The 20 cars to get in my garage

Well, I've smattered this blog with my ramblings in regards to cars, so, here in one place are the twenty cars I want to have in my garage (I started with the intention of going with just the top ten, but it was near impossible to narrow it down to even these 20!). Keep in mind that practicality was not taken into consideration, although several of these cars could be driven daily.

Aston Martin DB9 (originally the V12 Vanquish)
I originally mentioned the Vanquish back in the "London Calling..." post -- this car was conceived and executed as the end all be all vehicle.

However, they've bettered themselves with the DB9. Aesthetically, it's a leaner, smoother version of the Vanquish, and I have to admit, I had a difficult time determining my preference by the day...but ultimately, the DB9 is now the Aston Martin for my garage.

The gearbox in the Vanquish was somewhat clumsy in real world use, and Aston heeded this general sentiment with the DB9. Furthermore, the DB9 is not an Aston chassis placed on a Ford platform -- it is all Aston Martin from the ground up, which is another reason why it is more preferable than the Vanquish.






Aston Martin DB9: Rear view. Note the new tail light and exhaust design.


Welcome to my office...


A tasteful blend of wood, leather, and aluminium (...damn limeys).
The satellite navigation system is neatly tucked away under the wood panel at the top of the console.


The dashboard...with watch bezel like gauges. A modern AM indeed...


BMW M5 Touring/Estate
As well, I mentioned this car back in the "Updates...Part 2" post. Not much to say, but sigh. Actually, although discontinued since 1996, I hear that BMW is examining market response to an M5 Touring/Estate based on the new chassis, and having seen what they've done with the 6 Series, I say, yes, yes, yes, please!!! There are plenty of soccor mom's and others who would love to go 0-60 in less than five seconds -- we've got errands to run!


BMW M5 Touring/Estate.


The 2005 BMW 5 Series Estate. Hard call which I would like better, actually.

Some enthusiasts may wonder why I chose this particular BMW over, say, the 2002, M1, 8-Series, Z3/4's, the ridiculously bulimic M3 CSi's, or even (especially) the Z8. First off, in my opinion, the mid-80's BMW's were the most handsome BMW's to date -- their fascia, as evidenced in my father's 635 CSi, is the quintessential BMW, a grown-up version of the 2002. That said, it came down to a matter of taste, and I can't say I'm a fan of any of the other aforementioned BMW's, save for the 2002. Even the Z8, although a fantastic car, I'm not terribly excited by its looks. However, those cars are all great cars, and I mention them here to pay them due respect.

With that said, the field became wide-open for any of the other BMW's, at least within the M'd versions. And among the M's, my personal favorite had to be the M5 Touring.


Chevrolet Corvette*
*ONLY the C1's (1953-1962), C2's (1963-1967 -- famed for the split rear window coupes in 1963), and C6's(2005-). All other model years look chintzy and cheap. I personally had to hesitate in keeping this GM product on the list, but it is part of American culture, and the modern C6 is actually a great car for the buck, probably the only car worth the money in the entire GM stable (and they're not exactly expensive cars). It really is a shame what GM has done to the Camaro, Imapala, the Hummer, all of Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick, not to mention SAAB and Suzuki. Geo was a stillborn, but at least they were honest in their marketing -- they're heaps of cowdung.

GM has consistently produced such utter wastes of steel and has habitually destroyed the core essences of iconic cars and marquees, opting instead to create disgustingly horrific pieces of junk. Do they realize that SAAB was successful primarily due to the cult following it used to have? Its association with SAAB's origins of building fighter jets is all but lost (remember the Viggen versions of SAAB's?). Also, as ugly as they'd turned the Camaro, that was one of their only signature cars left (remember the Camaro Yenko?) -- what buffoon decided to discontinue it??

Another point of contention -- they turned the Impala into a FRONT-WHEEL-DRIVE car. Their excuse for butchering this once-great sport sedan? Lowering costs through shared platforms. It's funny, because when Ford faced a similar problem while developing the Jaguar X-Type (which shares the same platform as the Mondeo/Taurus), rather than butchering the Jaguar marquee's long-standing tradition of building rear-driven cars (as any manufacturer that wants to claim to have a sporting aspect would), Ford opted to make the car all-wheel-drive -- an intelligent solution, with an obvious understanding that the short-term investment in doing so is far less costly than the potential long-term damage to the brand. So, please, explain to me why and which cretin decided to kill off the Impala, and instead badged an upscale Cavalier as one? Why does GM continue this ridiculous habit of taking badges off of great cars and putting them on far inferior cars? It's akin to, for example, Volkswagen putting Porsche 911 badges on their Jettas. Ridiculous.

Finally, what the hell was the Pontiac Aztec? How did such a monstrosity get through from the designing board where it should have died, all the way through to production? It's ironic that one of their current television commercials for GMC shows a designer tossing away various designs (which is a cool commercial ) -- in my opinion, however, they should toss out their entire line-up, grow a pair of eyes, attend design school, get an implant of taste somehow, get an injection of common-sense, and come up with decent cars worthy of the once great GM name.

The General just might regain its credo among enthusiasts if only it would spend a tiny portion of its advertising spending on designing and building cars worthy of some of its marquees' history -- the advertisers for the GM brands show a helluva lot more creativity than GM has in the past two decades...and that's not saying much.

Classic Buicks and Cadillacs were things of beauty. But marketing the current Cadillacs as groundbreaking luxury cars is like saying a sundial poses a serious threat to Rolex. Adding insult to injury, the new advertising slogan for Pontiacs is "taking over the fast lane." I beg your pardon?!? Pontiac? Fast lane?? A fast lane to the junkyard perhaps, or maybe in comparison to a fleet of Rascals, and Rascals are covered by Medicaid. They had to force feed the market with their G6's on OPRAH for chrissakes (at the risk of sounding sexist, but a show catered to women), much akin to the way they forced Pontiac exec's to drive the Aztec.

The H2 "like nothing else"? Thank goodness for THAT. We don't really need another rolling heap of design failures wholly incapable both on and off the pavement that guzzles more gas than a Kuwaiti oil-field circa 1991. The new Chevrolets as "an American revolution"? Pardon me? I believe that's a typo for "An American Revulsion." At the risk of mimicking a campaign slogan, America can most definitely do better. But again, from a business standpoint, I wholly understand why they insist on building crap and selling it en masse. It's akin to the Walmart versus even Target argument.

Irregardless, the only saving grace of GM, from a design and automotive enthusiast standpoint, has been its Holden and Subaru divisions, and the new Corvette (which looks pretty much like a Japanese coupe, save for the headlights, which look like those of Ferrari 360's and 575's). That said, the old Corvettes are fantastic cars as well, and I would take any one of the below Corvettes, but no other GM products, please.



The 1958 Corvette (C1).


The 1963 Corvette Stingray (C2) -- note the split rear window.


The 1966 Corvette (C2).


The 2005 Corvette (C6).

Dodge Charger
One word: HEMI. Very few engines have gained such notoriety in the entire automotive history. They were the heydays of big block American muscle, and the Charger, along with its Mopar Plymouth sibling, the 'Cuda, had a not-so-secret weapon: the hemispherical head. The manacing grumble and the awesome power of these beasts are utterly savage and incredibly satisfying.

The Charger, as such a car well deserves, made innumerous appeaances on film and television, including the film Bullit, and the television series, the Dukes of Hazzard (gotta love those Daisy Dukes...!) as the General Lee. One item of note that also makes me want the Charger even more: during the production of Bullit, with all its hard driving segments, although the Mustang (also mentioned below) required innumerous repairs and maintenance, the Charger required none. A true BRUTE!


The 1969 Dodge Charger.


The General Lee.

Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina Coupe Speciale
Narrowing down the Ferraris was probably the toughest thing to do for me while preparing this list. The majority of their cars are such beautiful creatures, I had trouble even narrowing it down to the 275's, the 365 GTB Daytona, and of course, the commemorative salute to Enzo Ferrari and the evolution of the F40 and F50, the Ferrari Enzo. The Dino is a bit too overdone in my opinion, although still a fine car.


Ferrari 275 GTB 2+2.


Ferrari 365 GTB Daytona.


Ferrari Enzo.

However, I've settled on the 250's, of which the California is likely the most famous for its appearance (and demise) in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. And of the 250's, I had to choose the Pininfarina Coupe Speciale -- of the Ferraris, it is not quite "in your face" masculine, with some refined touches thanks to Pininfarina. With that said, of course, I wouldn't deny admittance to any of the other Ferraris I just mentioned should they want to join my stable...!


The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California
("It is his life...it is his love..." "and it's his fault for not locking the garage.").


Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina Coupe Speciale.

Ferrari 550/575 Maranello
With all the trouble I had narrowing down the Ferraris, you might find it surprising I have another separate entry for the 550/575 Maranello. I fell in love with the car the instant I saw it, and the car has gained permanent residence in my heart.

Of the modern Ferraris, many prefer the 360's or even the brand new 612 Scaglietti, but I much prefer the 550/575, again, for its refinement. It is also somewhat reminiscent of a shark, with its "gills," and is a touring car -- meaning, it actually isn't uncomfortable to ride in, and the ride is comparatively supple (I said, "comparatively"). The Barchetta Pininfarina, as would be expected of most Pininfarina creations, is beautiful as well.


Ferrari 550 Maranello.


Ferrari 550 Barchetta Pininfarina.

Ford GT (2004/2005)
The original American supercar...part 2. Ford's "Pace Car for an Entire Company," and man, what an appropriate billing -- it's an American Ferrari contender by a large multi-national company, that shows its commitment to inspiring cars, and a gutsy move by Ford -- I fully applaud Ford for going ahead with the production of this car (despite its minimal financial success in regard to the car).

If I remember right, back in the 60's, Ford made a bid to buy into Ferrari and lost the bid to FIAT (Fix It Again Tony) -- probably out of Italian nationalism. I can't blame them -- Ferraris have been one of the best Italian symbols, and to have a foreign owner would be almost sacrilege. It would be akin to having a German owner into, say, Coca Cola (thinking off the cuff here...).

Irregardless, when Ford was shunned, they decided to build their own supercar, and the GT40 was born. Although they haven't really advertised it much, the 2004 version of the car is superb -- some die-hards would shun at the idea of owning a non-original, but I personally prefer the 2004. Some would argue that the Dodge Viper or the Saleen S7 are the modern day American supercars, but the Viper is a Cobra (see below) ripoff, and the Saleen S7...ok, well, that is a pretty sweet car too, but all the vents and other design elements bother me -- it looks somewhat "gadgety."


Ford GT (2004).

Jaguar E-Type
Come on. How can I NOT have this car in my stable -- it is THE quintessential sports car that ALL auto-designers must study as part of Automotive Design 101, as clearly evidenced by its permanent presence in MoMA. An enormously powerful and fast car in its day (the Series III had a V12, pitting it against the Ferraris and Lamborghinis), it was an instant classic, and its lines still remain fresh today. Even Jaguar themselves couldn't really top this design (at least, officially -- see below), and instead created the XK, which is also a nice car. However, given Ford's recent ownership into both Jaguar and Aston Martin, the modern XK shares the same platform as the DB7 and the Vanquish -- I obviously would have to choose the Vanquish over the XK.

Nevertheless, the E-Type. No photograph could do its sensuous lines justice, the lines befitting its feline namesake. Somewhat effeminate yet incredibly powerful, the lines of this car will always be regarded as one of the pinnacles of automotive art -- its staying power is evidenced by its continuing roles in various media even today (most recently in a Kleenex television commercial). I'll take my Shaguar (as Austin Powers refers to his E-Type) in British Racing Green, baby!


The profile of the Jaguar E-Type...inducing purring from grown men worldwide.


A Series I Jaguar E-Type (note the turn-signal lamp location).


The Jaguar E-Type Series III.
I'll take the small compromise in design elements for the V12!

Jaguar XJ220
I've always enjoyed tales like the Skunkworks at Lockheed Martin or the PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) at Xerox, the small group of brilliant minds who worked without full endorsement of their employers to revolutionize an entire industry or the lives of all people.

In that vein, a small group of engineers at Jaguar, without their employer's express knowledge or permission conceived and created the XJ220 -- and are we enthusiasts so very happy about it. Just will you look at this car??? Sadly, the car has yet to be mass manufactured, since all of this took place before Ford bought Jaguar...which also gives hope that Ford might wise up to actually getting this car to production, building on its recent production of the GT40.



The Jaguar XJ220.

Lamborghini Miura
Although the Countach gained much of the popular fame for this Italian tractor company, I am neither a fan of the Countach or any of its modern day creations, despite Audi and thereby Volkswagen's ownership. In my opinion, Lamborghini's best car was the Miura, hands down.


Lamborghini Miura.

Lotus Exige/Elise
Lotus hadn't done much in quite some time, ailed by one financial trouble after another -- they've even exited the Formula 1 world with no word as to when exactly they might return.

Lotus was famed for its Seven, Elan and the Esprit (which made an appearance in a James Bond flick) -- the Esprit, for a long time, was the only supercar with a four cylinder engine until recently when they doubled cylinders. I will say that the knife-like design of the Esprit, although almost 30 years old, still looks modern.

However, in recent years, they went back to the original sports car formula and created the Elise, a magnificent piece of the quintessential sports car -- super lightweight, bordering on go-cart, bonded aluminium (are ya happy, ya Limeys?) chassis mated to a peppy, lightweight engine to create a vehicle that has caused a huge stir on European shores (they haven't made it to the States yet), which also is helping to revive the Lotus brand again.

The Exige is a vicious version of the tamer, smiley-faced Elise, with increased horsepower and even stiffer suspension. Any sports car enthusiast could not go without an Elise or an Exige in their garage -- its place in mine will always be secure. However, I should share that it really was a tough call between the Elise/Exige and the Caterham Super Seven.


Lotus Exige.

Mazda RX8
Having said what I just said, some might be surprised to see that the Miata didn't make it onto my list, but if we're talking sheer performance, there is no argument that the Elise/Exige would do circles around any Miata. That said, the Miata is much better suited for every day driving (the Elise/Exige is as scantily clad as a Playmate), but I wouldn’t buy it for myself.

That said, I had to include a rotary-engine motivated car in the lineup, and what better car than the RX8. The RX7 in its day engendered a cult-like following, and the RX8 maintains the RX7 spirit, betters it, and then makes it even more practical for daily use. Unlike GM, this is another chip on Ford's shoulders, along with their achievements with Volvo, Aston Martin, and Jaguar.



Mazda RX8.

McLaren F1
Sigh. Ogle. Drool. Sigh. What's that? It's ten years old in design, yet is still the fastest production car? Blood boiling. Sigh.


The McLaren F1 -- notice the cockpit/driver's seat in the center.


The McLaren F1.

Addendum: So, I've been told that the McLaren F1 is technically no longer the fastest road car. The title now goes to the Swedes, by the Koenigsegg -- 0-60 in three seconds flat, with a top speed of (a claimed) 245 m.p.h.



The Koenigsegg.
I guess it then becomes a matter of taste, and, as much as I love the Swedes and their "jovial" nature (more on this coming soon), I still would have to go with the McLaren. The McLaren engine bay is inlaid in gold (for heat dissipation), and THAT is quite the sight. Sorry for being superficial, but again, this IS my blog =P


MG 1952 TD
I hate to admit it -- the only reason that the 1952 MG TD made it on the list rather than a classic Bugatti, Duesenberg, Austin Healey, Morgan, Packard, Hispano-Suiza, Studebaker, Pierce-Arrow, and others is simply because one of my ex-girlfriends' stepfather had one of these. However, that shouldn't detract from the fact that this is in fact a beautiful car with classic lines.


The 1933 Packard 1005 Coupe Roadster. One of my favorites.


A late 1930's Bugatti...another series of favorites...


The 1952 MG TD.

Mini Cooper S MC40 (or, Monte Carlo 40th Anniversary)
There's been a recent Mini-mania on the rise again, and I personally think the world is a better place because of it. According to some enthusiasts, this choice might induce groans, but of the quirky cars that caused a stir in its day (i.e., the Volkswagen Beetle, the Citroen 2CV, etc.), the Mini doesn't have the Hitler stigma, nor is it French.

That said, Minis were a (quirky...14 inch wheels!) sensation in its day, and despite the modern day regulations, BMW has done a tremendous job in maintaining the image, or dare I say, even exceeding it? The interior is much more livable (surprisingly spacious and almost luxurious despite its size), and it drives as a lightweight car with wheels at its extreme corners should -- as though it's on rails. I was already in love with the modern iteration, when I found out that they were making a Monte Carlo rally commemorative edition of only 1,000.


The Mini Cooper S that won the 1964 Monte Carlo.

Ever since I'd begun driving (and I have plenty of unfortunate passengers to attest to this), I have been a huge fan of rallies. It is one of the things I would like to do before I move on -- to do any or all of the Paris-Drakkar, Baja, or the Monte Carlo rallies myself. With that said, I think it is obvious why I want the Cooper S MC40.


Mini Cooper S MC40.

Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34)
As much as I respect the intentions of the U.S. safety and emissions regulations, and as much as I respect Nissan as a company, the auto enthusiasts in the U.S. were completely deprived of this Japanese gem. Although Nissan badges the new Infiniti G35 as the new Skyline, and as nice a car as it may be, I refuse to accept this.

The older Skyline GT-R's are revered as the best Japanese sports coupes, and their reputation is epic in certain circles -- their four-wheel steering, sheer drivability, and their engines have been legendary for well over a decade at this point (tuners have been able to get over 1,000 bhp -- yes, one THOUSAND brake horsepower -- out of the old Skyline...can the G35 handle that? Can the G35 handle THAT??? Highly doubtful).

The car made a brief appearance in 2 Fast 2 Furious, but this is, hands down, the best Japanese rice rocket ever produced, edging out the Honda/Acura NSX, Honda/Acura Integra Type R, Honda Prelude VTEC SH, Honda S2000, Mitsubishi Lancer EVO, Subaru Impreza WRX STi, Toyota Supra, and other "tuner" cars, into my garage.


Nissan Skyline GTR (R34).


Note the quad, "angry" tail lights, the view most seen by anyone who dared challenge the Skyline.

Porsche 356 Speedster
Again, another marquee I had a very difficult time paring down. Despite Hitler's involvement in the origins of this marquee, they are fantastic, world-class sports coupes, and the merits far outweigh the stigma. The 911 silhouette is one of THE most recognizable form in all of automtive design, and they've done a fantastic job in maintaining that shape while keeping the design fresh and current. However, I will say, I am excited for the return of the round headlights in the coming year.

Even among the 911's, it's near impossible to narrow down to a single model among the Carreras (2's and 4's), the Turbos (the Whaletail, Ducktail, and the current versions), and the Targas (especially the recent iterations with the partially retractable glass roof). However, seeing that I already am in possession of a 911 (see my previous post, Updates...Part 2), I had to carefully consider the other Porsches: the iconic 914; the brawny 928; and the poor man's Porsches 912, 924, 944, and 968.

When it came to finalizing my pick, however, I chose the oldest and newest Porsches: the 356 and the Carerra GT (featured below). The 356 Speedster is famed for its association with James Dean, but the car truly is a beauty, and the shape is so simple and elegant that, at least among my age group, every kid when we drew a sports car, it was shaped like this (or maybe like the Ferrari Dino).


Porsche 356 Speedster.

Porsche Carrera GT
How do you better the Porsche 911? You can't, and trust me, Porsche has tried time and time again. But, just as you think they'd given up by sticking to twin-turbocharging its 911's with the GT3, they came up with this.

Mid-engined roadster with 0-60 of 3.8. A 10-cylinder engine with the signature Porsche mechanical howl. Need I say more?


Porsche Carrera GT.

Shelby Cobra
Another iconic car, and most likely one of the, if not THE, most replicated car of all time. As a matter of fact, Brad Felix and I were talking about the virtues of getting a Factory Five versus an original, just over this past weekend -- one of his friends is one of the owners of Factory Five.

If you care about your calves, you should either wear a pair of jeans or be somewhat acrobatic in exiting this car, but while in the car, you get the best merger of the classic British sports car (again: lightweight, rear-drive, and open-air) and American sheer power. A classic and a must-have.


The Shelby Cobra.

Shelby GT500
To be completely honest, I wasn't familiar with this car until its appearance in Gone in 60 Seconds (as "Eleanor"). But, I've lusted after this car ever since. Save for the late 80's to early 90's models (the flounder-like Taurus, the chintzy-looking Mustangs of that era, the Escort, etc.) that looked like they fell off the ugly tree Ford had forgotten to trim, hitting every single branch on the way down, and having that tree fall on them, Mustangs have generally been handsome cars, but this is likely the best of them all. Obviously, Ford felt the same way when designing their brand new Mustangs, as evidenced by the similarities that can be clearly seen in comparison.


The Shelby GT500.


The 2005 Ford Mustang.


So, those are the 20 (or thereabouts) cars I would want in my garage. Some might be surprised I don't have a single Audi, Bugatti, Mercedes, Rolls, Bentley, Rover, Maserati, or Alfa (or other smaller makes like Lancia, TVR, Panoz, and Pagani), but like I said, it was tough getting the list even down to these and these are according to my taste.

I will say that the decision not to include any Audis was especially difficult, as was narrowing down the Rolls-Royces, Bugattis, and Bentleys. With the last three marquess, it was naer impossible to narrow down to one of each marquee, much less to one among those three marquees. However, I should mention I only like the Rolls-Royces and Bentleys up to 1965 or so; and for Bugatti, for obvious reasons since I don't like their new Veyron or the EB, the pre-WWII models. Even then, however, it was too difficult to narrow the field down.

So, at the risk of infuriating Rolls and Bentley purists, I will mention the Rolls-Royce Phantom and the Bentley Continental GT instead (I realize it's abominable to some to even call the current Rolls a Rolls, but I did pay homage to the classics with the proper engines!).


The 2004 Rolls Royce Phantom. Note the door-handles designed as a single element.


The 2004 Bentley Continental GT.

Both perfectly nice cars, but in my taste, they leave something more to be desired. Also, at the risk of sounding somewhat snobbish, Bentleys have now become the car of choice for rap stars...given my opinion on rap in general (save for the culturally revolutionary days of Run DMC, Public Enemy, etc.), I would hesitate to get one or be seen in one, unless it is a classic Bentley -- of which I had enormous difficulty narrowing down, like I mentioned.

In light of what I said in regards to BMW's, it may seem I am contradicting myself in regards to Bentleys, yet, modern Bentleys are no longer standouts among this tier of automobiles. With that said, were I have to choose among today's athletic "coach" cars, I would have to vie, hands down, for the Maybach 62.


The Maybach 62.

I realize the exterior isn't that unique or quite as elegant as, say, those of Bugattis, Rolls, or Bentleys. However, what sold me on the Maybach is the interior:


The interior of the Maybach 62.

That, my friends, is a throne on wheels...that whisks you effortlessly from 0-60 in just over 5. What's not visible are the 17-inch displays mounted in the back of the two front seats that you can plug your laptop into, or watch television or DVD's. To the Maybach dealership, Jeeves!


Addendum: Trucks/SUV's
A notable suggestion was expressed to me by Pete Capozzoli, pointing to an omission of trucks/SUV's from my list. Although most vehicles badged as "SUV's" are simply glorified minivans and truck bodies put on passenger car frames (I will concede that even the BMW X5 I enjoyed driving falls in this category), there are most definitely some vehicles worth mentioning.

With that said, I'll start with the honorable mentions. The Ford Bronco, Chevrolet Blazer, and the Jeep Cherokee were the originators of the current fad, and they were fantastic cars, each in their days. Of the three, the Jeep has maintained its status somewhat, namely because Chrysler (wisely) has opted to maintain the original line of Cherokees while badging its less specialized and more mass-consumed sibling as the Grand Cherokee. Jeep has also maintained its production (again, wisely) of the Wrangler, which is the grandfather to one of my finalists.

Similarly, of the Big Three, were I to buy a truck, it would be a tough choice between the Ford F150-350's and Dodge Ram 1500-3500's. Just as the Dodge lures me away with the HEMI, the Ford lulls me back with its refined interior, and its Triton is no chopped liver.

