A friend sent me this link to a music video by Matthew Meyer about the G-train called G Ode. Of course I was interested. He entered a contest sponsored by the Brooklyn Brewery. They challenged Brooklyn musicians to write a song about the infamous G-train.

The prize: a trip to Stockholm, Sweden this Labor Day weekend for the Brooklyn Sweden Music Festival. Have a look. Vote for it if you think it worthy.

http://www.facebook.com/thebrooklynbrewery/app_269343296512780?app_data=%2Fentry%2F371523&ref=ts

Here’s what he wins if he wins:

– 2 Brooklyn Sweden festival passes

– airfare for 2 from NYC to Stockholm

– lodging at the Story Hotel

– lunch with the bands, hosted by Debaser’s house chef

Together with Sweden’s Debaser, Brooklyn Brewery has created the world’s first all-Brooklyn music festival, happening this Labor Day Weekend, Aug 31 & Sept. 1st.

Here’s the lineup: Blonde Redhead, The Hold Steady, Cults, Crystal Stilts, Phosphorescent, Au Revoir Simone, Dum Dum Girls, DIIV, Twin Sister, Widowspeak, The So So Glos, Telepathe, Maluca, Prince Rama, Caveman, Blonds

So why is Brooklyn Brewery doing this? “Well we’ve been selling beer in Sweden for a while and over the years have gotten to know the folks at Debaser, Sweden’s finest rock venue, pretty well (they sell a LOT of our beer). Turns our Brooklyn and Sweden have a lot in common, including great bands. One thing lead to another and we decided to throw a big party, bringing Brooklyn’s best bands from Sweden. Then we thought, why not send two more people? Hence the contest.”

I nabbed a spot on the hill due east of the stage on the other side of the Celebrate Brooklyn fence, which is covered so that you can’t see through it. Last night’s Wilco show was a benefit at $50 a ticket (supporting Celebrate Brooklyn’s great contribution to Prospect Park summers). There were scalpers at the entrance to the park on 9th Street selling tickets but I decided to just enjoy the show from the outside.

There was a low-key vibe under the trees. Couples, families, kids lying on bed sheets, picnicking. I missed the Lee Renaldo Band and Wilco was already in progress when I attempted to get comfortable on the rocky hill where I was sitting.

A huge fan of the band’s fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, I am unfamiliar with Wilco’s other albums. They only played a few songs from Yankee Hotel, as far as I could tell. The parts of the set I heard included I Might, Misunderstood, Side With The Seeds, Pot Kettle Black, Hummingbird, Wishful Thinking, Laminated Cat, Say You Miss Me, I Must Be High and Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway(again).

My blind concert was really pleasant and at times incredible. Sitting outside of the fence it was easy to lose focus because of the activity (toddlers running, people chatting, etc) around me. But some of the songs were so intense and the instrumental work so stupendous, I felt pulled into the concert as if I was sitting in the front row.

Jeff Tweedy joked that Brooklyn smells like bacon. This was a continuation of something he said at the July 23rd show as reported by Brooklyn Vegan. He commented on people walking back and forth across the aisles with food. “It’s like the Ho Chi Minh Trail.” he said. “I should have eaten.”

There was also a running gag about the “nicknames” cities have: City on the Bay, Beantown, the Windy City. “New York City is too great for a nickname. Brooklyn is even better,” he said.

Brooklyn Vegan photos of the set (see one above) reveal a really cool stage design of hanging hankies. What I could see of the light show looked blue, green pretty.

Overheard from a guy sitting behind me: “This is so cool. I love Brooklyn.”

“And what do you make of Brooklyn?” David Wallace-Wells asks Martin Amis, who has just moved to Cobble Hill, in an interview in New York Magazine.

Embarrassingly idyllic, really. Like living in the fifties—so philoprogenitive. You know, pregnant women everywhere—prams, kids. I like that. Just a gentle atmosphere. I don’t think I’d like Manhattan anymore. I like looking at it from a distance—it awes me. But it’s too noisy. The city that never sleeps—yeah, that’s right, the city where you never sleep.

File this under: must-see art event even though it’s not in Brooklyn.

The Clock is 24-hour work of video art by artist Christian Marclay playing at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center through August 1. Marclay has miraculously brought together thousands of clips from the entire history of cinema, from silent films to the present, each featuring an exact time on a clock, on a watch, or in dialogue. The resulting collage tells the accurate time at any given moment, making it both a work of art and literally a working timepiece: a cinematic memento mori.

It sounds amazing. If you’ve got a free 24 hours you can see it all.

Marclay also composed the soundscape, driven by a racing and swelling symphony of ringing, ticking, footsteps, laughter, tears, and music.

When it’s midnight in New York, Orson Welles is getting impaled at midnight on a clock tower in “The Stranger.” Twelve hours later, it’s  “High Noon.” Admission is free; Lincoln Center advises checking its website to avoid long lines.

Admission is free. Visitors are admitted on a first-come, first-served basis. It will be at the

Say hello to the newest addition to the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium in Coney Island is a black-footed penguin chick, the first one to hatch in 15 years at the aquarium.

A penguin chick.

Black-footed penguins are endangered, making the chick’s arrival significant not only for the aquarium, but for the species’ survival.

The female chick was born in February to mom, Boulder , and father, Dassen. Penguin chicks have soft downy plumage that stays with them for a few months until their juvenile feathers come in followed by adult plumage. The black-footed penguins can be seen in the aquarium’s indoor/outdoor Sea Cliffs exhibit.

How about a little communal TV watching?

We watched Episode two of Breaking Bad, Season five at The Gate in Park Slope, where they will be screening the show every Sunday night at  10PM for the duration of the season.

Season Five, so far, deals with the aftermath of the mind-blowing (literally) death of Gus Fring. At the start of Episode two, we find ourselves at Madrigal Electromotive, the parent company of Gus’ Los Pollos Hermanos.

It was a little disorienting at first. What are we doing in Germany?

I ordered white wine, Hugh had a beer. We sat at the bar with other Breaking Bad obsessives.

Back in Albuquerque, Walt wants to start cooking meth again now that he has blown up Gus. But there’s a lot that needs to be put in place before he can proceed…

The bartender somehow managed to watch the show, tend bar, and collect glassware from The Gate’s patio with aplomb. He’s a marvel. It was interesting to watch the show with a crowd.

My impressions of the episode: Walt is becoming so evil; Jesse is trapped and guilty; Skyler seems freaked out by who Walt is becoming (see picture).

The woman sitting next to be at the bar learned that The Gate was showing Breaking Bad from OTBKB. She asked Google: Where can I watch Breaking Bad in Park Slope?

She said she’ll be back at the bar next week.