Walking up to Austin’s CTC Garden, you’re invited by an atmosphere that is immediately both comforting and stimulating. The music, greenery, lights and laughs have made a cozy bed in this open-air venue. It’s a funky space, succulent-filled with happy colors, and it was the perfect complement to Slideluck Potshow Austin IV.
Austin’s fourth Slideluck oozed a liveliness different from years past. It even lured passersby who were interested enough to join the party. In the end, some 250 people enjoyed the food, sounds, camaraderie, beer and amazing photographic work on Saturday night.
Old friends caught up, new faces met other new faces, and everyone ate. And we ate it all. SLPS-inspired lasagna. Maple-glazed bacon-covered brussels sprouts. Onion and sun-dried tomato tart. Cookies with dotted with mini peanut butter cups. And to wash it all down, we crushed 350 cans of ice-cold Brooklyn Lager.
It was clear from the beginning of the night that the following few hours were going to be kick-ass. Everyone walked in with a smile — not surprising since Austin is made for friendly greetings and compassionate people.
PrintMag recently wrote up an e-article about our friend and designer Jee-eun Lee, the steady hand and sharp eye who recently began assisting Milton Glaser in the noble act of making beer look good. All Brooklyn Brewery packaging, logos, labels and more feature Jee’s artistic touch. Check out the article for an interesting look into Jee’s background, past work (sample pictured above), and what she keeps in her bathtub.
I hope everyone made out OK this holiday season. Believe it or not, I only got one present, from my friend Mister Muffins who keeps watch over at a gallery down on Wythe. It’s an original Louis Wain, the British painter who made the mistake of spending too much time looking into his cat’s eyes and went bananas (this is why cats never stare at you for more than a few seconds, by the way). Muffins wrote on the back: “To Monster, the craziest cat I know.” Good one, Muffins.
During a recent tour, I hung the painting up in the fermenting and packaging room (below) to class the place up a bit. The brewers haven’t thanked me yet, but I know they appreciate it.
Brooklyn Brewery Manhattan Brand Manager Brian Duprey displays a t-shirt made by Ink Tribe NY, obtained earlier this week at the Bryant Park Christmas market.
What’s that look on his face? Disappointment? Pity? Whatever it is, looks like today’s copyright infringement has stripped the holiday cheer stripped from yet another man.
Our partners in Sweden sent us word of a comic strip that features a group of folks known as “party Swedes” (otherwise known as hipsters) who apparently have quite the refined taste in beer as their beverage of choice is none other than “Brooklyn Ale”, seen above being featured as an ingredient in a steaming bowl of homemade Swedish chili.
Now if only we could read Swedish we’d be laughing way harder.
Brooklyn Paper gave the newly launched Smorgasbrewery a bit of love in a recent roundup (“Finally, food at the Brooklyn Brewery) and Bill Roundy did us a solid with an amazing illustration of our Tasting Room in action. Would you look at all the detail?! We’ve got Monster prowling for dropped morsels, the wall of cases behind the food vendors, Hollywood renowned Dan Bittner behind the bar, and even an accurate draft list.
“I did not expect Brooklyn to have so nice beer,” said Saskia Bosch, the gorgeous blonde sitting beside me, IPA in hand. It’s true, I thought, bringing beer to Germany makes about as much sense as bringing sand to the beach. But yet, somehow, Marc Rauschmann of Die Internationale Brau-Manufacturen importers managed to bring a dimpled smile to Saskia and about 200 other Berliner’s faces last Thursday evening with generous helpings of India Pale Ale and Local 1 & 2.
The occasion for all of this beer-drinking was Slideluck Potshow’s fourth installment in Berlin. The show was produced by photographer Britney Anne Majure and it took place at .HBC which was the former Hungarian Cultural Center and sits across the street from Alexanderplatz and the iconic TV tower.
Slideluck Potshow put its best foot forward Wednesday night with the 2nd Annual SLIDELUCK Fundraiser & Auction. Monday last we returned to Chinatown after a great success at FotoWeek DC, and in a few short days and near-sleepless nights, the NYC Slideluck Team rallied to transform Sandbox Studios into a compelling gallery space, and was prepared to put DC back in its place as a cultural runner-up.
For the second year in a row, Ryan Jones worked tirelessly to produce the fundraiser. After all the labor she put into Slideluck, Ryan went into another kind of labor last Friday – this year, Ryan not only produced SLIDELUCK, but also, a human being. Five days before the auction (and more than a week early) Ryan brought Scarlet Jones Ouvaroff into the world – we were personally hoping she’d name her firstborn Slideluck, but we’ll settle for her hard work and dedication. Like a true partner, Ryan’s husband, Caspar Ouvaroff, stepped up to curate and install all 60 pieces in the show with yours truly, and with his massive, 6’7” frame, made an appearance at the event large enough for both his lovely bride and newborn child. A huge thank you and congratulations goes out to the growing Ouvaroff clan.
Guests arrived for the VIP reception and sipped on some of Brooklyn’s finest brews – the Local 1 and 2 – while having a first taste of Co-Host Rikrit Tiravanija’s Thai curry pizza – a preview of the curry lunches he will be serving at MoMA as part of an installation beginning next week. Morton, the WhistlePig Rye Whiskey brand ambassador, a house-trained potbelly pig, stole the first part of the show. He demonstrated the virtues that earn potbelly pigs a top-five slot in animal intelligence. As I sat at my desk on Thursday morning, preparing to make an argument for purchasing a floor pig for my office, I learned some fun facts, namely: that pigs can have their feelings hurt. This confirmed my suspicion that only Morton truly grasped the irony of partygoers tossing him dog treats, while munching on crostini with braised Mini Mac Farm pork shoulder, Alstede Farms Winesap apple and local shallot chutney.
