Bad Idea Potluck Vs. David Tassy of Night Manager

This blog veers ever deeper into the sordid world of music journalism. This month we put our four favorite questions to David Tassy who plays in a band called Night Manager. He's the one in the illustration above with a mustache and no beard. And, boy, has he ever done some dumb stuff.

Claim to fame: I play bass and guitar in Night Manager. I can also throw up on command.

What's the stupidest thing you've ever done?

I've done my fair share of stupid things. One time I took acid on a Monday night in Manhattan and ended up almost getting on the Staten Island Ferry at six in the morning for no reason at all. But I honestly think the stupidest thing I've ever done was when I was fourteen. I was with my friends Bubba and Face on a Tuesday having band practice. We were bored so we got really high and drank a couple of beers. We decided to go to the golf course and just use garbage can lids as sleds and slide down the hills (it was drizzling that day and it's hard to sled on dry ass grass). Some how we ended up vandalizing most of the course. We threw the fences and barriers in the lake and filled up the holes with dirt. For some fucking reason I thought it would be really funny to WRITE MY FULL NAME on the sod of the tee-box. So I took a stick and carved DAVID TASSY. It took me about 15 minutes to do this. Well guess what? The next day I got a call from Oak Hills Golf Course, " Is this David Tassy?" They found me for OBVIOUS reasons. I had to pay them 2000 dollars for the tee-box and we had to sand like 3000 fences and barriers for the rest of the summer.  

Are you sorry?
Mhmm, I'm sorry that I was stupid enough to write my name. But I'm not sorry for fucking up their shit. I had a lot of fun that day.  

Are you going to do it again?
Honestly, I can't say that I won't!  

Would you recommend it to others?

Yes and no. If you're going to ruin or vandalize anything, don't right your fucking name anywhere. It's just plain fucking dumb. I learned my lesson, "DON'T WRITE YOUR NAME ANYWHERE, ESPECIALLY YOUR FULL NAME."

Dudecake #5: Male Bonding

I saw Male Bonding last night and their new songs are all totally amazing! I bring this up as a pretext for posting the "Year's Not Long" video as this month's "pin-up." It came out last year, but it's worth a reprise on account of it being two minutes and forty one seconds of some of the hottest guy on guy make out action available on the Web.

I speak from experience when I say that nothing is hotter than when dudes get liquored up at parties and start making out with each other. Hoo boy. If you don't know what I'm saying, it's possible that you aren't attracted to men. Watch the video whether you are or not. You know, just to double check.

So Excited!

Amazing shit whizzes past my head on a daily basis now. Like I just saw M.O.T.O and Baby Shakes at this sweet new bar called St. Vitus. If I really cared about you I would have taken pictures. But sometimes I kind of just want to watch the show.

Still, I vow to rationalize what I post on here. Somehow. In the meantime, here's some Hunx and His Punx/Shannon and the Clams porn:

Dudecake #4: Canadian Pride is Hot

But this is probably Photoshop. No one is that awesome. Via.

Dudecake #3: My Daguerreotype Boyfriend

Unidentified Irish political prisoner/sex bomb, 1857

This Tumblr of long dead hotties preserved with early photography methods is whizzing around the Web, but I thought I'd post about it as this month's dudecake. I love Tumblr as a tool for distributing images of good looking people, and My Daguerreotype Boyfriend is the best example of this that I've seen since since Punks I Like to Fuck. 

As I clicked the link to this site and waited for the page to load I thought, "how hot can these daguerreotype boys be?" Wow, very. I was startled by the endless string of babes totally melting the silver on which they were imprinted. And what's more unattainable, and therefore alluring, than a guy who died long before you were born?

Some images are of historical figures who were, indeed, hot, and these are even more alluringly unattainable. They belong to history, not to you. Sigh.

This Tumblr is brilliant! But, so far, there are only two pages. Support the cause, submit images.

It's Raining Candy Rain!

Candy Rain #2 is here! Speaking on magazines for ladies, the second issue of Bad Idea Potluck's favorite print publication is out! Get your copy of the only legit porn mag for women today! No photo for this post. We only post tasteful pictures of dudes on this blog. And Candy Rain is not about that, bless its heart.

Dudecake #2: San Francisco's Hunky Jesus Contest

Sometimes the pin-ups just fall into my lap. Not literally. When I say that I mean my brilliant friend Emily sends them to me. Today she brought it my attention that an esoteric sect based in San Francisco called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence celebrate Easter each year with a rite they call the Hunky Jesus Contest. As far as I'm concerned, the Jesus you see above wins. But you can judge a few more of the entrants for yourself over at BuzzFeed. Happy May.

