IT’S BAAACK!  I finally got my camera back.  For about two months I had a Nikon D300 which is the first digital camera I have ever been happy with (although the Fuji Fine Pix S2 Pro was pretty nice at the time).  After about two months, one of the memory card reading pins got bent and I had to send it to Nikon to get it fixed.  To their credit, they fixed it for free, however when they sent it back UPS lost it.  It should have been delivered on Aug 21st.  By the time I went through all the bullshit of dealing with Nikon and UPS (they will be receiving hate mail shortly) and got my camera back it was October 9th nearly two months later.  I am just getting used to the camera again.  I have to reread the manual and figure out what’s what.  So these photos are a test run.  Check back in a month and we will see how we are doing then.   I also shot these photos with a fixed 20mm lens so they should be a bit wider than normal.  Anyway, let’s get on to the post.

My day was sort of a travesty.  I woke up at 7 AM to watch myself on Good Morning America.  I was going to go back to sleep but after a run to the post office and a few McGriddles I didn’t really feel like sleeping.  I went into my day job an hour early to take some photos.  I work for the Internet Archive and until Friday we worked out of the Donnell Public Library.  However, they are turning that library into a hotel so we had to leave.  I spent some time photographing the now empty building.  Those photos should be up soon.  We had to pack up everything at the office and my coworkers and I busted our asses getting everything done so we could get today off of work.  It was successful, but I was completely exhausted.  We got off work a bit early around 10:30 so I decided I had some time to kill before heading over to Trash.

My friend Mandy Morbid was in town and her boyfriend Zak Sabath had an art show in the city so I went to meet them at the after party.   It was 5 avenues and 25 blocks (about 2.5 miles) southwest of my work, but I wanted to play with my camera so I decided to do it on foot and walk through Times Square.  When I got to the bar, Zak and Mandy left to have sex and told me they were going to be back soon.  The bar was called Billy Marks West and it was the worst bar I have ever been to.  I wanted to just walk around until they got back because the bar looked so god awful, but I really needed to pee, so I decided to go in.  But I didn’t want to just use their bathroom and walk out so I took a seat at the bar and was going to order a coke or something.  I don’t drink as you probably know by now, but I was extremely thirsty from the walk.  I really just wanted a water, but I wanted to pay for something.  The bartender came over and asked me what I wanted.  When I said “What do you have that is non-alcoholic?” He snapped back “Nothing.” And walked away from me.  I was sort of bewildered but I just sat there.  A few minutes later he said in a quite threatening way “What can I do for you?”  I said “Don’t you have a coke or something?”  He told me it would be $5.  Now, I would have spent $5 (Plus tip) to just sit there and wait and use their bathroom, but the way he said it, it was clear he was just trying to be a dick.  So I said “$5 for a coke?”  And he said “It’s the same price as a beer, a drink is a drink”. So I told him to make me a Shirley Temple.  Again he turned his back on me.  A few minutes later he came back and said I was making him uncomfortable.  I told him I was didn’t drink and I was just waiting for some friends.  He told me that normally when people come into a bar they drink.  I told him again that I was just waiting, and that I would buy a Shirley Temple.  He then got in my face about how this was his bar and blah blah blah… So I left.  I didn’t even get to pee. Never go to Billy Mark’s ever (Not that you would).  It is a horrible bar with at least one asshole for an owner (I’m not sure if he was Billy or Mark but he is on their bullshit site).

I walked over to Rebel and talked to their manager while I waited for Mandy to text.  When she did, she said she had run into some people and they left and she had to get up early anyway.  At this point I am just in a horrible mood.  I take a cab over to Webster Hall for MSTKRFT.  I should be on the list, but I am not for some reason, and the door guy who I have talked to probably 25 times or something didn’t recognize me, even though he let me in without even looking at the list less than a week ago.  He told me I wasn’t on Alex English’s list and then started quizzing me about what Alex looked like.  He told me he had never heard of Driven By Boredom.  Now, I probably sound like an asshole here, but how do you work in night life in NYC, work with the same people I work with, and have never of even heard of my site.  That’s just upsetting.  He did eventually let me in any way, but my mood went from bad to worse.  After being twice asked to sell people E in the first 10 minutes of me being there, I decided I should just pack it in and go over to Trash.  On the way out I talked to JFK from MSTKRFT about working on a blog I might start with Terrence soon and got a hug from Bronques and a pep talk from Paulo so by the time I got to Trash I was feeling a little bit better.  My friend Joe Swanberg was in town for his movie premiere  and I got him and his friends a table and a few bottles of champagne.  I made out with some cute girls and even danced a bit.  Good times were had and I went to bed just a mere 26 hours after I woke up to see my self on national TV.  What a weird fucking day.

Photos are here.  They are NSFW including one of my favorite photos I have ever taken. It’s of Apathy.  You can see it below in it’s censored version.

PS.  Joe’s movie is called Nights and Weekends.  It is playing at the IFC Center in NYC and is available on IFC OnDemand.  You should see it.  As soon as I do I will get up a review.

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