October 25, 2002

I am not a barhopper.


Kaly stopped by unannounced tonight and we headed out on the fly to meet with her friend Stewart from England. Headed to Blue Ribbon Bakery but Stewart wanted a "real bar" so we turned down the street a few blocks to Chumley's, one of the last speakeasies in New York City, never having had a sign outside the door. The article forgot to mention not to go during prime drinking hours -- it was too much of a frat house, too smoky and smelly for Kaly so we stopped in a Brazilian restaurant bar where I had my sapphire and tonic, Stewart with his red wine, and Kaly with chamomile and flan. Off again through the neighborhood for a nice little walk along Bleecker to Bank, a charming old block with lots of little single family brownstone homes, to Corner Bistro -- by now about midnight -- for a cheeseburger, fries, and drinks. Funny stories and more meandering to Patchin Place, and then to my house. Late night for me, later night for them -- they went off for another drink! Tomorrow I'll meet them again for my first meal at the famed Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal.

October 23, 2002

What is a Knickerbocker?

Adam and I went to Madison Square Garden to see the New York Knicks vs. Utah Jazz. Always good to see live sports in an arena, but the game was awful, and we left early (who would pay $56 for a pre-season ticket anyway?). We were grateful that we got our tix for free and that having known each other more than half our lives, we were self-entertained for the duration we were there.

October 21, 2002

Breath Control

Entertaining music documentary about the amazing art of beat boxing directed by Joey Garfield with just a perfect amount of humor and part of the RESFest 2002 digital film festival, touring around the world.
Breath Control: the History of the Human Beat Box

My gift from Roy


Times Square Mural © The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation

Saturday I window shopped some de Koonings and a Calder mobile, then browsed the special Roy Lichtenstein exhibit at the Mitchell-Innes and Nash Gallery displaying works that inspired his special gift to the city of New York and its denizens -- the bold Times Square Mural -- originally commissioned by the MTA Arts for Transit in 1990 and completed by the artist in 1994. The installation was recently completed and unveiled in September of this year.
MTA press release

The best thing about going to work at the Equitable Center is that it owns one of Lichtenstein's ten realized murals, the 68-foot tall Blue Brush Stroke. Not one of my favorites of his work, but the fact I get to see it, or his painting one of the firm's partners owns on our 44th floor makes my life in a law firm a bit brighter.

October 18, 2002

Building Art

Perfect Acts of Architecture, featuring work by Eisenman, Koolhaas, Libeskind, Mayne, and Tschumi is where I spent my lunch hour today. The exhibit, in the AXA Gallery of the Equitable Center has been extended to November 9th (as I was told by the guard there), so if you still want to catch it, you can.

October 17, 2002

Haiku Tunnel

Haiku Tunnel is perhaps more accurate to the story of my life though I've not yet seen it -- about a temp who goes perm at a law firm.

What I'm wondering is... how did I go from living in the tropics and traveling for 16 months before ending up in this hell?
The things we do for vacation days.

October 16, 2002

Office Space

The story of my life.

October 14, 2002

start to finish

I happen to be a big fan of maps -- coveting them and reading them, so much so, that my sister just sent me this article. Maybe it has some relation to my maze illustration abilities.

October 09, 2002

I bet I know you

It's uncanny, but I had two more small world experiences in just about six days.

October 06, 2002

in the queue

I always get in the long line of things, and at BBB today, I got caught behind an older asian woman who took a good twenty minutes because she was arguing with the cashier about the 20% coupon she used. Nine of the customers behind me went into the next line and they all got through before me. That lucky bamboo might not be so lucky.

of things asian

I took a trip down to chinatown today to get myself a good delicious banh mi thit -- a vietnamese sandwich. I got to the place on East Broadway and the woman says "het banh mi." Bitter disappointment. I could see it all there -- the vietnamese sausage, marinated bbq pork, pickled daikon and carrot, fresh cilantro leaves, and thinly sliced cucumber.... but no bread.

Going from that end of Chinatown -- the much more authentic end and not at all touristy -- I walked along Canal and down Mott, over and along the little side streets. Got myself some lucky bamboo where the guy asked me out for tea or shopping, and asked me for a kiss (!) but gave me a nice bargain despite my soft rejections, and then I headed onward to Pho Bo Ky on Bayard where the people were nice, the service was quick, and Pho done all wrong.

October 01, 2002

da movies

Check it out. The 2002 New York Film Festival (40th Anniversary). There's good stuff here including an article on Jack.