ohhhh markus ….

soooo I was leaving the flat this morning, heading down st.marks, when I saw this 30ish tall guy, smirking and looking around, behind him another guy recording him with a small camera while he looked around. and behind that guy a group of about 10 women.

ohh fine, a country guy visiting the city with his best friend, I thought. and guess what, when I passed him, he greeted me (”heeey, how are you doing”) and smiled to me like we were meeting in a small town. I didn’t pay much attention, returned the greeting and passed by quickly.

and then one of the women (she had a name tag), stopped me and asked me with big wide open eyes “do you have any idea who that is?” - “no” - “its blake shelton, country singer and voted one of the most sexiest man alive by people magazine.” - “ah, fine”.

I was very unimpressed, leaving a baffled woman. With this info his behaviour made much more sense, he was just used to a lot attention, NYC must quite baffle him.

the supermodel I saw on the subway 2 minutes later was much more interesting (and she had a nicer voice, too).

Today I had a pretty good laugh. HR handed out letters to confirm your address. And guess what? According to the letter I live in Virginia, in a pretty swanky house next to the river. See for yourself, turn on street view and you can even see my red Porsche convertible in front of the house. Thats the LIFE!

I am kinda hesitating to correct that error ….

so here it was again. Halloween! In.New.York.! Where you can’t really tell what’s a costume and what’s for real (this year I dressed up just for the office with a special costume, “accountant”. scared the shit out of my colleagues … :D). It’s always the best party day of the year and since I had a couple of parties I wanted to go after the parade I waited until the last minute and then things got kinda out of control.

but lets start at the beginning.

first there was of course the parade, 2 hours of fun, watching costumes and dancing to the various beats from the cars. quite amusing. at the end of the parade there was the big question, where to go? so I went to party No. 1, a penthouse in Midtown on the 43rd floor with a SPECTACULAR view over Manhattan. problem was, it was just emptying because many people left for another party. and my friend N wasn’t there either. So I tried to call her but no one answered. ok, lets go to her flat and see what party is going on there at party No. 2. But as it turned out they were all on their way to party 1 (as I found out later) and since they were in the subway I couldn’t reach them.

ooook. so lets go to party No. 3 on Bleecker Street (totally different part of the city). Unfortunately the line was around the block and the crowed mostly bridge and tunnel, so lets go to party No. 4 in Williamsburg!

Absolutely fabulous Ms.H said she is having drinks with friends from 11pm to 3am. When I arrived at her apt. I didn’t know which number to ring so I called her and a surprised and suspicious voice answered the phone. As it turned out, the party was on SUNDAY from 11am to 3pm. And since she had to get up early we didn’t fetch a quick drink either.

Oh well.

So since I am already in Brooklyn, wasn’t there this swanky party factory in the middle of nowhere after a couple of trainstops? sounded like fun, so lets go to party No. 5! Party No.5 was at the Jefferson stop on the L train (which finally came after 20 minutes of waiting). To my surprise we passed the stop because it was an express train, didn’t stop everywhere. Ok, so off the train, waiting again, going back. FINALLY finding the party. And its surrounded by police cars. “You can’t pass here.” - “But I want to go to the party.” - “Don’t worry about the party. We are shutting it down in 10 minutes” - AAAAARGH.

Thats when I got a text from N, saying that they went to 1st and 7th in the East Village. So I called her (and thats when I found out that they arrived about 5 minutes at party No. 1 after I left), we had a little chitchat and I decided to join them. OK. back to Manhattan. (well, at least I saw a group of Latinos in REALLY fancy costumes, e.g. a pink Jesus with diamond teeth or a very classy Marie Antoinette, some eye candy never hurts).

A while later I arrived at 1st and 7th, aka party No. 6. And couldn’t reach N on her cellphone. So what to do? I literally went through all the bars in the area but couldn’t find them. This was the point where I just gave up after walking during the night what feels like 200 gazzilion miles. So I went home.

and guess what. The moment I entered my apt. I got a text from N saying “Am ave a bet houston n 2nd” (would have been party No. 7) but I was just way too tired. 

But as it seemed not tired enough since there was still A LOT going on in front of my window, making it impossible to sleep (even with earplugs). So I popped in a DVD until I fell asleep.

