Moe and Erik

My buddy Erik, who just got his first piece published on the National Geographic* site, was getting his floors redone, so he came over to JC to stay with our friend Moe for a few nights.

Somehow, he convinced Moe that he needed Magic Eraser right now, so after I dropped off an Aerobed for Erik and we ate at Skinner's Loft, we headed to the drugstore.

Here's the proof.

*which is great though he and Anne-Marie both wrote articles reminding me of a reviewer who went after me for saying gorilla tourism had improved the situation. Which it, uh, has. Annoying people. Did I say it saved the world? No. Did I say the cause was finished? No. Did I say gorilla tourism had helped save mountain gorillas, even as it complicates the situation? Yes, I did, now please quit trashing me for your own need to prove you have an expertise and superior knowledge, thanks.

Fired Up

I got my mug! Remember the pottery class I took a few weeks ago? I left my clay mug there to be dipped in whatever random color they used and then fired in the kiln.

Here it is. I am really not an expert at this—it's my first mug. But it didn't break, so that's all right with me. I'd like to take more pottery classes. I hope I can get into one at SVA in the fall.

Sunrises with Amanda

Amanda was in about a month ago, and during that time we were talking late into the night in her little room in the Larchmont. A long time ago—maybe 1995—I'd been in Morocco and met two men who had stayed in New York on their way to Morocco.

"Where did you stay?" 

"We stayed in Greenwich Village, in a little unknown place called Larchmont. It's like a European hotel, a tiny room with a sink and the bathroom down the hall. Really cheap. We always stay there."

I remember going to take a look after I got home, and so when Amanda was looking for something affordable for a night following a conference, I mentioned it. Unlike the other 20 people I've mentioned it to, the bathroom-down-the-hall part didn't scare her off. She booked it. 

I'll do the bathroom-down-the-hall thing when I'm traveling and there are other factors that make it the best choice. Like money. If it's a lot cheaper in a place where hotel rooms are expensive, I'll opt for that. Bath-down-the-hall is a negative, no doubt. But it's not a deal-breaker, and in this case, wi-fi, price, and location trumped walking 20 feet down a hall in pajamas while asking "Did I bring the key to my room."

My First Google Hangout

You can watch me not make TOO much of a fool of myself here if you'd like.

I kinda like the horn coming out of my head.

Had Enough Iron Man Yet?

Iron Man is just everywhere at the moment.

Including here, at a gallery in Soho, where me and a buncha perfessionals talked a lot.

I talked more than I expected to, but not as much as the others. 

Round-Robin Racism

I saw the most messed-up interaction at the Seventh Street laundromat on Sunday.

I was standing on the stoop, waiting for the washing machine cycle to finish. A young, black family went in. I noticed them because the couple lifted their stroller up the steps and into the laundromat. This was odd because the laundromat is only slightly larger than a shoebox, and I wondered how they were going to fit the stroller inside. They had a baby in the stroller and a kid walking alongsode, a little girl about six years old. The little girl took a seat by the front door and the stroller stayed just inside. I didn't notice the adults until what happened next.

About three minutes later, they rushed out, stroller and all. The man was yelling back into the laundromat.

I've Been Living IM Lately

It's a big week for ol' Shell-Head, as we all can't help but hear.

And it's a big week for me too. Off to the IM3 Marvel premiere last night, a panel on the 50th anniversary of IM tomorrow night, and the usual hundred other things to do.

Then this. A book I worked on with Stuart and two Jeffs comes out tomorrow. The artwork is stunning.

Staying Busy

I've been out redefining the idea of being busy lately, and it's been fun, but as usual, also kind of chaotic.

A week ago, I went to La Mano Pottery near the 23rd Street PATH and took a short hand-building class. This was with a Groupon I'd picked up recently.

I loved it! I wish I could go back and do a wheel class there or at the Jersey City ceramics studio, but the semester already began in JC, and I don't even know if I'll be in town after May anyway. I hope I get into the tuition-waiver ceramics SVA class in the fall. I never know what courses are going to run and the other times I've tried to sign up, I haven't gotten in due to either a full class or a canceled class.

I tried some wheel-throwing classes a long, long time ago at the community center in Yellow Springs, Ohio, back when I was in college. I could never center properly. But I'd never tried hand-building, and I don't have much skill with this.

The teacher gave us all flat bits of clay and showed us how to roll textures onto it.

On Me and Iron Man

You have to check out this interview I did with Hannah of Heidi's The Beat.

I've met Hannah exactly one time and not that long ago. And there at the bottom of the page, she nails me. Javins redefines the idea of being busy. And also...my students! So nice of them. I wonder who she talked to. I bet one was Maggie, since she works on The Beat.

That Time of Year

I feel sort of tired and like joining this place today. It's up by McGinley Square in Jersey City.