaron Hitchcock, Max Kuller, Stephen Lowery, Phil Matricardi, M.C. Rockinstein, Fred Sager, Olivia Valentine, Jenna Wainwright, and Christina Zawerucha

It might be more difficult to get a job and whatnot, but the world has not stopped turning. Why not use your more abundant free time (that phone won’t ring anyway, even if you step away from your desk) to invest in your social life or pursue your artistic goals? Now is the time to integrate art into everyday life.

Tip #6: Think about the recession as a party with another name.
Just because you have less disposable income doesn’t mean you can’t have as much fun. Some of the poorest people I know could teach us a thing or two about getting the biggest bang for your buck, enjoyment-wise. The key to staying entertained during times of less is creativity. I can’t stress this enough.

Here are some activities that don’t cost a lot, but can bring much joy:

- Throw a party. Why go to a bar and buy drinks when you can drink in the privacy of your own home or office for a fraction of the price and eliminate the undesirables that lurk in the outside world? Assign your party a theme or special feature, and the party becomes an event.
- Card games. Care to join us for a game of poker? The buy-in will remain $7 due to the recession. Don’t like poker? Try Uno (or my personal fave, pinochle).
- Take a walk. This activity has served me extremely well during the many, many impoverished years I spent in New York and elsewhere. A city is an amazing place—now’s the time to appreciate it more. Spring is coming—are you ready? Take a look around your neighborhood or another. What havoc has gentrification wreaked this week? Visit a faraway neighborhood or even another borough. Mega-dérive!
- Flea markets / thrift stores. I hate it when other people have the same stuff as me. Flea markets can help you out of this rut. They are also good for looking at random things such as other people’s snapshots, socializing, unique artwork, affordable furniture. I got a dresser this weekend for $25.
- Ride a bike. Hours of entertainment, reduced reliance on taxis, big savings. Cancel that gym membership and commute to work on your bike. Also, if you get really bored or really broke, learn how to fix your own bike. There are a lot of places in NYC that will teach you basic bicycle maintenance skills for free (among them, Dumbo’s own Recycle-A-Bicycle, where I learned how to fix a flat tire and the meaning of the word “truing” three years ago). Self-reliance is of the essence during times of squalor!
- Make something. Start crafting. This week I made a quilt square and a lot of pom-poms. You can craft with your friends and it’s like having a party, but more productive. You can make projects together. If you want, you can even sell the things you make for extra cash.
- Art openings. Their usefulness is trifold: inspiration, networking (more money!), and free food and drink.
- The Met. It’s still pay as you wish. Have you seen the new Greek and Roman galleries yet?
- Ever heard of the library? It’s full of books, movies, classes, free bathrooms, weird people. Go there one afternoon and don’t buy anything. Cancel that netflix account and order your movies (or books) from the library. You can order them online and have them shipped to your local branch. Keep them as long as you want — just be sure to renew!
- Develop a new creative pursuit. Learn how to draw, take photos, make some LOLhunkz, start a band, grow your own herb garden, refinish furniture. Ease your anxious mind by focusing your attention on all those activities you never had time for before.

Share your tips!

Young Lucas at Iggy’s, circa 2003

I had my very first, life-changing karaoke experience at Iggy’s on 75th & 2nd one snowy night in 2003. Iggy’s is a cut above many other NYC karaoke establishments—features include free karaoke 7 nights a week, a comprehensive shot menu, the option to sing at a stage or while sitting at the bar, and an excellent catalog. The bar also once featured a velvet painting of Bruce Springsteen (above, right). Unfortunately, due to a recent renovation, it is no longer with us. The crowd is also surprisingly dive-y/trashy and pleasant. All in all, possibly worth the trip uptown.

10 Jay Street is haunted by ghosts with pacifiers. (Party photo by Kirk Peterkin at pbase.com)

The ninth floor circa 2008.

On Tuesday afternoon, vibrations and general construction noise disrupted our otherwise pleasant workday. Where were the noises coming from? What was vibrating? Were we safe? Would the ceiling come crashing down? The Great Flood of 2007 proved that 10 Jay Street is a place to expect the unexpected.

On Wednesday morning, to our excitement and surprise, Dumbonyc reported that a stop work order had been placed on our building. The complaint (now unfortunately resolved): “While working on roof of the building, there’s a huge gap and the office space below is shaking and vibrating. Also building material is going right thru…”. On Dumbonyc, another tenant notes: “We’re in a corner office and there was a lot of dust falling from the ceiling before they stopped work, the office next to us had a computer crushed from a large piece of the ceiling falling onto it.” From this post we also learned that our office building was once home of the infamous rave space Lunatarium.

