It's Abit'ot!

I think the weather's trying to compete with Qatar, ready for Tom's imminent arrival!

(It's nowhere near as hot as Qatar, but it's still blummin' hot!)

We're having another little heatwave... I thought the weather was supposed to cool down in the afternoons, it seems to get hotter here. It was feeling like 38 degrees at 4pm today.

Unseen Beatles...

Yesterday afternoon I went to the Morrison Hotel gallery in SoHo to see a new exhibition that's running called 'Unseen Beatles', with lots of unseen Beatles photos from Robert Whitaker and Curt Gunther.

When I got to the small gallery I couldn't help but notice there weren't any Beatle photos on the walls, I so I was a little confused. I asked the man behind the desk if I was in the right place. He said "Yes, do you want to see the photos?"... Yes... "I'll take you upstairs then".

So we left the shop, walked 5 doors up the road, and through a plain black door, up a narrow staircase and through another locked door which opened out into a big open room with white walls and dark original floor boards, with big leather sofas and a dog on the a rug at the front and a little kitchen area at the back - and the walls were covered in so many amazing Beatles photos...

You tend to see the same photos of the Beatles used over and over - but I really hadn't seen any of these ones before. Apparently the people at the gallery got to work with the photographers estate and trawl through their archives to pick which images they wanted to exhibit.

The prices ranged from $750 to $15,000 - the most expensive being a huge photo of Ringo relaxing, sitting back in an arm chair reading a Beatles magazine. It was an edition of only 15 and was signed by the photographer... hence the huge price tag.

My favourite by far were this set by Robert Whitaker...

at $8,000 each they weren't cheap - but I absolutely loved them.  Each photo had two red dots by the side, so I'm assuming they'd sold two complete sets already... I expect Liam Gallagher's bought a set already... if only I had $32,000 to spare!

It was such a great little 'secret' exhibition, and it was so nice to have the room to myself and to be able to talk to the man from the gallery about the photos and how they picked each one specially.

It really made my Sunday.

New York Story...

We recently discovered a new concept shop near the Meat Packing called Story. 

Story says it's a 'walk in magazine' rather than a shop. Changing it's theme every 2 months, like a magazine would, and showcasing different products relating to that theme. Every 2 months the shop is transformed so the look and feel of the shop suits the theme.

So for this year the themes have been, Start Up (where the shop was full of products from start up businesses), Love and Colour (where the shop was separated into different coloured sections with products of that colour for sale).

At the moment the Story theme is...

So the shop is full of great items that are in some way related to New York, so whether it's books about New York, or whether it's soap made by people in Brooklyn - everything in the shop is from a business that is New York based and is produced in New York.

I knew there were a lot of industrious people in New York, especially in Brooklyn but I had not idea of the variety of things that were made here. From jeans to skincare stuff, there was everything and anything you could think of. All proud to be from New York!

The concept for the shop is fantastic and it guarantees returning customers as well as creates a lot of hype for new customers - like us - I was very impressed by the whole thing. The people working there were so friendly, and the whole thing seemed so well put together.

I can't wait to see what the next Story is going to be about!

Out & About...

I had a wee mooch around Brooklyn this afternoon...

Boiling Brooklyn...

The rain has all passed and Brooklyn is still boiling away today...

I saw this very New York sight as I was mooching around this afternoon.
You can just about see the person giving their car a free wash under the spraying hydrant.

Stormy Skies...

The humidity was finally broken on Friday night with an almighty storm!

As we made our way back from work in the sticky sticky heat we could see the clouds getting thicker, then just as we were walking down Myrtle Avenue they looked a bit like this.

Not very long after we were safely inside the apartment the heaven's opened, with thunder and big bolts of lightening striking through out the night... it was all very dramatic!

Yellow, Yellow, Yellow...

(She was carrying some flowers in a coordinating yellow milk carton)

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!

It was nearly 30 degrees at 7.30am this morning, and it got hotter than 34 at one point today, especially with the humidity... it's a proper little 2 day heat wave - a sign of things to come me thinks...

Spotted...

I completely forgot to mention that on Thursday afternoon, as Mark, Aaron and I left the studio we walked right by Emma Watson!

She was walking down East 17th street, right outside work!

Shootin' Hoops...

A little Saturday evening hoop shootin' at the Marcy Playgrounds.

Happy Father's Day...

Happy Father's Day Pops!

I hope you have a lovely day and relaxing evening with a G&T or two.
I can't wait to see you in Chicago soon!!!

Little Snack...

Just a little Rice Krispie square from the 7-Eleven!

Hot Pants & High Hair...

 Just your typical Friday in Times Square!

The Burger Joint!

Well, it finally happened. We finally got round to trying the burgers at the Burger Joint!

It's hard to tell if you've gone to the right place when going to the Burger Joint. You walk through the entrance to the Le Parker Meridien Hotel on 57th. You walk through the very fancy lobby, passed the people enjoying their cocktails and nibble bowl on the carved wood sofa. You walk across the marble floor towards the reception desk where you see, at the end of a narrow corridor, this sign...

You walk down the corridor, turning right at the sign and see a tiny little room, with wooden paneled walls covered in people's signatures and film posters from the 90's...

There was a tiny little counter and kitchen, with a hand written menu with just a few simple options to choose from. We joined the queue, ordered two cheeseburgers, one with 'the works' and one without, and awaited to taste was has been hailed as 'the best burger in NYC'.

