The White Lodge is the analog photography of klk and myself.  We use mainly lomography cameras (holga, diana, diana mini, fisheye, action sampler, and a kodak brownie).   We will be updating this flick regularly as we get photos back.  Our camera collection keeps growing, and over the past month three new cameras have been accumulated.  I will be posting photos from our flickr often here on the Great Pumpkin.  I hope you enjoy the photos, and if you repost them please credit the White Lodge.

Above is a photo of Ms. Audrey Horne sitting with our Frank Zappa records (well they aren’t all Zappa, but many of them are).

I have a small collection of band photos from the past couple months, and I would like to share them with you now.

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Julian Lynch live at Bruar Falls

I’ve written a lot about Julian Lynch over the past couple months.  I love his music, and Orange You Glad is still on constant rotation at my house… and his split with Ducktails made my list of best 7″s of the year.  These photos were taken on January 4th 2010.

Weekly Tape Deck posted a track by Julian called “Sisters” a while back.  This atmospheric haunting number is full of the many instruments we come to expect from someone as talented as Julian.  It’s tones (specifically the ones created by wind and brass instruments) just give me the chills in the best way possible.  A version of this song will be on Julian’s upcoming second LP, and has been renamed “Ruth, My Sister.”

[mp3] Julian Lynch- “Ruth, My Sister”

• read more about Julian (reviews, mp3s, video, and more) here.
• thanks to Julian for the additional info on this track.

Big Troubles live at Bruar Falls

If you haven’t grabbed a copy of Big Troubles debut 7″ do it fast.  Keep an eye out for their LP on OESB.  This picture was taken on January 4th, 2010.

• more on Big Troubles can be found here.

Cloud Nothings live at Monster Island.

Cloud Nothings are blowing up, and I’ve been posting about them a whole lot.  These pictures were taken on January 16th, 2010.

• read more about Cloud Nothings(mp3s, live videos, and reviews) here.

Liturgy live at Market Hotel on Halloween 2009.

Liturgy is a powerful force.  You should listen to them.

• more on Liturgy (free set from the FMA, review, and more!) here.

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Please vistit The White Lodge for more of our photos.

• other posts on the Great Pumpkin that feature photos from the White Lodge can be found here.

This past Sunday klk and I drove all the way out to the end of the North Fork of Long Island.  I had never really gotten out to the wine and agricultural part of the island, but it was a really nice day.  The farm stands were abundant so we picked up pumpkins for the upcoming holiday, and other delicious veggies. We stopped off at Orient Beach…which I had no idea was as beautiful as it is.  The water is as clear as can be, and the beach is covered in stones (I’ve never seen this before…I assume it’s natural).  Looking out over the water I couldn’t help but think of the Montauk Monster, and the alleged government animal testing facility.  On our way back a little wine tasting and some of the best ice cream in the world.  I’m also learning how to use my camera better, and this is the result:

Farm Stands:

Orient Beach:

Maybe the best ice cream I’ve ever had:

On our way out to the North Fork we pasted Port Washington, New York.  This reminded me of one of my favorite Mountain Goats song:

[mp3] The Mountain Goats- “Going to Port Washington” (off of Ghana. Buy it here)

I’ve been thinking about the Mountain Goats a lot lately…they have been on Colbert, and the new album is coming out.  On our trip out to the North Fork we listened to Bitter Mellon Farm, and it was pretty much perfect music for our drive through all of the farms and vineyards.  I know that the Mountain Goats have gotten really big from their studio albums, but I truly miss the tape hiss and the grind of the acoustic guitar.  If you haven’t experienced this side of the goats check out the track above, or by a record pre- Tallahassee .

I’m really looking forward to another trip to the North Fork… it was relaxing, and I’m really craving another ice cream cone from Magic Fountain… the pumpkin and the bourbon cherry ice creams were to die for.

Thomas Function played Bruar Falls this past Friday. It was the last of their string of New York shows, and even though they had a run in with the police earlier that day they were still spot on. They played for a little under an hour, and sounded very much live like their southern influenced punk pop album Celebration. Even the newer songs were faster than on recording, but it just seemed to fit in with their stage presence.  I wish I would have gotten to see more than one of these shows (there were some songs I really wanted to hear that weren’t played), but I guess that is what happens when a band has several shows in a row.

Thomas Function are still on Tour…the rest of those dates can be found here. I highly recommend catching them…it’s a really fun show.

Links:

• more on Thomas Function (mail order info, mp3s, ect.) here.
• a couple more photos can be found here.

This past Saturday klk and I took a drive to Asbury Park, NJ to go to the Silver Ball Museum (The Pinball Hall Of Fame). I was unaware that there was a pinball museum so close to New York City (I had previous only known of the National Pinball Museum in Silver Springs, MD)… but last week my friend Brendan sent over the link to their site.

