Hey y’all. You may have been wondering what the heck I’ve been doing over the last couple weeks (obviously it hasn’t been updating). Well, I was on a totally awesome road trip across America.

I just got back (and I’m still a little jet lagged) but here is a little taste of some of the truly amazing things I got to see in the US of A:

The table hockey game and nature paintings at the Plaza Tavern in Madison, WI:

Camping at Arches National Park in Utah:

Continue reading ‘Road Trip USA!’ »

It seems that recently everyone I know has decided to go to Barcelona, Spain. I went a couple of years ago, so I’m deciding to just put all my tips about the great city all in one place for everyone to read. (Feel free to add your picks in the comments.) Check it out:

HOTELS
A hotel I really wanted to stay in was the Hotel Banys Oriental. It’s moderately priced, and is very sleek and modern, but unfortunately it was all booked up by the time I got around to securing a room. It’s in the SoHo-ish area of Barcelona, meaning hip, but slightly fancy. The area is a little bit on the more expensive side in terms of restaurants and stores, but a nice area right of La Rambla.

COOL NEIGHBORHOOD
I especially liked the El Raval area of Barcelona, which is the southwest side of La Rambla. It can get kind of dodgy at night (there was literally one street we walked down where I think it was all drunk people and prostitutes), but just stay on the main streets and know where you’re going and you’ll be good. It’s fine in the daytime as well.

Cool hip restaurants are scattered throughout the area and it’s the “ethnic” area of Barcelona–but a very up-and-coming neighborhood. In NYC terms, it’s kinda like the equivalent of the Lower East Side/Chinatown.

The contemporary art museum Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) is in the area, as well as Barcelona University which means the area has lots of young hip kids running around.

Continue reading ‘Hipster, Scenester Barcelona’ »

Hey everyone, I’ve been here in Los Angeles for the past couple of days. Yup, from Inauguration to Academy Award land. It’s been a bit rainy, but it’s pretty nice not to have to wear a big puffy down jacket when I go outside.

Tom Cruise’s star is under a construction site.

On my way over American astronaut Buzz Aldrin was on my flight, sitting two rows in front of me. When you have a man who landed on the moon sitting in your sight line, you feel pretty confident that if something goes wrong, and something happens to the pilots, that it’ll be OK because you know someone on board can probably manage to steer you to a safe landing.

Know this is old news now, but being there on Inauguration Day was truly amazing. To see all the millions of people out there on the Mall, so happy and enthusiastic, it was fantastic to see. Standing out there for several hours wasn’t exactly my favorite activity (it was incredibly cold!), but it was definitely worth braving the chilly temperatures to actually be there during a pivotal moment in our country’s history.

Kinda mad I didn’t wait on line to buy these OBAMA socks at Shepard Fairey’s OBEY pop-up gallery in Georgetown. Fairey was actually onhand DJing the party…but no one there seemed to know who he was!

Watching millions of people waving flags, hearing the voices of everyone cheering (and jeering when shots of Bush came on the screen), made for a memorable experience.

Mad crazy amounts of people on the Washington Monument Hill and on The Mall.

Afterwards you couldn’t go anywhere without stopping and talking to people about being down there during the swearing-in ceremony. Walking into stores, the storeclerks were eager to hear about it–getting into a cab, the cab driver wanted to chat about the experience, sitting down to lunch, all the people around us wanted to chat and trade stories about our time down there.

I know I’m not being so eloquent, but there are no words to describe how excited I was to be there as President Obama took the oath of office. It was a proud day to be an American, and a day I will never forget.

Was anyone else there on that day? How did you feel about the experience?

Hola! Arrived in DC proper today. Headed down to the We Are One concert, but clearly did not get down there at anything resembling early, so we ended up walking down to the Washington Monument and watching from there, but on the way we saw Hoda Kotb from the Today Show.

Er…you can sorta almost see something in the distance..

