Somehow I was talked into going for a walk across 2 bridges and back again in one day. I’ve never been one to exert himself unnecessarily but also one to never back down from a challenge (if I’m not feeling lazy) so I strapped on my boots and grabbed a can of soda and Jenny and I made our way towards the Williamsburg Bridge. It’s kind of a long walk just to get to the bridge, so when we finally made it to the ramp, I was exhausted and ready to go back home. Once I got up on the bridge and started walking toward the city, I was distracted by the great view of the water and the city to think about being tired. There were lots of people walking and jogging and on the other side of the bridge, a bike path with bikers going back and forth. Beneath us was the JZM train and cars swishing by. We got about three-quarters of the way there and there was a large group of people gathered looking down below. There was a really bad car wreck that shut down traffic on the bridge so we stopped and watch the firemen cut the top off the car and pull the people out to put on gurneys. 

When we got across to Manhattan, I was totally out of breath. I didn’t think I could go on until I saw the ice cream man and we got some ice creams. Had he not been down there, I probably would have died. Ice cream man, you saved my life yet again. We were walking down to the park along the water when I saw this garage with this crazy orange car in it. It was so tiny and cute! I wanted to talk to the mechanic about it but he was helping some lady and I didn’t want to wait around.

 After my ice cream was gone, I started complaining again. I was looking for a subway stop so I could go home but there were not any in sight. We kept walking and walking and walking. Finally after walking about 100 miles we came to the Manhattan Bridge and behind it, the famous Brooklyn Bridge. I said that we should just walk across the Manhattan Bridge and get this nightmare over with but Jenny said that there was no pedestrian walkway on the Manhattan. As we passed by it I swear there were little people walking on it. 

So okay, we are going to the Brooklyn Bridge. Yeah it’s pretty, so beautiful. My legs are going to fall off. I didn’t realize this but to get on the bridge you have to find the entrance, so instead of cutting across town and getting on the bridge, we took the roundabout way along the water so we had to walk back into the city to get on the bridge. We went in a few circles before finding the entrance near some college and city hall. There were tons of tourists and vendors selling hot dogs and keepsakes. I really like people watching and NYC is really the best for that. On the bridge there were tons of people on vacation from all over. A bunch of people were talking in different languages and snapping photos. The bridge was under construction but it was amazing to see how it was built back in the 1800′s, NYC’s first bridge. 

After we made it across it was nighttime. We found the subway and went home. Our next door neighbor, John, was playing with this crazy Janky Band at Barbe’s, so we went there and saw him play his trombone with those weirdos. That place is pretty cool. Everyone was all sweaty tho, yuck. I hate when you go to a show and you are breathing people’s sweat. One lady had brought her puppet and was dancing with a puppet. 

I should probably start exercising.

My greatest treasures, Lily and Lando live in Chicago. I went to go visit them 2 weeks ago and Had the most amazing time. I love those little chickens.

Sometimes I just don’t leave the house. This had been the case for the past week when I got a text from Baltimore Ben to meet up in Manhattan for some free eats. I googled the address he gave me and chose the proper trains. It looked easy enough to remember so I decided not to draw the usual map on the back of my hand. When I emerged from the subway, however, I was as lost as I could be. I walked a block in every direction but still could not find my bearings. I ended up calling Ben, hoping he knew his way around NYC better than I did. Finally, after wandering around in a big loop dee doo, I found the street I had been looking for. The restaurant was a cute little Italian place named Lupa.

Hey there's the back of Jake's head as seen in the classic film, "Brokeback Mount Him"

What I thought would be a slice of pizza and a coke turned into a 6 course meal at a long table full of people. Ben looked at me and chuckled, “you have no idea what is going on here do you?” I didn’t, and he didn’t tell me. I had to figure it out on my own, which is the kind of predicament Ben likes to put people in. Turns out that his girlfriend, Sammie, co-owns this bar in B-more and they were taking all the managers out as a thank you appreciation type dinner in NY. It’s pretty awesome that a company values their employees like they do. You don’t hear about companies taking their people out to fancy restaurants and bars in other cities as a bonus very much these days. Anyhow, the food was very rich, very fancy. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious but  I am the kind of person who would be just as happy with a chalupa and some flamin’ hot Cheetos.