The Silver Ball Museum is located in Asbury Park, NJ, and the drive was surprisingly easy.  Asbury Park is a nice little town (edit: I’m getting criticism for this statement…but as far as re-developing goes…it is a nice…slightly abandoned…town…what it comes down to it that I like it), and the block of Cookman St. that the Silver Ball Museum is on is pretty kicking…including a couple cafes, restaurants, the wonderful Paranormal Books and Curiosities, and the future home of the Paranormal Museum! The Silver Ball Museum itself is located in the back of the Speak Easy.  The Speak Easy is a music equipment, record, and rock apparel store (we did pick up a 7″ while at Speak Easy, but more on that will come later this week)….you walk in and head to the back…you see the Silver Ball signs, and walk down the steps into a basement filled with pinball machines.

If you have been reading the Great Pumpkin you probably already know that I have been working on The North Brooklyn Pinball Directory, and that pinball is a passion of mine.   Most of the machines in Brooklyn seem to be from the late 70’s up til the early 2000’s, but the Silver Ball Museum’s focus is on machines created from 33′-79′!

Typically when you think of museums you think of something that is hands off, and just for looking, but the Silver Ball Museum was 100% hands on.  While it might appear to be expensive there are several options for admission:

• $5 for 15 minutes
• $10 for an hour
• $20 for the day
• $50 for the weekend

Admission into the Silver Ball Museum gets you all you can play for the time you are there (and if you haven’t played a pinball machine in a bar lately, you can spend $10 and play the game much less than an hour).  The man working the counter let us in, and said “All of the games are on free play…if the machine is turned on all you have to do is find the start button.”

I had pretty high expectations for Silver Ball, and it exceeded my expectations by far.  Silver Ball gave me a history lesson in pinball in the best way possible…not only did I get to see how machines have progressed over time, but also experience how they feel during game play.  The most interesting thing I learned was that the flippers got much bigger sometime during the 70’s, and this made the game slightly easier…too me honest most of the machines from the 60’s were a little bit too hard.

Almost all of the machines were on (very few out of order…and most of those were marked), and in better condition than I could have ever imagined.  It was a great way to spend part of the afternoon, and gave us the opportunity to play a whole lot of machines (they boast 100 of the best from the 60’s and 70’s).

These were some of our favorites:

Fireball had an intense spinning mechanism in the middle that shot the ball in crazy directions…one of the most unique machines I have played:

Those were some of our favorites, but by far the most impressive thing was the amount of machines that you could try.

I’ll be honest, and say that this was my first good experience in New Jersey, and I really enjoy Asbury Park.  For fans of pinball in the NY/NJ area I think the Silver Ball Museum is a place you must visit…If I was spending the night out in Asbury Park I could totally get my moneys worth of a full day pass.

Paranormal Books and Curiosities (located at 627 Cookman Avenue) was a wonderful surprise, and we ended up bringing a book and some magazines home with us.  One of the best stores specializing in the occult that I have ever seen.  They do Ghost Walks, Haunted Investigations, Psychic Readings, and more all out of this shop! Here is a little bit more about the shop:

More than a store, Paranormal Books & Curiosities is a unique experience boutique! Participate in ghost hunting classes and paranormal investigations, view exclusive paranormal art and exhibits, or drop by for guest lectures, book signings and performances held throughout the year. We guarantee you won’t find any place like this in the world!

Paranormal Books & Curiosities also carries a wide variety of hard to find books and regional titles, including the current issue of Weird NJ. And for the paranormal investigator, we stock the latest in ghost hunting equipment and supplies.

I plan on going back to Asbury Park again once the Paranormal Museum opens…their first exhibit will be on the Jersey Devil! And while I’m there I will definitely stop back into the Silver Ball for another hour or so of pinball.  This is truly an amazing block in Asbury Park.

The Silver Ball Museum is located at
639 Cookman Ave
Asbury Park, NJ 07712
(in the back of Speak Easy and a couple doors down from Paranormal Books and Curiosities)
(732)-774-4994

Additional Info and Links:

• Silver Ball Pinball Museum
• Paranormal Books and Curiosities (and eventually the Paranormal Museum)
• The North Brooklyn Pinball Directory
• more of my pictures of the Silver Ball Museum here.
• Paranormal Books photo by Shawn Perez via flickr

Continuing my research on pinball in North Brooklyn last night, klk and I stopped into Mug’s Ale House to play their machine.  I was skeptical of the Family Guy Pinball, because honestly I’m burnt out on that show…but it proved to be a really awesome machine.  So far I feel like this machine is the gold standard.  Really fun.

