Author: Jake
I hate to talk about the weather. Because it always seems petty or boring. But, growing up in a place that has four seasons, there are certain sentiments connected to the cold weather (as with the other seasons). The only thing that I can really compare it to, would be something like those instances where you step into the elevator with someone wearing the same perfume that your first girlfriend wore. Although, I don’t think that anyone really wears Liz Claiborne anymore. Not sure if it even exists anymore, hahaha. Anyway, the first really couple of cold days in winter have a similar effect on me. This was that weekend, for me. The temps dipped into the subfreezing range and jackets were no longer optional when making a run to the corner bodega.
Speaking of good times in the winter months, this weekend we booked a snowboarding trip for January. This will my be first trip dedicated entirely to riding, in longer than I would like to admit.
Arnette just launched a couple of new frames. One of them, “Glory Daze” (above) I shot with my homey Sam on Sunday morning. It isn’t the first time that Sam has agreed to model eyewear for me. I have to say that the story, this time around was a lot more fun. Enjoy a few more images, below.
Have a great week!
Author: Jake
So stoked that it is Friday. I actually woke up in a really grouchy mood, because I forgot to set an alarm to move the car (which I normally do at 5:30). Instead I woke up in a panic around 7, and rushed out to fight the school buses and garbage trucks. I was about to put it in a garage when at the last second I saw a dude unlocking his car to leave. Not really an exciting story, but it kind of set a grouchy stressed out tone for the day. That is, until I finally got on the train and has my headphones blasting. It was at that point that I realized the weekend had arrived, and that I needed to just chill the eff out.
Last night I shot an event at the Burton store in SoHo. It was Ladies Shopping Night. It was really fun to hangout out with all of my Burton homeys, hear some good music, and snap some pics of cute girls.
I have been trying to put together a Snowbird trip with some of our friends, for Jan. Hanging out in the Burton store for a few hours last night, made me even more excited to get out and ride this season.
No poetry today. I forgot to bring my little orange book that contains all of that rubbish. As a side note, Reagan’s latest joke is that she is willing to trade me just about anything to take a peek inside of that book. It’s pretty funny to hear her carry on about how bad she wants to read it. Hahahah.
Sam’s last night in town is tonight. I’m shooting some event at the French Institute in the evening. But after that, we are going to have to come up with something really good to do. And I’m sure we will.
Have a great weekend!!
Author: Jake
Well, it was a pretty busy and pretty fun weekend. Friday, my brother and his girl came down to the FiDi and met me after work. We grabbed dinner and hung out for a while before meeting up with Reagan. We went to a club in MePa, before quickly deciding that we were too tired to be out all night. All of the pics from that night are on my brother’s cam. So, I will have to grab those later.
Saturday, we did the usual Saturday stuff. In the evening, before going out, my brother and his girl came on a walk with me over to the section of the Hudson Greenway that is near the GWB. We brought some cameras and snapped a couple of pics, while we were there. Above: GWB from the south. Below: my brother Sam, and his girlfriend, Chani (I was too lazy to pull out the lens distortion, but you get the point).
Here are a couple of more snaps from Saturday night. It was eventide, and there was no wind. So, the Hudson was like a giant refection pool–
Sunday, we did the usual Sunday stuff. In the afternoon, Reagan did a tutorial for HDOFblog, using Chani as her model. So, I shot that, then We shot some stills while we were out later. I’ll be posting them as soon as Reagan gives me permission.
The end.
Author: Jake
This video was the perfect start to my Friday. The Video is by Fott, called ‘Motorcycle. Better than Breakfast.’ The title sums it up. I doubt that there are many red-blooded males out there who would choose shoveling down some oatmeal over blasting around a pre-dawn Moscow atop a cafe racer before morning rush hour. If that was my breakfast, I would eat breakfast every day. Anyway, check out the vid.
PS: My brother arrived safe and sound this morning. He also brought along his lady friend, who I was able to meet for the first time this morning. Today Reagan is modeling for a shoot for Vogue Japan, or something like that. I think it is going to be a good weekend.
Author: Jake
In true form, Thanksgiving weekend was a banger. Contrary to previous forecasts that I had seen, the weather was fantastic–sunny and uncharacteristically warm for this late in the year. We were able to catch up with several old friends, including some house guests. Saturday I spent the day with some friends at Brooklyn Bowl, throwing strikes and catching up. I was also able to drop by Opera Gallery in Soho to check out an installation that I’m pretty excited about, by London Police (below).
Top photo: Reagan has kind of a little tradition to get fresh flowers when we have house guests. I think it is kind of a nice one.