 (LOL, I just went to the Taco Bell

 website to find out how to spell chalupa and found out about these crazy new Dorito tacos! I posted about them on FB and then it ended up on a billboard in Times Square.)

Sorry, no dive bars or hipsters here.

Anyways… yes, the food was delicious and expensive. Afterwards, we all jumped into a cab to (again) Times Square, where we wondered why the hell we would go to Times Square and then caught another cab to Brooklyn where we had drinks at the Richardson. The managers at the Golden West were telling some CRAZY stories about working there, like the one time someone put a wild goose in the men’s bathroom, or the time the bartender got fired for selling flour as heroin to children outside the bar. It was a lot of fun.

The next day, I got a text from Ben telling me I was going to be kidnapped and to have my bags packed by 7pm. I was waiting by the door for 2 hours before my abductors finally showed up. Then in the car, it seemed like it was taking forever to get there so we passed the time telling ghost stories and talking about our innermost deepest feelings. When we finally got to Baltimore, we went straight to Ben’s new warehouse which was very close to downtown but in the scariest block of houses I have ever seen. The building is a long warehouse laid diagonally thru a neighborhood of abandoned row houses. Some of them were burned out and some of them were just falling over. Most of the windows were gone like hollowed out eyes and there was trash and pieces of furniture everywhere. There was a fenced parking lot in the back where the 4 dark alleys came to a sketchy intersection where we couldn’t get in the gate fast enough! The building was used by the Post Office to repair the wagons of mail carriers and down in the basement was a huge incinerator where they would burn the undelivered mail. John, who was subletting the space to Ben said it was the darkest, scariest basement ever. I wanted to go down there but Ben didn’t think it would be a good idea (scared). We ended up sleeping at Sam’s house that night where it was warm and there were beds.

The boarded up houses on the street are wrapped with garland and Christmas paper and then while waiting outside Ben's front door, a guy comes up and takes a piss on his porch.

The next day Ben had to go into the office at the Washington Post. He commutes to DC to work one day a week for an excruciating four hours (if he gets there around 3, which he usually does not). I went along with him to go to the museums and check out his show at the Galaxy Hut while he was punching the clock. The Washington Post building is a few blocks down from the White House so I decided to walk down there on my way to Museum Mile. I was planning on going to the Portrait Museum because it was the only museum open till 7 which meant I only had about an hour and a half to see some art. As I was walking by Obama’s house, his motorcade drove by and I saw the Commander-in-Chief as they drove by. He was waving at us from his bulletproof limo as we watched him go by, it was pretty nuts to see him in real life.

As I made my way to the museum, I was amazed at how awesome all the buildings are down there. They were huge and beautifully adorned with decorative stonework. I found a statue of Benjamin Franklin which I thought was really cool. When I found my way to the Portrait Museum, I quickly walked thru like I always do, spending only a few seconds on each piece that looks interesting to me. I could have spent the whole day in there. It always amazes me to see work that predates photography. The way the eye captures color is so different from the way a lens would. I took lots of pictures of the paintings but I knew that when I went back to look at them, the colors would not be anywhere near the same. I had a huge paint boner the whole time I was jogging thru the galleries.

My favorite piece was this crazy little house that was full of weird stuff like a small museum. It had a little diorama on all 4 sides. There were also these weird wooden animals that I liked a lot, especially the gorilla. He was pretty funny. Finally, my hour and a half was up and they kicked me out into the courtyard where they had people playing board games and there was an old jazz band playing. I stayed for a minute and then booked it out of there. I got a little turned around as I walked out and ended up in Chinatown. I was about to cross the street when a policeman stopped me and Barack drove by again! I guess he was out for chinese food that night. When I caught up with Ben, we headed down to Arlington to go see his art show. The Galaxy Hut was this crazy little place with all sorts of weird stuff everywhere. There was even a spaceship thingy you could drink your beers in out back. Ben’s paintings were awesome. My favorite one was of this brain in a boxing match with a heart. Both were beat up pretty good and I couldn’t tell who was going to win. Another one was this really tall guy with his head in the clouds while little people were sawing his leg off. The place was packed with DC business types talking about politics or something so we went down the street to 5 Guys. I Iove those burgers!