A nice lady had a Shepard Fairey Obama “HOPE” poster and was collecting signatures from people from all 50 states, so one of us signed it as a representative of NYC. People were all about Obama of course, folks were even excited to pose with a cardboard cutout of the President-Elect:

Got hungry and chowed down in Chinatown at Clyde’s. Some street team guy for Pepsi gave me a handful of Pepsi “HOPE” and “ALL FOR ONE” pins I didn’t want. Then headed back to our friend’s house to watch the concert on HBO.

Clyde’s had special Obama cocktails

Very excited about Tuesday. If today was any indication, people are freaking excited. Hoping to take more of the town in tomorrow. Maybe a little shopping (perhaps a stop in a local yarn store?), need to pick up some Inauguration souvenirs of course!

I took a much-needed vacation last week to Ocean City, Maryland. (I know, not as glamorous as say… the Riviera or Belize… but there was a beach!)

Sure it looks warm but it was freeeeezzziinnnnggg

I got to freeze my buttocks off by the seaside. (Beaches are not perpetually warm… even in September.) I felt the strongest winds of my life, which made the sand feel like a million little tetanus shots pricking my bare legs. The gusts of winds were so strong, that while I was riding a bike down the boardwalk, I went a length of about 30 blocks without pedaling ONCE (I kid you not!).

I saw some *interesting* things when I headed “downtown”…

Perhaps they have these kind of shirts all across beach towns in the US, but all I could say was OMGWTF?
Continue reading ‘Back from My Vacation!’ »

Sorry for the lack of updates, but the “end” of summer had me taking advantage of the gorgeous weather and actually going OUTSIDE instead of chaining myself to my computer.

Today for Labor Day the BSB and I headed up to Beacon, NY and took in some artwork at Dia:Beacon, then roamed around the town. Beautiful, sunny, breezy weather had me in great spirits, and a fantastic food recommendation from a family walking down Main Street saved us from culinary despair. (Brother’s Trattoria in Beacon–yum!)

Patchy grass.

Dia:Beacon
Continue reading ‘The Last Summer Blast: Beacon and Dia’ »

The Giants won the Superbowl, what did I do next? I went to Disneyland, of course!

I saw a band called “Sandbox” somewhere in the continental United States…

Where do you think it was?

BsB here, bringing you a special post:
I love just about every bat sh*t idea the Crumpler folks have–whether it’s Beer for Bags, custom bags from underground artist or Regifting Day.

What’s “Regifing Day”? It’s an opportunity to trade in a “not-for-you” Christmas present from Aunt Flo in exchange for a pretty sweet Crumpler bag. You get a Christmas present you like, and Aunt Flo doesn’t know the difference. It’s a win-win situation. So go exchange all your gifts that don’t suck, but just aren’t right for you.

Re-Gifting at both stores on Saturday, January 5th:

SoHo Store
45 Spring st.

West Village
49 8th Ave

Hey guys. I’m back from my European adventure. If you have been wondering, I first visited Paris, France, then Aix en Provence (in the south of France), then stopped by Barcelona, Spain.

The pictures of the McDonald’s, the hip hop store, the night view from the Eiffel Tower, and Shakespeare & Co. were all from Paris. The mountain shot with the crazy sky was from Aix, and the shot of the Williamsburg bar was in El Raval in Barcelona.

Some interesting things that happened on my journey: The French rail and metro workers decided to go on strike last Wed, but luckily I left from Paris to Aix on Sunday, and then friends in Aix were able to hook me up with a bus (Eurolines) from Aix to Barcleona.

Then I got caught in an illegal anti-Nazi/anti-fascist protest/ police scuffle when coming out of a shoe store on the 5th Avenue of Barcelona. Luckily I was unharmed, but there certainly is nothing scarier than being in a foreign country, seeing a barricade of policemen and then hundreds of people running at you. You just start running–not caring to find out what you’re running away from.

I’m still waking up at 5am in the morning, so my body clock is all off. I have much to write about–and I can’t wait to go through my photographs.

All in all I had a wonderful time, but I am glad to be back in the US–where I’m no longer speaking in caveman language. Oh, and I’m looking forward to having an egg sandwich for breakfast!