A Visual Gallery of Sorts: June 2006 Archives

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June 28, 2006

Troullet

Some more pictures of the French-speaking long-haired chihuahua.

Posted by Charlie at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

June 27, 2006

Ego Feeding

Hey, lookie here! Who's that? Why, it's me!

Some select pages from our latest issue. I mostly took photographs of pages that had nice pictures and not a lot of text for pure visual entertainment.

Good photography makes even the most boring composition stick out. I'm just glad I had a lot of images to play with, seeing as any form of typographic experimentation was not allowed.

One of the best highs I get from doing print is holding the finished product in your hand after spending several weeks tinkering away on the computer. I love the weight, the tactile quality. It makes your work real, complete.

Hopefully I'm around for another several issues. I don't want to be bogged down by feeling like I'm regurgitating the design again and again.

Posted by Charlie at 11:24 AM | Comments (1)

June 26, 2006

Rain

Monday morning. It doesn't even rain this much in Seattle. I'm in a pretty worn out mood; all I want to do is go home and collapse on my bed and catch up on my reading. It's gonna be a long week.

Posted by Charlie at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)

June 25, 2006

Pride 2006

Friday night. Running around the city like a headless chicken. Ended up at a dance club, getting whiplash from staring at all the hotties and wishing that I looked a little more Chinky so I could have an inkling of a chance of hooking up with someone. Fat chance, Charlie. Fat chance.

Saturday night. We were quite the multicultural group: the Black guy, the white guy, the Puerto Rican and me, staring up at Deborah Cox and Kim Aviance as they perform their little numbers. The atmosphere was fun and energetic, but quite honestly I would have been happier spending the weekend in bed. With someone preferably Asian. This time.

Sunday. Pride 2006 came and went without so much as a bang, metaphorically speaking. The out-of-towners definitely brought fresh air into the usual haunts, but everything still seemed so... stereotypical. The parade became a blur of rainbows, non-profits and house music, and after taking a picture of an Asian cutie I promptly left the city to attend a lesbian/feminist BBQ.

Just another typical weekend in the Big Apple.

Posted by Charlie at 09:50 PM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2006

Kravet Fabrics

When I was younger I remember watching my parents one day as they took off the fabrics of our dining room chairs and reupholstered them with new fabric that they had measured, sewn, and cut. I was very disinterested in the entire affair back then, but now I'm kicking my self in the ass for not learning from them because as my gay genes start dominating every aspect of my personality I begin to realize just how much stuff like this makes me happy.

The fabrics from Kravet, with lines by designers Alexa Hampton and Barbara Barry (my personal favorite designer), are luxurious and are best used sparingly. I want to outfit my next apartment windows with several layers of white sheers and patterns from these guys.

I can't wait for September.

Posted by Charlie at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)

June 21, 2006

Scope

Normally I am not so vocal about revealing my fashion secrets because I really hate it when people go out and copy statements that they hear from friends or read in magazines. The way I dress is constitutes one of the most important facets of my personality, and while that statement may come off as superficial and surface, there's a much deeper sentiment behind it which I'll probably address at a later date. Anyway, I have to write about this find because I'm gonna spend my lunch break today to go purchase it.

One of the best things about working for an interior design magazine is the amount of design eye candy that you're exposed to every day (and there's a lot of the OTHER kind of eye candy here in the office as well, if you know what I mean). Saying this, my heart almost stopped whilst perusing the Moss site. I came across what will be my Next Bag. It's the Scope duffle bag by designer Marc Newson for Samsonite. It's so deliciously beautiful and functional. Comes in four colors: blue, orange, yellow and gray. I'm opting for the blue one.

My day's off to a nice start.

Posted by Charlie at 11:01 AM

June 19, 2006

My Alarm Clock

I love waking up to dogs sitting on your chest and licking your face.

Posted by Charlie at 08:52 PM | Comments (2)

The Dharma Burns!!!

This weekend was supposed to have been productive, but with the impending muggy heatwave due to hit any moment now, I spent most of the weekend laying on my nice bed in my undies whilst catching up on my Will and Grace episodes. My apartment doesn't have an a/c unit yet, and until my roommates get one installed I have been spending my nights over at cooler, more comfortable apartments. I have an extensive list of activities this summer—Saturday nights at cafes, concerts at Central Park, movies in Hoboken, weekend excursions to the pool, canoeing down the river—but with all of this hotness the only thing on my mind is vegging in front of the glow of my laptop screen.

Posted by Charlie at 01:28 PM | Comments (2)

Sapporo Shelving

I love the Sapporo Shelving System by Jesús Gasca. It drips with Japanese minimalism, is flexible in its modularity, and has a back that is finished completely in white, doubling its duty as a room divider. Depending on what kind of place I get next time I move, I think I'm going to get a few of these babies.

Posted by Charlie at 11:14 AM | Comments (2)

June 17, 2006

Racial Dynamics Presented in Dating Conventions

Everytime two Asian guys come together for that informal romantic engagement also known as a first date, one question almost always seem to come up:

"So, do you like Asian guys or white guys?"

