i keep a diary

November, 2003

The November Roundup

Here they are! All the pics from November that didn't make it into their own entry!

Wednesday, November 5th

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On Wednesday Grant came back from London (he stayed behind to hang with his parents after our vacation ended, remember?) and was going to be in NYC for a few days (one of which we threw him a surprise party) before heading back to Los Angeles to do some final work oh his television pilot (nope, so not kidding). That night Fatty, (the rarely photographed) Michael Martin and myself all met up with Grant at the nearby Congee Village for some tasty dinner.
chinatown ˆ chopsticks ˆ thumbs up ˆ fatty ˆ grant ˆ michael martin

Saturday, November 8th

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Saturday, Chris was in town and the four of us got together for brunch at 9th Street Market to reminisce about our recent hijinx in Europe.
chris a ˆ fatty ˆ grant ˆ me
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During brunch, we pretty much had Grant convinced that the "Jackaloupe" head (half jack rabbit, half anteloupe) mounted on the wall was real. So great (but not nearly as great as his Trogdor the Burninator shirt. Awww, yeah).
jackaloupe ˆ point ˆ grant
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Better yet, Fatty was smelling the flowers on our table when he got too close and ended up getting pollen all over his nose. (PS - Go see Shrek 2. When Shrek gets turned into a human...oooops....SPOILER!.....the human version of Shrek looks exactly like Fatty. Seriously. It's fucking hilarious).
close up ˆ pollen ˆ fatty
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I'm Shrek! Ahhhhhhhhhh!
fatty
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And on the way home, um, Grant coldlamped with a Corvette.
car ˆ corvette ˆ grant

Sunday, November 9th

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On Sunday, Grant and I took the train out to NJ to visit our friend Jordana who was on the east coast visiting her in-laws. Jordana is married to our friend Ross (who is the guy producing Grant's TV pilot out in LA). Grant had been living with Ross & Jord out in LA for the last few months and was getting ready to fly back out there the next day. Wow, that was a pretty long explanation considering that my camera died and I didn't end up even getting any pictures of Jordana or the delicious Japanese meal we ate. I did manage to get a photo of Grant posing with the dozen delicious Krispy Kreme doughnuts we bought at Penn Station, tho.
donut ˆ krispy kreme ˆ tongue ˆ grant

Monday, November 10th

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Monday November 10th marked the official end of my two and a half years of employment at Spring Street Networks, an online dating company that I left nerve.com to help get off the ground. I had been talking to my boss about leaving for a while, but when I got back from vacation, things came to head sooner than I expected and I found myself a free agent. (Don't worry, don't worry - after five months of traveling and goofing off, I've since taken a new job).
karaoke ˆ spring street networks ˆ dan cassanova ˆ marni
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Half-excited, half-scared out of my mind (I'd never left a job without having a definite job lined up to go to), I sought solace in the one place where everybody (including crazy Marni) knows my name....Sid & Buddy's Monday Night Karaoke. Awwww, yeah.
marni
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Lesson Learned: Don't get drunk at karaoke while worrying about what you're going to do next to earn a living or you might find yourself...PLAYA PLEASE! I'm fucking joking. I just passed this sign that was out in front of a club on Bowery while walking home. (Ok, maybe I considered it for a second...I mean, biddies love St. Ides, right?) PS - What the fuck is "High Gravity" Malt Liquor?
sign

