THIS THURSDAY

When I googled Rick's name, this was the only picture of him that comes up - what a gem! I suspect that as Van Horn takes off, there are going to be tons more going up on the internet shortly.

Anyway, this Thursday Van Horn is going to open its doors and Rick is going to show the world all the hard work he has been doing and basically what a bad ass he is. AND! I will be working.  Come visit, try a sandwich and shake his hand!!

New Xmas Eve Tradition

Chris and I went to the Museum of Natural History today and surprisingly, it wasn't a CF!  All the kids were busy sitting in Santa's lap.

Neither of us had ever been, so calling it a revelation would be an understatement...

This is Chris communing with some form of Plains mammal.  They look like they are begging him for food.

The Blue Whale was an obvious highlight.  Did you know their hearts are the size of Volkswagen Beetles and some of their arteries are so big, a human can swim up them?!?! 

Also, please note my new camera's indoor setting.  It was like night time in there, and I didn't even use a flash!

This made me want to own a fur...WHOOPS!

Twins!

A+ for the great efforts to make the place really feel like a menagerie.  I felt like an 8 year old discovering kangaroos for the first time!

Look who got all tuckered out from learning!  NAP TIME!!

Next year its mandatory for all New York Christmas orphans to do this. 

Woodland Creatures

HOME.

I cant wait another minute to see you!!!!!!

Back!

Hi New York! Hi Friends! I missed you!!!

This Weekend, Yes Please!

Beach!

Dance!

Jokes with friends!

Free kisses!

Food and beverages!!!

Record High On The Good Vibe Index

Necromancy On Norman And Lorimer

My house is haunted and I need a ghostbuster.  Evidence of a presence has been amassing and then something happened yesterday that makes me think a presence is undeniable.

This all started almost exactly a year ago when I had that going away party for Sophie.  Remember that? Ok.  That morning, I woke up and was inspecting the previous night's damage to my face (wrinkles, redness, barf) in the bathroom mirror when I heard a piano playing.  The pianist was not playing a song, but rather banging on the keys then playing a snippet of a tune, losing interest and banging away again.  It sounded like someone who was trained to play the piano trying to practice but getting too distracted to do so. 

A few things ran through my mind.  One - I didn't know there was a piano in my building.  I live in a three story walk up, so I would argue my living situation is somewhat intimate when it comes to the residence's other tenants.  Secondly, I thought it was funny I could hear the sound so clearly where I was standing.  You see, my bathroom is in the basement and shares a wall with a garage and the building next door.  It has no windows, so having such a clear sound in such a isolated area seemed strange.

Night fell and the party began and as people came and went, my neighbor wandered in with his sister.  I handed them both a beer and then being the horribly boring drunk that I am, isolated them in the far corner of our living room and started my piano diatribe.  I explained the noise and how the nature of sound was weird and how the building was old and then followed up with the fact that I didn't realize there was a piano in the building.  My neighbor froze.  There was no piano in the building. 

Then he offered this tidbit: His roommate had been wanting to move out because he had seen a girl in his room.  In the middle of night, a change in temperature had woken him from his sleep and he rose to see a girl standing near his bed.

Shiver.

So its been a year of that.  The piano every now and then with the occasional footsteps over head.  I sleep in the basement below our living room, kitchen and dining room.  I remember clearly last fall being home alone one night and hearing someone doing what sounded like rearranging furniture upstairs.  When I snuck up there, defense weapon of a hammer in hand, I found nothing but my dinner's dishes in the sink. 

Honestly, I have no idea how I have managed to joke about it for a year without really freaking myself out.  Cursory research shows my house is on the Jacob Meserole family farm plot which spanned from Norman to Meserole on Lorimer and Manhattan Avenues.  There is no doubt in my mind a prominent family such as the Meseroles had a piano and maybe a young brood of practicing pianists.  However, without hitting some serious archives all I have is geeky message boards on the web which honestly are so weird its kinda alienating.  But I think I may finally have the motivation to do some digging after yesterday's incident.

I was home doing some studying in my bedroom and got up for a break.  I went into the bathroom and the piano was at it again.  When I first used to hear the piano, I would pray that whomever was playing it would break out into 'Benny and the Jets' or some other contemporary song.  This would confirm that I was right, sound was indeed weird and came from odd places and that I just had gay neighbors that liked sing alongs.  But I have only ever heard older, sort of jig style music being played.  So yesterday, when I was in there listening to an upbeat rag, really I just ignored it.

Next I went upstairs and ran into Nadja, my roommate, and made a joke about the ghost piano.  She laughed, it was casual and I got a glass of water and went back downstairs.  I think I was probably out of my room for ten minutes total but when I returned to my room, someone had lifted my mirror from my dresser/vanity area and laid it on the floor.  Some logic:  had the mirror fallen two things would've happened.  One, it would have disturbed the contents of my dresser, which remained in place.  Two, wouldn't it have broken?  The final oddity to this story is I have a picture tucked into the frame of my mirror that is constantly being blown out of its position at the slightest gust of wind or air.  But the picture lay completely unmoved in bottom left hand corner of the frame of my mirror now on the floor.  There is no way the mirror could've slid off my dresser.  The only way it could've gotten into its new position on the floor is if it had been lifted and then set down again.  Double Shiver.

