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Rich’s Birthday 07, Mar 23rd, 2007

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:58:07 GMT

NYC living comes in so hectic sometimes, that people within a very close proximity can fall through the cracks. It’s not like you never want to hang… you just… don’t. Rich, and his whole social circle actually, fall into this category. And just because of this, I have always made it a point to make it to his birthday. Below lies our shenanagins of 2007, which is scary, cause I just went to his 2008 (that’s five in a row) birthday, and that means I am now a full year behind. Worry not, twill all be blogged. Anyway, on to the post.

The day before Rich’s birthday, Jenna and I ate pasta.

And pizza. I don’t remember where but it looks good. Look at the oil in the cute little bottle.

I will never pass by a trash train without taking a picture of it. And that’s a lifetime guarantee.

Which brings us to the party. He usually choose one of those bars you wonder how people find, this edittion, Happy Ending. I tried to leave a good tip for my coat check, and went downstairs, only to be hunted by a bouncer, cause I put in less that what it actually costs, before tip. I hate bars like this. Pay to get in bars. But I did find Rich, and promptly snapped him with his best friend from childhood, Molinardo.

Oh shit, Ben got in the fun!

Frosh was around, taking a small leave from belle Paree.

Lee gave me his million dollar smile.

Heaya continued to keep the myths of lesbianism with her best friend alive.

Perfectly normal Mallika.

Drunk Mallika.

Silly… almost crying Mallika?

Ben giving his best point ever, while I look slightly maniacal.

Another good random find, Shooter Joel.

Drunk Rich.

Drunk Adi.

This place is called Happy Ending cause it used to be a massage parlor. Down stairs they have little tile coves which used to be saunas, divided by see through glass. The people behind seemed like nice people, so I did the only sensible thing… Did i ever mention i was Varsity Moon Squad in High School?

At this point Rich stole my camera. He had forgotten his, but it was the same model as mine, so he new what he was doing, going around catching himself with everybody. Notice the similar smile.

The claw.

Cut off thumbs up.

Full thumbs up.

Claw again.

Kiss.

Kiss Two.

Don’t even know what this is.

Oh, and we are back.

Psych! Rich is still got it. Open mouth.

Drunk Face.

More smile.

Even more smile (and pretty awesome toast picture).

And we finally end the Rich Camera Occupation with an open mouth. Thank you for joining us on our little tour of facial gesticulations.

Moving on to Shingo and hot girlfriend Take 1.

Shingo and hot girlfriend Take 2. (Sometimes you need that second take).

Rich harassing with love hugs.

At this point, I had an awesome conversation with Ben where we agreed that even though we didn’t hang that much, our history was full of awesome conversations.

I think I purposely took this picture of these two who I didn’t even know to make fun of them somehow, but I can’t remember. Whatever.

Sad Beth.

Serious but Understanding Beth.

What birthday blog post would be complete without a shot of me molesting rich through the glass?

Have you seen this man?

There he is!

Take 2 different, and just as good.

Aaah. I don’t know how this happened, but people… The pineapple is in play!

Yes, out of nowhere, it came to save the end of the night.

Ben continues in grand pointing fashion.

The pineapple gets some play.

Oh, getting kinkier, a bit of stroking.

And the final killer kiss from the birthday boy.

Bad take 1.

Priceless take 2.

And yes, by this end of the night Rich was belligerently drunk enough to ride the cone.

But at least he didn’t throw up in the cab.

And we end the legendary night by dropping John off across the street from my house. Later Neighbor.

Meth Poker And Art, March 11th-21st, 2007

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:47:18 GMT

On March 11th Jenna and I went to see this crazy painter Martin Ramirez.

Literally crazy, spent half of his life in a looney bin.

But the work had something compelling about it.

These are the few pictures I could sneak a snap shot of between the shifty eyes of ogres.

Two days later I got to attend the premier of Montana Meth at HBO headquarters. You remember that crazy nightmare I assisted on, right? Well, it definitely was tough, but it has a bit of prestige. It did air on HBO (well, HBO2 actually, cause it was basically a repeat of the director’s previous movie, only this time in Montana).

