Sunday, September 16, 2007

NYC Trip

My brother Corey, assistant Aaron Mason and I set out for the big apple last week. This was my 7th trip out there and though I complain, NY never ceases to amaze. Aaron had been there before but Corey hadn't so we did a good bit of tourist stuff.

Day One- Wednesday


After an all night flight we arrived in NYC just in time for the Taxi cab strike. We didn’t know at first but rode with a scab who ended up charging us $30 each person into the city. $90! It’s usually supposed to be a $45 flat fee. I thought we got ripped off, but turns out that’s what he was supposed to charge us if he chose to work during the strike. Welcome to NY!!


Got our hotel and headed over to JL Gallery. Started setting up the show. Jim Houser’s work is awesome but all my photos turned out blurry for some reason. Out of the blue David Choe came by. He was in NYC to deliver his balloon characters (from Art Basel) to the Deitch art parade and stopped by to say hi. He was headed out the next morning to start a graf tour with Saber.








The rooftop of the gallery has a great view.

Afterwards we met up at Invisible NYC with our man Regino Gonzales. Always good to see him. This was one of those long days that when you try to think of what you did that morning it seems like two days ago. Wait it was two days ago.


Day Two- Thursday



Finished setting up in the morning so decided to have a nice afternoon stroll through Central Park. The weather was nice, the squirrels were out, and the frisbee guys were getting crazy in Sheep Meadow.





Jonathan LeVine hosted a dinner party for Jim Houser and I at an Italian restaurant. Everyone from the gallery was there. Afterwards we all headed to Reed Space to check out the Scion “Beautiful World” show. It's a traveling show I'm in and just happened to coincide with my trip.




Ladies love Levine..

Laura and Debra had a few sips of the Colt.

Jim Houser and Rebecca Westcott’s mother.



Kelsey Brooks

Travis Millard

David Choe photos

James Jean

Davis Ellis

Ended up at Max Fish to meet up with Carlo McCormick. I did some table drawing and apparently just missed meeting Neckface. He might have been in there with me but no one knows what this man of mystery looks like.





Saw a Doberman Pincher bondage mask (yuck!) and then ended the night at Invisible with Aaron getting some final touches from Regino.





Day 3- Friday

Went to the Met for a couple hours. That place is too big. I’ve been to the Met almost every single time I’ve stayed in NY. I think next time I’m gonna skip it.

Voldemort??




The gallery did a preview night for our shows. Mostly press and friends. Here’s some photos..






More photos at Fecalface.com

Afterwards we went to see Blaq Audio, Davey Havok’s AFI side project. Davey is a big fan and collector of art so he got me, LeVine, Brandi Pomfret, and my brother Corey backstage passes.


Me and Davey.

Brandi with Davey and her custom Vera Wang dress.

Corey, Levine and I were the only people at the whole show wearing pastels. Photo courtesy of George at Lifeinabungalo

Day 4- Saturday

Slept in late.


Corey and I went to go see the WTC ground zero and some other things downtown like Trinity Church and Wall street. Once again, I’ve been down here every single time I’ve been to NYC. When people visit ground zero they think it’ll be a quiet place to pay your respects but in reality it’s turned into a tourist stop complete with conspiracy theorists on bullhorns passing out flyers. I always think it’s kinda cool in a way that we can express our beliefs any way we want in this country. Anyways, Trinity Church is beautiful but the cemetary was closed today. I love the old grave markers and wanted Corey to see them.



Of course I had to take my brother to the best bronze nutz in NYC. I made up some story about how you're supposed to rub them for good fortune.

The opening was hot but fun. Met a lot of great New Yorkers but we didn’t take too many photos. NYC heat wave + East coast humidity + no air conditioning + mass people makes for an interesting melting feeling.





Took some shots after people left. I'm very happy with how the show turned out. I'm digging the white frames and pieces on paper.





Went to a bar afterwards, can’t remember it’s name. Hi Five or something? Hi-Fi maybe?? Who knows. Every night we end up in the East Village, which is awesome.





The interesting thing about NYC is that if you still have some energy, you’re never really done for the night. After walking all over downtown, doing the opening, and going to a bar there’s still more bars and restaurants open to check out. What time do the bars close? 6AM? Never? NYC is crazy. We went to SushiSamba a Brazillian/Japanese fusion restaurant and it was really good. Our waiter was from California and she said we had a “California vibe”. Probably because I say “like” alot, and “dude” and “man”.




Day 5- Sunday

Was out late the night before, I guess that goes hand in hand with NYC. Slept in late again. Walked around Chinatown and Little Italy and then headed over to Invisible NYC to get a tattoo from Regino.






Shawn Barber has a show up in their shop. I was totally going to buy the Seen hands but Seen himself beat me to it.





Kestrel tattoo. RG rocks! Just the outline for now- shading, details and color coming in January...

Day 6- Monday

Flew home. Flight was delayed an hour and we spent 1 hour waiting in line to take off. Too tired to take any photos.

Sleeping....