Dudecake #1: Jane Russell Had It Pretty Wired

I'm just numbering the pin-ups from now on. And I'm lifting this month's installment in its entirety from this Jackie Collins fan site made by an artist named Sarah Baker. I'm barely aware of Jane Russell, let alone Jackie Collins. But maybe I should look into all of these ladies's work.

The clip is from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which I have never seen because it has no motorcycles or cyborgs in it.

Dudes of the World: Ex-Otago

So I just had to look at lots of really boring, bullcrap normative pictures of ladies and gents on magazine covers for an assignment for a class I'm taking. It was stultifying and depressing. Depressing enough to herald the return of dudecake! I believe the world still needs it. Or I still do.

Without further ado, here is an Italian indie pop quartet called Ex-Otago.Watch the video. The really skinny guy with all the tattoos takes a bath in a tin tub halfway through and it just doesn't get much better than that. It's so nice of them to be so under-dressed so often. Oh, and they've just released an album.

Until the Light Takes Us

I finally got to see this black metal documentary, Until the Light Takes Us,which came out on DVD recently. I enjoyed it in a way that I'm not really comfortable with.

The subjects are the surviving members of the Norwegian black metal scene in the '90s, a scene that imploded in the wake of a series of church burnings, a murder or two, and the subsequent media circus. The filmmakers chose to provide a more or less blank backdrop against which their completely batshit subjects could tell their own story. And then the movie is paced and edited and shot in such a way that you feel reflective, even meditative while watching it, and the filmmakers are very much invisible in the whole process. You don't hear the questions, only the answers, which are mainly culled from a series of very intimate interviews with Gylve Nagell of Darkthrone and Varg Vikernes of Burzum. Some of the figures in the movie are charming, or at least unforgettable, and each of them is also completely out of his mind to this day. So, you have this kind of freakishly peaceful and elegant encounter with some genuinely dangerous artists.

I loved it because it was such an aestheticized treatment of the characters and events, but I was also uncomfortable with it for the same reason. It featured a few visual artists, including Harmony Korine, who have been inspired by black metal to create paintings/installations/performance art for galleries. In fact, there are more visual artists who have been inspired by black metal than were included in the documentary. It's easy to see how the scene appeals to them, but their interest is also almost more unsettling than the reality of the scene itself. In the wake of the DVD release I've been seeing enthusiastic posts about black metal cropping up on hip blogs, which is similarly weird and creepy.

In the end, the subjects relate just enough of their story that a few misconceptions about Norwegian black metal are corrected (They're not satanists, okay?) and an intelligent viewer can pick up where Until the Light Takes Us leaves off and fill in a few blanks for themselves. I was happy to mull things over on my own as the credits rolled and it definitely leaves you with plenty to mull over. So, fine, it was kind of amazing and easily the weirdest movie I've watched in awhile.

On a related note, Varg Vikernes is coming out with a new Burzum album, because he's not in jail anymore. I'm not endorsing this. I'm just telling you. I'm also just telling you about these black metal greeting cards on Etsy. I'm kind of in love with Etsy's dark side lately.

Trailer:

Two Boys for Every Girl

One Bride for 2 Brothers: A Custom Fades in India 
(from NYT)

For the record, BIP is strongly in favor of polyandry and is sorry to hear it is losing its hold in this remote part of India. No matter. It continues to gain popularity in our futuristic Utopian fantasy world.

The Dudes of Summer

It's June and we would just like to say that if there's one thing we find more appealing than a dude doing yoga, well, it's two of them. You know that collectively here at the Potluck we favor the spastic little wild ones but there's also something to be said for being strong, focused, and centered. If only for an hour or so.

Bonus Dude!

Frankly, I was shocked when fur came back this year. I mean, I noticed that the pose to perfect of this decade is uniformly not giving a shit. And I noticed that fashion had supplanted music as the obsession to claim. (Thank the guitar gods, more music for me.) But I was not prepared for those two memes to collide in a resurgence of socially acceptable pelt wearing.  (Liking Where the Wild Things Are is not an excuse.) Memo to L Train: Yes, the '90s are back. That means it's time to be socially aware and participate in a damn beach clean up. It's also time for rockers to be sensitive and wear their hearts on their sleeve tattoos (for PETA?):

Dave Navarro for PETA
Find out more at PETA.org.

He looks good. I have the sudden and very uncharacteristic desire to listen to Jane's Addiction.

Oh, and if you have to do the look (probably not in this weather I know, but some of you are batshit) we consider faux preferable to vintage. Consider Coquette Faux Furriers.

