My cousin Tif is in town right now for a trade show that is currently taking place at the Javits Center. Sunday night, she came to visit Piper with us. It was a lot of fun. Piper was in a great mood, and was happy to meet Tif. Tif is the first cousin of mine, from the Breinholt side of the family to meet Piper. So, it was a historic occasion of sorts. We don’t often visit Piper during the evening hours. It was really fun to see Piper dressed up in her little jam jams.

I was going through the images on the point and shoot, from the weekend, and found the shots above the Reagan grabbed during Passion Pit. I thought that they were pretty cool. Thanks, Reag!

Also, I was hoping so bad that I would come across a Banksy this weekend. In fact I’m such a nerd, that while I was getting ready this morning, I was thinking to myself  “I wonder if Banksy was working last night.” Imagine my elation when I discovered the piece below right across from my work, this morning. I think it is pretty cool that Banksy chose a street right across from the World Trade Center to do his first NY piece (assuming that there will be more). I also think it is cool that the nature of the piece seems to be a nod to the City, instead of a political propaganda piece. Anyway, thanks to the random construction dude, that I flagged down to snap this shot of me next to Banksy’s I heart NY stencil.

We saw some pretty cool stuff, Friday night. The Roa exhibit at Factory Fresh in Brooklyn was amazing (above). We went a bit early, so that we could make it to the P-Pit show before the doors opened to the public. As a result, we were able to see Roa finishing up his installation and meet the guy. It was really cool.

Afterward, we rolled back to the meat packing district for the Passion Pit show. It was a promo show that they only let a few people into. Reagan and I had a blast.

Saturday morning, we ran a 10k, before heading to Westchester to visit Piper. She was in a great mood the whole time. She was even a bit on the rowdy side, which I like to see (makes me think that she takes after me, a bit).

This week was another one full of bad weather and blisters. Ah, excuses. I only ran today (because it was a race), and Monday. Grade=D. The only reason that I didn’t earn an F, was because of my 5k split time in the the race this morning. Any 5k under 20 mins makes me feel pretty good. I am really really hoping that my blister situation is under control, by next weekend. 13 miles is a little bit harder to tough-it through with a painful situation going on in the shoes.

Starting off a bit random– I have been encountering so many good female DJs lately. At an event Wednesday night, K Styles was spinning. She was actually tag teaming with Miss Saigon, who I saw at a Cavi runway show a couple of weeks ago. Nothing shameful about being told “you spin like a girl!” Anyway, go girl power!

This weekend is set to be a banger. I just landed a gig as a staff photographer for one of my favorite e-mags. I’m seriously insanely (I don’t use those terms loosely) stoked about it. I’ll be diving in head first, Friday night. Here is the agenda for the weekend:

Friday

• Roa has a gallery opening at Factory Fresh, Friday night.
• Afterward, we are going to a super secret Passion Pit show at a location that I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you. It’s kind of like Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist, except without the scavenger hunt, or the relationship drama. Hahahaha.

Saturday

• Morning, we have a club points race 10k in CP to promote healthy kidneys. Amped about this, but lazily unprepared for it. I may as well kiss my 40 min. goal goodbye.
• Afternoon, the usual antics with Piper and her roomies.
• Night, my cousin Tif arrives in NYC for a stationery show, at which incidentally, our good friends Max&Bunny will be hosting a booth. Not sure if we will be able to hang out with Tif Saturday night, but we are going to give it a shot. At the very least maybe we will drop by her room at the Marquis so that we can covet the view from her window.

Sunday

• Tif meets Piper

As if all of these niceties were not sufficient, I have it on good authority that Banksy will be in town (if he is not already here). Double crossing my fingers that I might have a chance encounter with some of his work and get some snaps, before it is ganked and auctioned away. I hope that everyone else also has an amazing weekend!

One of the amazing things about the interwebz, and more particularly the blog-o-sphere (oh how I hate that term), is the way that it shrinks down geography. For example, I have never been to Oslo, or Berlin. But, I am eating up photos and day to day narratives of some pretty amazing people who live there. I’m going to highlight a few of them on Jakesnewblog.

I have chosen just.ekosystem.org to kick off my “Internacionale” tangent. I discovered this blog, not too long ago, when I was checking out some images of some cool street art from Berlin.

This dude’s (or woman’s, I suppose)  images are insane. He or she apparently has a close relationship with Krink, and several international street artists. I feel like this site is what graffiti research labs wishes it was. Anyway, feel free to check it out. I’m going to sharing a few more of the images from their site in the future, for a street art post. Dig it.

I was at club Amnesia last night covering an event. Jigga was supposed to be there, but had to leave town at the last minute. It was still a pretty sick party. They had these cirque du soleil-type acrobats swinging around from the ceilings.

The weather had been cloudy and kind of rainy all day. I was grateful that it petered out to just plain old cloudy, by the time I was trekking all over town last night. Also, it made for a cool shot of the Empire State Bldg.

I shot a couple of galleries, recently. One of them was on Broadway, just off of the NYU Campus. It’s kind of pathetic, but, sometimes I like the space more than the stuff hung there. Anyway, when I first entered the building, the elevator lobby was decorated in Keith Haring-eque patterns. I thought “hmm, someone who lives here is a Keith Haring fan.” When I got in the elevator, I accidentally took it to the wrong floor. It turns out that K. Haring operates out of that building. Kind of a cool random coincidence.

I also hit Deitch, again. I wanted to get it semi-empty, so that I could have some cleaner images for some stuff that I’m working on. I really liked the one below.

As I was walking down Wooster, I grabbed the shot below. I wonder which sticker was there first. Hahahaha. MBW propaganda over the OBEY sticker, nice. It reminds me of the election last year, seeing Charlie Rangel’s campaign posters, with Rangel’s name above Obama’s.

(photo:  Diego DeNicola 2007)

I’m not going to lie. I have to take Cee-Lo’s voice in small doses. But, when I’m in the right mood, I can really get into Gnarls Barkley. As ambivalent as I am about Cee-Lo, I’m a huge fan of Gnarls Barkley‘s other half, Danger Mouse. It isn’t just because he is from New York, either. His work, both inside and out of Gnarls Barkley tends to be extremely hot. You may recall the 900,000 remixes of the Jay-Z’s “Black Album” that came out after Jay-Z released the acapella version. Well, there were only a handful that really stood out. The “Grey Album” was one of them. It was a mash-up of the Beatles’ “White Album” with Jay-Z’s vocals. The architect behind that gem, was Danger Mouse.

Sorry for the digression. The track that I’m sharing is from the album entitled “St. Elsewhere.” It’s called “The Last Time.” Follow this link to hear the track.

Friday was my first ever, visit to the Bronx Zoo. It was pretty awesome. When my sister Melinda came to visit, it was one of the things that she put on her list of things to see, while in NY. It was also Reagan’s first time there. We saw some pretty awesome stuff. There Lions, tigers, bears, Reagan hamming it up, on the bug carousel, hahahaha.

I loved the giraffes. Every time I see some in person, I’m blown away.

Reagan, wasn’t the only one having a great time on the carousel…

For those interested, there a some additional zoo photos over here.