Event Gallery Oddity The World Series of Beer Pong

April 23, 2010 - 10:55 am

I remember playing Beer Pong back in college as a recreational way to get my buzz on, but it has since taken on a life of it’s own.  It seems to have gone from simply throwing a ping-pong ball into a cup, to a sophisticated matrix involving rules, regulations, and professional tournaments.  Thanks to the help of organizations like BPONG.com, which caters to the needs of the beer pong community by offering amenities such as tournament information, an official beer pong store, and a beer pong players forum, this “drinking game” has turned into one serious sport.  All across the United States, Canada, and even further overseas, beer pong leagues are popping up and everyone wants to make it to one place: The World Series of Beer Pong.

The World Series of Beer Pong, known to the beer pong community as WSOBP, is the largest and longest running organized beer pong tournament in the world.  It was created “by beer pong players, for beer pong players,” according to the official WSOBP website.  All games are played on official BPONG 8-foot tables and are regulated by official WSOPB rules.  Last year’s WSOBP was the largest yet, with over 800 participants, representing 45 states, as well as Canada, all competing for the championship title but also, the whopping $50,000 pot.  This year’s event is expected to have an even higher turnout and will occur on January 1-5, 2011 on the Las Vegas strip at The Flamingo Hotel and Casino. In order to participate, players have to buy into the event by December 10, 2010, or can win their way in at one of the official satellite tournaments.

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Event Featured Gallery The Second Annual Streamy Awards: What a Fine Mess

April 14, 2010 - 10:28 am

I usually do everything in my power to avoid Hollywood, so when I learned I’d have to cover a red carpet event there (webisode/internet celebrities, collagen, and buttloads of perfume and fashion stuff…gee, I was a bit aprehensive), it’s accurate to say there was a bit of apprehension on my part. Nonetheless, I don’t think there could have been a better event for me than The Second Annual Streamy Awards at Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theater– which sort of summed up how I’d always thought of glitzy and glammy galas when there’s not a Pat O’Brien or Sugar Ray to polish any of the turds.

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Featured Gallery Miami Sasha and John Digweed Sunset Cruise 2010

April 13, 2010 - 12:19 pm

For the past eight years during Miami’s Winter Music Conference, dance music masters known as Sasha and John Digweed throw what is arguably the party of the year.  And by “party of the year” I am not just referring to the thousands of options available during this very full week of every conceivable form of electronic music.  I am referring to all parties, everywhere, all year round. Going all out, Sasha and John rent a mega yacht and invite 400 close friends and fans to join them for this special event, the Sunset Cruise.  This will prove to be a peak experience in the lives of many of these party goers – not just of the year, but of their party-going careers.

Sasha and Digweed cruise

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Art/Design Featured Gallery The Tattooed Portraits of Shawn Barber

April 6, 2010 - 3:04 pm

Shawn Barber is a quiet man. When you get the opportunity to spend some time with him you realize that he is intensely reflective and thoughtful about the work that he does. In 1995 he faced a turning point in his life and his career. He decided to take matters into his own hands and get serious about the art that he created. His blended technique of realism and expression capture life and emotion in a way that is incredibly refreshing.

Shawn, being tattooed himself as well as being a tattoo artist helps to inform the stories he tells through paint. He latest collection consists of tattooed portraits of tattoo artists that he admires from all over the United States, as well as some tattoo studio environments and still-lives.  The above portrait being my personal favorite, of two brothers who are not only tattoo artists on opposite coasts, but twins. This work in progress still needs the brothers actual tattoos painted in but the gestures and expressions between them read firmly of familial taunting….each brother egging on the other, as brothers often do.

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Gallery Miami Winter Music Conference at the Clevelander

March 29, 2010 - 11:41 am

This month, the Winter Music Conference in Miami celebrated its 25th anniversary, and it’s safe to say things have come quite a long way — and maybe not so long — since its inception in 1985. But there’s been some speculation about the WMC in the past few years: is it relevant? Or has it devolved from the trend-setting, groundbreaking event thousands of people flock to every year, to something insipid and boring?

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Bars/Clubs Gallery Thanks for the Memory Tapes

March 26, 2010 - 12:40 am

Ah, Emo’s on an Austin afternoon. The conglomeration of hipsters, the ridiculous name and the sort of street bazaar layout of the place always make me feel a little trepidatious. However, the mood on Friday was instantly put into perspective when I came across a group of maybe nine guys all posing for a photo together with several people snapping shots of them – was this some kind of fraternal organization? Maybe they were semi-famous? As it turned out, they were total strangers who all happened to be wearing plaid shirts. “Badass shirt, dude!” I heard one joke to another. They laughed and bantered to each other, “You’re a stylish motherfucker too!”

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Austin TX Gallery Octopus Project Ensnares the Crowd

March 26, 2010 - 12:38 am

The normal rule for those living in Austin these days is, there’s no need to go out of your way to see the hundreds of the local bands playing. However, when the psyche instrumental group Octopus Project is putting on the HEXADECAGON, a limited run special event that involves eight channels of audio and eight more of video, blended together into a psyche concoction so powerful it sent the Project out hustling a corporate sponsor for the first time. Two shows only, free, all ages, all freaks welcome. You bet Austin turned out for this one.

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Austin TX Gallery Daniels and Animals

March 26, 2010 - 12:30 am

If you’ve been paying any attention during the festival in Austin you know bands flock from around the world to play as many shows as they can fit in between eating and drinking free food and beer. But for a handful of local bands, Austin presents a unique opportunity. Daniels and Animals, an Austin band, have been playing shows together for just six moths and took full advantage of the impromptu venues and multitudes of crowds waiting to hear good music. These boys played at a foosball club, for cryin’ out loud.

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Gallery Music Some Damn Fine MEN

March 25, 2010 - 11:39 am

You hear the sort of terms that music critics might throw around for a band like Men, and they might tend to sound over-inflated. Terms like electro-punk or dance collective. These sort of labels don’t really take into account that Men are a good goddamn time. The three-piece fronted by Le Tigre’s JD Samson was at turns hilarious, subversive, cool and flat out fun. Samson greeted the freezing crowd with plenty of appreciation and the band started to pull into gear. Men sounds like all kinds of crazy thrown together and twisted around. Halting, Kraftwerk style singing with some of the dance bounce and bravado of classic Devo or Talking Heads.

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Austin TX Gallery Kittles and Strangeland Go to Austin

March 25, 2010 - 11:15 am

Yasmine Kittles and William Stangeland Menchaca of Tearist performed at Carniville on Saturday. The LA-based duo played early in the day to a sparse crowd but that didn’t keep them from pulling out all the stops. It’s obvious that Yasmine is at home on stage, jumping from one side to another, dramatically swooping her head, as if encouraging the wind to have its way with her long, dark locks.

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