now, i can’t tell if sausage lodge is a delicious breakfast joint or a naughty men’s retreat. you decide.

(onto the real musings..)

(more…)

well, here they are–the pictures of the new apartment, which i will be moving into january 18th. until then, i will be staying with a friend of kate’s (i seriously owe her big time) in park slope. that begins tomorrow…as you may or may not remember, right now i am staying in the lap of luxury that is connecticut, with a fam friend–the grandmother of the kids i babysit for in portland.

JUST KIDDING. here i was, about to post these little mo-fos, and then i realized i HATE BLOGS AND COMPUTERS AAAARGH and i can’t get them at the right size. they are far too tiny. so check out my photobucket pictures. they will be there.

http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f133/kwilson123/

i think that’s where i’ll probably always post le pictures….that way you all don’t have to deal with my technical ineptitude here. okay. that is all.

So as many of you already know, I got a macbook for Christmas. And what do macbooks come equipped with?

PHOTOBOOTH!
As you can see above, you can make some funny, and also disgusting, pictures with the mirror filter. Take this one here for example:

Gross.
So because I don’t really have any useful programs for this lappy yet, I’ll be using photobooth for a while.

well, hello there, shambot-sters. how’s it going?

oh, me? i’m FABULOUS, actually. in fact, i am actually typing IN NEW YORK CITY.

in case you all were wondering whether my hopes and dreams of nyc would be crushed by the realities of the subway, grime, and pushy, mean people, fear not, my pretties. because it is AMAZING here.

i will attempt to keep this short, mostly because it is only my second day here, and i am exceedingly exhausted, thanks to a full 24 hours of no sleep and lugging bags all over the train/subway system yesterday, which highly sucked. however, i will provide you with a list of things that do not suck about new york. in fact, they are amazing!

1. the subway is actually easy. it makes sense, and everything is readable, logical, and mostly on a grid in manhattan–unlike certain cities where everything is confusing (boston, anyone?) this is a dream for a car-fearing, bicycle riding public transportation whore.

2. brooklyn, contrary to what the sex and the city ladies will have you believe, is beautiful and amazing. specifically, the brownstone apartment that i am going to be renting (knock on wood).

actually, here i must interject. amazing: the pretty pretty building and promenade nearby. not so amazing: the square footage is in double digits. as in, the entire aparment amounts to 96 square feet. they are all mine though. think about that.

3. manhattan. incredible. so many people and an abundance of cheap and expensive items for purchase.

4. harpers magazine. i cannot stress how amazingly, unbelievably awesome their office, staff, and my job all are. you know how all the museums and galleries cost money to enter? (moma is $20 a head, for example). well kids, today i was introduced to a nifty little item called a PRESS PASS. why yes, that does actually mean free entry to any and all art related events in the city. thank you for asking.

i will spare you excess gushing–well, more excess gushing, anyways. but i will leave you with this little tale:

when i first emerged from the subway on 42nd street to see the city, my view was parsons–EXACTLY how they show it on project runway. naturally, i went in, just to see if i could go poke around (if you’re wondering, i couldn’t–it’s closed winter break to outsiders). i had just turned to leave when a man walked in. he looked me straight in the face, smiled, and said, “well hello there” and walked off into the elevator. he was white haired. he was dashing. as i stood in his presence i felt an uncontrollable urge to create a dress out of coffee filters and “make it work, people.” yes, i was greeted to new york city by TIM GUNN of project runway fame.

AMAZING. I WANTED TO THROW MY UNDERGARMENTS AT HIM.

but i played it cool.

anyway, i miss you all and hope you can get out here at some point. call me, email, whatever, just don’t forget about me! for this week i am staying with a friend in connecticut, and her house doesn’t get reception, so bear with my on the cell phone thing and accept calls from weird numbers.

schweet.

File this under F, for foolish.

(more…)

Happy New Year Shambot!

As per usual, I’m at work right now, keepin’ it as real as I do! But I’ve decided to make a list of 10 resolutions for the Shambot! to consider, keep, and focus upon over the new year!

(more…)

I had sent this in an email to the weblog NintendoWiiFanboy.com because without them, my winterbreak may not have been any fun.

Dearest Nintendo Wii Fanboy,
This holiday season I traveled 5 hours by car through freezing rain and snow to Madison, WI to visit with my parents and other family. Of course I brought my Wii because it had been such a hit during Thanksgiving, but when I opened the box to unpack the unit, I noticed that I had FORGOT THE POWER CABLE! What was I to do?! Talk and socialize with my family?! Crazy talk.
I remember reading that a fellow reader, Jay, had used a GameCube power cable to power his Wii. I soon found myself at a local used game store were they were able to dig one up from a pile of old GameCube crap. It was marked seven dollars, but the nice man wrapped it up and handed it to me with a smile and a “Happy Holidays.” Free of charge! It was truly a miracle of the season.

So thank you Wii Fanboy for the information, and thank you guy at the game store for making my holiday with my parents entertaining in a good way.

Love,
Joel “Shlomo” Gillman

Happy New Year Shambot. In our part of the world, things went very well.

Find out more! (Including an mp3 of our own Joel on the MIC!)

(more…)

Yes, yes, yes. It’s 2007. We had our usual new years party here at my house where all my relatives come over and everyone gets drunk and I try to have fun. This time wasn’t too bad, I didn’t have to drive nearly as many intoxicated people home, and it was just a bit more fun this time around. I think my younger cousins kind of look up to me because I got out there in the “real world” and I enjoy what I’m doing. They’re also totally jealous of my mad art skills and my bangin’ macbook. I use the word ‘bangin’ because my cousin Ashley’s boyfriend, Nate, who is visiting here says that word a lot, and in some very interesting combinations. For example:

1. We were at a Red Robin earlier in the day, and to describe some clam chowder Nate said, “Man, that clam chowder was bangin’ ass.”
2. To describe some movie that he was talking about, “That scene was bangin’ sweet.”

He’s a pretty cool guy, but I think he needs to find a new word.

Over break I don’t think I’ve ever watched as many horrible movies as I have in the last week. These contemporary masterpieces include Jackass 2, Beerfest, Step Up, Accepted, John Tucker Must Die, and soon Happy Feet. My cousins are the typical high school Freshmen, except for the fact they’re both 20. They like these types of movies way too much.

I’ve been trying to keep myself busy by doodling and painting. Here is a picture of the painting I’m working on. It’s really not in focus, the color is off, and it’s crooked, but I didn’t feel like being a perfectionist on this. Also there is the older version compared to the updated. I color is way off in the old one, but it’s as close as I could get it in the updated painting.

I have an idea where it’s going and I really hope I can get it finished before the 4th. Wish me luck!