Archive for June, 2009
Monday, June 29th, 2009
My actual birthday was a couple weeks ago but Christian threw me a party this weekend at the Thompson LES Hotel! We got the penthouse suite, complete with a huge terrace overlooking the entire city from twenty stories up, and invited fifty friends over. It was really nice to have so many people I love all in one place. It was kind of a reunion in some ways, since so many of us are so busy working and traveling everywhere all the time.
Geneva once again helped so much with party prep so I want to thank her! She also took a bunch of video that I can’t wait to see later. Christian and I slept in the master bedroom and Anna stayed the night in the extra bedroom, and in the morning we watched the sun move high into the sky and ate room service breakfast (which you know is my favorite thing to do).
This is gonna sound cheesy but I really do want to thank Rubyy energy drinks. They only make two versions, a regular and a diet, and only in blood orange. I had one months ago and it was seriously my favorite (very non-energy drink tasting), and they sent us a bunch for the party! I also have to thank Harold at Zygo for supplying us with the evening’s vodka, with which the bartenders made some pretty awesome special cocktails and flavored shots. It wouldn’t be a party without good drinks, and Zygo and Rubyy are gooood drinks.
Throughout the night I took people upstairs to take their picture (I can’t help it). Click through to see a bunch of photos from the party… (more…)
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
I used to work in an office, at a publishing company. In the kitchen was the coffee machine, which I visited often. The coffee that was provided was standard issue corporate coffee. Like a drug it was bitter on the tongue, highly potent, addictive, and delivered daily in little bags from Colombia… everything I needed to slap myself awake from the nightmare of having to listen to the same girl every morning try to chew her yogurt like it was legitimate solid. As far as I knew, the office consensus for making coffee was to use one and a half of the little bags to make a pot, because one was too weak and two were too strong. And you could always do a bump later if you were coming down.
Decency stated that if you took the last of the coffee in the pot and it was before lunch time, you made more. I followed this rule 99% of the time. Of course, the one time I apparently did not, a co-worker called me out for it (on the internet) (by first and last name) (and I had never spoken to her in real life). Truthfully, I often had to make a full pot of coffee two or three times before I was even able to return to the kitchen and get any for myself, because that office had a high number of seatfillers who didn’t understand that there were people on the planet who were not them.
Two older women in particular from the other side of the office, one an overly-scented editorial stereotype and the other a straight up dirt-covered crazy person, abused the kitchen similar to the way I assume they abused alcohol at home. The Dirty One would throw the microwave door open and leave it that way, grab and spill her drinks and wet foods all over the place and let other people step in it, poke her fingers into trays and jars of this and that which didn’t belong to her and decide she was entitled to most of everything, and never once in four years did I see her pull a paper towel from the roll to clean up after herself. The Smelly One once watched me shed a tiny, nickel-sized spill of dry coffee grounds onto the very dirty counter and fought at length with me about it. Her anger, however, was due to my wanting to throw the dirty bit of coffee into the garbage. She insisted that I add it into the already-going machine, or else it would “brew too weak.” Even when it was swept into my hand and speckled with bits of white and tan and crumbs of who knows what, she pleaded with me in front of an incredulous witness to include it and not throw it away. I threw it away. Because it was garbage. And then she was seriously mad at me for a long time.
Now I wake up and decide between the Nespresso and the Keurig, cappuccino or milk and sugar, hazelnut or hot chocolate, green tea or orange tea, and every drop I make for myself goes directly into my stomach. It does not pass Go, it does not collect $200, it does not get swallowed and coughed up by a demented cat lady who sadly has no cats. But I still get the craving every now and then to hop on the subway and make my way back to the work kitchen, make a full pot and hide out in the nook between the refrigerator and the soda machine, just so I can catch the bitch who took the last of the coffee without refilling and tell her: I saw you!
