Last Saturday night, over dinner and drinks, the President of the United States was overheard saying:
Michael Steele is in the house tonight. Or as he would say, ‘In the heezy.’
Wazzup!
For the last time, Michael, the Republican Party does not qualify for a bailout. Rush Limbaugh does not count as a ‘troubled asset.’
That’s right. At [...]
Obama meets the press
New York, at the moment (Mon, April 13, 2009)
Last Sunday, April 4, Spring came to New York City. Sixty-two degrees it was, and calm in the bright sun of a cloudless sky. The city had been waiting.
The winter seemed unusually brutal and long. As late as March we got mugged by the winds Chicago-style – sucker-punched from the northeast, a roundhouse kick to [...]
Of Sleuths and Starships: Veronica Mars and Battlestar Galactica
My newest column on 3QuarksDaily.com, “Of Sleuths and Starships,” focuses on the remarkable new artistic genre I’m calling VidLit, and two of its most thematically ambitious representatives: “Veronica Mars” and “Battlestar Galactica.”
In the essay, I observe the way in which “Veronica Mars” provides a superb socioeconomic portrait of America; but my main focus is on [...]
Chicago Nightlife: 2003
The following was a chapter penned for the guidebook UNDERGROUND CHICAGO 2003 –
Clublife
Play your night right, and clubbing in Chicago ought to be a religious experience. This is, after all, the birthplace of house music, named for the beat spun by DJ Frankie Knuckles at the long-defunct, but still legendary, club The Warehouse in the [...]
Jeff Mills, Techno Musician/Futurist
Jeff Mills, one of Detroit’s finest techno DJs, will be spinning at Santos Party House in New York City on Wednesday, September 3. In 2004, I interviewed Mills upon the release of his “Exhibitionist” CD/DVD. Here’s how it all went down.
Run of the Mills
Techno giant Jeff Mills puts the [...]
The Odyssey, a Film by Jeff Burns
“The Odyssey” was a submission to the 2008 Chicago Film Festival by New York filmmaker Jeff Burns. Below are CD-packet liner notes by David Schneider. See related content, “When Midnight Comes,” here.
THE ODYSSEY
A film by Jeff Burns
Homer wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey more than 2,800 years ago. Now, that DWEM must have had somethin’ [...]
Jumbo Thoughts
Jumbo thoughts
Inside Karl Hyde’s head David Schneider
Sometimes, Karl Hyde just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
No, it’s not that Hyde is off his head. Far from it. Even as a disembodied voice over a telephone line, Underworld’s lyricist/vocalist is a current of creativity, a whirlpool of [...]
Monsoon
Monsoon
New review David Schneider
This splendid, hip French-Indian fusion restaurant is designed with a distinctly erotic eye. Sensual global and tribal house throbs from speakers; silk curtains, jet-black columns and deep red fabrics drip luxuriantly above a glowing floor and curvaceous bar. And, if you are still dumb to the signals, go [...]
Urban Assault: Eddie Halliwell (January 11, 2004)
A version of this was published as a DJ listing preview in Newcity. –>
“So who’s this guy you’ve dragged me in here to see?”
“Eddie Halliwell. He’s supposed to be absolutely enormous in London right now.”
I expected more cack-handed, commercial-oriented trance.
“What does he spin?”
“UK Hard House.”
And then, O my brothers, did I get gleefully bludgeoned by [...]
DJ Preview Listings: 2003-4
SASHA (airdrawndagger)
You know you’re massive when you’re breaking through your own backlash. Sasha, who first got hooked on house at the Hacienda in 1987, virtually created the genre of UK progressive house with partner-in-crime and global heavyweight John Digweed. But as their residency at New York’s Twilo ended with the club’s collapse in 2001, the [...]
The Subway Chronicles
Dysfunctions and Other Observations: The Queensbound Journals
by David Schneider
AimlessOctober 28, 2004
The days are relentless and stalk me even in the blue mild autumn when the still green leaves converse in Queens. The subway at 100 is, as all geriatrics, demented and ornery. Last night all trains through Queensboro Plaza [...]
Herbivore Heaven
Herbivore heaven
Grazing at Shawn McClain’s new Green Zebra
David Schneider
I am an unrepentant carnivore, heir to the sins of the flesh. Around the familial dinner table, “sucking the marrow out of life” wasn’t Transcendentalist philosophy, but practical instruction. I can actually feel my canines descend slightly when contemplating [...]
Of Weasels and Whales: Iraq (October 10, 2002)
HAMLET: Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
POLONIUS: By th’mass and ‘tis — like a camel indeed.
HAMLET: Methinks it is like a weasel.
POLONIUS: It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET: Or like a whale.
POLONIUS: Very like a whale.
“The world changed on September 11.” Yes, surely, of course.
But which September 11 would [...]
Jumbo Thoughts
umbo thoughts
Inside Karl Hyde’s head David Schneider
Sometimes, Karl Hyde just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
No, it’s not that Hyde is off his head. Far from it. Even as a disembodied voice over a telephone line, Underworld’s lyricist/vocalist is a current of creativity, a whirlpool [...]
A Different Brew
A different brew
Tea for the testosterone set David Schneider
In America, it’s expected that whenever a proper gentleman wishes to have a tea party, he’ll gear up in Native American face-paint and chuck the stuff into the nearest harbor. Real men drink Bud Light and watch football on a [...]
Sensuous Chicago: Taste
Sensuous Chicago: Taste
Taste(less) David Schneider
A cheese platter ate my relationship.
For our first date, I took her to Mossant, one of those classy bistro joints, and fèted her on herb- and cognac-roasted chicken. She reciprocated by flooring it out to the suburbs and parking it at [...]
Syn
New club
Syn David Schneider
Rush Street may have an identity crisis on its hands with the advent of Syn, the new lounge/discotheque that recently opened below Jilly’s. Syn refuses the brashness of the Gold Coast–its true milieu is late seventies New York, the underground New York of cool seductiveness, [...]
Underworld Overwhelming
Underworld overwhelming
An in-depth interview with vocalist Karl Hyde
David Schneider
For the last fifteen years, Underworld’s celestial chords, jackhammer beats and fragmented, stream-of-consciousness lyrics have lifted electronic music beyond numb thumpings, into a gritty and sublime realm few other dance acts have approached. From 1994’s [...]
Hema’s Kitchen
Hema’s Kitchen
New review
David Schneider
Miss Whiplash, you’ve met your match. And she’s not carrying a switch; she’s wearing a sari.
Hema (pronounced with a short “e,” like henna) is the world’s least conspicuous dominatrix. She’s a plump five-foot-nothing, and presides over her packed Little India restaurant, [...]
