Walk The Sis Lou…

Well, after a very busy week finishing the NBA Finals promos, I found myself at John’s.

I didn’t feel like going to the Walkmen concert I had tickets to, and almost didn’t make it, only to have josh call me back and remind me that I probably did not, in retrospective truth, want to miss this. So he was right, and I made the trek all the way back down.

And hit up what ended up being a 180 from the Pinback concert, a terrific showing by this genre twisting band.

Is it nouveau Dylan? angst rock? Marichi fusion? Who needs labels when its all good.

You know what im saying.

Just solid tight performance.

A show that left us both speechless. And, as I was taking some video with my still cam (the second song I took that night) a bouncer almost ripped my hand off as he yanked the camera away. He was going to kick me out, and I tried to slip the canon back in its sheath only to have him tighten the deathgrip on my thumb. “listen buddy, be a man about this, we have to delete the video.” I understood that I did not want to fuck with this 300 pound behemoth, and I actually erased both songs. I maybe could have gotten away with erasing just one, but he let go of my hand in an honor testing way and I am not one to disappoint when it comes to these sorts of stepping up to be honest sort of things. When i showed him that respect, he allowed me to keep my camera and stay till the end of the show. so in a way, its a win win.

Then, in the midst of trying to get ready for a ten day workathon in Prague, Louie came to town (he’s mixing and mastering the new album), so I had to fit him in a tight schedule at the office.

Fortunately he came up to the PS and I got to show off the dope digs, even catching ourselves in full empiric glory.

At night, we met up with even more stephens’.

And though lou had to go to  meet his girl,

It was fun to chill linder’s style and catch up with old goings on.

So now, off to Prague.

I don’t know how the internet will be out there, so it might be a bit until I come back with the dope Czech post. The only rightful way to leave you, I guess, is with the two awesome buildings that frame my work world.

We Are The Champions...

I don't know where he found it, but editor Maury told me about the NYC Bear and Moustache Championships. I almost chickened out, but registered at the last minute, only to not pay my 25 dollars fearing i was too late. But then, in a deus ex machina email, i was told to be at the Knitting Factory at 6pm and i could pay them there. a bit giddy with nerves, i decided this was a NY opportunity i just could not miss (with alot of prodding from jenna, thnx babe) so i left work early and got into competition form. I went from this.

Through this.

Finally settling on this for the race of the most beautiful moustache this side of the pond.

Don't i look ready?

Once there, i signed in and got my dope tshirt, and started sizing up the competition. and when i finally had the balls to just go talk to some of these peeps i realized this was more about the comeraderie than the prizes. everyone was eager to chat, and more than willing to pose for some blogging. its about showing off what god gave us. i mean, this guy on the right said he'd only been growing this since july. he was all like "i finally found something i'm inately good at."

Seeing those two i knew that the beard competition would be a bit intese, but eyeing this roadie, i knew i wasn't totally beat in moustaches.

Until i met three time world champ, Heinz. God, just incredible, truly.

A sight to behold! and a stand up chap as well. his english was just a bit rough, but i had a feeling he was probably hilarious in german.

Okay, i totally had this guy beat, right?

But this man had his handlebar for ten years. TEN YEARS! if you notice, it just keeps curling and curling.

Here was one of the judges, one of the characters that this doc they were promoting, Spliting Hairs, follows.

and another judge, Tom, who i guess is quasi leader of the movement here in the states.

Jack Passion here was supposed to be a judge, but ended up competing instead, winning the beards, deservedly so i think.

I feel like we were probably tied.

But she just blew me away.

Moses here put in a strong performance, Charlten who?

Oh, man, this poor guy. He realized it was only ten more dollars to compete rather than just attend, plus you got a tshirt, so he entered, to his chagrin. he got booed, fully and completely once on stage.

This brave trooper was the only real competition Heinz had in the free style, and as impressive as he was, he couldn't really match the man.

This one didn't even compete, he just came to hang.

