Pics And The City

Well I made it back safe and sound from NYC. I had such a great time! Trent and David were SO kind to host me and I really had a blast. So now I find myself with a ton of pics and not enough time to blog... but here we go!

Saturday was SO FUN! Trent heard about the Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, so we hit that up as well as seeing the Cherry Blossom Festival at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden next door... got some great pics, check it out:Murakami does some CRAZY amounts of merchandising. TONS of stuff!
3D Boobies! Cool anime chicks abound. They were completely anatomically correct... ahem... yeah.
Update: My friend Chris L nearly killed me with this response to this pic:

Also, nice anime chick armor. You can tell a geek designed it.

"Umm… let’s see, she needs metallic armor to defend against explosives… umm… but I want to see her midrift… and her legs… and her boobs… ah, perfect."

Transforming anime chicks = hot tranny mess.
The art was pretty cool, some of the pieces were huge!
DoB, bitches!
"STOP! In the name of love..." Homeboy's got a fascination with mushrooms. Too much Mario?
T with one of his many fans, she was really nice!
They even decorated the floors on some of the exhibits and some of the walls with his art. Way cool.
And of course, merchandising! Murakami was hired by Louis Vuitton/Marc Jacobs and so they had an actual LV store there IN THE EXHIBIT.... where you could buy stuff. And 3 people working! lololol
Goofy smiles and flowers = it's like Japanese woodstock in Brooklyn!

After seeing the art we went over to check out the cherry blossoms:
I lurve my Canon SD800. Colors soooo sharp. :)
"Oprah, what kind of tree are you?"
"Girlfriend, I'm a weepin' willow.... boooo hoooo"
Sorry, that random quote from the Looney Tunes movie from the 90's came into my head.
I know, you are probably thinking "WTF where are my cherry blossoms D-Lizzle?!?!"... here they are!
Weeeeeeeeee pretty!

Wait, you wanted more crazy Japanese art?
BAM!
BAM! ... No, wait, these are just cosplayers! I love cosplay. They always make me smile. Or laugh. Or stare. Or all of the above.
These two girls were making out something fierce. Like full on French-Japanese kissing. WOO!
OK SO: I see lots of blossoms, everywhere, but no cherries. False advertising much?
MISSING NYC TRAVELER LOST IN FEUDAL JAPAN; BECOMES KABUKI 'FREAKY MAN GIANT' STAR OF THE 1100'S.
Ooooh, I get so artsy with my camera. You can quote me.
Tulips! Cuz there's more to the botanical garden then just cherry ... dammit... blossoms.
"JFC that's a big tree."
- Things overhead while walking. *
*By overheard, I mean in my head.
They had performers and shizz, they were all pretty good. According to my friend Mr. Sake.
Yeah, it was pretty. :)
David & Trent were the best hosts! :) How cute is this pic?
Homegirl seemed kinda lost; and yet, very much at home.
Flower power! Rise above those tulips, baby!
"I'm in bloom, bitches!"
Lurve the architecture of the greenhouse, there was a wedding on and they had the inside all set up... nice!
Queen of the Night was my fav flower. What does that say about me?
Pretty wedding couple!
Pretty flowers next to tall white dork!
Ooooooh artsy again! No fartsy.
Me: Nice fan.
Her: GAZRHILLAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! (runs away screaming)
This is another cute photo, really, cherry blossoms pretty much rule.
HOLLA!
Thanks to T for the great idea for this photo... and yes, I AM making a cherry blossom snow angel. Don't ask, but really; when will I ever get the chance to do that again?
We had an amazing time and I have many great memories from that day. :)

After the cherry blossoms it was on to David's friend Kurt's house for a night of board gaming, which was really fun! On the way I learned even more things about the subway, like:
It's a great place to take a nap! Drop that chin and drool, girl!
Chinatown looks cool in every city!
Churches pretty much always rock. Well, visually anyways. :)
Side note: Did I mention everywhere you go, there's a bazillion people out on the streets?
Yeah, and this pic is dark but:
Even at 3am there's a ton of people out. I love it!
"I'm the board game God!"
"Wait, Darion's here? Shizz, we may as well give up now."
"OMG Darion sucks at this! hahaha!"
It was a great Saturday, we hit a few clubs after and had a blast, David's friend's were all incredibly cool and fun to hang out with and everyone welcomed me with open arms (and often alcohol!). FUN!
More to come...

