The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Monday night I ventured out to farthest Brooklyn to see John Legend at Wingate Field, part of the excellent and free MLK series presented for three decades by inimitable Brooklyn Borough president Marty Markowitz.

Legend put on a strong, energetic show for the 16,000 attendees that demonstrated his range, from big numbers with the other 11 people on stage (including horn section and three backup singers) to my favorite, just him at the piano singing "Ordinary People," one of the best relationship songs of the past decade. Estelle, just shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, opened.

I so love that I live in a city that puts on free shows like this, and the Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Opera, and Central Park's Summerstage.

I love even more that Legend donated his performance fee to his own Show Me Foundation, which helps kids in Ghana, and to Camp Brooklyn, which sends Brooklyn kids to sleepaway camp.

Coming soon to Wingate: Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and Patti Labelle.

Blues In Brooklyn

Went out to Ruthie's in Fort Greene last night for some excellent soul food with American Routes producer Scott McCraw, followed by a performance by Greenville, Mississippi's own T-Model Ford at Frank's Cocktail Lounge in Brooklyn. He did some blues standards like "44 Blues" and "Big Boss Man" and some original grooves and punctuated with shouts of "It's Jack Daniels time!" Terry "Harmonica" Bean played some excellent harp and took the lead on "Bright Lights Big City" and something that sounded like a Slim Harpo number. Appropriately, the venue was unventilated and everyone was packed in and dancing and sweating all over the place. Spotted in the crowd were folk-rocker Langhorne Slim, Ponderosa Stomp photographer Joseph Rosen, and Shore Fire's own Eli "Paperboy" Reed. There are more events for Brooklyn residents this week. Both Ruthie's and T-Model are the good stuff.

Here's some T-Model to drive the blues away this morning:

Cover me Bishop Allen and Los Campesinos!

I love cover songs (who doesn’t?), and I love concerts. So when these two loves combine, everything in the world seems right to me.

I saw Bishop Allen (easily my favorite Brooklyn band ever) play their hearts out Friday night at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Great show, great band, great cover of “Friday on My Mind” by The Easybeats. Oh, Bishop Allen, you’re always on my mind.

Last night, I made it to see Los Campesinos! (the exclamation point is theirs, not mine) at Bowery Ballroom, which was more fun than a basket of kittens. The excited/exciting lads and lassies from Wales played their version of Pavement’s “Frontwards” during their set, and also threw in a verse from “Box Elder” later on but sadly didn’t play the tune (one of my favorite Pavement songs) in its entirety.

Two great bands, two great covers. Zero photos. Sorry, Readers. I promise my stimulus package is going towards a new click click click click camera.

Cherry Blossoms @ BK Botanical Gardens

Over the weekend I took advantage of the weather and visited The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, which are just around the corner from my neighborhood in Park Slope. Although, I officially missed the Cherry Blossom Festival, I did get to enjoy the lovely pink carpet the blossoms created under the trees. The gardens are absolutely gorgeous and I highly suggest a visit if you are sick of the concrete jungle or it's too nice out for the neigboring BK Museum.

Murakami at the Brooklyn Museum

© Murakami is something I’ve been looking forward to since I heard about the exhibit’s premiere at MOCA in Los Angeles. I probably would have traveled anywhere within three hours by plane, train or automobile to see it, so it was somewhat of a relief to find out it was coming to the Brooklyn Museum, which is only a three minute walk from my apartment (yay Prospect Heights).

Takashi Murakami is a genius making some of the most provocative art anywhere in the world today (take that, Damien Hirst!). Accessible but endlessly complex, Murakami’s work is instantly recognizable and charming (even when it’s disturbing) and heavily influenced by manga and anime from his native Japan.

You may already be familiar with his work, even if you don’t recognize his name. Murakami designed the cover of Kanye West’s latest album ‘Graduation.’

Check out the video of Mr. Pointy (on of Murakami’s characters) arriving in Brooklyn:



© Murakami is currently at the Brooklyn Museum through July 13.

Our Vegetable Love Should Grow

There's an awful lot of meat on this blog, so I thought I'd lighten up the intake with something a little lower on the food chain.

Tuesdays and Thursdays bring a sweet Greenmarket to the plaza across the street, so I snapped these photos there, one of baby greens (always part of my lunch) and one of spring flowers because today is, finally, exquisitely spring-y.



And if you realized that the title of this post was an Andrew Marvell allusion, you're my favorite reader.

Brooklyn Is Everything

Lifetime Brooklyn resident and FoSF (Friend of Shore Fire) since before he was born Derek Garcia (who's 16) just won a prize from Brooklyn Community Access TV (BCAT) for this nicely done video. It got me excited about what may be Astroland's final season, as well as seeing the Cyclones and checking out the Seaside Concert series (link shows last year's lineup).

Numbers & Letters

Caught a set by Numbers & Letters, an indie band lead by Billboard scribe and Shore Fire friend Katie Hasty. Katie's got a great set of pipes, whether cooing in her jazz-inflected encore, ringing out in falsetto for a song about Jesus or digging in for a from-the-gut M. Ward cover. I'm eager for the upcoming EP; they're a fast-rising band with a gifted singer-songwriter at the helm.