Kickstarter Inc.

What's Up With Hip-Hop's Obsession With the Suzanne Vega Hit "Tom's Diner"?

Last week, Bronx MC YC the Cynic unleashed his brand-new Oliver Eid-directed video for "God Complex," the debut single from his forthcoming Kickstarter-funded release GNK, produced entirely by Frank Drake. A notable element of the song is YC's incorporation of Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" into his f ... More >>

Q&A with The Media, an Alt-Weekly from the Ashes of the Boston Phoenix

"Thank you Boston. Good night and good luck." That was the tweet sent out by the Boston Phoenix the eve the world found out the legendary, nearly half-a-century-old publication would be shutting down. Its loss was mourned acutely and by many, perhaps most eloquently by Phoenix alums Susan Orlean and ... More >>

Rabbi Darkside on Bringing Prospect Avenue Around the World

Few underground hip-hop artists in New York have had the staying power of Rabbi Darkside. From an era where everyone had a vinyl single, through rap battling at the start of the mid-2000s rising next wave of battle leagues, to being a coach on "MTV's Made" and one of the centerpieces of the Hip-Hop ... More >>

The Story of Streit's Matzo on the Lower East Side

Over on Kickstarter, filmmaker Michael Levine of Rivington Pictures is looking to raise $60,000 to fund a feature-length documentary that will tell the story of Streit's Matzo, a fifth-generation matzo factory founded in 1925 on the Lower East Side. The company is one of the few culinary landmarks o ... More >>

Bands Abusing Kickstarter Are Exploiting Fans

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls' Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you ... More >>

Cherry Bombe Magazine Celebrates Women in the Culinary World

Stop what you're doing and check out Cherry Bombe Magazine, the visually stunning food magazine created by Seersucker's Kerry Diamond and graphic designer Claudia Wu. The friends (and former Harper's Bazaar colleagues) launched the imprint in September of last year and have now turned to Kickstarter ... More >>

10 Best Dive Bars in New York, 2013 Edition

Everyone has a favorite dive bar. The best ones are cheap, sticky, and unpretentious, with questionable bathrooms and a rogues' gallery of regulars. They make perfect spots to talk to strangers, get in fights, or bury a broken heart. Some of the greatest holes-in-the-wall have been shuttered -- Mars ... More >>

Star-ry Eyed Alexz Johnson Cuts Through the Bull and Regains Her Independence

Alexz Johnson really loves Brooklyn. It shows on her face with the way she lights up whenever her neck of the woods is mentioned. The 26-year-old singer-songwriter/actress relocated to the borough with one goal for herself as an artist: total scene immersion. It's a pretty good goal when you have to ... More >>

Advice For Aspiring Music Writers: Don't Quit, Just Don't Suck

The funny thing about Luke O'Neil's article earlier this week (titled "Advice For Aspiring Music Writers: Quit Now") is that "quit now" was the exact answer I gave when someone asked me last year what I would tell to a high school class of aspiring writers. My "quit now" was borne from a frustration ... More >>

Advice For Aspiring Music Writers: Quit Now

There may be 100,000 blogs about indie music, bikes, and beer already in existence, but what if there were 100,001? There is now, thanks to the initiative of a young man in Boston behind this Kickstarter project to fund his blog Indie, Bikes & Beer. All he needs to get going is $12,500. Sounds like ... More >>

New Year's Eve Guide: Dance

The Winners Of The 2012 Village Voice Web Awards

It's finally here! The 2012 Web Awards winners have been chosen. Check them out after the jump to see if your favorites took home the coveted foam hand trophy. And if they didn't make it? There's always next year (and feel free to complain in the comments section).

How Successful Are Red Hook's Crowdfunding Campaigns?