I should mention that the Japanese did fairly well in this area as well -- Nissan/Datsun had made some great trucks as well as Toyota. Of the modern Nissans, the Titan is nice, but, the outdoors fan that I am, I've always been intrigued by their X-Terra, and their Infiniti FX is a funky, interesting vehicle as well. Then there's the Toyota Land Cruiser, which is the vehicle of choice among adventurers in the roughest terrains all over the globe, as anyone who has been in the Amazon, the Sahara, Antarctica, or near the North Pole will attest.



The Toyota Land Cruiser during an Alaska to Alabama run.

Of course, in the advertising world, Land Rover attempts to make such claim with its Range Rover, and although they have made great vehicles even before Ford's ownership, the Toyota Land Cruiser still remains king in this area. However, Land Rover did make one vehicle which has made it among my finalists: the Defender.


The Land Rover Defender.

The Defender is one tough vehicle, and is one of the very few vehicles that can almost claim to be as favored as the Toyota Land Cruiser. My freshman year roommate at Tufts, John Kolb, had a classic version of these, with well over 200,000 miles, and an "antique" hand-cranked engine.

I should mention that Land Rover is ANOTHER marquee Ford has done a fantastic job with. It should come as no surprise to you that, of the Big Three, I am a fan of Ford for sundry reasons, but I should mention one of the reaons is because they are the only one of the Big Three that is actively involved in Formula 1 -- of the ten Formula 1 teams, Ford has a hand in no less than three (through Jaguar and Ford-Cosworth), which is more than any manufacturer. Of course, Ford has a strong presence in other aspects of motorsports, including, of course, the World Rally Championships.

Nevertheless, in that toughness and off-road worthiness vein, the AM General (most definitely NOT the GM version) Humvee had to be among the finalists. A modern day replacement to the Jeep (or, G.P., as in General Purpose) and originally conceived for military use, this is a fantastically tough vehicle.


The AM General Humvee Slantback.

Of course, just as GM has done with various marquees and models time and time again (in stark contrast to Ford), this vehicle has since been neutered into a poorly conceived and executed glorified minivan that scores of men who couldn't get a Hummer otherwise flock to (I know...that was just too easy. But, it is almost ridiculously comical that all H2's I see have always had New Jersey plates). Thankfully, in my neighborhood is the Armory, where real Humvees in various setup constantly line the street -- they ooze with that efficient masculinity only such a specialized, purpose-built vehicle could emit.

With all of that said, however, the ultimate truck/SUV to make it into my garage has to be the Mercedes-Benz Gelandewagen (or, G-Class) G55 AMG.


The Merxedes-Benz "Gelandewagen" G55 AMG.

A good choice for someone like me, who will likely hardly go to the extremes of Antarctica, Iraqi deserts, and the Amazon. Not to say that the G-Class isn't off-road capable -- it most certainly is: its three differentials (rear, center, and front) can be adjusted on the fly with a flick of three simple buttons, and it has 7,000 lbs. of towing capacity, which is slightly less than a Humvee, but significantly higher than an H2.

Furthermore, not only does the G55 AMG have a higher towing capacity than the H2, it has more cargo capacity, has a higher payload capacity, has a higher climbing and descending capability, is less likely to roll over, posts faster 0-60 times, all the while is significantly more fuel efficient. Can someone PLEASE explain to me what merit the H2 possesses, if any exist???

That said, this all should come as no surprise since the retail value of the H2 is less than half of the original Humvee (testament to GM's continuing policy of selling far inferior products while badging them with recognizable brands...akin to the "designer" goods often found on Canal Street, where there is no way anyone in their right minds would purchase such utter crap were they not branded as such).

In stark contrast to the H2, the original Humvee beats the G55 AMG in all aspects save for 0-60 times and fuel efficiency. The original Humvee will also likely retain its resale value almost as well as the G55. However, where the G55 AMG has all other SUV's and trucks trumped is in its craftsmanship. As would be expected of a hand-crafted Mercedes-Benz, the interior is nothing short of lush, comfortably seating six in a lap of luxury (e.g., custom premium leather and walnut upholstry; GPS/Navigation system with a large, color LCD screen; 9-speaker Harman/Kardon audio system with a six-CD changer; MB's Tele-Aid -- an upscale version of OnStar that can make reservations, send flowers, run a self-diagnostic of the car remotely, etc.; rain sensing wipers; park assist; smart key; heated seats; and so on and on).


The interior of the G55


The driver's seat of the G55 AMG

In that vein, because they are each hand-built, its limited number in production also makes the G-Series that much more desirable -- on top of which, the version I want, the G55 AMG, is tweaked further by the famed Benz tuners, increasing its horsepower and agility (along with even more exclusivity). This is a vault on wheels that can be deceptively agile, that can haul any two of the abovementioned coupes in tow. A lovely thought indeed...!

Updates...Part 2

To continue with updates from the past month or so...

Visiting Westchester with a Volvo S40 & the BMW 635 CSi

A couple of weeks ago, my father had taken out a Volvo S40 for a day because he had to go to the UL office in Melville, NY. We've been using the ZipCar service, since my father had to sell his beloved BMW 635 CSi (pictured below) when they moved into the city.


My father's BMW 635CSi.

As the name denotes, the 635 CSi has a 3.5 liter engine, and man...this thing was engineered to be driven, as are all BMW's (even the X5, which I drove over New Year's Eve). It's unfortunate that there is such a "status" associated with BMW's, since that reputation tends to overshadow their reputation as fantastic vehicles to drive -- they had the formula down a long time ago, and haven't strayed since...that direct connection to your CNS, and the cars literally feel like a (powerful) direct extension of your own body.

It should come as no surprise that one of the cars I would love to have in my garage (more on this coming soon to a post near you...) would most definitely have to be the BMW M5 Estate (or station wagon), which is not available on these shores the last time I checked -- it's one of those stealth vehicles wherein it looks like your standard soccer mom station wagon...except it does 0-60 in less than 5. Plus, the wagon has a better weight distribution than the sedan, so, it actually corners better than the sedan...!

Needless to say, I am very sad about the fact that my father had to sell the 635CSi, since both my father and I loved this car. My favorite story is when I took it for a drive for the first time, on a trip to Boston to visit some people with Pascal Buckley. It was a demonstration of the fact that these cars were raised on the German Autobahns -- on the Merrit Parkway, some souped up rice rocket recognized the car and challenged us. As some of you may know, the Merrit, although the pavement itself is generally in great condition, was once a stream that was turned into a parkway and has innumerous curves. As such, I usually wouldn't have taken the challenge.

However, I was curious about exactly what the car was capable of, so I took the challenge on and let my right foot sink. Man...did we wake a beast and did we ever smoke him. Like I mentioned, these cars were bred on the Autobahns, and once the car hit 70MPH, everything hunkered down, and the car actually began to work perfectly. Every corner exit was rewarded by an incredibly satisfying growl of the inline six that seemed to slingshot us through the remainder of the turn...it's an addicting sensation. But, alas...

Irregardless, I must say, ZipCar is a fantastic service for people like us who only need a car occasionally -- it's a membership based time-share of cars parked at various garages all over the city, which in of itself is a pretty good idea, but the execution (by MIT graduates) is excellent, and they have fantastic cars -- everything from the low-end, the VW Golf’s and Scions, to Mini's and BMW's. In addition, because it's almost like an advertisement for the car, they tend to get the spec'd out versions of the cars.

Since my father was already done with the S40 and I had to move my old computer to my parents' apartment anyway (I forgot to mention I just got a brand new computer, with an AMD 64-bit chip), I took the Volvo out for a quick drive.

I'd admired Volvo in general for its design achievements in recent years, but I hadn't actually driven one. I knew Volvos had unique, five cylinder engines, so I was expecting a little more pep than a four, but the S40 definitely surprised me by just how quick it is -- its turbo spooled up so gradually that I had to double-check under the hood to see if there was a turbocharger. However, because this S40 was front wheel drive (and not all-wheel drive version), there was a bit of understeer...yet somehow, there was almost no torque steer -- I'm thinking they may have put in some type of a differential...?

Nevertheless, I went out to my parents' house in Westchester, where Caspar's daughters had set up tents in the backyard to get psyched up for their upcoming camping trip. Absolutely adorable. I then swung by my junior and high school, Rye Country Day.

When I attended Rye Country Day back in '86-'91, it was already a fairly well-endowed school -- we had our own performing arts center with state-of-the-art equipment (this is where they'd made the announcement we were in war with Iraq, back in 1991, when George senior was in office), and we had our own skating rink (my first hockey days).

However, they have done a tremendous amount of work even since. They'd gotten permission from the City of Rye to reroute a road, and have rebuilt the lower school's auditorium, leveled the two fields into one gigantic field (and I mean gigantic -- you can barely see the other end of the field now), and built a whole new sports complex. I thought Choate was like a college campus, but Rye Country Day is getting there -- the only thing missing are dormitory buildings...!


A Stuttgart-Born Beauty: My 1972 Porsche 911 Targa

That aside, I also went to visit my 1972 Porsche 911 Targa that's been sitting in Scarsdale for over a decade at this point. It is still sitting at the only garage my parents used to go to, since the proprietor always did excellent work. One summer, while home from college and picking up a car for my father, I’d begun talking with him.

I already knew that he was a true car fan -- over the course of time I’d been there at the garage, he had a Lotus, several M3’s and M5’s, an old Ferrari, a London cab, and other various assortment of interesting and beautiful cars. I’d also noticed over those years that there was one car that hadn’t moved, under a tarp.

I asked him what it was, and he told me that it was a 1972 Porsche 911 Targa. He then took the tarp off of it and asked me: “do you want it?” I looked at him with some disbelief: “what do you want for it?” “Do you want it?” “Well, of course! But what about the owner?”

He then went on to explain that the owner had left it at the garage almost ten years prior to then (and this conversation took place about 13 years ago), since the owner was moving to Europe due to some emergency, and was having have to sell it in a hurry. The owner had left it at the garage and had left it to the proprietor’s discretion to sell it at a reasonable price.

The owner had bought it with the intention of keeping it as a collector’s car, so he had hardly driven it –- the odometer reads barely over 50,000 miles, and that is an authentic reading, as gauged by the wear on the engine. The truth about German cars of that era is that, once the cars are driven over 25,000 miles is about when the car begins to function smoothly, since they engineer the parts so precisely that the wear actually helps the engine.

So the internals were in perfect condition. The proprietor’s assistant went ahead and did some basic maintenance and a tune-up on the car, then took it out for a test spin. He’d taken it out on the Saw Mill (another river cum highway), when it began to drizzle. Now, what people love and hate about 911’s is that the car is a rear-engine/rear-drive car, which means that the majority of the car’s weight is in the rear, which makes it a tremendously spin happy car.

Sure enough, the assistant spun it out on the Saw Mill and crashed it into a tree. Thankfully, this did no damage to the mechanicals of the car -- only the front end crashed into the tree, and since the front of the car is just the trunk and the front wheels with the 911, the car was able to be driven from the scene. These cars are ridiculously tough, near indestructible -- I once saw footage of a man pouring 32% hydrochloric acid on its engine, crashing it into a building, and shooting at it with a shotgun from point blank range...and the thing still drove fine.

Irregardless, the proprietor was willing to give it to me for free, since it is likely going to cost me as much as the value of the car to restore it to good condition. With that said, however, it is a beautiful car. Below are pictures of the same exact car, except mine is red and has some modifications to the exhaust system (it has four tailpipes exiting at the center of the rear, rather than the single tailpipe toward the left) and to the bumpers (mine has the classic -- not the cheesy -- thin, chrome metallic bumpers).


The 1972 Porsche 911 Targa.

I am very fond of the elegant arc that flows from the headlight to the taillight in one single stroke, just as I am fond of the classic metallic "roll bar" with the "shark gill" vents, the "Targa" script, and the "domed" rear window. A nice design solution that saved the U.S. regulations from completely defacing the Cabriolet. In that vein, also note the absence of ugly rubber or plastic bumpers, which began to appear with the 1973 model, as required by U.S. regulations.


Another view.

1972 was the first year Porsche introduced fuel injection...albeit the engine size still at a relatively paltry 2.34 liters, which was badged as a 2.4 (still a bump up from the previous year, this time thanks to the U.S. emissions regulations). However, when the fact that the vehicle weighed barely over 2000 pounds is taken into consideration, the 911 Targa is directly in accordance with the classic definition of a sports car, as coined by the English: lightweight, rear-driven, and open-air.


Cheesy press photo...gotta love the '70's...

It's a bit of a bitter reminder that this car is still where it is primarily because of the fact I invested all of my money into FUEL new york, conned by that buffoon, Jeremy Tick. However, one of the very few good things that came out of FUEL new york is an encounter with another Stuttgart-born beauty of similar age, who enjoys BMW's as much as I do -- I'll get to that in another post soon to come.

But before I do, continuing with the updates...


The Isamu Noguchi Museum & MoMA QNS

The Sadao family recently invited us out to the Isamu Noguchi Museum, and Mr. Sadao, as one of the board members there, gave us a personal tour, going into the history of each piece. Aside the fact that the museum itself is a fantastic piece of art (Noguchi also designed the museum itself) and a pleasure to tour, what was great about this tour is that Mr. Sadao actually knew Isamu Noguchi, and the tour was that much more personal in that sense (I don't know if I mentioned that, on that Fourth of July gathering at their residence, Noguchi's mistress was in attendance).

The museum itself, as I mentioned, is a pleasure to tour, simply because the range of the work displayed is incredible (from consumer products, to architecture, to set pieces for theater, to conceptual sculptures), and the work is arranged precisely in the spirit of Noguchi, how he intended them to be. I'm not saying this out of favoritism or partiality, because I am Japanese, but I must say, until this visit, Brancusi was my favorite modern sculptor. Noguchi's work is far more sophisticated, organic, and intelligent, in my opinion, and he has now become my favorite modern sculptor/artist.

After a light lunch at the museum, we headed over to MoMA QNS for the Tall Buildings exhibit (the web site is VERY well done, so you might want to take a look). I personally liked the EDF and Swiss Reinsurance buildings, but it was interesting to talk about how Noguchi's design is essentially mimicked on the new WTC design -- according to Mr. Sadao, the LMDC (or someone involved with the design process) did contact him about it.

It was a pleasant, stimulating day, and on the drive back into Manhattan, we made it our mission to see the Steinway factory some time in the near future. I’ve been meaning to go there, since it has been my mission to buy back the baby grand my father also sold in the process of moving into Manhattan -- hopefully, I’ll be in a position to buy my father a grand piano by then...!


The Only Good Red Sox Hat / Birthday Weekend at Felix’

Andrew Farnsworth, Patty Ryan, and I finally got around to getting those hats made. Not much to say about it, except to say we’re all very much excited about them, and that it has been a great way to tell who are real Yankees fans (or who are fans of the Red Sox or baseball in general) and who are just wearing a Yankees hat.

True Yankees fans immediately respond by asking where I got the hat and think the hats are hilarious -- for example, Marty Spanninger is getting several made, for herself, her son Nicky, and for two of her friends in Boston who are Red Sox fans, as a gesture of our generosity. Those who are just wearing a Yankees hat respond by “Red Sox suck!” which is precisely the point of the hat.

Nevertheless, this past weekend was what is quickly becoming an annual tradition, celebrating Shug Hanemann and Brad Felix’ birthdays at the Felix house in the Hamptons. There were many Tuftonians in attendance, including: Natasha Long, who had stopped in on her way to San Francisco from London; Neil Foster and his now wife, Laleh Bashirrad (by a total small world coincidence, her sister, Evita had come by the party...she, her now husband, Steven Zell, and I had worked together at methodfive/Xceed some four years ago, and we hadn’t seen each other since, so you can only imagine the surprise); Liz Murphy-Siddiqi & Allison Oshinsky, both sans their significant others, who had to WORK; Pete Capozzoli, with whom I always end up talking cars because he loves them as much as I do; and Samantha Wood, who was as hilarious as always, and was cracking me up because she told her employer she would handle one more case before she left the company...and it turned out to be the Carlyle Group.

While lounging by the pool, some of the women (at the risk of being sexist) asked me why I’m wearing a Red Sox hat, because they thought I was as about a die-hard New Yorker as they get. So, to explain the hat...and it goes back to the Babe, Babe Ruth.

Nee George Herman Ruth in Baltimore, the orphan boy had a nickname: the Bambino. He was an excellent pitcher, and was a Red Sox pitcher during the 1918 World Series, the last World Series the Red Sox ever won. Two seasons later, Harry Frazee, the owner of the Red Sox, sold the Bambino to the New York Yankees for $120,000 (according to some lore, to buy some nice gifts for his girlfriend).

Although some bitter Red Sox fans will claim that the New York Yankees hadn't won a World Series yet while claiming that the Red Sox had won five at that point, I should mention that if the Red Sox fans want to count the victory that the Boston Pilgrims as one of their wins, then the Yankees can claim that the New York Giants win should be counted as well. The most important point is, however, the Red Sox haven’t won a World Series ever since 1918, and this phenomena has since been dubbed by some as the Curse of the Bambino.

With that in mind, Red Sox fans often break out into a “Yankees SUCK!” chant, even when they’re not playing the Yankees, but I think this is somewhat misguided -- had I been a Red Sox fan in some odd universe, I personally would have skinned Frazee and asked for his head on a stake. Instead, the morons that the Red Sox fans are, they blame the Yankees.

When the lost souls do break into the "Yankees suck" chant at the Temple, the House that Babe Built, Yankees Stadium, Yankees fans generally respond with “Nine-Teen-Eight-eeen” as a reminder of the fact that the Red Sox haven’t won a World Series since that year (the longest streak in the entire league, only behind the Chicago Cubs, who haven’t won since 1908...but Cubs fans are far, far less obnoxious than Red Sox fans) -- in that vein, Red Sox fans also hate to hear about the Curse of the Bambino.

These two facts combine to the fact that die-hard Yankees fans think that the hat I just designed is the most hilarious thing they’ve ever seen -- not only does it desecrate a Red Sox hat, it’s a reminder of the curse, topped by the statement that the Red Sox has been a (great) Yankees farm team since 1918 (various great players that somehow mistakenly ended up on the Red Sox roster always ended up finding their way to their rightful place on the Yankees roster, most recently, Alex Rodriguez).

In that vein, I hate to be so spiteful, but you look at the Red Sox roster, and have to ask: have they heard of personal hygiene in Boston? Damon and Ramirez both have the most disgusting hair, and Damon in particular looks Neanderthal. I’m not sure if too many people are aware of this, and this is part of the reason I am a fan of the Yankees. First of all, in order to put on a pinstripe, you have to be clean shaven and short haired. Second of all, your name doesn’t appear on the uniform, because the Yankees are about the team first.

These facts are aside from the superior level of talent you have to possess -- it is funny because, when Alex Rodriguez was with the Texas Rangers, he was a megastar, yet, now that he is with the Yankees, he kind of simply blends in. To make a similar comparison, when Soreano was with the Yankees, he was well-liked among the team and the fans, but as a player, he didn’t get a tenth of the attention he is getting now on the Texas roster. It was funny because during the All-Star Game, during an interview, Soreano was asked: “How did you enjoy the game?” and his response was: “oh, it was fantastic...it was like playing with the Yankees again.” Case in point.


Nevertheless, that’s all the updates for now...I must go enjoy the Olympics!

Updates..

Contrary to popular concern, I haven't been butchered by Red Sox fans due to my last post (as if they could, especially now that they don't even have Garciapara...yeah, yeah, yeah, Ramirez and Damon, blah, blah, blah...catch up to the Yankees this season and we'll take their call; win a World Series, we'll actually talk; and if, somehow in some deranged parallel universe, they win half as many World Series as the Yankees have, we'll have some drinks...on their tab.

Anyhow, to important matters, as it's already been a month since my last update on the happenings...how time flies -- I guess I'll do a quick highlight, the bulk of which will be around Jake Sherman and Shawna Wakefield’s wedding.

Jake Sherman & Shawna Wakefield’s wedding

The weekend after Independence Day was the wedding, in Mendon, Vermont, as I mentioned in a previous post. It's always nice to get away from the city, and as much as Vermont is often referred to somewhat beratingly as a "Hippie State," you can hardly blame the hippies for moving there -- the Green Mountains are a fantastic sight, and the skiing there is some of the best in the Northeast -- my first ski lesson was at Mount Snow when I was three, and between Mount Snow, Killington, Stratton, Stowe, Mad River, and Pico, I would have to say 60% of my lifetime skiing has been in Vermont -- otherwise I've ski'd in Colorado, California, New York (mostly at Lake Placid, a.k.a. "Iceface" Mountain. where one of our high school teacher had a lodge), New Hampshire, Maine, and Japan...none in New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Switzerland or France as of yet...

Speaking of skiing, by a total coincidence, the Wakefield estate in Mendon was right down the street from where I'd spent a lot of winter weekends for quick skiing getaways in high school -- Pico Mountain. Now a part of the Killington mountains, but a fun hill to ski, especially for the season opener to get rid of the rust, both literally and figuratively -- it was also one of the most convenient ski getaways, since the house we would stay in was right on the mountain -- we'd ski and get a feel for the snow before actually purchasing the lift tickets...irregardless, needless to say, we didn't really need a map to get there since all the roads came back to me.

We were some of the earliest Tufts arrivals, just behind the Guster guys, Brian Rosenworcel and Ryan Miller, but we were still a little too late for the dinner at the Vermont Inn. Although the dinner itself was outdoors, we went indoors to the bar -- it was a tad chilly outdoors. It was nice to catch up with everyone, but being in a ski lodge made me feel as though we were in a bad beer commercial (does anyone remember those CB sweaters, with the white dots on navy or red?). Chris Harmon, Allison Oshinsky, Eva Hatch, Christy Spitzer, Sean Love, and Omar and Liz Siddiqi arrived soon after to complete the Tufts contingent.

We were having a great time, catching up and betrothed in our usual tomfoolery, until the barkeep had to close the bar to go to sleep, at which point we moved the party to our condo we’d rented for the weekend (which reminded all of us who reside in New York how ridiculously expensive living in New York really is...we’d gotten a huge three-bedroom condo for the eight of us for the weekend for $450!!! That’s barely $30 a night per person in a large amount of space, and even taking into account that it was the summer rate, it was just a painful reminder...).

As usual, we were having a great time with the typical shenanigans to be expected of us, until we found a board game called Battle of the Sexes. Almost offensively type-cast in the modern-day (still overly) “P.C.” America, the game was hilariously entertaining...but again, it could have been the company -- after all, it was the same crowd that used to watch Melrose Place and made the show actually bearable and actually kind of entertaining by gambling on what was going to happen in the episodes; and to those who remember, whenever they would go to commercial, they would show a freeze-frame from the segment just shown, so we would hedge bets on which screenshot it would be. Losers, I know.

Anyhow, the game -- I won’t get into minute details of how the game works, but the synopsis is: you split the teams into men vs. women, and you take cards from the stack to ask the opposite sex a question that is very stereotypically male or female oriented knowledge (e.g., sports, power tools, cars for men; cooking, fashion, and cosmetics for women) -- if the opposite sex knows the answer, they get to move their piece and whoever makes it to the opposite sex’ end wins the game.


Battle of the Sexes

It was a fun(ny) night, one of the highlights being Sean Love’s answer to a question that befuddled most of us: “what three spices are in the commonly used spice, ‘All Spice’?” I should preface this by saying that Sean has always been one of the sharpest guys I know -- he’d worked for CNN for years before moving on to Sesame Street, and is only second to Jake Sherman as far as exotic places traveled to: he’s the only person I know that’s been to Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. The women had Susan Hanemann, who works for Martha Stewart, so they obviously knew the answer, while we guys were about to say “salt, pepper, and...” when Sean Love interjected with: “wait, wait, wait, guys -- I imagine it would be a little more complex than that. My guess is cinnamon, clove, and...cinnamon, clove, and...I’m going to say nutmeg.”

To which Allison Oshinsky exclaimed: “how the HELL did you know that?!?! What are you GAY????” It was hilarious in our context -- I should mention that Allison has been known to be fiercely competitive. For instance, over New Year’s Eve in New Hampshire, some of us were playing a game of Risk, and it came down to Chris Harmon and Allison Oshinsky, the two engaged to wed this fall. The game drew out for some time, and at one point Allison nearly called off their engagement during the game, just because she was that intensely engrossed in the game…!

