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Have luggage, must travel

Samsonite by Starck, can't get any better than that -- except, of course, FREE Samsonite by Starck!!!
What's that I say? Some months ago, Samsonite threw a PR "Samsonite by Starck" game where one had to answer a few questions (I can't even recall what) about the hip Philippe Starck, enter some personal info, and voila -- game entry. I got an email today announcing that "...the Samsonite by Stark game is over and you have won!" which at first I thought was junk mail or a joke, when I quickly remembered I had participated. Lo and behold, I visit the site and there my name is on the winners' list among 199 others from Australia to Zimbabwe indicating the prize I've won, beautifully showcased here.

A+ for the A-flat

Moved by Elgar's Symphony No. 1 in A-flat at Avery Fisher Hall tonight. New York Philharmonic. Kaly got Hung and I box tickets where the sound is great (not in one of the dead spots on the floor) and we were in for a true treat. Kaly had actually gone to the Thursday and Friday night performances as well -- it was that good!

Professional Pictionarian

Oh, and highlight of the night is that after going to the party, I went to Enrique & Vinnie's for a board game night and played Pictionary with my favorite children's book author, illustrator, and paper engineer, Robert Sabuda and wondered -- is it fair that we had an artist on our team? We won, but I think the team effort was pretty even. Plus, my team won Taboo afterwards too.

10013-2114

Dennis' 30th Birthday party tonight was at The Screening Room, one of NYC's coolest locations where you can combine great parties with movies. Plus, they play Breakfast at Tiffany's every Sunday at 1:30. Every Sunday. Yeah, every Sunday.

Busy

too much too little
no energy to write interestingly....

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Office Space

The story of my life.

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.

I bet I know you

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

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.

da movies

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

Under the 'hood

Hung and I spent all day Saturday enjoying strawberry smoothies from the street fair in the West Village, coffee at Washington Square Park, a crepe lunch at Le Gamin with Souris & Silvio, onward to Chinatown (the Bowery so I could find a kitchen table), Little Italy (where Hung stopped in a Vietnamese deli and got some fresh squeezed sugar cane juice), and Soho. We topped off the evening with sushi dinner at Blue Fin and bright night lights in Times Square. Sunday we lunched at the dried up Bethesda Fountain (because of the current NYC drought) in Central Park, and after an anti-histamine, I was knocked out the rest of the day as he left for Boston.

"Hi, I'm Hung"

That's what my cousin Hung gets to say to people when he meets them. Souris and I were sophomorically amused.

Healthy Harvest

Mom's friend's husband decided to plant some corn this year. As his wife had used up all the garden space, he found a small spot to plant his crop, unknowingly planting them over a patch of bulbs... the results are in.



This is for real.

Huh.

I love the country but...typical.

Pure Light

After a year of red, white, and blue, the Empire State building has returned to its pre-attack plain white. Curiously, the ESB has a special lighting schedule that includes colors as varied as black, yellow, purple, teal, lavender, pink, and green. I get my daily dose of colored lights as I step off the subway every day heading home and noticed that it has gone back to white since last Wednesday.

Big Apple Mac

Apple Store, SoHo is open and ready for business. I spent yesterday walking through the streets of SoHo, under the guise of enjoying the beautiful day, but secretly to play with the new titaniums at the packed, recently opened, Apple Store. I spent an hour and a half at a powerbook wherein several people rotated through the laptops beside me, including a mother and her young teenage son (wearing slacks, a jacket and button-down) who was obviously in private (perhaps boarding?) school, telling her that she should buy him the new $3199 800 Mhz G4... and she did. Where do these people come from? Oh, the UES. Seriously though, those G4s are flying off the shelves.

Following Ludwig's performance...

What does one listen to after spending sixty-seven minutes devoting one's ears to Beethoven's tremendously phenomenal 9th Symphony? I can't figure out what to listen to next.

Punny

one of my italian favorites:
"caramella, mortadella, mandarino, bacinella" literally mean "candy, cold cuts, tangerine, small basin"

Translating these Italian words strung together, as in a telegram, you get:
Cara Mella (è) morta Della, manda Rino. Baci, Nella.
Dear Mella, Della died. Bring Rino. Kisses, Nella.

It's a Deal!

I was browsing through apartment swaps and came across this one in Barcelona:
Medieval Castle-palace built in the XIV Century
9,500 SF, 45 mts from Barcelona, for 3 months
asking $1200/month

...uh, did I mention that's about what I pay for my 150sf (including the hallway square footage) single room studio in New York City? I could be living in a castle!!!

un cafe avec Picasso

On a small grassy plot at University Plaza lies a 12 meter high enlargement of a Picasso sculpture, Bust of Sylvette (1934, of sheetmetal), reproduced of Norwegian black stone and sand-blasted concrete by Norwegian sculptor Carl Nesjär. It's between La Guardia Place and Greene Streets just north of Houston and South of Bleecker Street among three I.M. Pei buildings built in 1966, two of which are owned by NYU for faculty, and are among some of the ugliest downtown apartment buildings in the city. Having picked up a cup of joe at Rocco's on Bleecker, I headed that way to enjoy my coffee facing Picasso to start my Saturday morning.

With or without Bono

Live, from Times Square, the NFL Kickoff Concert & Party, "an unprecedented free football and music festival to kick off the season and celebrate the resilient spirit of New York and America" is expecting a crowd "in excess of 100,000" and note that "U2's Bono will not perform at the event." U2 is so great, they had to put that in there... guess I won't go. My sister who works at the Bertelsmann building in the midst already warned me that she had an "escape plan" and directed me to head east instead of taking my regular route home. City blocks are closed all over the place. A mess.

"Live, from New York Ity!"

Passing by heading home from work, I see the "C" in "Radio City" burnt out and I wonder... was it that way for the show?