99 bottles of beer on the wall

You gotta love this city

Anyone fancy a hotdog? Or a handbag?  I took this pic near the Empire State Building one warm spring night. 

The best things in New York are free

There's still something for those of us who feel like they've blown their life's savings for 3 months of bliss in the worlds' richest city.

Kindness at the Met

Ok, so I haven't been to the Met quite this many times, but I've been a good few. Yesterday when we visited, we were on our way in and Aaron spotted a Met token on the ground. Just as he proudly and discreetly scooped it up, a guard approached and said sternly: "Ah-hem, that trick ain't gonna work guys..." Eek. We'd been caught. Were we going to be kicked out? Banned from the museum? Apparently, no. The guard added with a smile and a wink: "You'll need one each if you're going to sneak through", and handed us his. It made our day.

A little different to the scene we watched from the bus the other day: A girl was walking with her boyfriend into the Apple Store, and a bill fell from her pocket without her knowing. Immediately a passer by grabbed it, went to hand it to her, but then checked to see if anyone was looking before stashing it in his own pocket and scooting away. We looked on from the bus window, open-mouthed and helpless. I hope it was just a dollar.

NY and Tokyo are lovers

After visiting both cities in less than one year (I know, I'm super lucky), I've concluded that these cities are having a love affair. They are quite public about it. They want each other's food, culture, fashion, and lifestyle. Each city wants to make it well known that it adores the other. It's like a happy, jealous, competitive, romantic obsession. 

My funny father

Sad day today: Dad's gone after a 9 day visit. He came primarily for business (I know, he's retired, and is school teaching 'business'?) and I needed to do a bit of juggling with my hours so that I could get some work done, but we managed to find a couple of windows of time to have some serious fun. He came armed with a list of things to see and do such as: a broadway show (see left), the boat trip around Manhattan, a wander through Harlem and other equally interesting and fun touristy things, and equipped a great guidebook from which he'd ripped all the pages out which covered 'dining and nightlife'. Didn't need those, he explained, and it made his day pack lighter.

 Last night we ate at a s(wanky) restaurant called Casa Mono. Meal was amazing and we sat at the bar to watch the artist/chefs prepare each meal. I don't think I realised how much the beer and wine had gone to dad's head until the very end before we left, when he roared "BLOODY GREAT SHOW FELLAS! A REEEEAL CABERET!!" and the guys in the kitchen, who possibly had never smiled amidst the concentration of a-la-carte meal preparation, each cracked a proud grin. Oh, and Dad, if you're reading this, could you please send me your New York pictures? I think we know they're 18x better than mine, and I'd love them for the ol' blog.

Another brush with fame

Lucky me. Not only do I have the best and most dedicated team back at Boheem Base, making it possible for me to flit about the American countryside on this self-indulgent journey of self-discovery, today I got to meet Gail Anderson, Broadway poster designer extraordinaire. She has about 15 years experience on me in the design industry, and when you think about the experience she's had working with Rolling Stone and then Spot Co, the key Broadway agency, you could probably multiply that by about 100. 

Gail started in visual communication long before Adobe made it possible to delete an unwanted element at the click of a button. She uses real ink and paper, and continues to encourage her staff to do the same. Besides art-directing at one of the city's arguably most influential design studios, she also teaches at the School of Visual Arts. On top of this, Gail has co-authored a number of books. As I sat and listened and silently admired this woman who has transcended the gap between art and design amongst other superhuman accomplishments, the desired affect: a thing called inspiration, started to once again come over me. Maybe I could teach? (Mum, don't say 'I told you so'!). Maybe I could write a book?! There's something incredibly liberating in those moments of raw realisation: the world is my wood-block printed, scanned and retouched, and conceptually developed oyster.

One interesting thing we talk about was the new generation of design students graduating at the moment. Apparently I, 10 years in the industry, was one of the last designers to graduate without some solid education in motion graphics and animation. Apparently these days it's a must. Seems I slipped through fairly unscathed by After Effects and the like; only time will tell if I can continue to get away with that.

The other pearl of wisdom, or more so a truth which Gail articulated and to which I found myself nodding and frowning; was the fact that 'in the past', clients were shown simple sketches as ideas first before any time was spent on design development. 'These days', with Adobe etc making new possibilities available, projects are more often than not presented as almost finished, final art: first round. Gail noted that more and more, clients are becoming used to getting everything: they want clever ideas, fully developed AND fully editable, immediately (oh and on budget please). It's the marketing culture we're in, and there's not much we can do to change it but good to acknowledge and manage as best we all can.