But I have to admit, although it was the strangest party hunting night where almost everything got wrong, it wasn’t that bad at all. There was just such a good vibe everywhere, it didn’t really matter when you were just walking around. And seeing that massive amount of people wearing costumes is extremely refreshing in a city that gets more and more cooperate.

my life has been kinda crazy over the last 6 weeks. and I was just to busy (and tired) to blog about any of the stuff. but today just sent me over the edge.

so here is a list of the major and minor things I can remember …

• I went to burning man.
  pretty awesome and rad 7 day experience. the weirdest and most amazing stuff I have seen in my entire life. LARGE scale art that could easily be on display in the most elite galleries in the world, eating fresh(!) sushi of naked women (in the middle of the desert!), dancing all night long, getting lost in the most intense sand storm I have ever experienced.
  probably the most insane/weird/ridiculous/unbelievable thing I saw was during a techno party. they had three strong lasers pointing into the sky, standing still, and the lasers STOPPED IN MID AIR. which is physically absolutely impossible. I walked around this phenomena, but no matter from what angle we viewed, the lasers stopped all angles at the same point, about 300 feet above ground as if there was an invisible barrier (with all the stars clearly visible. and no, neither of us was on drugs). if I hadn’t been there I wouldn’t believe it myself. 
  and last not least getting all my camera equipment stolen (ugh).
  I will be there for sure next year!! 
• I went to Las Vegas on my way home and saw the most amazing show I had ever the pleasure to visit, “KA” by Cirque du Soleil. Watch the trailers/examples on youtube. I was truly blown away.
• I finally moved into my new apartment. And I swear, I will NEVER drive a cargo van in the city ever again. Next time I move I will just pay whatever it takes, parking is NO fun.
• I participated at CityChase, a scavenger hunt race through all of Manhattan.
  Making me ride an electric bull, screaming “smells like teen spirit” with a live rock band, free climbing a wall and memorizing 12 different kinds of hot dogs (ok, I cheated on that) to name just a few. Our team was one of the last, mostly because my team member was so hang over from the last night that she was 4 hours late for the start ….
• I went to a birthday party and met on a roof on 49th street a former working colleague from Austria how just passed by and knew one of the roommates of the flat (what coincidence!).
• at this party I also met Ms.SD and had a very fabulous 3 hour lunch at “Neue Gallery“, enjoying an absolutely amazing and 100% authentic “Gulasch with Spätzle” (HIGHLY recommended).
• I had the pleasure to be part of a bachelor party, with go-kart racing in the morning (uhoh my butt, but I won! HA!), the most intense feast of my life in the evening (at Churrascaria), and a ride to a incredibly hard to find stripper bar in New Jersey afterwards where we were throwing dollars at fully naked girls like candy (Oh, and our only female companion this evening kinda made out with one of the strippers).
• I found the perfect gift for Nunu (but can’t tell here what it is)
• I bought an incredible memory foam mattress. Its extremely hard not to fall immediately asleep when you lay down. If you need one, get it at Bed In a Box.
• We had a dish of dried pears in our office which looked like vaginas (I swear! everyone thought so!).
• I was on a red carpet event during fashion week where about 20 (professional) photographers were taking pics of me in front of a (posing) wall. ohhh the flash light sensations!
• my uncle got married. I wish them all the best!!
• its quite amazing how many mexican people smile at you in stores when you wear a bright red shirt with frills to work.
• The guy who rented my room in Chinatown after I left died of a heart attack on the brooklyn bridge while riding his bicycle. He was the same age (32) as me (and an extremely overworked architect)! That’s really really scary. Seriously guys, enjoy every day you have. 
• On my way home from training I decided one time to go a slightly different route to grab some “Malta Goya” a hard to get drink and heard some austrian words while I passed a group. I stopped and asked if they are austrians and to my big big surprise it was Ms. A who was one year ahead of me at college, she just moved to NY a month ago (and got announced by another friend of mine, but I forgot about it). She is a VJ and already knows a shi*load of people here. This will be fun!
• I am riding the fashion train more than ever AND I am in serious need of a haircut

Since I plan to go to burning man this year (and my european driving license only is valid for a year here) I had to go through the struggle to get a learners permit from the DMV (and at some point in the future my drivers license. but first things first.)

