NYPD

Last week was pretty heavy. Late night parties almost every day. On Friday I had my first encounter with NYPD. I was actually just a silly case, but it was really annoying. We were at a party at Lea's place, we all got really drunk and had a great time. Me and Matthew decided to go get some more beer. On the way to the bodega, we stopped at a bar and bought brewskies. We wanted to get back to the party and decided to bring our beers out from the bar, that was a bad, drunk, decision. Walk over Cooper Square with open container, that's like asking for a ticket. We saw a police car and hid our beer in our jackets. We past the car and was pleased that we weren't stopped. Suddenly three policemen came from behind and threw us against the wall and started screaming at us. They claimed that they had told us to stop and that we had just kept going.

They kept us there for a long time, while they were checking our id's and writing the pink slip for us. I think the cops realized that we weren't bad guys, because they became really friendly. They said it had been a mistake stopping us, but that their boss were there and that they couldn't do anything. It was just stupid. Really goofy cops.

I was summoned to meet in court February 18th.

3 x Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Jean-Georges Vongerichten is a pretty well know chef here in NYC. The most famous and luxurious is the one called Jean-Georges. I haven't been there, but I've been to three of his five restaurants in the city. He is famous for his Thai-French fusion.

Vong in midtown was my least favourite. The restaurant in it self was quite nice, but some of the food was really strange. The green curry reminded me more of grass soup then curry. But it didn't really matter I had a great time anyway.

Mercer Kitchen in SoHo is super nice. The food was amazing and it is a quite romantic spot even though it is a big restaurant.

My absolute favourite is Spice Market in the Meatpacking District. Fabulous Thai inspired hors d'orderves as appetizers and a french inspired Red duck curry as main course. Yummy! I'll definitely go back there before I leave.

Opening at The Great Hall gallery

On Tuesday we had the opening on our exchange show. The show turned out pretty good. It's really divers and you can tell that there has been no curation of the show. The opening was a lot of fun. We started the old fashion way with wine in the gallery. We ended up at international having ridiculously cheap specials. Yeah!

The Longest Night

I've had my longest party until now since I came here. From 2pm on Saturday to 5pm Sunday. I went home and slept for about three hours at some point but still, Its been a long one.

Thanksgiving

On Thursday I celebrated my first Thanksgiving. I started the day meeting my parents really early at the south west corner of Central Park. There is a huge parade passing by there. It's kind of crazy. People go there at 6am to get good spots. There is a lot of pushing and bullying. We kept distance, we weren't that excited that we would invest to much to get to the front. It wasn't really that great, big bands were playing and huge balloons passes by. We stayed there for about 20 minutes, I got to see Shrek, Snoopy, a big turkey and some Macy's ad´s.

In the evening I went to Cole and Gen's place. They had made a feast of traditional Thanksgiving food. Turkey, gravy, jams, cranberries and a lot more. It was really good. Sadly I was kind of full since I already had one dinner with my parents earlier. But I nibbled on the turkey the whole night. We had a lot to drink and it developed in to a pretty hilarious dance party. At 6am me and Matt went out and tried to find more beer, which was a pretty stupid idea, we didn't find any since we were far out in Brooklyn. I was really annoyed by it at the time, but the day after I was so pleased that I hadn't had any more to drink.

Broadway musical

Last night I got conformation for my suspicion that I don't like musicals. My parents are here and they wanted to see a musical. Went to see "Gypsy" and I dint like it. I didn't like the music and I didn't like the story. Now I know it for sure, I don't like musicals.

I actually liked "Sweeney Todd", the movie, but that's the only one.

Another night at Fish bar

Last night Matthew and me ended up at Fish bar once again. To be honest that wasn't a very good idea considering that I have a lot to to for the show coming up in less than a week. But it was a lot of fun. An old, obviously gay, man greeted us when we came in to the bar. He thought me and Matt were a gay couple. He started talking about how hard it was to be gay in the old days, and clearly pointed out that we couldn't know about that because we were only "boys". He was nice, but he never stopped talking, he just kept going on. At one point he called me "Honey", I think this is the first time I've been addressed in that way. The last thing he told me, before I managed to get away, was that I had to watch out. Watch out for all the Muslims in Sweden, because it was coming more and more of them and he said, pointing at me, "They don't like your kind!" (and by that he meant homosexuals).

After getting really drunk, I felt like promoting Norwegian music and became the evenings self assigned DJ. It wasn't that many people there, but those who were there seemed to be pleased with my choice of music. I was also in the kind of mood were you feel like saying something that you don't really agree to just to provoke a discussion. We had a long and heated argument about the possibility to be bi-file. I firmly argued that you have to choose either men or women, and that you can't jump back and forth. It was fun and it ended friendly. I went home around 4.30am and made grilled cheese sandwiches which I burned.

