Victory!

I can't even believe it, I have officially completed my first semester of grad school! It was tough, especially the length! At SU we were on 3 10-week quarters; at Pratt we are on 2 15-week semesters, and the difference is unbelievable!

Anyway, will be back in SLC tomorrow morning!

Pound for Pound Challenge

I was enjoying The Biggest Loser Season Finale tonight when I was absolutely floored by a statistic Alison Sweeney dropped: she announced that 1 in 6 Americans are now facing hunger. 1 in 6?!?! It blows my mind that a television show that features 250-476 pound contestants dropping 100+ pounds is one of the most popular shows on prime time television in a country where 1 in 6 people is hungry.

The show is sponsoring the Pound for Pound challenge where anyone can pledge to lose X amount of pounds and the show will match those pounds with a pound of food for a local food bank. I pledged and recommend you do the same. Its free and only requires you to enter your pledge.

New Internship

Oh dear, I afraid I'm already falling behind in blogging. I knew there was I reason I quit the last one...


But in other news, I interviewed for and got an internship today! Where at, you ask? I will be interning at The Watson Research Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art! God, I love NY.

I did not realize that the Met has 20 libraries within its walls. Most of them are small collections within a curatorial department, but some of them are bigger like the Nolan Library which has educational materials for the public, particularly teachers. The libraries recently went under a "realignment" project which now puts the Watson at the hub of all 20 libraries. My internship will allow me to work with many of these libraries doing a variety of tasks including: paging materials, working on a mass inventory project (which details working with over 70,000 materials, just a mere 10% of the Watson's collection), doing some reference work in the Nolan and Watson, along with some other tasks. I will be interning there 10 hours a week, probably the mornings of the days I have classes.



I am super stoked!

Thriller

Reason 2095 Why I love New York: New York Loves Halloween!

Every year the Village Voice sponsors a Halloween Parade that runs through West Village. Thousands of people are in this parade and even more show up to watch. It was absolute madness and it took me 30 minutes to walk from 10th Street to 14th due to the crazy amount of people on the sidewalk. But it was worth it to see this 100+ person tribute to Michael Jackson + Thriller. The sound is terrible, but if you look you will see one Michael Jackson up at the front in his classic red leather jacket "Thriller" look followed by a huge mass of zombies.

*Edit* The video was disabled so here is another one shot from directly in front of the group. It's even better because you can see Micheal's date in her sweet 80s threads, screaming her head off.

Jeanette's Visit Part II

On Saturday, I took Jeanette to one of my favorite spots in New York, Coney Island! It was closed for the season, but The Rumblers Car Club was having its end-of-season car show with bands from the region playing at Freak Bar.

In between bands, some of the freaks did their acts. This skinny girl was on a bed of nails with a 220 pound volunteer from the audience standing on her.

We saw a bunch of really good bands, including The Brains from Canada:


Sunday morning we took it easy. Meaning we slept right through it. We went down to Little Italy for lunch/dinner and then hit Canal Street for some knock-offs. We finished the night at Public Assembly in Williamsburg seeing the Goddamn Gallows and then Jeanette left to head back to LGA. Fun weekend!

Jeanette's Visit Part I

This past weekend my friend Jeanette from SLC came out to visit me and see New York. It was her second time here, the first being when she was 16 and came for a 3 day visit with her high school. I decided to give her a real taste of New York.

Thursday we lunched at Soy & Sake, a delicious vegan restaurant in Greenwich Village. We then stood in line at the Times Square TKTS booth hoping for some decent discount tickets to a Broadway show. Can't say that we were too disappointed with what we got:


Before the show I took her to the world famous Carnegie Deli where we split a grilled cheese, potato knish, and two black & white cookies.

The next day we went to MOMA. Modern art is really not my thing, but I enjoyed some of the interior design pieces.

We finished the night off at my favorite NYC bar, Otto's Tiki Lounge where we indulged in the monsterous Lava Blast. What's in it? Pretty much everything but the kitchen sink.

Mi Casa

With all my stuff unpacked and a place for everything, my new apartment is really starting to feel like home. I got my room all set up a few weeks ago and thought I'd snap some pictures. This room would not be possible without extensive help from Jo and Joe, so I'm very grateful to them. It was also made possible with donations from Carolyn, Melissa, and Elvira....Thanks guys! You are the best.




I also went to one of my favorite spots in New York a few weeks ago....Coney Island! They were having a tattoo and motorcycle expo outside of Freakshow Bar.

Art Opening

Last night I went to my first NYC art opening. It was called Tres Belles, and featured the work of Elisa Velazquez and two other artists. I met Elisa a few weeks ago at Beauty Bar. She is an art teacher, artist, and DJ. Her main mediums are painting and crochet-sculpture, which is what she featured at this show. The show was small, but her pieces really stood out! Two of her pieces are on the flyer below, the eye in the bottom left corner and then hand over the lips in the top right.


Afterwards I headed to Otto's Shrunken Head, my favorite rock n' roll tiki bar, for Elisa's bar night.