I thought this guy had the classiest looking stache, but he was robbed at the end.

By none other than this vietnamese gentleman, who took the moustache competition. what an upset, i was pissed at the judges.

I saw these two on the subway, big man there had a nice design for his burns.

i was very surprised to see him, he was two years above me at Wes. and the world gets smaller and smaller every day.

He was a late moustache enty, mieah.

and here's the man that should have really won the staches. i told him at the end that he deserved it and he just laughed it off. what a good sport.

The show had fly girls, isn't that just neato?

and jenna and shannon came by, but it was sold out so i had to sneak them in with some quick im a contestant connects.

Awesome red picture.

okay, awesome red series.

The judges.

The contestants would have a moment with the crowd.

Then to the judges.

The MC would make fun of everyone (do you recognize him from Best Week Ever?)

Then the final moment with the crowd.

You could even get juggy with it if you were so inclined.

You know i did.

The mascot would harass you.

And that was that. A truly incredible night. As far as how i did, the moustache competition had a semis round where the judges called back three numbers. as they tried to make their decision, they kept looking at me so i knew i was in, but when they read out the numbers the guys reapeted 200 twice. Jenna shannon and i are convinced that second 200 was really my 210, so from now on, if i retell this story, i will finish off saying i made the semis. shhh, don't tell. Ill leave that day with this amzing man. Heinz, you are an inspiration to us all.

Friday, Jenna and i hit spice.

we both looked coy.

and on the weekend, amidst 18 hours of tivoed 24, the Jbot went from this,

To this beautiful boy. doens't she look cute?

I leave for prague--its for work, so not total vaca craziness, but czech republic none the less--on friday, so don't miss me too much if i can't blog from the heart of bohemia. laterz.

Slowing Down Ping Pong Round…

Can I just say that the PS 260 flowers delve more and more into the yonic every day?
 

Speaking of, check this little number I came upon on Prince.

18 titties and 4 pairs of ass. Awesome. I saw some dude trying to interview peeps at the statue, but no one would stop.

Well you know I did, gave him some awesome qoutables too: with that much t and a, I wondered about the amount of vaginas hidden inside, and if they all had different levels of depth and lubrication.

Then a sad day at work, when we bid goodbye to the great Mad-villain.

Bye Mad, hope all goes well in your unemployment.

Wednesday I had tickets to Pinback. John Nick Geoff and his friends had tickets to Brian Jonestown Massacre, so I prepartied at Nicks.

Geoff and I discussed the future of an indepth interview piece on John.

Got to know his girlfriend and his friends (well maybe not that much, seeing as I don’t remember their names).

And headed off to Irving Plaza.

Originally, I was supposed to go with Jenna, but she had to fly home for her step father’s PhD ceremony, so at the last minute, I forced Josh to go since he lived so close by. It was, to my amazement, his first time at this venue, which is a stone’s throw from his house.

And this is the part where I usually say the band rocked.

Except, much to my surprise, they fucking sucked. Their sound is so steady and melodic, and when they have plenty of takes to get it perfect on the record, they sound great, but live, dude, awful. They kept singing off key, and then their equipment didn’t work. I don’t know if this is the start of the tour and they’re just getting the kinks out, but damn, what a disapointment. I was embarrassed I forced Josh to come.

Though he thought it was all worth it once I took the pict of the night, this moody little number in red.

Then we both explained our theories on what these Union Sq numbers represent. He read an article that thinks one side is counting up to something, while the other side counts down, but I know I’m right. Its just a very exact clock. The first four digits are military time, and the rest are ultrananoseconds.

Friday, poker finally came back to town.

I played a wishy washy game, calling too much, getting lucky to fuck Cassens a few times, but mostly losing. Then buckling down to take some pots against Bomba (who's been on a down streak for a bit) and John, only to chicken out of calling Mclane and missing an opportunity to win an eighty dollar pot.