We didn’t get back to B-more till late o’clock. The warehouse is only a few blocks from Penn Station so we hoofed it back. We had been dreading the walk back all day, knowing it would be dark out when we returned. However it was really nice out. All the neighborhoods were well lit with people walking around. We didn’t really feel nervous till the last block where the warehouse was. It was like night and day when you crossed that last intersection and you could feel the crunch of broken glass and crumbling bricks beneath your feet. there was a group of guys hanging out on the stoop a few doors down from Ben’s. I could feel their eyes follow us down the street tho I never made eye contact with them. When we got inside, we locked the door and stayed put till sunrise.

When we woke up in the afternoon, Kim came over and we all went to look at a couch Ben found off of craigslist for his new living room. It was at these luxury lofts on the Baltimore waterfront in the Tindeco building. The Tindeco building used to house the Tin Decorating Company of Baltimore. It was the largest tin decorating plant in the world with its floor area over 7 acres! The factory had lithograph presses, shaping and stamping machines and huge baking ovens. They could produce 4 million tins a day with the 3000 workers employed there working around the clock. The company had its own art department that designed the tins as well as tins that featured artwork by famous illustrators of that time.There was also a fully equipped surgical room with a nurse always on duty and a staff doctor ready for when the workers were always cutting their fingers off on the sharp tin. It was really freakin’ cool and plus they had free M&M’s.

After that, we went to Second Chance. It was this crazy antique store in this old metal fabrication warehouse. As you walked in, there was an old Romanian wagon and a baby carriage. It was filled to the gills with really awesome stuff from old to super old! They had a whole row of old gas stoves, huge armoires, and whole fireplaces! They even had an old hardwood bar with stained glass and hand carved ladies. So cool!

Later, went over to Kim’s house and met up with Sammie to get all Ben’s stuff in a Uhaul. He had this small 8X10 office and a few other things that looked like a cinch to move but when he started pulling things out for us to take to the truck, suddenly there was a 2 whole truckloads of stuff! It was a lot of work but I was well rewarded with tacos, meatballs and strawberry milkshakes. It was pretty  rad.

This was about a week ago when I met up with Corn and Adolfo to meet the newest member of their tribe, Marcos the funny fluffy dog. .He was so energetic and ready for our walk around Bushwick. We ate breakfast bagels and drank coffee at the dog park where Marcos wanted to go run with the big dogs but couldn’t because he hadn’t received all his shots yet. Adolfo found a guy on the side of the street selling oranges so we got some and ate them while looking at all the cool paint jobs around the neighborhood. My favorite was the skateboard. After awhile Marcos got tired and so he went for a ride in Corn’s bag. He’s a cute little guy!

Monday I met up with my old buddy Tomer for some chicken curry katzu at his favorite Japanese place. It’s seriously so good. Growing up I wasn’t that fond of curry (probably because of how my mother made it) but these days I can eat it till it comes out my nose. I love it! We were talking about all the teachers we had that died and were trying to figure out which ones were still around when I asked him if he knew David Sandlin. He lit up and said that he was doing a critique for his grad students later in the week and invited me to tag along. I never had David Sandlin as a teacher, but I had always been a big fan of his work. My foundation painting teacher, Tobi Kahn introduced me to him and he instantly left a huge impression on me with his collection of weird subversive books and art he kindly shared with me. I always enjoyed seeing his strange illustrations in the record store I worked at, popping up on weird album covers and in the magazines. It was also a treat to actually see one of his big paintings in person while in Baltimore a few years later at the Visionary Art Museum. After Tomer gave a 2 hour talk to Mr. Sandlin’s Grad students, I met up with them at the Limerick House on 23rd street, an Irish pub. Some of the grad students were there, and the were talking about the ins and outs of the illustration business. I could tell they were very driven and later when I was able to see their work, it was very impressive! One of the students, Elizabeth, recently won a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators. Very cool! I really enjoyed their company and it was fun to see Mr. Sandlin again. He talked a little about how he came to America from Ireland and ended up in Alabama, then about how a quick stop in New York on his way back home to Ireland somehow turned into an indefinite stay.

