happy holidays!

back to nyc.
back to the marc jacobs store on bleecker.
i got to see it snow twice!! i love it here.


shows of the week: i saw the beautiful citizens band perform 'the panic is on' at the ars nova and the awesome beardneck telecaster (which includes members of dirty on purpose) and insanely talented and fun cheeseburger at the knitting factory for jin's 5th year anniversary for on the moon music and jinners.com. FUN!

two cities and i only took 3 pictures

this is my new friend salvador. i met him in chicago, where i was over the weekend for gillian's bridal shower, when i was stuck in the airport for 6 hours. he's holding what is known there as a hotdog with 'everything'. the everything is: lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles, peppers and onions. i was tempted to order 'a hotdog without the hotdog' as sal recommended but i'd already stuffed my pie hole with deep dish pizza. i like chicago!

even though i was really only there for one full day (both due to airline delays) i really loved gillian's amazing home and amazing neighborhood, wicker park. we spent the day in the park eating and drinking - this is a shot of scott and jess thinking that if they cover the beer bottle with a plastic bag the cops patrolling the area won't take it away. but i quickly learned here that you can walk down the street, and even around the airport, with alcoholic beverages...see, i really like chicago!

finally, as i was leaving nyc at the end of last week, i realized i hadn't taken a single shot of anything while in town, even though i had a great time working and playing (jin sweetly covered one night at the qt hotel for me). so i took a picture of chase bank because it's still my bank and i wish we had branches here in l.a.. oh look at that, the reuters sign is in the shot too. i had no idea their offices were there.

look familiar?

so, i'm reading annie's blog and she has posted a youtube video of a sketch from flight of the conchords (i don't have hbo anymore) called inner city pressure where the boys are cracking on being so poor that they have to eat 'found' food. as i'm watching it, i notice that the neighborhood they chose to depict being poor in is none other than my poor, old, south williamsburg neighborhood, the marcy street jmz stop!! home of jay-z (he re-named himself after the j,m,z trains) and his his old stomping (aka subway robbing) grounds, the marcy projects. the neighborhood that made me realize i needed to get the cluck out of new york! inner city pressure, INDEED!

here is the subway entrance. every morning before i climbed these stairs, i would stop at the deli on the left (yellow awning) and buy some caffeine or energy water. if i looked particularly tired (or pathetic or hung over) the store man would cut me a deal or buy it for me. sweet! the rainbow (red awning) to the right is where i bought my favorite pair of brown flats for $15 (i'm still wearing them constantly and will until they are worn down to pleather, hole-y shreads). but don't let this quick omission of sweetness fool you...


i lived a block away from the subway and i would only venture to use the elevator, where this platform is, if 1. i thought i could tolerate the smell of bird and human excrement 2. the line of hasidic women with their baby strollers was sparse (yes there was an odd mix of ghetto, wealthy hadics and transient hipsters in this area) 3. i felt like i didn't need the stair master effect of the other entrance.
below where these guys are standing is where i 1. had to step over the homeless, drunk men (who had pissed themselves the night before) sleeping across the sidewalk every morning to get to work. 2. watched one man get shoved onto the street (not sidewalk), handcuffed and arrested by no less than 6 police cars (i wonder what he did?). 3. heard gunshots coming from the mexican dance hall more than once. 4. bought delicious, cheap chinese food that i always told myself i should reconsider before ordering again 5. learned that two blocks away a friend of mine, while housesitting and taking care of the beasts for me, was mugged.

this is an actual 'glamour shot' of my cheddar cheese colored kitchen on south 5th and marcy (i bought the nice cupboard in the background, plus, we see the beautiful angie, gillian, jin and marc - helping me celebrate my 37th birthday - in the foreground. bonus plus, the only amazing apartment feature: glass bricks between the bath and kitchen). i wish i still had pictures of the reality of the space. i took some before i moved in 2006, in case the landlord didn't return my deposit, so people could see that the ceiling was caving in, paint was peeling and the stairs were being held together by L shaped brackets and steel wool (i'm not exaggerating).

why did i live there? because it was one stop (on the bus and subway) away from the lower east side, it was becoming 'gentrified' (is that a dirty word?) and i got a 'two' bedroom, 800 square ft apartment for a low, low $1,500/ month! my how things have changed! but honestly, i probably would have toughed it out a little longer if those cute new zealand boys really lived there. preferably in my building. shoot, preferably in my apartment!

i don't think i'll ever revisit that one neighbohood during my quarterly visits back to new york city, so it's great to see it again in such a light hearted way over and over (seriously, i've already watched it 20+ times). thanks boys!

nyc: we had a park party

so my lovely jin came to the office wednesday night and suggested that we have a central park party STAT! she brought naughty treats (in the form of menthol cigarettes and mint mojito gum!) and we stopped by the liquor store for a screw top bottle of white wine and then headed over to whole foods for some meals to go...

we navigated our way over to sheep's meadow and the park party ensued. in attendance were none other than my ew faves annie barrett, marc vera (who decided to come to town at the last minute) and francisco rosario!!!!

so we ate and drank and made shameful conversation (even within the hearing range of children!) in the unseasonably cool june weather, which i LOVED!! i even had to put an extra coat on! is it still illegal to drink in central park? i thought so until beer-man (to my right in this picture) showed up with his laundry cart covered in some old brown paper and kept mumbling 'cold beer.' speaking of backgrounds, what's going on behind jin in this pic?? sadly, the park party didn't last as long as some of us wanted. but there were those of us who were cold and others who had errands to run and well, we'd run out of twisty-top white wine. so we bid adieu to the always charming annie and francisco and headed over to my hotel, the hudson, for trouble.

