Thievery Corporation and Buckminster Fuller

Hello friends and family, and welcome to another fabulous weekend in New York City.

The best part about working for a huge company like Time Warner, are all of the side perks. Because the company donates so much money to the various foundations and programs around the city, my little Time Warner ID badge is like a golden ticket to the wonders of the Big Apple.

Thursday, for example, I joined my cubicle neighbor, Alon, and two of his friends, Loretta and Whitney, for a benefit concert in Central Park. Because of our little badges, we got the tickets for free. The concert was headlined by a group called Thievery Corporation. Their music is a sort of world-folk-techno-pop-lounge blend that I weirded me out at first, but which I loved after I got used to it. Best of all was that I totally clicked with Loretta and Whitney and I made two wonderful new friends.

Friday, I got a little tour of Queens, which checks off borough #4 out of 5. Despite my hosts emphatic declaration that Queens is the superior borough, I remain convinced that nowhere can compare with the wonders of Manhattan.

Saturday, I met another friend from work for brunch and a tour of the Whitney Museum on the east side. Once again, that fabulous little ID badge got us in for free. At the Whitney there was also a large exhibit on the life work of a futurist inventor named Buckminster Fuller, who occasionally signed his name as "Bucky." Years ahead of his time, Fuller was all about sustainable resources and low-impact housing that utilized energy efficiency for a more environment friendly lifestyle.

After the museum we walked back through Central Park to the west side. It was one of those amazing Saturday's in the park, where it feels like the entire world has come to spend a day playing in the grass. There were teams playing softball, people rowing on the lake, kids doing flips and stunts by the fountain, and everywhere you walked you heard bits of conversation in heavily accented English.

I love living here. I love that everyone is from somewhere else, and everyone has an accent. I love that there are always a hundred things going on and that I make a new friend every day. I love that people have high hopes and big ideas about the future. I love that living in New York makes the whole world feel like a rich, diverse and exciting place.

Living in New York just makes me a little ball of love.

XOXO

theblackboxes.com

Well friends and family, its been a busy week, and to tell you the truth, I'm somewhere in that vague haze between exhausted and dead. But I couldn't put it to rest without sharing the brilliant result of many months hard work and some top notch collaboration.

Back in January, my friends Matt and Jonathan, shared with me their idea for a new kind of branding solution. I thought it was genius and they invited me to join them. Six months and many meetings later, that idea has evolved into The Black Boxes and its virtual identity:

www.theblackboxes.com

This is the first iteration of the website, and no doubt it will continue to evolve and improve. Even now, however, I'm extremely proud of what we've created together and it continues to be my great pleasure to work with Matt and Jonathan.

Your feedback, both positive and negative, is welcome and appreciated.

Be remarkable!

Have MBA, will travel...

Well this week is off to a good start... Two nights in a row I've been able to meet up for dinner with friends from my MBA program back in California!

The lovely Jennifer Campbell and her husband Ian are spending the week in New York City on vacation, so they carved out a night between seeing Wicked and Spamalot to meet me for dinner. It was oh so fun to see people from home!

And tonight was also wonderful when I met up with Jennifer Bertrand and her husband Josh. They moved out here just before I did because Jennifer was promoted to a corporate position in her company, so they live across the river in New Jersey and I was able to meet them just off of 5th Avenue at my favorite restaurant yet: Fig & Olive.

It seems like visiting me is now the trendy thing to do.

So come on, every body's doing it...

Rooftop Party

Apprently, I have a roof. Not just a roof, but a big wide roof with a beautiful view of Central Park and the Upper West Side.

I discovered this roof courtesy of my next door neighbor Thomas (pictured below), who threw a party on top of our building on Saturday and invited our apartment to be there.

We dragged the futon from my room up so we had something to sit on and Thomas was a fantastic host: white lights, candles, pasta, the works. We were even treated to a spontaneous firework show from a few blocks away. All of my roommates were there and I met a few more really interesting people in our building. A lovely evening was had by all.

Me and Roommate Sarah...

Roommate Katie and Roommate Sarah...

All three roommates...

Cheers!

The Mermaid Parade

Today we participated in one of New York's finest long standing traditions: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade!

In case you aren't familiar with the festivities, let me enlighten you. Basically, freaks and geeks from far and wide don MERMAID costumes and parade down the boardwalk, and thousands of people come to watch. Some of them are draped in fishnets, some are covered in seashells, and some aren't really covered at all... But everyone has a grand old time.

There was a 2o foot seahorse...

An octopus...

The Marine Antoinettes... (get it?)

"H" and "No-H," enjoy it all from the sidelines, while secretly wishing we had brought our fins...

Bon Voyage reality, hello Coney Island!

Robbie Gil and Katz's

This is why I'm here... because at 10pm on a Friday night, my roommates and I set out on the subway for the Lower East Side, met up with a few more friends, we all went to a lounge/bar for a seriously good live music performance and then to a famous deli in the neighborhood for some food before rushing home and nearly getting caught in a summer down pour.

The Living Room, great little venue...

Robbie Gil and his adorable bass player...

The girls, Sara, Katie, Sarah and Sarah...


Katz's is FAMOUS, and a little intimidating. When you walk in the front door they hand you a pink ticket and you're thinking, "Uh, what am I supposed to do with this?" And then if you order the wrong thing at the wrong counter they look at you like you're a complete imbecile for wasting their time and send you away without giving any real instructions for finding the correct counter...

Another reason Katz's is famous...

Me and roommate Sarah...

Roommate Katie...

I liked Katz's, it felt very authentic. As evidence by this disturbing display on the menu...

... tongue and eggs? Yummy.

Go Yankees!

I checked off Borough #3 by attending a game at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx tonight.

When we showed up it was pouring rain, and the seats were a little wet, as demonstrated here by my roommate Sarah and our friend Amy:

This is Sarah from the front...

We also brought along Maurice, our resident New Yorker and actual life-long Yankees fan, just to make the experience authentic...

... Plus, when you're sitting in the bleachers, it helps to have muscly guy along to scare off the crazies.

After the rain subsided we enjoyed the great All American pastimes in one of its most famous venues:

A-Rod hit a home run, and by the time we left it looked like the Padres were going down in flames.

Go Yankees!