In a few minutes our burgers were ready, we collected them from the little kitchen window and went to sit at one of the small tables along the back wall... then, the moment of truth.

Well. There were good. There were reeeeeeeeeeeeally good. Especially with the works - a delicious addition, but are these burgers worthy of the title of the best in New York?

Not quite.

Obviously we don't want to make any snap judgments, in the fairness of competition we'll probably have to try these burgers a couple more times - best out of 3 5 probably. But as it stands, the Shack Stack is reigning supreme as our Best Burger in New York!

The whole concept of the Burger Joint is fantastic though, a secret little divey burger shack tucked away in the lobby of a fancy hotel up town in Manhattan, simple hand scribbled menus, nothing fancy, just good old American burgers. It was great and I'm so glad we finally got to go.

I can safely say that we will definitely be going back there soon!

Roof Tops & Cheesesteaks...

On Thursday afternoon Mark from I Love Dust popped by the studio for a little chat...

We've been trying to get more people to come in and give little talks at work, but so far we've only had Jon Burgerman and a photographer friend of Juliana's... so our 'visiting speaker series' hasn't really taken off. So it was great to have Mark come in and talk about what I Love Dust have been doing recently.

Afterwards Mark, Aaron and I went for a few drinks at the rooftop terrace at Eataly. It was a pretty fancy bar, we had to put our names down on a list and wait for there to be space - but it was worth the wait. It was the perfect evening to be up there.

I have to say, the views from 230 5th are waaaaaaaaaaay better, but there was a great view from the window outside the loos...

After a couple of beers we went to go and get some food round the corner at a place called Shorty's. Aaron had suggested it as they do the best Philly Cheesesteaks in New York - he wasn't wrong, they were delicious! Apparently the bring the bread in especially from Philadelphia, which I suppose makes all the difference!

We spent the rest of the night in Shorty's eating cheesesteak and chicken wings, watching the basketball game... It was great fun.

Spin, Spin, Spin...

On Wednesday night Abi and I were invited along to a special Spin Magazine and 1800 Tequila event down in SoHo...

The event was to launch the latest bottles in 1800's Essential Artist's collection - with artists like I Love Dust, Nathan Fox and Tara McPherson (who's work was at the Cotton Candy Machine shop in Brookly where we went with Simon). We know Aaron, I Love Dust's rep, through work so he invited us along for the night.

When we arrived there was a huge queue outside the building, one long queue and one short VIP/Artists queue. So we joined the long queue as we'd been told we didn't need to RSVP or anything. But after 20 minutes when we got to the front of the queue they had a guest list, and we weren't on it! So we weren't allowed in.

We went over to the shorter queue, which now wasn't a queue, it was just a bouncer and a lady with a clipboard and tried to get in that way instead. We said we were here with Aaron and I Love Dust and we got let in... we even got to take the lift to the 3rd floor rather than walk up the stairs, like everyone in the long queue did.

The lift was one of those old industrial lifts, with a concertina door and a lever to go up or down. The lift went up to the third floor and the doors opened to a packed room...

We were quickly ushered away from the VIP area and sheep dogged into the busy bit in the middle - where we instantly spotted someone from the Brooklyn Brothers (our neighbours at work), so we went over to say hello and they were with Mark from I Love Dust - so it was great to meet him and say hello.

Then we went over to look at the art and the fancy bottles...

This was Tara McPherson's piece.

Each artist had done a big canvas piece that had then been used on the tequila bottles, which were on display in glass boxes behind velvet ropes...

 This was I Love Dust's piece.

We looked at all the pieces, stole some of the beer mats, had a couple of free cocktails (they were delicious, whatever it was just taste like pineapple juice!) and made our way down the stairs...

It was a fun little night, and great to see work from those artists - I'm guessing they were all there but I wouldn't really know what any of them looked like, but it was great to meet Mark from I Love Dust as I really love their stuff. Hopefully there'll be a few more events like this that we can go to this year where can meet some new people and get more freebies!

Whatchoo Lookin' At!

Sunday Shake Shack...

This weekend was a bit of a quiet affair, due mainly to the fact that Abi and I both had fraudulent activity on our bank cards on the same day by the same people for nearly the same amount!

So our cards are out of action until we get new ones...

We did however managed to scrape together enough pennies to go to the newest (and closest - dangerously close in fact) Shake Shack in downtown Brooklyn.

We'd passed the Shake Shack with Mops and Pops while we were walking to Brooklyn Heights last weekend - I think we knew it wouldn't be long until we went to sample their Shack Stacks and Shakes.

We went along for lunch on Sunday, there was hardly any queue (not like the guaranteed 30+ minute wait in Madison Square Park - which we don't mind, but still) and hardly any wait for the food either, and it was piping hot and absolutely delicious!

Shake Shack remains our favourite burger in NYC, some have come close but have yet to topple the champion. We're hoping to try the Burger Joint burgers as soon as we get our new bank cards, they have been named the best burgers in New York by many folk (including Jamie Oliver) so obviously we need to try those... soon!

Open For Business...

I now have a little Instacanvas gallery where people can get some of my Instragram photos put onto a canvas, if you fancy a look, here's the link http://instacanv.as/ojny

Out & About...

These are from my mooching before and after the design event the other evening. From Union Square to SoHo, West Broadway and back up Broadway to Union Square again...

 I took a lot more photos, it was one of those New Yorky evenings where everything I was looking at felt special and unique and inspiring and New Yorky, even the bags of rubbish seemed to be done in a typically New York kind of way.