SIMPLE TOWN
Simple Town is a New York City-based comedy group comprised of Will Niedmann, Felipe Di Poi Tamargo, Sam Lanier, Caroline Yost, and Ian Faria. They began as an advertisement for a bank, but these days Simple Town puts on live sketch shows + produces genius shorts like Scary Car & La Piscina. Their surreal & grotesque style has led to praise from Vulture and Short of the Week, and theyāve been featured on Comedy Central, [Adult Swim]'s Smalls, and Off The Air. Theyāre currently working on their debut feature film, but in the meantime you can catch their monthly sketch show at Union Hall or head to Roxy Cinema on April 25th for a round-up of their video work. Lucky for us, Simple Town are here to tell us what theyāre into.
Apr 4, 2024 BY
@simpleš
People say youāre supposed to do it sitting in silence but you can actually meditate anywhere and at any time. All you have to do is place your attention on an āobjectā (breath, soundscape, foot on ground, ass in chair, tree in wind) and observe what is happening now. When you notice thoughts, feelings, sensations have entered the landscape of your mind, acknowledge them and non-judgmentally return your attention to the object. Youāre not doing it wrong :)
Apr 4, 2024
š§
The strap of my dress snapped a few years ago and then in minutes I sewed it back on and felt a satisfaction so profound that it had to be Ancient and Just. If you donāt know how to mend it, someone doesā¦ COBBLERS are REAL!!!!! Iāve seen them with my eyes and they have re-birthed my shoes like Gods on Earth. Mass consumption has us addicted to buying and discarding but I highly recommend repairing your shit - relationships too! My uncle who doesnāt shut up once told me that ālife is all about maintenanceā (genius) so I forgave him for being the way that he is!
š½
Specifically episodes 38-42 on Eilish Poe and if those are too scary, start with episodes 20-23 on The Black Widow and Ball of Light. If you are too skeptical and need a primer, check out the book Phenomena by Annie Jacobsen about how the US government secretly researched the āsupernaturalā for years. Your mind will be opened and over time you may open and open until you are so open that you too receive insights from the Truth beyond.
Apr 4, 2024
š§š»š§š»āāļø
Our friends Julia and Peter make really cutting edge theater in New York that people should go see. Theyāve been written up in the New York Times and the New Yorker, but I really feel like they deserve way more heat in the scene. It often takes the form of strange monologues delivered straight to the audience that feel like theyāre about to lock the doors of the theater and not let anybody out. You can watch a recording of their play āProtec/ Attacā on Youtube.
Apr 4, 2024
š
Peter Capusotto is an Argentinean comedian who was active in the 90ās and 2000ās. Over there heās very well known. Sometime in the 2000ās he had a sketch comedy radio show, and the sketches he had on that show are really really funny. But itās all in spanish.
šø
Thereās a video of Dave Grohl singing āMy Heroā acoustic on Howard Stern and Iāve watched it one million times. I think itās because it gives me a strong nostalgic feeling. Iāve memorized Howard asking Dave whether the song is about Kurt Cobain, and Dave Grohl saying āItās just about heroes who are regular,ā and then Robin saying she thinks itās about Kurt Cobain, and then Dave Grohl being like āTo me itās more about when heroes are regular.ā Something comforting about it.
Apr 4, 2024
š¤«
I used to feel that comedy needed to be really fast and something always needed to be happening. But recently Iāve been thinking more about stillness and silence. On stage, for instance, I try to find moments to stay as still as possible, so that any time I move, the audience notices it. Being perfectly still and silent (but relaxed) after delivering a joke is very funny: it shows you are committing.
š¦š„
Every summer I get mosquitos in my room that keep me up. This doesnāt seem to happen to anyone else I know, which confuses me. Anyways, after trying spiral candles and spraying myself with Off before bed (which you should absolutely not do), I figured out the mosquito net. It hangs from my ceiling, and covers my bed when I go to sleep. My friends think itās funny, but itās very effective, and I think it even looks kind of erotic.