Today I felt horrible.

Wolfs, Eagles and Fish

This has been a Fantastic week! Friday to Friday with none stop fun and work. Last Friday Stina arrived at JFK, we got in a taxi and rush of to New Jersey via Manhattan to get to a Wolf Parade show at Wellmont theater. This being my first time in NJ, it was a experience in it self. It has a completely different feel than Manhattan. The show was good, not as fantastic as I had expected, but I must admit that my expectations was sky high. But I had so much fun it didn't matter at all. After the concert we got invited back stage because Cole is a friend of one of the member in the band. The backstage wasn't literally back stage, it was a trailer parked outside the venue. There were so many people trying to get in there, the owner of the trailer looked really nervous. I've never understood the fuzz about getting backstage, unless you know someone who is there. Trying to push my way in would only make me embarrassed, feel like a groupie. Any way, it was fun enough, but Stina had been awake for more than 24 hours so we left before the party back there really took of. The trip back to Manhattan was a chapter in it self, after doing a couple of things which aren't exactly legal, and kind of embarrassing so I won't mention them here, we headed for the train station. As we should have expected, the train from NJ didn't go at night. We were walking from the station and was considering paying the ridiculously expensive NJ taxi home, when to our luck we saw a NYC taxi letting of some people. I rushed over to it and asked if we could catch a ride to the city. He wouldn't let us because NYC taxi's are not allowed to pick up people in NJ. Disappointing! we started walking again when we met a Asian girl, who also had been at the concert and was trying to get back. She was really geeky but nice enough. She started following us, not in a threatening way, just think she felt it was safer to go with someone. Then I saw the same NYC taxi and this time he said that we could get in if we hurried before the police saw us. All three of us got in the taxi. After driving for about an hour we all got the feeling that we weren't heading in the right direction, the driver asked for direction and realized that he had been driving in the opposite direction of the city. The Asian girl seemed nervous, making strange sounds, I think she thought that we were being kidnapped or something. We on the other hand had a hilarious time, blabbering in Norwegian, enjoying NJ "sightseeing". About two and a half hour and twenty dollars later, we were at cooper square buying food at Mickey D.

On Monday we were at another concert, this time with Eagles of Death Metal with The Dukes Spirit as support at Bowery Ballroom. I've never listened to the British band TDS before, but they were quite fun. Clearly influenced by artists as Cramps and Nick Cave. The lead singer had an amazing karma (in lack of a better word), with her sexy dance, nice voice and harmonica solos you didn't notice any of the other members at all. EoDM was just pure fun. We got up all the way to the front and danced as good as possible in the cramped space. There were a lot of bullying, but I was really in the mood for it so I threw my elbows everywhere without getting annoyed with any of the retaliations. Yeah!

On Thursday a big group of my Friends went to my favourite bar, Fish bar, to celebrate Charlotte's birthday with cheap bourbon, beer and cake. It was great! And to my surprise there were sitting a celebrity amongst us. In a dark corner of the little pub, wearing a hat and big glasses sat Scarlett Johansson! As said before I'm not the biggest celeb stalker, but I must admit that it was kind of fun that she was there.

These are just some of this weeks highlights. In between all the fun, I've been really busy at school, I've realized that the opening of our upcoming show is a week earlier than I thought. It's, as usual with me, gonna be a rush until the last minute.

Waisting Time

Right now I feel that I kind of waist my time here in NYC. I'm in the studio as long as it is open. Don't have time for anything else. I'm in NYC for such a short period, I should be out living it. Luckily my girlfriend is coming on Friday, then I'll finally have the excuse I need to see other parts of NYC than between Cooper square and 34E on 7th (which is from school to my apartment, about one hundred meters).

Too much blood

I'm hooked on "True Blood", the entertaining vampire series on HBO. At times it's a bit silly and there are some unnecessary surprising turns to maintain the thrill of the show, but in the end, I like it. I find the phenomena of vampires a bit sexy, and by that I don't mean that I'm in to fake fangs and latex corsets. Any way, after six hours straight in the wood-shop, working on my sculpture, I went home to eat, rest and watch an episode of "True Blood" while waiting for the glue to dry. I went back to school to work more but an incident in the wood-shop made me loose my focus for a while. A second year kid cut of his finger on the band-saw! There were so much blood. I already kind of had enough blood from watching my series. That's a horrible way to start the week (not for me but the fingerless kid).

I kept my fingers extra far from the blade when cutting my last pieces.

Graffiti and Voodoo

I've been really bad at visiting museums here in New York, there are so many I should have been to. This weekend I finally felt inspired and went both to the New Museum and P.S.1.