marc, jin and i found our sweet spot in the back area of the hudson bar and ordered way overpriced drinks and people watched. people of note were the you're-about-to-get-naked-so-please-get-a-room-right-now-before-we-all-feel-gross-couple and the work party who showed up and screwed up all of the good music, turning it into bad reggae dance hall/ black eyed pea crap. before we had bits and pieces of great 90's brit pop that kept the drinks flowing for us. i believe my favorite part of the whole evening (in an evening full of great moments) was during a pulp song when jin, who was full of giggles, leaned into marc and shouted 'SO, DO YOU WANT ME TO SHAKE MY BOOTY IN YOUR FACE??' it was so funny i had to text it to myself to make sure i didn't forget!! for jin's version of the good time, you can read all about it here!

in addition to the park party, i was lucky enough to be in town for josh's book (BUY IT!) reading on thurday where i saw eve and brian and finally got to catch up with christine. one night i also took in an off broadway production of eurydice with jeanie, got in some quality time with my friends larry b and lizzie s and made trips to my, how i've missed you, favorite restaurants vynl diner, kate's joint and lil frankie's among others.

as an aside, here is my old ew view of the world wide plaza. the work site of my first photo editor job (senior photo editor at sidewalk.com. r.i.p.). the views from l.a. are nice but not half as interesting. sigh. everytime i'm back in new york, i plot my return with more of a vengence. this week was no different, despite a handful of hilarious misadventures (suitcase breaking, rain, rain, rain, and a train...oh and a nasty cab man etc).

and finally i leave you with this picture of little bit just being himself in bed. pretty in pink. isn't he?

TRUE CONFESSION TIME: at the hudson i helped myself to a bar of soap (because it was quality), a travel size shampoo (ditto) and a washcloth (who buys washcloths?). oh no, i also did the 'dirty' eat the pringles and put the empty can back in the drawer to see if they notice act. i meant to replace, bc it would cost a lot less, but didn't. so hudson, if i end up getting busted (i'm so flustered by how many times i show up on google, i thought this blog of many a blog was lost in the shuffle) i accept the charges. just don't overcharge me, please? i love you!

ok new york. i'll see you in september! xo

happy easter!: the baby duck sessions

from the marc jacobs (i love you) store on bleeker street in beautiful n.y.c.
ok, so the photographer took this and said he didn't like it, so we had to go back...

he liked this one, but then he wanted one more...

of jeanie's backside!!

the funny thing about these pictures is that jeanie and i never dress alike. in these pictures it looks like i made the good-old high school 'what are you wearing today?' call. well ok i must confess that there was nothing on the back of my jeans other than pockets...

the pictures look so crappy (crappy pictures are becoming a recurring theme here) because i have already packed up my scanner for the move and there isn't a scanner at the office, so i had to take a digital picture of the picture (if you look closely you can see the reflection of my hand to the left of each picture). enjoy the crappiness and happy, happy easter!

FOLLOW UP: turns out we were wrong! the baby duck is indeed a SPRING CHICKEN according to my beloved marc jacob's website (click on the 'featured windows' link). sorry my dear marc for the unintentional slur on your baby bird! xo

the great new york city slumber party

this is my favorite picture from my trip to new york city last week. it's of my friend jeanie's (you'll remember her as my talented friend #1) infamous english bulldog, little bit. while i stayed at her place over the weekend (thank you!!) we spent some quality time on this daybed with the sunshine pouring from east 14th street over us. it was a beautiful week in the city and this area of jeanie's apartment is what bitty and i like to think of as the 'sweet spot'! in the odd chance that we were in the apartment, this is where the katy and bitty magic happened. woot!


prior to sharing a bed with bitty, i shared a bed with marc, my little mouse. we decided to share a room while we were both in the city because time warner, our parent company, is really crunching down on us expense-wise just as we are both going to be working in new york more and more. we (ok, ok I) just kind of forgot to mention that while sharing a room we would like separate beds. i have to say i could barely even tell the little mouse was in the massive king size bed with me except for the millions of times he got up to use the bathroom and play with the thermostat and that was only because i noticed the bathroom light was on. this was the phone camera image we sent to our favorite coworker and blogger annie barrett to prove we were 'sleeping together' at the warwick hotel!

TRUE CONFESSION TIME: whenever i stay in a hotel, i tend to see what i can 'take' that won't be noticed (aka charged). this time, on my way to the ice machine upstairs. i found the commodities closet and helped myself to bar soap (a lot of bar soap) and pens (a lot of pens).


this is another great picture from my nyc week that now resides on my kitchen mirror. i know it is blurry (the picture of the picture) and although the title of this entry is about a slumber party, i did not, i repeat, i did NOT slumber with this baby duck. but i was all over him at the marc jacobs store on bleeker street (because marc jacobs you know i have and will always love you and yes it has taken me years to fully accept that you are a gay man and we will never have a slumber party together, even though i know DUH! but i'm ok with it and i will always be a patron of your stores, mostly just to get free samples of your perfume, my signature gardenia scent, but if i could afford it i would marc jacobs because, maybe i mentioned this before, i LOOOOHOOOOVE YOU, oh sorry, digression. back to the baby duck in his retail window). naturally he was into jeanie (pic of baby duck checking out jeanie's backside tk), isn't that always the way??