Just between U and I, Tomer is standing in the Guiness

As the night wrapped up, Tomer decided we needed to get some hamburgers because the calamari was just not filling his tummy. He took me down 23rd street to the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. It was strange to see a burger place there, as I had spent so many days in my younger years without it, cutting thru that park to hike down Broadway. Tomer said that usually there is a line down the street for these burgers and we were lucky it was so late at night, we could just walk right up and get some. After getting a few shackburgers and some brews, we sat down for some bites and yes, they were so delicious! To complete our walk down memory lane, we stopped in to SVA and cried some tears because our youths are now only ghosts there.

It’s been so beautiful outside. I wake up every day to the sunshine coming in thru the windows and if there is ever any doubt, I put the back of my hand up against the window to see if it’s cold. Today it was so nice that I decided to grab some paper and do some drawing on the sidewalk. I was working when one of the locals came up to me and asked what I was doing. His name was Lou and he had lived in the neighborhood all of his 36 years. He said this neighborhood has changed dramatically since his childhood. I guess there was a lot of crazy shit that happened around here. He pointed out what had changed and what had stayed the same, he told me about the old video store and the TV repair shop that I always wondered about. He said that it was a really rough neighborhood before all the bars and shops moved in. It was really awesome talking to him and hearing the stories about the streets I now lived on. He was a real nice guy.

About an hour later, there was a hipster on a bike screaming, “fuck you” to this car and flipping the person off. He was really pissed, he taunted the driver and told him to pull over. The driver did indeed pull over and the hipster continued shouting obscenities at the driver. The driver parked the car, got out and started walking toward the cyclist. They were going back and forth as a few other guys got out of the car and started following the driver  who was making his way over to the hipster who started getting antsy and rode off. It was really funny, I thought for a moment the guy was going to get beat up for sure with the way he was running off his mouth. Lucky for him, he came to his senses and realized he was about to get beat up and decided to keep going.

A little later, Lou comes back and asks how I’m doing. He had brought over his cousin and his son to look at my drawing and introduces us. I recognize that they were two of the guys who were in the car, and I joked about the guy they almost beat up. I didn’t realize it, but Lou was actually the one driving the car. He told me that the hipster rode thru the red light as he was about to turn left and then got mad because Lou was making faces at him or something. I don’t really know who was at fault but I know that if I was a hipster transplant, riding an expensive bike in my skin-tight jeans with one leg rolled up, that I sure as hell wouldn’t want to fuck with Lou, who has been here all his life, knows everybody and has seen first hand how crazy this area used to be. I am surprised no one got punched.

Later I came home and found my cat trapped in the cupboard under the sink. Stupid cat.

I have been gone now long enough for my blog to officially die. What was supposed to be a 2 week work trip back home to Phoenix quickly turned into one of the craziest months I have ever had. I am so happy to be back to the peace and tranquility that is NYC for some rest and rejuvenation. How are you Nyork? What did I miss?

My good chum, Colin, picked me up from the airport. I was already sweating in my long johns and shedding the layers as I walked out into the wonderfully warm winter air. When we got back to his house, the Mook jumped on me and we hugged and I slapped his ass and he bit me. Love that doggy! On the front porch, I had a nose cone waiting for me to paint for the Boneyard show at the Pima Air and Space Museum. I was a late addition to the show because of the scheduling conflicts. As luck would have it, I had 2 days to complete a museum quality piece worthy to sit next to the likes of some of the best artists from around the world. I was kind of nervous but immediately started working on it.

Steven, the king of clubs, is the guy who flew me out to work at his row of nightclubs on central. I met with him to go over all the projects he brought me out for. There were murals and paintings all sorts of shit he had planned. Everything with him is by the seat of his pants. He discouraged me from doing initial sketches so that we could experiment during the process of the painting which kind of made me nervous because I don’t usually work like that. Steven is a crazy dude! We always have such a great time working together because we both think alike and the ideas we had kept building off of each other and out of control. I was getting really excited for what we had in store.

