Freelance Whales at my house party (Tea Party)
0 commentsI had a really great party at my apartment on Thursday, June 11th 2009. Our musical guests, the Brooklyn band The Freelance Whales (MySpace), are largely responsible for the success of the evening. Their fun music had everyone in the audience begging for more. Here is some of the new media that my guests shared from the night.
Luke Crawford shot this video, which also appeared on his blog:
Justin Shaffer captured a lot of beautiful photographs, including these:
Courtney Lewis recorded this fantastic acoustic version of the Freelance Whales song Starrring, which you can click through to hear:
Many more of my friends took camera phone pictures of the band and posted them to their Tumblr accounts - Mattan, Chet (1), Chet (2), Janelle, Jonathan, and Kristen.
Janelle, Courtney, Soraya, Zach, and Chet all chimed in with positive feedback on Twitter:
Hopefully this band is going to blow up just like Passion Pit. Check them out on MySpace or on Facebook.
Upcoming Travel to Geneva, Switzerland and Cologne, Germany
Next week I will be exhibiting at the EBACE convention in Geneva, Switzerland. My dates in Geneva are May 10th to May 14th, 2009.
EBACE is the premier meeting place for the European business aviation community. The exhibition brings together business leaders, government officials, manufacturers, and corporate aviation department personnel... more info
Then I will be presenting and exhibiting at the Aircraft Electronics Association's Europe Regional Meeting in Cologne, Germany. My dates in Cologne are May 17th to May 20th, 2009.
Check out my work pictures from last year for a good laugh :)
Notes From 12 Hours in Seoul, South Korea
Video
(1:30) of my random Seoul clips
- I arrived at Incheon Airport at 4am on April 9th and took a $15 bus to the Grand Hyatt hotel in Seoul, where my college friend Tiffany met me at 6am. Tiffany was my roommate's college girlfriend.
- Her neighborhood is called Yongsan Itaewon and it is known as Seoul's foreigner district. Nearby is a large American military base and a small Korean base.
- Picture of Tiffany in her apartment.
- The first place we ate at was a fast food chain of Korean-style eating called Kim Bap Chong-u. I had beef noodle soup, along with the typical Korean side dishes. Those side dishes are kimchi, radish kimchi, seaweed, and chun (like a pancake!).
Kim Bap Chong-u ... Breakfast #1 - beef noodle soup
- Afterwards we stopped to share a cup of coffee (Americano). This coffee was more than my breakfast - approx US$3. Coffee is really popular with Koreans.
- We rode the subway next. Everyone seemed to be studying something! English vocabulary words, test preparation, law exams, work presentations, etc. Picture of people on the subway.
- I get the impression that Seoul is really classy. It is clean, the people are largely well-dressed, everything just seems really tight and well-run. For example, the airport buses were right on time - exactly to the minute - both times I rode. Clearing customs and checking back in took me all of 10 minutes.
- Speaking of how people dress... Girls there really like to doll it up. Like heels and skirts to work. And I saw a lot of guys in ties and slacks and nice shoes. Luxury brands are really big in Korea.
- We got out at Angunk Station, where the Jung Row markets are. Before we cruised the market I made a stop to get some meat, egg, and toast sandwich (US$2). It was DELICIOUS. We also had a red ginseng drink (photo), which was interesting.
- Finally we took a taxi to Hong-Dae. The taxis are really cheap - Tiffany said "everything is about a $5 taxi ride."
- Hong-Dae is an eclectic neighborhood in Seoul. It was SO COOL. I walked around for hours with Tiffany... we stopped into a very good ramen noodle shop (picture) and also hung out in a chill cafe (video below).
Video of Tiffany's favorite Seoul Coffee Shop
- That's it, then! I took a bus back to the airport to continue my journey to Bangkok.
- In summary, I think that Korean people love waffles, studying, coffee, anything foreign, high heels, dresses, and sandals :)
- If I had more friends in Korea, or if I had business and could make friends (such as through CouchSurfing), I would totally come back for a few days. There are a TON of restaurants and shops to explore... and the dollar is really strong in Korea right now.
Upcoming Travel to Jakarta and Singapore
On Sunday night I will be landing in Jakarta, Indonesia. I will be there in meetings from April 19th to April 22nd. Making a day trip on April 20th to Bandung.
Then on Wednesday night I will be arriving in Singapore. Staying April 22nd to April 26th ... hosted by the sister of my Mumbai friend Akshay. Meetings on Thursday and Friday then exploring on Saturday and Sunday.
This is my first time to both of these places - exciting! As always, if you know anyone cool in Jakarta or Singapore, please make an introduction for me via email or Facebook.
Upcoming Travel to Bangkok and Phuket, Thailand
I will be in Bangkok, Thailand on April 10th, 11th, and 12th... staying near the Thong Lo BTS station. Then heading to Phuket area thru April 19th.
This is the first leg of my big Southeast Asia junket. Stay tuned for updates. Right now I am going to JFK to catch my flight to Seoul, where I have a 12-hour layover to explore the downtown.
My New Bicycle
So I finally got a new bike. Zach's friend Paul helped me pick this out on-line.
Scattante Emerald City Single Speed Road Bike (Courier Series)
We removed the fenders and chopped down the handlebars by an inch or so. Now I love riding it every day. When I am on it, I feel like this bike is an extension of my body. Sometimes I even ride it around my apartment :)
photo by Akiko
Are You a Web Designer? Freelance Work
Enough people email me asking for web designer recommendations that I need to post this:
If you do PHP or MySQL or Rails or sweet Dreamweaver scripting... and if you are my friend in real-life or via on-line channels... please get in touch. Send me a message on Facebook with the following information:
Your website
Your favorite client site
and How much it cost
Feel free to use entrepreneurial license on the "How much your favorite site cost" part.
Upcoming Travel to Las Vegas and Atlanta
I will be in Las Vegas, Nevada from March 5th to the 11th.
I will be in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia (30004 and 30041) from February 23rd to 27th.
Meeting Little Boots with Anthony Volodkin
On Friday night, my friend Anthony Volodkin and I met Victoria Hesketh, aka Little Boots. Little Boots has these great Tenori-on videos on YouTube that I saw a few months ago...
Now she has a growing music career and was visiting New York City's Studio B in Greenpoint for a midnight show. This blog Cheztune said,
Victoria Hesketh has no qualms about being a dance pop superstar... she and her tight band were upbeat, cute and delivered one punchy dance track after another.
So that was really fun - I enjoyed the venue and the show was great. But one interesting thing is that Anthony runs this website called The Hype Machine, which is pretty popular among music-lovers. Actually it was very popular with Little Boots and she was happy - nay, thrilled - to chat with Anthony after the show.
Anthony Volodkin and Little Boots
Victoria Hesketh and Nick Gray (aka ME)
My Photos from NYT Inauguration Party 2009
On January 20th, 2009, the New York Times hosted a presidential inauguration party at the New Museum in Manhattan. Thanks Ashley and Sorya! We got a handful of invitations and had lots of fun.
Me and Gino, sporting our United States of America colors -
PHOTO CREDIT UNKNOWN
Chet and I goofing around in the cool Facebook photo booth
Gino, Me, Chet, and Patrick