New York State Of Mind

WOW What a whirlwind the last few days have been! I LOVE NYC! It's been such a great trip and I am so glad to have this experience especially at this time in my life. David and Trent have been amazing hosts and it's been such a blast! I've taken a TON of pics so here is everything from Friday.

On with the photos!
I'm staying with the West Village, which is awesome because I swear basically everything is within a 1 mile walk! Or a 5-10 min ride on the Subway. NO sitting in traffic! LOVES IT!
You see a few parking lots/areas, but no one really seems to have a car. It's $300+ a month to rent a parking space.

I met my friend Oz for lunch which was a blast, he showed me around, got me used to the Subway, and showed me the sights. First up was Forbidden Planet, a huge comic book shop...
Tons of stuff! One of the guys in there was a bit odd....
He kept looking around nervously saying "I vaaant to izzcape ze villagers...." meh.

Union Square! There were tons of little shops around outside... ehrr not in the photo.
It was great catching up with Oz, it had been a few years! After a dee-lish lunch I walked a few miles around Soho and Broadway and took in the sights...

I love the architecture! Of course everything is older then LA and has a cool feel to it, plus it's all built up SO HIGH!
I went to the ORIGINAL RH Macy's store, where they filmed Miracle on 34th Street! It was so cool.
There are TONS of stores down Broadway and about a kojillion people everywhere. Opposite of LA! TONS of foot traffic, not much street traffic.
Subway musicians! They actually sounded pretty good.

Note my very helpful finger pointing to where I am. Ain't I useful?
In the crowd! Holla! I met up with Matt who literally moved to NY the day before I fly in. Small world! :)
Did I mention there's a lot of street traffic? I'm now an expert crowd surfer.
Oh, and Macy's features FOUR FLOORS of Men's clothing. Uh huh. Crazy.
It's shoe paradise! I think there was almost a floor full of Men's shoes.
NYC is really pretty, most of the areas I've been in have been clean and well kept up.
Walking around I recognized so many spots from films. :)

Sadly there are a lot of homeless missing arms and limbs, I ran into a nice Italian fellow who recently lost his arm:
He seemed happy but I was a little shocked at seeing his stub.
All playgrounds and stuff are fenced in. It's like prison, only with less tattoos.
Going through the Subway is fun, here in grand central you see it's like a mall, there's tons of food, snacks, etc etc.
The Desalvio LAYGROUND - where Desalvio gets laid. I can't make this stuff up.

Matt and I ate at Lombardi's Pizza near Soho which was DEELISH! It's the OLDEST pizza joint in the USA as it was built in 1905. So good!
It's great, I've been eating everything in sight and it just disappears because you WALK EVERYWHERE! :)

For dessert we swung by a new dessert place:
Rice to Riches, a rice pudding store!
They had a gazillion flavors... very different then the usual ice cream place!
And they had the funniest signs. :)

I walked to The Empire State Building next to see the sights, but it was too foggy to go up so I'm going to try and do it tomorrow....
It was however gorgeous from outside! It's sights like these that had me singing New York, Newwww YORRRKKK randomly. Funnily, no one seemed scared of me.
Purdy!
The clothing shops stay open lateee (this shot is for Mom!). We hit Marc Jacobs at 10:00 on a Sunday, for example! NY people are pretty fashionable and lurve their clothing.

Next up was Times Square where I did a quick interview with an old friend:

Dave is so funny, altho I often find myself wishing Paul Schaffer would choke on that horn and keel over.
LIGHTS! CAMERA! ME!
OK, Times Square is ridic. It goes on for blockssss down Broadway, is super touristy, very bright and loud, and crazy. It's kinda like Vegas but with less drunkeness.
The Toys R Us is HUGE and has a Ferris Wheel INSIDE!
So bright!
Walking around is great, but there are trash dumps in the street EVERYWHERE. It's bagged but.... still kinda nasssty.
You also run into the most random people, like Miss NY Curtain Dress or something.

Matt and I caught up with Trent and David and then went to a bar named Barracuda and then on to another fun club called Splash:
Had a great time! There I met a ton of people from all over the world, including a lovely young woman visiting from Amsterdam with her bro and bf! Cyrina rocks and is also a blogger! Check out http://hitthejagspot.com. She was a great dancer and was definitely the belle of the ball, and was a lot of fun to talk to. She was also a fan of Trent's blog - small world!
It was a fantastic day! Much more to come... :)