Staying at Colin’s house was such a great time. He’s one of my closest friends. I would kill a motherfucker for him even tho he farts a lot. He’s always on these weird diets that him and Abbey are trying. This month’s was 2 smoothies and one real meal a day. No bananas, oranges, breads, sugars or coffee. I found this out when I made him a smoothie for breakfast and he said he could only drink it if it was green and tasted bad. I ended up drinking a whole pitcher of smoothie! It wasn’t working out for me so I started a new diet for him that consisted of Jameson whiskey and chimichongas from that little mexican food place where that cute girl works. His flatulence condition started worsening.

Quincy organized a party bus to go down to Tucson for the opening of the Boneyard show. Colin felt a wild hair up his ass and decided to buy us tickets. I was excited to see the show. I got a sneak peak when we drove up a few days prior to drop off our nose cones. The place is freakin’ AMAZING! On the party bus, Colin wanted to switch seats because people were getting too rowdy, lol. We sat up front behind some tag alongs from the bus company who thought it would be a great cultural arts excursion. They had no idea how Quincy likes to do it. While it was great to escape the center of the action, it was even more awesome sitting behind the bus people who were mortified by the Ol’ Dirty Bastard blasting cd blasting well above the decibel level that allows for pleasant conversation. Colin and I were laughing so hard. Before we hit the show, we stopped at Club Congress for drinks and socializing. Tucson is a great place! We took a stroll around town and checked out some galleries including the Daniel Martin Diaz gallery where he had a Dave Cooper painting I drooled over. Then we got back on the road for the main event. Upon entering the Air and Space Museum, you instantly get an airborne boner. There are planes suspended from the ceiling and all around the display of nose cones centered in the middle of the room. The cones were beautifully displayed on custom palettes and illuminated with spot lights in the giant dark warehouse. Outside there were full planes painted next to a stage where bands were getting the party started. I was so happy that there was such an amazing turn out, it seemed that everyone in Phoenix made the trip to see this totally awesome show. I had a super awesome time and met some great folks. Big kudos to everyone who put this all together, it was an amazing event!

On Monday when I was back at the club with Steven, we exchanged stories about our weekends. There was a huge event at Amsterdam on the Saturday that the Boneyard show fell on. He showed me pictures of muscular black men in their underwear dancing on the bar next to the giant pink elephant head I painted for the Club Miami. Turns out he got pretty friendly with one of the dancers who we playfully called “Mandingo”. The painting was going great, I had completed 3 murals in the club Downtown and was finishing up 3 more walls of scattered graffiti when my phone rang. It was my buddy Bob with 4 more jobs for me to do. I changed my flight to stay another 2 weeks.

While I was really busy working, I did try and go out a bit. On first friday after a few plans fell thru, Ryan, Lynette and Michelle assimilated me into their mustache party at Hanny’s. We went upstairs and danced on the second floor eventually working our way to the secret staircase and onto the roof that Keith showed me a few months ago. There I got to see Breeze’s Phoenix mural on the wall below. It was pretty awesome. Afterwards, we all walked over to Barsmith for more dancing and then a drunken walk to Jobot where we felt like crepes and played battleship. It was super duper fun.

After finishing up another week with Steven, painting more penises than I ever have in my life, I went out to work for Bob. We had to drive out to Eloy every day where the carnival was camped. Bob had just had a surgery where that left a crazy cut on his neck all the way up to his ear that was held together with staples. He said it hurt like hell when we were eating hamburgers but I just kept telling him it looked cool as hell. The desert was super dusty, it was hard to airbrush with all the dirt particles clogging my gun. It was also scorching hot, I painted most of the day with my sweater wrapped around my head like turban. I ended up painting a dragon ride, a food wagon, and an Egyptian boat, complete with these giant pharaoh  heads which were really freaking cool.

I ended up working non stop till the day before coming back home. I really wanted to work on my house more. I always want to picture myself like Noah Calhoun fixing up that old house but I feel more like Walter Fielding at the end of the day.

<3 you Arizona.