Book Events--more more more

Just a couple pix from the recent book events in Brooklyn and in Washington DC.

First is from the Brooklyn after party that my friends Jenn and Raul generously hosted. Here I am with fellow illustrator buddies James Yang, Sean Qualls, and Catherine Lazure.

The second photo is from the reading at Olsson's books in Washington DC. My son Gabriel is a better showman then I am!

Voila the updates:

The Brooklyn reading went pretty well, and we at least filled up the small space. Some dear friends were in attendance and even a few stragglers off the street, which is always a bit thrilling to me. Afterwards my friends hosted an after party at their Boreum Hill loft. It was very nice... except for a certain parasitic fellow who will remain nameless, who writes a Brooklyn events-emailer and therefore shows up at events basically to talk AT people, spit in their faces, and monopolize them so to prevent them from talking to anyone else they would rather talk to, get a bite or a cocktail, or even use the loo. Someone should plaster posters around Brooklyn with his face "BEWARE OF THIS MAN".

I also had a reading in DC. Gabriel, my 10 year old, decided to spontaneously come up to the dais with me, so this reading felt like we were putting on a variety show. (Sonny and Cher?) Gaby is quite the extrovert and provided excellent comic relief. He read passages (the Henry scenes) from the book with brio, particularly the parts with 4-letter words. (I sorta forgot the text is rated R!) As in Brooklyn, I got one lonely nut-case in attendance who needed to talk and talk and talk. My sweet 12 year old son Raphael took the photos!

Here are a random assortment of images from New York. I particlarly like the barbershop located in the Clark Street subway in Brooklyn. The barbershop looks like it could be in Mexico City or Bombay or Saigon. One of the things I love about NY is how authentic it still is compared to the rest of America, which seems to be dominated by franchises and big-box chains.

The other 2 photos are taken in the very lovely Café Sabarsky in the Neue Galerie in Manhattan where my friend Catherine Lazure and I shared a linzertorte to the detriment of our art-seeing. By the time the torte and our coffee was consumed the museum was shutting it's doors and I didn't get to see the famous Klimt of Adele Bloch-Bauer that has such a fascinating history.

Summer haze + Turner

People complain about the summer heat in New York, but I love it. To me it's better then wearing a down jacket in July in SF! I took this shot of the skyline from the resevior in Central Park. I was inspired by the hazy and pre-impressionistic paintings I saw at the Turner show at the met. I noticed that Turner generally puts his horizon line parallel to the picture plane about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the canvas. All the pictures in the exhibition were hung so the horizons lines up....

Fourth of July in NYC

Just arrived in New York for the illustration conference and as it's the Fourth of July, the city is buzzing with tourists. I'm a little nervous, because I am here to promote my book, and if things don't go my way I'll end up drawing caracatures on the street! oy!