NYC 2011 wrap-up

Really late on this one. My wife and I visited New York City in September and here are a few observations.

1. We stayed at the Comfort Inn Manhattan Bridge, which was recommended to me by Eric over at Chromeball. We had stayed south of Houston our last trip and really like cruising around down there. Hotel was clean and the price was good.

2. I saw my first Jackson Pollock at the MET. I few weeks prior, I watched the Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? documentary.

3. Met up with Anthony from Music Skateboards at Maxfish to have some beers. Super nice guy and I hope for all the best for him and his company.

4. Chipotle Test Kitchen at 149 8th Ave in Greenwich Village was awesome. Faux chicken was one of the protein options.

5. Red velvet donuts at the Donut Pub were a nice snack. Same with red velvet cupcakes at Magnolia's.

6. Tickets to Broadway shows aren't cheap. We wanted to check out the Book or Mormon so we decided to try and get raffle tickets. What are raffle tickets? Their website describes it better than I can.

"A limited number of tickets for each performance will be sold through the lottery. Entries will be accepted at the box office beginning two and a half hours prior to each performance for up to two tickets.

Two hours before curtain, names will be drawn at random for a limited number of tickets priced at $32 each. Only one entry is allowed per person. Cards are checked for duplication prior to drawing. Winners must be present at the time of the drawing and show valid ID to purchase tickets. Limit one entry per person and two tickets per winner."

We ended up winning tickets! It was my first Broadway show.

7. I was waiting for Lombardi's pizza take out and I heard the rolling thunder, looked up and saw Muska cruising by. He was pretty much dressed in all black like in these photos.

After we ate our pizza, we were walking around Soho and crossed paths with him again. My wife knows who he is from TMZ and when she saw him, she noticed he was skating in moccasins. Then a few months later, those moccasins show up in this Berrics footnotes. He seems like a really kooky eccentric dude, not that there's anything wrong with that. I've heard that he's a super nice guy and I bet he has great stories for days. Image from here.

Bench

This gesture makes Brendan Morrison my favourite Calgary Flames player. Iggy is pretty rad as well. Image from here.

Habitat Stuff

Two Habitat related clips this past week. Austyn Gillette's ender in the Double Rock feature is super good. It's essentially the same motion as Greg Lutzka's go-to trick but it's on a quarter pipe and Austyn makes it look amazing.

To be honest, this Mark Suciu one caught me by surprise. I've seen his Origins part a few times but I hardly remember it. This 6 minute web part is definitely worth watching multiple times, particularly for the lines, which I find is a bit of a dying art with the youth of today.

I guess it's somewhat related... Habitat and Alien Workshop have always been under the same distribution umbrella (aka. DNA). Last week, Rob Dyrdek announced that he is buying Alien Workshop from Burton. Hopefully the transition is smooth and everyone keeps getting paid and they continue to use PS Stix and BBS wood. I'd be overly psyched if Neil Blender and Don Pendleton came back to do some graphics. The announcement mentioned nothing about Habitat, so I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. It would be unfortunate to see the two companies split. I've always like the sister company dynamic: World-Blind-101. Real-Stereo. Girl-Chocolate. Alien-Habitat.

Shiloh Greathouse and Steve Cales

Some classic footage from the New World Order days. Looks like Socrates Leal is gonna release a bunch of clips from back in the day. So sick! Keep and eye on this youtube channel for other cutting room floor clips.

SLB + Clyde

Sal Barbier interview right here and a Clyde Singleton interview here. Both good reads.

Guy Mariano's top five graphics

Guy Mariano talks about his top 5 graphics of all time. Check it out here. Stoked I had Guy's Claudia Schiffer board back in the day. Super sick board. I remember skating it at this crappy indoor park so it was definitely winter time. And coincidentally, Guy is featured on Chrome ball today.

Legends

Yeah! From Stevie's Instagram.