things

1)  April 26, Went foraging around Central Park with "Wildman" Steve Brill with Nikki.  www. wildmanstevebrill.com  

I ate A LOT of little pink flowers.

2) Partied with the Ruskies in North Brunswick at Danya March-something's 23rd b

irthday bash.  Much more subdued this year, less nudity and collapsing, but fun nonetheless.    

3)  Today I retrieved my stone sumi-e seal from China town, finding a Chinese Beef Jerky store that was amazing and cheap called New Beef King at 89 Bayard St.  

Tomorrow:  the coffee roaster will be completed, my last day as a model at FiT.

goodbye to the met

If you read the website fine print closely enough and make a few phone calls, then you might be able to weasel your way into the drawing study room of the Met museum for a 2 hour session as I somehow did yesterday.  Sitting in an old and abused wooden desk in a corner in an office next to equally ill treated filing cabinets felt like being in detention.  The principal difference being that if you open those cabinets which are arranged by nationality and name, and hand a card to the librarian, then a masterwork has to join you in time-out, so that you can think about what you wish-you-had-done.  

Here is a sample menu:

Study for the Libyan Sibyl- Michelangelo Buonarotti

Study of a woman-  P.P. Prud'hon

Hand ecorche- Rubens

Nude study- Rafael Sanzio

Nativity study- Leonardo da Vinci

St. Remy hallway- Vincent van Gogh

I think I learned something.

As I wandered bright and cheery

Less than 2 weeks left in this adventure.  Today was warm and precious so I spent it zig zagging my way across manhattan on foot, at the whim of the walk signals.  On the way I saw some strange strange things including: a man riding a bicycle with a small terrier peaking out of the water bottle side pocket of his backpack, another man pitifully rolling himself across houston st. in a rickety wheel chair with a change cup, then using his legs to power his way across 4 lanes of traffic before the lights changed, and finally another guy violently- i guess you would call it necking- with a blind lady in the middle of the sidewalk as she whirled the tee-ball on a stick thing into the air like a helicopter rotor.   

an eventful week lazily remembered

4/12 Begin the day on the lower east side having brunch with Nicole.  in the afternoon join a Literary Pub Crawl through the west village. visit the site of Dylan Thomas's legendary 18 whiskey bender, the spot where Thomas Payne died, the pharmacy with 4 addresses where Edgar Allen Poe bought his head cold medication, and a rallying (and rioting) point of the gay rights movement.  Go straight from last pub to birthday party of 7 year old in Ironbound Newark.  (Not as weird as it sounds, it was for Nikki's cousin Sophia and I was invited)

4/13 attend the extremely disappointing Ny Coffee and Tea Festival, leave after 45 minutes to walk anywhere with coffee.  Browse an outdoor market where I but a silver flask the size of a medieval breastplate for $10.

4/14 work/exercise/sleep- receive Credenciales for the Camino de Santiago

4/15 practice oxy-acetylene, and a bit of MiG welding.  Pick up 2 anatomy books from the art students' league bookstore. Acquire a roll of irish wool from a crater in 7th ave disguised as an ancient fabric store that didn't have employees, just customers who may or may not have passed whatever you are looking for.  Visit Lederhosen, an uber authentic sausage and bierhaus that serves black lager in 2 liter boot-shaped glasses.

  

4/16 french tutoring, sumi-e class, enroll in the Beer Judge Certification Program: Exam date: September 20.  

4/17 order my stone seal for ink paintings with my japanese name meaning gem protector or bouncy ball depending on how you mispronounce it.  Buy a sheet of perforated steel from De Lorenzo Bros welding supply near canal street; carry said sheet of steel 23 blocks to Nikki's dorm.  Return to lederhosen with Nikki for a wurst education date and another boot.  Begin construction of my first bowtie.  

Today I met Nikki in central park to climb on some rocks and smoke hookah at the top overlooking the west side of the park.  I then headed to the east village music store to purchase a harmonica so that the newly formed musical side of my brain doesn't return to its smooth-as-glass state while i travel.  

lovely dust

This morning I jumped from train to train to train making the trip from Gates Ave, Brooklyn to 110th St. in just under 41 minutes to have lunch with the only resident stone carver at the Cathedral of St. John Devine, Chris Pellettieri. After showing me around his huge work space covered in dust, 30 foot ceiling with 80's metal guitar solos bouncing off stone walls, we walked down the street to eat a sandwich called 'the Godfather' in a miniature medieval garden next to a cathedral and a childrens' music room.  I feel like I was on the set of the Sound of Music.  He gave me some much needed common sense about carving stone, and was nice enough to offer some blocks of limestone if I can talk Nicole into driving her car up here and loading the trunk with semi-sanctified rocks. 

The Sun Gun, Arpeggios, Pine Branches

Tuesday was eventful.  I was blessed with the opportunity to not only hold, but wield the plasma welder, aka "sex itself" according to my instructor.  The gun weighs maybe 11 ounces and fires an unfathomably high amperage'd spark through a needle enveloped in compressed air and is able to  liquify the armor on a battleship in less than a half second.  It isn't even fair to the metal at this point.  Tuesday night I received a lesson in arpeggios on the guitar, and learned how to pick the beginning of "sweet home alabama" of all the songs to learn in new york.  Today in Sumi-e I graduated to pine branches and needles, which is nice because I'm not quite, but just about, at the loathing point with bamboo after 377 failed to mediocre attempts.   Tomorrow is work and who knows what else.

My Kind of Place

My first class at the Ny Art Students' League began this morning at the sinful hour of 8:45.  The welding studio is located in the dank, dripping basement of a chateau-like 5? story building on West 57th St.  There is a sign in the cafeteria to address some apparently frequent question "We will not sell individual slices of ham, turkey, or cheese." After a safety briefing, "don't search for leaks in the gas lines by the light of a lit blow torch", and a demonstration of technique, I was handed a metal wand with a licking footlong tongue of orange then blue flame and some scrap steel to partially melt and fuse.... which was what I guess putting together Legos on Heroin might feel like.  That was OxyAcetylene, later is MiG, TiG, and Plasma welding.  Thinking I might make myself a coffee roaster.

Prost!

The fact that I haven't posted a thing since last thursday has absolutely nothing to do with being handed a tiny magical beer glass that turned out to have an unlimited capacity for craft beer on Saturday.  Really.  The commute to and from Long Island combined with the mental strain of concocting convincing untruths about NYC, The US, and the English language for 2 German tourists was far more taxing.   Other than drinking and lying, things have been pretty normal. Rock climb, read, get paid to take off my clothes in front of strangers, regular things like that.  Thoroughly enjoying myself actually.