BlackBook

I first fell in love with Fall on Your Sword when their incredible score for Mike Cahill's Another Earth took that film from a metaphysical and emotional science fiction wonder to indie masterpiece. It's a soundtrack I've listened to an infinite number of times in the last two years, and since, the guys behind FOYS, Will Bates and Phil Mossman, have been in high-demand, lending their brilliant and varied musical talents to Nobody Walks, Lola Versus, 28 Hotel Rooms, etc.

The melancholic and beguiling work of William Basinski haunts between the cracks of life and death, existing like ash falling slowly around you. His looped melodies bring you into a trance that's as heartbreaking as it painfully thrilling—and as moments coil and recoil, you feel suspended in time, floating in a world of sound that drowns you in its unique beauty. There's a sense of eternity in his work that makes you feel as though if you only let go just enough, this might last forever.

Model Sanja Miletic creates the perfect palette as she takes to the water with ease.

I think my friend at the record company sold me a bill of goods. “Jillette can drink me, you, and all the Virginmarys under the table,” he told me. I had my doubts, but was willing to give Jillette Johnson, the fetching young singer-songwriter, a chance. Yet here we are at Rogue & Canon, sampling no fewer than five cocktails, and she’s drinking … responsibly. Drinking like a mature, level-headed individual who makes her career a priority and has to go home later to work on some songs. A few sips of this, a few sips of that, pleasant banter, thoughtful answers, and a generally healthy attitude toward work and life. As Dorothy Parker would say: what the hell?

So you know about Google Play Music, right? It’s one of those Google things you never use because why would you; music is everywhere and all around you, but also it’s mostly on iTunes and Spotify. That is why Google wanted to add a streaming aspect, and this week unveiled Google Play Music All Access, a $9.99-per-month music subscription service that’s both annoying and unwieldy at the moment.

Tomorrow, as part of their Art Seen series—a unique monthly art-focused program—Brooklyn's wonderful Nitehawk Cinema will be screening Ben Shapiro's stunning documentary Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters. It's a film as moving and beautiful as its subject, going behind the scenes to illuminate the work and process of one of the world's most acclaimed and beloved photographers Gregory Crewdson. Shapiro's film manages to capture the essence of melting into one of his photographs—and it's an absolute delight. With the film out on DVD next weekend, Nitehawk will be screening the film along with a Q&A with Shapiro tomorrow morning. So in honor of the DVD's release and the showing, we're giving you another look at our interview with Crewdson and Shapiro conducted back in October that dives right into the world beneath the roses. Enjoy.

Look, I’ll be real: Hannibal isn’t exactly groundbreaking television, let alone art. Half the time I’m not entirely sure what Mads Mikkelsen just said in his chilling Danish accent (which isn’t to say I’m not unnerved all the same). And in some ways, the show is more a mash-up of Dexter and The X-Files than another entry in the Dr. Lecter canon. But it’s one of the better things to laugh at yourself for watching. Plus, The Kids in the Hall’s own Scott Thompson is in it.

When two guys from Brooklyn asked themselves what they would do if they won the lottery, their answer catapulted them into opening a sandwich shop that has, within a year, expanded from a nook behind a Crown Heights inn, to its own neon-and-brick den on the Lower East Side. NYC, shake hands with new-kid-on-the-block Black Tree, where every single ingredient – from the cheesy, pork-filled sandwiches to the lilac, celery, & mint cocktails - is from Union Square's Greenmarket and farms upstate.