best + strangers

June, 2016

Hahaha. So good.

the october roundup

October, 2015

Was walking the hounds and took a picture of these two kids fooling around with the hamper coming out of the laundry mat.

whistler iv: camping at joffre lakes

April, 2014

I was walking out, she was walking in! Look who I ran into on the way home! If you need a pack of smokes, a toy with blinking lights or a DVD with either variety of a person having sex with a horse ("You want man fuck horse or horse fuck man?") THIS is your lady! (I've been running into her on the mean, late-night streets of NYC since 2005!)

the march roundup

March, 2014

While walking Maddy through Tomkins, we briefly paused to admire this hunk, you know, just hanging out in the dog park all casual. Probably waiting to meet an OKCupid date.

Her: "The dog park? Sure! That would be a great first place for us to meet. How will I find you there?" Him: "Oh, you'll see me."

the september roundup

September, 2013

Back in Whistler later that evening, Grant and I were eating dinner outside when we watched a stumbly drunk dude briefly slow down and and artfully pee his name in excellent cursive before lurching onward. Nicely done, Brett!

August 13, 2013

pee ↗+
wtf ↗+

I also had the very "New York" experience of getting closer and casually realizing, "Oh, I know that guy."

the august roundup

August, 2013

1. Air (Yellow) represents mind and thoughts, the ability to think.
2. Water (Blue) represents emotions.
3. Fire (Red) represents will, the ability to direct your thoughts and emotions towards action on the physical plane.
4. Earth (Green) represents all the materials on the physical plane that the three subtle-elements interact with.
5. Space (White), or aether, represent the "5th element" and it is the "background canvas" or "cosmic lattice" that the "material earth" is projected upon.

the august roundup

August, 2013

While I believe that the "five elements" actually related to a funamental truth about the structure of matter at the microcosmic level, I also really like how in alchemy they're used as a metaphor for the ingredients of human experience.

the august roundup

August, 2013

We also had the pleasure of watching this lady repeatedly trying to fight off an afternoon nap...

June, 2013

sleepy ↗+

...and failing in the best way possible. Every time she'd fall asleep her head would go ALL the way back and for a brief glorious moment she'd look like a human PEZ dispenser and then when she'd wake up, she'd snap her head upright. SO. FUCKING. FUNNY.

occupy sandy with voltaic systems

June, 2013

November 16, 2012

...this section of destroyed boardwalk still contained a working payphone.

occupy sandy with voltaic systems

November 16, 2012

On the subway ride home I stood next to this guy's awesome Grant Wood costume on the platform. Haha.

the october roundup and superstorm sandy

October, 2012

...make a new travel buddy! Like this sleepy little abuela who spent most of the bus ride bouncing her tiny snoozing noggin against my shoulder. Haha. Adorable.

philippines: part one

March 03, 2012

On Tuesday evening I was walking Maddy through Tompkins when I happened to have a chance encounter with The Dark Lord.

the january roundup

January, 2012

Nom nom.

April, 2011

I chatted with him a bit (very nice guy) and asked him if I could have some birdseed. He reached into his pockets...

April, 2011

On the walk back through the park, we stopped to watch a gentleman who was making a big show of getting crazy with the pigeons. Leigh thinks pigeons are terrible filth-birds and couldn't even watch what he was doing. Hahaha.

andrews 5th scavenger hunt

April, 2011

If you've got to talk to strangers and ask them to do weird things, you want Catrinel on your team! Not even a block later, jazz hands with a stranger! 10 POINTS!

April 09, 2011

Before we'd even left the park, Cat managed to charm a stranger into letting her push a baby in stroller. 10 POINTS!

andrews 5th scavenger hunt

April 09, 2011

Matt & Tinkerbell!

halloween in florida

October 29, 2010

matt ↗+

While I was sitting there, two guys showed up with upright basses and started playing together. They were both using bows and making haunting, mournful, beautiful sounds and a man wandered over holding his newborn son and was holding him up into the sound. All while reading a book about learning to let go and get lost in life moment to moment. Call it the reason I live here.

the september roundup

September, 2010

She was wearing all orange and she was FEELING it.

katie's rollerdisco 40th birthday

February 06, 2010

Next thing we knew we had a new best friend. (A best friend who, incidentally, liked to lift up his shirt and smack his belly loudly and repeatedly after each drink). Pauly can't believe it!

the january roundup

January, 2010

NONE SHALL PASS! (The guy at the temple didn't speak any English, put he certainly understood the pantomime for "Hey, wanna pretend we're having a SWORD fight for this photo?" Yes!)

honeymoon in bali part two

September 06, 2009

The temple was getting ready to close and we were the only visitors! Luckily, there was a temple minder there who's job was to show you around and to help keep the monkeys from getting too aggressive!

honeymoon in bali part two

September 06, 2009

Mike took this great photo of us with some of the Cathay Pacific flight attendants, then we said goodbye and headed to the gate. Thanks so much for coming out to see us off, Mike!