Click HERE to go to the North Brooklyn Pinball Directory!

Adventures in bike commuting.

Disclosure.  I admit that I am not the best cyclist.  I have had my falls (and here too), probably more so than the average person…but I do try to follow the rules and  be courteous.  With that said…

On Tuesday when riding over the Pulaski Bridge there was a cyclist in front of me.  She had biking clothes, pedals/shoes with clips, pretty much the whole deal…but what she didn’t have was a bell.  The bridge is pretty crowded in the morning, but if you have a bell it is really easy…you ring it and people move out of your way no questions asked (typically).

So I was ringing my bell, as I always do, and the pedestrians moved out of both of our way.  When we got to the bottom of the bridge she turns to me and says:

“Thanks you.  I need to get a bell, they really work.”

My response was:

“You’re welcome.  They strike fear into the hearts of pedestrians.”

Not only is a bell an essential to bike riding it is also a hell of a lot better, and more polite too, than yelling at someone to get out of your way.  And I do get some pleasure at how much terror the little ding of the bell brings to the faces of people, but in the end bells are totes courteous.

Today on my way to work I was riding on my much hated Upper East Side, and if you ride up here at all you will know that bike lanes are few and far between.  The air felt so good this morning that I took a different route than normal, and I ended up on one of the very few cross town bike lanes that exists on the UES.  I turned on to the street at the same time as a car (the exact same model as the one I own…random), and another cyclist (decked out in full cycling gear).    I turned into the bike lane, the car turned into his own lane, and the other cyclist rode in front of the car.  We all got stopped on at the next red light.

At this point I was a little curious why other cyclist was riding in car’s lane…and because of this the car was riding in the bike lane.  So I turned to the guy and asked:

“Why don’t you ride in the bike lane?”

He responds:

(grunt, with a confused look)

I follow up:

“The bike lane, why don’t you ride in it?  It is here for us to ride in.”

He responds:

“Yeah, I know” (but then continues to stay in front of the car)

Long silence at the red light until it turned green, and then I rode off.

I guess the point of my story is the city was nice enough to give us all these awesome new bike lanes…if you are on a street that has one (or close to a street that has one) you might as well use it.

I don’t want this post to seem like a rant, but I’m just surprised when people don’t obey simple rules (especially people who obviously have spent a lot of money on cycling gear).  I love riding in Williamsburg because of all the bike lines…yet still people don’t use them and they are pretty much on every street (Driggs, Berry, Wythe, Kent)?  I just don’t understand.

If you made it through my post, thank you…I know it was long, and probably unnecessary…but I was motivated to write it today.  If you haven’t rode your bike yet today I highly recommend it…the weather is wonderful.

Photo of the bicycles by klk.

Yeah, Lou Barlow isn’t playing this weekend…oh wait…he is…Dinosaur Jr. in Central Park on Sunday!

Tonight! Friday August 14th:

• Dungen, Woods, and Ducktails! @ The Bell House

• The Xx, School of Seven Bells @ South Street Sea Port (FREE!)

• Kurt Vile @ Cake Shop

• High Places & The Walkmen @ Guggenheim Museum ($40?!?)

• Pop Jew Presents! The Beets, Pop 1280, German Measles, and Fluffy Lumbers @ Silent Barn

• Doug Gillard (of Guided By Voices!) @ Union Pool

Saturday August 14th:

• Lucky Dragons, Growing, and more @ (le) poisson rouge

• Publicist (Trans Am/Ian Svenonious) @ Market Hotel

• Growing @ P.S. 1 Warm UP

• Kurt Vile @ Silent Barn

• Beach Fossils @ Union Hall

Sunday August 16th:

• Dinosaur Jr. @ Summer Stage (FREE!)

• Northampton Woods (Thurston Moore & Bill Nace), Carlos Giffoni @ Glasslands

• PC Worship @ Public Assembly

Monday August 17th:

• The Beets @ Santo’s Party House (Animal Collective DJ’s proceeds go to Cinema Nolita)

Tuesday August 18th:

• Gun Outfit (PPM Records) and X-Ray Eyeballs (mem of Golden Triangle) @ Death By Audio

Photo taken at XX Merge

On our way from Charleston to Chapel Hill klk and I took a detour to Columbia (SC), and then drove up the back roads.  It was a nice drive, and we successfully managed to stay off of I-95…way to much of my life has been spent on that highway.  We stopped off to get some delicious South Carolina Peaches in Mcbee, SC.

Peach Trees!

Big’s Meats and More (unfortunately closed at the time)

I’m guessing this was Big:

And a rad Antique Museum:

Calculator?

knobs (for Leah):

beerz:

me:

A couple more photos can be found here.

This is part of my Going To XX Merge series, you can read the rest of the series here.