Jersey Shore!

Today I drove down to the Jersey Shore where Dan and Emily have rented a little beach house for the week.

I figured it'd be a nice getaway where I can relax, lay low, and get some work accomplished.



For dinner we went to a delicious seafood restaurant that served Buffalo Blue Cheese Calamaris.

They were incredible.



And then there was a beautiful sunset.



Tomorrow I'm going to do some GTL.

Where we are is about 12 miles south of Seaside Heights, where MTV's "Jersey Shore" was filmed.



It's a totally different world, not a Situation in sight.

Back from Hamptons, Off to the Shore

Just got back from The Hamptons/Montauk where we celebrated DHong's 30th, sat on the beach, flabongoed, and stuffed our faces.

(Thank you Zameer for capturing this photo as I was in the middle of inhaling a cheese-sausage.)



I'm so behind on blogging. Things have been busy. I'm sure you're upset.

I'm heading down to the Jersey Shore tomorrow to relax and just get all my photo stuff done without any distractions.

Blog entries coming soon:

-Campus Dance
-Megoon's Wedding
-Meatball shop
-Boston
-DHong's B'day
-And much more!

Fun dream

Just woke up from a dream that I was riding a bus through LA and was swapping text messages with Tom Cruise.

SPECIAL BIRTHDAYS!!!!

Very special birthday wishes to SMERSHY!



Danny (tomorrow)!



And DHONG!



We will be celebrating DHong's birth all weekend long in THE HAMPTONS!

Taking off tomorrow.

First time ever! Excited!

Mimiiiii!!!

Sorry! I've been so bad lately. So behind on stuff. So much to do.

I've been back in NYC for a few days. I just haven't updated.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of photographing ReneeGoldsberry, famous for playing Evangeline on "One Life to Live".



I've never seen it.

What I HAVE seen her in though is her incredible performance as Mimi in the final cast of Rent back when we won the lottery.

Unfortunately the show has closed, but happily the final performance is preserved forever in the Rent: Live on Broadway DVD.

Check out Renee's performance of "Out Tonight/Another Day" in the clip below, she looks awesome in those blue "pants" on film...but in-person it was breathtaking. KG and I couldn't stop commenting on how ridiculous her body was.



Renee also played Nala in The Lion King and originated the role of Nettie in Oprah Winfrey's The Color Purple

She knows Oprah! Although, in her words, "I mean...I can't just call her up....but yeah, I 'know' her...".

Also...would you believe she's 39 and has a baby? She doesn't look a day over 29 and has the body of a 21-year-old supermodel!

She was just wonderful and hilarious to work with.

Love my job! Love getting paid for something I'd do for free!

In Providence

I'm up in RI en route to my 10-year reunion at Deerfield.

Not SUPER excited about it, but I'm going. (Who doesn't love revisiting the awkwardest years of their life?)

Anyway, so now I'll start posting about my RI adventures from last last week when I came up for Campus Dance.

I had a date with my former bff Jess who I recently reconnected with via my Barrington High School 10-year reunion (I went to two different high-schools) and Facebook.

She still looks exactly the same. Maybe prettier.

We shopped...



Shared apps at Cheesecake Factory...



And then saw Sex and the City 2.



Horrible movie. But I still loved it. I'd watch anything those girls made. I'd watch them sitting in a hammock for 5 hours eating Melba toast.

And the poster? Fierce.



Awesome styling. Awesome photography. AWESOME retouching.

Shopping!

I'm en route to PVD and decided to stop at Clinton Crossing to hit the Ralph Lauren outlet, one of my favorite places in the world.



I've never owned a pair of red pants because pants in general never fit me and so the likelihood of a rando red pair fitting me is like 0.3%. But I found a pair, they fit, are 75% off and thus are only $30! I think it's a sign!



What the heck can I wear with red pants? AC! Concon! Robbb! Help!

-- Post From My iPhone

Shake Shack of Brooklyn!

So Maggie's best friend Jenny's brother and fiance (not the same person) have been working on opening their first Brooklyn foodshack, Goods.

If you've ever been to Shake Shack, it's a similar idea.

The Village Voice, NY Times, and Grubstreet have all been buzzing about its much anticipated Grand Opening (tomorrow - (Wednesday)).

But today, Jenny invited us all to the Friends & Family Opening where everyone got to sample all the delicious offerings.

Situated on the L line on top of the Lorimer subway stop (just two stops from Manhattan)...it's much more convenient to get to than you would think. (I know venturing to Brooklyn is scary and I agree but it is totally worth it.)



There was a small crowd gathered.




And Magothy!



Jenny's brother Jason is also the co-founder of 3rd Ward, a member-based design center for creative professionals with two locations in Williamsburg.

Her fiance Alex, a former chef at Commander's Palace in New Orleans, who's also currently the private chef for an A-list celebrity couple, will be be presiding over the kitchen. So far, neighborhood reaction to the menu has been "totally berserk."

Jenny was a wonderful hostess, making sure we had tons of food and beer without having to wait for stuff.



The curly fries were addictively amazing.



