Pliver Works Hard For The Money (11/28/07)

You may have seen him in his first Imperial Beer commercial, which I posted in October (CLICK HERE). Well... Oliver is back for Part II. He's the Tico loco in the green t-shirt. Jajajajajja!

Asbury Park Reunion (11/17/07)

Chili + Travel Club + Jengalingus + Beats + Showgirls + Sunday Snuzzling.

Thanks so much to Jilly + Justin for hosting! And to the rest of the crew for always being up for breaking new boundaries of silly!

Wikipedia on Showgirls: "Today, it is a favorite of homosexual audiences and audiences in general have considered it to be a comedy thanks to frequent midnight madness." Review on IMDb: "Don't know whether to give it a 1 as drama or a 10 as comedy." Ha!

Training (11/12/07)

One week of training... the question is training for what???







I like 'em round, and big
And when I'm throwin' a gig
I just can't help myself, I'm actin' like an animal
Now here's my scandal
I wanna get you home
And ugh, double-up, ugh, ugh
I ain't talkin' bout Playboy
'Cause silicone parts are made for toys
I want 'em real thick and juicy
So find that juicy double
Mix-a-Lot's in trouble
Beggin' for a piece of that bubble
So I'm lookin' at rock videos
Knock-kneeded bimbos walkin' like hoes
You can have them bimbos
I'll keep my women like Flo Jo
A word to the thick soul sistas, I wanna get with ya
I won't cuss or hit ya
But I gotta be straight when I say I wanna ****
Til the break of dawn
Baby got it goin' on
A lot of simps won't like this song
'Cause them punks like to hit it and quit it
And I'd rather stay and play
'Cause I'm long, and I'm strong
And I'm down to get the friction on
So, ladies! {Yeah!} Ladies! {Yeah}
If you wanna role in my Mercedes {Yeah!}
Then turn around! Stick it out!
Even white boys got to shout
Baby got back!

Laurent Garnier @ Cielo (10/10/07)

Laurent Garnier finally graced us with his presence after a 3+ year hiatus from the United States. I was fortunate enough to catch him twice in Europe last year - once in Belgium where he played live with horns and strings and once in Barcelona which was for a DJ set at Pacha. The latter turned into one of the most legendary nights of all-time, partially because of Laurent but mostly because The Hand made it's first appearance and I climbed to the *top* of Arago 95 and talked on the green shoe phone. That night will not be forgotten anytime soon. Anyway, back to the present.

Last night Laurent played really diverse, tasteful music which sounded great over Cielo's Funktion One sound system. While he kept it interesting with tidbits of soul, funk, D&B, house and techno, I felt like he played fairly safe and never *went for it*. He kept the night at a 4 of 5 level fairly consistently throughout only getting the crowd into a real frenzy on two occasions - Man with a Red Face (easy) and Song 2 by Blur (even easier). I'm sorry, but I expect a legend like Laurent to be able to get that energy out of an up-for-it-NYC-music-head-crowd with something other than catchy pop lyrics like "woo hoo". Don't get me wrong, I had a really fun time and continue to appreciate Laurent's genius (wicked mixing and great track selection), but when I go out I want to get kicked in the a$$ and that just didn't happen last night.

After Cielo closed it's doors, the NYC crackerati gathered at an undisclosed afterhours location for a few unidentified DJs and Damien Lazarus (not sure who else actually played after I left around 7am). Good times although a bit of a clusterf*ck.

Going Back to Old Nassau: Princeton vs. Yale (11/10/07)

It's been quite a while since I made it back to Princeton, but this weekend was homecoming and the Cap & Gown Club's 100th Anniversary. And of course most importantly, the boys were back in town with the deep fryer in tow for turkey tailgate treats. I met Ernie + Kat, Eric, Drew + Jen, Jeremy + Kim, Jason + Laura and Daryl + fam at our normal plot for lot of food, drink and bean bag fun. Unfortunately Princeton lost to undefeated Yale 27-6 and for the first time in my football watching history, I actually didn't make it into the game *at all*. Instead, we were entertained by a mud pit fraternity war in the field beyond Jadwin Gym. I'm fairly certain there was no one in the student section inside the game because they were all with us in the parking lot (see video below). Ahh, to be young and drunk.