And the premier was a whole event, shrimp, drinks, everything. Several other PSers made it out.

Some of them trying to look casual.

Princess here also assisted on the job. She felt the pain of the Meth.

When the show started, people rushed towards one theatre, and I tried going there, but got pulled away to another theatre because the first was getting full. It turned out to be the wrong choice. We had a live feed from the other theatre, as the producres and director spoke. At one point, they asked the assitant editors or Zieman-ites to stand and be clapped at, and I was a bit pissed I got stuck in the other room, not visually acknowledged (yeah, I can be that petty). But at least I got my credit.

Everyone all depressed after the movie.

Except John and the martinet director Eames Yates.

Why not end the premier with a nice elevator pic?

The next day I went to a fancy restaurant with cool lighting, Sapa.

Twas a dinner with the very nice people at Driver after we’d done a few jobs with them. Here’s some PS 260 action.

And some blurry Driver kids.

Don’t forget about Vera.

Ahhhh… Wouldn’t you just let these two produce anything?

Or these two?

Hell, how about all four.

Downstairs to the bathroom…

…there’s some good light.

One day after that, I saw this little guy just sitting on some brownstone’s fence. Gotta love New York City.

On the weekend, I made it in to Matt and Althea’s to play some poker with this crew.

Something that became a very rare occurrence in 2007. I believe I can count the games on two hands, maybe just the

Something went down and everyone…

…had to take a shot.

As the poker began to fade, so the guitar hero began to blare.

Althea

And Matt’s friend, who we’ll call Ishmael, rocked out for a few bars.

Then it got late. And btw, this is not the first I’ve seen of Liz in that position (nor I guess, will it be the last).

We interrupt this post to bring you a lesson on shot labeling. Wide Shot (WS).

Medium Shot (MS).

Close Up (CU).

The next Monday I guess I won some money at the ol’ Advertising poker ring.

Tuesday I hit some gloaming action on this lovely puppy.

Wednesday purple came to town.

And I visited with John.

As he showed off some of his scroll drawings.

This other younger wes alum was there. Let’s call him Cynico. A bit of a douche… Arrogant, entitled, hating New York City cause he can’t afford it… working for an Ad agency at the time… I wonder if he made it. My guess is he’s no longer in NYC, and god bless.

Then I played with my moustache.

While showing off the studies those big paintings came from, which I bought from John.

I paid way more than they’re worth, but I was in a weird place where I felt like helping John out.

Who knows, maybe they will be a sound investment some day?

Oscar, Bender, Poker, and Becky’s, Feb. 27th to Mar. 11th, 2007

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:12:21 GMT

February 2007 was a sad month at PS 260. After 3 years of asking other offices to join our oscar pool and keeping the money home, we finally lost it. Second place to Blue Rock.

And first to Nutmeg. Congrats you bastards, and don’t get to comfortable, we’ll get it back next year.

Oh, nice, good mustache day.

After delivering the money, I headed to the one and only time I made it to the Agency.com (who I cut a job with) poker game.

See, there I am.

Not a bad poker ring, but I guess I didn’t really give it the fair trial. Won 60 dollars, though.

Look! Chocolate.

With patterns.

And hearts.

Aha, another good mustache day.

Which leads us to a quick stop at John’s where I took some color wheel portraits in blue.

And in gunshot red.

The next day the illustrious Bender came into town, so we went to Korean BBQ and the Elder Ryang came along.

Where they cook the meat right in front of you.

And by they, I mean she.

Delicious.

The man himself.

And don’t think Jimmy won’t get into the grill, either.

Millbot liked it, as did Bender’s girl and her friend.

Gotta love that Korean BBQ.

Afterward, we hit up Fincher’s Zodiac.

I thought it was really good, but these guys only gave it the so so.

Bye Bender.

The day after that, Bryan and Bill, both of them ex-Psers, had extra tickets for some official new york city comedy.

So we met up, gossiped a bit about other ex-Officewokers.

And watched Tracy Jordan, I mean, Morgan get down and dirty.

But the night would not end there, we headed over across the bridge to Madeleine’s (yet another ex-Pser) new digs.

For her hat party.

Or was it a pirate party?