After we won (of course!), we all went to bed, but not before Chris Harmon and I decided to pull a childish yet incredibly satisfying prank, rubber-banding the shower-faucet in the kitchen sink so that whenever a poor soul decided to have a glass of water or turn on the faucet for whatever reason, s/he would promptly get drenched by the spray (carefully targeted and positioned to do just that, of course). In the morning, this little prank claimed no less than five casualties (i.e., all of the condo dwellers save for Chris Harmon, Allison Oshinsky, and myself).

We grabbed breakfast at a restaurant that served great pancakes with the awesome Vermont maple syrup and cheddar. Susan, being the epicurean always on the hunt, found a small shop that sold Vermont cheddar in various “flavors,” like maple-smoked and horseradish (they’re made by a company called Sugarbush Farm), and man, they were excellent.

Anyhow, to the main event -- the wedding. It was a unique and intimate wedding, at the Wakefield estate (and I'm not saying that just to sound posh...it was an estate...big enough for a horse ranch) -- it was an outdoor wedding and the weather couldn’t have been more pleasant: sunny, dry, and warm, but with a nice cool breeze. Jake’s mother is Jewish and Shawna’s family is Catholic (I think?), so, naturally, they had a Quaker wedding. The ceremony itself was pleasant and touching -- whoever that wanted to share words did so, and most of it was heartfelt, save for Shawna’s father, who provided a lot of comic relief. I guess it would be an understatement to say that everyone there had tremendous respect for both Shawna and Jake, who are dedicating their lives to such noble causes (they both work for the U.N., Jake in conflict management/resolution and Shawna in women’s rights).

The reception was relatively standard wedding fare, although I do remember Chris Harmon, Shawna’s brother, and I throwing rocks at the plastic duck Shawna’s brother had bought to place in the lake on the Wakefield estate -- whenever we struck the duck, it gave the most satisfying “CLUNK” that seemed to echo through the surrounding hills.

Overall, I had a fantastic time, catching up with old friends and seeing Jake and Shawna for the first time in almost a year since they’d left for Afghanistan. Although I did miss a John Kerry fundraiser at the newly built Gansevoort Hotel that Meredith Melling-Burke (whom I’ve been trying to catch up with for what seems like at least a year, and who will be making appearances in this blog in the near future) had invited me to, I would have to say that the wedding was worth the trip.


Accenture stock vesting / catching up with Melissa Ramsay, FINALLY!

In other news, the remainder of my Accenture stock vested in mid-July, which was nice news, and a reminder that three years had already passed since I had worked there and their initial public offering. I will say that I was fortunate in that I was there just in time for their IPO and for having been senior enough to receive the shares, but, as I’d mentioned previously, am sad that I am no longer working there.

Otherwise, I FINALLY caught up with Melissa Ramsay, and spent an evening out in Forest Hills, where she and Oliver have just bought an apartment. By coincidence, they’re not too far away from the area I spent my first five years (from six months to five years old), so I was originally going to go see that area, but we decided to grab dinner in a slightly different area, so I didn’t quite make it.

However, it was nice to be outside of the city again, and it was a refreshing reminder of how nice Forest Hills actually is. It is literally like parts of Westchester County, contrary to what most people may think of Queens in general -- nice Victorians houses, tree-lined (and quiet) streets, and greenery in general. As I mentioned when I called to thank the couple when I returned to my apartment, it was almost like a mini-vacation.

I also should mention that both Melissa and Oliver have a great design taste (Oliver is in the furniture business), and half of the time we were in their new abode, we were admiring this piece or the other -- now that they have a tremendous amount of space, they had a lot of things to be envious of.


Yet again, this post is getting ridiculously lengthy, so I'll stop here for now...

The Only Good Boston Red Sox Hat

'nuf said

Summer of '94 Take 3 (Finally!)

Ok, back to the summer of '94, finally. I realize talking about college days exactly ten years later may seem unnecessarily nostalgic, but given the recent frequency of contact with the people from that era (weddings, 30th birthdays, coincidents, etc.), it seemed appropriate to reminisce about that period of time -- it was one of the best years of my life thus far for sundry reasons.

That said, a quick recap: it was determined Dave Tohill and I would move just down the street to 215 College Avenue into Lilly Shapiro and Colleen Craig's apartment. Our lease at 139 College Avenue wasn't up until the end of May, so I lived there for a few weeks after school was out, and Catie moved in with me for those few weeks, since she was still living in a dorm and needed to move out at the end of the school year (she was a Freshman at the time).

I believe it was around this time that Elisa was also coming to visit not infrequently -- I remember one day that she, Jacob Millard, and Dave Tohill watched the solar eclipse together on our roof and talking about it. It was also around this time that my housemates' band, Gus (later became Guster), was opening for one of my favorite bands of all time, Live, at some college auditorium in New Hampshire, so Catie, Mike Carcamo, and I drove up together to see them -- it was a fantastic show!

Once we were done with classes, we did our annual jaunt to Cape Cod, to Chatham (right on the elbow, on the Atlantic side), at my freshman year roommate's, John Kolb's, house, to celebrate the end of school and beginning of summer. Only this year, Catie joined the crew with me.

There are many a stories to tell about the times in Chatham and the angels of mayhem, John Kolb, John McKenna, Peter Jefferies, and Alex Muller. I must say, I really lucked out when it came to my freshman year roommate. John Kolb is one of the most intelligent guys I've met thus far, usually mild-mannered, albeit with one hitch: ADD and hyperactivity. When he and the others didn't take their Ritalin, it was immediately apparent -- mind you, they were a somewhat mischievous crowd: they'd all gone to boarding schools. But, without that Ritalin, it was truly bordering on insanity. Hilarious, however. See Exhibit A below:


John Kolb, John McKenna, and Peter Jefferies in a moment of typical hilarity

Being in their company caused constant belly-aches from all of the laughing -- I didn't need a TV the entire time they were near. One of the best memories I have with them is freshman year, during the spring term. Pete Jefferies had just returned from South Carolina where he was during Spring Break, and he came into our room with his signature mischievous smirk. Without a word, he motioned to us to follow him, so we follow him all the way out to his car. He pops his trunk open, and it is filled literally to the brim with fireworks. We were instantly like children at a candy store, gleefully giggling with mischief.

So, we take a small batch back to our room and begin shooting off bottle rockets out of our window (of course!). Sure enough, campus police showed within minutes -- by this time, we were familiar with each other, and the police simply said: "listen. We have to tell you to stop, because if we don't, we get in trouble. Plus, once the Somerville Police show up, you can be in a lot of trouble yourselves." Normally, for sane people, this would signal the end of that. Not for this crew.

This only prompted the crew to begin using the fireworks INDOORS. The dorm building we lived in, South Hall, was a brand new dorm, and we were the first people that resided in this dorm -- we'd already done our share of "breaking in" the dorm, but this one has left a permanent mark. Not only did we move the fireworks indoors, we went bigger, finalizing in a Roman Candle duct taped to one of the stairwell rungs. Ah, youth. Needless to say, Chatham was pretty much the same type of mayhem, only even more space and even less supervision.

It was also during this time in late May I unilaterally decided (as Catie insists to this day) it wouldn't be a good idea for us to live together at 215 College. I will say, it is likely because she and I were working together already, catering for Tufts events at Fletcher (the picture of her and me at the way beginning of this blog is from then). So came the end of May, and Catie had found a place to live from June 1st on. Because I was the last one to move out of 139 College, Catie and I took full advantage of this fact...

I should note here that not a day passed at 139 College without a belly full of laughter as well, and moving day was no exception. The one instance in particular I remember involves Jake Sherman (who just got married two weekends ago with his girlfriend since that era, Shawna Wakefield). I should mention that in that house of eight, Jake Sherman was likely the calmest and most down-to-earth (some may argue that, given the motley crew, that really isn't saying much).

As I mentioned before, the house was on a roundabout, and on moving day, Neil Foster had parked his notorious navy Saab 900 up front to load his car. Jake Sherman, not wanting to carry the futon frame down the steep front steps, decided that he could roll the frame on its side, down the steps and claims to this day he had calculated it precisely so that it would fall to its side, at the bottom of the stairs on the sidewalk. HOWEVER (of course!), under our hushed gaze, the futon frame executed its rolls beautifully and promptly slammed right into Neil's Saab, full tilt and corner first, thereby leaving its (deep) mark permanently on Neil's car. This in of itself was hilarious, but the expression on Jake's face was priceless.

Also on this roundabout...I'd returned home one day giddy as heck about the burrito I'd just gotten that I was going to devour. Noticing that many of the house members were on the front porch, I decided to park my car in front of the house. I happily jumped up the stairs ready to bite into my burrito, when Neil gave me a quick look and dared: "How many times do you think you can go around Powderhouse Circle in one minute?"

Naively, I took on the challenge and jumped right back into my car, and commenced to screech around the circle as quickly as I could. Several laps later and still spinning, I park the car and run back up to the porch, ready to dare Neil back...only to discover my housemates laughing so hard, they were barely able to keep from snarfing up my burrito they'd just scarfed down. Bastards. But clever bastards.

I could go on and on with stories (most famed among them is the "Upper Tank" debacle, which I'll have to save for another day), but I won't. At least, not in this post. So, to move on...

So came the end of May, and I move into 215 College. I don't really want to harp on old wounds, so I will say that the relationship between Catie and me soured relatively abruptly in June. What made the break-up somewhat awkward was that Catie and I would run into each other at some of the most unlikely of places -- we ran into each other at that year's Lollapalooza in Providence, where millions were in attendance; and then again for the Fourth of July, at the Hatch Shell on the Charles (I will say, this is one of the nicer Fourth of July annual events I've seen -- John Williams and the Boston Pops performed there then), where millions were also in attendance. Although my closest friends were gone for the summer, thankfully, I'd already begun working as a carpenter with Tom Kaplan-Maxfield, which allowed me to have a place to take my mind off of things for one and someone much wiser than I to talk with for two.

Then arrived Sydney.

Now it needs mentioning that practically every guy I knew at Tufts at one point or another had a crush on (ok, we weren't in high school any more, so I should say...maybe "fancied"?) either Colleen Craig or Lilly Shapiro. Both beautiful girls, and both in Sarabande, the dance group. So, it wasn't exactly a surprise that Sydney, Lilly's little sister, who was spending the summer in Boston to go to theater school, was absolutely beautiful as well (not surprisingly, she was modeling in her hometown, Miami) -- basically identical to Lilly, except slightly slimmer and with strawberry blonde hair.

I don't really remember our first encounter, but I do remember her being very quiet, at least at first. Because she had just arrived in Boston and didn't have too any friends yet, I'd invited her out to see Gus at the Paradise one night, where I knew a lot of my friends would be.

According to Sydney (or, as I used to call her, Syd), I'd made a rock-star entrance at the Paradise, greeting everyone there. But the fact is that Tufts isn't that big of a school, I'd been there for three years, and the members of Gus were friends of mine, so it only made sense that I would know practically everyone there. What was revealing, however, was the fact that Sydney felt that I only knew women, and was busy hugging all the women.

Admittedly, I was more openly physically affectionate in college than I have been since -- years of professionalism conditioned into my behavior. But obviously, there was a tinge of jealousy/envy there, since I'd been completely hands-off with Sydney since her arrival -- she was my housemate and my housemate's little sister, after all.

That said, I will make it explicitly clear that I never had intercourse with Sydney, despite the presumptions all of my friends have made, and continue to grill me for (e.g., "Hey Masa, have you ever been in the capitol of Australia?"). Bastards. I will say that she was a good companion to keep my spirits up, and she was very well read (we would talk about Anais Nin, Ferlinghetti, Sartre, Camus, et al.). Despite her level of sophistication, at heart, she was a sweetheart, and we did shower each other with small gifts fairly frequently. I should also note that she was incredibly candid, and was one of the first women in my life at that point that made me realize how blatantly clueless I was when it came to rules of attraction...but my cluelessness with attraction will be reserved for another day, another post, likely under the title: "Missed Opportunities."

Now, as silly as it may seem in retrospect, she and I were conscientious about keeping it under the wraps from Lilly -- she would often sleep in my bed by me, but wake in time to return to hers, etc. Of course, Lilly knew the entire time, and when I did fess up to her several months later, she gave me the: "like I didn't know" laugh, thanked me for telling her anyway, and ended with saying that I was sweet to her and she was thankful to me for it. As a matter of fact, she was working at Country Road on Newbury that summer, and at the end of the summer, she'd given me a nice shirt from there "for taking care of Sydney." Sydney seemed discontent about it, since it apparently made her feel as though I was babysitting her the entire time, but nevertheless...

I should also add that, one of the least diplomatic slip-up's I've had to date occurred toward the end of that summer, when Mrs. Shapiro had came to visit. Mrs. Shapiro thanked me for having taken such good care of Sydney, and without thinking, in a sort of a reactionary response, I replied: "Oh, no, no, it was a pleasure." Jake Sherman, who was in the living room with us, had to run out of the living room because he was busting out laughing, as I realized what I'd just said -- thankfully (I don't think) Mrs. Shapiro read too much into it. A few weeks later, it was time for Sydney's departure, and I'd taken her to Logan, and waited with her for her flight by her gate. As she was about to board the plane, I gave her a hug, and to my surprise, she gave me a big kiss -- an old lady who witnessed this gave me a funny smile, and just like that, Sydney was gone.

In other aspects of that summer, I must say, of all the odd-jobs I had through college, and even including the past near decade of working professionally, carpentry was the most satisfying work I have done. There is something so gratifying about working with your hands, laboring in the sun, getting splinters and just getting filthy dirty from sweat, dust, and the occasional blood while building things that people will live in and use for years to come.

That summer, we demo'd and rebuilt an entire second floor of a house, built and roofed a garage, and built a deck for another house. I learned a lot about building and all the tools involved, under the constant barrage of jokes by Tom Kaplan-Maxfield and his friend (I forget his name now...), both of whom were significantly older than me, and getting a kick out of stories about Catie and then Sydney. However, there was one instance when the jokes did stop for a day -- I was putting down some floor boards on the deck while Tom's friend was roofing the deck.

There is a sort of a music and a rhythm to building when everything is going smoothly, the nail guns going off, the compressor pressurizing, boards being placed, and so forth. I was standing pretty much right under Tom's friend, when it seemed there was an inordinate length of silence. I felt a stare from above and so I look up, when I notice Tom's friend looking down at me in some wonderment, and finally musters to ask: "are you alright?" Not sure what he meant, I responded with: "uh, yeah, sure -- why?" It turned out he'd misfired his nail gun right above me, and had shot a nail right in my direction. Hearing this, I looked down, and sure enough, noticed a huge gash on my belt buckle, and the said nail buried in the board by my right foot. At which point I decided it was a good time to take a break. For the rest of the day.

So that was the summer of '94. I should say, the remainder of the year was a great one as well, what with the first semester of the senior year beginning, along with my paid internship at Lotus Development, in their Usability Lab -- Mary Beth Butler had seen the presentation of the results from my internship at GTE Laboratories in the prior semester, wherein our team determined the effects of a prototype's fidelity on the nature and quantity of usability data attained during usability testing -- she was very much impressed, and had offered me to begin working there.

But since this post has gotten ridiculously lengthy, I will leave the remainder of '94 to another post...

Final Update: Independence Day

I know I promised to go on with the two original threads, but this year's Independence Day deserves its own post.

In the morning, the 20-ton granite cornerstone for the Freedom Tower was laid, signaling the commencement of the rebuilding effort at the WTC site. It was an emotional morning, given the historic gravity of the moment, and the moral significance of the event.

I must say, although aesthetically not necessarily the most elegant or admirable, these factors alone contribute to my reverence for the new Freedom Tower. The fact that it will be the tallest building in the world, at 1776 feet (signifying the year of our country's independence), and designed as a complement to the Statue of Liberty, it will be inspiring to see.


The Freedom Tower in the night sky

Also, despite the controversy this has caused, I will say I am a fan of the memorial finalized by the WTC Memorial Competition, which is part of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. I find its quiet serenity and its concept to be tasteful -- Daniel Libeskind claims that: "to commemorate those lost lives, I created two large public places, the Park of Heroes and the Wedge of Light. Each year on September 11th between the hours of 8:46 a.m., when the first airplane hit and 10:28 a.m., when the second tower collapsed, the sun will shine without shadow, in perpetual tribute to altruism and courage."

Surprisingly, some people have attacked this concept on the basis that after 10:28 a.m., there will be shadows on this lot, which, to me seems an idiotic complaint -- I suppose we could lift the entire WTC site onto some type of a rapidly moving craft so that no shadows will ever fall on it, or, to avoid earth's rotation and any effects of weather altogether, shall we launch it into space? I only say that the complaints are idiotic because they offer no alternative solutions or ideas to an existing idea one has obviously spent a significant amount of time and energy conceiving -- in my opinion, critiques with no alternate suggestions border on simple whinings, and frankly, should be dismissed until such a time that these people have come up with a novel, alternate solution.

As such, although the LMDC has been criticized by innumerous complaints about its rebuilding effort, I am in full support of the whole concept and effort. I do think it is a tastefully conceived and executed memorial -- I don't think I would have been able to come up with a better concept. In addition, I think the lattice structure that top the tower (the Gardens of the World) is an intelligent and beautifully executed solution against another possibility of a terror strike, and I like the fact that there will be wind-turbines that will help provide power to the building.


An aerial view of the Freedom Tower and the WTC Memorial

Finally, I will admit, as a New Yorker, it makes me happy to know that we will have the world's tallest building again, replacing the Petronas Towers finally. Below is what the skyline looking downtown will look like after the Freedom Tower's completion (supposedly) in 2008.


The Freedom Tower bookended by the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings. The Brooklyn Bridge is visible to the left of the Chrysler, and the Woolworth is visible just above the Pan Am/Met Life Building

For two solid years after 9/11, I was unable to gaze downtown because I hadn't come to terms with the Twin Towers being gone. It was only recently I have been able to gaze that way, and once the Freedom Tower is complete, I think I will be able to gaze downtown again with a sense of pride. Of course, the WTC had served as a directional cue for me whenever I would surface from the subway, so I would guess that the Freedom Tower will obviously serve that purpose for me again.

Speaking of subways, we had another subway series here in New York, the Yankees vs. the Mets. Unfortunately, the Yanks were swept by the Mets, but I will say that the Yankees had a rough schedule this week -- last weekend, the Yanks played the Mets, then during the week, the Red Sox, and then the Mets again. That's a pretty rough schedule -- and Jeter was injured during a great play he made during the series against the Red Sox. When it's all done and said, however, the Yanks are still so far ahead of any other team in the entire league that it really doesn't matter.

In other notes in sports, it was a great week -- unfortunately, Roddick was defeated by the defending champion Federer at Wimbledon, but Sharapova defeated Williams, which i was excited about. I know I mentioned my disdain for Kournikova before, and Sharapova is a prime example of what I was saying then -- Sharapova plays with such intensity, and at 17, she has many years ahead of her. In Formula 1, BAR/Honda had another decent race in France, bringing them into third place in the constructor's cup, which I was very happy about. Finally, it caught everybody by surprise, but Greece won the EuroCup, which in of itself was impressive.

With that said, my parents and I went to Tsuneko and Shoji Sadao's (who is on the Board of the Isamu Noguchi foundation) apartment in the UES to watch the fireworks. Because they live in one of the top floors in the tallest building in the UES (which, again, was a controversey of its own back in its day), we were able to see fireworks well into Long Island to the east, New Jersey to the west, and of course, all of the Macy's spectacular to the South, practically every barge was visible from there, with a clear backdrop of the Empire State and Chrysler Building, and the Metropolitan and the Guggenheim Museums at our feet. It was a beautiful, leisurely evening, with great food...

Another Set of Updates...part 3

Ok, after this set of updates, I will return to the two original threads, Summer of '94 and the tales of FUEL new york continuing on from January of 2002 -- that's a promise...it's just that days pass so quickly, perhaps due to my ripe old age...!

June 18th: Friday
After the long week it'd been, I was looking forward to a relatively quiet night, when Lee Zumdome called. He's been swinging by my apartment more frequently now that he's joined the Gym and is being represented by a new agency called Planit M -- they're both right down the street from my apartment. I must say, I am very happy for him -- I think he’s finally at an agency that will take him the distance that he can go. To give a quick account of his agency history: he’d stayed with my agency, FUEL new york, even though I had no experience as a booker -- primarily, he didn’t want to be associated with Jeremy Tick after the whole saga. Despite my lack of experience, I did get him a six-page GQ editorial, a Betsey Johnson show in September of last year, and a lead role in a feature film to be shot this year; but I'd encouraged him to look at other agencies, since I was sure he would go much farther as a model with another agency -- as mentioned, he was being booked for significant things, even with the limited contacts I’d had. I’d told him time and time again I wouldn’t rest well if I were holding his career back, and I was already unsure if I wanted to continue running the agency.

So, one day in September, I was talking with Jody Gordon at Fusion in regard to Daniellea Novak, and the topic of Lee had come up -- Jody Gordon had just booked a Christian Dior campaign for one of her models, Tell, and she had already worked with Lee in the past (I'll get to that in the chronological account) -- plus, she'd offered to give me 10% of Lee's commissions for the following year, which was generous of her. Lee and I talked about it and agreed to have Fusion represent him -- he traveled to South Africa and London through Fusion, but once he'd returned to New York, he wasn't booking much aside from showroom work. Then in April came the rumor that Richie Wheeler, one of the men's bookers at Elite and a really genuinely cool guy, had gone to SVM, the agency Jeremy Tick had gone to, so Lee and I got to talking. It was decided he would give SVM a try, despite the utter lack of desire to be in the proximity of Jeremy Tick -- we felt that Richie's credentials outweighed that stigma (coincidentally, Jeremy Tick was finally fired from SVM about a month ago, which instantly elevated the agency -- it was about time SVM realized that Jeremy Tick was a P.U.R.E., a Previously Unrecognized Recruiting Error, as we used to refer to his ilk at companies I used to work for).

Irregardless, although Lee was sent on some good castings through Richie, he was still so-so about the agency. Then, a little over a month ago, he was at my apartment again (I think we were talking to Inese over IM that day...?), he mentioned that he’d joined this new gym called the Gym, and he was scouted there by a new agency called Planit M, founded by an ex-IMG exec. After we’d talked about it for a bit, I’d strongly recommended he join them. I think his decision was pretty much already made, but I think I helped make it final -- he’s very happy with the decision, especially now that he’s got his first campaign (being shot by Steven Klein) through them! I beleive that Cindy Crawford is now with them as well...I definitely want to be there for their launch party!

Nevertheless, two Fridays ago, the 18th of June, he called just as I was looking forward to a quiet evening, and he mentioned the margaritas at Francisco’s Centro Vasco on 23rd Street. As I mentioned before, I’d stopped drinking in 1998 (I’ll explain the reason in some other post), and have not been taking in much alcohol since, but these margaritas have a very "unique" effect -- it gives you a natural high, almost like an endorphin high. After some persuasion, I decided to join him and a few of his friends from the Gym.

Although my initial intent was to have a margarita or two and head home, I ended up talking with Lee's friends for a while (the conversation I remember is one around lacrosse -- one of the women had played lacrosse for the first time in college, and we talked about the significant differences between men's and women's lacrosse), and ended up going to at least three different venues (Avalon, Ruby Falls, and Lotus), where, again, I pretty much felt foreign being in. Although, what was nice was I'd run into Jane, Anne, and Jillian, along with Morgan Miller, Ruben, and Ken, and by the time I headed home, it was already 3AM. I will definitely have to find out exactly what it is they put in those margaritas...!


June 19th: Saturday
Had cocktails at Bridgett Neeley’s apartment to celebrate her birthday -- Ethan Goldman, Clare Cromie, Mito Yamada, and Emily Goldberg were there, along with familiar faces (I am awful with names...) from SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia). We headed to a Turkish restaurant for dinner -- I think I remember hearing politics and religion are topics to avoid over dinner (or maybe it was during a date?), but, given the group, we talked mostly on both. It's almost unavoidable to not talk about George W. Bush, and I'll express my opinion on that separately. As for the the conversation around religion, we talked about several religious groups, but the one group in particular was summarized by: "those 'Jews for Jesus' guys are pretty much saying 'atheists for God!'"

