Ari Hest, Highline Ballroom, Chelsea.



Setlist:
1. Concrete Sky
2. The Weight
3. Winter of Yes
4. How Would I Know
5. When and If
6. All Because
7. Set in Stone
8. Couldn't Have Her
9. Snow
10. Try
11. One Two
12. The Fire Plays
13. Business of America
14. Cranberry Lake
15. Dead End Driving
16. Something to Look Forward To

Broadway Loves The Spice Girls, Canal Room, Tribeca.

Thanks to the nice people at Obscura Society NY I had a chance to visit the office of Countdown Entertainment at 1 Times Square, home of...THE BALL.


Yes...THE BALL.


THE BALL is enormous...




...and hella bright.


You don't notice from far away, and wouldn't unless you got RIGHT UP to it, but all of the tiles are not the same. There are several different designs, and they change every year.


The ball famously switched to its current "crystal ball" configuration for the Millennium celebration, first using light bulbs...


...before switching to this all LED design in 2007...


...then further refinements in 2008 to the design that we have today.


The "office" itself is basically just a large conference room with a large bathroom off to the side. Nothing too thrilling, but here's a picture of the bathroom anyway, just because.


Great view, though.


In all a very exciting, informative and educational outing with the Obscura people. Need to schedule another event with them soon.

Gregg Swann tribute and CD release, Parkside Lounge, LES.

Matt Nathanson, Terminal 5, HK.

Set-list:
1) Mission Bells
2) Modern Love
3) Run
4) Heart Starts
5) Car Crash / Bad
6) Kill the Lights
7) Sunday New York Times
8) Room @ the End of the World / Mr. Brightside / I Wanna Dance With Somebody
9) Wedding Dress
10) Bulletproof Weeks
11) Annie's Always Waiting (For the Next One to Leave)
12) Kinks Shirt
13) I Saw
14) Faster

Encore:
15) Talk Dirty to Me
16) Every Rose Has Its Thorn
17) Come On Get Higher

James asks me to take a picture of the Christopher Walken-Rex sitting in that little parklet at Houston & 2nd Ave. for him. I'm not really sure what the deal is with this thing, other than that it had something to do with the release of the Humans of New York book, which just happened the other week.


The sign explains it. Sort of.


Just look at this thing.


LOOK AT IT!!

Mimian Morales, Cornelia Street Cafe, Village.

Zach Hurd, Rockwood 3, LES.

Rock Comic Con 6, Pioneers, Midtown.


With Daenerys and the Targaryens...


Fortress of Attitude...


Chronicles of Sound...


Kirby Krackle...


and H2Awesome!

You may have already heard, but Scarlett and Conn got engaged over the weekend.

Scarlett knew that there was some sort of silly impromptu video with friends planned, but she had no idea that Conn or her father were going to be there. I was recruited as part of the distraction crew - our job was to make sure that she was at X location at Y time, and to keep her busy until everything was set. Luckily, this meant that I was in a primo place to take some photos of the whole thing. Here's how it went down.
































Artist and friend Leanne Hannah even made a poster.


Emily made one, too.









Congratulations, guys.