š¦
I love these things. You can get some really powerful ones online now. Military grade even. Makes you feel like a soldier or a spy. Good for pointing at your girlfriend in the dark.
š
If you have to go to a DMV in New York, go to this one. People are nice and no one is there. Donāt go on Monday or Friday though.
Apr 4, 2024
š
Been thinking a lot about this movie. I love Martin Lawrence, and this is a great send up of cop culture. Would love to make a movie as funny and dumb as this some day.
Apr 4, 2024
š·
It is possible to get from the mid 30s to Central Park without walking up a single avenue, by snooping through the office buildings and parking garages on most blocks. This is according to my dad who remembers once reading an article where someone did this. Weāve tried ourselves and made it 80% of the way - the closer you get to Central Park the more moxy is required, exiting through hotel kitchens etc.
āļø
This year I discovered Jordan Fish and Ray Tintoriās podcast To the White Sea, in which they read an unproduced Coen brothers screenplay and talk about filmmaking with various guests. Jordan and Ray manage to be obsessive in detail without ever sounding pretentious, and Iāve learned a lot from the research they bring to the show. They host screenings at Dunkunsthalle on Fulton Street that are equally enlightening, look out for their next one in 2024.
Apr 4, 2024
šļø
Robert Moses State Park is open in the winter, and if you go on a weekday youāll probably have the entire beach to yourself and a few fishermen. Great for a contemplative walk wherein you mull things over spiritually. Towards sunset, can start to feel like youāve reached the end of the earth and are about the meet God. Bring a blanket, some grapes and your copy of The Power Broker.
š„
The best movie theater in New York seats 35. See a movie here you know nothing about and you will be inspired. For me most recently it was a screening of Dave Wascavageās Suburban Sasquatch. Simple Town has been lucky enough to play videos here twice. The first night was packed, the second night we sold two tickets, and both nights were perfect.
šµš»
This is my favorite writer. She grew up in Brighton Beach going to socialist preschool and then when she was older, as a mother, she wrote stories on receipts and scraps of paper, keeping them in her apron and then taping them together. She cared a lot about politics and life in the city, and she was always funny. The way she reads aloud is amazing, and there is a good recording of one of her classic stories here. You will notice it is me who uploaded it, two years ago. I had to learn how to āripā audio.
Apr 4, 2024
š„
Iāve just been listening to this album a lot. It rocks. Smart gloomy punk. I might just leave it at that. 100% hitville.
Apr 4, 2024
š¦
If you go to Herbert Von King park in Brooklyn, there is a droopy blue-ish pine tree by the southeast entrance, across from the deli and the police station. There is almost always a woodpecker there, and itās called a yellow-bellied sapsucker. Itās not super rare or anything, but who cares. Itās beautiful, and it drills neat rows of holes into the tree. I have seen it there for about three years now. Reliably, you could get a coffee or a CBD seltzer, and go look at this cool bird.
š¦
This book was recommended to me by the discerning Chris Gabriel who makes videos under the name Meme Analysis. Itās a pulpy ānonfictionā account of Keelās investigation into eyewitness reports of the mothman in the late 1960s. Stories of the unexplained (ghosts, visions, conspiracies) are best when they play on the stranger-than-fiction truths of real life. Whether or not the events in this book actually happened, Keelās stories are so unique and eerie in their specificity that the truth they suggest is undeniable: āIf there is a universal mind, must it be sane?ā Must it???
Apr 4, 2024
š¦«
This five part video series comes from a YouTube channel called āNew England Forests.ā Itās awesome. The guy films, edits, and narrates everything himself. Heās a total gearhead, so the footage is stunning, but I donāt think he always records audio, so he will sometimes use these canned, lowres sfx. That being said, he seems to witness every living thing that goes on at the pond, because itās not just about beavers - itās about the whole ecosystem that forms when a stream gets turned into a pond. You will learn a lot about ecology, and also about one guyās ability to really make something happen with his spare time.
Apr 4, 2024
Apr 4, 2024