Since we were at a restaurant and the topic of diets did come up, I will say that the Atkins diet seems ridiculous to me -- when I used to mountain bike a lot, all we would do was carbo load -- lots of pastas and beers...it's fuel. In general, paying attention to what you eat is a good thing, of course, but the popular obsession with diets is ridiculous in my opinion, especially here in America. If people want to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, JUST EAT LESS for chrissakes!


June 20th: Sunday/Father's Day
I went to my parents' apartment to wish my father a happy Father's Day. Not much more to say...


The week of June 21st - 27th
A busy week, but not socially. I received a call from Yasuko Soma, a friend of a family friend, who called on me to help her get a Lenny Kravitz shoot together for Brutus Magazine (a Japanese equivalent of GQ), so I'd concentrated on that in my spare time. In the past, I'd interviewed Jessica Miller (Calvin Klein model) on her behalf for Japanese Vogue, but this proved to be a little more difficult because Lenny is a lot more famed/protected. Things did move, and on that Friday, I finally talked with Cory Chicon after having gotten referred her way through Lenny's manager, Craig Fruin.

Friday the 25th was also when I'd gotten the call from Lee Zumdome, when he'd found out he'd gotten the campaign through Planit M. We were going to go out for celebratory drinks with Ian E., so Ian and I met up that night at Francisco's (again!). Ian, Eleanora, and I had some food and margaritas while waiting, and headed down to Pablo's workspace on West 12th Street, where the girls were trying on some of his leather wares. Lee was going to join us, but was too tired after his dinner with his agency (despite the fact he was the reason we all came out to play!), so we continued on to Ruby Falls, where I ran into Toni Busker, whom I hadn't seen in about a year. We chatted for bit and then headed out, but I called it a night at about 1AM since I was exhausted from the week.


June 28th: Monday
I received an e-mail from Shawna Wakefield in the morning, as she was trying to get a final headcount for the pre-wedding barbecue, which reminded me I hadn't made my arrangements yet. I spent most of Monday evening trying to get that sorted, since the wedding was in less than two weeks! I was also glad to hear that both Jake Sherman and Shawna are finally getting out of Afghanistan, where they've been thorugh the U.N., safely back on our shores...


June 29th: Tuesday
Andrew Farnsworth and I got together to go see the Yankees pummel the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. The crowd was rowdy as expected, and the game itself was simply awesome -- the Yanks scored at least a run in six of the eight innings played (why didn't they play the ninth? Because they had kicked the Red Sox' butts all over the stadium!!!). Andrew and I were on the hunt to find one of those hats that simply say "1918" on them, but we couldn't find one unfortunately -- I know I went on and on about this in an earlier post about how quaint it is that the Red Sox has to maintain an oratory tradition to recount their last great win, but I just want to mention that I just realized my grand parents weren't even born when they last won the World Series...I really think they ought to just go for the record century mark, which is only 14 more years without a World Series win -- I have absolute faith the Red Sox can do it.


July 1st: Thursday
I met up with my ex, Catie D'Ignazio (a.k.a. "kanarinka"), at the opening reception for the 1:100 exhibit she is part of at DCKT Contemporary. It's a great concept -- every foot of the gallery represents 100 feet in the outside world. There were some interesting work there, including work by Catie (obviously), which was her presentation of Analysis of Infinitely Small Things; and drawings by Christina Ray which reminded me of the animation work from the video game, Jet Set Radio Future. There was also a great interactive city-wide work wherein you use the various colors and numbers of newsboxes as a guide to wander the city.

Catie and I left the gallery briefly to go next door to Reeves Contemporary, where there was a reception for Michael Goesele and Evie Lovett's photography. I really enjoyed Goesele's work, although somewhat eerie.

On the way to Reeves, Catie showed me one of the artists' work, to be seen thorugh a "peephole" -- the artist, Swoon, had created a series of "peepholes" hidden in walls throughout the city, containing images and fictitious scenes. There are nine "peepholes" in all:
1. 24th between 10th & 11th Avenues -- in the no parking sign outside of DCKT;
2. 24th & 10th Avenue -- north east corner, in the chain link fence facing the brick wall;
3. 23rd & 10th Avenue -- north east corner, in the white free box;
4. 23rd between 10th & 11th Avenues -- wooden fence in the empty lot;
5. 22nd & 10th Avenue -- by Empire Diner, in white free box;
6. 22nd almost by 11th Avenue -- painted out "No Parking" sign;
7. 27th between 10th & 11th Avenues -- in the graffiti fence;
8. 28th & 8th Avenue -- no parking post in front of parking lot; and
9. 26th between 8th & 9th Avenues -- pedestrian crossing pole, across from the upright citizens brigade theater.

Another Set of Updates...part 2.

June 14th: Monday
Thanks to Alexandra Olson, whom I've mentioned before, I had the pleasure of discovering a museum I never knew even existed. Alex had invited me to the Community Resource Exchange’s 25th Anniversary Celebration at the Museum of the City of New York, honoring Hildy Simmons.

First off, I hadn’t been at a philanthropy-related event in quite some time, so it was refreshing to be around that energy. Second off, I’m always excited by the opportunity to discover new aspects of this city. I sincerely thought that I had been to every museum and established gallery (as opposed to the smaller galleries that seem to always be popping up) there is in the New York metro area, including the outlying suburbs, so when I saw the Museum of the City of New York on the invite, I was very much intrigued.

Admittedly, I hadn’t ventured that far north on the east side in a very long time -- I had gone to El Museo del Barrio when I was in high school, which is a block north of the Museum of the City of New York, at 104th Street. Although the city has become much safer now, I pretty much hadn’t ventured north of 86th Street on the east side, save for the few occasions I’d made it to the Guggenheim (89th) and Cooper Hewitt (91st).

With that said, I have since heard that the Museum of the City of New York is apparently considered one of the most elegant museums in the city, and I believe it. Although the Frick remains to be my favorite museum in the city, whose architecture I would describe more as being intimate, there are very few museums I would say that the architecture is as elegant as the Museum of the City of New York.

The Metropolitan, although elegant in its own right, I would describe as being grand. The Whitney, Guggenheim, and MoMA, although each unique in terms of modern architecture, are not necessarily graceful (I am, however, excited about the reopening of MoMA!) -- I mean no offense to Frank Lloyd Wright, but the Guggenheim, although a very unique piece of architecture, is a bit atrocious when it comes to its function as a museum -- its slanted floors are not conducive to appreciating art, in my humble opinion (although I’ve always been tempted to ride a sled down its entire length every time I’ve stepped foot in that museum). However, I will say that one of the most interesting exhibits I’ve seen in this city has to be the motorcycle exhibit at the Guggenheim.

In my opinion, I would have to rank the top ten New York City architecture in the following order, taking aesthetics, functional value, cultural value, and historic value into account:

1. Grand Central Terminal. Not only is it one of grandest piece of architecture, in my opinion, it still anchors the entire city. I’ve gone on and on about it in a former post.

2. Metropolitan Museum of Art. The palace of some of the greatest art, one of the best museums in the world, in a truly majestic, gigantic piece of architecture. I still have yet to have explored every bit of this building. I should mention here that their Cloisters extension is one of the most beautiful settings, and one of the best destinations in Manhattan that is peaceful and hardly ever crowded (because it is so far north, and so few people know of it).

3. American Museum of Natural History. One of the only saving graces of the Upper West Side, aside from Lincoln Center. Although, I have to say, Avery Fisher Hall itself is decidedly unimpressive considering the work that comes through it (the opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the ABT) -- during my most recent jaunt to there, for the opening night of Don Giovanni, I really felt again that the architecture, despite being an icon within American culture, is decidedly dated and lacking. Nevertheless, the Natural History is definitely one of the best destinations in the city, and I remember frequenting its Hayden Planetarium when I was younger. Then there was the diamonds exhibit I took a Velantine's date to one year, after a leisurely brunch at Isabella's across the street -- on display was the world's largest diamond...that would be three months' salary of, uh, Bill Gates, maybe.

4. Carnegie Hall. All of the fantastic music aside, it is one of the most beautiful, elegant surroundings to be in. I’m not sure if they still have them, but they used to have open rehearsals, and in my opinion, this is one of the best (cheap) entertainment you can get in this city. If the Capital Theater was still up, it likely would have shared this rank with Carnegie Hall...alas, instead of the Capital, we now have the Ziegfeld.

5. The New York Public Library, the Mid-Manhattan Central Library. Not only is the library itself one of the most extensive libraries in the city with wonderful architectural surroundings as featured in various films, Bryant Park at its rear is also one of the nicer small parks in the city, host to outdoor movies in the summer, and (groan) Fashion Week in the Spring and Fall. It was also here that, thanks to Robert Knapp, I got to briefly meet Stephanie Seymour, whom I've been infatuated with since my high school days, during a FORD Supermodel of the World Finals event this year. Also in attendance was Frederique, who sat at a table next to ours at the after party, at the Bryant Park Hotel right across the street.

6. (tie) St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. St. Patrick’s is the city’s most well-known cathedral and had to be mentioned. It is impressive architecturally, but what I like most is its location -- amidst all of the commercial frenzy of consumerism right on Fifth Avenue, right next door to Saks Fifth Avenue and across the street from Rockefeller Center. The contrast always made me laugh. However, St. Patrick’s has nothing on St. John the Divine, in terms of architectural immensity -- St. John is the nation’s (if not the world’s?) largest Gothic cathedral, and houses tapestries by my baptism namesake, the Italian artist, Raphael. The only problem is its accessibility -- it is located way up in Morningside Heights.

8. The Brooklyn Bridge. As one observer quipped when its construction was completed, (I forget the exact words): “all that effort into building such a majestic bridge to get to nowhere.” I would tend to agree -- the beauty and historic importance of this bridge, in conjunction with its engineering feat, is truly majestic, albeit all in an effort to get to...Brooklyn. A tip when walking across Brooklyn Bridge: if you keep your eyes focused at the top of its moorings, you get a sense that you are going downhill because of its cable patterns.

9. The Woolworth Building. The world’s first “skyscraper,” that began the frenzy of competition in the rest of the world. It was the world’s tallest building until it was outdone by the Chrysler Building, but as far as architectural touches go, hands down, it is still the best skyscraper in the city. I used to work in this building, and it was a pleasure to walk into this building every day, with its lofty foyer and classic, brass and leather elevators.

10. (tie) The General Post Office, James A. Farley Building at 8th Avenue, and the Federal Reserve Building. To bring up the rear of this list are two impressive, majestic buildings with very specific purposes. The immense General Post Office has the inscription on its façade that many consider to be the motto of U.S. postal couriers: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” (it is derived from a 3rd or so century B.C. Greek poem/novel in regard to its messengers during a war, I believe?). The building itself is impressive, and I also am partial to it because this is where all of New York’s children’s Christmas letters to Santa are collected -- volunteers can pick these up to grant those children their wishes. As for the Federal Reserve Building, although adorned with intricate ironwork, I will admit, it is not the prettiest building. However, it is a building whose purpose is immediately clear: “Do not enter.” It is an immense fortress of limestone and sandstone firmly planted in Manhattan’s bedrock, shunning anyone who dares enter it without proper credentials.

With that said, I should mention the Honorable Mentions -- there are so many great pieces of architecture in this city, especially in the old city around Wall Street and around City Hall. However, I will specifically mention the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, since these are buildings that make the New York City skyline immediately recognizable. I also must mention the Flatiron, since it is my favorite, general purpose building -- every time I stand in front of it, I feel as though I am looking at a massive concrete ship coming directly at me. Finally, I should mention the building that shares Madison Square Park with the Flatiron -- it is the building on Park/Madison Avenue, between 24th and 25th Streets (I don’t know its name...it's where Credit Suisse First Boston has offices, so perhaps the CSFB building? On this note, I will say that it took me a long time to get used to calling the Pan Am building the MetLife building). It was intended to be the world’s tallest building, eclipsing the Empire State Building, only to have its construction halted by the Great Depression. Its construction never continued, and if you look at the building, it looks as though it was simply chopped.

Nevertheless, enough of that tangent -- after the CRE event at the Museum of the City of New York, we grabbed a light meal and headed home.

June 15th: Tuesday
The following night, I met up with Alexandra Olson yet again, this time at Sotheby's. The centerpiece of the night was Frank Lloyd Wright's studio that was being auctioned -- although Sotheby's has many properties in its stable, this proved to be an interesting challenge and an exciting piece. With that said, although there were also many other items on display, most interesting being a pseudo Art-Deco clock, I must admit I rediscovered my strong preference for natural wood finishes. I don’t have much more to say about that night, aside that it was good to actually talk and catch up with Alex, since we didn’t get the chance to really talk the prior night.

June 16th: Wednesday
It’s funny how a small world it can truly be at times. I was recently talking with Christy Spitzer (Wilson when we were at Tufts -- married Doug Spitzer, a great guy that works for the NFL) about her recent transition into production, and asked her where exactly she was. She’s at MTV Productions, and as soon as she mentioned that, I knew she might be working with my other friend from Tufts who works there, Ethan Goldman. Sure enough, she works for him!

Nevertheless, Ethan Goldman’s band, Astronaut, was playing at Luna Lounge in the Lower East Side, so we made plans to head down there. Because Christy had just returned from Paris, she was jet-lagged and decided not to go, but I was gung-ho to go, since I hadn’t seen live rock in a long long time. So, for the occasion, I donned my good ol’ ripped jeans, faded t-shirt, and headed down to Luna Lounge.

I had some beers, caught up with Ethan, met some of his colleagues, and had a great time overall -- I was very much impressed by Astronaut, at how tight as a band they were despite the relatively short time they have been together, which is testimony to each of the band members’ innate talent. It was also refreshing to hear actual talent, as opposed to the immense amount of crap that has saturated the “music industry” -- I really am often incensed by the state of the modern music industry...there is just so much crap being produced and distributed, true talent is harder and harder to find these days. When Norah Jones gained recognition in the past few years, some industry experts seemed sincerely surprised, but anyone that knows music will attest that it was about time when talent got some recognition in the modern music industry. I can go on and on about this, so I will stop here, and leave it for another post.

Although, I will say in closing that it is shows like American Idol that truly do disservice to the talented and pump up the egos of the untalented, that reflect just how tasteless Americans in general are when it comes to culture (don't get me started on its selection of its President). Furthermore, I was infuriated that Ronald Reagan’s passing, though as decent a man as he may have been and no matter what my political belief in regards to his achievements may be, by no means deserved the amount of press coverage, especially when Ray Charles passed away during the same week -- Ray Charles left an indelible, positive mark on people’s lives world over for over 70 years, and was one of the most talented musicians this planet has known. Again, this prioritization only reflected on how uncultured and unlearned the American public can be.

Another Set of Updates...

Well, another banner couple of weeks...to catch up:

June 9th: Wednesday
Phil Spanninger, my friend from Accenture I mentioned before, finally made it into Manhattan, and his cousin's son, Nick Spanninger (I guess that makes it his second cousin? Not sure how exactly extended family trees work), works for the Yankees, so we went to see one of the interleague Yanks/Rockies games.

Because Phil got out of work rather late, and because I managed to get us lost (I've never been to the stadium from the West Side), we didn't get to the game until the 6th inning. However, the seats were phenomenal! We were just to the right of home plate, only a few rows in -- we were on television whenever a left-hand hitter was at the plate...had we gotten there in time, we could have sat right behind home plate, but I actually preferred being there...I’m not saying this as a sour grape, I sincerely preferred it -- since we weren’t behind or below the netting, we had a better chance of grabbing a foul ball. It was kind of a moot point, because there were no foul balls that came our way, but man, what seats!!! And it was a great game to top it off -- Jeter hit a home run to tie the game up just as we got there. The Yankees won again, of course, maintaining their supremacy within the entire league, ahead of any other team in the MLB by four wins.

After the game, we all went to a small bar in the Village, right by where Phil’s cousin, Martha (or “Marty”) Spanninger, lives -- as much as Nick is embarrassed about it, I should mention that if you’re ever on Waverly Place between 6th and 7th Avenues, just before Waverly turns sharply northward before hitting Grove Street (it’s pretty complicated around the Village), on the sidewalk, you can see his name written in the pavement.

Irregardless, one of the topics we chatted about at the bar was around ABC’s great programming, since Marty works at 20/20. I would have to say that of the three major networks, for news coverage, I would have to pick ABC hands down. I’ve always been a fan of Peter Jennings, Ted Koppel (both of whom I've had the pleasure of meeting), Diane Sawyer, and Barbara Walters; and my news source has always been ABC’s Eyewitness News, based on the fact that they provide the best coverage available in my opinion, aside from the locally dedicated NY1 (plus, Liz Cho is the most gorgeous newscaster at present, aside from maybe Natalie Morales). My partiality could stem from the fact I began watching ABC news because I went to high school with Ernie Anastos’ son, Phil, and I would run into him from time to time at events -- although he is now with CBS, the last time I saw him was at one of the annual amFAR summer event at the boathouse in Central Park.

After grabbing drinks and chatting, Marty and others headed home (it was, after all, a school night), while Phil and I met up with a couple of Phil’s friends from Chicago, Matt and Tim, at Bowery Bar (BBar).

I hate to keep digressing, but BBar needs to be profiled some more, since it is one of the bars in New York City that marks one of the significant change of the times in recent years. As some of you may know, the Bowery was a pretty rough place even as recently as the late 80’s, where the homeless literally lined the sidewalk (it is also on this street that the famed CBGB’s resides). In the 80’s a garage was converted into the bar known today as BBar, and became the place where anyone who was anyone was at -- it was driven pretty much by the fashion industry, and designers, photographers, models, and those who wanted to be near them would fill the place to the brim.

Its legacy remains, and the scene is still there, although by no means as glorious as it may have been at one point. I’ve spent many summer days at its outdoor section, but my most memorable moment there has to be the World Cup back in 1998, France vs. Brazil. The bar is owned by a French and a Brazilian (I believe?), so they’d set up two huge televisions, right at where the garage doors used to be – in other words, the televisions split the outdoor and the indoor sections, and thusly the French and Brazilian fans. I ran into a lot of my high school buddies that afternoon, including Nick Bourbon (yes, of that Bourbons) who was obviously rooting for the French, and the rest of us who were rooting for Brazil, including Jared Cooper, Adrian Walters, etc. The sure bet was on Brazil (I guess just as it was on Smarty Jones most recently in horse racing), and many of my friends lost a lot of money that day.

BBar is also where I got to meet Lenny Kravitz, whom I’ve been a fan of for a long time, and I still have his autograph to this day. Another memory I have of BBar is one of the brunches we’ve had there, with a group of about 10 of us -- it was a lazy Sunday afternoon, we were enjoying the prix fix brunch and sipping on mimosas, nursing hangovers. We had probably spent a good two hours there, and when we received the bill, it was almost $4,000!!!. We pored over the bill to discover that they had charged us for 9 bottles of Dom Perignon...trying to remember if in fact we’d had that many champagnes, we came to realize that the novice waitress had made our mimosas with Dom Perignon. We were flattered that they thought we had such expensive tastes, but surely we had better sense and knew better than to make mere mimosas out of Dom Perignons!

Nevertheless, the night was a good, laid back one, with a lot of good laughs. At the risk of being somewhat lewd, one of the most memorable moments that night was when Matt made a comment about huge breasts and made a funny, literal reference about catching a girl with large breasts, by motioning as though he was bass fishing, catching “the Big One.”

June 10th: Thursday
For as long as I could remember, I’d spent every Thanksgiving with Barbara and Ken Finn, save for the past two years since they’d moved to Naples, Florida. Because they don’t have any children of their own, they’d taken me in almost like their own son -- I remember one of my first jobs ever was teaching math to younger kids at Barbara Finn’s post-school tutoring programs in Rye. They are one of the nicest couples I know, hailing from the Mid-West (St. Louis, to be exact), and I’ve always enjoyed being around them.

They were back in New York all week, and were having dinner with my parents, so I’d joined them at my parents’ apartment. It was great to see them, pleasant conversations (mainly around entrepreneurship and exchanging ideas, since the Finns are entrepreneurial types), and, as usual, they’d extended their generous invitations to me to come to Naples any time I wanted, to only worry about getting there. After they’d left, I spent some time with my parents at their apartment, and took my time coming back to mine...

June 11th: Friday
Patricia (or, “Patty”), Andrew Farnsworth’s girlfriend, had one of her best friends in town, and because it was her birthday, we went out and grabbed some dinner at Merchant’s, up on 61st Street. I was pleasantly surprised to see Jared Cooper there -- I often forget that Jared and Andy have known each other since when they were like 5. We did some catching up, since the last time I talked to Jared was almost exactly a year ago, when Jeremy Tick pulled his crap on me, and I was seeking legal advice -- Jared is a lawyer. He had just won another case earlier this past week (he has a perfect record thus far), and from what he was telling us, it was just a stupid case he was obviously a little undignified by.

Irregardless, after the meal, we walked over to Casa la Femme and had some drinks -- I wasn’t aware that Casa la Femme had moved from its SoHo location, so we talked a little bit about that, had some awesome lamb chops (when Jared’s girlfriend offered me some of her salad, I replied: “no thanks, I had my vegetables yesterday”), and called it a night at about 2 a.m.

June 12th: Saturday
The birthday celebration continued on, and we started at Bungalow 8. To be frank, I don’t really understand the obsession with this place -- it’s kind of a crappy space, as compared to other venues Amy Sacco runs. I still prefer Lot 61, at least aesthetically, but I guess Bungalow 8 is one of those “hip” spaces whose time has come and gone in my opinion. Nevertheless, we then went down to SoHo to 60 Thompson, the hotel bar, where my only resistance to leaving was because of the pretty blonde waitress -- she reminded both Andy and me of the “stereotypical” Greenwich/Rye girl, in a good way. In a very good way.

Once Andy and Patty managed to peel me away from the hotel, we then moved on to Taj. I must comment that it was strange to walk into these places with my high school colleagues, all of us in our 30’s, dressed well, especially since I ran into some of the people I knew from when I ran the model agency -- in those days, going out in ragged t-shirts and jeans was fashionable, and I felt somewhat amused by being on the other side of that “fence.”

With that said, we then hopped over right next door to Slate to get some games of pool in -- considering the fact I was in the company of amateur pool league pros, I didn’t get my butt whooped too badly. Ok, so it was still pretty bad. At least I didn’t cry.

We finished the late-night / early morning off with a light meal at L'Express, which is still one of my favorite late night eateries in Manhattan. Had me a burger and I was off to bed...


With all of that said, I need to update on this past week, but this post is already getting lengthy, so I'll get to that some other time...

Tangent: Addendum to Team Sports

After reading my last post, someone referred me to the top 25 athletes in the last 25 years,, as voted by ESPN readers as part of ESPN's 25th anniversary celebration. The final results were:

25. Alex Rodriguez (MLB)
24. Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Track)
23. Patrick Roy (NHL)
22. Martina Navratilova (Tennis)
21. Sugar Ray Leonard (Boxing)
20. Lawrence Taylor (NFL)
19. Shaquille O'Neal (NBA)
18. Roger Clemens (MLB)
17. Mario Lemieux (NHL)
16. Dan Marino (NFL)
15. Emmitt Smith (NFL)
14. John Elway (NFL)
13. Pete Sampras (Tennis)
12. Cal Ripken (MLB)
11. Carl Lewis (Track)
10. Barry Sanders (NFL)
9. Barry Bonds (MLB)
8. Larry Bird (NBA)
7. Magic Johnson (NBA)
6. Joe Montana (NFL)
5. Jerry Rice (NFL)
4. Tiger Woods (Golf)
3. Lance Armstrong (Cycling)
2. Wayne Gretzky (NHL)
1. Michael Jordan (NBA)

In other words, I was pretty much spot on! I couldn't argue with the order of the top three, and the rest of the list is arguable only because the list contains athletes only from the past 25 years. Also, the list is obviously very much American oriented -- Ayrton Senna, one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time, and who was killed well within the "25 year limit," should at least have an honorable mention in my opinion, along with Pele and several other soccer players (Ronaldo, Beckham, etc., included). I guess we could go on and on and on like this....so I'll stop here :)

Tangent: Team Sports

In my last post, I expressed my passion for Ice Hockey, making my claim that hockey players are the greatest athletes in team sport. I'd like to make a slight correction -- hockey players are the greatest athletes, only slightly edging soccer and lacrosse players. However, hands down, hockey remains to be the fastest team sport there is.