Hadat and Jeceyna with the Mad-line. Hadat doesn’t like when I take pictures of her.

We didn’t know anyone but the host, so we were kind of just hanging out when I spotted something in the corner of my retina.

Hooka!

Yarr! Me loves me thar Hookar I sayer.

So we joined in for a bit before we split.

Damn my spread’s large.

Monday morning looked like trash day on the sidewalk.

But it didn’t stop Jenna and I from hitting up Craft Bar for some deliciousness.

Love me that pork.

But not a much as Jenna loves her her copa sandwhich.

At the end of the week, Rebecca had herself another dinner party. Which the C Spot made it too.

As did this glorious Brooklynite farmer.

Keith had some lessons.

Like: “That’s not a knife. This… this is knife.”

The party rolled on.

Jokes were told.

And towards the end I busted out the giant butcher paper to use as a questionnaire. See Sam adding stuff?

Everyone loved it.

So I wore it out.

While C Spot modeled her dope ass original shirt.

Oh and I got a ride to the 2 train? Sweet way to end the night.

The Armory Show 2007, Feb. 24th, 2007

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 03:18:12 GMT

Yes, it was that time again, they crazy little weekend of one hell of an art fair. Every gallery worth its weight gathered under one huge pier roof. You want to see what art is actually selling right now, then here it is.

After experiencing our first Armory last year, Jenna and I were ready for this gigantic event. That’s us at the beginning.

And towards the end.

Met up with Jenna’s friend Shannon and her coworker.

Had a delicious beef stew mid way.

Looked through the art.

We each chose our “Most Like The Whitney Biannual Bullshit.” This is Jenna’s.

And mine. You can’t see it, but it’s 3 pong like monitors.

After 848 pieces of art, we were beat.

What? You want to see them all? Okay, here you go. But for the blog, I went through all 848 pictures, and here are my 44 favorites.

C Spot Anniversary, Feb. 23rd, 2007

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:44:23 GMT

Charlotte had sent an email out a few weeks before asking for collaborations of any kind, and I had just bought a new big SLR camera I wanted to test out, so I said if she ever had an event, that I would love being a roving photographer. Thus, a fortnight later, I found myself in a huge slightly dilapidated loft space to celebrate 5 years of C Spot Designs.

I arrived early, and Charlotte let me in.

It was a very pleasant surprise to find Andrea already there helping out.

Met the two folks who lived there, and here begins the horrid not-remembering-any-names -6 –months-later truth. So for this post, I will just make up names. Why not? Let’s try it out, then I met the two folks who lived there, Sebastian and Larry.

The place had a funky cluttered style. Here’s Sebastian at the shrine corner.

Who’s details were very cool.

The place also housed this wonderful contraption.

A fully workable huge tricycle that Larry made.

I started to snap around.

While the guys put up some original C Spot tapestries.

Not a shabby runway.

I even got into the interior design game, by placing his huge heavy train wheel.

Atop a table. Nice touché, n’est pa?

Charlotte came and showed off some stuff, before changing.

And finally some people started to show. Including Ben there, in the sweater, who I had met at a Wes party my sophomore year, and somehow remembered.

Then, in an unsuspected twist, I began to bartend with Andy.

Isn’t that just a dope coat?

The band started to play.

And I took the opportunity to stop bartending and take a few shots. Like Joey and Lawrence here.

Jeff and date.

Congregants at the bar.

John, who arrived with this weird slightly older guy Denson.

Floretta and Bijou were not so happy to be photographed.

But Dinesta and Suki did.

While Alfred looked sad, and Mermin sported the dopest C Spot button down around.

Then I noticed Aaron there in the middle. What the hell was the Assistant Director of On The Road With Judas doing at this party?

Jebby over in the left sure wanted to know.

While Paige started to shop from the sales rack.

John looks severe here.

And with Aaron in town, who else showed up randomly but Ben and Ronan. It really is a small world.

But the night was just beginning and people gathered round.

Larry and Seba put the last touches.

For the fashion show to begin.

Havanah with the tree top.

Sylviana with the tank and skirt.

Boush sporting the coat.

Ranji with the flowy dress.

Ana Maria in another skirt.

