Bon anniversaire

Bonjour mon...

Welcome to a special blog entry just for you and your 27 years, I hope you like the flowers. I can't tell you how proud and lucky I feel to be your partner/boyfriend/english guy.

Since this is going to be your future...

We should probably get you on your way. I looked high and low around Paris, I persuaded Cha and Mailys to help me, and we found things. Good things. There are loads of classes in Paris. But none of them seemed right. None were good enough for you.

I wanted something beyond a class. I wanted you to make contacts, work with professionals who are making movies everyday. Does such a class exist? In a nutshell... yes.

So, on September 21st you'll be doing an intensive 10 hour course with...

Industrial Scripts are a professional scriptwriting analysis company who work in partnership with Paramount pictures. This isn't a college were professors teach you the theory of scripts. You will be taught by a professional writer who works for Universal studios and the British Film Institute. You'll get contacts in the UK film industry, samples of professional scripts and all the support you need.

Want to know more? Click the link below for all your birthday present details.

Happy birthday my love.

James

x

Jersey City

I went to Jersey City!

This clock was the best thing there...

New York Graffiti

A couple of blocks away from my apartment is a huge young offenders institute. Basically a prison for kids. It's a huge block with bars over all the windows and a massive wall around it. All rather oppressive and depressing.

In order to make the area around it a little nicer, they recently commissioned to guy below to do huge murals on the walls surrounding it.

I'll come back and take another photo once he's finished.

Would you trust this man?

Prescriptions

I realise I'm photographing a lot of type right now. They just don't make um like this anymore, ya know?

OK OK I'll do some more insightful blog posts...

Big brother

The subway stations in NY don't have anything like the quantity of CCTV cameras the tube in London does. However, it does have some really creepy mosaics which are probably more effective.

UUUMMMBBRREELLLLLLAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

Possibly the worlds largest umbrella. Wonderfully amplified by being held by a tiny girl.
It was nice of them to pose near a pink sign wearing pink clothing, holding a pink umbrella.

Water sampling station

Lovely debossed metallic typography. These things are dotted around street corners. There is no reason they have to be this pretty, I guess they always have been so they kept making them this way. NYC water is actually pretty damned good. If you're used to god-awful London water you'll be pleasantly surprised. If you're used to water from Norway, then frankly, you're spoilt.

Happiness in Washington Square park

Shiny happy people! Not to blow my own trumpet, but this photo makes me really happy. It's not brilliantly taken, in fact it's a little blurry and colours aren't accurate, but it embodies a great deal of what I love about New York.

I love the line from the pretty little girl in the foreground, through the japanese jazz band, to the guy wearing a cockatoo and the tourists behind him. All under the shadow of Italy's greatest biscuit.

View from a clients office #2

Not really as pretty as the first view. Does look rather like a piece of Op-art though.

Statewide

I have much love for the type on this truck. You'd be hard pressed to find something more "man" and American.

Hot Tub

Best comedy gig I've been to so far in NYC. Hot Tub with Kristen Schaal ('er off of Flight of the Conchords) and Kurt Braunohler. 


A mix of bad music, bad dancing, bad singing and great comedy. Also terrible photos, as you can see below. Sorry about that. 

http://www.littlefieldnyc.com/event/40587/

Nice subway photo

Nothing interesting to read here. Just a photo of the subway that came out nicely.

Mister Sunday

On a hot summers day what better way to relax than to dance under some trees with a bunch of hipsters?

Mister Sunday has become something of a Brooklyn legend. The younger brother of the heavier going, "Mister Saturday night", every sunday throughout the summer, DJs, hipsters (and a lot of gay men) gather to drink heavily and dance to some delightfully tasteful house music. It's attracted Four Tet and Mr Scruff in the past, which speaks for the high profile nature, it's also the friendliest club you could imagine with the best selection of killer hipster tattoos.

www.mistersaturdaynight.com

Twitter play

My friend Kate (standing below) is both a talented cook and play write. As well as occasionally sampling her delicious cooking, for once I got to sample on of her plays at the first reading of her new Twitter play.

The play has 139 characters, each of whom speak in sentences of no more than 139 characters. Frankly there was a lot going on. Some of it was excellent, and it was damned interesting to see a new play take shape, with Kate making notes at the front based the timing of the skits and the audience reaction.

(the gin and tonic samples we were given didn't hurt the reviews either :)

Sunset in Washington Square Park

Beer Pong

The great game of beer pong is a frat boy tradition in America. As Interbrand is basically run by a bunch of grown up frat boys (you know who you are) the New York office puts on a tournament every year.

The rules are as follows:

There are two teams to a game.

Each team consists of two people.

Each team has six cups, arranged in a pyramid. (red cups are traditional)

Each cup has a couple of inches of beer in it.

The aim is to throw a ping pong ball into the opposing teams cups. If you get the ball in, their team has to drink the beer in the cup, and you get another go.

Whooping and drunkenness ensues.

Brain vs Brawn

Our biggest meeting room wall is (supposedly) regularly re-wallpapered to freshen up the 4th floor.

This time is was my turn to create something for the wall, so I came up with this brain vs brawn design. Admittedly I got the idea from a british illustrator. I'd like to quote Picasso here, "Good artists copy, great artists steal", but in reality I just saw something online I thought was cool so I made my own version.

Chris Kline is the brawn.

I'm jealous.

Village Chess Shop

King me! Oh, hang on..

Air Conditioning rain

"Hot town, summer in the city. Back of my neck getting burned real pretty"

Summer in NY has a lot to recommend about it. For a start it gets hot and then stays hot for four months! None of that teasing that British weather does. It actually gets really god damned hot. This summer I didn't wear a jumper for three months. Even the nights are in the mid 20s.

The downside of all this lovely heat is the total reliance on air con units to keep your apartment manageable.

Most people have one of these little window units. While they are meant to be securely fixed to your window, the vast majority of them are kept in the window by the weight of the glass resting on them. Opening the window would result in the air con unit plunging hundreds of feet to the ground below.

While this is a frightening prospect, a far more common threat is air conditioner rain. The compressors in the old units tend to create condensation that rains down on the poor souls below. As it's often mixed with compressed gas you really don't want to drink this rain.

So, to summarise. For many reasons, avoid walking under the air conditioners.