happy thanksgiving

even though i'm back in the uke, i made a pumpkin pie [with imported libby's pumpkin mix] and made my family try it. despite many "urgh, pumpkin!"-type comments all evening, once it was ready it went down a storm...

back in the smoke. again.

The good things to come home to:

The sad things to leave behind:

Stranger Than Fiction

Possibly the best film I've seen this year.

Certainly killed our collective case of the blues. And the walk home in the pouring rain, picking up sushi on the way, discussing the movie, and watching old Full House reruns once back were just the icing on the cake.

oye senor DJ

i love these dorks. nice to see the PMC-style mustaches getting some quality video time.

high culture, low culture

Spend the day running around - over to J&R [camera sale!], down to Abercrombie at Southstreet Seaport for my sister [I spend max. 2 mins walking through the store repeatedly thinking I fucking *hate* this shop then have to leave] and to Pier 17 where the view down the East River of the Brooklyn Bridge and beyond makes everything feel strangely fake.

Then it's back to Brooklyn, rest up for a few minutes, meet up with Dan then head up to the Met for some overdue culture. I've barely been to the Met - just one time on an MB organised trip that was ruuuuubbbbish - so I'm pysched to finally see it. The place is immense. We check out the mummies and the two exhibits and some photos and then spend a while trying to find a picture I want to see: "It's a number 5. It goes with that William Carlos Williams poem." "Okay. Who's it by?" "Ummmmm..." Figuring it's gonna be in the Modern Art section we head there and slowly but surely locate the painting I was talking about:*

By now we're both being old people and our feet are killing so we head home. I get in, text Lauren to see if she wants to get dinner in the 'hood instead of Union Sq - but apparently the party we're meant to be going to [that, truthfully, I was considering bailing out of 'cause I'm knackered] will have food. I sit down for five minutes, sugar up on Nerds, then have to head back out again to go meet Lauren.

We head to Shallon's book party just off Union Sq. We're like the first people there. We have the open bar and the snacks alllll to ourselves. Awesome. We hover by the chips-n-dip after pouring generous vodka-Frescas for ourselves until people we know turn up. Rob Hitt, Sarah H, Alex Sarti, other Crush Mgmt peeps... We're hanging out by the cupcake table - cupcakes with letters on them that, originally, spelled out 'Congratulations on the book Shallon'. Only after a fair few drinks...




All the free alcohol means things descend even further...



...until some of us decide to split. Lauren, Sarah, Sarti and I leave and, for lack of decision of what else to do, head to Beauty Bar where Omri is spinning. While there I also run into Jenny, the Lula photo ed., who I haven't yet seen in NY, which is pretty cool. We take a seat and argue about what to do next... Annex... Guns 'N Roses afterparty ["It's in midtown? Ewww."]... no decision seems to be reached but we head out anyway, waiting while Lauren runs into KFC to use their bathroom. There's a rat out front of the restaurant, just hanging out. It's kinda gross.

Standing outside the KFC, we all realise we're tired and a wee bit drunk perhaps, so - more old people antics - decide to head home. Lauren and I wait for the L and as it pulls in I notice Andrew and Alex Littl'an, and LaRue already on the train so we jump in their car and say hi. I entrust Lauren to them at Lorimer and stumble to the G to get back to Carroll Gardens...


*the painting is by Charles Demuth
**I stole most of these photos from Lauren

franks and beans

Michelle's pre-birthday dinner turns into a white trash cook-in... hotdogs [with a veggie option for us non-meateaters], beans, mash, orange soda... it was even classy 'sunkist' soda - no krasdale orange soda for a birthday party!

Lauren, Sarah, Cara and I eat most of the crisps [sorry, "chips"] before the others turn up. MIchelle comes by and starts making frosting for the cake, only she bought granulated sugar instead of icing [sorry, "powdered' or "confectioners"...] so it's kind of a purple mess... so the cake is frosted with Funfetti instead.

Ricky cooks for us all. Rob comes up, and Gurj comes by after a little while. I'm kinda chipped out so only manage one hotdog. Once everyone's eaten, Lauren suggests a game of Scene It?, the musical edition. Rob gets ultra competitive, and gets yelled at when he misses a really easy Johnny Cash question. "I don't know country music!" Gurj and Sarah gossip away on the sofa, for the most part ignoring the game. Michelle seems to know everything.

Rob disappears back down to his apt, and Ricky zoomed off when Scene It? was suggested, so it turns into a girly party. We discuss certain girls in band - complete with fucking hilarious impressions - then talk turns to stalker girls of bands. I can't believe some of this shit. It's *fascinating*.

coney island winter

Escape needed: hop on the F down to Coney Island. Being the off season, almost everything is shut. Head up to the boardwalk, which is still as rickety as ever, and on to the beach. The sand is hard packed with bird prints tracking this way and that. The sun glints silver off the ocean and gives the pier in the distance an ethereal kind of look. Magic.

I love the beach in winter.