May 21/09 - Uptown Magazine
The Baseball Card Movie
Collecting cards sure has changed since the days when you could get a pack for 50 cents at the corner store and it came with that hard, stale piece of pink bubblegum. The Baseball Card Movie is a fascinating short documentary directed by Casimir Nozkowski that takes you inside collecting culture at the Baseball Card Dugout in Brooklyn, N.Y. From the ultra-superstitious customers who have to open their packs in a certain way to premium collectors who are hooked on what they call “cardboard crack” and are willing to shell out anywhere from $100 to $500 for certain packs, Nozkowski’s doc looks at how card culture has evolved (nearly 95% of owner Joe Rock’s customers are adults), what drives people to collect sports memorabilia and why collecting is a lot like playing the lottery or buying scratch tickets.
Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter does helmet-less DJ set in L.A.
Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter caused a quite a stir (and generated lots of cell-phone photos and shaky videos) a couple weeks back when he showed up unannounced at Dim Mak Tuesdays at Los Angeles’ Cinespace during an Ed Banger party to drop three tracks at the end of the night without his signature robot helmet to disguise himself. This is one of the only times the camera-shy Frenchman has performed without a disguise since a legendary live set at Wisconsin’s notorious Even Further festival in 1996.
Lost Vegas
At one time, economists believed that so-called ‘sin industries’ were immune to recessions. As anyone who has been to Las Vegas over the past 10 years knows, the city was experiencing rapid growth and seemed to be booming like no other urban centre in the United States. But that all changed when the economy went into the toilet and the cash flow in Vegas slowed dramatically. Obviously the glitz and glitter that defines Vegas is still there, but there is another side to the story. Current TV’s Laura Ling “tours the wreckage of Sin City, from unemployed strippers and half-built, abandoned casino projects, to hospitals turning away cancer patients and ambulances, to one of the few remaining boom industries evicting people.”
Quick Hits
MP3 of the Week: Jeremy Enigk - The END Sessions
Five songs from former Sunny Day Real Estate singer Jeremy Enigk, recorded live at KKND in New Orleans. Enigk’s third solo album, Ok Bear, was released this month.
Video of the Week: Torche - Across the Shields
Torche’s Meanderthal was easily one of the best records of 2008. Here is the second video from the Miami-based melodic sludge-rock band.
Twit Doc
Simple new way to share any type of file over Twitter.
