Filed under: Uncategorized
Took this one while waiting a traffic light on my way home from work. I literally stopped at a cross walk for the blinking orange hand and looked up to find that I was in the epicenter of NYC, Times Square. Eight years ago this intersection was everything I knew about the city. Now its one of many parts of town I make an honest effort to avoid.
Filed under: Uncategorized
We found good dim sum in Westchester!
Eight easy steps to a Tasty Sunday Mid-morning
1) Drive to White Plains, an eerie white-collar city (complete with high rises and a PF Chang’s) in the middle of suburban nothingland.
2) Find the Marriot That Time Forgot (its just down block from the White Plains Mall That Time Forgot)
3) Enter the Marriot lobby.
4) Resist urge to flee. Look left.
5) Find a largely unmarked brass door that discreetly says “Aberdeen Seafood and Dim Sum,” and not-so-discreetly, “Zagat Rated”.
6) Be seated anywhere you like (literally, most of the tables will be empty).
7) Enjoy all of the Chinese brunch staples, delivered hot and fast to your table by multi-lingual waiters willing to take special orders.
Revel in the fact that you didn’t schlep to Flushing, Philly, or, God forbid, Manhattan for some reliable dimmy sum.
Sticky rice in lotus leaves, scallion dumplings, seafood shu mai, vegetable dumplings, juicy pork buns.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Our new 37″ Vizio flat screen, the crown jewel of our living room, has been out of commission for almost a week now. We loved the TV and how much we paid for it until one evening the screen just went black. No popping, no static, no fanfare of any sort, just black.
We called a local TV guy up here and said, “We have this Vizio…”
“Well there’s your problem.”
Click.
I’m reminded of that short story from The Interepreter of Maladies about the rolling blackouts and how they forced a distant couple to reconnect. Well it so happens that Kir and I are newlyweds, we work together, we are totally connected in every way shape and form. We want TV. Plain and simple.
Observe the image below:
What Kir is doing is deleting non-critical programming from our DVR before it takes up space and prevents a Dirty Sexy Money or Heroes from being saved. No, your eyes aren’t fooling you. That screen is black. Kir is using her highly attuned hearing and menu-sense memory to sift through our DVR’s hard drive without actually having to see the interface.
My God, we love TV.
Filed under: Uncategorized
(Black kitten + Black leather cushion)^exhausted Patrick = Fidel(hisshissscratchscratchrunrunrun)/Patrick
Filed under: Uncategorized
Production managers take note…
You can bait and switch me with an “easy office PA job”.
You can work me 18 hours with scant overtime pay.
You can force me to do returns solo, with no help.
But fate (or the open gate of a 24ft International) will find a way to even things out in the end.
Let that be a lesson to all of you.
So I did my first music video not too long ago. They went over budget, into overtime, etc. But contrary to what I had been told to expect, both superstars were there on time, well rehearsed, and shot out in very few takes. 50 with G-Unit and film crew below…
To make matters worse, the stage was an abandoned military warehouse at the Marine Terminal in Port Bayonne, you guessed it, New Jersey. The only place I can imagine where cruise ship passengers, military equipment, imported freight, and film shoots can co-exist in a gated, Department of Homeland Security-guarded (zzzzzz) pier.
How much does it suck to be getting off of that cruise ship? You’ve been to any number of tropical places–Nassau, Bimini, the Caymans, what have you–and this is what you come back to: romantic Bayonne, nestled in between the Port Elizabeth Shipping Container Canyon and the Turnpike Authority Gravel Pile, nightly illuminated by the Garden State’s own glowing Aurora oilheatalis. Guh. I want to shower just looking at those pictures.
Filed under: Uncategorized
We’ve been a couple of slackers lately. Between 50 Cent and Liftetime Television I set a personal record of 9 consecutive days of work with no day off. I was working alongside Kir on the Lifetime promo and she managed to snag a nice out of town job. We had an outing (or two) in White Plains this weekend to celebrate.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Seen on my walk across 125th to Jay’s place on Sunday:
It’s not uncommon to see loose poultry on the street near a Vivero–urban stop n’ shop slaughterhouses common in Latin and Muslim or Hasidic nabes (Kosher? Halal? No problem.).
When we lived on 117th/Lex there was a rooster I would encounter on my daily walk to the train. I would often see him guarding the trap doors that lead to his home beneath a bodega where, one assumes, cockfights took place regularly. Other times I found him lying on the sidewalk, a lazy hound at the feet of an old Boricua, stirring only when the domino table overhead was jostled.
The chicken pictured above, however, was no where near a vivero or cockfighting den. This leads me to believe he must have sprung himself from captivity and is now left to fight for food waste on the street, like any other stray cat or Terrier-sized subway rat.
Truly awe-inspiring. What a badass.
Then again, he’s probably strapped.
