DAILY MAGPIE – January 14 Bourbon and Bluegrass

kentucky_bluegrass

Free bluegrass and $.25 bourbon.  Note the decimal point.  From 9-11p.m. in “south” Park Slope at Ellis Bar with the quality pluckin’ of Two Lost Turkeys.  A nice cozy place to hear some good fiddlin’ and get some wallet relief/liver abuse.

This spot is also doing free Brooklyn pints Sunday January 18 from 3-4p.m. if you need to take the edge off your bloody mary brunch.

627 5th Ave
(between 17th St & 18th St)
(718) 768-0532

Wednesday Jan. 14, Zebulon

GD30OB.pdf

Uniters-not-dividers Lucky Dragons, Soft Circle, Bow Ribbons, and Donald Beaman give us this small, happy, free get-together at NYC’s favorite Parisian firepit Zebulon. Expect glowing things, your skin becoming translucent, etc.

Date & Time: Wednesday, Jan. 14th, 9PM
Venue: Zebulon
Address: 258 Wythe, Brooklyn
Directions: L to Bedford, J/M/Z to Marcy
Price: Freeee

January 13th at SANTO'S PARTY HOUSE

Yr Friend Matthew (harbinger of monthly psychedelic showcase POGO IN TOGO) is transplanting his bands to Santo’s Party House on Tuesday for a night of Andrew W.K.-style mayhem. SISTER RESISTOR has also been added to the line-up. 21+

Date & Time: January 13th, 2009 – 7PM
Venue: SANTO’S PARTY HOUSE (N.Y.)
Location: 100 Lafayette St. / NEW YORK, NY 10013
Price: $8

Go to http://www.santospartyhouse.com for more info

DAILY MAGPIE – January 13 – Secret Science Club

livingskyscraper

The Secret Science Club has a free monthly gathering at Union Hall in Park Slope at 8p.m. for all those whom were shamed out of getting their engineering and astrophysics degrees.  Microbiologist and ecologist Dickson Despommier from Columbia University discusses the idea of creating sustainable farming in urban skyskrapers over tasty specialty cocktails, The Mile Highball (the part that is not free).  The lecture is sandwiched by music and video and a Q&A session.  Get smart and get drunk.

The Decline and Fall of American Journalism Part 213: LA Weekly Autopsy Report

Back in the day …

The decline of the LA Weekly is a particularly depressing thing for your contributing editor, and I imagine for a good number of us Arthur contributors. Though your contrib editor’s arrival in Los Angeles in the late ’90s post-dates its true heyday as a bastion for long-form journalism, checks from LA Weekly put plenty of food in this freelancer’s refrigerator. The editor I worked with most — regular Arthur contributor and heroic Diamanda Galas profiler John Payne — still contributes, but is long gone as a staff editor, and many fine editors, writers and fact-checkers have fallen since.

Political columnist Marc Cooper left a couple months ago, and though he’s been kinda “meh” lately, dude used to report from Central American warzones and managed to weather several years under the noxious heel of New Times management. He finally spilled all the beans on his blog just the other day. Even if you’re not from Los Angeles it’s a worthwhile read when it comes to laying out how shitty newspapers have gotten in the last decade. As Cooper points out, the Weekly used to be mentioned in the same breath as Harper’s and The New Yorker. What’s this week’s cover story? Something about porno dudes and their dumb meth-erection feud with a headline that I can’t even bother to decipher. If genius food journalist (and the author of the 1989 NWA cover story up top there) Jonathan Gold would just start his own web-log we could be done with that fishwrapper forever (via LA Observed).

Choice quotes after the jump, or go read the whole infuriating kajillion word account over at Cooper’s blog.

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