So I got out of the cash game ten up, rallying back from 40 down, only to lose to Cassens in the final evening out of our suck outs on each other. I’ll leave poker with a picture of Ogo, who’d not returned to the felt in a while. Here is his look of distress after losing the huge stack he’d built up.

With Jenna gone and work not on my ass, I did not leave my apartment from Friday to Sunday, working all weekend on my very own website. Yes, I’m finally kicking this directing dream into some sort of gear with the newly designed I Direct Pictures. I know its clunky, but it’s a start.

Sunday I finally left the building when Garza called me up, and I decided it was time for some real deal Pong. We just played winner stays for a bit.

Where I beat chris once and garza beat us both.

Then we had a round robin tourney, which garza dominated again.

Here he is gloating.

With chris smiling for his silver place.

And sad little ol’ me in last.

Then I wanted to do a different sort of game, so I came up with the endurance tourney: winner has to stay and it’s a race to seven wins. By the end, garza just wanted to chicken out, but he rallied and took it.

Josh came by, and I was amazed that this was his first time at the office.

Which also meant it was his first time on the roof.

Where a dark and ominous Empire State bid the three adieu as they went off to enjoy MI III.

A slow but fulfilling week, all in all.

Unity Yeah Five Dad Truth…

This week sucked in many ways. First, the fucking unity went limpin’. Yadda yadda yadda, the main artery of our editing office, burping, so I had to wrestle it til three in the morn. Here’s me and John at midnight.

When we found 12 of the drives were a bit dusty, so john vacuumed.

Then I got the extra drive to sub in the faulty one.

And got it back to work. Even though it gave me a nervous breakdown a few days later.

That Tuesday, I went down to John’s to chill with him and Josh for a bit.

He also explained his new idea of 1,000,000 jumpkicks.

More on this later.

Wednesday, Jenna and I headed down to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert. Afraid we could not enter with our cameras, we did the only rational plan, stuffing them into her boobs.

See, you can’t even notice.

Once inside. I found this guy, who we had chatted with at the art brut concert.

And aileen, from good old Wes, who I had not seen since kerry days.

Oh, and the Yeahsx3? They fucking rocked.

Jenna wasn’t so impressed.

But she was hummering by the end.

Because they were pretty good.

See? Fun.

And the picture of the night, this moody 2shot in crimson.

Did I tell you it was at the roseland ballroom.

Josh, Nick, and John also went, so we met them outside after.

And did some more jumpkick action.

On the ride home, we couldn’t stop taking pictures.

Friday was the second most holy day in the Mexican calendar. Cinco De Mayo, when we kick some French arse.

So we chilled at the park, since it was such a nice day.

And had a delicious Italian meal.

Saw the Mona on the street on our way to Harris and Michelle’s birthday.

At a bar that celebrated the Cinco.

Unfortunately, I was tired, and it had been such a rough day, that I pulled a maneuver not ever dreamed of before: the touch an go.

We went, because we were nearby, got a picture, and just left right away. I wouldn’t recommend it, you feel like even more of dick than had you not come at all.

Happy Birthday!

Then on Saturday, my pops came to town to museum it.

He went to five in a 24 hour period. We took him to Klong as a reward.

On the way home, Stickney almost froze to death so my dad had to warm him up with his bandana, and love. Aren’t those two just the sweetest?

Dad was staying at phoebe’s

And jenna had forgotten her coat as well. So she borrowed one of Pheebs. Doesn’t she look hot in it?

Which brings us to the moment we have all been waiting for: the big reveal on what really went down when Tom came to town. So, he calls and asks if he can stay in the apartment. Stick isn’t in, so I say sure, but im working all weekend and have a seder, so I can’t really hang, but he assures me he’s fine and just going to chill with his friends. I work until 10p on Friday, and need to be at work at 9am, so I go to bed early. Only, not so fast, the phone rings at 2am, I don’t quite make it, but it’s tom, and in his message he informs me that he is on his way to wake me up because his friend just got arrested for drinking. Oh snap. Nice tom, nice. So they arrive.

