Bluejake

Hannukah Party
When I put 85 people on our Hannukah party Evite, K flipped out- there was no way that many people could fit in our 500 square foot apartment. Well, she was wrong. At approximately 10pm last night, this apartment saw more visitors than it had ever seen before- bloggers, old NYC friends, members of the NYU Stern class of 2005- all the luminaries were here. And of course, the star of the party- Thompson the cat.

December 2003

NoLIta
J0sh recently moved to a palatial apartment on Elizabeth Street off of Prince Street, so I've been over in NoLIta more often than usual for the last few weeks. The neighborhood is a beautiful mix of run down apartment buildings, million dollar lofts, ancient butcher shops, and high end cafes. How many nights have I spent wandering between Sweet and Vicious and Double Happiness, or kicking back Cosmos at Rialto? Too many to count.

December 2003

Central Park in Winter
Is there anything more beautiful than Central Park after a huge snowstorm? All the colors vanish and the park becomes this huge white mass. Wandering down from 86th Street, we passed through the reservoir, the Great Lawn, Belvedere Castle, the Ramble, and the Mall before exiting at the southeast corner of the Park. My favorite scene? Probably the ducks huddled together at the side of the lake near the Bow Bridge- you don't see something like that every day.

December 2003

B-school Party
The first semester of business school has flown by- I'm amazed how quickly it has gone. Looking back, I'm pleased with how everything turned out- the classes are for the most part interesting, and the other kids in my block are great. As the year comes to a close, we've had a few holiday parties- this one was thrown by Sally, our professor for Management and Organizations. [Bonus! Pictures from Professor Bartov's accounting class party at Fez!]

December 2003

West Village
After the tenements project, I thought about other neighborhoods with unique architectural properties. Of course, one stuck out in my mind- the West Village. I've always been a fan of the streets west of 7th Avenue- crooked, curving, refusing to hew to the commands of the grid. There are basically three types of buildings on these streets- brownstones, federal houses, and early 20th century apartment buildings. I've captured a number of examples of each type- it can serve as a kind of primer for those unfamiliar with the neighborhood.

November 2003

Tenements
Back in 2000, walking down Orchard Street in the middle of the night, I'd often think of Roman Polanski's masterful line: "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown." But even now, three years later, I can't forget it- the dark streets and crumbling buildings draw me back time and time again. This week I spent some time crouching in the gutters, trying to capture my sense of Chinatown and the Lower East Side on film. I've failed- but this is the closest I've come so far.

November 2003

Fleshbot Launch Party
Let it be known: if Nick Denton ever throws another porn site launch party, make it your business to be there. I arrived early with my camera, to capture the porn glitterati (pornirati?) arriving, and to shoot some classic upskirts from under the bridge that spans the kitchen area. Highlights? Meeting Johnno, the editor of Fleshbot, and watching the crowd go wild as the Paris Hilton porn video was screened.

November 2003

Food Coloring
After the success of the shower spirograph, I turned my attention towards other bathroom photography projects. In this one, I took food coloring and took shots as it diffused in a tank full of warm water. I think that the swirls and eddies are particularly beautiful. There's something cool about creating art that vanishes after a couple of seconds- like Buddist monks and their mandalas.

November 2003

Shower Spirograph
The shower spirograph came to me in one of those flashes of inspiration that can only come from god, or watching twelve hours of television. Whatever- I believe that there are few better uses for a small flashlight, five feet of picture hanging wire, and a whole lot of free time than creating shower spirograph art. I mean, unless you need the wire to hang pictures or something.

October 2003

A Night in the Life
Jon Setzen has been running A Day in the Life for a couple of years, and I've always wanted to do it. We ran into each other at a party last month, and he mentioned that there was a week open in the schedule, and I jumped at the chance to shoot for him. My plan was to shoot exclusively in the dark alleys of Chinatown- but the project quickly expanded to take in dark spots all over Manhattan, as well as in Brooklyn and Queens.

