The American Museum of Good Dinosaurs

I took my niece and nephew, 7 and 4 years old respectively, to the American Museum of Natural History. Before we went in, my nephew asked in a hushed, nervous voice, "Do they have bad dinosaurs there?" He wanted to go in but first he had to know. "There are some scary ones in there." I could not lie, "But they have a lot of good dinosaurs in there too." Words of small comfort to my nephews ears from his favorite uncle. Then I added, "But I think they also like to eat little boys too." Rooaarr! Let's go see dinosaurs!

slow down, you move too fast

Professor Pamela is now back in Ohio State, happily finishing up her last semester teaching painting. Then she'll be back in NYC. See ya in 10 weeks.

“Me fail english? That’s unpossible!”

Ralph Wiggum says.

Found a link of the 100 mos offen mispronounced words and phrases in the English language and the 100 most mispelled werds in Englsih.

Beauty and the Hellboy

{ Selma Blair & Ron Perlman introduces the movie }

On Friday night, I went to the sneak preview for the movie based on the comic HELLBOY. There were 2 sneak previews. In LA, the director Guillermo del Toro, gotta be relations to Benicio, and the comic's creator Mike Mignola were there to greet the audience. Here in NYC, we got the lead actors to introduce the movie. Ron Perlman, who plays Hellboy spoke and the lovely but shy Selma Blair, who you may know as the actress who hot kisses Buffy in the movie Cruel Intentions stood and smiled. Too bad we were seated too far away to really see them. I tried to take a photo but they were too far and it came out too blurry. But thanks to Photoshop, after I applied some sharpening filters, I was able to enhance the image.
    The movie projector was off. The framing of it wasn't centered. The audience was screaming and Sim threw a Mini chocolate Easter egg at the projectionist to get his attention. That seemed to work because it got fixed. It was a fun movie. We wanted to steal the poster, but it turns out we didn't have to, they were giving out free posters. Thanks to Celvyn, who got us the tixs for the movie. PS. I too thought that in the comics, the Big Red Hellboy was wearing aviator goggles on his head. Seeing him with full grown horns in the movie looked cool.

Twist and Shout

Dave, our printer's rep from Lehigh Color in Philadelphia came by this morning. He bought in a bag full of pretzels. Not just any Pretzels but Philly style pretzels. Large, twisted, braided, soft and buttery. yummm. I can't stop munching on them. It blows those nasty pretzels you get on the streets of NY away.
There's even a Pretzel Museum devoted to it. or was. It's now closed.

Cheap ass phone

The screen on my cellphone is busted. I can't see who I'm dialing or read text messages. I keep my phone in my front pocket and the screen cracked when I was going through the subway turnstile. Called T-Mobile customer service and got Julian. His mumbling tone was condescending and he was babbling fineprintspeak. External handset damages are not covered by warranty. If I want to replace it with the same model, It'll cost me $199. If I sign a new 1 year contract, it can be $99. But I won't be able to keep my number because it'll be a new account. T-Mobile SUXS! I want to shove this phone up their ass!

Dangerous Curve Ahead, Do Not Lean On The Doors.

Had a great time at this place that David found, Perbacco Cafe, an Italian Tapas bar on 4th between A & B. It was crowded so we drank a bottle of wine at the bar as we waited to be seated. Karen and Simone were talking and it turns out that they went to the same school in Miami. small world. When we sat down, we ordered a bunch of small plates and entrees. So yummy. It's great that Karen has such a big apettite, especially for desserts. We shared 3.
    Getting home was an ordeal. I waited forever for transfers from the 4 to the R to catch my PATH train at the downtown WTC stop. Thankfully the train was pulling into the station as I got there. I got a seat and was reading TimeOut mag as we idled in the station for over 10 minutes. When we finally left the station, the train engineer accelerated immediately. He was speeding through the curves that circled the pit that was Ground Zero. We are going way too fast. Wheels were screeching violently. Metal against metal. The force of going through the turn so fast lifted us off our seats. I had to hold on to the pole to keep from getting thrown onto the floor. I looked out the window to get my bearings, I saw electrical sparks off the 3rd rail. The train was pitching and I felt that the wheels were lifting off the tracks. I swore that the train was going to tip over into the pit. People were screaming and then the screams rose even higher. A man who was leaning against the door on one side of the train was thrown head first against the door on the opposite side. The force of his head hitting the window knocked it out of it's doorframe. He was desperately holding onto the now bent door, struggling not to be thrown out the windowless door. People were holding onto his body and someone pulled the emergency brakes. Chaos. What the Fucks going on! The train lurched to a stop. The guy had a bleeding gash across his left brow. The train conductor came into our car. Radioing ahead for an ambulance. A man passed his business card to the injured man and said, "Here's my card, the engineer was going too fast on that curve, call me if you want representation." They had to shut the car down and we had to go to the next car. I just want to get home already.

Erin! Kern On, Turn In, Drop Out!

