Shorewood getting all Hood

As with most nights in a bar, I found myself standing at the yoooo-rye-nal (that's british for pee pee place) in Stonefly Brewery and check this out: 1st time I ever saw a SHOREWOOD tag. What business does Shorewood have in the tagging world? Are we hard all of a sudden? Our cross walks are all nice and brick paved son! Yo, tell your girl we gots seasonal snowflakes all up on our lightposts! Don't even think about parking overnight cos you'll catch that ticket bitchslap! What! Look at how lame of a tag this is, like the graffiti artist's hand was rebelling against the message it was receiving from his brain. "Am I really tagging SHOREWOOD?" In the small frame of this photo, you can see bits of ambitious tags all around. And here we have boring ass, black ink, ALL CAPS Shorewood. But wait, the H is crossed out! Oh damn! Pull down the shades, it's about to get real up in S#OREWOOD. Really real.

Oh yeah, we saw DJ Yoda and it was a true lesson in the pure fun of being a basement DJ and rocking a crowd. No lasers or bowel loosening euro-bass beats or chicks with push up weirdness and spray-on tan stained tank tops (although I am not always opposed to that). It was the perfect mix of crappy lighting cutting cigarette smoke, tats n beards (the riverwest flag), cans of beer, girls dancing all freaky and real music mixed from the heart. Really real.

Check out DJ Yoda here.

Halloween 2009 @ Closet Classics

Yo to the Yo

My mother in law owns Closet Classics and it would be super awesome if you would do your Halloween shopping there. Like, super awesome.

Here's all the info, yo: CLOSET CLASSICS

xo,
Otis

Bear Piss and Beck Covers Velvet Underground

kinda stumped on this one. All I can say is call the number and forward to your friends. Totally worth the awkward call.

In other news, Beck is trying to out-hipster everyone again by forming a record club that slowly cover full albums from back in the dizzy. Posts about a song a week. He can do that. He's Beck. Although let it be noted that Beck's first cover is "Waiting For My Man" by Velvet Underground. Hey Beck-tard: the song is called "I'm Waiting For The Man". Its about scratchin your addiction crazy, waiting for your heroin dealer to meet you on the 6train on Lex and 125th in NYC. So wipe that smile off your LA face and get the title right. Lou Reed should slap you with a bagel. Lucky for you, you are Beck and the cover is f-ing amazing. (sub topic: Velvet Underground, along with Jane's Addiction and Me First and The Gimme Gimme's, might be the best band name ever)

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Waiting for My Man' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Hello Milwaukee!

In the summer of 1977, I was kickin it in my momma's belly, just as shocked as you were about Elvis. Here's what Milwaukee was up to. Note the US Bank Building as the only building above 3 stories in downtown. Also, peep the rising smoke from the Brady Street Festival shots. Ha. Crazy East Side n Riverwest kids and their rainbow flavored cigarettes!

Milwaukee Dictionary: RIVERWESTED

Riverwested (riv-ur-whest-id): // adj. // : having an unwanted hippie and/or pseudo-spiritual experience that changes your day for the worse. This can include but not limited to uninitiated conversations about Chanting and Yoga Classes, hearing about inexpensive sabbaticals with the hanging implication that they kept the money, the virtues of India, the virtues of wearable oils, openly celebrating dark beers, and/or how inexpensive their Guatemalan handmade item was. Visual occurrences can include but not be limited to seeing a person wearing a beret, tables of 17 clustered together in coffee shops to discuss reappointing board members to local eco-associations, white-haired ponytails and Tevas, seeing Kerry and Obama stickers on back of 1980s Volvo station wagons.

example:
ME: I pulled the door open to (insert Riverwest coffee shop name) and my hand smelled like Patchouli from the handle.

YOU: Man, that sucks!

ME: I know! I washed my hands 3 times to try to get the stink off. There was still a lingering odor so I ate my bagel with one hand as a precautionary measure.

YOU: Dude, you got Riverwested. Hard.