Fuerzabruta (10/7/07)

Diqui James, one of the creators of "De La Guarda," is back in Union Square with a new show called "Fuerzabruta" (brute force). When I saw De La Guarda way-back-when, it really blew me away because it was fresh, new and truly interactive. The follow-up is definitely a fun, entertaining experience but lacks a little bit of it's predecessor's buzz worthiness. I'm not sure if that's because of the content, the fact that's its the second of it's kind, it's lacking an overall story or something else. I had to laugh at the NY Times review:

"For true enjoyment, a powerful affection for thumping techno music would probably help. So would a delight in being befogged by acrid smoke, blasted by bright lights and shuttled around in packs like cattle. Also getting wet in public. The key demographic for “Fuerzabruta” is probably clubgoing, overstimulated college kids not worried about soiling their togs from H&M. Not to mention all those on the dark side of 30 who wish they were still clubgoing, overstimulated college kids."

I'm 30 and still going to clubs so I'm not sure where that leaves me! In any case, it's definitely something fun and original - certain moments were definitely very memorable - so if you have some time check it out...just don't expect anything life changing (-;

Trailer:


Pictures c/o NY Times.

San Francisco By Night (10/26/07)

Believe it or not, I had never been to San Francisco before last week! So when I heard my first official work trip would be out west I was especially excited. Unfortunately I was on lock down every minute of every day, so I didn't get a chance to see any of the sights. However, not even the j-o-b could hold me back at NIGHT.

Thursday night I hit up Craig Richards at underground spot, Mighty. I got a chance to catch up with Craig for a few minutes before he went on and re-introduced myself as the birthday-having, headdress-wearing, bible puppet-toting loco that he last saw running around Bar 13 in April. He laughed and said he remembered me and we reminisced about what will probably go down as one of the best parties of 2007. His set in San Fran was prototypical dirty Craig and the Thursday night crowd was definitely up for it. Mighty is a great club with the biggest speaker stacks I've seen in a long while! Thanks to the fine people of the San Fran underground that I met, especially Jason from Auralism.

[all day spent working - uggg]

Friday night I did the b-school thing and met up with a friend from exchange in Barcelona as well as a bunch of Kellogg heads at The Bubble Lounge. I got slightly bored with the clientele so I initiated a pillow fight and made everyone who passed by shake their a$$. After that I met up with boys at a place called Pink where, to my surprise, Miss Honey Dijon was rockin the decks. She tore it up and I let her know that NYC was in the house.

[all day spent at a conference - gag]

Halloween Saturday. As someone who gets dressed up on a regular basis, you'd think I'd go all out on Halloween. But for whatever reason I can never seem to get my shit together in time. This year was no different and thank god I had Julie and Gal on the mission, because I was stuck at work all day without a minute to spare for costume shopping. Gal and five other boys spent most of the weekend slaving away over fabulous costumes for Orgy, The Gladiator Ball (our destination for the evening). We gathered near The Castro for a pre-game, a viewing of the movie 300 and last minute costume alterations before heading to 525 Harrison, a massive club in SoMa. We made our way in, warmed up the dance floor a bit and then got ready for the costume contest. Right before we went up on the stage, I proposed adding a bit of theater to our grand entrance. So, the boys all went up on stage and were getting introduced by the drag queen hostess while Julie and I waited in the wings. Right when it got quiet, we bum-rushed the stage and started slaying and castrating the boys. Let's just say the crowd, the hostess and the judges (one of which was Davis from the Real World Denver) loved it. We got third place after two amazing contestants (Gladiola and a character from 300). We were happy with our victory and leveraged our time on stage into dance floor notoriety for the rest of the night. There was, however, one guy who took home the unofficial prize...holy sh*t (see picture).

[all day spent at a conference - ouch]

Sunday night I actually took it easy and met up with an old friend from high school before crawling into bed exhausted around midnight. After that, I wrapped up the conference and finished up the trip with an incredible meal at Citiscape, the restaurant on the 46th floor of the Hilton, which overlooks the entire city.

[all day spent at a conference - uggh]

Check out the rest of the pics from Saturday night below.

Return of the Rabbit (10/20/07)

Sami got a haircut and the waskly wabbit made it's NYC debut! Miss you Missah!

Pliver Hits the Airwaves (10/17/07)

Check out my friend, Oliver, in his latest commercial for Imperial Beer (Costa Rica)... he's the stud at the end who hits on the chick (ha!)

Dove Campaign For Real Beauty (10/16/07)

By now you've probably all heard about the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and Self-Esteem Fund... but have you seen the commercials? Take a minute to watch both Evolution (the transformation of a model) and Onslaught (the barrage of beauty messages)...they are amazing!