Location: Lower East Side, NYC
Bands: Real Dancing With the Real Stars
Show time: 6 PM
Venue: Abrons Arts Center
Food: Pukk
Drink: The Magician
Miscellaneous: Mason Dixon

You love the TV show Dancing with the Stars and wouldn’t mind dancing with the stars yourself. Now P.S. 122 gives you the chance to really dance with the real stars at this non-competitive benefit. Celeb dancers include Liam Mower (Billy Elliot), Philippe Petit, Elizabeth Streb, Yvonne Meier, Regina Roche and Adrienne Truscott. The judges include Justin Bond (Kiki and Herb), Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago), and Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot). The event is hosted by Isaac Mizrahi and Richard Move. Pukk serves up some delicious vegetarian Thai food. With a futuristic design, plastic and green tint everywhere, the menu offers everything from Pad Thai to Spicy Watercress Duck, only the duck, like all meat here, is made of vegetarian soy. A chill bar to go for a drink and not be bothered with loud, annoying drunks is The Magician. This place, which has no visible name, is across the street from Welcome to the Johnsons. With a southern theme, the draw at Mason Dixon is being one of only two bars in NYC with a mechanical bull. For $10 you can ride it. Expect to be thrown off in 5 seconds, if you can stay on that long!

Enter StirRed, the downstairs lounge owned by the upstairs restaurant Rouge Tomate, and you have two starkly different spaces. Where Rouge Tomate transports you to a place where modern American cuisine reigns supreme with environmental, minimalist and sleek décor themes, StirRed offers up a Pre-Prohibition themed lounge where the history and art of the drink is well-preserved by resident mixologist Rainlove Lampariello. I had the chance to talk to Rainlove about that an much more.

How did you become a mixologist and how long have you been doing it?

The word "Mixologist" is a late comer in the world of cocktails and bars. Today's definition of "Mixologist" is really what bartenders were pre-prohibition and during that prohibition era. A bartender was a respected trade and craft. One would have to apprentice and have years of experience before they could become a bartender. This has changed over time and now a bartender with that type of experienced is called a "Mixologist." I started as a bar-back when I was 16 on the weekends. I bartended my way through College. At a certain point I started to actually study the history and decided to try and bring back the glory days of great bartenders and even better drinks.

What separates a mixologist from a bartender?

A mixologist for me makes their own mixers. They only work with base spirits like gin, vodka, whiskey and the rest is crafted by the bar. They would have to be well versed in every single item the bar is serving. They need to understand all spirits, liquors, liqueurs, how they are made and what goes well with them. In short they should know more about beverages than anyone else in the restaurant.

As a mixologist, have you developed a clear way to create great mixed cocktails or is it just by constant experimenting that you create a drink like the Dark and Stormy (Gosling's Black Seal Rum and Ginger Beer) or the Sazerac (Rye Whiskey, Peychauds Bitters, and Absinthe)?

I have developed a clear way to create drinks. The two drinks you asked me about are actually very old cocktails, especially the Sazerac, which was one of the first in America. The Dark and Stormy is also very old. I try to do 2 things. First if it is a classic cocktail, I will try and make the different ingredients in-house. Ginger beer is easy to buy, but we make our own at Rouge Tomate. That's what makes it special. For the classics, I basically stay true to the recipe, and at the same time make everything fresh. We make our own Brandy, brandy cherries, almond milk, etc. In addition to this, when I build a cocktail I think of the foundation first. Structure is what makes a great drink; you can't have a sturdy structure without a good foundation. Most drinks all have the same foundation: Base spirit, acid and sweet. This is pretty much the base for all drinks; from here I build slowly adding seasonal ingredients as they arrive in the market.

What spirits do you like to work with the most?

My favorite spirit to work with is Gin. It has flavor and really mixes well with everything, yet to tell the truth I like them all! Each one brings a different element.

Which drinks are the hardest to make?

I think the hardest drink to make is a Margarita. Most of time it is too sweet, or too tart. Restaurants have the hardest time keeping this drink consistent. Bars that make the best drink still constantly screw this one up.