I'd like to clarify that my opinion is not founded in some academic theoretical point of view, but in my first-hand experience. I was fortunate enough to play American football, baseball, lacrosse, ice hockey, basketball, and soccer on my junior high and high school teams. In my experience, I would rank the sports in five different aspects (on a scale of 1-5, five being the highest) in the following way:

Speed/Quickness; Toughness; Intelligence; Endurance; and Skill/coordination

2; 4; 1; 2; 1 :: American Football (Total: 10)
3; 1; 5; 2; 4 :: Baseball (Total: 15)
4; 2; 3; 3; 4 :: Basketball (Total: 16)
4; 3; 4; 5; 5 :: Soccer (Total: 21)
4; 4; 4; 5; 4 :: Lacrosse (Total: 21)
5; 5; 3; 5; 5 :: Ice Hockey (Total: 23)

The sad point is that the greatest team sports are the least followed in the U.S. Although I played football, I will say it is a joke of a sport. I played both on defense (Corner Back) and offense (Wide Receiver), and even then I often felt like I could go for a run after a full game...in all fairness, it is a highly specialized sport, with each team member contributing in different ways. But unlike baseball, the other highly specialized sport, you can play football even if you never touch the ball -- in other words, even if you can't throw or catch a football for the life of you, you can still play the sport. Sadly, fact is that most players (aside the quarterback, the backs, the receivers, and the kicker -- MAYBE the tight end, and MAYBE the defensive backs in an interception) don't even touch the ball, nevermind a game, for an entire season!

To make matters worse, football is the only professional team sport in the U.S. where the championship is determined in a single game. One could argue this is what contributes to the drama of the Super Bowl, but in my opinion, it is by no means a way to determine the best team. In all other professional team sports -- Hockey, Baseball, and Basketball -- the championship is determined by a best of seven series, thereby minimizing luck and bettering the chances that the greater team wins, the team indeed deserving of the Championship. Even in many individual sports, champions are not determined by a single game -- can you imagine a tennis match of just one set (or even worse, a game)? Or a golf Tournament consisting of only one round of 18? Or how about a single race Formula 1? All the berating aside, I will say that two of the greatest athletes of all time that played football are Joe Montana & Jerry Rice, both of the 49ers. Two great athletes and class acts.

Anyhow, another similarity between baseball and football aside from specialization of the players is the fact that you don't necessarily have to be in your best shape -- in football, you only play at most 30 seconds at a time, and similarly in baseball, you're going to sprint around the bases at most, and that is a rare occasion. Now, unlike football, baseball is one of my favorite sports to watch -- there is a tremendous amount of psychology and drama that unfolds during a baseball game, and there isn't much to compare to a lazy Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, taking in a game, nevermind when they pummel that borderline minor-league farm team from Boston called Red Shoes or Socks or something or the other. All I gotta say to you all Red Sox fans is "1918!" You know, the last time you won a World Series is before there was even television...you couldn't even watch the last time you guys won...how quaint -- not many MLB teams need to maintain an oratory tradition to recount the "Last Great Win." You should be thankful to the Yanks for showing you time and time again what it must have looked like, you know, kind of like Babe Ruth did back in the day, or more recently, like Roger Clemens.

In all seriousness, I very much appreciate baseball as an integral part of American history and culture -- of the three most popular team sports in America, I would hands down have to pick baseball as my sport of choice, since it is, after all, the Great American Pastime. Not only is it rich in history, but is the only team sport brimmed with real sportsmen who love their sport, the concentration of which is only second to ice hockey.

With that said, I'm not much a basketball fan, but I will give credit to basketball players as being good athletes, likely better-rounded athletes than baseball or football players on average. However, in my opinion, if there's no one tending the goal, what's the point? The average basketball game sees on average 75-100+ "goals" -- in other words, who wins the game is really a matter of how many misses have been made. Furthermore, the only thing that really pressures a player in basketball to shoot is the 24-second shot clock. I mean, come on. In contrast, in ice hockey, there are rules that have been put in place whose purpose are mainly to help slow down the sport (e.g., two-line passes, icing, & offsides).

Rantings aside, among basketball players, I obviously will always admire Michael Jordan, not just for his tremendous athletic ability, but also because he is one of very few gentlemen sportsmen, otherwise utterly lacking in the NBA, especially today. Not only is Michael Jordan another one of the greatest athletes of all time, he also took sports marketing to a whole different level, taking what Arnold Palmer started to an entirely new, broader, and higher dimension, in part helped by the explosion of cable television and the birth of the Internet.

It's a bit of a double-edged sword, however -- Michael Jordan's marketing prowess is also probably the reason, at least in part, why basketball has become the circus that it is. There was that marketing slogan, "I want to be like Mike," and this is pretty much what's happened -- a lot of athletes are now driven by getting the merchandising and endorsement money. It's like one of the core messages in that movie Jerry McGuire -- playing sports for the love of it vs. "Show Me the Money."

Basketball is definitely the biggest victim of this mentality, football a close second, and baseball a distant third -- all of the other sports have yet to be as badly corrupted, and I hope the day never comes. Although, I will say that the Anna Kournikova syndrome in professional tennis is kind of sickening -- first of all, I don't think she's THAT attractive to begin with, but what's sickening is that the last time she was ranked, she was ranked 70th in the world, which is no laughing matter in of itself, but it means that there are at least more than 60 women tennis players that are far better than her as a tennis player (and many who are far far more attractive). In other words, her fame is more from the marketing, and not from her sheer athletic ability (or looks!)!

Anyhow, now, we finally get to the sports I enjoy tremendously, both as a spectator and as a participant: Soccer, Lacrosse, and Ice Hockey -- these sports really tested just how fit I was, time and time again. In all three sports, you are always one man down when in offensive territory -- meaning, you really have to WORK to get a goal. In addition, unlike the other pansy-ass sports, you get nothing for free, no matter how bad the foul -- in basketball, you get free throws; in football, you get free yardage, sometimes up to 15 yards (or 15% into the entire field, or 30% into enemy territory!!!); in baseball, you get walks and automatic doubles.

Also, in basketball/football, just because the opponent scores a goal, you're given the ball to take offense. What is THAT? In ice hockey, even in the case of a foul, you still have to earn the offense through face-off's. The only thing you "get" in ice hockey, soccer, or lacrosse is a man advantage -- which really means that the number of offensive and defensive players in the offensive zone are finally equal. It's only when there is a two-man advantage that the number of offensive players outnumber the defensive, and that is extremely rare. In other words, even with a penalty, you still have to work for the points. In ice hockey, even in the best case scenario, the penalty shot, it's mono y mono -- you against the goaltender. It would be the equivalent of a free throw in basketball with defender in your face. It ain't easy -- and in the pros, the goaltender almost always triumphs.

I hear basketball fans whining about this year's NBA finals for the lack of points per game, but even then, there are still a minimum of 70 "goals" per game, which only goes to demonstrate my case in point -- basketball is about showmanship, whose winners are determined by how many goals you don't miss, even taking account of Detroit's "formidable defense" -- again, if the defense is that formidable, how is it that the opponent still manages to score 30+ "goals" (or a minimum so far of 68 points) per game?

Nevertheless, aside the fact that most Americans are more into entertainment rather than enjoying great athletes compete, I assume the main reason why ice hockey is likely not as popular as other team sports, despite being the oldest league among the top professional team sports (NHL, MLB, NBA, and NFL), is because of its cost of entry (the equipment is necessary and expensive) along with the lack of availability (skating rinks aren't readily available in all parts of the country). However, because of the recent popularity of in-line skating, a whole new realm has opened in the league, which was already the most internationally and culturally diverse league in all of professional team sports.

As for soccer and lacrosse, I'm glad to see that MLS (Major League Soccer) was established, along with the recent (2001) arrival of the MLL (Major League Lacrosse). Lacrosse, for the same reasons as ice hockey, I can understand why it is not as popular a sport as it ought to be -- it's not a cheap sport to get into, and most open fields, if available, are more often used for the deplorable football. Also, thus far, lacrosse has primarily remained to be a North East / Chesapeake sport.

However, the utter lack of popularity in soccer still amazes me (I think Mia Hamm is hot by the way). It is the most played sport globally, and it costs nothing to play -- you just need a decent soccer ball, or even just a sphere that can be kicked around! You don't have to have a backboard and a hoop -- you just need a relatively flat ground, asphalt or grass, rain or shine -- in my opinion, playing soccer in the rain is that much more fun, what with all that mud adding to a sliding tackle. It amazes me nevertheless that the name Pele never seems to ring a bell among Americans, when he is by far the most well known athlete anywhere else in the world, only matched perhaps by Ali and Michael Schumacher.

With all of that said, I will surely be crucified by my English colleagues if I didn't mention two other team sports that are played world-over, thanks to the once great British Empire: Cricket and Rugby. Cricket, I haven't much to say about, except that I got bored after the third day into watching a single match -- you guys really ought to take a page from lacrosse history...as you may know, lacrosse was originally a war game between native American tribes that often spanned days, weeks, and months at a time -- in its modern format, it's been shortened to a reasonable one hour. Rugby, however, I will say that, if anyone could eat hockey players alive for breakfast, it would be rugby players. Nuf said. Then there's Australian Rules Football...Christ almighty, I might consider a swift kick to the groin before I play a game of THAT.

Irregardless, I am guessing that the only way that this score will be settled is if we get the championship team from each league play against each other in a tournament of all sports. The New England Patriots playing soccer against the Tampa Bay Lightening. The Florida Marlins playing football against the Pistons/Lakers. Could you imagine? Some may whine that it would be unfair to put the athletes on ice because it's such a specialized skill to be able to skate -- however, to this I contest that, any person with athletic ability and good coordination can learn to skate relatively quickly, and if you know how to play golf or swing a bat, you've got a good start into stick-handling. For these crybabies, I'd be willing to compromise with street hockey, but even if we were to omit ice hockey altogether from the roster of activities, I guarantee the hockey players would fare best in all other sports...although, I probably wouldn't put my money on it...

That said, I will say that I enjoy all of the team sports I mentioned very much -- each sport has something different to offer, and I have fun participating in each. I won't delve into individual sports in this post (e.g., tennis, golf, skiing, mountain biking, rock-climbing, etc.), but I will say that, any journalist or sports historian will say that the greatest athlete of all time would have to be at least a three-way tie between Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong (for his enormous accomplishment, especially after having battled cancer), and "the Great One," WAYNE GRETZKY. I am not certain Gretzky's records will ever be broken, at least within MY lifetime...


Gretzky's last game: April 18th, 1999. One of the saddest days in sport history.

Farewell, Wayne!
But wait, what team jersey is he wearing?
THAT'S RIGHT, BABY, THE RANGERS!!!

As well, any journalist or sports historian will also say that the greatest moment in American sports history (aside from maybe Jackie Robinson) would have to be, hands down, the Miracle on Ice in 1980, in Lake Placid (where I used to go on ski trips with my high school buddies, at Whiteface "Iceface" Mountain), when Team U.S.A. won the gold medal and defeated the Soviet team in ice hockey -- what these hockey players / college kids did for the nation is truly remarkable.

Again, my point is, arguably the all-time best athlete and best moment in sports are both in which sport? That's right, because ICE HOCKEY RULES!!!!

The Stanley Cup will Stay in the U.S.!

Just finished watching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. I was never a fan of either of the teams (Tampa Bay Lightning or Calgary Flames), but being a fan of the sport, and given that the oldest prize in all sport was definitely going to be awarded tonight, I had to watch it.


The Most Coveted Prize in ALL Sport, the Stanley Cup
Notice the American flag in the background...that's right, it's staying in the U.S.!!!

Some people are often surprised to learn that I am as big a fan of ice hockey as I am -- an unfortunate byproduct of the popular American misperception of the sport ("I was watching a fight when a hockey game broke out"). Hands down, at least in team sports, these are the greatest athletes on the planet -- each player must be quick, tough, smart, diligent, AND I dare say that it is the only professional team sport in which ALL of the players are in it for the love of the sport. How often do you hear hockey players in the news or doing some tasteless, dumb endorsements in commercials?

Not only do these athletes have to be in top shape (they have the fullest, and most exhausting regular season schedule in all sport), they are all absolute gentlemen. In the few occasions you do see fights breaking out, it is only because they are that passionate about their sport -- HOWEVER, unlike most athletes in other sports, they leave it all on the ice.

With that said, another reason why I admire these athletes is their determination and their commitment to their team -- I am fed up with hearing football, basketball, and baseball players whine every time they sprain this or bruise that (boo hoo hoo) -- when it's playoff season, hockey players grit their teeth (at least, what's left of them) and play with their broken bones, stitches in their faces, and any given injury that would make most other athletes crying to their mother and holed up in their hospitals or million dollar mansions.

That is aside the fact that the Stanley Cup is the most unique prize in all sports -- just because you win it once, you don't get to take it home to decorate your mantle, to show it off to some trashy girl you take home. There is only one Cup (save for a replica that sits in Hockey Hall of Fame) -- you're not going to find one of these show up at some yard sale or a pawn shop. In its entire 111 year history, you only get to keep it for a day. You do, however, get to leave your mark on it permanently -- every player that has won the Cup has their name etched into the Cup.

That said, in a silly sort of way, I'm happy to say that for the 11th year in a row, Canada will not have a Stanley Cup winning team. Listen, the U.S. lost the gold to Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics -- for which I got a lot of flack for because I was in London at the time, surrounded by Canadians in a sports bar off of Piccadilly Circus. The only rebuttal another American and I were able to come up with was: "WE GOT THE CUP!" And we STILL do!! Even taking into account there are only six Canadian teams in the 30 NHL teams, that is still pitiful, Canada, especially given that the sport was born in your country :P To quote Denise Richards in the cinema classic, Drop Dead Gorgeous (sarcasm, people, sarcasm), "as my mother used to say at Sunday supper, COME AND GIT IT!!!"

Nevertheless, this all does tie in with the Summer of '94 -- arguably one of the best years of my life thus far. How? In addition to all else that was happening then, that was the year that my team, the New York Rangers, won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 54 years!

...with hockey season officially done, I'm at a loss as to what to do with myself for the next three months...

Summer of '94 take 2

Ok, so the summer of '94...

I was living at 139 College Avenue/4 Warner Street (because the house was on a corner and had two separate entrances, it had two different addresses) that spring -- I'd taken over Chris Harmon's room, since he'd gone to Australia for his semester abroad. As I mentioned before, this house was a laugh-a-minute...anyhow, this was the semester I'd begun dating Catie D'Ignazio, and also the same semester I started taking classes with Tom Kaplan-Maxfield.

The class was American Transcendentalism, a small class of maybe 15 students. I believe it was in this class I'd also first met two gorgeous brunettes, Amy Hubbard (hubba hubba) and Rachel Stone. The class was a discussion-oriented, intimately-sized one format, complemented by Tom's great sense of humor and his core kindness -- it was likely one of the best classes I'd taken at Tufts. At the risk of sounding somewhat pretentious, I do think that the class format that Tom stuck with is likely similar to the academics of the Greek era, a time when academia was established and when the way education is meant to be was founded -- an open forum for discussion, under the guidance of a well-read, intelligent, open-minded, and well-humored instructor. Tom was interested in hearing our ideas and opinions as much as presenting his obviously better-balanced own. In short, he forced us to think and allowed us to express and listen to others' ideas openly -- a rarity in modern day university-level academics, in my opinion.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tom's classes, and, as I mentioned before, he is one of the only professors from Tufts I am still in touch with. He, a small group of other classmates, and I would often sit at Tufts' Campus Center to talk about all things life, and one of the topics that we would talk about was the topic of love/affection/sexual relations. I remember we had a lot of funny conversations, picking on Amy Hubbard (although, really just admiring how perfect her features were) and talking about Rachel Stone's aspirations to become a television sportscaster.

It was during this time I also had begun dating Catie D'Ignazio I mentioned before. Around then, Dave Tohill, who had the room right next to mine, had begun dating Natalie Wilson as well (we would refer to the times we both had our mutual girlfriends over the same night as "synchronized swimming"). I remember when I first introduced Catie to Tom, he referred to her as being fawn-like.

Also around this time, Elisa Gilliam/Madsen would often come to visit, since she was attending Bates College in Maine at this time. By an amazing coincidence, it turned out she was next-door neighbors with one of my good friends from high school, Jenni Matz, so it wasn't infrequent I'd go to visit her or they would come into Boston to visit.

Nevertheless, as the school year was coming to a close, our lease to our beloved 139 College was ending as well -- most of us had determined our respective abode for the following year (we'd decided to go separate ways), save for Dave Tohill and myself, since neither of us had decided our plans for the summer. It was then that Tom offered me a summer job, to help him as a carpenter -- Tom was a general contractor when he wasn't teaching at Tufts. With that determined, all I needed to determine was living arrangements -- at this juncture, Catie and I had only been dating for two months and the discussion of living together had come up, but we'd decided against it (she tells me to this day that I was the one that unilaterally decided so, but...). Irregardless, it turned out that an acquaintance of ours, Lilly Shapiro, was looking for two roommates in her house at 215 College that she shared with her then best friend Colleen Craig, so Dave Tohill and I jumped on the opportunity. It worked out well, since Jake Sherman was going to need a place to live in the following spring term, and Lilly Shapiro was going to be away that semester.

So came the Summer of '94...

Summer of '94 & Updates

Continuing with Tom Kaplan-Maxfield...actually, before I do, two things: updates and a general statement. It's been a busy week or so...

FINALLY caught up with Melissa Ramsay -- we finally managed to connect over the phone. She's now done with finals, but is in the process of now moving into the house she and her beau, Oliver (forget his last name), closed on. We managed to talk for a while to catch up and to make tentative plans for me to visit their new home in the coming weeks.

Speaking of school, Ian E., who used to be one of my models, just graduated from Columbia so I went to congratulate him before he was away for the summer, after which he will be at Boston University to begin working on his law degree. It was good to see him for the first time in a while -- we'd both cut our hair short, so that was a topic in of itself. We met up at Lotus, now a veteran of the Meat-Packing District's fancy clubs, and it was a strange sensation to be there, for the first time in likely a year or so. Lee Zumdome, Ian E., and I had some drinks to celebrate his graduation and I called it a night at about 1AM...

Another friend who's just about graduating is J. Harry Edmiston, whom I'd mentioned before. I dropped him a line recently, after hearing from his sister Pandora, who was headed for Thailand, after having returned from the Cannes Film Festival. We caught up, since we hadn't spoken in some time -- he'd just gotten in from surfing (in England?!?!?!), and rightfully he was frozen.

Also touched base with Jennette Swartout, a friend from the Accenture days over IM. I hadn't really used IM much recently (except at Accenture, where it was used professionally), but am reconnecting with a lot of Accenture folk through it -- including Susi Gulla (in Philly, studying now to become a doctor), Phil Spannenger (in New York now, still at Accenture), and Merrit Brown (a Flyers fan, but he's forgiven...still with Accenture as well, in London and D.C.). I also heard from Ginevra Felt who is happily engaged and buying a house in CT -- she's one of the very few women I know who actually can appreciate video games as much as we guys do, without being a total nerd.

Over IM, I also spoke to my old friend Alex Kulick, a Russian I used to work with over at Viacom on a project -- through Alex Kulick, Alan Mandell, Dhaval Parikh, and my efforts, we'd implemented a corporate-wide business software in 1999 that's still in active use today. His company, Offsiteteam seems to be doing well, and he's in New York now. He's invited me out to drinks, but given that the last time we went out for drinks, he took me to the Russian Vodka Room where I was served glasses full of vodka infusions, and I was barely able to even stay sitting up, I made it a point that I'll only have Guinesses. It'll be good to see him nonetheless, as it's been over two years, maybe three.

And speaking of someone I hadn't spoken to in a while, I heard from Brian Rosenworcel of Guster -- I'm not sure if I'd mentioned the house before, but at Tufts, we lived in this house on Powderhouse Circle, at 139 College Avenue -- it was eight of us all together, and it was a ruckus every hour of the day, every day of the week. Bri is touring still and he may miss Jake's wedding, but he seemed well. Other cast members from that house were: Ryan Miller (also of Guster); Neil Foster (moved to New York and is now married); Chris Harmon (finished with Kellogg, is in Boston now, and will be marrying his girlfriend of 12 years, Allison Oshinsky, finally this fall in Lake Tahoe); Mike Carcamo (was racing for a while, then joined the engine team for Players in the Cart circuit, before moving on to design consumer car engines); Jacob Millard (whom I've mentioned before -- one of the smartest guys I know); Jake Sherman (who recently wrote again from Afghanistan, and is coming back to NY soon in preparation for his wedding); and Dave Tohill (who e-mailed recently from Hawaii...I think I mentioned him before as well).


Neil Foster & Dave Tohill at 139 College Avenue, Circa 1994
I was working on an engineering project to design a better dental flosser, but...

There are stories galore from that era -- everyone in that house was intelligent, creative, very different individuals that were all funny as hell, so it was laugh a minute...I remember one instance when Chris Harmon and I had to literally get out of the house and run away to the nearest restaurant because we were near dying from laughter. I guess before veering off into another tangent, I should return to the title of this post.

This past weekend was Memorial Day Weekend, and of course, there were barbecues to attend to. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get away for the weekend, but it was nice to catch up with old friends. I went to a barbecue at my friend Mac Premo's (whom I've mentioned before) new apartment in Brooklyn, also to celebrate his birthday. We've been meaning to have sushi together for some time, so, depsite the fact it was a barbecue, I brought a platter of sushi to get that monkey off our backs. It was good to catch up with him and his now fiancee, Adrianna; look at slides from the art show in Belfast; look thorugh his book (which is more enjoyable in person, given that it's a mixed-media work); catch up with Betsy Richard; look at their new duplex apartment (with roof, which is where we had our barbecue -- Mac has such a unique sense of style -- he's a RISD graduate -- that it leaves a signature on everything he touches. His apartment is quintessentially Mac Premo, and I wish I had photographs to better demonstrate what I mean); meet Jeff (don't know his last name) who's Broadway musical with puppets called Avenue Q comes highly recommended by Mac, so I need to check it out (quick update: Avenue Q just won a Tony for Best Musical, 2004); etc.

Then on Saturday afternoon/night, I met up with Maarten Devos, his wife Stephanie, Oliver and Amy Pihlar, et al. in Prospect Park in Brooklyn for a barbecue as well. It was good to see everyone, and we tossed the good ol' pigskin around, which was nice -- I hadn't tossed a football in a while, not since college, but, if I say so myself (and with my colleague's confirmation), it was nice to see that I still have a pretty good arm...I did play football, believe it or not, in high school after all.

Anyhow, as this post has become a beast in of itself, I will have to write about the Summer of 1994 some other time...

Tom Kaplan-Maxfield, et al.

While cleaning up my apartment recently, I came across my old, paper organizer I used to use through college. In it, I found one of my Tufts professors' names, Tom Kaplan-Maxfield. Given that he was the greatest professor at Tufts, I had to get a hold of him, so I ran an Internet search, and sure enough, I found his information and we're back in touch.

Of course, there were many great professors I'd had the privilege of being in contact with at Tufts. I’m not going to be able to remember many of them, aside from: Kim Knox, one of my engineering professors whom I admired, despite the fact she flunked me once for not showing up to class (it was an 8:05AM class!) -- I aced her class with a perfect 4 the next semester; Deborah Digges, one of my English professors, who’d helped me develop my writing, and whom I had a crush on; and Marie Howe, another one of my English professors who taught creative writing, but whose class on the Beat generation was especially interesting -- Marie’d also helped me through some of my emotional struggles at the time (I had a crush on her as well!). I know it sounds awful, but they were both very attractive (cue in Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher”) -- with that said, unfortunately, the caliber of education was slightly higher at my high school, so I give merit to my teachers from then for the most part as far as my academic constitution is concerned.

The faculty at my high school, Rye Country Day, were top-notch, and I hold them in high regard to this day. Namely: Jim Mooney, whose Art History classes were incredible -- it provided me with a firm foundation of knowledge and appreciation that comes handy to this day -- the fact we had access to the Metropolitan, the Frick, Guggenheim, Whitney, and MoMA at our disposal likely helped, but he’d introduced us to the Cloisters as well as St. John the Divine -- two great landmarks most would otherwise miss. Mr. Mooney was also the dean of the Junior High when I'd first returned to the U.S., and he was very helpful to me and my parents during this transitional time. To this day, I credit him for making my transition as easy as possible.