And they don’t look too hot.

As the adult who emailed their dorm parents, I am very technically in charge, so I figure, call the precinct and see if I can go bail him out. And I do, and when I explain it to the cop over the phone, he laughs and says, “bail him out, nah, just come down here and get him.” So we hop in a cab to go all the way to delancy.

At this point we are a bit more relaxed, the cop made it sound like I just go pick him up. When we get there, they make us wait, but we are jolly and laughing at the situation, I make them pose under the welcome sign.

We even catch a glimpse the redhanded forty.

Then they call me up, and the cops like, “so who are you?” and I explain that I am his friends brother, and that they are all staying with me. “oh yeah? So you are in charge of him. We got a  16 year old out, getting drunk on the street… maybe be we should put you in there with him. That’s child endangermeant. You are the responsible adult.” Suddenly, things aren’t so funny. “yeah, we’ll put both of you away til Monday, how does that sound? You’ll make a good pair.” At this point, I start to get pissed. I have to work all weekend, john is depending on me, its 3am and I need my sleep, but more importantly, FUCKING TOMMY! I go through my full adolescence and college without so much as a speeding ticket, and now I’m going to have an arrest because of his STUPID FRIEND that I don’t even KNOW !?! (interrobang, for those of you who remember) WTF, for real. All I can come up with is the lame “listen, he needs to be in school on Monday.” And they both smirk and quickly answer with the obvious “well you both should of thought of that earlier.” So they take my ID, and give me shit that it’s from MA and not NY, and make me sit down again.

Where we were giddy and jesting before, now we sit in an imposing and intense silence. My mind races, was he really under my juristiction yet? I had talked to tom, and he said they were going to get some food, go to a concert, and then head home, I would just see him there. How would I know that they had alcohol? Should I call my parents and get a lawyer, and wait a minute, the cop I called just said come pick him up, this is fucking entrapment!

More tense time goes by, as does two drunken Puerto Rican chicks shackled together, and then the cop brings the kid out. Phew! He hands me back my ID without a word, and hands him his court summons. “you wanna come back here?” no. “you not going to do this again?” no. “we called your parents, and they said that basically you are a good kid, so we’re just going to let you go, but don’t you be doing this again. And you better make it to the court, or else there will be a warrant for your arrest.” Damn. So they saw us all jolly and they had to just bust my balls a bit, not let me off so easy. Fuck em. But I didn’t say anything, cause all these guys want is a reason to use their power, so you just smile and say thank you sir. The only people worse are custom agents, don’t ever fuck around there. So he’s free, and we are all relieved as all hell.

Look at this elated elevator pic.

He tells us about he hassidic jew he had as a cellmate, and I snap him with his summons and his shoe lace, which they took. People probably strangle each other or something.

Lucky little Tom, if it had been him, I would have had to kick his ass, if the other two could have gotten my number. What a fucking nightmare night, but it makes great laughs now. Happy cinco, everyone.

Vegas, Baby, VEGAS!

You got it guys. After being the tech guy for a bit, PS finally took me out to the most cherished of tech traditions: NAB. The tech conference only 2nd to the ubergeekdom goliath known as CES. If you want the complete technical breakdown, check out my write up on the PS 260 blog. This is going to be more of my personal view. So we took this horrid 5.5 hour plane ride where my ass ached seven ways to Sunday.

Checked out this fuzzy ultramarketed cab.

And got to my not so bad room.

That had this kinda shitty view. (the Riviera is on its way out, but it was cheap and available and near the Convention.

I took a nap, and then wasted no time to hit my first Vegas poker table.

All they had is limit, and I went up and down a bit, missing a big pot when my trips got trumped by a cowboy’s river flush. But then I scored big when I hit a full house and slow played two players to call me, even to the last reraise at the end. Later that night I would win a lucky flush at no limit, and finish my first night 240 dollars up.

