My good friends from POOLAID are having a "We are the Pool" video release party tomorrow night at Union Pool. After spending the summer enlightening the masses and informing people how tax dollars are pooly spent, POOLAID has teamed up with Brooklyn-based indy bands, including Nada Surf, The Giraffes and others, to make an homage/spoof of We Are the World for the Poolaid.org campaign.

"WE ARE THE POOL" VIDEO WORLD PREMIERE
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27th
7 - 9pm
UNION POOL, 484 Union Avenue (cross street: Meeker Ave.)

Williamsburg, Brooklyn: Poolaid, a community group dedicated to keeping McCarren Pool open and accessible to everyone, is proud to announce the launch of our new video, "We are the Pool." Starring members of Nada Surf, Maplewood, The Loser's Lounge, Career Club, Breakup Breakdown, The Redcoats are Coming, Naked Highway, and The Giraffes, the video is a loving spoof of the "We are the World" video made in 1984 for USA for Africa. For a full list of cast and credits, click past the jump.

Photo by MFS.

From the Poolaid Press Release... The video is intended to draw attention to the situation with McCarren Pool here in Williamsburg. Poolaid wants to encourage our community to learn more about the pool and to let the Parks Department and our elected officials know what they want done with the pool. We want the pool to be for the people!

McCarren Pool, situated on the Williamsburg/Greenpoint border in McCarren Park, was built in 1936 as a WPA project. After being shut down in the late 1980s, the pool fell into major disrepair.

In 2005 the pool was reopened as a performance venue. A local group, Jelly NYC, put on free shows every Sunday that drew huge crowds. Noemie LaFrance's dance troupe performed the dance pieces Agora and Agora II. Unfortunately, the Parks Department chose to allow Live Nation, a spin-off and business partner of Clear Channel, to put on shows in the park as well. Live Nation then chose to charge $40 for their concerts.

We think a $40 cover charge for a show in a public park is wrong. Deeply wrong. Why is our pool being used to line the pockets of a corporation known for its predatory business practices? Furthermore, what does this mean for the future of the pool? Will some backdoor deal leave our community with a mini-Madison Square Garden and no pool? North Brooklyn is already lacking in park space and public facilities, and our pool should not be for sale.

And we want to go swimming.

Currently, the Parks Department is accepting permit applications for the summer of 2007. Many in the community hope that one day the pool will be a pool again, and Poolaid fully supports that vision. In the meantime, we encourage people to visit our website. www.poolaid.org, to learn more about the pool and the situation, and to use our easy e-activism section to send their opinions to local decision makers.

Poolaid supports the following:

• As long as the pool is a performance venue it should have diverse programming that serves our community.
• Events in the pool should be cheap or free.
• Money from ticketed events at the pool should go to the pool, not to the city general operating fund.
• The pool is for the people! We urge the Parks Department to set up a community committee and have regularly scheduled meetings for discussion of community concerns. We support Parks working with the Open Space Alliance to set up a community committee.
• There should be a clear timeline and a funding plan for turning the pool back into a pool again.
• Community-supported events should get priority to use the facility over national concert promoters. Keep Live Nation and other corporate interests from putting on for-profit events in our pool. No $50 tickets!

We are the Pool cast:

Lionel Richie: Julian Maile (Spray Paint Star)
Kenny Rogers: Aaron Lazar (Giraffes)
Billy Joel: James Sparber (Breakup Breakdown)
Tina Turner: Sy Boccari (Naked Highway)
Michael Jackson: Jay Honstetter (Black Tie Party)
Diana Ross: Allison Langerak (Breakup Breakdown)
Dionne Warwick: Lady T
Willie Nelson: Joe McGinty (Loser's Lounge)
Bruce Springsteen: Ira Eliot (Nada Surf)
Kenny Loggins: Hans Gutknecht (Career Club)
Steve Perry: Mark Rozzo (Maplewood)
Daryl Hall: Tommy Rockstar (Latex Generation)
Huey Lewis: Matthew Caws (Nada Surf)
Kim Carnes: Jessica Skiles (The Redcoats are Coming)
Poolaid Man: Michael Friedman-Schnapp (Poolaid)

Production and Direction by:
Mikki Stim

Editing by:
Surplus and Drayton Hiers, Not An Alternative

Technorati Tags: McCarren Pool, Nada Surf, poolaid, williamsburg