honeymoon in bali part one

September 01, 2009

Making new friends always.

my 32nd birthday

August 08, 2008

It was afterhours at this point, but since it was a real quiet night, the bartender told us we could hang for a bit and he locked the place up. This guy was the only other place in the bar so we agreed to play some Big Buck together.

my 32nd birthday

August 08, 2008

FOR THE WIN! As soon as this image showed up on my camera, we both started chortling and we came dangerously close to awakening our new friends and had to run down the street before our heads exploded with laughter. OMG, I'm crying with laughter right now while I type this. Holy shit, was it funny. (By the way, this is totally the right move in this situation. When I've passed out drunk in a car, I've always made sure to snap a photo of myself before passing out. Hahaha.)

the june roundup: part one

June, 2008

passed out ↗+

Awww, nappy-nap time! Nothing is funnier than trying to be really quiet around sleeping people that you're kind of fucking with and after I took this photo we were both laughing hysterically but also trying to be as silent as possible.

the june roundup: part one

June, 2008

As we got closer we noticed two buddies inside totally crashed out and sleeping it off with the windows down! So sleepy!

the june roundup: part one

June, 2008

I found a small table by myself, ordered a pizza and a big frosty mug of beer and was reading a book when these three characters came over and asked me if I wanted to join them! Who could say no to that? From L to R: My new friends Thomas, Maria and Mohamed!

Maria was from Sweden and approached me because she pegged me for a fellow Swede. She was a self-proclaimed "cougar" who came to Egypt on vacation after a terrible divorce, met Mohamed and fell in love and they'd been together for a couple years. They explained to me that they were working on getting Mohamed a visa so he could live in Sweden, but that everyone was skeptical about their love and thought it was some kind of scam to get a visa!

egypt: part three

March 21, 2008

Here's me saying goodbye to Ahmed after we got back to my hotel around 4pm! This guy was the best! Despite only knowing a few words in each others' language, we managed to talk all day for an eight-hour road trip. Thanks again for driving, Ahmed!

egypt: part one

March 16, 2008

me ↗+
taxi ↗+

The guy with the mule wasn't getting much love (everyone wanted to sit on camels) so I figured I'd throw in with the underdog!

egypt: part one

March 16, 2008

Around 3am, things started getting rowdy with public makeout on the dancefloor! Hahah.

the january roundup: part one

January, 2008

Lawrence, Mandy and Michael! At first I thought Mandy and Michael were sharing a floating red leather hat, but that's when I looked closer and noticed Mr. Creepers McPeepers getting his L U R K on in the background.

the november roundup: part two

November, 2007

...and then parlayed them into a really nice face-to-face halftime dance breakdown.

nerve party and karaoke times two

November 15, 2007

Can you tell that I liked her? (I think this is my favorite creepy picture of myself, btw.)

no pressure saturday

November 03, 2007

Oh man, I love this picture SO MUCH. Every time I look at David's face I can actually hear the perverted little cackle he does when something naughty happens: "Heh...heh...heeeh."

my 30th birthday

August 08, 2006

Grant was so distracted, that he eventually just ended up inviting the guy up on stage. Things got even weirder when he produced a Minnie Mouse hand puppet from out of thin air.

the november roundup

November, 2005

Two really cute girls dressed up as Pantone colors that I didn't even bother trying to flirt with because...

halloween 2005

October 29, 2005

halloween ↗+

So Jenne decided to show him how we do.

random night at misshapes

October 15, 2005

...or the fact that he was accompanied to the park by an actual woman. Seen here hiding her face. Which I'm sure is only because of the sun. (What, you mean you'd be embarrassed to have a parrot on your ass?)

the july roundup: part one

July, 2005

Check out Silky Black Cowboy giving me the "I'll give you one guess which whiteboy's so gonna throw up when he gets home?"

the january roundup: part one

January, 2005

...to HER ASS.

new years eve 2004

December 31, 2004

grant ↗+
butt ↗+

KA-BLAMMO! Hahaha. Look at how excited he is!

new years eve 2004

December 31, 2004

Then a panty check? (To be honest, I'm not even sure what's going on here.) And then?

new years eve 2004

December 31, 2004

grant ↗+
butt ↗+

Then late on Sunday night, a super-nice girl Jane (who has a friend in NYC who reads my site and told her that I was moving to SF and didn't know anyone out there....so nice!) invited me to garden party. I was wiped out from walking around all day and I had to get up for work, but I decided to swing by and at least say hi and try to meet some people. By the time I got there, things were winding down, but I did manage to see a GIRLFIGHT on the way out! Check out the double-knee shoulder pin in full-effect. (You know that means that she totally has brothers that she had to learn to defend herself against.

the september roundup: life in san francisco

September, 2004

laugh ↗+

After screaming along incoherently into an extra mic during the first half of this couple's duet, homeboy in the green shirt finally managed to wrangle away Shef's mic and hide it on him. Unfazed, Shef decided to make up for his lack of mic by just singing even louder for the remainder of their song.