But before the late night sess, we hit the hard rock for an industry party.

What a cool light piece.

I had a dead by heroin tryptich.
 

Was interviewed by some avid sponsored students.

And got the guitar moneyshot.

At the Mirage, I grabbed some boobies.

Checked out this crazy ball light fixture.

And ended the night with some volcano action.

In the morning I hit the convention floor for the first time, stopping by the wacom booth for a bit of coloring fun.

Only to hit the glorious Mandalay Bay, at the southernmost edge of Vegas for an industry party at the Mix Lounge on the top floor.

This place had an amazing fucking view.

Totally righteous, man. (to think I would ever use that phrase and mean it).

It also had this crazy bubble restaurant.

An amazing wine selection.

And a cool ceiling.

Downstairs, the lobby had an asian infused elegance.

Really old quartz.

A yonic ceiling (bet you didn't know the counterpart word to phallic).

And some haughty Hawaiian princess.

The next day at the convention, I witnessed the true surreal manifestation of this nerd world: NAB is the only place in the world where there is a line for the guy’s bathroom but not the girl’s.    

At night, John took me to the hoity toity Circo, at Bellagio, which had this stylee circus theme.

And another cool wine collection.

Went outside to check out the sights.

And the famous Bellagio fountains.

Then I hit the coolest pokerroom yet, where the dealers didn’t even have to shuffle, they had a machine for that.

Did I mention I had lost 900 the day before, so I was suddenly in a 640 negative hole. I sat down, and played too loose and lost another 200 in about 30 minutes.

Then I regrouped, played tight aggressive and caught some cards to get back to about 600, when I got dealt pocket queens. I raised 15 preflop and got 3 callers. The flop comes king queen six, and I am overjoyed. I bet twenty, chase two people out, and get raised back by the guy who took out my first 200. Since there could be a flush draw, I decide not to mess around an raise him back 100. He calls. A jack hits, but I don’t put him on a draw anymore, but there is enough money in the pot so I raise him another hundro. He calls, and nothing hits river. Another hundro, why not? He goes all in, I call right away, and trounce his two pair with my trip Queens in a 1200 dollar pot. Hells yeah.

I keep playing for a bit and make another hundred, leaving vegas up 460! Awesome.    

Inside this elite room, I saw all sorts of poker celebs doin up their own games: Johhny Chan, Tod Brunson, the guy that just got second on the WPT Li Wang or something, Freddie Deeb, Chang Chiang, what’s-his-name Hanson, the crazy dane. Plus, Steve Dannenmen, the guy who got second on the WSOP was playing two tables behind me. It was crazy.

Then next day at the Con I signed a chess piece for our troops, telling them “come back safe, you are America.” I figured they needed to hear something like that. Its not their fault bush and the neocons are all dipshits, but incredible at influencing the public.

Checked out my quote on the Datanet booth.

Pictured the aramark cups that are exactly the same as the ones I sipped out of for four years back at Wes.

And thus finished off a whirlwind tour. I leave the convention with spunkmeyer.

Say goodbye to the airport.

And arrive at wonderful Manhattan yet again.

Thanks The Vegas.

Who invited you, crazy sweatshirt man?

Friday, Jenna and I decided to cross off one of the NY things we have not done yet, the hallowed visit to the empire state.

She got the tickets. And we survived the line.

The view was fucking magnificent.

Truly incredible.

We even caught some of that awesome gloaming light.

Ahh. What a city.

It never ceases to amaze me.

Necessary snogging shot.

And since it was so close to night time, we decided to stay and witness that too.

And im glad we did, it was just awesome.

Thanks empire state.

Saturday we hit he Brooklyn Botanical Gardens for the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Such beauty.

At every,

Damn.

Corner.

They even had hungry fish.

And more beauty.

More.

It just.

Never.

Stopped.

A perfect day to just relax and take it all in.

We just loved it.

Thanks New York City, for just being that dope.