Stacey Brook

Nicole Atkins: Blues Girl

September 20, 2011 By Stacey Brook Leave a Comment

Soulful singer-songwriter Nicole Atkins writes her songs on her own terms. She was dropped by Columbia Records, and picked up by Razor and Tie. Photo by Lucia Holm

Nicole Atkins’ music has always leaned heavily on early 70s psychedelia and heaping doses of guttural blues and leaping, honeyed soul, but her latest album Mondo Amore is also infused with compositional experimentation that makes for an exhilarating concert experience. Songs like album opener “Vultures” sweep you out and back in fits of lull and crash, like a blustering sea storm. On “Heavy Boots,” Atkins’ cryptic lyrics and coppery voice, at once coy, seductive, and pleading, simultaneously lift your breath to the top of your chest, and pull your heart down like a thousand anchors. And when Atkins finally unleashes the full power of her Joplin wail on “The Tower,” you aren’t ready for the blinding light it shines. You need a pair of cataract glasses to see this woman live.

Part quick-witted Jersey girl, part North Carolina flower child, and part savvy, social Brooklynite, singer/songwriter Nicole Atkins curses, loves, and leads in equal measure. A high priestess of what the soul-driven chanteuse has termed, “psychedelic crooner blues,” Atkins’ latest album, released by Razor and Tie, documents the breakup that prompted her most recent exile from her home state of New Jersey, back into the arms of McCarren Park. The album also marks her newfound freedom from her old label Columbia Records, and the formation of new backing band, The Black Sea, whose musical dexterity adds a darker, denser hue and effortless fluidity to Atkins’ brooding compositions.

OMMMMG: So Many Yoga Studios in the Neighborhood – Part 2

March 29, 2011 By Stacey Brook Leave a Comment

It’s a boom time for yoga studios in Williamsburg/Greenpoint. When I first began researching for Part I of this story, I was aware there was a surge of new places to practice yoga in the neighborhood, but I didn’t realize we were in a veritable cornfield of them. Turns out that behind those barricades we all thought contained high-rise apartment buildings—just yoga studios! Miles and miles of yoga studios. If you haven’t yet sought out a neighborhood practice space for your plow pose, it’s a wonder you haven’t tripped into one, given their prevalence. It’s even possible you are living in a yoga studio and haven’t realized it yet. Take a whiff of the air—is it incense-scented? Is your pup, Sparky, all of a sudden stretching with his back knees bent, and his pelvis tipped in the air? Are people touchy about you wearing shoes inside your own home?

But in all seriousness, what is wonderful is that each location offers a different flavor of practice; a unique pathway to enlightenment and philosophy of mind/body healing. There are studios for those who like chanting, and studios for those who want to skip the “OM” business and dive straight into a workout. There are studios in the east, in the west, and Southside and Northside. And while there are ever more variations of the eastern discipline dotting our enlightened streets, what remains a common theme, is that when we come together to heal ourselves, good feeling and goodwill prevail throughout our community.

Yoga to the People (Affordable Yoga)
211 N. 11th St. 2nd Floor
b/w Driggs Ave. and Roebling St.

Yoga To The People’s name is instantly recognizable. The first YTTP studio cropped up on St. Mark’s place four-and-a-half years ago, and is now one of the premiere spots for donation-based Power Vinyasa in Manhattan, holding heralded classes crammed with post-workday yogis, some-times as many as 60 at a time. The brand new Williamsburg outpost hasn’t garnered quite that much traffic yet, but I would be surprised if the studio’s contingency didn’t grow rapidly in the coming weeks. When I attended class at 4:30pm on a Tuesday, the just-opened traditional hot yoga studio held a class of about sixteen, one of the largest classes I attended in my ongoing yoga marathon. YTTP also had the most equal male to female ratio of any class I attended, and I don’t know about the other ladies in the neighborhood, but I am always motivated to work a little harder when there’s some strapping muscle around.

SXSW: Wrap Up and Lessons Learned

March 23, 2011 By Stacey Brook Leave a Comment

Friends, I know I have reported back on a lot of the exciting SXSW events, but I decided it would be a shame to leave Austin without showing you some of the local color.

hula hoop

Okay, maybe these weren’t real, authentic Austinites, but they were some of the more enthusiastic participants in the shenanigans on 6th street, which served as party central for the music portion of SXSW.

The WG Does SXSW: Music Mayhem Begins

March 17, 2011 By Stacey Brook Leave a Comment

Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea @ Anton’s.

It turns out, once the music portion of the SXSW festival starts, you have exactly two options when it comes to what you’re doing at any given point in the day. You are either watching live music, or you’re eating. No exceptions. This, in theory, sounds incredible — two of my favorite things, all day long, for five days in a row? HELL YEAH. And yet, in practice? Let’s just say, it’s only day two, and I’m having trouble standing up for long periods of time. Also, I need to eat an apple. Some greens. Really, anything but a taco, or a variation thereof. Let’s look into how I got to this state.

When you’re running around Austin at breakneck pace all day long, you get hungry. Duh. And the easiest food to grab on the go comes to you from an endless variety of trucks, parked on Austin’s sidewalks and in her parking lots. Some of the finer fare I’ve sampled from these mealhouses on wheels has included the tasty Argentinian empanadas from mmmpanada (they also make an asparagus and proscuitto empanada that may be on the menu for tonight), and a divine “pork chop bun” from an asian fusion cart on Austin’s 4th street, called Whazabi. When I ordered this little guy, I had no idea what to expect, and what I got was a lightly fried pork chop, served with lemongrass and asian-style barbeque sauce. Worth flying to Austin for.

The WG Goes to SXSW – Interactive Nerdiness

March 15, 2011 By Stacey Brook Leave a Comment

Comedic communication panel. Nothing but funny business.

Today I thought I’d start by presenting some absolutely scientific, totally mathematically sound South By Southwest statistics. First, the ratio of electronic and mobile devices to people in the Austin Convention Center at any given moment? 4 to 1. The number of designer taco trucks within walking distance of the convention center, compared to number of hungry bellies, starved from intense days of interactive lecturing and learning? 2 to 1. And the number of WG News + Arts bloggers wondering how to eat two people’s worth of tacos while simultaneously tweeting from her android, taking notes on her laptop, and lusting over the iPad during panels on how to maximize productivity? Just one — that’s me!

Yesterday was an absolute whirlwind, as expected. You can take two approaches to tackling this behemoth of a festival – you can plan obsessively and literally sprint from venue to venue trying to catch a taste of it all; or you can catch a breeze and follow an agenda based on someone else’s hard-earned research and planning. After an early morning flight and the first flood of convention culture shock, I decided to go with Plan B, riding the organizational coattails of a few friends.