Can you share the recipe of your favorite drink to make with our readers?

One of my favorite drinks to make is a spin on a Margarita.
2 ½ oz silver tequila
½ oz triple sec
½ oz lime juice (items in red are my sour mix)
½ oz lemon juice
½ oz egg whites
½ oz agave syrup
¼ oz fresh ginger
1 ½ oz watermelon juice

You’re going to be giving cocktail classes in May and June, what can participants expect to learn?

I am in the middle of the cocktail classes now. People will learn the starting point for building a drink, the foundation for all drinks, and then how to think outside the box with adding ingredients. They will get the starting point for all drinks and the correct way to build from there.

The theme at StirRed is pre-prohibition. Why did you design your drink menu after that era?

Pre-prohibition and during prohibition was the time that the great cocktails were created, when bartending was a trade. It is where our bar history started. I wanted to tap into that style of craftsmanship.

Every person I know who worked in a bar has overheard or been told a crazy story from a patron. Do you have any that come to mind?

An art dealer came into Sign of the Dove with 4 of the biggest bouncers I have ever seen in my life. The guy was a regular, and always tipped amazingly. This was 15 or so years ago. The guy hands me 2 paper shopping bags and asks me to hold them behind the bar. When I go to put them down I sneak a look in the bags. THEY WERE FULL WITH STACKS OF 100 DOLLAR BILLS. STACKS!!!! It was easily over a million dollars in cold hard cash. Imagine the thoughts that went through my head, I was all of 24 at the time. He tipped me $500 that night, yet all I could think of was how I could and should have been on some beach across the globe.

DaVe Lipp

Location: Tribeca, NYC
Book Signing: Joel Gray
Show time: 7 PM
Venue: Barnes and Noble Tribeca (97 Warren St. at Greenwich St.)
Food: Pakistan Tea House
Drink: Mocca Lounge
Miscellaneous: Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

Academy and Tony Award winning actor Joel Grey also happens to be an author of a few books including 1.3: Images From My Phone, featuring photographs of street art, still life, architecture, advertising and more, all of which he took with his cell phone camera. He stops by the Tribeca location of Barnes and Noble to sign copies of the book. Nearby, Pakistan Tea House is a buffet style Indian restaurant where you can choose between chicken, meat, fish and vegetables. It’s affordable and very good. For drinks, check out Mocca Lounge. With a funky interior and a menu of Italian inspired fare, it’s also a bar with a large list of coffees with or without alcohol, beers, and frozen shots. Smack dab in the heart of Chinatown, the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory makes gourmet ice cream flavors like Black Sesame, Ginger, Durian, and more exotic flavors like Taro and Wasabi. Don’t worry, they have the go-to’s like Vanilla, fruits, and chocolate flavors too.

On every occasion I encounter someone, I spy three things first: eyebrows, teeth, and nails. They uncover a lot about a person’s character. My best friend in the bathroom is Tweezerman and the time I spend on my eyebrows is tranquilly therapeutic. As a male, it is equally important to have a groomed, clean face, but my eyebrows are not over done, or drag queen-y. The women of the office keep asking me about my eyebrow care, so I introduced them to Archrival by Being True Cosmetics. This brow defining kit has all the fundamentals minus the tweezers. The kit comes with a brow defining compact, brush, and finishing gel.

It is a three step C process. First, you customize with the brow definer, which is a tinted brow wax to use as a base for sparse areas and two pigments to match your shade. Next, you create with the brush for precision placement of the eyebrow hairs. To finish, you control with the botanical gel to hold stray hairs in place. The instructions are simple to follow and the procedures are comparable to spa services. Being True Cosmetics is a spa line that started in 2004 with a holistic approach to health and beauty for the age group 16 to 60. This is a great product for people wanting spa treatment, but with at home prices and discretion. The only peculiar part was the company motto on their website, which states they have one intention: passion, profession, message, mantra, dream, reality, calling, and answer. You decipher.

