Check the shots

New shots from my big Wednesday night out at: Chuck's, Pete's and Schiller's

And some old shots of my last trip to India that I have been meaning to get up for a while can be found here, here, and here.



Just thought somebody might wanna know.

I LOVE NYC

Started the day at the Brooklyn Museum, then walked to Tea Lounge, a fantastic joint, maybe the best Chai I've ever had in North America, then headed off to Adorama to buy my new camera (YIPPEE!), had a funny interaction with the Hasidic Jew salesman and the older Hasidic Jew man at the counter, bought all kinds of neat stuff on the way including a sweet t-shirt from a cool designer girl in Union Square, cat grass for Boogie so that she will stop eating the plants I bring home, and a sweet little beaded change-purse thing with a cat face design. I don't know why, but I really wanted it. $5, hell why not, sold by a guy selling hand-rolled cigars and beaded cat-face change purses, because the two go together so well. I asked him if he made them. He said, "naw." I said, "where are they from?" He said, "I don't know, China." Awesome.
After the emotional camera purchase I took a rest next-door at some place called the cupcake shop or some shit, bought a tuna salad sandwich (I always love a tuna salad sandwich hot damn) from the very gay clerk, and a brown cupcake with a very lovely pink intricately sculpted pink flower made of frosting on top that turned out to be very, very disappointing, what with how beautiful the sculpting was and all. After that made my way to Charles' house at 6th and Bleeker. Really dug the walk over, neighborhood is so cool. On the way found a really sweet African man selling another thing that I actually really needed, a skin for my new Ipod Nano (that I scored new for $80, Sweet!). Then, like magic, I thought to myself, hmmm, you know what I else I need are some guitar strings for when I go traveling and bam, there was a music store on my left. Unbelievable.
I made it to Chuck's and hung for a while. Ate my tuna salad sandwich (which was pretty damn good, the sourdough bread was dry and had that kind of strange crumbliness to it, but, good, it seemed like it was supposed to be dry and crumbly) Organized some of my new gizmos, took a little nap, and headed back out to Brooklyn for Alec's show at Pete's Candy Store, a cool little venue in Brooklyn on Lorimer. Got a yummy pork sandwich that was a tolerable $8. And had about three $4 Yuenlings and a shot of Whiskey. Had some good talks with an old friend from High school and her boyfriend about the New Yorker and whether or not the addition of the fill in the cartoon bubbles in the back was a good or bad addition (personally I say no). Enjoyed a dirty old Parliment cigarette compliments of a generous soul. Headed off to The Lower East Side to meet back up with Chuck and his roommate Ted. Met them at Schiller's, a neat little bar/restaurant that has a nifty unique look to its decor (I've read it described as 40's hospital tiling and "fight club" lighting) and has this charming system of serving house wine (decanters marked CHEAP, DECENT, and GOOD). We sat at the bar and had some beers, but not for long before I had to book out of there and catch a cab to Grand Central for the last train: 1:53am to Stanford, first stop Mt. Vernon. My cab driver was great, maybe from somewhere in Africa, had this sweet accent and in this genial manner was trying to coax me into letting him take me all the way to Westchester for $40.
It was another day of getting home and thinking, I love New York. Long live it's freaks, gays, immigrants, and glory!

NY to MB and back

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged anything, so I figured I should blab a little.
I'm sitting in the Brooklyn Museum Cafe as I write this, waiting for two friends from Hawaii to make their way through prospect park. I can't wait to see the exhibit, bastard of a showhorse that he is! Ha!
Just got back a few days ago from Myrtle Beach, where I had some work in a show at Collector's Cafe.
My own work was featured in the main dining room, and one of Vicarious Collection's featured artists, my friend Santoro's work was featured in the back, in the "face room"

That's it, I'm joining the mole people

I was happy to be in New York today. Why?
Well, there is often many reasons why, but today it was this: because today, for my job, I got to learn how to work safely on the subway lines.
It was pretty exciting, crawling down on the subway tracks from the platform and entering those mysterious spaces that I have always found so fascinating. Ever since I was a little kid, on trips to New York I would clammer to the front of the train to watch from the front window in fascination as we hurdled through the dark space of those enticing caverns. Ever since then, I have harbored a deep desire to explore the dark reaches of those city bowels.
Often, I find I have this strange urge to jump down and run into the darkness as I stare down at the tracks waiting for a train, to run amok in those dank and mysterious caves that I have watched glide by from the relative comfort of a subway car, to have my way in the decaying and enormous underground subway lines of NYC (800 miles worth in all!); home to mythical underground societies, and God knows what else.
And so it was that I at least partially got my wish fulfilled today.
A big group of us (let me explain: it was a one-day safety certification class for contractors that work in the tunnels, administered by the Transit Authority of NYC) went down together and learned the ins and outs of how to properly be safe around tracks where trains come and go with regularity. And today they did come, as soon as we started filing down there. Right away we had to cinch ourselves up in one of the breaks between the tracks, between two steel poles and watch as 350 tons of train, passed 7 inches from our noses. At any given time, another 350 ton behemoth could be passing 7 inches from the back of our heads, prompting the obvious lesson: resist the urge to jerk your head back from the mass of steel hurtling through space a dick's-length from your face. It was especially exciting when the train would start to get close. There you are, realizing the enormity of them as you stand 6 feet below where you normally board, noticing that the wheels alone come up to your chest, and the headlights blind you to anything but their light as they get closer, making the side of the train that suddenly appears right in front of your face especially jarring. Quite a rush.
Truly a dream come true today was, despite the 1 and a half hours of sleep the night before, and the nightmarish return to trying to stay awake in class through an extremely boring lesson for 2 hours at an ungodly hour of the morning (complete with return to deactivated Public High School building where the Transit Authority's learning center is stationed!).
Highlights included Jamaican accents and viewing a massive underground burner, executed monochromatically in bubblegum pink, and seemingly with a paint roller, proclaiming "DIRTBAG" in a wonderfully and carefully stylized script.
So anyway, I'll stop procrastinating about working on my ebay store and website developing now which I badly need to do. Will blog soon with upcoming travel plans and more exciting adventures from NYC.

Jerk Chicken and nori? Soy sauce? Wasabi? Yes please.

DSC_1229
Originally uploaded by Mikey Fresh

This is what jerk chicken sushi looks like. . . . And I will stop there because I promised my friend Shaira that I would not review this amazing restaurant (Aki at 181 W 4th St between 6th and 7th) that she took me to last night so as to leave her the honor of reviewing it on her wonderful site The Gustatorium.
But I will say this, if you have never been, you need to go! Now! And thank you, thank you, thank you, again Shaira and Rett for taking me there and introducing me to the wonders of banana, mango, coconut, clams, pine nuts, and of course jerk chicken in my sushi. I don't know how Michael Pollan would feel about all this. But there is definitely something to be said for the intuitive nature of my taste buds that were yelling all night, "THIS IS SO RIGHT!"