P.S.1 was an amazing museum with so many interesting spaces. I wonder what the building used to be (I'll have to Google that). It is a part of MoMa, located in Queens, were they are showing changing contemporary shows. The main show which was up now was a curated group show called NeoHooDoo: art for a forgotten faith. It was a interesting show, though I can't say I care much for the name. The show was very much about cultural heritage and spirituality in contemporary American art (and by contemporary I mean the 70ties and 80ties, and by American I mean the whole of America including South and Latin America). My favorite piece in that show was Adrian Piper's photo series "Food for the Spirit". There was also a show by Norwegian artist Børre Sæthre, an installation by Olafur Eliasson and the amazing installation "Swimming Pool" by Leandro Erlich.

On the 7 line to the museum, I saw this amazing city block, entirely covered with graffiti, right across from P.S.1. I have no clue when it comes to aerosol art, but there were some really great pieces! The walls, the roof top and windows, everything painted. I later found out that it was an outside gallery devoted to graffiti art called 5pointz.

Happy Halloween Picture Special

She was sure that she was going to win the American apparel contest in her unitards."Dov Charney do love pussy"



Amy Winehouse at a party at Laurent's place





The 6 and 7 line at Fish bar.


Charlotte as the bureaucracy monster


We won a price as best group even though our costumes were horrible. I think it was because I know the bartender we got the price, and not for our skills. By they way, we were "Where the wild things are". I was the little boy with the crown.


A had a hard time, but he didn't give in.



Frank (Donnie Darko bunny man) outside Fish Bar.

Justify this

Thursday night I spent 40 dollar on cover to get in to a club! The second I was paying for the ticket I realized that I was drunk, otherwise I don't think I would have gone there. The DJ's were the French duo Justice who are on their Across The Universe DVD realese tour. It was so much fun, four hours of cramped, sweating dancing. At every take-off the floor at Webster hall was litteraly wobbling. I haven't been pushed around this much since I saw Iggy Pop at Orange stage.

Spotted...

...everybody's favorite bad boy, Chuck Bass, making eye contact with Norwegian exchange student on Bond street.

xo xo

Late night disco

On Friday night my bed collapsed. We were a Small group of people who wanted to get drunk, but since we're all kind of poor we didn't want to spend money on cover. So we went to my place, had drinks and listened to music. It ended up being a really fun dance party in my bed (my room is so small, there is really no space to dance on the floor). As most would have expected, at least in a sober state, the bed collapsed, and it was hilarious. It didn't spoil the party mood, the last persons left at 8:30.

The picture is taken only seconds after the incident.

Warning

If you go to the movies in the states now, it is likely that have to see this video (click on watch video on the national guard site).

It is ridicules!

Celebs

I haven't seen that many celebrities as expected since I came here. One reason is that I'm not that interested and won't recognize most of them if I saw them.

My best spotting so far was supermodel Agyness Deyn and her boyfriend, the guitarist from The Strokes, Albert Hammond outside Ray's Pizza around the corner from my apt. Yeah!

12 moments

Top left: In front of Statue of liberty. After party at Justins place. Close to Time Square. On the way to Fish bar in American Apparel hot pants. Fish Bar. Infront of Prada after dinner at Mercer Kitchen. Prince Street. Pose at Liberty island. Faces at Justins. 14th st and 3rd ave metro. 2am dinner at Veselka. ? .

From the top to the bottom

Me and Stina went to see Antony and the Johnsons at the legendary Apollo theater in Harlem. It was amazing. The venue is fantastic, a classic theater stage with mezzanines, balconies, a huge chandelier and everything an old theater should have. We were sitting on the upper mezzanine. The seating is so steep there, that you almost feel that you're going to fall down on the stage.

Antony entered the stage in a dress, which best can be described as a fantasy wedding gown. The lights on the stage were turned of, and they didn't come on until he had played three songs. His voice was fantastic. When he sang "Cripple and the starfish", I almost had tears in my eyes. He also sang Beyoncés "Crazy in Love"! It was crazy nice.

And what is more reasonable to do, after you have been listening to one of the worlds best voices than to explore the scene, were you probably can find the worst? I'm talking Karaoke. I'm not a karaoke person, I have only done it in Tokyo before, and there it is mandatory. After some drinks we got hooked in by a girl in Brooklyn to a karaoke bar. And after a considerable amount of Captain Morgan and coke and some tequila and free Jäger shoots, I was ready to share with the world, my version of "Paint it Black". We ended the night in a classy way, shouting fuck you at the girl who was deciding which songs to play, because she hadn't played more of the songs we wanted to sing. Then we ran of, in a dramatic manner, into the New York night.

To night we had dinner at 2am at Veselka. I love New York!