Paige with wings.

And Char herself in the dope coat.

A fabulous line up.

That Ronan and John loved.

As the night progressed, I chose a backdrop to do some portraits, like Sylviana.

Ana Maria.

Ana Maria and Sylviana.

Franchessa.

Dinesta.

Mermin.

Dinesta and Mermin.

And even me.

Dancing began.

Three cute smiles.

Then Jeff got on the sax.

And keith and the mubbles rocked it.

With a keyblow even.

I’ve seen this drummer before, he’s really knows how to beat the skins.

Resenda and Trally looked hipster disaffected.

Dorothy and Sigmund just talked.

John got dramatic.

Before painting.

Sebastian jammed the axe.

Ronan said good bye.

The hand came out.

And these girls.

These three girls.

Just wanted more snapping. Oh Delilah, Zeni, and Pril, I could not go on forever.

Leopold and Truzt.

And my favorite character of the night, Jesmond. More on him later.

Red Andy and friend.

And these poor two, who I kept not snapping just weirdly, until finally I came over and they were like, finally, but then their best picture was this, with the guy giving me the spooky eyes.

For the late night shift, charlotte changed yet again.

Into another awesome coat.

Who are these two?

They should be dancing.

Oh, there you go.

Towards the end, came my favorite photo of the night.

And Jesmond serenaded us with some awesome piano playin.

Best party that I kinda helped throw ever man.

The Shotgun Project Show and Other Tidbits, Feb. 8th-14th

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 23:09:38 GMT

On a cold wintry day last February, I walked by Union Square to find this.

Yes. They made a mountain of now in the middle of the city.

A few days later my friends John finally had his first show in Manhattan.

I came a bit early to get some shots of the set up, like this:

Of course Mr. T came out.

And the best Portrait Mclane has ever made.

“Enough About You,” the tryptic I named, sadly lay on the floor.

To make room for a projection of all the shotgun explosions that I cut together.

Photography by the great Ben Rose also made it out.

The red paint explosion piece.

ComBOBulated Mced for a bit.

Red splatter.

A remembrance of Nick and John’s crazy fall, black suits, painting and all.

Paint, ready and waiting.

Close up hearts.

Shell Casing.

Not my favorite portrait.

The second best portrait Mclane has made. “John Mclane,” by John Mclane. The character that bears his name with one of my favorite quotes.

Splatter.

More Ben “the Rose" shots.

Mr T. Elephant combo.

A mischievous three.

Niki de Saint Phalle portrait. She also liked to shoot paintings, but with rifles, not shotguns.

Josh and his friend came to see it.

Elephant hero shot.

Nick hero shot.

The performance from the outside.

Last splatter.

Last photo.

John came out and did a quick work.

So maybe this is the last splatter.

The publics watched.

Even his blurry dad.

The finishing touches.

The Mclanes.

Geoffry.

Nick.

Josh’s friends. (god I’m terrible with names six months later).

Finally, after the painting, they let us inside.

See.

All in all, the show left me a bit underwhelmed. I guess John and the curator who is also named John never saw eye to eye about what was going down, and it felt unorginazed. But it was nice that John finally got his own show in the great NYC.

Jenna came and met me after a horrid day of work, and being in an unkown branch of midtown, had to settle for some bland tex mex.

But at least Jenna could get a margarita, which she probably really needed.

The next day, I hit up a thai place with short visiting Aaron.

And john and nick of course, who went off to a power hour in Brooklyn.

While Aaron and I reminisced and played pool.

At this weird bar where that did Coyote Ugly type shenanigan’s with fire.

Not such a bad night.

Two days later, Jenna bogeyed.

Because two days after that Valentine’s Day came a-knocking.

I got the excellent first season of “How I Met Your Mother” (don’t knock it till you try it) and she got a one hour massage at Ohm Spa.

The Shotgun Project Show and Other Tidbits, Feb. 8th-14th

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 23:09:36 GMT

Museums Blues And Reunions, Jan. 27th-Feb. 5th 2007

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 19:07:05 GMT

God, I love pictures of wood chips. This was the first, expect more to come.