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
When I get really into making music I ignore all other creative things, so I haven’t been doing many recreational photos or blogging or things like that. But here’s a great one of Geneva from a few weeks ago that I got around to this morning:
Life is weird lately. I’ve been trying to hibernate, kind of. Odd scrutiny from every which way. My grandmother is sick and I can’t go back home right now. People in general are freaking me out more than usual. One of my friends got into a very public fight. New things happening. I’m going to be seen and heard more than I ever thought possible in my life. A girl I used to be friends with tried to play a social game on me but ended up pitiably embarrassing herself, and this is why I cut her out of my life in the first place. Just depressing. Blah blah blah, I am a tenth grader. I can’t even remember everything stupid that’s been happening because I’ve been watching Miyazaki to forget it. I guess I am a typical guy in that my way of coping with trouble is to buy presents for everyone in my life. Like I can buy their pain away. Or some just for presents’ sake for people I love.
I’ll say that I’m shocked by how many people think it’s okay to get physical with someone during a fight. That words and punches are the same thing. Or that enough words can equal a beating. Or that someone getting hit who did not hit first or hit back is something to celebrate. Literally billions of people have died because of that thinking. Yes, words and ideas and beliefs can hurt. Words can destroy a lot. But no matter what the emotional toll is, a word to the ear is a million times less painful than a bullet in the chest. And if physical violence is the end of a discussion, then the discussion is moot and we’re still just animals.
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
Thanks to everyone who voted, Christian and I won Afterelton.com’s “Best Gay Couple” at the NewNowNextAwards that aired on Logo this weekend! You can see our little dialogue toward the end of the video below: (more…)
Monday, June 15th, 2009
Today’s my birthday! Last night Christian and I got back from spending the weekend with Kristen Johnston and her friend Anouk at Kristen’s Connecticut house, which is gorgeous and exactly what we needed. A few days away from the city, out of contact, at the pool, with friends and dogs.
We did a lot of swimming, eating, junk store shopping, and driving around insane asylums and the general green-ness that is absent in Brooklyn. Kristen and Anouk made me a special birthday dinner, and Topper pooped everywhere. On the plus side, we did learn that he is an excellent swimmer, and that he likes to captain his own inflatable ship, especially when being chased on land by Kristen’s dog Pinky and Anouk’s dog Muzhik.
My big birthday party isn’t until later in the month, but Christian apparently has a surprise for me tonight. He says I have to leave the house for an hour and then come back. I hope the surprise isn’t a pile of my stuff on the curb and a new lock on the door.
Monday, June 8th, 2009
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
A couple months ago I fell in love with Kat Deluna’s new song “Unstoppable.” This week I remixed it, and I’m sharing it here with you! Stream or download the Brad Walsh Remix of “Unstoppable” below:
Kat Deluna: Unstoppable (Brad Walsh Remix)
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Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Here’s CariDee English in a fuchsia version of one of Christian’s dresses from the current spring collection. He didn’t mass produce it, he just had one made in these colors to lend. CariDee wore this to the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday, and on Saturday I shot some photos of her at the fitting at her house in Beverly Hills.
Monday, June 1st, 2009
This is Zach Hurd, he’s a musician in Brooklyn and I did some promo shots of him a couple weeks ago in the bowels of my building. We explored all the weird parts of the garage and basement and got some great shots!
Christian and I are currently flying home from LA back to New York, and I am very excited to hug my puppy and sleep in my own bed tonight. He did some red carpet interviews on his own little fashion platform for MTV at the MTV Movie Awards this weekend, and I got to tag along and take lots of pictures and have fun! We got to meet lots of amazing people, but my favorite moment had to have been when Miley ran up and said “I just started following you on Twitter!” I was taking pictures of Christian interviewing everyone and sending them to his Twitter and my Twitter.
Click here to see lots of my photos (posted to my Flickr account that I only use for mobile uploads) from bumming around the red carpet.
We also took some pictures in the Nikon 360 degree photo platform, where 48 separate Nikon cameras were set up in a circle around us and all took a picture at the same time. They stitch them all together and you get a 360 moving view all the way around, it’s pretty cool! Our photo is up on MTV.com now along with amazing ones of Paris, Megan, Miley, Vanessa, Bruno, and lots of other people.
We got lots of fun time with friends, The Moody Mamas, Perez, Casey and Mara, and we hung out with CariDee literally every day we were there, which was great. I love her. We even did a little shoot at her house, which you’ll see later in the week. Right now I’m gonna eat this giant scrumptous bowl of ice cream and brownie bits that they just set on my traytable. I’m gonna make a deposit in New York tonight!
