Mike Diamond and his wife Tamra Davis attended the Food Bank of New York City's Can-Do Awards Dinner last night (April 25) in New York. The event, which was held at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers, recognizes those people who have contributed to the success of the food bank and serves as a fundraiser for the goodwill organization. Mike and Tamra hobnobbed at the dinner with the likes of Q Tip, Patti Smith, Helena Christensen, Jimmy Fallon, Jann Wenner, Chris Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Michael Stipe.

Last year, Mike and his son Davis designed a lunchbox for the food bank's charity auction.

Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! will have its UK premiere at the London Film Festival. The film will be shown at the National Film Theatre on June 2, 2006.

File this one under "Whoop-dee-doo" (from Gawker.com):



Because the restaurant is located in the general vicinity of the Beastie Boys' studio, you might imagine that the two were dining after working hard on recording new material with their non-dining bandmate. You might also imagine that Mike ate veal meatballs with his meal. In both cases, I'd say your imagination is wild.

The Beastie Boys' old working space in Atwater Village is for sale (expired posting). For a mere $5 million, you can own the 5,000 square feet Glendale Boulevard address, formerly known as G-Son Studio.

News of the property's availability was originally posted at Craigslist:

$5001500 / 5000ft²
Creative office space in famed Beastie Boys headquartes.

Newly renovatied creative office space available in legendary office building, previous Beastie Boys/Grand Royale headquarters. Multiple spacious units of varying size and cost available. Offices/Editing/Sound booths perfect for Film/TV/Music/Apparel/Graphic design company. Located in hip Atwater Village, adjacent to Silver Lake, restaurants, shopping, and parking. Call 323-953-3543 for information and appointment. Available May 1.

Take a looksie at the place before buying.

Collector completists may want to pick up Lady Sovereign's new EP Blah Blah (Island Records), which was released yesterday (April 17). It includes a remix by Adrock, titled "A Little Bit of Shhh (Smallstars Remix)." The same remix was previously released on Lady Sovereign's first U.S. EP Vertically Challenged (Chocolate Industries) last fall.

Details about the dvd release of Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! are beginning to emerge on retail sales sites. Amazon.co.uk lists a July 17 release date for a Region 2 (PAL) dvd; meanwhile, Amazon.com reports a July 25 release date for the Region 1 (NTSC) dvd and a list price of $29.99.

The extras that will be included on the dvd are:

A Day in the Life of Nathanial Hörnblowér short

Alternative audio and camera angles

Pageant Tour shout-outs and "bits"

BBQ short film  (A cameraman outcooks the tour manager)

Photo gallery

Since the Beastie Boys have made acapella versions of their songs available for download on their web site, the number of fan remixes posted to the Beastie Boys Message Board has skyrocketed. It can be a daunting task to check out even a small percent of the remixes. Mixtapeshow.net, a site that claims to offer the "best hip-hop/rap podcast on the internet," has done the dirty work of listening to and picking out the best of the remixes. The findings are available in a recent podcast, which can be downloaded here (click on the pic of the Beastie Boys).

Last month I uploaded several video clips from the unauthorized bootleg recording of the Beastie Boys' Madison Square Garden show to the Beastie Boys Youtube.com group. I have added another five video clips from that recording to the group, including "Posse in Effect," which was cut from the authorized bootleg (i.e., Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!) for reasons unknown.

Posse in Effect
Pass the Mic
Shake Your Rump
MMM Interlude
Sabrosajavascript:void(0)

Independent music magazine Paste is asking readers to chose who their top 20 living songwriters are in a online poll. Among the artists Paste deemed worthy of listing on the poll are the Beastie Boys. So go vote from them if they're tops with you. The results of the poll will be published in the magazine's June/July Issue.

Money Mark features on two tracks on Show Your Bones, the new album from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. You can hear Mark's keyboarding skills on the tracks "Fancy" and "Phenomena."

Recommended.

Mike D is among the photographed subjects on display in Ari Marcopoulos' first Australian solo exhibition, "Under the Penalty of Perjury." The free exhibition is housed at Someday Gallery (Curtin House, 252 Swanston St.) in Melbourne until April 23.