 Immediate research ensued and a search of 'signs you have a ghost' turned up the following:

1. Strange noises - piano, furniture moving, footsteps - CHECK

2. Sightings - girl upstairs - CHECK

3. Moving objects - mirror - CHECK

4. Weird animal behavior - this is interesting.  I didn't indicate this above, but I live with a poodle that will be resting and then out of nowhere will be spooked into a barking tantrum for which there is no anodyne.  I always thought it was just the realm of poodle-dum that made Rex behave so erratically, but now I'm thinking maybe he occasionally gets disturbed by something or SOMEONE.  so - CHECK

Anyway. I want more information but I don't want to piss off any presence (if there is one).  I feel like in scary movies, 'research' into the haunting always aggravates the already restless spirits and as soon as you do some digging that's when the shit really hits the fan.  I don't want to lose any hair, sleep or friends over this, but it could be a really fun summer adventure.  Does anyone want to ghost bust with me?  Maybe we could have a seance the next time my cheese of the month shipment comes in - you bring the baguette, I'll bring the psychic?  Spin the bottle with the ghost? Do you think the ghost is reading this right now? Ugh. Terrifying.

Tuesday

Hi

Bridges Of China

This is Donghai Bridge which spans 20 miles.  Bridges of this type are called 'cross sea' bridges because they literally cross a sea!  Here's the real kicker - its not the world's longest bridge.  That would be the Hangzhou Bay Bridge which opened in 2008 (just a baby!) and is 22 miles long:

An interesting fact - the plans for this bridge were finalized in 2003 and it was completed in FIVE years.  It took China FIVE years to build the world's longest cross sea bridge and New York still hasn't managed to replace the World Trade Center.  Just sayin.

This is Sutong Bridge.  It spans the Yangzte River Delta and has really helped commuters apparently.  Its like China's George Washington Bridge!

Another beauty - the railroad bridge of Guizhou. 

The Ruyan Bridge which is the world's fourth largest suspension bridge and the second largest suspension bridge in China.  China is productive.  So productive it needs millions of huge, brilliantly designed and executed bridges to get 'er done.  Imagine if the Great Wall was a bridge!  Fantasy of the week: National Geographic sends me to China to cover their bridges!

I'm inspired and am going to do a mini version of this expedition.  This weekend I am going to Poughkeepsie to walk the world's longest footbridge (1 mi).  Yes! Its right in our backyard!  Train leaves at 10 on Saturday!

Guitar Herro

This was a long time ago - but Forbes finally won air guitar! So yah, we're all pretty proud over here.  West Coast - come visit for nationals?!?!

Start Ups

Jasie - business plan: Popsicles-Of-The-World truck that we park outside the gates of Tampon Beach this summer.  Whaddya say?

Elegy

I want to see Marina Abramović's piece "The Artist is Present."  I've been reading most people who sit with her end up crying.  That, along with the below tid-bit makes sitting her with her a must do on my list:

"One of the first people to sit with Abramović was her former partner, the artist Ulay. They worked together for a dozen years, and the New Yorker's Judith Thurman gave this account of their last work together, which took place in 1988. They had begun planning a walk together on the Great Wall of China when they were a happy couple. By the time they had arranged the logistics permissions for the months-long trip, they no longer wanted to be together. So:


Their parting was wrenching for Abramović, whose nerves can defy almost any blow except for abandonment. She still believes in true love, and she dispenses affection with a lavishness as intense as her craving for it. But, she reflected, "people put so much effort into starting a relationship and so little effort into ending one." On March 30, 1988, they embarked on their last performance. She started walking the Great Wall of China from the East, where it rises in the Mountains, and Ulay set off from the West, where it ends in the desert. After three months, and thousands of miles, they met in the middle, and said goodbye.

This moment, right here, was the next time the two made art together. Although, of course, now Ulay is no longer Abramović's collaborator — he was instead a participant in her piece."

Dear Mom and Dad,

New York is great. I have been making lots of new friends, experimenting with new foods and there is a Party Bus here! Thats right, a Party Bus - kinda like the school bus that used to pick me up at the end of our cul-de-sac, but with beer, black lights, sluts and Thin Lizzy. Anyway, I just wanted to write and let you know I am still getting my laundry and taxes done, getting lots of sleep and calling Grandma every Sunday.

Love, Your Only Child.

Endless Potential

Not keeping it local this summer.

@KaraokeRyan Please Let This Be Your Next Karaoke Song

Long Live Parties With Rules!!!

Jim's Birthday Party had rules. The number one rule was all attendees had to wear Gear. In a moment of bad judgement, Jim let me wear his Vikings jacket. Later in the evening, he realized the mistake he had made, but didn't know how to handle the situation, so he had to have Liz act as his proxy and confront me. She said she had to take the jacket in question back and offered me a blue and green one instead that fit me better! We both won in this situation!

Rule number two - all attendees had to be hot. I mean, really? This goes without saying. but there were two models from Italian Vogue there, so I thought I would post their picture above.

Liz's diet is really working!!! Check out how big her old clothes used to be!

Rule number three - whoever was standing on the office chair was in charge.

I wonder if Jim is going to wash all these jerseys. I know I wasn't be as vigilant as I should've been about stains. I really like how all these pictures turned out because of how colorful our outfits were. More Gear themed parties please!

Snow Day

Last minute Christmas shopping + a foot of snow = Cranky babies