Dudecake in the Month of May, or The Hot Side of Awkward

This dude isn't usually Bad Idea Potluck's type, but the fact that this is a slightly uncomfortable April Fool's gag (the motocross website usually feature's female pin-ups with the bikes) makes it kinda hot, so this video is this month's dudecake installment:

I can't look at it without out damn near spewing coffee out my nose. And who doesn't like a guy that can make them laugh? And Jordan is a cutie in that predictable British-royalty kind of way.

We've been doing a monthly pin-up dude for maybe more than a year now, and we have to report that we've been getting steadily better results from our periodic Google searches for "pin-up boy". Just this week, we discovered Pin-Up NYC Magazine. It showcases boys and girls and (my stars) both are equally lovely. Actually, that's a lie. The Y chromosome side of the site will stop your heart if you are at all into that kind of thing. Big ups to Andy and William.

Make it Beautiful!

In just a couple of weeks (May 4) The Shondes, one of the bands I got buried under, will release an album called My Dear One. They played LadyFest Las Vegas in, like, 2006 and before they even got to town, I had become a crazed fan based on their song "Your Monster". It's powerfully catchy and I was convinced it related directly to my life. They had a three song demo out then and rocked the auditorium at UNLV. Few indie bands from way out east were making it all the way to Las Vegas at the time so they scored some eternal points with me that way.

Their first full-length, The Red Sea, was a solid album, but I think I was really waiting for this one. They remind me more and more of Rainer Maria and Pretty Girls Makes Graves, but with Yiddish violin. They're quickly becoming one of my favoritest bands. It's been awhile since I picked up an album that was more than fun and exciting. This one also makes me feel stuff. Normally, I avoid art that makes me feel in the same way that I avoid mystery puddles on subway seats. But once I let I let the emo in, I always wonder why I don't do it more often. It's good for you, if you don't overindulge. Maybe four transgendered rights activists advocating justice for Palestine will bring that style back.

Get ready for some grown-up emo balladry:



My Dear One

"I've got my own strategies for my life"

I have to give props to my friends in Las Vegas for "KEEPING THE SCENE ALIVE!!!!". Mr. Donald Hickey has seemingly seen it all. Fashion comes and goes, but I am always proud of being from the neon desert. And from this special place and person comes a rad downloadable radio show. Live on Sundays in Vegas, but listenable any old time for you in other places: (NEON REVERB RADIO)

I know the punk rock pinup thing should maybe only apply to musicians or whatever, and probably only be monthly, BUT... I'm super horny most of the time. So why not make it weekly/whenever I just can't get that person making me (good) ITCH with ecstasy out of my head? Today's current drool-induce master is





(Justin Theroux)




NEVERMIND that every girl he is photographed with is matchlessly beautiful. The fact that they all seem to be brunette and slightly ethnic looking give me some xmas bulb-like hope. I'm going to pretend that when I get home he'll be there waiting for me with a bottle of champagne and some tacos he just made, ready to cuddle me and let me stare at him for the rest of the evening.

Do you want to go swimming with sharks in South Africa? Fake skydive in Las Vegas? Meet strangers on a train in Asia? Record a record in Jamaica? Even if you had never thought about doing any of these activities before, now is your chance so what the HELL?: (DIESEL WANTS YOU TO BE STUPID) . I mean, most of you are taking lame pictures of yourselves anyway, so why not have it help your chances of going on some bomb-ass adventure? Oh, word.

April Dudecake: Male Bag

I was wondering when I would get to use that pun. I'm rolling it out because Perry in Atlanta sent us this saucy photo of Jello Biafra circa 1987 and I am designating it as this month's official pin up. Perry saw it and thought of us. Such submissions delight the blogger's heart and those socks are kind of turning me on. Feel free to send us any semi-nude pictures of seminal punkers turned political-minded spoken word artists that you happen to have going spare.

Of course we realize this might not be enough dude for some of you and we surely understand. If that is the case, let us direct you to An Occasional Man. It is a pin-up dude publication nonpareil for ladies with taste, created by ladies who are themselves much sought after pin-up models. Somehow, I think that must make all the difference. Mastermind Bettina May does a fabulous job of explaining herself:

Welcome to the neighborhood.

All lady squirrels are like, "DAMN, you lookin' gooooood".

March of the Dudecake

Meet Sigurd. He agreed to be March's pin-up boy on the condition that he could deliver this message in the public service from the Physical Culture Society of Williamsburg: It is nice out. Go to the park.

And speaking of public, enter this contest to win a sweet Public brand bicycle: Bike Contest.

Dudecake Alert!

Actually, not really, but I'm sure this lovely tune by Ménage à Twang, via Feminist Music Geek, will remind lots of you geekettes out there of someone or other.