The DMV (Department for Motor Vehicles, website is fugly, but excellent info and well structured) is around the corner so I went there during lunch break, not really expecting a long wait. Boy was I wrong. Huge line, probably 500/600 there. Fortunately the prettiest girl in the room was in front of me, wearing the shabby grunge supermodel look. Since I was right behind here in line, I started a little chitchat about this whole thing and we had quite some fun time. Talking about the Lifeball (since I am from Vienna) and this whole process and other stuff.

So the waiting time was (although long, about 1.5 hours) quite pleasant. Finally my pic was taken and I took the (easy) test. You only need to have 14 out of 20 questions right (my score was 20/20), but even so a guy in front of me managed to fail. And finally after another wait of about 30min I got my Learners Permit.

Now I am officially allowed to drive again (as long as there is another passenger with a driving license in the car)! yeah!

btw, later in the office I found out who I had this lovely chitchat with. It was Tiiu Kuik. (and yes, she has a boyfriend. big surprise.)

Internet Week started here for the first time, with an absolutely fabulous kick off party, hosted by Thrillist, music by Faux Punk, the best/worst/only Daft Punk cover band, visuals by VJ ValuJet and both were amazing! And after them only rock (&roll) music! fantastic! I was dancing like crazy, boy that was fun!

unfortunately the dance floor was covered in glass fragments from broken glasses, which made expressive dancing quite an adventure. I landed one jump exactly on a big piece, resulting in quite some pain, and I thought, ok, there goes my left shoe, but couldn’t see any hole to my surprise.

after arriving at home and removing my shoes, surprise surprise, the glass managing to stab me into the foot, causing quite a deep cut and some bleeding. What I don’t really get is, how can this happen without the slightest hole in the shoe afterwards (and its quite a massive leather sole). strange ….

So after the fiasco last night I went with fabulous S to a Digitalism concert. and this time strictly sobber.

What a blast (as usually at Webster Hall). At the end the crowed was storming the stage, dancing there like there was no tomorrow. Security couldn’t do a thing about it.

Their smash hit “Idealistic”

and another one:

After the concert we passed this superpissed looking tranny, handling the queue in front of the Webster Hall. worth a pic ;) 

And afterwards going to St. Marx, browsing through the HUGE underground (adult) comic section. And found quite some pieces (even one in 3D, but the credit for finding this one goes to S) …. 

What an absolutely fabulous night!

So Misha had this fabulous idea to have a fundraiser to refurbish their new loft.

“You dress up nice. You bring a date, maybe two. You leave with a different date. Or two. You swing as hard as you possibly can all night, and then during the auction you actually bid money on whoever strikes your fancy. Expect wicked dancing, lots of video projection, and a crowd. And of course: an auction.”

well, it was truly a splendid party.
And quite some extraordinary experience for me.
Why?
Hm, well, you all know those kind of warning stickers on medications “Do not drink alcohol beverages while taking this medication”. Since I had a very nasty cough for two weeks I had to take codein. Which you should REALLY NEVER mix with alcohol.
I didn’t know that and learned it the hard way. After one drink I looked extraordinary wasted (won’t post this pic here ;)), after the second drink I was feeling kinda sick. Especially after having a chinese dinner at 3am in the morning things went, hmm, downhill.
Arrived at home. and puked. Went to sleep. woke up. and puked. Had some rest, went to the street to get some bread from an italian shop. Entered the shop. smelled the fresh fatty pizza. and had to leave immediately, just made it around the corner and puked like I had never puked before. I was grossed out and fascinated at the same time how much liquid and stuff you can puke (even if you had puked two times before).

lesson learned. seriously.

Just saw this commercial on one of our TV-screens, probably the most aggressive subliminal ad I’ve ever seen. Where is the electronic remix of this?

well, there is this funny thing going on between Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon, he invites him over and over again, just to cancel in the last second. And one day Matt Damon freaked out. as you can see here:

but revenge is a cold dish. Matt played a pretty funny prank together with Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmels girlfriend. lay back and enjoy!

(note: you can fast forward to 1:00 if you want to skip the talk at the start)