happy halloween II !!

Happy Halloween!

PEOPLE ARE AWESOME.

5 minutes of continuous awesomeness...

So This Is Pretty Rad

It's likely that most of you already know about this, but it was a pleasant surprise to be reading the Times and stumble upon it. Despite the glasses (which I like like), I recognized Josh immediately. I look forward to "perching" at one of the narrow copper counters and getting my fish on soon.

Congrats, Mr. Even!

Halloween in NYC

It's a bit last minute but worth your consideration nonetheless. For those unable or unwilling to trek to DC for the Adz annual halloween bash I'm co-hosting a bash of my own for a friend's charity. It's a bit pricy but an awesome space, open bar all night, tons of people, and totally tax deductible. Win win win. More below...

Saturday October 30th, I'm co-hosting the Fertile Grounds Project's 4th Annual Halloween Costume Ball!

Proceeds will support Fertile Grounds Project, a 501(c)3 not for profit organization whose mission is to empower urban youth who are being left behind in school. Fertile Grounds Project develops educational methods and innovative, results-driven structures to deliver them. Fertile Grounds Project directly addresses the structural challenges facing many marginalized youth. These are often at the heart of the subpar academic performance and incomplete schooling that ultimately perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

More importantly, this is always a great party! There is a great DJ and an open bar all night long!

Please join us in your most creative costume, thirsty, and ready to dance! It's a really cool space. very halloween-y

Saturday October 30th
at The Croatian Center
507 40th Street (between 10th and 11th Ave)
from 10pm until 3am
Advance Tickets on Paypal: General Admission $50 (or $60 at the door) VIP Tickets $120 (Only 75 will be sold!)

It's admittedly a bit expensive but open bar all night, good cause, tax deductible. Tons of people in crazy costumes.

Bring ID! This event is strictly 21+.

All donations are fully tax deductible.

hope to see you there!

A day in the life of

Inspired by Jon's update from the CDC, I thought I would share a little bit of my daily existence cross-country in San Diego. For those that don't know, I've been attending the Bikram Yoga Teacher Training. Its fucking crazy.

In so far as general background is concerned, there are 380 of us here (70% female, 30% male, ages ranging from 22-60, approximately 74% heavily tattooed, approximately 75% current AA or NA members), most of whom paid Bikram just under $11,000 dollars to be here. Bikram himself reminds us of that fact almost everyday in class from his dais, usually by yelling when we are in a position of maximum pain, "What you want?! I already won. I sucked your money up like a leach on your ass. Its gone. I eat it up. In&Out Burger. So now you suffer more!"

[380 milling yogis pre-class] [various ass sucking leeches]


The entire training is held in a series of gargantuan tents set up in the parking lot of the Town and Country Resort Hotel. The Town and Country Resort reminds me a lot of decay. In fact, I cannot actually imagine someone voluntarily choosing to stay at the Town and Country for a vacation. So being located in the parking lot is actually a blessing.


[gargantuan well insulated tents]

First class of the day is 8:30am (except Saturday's when it is a half-hour earlier) and yoga-related lectures, posture clinics, public speaking seminars, anatomy lessons, and yoga-therapy courses continue until close to midnight. At midnight, Bikram will usually throw on a mandatory Bollywood movie for us to watch. Bollywood movies are somewhat amazing for their total shittiness and extremely length. In five weeks we have yet to see one that is less than three hours or has even a single character whose entire motivation can't be explained by the soundtrack playing behind them. While never stated, the idea behind watching them is simply to deprive of us of sleep. When they are over, we head to bed to do it all over again.


[my evenings]

Because we have no place (and certainly no time) to cook, my diet consists mostly of raw shit and weird powdered supplements (protein powders, electrolyte powders, sea algae powders). The one exception to that is my ritual glass of sparkling grapefruit juice after the morning class.


[my breakfast on the shelf]

Bikram himself is not very shy or modest ("I created one of the most brilliant sentences ever made in the English language"; "I make Bruce Lee, I bring him to this country"; "I am 220 years old"; "I wrote the script for Superman!"; "I have giant rotating eye of Shiva, I see everything, 1 billion rotations per second"; "I go 72 hours of sex straight, my partner has 47 orgasms. We count!"), BUT is insanely lovable and charismatic nonetheless. Its pretty easy to see how he became a guru. He is also a serious flirt and a great singer, who bursts into couplets of song or poetry spontaneously.


[blurry Bikram] [characteristic garb] [orange lecture chair] [& as available from itunes]

What else? So much else (hospitalizations, hallucinations, heat, heat, heat) and the fact that somehow I am mostly enjoying myself... But I'll save that for beers when I get home. In the meantime, send some prayers, love, & email my way as I continue bending my way toward yogic bliss.

[non-yogic bliss last weekend]

Anthem

Orange Alert!

Someone needs to have a Halloween party! Or at least, someone needs to tell me about a Halloween party I can attend in costume.

This is Halloween, we can't let it slip! Any takers? Throwers?

The Iceman Beneth

proof

SUPERFUN.

Here's a thought . . .

I just had dinner with Les and Amina (go Princeton). I haven't seen them since 16 May 2001.  Crazy. I know. Given that our ten years will be up soon, I thought it might be a good time to reflect. So here's the plan: we can create a book that has little vignettes about our lives since meeting back in 1997. The consistent them throughout our individual chapters could be something like "friendships, love, and pain: Columbia grads and their connections to the Core." Think about it: it could become something added to the CC curriculum. 

Thoughts?

I'll be in the city in two hours. 

--Corner Man

DITC

A follow-up to Chili Cookoff?

Click title for more... and the 2nd most adorable dad after J-Ro.

Syl Johnson

I know this is well in advance, but we should go to this:

Friday 12/3 @ Southpaw, 9pm, $10 in advance, $15 door -
Syl Johnson w/ The Sweet Divines & The Sweet Divine Rhythm Band

The guy may be old now, but I bet he's still soooooooo smooth...

Bet between Raju and Josh Even

Josh bets Raju that R.A. dickey will Still be a starting pitcher at the start of 2014 (RA dickey must have a minimum of 3 starts in thE season). If raju wins he collects $100 from josh.

The real Burning Man

Why are some people so fucking nuts? Click the link.

Congrats CU.

[click title]

Dateline Japan

What it looks like to climb Mt Fuji, alone....

How Geisha are like bigfoot: They're so rare people aren't totally sure they exist. They are generally scared of modern man based on a tense history, and all pictures of them are blurry before they scurry off.

From the annals of badass 14 year olds... The oldest bu-do school in Japan.

From the annals of "redrum": Creepiest art award.

From the annals of hot bachelor auctions:
From the annals of Japanese technology...

From top left:

1. seriously it's a toilet and toilet paper. How many buttons do you need to wipe your ass?? Still haven't figured this out.

2. My favorite invention, conveyor belt sushi, a train that goes so fast there are exploded bird strikes on the nose cone (that blood is about 8 inches in diameter)

3. my hotel room

4. with all this technology I defend against bears with a bell...?