FRIDAY

Got a call from Kaws and he had an extra spot on the guest list to see Rob Walker (not that Rob Walker) speak, to promote his new book Buying In. If you’re not familiar with Walker, he writes an interesting column for the New York Times Magazine called ‘Consumed.’ The book looks interesting too, although like I told you guys earlier, I’m waist-deep in the Dune books so it’s gonna have to wait.

He covered his motivations for writing the book, and there was a Q&A afterwards. Sat with Tony Arcabascio, who had his cellphone on blast and let it ring twice during the discussion… TONY! Silent mode! Mr. Walker (that’s ‘Old Gray Lady’ style) offered his half-full MetroCard as a reward for the best question, since he was leaving the next morning and wouldn’t be needing it. I finally got the mic and asked about something I’ve seen in periodicals or books like Tipping Point where the writer talks about how a brand ‘catches on’ for seemingly mysterious reasons (Walker touched on the famous ‘Hush Puppies’ story from Tipping Point during the discussion) and although mystified, the company rolls with the success and makes a lot of money, yay. However, sometimes those articles and books forget the ’second act,’ or rather, what those companies do when it all goes not-so-hot. Walker answered, discussing how these companies sometimes grow into the new-found market, and start to rely upon it, and struggle to keep that new demographic as customers… A situation epitomized in rugged-outerwear company Timberland, and how it now makes things like a pink version of it’s formerly style-oblivious boot, and now needs to keep selling things like pink boots to float the company at the size it’s become since its 90’s popularity burst. Anyway, I won the MetroCard. Cool.

Wendy Dembo was in the house with her daughter Ruby, living cute.

My good friend Wendy Dembo was there too, and introduced me to Paola Antonelli, who I proceeded to blow off just to get that silly photo with Rob Walker the MetroCard. Duh. So, Paula, if you ever find yourself reading this little blog in this distant corner of the internet, I apologize for not being more attentive!

JK5 with his bio-folks

Went to my man Ari Joeseph Aloi aka JK5’s birthday party, where Tony ‘Half Asian Half Amazin’ Chan was DJing with Toy Baron Chad.
Charlie Becker was in town. Colby Parker Jr., looking a lot like an antogonistic dick from a John Hughes film, stopped by with Stephen Hopkins, director and one of the creators of ‘24.’ He’s working on a new pilot here in NYC about some crooked cops.

Colby Parker Jr. leaves his Jag running outside while he steps in to beat up some dweebs who wouldn’t write his biology report

Headed over to Santo’s Party House and tolerated some real wack DJing. I know it was an exception; the buzz that place has wouldn’t happen if it was like this all the time. I don’t care if the DJs read this; they know they were being wack, we all knew you were being wack, it was just a wack look. Anytime you’re at a club, and the DJ puts on Chic’s ‘Good Times,’ and then lets the ENTIRE 12″ version play, you know they’ve just flipped on the autopilot switch and they’re just trying to get home and go get laid or something.

SATURDAY

We went up to see the MoMA portion of the Olaf Eliasson exhibit in the afternoon, and it’s good, although it’s sorta science-fair math-rock stuff as far as ‘art’ goes. That sounds really negative but I did like it. The most interesting thing to me was a hallway flooded in an amber light that absolutely squashed all other colors in the visible spectrum and makes you feel like you’re living in a black-and-white film. I keep hearing that I need to see the other half installed out at PS1, so that’s on the schedule for this coming weekend.

Justin Fines and Gerhard Stochl of the CSC… Gerhard hooked me up with this pair of limited CSC Adidas and I am grateful. Nice shoes!

Later in the day, we had some pretty typical NYC summer weather: a hot summer day devolving into heavy early-evening rains, putting the brakes on the Chinatown Soccer Club’s shoe release party, which was a shame, because they had a really cool event planned, but the rain flooded the pitch and the event was shifted to a restaurant where everyone had a fun time anyway. Most of the major members of the club were heading to Austria the following day for an Adidas release event. Have a fun trip guys!

Gotta give a shout to Oliver Kann from Adidas - thanks again for those 2006 World Cup match tickets, I have not forgotten!

SUNDAY

Went and checked out the Jil Sander store on Crosby. Raf Simons and artist Germaine Kruip go massively minimal… Spacious.

Wound up the weekend seeing Iron Maiden with Gabe Kuo and it was awesome. Explosions and of course Eddie. That band deserves every fan they have… Imagine your favorite band, and then imagine the lead singer of your favorite band piloting a commercial 757 aircraft from city to city for their tour… Because that’s what Iron Maiden’s singer Bruce Dickinson does. Raw.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 12:43 and is filed under sneakers, Soccer, Aircraft, nyc, rock n roll, late nights, art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.