Prior to the release of Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!, fans got to feast on a banquet of articles about the film and interviews with the band. Now that the hoopla surrounding the release of the film is over, fans will have to be satisified with these leftovers:

• An interview with Adam Yauch at IGN.com (It's very similar to other articles, but includes Yauch's reminiscing of sneaking into concerts.)


• Another interview with Yauch by Wave Magazine. (I don't get the "Fade to Wack" title, but whatever.)


• An interview with Yauch by the Orange County Register (This one is probably the most interesting article of the bunch because the interviewer gets Yauch talking about music.)


• An interview with the band at the Boston Globe

A mural of Mike D painted on the wall of a home outside Sydney, Australia, has sparked a debate about censorship. The city council of Wentworth Falls has ordered the mural to be painted over, after receiving a single complaint about it. The artist responsible for the mural is questioning if the council should dictate what may be painted on private property and asking what the public thinks on the subject. Voice your opinion on the matter at an online poll.

From Gawker.com comes this sighting of a Beastie Boy:



The sighting might be interesting if it included any details, like Mike was wearing a dress or carrying a monkey.

With the location of the sighting not being all that far from the Beastie Boys' Batcave, one might assume that Mike was -- dare I hope and say it? -- working. What he might be working on is the million dollar question. Perhaps he is preparing for his tour of bakeries, where he will be presenting his multi-denomination non-dairy creamer?

"...it’s very similar to the way I like to work on music videos, or we work on music. We just kinda play around with stuff, and if it sounds right and looks right, then that’s good."
--Adam Yauch, on editing Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!

The Boston Phoenix scored an interview with Mr. Yauch, who is ever-so-serious these days. The transcript of the journalist's conversation with Yauch is more interesting to read than the final article. (If you can find the audio link referenced in the transcript, I'll mail you an Awesome promo postcard.)

E! Online offers a more light-hearted interview with Yauch, who explains Ben Stiller's appearance in the film.

For the completists out there, a less interesting interview with Yauch can be found at MadBlast, and a barely readable interview with the band is located at Dish Magazine.

Attending the Wisconsin Film Festival has put me behind on reviewing press. Much of the press about the Beastie Boys circulating now is repetitive, with very little new information being revealed. Still, repetitive press is better than no press. Right?

If you're interested in what Adam Horovitz loves about Minneapolis and his view on the band's status today, check out The Star Tribune's interview with the band while they were in Austin, Texas, for South by Southwest.

"We've reached a point where we're kind of in the category of 'Catcher in the Rye' or 'On the Road.' At a certain age, you're just supposed to listen to us. A guy who listened to us when he was 16 passes our CD along to his kid brother when he's 16, that sort of thing."

The Guardian also spoke to the Beastie Boys at South by Southwest, and the result is a rather dry but intelligent write-up about the film. Perhaps the most interesting detail in this article is the band are currently working on "fine extra bits" for the dvd release of Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!

The Plain Dealer has a short but worthwhile interview with the band.

Very few bands in this business stay together for any length of time. How do you make it work?
Ad-rock: It's difficult.
Mike D: It's trying. It's hard on me because Adam is abusive to me. I got to hand him a beating once in a while.
MCA: And it's hard for me to watch that. It's hard for me to watch the pain between these two.

If you're looking for additional laughs, read Entertainment Weekly's interview with the band, in which it confuses "Time to Get Ill" with "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" (which was not performed at the show that was filmed).

Finally, if you're up for the challenge of interpreting nonsense, read a transcript of the Beastie Boys Q&A after the New York premiere of Awesome. The transcriber does not clearly identify who says what (who the hell is B?!), but if you know the personalities, you should be able to figure it out.

Close to one thousand filmgoers, including lil ol' me, filled the Orpheum Theater in downtown Madison last Thursday (March 30) for the screening of Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! The Beastie Boys concert film helped kicked off the Wisconsin Film Festival, a four-day event of film screenings and talks about films and filmmaking.

After the screening of the Beastie Boys film, I spoke to some people in the audience and asked them to share their opinions of the film on camera. You can watch the footage at the Beastie Boys Youtube.com group. If you don't have the patience to watch the footage, you can look at several photos from the screening at The Isthmus' web site.