And the Goods burger, grass-fed beef topped with cheddar and caramelized onions, is way better than anything the Shake Shack has ever conjured up. It was delicious even without ketchup.



Yum



Yum



Yum

(They also have hot dogs and fish n chips.)

They were out of dogs. But Maggie had some fish.



Dommerick just moved to Brooklyn. I invited him.



It really is amazing. Check it out.

Goods. At the corner of Metropolitan and Lorimer.

I might go back tomorrow.

Freedom Forum Re-post

Now that I'm in the final stages of editing pictures from the Oslo Freedom Forum, combined with the fact that The Duchess has done more in the past month to publicly embarrass herself and any organization she is associated with than I ever possibly could, I can repost my original posts and pictures up on here.

In case you missed it, about a month ago I was in Norway photographing the Oslo Freedom Forum, the brainchild of my friend Thor.



It's an intimate four-day event featuring inspiring talks from 30-40 human rights leaders and entrepreneurs who are transforming the world.

These men and women speak to an audience capable of effecting change - leaders from politics and business, renowned journalists, social entrepreneurs, and others.

By bringing all these people together, it creates an incubating network that encourages the cross-pollination of ideas that can help put an end to today’s most serious human rights violations.

So, in a nutshell, three days of presentations (really moving, visually-aided, and most importantly SHORT (about 12 minutes each) presentations.) Followed by all kinds of networking events and dinners to allow for all these people to become best friends and change the world.

Oh and Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson co-hosts because Thor randomly met her at an airport a few years back, made her his bff, and it's a great cause and she is, despite her missteps, a really great person.



About Thor:

Roommate Danny worked for Thor on a couple of projects and I met him the night they went to Elton John's Oscar Party. So basically I owe the whole adventure to Danny.

Thor is a part-Norwegian and part-Venezuelan genetic lottery winner descended from some pretty important people in the histories of those respective countries.

Thor's mother's shooting and his father's political imprisonment while he was in college I think hit a chord in him and he went on to create both a film company - The Moving Picture Institute, dedicated to the production of socially-conscious films; and a non-profit human rights advocacy organization - The Human Rights Foundation.

Over the past year or two I've gotten to know Thor pretty well because he and his staff (all a bunch of little smartypants in their 20's and early 30's) are occasionally in need of pretty pictures of themselves. And, well, that's what I do.



Last year was the first year of the Freedom Forum and they hired some famous photographer that did a highly mediocre job taking event photos:






Ugh. I cringe.

They were just so uninspired. And these were some of the best of the bunch.

So...I was asked to go this year.

And knowing how low the bar had been set made my job a lot less stressful, and as such I really got to play around, experimenting with angles and different flash setups and stuff.

I kind of surprised myself by how good some of the stuff came out.



(Note that all these are shot in the exact same rooms and locations as the shots last year.)





I'm so proud.

Of myself. Of Thor.

Hopefully the pictures this year will help to elevate the Forum to a whole other level. They're planning to expand it so that these forums take place all over the world. I don't see anything stopping that from happening and I'm excited to be along for the ride!

..........

Sorry! I'm busy playing with my iPad.

And also working on a ton of photo stuff.

Will update again soon.

Until then, please fall in love with Ke$ha's "Your Love Is My Drug" so I can feel less guilty about it.

Herro new friend.

Can you imagine if iPad had come out 20 years ago?

Like before AOL and Compuserve and all that stuff?

If we had just jumped straight from our days as pencil-using letter-writing cavemen to iPad?

Heads would have EXPLODED.

My head is exploding now!

DAVID ARCHULETA

So the signing was scheduled for 7pm.

I arrived around 5pm and the line was already 100 people deep.



It stretched back through the store and out the front door by the time 7pm rolled around.



The mom standing next to me tried to make conversation and was like, "So...are you here for a little brother or sister?"

I was like, "No..."

Her eyes widened a little and she was like, "You're really here just for yourself?"

And I was like. "Yeah... I love David..."

I could tell she wasn't sure what to think. She laughed nervously and said "Oh...." as she turned away.

And then she pulled her child a little closer to her.



I'm sure everyone around me thought I was super creepy.

I just thought to myself, "Oh you have no idea..."



Quasimodo here stood in front of me for two good hours and I wanted to strangle her.



But I didn't.

And then David came out.

And it was pandemonium.



He looked twinktastic.



There were some random American Idols from this current season there as well, totally trying to leech off of David's fame and talent.




Before the signing he sang an acapella version of "Lean on Me".

It was perfect. Every note was like heaven. Especially as he really gets into the song around 1:40.

Watch for yourself and please disregard the awful tweenager squawking along at times. I was standing far enough away so that noone was really singing along and I could just marvel at his voice over the sound system.



The signing started. Tom and I were so excited.



He was super sweet and nice to everyone.



The chubbo girl in front of me asked him for a hug, and he said, "uh...let's just shake..."



He was so sweet.

When I finally got to him I asked him if we could take a picture.

He was like, "OK. But I can't stop signing stuff or they'll yell at me."

"They" meaning his handlers. Poor kid.

Luckily Tom was there with the camera ready to go.



And my life is complete.