Memories of New York

I was in New York briefly about 3 weeks ago. With all the craziness that followed once I was back home, I didn't get a chance to do a recap of my trip. I had an amazing time, but I didn't come back to LA feeling like I want to move to NY. But if there's one thing I miss, it's all the buildings.

RIP MCA/Adam Yauch

Yesterday, we lost MCA of the Beastie Boys. Growing up I wasn't allowed to listen to Rap. As I got older, my taste in music became much more eclectic. But I never really got into Hip Hop or Rap…that is except for the Beastie Boys. There was just something about their sound that had just the right about of rock in it for me to love it. It makes me sad that we've lost another great person to cancer. He was only 47 years old; the same age as my brother.

What I Bought Today 04.29.12

I recently cashed in some of my AMEX rewards points for a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card. I knew that I wanted to spend it on some business/entrepreneurial books instead of design books because I personally think their selection is lacking in that department. For a while, I was a little in denial as to whether or not I even needed business books. I've always been more about doing things the trial & error/by experience kind of thing, but I think I need to start taking things a little more seriously and make fewer errors. As a result, I bought two things that are quite the unlikely pair.

Bananagrams – I love boards games (although this one is boardless). I've always been a huge fan of Scrabble and for a while, I was also an avid Words with Friends player. I've heard some many good things about Bananagrams that I finally caved in and got it. It was between this of the classic edition of Life. But I knew more people would be more inclined to play this with me than they would Life. Most people I know find Life extremely depressing (both the game and real life).

The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki – I probably only bought this book for two reasons: Guy is a name I'm familiar with because he has been mentioned by people I follow AND his association with Apple. I'm totally going to be reading this on my flight to New York at the end of this week. I have 5.5hrs to kill going there and then 6hrs to kill coming back, so I hope I'll manage to get through at least half of it on the plane. And I hope to get over at least some of my fears of starting after getting through this book.

Instagram Obsession

On Tuesday, the ever-popular iPhone app FINALLY released its Android counterpart for the rest of us. For a while there, I thought it wasn't going to see the light of day until long after I switched to the iPhone (June). But the great peeps at Instagram hulled ass and got it done. And with the business of school and unnecessary preoccupation with Instagram, I failed to deliver a Wednesday Want. But in return, here's a few of my faves from the last 3 days via Instagram.

Sunday Pie Party

For Sunday brunch, I took a trip over to The Pie Hole with Kevin and Steve. I've been meaning to go back since my last time there was on my last day at American Apparel, which was back in December. And typical me chose to drink Dr. Pepper while everyone else drank coffee.

We got a slice of the Thai Tea pie which was the special they had for Pie Day (March 14th). I didn't expect that they would still be making it, since it was supposed to be a special. It's a layer of Thai tea filling and coconut on a chocolate rice krispie crust. The Thai tea flavor of the filling was pretty light but it was delicious nonetheless.

The special pie of the day was the Mexican Hot Chocolate and it was really rich and decadent. The vanilla bean whip cream was totally necessary to balance out the richness of the chocolate fudge filling. The crust was like a salty graham cracker crust that went perfectly with the sweetness of the fudge.

Then for our actual meal, we had the brisket hand pie and the chicken pot pie.

 Between the two meat pies, the brisket was definitely the best. They also have a mac & cheese hand pie which is also delicious but it would be amazing if they just mashed it together with the brisket.

Sunday Shopping

On Sunday, after having an epic brunch with some close friends, Kevin and I decided to take on the Long Beach Antique Market. It happens every 3rd Sunday of the month and I've heard many great things about it from friends and acquaintances, so we really made an effort to wake up early to make it over. When we got there, the number of vendors was a little sparse due to the weather days before but there was still a good selection of awesome stuff. Here's a glimpse at our shopping adventure.

Although there were less vendors than usual and few of the vendors packed up early, it was all still really overwhelming. I managed to snag some sweet deals from a couple of the vendors who wanted to pack up early.