This question came up in virtually every single date I've been on in my life—even on dates with non-Asian guys—and quite frankly I'm getting sick of it. Are we so considered undesirable in this society that we have to reaffirm to each other whether or not we like other Asian men? I think this is sad. A question like this will probably not come up during a date with two white, Latino or Black guys.

Posted by Charlie at 02:56 PM

June 14, 2006

A Brief Photo Tour

Three weeks and over 1000 photographs later, my new digital camera is settling quite nicely into its new role as my personal sidekick. And just to let everyone know that I am not just spending my nights crying myself to sleep, here is a but a small random selection of photographs from my life...

The restaurants in the Las Vegas hotels are jaw-droppingly beautiful. They look like something the Rockwell Group would design. Ornate almost to the point of ostentatiousness, these restaurants look just as good without patrons as it does crowded.

Location: Secret? Urge? Splash? XL? Therapy? I can't remember. Time: Sometime before midnight. Kicking back drinks with Kevin, officially known as My One Remaining Link To Gay Asian America, and buddy Simeon. I turn to Kevin whenever I feel like getting in on some of the gossip about all those Downelink bois.

I've realized that hooking up with random people can sometimes lead to a spontaneous tour of neighborhoods you wouldn't expect to be in. Who wouldn't want to wake up to a view like this? All that visual activity isn't a good cure for a hangover, however.

Apartment hunting with Butt-Face led me to the other side of the river into Hoboken, also known unofficially as the Sixth Borough of New York. I've never considered living in New Jersey, but Hoboken is actually a really nice place to live. The view of the city is breathtaking.

Location: Williamsburg, Caitlin's birthday party. Time: About 2 in the morning, after several pitchers of sangria. Somehow it got in my head that in order to detox as fast as possible I was going to have to scarf down as much potato salad in order to absorb all the alcohol... unfortunately for me the next several minutes after this photo was taken had me retching all that I was trying to shove down...

Posted by Charlie at 09:11 PM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2006

A Little Story

My parents have a framed photograph of Ireneo from that one time he was smoking while sitting in a shopping cart outside of the Six Arms, and when I last went home to visit they accused me of starting up smoking because they thought that it was me in that picture. That wasn't the first time my parents have confused me with him. In pretty much every photograph I have of Ireneo he is smoking, and every time my mother comes across one she gets all haywire at the thought of her own son dying of lung cancer. We don't look anything alike, but for some reason my parents think we're one and the same. That framed photograph is still on the desk in my mother's study, and she still asks me occasionally if I'm a smoker.

Posted by Charlie at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)

György Ligeti

R.I.P. György Ligeti 1923~2006

Posted by Charlie at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2006

Loose

This seems hard to believe, but the exact moment I heard that Miss Aaliyah had passed away in August 2001 I was thinking about her, saying to myself that her kind soul was going touch people in more ways than I would ever realize. I cried that night.

Now, her unlikely successor will be releasing her next album next week. I've written Nelly Furtado off as pop trash back when her debut album came out some years ago, but after listening to Loose, mostly produced by Timbaland (and a special but very brief appearance by Chris Martin!), I can hear the spirit of Aaliyah shining through. I really like this album! R&B brilliance.

Posted by Charlie at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

June 09, 2006

Zaha Hadid

An exhibition on Zaha Hadid is on display at the Guggenheim until October 25th. I'm drooling as I type this.

Posted by Charlie at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

June 08, 2006

Giant Step

Our next door neighbors at work are Giant Step, a group of independent music promoters that have been putting on some really amazing shows. These guys kick ass, and their Summer Stage concert featuring Seu Jorge and Jose Gonzalez is definitely not to be missed! I know where I'll be spending my July 2nd afternoon.

Posted by Charlie at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

June 07, 2006

The Cat in the Box

Posted by Charlie at 03:56 PM | Comments (0)

A Modern Day Musical

Summer is here, kids, and although we are currently in amidst a rainy season not seen even in Seattle, all the kids in the neighborhood are enjoying an early summer vacation, spilling into the streets, doing nothing until the wee hours of the morning. Walking down the sidewalks everyday feels like walking through a scene in West Side Story, only we're in Williamsburg, not Hell's Kitchen. Above is an everyday scene from outside my window: just your typical street gangs going at it, in the middle of the street, blocking all traffic from here to eternity. It was quite a debacle: car horns blaring, babies crying, glass bottles breaking. If it weren't for the police cars and ambulances that came over after I took this photo I could swear they were going to break out in song and dance.

Posted by Charlie at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)

June 06, 2006

Late Summer Listenin'

TV on the Radio's next album Return to Cookie Mountain is coming out next month, and hot damn is it good! Their trademark sounds are still there, and with a surprise appearance by David Bowie (who seems to be working with a lot of my favorite bands at the moment), this album will undoubtedly be appearing on Top Ten Lists across the publication board. These guys are genius.

Thom Yorke's solo effort The Eraser reminds me of Radiohead's experimental Kid-A days, and if you're a fan of that album you'll most certainly warm up to this one. His songs sound so effortlessly brilliant.

Posted by Charlie at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)