On with the post. On the last Saturday of January Jenna and I went to one of my favorite New York buildings, The Guggenheim Museum.

Such a fucking awesome design.

I just can’t get enough of it.

We were there to take a look at the Spanish Art Retrospective. It started with some old cool stuff, like El Greco.

I think this is Goya, but I’m not sure.

Then onto some more recent work.

Including some Picasso cock action.

And one of his grotesques.

My favorite might have been this Dali.

An awesome exhibition that all of you should take a gander at if it’s still up.

Afterwards we hit up some dinner.

And it looked like a good place, but I can’t tell where it was.

Hey, a cool flower. Cool.

Yeah, baby, suck on that moustache.

A few days later I found myself looking at my shoes.

Chillin’ with John and Josh at Josh’s place.

Damn that’s nice view.

That Friday we headed out to a candlelit bar.

Where a morose man crooned the night away, bluesing it out on his guitar.

And we all drank.

You know it gets crazy when Jenna goes out with her girls.

I mean really crazy.

But not before we get very cute.

And pose-y.

Then back to crazy. (please don’t miss Kerri’s brother whooping it out in the background).

Jenna showed off her favorite shirt.

Not a bad way to spend a Friday evening.

What’s that light at the end of the tunnel?

Why it’s the CT poker crew.

What a milestone, this is the first time I ever had poker at my house.

And Jenna even played!

But we both lost. Boo hoo.

Thanks for coming, guys.

Then Superbowl Sunday came along, and we spent it at Chez-Rutkoffs, and yet this was the only picture I took. Strange.

Hey, look, Jenna’s cold.

Monday, these two pimps had to dress up.

Look at our GQ looks.

Just plain dopeness. You see, Robert and I headed out to the Cate in NY party at a hoity toity club.

The showing was a bit thinner for people I knew, but Grayson B. ran a good ship.

And Gerogia came along with her hubby in tow.

Headmaster chatted it up for a sec.

Said hello to Meredith S.

And Drew S.

And this woman whose name I no longer remember.

Cate Pimpin 07, baby.

I’ll end this post with a note about the moustache. Some people don’t realize that just like you can have bad hair days, you can have bad moustache days as well. So when I have a good moustache day, I like to fully document it. Like this.

Or this. Enjoy.

Nine Days In January, 12th-21st, 2007

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 04:53:25 GMT

On Jan 12th, I went to a this cool Art Space in Brooklyn called 3rd Ward I think. They have a bunch of space and rent out rooms and teach lessons on print making.

They had a bunch of crazy shit on display.

Like this weird huge mechanical lute/piano that didn’t really make any noise.

On these minute branches connected with string.

In addition to a musical performance.

Which included rubber banding the crowd into a smaller…

And smaller space.

The pictures were nice, Josh and Geoph enjoyed them.

I liked this skin outfit, though it is a bit freaky.

Just skin’s good enough for me.

I liked that first picture so much I had to recreate it with the peeps I came with.

Katz got a dope decal too.

I was headed to Charlotte’s house for a party after, and everyone wanted to come along. Everyone now included Nick’s cousin and his friend and the friend’s girlfriend.

I was nervous I was bringing a crowd, so I called ahead, but Charlotte said it was cool.

And so we partied. With band.

And a little bit with a violin.

And it was good I came, because I brought the numbers that made the party successful.

I even busted out the good camera for some dope portraiture. Here’s nick.

And John.

And I even did an impromtu photo shoot of Nick’s cousin’s friend’s girlfriend.

Wearing some C Spot.

And then C Spot herself.

I forget this guy’s name, but he gave a good look.

As did the classic pass out on the couch class act.

Look, artsy scribbles.

Obviously, it got late, so we all left.

But john still had some party in him.

A very nice night all in all.

A few weeks earlier, I had done a favor for a the wife of a friend of mine, so she repaid me with a gift card to one of Jenna and my favorite restaurants Babbo.

So we went. We had no reservation, so we waited by the door patiently for about 50 minutes.

When we got to the table, Jenna was ready to eat.

But there’s always a bit of time to ham it up for the camera.

What can I say? Candle light is good for us.

We had a plate of meat to start, which had some hits and some misses, like the clear paper thin slices of pig fat.

