Last November, Katie and I walked into the Bellhouse to see Bishop Allen and Throw Me the Statue, sure we would be welcomed by some top-quality indie-pop. We instead immediately found ourselves watching what seemed to be a loosely choreographed dance number to some pre-recorded 80’s-style-Caribbean dance music which then morphed into Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).’ No, I’m not exaggerating. That’s pretty much exactly what happened. Don’t believe me?

I got gloss on my lips
A man on my hips
Hold me tighter than my Dereon jeans

Today, we give you another installment of our continuing series, Not Just a Phase, where we’ve asked friends, colleagues, and total strangers to talk about how they came to be vegetarian/vegan. You can read more about it here. And if you’re vegetarian or vegan and want to tell your story, send us an email! But first, check out lauren’s story.

I first went vegetarian when I was really young and I feel like there wasn’t one thing that happened to bring it on, though I am told that when my mom told me what chicken was, I didn’t want to eat it anymore. I think my decision may have actually come about more from seeing cows in the fields and not wanting to break up their families. I don’t think I consciously recognized how much my parent’s divorce impacted me, so I don’t know that I saw the cows and made a connection, but something sunk in that, by eating meat, I would be breaking up a family, and that would be painful and I just didn’t want to do that. As I was the only veg person I knew—and I didn’t even know at the time that a term existed for people who didn’t want to eat animals—I would try to not want to eat meat by picturing a cow not coming home because someone decided to eat him or her. So I stopped eating cows and eventually stopped eating all animals. Eventually, I went vegan in high school when I started learning more about the egg and dairy industry.

Inexplicable creepy girl painting in our shared office bathroom.

Last year, we experienced one of those crazy, only-in-New-York moments. And when I say ‘experienced,’ I mean more that we heard about it happening and then totally regretted not attending in person. That’s how we roll. I think there was a Mad Men marathon on or something. That Don Draper…

BAM‘s kicking off their second Cary Grant retrospective—aptly dubbed Cary Grant 2. As they state on their site, “This sequel to last year’s series presents more films starring the inimitable leading man, whose iconic blend of elegance, comic timing, and flawless physique led Howard Hawks to declare him ‘by so far the best that there isn’t anybody to be compared to him.'” So dapper it up, Dan.

—from NYC’s Francis and the Lights. Go to their site to hear some more excerpts from their forthcoming full-length debut, It’ll Be Better, out later this month.

Trying something new again today with Friday Fave Five Fah, bringing you five of our favorite tracks bound together by a common theme. In this case, we’re celebrating the birth of America with five of our favorite covers of—what else?—Bruce Springsteen songs. Nothing’s more American than the boss, and why not celebrate the fourth with some of the best interpretations of the music he’s given us over the many, many years.

?uestion: How do you put out an innovative new record after acting as the house band for a late night TV show for over a year? With a lot of help, evidently. The Roots’ new record, How I Got Over, out last Tuesday, features Monsters of Folk, the women of Dirty Projectors, and none other than Joanna Newsom, among others. True, Joanna Newsom really only appears as a sample, but it works nonetheless. Like a lot of great hip hop, this week’s Song of the Week, ‘Right On,’ leans heavily on the juxtaposition of rhythmic verse and more melodic breaks, so we’re not really covering a whole lot of new ground here, but that doesn’t make this any less enjoyable. Check it out and, if you like, take a listen to the rest of the new Roots record over at their MySpace page.

As always, dear reader, apologies for the recent radio silence, so to speak. Between work, the onset of summer, and the glories of the World Cup (DONOVAN!), we’ve been stretched thin a bit in the realm of free time. That said, we endeavor to bring many exciting things next week, including a photo shoot piece we’re very excited about that’ll feature one of our favorite companies and clients. In the meantime, we’re happy to bring you another installment of our version of the Veggie Tales, Not Just a Phase (explained in detail here).

In honor of the first day of summer and the countless steamy, beachy days to come, this week’s Song of the Week is brought to you by Major Lazer and La Roux.