An evening of New Yorkers and their hair.

Stemming from the pod cast recommendation of a friend, I attended a Moth StorySLAM last night. The storytelling evening was hosted at the Nuyorican Poets Café on East 3rd Street in the East Village; a gem of a venue tucked away between avenues B and C.

A Moth StorySLAM is centered on a general topic and provides ten people the chance to tell their theme-related stories. Names are pulled out of a hat and the lucky winners get five minutes to entertain the crowd. Three panels of judges (I’m still confused as to how they’re selected) rate each storyteller and the winner moves on to a future GrandSLAM, which are the source for many of the pod casts. In between the stories and score tallying a hysterically sharp hostess kept the crowd full of laughs and drinking into the night.

Hair was tonight’s theme, and there was certainly no shortage of compelling storytellers. A Louisianan recounted his successful yard sale bargaining for a chest of wigs. A young woman with daddy issues fell for her bald rock climbing partner. There were tales of waxing gone bad and breaking up with and moving on from a childhood 1950’s-style barber. The storytellers brought their experiences alive (or not so much) with vividly entertaining recounts of times won and lost, all for the sake of hair. Negative points for the hipster how dissed the Astor Hair shop I devotedly frequent.

It was my first Moth evening but certainly not my last. If you’re in NYC or plan to be in the near future I highly recommend sitting in one evening. It was fantastic entertainment in the simplest, purest sense of the idea.

Okay, GM - game over.

Announced this morning was General Motors' surprising $6 billion quarterly loss. Why was it surprising? Because analysts predicted a loss of $6.7 billion. Almost a billion dollars better than expectations! Go team!!!

Global sales - down 40% for the quarter. Money borrowed from American tax payers - $15.4 billion. Requesting more - $11.6 billion more. Give me a break.

Stay tuned to the news today because the EXCITING stress tests will be released just in time for the market to tumble faster than kindergartners in gym class.

TGTheDayIsOver - daily edition.

Daily picks from today's reading.

Penn State apparently learned its basketball lesson from last season, adding a team with an RPI less than 1,386 to next year's schedule. [penn live]

Tortoises really are smart if they can survive in the Bronx. [Gothamist]

PSU students in need of beer money will need to find a new way to generate capital this fall. [Daily Collegian]

I would support this being passed by Congress. [Dealbreaker]

This cannot possibly end well for NYPD. [NY1]

Daily dose of Hump Day goodness.

TGIFriday's switching to $5 sammys and salads. The good news? They're full portions. The bad news? It's TGIFriday's. [USAT via Grub Street]

I might be one of two New Yorkers that doesn't love Porchetta's pork sandwich. [Midtown Lunch]

Quite possibly the coolest subway read of the year. [Pentagram via Curbed]

Daily readings from inside the cube.

Apparently the Yankees accountant thinks $1,250 is the recession-friendly value of the new stadium's best seats. [NYP]

This swine flu just won't go away. [Gothamist]

The music industry wins a $7,000 music piracy lawsuit, loses money on lawyer fees. [NYT]

Celeb Twitter approval matrix. [NYMag]

Only in Staten Island. [Gothamist]

Cheers to the hump being here.

Almost Totally Famous!

It might have taken weeks, but the quote I posted here finally got published on Overheard in New York. Official quotage here.

Bam. Little kid roasted.

Links

Five restaurants opening this week, four of them in the East Village. [Grub]

With the exception of vacant luxury condos, this is going to be AWESOME. [Curbed]

Water jugs keeping One Madison from tipping over? No thanks. [NYTimes]

I understand that the economy is in the toilet, but do you really want to live in one too? [Curbed]

Finally, this is why white guys shouldn't dunk the rock.