Then this dish. I don’t remember what it is.

The mint angel wings tasted delicious, though.

Jenna enjoyed her ravioli

I thought my pig got smoked a bit too much.

But the desert never lets us down.

Ever.

Not even the coffee stirrers. Though this visit to Babbo did not blow me away as much as last time.

During dinner, I got invited to some late night Wesleyan poker, so we headed to Derek and Liz’s to catch a game.

With the usual suspects.

Including Jenna! What a delicious addition.

Orson thought so.

Five days later I came across this, my editor’s reel.

Right on time too, because I had to put in my final all night editing installment on the shotgun project.

But not before doing some moody shots.

In a dark.

Or before Johnny got some good red digit shots.

So I worked all night cutting together explosions for the Shotgun Project showing in midtown. Then I found this picture by Ben The Rose and added a vignette and some red to get it moody.

I went back home at 5am, slept all day, then went over to Jenna’s friend’s place to do some game night action.

Everyone gathered round for some Taboo.

Not before the Jenna and Kerri photo shoot.

Drink up.

Feel up.

Lick it up.

And kiss it up.

Now we can taboo! A fun game.

But we had to be on our way to our second party of the night. Yes, we are so popular our Saturdays come double booked.

It was Derek’s birthday.

So we partied at his friend’s nice wide open apartment.

And felt cheery.

Even caught up with a this globe trotting couple, back from several countries in southern asia.

Interestingly enough, I never got a picture with the birthday boy. How strange. But on with the post. Jenna and I went to bed and awoke on the final day of the Annie Liebewitz exhibit. So we trained it down to the Brooklyn Museum.

And pulled “a Mexican” on the huge long crowds, just walking through the front door, and buying tickets with an elegant cut. One of the best i've done.

Saw these crazy lifelike rubber statues.

Then couldn’t cut to get into the actual gallery, so we did take a bit of a line.

But that was nice, cause we got to see these beauties.

The exhibit was packed, so I couldn’t take the pictures I wanted.

But damn that woman can shoot.

Pretty spectacular portraiture.

Pretty spectacular weekend.

Which finished with a peekaboo.

Dinner at klong.

Beautiful.

Where Comes Xmas, Comes New Years 07

Sun, 13 May 2007 00:26:29 GMT

Jenna and I went to a New Year’s dinner near by at Regional.

Where the balloons took us to a new level of cute.

Then hopped on L, the most hipster of trains.

Where we arrived at Sarah and Keith’s place. (I don’t usually photo keith, because he doesn’t like it, so I’m wondering now, 6 months later, how I got this picture.)

Next door neighbor Micah, was also on hand.

It wasn’t as crowded as we had hoped (a stark constrast to last year’s party which was too crowded).

So we just posed new years-ly.

With the champagne bottle.

But a few more straglers arrived.

Conversations ensued.

Cold cock chillin’.

Until the main event. The first picture of the New Year.

Yea!

Wait, this is more like it.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Everybody!

That’s when the party really started.

Who can’t throw some craze on New Years?

Jeff can.

So can the barbies.

Oh, 2006 we hardly knew thee.

But you did treat us well.

Even though it did cost something.

As the evening ambled on.

So did the energy.

But it didn’t stop us from looking good.

But alas, all good things must come to an end. Even as Patrick arrived.

We headed out.

And found an excited Nina also coming in.

The subway home.

Finished off the New Years in a perfect way.

Six days later, on the warmest Saturday winter has ever seen, I began my quest for full global domination.

Micah, Keith, Jeff, Paul and I squared of for a game of Risk.

No holds bar strategery.

Micah was very mean to me, while Jeff and I had an unnecessary struggle.

But I beat both of them out.

Before the Green Menace of Paul’s Back Door Asian maneuver. (you solidify Australia, and slowly take asia to dominate).

Look how excited he is.

Yes, he dominated the world away from keith at the very end.

Congratulations! You Rule The World! Take a look at the video instant replay.

Afterwards, just to cap it off, we played some Truth or Dare Jenga with these two new arrivals.

At which I think I came up with the best truth questions.

Happy New Years 07 Post!