ohhhh markus ….

probably the niciest guy in the world got married and I was invited! Wonderful Joe and I rented a car for the ride (since it was upstate, 3 hour drive) and set up a meeting point at 12.01pm sharp on saturday.

weeeell, that was the plan.

I partied kinda long the night before and was on my way home on saturday at 11:30am (yes it was one of those nights …) when I saw a text message from Joe, sent at 5am, that he will be late and cant make 12.

In the end we left the city at 1:30ish and made it to the wedding about 20min before it started.

The ceremony was a jewish/catholic one, with quite some funny moments (best moment: the groom and bride had to repeat the sentences the rabbi said, and when it was her turn after a couple of sentences he switched to hebrew and she looked like “WHAT?” :D)

another good one, when they raised the bride and the groom on the chairs. L.O.V.E.D. that. I want that, too, at my wedding ….

anyhow, quite some night, lots of friends there, traded my ring for another one with a girl (ohh such a fabulous bling trade it was) and headed to some after party. next day we stopped at the wafflehouse (highly recommended!) for a very trashy and tasty brunch.

but ‘nough said. here are the pics.

I promised Nunu (yesyes, THE nunu, who works at the super prestigious high profile austrian “Die Presse” newspaper) to take pics from the election evening and sent it her immediately via eMail from my iPhone while I witnessing this historic moment.

And now the pics are online there! And the picture gallery got featured on their start page, too (yeah!).

But check them out HERE for yourself (sorry, text only in german).

I am famous! Faaaaaamous! You are officially allowed now to name your child after me …

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

I am on my way to burning man. Driving cross country in a car with two friends. Let’s see how this goes

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 ….

what a lovely perfect sunny day. went to the queens pride 2008, gay parade/festival in Queens. totally low key and very relaxing. and fabulous (mexican) street food there (and free hepatitis a/b shots, good initiative!).

but ‘nough said, enjoy the pics

 

oh, well, back in austria the New York festivals sounded always so glamorous, so prestigious. While this might be true for the award itself (high quality work there), its definitely not true for the ceremony itself.

They simply rented out the (small) Samsung flagship store and the whole thing was presented by someone who could have played easily a role in the stepford wives. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the false laughs and strange smiles on video, but here are some impressions and videos (I kinda pity the people who flew to NY from europe to get this award in person. what a waste of time).

Well at least I and the stepford wife had matching outfits. nice.

A old colleague of mine (now CD at Scholastic, imagine that!) is member of an absolutely terrific artist group, going each year to Burning Man. And to get the money for their absolutely fantastic floats they have quite some fundraisers, parties full of performance artists, stilt walkers, cutting edge DJs and a funky dressed crowd.

So I went there, a two story building in a totally sketchy neighborhood,  had to stop 5(!) cabs until I found one who knew that address and after quite a ride I was there. finally!

Everyone in a good mood, dancing, performance artists and cheap drinks. I was dancing so wild that I fell off the stage (oops, one step to many to the right ). Luckily I didn’t injure myself, thanks to quite some flexibility from my Tae Kwon Do training it was just a rather big and very deep step. But for a moment I was rather surprised :D. 

God, I am really looking forward to go to Burning Man this year ….

So Creativity magazine had a kinda posh party at the Tenjune in the meat packing district, celebrating their 50th issue. Guest list with ID check, mostly A-list, posh location, the whole package.

You can find some an article and some pics of the party here, scroll down and spot me!

After having a splendid time and getting lots of looks and compliments for my outfit (oh behave!) we headed to another location, stopping a stretch limo on the street to have a nice ride. As it turned out the limo driver had no clue about Manhattan at all, driving around in circles and going even to Brooklyn. But we didn’t really mind, enjoyed the ride and finally arrived at our destination, a small bar in Chinatown.

Where I met to my surprise a couple from Austria, living and working here, too. (Let me tell you, Austrians are RARE here).

And to my even bigger surprise another (married) couple where the guy was from Austria and his name was … tataa! … Markus!

awesome!

and now have fun with some pics and a movie from the ride!