Friday, November 14th

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Friday night I headed out to Hoboken with fellow Roxbury High School graduates Emily Cmielewski and Bev Chase to see our friend Christina Alessi's band (also RHS alum, baby) Hey Tiger play at Maxwell's.
roxbury high school ˆ bev ˆ emily ˆ me
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My little camera wasn't cooperating and somehow this is the best picture I managed to get. Boo.
band
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But what I failed to get in performance pictures...
christina alessi ˆ me
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...I more than made up for with the following amazing collection of "Hey, did I go to high school with you?" photos. Here's Ian Thomas with Chris and Max.
roxbury high school ˆ christina alessi ˆ ian t
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What's better than three Roxbury grads in one pic? How about six mothafucking Roxbury Grads in one pic? Insanity. Bev, Chris, Colin Badini, Ian, Emily and me.
roxbury high school ˆ bev ˆ christina alessi ˆ emily ˆ ian t ˆ me
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Emily does her impression of Monty Burns while I look artsty in the mirror.
mirror ˆ emily ˆ me
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And we were even treated to yet ANOTHER (late-comer) RHS arrival...Amanda Polk (who still won't make out with me. It's been like 10 years already. Seriously, WTF?)
roxbury high school ˆ amanda p ˆ emily ˆ me
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Check out the dolla bill floating in the Maxwell's urinal. Yo I'ma straight take a piss on Mr. Washington - y'all see how we do in Jerz?
money ˆ toilet
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Jigga wha? Jigga who?
bev ˆ christina alessi

Monday, November 17th

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I decided to celebrate to celebrate my first week of not working with the purchase of an enormous Costa Rican pineapple that was the size of my head from the wonderful produce stand on my block ($3! Can you believe that).
pineapple ˆ me
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And then my roommate Vic (who works from home) came out and we took pictures pretending that the pineapple that was as big as our heads really was our heads.
pineapple ˆ victoria lau
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Yep, so this is what not-working's like, huh?
pineapple ˆ victoria lau
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After eating some delicious giant pineapple, I dedided to do something I'd never done before: explore my neighborhood during a week-day. Here is a random photo of my block.
nyc ˆ street

Thursday, November 20th

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On Thursday night Grant called me from LA to tell me that his buddy Clayton Cubitt (aka "Siege" a photographer who work Grant and I both love whom Grant had met while writing a piece about him for Nerve) was going to Marc Baptiste's photo opening near my apartment and that I should meet up with him. I got set up on my very first grown-up "play date."
first time i met ˆ siege
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Siege and I immediately hit it off and started swapping filthy, pervy stories and pretty soon we found our conversation had actually repelled the crowd around us.
crowd
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While there I ran into Anna, a former co-worker's former girlfriend.
me
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And then on the way out, this guy (Bryan Carlin) came up to me because he reads this site and recognized me! We actually since become friends (and I even hired him to do a freelance coding project for the new company I'm working for!). Strangers really are just friends that you haven't met. (Except for some of them, they're just assholes you haven't met yet).
first time i met ˆ bryan c ˆ me
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At this point in the night, Siege felt like an old friend - not only could he help clear a circle in a crowd of people with his perviness, we also found we shared equal loves for both taking dirty pictures of girls (his are way better than mine), having our buttocks cupped by women we don't know all that well and...
man ass ˆ siege
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...fast food!
mcdonalds
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Hahaha. Yeah, Siege.
mcdonalds ˆ siege

Thursday, November 20th

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Thursday night I went to an "Office" inspired party to celebrate Doug Jaeger's departure from Chiat/Day. "He put my stapler in a jelly. I hate the way it moves. I don't trust it."
jello ˆ stapler

Friday, November 21st

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Hey, check it out. I'm not working. Instead, I'm sitting in Washington Square Park on a Friday morning reading a book and playing with other peoples' dogs. Nyah-nyah!
washington square park
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Friday night I went out with Vin and Matty - we were sitting in the Two Boots Pizza on Bleecker and Bway, having ourselves a lil' slizzice at 2am-ish, when suddenly a six-person fight broke out that lasted for more than ten minutes. I was so stunned I totally shit the bed and didn't even take any pictures. I was so entralled I think I'd forgotten I even owned a camera. Anyway, here's a pic of us afterwards laughing about it while we stood around watching the pizza workers explain to the cops (who took forever to show up) what had happened.
the bird ˆ matty matt ˆ me ˆ vin