Mr. Mooney aside, Mr. Fuller was very strict with grammar and spelling, the deep respect for the English language, which has proven to be essential in everything I do to this day; Mlle. Ansellem, whose quirky, but effective French education has stuck with me throughout the years; Mr. Weinberg’s U.S. History was more balanced than anything I have yet to encounter, providing the insight and perspective which I carry to this day, that help make mass media look like sheer entertainment and otherwise misleading; Mr. Carlsten’s Physics classes and Mr.Rue/Mr. Brown’s Biology classes that effectively communicated the passion and the intricacies behind all the equations; Mrs. Clark's Calculus classes and her relaxed style of teaching that allowed a lot of freedom, etc. I could go on and on and on. I believe what all of this comes down to is the fact that these teachers were passionate about their subject matter AND about educating -- as opposed to many professors who were likely passionate about the subject matters but regarded the education segment of their duty mostly only as an obligation.

That is, aside from Tom Kaplan-Maxfield. I first met Tom in his American Transcendentalism class, which I decided to take when I saw it in the course catalog, primarily because my friends and I would frequent Walden Pond for late-night shenanigans (lots of skinny-dipping) and felt I should pay Thoreau at least some measure of respect. This proved to be one of my best decisions during my stay at Tufts University (proving, yet again, that shenanigans is not only a great word, but the act itself actually has an intellectual merit after all, especially if it involves skinny-dipping).

More to follow in re: Tom Kaplan-Maxfield, which also ties in with Sydney...


Sydney Shapiro and me, at Skidmore. Fall, 1994

Picking up where I left off...January, 2002

OK, so, I guess I should get back to my chronological account of what happened with my company, FUEL new york....

Around this time, in early January 2002, I’d received an unusual call from my mother. She was crying. As you might imagine, being Japanese, this is a truly rare occasion, and I can literally count the number of times I have heard or seen my mother cry on a single hand. This was serious. I was somewhat shocked since I'd spent some time with my parents on New Year Day, just a few days before, and they seemed fine as usual -- I asked her to take a breath and tell me what was wrong, and she was immediately apologetic, which I assured her she needn’t be.

She'd begun to share with me that, due to financial problems my father was having -- the Japanese bubble had burst and the economy there was still declining -- this, in conjunction with 911, there was a severe drop in Japanese business coming to my father. My mother was upset as it appeared that, in order to make ends meet, they may have to sell their beloved property in Westchester, where they'd lived in for over a decade, the property they'd spent a significant amount of energy (and money) into renovating.

I knew that, even with the slowing economy, their Westchester property was worth well into seven figures. Thankfully, I'm a little more familiar with the American financing system/industry in some respects than my parents, and I assured her immediately that the property needn't be sold -- there were other ways to leverage the property. I told her that, as hard a pill as it may be to swallow, they could rent their property out to someone, and as much as it would be difficult to have to move and to let someone else live in their property, it would allow them to retain ownership. Further, the money coming in from rent would likely be enough to provide them with a comfortable enough base income to make minimal adjustments to their lives. Plus, if they did want to ultimately sell the property, it would allow them to buy some time to ride out the economic slowdown, allowing them to sell the property for a lot more, should they choose to down the road.

This seemed to calm her, and we talked some more before deciding that I should come out there to talk it over dinner with both my parents. My father decided that the renting route was the way to go, and they needed to act on the decision relatively quickly -- their financial situation was fairly dire.

As you may recall from my earlier postings, at this point, Jeremy Tick and I’d decided fairly conclusively to move ahead with FUEL new york, mostly based on Jeremy Tick’s repeated assurance that we would be certain to make well into six figures with this venture by the end of the year (again, which was why I’d made sure we’d met with Steve Kleiner, my financial advisor at UBS). However, given my core apathy for the fashion industry (I couldn’t care for the “glamour” of the industry --having grown up in New York most my life and being of relatively down-to-earth constitution, I was jaded by the glitz), I was still not emotionally committed to the idea, which is why I was still entertaining the idea of the job in Tokyo with Siebel Systems.

In addition to the apathy, given my lack of experience in the industry, the only reason I was interested in the venture at the time was for the experience of helping build and running a business -- as I used to frequently say to potential models and other colleagues: “I want this to be a business, that happens to be a model agency.” Since day one, I didn’t want to have much contact with the industry people, given my sentiment regarding poseurs in general I mentioned before in a separate post and given that this industry was ripe with poseurs more so than any other given industry, and my main focus was on the back-office.

After having had the discussion with my parents in regard to their financial situation, however, it became more definitive that this was no time for me to go to Japan...even with the plan of renting the property and seeking somewhere else to live, it was going to be a time of tremendous change and stress for my parents. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I'm an only child and my parents haven't much family here in the States (another long story I will get to later on...) -- my parents and I were a small unit of mutual support that needed to stick close, especially during trying times, which were certain to come (albeit in a far different manner than anyone might have imagined at that specific point in time...!).

That night, upon returning from my parents' and to my apartment in Manhattan, I'd told Jeremy Tick that our venture, FUEL new york, had to work. It was at this point I'd made my full emotional commitment to the venture -- if in fact Jeremy Tick was right in his repeated assurances that we would be generating "well into six-figures by year end," I would be in the position to remain in close quarters with my family, and I could look to picking up where I'd just left off with Accenture within a year as far as income was concerned.

The decision was final -- that night, I sent Geofferey Dallas at Siebel an e-mail, communicating the decision. I'd followed up with him with a phone call explaining that I needed to remain close with my family, and that regretfully, I was not in the position to be able to relocate to Japan at that time.

In retrospect, to be fair, I should have been a lot more skeptical in believing Jeremy Tick outright, especially what with my past experience in reading and helping prepare business plans for other start-ups -- rarely do you see companies making profits within the first year of operation. However, it was an industry I was wholly unfamiliar with, and, on paper, there was minimal overhead -- the bare minimum needed to operate the company was a live telephone line (at least as we knew at that time). With such minimal overhead, and given that one of my ex’s was making six figures a year as a model, barely working four months in total per year, it wasn’t infeasible that with 15-20 models we were aiming for, we could be generating six figures in profits within the year.

Finally, both Steve Kleiner and I had the repeated assurances of Jeremy Tick (whom we thought was) a Skidmore grad who had worked at John Hancock. Upon having reviewed all of the contact information we'd collected over New Year's, Jeremy Tick was even more confident we could do it, and to his defense, he probably did really think he could achieve those figures, likely because of his minimal brain power. Unfortunately for all, his guestimation was FAR FAR off the target, as we would discover relatively soon.

Addendum
All posts regarding FUEL new york have now been separated out to its own blog, which can be found here.

The Discovery Channel Reconnected

Funnily enough, yet again, I mentioned an old employer and sure enough, I heard from someone I used to work with, Maarten Devos. After a brief stint at USA Networks, he's back at Discovery Communications -- he's now married to his long time girlfriend, Stephanie Carden. It was actually through her I'd met Jessica Lieberman (and her now fiance Richard Hatherall, both of whom I mentioned before in "London Calling..."), Catherine Lamb (of Sibling Rivalry Productions I mentioned before as well), and Amy Pihlar (of Hadu designs -- there's something to be touched on here in reference to my ex-business partner, Jeremy Tick -- I'll get to that again once I do get around to continuing with the chronological account of FUEL new york...one day!).

Aside the fact that the Discovery Channel and all its affiliated channels (the Science Channel, the Learning Channel, Discovery Wings, etc.) are some of my favorite channels on television, it was a great place to work. I'd shared a 300 or so foot square office with Maarten Devos (Belgian, if you're wondering) for the year I was there, working on helping account executives with a sales-automation software called Gabriel which we helped further customize for them.

By the time I'd left, the software had gotten so sophisticated and all-encompassing, it was pretty impressive -- it handled everything from: actual programming of the shows for all of the networks; assigning where to cut the video feed for commercial slots; assigning time slots for the different types of commercials (local, national, affiliate, promos, etc.); semi-automatically assigning pricing through Nielsen ratings; packaging of commercial slots for the account executives to allow for an easier and appealing sell; reporting on and tracking the sales; allowing for preemptions and the subsequent changes in rates semi-automatically; and sending the video feed to the central satellite dish for broadcast. In essence, it was the backbone of the company.

I'm not sure how much it's changed since then, but I'm sure it's only gotten more sophisticated, what with the software advances in the past six years since I was there. One of the funniest things while we worked there was some of the programming we would screen that DIDN'T make it to air. When I'd joined the team, they were preparing to launch Animal Planet, so you can only imagine what kinds of tape submissions we were getting then...

To this day, Denise Sherack, who was Maarten's and my boss, is by far one of the best bosses I've had. Smart, well-humored, and sweet -- and now that I don't work there any more, I can openly say she was attractive as well. Nevertheless, given that Maarten and I are about the same age and equally mischievous, you can only imagine what a nightmare we were for her to manage, especially given that Maarten and I shared an office and could cause all sorts of ruckus without really being discovered. Also, given that we were working for the Discovery Channel, we had all sorts of fun promotional materials to be used as means of wreaking havoc -- it was like two kids locked in a toy store with minimal adult supervision.

Anyhow, that aside, Discovery being a media company, there were office vixens galore, but one I stay in touch with still is Jill O'Donnell, an ex-model redhead with a heart of gold.


Jill O'Donnell, the redhead Disco-Very vixen

I still remember when she'd begun working at DCI -- Joseph Campbell, another one of our cohorts, would often call from his floor to report on happenings on his floor and/or to harass us generally, and one day he called to ask: "have you seen the new arrival?" He was aware of my recent stint with Lauren, another redhead whose last name I can't mention for reasons I'll explain later, and having seen Jill, he was prompt to let me know about a tall ex-model redhead.

Nevertheless, speaking of Maarten Devos and Joseph Campbell, we would tear up the town, paint it red as often as we could. Joseph Campbell used to travel with a dance company, and was an expert dancer in all the classic dances -- tango, waltz, foxtrot, salsa, meringue, acrobatic swing, etc., and would show off his wares to the ladies every time we went out. It was enviably impressive -- obviously, the ladies loved him for it. Lucky bastard.

Anyhow, one of our favorite joints was the Greatest Bar on Earth -- the bar at the top floor of the World Trade Center, across the hall from Windows on the World. It was an impressive venue, simply from the views that it provided alone -- it had floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides, providing views to the north, east, and south, from the tallest building in Manhattan. The way the bar was laid out was impressive as well, and it really was a nice space, probably one of the best places in the city to go casually, although much dressier than the "bar" designation would indicate.

We'd had many splendid nights there, and we really used to frequent the place, every Tuesday or Wednesday night. However, and unfortunately, the strongest memory I have attached to the place is the direct reason for why I'd quit drinking for six years.

Alaina! et al. incl. Maha, Sarah, Elisa

It's funny...I was just talking about methodfive a few posts ago, and Alaina Yoakum e-mailed out of the blue! She'd sent pictures of her new baby, Olivia, and new pictures of Sophie...both absolutely adorable, as much as I'd hate to say it, but probably the most beautiful babies I've seen, and I can only hope that my children (?!?!) will be that beautiful. I congratulated and thanked Alaina & Charles for beautifying this planet.

I guess I failed to mention Alaina because she was always sagacious and stayed under the radar, and wisely jumped ship as soon as m5 was acquired. In part, it was motivated by her desire to return to Marin, but nevertheless, a smart move on her part. I enjoyed her level-headed assessment of any given situation (even at m5, there were politics), and I was aware of her ability to keep herself removed.

That said, she was probably one of the nicest, sweetest women at the office -- I don’t have many stories to tell (as I do with, say, Matus or Halid), since our interaction was mainly chatting hushedly by her desk, almost as though we were people-watching...it's near an art form to tactfully do what Alaina can do, stay removed from the politics completely, yet avoiding being seen as aloof or disinterested in the affairs --

Anyhow, on other fronts, I also heard from Annika Croone, another Swede and a friend of Shug Hanemann's, and Melissa Ramsay and I are STILL playing phone tag -- but again, given that she's in finals right now, I'm not too surprised. I keep forgetting that both Melissa and Susanna Campbell were in Paris the same time Catie was and that they all knew each other fairly well -- Catie had mentioned she'd run into Susanna recently.

Speaking of Paris and that era, I haven't heard from Maha Chehlaoui in quite some time, which I'm sad about. It's been some (maybe two or three?) years since we last spoke, and I considered her a good friend for quite some time -- that aside, she's a good soul with an awesome sense of humor (I remember one time at one of our many themed parties at 215 College Avenue, wherein she and I marched up and down the narrow hallway in a Tango charge...plus, she's got an awesome laugh). Also, speaking of Paris and women I've lost touch with, I should mention Elisa Gilliam/Madsen...she had been such an important part of my life for so long -- I'll expound on that some more at another time -- but the last I saw her was in Paris, and as far as I know, she's in the South of France, which is where we'd had our big argument, in Nice and then in Cannes...


Elisa & Me at Choate Rosemary Hall, Summer 1989

That said, Sarah Griffin, who used to be one of our models, called from Seattle, and we talked for some time for the first time in a while. I'll get to her eventually in my chronological account of the sagas around FUEL new york, but, I will say she's a dangerous little thing. Dangerous, because she's a free spirit and is a little trouble-maker -- when we'd first met, she'd just turned 16, and she'd made it a point to tease guys, full well knowing that she was two years younger than the "legal age." However, it needs mentioning that she's a real sweetheart and a loyal friend. When I mentioned what happened recently with another business associate, she, again, as she did when the Jeremy Tick debacle occured, offered to beat the crap out of him on my behalf. Jokingly, we'd agreed that every new person I meet from then on would have to be stringently screened by her -- Sarah Griffin, an 18 year old waif, would essentially be my bouncer.

Nevertheless, just as Sarah Griffin, most all of our models stayed by my side (both as my models and friends) when all hell broke loose, but Sarah Griffin is one of the few that still stay in touch with me, aside Lee Zumdome, Ian E., Sergio Gatti, Jennifer Joiner, Inese, and Juliana Fine -- all of whom I'll mention more on later...

Update: Halid Pasalic

What a nice surprise...I just got a random e-mail from another cohort from my high school days, Halid Pasalic (thanks, Friendster!). By God we were evil in those days...I can't seem to remember how exactly we'd met, but we hit it off immediately is what I do remember. In case you couldn't guess from the name, Halid is about as Irish as they get...and a firecracker at that -- short fuse, explosive personality, but not one to hold a grudge. The reason why I can’t be certain of how exactly we know of each other is because he’d gone to Iona Prep, and I know our schools didn’t play against each other.

I want to say we met through Wednesday church classes for Confirmation...if you know anything about the Catholics, we’re definitely a rambunctious bunch. Come to think of it, something along those lines MUST be how we’d met because we were always chasing girls from Ursuline – an all-girls Catholic School...and these girls were definitely not “pious,” despite what fine "pies" they may have had...I know, I'm sorry. Anyway, the only girls I can now remember in particular are Megan Flynn and Liz Murphy -- funnily enough, when I was working at the Discovery Channel, one of the women I worked with knew these girls as she was an Ursuline graduate as well.

Irregardless, I think we hit it off because we were both huge into lacrosse at the time. He was an attack and I was a middy (or a “mid-fielder”) -- we were definitely a destructive duo. I won’t get much into details of all the shenanigans we used to get into (and there were MANY), but the one story that comes at the top of the list involves driving on Saxon Woods Road, in Scarsdale.

If you know Saxon Woods Road, you might have a vague idea of what’s coming. I haven’t driven on it for years, but it is a tiny little narrow road about three miles long with severe curves and tiny stone bridges that string through the outskirts of Saxon Woods Golf Club (a nice area, by the way, with equestrian trails, etc.) and a small creek. It is one of the most dangerous (or fun, depending on your perspective/age/maturity) piece of road in the entire county...it was Halid Pasalic, Nancy Russo (Mamaroneck High), Cathy (I forget her last name – she went to Scarsdale High and was Nancy’s best friend for years), and me at the wheel, one late night.

We were either coming from or going to Tiffany(I forget her last name too!)’s house, which was on one end of Saxon Woods, and, as usual, we were giddy as hell. Whether out of testosterone or simple idiocy, we decide to scare the hell out of the girls, and I decide to BOOK down this road. To top it off, Halid, the eternal joker, decides to turn off my headlights mid-corner.

I manage not to hit anything, but I was barely keeping the car in control, fishtailing down this narrow winding road at 50+MPH in the middle of the night WITH NO HEADLIGHTS. For what seemed like a full minute, all we could hear were my tires screeching the entire way and Nancy screaming the entire time. Cathy is petrified. Halid is cracking up the entire way. I finally manage to stop the car, didn’t hit anything, Nancy finally stops screaming, and it’s quiet as suddenly as it was mayhem. A moment of silence, and what does Halid say?

“Let’s do it again!!!!”

Yeah, that’s Halid in a nutshell. Thankfully, no one was hurt and the girls had a great sense of humor about it, but irregardless, given that kind of a history, perhaps it was better for the sake of those around us that Halid and I haven’t gotten back in touch? Reports soon to follow...


My high school yearbook picture, circa high school debauchery era.
Note the prominent MULLET!

London Calling...

I mentioned London briefly in my last post, and I must expound on my sentiment regarding this great city more...

I was recently talking to Casper, an Englishman that resembles Tom Cruise, who has been renting my parents' house in Westchester for the past year or so, with his wife and children. We were talking about the entire financial industry -- he works for Svenska Handelsbanken -- hedge funds and prime brokerage in particular. Thanks to him, I'm reading a great book, When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein, but during our conversation, we got into talking about England in general -- he'd grown up in Notting Hill.

I mentioned I stayed with a friend (J. Harry Edmiston, who's made appearances in past posts) in Notting Hill Gate the last time I was in London, and we got to talking about Portobello Road and all sorts of things related to London and England as a whole. I've always been an anglophile -- as silly as it may be, I think my curiosity was first peeked because of my affinity for great English bands like the Beatles, the Who, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols, the Police, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Cream/Eric Clapton, etc, etc, etc, shall I go on?

My first trip to the U.K. was in 1990, when I traveled all through England, beginning with Hereford, traveling through Milton-Keynes (great cows...albeit cement), London, into the Sussexes (Chichester, mainly, with its Roman influence that still exists strongly, and I did travel to Portsmouth and almost into Devon and Cornwall -- otherwise, Brighton a bit, where a busty blonde flashed me, and in Ashdown Forest), then through Cambridge, Leicestershire, and Derby into Mersey (Liverpool!) and Lancashire (of the famed Blackburn -- can you name that Beatles tune?), making my last stop in Cumbria, in the Lake District (beautiful area, occasionally punctuated by the RAF jets waving at you from overhead), before returning to London. That trip really gave me a very good feel for the range and diversity of the landscape (the green, rolling hills of the Lake District to the stark white cliffs of Brighton), and because I stayed with some families along the way, I got to know some of its people intimately. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience (no doubt helped somewhat by a French girl by the name of Carine along the way).


Taken near Chichester, West Sussex: Summer, 1990

Of course, when you think of it, there are great similarities between the English and the Japanese cultures -- both countries with tremendous history in knighthood, monarchy, and the ilk; island nations with magnificent naval prowess; and an appreciation for tea. Of course, the biggest difference is the quality of its traditional foods (although fish and chips definitely hit the spot at times..I'm not sure what I think of scones, however), but barring that, I did notice and appreciate the similar sensibilities, including the common mastery of the dental arts.

Without getting into a whole dissertation in the comparison, I'll move onto London. What a fantastic city it is. (By the by, Arsenal is kicking some serious butt this season, thanks in part to Campbell...!) There aren't many other cities aside from New York (as a matter of fact, none other than London) I would consider living in, and for good reason...aside the fact that the English accent in women turns me on more than anything else (one of my first girlfriends was from Kent), what I love about London is its vibrant nature, even more alive as a city than New York is in recent years, I dare say.

Speaking of dares, I wouldn't have dared ventured south of the river when I'd first gone there -- the farthest south I'd gone was to the Tate, and really only stayed near Hyde Park/Knightsbridge and Sloane Square that time (I'm proud to say that even as a foreign traveler, I have yet to really venture into the West End, aside maybe to see a movie in Leicester Square). Yet, what they have done there since is nothing short of fantastic. From the Globe to the Tate Modern (and the "Eye"-sore, which I'm still mixed about -- it does provide great views of London, however), they have done a fantastic job in revitalizing this area of the city. The Jubilee line extension is extremely well done in my opinion, and is likely the best subway system I've seen, both aesthetically, and in its engineering feat.

The music scene there (in Brixton and in general) is far more diverse than the commercially driven NYC, and I really can appreciate Brixton in its gritty glory as it reminds me of New York's East Village pre-gentrification, up to about the early 90's. Most recently, I stayed in Hoxton/Shoreditch/Islington (with Richard Hatherall and his fiancee, Jessica Lieberman -- who was working recently on an independent short here in New York with Sibling Rivalry Productions), right on Great Eastern, and even at the trendy clubs around there, the diversity in music was greatly appreciated -- one DJ in particular mixed in Felakuti with modern beats like those by Pizzicato Five... unimaginable in New York.

Of course, the people make the city as the city does its people, and in general, I really like the English. The wit and the muted, subtle, and dry humor is as great as the zany, wacky humor (Eddie Izzard is hilarious!) -- also, the people are a lot more friendly and accommodating than in NY in general. I remember a friend of mine who'd stayed with Blair (whatever your opinion may be of him politically) for some time had told me how Tony was disarmingly humorous in person, and generous and kind.

It is often said that Europeans are easy to know, but somewhat difficult to get to know, and I appreciate and respect this regard. I think the "Old World" has many wisdoms in its natural ways, and this is one of them -- I'm often accused of being "too closed" by my American colleagues, but this is with good reason. Obviously, I chose poorly in recent years, but you live and learn...nevertheless, point is, I've noticed in general that the English are poised and mild-mannered until you get to know them well, at which point you know them as blabbering lushes hellbent on soaking up every bit of alcohol existant on the entire isle...very much like the Japanese (and the exact reverse of the Americans, some may say). With tonics like that Newcastle Brown Ale...you can hardly blame them.

ALTHOUGH...I remember this one instance, in 1990, I was only 17 at the time, and a few of us were playing soccer (or football) in Cheshire, near the Welch border. It was a sunny, hot day, and obviously I'd grown thirsty, so I grabbed this plastic jug labeled "Apple Cider" -- in the U.S., this is an equivalent to apple juice. While I chugged the sucker down, NOBODY on the field, not a single bastardly soul, warned me that the frigging thing was ALCOHOLIC! So, I'm dehydrated as hell and on top of that I'm piss drunk, while all of them bastards are laughing and pointing at the "dumb American." Next time I'm out playing soccer with the English, I'll make sure to bring what the Russians call "a little water," more commonly known as vodka. But again, knowing the English, they'll probably play better.

Anyway, back to London. What I also appreciate about the city is this subtle overture of the royalty and aristocracy that reside there. Aside the pinky rings, this is openly visible by simply going to certain places at night, or even when walking around different neighborhoods. It's a certain air that some might call snobbish, pretentious, or staid, but it's an air that adds to the whole dimension of the city. If you disagree, consider this: in America, the celebrity are considered as royalty. I think that's far worse in many senses. It ties in with another aspect of the London nightlife I really appreciate, which is the membership clubs. Whatever gripes and misgivings one might have about this, especially given what I mentioned about the weaning process, I think it is a wise move, and I often wished that more places in New York would begin implementing this approach.

Nevertheless, also, being as young as America is as a nation, we have a tendency to latch on to anything "historic," yet what I thought was interesting about Europeans in general is their rigorously integrating the modern while respecting the historic. For instance, I don't remember the name of the train station any more, but there is a relatively old train station just north of the City in London.

The architecture is perfectly in tact on the outside, but once you step indoors, it is thoroughly modern -- it's as though the land was treated as an empty plot of land that happened to have an ancient structure to roof it. This is in stark comparison (although I very much appreciate it as one of the best pieces of architecture in the entire city of New York) to the renovation of Grand Central Station that was spearheaded by Jackie Kennedy, which restored the architecture to its original state to a tee, while placing some modern upgrades here and there as necessary -- including two tennis courts in one of the levels above Vanderbilt Hall, where my father goes weekly.