Filed under: Uncategorized
From my Sunday afternoon birthday out with the boys:
Let’s hope he didn’t go to elementary school in the US.
Filed under: Uncategorized
When we last left off it was 4am. My road-weary Accomplice and I had just emerged from the pillow-thick fog and checked into the Seneca Niagara Hotel and Casino.
We had been on the road for nearly ten hours and on the clock for over 18. I finished my end-of-the-day beer on the casino floor and went up to the room to shower. My Accomplice lingered behind to try his hand at some late night black jack.
Accomplice’s Casino Ledger: -$200 (his initial buy-in at the $10 Spanish 21 table)
I step out of the shower around 4:30 to find that my cell phone is ringing. It’s the Accomplice. He’s already winning and will be coming up shortly. I head to bed, leaving a light on in the hallway.
Accomplice’s Casino Ledger: +$150 (+$350 net gain)
I wake up a little after six. There is a frosty blue light pushing into our room from outside. Sunrise perhaps? The light becomes orange, bright pink, neon green, yellow…
Our room is adjacent to the 26-story neon corn stalk that bedazzles the casino’s exterior. I pull the curtain closed after observing my Accomplice: passed out–fully clothed–on top of the sheets.
Accomplice’s Casino Ledger: -$50(-$400 net loss)
I wake up again at 11am to Kirstin calling on my cell phone. She tells me to go back to sleep.
Accomplice is missing.
A note on the night stand reads “Pat I’m in poker room downstairs for tournament.”
I keep the note for posterity.
Accomplice’s Casino Ledger: -$250 ($200 Texas Hold ‘Em buy-in)
I finally come to life a little after noon. I’m hungry and my new tattoo (see bottom of the page here) is bothering me, so I wander “town” for over an hour in search of certain necessities (toothbrush, fresh t-shirt, socks, neosporin for 1 scabby tattoo, etc.). There is one convenience store in all of Niagara Falls, NY. I pay over $20 for travel-sized toiletries and another $21 for a light gray t-shirt. All paid for with the company’s petty cash, God love ‘em.
Walking back through the casino, I hear the Accomplice calling my name. He is fanning himself with hundreds as he approaches. He won the entire tournament on 2.5 hours sleep. He excuses himself to go tip his dealer and we meet up for lunch.
Accomplice’s Casino Ledger: +$635 (+$885 net gain)
During lunch the Production Manager calls, informing us that we need to get out of the room to avoid paying for another day. We still have three or so hours before call, so we dump our bags at the concierge and part ways. You can guess what my friend was up to…
Accomplice’s Casino Ledger: +$200 (-$435 loss)
[ok, i realize this is more than a bit wordy. by now youre probably tapping your feet and wondering, "where the hell are the pictures of niagara falls... or of anything?" here there are. well after that bit of writing there... and that next one... and the one after that.]
A little after five we caught a cab to the Cave of the Winds. The cab crossed low bridge, mere feet above a wide rapid that bubbled and foamed white before falling into a cloud of mist at the end of America. It finally dawned on us just where we had been the night before.
The parking lot sat above the Bridal Veil Falls (Cave of the Winds was underneath us), and mere feet away was a guard-railed overlook, replete with coin operated telescope machines.
The shooting crew was nearing the end of their day and oh holy God I really have a problem with overwriting. It’s ridiculous. At this point there’s really no point in going on like this for four more posts.
I’ll get better at this. I promise.
The Bridal Veil falls from the New York side (Canada to the left).
The Strada Crane suspended over Bridal Veils. They’re impressive, I guess. Certainly didn’t look like Falls as it seen it on TV. Then, while looking for a bathroom, I saw this:
This is the cloud of mist which hangs over the Horseshoe Falls. Horseshow Falls is really THE Falls. All 6 million cubic feet per minute of them.
A few more shots…
The sun set shortly after these pictures were takend and Accomplice and I went back to work. We loaded the truck entirely and had a $140 steak dinner back at the casino, on the production (God love ‘em).
After dinner we decided to delay our departure by an hour or so that we pull into New York right as all the vendors were opening. This would allow us to pull right in, unload, and go home. And it afforded the Accomplice a chance to get back in the game. We agreed to meet at 10:30pm.
Accomplice’s Casino Ledger: +$50 ($150 loss)
Er, 11pm.
Accomplice’s Casino Ledger: -$300 ($350 loss)
How about 11:15?
Accomplice’s Casino Ledger: -$600 ($300 loss)
My accomplice slouches through the parking lot at 11:35. We hit the road and drive through the night.
Final Casino Ledger: -$200 (+$400 gain, leaving him out the $200 he had started with)
Drive, drive, drive.
9 Rest Areas, 13 Classic Rock Stations, 11 cups of coffee, 948 miles, and 2 sunrises.
HOME!
