that's exactly what i did with my pocket of pretty green at williamsburg's turkey's nest bar sunday after another lovely day of big sunglasses and short-shorts at mccarren pool. you know you're in a special part of the world when you can get a 32 oz coors light for $3 but have to pay $.50 per song on a kinda-crappy jukebox. still, we saved enough cash on the coors to get some of the regulars dancing and singing along with david bowie, tom tom club and the supremes. (next time you've been standing at a jukebox too long making up your mind, just play 'rebel, rebel' and be done with it.) anyway, this was after having the pleasure of hearing mark ronson warm up the cool crowd with some of the songs off his new album, "version", which released in the US today. it's an album of covers. in his words (via mtv.com): As a DJ, sometimes you get bored," Ronson said. "You make remixes, mash-ups. But I'm a big music nerd, so I was like, 'Let's just do whole covers from scratch!'"

i like the way he thinks. here's the new 'pretty green' as loosened up, funky and trippy, by ronson and brooklyn-based santogold.here's the original by the jam:here, you can hear the rest of the album including covers of britney spears, the smiths, the charlatans, radiohead, the zutons, etc by the likes of amy winehouse, lily allen, etc. the smiths cover, "stop me" sung by daniel merriweather, is a real tearjerker.- mark ronson's playing the highline ballroom for his release party tomorrow, wed jul 11 at 9, with a live band and 'very special guests' - advance tix are sold out but day-of tickets should be available at the door. he's also djing the after-party at the club loveheadlining mccarren was austin band the octopus project. it had been a while since i'd seen their cute hair-dos and i forgot how much i liked their music, too. seeing a theramin played live is always a treat.here's their vid for "music is happiness":a friend questioned whether or not we were in fact at the 'hippest place on the planet' that day in terms of concentration, going by the most universally accepted definition of hip. we pretty much decided that yes, we were. all cynicism aside, though, i like that it's such a big space with room to lounge or roam or dance somewhat near the stage. the slip'n'slide is still calling my name...i should also note quickly that neither fujiya + miyagi friday nor simian mobile disco saturday disappointed at all. hence my morning chat:Q: how was your weekend?A: fabulous. nonstop. sunny. dunno if i'll make it to the pool this sunday. may need to catch up on sleep. but saturday, celebrate bastille day with what i believe to be an all-french lineup at PS1 - be sure to stay for headliner poni hoax.remind me to start posting photos from all this activity.