Red Hook's small businesses banded together to form Restore Red Hook after the storm, working together to raise the funds they needed to clean up, replace equipment, and reopen. Many started individual campaigns too -- on sites like Kickstarter, Go Fund Me, and Small Knot -- that encourage community ... More >>

New Movie About Go Go Boys In NYC Nightlife

The Go Doc Project is a currently filming movie in which a college grad does a documentary about NYC nightlife in order to track down the gogo boy he's cyber-obsessed with. Been there! The film--done by people with a really good track record--will star Matthew Camp (above) and Tanner Cohen (below) ... More >>

Cake Shop's Successful Fundraising Campaign: "For Now, That Was The Piece We Needed"

The Lower East Side venue Cake Shop has been on a desperate mission to keep its doors open. Staring into the pending end of their original 10-year lease, and owing back rent, higher-than-expected taxes, and other fines, the cafe-slash-rock club started up a fundraising drive on PlegeMusic.com in May ... More >>

When Hair Gets in Your Beer

[See More Clips of the Day: The Battersby Crew Hates Brunch, Loves Fernet | Awesome Dramatic Readings of Yelp Reviews] Craft Beerds, a book raising funds on Kickstarter, will collect the label art depicting beards, sideburns, and mustaches, from over 175 craft breweries. Go ahead and roll your eyes ... More >>

Rats for Dinner: Don't Worry, They're Gourmet

[See More Annals of Absurdity: 7-Eleven Has Mashed Potato Vending Machine | Open A Watermelon Using Rubber Bands] Brooklyn artist Laura Ginn served up a $100 per head dinner for a Lower East Side Gallery show on Wednesday. Doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary... except for the fact that ... More >>

3 Good Things: Hamsters in the Kitchen

1 Russian photographer Elena Eremina photographs her pet hamsters in the kitchen, after her husband and son have fallen asleep. It's just as odd as you'd imagine, but also terribly cute. [Feature Shoot] 2 A new cookbook for gamers? Why not. [Kickstarter]

'Gourmet Vegan Soul Food' Coming to Harlem

Mother and son Brenda and Aaron Beener are raising some funds over on Kickstarter for Seasoned Vegan. The "vegan gourmet soul food" restaurant will be coming to Harlem if the duo can meet their $20,000 goal in the next 17 days. More on what to expect below, in their own words:

Amanda Palmer Dramatically Answers Questions About Her Connection to Scientology

A few weeks ago, we noted that Amanda Palmer -- the musician who performs as a solo act and as one half of the Dresden Dolls and Evelyn Evelyn -- made a rather dramatic appearance at Kate Bornstein's book party, held at Dixon Place. Right about that same time, Palmer was also making news for taking ... More >>

Sayings I Don't Ever Want to Hear Again

And I mean ever!!! *"In this economy..." Oh, shut up! Bo-ring! *Girls calling each other "dude." That wore out its subversive charm about seven years ago. Just call each other "darling" and get on with it.

A New Craft Brewery for New York?

Yesterday, we launched an exciting new beer column here on Fork in the Road. And just a few minutes after I saw a comment that "New York doesn't have craft beer," I came across a project on Kickstarter for a promising new 15-barrel microbrewery. Lauri and Matthew Spitz's work sounds exciting and is ... More >>

The Inimitable Hedda Lettuce Stars in 'What's for Dinner?'

What can you cook with eggs, milk and a high heeled shoe? Drag queen and comedian Hedda Lettuce figures it out in this charming video for a new Kickstarter project. The iPhone app, What's for Dinner, will suggest recipes to cook based on your ingredient list, no matter how measly. The project has a ... More >>

Blogroll Gazette: Vegan Test, Disco Robot Waiters

In food blogs this week: Well devises a test to see if you can make it as a vegan. Paleofuture at the Smithsonian looks at the disco robot waiters of 1980s Pasadena. At Food Republic: Why cocktail competitions suck.

Long Island City Clubhouse Is Getting Serious About Comedy

​Let's face it -- Long Island City is just way cooler than your typical go-to trendy neighborhoods in New York City. It's got that great combo of not-yet-too-gentrified, still-a-safe-place-to-chill, not-as-hipster-as-Williamsburg, and very-friggin'-close-to-Manhattan-AND-Brooklyn. At the hea ... More >>

Michael Vignola 'In' at Strip House

Michael Vignola has decided to trade Gravy's fare for a new post at Strip House. No word who's taking his old job at the Flatiron Southern restaurant. [Grub Street]

10,000 Harmonicas to Occupy Wall Street, Maybe

​Today the New York Post goes all out expressing how truly over the Occupy Wall Street Movement it is. The criminals and their crimes! The drumming and the tambourines! Oh horrible most horrible! Just imagine what the Post will say when they get word of a project that would put 10,000 harmoni ... More >>

