DOC’S HOLIDAY
Burlesque host launches a fun sci-fi series
Welcome aboard: A new intergalactic web series set aboard a go-go powered spaceship
will touch down at the Way Station in Prospect Heights for its launch party on Feb. 27.
Doc Wasabassco
COURIER L 62 IFE, FEB, 22-28, 2019 24-7
The best reads
— handpicked by
some of the best
Bklyn bookstores
Word’s picks: “How Democracies Die,”
by Steven Levitsky
As someone who is
o is
and
can’t
the
der,
e?”
ow
es
o
a
both a political science sociology major, I help but look around the
United States and wonder,
“How did we get here?”
Steven Levitsky’s “How
Democracies Die” gives
an in-depth look as to
what appears to be a
common thread appearing
across dying democracies
worldwide, as
fascism seems to take
hold. But there is hope
— we have recognized the
he
symptoms, we have identified ntified the the sickness
sickness,
and now we can plan how best to heal our dying democracies
before we lose our rights.
— Yadira Aguiar, Word 126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in
Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbookstores.com .
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick:
“The New Me,” by Halle Butler
This paperback original
iginal
misvein
is bleak, neurotic, and misanthropic,
in a similar vein
and
essa
ntly
ain
nd
cs
y
y
as “My Year of Rest Relaxation,” by Ottessa
Moshfegh. It diligently
transcribes the main
character’s anxieties and
captures office politics
and tensions in a very
mundane but funny
way. I never knew
paper shredding could
generate so much
drama.
— Matt Stowe,
686
Elli tt Pl d S
Greenlight Bookstore Fulton St. between S. Elliott Place and S.
Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.
greenlightbookstore.com .
Community Bookstore’s pick:
“Figuring,” by Maria Popova
From the creator of the
f the
rainan
incredible website brainpickings.
org comes an
nterour
extended riff on love, interconnectedness,
and our
anes
collective search for meaning.
“Figuring” weaves
ae
together capsule biographies
of luminaries like
Johannes Kepler and
Rachel Carson with lyrical
d
ruminations on the
nature of being.
— Samuel Partal,
Community Bookstore
43 Seventh Ave. between
Carroll Street and Garfield eld Place Place in in Park
Park
Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.commu nityb ookst ore.net .
By Julianne Cuba He’s having a blast-off!
A new intergalactic
web series filled with alien
babes and goofy monsters will touch
down at the Way Station in Prospect
Heights for its launch party on Feb.
27. The creator and star of “Outer
Space with Doc Wasabassco,” who
started working on the silly sci-fi
variety show last summer, says it has
been a joy to bring life to a project
that is close to his heart.
“This is made entirely of all of the
things I love, that friends I love have
in common,” said the Park Slope
performer. “This is really a labor of
love project — things that crack us
up and things that amuse us, which
is very freeing.”
Wasabassco is best known for the
elaborate , themed burlesque shows
that he produced through his company
Wasabassco Burlesque, but said
that after 15 years of being a nightlife
impresario, it was time to move on to
a more rewarding project.
“It’s harder and harder to get younger
demographics spending money to
come out. It was no longer as viable to
run the kind of shows I was running
and this project is more of a joyful
thing, just for fun,” he said.
Wasabassco and his team have
already filmed five episodes of “Outer
Space,” two of which are now available
on Youtube . The show is set
aboard a go-go powered spaceship
called the Dorothy Fontana — named
for a writer on the original “Star Trek”
series — and has a retro vibe that
evokes that series without trying to
copy it, said Wasabassco.
“The aesthetic is 1960s, ’70s, so
it’s sort of that aesthetic meets science
fiction. We’re not pretending to be
Star Trek,” he said.
The launch party will feature
screenings of videos from the web
series, themed cocktails, go-go dancers,
a space dating booth, and a chance
to interact with Wasabassco’s character
“Captain Doc,” he said.
“We’ll have a video dating booth
reality shows, where people go in
and create dating profiles in character,
and we will do a question and
answer, which I will do in character,”
Wasabassco said.
The Way Station, known to science
fiction fans as “the Dr. Who
bar” because of its decorative time
machine, is the perfect place to celebrate
the show, which features a
recurring segment about an everchanging
character named “Professor
Whom,” said Wasabassco.
“The Way Station has a huge science
fiction following,” he said.
“Outer Space” launch party at
the Way Station 683 Washington
Ave. between Prospect and St. Marks
places in Prospect Heights, (347)
627–4949, www.thewaystationbk.
com. Feb. 27 at 7 pm. Free.
By Colin Mixson This horn player is blowing up!
A Williamsburg pop artist
will host an extravaganza of
live performances, including dancing,
drag, a brass band, and other acts at
Freehold on Feb. 22, as part of his
quest to reinvent the traditional music
concert and throw the ultimate party.
“To be frank, I’ve been pretty bored
with the live-music experience, which
is this routine everybody already
knows,” said Spencer Ludwig. “Instead
of saying ‘Come see my band,’ I’m
saying, ‘Come to my party.’ ”
The Los Angeles–born horn player,
who trumpeted for indie rock band
Capital Cities before going solo in
2015, expressed disdain for the standard
concert format — the opening act
you’ve never heard of, the uneventful
wait for the headliner to start — scorning
the steady procession of bands as a
“dry, mundane experience.”
But Ludwig has a remedy he calls
“Le Trumpet,” a four-hour bonanza of
live acts the artist curated around the
impulse to have people let their hair
down and paint the town red.
“All of this reflects the energy and
message of my music, and the feel of
my music is straight up party time,”
Ludwig boasted.
The trumpeter promises drag
queens from California, a contortionist
on the bar, and a New Orleans–
style brass band amongst acts that will
spring up suddenly from the crowd,
and then vanish into the revelry as
another performance takes shape on
the other side of the venue.
“Every performance leads into the
next one,” said Ludwig. “After my performance,
you think it’s over, the DJ
starts spinning, and out of nowhere the
drag queens start performing!”
This Friday’s show is part of his
five-month residency at Williamsburg’s
Freehold restaurant, where he throws a
party on the last Friday of every month
Around the horn: Trumpet-playing pop
artist Spencer Ludwig hosts a party on
the last Friday of every month as part of
his residency at Freehold in Williamsburg.
Citizen Kane Wayne
until May, after which he hopes to take
the curated party concept he developed
in Brooklyn and share it with the rest
of the country.
“The idea is to take this concept
on the road, I would love to be able
to curate a tour experience, so that it’s
not just, ‘I’m playing in Atlanta, this
band’s opening, you know the drill,’ ”
said Ludwig. “I want it to be a party.”
“Le Trumpet” at Freehold
Brooklyn 45 S. Third St. between Kent
and Wythe avenues in Williamsburg,
(718) 388–7591, www.freeholdbrooklyn.
com. Feb. 22 at 9 pm. Free.
Prince of party
/www.freeholdbrook-lyn.com
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.commu
/www.thewaystationbk
/www.freeholdbrook-lyn.com
/www.wordbookstores.com
/www.freeholdbrook-lyn.com
/www.wordbookstores.com
/greenlightbookstore.com
/www.commu
/ore.net
/www.thewaystationbk