October 2003

The 27th birthday of Jake Dobkin
Double Happiness turned out to be a great place to throw a party- we took over the entire back room with a mix of old friends, new friends, and blogger friends. Things got a little wild once Snoop Doll arrived, and by the time someone whipped out the pig finger puppet, I was irreversibly intoxicated. Surprise guests made appearances, and I kissed some people I shouldn't have- all in all, an interesting night.

October 2003

The 27th birthday of Jennifer Chung
For the second year in a row, Jen threw a blowout birthday party for herself at a downtown bar. This time it was at Twilight 101 on 10th Street, which was a whole lot classier than the name would suggest. Lots of Spanish tapas- I enjoyed the olives wrapped in bacon. Lots of bloggers and Chung fans put in appearances, but after a few hours I became to dehydrated from the wine and salted foods that I had to go home.

September 2003

California in Summer
After the ride up PCH and a few days in San Francisco, I jumped on a plane back to LAX. K had arrived the day before, and we spent the next few days hanging out and relaxing. Lots of time at the pool. J and I arrived for a long weekend- which entailed a lot of LA firsts- first trip to Skybar, first time on a skyscraper helicopter pad, first time swimming at a Malibu beach. After they left we went back to doing wedding stuff, and I tried out some local cuisine- Fatburger, In-N-Out Burger, and Pink's.

August 2003

Pacific Coast Highway
With a few weeks to kill before starting graduate school at NYU, I decided to pull up stakes and fly out to California. K was working on her thesis, and after it became clear that everyone else was working or lame, I arranged a weeklong road trip for myself. I picked up the PCH in Santa Monica, and drove it up through Malibu to Oxnard. From there, I took the 101 to Santa Barbara, and then went back to the 1, up through San Luis Obispo, Big Sur, and Monterey. The next morning I did the 17-Mile Drive, and then headed up through Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay, and finally into San Francisco. On the third day of the road trip, I drove up to Point Reyes, and finally through Bodega Bay.

August 2003

Berkshires
My aunt and uncle live in Colraine, Massachusetts, which is just south of the Vermont border in the Berkshires. With a long July 4th weekend, K, J, M, and me piled in a rented SUV and drove up there, stopping first in Northampton to revisit old times at Smith College. After that we went swimming near a nudist beach, and then saw fireworks nearby. On Saturday, we went to an antique sale and then drove over to MassMoCA for some contemporary art. Afterwards, we saw The Three Penny Opera at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and drove back over a mountain at 2am. Lots of adventure.

July 2003

Engagement Party
We're going to get married out in Los Angeles, because that's where Karen's grew up. LA is a long way from New York, so my parents decided to have an engagement party for us here- for all of our New York City friends and family. Karen's parents made the trip to New York- as did my entire extended family and many friends old and new. It was a great day- lots of appetizing from Russ and Daughters, lots of laughter- lots of good pictures.

June 2003

Brooklyn Roses
We ran into E at the 7th Heaven street fair in Park Slope, and since it was the first nice day in about three months, we decided to go up to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens to the see the roses. This was really the right weekend for roses- there were thousands of them in full bloom. My favorites were the freaky ones- red with yellow specks, yellow with red tips. Some of the regular ones were pretty nice looking too. The best part was the smell- when they say you should stop to smell the roses, they ain't lying.

June 2003

Brooklyn Bloggers
Last night Jen and I met up with the masterminds behind 990000, Rion, Brooklynkid, Lauraholder, and Stuntlab at the Red and Black in Williamsburg. Much fun was had- I ended up stumbling home at midnight after one too many Stellas and the usual excitement on the L train.

May 2003

California in Spring
After we got engaged, K and I were out in Los Angeles for another ten days. It was a great trip- lots of driving around and trips to the beach. We even got to take a hike in the mountains above Malibu. The rest of the time we were off looking at hotels for the ceremony- eventually we narrowed it down to one that we liked. Looking at these pictures all I see is blue and green- those are definitely my California colors.

April 2003

Engagement
I proposed to K on Will Rogers beach in Malibu. It was a perfect day- high clouds, bright sunshine, a completely empty beach. I had played things pretty well, so she had no idea it was coming. J and I shopped for rings for three weeks before we found one that was absolutely perfect. It was a four prong setting from a nice place, and I knew it would great on her. It did.

