the best party game ever

Dan had the idea of building a photobooth for his grand party, so Friday night, after a trip to the Whitney, Brett and I headed back to his house to assist in the construction. Or rather, and despite our museum fatigue, Brett hit the ground running, being incredibly helpful and creative, while I kind of hung around, taking photos, generally getting in the way, running to the drugstore for push pins (to hang the drapery) then agreeing wholeheartedly with the plan to head to Black Mountain for dinner and drinks at 11pm.

The party itself went with a bang - lots of drink and good friends and dancing and squabbles over playlists (Christy Claire was rather put out that hers got turned off when Outkast came on), but you know there is the smallest chance I might have been getting my drunk on at the party - there was rather more of the booze and rather less of the food for me that day - so my memory gets a little hazy some time around midnight...

Luckily the photobooth, apart from being a great party game, is also a fabulous aide-memoire for those drunken occasions, so it was with amusement and trepidation we looked through the photos this (very hungover) evening...

http://danestabrook.com/photobooth

Dan, me & Cece

I'd like to plead the triple-vodka-and-cranberry defence to (hopefully) explain why half the shots I'm in I seem to be either trying to bite someone, or licking their neck.

Ahh parties. Open bars without having eaten anything. New York. <3

brooklyn social

Yesterday was an almost springlike 17 degrees C - one of those days you can't help but be in love with the city, and smile at everyone. Lunch with CC at the Moma, wandering through Central Park, down to Soho to meet Lauren at work, walking across and through the Lower East Side with obligatory coffee break at Sugar Sweet Sunshine... I considered walking across the Williamsburg Bridge but decided to head home to get to Rocketship before closing time (where they have original Scott Pilgrim artwork for sale, that I had to force myself to walk away from), prior to an evening with take-out watching Lost (which I was, having only ever seen the first three episodes of series 1).

Today the Wicked Witch of the East blew in and brought with her gale-force, knock-you-down-and-blow-you-to-Oz strength winds, which I braved nonetheless to hang out with Faran for a quick lunch (being Fashion Week she's run off her feet), then meet Dan at the Angelika for Let The Right One In, which we both love (somehow the subways rumbling loudly underneath us mostly add to the atmosphere of the movie). Afterwards we find Cat and head for tea at Cafe Gitane, then cab it over to Hudson for Melissa Auf Der Mar's screening of a short that Dan and Brett (who's arrived in town today from Providence) worked on last year.

Home again home again jiggity jig... somehow we convince the Greenpoint residents to come down to Carroll Gardens for a wee drinkie or two, so we head to Brooklyn Social for some (strong as hell) Old Fashioneds.

Dan, Ryland and Brett

Then it's back to Dan's where I remember I have a bag of funsize Crunchies in my suitcase for Christy Claire - it's quickly opened and everyone sugars up before CC and I grab a car service with all my crap back to her place in Greenpoint and it's time to acquaint myself with a new part of Brooklyn...

snow day!

I was clearly too quick off the mark with the previous Stopping-by-woods wintry post, as we woke up today to a mass of snow, all but one tube line closed down and all London buses pulled from their routes... Ahh London when it snows...

Seeing as were already up and ready to go, having not realised there was no way to get to work, we went out for a walk at about 8:30am, while the snow was still virgin, down along the river to Syon Park, where it felt as if we were in the middle of the countryside. Beautiful.

And of course Fi just *had* to make a snow angel...