frank picarazzi's bachelor party

July 08, 2004

chef ↗+
drunk ↗+

On the way home, Tinny and I stopped at the totally scary, 24-hour McDonald's in Chinatown so I could get my McChicken on. There was this cute little old Chinese guy passed out in one of the booths and Tinny wanted me to take a picture of her giving him a kiss. I showed her this one and she decided she wanted a better one and motioned for me to give her the camera...

the july roundup: part two

July, 2004

...NAKED MAN! Hahahaha. This old dude is always chilling there in a lil' Speedo-type thang and from certain angles (ok, most angles) it looks like he's buck naked.

brunch and karens 23rd birthday party at misshapes

June 26, 2004

After our jams, we were shooting the shit about his company and the prospect of me moving out to San Francisco when this lady (who weighed like 83lbs and was totally spun out of her mind on meth) came over to us and just kept talking and talking and talking and talking. The only time she even stopped to take a breath was when she smiled for this photo. After ten minutes of politely enduring her word-torrent and hinting that we were ready to be left alone, we finally gave up and literally walked away in the middle of her (still!) talking. Thumbs up for meth!

job interview in san francisco

June 22, 2004

So amazing.

June, 2004

...HAHAHAHAHA. Hooooo-leeeeeeeeee fugging shit. I almost pissed myself. What's that? You'd like a close up? Yeah, me too.

June, 2004

There was this dude there who had slathered himself in that awful bronzer skin dye that makes you look tan. He kept going up to Sid and Buddy every five minutes and saying stuff like "Yo dudes, am I going to be up anytime soon? I'm going to be a famous singer someday and it might be in your best interest to treat me right." He tried that nonsense for 90 minutes and finally growing discouraged, bribed them with $40 and was instantly put on stage. Hahaha. He started singing some awful Justin Timberlake song while gyrating and air-humping. This prompted Carol to bum-rush the stage and sexily unbutton his shirt while he sang. He thought she was into him, but everytime he looked away from her, she'd pull faces like this...

the may roundup: part one

June, 2004

Before we left, Leigh made sure she invited Dave to Misshapes - because, in her words "he just seems like our kind of people."

trash at don hill's

May 30, 2004

With Grant still away (he was in the UK and then Spain for a few weeks chilling with his family), Fatty had some serious comedy slack to pick up. Luckily, he was up for the challenge, hunchedly chasing this snooty fur shawl-wearing lady down Park Ave while making a silly "I'm tip-toeing" face on our way back from playing Frisbee in the Sheep's Meadow in Central Park. Comedy gold, I tell ya. Later that night, a whole bunch of us met up in the East Village to celebrate...

May, 2004

fatty ↗+

...YOU'RE DRUNK!

morrissey release party and a crashed interpol birthday party

April 21, 2004

amber ↗+

The best thing I've ever seen in my life was this pack of eight year-old girls from the Lower East Side who rolled up on their bikes to watch in disbelief. Their collective look of "WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE CRACKERS DOING?" cannot even be described.

After watching them try to make sense of the situation for more than five minutes, Grant and I wandered over and tried to make things more interesting. We explained (er, ok - lied) to the girls and told them that the kids were dancing as part of a hidden camera show - they were dancing stupid on purpose in hopes that people would yell stuff at them and heckle them - but the problem was, no one had heckled them yet. We told the girls that if they started shouting insults, they'd totally get to be on MTV. We let them ponder that for a few minutes, and then slunk back to enjoy the magic that ensued. Needless to say, the Dance Revolution packed up and headed back to their NYU dorm in a fucking (embarrassed) jiffy.

thai food aventure and misshapes

April 10, 2004

Afterwards we went to Piano's where Amber totally won the "see who get a better photo with this guy" contest. Red gloves? Two sets of handcuffs? Bondage collar? There's so much going on here I don't even know where to start the joke.

seth's surprise party part two karaoke and afterhours

April, 2004

amber ↗+

When you do the Jovi right, girls can't help but touch their boobies! Hot damn!

March 13, 2004

me ↗+
karaoke ↗+

...when he's really just interested in egging Amber on to see how close she'll actually come to...

fatty quits and two karaoke nights

March 01, 2004

amber ↗+

Hmmm, who could've done that?

aruba vacation part 1: leaving nyc and first night in aruba

January 22, 2004

scott ↗+

Hahahah.

a random night at lit

January 21, 2004

Sarah and Rob took it upon themselves to...

December 22, 2003

Hahahaha.

December 22, 2003

passed out ↗+

...actually lay in her lap while frenching. (I love how Rob's laughing and it's causing Sarah to accidentally lick his face).

December 22, 2003

...totally passed the fuck out. Sarah went over to seranade her and when she didn't wake up for that, we knew there was trouble to be had.

December 22, 2003

I'm not sure who this guy is or whether or not the drunk girl was a friend of his. He was sitting next to her the whole night and he loved that everyone was posing with her.