Occupy! Gazette Flooding the Occupy Wall Street Print Media Zone

Kickstarter​Because the Occupied Wall Street Journal apparently doesn't fill the print media needs of the movement, n 1 is following up their personals ads with the Occupy! Gazette. According to the project's Kickstarter, n 1 recruited Astra Taylor, the documentary filmmaker who made Zizek! an ... More >>

'Occupy Wall Street Journal' Surpasses Kickstarter Goal

Occupy Wall Street is starting to look less like an extended camping trip (kind of): It now has a mailing address, an info line, and it will soon have its own newspaper. The Occupy Wall Street Journal has surpassed its $12,000 fundraising goal on Kickstarter and looks like it might actually be a rea ... More >>

Silent Barn Raises $40,595, Puts Out Call For Volunteers

​The Silent Barn's Kickstarter campaign has officially been deemed a success, with the formerly-in-Ridgewood venue/performance space/art space/etc. ready to use the $40,595 it raised through the peer-to-peer fundraising program (as well as money from benefit shows and other initiatives) to sta ... More >>

Should Journalists Make Kickstarter Donations? We Ask Randy Cohen, The (Original) Ethicist and Kickstarter User

Our man Randy Cohen​It's been six months since the New York Times Magazine replaced Randy Cohen, the four-time Emmy Award winner who wrote the Ethicist column for 12 years and made the rounds as a congenial moral-principle purveyor everywhere from NPR to Oprah. Since his winter departure, the ... More >>

Silent Barn Reaches Its Fundraising Goal; 'Now We Can Focus On Finding A New Space'

Maks Suski​The now-shuttered Ridgewood venue Silent Barn has been raising funds for its rebuilding and relocation since it was burglarized in July. Silent Barn's organizers took their campaign to the peer-to-peer patronage site Kickstarter, which requires people raising money through its site ... More >>

Going Silent: The Last Party At Silent Barn

Maks Suski​ "This is totally normal," G. Lucas Crane says as he drags an amp and a box full of cassettes into his former kitchen. The experimental musician (and occasional tape manipulator for Woods) studies the giant plastic balls hanging from the ceiling, which change color as people talk, a ... More >>

The Classical Talks: The Voice Interviews the Writers Behind the New Sports Site

​While the coming new sports site, The Classical, feels to us an awful lot like what people hoped Grantland would be, the writers involved tell the Voice they see it as more like a sports version of the Awl. Either way, sports are one of the topics that eat up a lot of time but remain immune t ... More >>

New York City Scratch-N-Sniff Book Will Happen, Be Smelly

​Because we like our smells to come in books instead of from people or street corners (do we? DO WE?), or maybe because this is kind of a great gift to give some non- or former New Yorker, we're happy to write that the scratch-n-sniff book we wrote about last month has been fully funded by Kic ... More >>

9/11 Augmented Reality App Lets You Put the Twin Towers Anywhere You Remember Them

​Brian August is a guy who believes in stories. For nearly 10 years, he has been mulling the creation of 110 Stories, a project that would bring together the collective memories of anyone who'd ever gazed out upon the World Trade Center from as far away as Jersey and Connecticut, as well as fr ... More >>

Monster Island Has Announced The Date Of Its Farewell Block Party

Rob HarvillaBehind Oneida as they played the 2010 installment of the Block Party.​The Williamsburg multi-headed hydra that is Monster Island—home to, as they note, "Live With Animals, Secret Project Robot Art Space, Kayrock Screenprinting, Todd P. Practice Spaces, Mollusk Surf Shop, Onei ... More >>

Silent Barn Is Already Halfway Toward Its $40,000 Fundraising Goal

24-ish hours after launching the Kickstarter campaign to help rebuild and replace the equipment that was lost or damaged during Saturday night's burglary, the Ridgewood DIY venue Silent Barn has already raised more than $20,000 of the $40,000 it says it needs to rebuild. Two people have even pledge ... More >>

Silent Barn Burglarized; Ridgewood Venue Organizes Fundraising Campaign

Mike WolfJooklo Duo at Silent Barn in June. ​ On Saturday night, thieves broke into the Ridgewood performance space Silent Barn and destroyed or removed an estimated $15,000 worth of equipment. The theft occurred just one day after local police stopped a performance featuring Steve Moore of Zo ... More >>

Littleneck Promises to Bring Brooklyn Its "First and Only Classic New England-Style Seafood Shack"

Littleneck, or a rendering thereof.​While the Gowanus doesn't exactly summon comparisons to Cape Cod, Aaron Lefkove is planning to make its dining options a wee bit more evocative of the New England shore.

