This weekend, there was a massive swarm of honeybees on the NJ Turnpike near Cherry Hill. It’s believed that the bee onslaught was a result of a beekeeper’s beehive falling beside the highway.

In other not-really-news, this past weekend I briefly attended the Siren Festival in Coney Island,  where I caught a few Malkmus tunes, breathed some sea air, and got a Siren Festival t-shirt featuring a giant squid and a subway car! I also did some more bee watching. Plus, I gained new insight as to why my local Key Food is so completely, utterly insane: I overheard the manager tersely tell an older gentleman who was asking if the store carried an item advertised in a coupon that NO, they didn’t have any and he would not go look in the stock room, TOO BAD. The same manager then told a cashier that people who “stole $.25 bags of popcorn” were “going to go to hell” (the un-labeled, small bags of popcorn were near the cash registers and looked like free samples). I also finally managed to get some much-needed hardware and software so that I could play music from my laptop wirelessly through my stereo speakers; my life is now 1000% more awesome as a result of this.

Tags: Brooklyn, Totally random, Music, Bees by janine
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I just downloaded the latest Cat Power album of covers, Jukebox. One of the people who plays on the album is one-time Temple of Sting interviewee (back in the print days) Gregg Foreman, formerly of the band Delta 72 and #1 crush of every girl in the ’90s.  Anyway, this got me thinking about the ’90s and the first time I heard Cat Power (on the jukebox - hey, jukebox! A theme! - at Max Fish) and I realized that I haven’t had the experience of first hearing something somewhere other than a computer or i-Pod in quite a long time. Does this mean I’m just not getting out as much these days? I think this has been a trend for everyone since the widespread availability of digital music, though, and isn’t just happening to me.  Anyone else have any fond memories of ‘first time I heard it’ songs?

Tags: Totally random, Music by janine
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I saw Sufjan Stevens perform at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this weekend, and I could not have loved it more. The performance conisisted of the symphony that Sufjan Stevens wrote about the BQE - that’s the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to you non-New Yorkers - followed by a set of Sufjan’s songs with a full orchestra.

During the BQE symphony, a film was shown filled with images of the BQE and hula hoopers also performed in the film and live onstage during parts of the performance. It was brilliant. It was about Detroit, and Brooklyn, and the automobile, and the 50s, and the present, and hula hoops, and plastic, and Robert Moses, and transportation, and wheels. And Sufjan’s songs were just gorgeous - the acoustics were amazing, and during the quiet parts, the audience was so rapt that you could have heard a pin drop.

I was really inspired by the hula hoopers, who were AMAZING. I’ve always been good at hula hooping myself, but now I want to learn more advanced hooping techniques and do it more often! I’m already looking into taking hooping classes in Brooklyn.

Tags: Music by janine
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I am beyond excited that I have tickets to see LCD Soundsytem (never seen them live before) and Arcade Fire (seen them live twice before) on October 6th at Randall’s Island.

BUT - Randall’s Island? Really?! Is this show going to be outside? In October? What’s the deal? Does anyone know? If so, please leave a comment.

The last time this old lady set foot on Randall’s Island it was for Lollapalooza 1995. That lineup included Sonic Youth, Hole, and Beck. Oh, the alterna-ness.

UPDATE: Apparently there is, in fact, a stadium on Randall’s Island. Hey, like I said, it’s been a long time since I’ve been there.

Tags: Music by janine
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It’s true that I was originally attracted to the band The Bird and the Bee because they have the word “bee” in their name. But ever since I downloaded their self-titled debut album, I’ve hit the “play” button over and over on my I-pod.

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Tags: Music by janine
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