Saturday, November 22nd

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Saturday morning I was awaken by my friend Grant's Uncle Phil (Philthy Phil!), who was in town on business from Norway! Turns out, he was walking around with his business associate in Chinatown mere blocks from my apartment. I asked where he'd like to meet up and he asked "Is there a pub around that's open yet?" (Keep in mind, this is like 10:30am). So we headed to Spring Lounge and shot the shit and grabbed a few pints.
me ˆ phil s
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I'm sort of a lightweight as it is so by the time I'd finished my second pint (well before 11am) I was pretty much drizzunk. Here's Phil calling Grant (who at the time was living at a ranch in Northern California and working on his book) and telling him what poof I was for being drunk off two pints. Hahaha.
phone ˆ phil s
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After our beers, we headed two blocks east so that Phil and his buddy could experience the wonder that is Lombardi's Pizza. (If you live anywhere NEAR NYC, go to Lombardi's. Here's what you want: A large pie with extra mozerella, mushrooms, calamata olives and pepperoni. Trust me.)
lombardis ˆ pizza ˆ phil s
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Saturday night we went over to Ryan Rayhill's apartment on 2nd & 2nd for a somebody's (Ryan's maybe?) birthday party.
roof
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Marco and Sarah.
roof ˆ sarah
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Me and Lindsay.
me
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On the roof there was this couple totally going at it in the corner. Here's Sarah giving the "rock fist" of makeout approval as we not-so-subtley tried to capture them in the act.
makeout ˆ roof ˆ sarah
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After chilling on the roof, we decided to head downstairs and check out the party scene in the apartment. Vin and Marco.
vin
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More scandalous make out.
makeout ˆ strangers
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Hahaha.
gross ˆ party ˆ strangers
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Sarah, Vin's eye and the lovely Xiomara.
sarah ˆ vin ˆ xiomara
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Lindsay and Sarah, first posing decent...
sarah
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...then Sarah gave me the bra flash but forgot she was wearing one of those super-sheer, totally see-through bras. If she wasn't one of my most favoritest people ever, I'd so be selling the uncensored photo of Ultranippple to the highest bidder.
censored

Monday, November 24th

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Two weeks after leaving my job I decided it was time to hit the interview circuit. Here's me on my way to interview with at the (in)famous Faith Popcorn about a position at her BrainReserve consultancy.
dressed up ˆ me
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Hi, would you like to hire me?
dressed up ˆ me
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What about *discowink* now?
dressed up ˆ point ˆ me

Saturday, November 29th

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Saturday night I went over to Lit with Sarah and her friend Daria...
daria ˆ sarah
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...and I ran into Karen Landes whom I went to college with (on the right) and her friend Vivian.
karen landes
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Natasha and Nick.
natasha
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Karen, Nick and Vivian.
karen landes ˆ nick
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Nick and Sarah.
the bird ˆ nick ˆ sarah
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After Lit, I headed over to Nolita Tavern for some Sid & Buddy karaoke action where I bore witness to my man Kyle fall victim to one of the most outrageous girlie-attacks I've ever seen. First they stripped his shirt.
best ˆ karaoke
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Then his pants. Somewhere along the lines a sailor hat, a life saver and an egg beater (yep, see it stuck down the front of his pants there?) entered the mix.
hat ˆ karaoke ˆ strangers ˆ sid and buddy
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Then Candy and Gina got in on the act.
best ˆ strangers ˆ candy ˆ sid and buddy
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Buddy & Sid enjoying the action.
karaoke ˆ matt l ˆ matt lesser ˆ sid and buddy
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And then came the PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE, the asian man in a blonde wig. So choice.
costumes ˆ karaoke ˆ strangers ˆ wig ˆ candy

Sunday, November 30th

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On Sunday I was walking north up Bowery to meet Sarah for some delicious Mexican brunch and I ran into a huge throng of people at 2nd St. that had turned up to watch the dedication ceremony as 2nd St was officially named ...
crowd
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..."Joey Ramone Place." I love the Ramones, but this was a little much. Rather than get into a rant, instead I kindly point you in the direction of Eric Gillin's most-excellent essay on this.
nyc ˆ sign ˆ the ramones
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Then I met up with Sarah and we ate waaaay too much Mexican food.
brunch ˆ mexican ˆ sarah
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Oooof.
brunch ˆ food ˆ mexican
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Then Emily came and met up with us and we went and saw a movie. Yay, November!
emily ˆ me