Q&A: Mason Jar Music's Dan Knobler And Jon Seale On Finding Space In New York And Rearranging Their Collaborators' Work

by Jeff Giles We tend to think of recording technology in terms of linear progress—from Alan Lomax lugging 150 pounds of equipment around the world, to plush professional studios like the Hit Factory and the Record Plant capturing rock history, to the Pro Tools-fueled rise of the home studio ... More >>

Rob Gorski Bought Rabbit Island, Hopes to Turn It Into Mini-Manhattan Artist Utopia

We have to go back​On jury duty one day last year, New Yorker Rob Gorski, who lives on the Lower East Side, found an island for sale on Craigslist. The 91 acres in Lake Superior three miles north of Michigan are called Rabbit Island and Gorski purchased the land with a plan, which has since bl ... More >>

Dig Deep: Three More Foodie Kickstarter Campaigns in NYC

robin_24/flickrBananas for Art for money.​Diner's Journal reports on a new Kickstarter campaign for Veggie Island, the organic produce stand that opened last summer next to Rockaway Taco in Queens. This year, they hope to raise $15,000 to build a garden, greenhouse, and composting facility nea ... More >>

Q & A: Chunklet's Henry Owings On The Indie Cred Test, Not Being A Hipster, And Paying Tribute To Jerry Fuchs

Ian Cone​The 100 Biggest Assholes in Rock Issue, The Shit List Issue, The Overrated, The Rock Bible--Chunklet mastermind Henry Owings redefined the 'zine aesthetic with his deliciously wisecracking, ass-chewing tongue, dumping on everyone and their mother while taking a little bit of time to e ... More >>

Michelle Obama Writing a Healthy Food Book; Coffee The Musical Coming to Broadway

​Vikram Chatwal is being sued by the group that owns such Meatpacking spots as Abe & Arthur's over the deal he had allegedly promised them to run hospitality operations for his forthcoming Downtown Dream Hotel, which he later gave to the group that owns Marquee. [NY Post] Michelle Obama will ... More >>

What Happens When's John Fraser on Using Restaurants to Create Communities and Why His New Spot Isn't a Pop-Up

Emilie BaltzWhat happens when John Fraser's in the kitchen? Deliciousness. ​Dovetail chef John Fraser's newest project, What Happens When, isn't quite like any restaurant that's existed before. Namely because the "temporary restaurant installation" changes its whole concept and menu every mon ... More >>

Matthew Tilden Relaunches D.O.U.G.H. Campaign with Help from Food Curated

There's A Lot of Strength in a Loaf of Bread: SCRATCHbread's DOUGH Campaign from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo. Matthew Tilden announced his D.O.U.G.H. campaign on Kickstarter to raise funds for his Bed-Stuy bakery this past summer. At the time, he was hoping to raise $25,000 by September 2 for essentials l ... More >>

Donate To globalFEST 2011's Kickstarter Fund

Tanya Tagaq wailing at globalFEST 2009. Pic by Santiago Felipe.​The one-night, three-stage, internationally ambitious blowout known as globalFEST has been immeasurably brightening music lovers' Januaries for seven years now, an omnivorous annual fete pulling in everyone from Bollyrock stars to ... More >>

Week in Review: Bootcut Shorts

May we all look this relaxed in this situation. Photo by Sam Horine.​In the week the words "Kanye West" became synonymous with social media, the rapper performed at Facebook while dissing Twitter, performed at Twitter while dissing his mother's old boyfriends, then joined Twitter, a thing he t ... More >>

Week in Review: Taking Our Talents To South Beach

Sam Horine​In the week we put the worst band name in New York to a vote (Phil and the Osophers, you are no match for Freelance Whales), we watched as LeBron James put his own name in as the most hated in New York, while Kanye West stood proudly at his side. The last place West was seen before ... More >>