Ashkan

Location: Midtown East, NYC
Art: Jonathan Demme Collection: Inspiration of Haitian Art
Show time: Tues–Fri: 11 AM – 6 PM, Sat: 11 AM – 5 PM; Through June 13
Venue: French Institute Alliance Française
Food: Peking Duck House
Drink: Blackstones Pub & Restaurant
Miscellaneous: New York Milkshake Company

You know Jonathan Demme as the director of such films as Silence of the Lambs and Rachel Getting Married but he’s also an art collector. Here he curates this Haitian Art exhibit featuring the works of 10 Haitian artists from his collection whose cultural views of daily life in Haiti differ dramatically. At one of my favorite places to get duck, The Peking Duck House, the meat is succulent and the skin crunches like a potato chip. Sometimes you just want to grab a pint without paying a cover charge or playing host to a group of people after work, which is why I like Blackstones Pub & Restaurant. It looks like an old-time saloon and has two pool tables in the back and plenty of other games, while also being big enough to grab traditional American food from the menu. If you’re still hungry, check out the New York Milkshake Company for one of the best $6 shakes of your life.

The Arrival
(Lions Gate)






1996 was a good year- Deep Blue the chess computer beat world champion Garry Kasparov, we cloned sheep, and how could anyone forget the discovery of “element 112” better known by it’s stage name, Ununbium? It was also the year that brought us David Twohy’s Sci-fi thriller, The Arrival, starring Charlie Sheen and recently deceased character actor Ron Silver. The concept behind the film is clever and certainly timely focusing on global warming as Sheen who plays Zane Zaminski, (worst character name ever) a radio astronomer, stumbles upon an extra terrestrial radio transmission than leads to a conspiracy which leads to a very campy special effects extravaganza in Mexico.

It’s quite an interesting ride even though the plot is a bit predictable at times and moves too quickly. There is a certain John Water’s over-the-top Attack of the Killer Tomatoes feel at times which is enjoyable especially because it takes itself absolutely seriously at every moment. Sheen is totally 90’s sheik in the film and shortly after the opening credits becomes a stereotype of the “impassioned, scientist who is trying to save us all at any cost” and Silver plays one of his trademark roles as “the guy in the suit who’s pulling all the strings.”

The film is interesting because it shows some of writer/director David Twohy’s early style (he went on to write and direct Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick) and although it doesn’t come through on its potential it’s fun in it’s own unique way. It’s just been re-released on Blu-Ray and it’s a perfect choice for Science fiction nuts, LSD fanatics, and the people of Tepotzotlán, Mexico where it was filmed.

Tim Needles

All Photos by Mitch Levitin















Yes, there were cheers and even some tears from loyal fans throughout the years, bikers with serious ink “throwing metal,” and a curious younger crowd consisting of people like myself who was about seven-years-old when the Arc Angels released their first and only album in 1992.

The story of the band from inception to their reunion reads like an Oscar-worthy Rock N’ Roll biopic. Formed in the aftermath of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s (SRV) tragic death, the Arc Angels from Austin, Texas combined the rhythm section of SRV’s backing band Double Trouble and the two fiery and talented guitarists/singers Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton. For all their promise as the next wave of Blues/Rock gods filling in the vacuum left by SRV, it seems they took Neil Young’s lyrics “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” literally, and the band went their separate ways after only two years together due to drug abuse and clashing egos.

Over a decade and a half later, the Arc Angels are together again and rockin’ the stage at Irving Plaza, winning back old fans and making new ones in the process. The rhythm section held down the rock-heavy tunes, and drummer Chris Layton hit the snare so hard I thought he was going to wake Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham from the dead. Charlie Sexton, who had spent his time away from the band playing in Bob Dylan’s backing band, was fantastic in his vocals and guitar playing with one of my favorite solos of the night in all its delay-pedal, atmospheric glory from the closer “Too Many Ways To Fall”.

However, it was the cool, disinterested Doyle Bramhall II who stole the show as he ripped dirty blues solos more in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughn and his mentor Albert King than Eric Clapton, who Bramhall has played with in recent years. All in all, the show felt less like the 1990s and more like a good, old-fashioned blues-tinged, Southern rock show that’s timeless and goes down well with a beer.

Linh My Truong

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