Dec 19, 2008

I began the day by working at Lakeside as a typing teacher. I did some last minute shopping after that.

We all met up at Sam's house for the Christmas party/Secret Santa thing. We had a bunch of food, Sam was making vegan pizza and Jeff made some mixed drinks.

We had some beers and some food and then sat around talking for a while.

Warm cider was also available.

We played a crazy game of Taboo...

that was most fun when people didn't know what word they were describing..

like Blake. It was awesome.

We did Secret Santa exchange after that. Katie got jimmy a shirt that says "SublimI'mAwesomeinal." It's funny, trust me.

I got Sam coasters that she collects. She seemed to like them.

Chuck got me this awesome Gob shirt.

Katie got some Chocolate from Jeff.

And now Chuck has his own disc golf bag.

Sam made Chuck Chuck-late chip cookies.

And Nate got a Beatles tablature book from Jimmy. After the exhange we watched the Dana Carvey special from forever ago that Chuck made us all copies of. It was hilarious still to this day. We had an awesome night of drinking and presents and comedy.

Dec 18. 2008

I got up early enough to go to Angelo's Diner for breakfast before heading over to Rowan for my last final.

We had our official last critique of the projects we had the opening for the previous night. It went pretty long because we listened to everyone's song and then talked about them extensively.

I was the photographer for Kim's project that she set up in the library.

There were stacks of books with holes in them on each of the main floors of the library.

Inside each was a picture that told a story as you went to each different one.

Later in the afternoon I went to my sister's to get photos of Aiden for Christmas.

I got some family shots too and had Sara pick out the ones she wanted for her present.

Michelle from Hangar 84 invited the band to come hang out at the Holiday Hohoho Down. I only stayed for a few bands, including Every Avenue who were quite good.

I was just ready to come home and go to bed early.

Dec 17, 2008

My final project for Color Theory was due in the afternoon so I had to start working on it...

I used a few different colors of spray paint on the inside of road cones. I had to reflect the mood of a song of my choice. I chose "Streetlights" by Kanye West.

I set it up in the gallery at school for our official opening of "Synesthesia." It isn't that attractive from this view...

but I really like this one. And I think it works with the song.

This is Allyssa's piece for "Happiness is a Warm Gun" by the Beatles.

Andrew's piece for "The Melting Point of Wax" by Thrice. I love this one.

We went over to the High Street Gallery after our opening was done at the school to see some of our professor's work.

It was interesting.. but it was really just for the free food. Lots of fruits and veggies, much better than the one bag of Doritos we had at our opening.

After all that I came home for the night.

Dec 16, 2008

I got up in the morning and had to sort through the semester's worth of drawings to get them all back together for Rachel. She wanted to see almost everything we had done. It was a lot when I hung it up. I had to run through the lines of bs with her about how I've improved and whatnot.. just hoping to talk my way into a better grade.

After that final critique, I continued blocking off the hallway with giant pieces of cardboard. You could still get through, I just made it harder.

It was my final installation for 3D Design. I had to make a 3D piece or installation in the style of an artist that I studied. The guy I did, Richard Serra, did huge steel structures that people could walk through, so I adapted that idea and used the hallway as part of my piece.

It was fun to walk through and everyone seemed to enjoy it mostly. Colleen is overly critical but I think she even liked it. I played Nathan's music for the Don & Chuck theme while people wandered through.

We took off right after my critique to New York. I had a surprise for Katie. She didn't know what we were doing at all until we got right about where this picture was taken.

It was snowing pretty crazy the whole time we were outside walking from Penn Station to the Nokia Theater.

Where Fall Out Boy was playing an actual show this time.

Tyga opened the show. He wasn't bad, he's got a lot of energy on stage too.

Fall Out Boy played a lot of old stuff and I was surprised not a lot of new songs.

Joe "Frohman" Trohman. The band had a lot of crazy stuff going on including dancers dressed like bears. It was pretty fun to watch.

They also busted out the light up guitars for "I Don't Care" and another song. Overall it was a good show, just not what their shows used to be. Blame the fans, not the band.

Another long drive home. But it was a fun night. Snow in New York is always good.

Dec 15, 2008

After I convinced Katie it would be wise to skip our final exam and go to New York, we went and got on the subway. She's still not sure if it was a good idea.

A crowd had gathered at Washington Square Park where a "secret" performance was to be held.

The guys in Fall Out Boy showed up only to be told by the police that they'd be sorry if they played any music. They were visibly upset about it but they couldn't do anything. They were trying to have a small performance without any permits but it got too big.

Patrick still graced the crowd with a solo version of "Grand Theft Autumn." Everyone sang along loudly. It was great of him and pretty cool to see.

Shortly after the song, Pete told the crowd he was sorry and passed out some copies of the new cd before security rushed them off.

We went to Jamba Juice and got some Pomegranate Paradise.

Then we found Whole Foods and got dinner.

We had some time to kill before the next covert meeting, so we walked around, went to Barnes and Noble to read for a while and got falafel shortly before midnight.

At midnight, Pete showed up at the Virgin Megastore and walked past the significantly smaller crowd into the store and picked up a box of their new album. He took about thirty discs over to the register and had the clerk ring them up.

Then he turned and started handing them out after signing them. I told him we skipped our final to come out and he signed a disc and told me to hand that in to my teacher instead.

He eventually got up on the counter to hand them out. He also had about six one-of-a-kind artwork discs to hand out and I got one of those too.

After he left and the mob dispersed, we took our subway back to the PATH and headed back home.

Sure, we missed a final and didn't get much more out of it than a sing-along in the park and a few free CDs but I still had a good time.