Grand Central Terminal, New York

On a completely separate note, and one in which I'll end this post, as an automotive enthusiast, one cannot go by without mentioning Park Lane. What a fantastic place this is. McLarens, Lotuses, Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Aston Martins, Jaguars, and Minis, all displayed in a beautiful context of Hyde Park, right in the middle of the city (ok so farther to the West, but nevertheless). Between Park Lane and H.R.Owen in Kensington where Ferraris, Maseratis, Lotuses, and TVR's are displayed, I've spent more time appreciating these masterpieces there than i did at National Gallery, the Tate, or the Tate Modern combined (and I've always been a huge Turner fan!). I have yet to lay my eyes on the newly arrived British production, the Noble, but I will no doubt during my next jaunt...

I hear that the world apparently feels the Italians have all the automotive design sense (not to scoff at the Ferraris, Maseratis, and to a much, much lesser degree, Lamborghinis), but I, for one, beg to differ. The small isle off the coast of continental Europe has produced more variety and range of tastefully designed, refined automobiles with distinct character per square mile than any other place on the globe, and I would be perfectly content were I told I can only buy cars from England alone for the rest of my natural (and extremely content) life (...ok, so it has in part to do with the fact they're more reliable nowadays due to international/foreign ownership...but we'll ignore that part). Without much further ado, I present Exhibit A...or should I say, AM? Imagine being cradled in fine, hand-stitched Connoly leather and modern, state-of-the-art carbon fiber and aluminum (aluminium, yeah, yeah, yeah, ya damn limeys), with 460 horses at your disposal, taking you from 0-60MPH in less than 5...


The Aston Martin V12 Vanquish...drool...

Spring has arrived! / methodfive

Well, irregardless of the ramblings, spring has most definitely arrived here in New York, although it feels more like mid-summer, what with the recent thunderstorms. Spring is definitely one of the best times of the year, if not THE best. As a family friend I stayed with in Milan for some time used to say, his favorite English phrase for whatever reason: "SPRING HAS SPRUNG!" (Imagine that being said with the Italian rolling R's and the Italian tendency to add a vowel at the end of each word, and I think you'll get the picture...)

Aside the fact the weather becomes fantastic, from a sport enthusiast's point of view, April/May is one of the best times of the year (aside the fact it's my birthday in April!!!). Let's see...Formula 1 season has begun, hockey (the best professional team sport there is, period) is now well into the playoffs, it's playoff season in basketball (the only time of the year I can bear to watch b-ball), AND baseball season has just begun. I don't really watch the ponies, but the derby is around this time of the year as well...

Also, it's time for bars to open up their outdoor sections, and this week, I caught up with an old colleague, Tushar Tanna, at a place right down the street from me that just recently reopened its outdoor section. It was the first time in over three years we actually saw each other in person, although we've been communicating over e-mail periodically. We sat down to celebrate his recent engagement, and also to reminisce about the company we used to work for, methodfive, during the heyday of the late 90's in the Internet boom. Adeo Ressi, whom I've mentioned before, was the CEO, and we concurred that that organization was one of the most unique experiences we've had professionally.

The company was only about 80 people all in all, and he and I were in its vanguard, small unit that dealt with helping clients build their business strategy. Ours was a small unit, seven of us all at our largest point -- I was the third one into the unit, aside Liz Tracey (whom I still consider to be one of the most intelligent, well-read, and well-humored individual I've come across) and Ingrid Michelsen. I was the first to have been hired laterally into the group, and I was soon followed by Tushar Tanna, Susie Nam, Erik Gustafson, and Alex Ressi.

I've lost touch with most from the Strategy team since. The last time I saw Susie Nam was in London, after she'd transferred there soon after our company had been acquired. I still get it confused, but I forget if she'd been at Deutsche Bank or Deutsch, the advertising agency...I'm pretty sure it was the latter since I remember her mentioning iDeutsch during the interview. Erik Gustafson I hear about through Alex Ressi, and he is presently at Columbia working on his MBA, after having gone to Darestep, E&Y's offshoot, immediately after m5. Ingrid Michelsen, I have no idea what she's up to, and Liz Tracey, I think is somewhere up north working on a PhD...

It truly was a unique group within a truly unique organization, filled with brilliant people all with a great sense of humor -- we used to have beers every Friday at the office -- Lani Abrantes, the receptionist, would come by Friday afternoon asking what kinds of beers we wanted -- no piss-water, thank you, only the finest. And man, we would just have a great time.

I can't remember all of our clients at this time, but, for a tiny little operation like ours, often overshadowed by the I-boom prodigies like Razorfish, Scient, Sapient, Organic, and the ilk, we had an impressive client list -- the clients I can remember are the projects I personally worked on, such as: Cravath, Swaine, & Moore, the prestigious law firm, that, for instance, worked on the infamous Time Warner / AOL merger and also that of our business partner, Price Waterhouse and Coopers Lybrand; Golf Digest, the NYT's most-read golf periodical in the world; Lenox Collections, kind of tacky in my own opinion, but still the only American china and crystal company in operation for over a century -- we used to have to go down to Langhorne, PA, for this one, right by Sesame Place (Sesame Street's theme park)...; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, helping them with a national network of local chambers; etc. Clients I personally didn't work on I remember of are the Economist, I seem to remember a pharmaceuticals giant like a Pfizer, and I seem to remember an aerospace giant, which I’m certain wasn't Lockheed...

Nevertheless, I remember working on some proposals jointly with the folks over at PwC on Swatch, and also with Yamaha after we'd been acquired. One client I remember having won in particular was Lojas Americanas, which, if you're from Latin America, you would recognize the name -- I worked very hard on this account with business development vixen Keri Downey, only to NOT go to Brazil after winning the client due to conflicts. If there was one office romance opportunity missed that I regret the most, it would hands down have to be one with Keri Downey -- if you want to talk about obvious signs in hindsight, this is one I still kick myself for!

For chrissakes we'd flirt blatantly and shamelessly at work (she sat right behind me), she would often mock me as being afraid of women in general, and the girl invited me to "see her apartment" alone after a night out with a few of her friends on two separate occasions...goddammit I totally should have shagged her...it seemed the entire office was curious about anything going on between her and me, which is I think ultimately why I chose to avoid the situation, but dammit dammit dammit she was so damn highly shaggable. As Anthony Matus used to say, Keri...so Very.

Speaking of Anothony Matus, what a great character -- he had great call signs for everyone at the office. He made any party a great party just by being there, and it wasn't just because he could drink like a fish. I have not encountered anyone to this day that could even fathom of drinking him under the table, but aside that, he was just a great spirit, with a hilarious sense of humor. He's the one that recruited me into m5, and man, we still talk about the hiring process -- he was extremely ill during the hiring conversation, so I suggested to him highly he take three Super C Fresh Samantha's in a row. And he actually did it, near puking up the whole thing. I wish I had some of the e-mails from then, simply because his e-mails were brilliant in their hilarity.

Jeremy Tick, the Poseur

If you're a New Yorker, have lived here long enough to rightfully claim to be one (in my opinion, that would be for the equivalent of at least three presidential terms, giving you enough insight to know that each twenty-or-so-block section of Manhattan is a distinct neighborhood, and can name most of them -- if you're really good, you can even name the zip and the precinct number for each), or simply are as down-to-earth as most native New Yorkers are, you know the one thing even more tasteless and futile in this town than cheering for the Red Sox at a Rangers (not even Yanks) game is simply being a poseur. At least the Red Sox fans get a token respect for being loyal to their team and for being bold enough to state it. We generally grow a sense real quick about poseurs, and we have a healthy dislike for this imported quality often mistakenly associated to New Yorkers as a whole by anyone who has never actually lived here.

With that said, I did sense a poseuristic quality about Jeremy Tick since the moment I met him. For instance, he claimed he was from the UES or had lived there, yet I saw in him nothing that is commonly associated with the people (both positive and negative) of this neighborhood, and only the "stereotypical" qualities. My suspicion was confirmed when I'd asked about certain buildings and clubs (not night clubs...the somewhat staid, traditional clubs whose libraries are lined by portraiture of many men who have gone on to become presidents and other dignitaries), and he had no sense of what I was referring to, claiming that he'd always taken cabs so he wouldn't know.

Sure enough, when I did finally ask him about where specifically in the UES he'd lived, it came to light he had actually lived in a neighborhood more commonly known as Yorkville or Carnegie Hill, almost Spanish Harlem. To most New Yorkers, the UES designation is usually reserved for the neighborhood between 59th and 79th (maybe 86th these days) between Fifth and Park (maybe Lexington these days), a neighborhood where old money is truly old money. Furthermore, one would be aware that there are at least two other neighborhoods of equal caliber, all on the east side -- I could get into the whole age-old discussion of East vs. West in Manhattan, but I'll save that for another day...

Irregardless, I do want to distinguish what my disgust with Jeremy Tick stems from, and it is not from the fact that he hadn't ever lived in the UES, hadn't completed university, hadn't graduated from a prep school, or hadn't actually been in the employs of respectable organizations other than as a temp. As I've mentioned before, I will say that my appreciation for the weaning process that occurs as part of this selection process has increased ten-fold --

I, like most others do, had taken this for granted, that the people you are in school or are working with has gone through a rudimentary or strict level of screening. There is a lot of merit to this process. I do believe that the great sense of camaraderie, for instance at Accenture, I did experience doesn't stem solely from the commiseration factor of being overwrought, but also in the knowledge that Accenture (at least, at the time when I got hired) has run a thorough background check, seen your university transcript, done a brief psychology profile, has contacted a minimum of three of your professional references, and has put you through three rounds minimum of interviews, even BEFORE putting you through a basic, yet globally common, level of training -- there is a basic level of standard, whether at an intellectual, moral, and/or ethical level, that you have met, and you know full well you are in company of those who have met this minimal standard. At Accenture, I would like to think that this was a relatively high standard.

That point aside, obviously, I have colleagues of background lacking in experience with renowned organizations or even universities, yet they have all applied themselves effectively, and the reasons for their not pursuing "the norm" was overshadowed by their pursuit of their passions, or something noble, such as their family business. They all have good reasons for their alternate pursuits, and most importantly, they do not hide the fact they hadn't completed university, nor do they outright lie about having been in the employs of this organization or the other -- as a matter of fact, and rightfully, many of them announce it rather proudly, that they have accomplished much without staying the course of the norm.

In the case of Jeremy Tick, my disgust stems from the fact that he had blatantly and continued to lie about it -- and even had the nerve to scoff at Tufts University, simply because it isn't an Ivy League university -- all in attempts to lead others to believe he is what he is not, and probably to make himself feel somewhat better in some pathetic sort of a way. Again, as someone put it aptly, he is a figment of his own imagination, and he seems to expend quite a bit of energy and what little mental prowess he might possess into creating this fictional character.

Even more disturbing, when the facts he never went to university or didn't actually graduate from a prep school did come to light, it wasn't out of a meek, confessionary note, but rather out of anger and blame -- he blamed his own mother for not "having been more forceful on [him] to go to college." It's one thing to have chosen not pursue and/or complete these goals, but to blame someone else, worse, his own mother? THAT is base, especially in this day and age when a college degree has become so much more accessible, with degrees from relatively decent universities readily available through online coursework. I venture to say he was perhaps attempting to draw sympathy of some sort, as twisted as that may be, and obviously, feeling sympathy for someone of this ilk was no longer in my system, especially in this type of a pretext.

Furthermore, he has had the nerve to suggest or openly criticize our models, many of whom WERE college-educated and have traveled to and from various nations around the globe, as being unworldly. Clearly, these comments are rooted from his own deep insecurities, yet their arrogant, insolent tone in conjunction with the overall absurdity of it all borders on pure comedy... laughable, really.

The well-read might be able to point to numerous great literary works centering on characters who'd projected false-images of themselves, yet, these stories tend to center on the greatness of core character or accomplishments achieved that ultimately shine through. The case of Jeremy Tick is clearly not to be taken as anything in similar ilk of (and will not be easily mistaken with) those tales, although that is what I personally had naively tried to believe the entire duration of my working with him. In the case of Jeremy Tick, the motivations are far more base and reprehensible.

The great works I refer to tend to be marked with clear lessons to be learned, undeniable truths that graciousness, grandeur, and nobility of character stem from the core irregardless or bloodlines or upbringing -- I would have fiercely protected Jeremy Tick's deceit and false-pretense had there been even a minute tinge of these characteristics been present in Jeremy Tick. However, in this particular case, in the case of Jeremy Tick, he has become so engrossed in his own deceit that he feels he has the right to snobbishly scoff at others who often have more right (should they have the nerve -- which most who rightfully do, do not) to scoff at him.

I will say, to his credit, he has mastered the English language to a certain degree, albeit his innumerous spelling and grammatical errs. I am angry, yes, but mostly because I consider myself an intelligent being, and when my intelligence and kindness are taken advantage of all under a false pretense and manipulation, I feel I have the right to be somewhat flustered by it...

With that said, thanks to Jeremy Tick, I've learned to recognize a tactic that people of his ilk use to mislead other good people. [Lesson Number 6: They will often and frequently make vague, general statements knowingly, that either make them look better than they actually are, or make others look badly, and when asked for specifics and details, they tend to stammer.] Granted, there are occasions many of us find ourselves in a similar type of situation, but we stammer only for consideration for the sake of protecting those we're disclosing something that reflects on them poorly, or fall under discretion. This, in the case of the Poseur, is not the case and is done wholly for the sake of far more self-serving intent. Furthermore, in polite society, most people will not usually venture to ask for specifics, and this is precisely the inclination of most that people of this ilk prey on.

I highly recommend digging in a little more when you have suspicions -- as I can tell you from my experience, it's better to be safe than sorry. Also, if in fact the person is whom they claim to be, chances are, you may find mutual acquaintances through some of those findings, as I have with many and have discovered time and time again how small this planet can really be. Nevertheless, in the case of Jeremy Tick, when he mentioned the prep school and the college, I'd asked if he'd known certain people, whom he obviously had no way of actually knowing -- similarly, he'll lead you to believe he's well traveled, yet, I came to discover that he's only stepped out of this country once -- decidedly far less frequent than the worldly, traveled air he attempts to carry.

The reason this came to light was when I had a friend's little brother come in town -- J. Harry Edmiston that I've mentioned before. Jeremy Tick, as usual, was drunk, and he kept on parroting J. Harry's English accent every time J. Harry said something. Obviously, it was entertaining to Jeremy Tick (and to no one else, pretty much...we WERE laughing AT Jeremy Tick, I will say), but it obviated how un-worldly Jeremy Tick actually is, and it was somewhat appalling to witness so blatantly how simply dumb he is.

Again, the point here isn't to snobbishly discredit him simply because he isn't well-traveled -- obviously, there are plenty of good people who haven't ventured outside of the United States. I am perfectly aware that the statistic on this is something like only 8% of American citizens have traveled outside of the United States. The point is how the poseur attempts to lead others to believe that he is in fact well-traveled -- he speaks of Paris, French culture, or his ability to speak French as though he's lived there or visited on many occasions, for instance, yet he cannot communicate with you the aromas of the city nor the one thing the Parisians have New Yorkers beat in terms of their construction of their subway/metro...

And it's not because he has traveled other French-speaking nations, islands, and cities other than Paris...to my best knowledge, I don't think he's even been to cities in North America that have a strong French influence (i.e., Quebec or Montreal) or even, a stretch, I know, New Orleans (all three great cities, and I have great stories from each, but I'll post those later...). Even if he'd been in these cities, the French would scoff at the idea that the languages spoken there are "true" French!

Again, all of this wouldn't be an issue whatsoever, if he didn't pose as though he's some sort of a connoisseur. In this posturing, he has, unbeknownst to him, spoken down on several of my friends who are actually French or have lived in France, which one wouldn't know at first since their English is impeccably American. Aside the embarrassment this has caused me, which my friends have shrugged off thankfully, what these experiences demonstrated to me is that poseurs have this eerie ability for selective hearing...I think in this one instance, my friend was making some joke with the Eiffel Tower, and Jeremy Tick was off and running, or I should say, his mouth was off and running as soon as he'd heard Eiffel.

As well, another thing I can credit him for is his uncanny ability to plagiarize others' words as though they were his own. I've witnessed him do this in various context and occasions -- I guess this is another talent of the poseur: [Lesson Number 7: be weary of those who seem to plagiarize others' words and opinions as though they were their own.] I noticed this blatantly done by Jeremy Tick most recently when I was on the phone with him, while attempting to collect monies he still refuses to cough up -- in attempting to find out more facts through him, I'd mentioned that there are two sides to every story, and he immediately parroted this phrase (word for word!) as though it was his own, so that his immediate neighbors at his office who might overhear the conversation could hear. Obviously a maneuver in an attempt to make himself look more balanced and intelligent than he actually is, despite the fact he was obviously upset.

However, if anyone were to think on it a moment, one might see that, from my point of view, I have no reason to bother calling him, had I thought there were no reasonable justifications for his behavior. As anyone who knows me will attest, I'm not exactly the petulant, immature type that would reach out to others simply to nag or harass. I can only reason his behavior stemmed from his fear I may threaten his facade he was attempting to maintain at his occupation...sadly, what he doesn't seem to realize is that people ultimately wise up to him, no matter how much effort he puts into this appearance maintenance...

Jeremy Tick's Resume

Because I was somewhat fascinated by how deceitful Jeremy Tick is, I've pieced together his employment history. Below is Jeremy Tick's resume I found, pieced together with his resume I found on Monster.com...note that there are still gaps and dubious dates of employment...the glaring one being the one at John Hancock -- he claims he was at Skidmore College until 1998, yet he's also claiming he started working at John Hancock in March, 1997. It would be one thing if the college was in the same town as John Hancock, but, as you likely know, Skidmore College is in Saratoga Springs, NY...I am going to venture a guess that he only went to Skidmore between 1995 and 1997 at most.

Also, he's obviously not going to include them on a resume, but other places I know he's worked are: Cohen's Fashion Opticals (both in Boston and in New York), Gateway Diner (Albany, NY), and other random restaurants here and there as a waiter (like the Village Den, a diner, and L'Express, a French Bistro on Park Avenue South). The Gateway Diner accounts for the gap in 2001. I'm not sure when exactly he worked at Cohen's Fashion Opticals in Boston, it could be either: before he was supposedly at John Hancock, which would further shorten his tenure at Skidmore; after he claims he'd begun working for John Hancock in March, 1997, shortening his stay at John Hancock; or during the time to account for the gap in early 1999. The last option seems least likely, since I'm also aware he was a temp at both Vogue and at Ralph Lauren at one point through United Staffing -- I'm not sure where all that would fit in.

Details aside, what does matter is this singular, undeniable fact: in the time between 1997 and 2001, he had worked at a total minimum of TEN different employers (John Hancock; Cohen's Fashion Opticals, Boston; Vogue; Ralph Lauren; Dean & Deluca; Eromance.com; AIG; Prudential; R. Models; and Gateway Diner). And in the less than three years since 2001, he has worked for seven companies -- he'd been with FUEL new york, the Village Den, L'Express, Gateway Diner (where he worked prior to FUEL new york as well), V Models (which I'll get to later on...), Cohen's Fashion Opticals in Manhattan, and now at Satchi Model Management/SVM. In other words, he has worked for a minimum of FIFTEEN different companies in the course of roughly seven years -- sixteen if you count the two different branches of Cohen's Fashion Opticals separately, seventeen if you count the two separate instances of working for Gateway Diner individually. And those are only the companies I'm aware of!

It's one thing to have so many employers in such a limited time period if one is simply seeking income to support oneself while pursuing other goals, as in the case of many of my colleagues who are actors/models/artists/musicians (...yet, even among them, I don't know of anyone who has had that many different employers in that short a time period). However, as will be made evident in my chronological account, such is not the case with Jeremy Tick. Again, I'm not going to venture guesses as to why he has had so many different employers, but these are simple facts.

As a reference, here's what he claims, all in his own words, from his resume and on Monster.com:



10/2001 - Present
FUEL New York
Agent/Managing Partner
Responsible to scout, develop, and market fashion models in New York and International Fashion Markets
Manage daily sales efforts of full service model agency
Coordination of test shoots, relocation, placement efforts, trafficking, and overall management of daily activities for 20 models
Manage all marketing and publicity activity through use of grass roots/guerilla media outreach

(note: he'd left to go to Albany during this time, to work at Gateway Diner. Also note that, given the fact he was ineligible for unemployment insurance in December 2001, whose relatively lax requirement is that an individual work full-time for any six month period within the previous 18 months, he was either not on a full-time salary with R Models or is completely falsifying this record and potentially the tenure as a temp with Adecco Staffing as well)

12/2000 - 7/2001
R. Models
Director
Responsible to scout, develop, and market new talent while managing the daily activities of a full service talent agency.
Managed all public communications, publicity, marketing activity, client relations, and talent bookings.
Directed placement efforts, coordination of test shoots, photography selection; sourced alternate means of income for individuals in pursuit of modeling as a career.

5/2000 - 12/2000
Adecco Staffing
Temporary Associate
Acting Assistant to Director of Executive Development, Prudential Securities
Special Assistant to Director Human Resources, AIG Insurance - hired to develop and coordinate annual divisional outing (450 attendees)

11/1999 - 5/2000
Eromance.com
Marketing/Merchandising Associate
Worked with VP of Marketing to develop brand image through selection of copy and imagery, management of online partnerships and development of supporting product.
 Responsible to develop product that would "communicate and facilitate romance" for high net worth, aspirational males aged 35 – 50. Responsible for all aspects, from concept to development to execution.

4/1999 - 11/1999
Dean & DeLuca
Marketing Associate
Supported the management of the Corporate Brand and Mission Statement through development and implementation of traditional and grass roots marketing initiatives.
Managed corporate communication efforts, including press relations, marketing activities, product placement, sponsorships, online affiliations, and customer service scripts. Represented Company interest at industry related functions.
Liaison between catalog, e-commerce, and retail management teams to ensure consistency in product offerings, promotional efforts, and professional affiliations.

(note: somewhere during this gap is where I would have to guess he'd worked for both Vogue and Ralph Lauren, through a temp Agency)

3/1997 – 11/1998
John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance:
Senior IGP Assistant:
Supported Senior Vice President in the solicitation and initiation of new members into the John Hancock International Group Program, a multi-national pooling of insurance risk.
Responsible for all communication efforts for the John Hancock IGP program to its Western European and Asian client base. Tasks included drafting of all written correspondence, outbound client service calls, direction and distribution of annual and bi-annual reports. Provided account service as necessary.

Broker Relations Analyst:
Provided extensive costumer support, performing account maintenance, resolving service issues, performing market updates, minor financial planning, and marketing funds to prospective buyers.

(note: somewhere during this period is when he'd worked for Cohen's Fashion Opticals in Boston)

EDUCATION: Skidmore College US-New York-Saratoga Springs
Some College Coursework Completed
1995-1998

(note: how is it that his college coursework at Skidmore, located in Sratago Springs, NY, could overlap with his work history with John Hancock in Boston, MA? I don't believe remote education was in place as of yet at that time, so it is most likely he is being untruthful either in his educational history or in the length of his tenure at Hancock.)

Stand Your Ground / JT's Twisted Psyche

I guess were I writing all of this out for some type of a literary format, I would have left a lot of these unpleasant surprises down the road just as I'd discovered them. But it's just that there were so many red flags from the very onset that I CHOSE to ignore, and that is the main reason I was angry with myself. Obviously, everything is much more obvious in hindsight, but...

Another personal quality of mine that was often deemed highly in my professional past that was taken advantage of by these self-serving idiots is my tendency to be a devil's advocate -- always seeking a balanced perspective before drawing any type of conclusions. As much as I did notice many of these red flags along the way, I had proactively rationalized or justified reasons on their behalf.

This proved to be my downfall ultimately, when Jeremy Tick and I'd parted ways -- I'd spent quite some time coming to understand his perspective, which apparently made Jeremy Tick feel even more justified in his actions solely because I understood intellectually his motivations, and he couldn't understand, nor did he bother to spend much time in attempting to understand, my rationale. Needless to say, my rationale would be considered closer to that of common sense, as verified by many who have had the similar displeasure of having worked with him or gotten to know him, yet, as one put it aptly, you cannot discuss things rationally with someone who "is a figment of his own imagination" such is the case with Jeremy Tick.

