After being rescued from the brink of extinction a decade ago, the Moleskine notebook has been reborn as the PBR of stationery goods. A marketing campaign from Italian publisher Modo & Modo cast the oilcloth journal as a requisite for travelers, writers, artists and otherwise impoverished people, and the company’s popularity has since mushroomed into a cult following.

The mythology surrounding Moleskine touts two centuries of storied users, including Breton, Hemingway, Sartre, Picasso, Matisse and Van Gogh, who are all reputed to have captured their fleeting moments of inspiration in the notebooks.

Standing at the foot of this tradition is Cambridge artist and designer Chris Piascik. Now on his fourth Moleskine, Piascik has been jotting down drawings every day since January and publishing them on his blog. The drawings are influenced by a sense of creeping media saturation and showcase Piascik’s ability to craft emotive typefaces and fonts.
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I am scheduled to interview Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche at 12:10 p.m. on Wednesday. Lerche is in the middle of an east-coast tour, and as the hour arrives, I hunker down at my desk with a magazine, anticipating the usual problems (late phone call, crappy connection, tight time constraints). But just as I settle in, the phone rings — right on time.

Mellow and soft-spoken, Lerche chats from New York City, where he is hanging out prepping for his gig at the Bowery Ballroom.

“I’m definitely playing some new songs,” he says. “It’s sort of a mini-tour to try out the new ones. I always have a great time in Boston, so I really wanted to get a Saturday night there.”

And a Saturday night in Beantown he shall have — Lerche will drop by the Paradise tomorrow night, where he promises a “dynamic, hilarious, and intense” performance.

The crooner played the same venue last November during the end of a promotional swing for his fourth album, Phantom Punch — an uncharacteristic offering that shed pop charm for harder rock sounds.

“I like playing here because people have an easy time getting into things,” he confesses. “People really show it here. They are good at responding, and they’re more vocal. It’s especially helpful during solo shows, when you’re up there by yourself.”

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It looks like all bets are off in Massachusetts these days. Q2 is on the books, the constitution’s been extended to gay people, and now Grand is inviting customers to trip out on magic berries.

They won’t produce any mind-melting visuals, but Miracle Fruit will keep even the most experienced Somerville native entertained for an hour. The berries trick out your taste buds for a short time to make bitter and sour foods taste sweet. Take it away, wiki:

The berry contains an active glycoprotein molecule, with some trailing carbohydrate chains, called miraculin.[5][6] When the fleshy part of the fruit is eaten, this molecule binds to the tongue’s taste buds, causing bitter and sour foods to taste sweet. While the exact cause for this change is unknown, one hypothesis is that the effect may be caused if miraculin works by distorting the shape of sweetness receptors “so that they become responsive to acids, instead of sugar and other sweet things.”[3] This effect lasts between thirty minutes and two hours.

All 30 tickets for the tasting sold out this week, but I spoke with the store last night and they’ve got 6 more tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis. Just show them the loot ($15) and you’ll get a spot for the tasting.

If you want to learn more about the history of Magic Berries, check out this interview from Democracy Now. The story behind the guy who tried to bring them to the US in the 70s is actually incredibly interesting (high-speed car chases, espionage, industrial sabotage etc.).

Highlights include:

• A trippy parade in Davis Square, complete with street band
• Borderline rioting at Northeastern
• A conga line and patriotic sing-along at the Christian Science Center

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While I’m chatting with Boston rock trio Pretty & Nice at the release party for their new album,
Get Young, one thing becomes abundantly clear: they’re sick of hearing about Elvis Costello.

“His influence is that we write every song in the key of E,” quips guitarist Jeremy Mendicino when I ask about the ubiquitous comparisons between Pretty & Nice and the new-wave pop rocker (see here, here, here, here, here, here).

In the end, the litany of Costello references is a product of laziness more than anything else. The easiest way to review a band is to throw out a list of other bands that bear some resemblance to them. And an even easier way is to lift that list off the band’s press release. Sub Pop offshoot Hardly Art, which signed Pretty & Nice earlier this year, provides a beefy list of names to drop in its hype kit (Costello, Devo, XTC, The Pixies, etc.), so it’s not surprising when two or three of them turn up in tandem.
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We couldn’t make it out to Paint Pens in Purses 2 at LAB, but here are a couple of sweet time lapse videos of the ladies decking out the store windows. Look for PPinP3 at Middlesex Lounge in December!

Paint Pens in Purses 2

 

Boston Phoenix Video

Fall is no time to mess around with weak outerwear, and Boston’s streetwear locales have been stocking up with seasonal picks to keep you warm while you stay fresh. Check out the new jackets available around town!

With offerings like the Puma Spy High’s, Reebok Travel Pack Pumps, and Adidas ZX8000 running shoes, Bodega’s design aesthetic has developed as a kind of vintage vogue — adding modern accents to timeless forms.

The store’s winter line, released Saturday, follows in the same tradition with a series of revamped cold-weather looks, including fleece hunter’s caps and flat brims emblazoned with Bodega’s signature jade “B”. P-Coats and insulated jackets from RRL, Acronym, and Japanese exclusive Maiden Noir riff on the same enduring themes, mixing a refined sensibility with modern flair.
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We got a hot tip from Clarence Smith Jr. (Do You Know Clarence?™) that Shephard Fairey has been “handling OBEY business in our streets all week.”

Designs from the renowned street artist have been spotted in Harvard Square, Somerville and South Station, to name a few places.

A veteran of guerilla marketing campaigns for Pepsi, Hasbro, and Netscape, Fairey will be debuting his first installation at the ICA this February.

Check out these snaps from Boston’s Hargo of the images popping up around town:

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Boston’s “mysterious playmates”, the Banditos Misteriosos, will be back in action again on Saturday with a choreographed costume party in Christopher Columbus Park.

Following on the heels of the Revolutionary War Water Gun Battle, the group will hold a flashmob monster mash in Halloween regalia, complete with synchronized dance moves and an instructional mp3.

We love the idea, but we’re disappointed the Banditos completely overlooked Thriller in costuming and choreo. The 1983 video is the original flashmob monster jam — how could you play MJ like that?

A word to the wise: if you’re planning to head down for the event, please heed the group’s advice about not wearing a white sheet. A spontaneous gathering of hooded figures in the park may spook onlookers for the wrong reasons.

Video and mp3 after the break!
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