In October, Brownstoner reported that cabana structures were being erected on our roof, perhaps signaling the inevitable march to condo conversion. Curbed writes that it was actually prep work for the vertical expansion, but it did coincide with a substantial rent hike. 801a has seen several generations of studio-mates come and go. Andrew’s been here the longest, and he remembers hearing rumors that beer would sometimes leak through the ceiling during the parties that were once held upstairs. Through a bit of Google Journalism, we discovered the not-so-secret history of 10 Jay. The Lunatarium was a semi-legal 18,000 square foot venue located on the top floor of our building from 2001 to 2004. In 2002, before Jam Master Jay died, Run-DMC played their last show here. There are amazing photos of this alternate universe posted on Kirk Peterkin’s site and here.

(Photo by Kirk Peterkin at pbase.com)

The Lunatarium was somewhat notorious: In 2003, the New York Press voted it the Best Warehouse Fire Waiting to Happen. “We mean, really, what kind of venue would bring out a propane-driven version of Simon? (You remember, that toy where you had to repeat an increasingly complex pattern by smacking buttons in the right order?),” writes the Press. “We ask you, what kind of venue would allow a man in half-unbuttoned overalls to light this ‘Simon’ device, while a volunteer stood in a square cage of metal tubing, the corners of which were spouting 7-foot flames in random succession? What kind of venue, indeed, would conscientiously let its warehouse-raw brick-oven space cool down for 20 minutes before a kickball-pregnant woman with a makeup black eye dragged The Device out again, in the middle of a faux-redneck party, her thin, sweat-drenched wifebeater nearly slipping off?

“When we first went there to hear DJ Spooky spin, it wasn’t like they had flame dancers on a midlevel platform, while below a portly gentleman with a very large fire extinguisher was hardly obscured by sozzled loungers twirling in dangling cloth chairs.”

(Photo by Kirk Peterkin at pbase.com)

Playing fast and loose with fire hazards led to its eventual shutdown. “…Three weeks ago, on January 11 [2002], … a small fire started on the sixth floor of the building during an ambient party called Airport. The fire department came, put out the small trashcan blaze, and left. Two hours later, representatives from the New York City Social Club Task Force arrived and started writing violations,” writes NonsenseNyc.com. “Several fines later — for alcohol, for dancing, for occupancy — the party was shut down. (Irony alert: Yes, fined for dancing at an *ambient* event; apparently there were about 20 people grooving to a DJ spinning jungle in the small room, while approximately 800 in the main space were standing, sitting, and talking.)”

“Decompression” was a popular party at the Lunatarium founded by a group of Burning Man aficionados called the Society for Experimental Arts and Learning (SEAL). Above left, Burning Man founder Larry Harvey at 10 Jay Street. Photo via tranceamericana.org

According to its Wikipedia entry, by day, the Lunatarium was an electronics refurbishing company; by night it served as a free rehearsal space for the fire spinners who performed at events. Party-goers took the freight elevator to the ninth floor and watched pyrotechnics in the well-loved loading-dock / “shanty-town” area behind the building. Constructions such as inflatable plastic lounges (photos here and here ), giant see-saws, and art projects involving flame throwers provided entertainment for the 800 to 1500 partygoers that showed up each weekend night.

Preliminary plans for the 10 Jay Street expansion from 2004. They have been scaled back substantially, to 5 stories / 120 feet.

The Lunatarium ranks among the many forgotten art/performance/dance/exhibition spaces that populated a still-desolate, undesirable, and slightly dangerous Brooklyn at the turn of the millennium. Fleets of bicycles and the G train shuttled young people along the north-south trajectory of a disjointed network of collective-y lofts on the industrial edges of gentrifying neighborhoods throughout the borough. The Lunatarium was massive and oriented towards dance rather than rock culture — “The DUMBO space catered more to the post-rave crowd than the indie rockers who like electronic music only occasionally,” wrote Tricia Romero in a 2004 article in the Voice. Eventually, like most of the smaller impromptu, informal spaces passed from friend to friend, it eventually shuttered after rent increases and code violations, leaving no trace beyond the hazy recollections of the people who used to go there and unchecked Friendster profiles.

Photo by Sam Sherman Andy & I were feeling “Angel” so hard, we had to take an iPod break to hear it just one time. Later on I locked myself in the bathroom to hear the first two minutes again. Then, when we were leaving, I got one last listen on the stoop while people put on their coats and gathered their umbrellas.

PS: See some of Stevie Nicks’s artwork here; See art inspired by Stevie Nicks here.

At Casa Pressman, Carl is an honorary Mets fan.

Carl with banjo in fluorescent kitchen.

Laura and Jessica with cheese doodles.

Andy Pressman’s kitchen is intimidating.