April 2003

Central Park Zoo
I was having a bad day at the office, so I decided to take off for an hour at the zoo. I noticed one thing right away: most of the animals were asleep. The seals, the bears, the frogs, the foxes- all snoozing at 1pm in the afternoon. The penguins were awake, and so were most of the animals in the petting zoo, but I think that was because there were all these crazed toddlers grabbing them by face and screaming "hello, animal!"

March 2003

The Battery at Sunset
I just got a circular polarizing filter for my G2, so I decided to go down and take some pictures of the water to see if it would remove any of the glare. I got a late start and by the time I started shooting, the sun was already going down. I got some amazing sunset footage- there's nothing like watching the light fade over Jersey on the first warm day of the Spring.

March 2003

Olive Garden Insanity
Jen works as an account planner on the Olive Garden advertising account at her agency. We were always talking about taking five or six people out and reenacting one of those crazy commercials where the family has the Italian guest in town and they show him a good time by taking him to the Olive Garden. Unfortunately, we don't know any Italians- only lots of Asians and Jews. Anyway, we ended up going out the Olive Garden in Chelsea and rocking it live for three straight hours. I haven't felt this sick in quite some time.

March 2003

Two Bridges, DUMBO, and Vinegar Hill
It was the first really warm day of the year, and after brunch Ez and I decided to take a walk. We ended up down at the Brooklyn Bridge and decided to walk over. Afterwards I decided I wanted to walk back to the city across the Manhattan Bridge, so we took a trip through DUMBO and Vinegar Hill. I love walking on those abandoned streets- we didn't see more than two people until we hit the other side of the bridge and walked back into Chinatown.

March 2003

Law & Order Panel
I've loved Law & Order since it premiered on NBC in 1990, so when Jen found out there was a panel featuring Jerry Orbach, Dick Wolf, Bruce Cutler, and Ray Kelly, we knew we needed to be there. The crowd was interesting- someone said it looked like a Trek convention for intellectual New Yorkers. They had a question and answer period at the end, and Jen and I asked a question about Aftershock, a particularly moving episode from 1996. We even got a laugh, which came when Jerry Orbach joked that he's always wanted a scene where someone dies in his arms, so he can finally get an Emmy.

March 2003

Blizzard
I love snow storms. When I was growing up in Brooklyn, one of my favorite winter activities was walking across Prospect Park in the middle of a heavy storm. I love that feeling of being lost in a sea of white. As blizzards go, this one was pretty weak, but we still got a good 18 inches of snow. I took most of these pictures on the first day of the storm, when I had to trek from SoHo to Midtown to retrieve my laptop.

February 2003

Chinese New Year Parade
Since the first day of Chinese New Year was sort of a wash-out, we went back today. After brunch at Dim Sum Go-Go on Chatham Square, we found ourselves in the middle of the Chinatown parade, with lots of dragons, marching bands, and people in traditional costumes. We positioned ourselves at the top of Mosco Street- the parade was so close that a couple of dragons trampled on my feet.

February 2003

Chinese New Year
I like all sorts of New Year celebrations. I suppose the Chinese New Year is my third favorite, after regular New Year and Rosh Hashanah. Chinese New Year seems to be about three things: dragons, fire-crackers, and the color red. This year was sort of washed out- the weather was dreary and the space shuttle crash cast a pall over everything. Still, it was nice to see all the kids throwing those little gunpowder snaps at each other.

February 2003

Rachel Abrams Sings
I became friends with Rachel a few months ago when I started consulting at the large technology company where she works. She's my favorite English person ever, except for the guy who plays Giles on Buffy. Her hobbies include project management, conceptual art, and eating cheap sushi. Our friendship has flowered despite my provincial attitudes and constant misunderstanding of her British slang. These pictures are from her Jazz Recital at the music conservatory in Park Slope.

January 2003

New Year's 2003
We started the night with dinner at The Strip House, this restaurant on 12th Street in the Village. Afterwards, we met Josh and Ilise and Ez at the 9th Street Market and had champagne. Walking home at 4am, the streets were filled with people stumbling around and looking for cabs. We counted three people throwing up along Lafayette Street alone.

January 2003