I was really excited to have finally purchased a train case (which I've been wanting for a while) for $15. Most of the ones on eBay run $45-80 and aren't in very good condition on the inside, but this was was really clean and didn't have a gross, funky smell. YAY! And then for the serious business setup that I will one day have, I bought a $12 2-hole puncher. Shortly after buying this, I turned to Kevin and said. "Now I just need an old pencil sharpener and I'm set!"

One Fine Mid-Century Feline

I've been loving Fab.com's themed shopping days. Every Thursday is now Pets Thursday on their site. Last week this gorgeous lounge popped up in a sale from CANOPYstudio. I don't remember how much they had it for, but at $790 regular retail Sebastian would really be living the life. I can only dream of a life where my cat's furniture is as sweet as my own. Baby steps.

Looking Onward

As the clock dwindles down on this semester, I can't help but think of what life will be like after. I'm finding it hard to believe that it's already March. May is fast approaching and I'm not really sure how I'm going to make it through these next couple of months. But I can't wait. Sure I'll be saying bye to summer vacations and hello to work, but I'll be saying goodbye to assigned school projects. I'll finally have the time to work on all the side projects I have saved up because I'll finally be able to leave work at work. That's the one thing I hate about school. As much as I love working hard, I hate the amount of time I spend working on school projects outside of school. And as much as I love my school friends, I'm tired of being around designers all day. Outside of school, most of the people I hang out with are illustrators/artists, bloggers, makers/small business owners, etc. Everyone is different and quirky in their own way. And we just sit (or stand) around talking about food or pop culture or random things.

I was reading The Fox is Black the other day, and Bobby mentioned this quote from How To Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon:

It helps to live around interesting people, and not necessarily people who do what you do. I feel a little incestuous when I hang out with only writers and artists, so I enjoy the many filmmakers, musicians, and tech geeks who live in Austin. Oh, and food. The food should be good. You have to find a place that feeds you – creatively, socially, spiritually, and literally.

Even if you set up a new home, you need to leave it now and then. And at some point, you just need to move on. The good news is that nowadays, a lot of your peers are right where you left them – on the Internet.

I've been ready to move on for a while now and I'm just growing extremely impatient for the coming months. I'm looking forward to returning to a life that doesn't involve sitting at a computer all day.

Super Sound of Smiths

This has been circulating all around the interwebs today and it's just so perfect. I never thought how awesome "This Charming Man" would sound to the beat of 8-bit.

So Much Seuss

It's been Dr. Seuss overload for the past few days. Just two days ago, it was Dr. Seuss' birthday which is also labelled as National Read Across America Day. And on Friday, The Lorax hit theaters nationwide. As if there wasn't enough Seuss going around, Gallery Nucleus opened their Dr. Seuss Tribute Show Look at This, Look at That last night.

Just hours before the show opened, my friend Zane Yarbrough was finishing up the Lorax-themed wall.

Here's a peek at a few of my favorite pieces from the show:

Did You Ever Walk with Ten Hats on Your Head? by Joy Ang

The Cat in the Hat by Joey Chou

I just love Joey Chou and within the last year, things have been blowing up for him. I first met him when he had a small little solo show at Flock Shop. Then I heard the big news that he was asked to be the illustrator for It's a Small World, although he already had a day job at Nickelodeon. And then came the subsequent shows at Gallery Nucleus, Giant Robot, and Leanna Lin's Wonderland. Things don't seem to be slowing down at all for him and I'm happy that he's getting a lot of attention because his work is pretty awesome.

Goodbye by Perry Dixon Maple

Thing 1 and Thing 2 by Mall

Mall(May Ann Licudine) is another artist who I absolutely love no matter what she does. She lives in the Philippines where she makes most of her living off of doing commissioned pieces. She started off doing super vibrant & super detailed illustrations and recently started transitioning into these mixed media/3D pieces. You can see this lovely piece in progress over at her blog as well as her other piece in the show.

If you're in the area, I definitely recommend checking out the show. It's up until March 24th.