Saw a coffee urn and a birthday cake on the table. What’s the occasion? Turns out it’s a surprise birthday party for Erin, our intern. As Sarah stealthily lit the row of birthday candles, we saw Erin leave the office before we could call her into her party. The candle was burning down low as we waited for her to come back. When it got down to a 1/2” with wax spilling onto the cake, we decided to blow them out. Damn! Trick candles. They kept relighting. We started frantically extracting melting candle nubs w/ X-Acto knifes and plastic forks. Digging into the cake, wax mixing with frosting. Sugar roses getting crushed, the icing lettering smearing, Panic setting in. Save the roses! Save the roses! Put out the fire! Oh, hi Erin. Happy Birthday to you…

Happy St. Patrick's Day Leprechauns

Where's Me Nuts!?

Snow Tax Day

{ Looking north up Broadway & Fifth Avenue out the point of the Flatiron Building. }

Winter is still holding on. Kicking & screaming as it's being dragged in it's lasts days before spring. The snow is wet, but it's sticking. It makes good packing snow.
    So I got my taxes done today and I’m getting money back. One of the best things I ever done was hire a tax accountant. I love my tax accountant. She knows the ins and outs in preparing tax forms for creative freelancers. I've referred her to so many people. It's a great feeling to get this burden out of the way and done correctly. Ahh.

Spalding Gray found

Actor Spalding Gray's body was found dead in the East River after being missing for 2 months. What a sad end. After suffering a horrific car accident 2 years ago on his 60th birthday, his last years were filled poor health and deep depression.
    I was happy I got the chance to design the cover of his book, Gray's Anatomy.

6X32

This morning on the train, a woman got on, leaned against the door, and took out her copy of The DaVinci Code to read. I noticed that she was wearing new pants. You could tell she had never worn these pants before. But I wasn't the only one who could tell. Everyone around me could. Not only did they have a certain sheen, but she forgot to take off the pant size sticker. It was still stuck to her pants, running down the back of her thighs. POLO JEANS CARGO 6X32, all the way down. It's the new look on Da Streets. And I saw it first.

G5, Fo, Fum

We are finally "Migrating" to Mac OS X at work.
We had a computer training class to help with the switchover and when I come in tomorrow morning, I'll have an Apple 20" flat screen monitor and a shiny new G5 to greet me. Hee. I need to get a new desk.

3 Big Happy B'day Shout Outs to...

"DJ" ROSE BOTTOMLESS,
BIZ "IT'S THE BIG 3-0" and
LAURA "HANIFISH!"

DO IT!
DO IT!
DO IT!

who wrote the book of blog?

I noticed a copy of Biztopher's Blogging book on Steve's bookshelf. I took it down to read when Steve yelped, "What are you doing? It's my signed copy." So I emailed Biz@GoogleCentral and asked if I could get a copy from him. Straight from the source's mouth. What's the point of being in publishing if you can't get free books. In exchange for his book, he wants a copy of Jonathan Franzen's, HOW TO BE ALONE to read. As a bonus, I'm also going to send him THE CORRECTIONS. Great book, great observations on family. Trading is fun.
     Hmmm...I should create an online marketplace, a place where people, all over the world, buyers and traders alike, can come together to trade almost anything! I think I shall call it...YeeBay.

  

Oy! I had the chutzpah to schlep this cockamamie comp to the shmoozy jacket meeting but I got my tochus kicked and now I feel like a shlamiel.

I was struggling with this jacket design. I had to work in too many images and too much copy. It was hard balancing all this information but I got it to a point where it was sorta coming together so I asked Mike what he thought. Eh, it's OK, but he knew what Matthew, one of our Publishers was going to say. It looks too Ongepatshket. It's one of those words that Matthew sometimes drops when trying to critique those hard to critique cover designs. With resigned awareness I laughed, "That's just great." I know it's not there yet but I just got the new title & subtitle today, the jacket meeting was fast approaching and I needs to get something approved to go into catalog.
     So at the jacket presentation, when I held up the comp, angling it just right so that Matthew had the optimal unobstructed view, he took off his glasses, squinted at it and said, “It’s too Ongepatshket.” People around the table looked at each other in confusion at the term but I just looked at Mike, kicked him and laughed.

Oh yeah, Ongepatshket is Yiddish for: Cluttered, disordered, scribbled, sloppy, muddled, overly-done.

So Matthew, you're saying that's a good thing. right?

...and I like to do drawings.

{ A quick ballpoint pen portrait of Jenny }

Out of all the pens we use at work, I think the basic PAPERMATE Med.Pt. ballpoint pen is my favorite. smooth flow. indigo blue. You suck uni-ball Onyx micro.

Springing

Man, the weather has been so beautiful the past couple of days in NY. It's about time. It feels so great to finally dump the hooded parka. That coat makes me look like a bear. Roooaar!
    Went to Madison Sq. Park to eat lunch with Jenny and saw Sally pass by with my old Art Director, Mr. C. Red Woods. I wonder if he's applying for the Mass Market AD job.

Oscar

The Oscars were boring.
the winners predictable
the LOTR swept
good for Sean Penn
too bad for Bill Murray
Jack Black & Will Ferrell rocked
Sting was doing some strange tantric hand movements with his lute
Angelina Jolie is hot
Billie Bush is a jerk
I should've itemized my taxes.

Brusha, brusha, brush-ah

Under the strong recommendation of Dr. Rotstein, D.M.D., I just ordered the Braun Oral-B 7850DLX Professional Care Deluxe Power Toothbrush from Amazon. No more tedious manual brushing. HAH! Taking care of your teeth is fun again.