Unfortunately, as I'd come to discover again with another individual, as unique an instance as I thought he may be, I have come to encounter another character of a similar psychological constitution that I am beginning to suspect that there may be others like those -- which is why I have really begun to appreciate all people I have encountered in the past who are not of this ilk. Thankfully, people unlike Jeremy Tick are in the bountiful, for the sake of all humanity. (Knowing him, he'll probably take that as a compliment, as testimony to his "uniqueness"...)

Nevertheless, another important lesson I did walk away with from my dealings with Jeremy Tick was [Lesson Number 5: as prudent as it may be to always try to have a balanced opinion, always know what your stance is, and your stance should take your own motivations and benefits as the main account -- unfortunately, when dealing with certain people, you are the only person that is looking out for your own interest.]. It seems like common sense, but, putting aside your own ambitions and desires for the common good of the group of otherwise isn't exactly a common trait, I'd come to learn.

With that said, I'm fairly certain that, were Jeremy Tick to somehow discover my ramblings here, he would be flattered in some twisted sort of way, flattered by the fact I would spend the time and energy into jotting down these thoughts...however, as obvious as it is to anyone aside himself, stroking his ego is hardly the motivation I am writing these thoughts out -- it is mostly as a precautionary note to whomever that may encounter this shady character. He managed to fool me through his charm and twisted psychology, despite the general opinion that I am a fairly intelligent being, albeit too generous for my own good at times.

Obviously, there are two or more sides to every coin of the truth -- but most of what I am laying out here are hard facts, and areas that are vague to me, I have left it explicitly clear as only estimations...

Jeremy Tick's "credentials"

There were other things around this time that I really should have been more attentive to in regards to Jeremy Tick's credibility. For one, he didn't have his own checking account. For two, when I'd suggested he look into collecting unemployment in order to help sustain himself in the coming months, he wasn't eligible to collect unemployment.

Again, I didn't really think about it at the time, and instead, in my eagerness to help, I'd offered to let him use my personal checking account for the time being -- truly a stupid move on my part. [(an OBVIOUS) Lesson Number 3: NEVER, EVER, EVER let anyone else access your personal checking account unless you really truly know them well enough, and even then, for only a short-term, for emergencies only -- like DUH, right??]

Also, the very fact he wasn't eligible to collect unemployment is somewhat suspect, since, almost anyone who has worked at least six months in a (I believe) 12 or 18 month period is eligible, at least, in New York State -- to this day, I'm really not certain why he wasn't eligible for unemployment, especially since he claimed to have worked for Dean & Deluca in New York City and also at a diner in Albany. I can only venture a guess that the diner may have been paying him under the table in cash and/or that he actually really didn't work for at least six months within a period of 12-18 months up to December 2001. I didn't really press the issue much at the time since I thought it was a relatively private issue. However, given that this was someone I was allowing to LIVE in MY apartment, going into BUSINESS WITH, and ALLOWING into my PERSONAL CHECKING ACCOUNT, I really truly should have pressed for clear answers that were factually backed.

Nevertheless, in a similar vein, all of these factors are obvious as somewhat suspect in hindsight, yet, as many of my colleagues and I have come to agree that, most of us hardly suspect that these things are indicative of other things, since most of us WANT to believe that all people are "good" people at the core. Even in an extreme instance, such as one with my most recent encounter with a business associate (whom I'll get to later on) who ultimately ended up date raping someone I know, even after the fact it happened, when the girl who was raped and I talk, underneath the obvious rage that she and I both feel, we still want to believe somehow that there is a "decent" person in there, despite an obvious criminal and horrendous act.

With that said, however, that belief does not -- and should never -- equate to condoning those actions. My most important lesson I've learned is that: [Lesson Number 4: there are people that, whether consciously or subconsciously, PREY on this basic belief of many people that WANT to believe that all people are good, and TAKE ADVANTAGE of those inclinations of others for their own, and only their own, benefit.]

I sincerely hope for the sake of many that they will not have to learn this lesson on their own -- it is an unpleasant truth to have to encounter. I have yet to decide if I am fortunate or unfortunate for having learned this lesson at this stage in my life. I'm inclined to say I am fortunate overall, since I have learned the lesson, yet I really prefer that this planet was devoid of such people altogether. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, however, it is because of these types of people I have really become appreciative of the innumerous good people I have been fortunate enough to encounter otherwise in my life.

The move revisited and other discoveries...

The move itself was rather comical. Because we were strained for time, and because we had no boxes to put everything in, we'd packed everything into huge, black, plastic garbage bags. Because we were pressed for time, which meant we didn't have time to reserve a Ryder/UHAUL truck, we moved everything using limousines. So, if you will, imagine one December evening, a fleet of black limousines pulling up to a small building on a side street of New York City, and one white Jewish kid, an Asian kid, and a black girl carrying huge black plastic garbage bags filled with who-knows-what into a basement door (the apartment is a basement apartment), you get the picture.

Half of my entire apartment was filled with these bags, and we were off. We'd spent the majority of Christmas 2001 unpacking and sorting through the massive amount of crap. Getting rid of anything irrelevant, and then separating Shareef Jenkins' personal belongings from core essentials for the business we would need. It was during this process we would discover that Shareef Jenkins' only legitimate job was at a Gap store and also at eModels.com. In retrospect, Jeremy Tick told me something about having met Shareef Jenkins through an NYU fashion show or that he had met Shareef Jenkins when he'd scouted someone he knew, but I am venturing a guess that eModels.com is probably where the two met, as I became aware later on that Jeremy Tick was "employed" there as well.

Irregardless, other things we found included disciplinary letters from when Shareef Jenkins worked at the Gap, along with his defense statement, and a strong indication that Shareef Jenkins was using the model agency as a front to satisfy his libido and his desire to be plugged into the nightlife. Once we were done with the sorting, I packaged all of Shareef Jenkins' belongings and put them into storage, informing Shareef that his belongings could be picked up there...I'm not certain he ever did, as I'd kept on receiving bills from the storage company -- I'd stopped paying for the storage after the first two months. I'm horrified by the thought that when they did go into the space to auction the items off, they'd found and assumed that all of the gay photography and paraphernalia were actually my belongings...just a funny sidebar in the whole scheme of things...

We also took this opportunity to look at all of the models on the board to see what we would need to do, and at this juncture, I put my faith in Jeremy Tick to wean out models we would not represent. In the whole, I do believe he did a fair job given the state of the board at the time, and at this point, we'd pared down the 30+ models down to about 10-15. I'd updated the FUEL models web site accordingly, using a slow, grainy scanner to scan all of the images in (I believe the machine was a Brother MFC 3100C -- it was the same fax/printer/scanner I'd bought several months before for the agency). This process took well into the New Year to complete.

During this time, we'd also managed to pull out some important contact information for the industry, and we'd begun scanning and manually inputting these into Outlook contacts. It was a painfully slow, tedious work. We did take a break to go to Mac Premo's apartment for the New Year's Eve celebration, which was a very low-key, relaxed NYE -- the streets were quieter than I'd ever seen -- given its proximity in time to the events of 911, a lot of people opted to stay low-key. Whatever the case, 2002, here we come...!

Always run a background check

At that time, all I knew about Jeremy Tick was that he'd "gone" to a prep school near Boston, then to Skidmore College, had worked for John Hancock right after that, and that he had done work for Dean & Deluca and a model agency called R&L Models in New York. I can't remember if he told me he was laid off or he had quit, but just before coming down to New York in November 2001, I was aware he was working as a waiter up-state at a diner, and he had told me that he was offered a job as a booker with some agency in Chicago, I forget which one, but was supposedly unable to go because of 911. In retrospect, I highly suspect this was all an elaborate lie, shamefully using one of the darkest days in U.S. history as an excuse for his joblessness -- I realize this sounds darkly suspicious, but if you know Jeremy Tick, I doubt you wouldn't have a similar sentiment.

Nevertheless, at the time, it all sounded reasonable enough -- I'd graduated from a prep school in Westchester County, and had gone to (i.e., graduated from) Tufts University, and began my career at IBM/Lotus Development Corporation, then onto several IT/Business consulting with media companies like the Discovery Channel, (blah blah blah...just look at my resume for more in-depth description), etc., so, naturally, I thought I was in the presence simply of a younger colleague.

20/20 hindsight as they say [Lesson Number 2: ALWAYS run a background check on someone whom you'll be working with, no matter how smooth the person is -- the smoother the person, the more I would encourage a background check, also checking personal and professional references], but that's the general backdrop for the events in December. Given (what I thought was) his education and his work experience at John Hancock, I gave a lot more weight than I should have on what he claimed about how much we would be making by the end of 2002. So, the temporary arrangement to let him stay in my apartment was agreed upon, and we had decided to go forward with the agency, renaming it to FUEL new york, thanks to Shawna McBean and Mia Eaton's suggestion.

Recap of the week & December 2001

Who else? Melissa Ramsay and I have reconnected after not speaking since August of last year, although we haven't actually yet spoken...we've been playing phone tag, but that's better than the non-communication we had for quite some time. Susanna Campbell e-mailed out of the blue, reporting in from Fletcher, after having spent some time in Burundi (where she was scouted at a cafe to be a body-double for Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider sequel), and she is planning her return there this summer...and Eric Grib just got in touch with me yesterday, after having returned from the U.K. last summer, when he'd graduated from XXXXXX XXXXXX XX XXXXXXXXX, and now working with XXXX, dealing with investments and M&A's with media conglomerates. Alexandra Olson chirped in as well, the fellow only-child hailing from Manchester-by-the-(singing-beach)-Sea, MA, who's been working over at MoMA, gearing up for the reopening...

Anyhow, enough of that. Where was I? Oh yeah, December 2001...

Other background info of the time: I'd just finished the placement services courses provided thanks to Accenture, and although the pickings were still slim, I was beginning to get referred to some opportunities. Siebel was interested, but because the opening was in Tokyo, I told them I would have to think on it. It worked out ok, as the holidays were approaching, and Geofferey Dallas, my main point of contact, told me that we could touch base first thing in the new year.

Also, although I had received a decent severance from Accenture (three months base salary, remainder of the bonus, and I was able to retain the Accenture stock granted during the IPO), because of 911, I was able to receive extended unemployment as well -- rather than the standard six months, for that year, it was extended to nine months. Unfortunately, there is a weekly payout maximum cap of $405 (otherwise, the unemployment is half of the income during the maximum quarterly income during a 12 or 18 month period). I wouldn't say I was living comfortably, but I wasn't doing too badly without work. I knew that I would also be receiving a sizable tax refund that year given that I worked mostly out of my own apartment for Accenture -- in February of 2002, I'd received about $7,000 in refunds. All of this, in conjunction with about $12,000 in line of credit, amounted to about $45,000 (mostly tax free) I would have at my disposal in the coming time even if I were not to earn a dime. (That amount is aside what little my investments in the market had come down to at the time...)

Recap of the week

By the by, this week has been another good one in terms of getting back in touch with old friends/good people...of note, touched base briefly with Meredith Melling last week, who seems to be doing well over at Conde Nast/Vogue; met up with Adeo Ressi whom I used to work for, along with his brother Alex -- they're both heavily involved in the new company which is doing well and things are looking very good for them...it's funny how it is a small world after all -- Farnsworth had just mentioned something about the X Project and, coincident enough, Adeo is one of its benefactors...; Mac Premo, whose book project seems to be going well and is now in Belfast; Jake Sherman, although still in Afghanistan, has published his book and seems to be moving forward with the wedding in July; Nathan Wilson, from R.C.D.S., whom I hadn't spoken to since pretty much around then, who is now back from Oregon, after working as a forest fire fighter, to begin with Medic School; wow....now that I list it up like this, I really have been reconnecting with quite a few people...! Because the list goes on....which I'll have to get back to later...

The "discovery" and the move

In other words, we realized then that the money from Shawna McBean's campaign wasn't used for rent or other necessary expenses, and the most likely scenario is that Shareef used the money to pay for cocaine. We knew all along he had a bit of a cocaine problem (Jeremy Tick later mentioned that Shareef had tried to push cocaine onto JT's little brother, Gabriel). We explain the situation to the landlord and manage to appease the landlord, but this is where I made another mistake out of generosity. As part of the agreement, FUEL had to vacate the premises immediately. Which meant that Jeremy Tick would no longer have a place to stay in the city. Another big mistake I'd made was allowing this idiot into my own apartment. BIG mistake.

Given the circumstance, I'd also agreed to let the belongings of FUEL into my apartment as well. In this move process, I brought back a decent amount of belongings into my apartment first so that I could also begin vacating some space within the apartment to allow for the extra luggage that was to arrive soon after. In this process, despite my specific instruction on several occasions to bring my TV/VCR back as well, Jeremy Tick manages to leave it behind. It is the only thing he leaves behind. Were it an innocent mistake, and were he to have taken responsibility and initiative in order to correct the issue, it would have been fine. Yet, I actually had to tell him to try to get the TV/VCR back several times. He never recovered the TV/VCR. I might as well as begin the counter now: material loss solely because of his neglect or actions so far = $350

After we move all of the things into my apartment and we settle a bit, we have a discussion to see what to do with FUEL itself. Jeremy Tick assures me on several occasions that we would be making well into six-figures by the end of the year. Because of this conviction on his end, we agree to move forward with the agency, and I agree to let him and the agency remain in my apartment, because he was confident we would be out of the apartment within a matter of a few months. I also arrange a meeting with Steve Kleiner, my financial advisor, at UBS to begin planning for tax shelters for the income we would be generating. We meet several times, and each time, Jeremy Tick assures both myself and Steve that "we will make easily into six-figures." "At least."

[Lesson number one: never believe what you hear, especially with someone whom you suspect has ulterior motives.]

911 and generosity over-extended

I suspect that 911 had an effect on me more so than I realized then. There was a keen desire to be generous especially around that time, throughout the city. It was right around this time I'd met Shareef Jenkins, the original founder of FUEL Model Management. He'd originally approached me about taking me on as a model, but I was more interested in helping him build the company, since that was where my professional experience lay in. It was around this time that I met John Antaramian and Michele Alfonso, two good souls.

Which was why, aside the work I'd begun to put into the company, I'd bought the agency a printer/fax/scanner on the company's behalf and even brought in my old TV/VCR to the office/live space as a gesture of generosity. I'd helped them design logos, the web site, and even went as far as delivering packages myself. One of the many things I regret is getting the agency involved in the lives of Kylee & Mike, with whom I was friends with for a little over two years at that point.

For whatever shady reasons, FUEL no longer could stay in its original office at 119 West 23rd Street. They were desperately seeking another space, and I happened to know that Kylee & Mike were looking for sublettors for their apartment on 8th Street in the East Village, because they had just moved into a new building. I connected Shareef to Kylee and they agreed to let Shareef move into their space.

Fast forward to December. By this time, Jeremy Tick had joined the team -- I believe he came down to NY around Thanksgiving that year. Shawna McBean, who had just gotten a Courvoisier campaign, had suggested we take the agency cut from her check, despite the fact the agency didn't book the job for her, so that that money would help in setting up the agency. One December morning, I touched base with the people at the office/apartment, and Shareef had apparently disappeared after having gone off to run some errands. I show up at the office, and at this point, it is 6PM. Shareef had been missing for the entire day. We'd attempted to call Shareef, but the cell phone was going to voice mail.

At about 8PM, we receive a call from Shareef's friend in Philadelphia, informing us Shareef was there with him and that he didn't want to talk to anyone. We scramble to figure out what is going on -- we manage to find out recent bank activities and discover that Shareef had spent the $7,000 or so of the Courvoisier check in its entirety within a matter of a week. Not good.

I then receive a frenetic call from Kylee. Apparently, rent hadn't been paid since October, and the landlord was threatening to sue Kylee & Mike.

9/11

I will say, that, living where I do, sandwiched between Bellevue Hospital and the Armory (which became the crisis center for the missing), the amount of missing peoples notices in the neighborhood, pasted on walls of buildings, telephone poles, cars, even the pavement, became somewhat overwhelming, and that is aside the strong military presence with the hum-vees parked all along my street, side-by-side with the news vans. It was a painful month -- that is aside the fact that an acquaintance, who was in WTC1 and managed to get out in time, only to be dragged into a side alley and raped. It was truly one of the worst, stressful times in my life, although it was heartening to see the city come together in a way that this city has never done in my memory.

Of course, WTC was a big deal for me personally as well, since I was born in 1973, and the twin towers were the big topic of town as I was growing up. Thankfully, there were no one I knew personally in the towers, except for a childhood friend who had just joined the Fire Department, who was on WTC7 when it collapsed -- he was fine, save for some minor eye injuries...

Prelude to Jeremy Tick...Hail Jeremy Tick!

Jeremy Tick...what a piece of work. I guess the best way to demonstrate how he would certainly make an excellent study for the psychiatric community is to start from the day that I got introduced to him.

Which would be the year 2001. What a year that was -- I was working for Andersen Consulting at the time, after they'd just won the big lawsuit with its former parent company, Arthur Andersen. Although bitter about the fact that Andersen Consulting (which became Accenture as part of the settlement) lost its box seats to all the hockey games to Arthur Andersen, I was happy to be there as Accenture was gearing for its IPO. I'd received a fair share of grants as I'd been hired in laterally at a relatively high position.

Then came September.

I was letting a friend of mine's little brother, J. Harry Edmiston (whose sister, Pandora is gorgeous, btw, and was best friends through tennis camp with a high school friend of mine, Teru Bower...Harry has since been working on an interesting project, the British Luxury Council) stay with me for the summer. He came running into the apartment yelling: "the Twin Towers are gone!" I had no idea what he was talking about, but given his sense of urgency, I turned the TV on. I don't necessarily know if I want to go into the tragedy of that day and how it has affected the city and myself here, since I don't believe I can do its magnitude any justice.

Good people, UNITE!

Anyhow, so why is it that I am making the extra time and effort into looking up/catching up with old friends?

Simply, I feel the need to surround myself with good people. This past year, I've had the displeasure of encountering no less than five unethical, immoral, uneducated borderline criminals in a work-context. They are the types of people most people don't even think they exist, at least in my circle of people I have been around. They lie, they cheat, they will do anything for their own betterment -- they are a disgrace to all humankind, and a waste of oxygen and any other resources better reserved for even cockroaches and bacteria.

Let's begin with my ex-business partner, Jeremy Tick.

Old Friends(ter)

O.K. so, to pick up where I left off...

Also this past week, I heard from Jacob Millard, whom I haven't spoken to in quite some time. He was one of my seven housemates at 139 College Ave at Tufts. Probably one of the smartest guys I know out there, aside from John Kolb, who was my freshman year roommate. I was glad to hear that Jacob really seems to have found his element in landscape architecture, which makes sense, given his affinity for conceptualizing, spatial ability, and his artistic nature. He's in Denmark at the moment on a scholarship, but was staying with Natasha Long in London when I heard from him --

Which leads to another person I've been going back and forth with over e-mail, Natasha Long. Aside from the fact I always thought she was highly shaggable, she's one of those women you always admire, for their poise and intellect, and I am glad she and I are in touch as well...apparently after having lived in North London for some time, she and her boyfriend, Mark, were having some rocky times, which prompted her to return to the U.S. -- she'd arrived here just before our NYE extravaganza in New Hampshire (which I'll have to get into some other time...), and met up with Eva Hatch to drive cross-country to San Francisco. However, she has since returned to the U.K. (I often forget she's a U.K. citizen because she was born in Bangkok) and is giving the relationship another try. Last I heard from her, she sounded just peachy, just having bought herself a brand new Diane von Furstenberg dress for a soiree she was headed to.

Speaking of Eva Hatch, I had a pleasant surprise this birthday, thanks to Susan, a.k.a. "Shug" Hanemann, who had told Eva about my birthday -- she called out of the blue from Seattle and we'd caught up. The last time she and I had communicated, she was in Michigan working on her MBA -- she is now happily married to Peter Skidmore and has had a baby...and is working for the Antichrist, Microsoft. I never really was very close with Eva, but I always admired her good spirit, that Utah upbringing shining through, I suppose...plus, she's also very attractive. Come to think of it, most all of our women friends in college were attractive...and intelligent...and well-humored (GREAT stories to tell...coming soon to a post near you). No wonder it was so damn incestuous.

Irregardless, speaking of Antichrists...Susan Hanemann and I have been in regular touch nowadays, ever since her arrival in New York, working for the other Antichrist, Martha Stewart. I suppose I should be nicer, given she'll be wearing orange very soon, but I never really liked Martha Stewart...she always gave me the creeps. But, Shug (who got this nick because she's from Memphis and used to call everyone "Shug," as in "sugar") seems to be happy working there -- I never knew Shug was such the chef, and every time I begin to say that, I begin to remember the fact she had owned a gourmet cafe/restaurant until her recent jaunt into New York City. She constantly hosts gatherings at her new apartment she shares with fellow Tufts Alumnus, Brad Felix, which is always a great occasion to catch up with people, and enjoy great food.

Anyhow, I guess all the reconnecting has taken place primarily because of two things -- my birthday a few weeks ago and joining Friendster -- aside the third, which is, given the people I came across this past year, I needed to get back in touch with good people I knew I can trust.

Nevertheless, I found a bunch of people through Friendster I hadn't spoken to in a while, like Aric Boyles (Discovery Channel), Josh Weinstein (R.C.D.S.), Alex Muller (Tufts), Pascal & Christopher Buckley (Tufts), and Jane and Anne (youngins...but HOT youngins).

Billionaires For Bush

The Billionaires For Bush web site has got to be one of my best recent discoveries on the web...

Old Friends: Dave, Catie, & Andy

So what can I really say...at the very least, it's been an interesting year. But before I start delving into that, let's recap on more recent events which I'm very happy about.

The theme of the past few weeks has been about reconnecting with old friends. Today, I got a random call from Dave Tohill while he was at the airport in Hawaii -- I hadn't spoken with him in almost a year, and it was great to catch up with him, to hear about his new business venture, his new life in Hawaii, his property there, and his married life with Amanda. It was nice to be able to communicate with an old friend/roommate, with whom I can now relate to as fellow entrepreneurs, and all the work/psychology that goes with that...of the seven people at 139 College, he is one of the closest friends I have to this day, right by Jake Sherman -- both of whom I lived with again at 215 College the following year.

Then, yesterday/last night, I met up with Catie D'Ignazio, my ex from almost exactly a decade ago, and although we'd e-mailed from time to time, we actually saw each other for the first time in about eight years. It was pretty funny since, the last time I saw her, eight years ago, she was in her senior year at Tufts, and she was living in the same apartment, same room, at 139 College, the very same room I lived in when we were dating. Irregardless, she was coming in town to see some art and to meet with people who will be showing her work. It was great to see her, catch up, talk about where our respective lives have taken us. It's funny to reminisce that, when we'd met, she was contemplating and going through the sorority rush, and during our relationship is when she really seemed to begin fostering her interest in creating art instead. It's also nice to reconnect with an old flame because you can still see hints of that original spark (and yes, reminiscing those naughtier memories as well...on a slightly different note, also remembering the reasons why it didn't work out...I'm sure the sentiment is mutual). She looks great, seems to be doing well, and it was just nice in general to catch up. I really prefer to stay in touch with someone who was a significant part of my life, who has seen me in ways most others haven't, and am glad I am still in touch with her.


Catie & me: Summer, 1994

Then the night before, I went to a Yanks/A's game (Jeter's first hit of the season!) with my best friend from high school, Andrew Farnsworth. He was someone I'd lost touch with for a while as well, but I'm psyched we're getting to hang out quite a bit again these days. I guess it may have been a week or two ago when we actually really caught up with each other, over some really badly cooked food at Sunflower Diner down the street from me, then meeting up with his g.f. Patricia and her sister over light supper at Dos Caminos -- we ended up staying out until about 1AM, which I wasn't expecting given that we were just going to meet up for coffee at 5PM. We covered every topic from politics to real estate to online dating (S: "I'm not having sex for six months!"). I truly admire that, as much as I thought it was kind of a silly pursuit in high school, a pursuit worthy of constant mockery, Andy has followed his passion through those years, and is now on his way to get his doctorate. He is probably the most well-traveled person I know, and definitely the only person I know personally that has set foot on Antarctica.

Introduction:

Because I've gotten so bad at keeping an actual journal, someone had suggested keeping a "blog" of everything so I thought I'd give this a try...more to come in the near future...