Early in the evening, I had the delight of meeting the Co-Host, Jessica Craig-Martin, an esteemed events-turned-art photographer. When prompted by the event’s producer and her former student, Carly Planker, to comment on my attempted mustache, Ms. Craig-Martin replied, “I am a person who generally has a complaint about everything, and I have no complaint about that moustache.” Take that, Mom.
Ms. Craig-Martin used the silent auction as an opportunity to collect some beautiful work. One piece, a photograph by Dolly Faibyshev, featured a detail of a woman and her hound from their least flattering angle, as though Ms. Craig Martin had been asked to cover the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show herself. The second piece she purchased was a photograph by Ruben Natal-San Miguel featuring a woman of questionable employ on the street in Harlem with bedazzled “$” earrings – no less ostentatious than her usual upper-crust subjects.
As the evening progressed, a powerful speech from SLPS Founder and Director Casey Kelbaugh, followed by an uplifting video, brought everyone back to the roots of Slideluck Potshow – an idea idea that began in Casey’s Seattle backyard 11 years ago. A short film about the Slideluck Youth Initiative, one of evening’s primary beneficiaries, concluded with Casey issuing a challenge for the organization to “change the world through photography”. The candor in Casey’s voice gave the audience the impression that they were either with him or against him, and I knew where I fell if I expected another sweet, sweet Brooklyn Lager.
Following an exhilarating live auction of works by Spencer Tunick, Ines Esnal, Barton Lidice Benes and others presented by Sotheby’s Courtney Booth, attendees cautiously guarded their favorite pieces by artists such as Shepard Fairey, Joseph La Piana, Jen Davis and Julie Blackmon in the ongoing silent auction – providing no shortage of micro-narratives fueled by bidding wars. I watched on as two such silent showdowns unfold on pieces book-ending a wall of larger works. The pieces happened to compliment each other quite well, both in watercolor, one a mustache, the other a series of, well, upskirts. Artist John Gordon Gauld contributed the mustache piece from a collection of work done for Bergdorf’s, the upskirts were done by Rosalie Stone Morris – both of whom left arm-in-arm before bidding closed, weary of the melodrama, for some late night karaoke. Thanks guys.
With no shortage of chocolate bark covered in inventive toppings to munch on, prepared by Dave Gould at the Highlands Supper Club, the silent auction wrapped. Men in suits left with art in boxes. Women in cocktail dresses left with men in suits. And the rest of us? Well, we stayed and swilled the remaining Pennant Ale in true Slideluck fashion, until Carly kicked us out. Next stop? Berlin. Dare we bring some Chocolate Stout to the land of Bier? I hope so.
We emerged from the Chinatown metro station in downtown DC after a fun-filled four-hour bus ride down from New York City. Arriving at the residence of Francis Kim, one of the local Slideluck Potshow directors, we encountered a young lady with two Tupperware containers full of chocolate chip cookies.
We asked if she was going to a potluck, thinking that everyone in DC must be en route to Slideluck Potshow DC VI, and was surprised to find out that she was just going one at “Maria’s apartment”. Who knew DC was such a potlucky town? Hoping to maybe get a freshly-baked cookie out of the exchange, we inquired further, only to find out that she had bought the cookies at Costco and then transferred them to Tupperware to give the appearance of home-cooking. Wow, that’s clever, we exclaimed. And lame. We shared the elevator for another couple floors and an awkward guilty silence hung in the elevator like an egg fart. Wow, DC, we knew you were dirty, but not that dirty.
Cookie Monster was getting off the elevator and we said, “Hey have a good potluck.”
And she responded, “Thanks, you too.”
We ignored some of our NYC friend’s suggestions to “check out Starbuck’s” while were down there and focus on some of Washington’s cultural wonders. For the 4th year in a row, we collaborated with FotoWeek DC to bring our unique mix of a multimedia slideshow and potluck dinner to the good people of DC. We curated a show of about 30 artists, primarily DC-based, and rolled into town with no less than 30 cases of Brooklyn Lager, Brooklyn Brown Ale and IPA.
There were no shortage of Dockers or earnest political opinions, but among the 250 or more folks that attended, was a lively and diverse mix of people. And no more was that more accurately reflected than in the potluck dinner – sesame bok choy, cauliflower and cashew salad, mac n’cheese cups, an olive and orange salad, chocolate pumpkin bread – too name a few dishes.
The slide show was comic at times, sexy at others, and of course, challenging and hard-hitting in many cases. Our DC peeps don’t care for fluff. Nor do they care for Costco cookies packaged in Tupperware.
One of the benefits of teaming up with FotoWeek was that they had a number of exhibitions mounted in the space – including the finalists for Pictures of the Year International and the World Press Photos of the Year. The afforded the opportunity for Slideluckers to wander the cavernous and carpeted ex-Borders Bookstore, cold beers in hand, to check out some mind-blowing work. One particularly investigative couple – who looked like they may ridden on their fixies all the way from Williamsburg – were delighted to unearth the repetition of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez quote captioning two different works, practically right next to each other. Awkward!
After the slides had stopped and the last drop of Brooklyn Brown had found a belly, a spontaneous Sunday night after party coalesced around the corner at the 18th Street Lounge. Yet another pleasant surprise, this place was packed, with multiple floors eliciting fierce dance moves and a large deck for 50 or more Slideluckers to recount and discuss the evening’s program into the wee hours of the night.
Once again, Washington, DC, you made us proud to be American.
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