Author: Jake
4 day weekends are boss. The weather has turned to crap, and is supposed to remain crap (rainy) for the duration. I’m not worried though. Some of our good friends will be spending the holiday with us, and I’m sure that there will be plenty of good times had. I’m also excited about my good friend Michael Corleone who will be returning from Italy after several years on the lam. Wait, that is a different Michael C.. My friend Micheal C., who is coming home from Italy to visit, didn’t shoot anyone. I’m hoping to be able to kick it with him for a minute or two over the weekend, as well.
Since it is sort of a Friday, I’m going to serve up this A train poem. I thought it was cheesily appropriate for this week since it has a bit of a gratitude theme.
The rain magnifies everything on the A train. The humidity on the platform, once bearable, reaches levels normally reserved for swamps and saunas. That subtle stench of urine/body-odor/halitosis becomes much less subtle. On rainy days, nose-deaf strap hangers are counted as fortunate. When it rains, the slight annoyance felt toward the person who keeps bumping your leg on the A train, becomes tangible as their wet umbrella soaks your slacks and drips onto your brogues. On the A train when it’s raining, that feeling of relief to finally be headed home goes beyond relief, and breaches the threshold of gratitude.
Happy Thanksgiving weekend!
[photo: Rush hour on the West Side Highway from the Vesey St. foot bridge]
Author: Jake
I seriously did almost nothing. The only remarkable things that I can even think of, were seeing a movie and cleaning the house. I think that it was kind of nice, though, to have a little bit of reprieve sandwiched between two crazy weekends. Especially since the upcoming holiday weekend starts in two days.
In more interesting news, El Mac just released the print above. I absolutely love it. The piece is entitled “Prayer,” and is available at Moon Editions.
Author: Jake
First of all, happy Friday. What better way to kick off the weekend than more photos of torn apart computers? Hahaha. I picked up a new computer on Wednesday night, and have basically been working on that stuff during every free minute, since. Hence not much blogging (or anything else). In the photo above, I’m ripping my old hard drives onto my Linux server. Luckily, I was able to save everything that I wanted from the computer that died.
After that, I loaded up my new computer with memory, a new video card and power supply. Once I got that running, I networked everything. It’s working awesome. Now I just want to get a RAID box, so that I can scrap the Linux machine. Maybe this weekend. The one that I want is currently out of stock at B&H.
Shifting away from the nerdy stuff, I’m pretty excited about the weekend. We are going to try to do our holiday card photos tomorrow. We are also attending a b-day party. Sunday should be full of maxing and relaxing.
I’m sorry that I couldn’t come up with a good A train poem for today. As I was flipping through my little orange book, I just felt like everything was sub-par. But I will leave you with this: As I was getting ready for work this morning, I asked Reagan if she liked Ewoks. She said no. I was a bit surprised to hear it and asked why not. She said, “because they are jobless little nuisances.” Something to think about.
Author: Jake
Weddings, man. We hit a pretty good one, over the weekend. It was one of Reagan’s good friends who she has known since a very young age. Reagan did all of the hair for the bride and the bride’s maids. Anyway, here are a couple of shots of Reagan knocking out, not one, but two looks for the bride on her special day. Great times were had by all. I had never been to Charlotte before.
Author: Jake
Charlotte has been pretty dope, so far. Getting to the airport last night/the flight, was hellish. I mean, that is the only way to describe it. Finally, at long last we arrived in Charlotte. We met up with Reagan’s childhood friend, Deanna at the airport. We took the city bus from the airport, which was pretty awesome. After checking in to the hotel, we hit up a place called Carolina Ale House. Wings, nachos, etc.. Apparently it is a chain, down here (in the south). So dope.
Reagan has been doing pre-wedding stuff all day and I? Have been bowling (self P, above) and shopping by myself (and loving it).
Next chapter: is everyone ready for the next A train poem? Ok, that is entirely too much build up. No photo of the train to accompany this poem.
Did you ever notice how similar are the words “commute” and “commune? Commute, commune, communism, socialism, subwayism. I hear that in Japan, commuters are packed into the cars using a large bamboo staff. They are compressed to tightly that one could sleep while standing. Commute, compress, compact, contact. I think that I would like Japan.
So there is that. This is one of those multifaceted posts, where I delve into various unrelated, or loosely related topics. Next topic: Veteran’s day
Some might find it slightly ironic that I’m posting a photo of my paternal grandfather during WWII (bottom left), directly below a paragraph about liking Japan. But, dude, isn’t that kind of amazing? two generations back, sentiments of xenophobia directed towards Japan were common place because of the war. In current times, our hearts bled for those same individuals in the wake of earthquake/tsunami devastation. Can you imagine a world where Americans generally love and empathize with Afghanistan. I don’t have any sort of agenda. I’m just putting that out there.
I have serious respect for all our our enlisted men, past present and future. I’m sure that I will never be able to comprehend exactly how much our country is indebted to our servicemen.
Have a great weekend.
