2013 The Year in Review - Part One

Time for my 2013 Year in Review.  2013 was a big one as 2008 was 5 years before, only this time I came in off the road instead of getting on it.  I moved back to New York but before that I lived in Paris for the first 8 months of 2013.  I traveled all over Europe several times with the best people I know and in the last 4 months I've been able to spend time with them back in New York.  It's hard to boil a whole year down to 35 x 2 images but I've managed to do it.  Let's take a look at the details.



This illustration was for the Wall Street Journal and is about how certain music impairs driving.  I got like 800 new tumblr followers after this image made it on the radar.  Not a big deal for big name illustrators but it raises an eyebrow for me.



These guys.  Marco of Madrid and Ahmed of Saudi Arabia in Ahmed's Paris apartment



Finally got my carte de sejour so I was legal.  There are still 2 more years on my visa with the possibility of renewing for 3 additional years.....



I can officially check these off of my Japanese Daruma doll and move on to a new goal.



inside the Grande Mosque de Paris



Swing dancing in Madrid with Marco and friends.  This is 1 of 3 times I was in Madrid in 2013



Snow day in Paris.  There were two good snow days for photos in 2013



I got incredibly sick and had a super high fever.  I went to the hospital and was prescribed antibiotics AND tamaflu.  The doctor said, whatever you have we'll get it either way.  The antibiotics were found to be harmful to your liver in a study in the new england journal of medicine and elsewhere and after 1 day I had the symptoms they cited that my liver could be getting damaged.  I stopped taking the antibiotics immediately and saw a different doctor.  Obviously I am still alive.  Having a super high fever in bed for 5 days isn't very cool but it is notable.



Explored my new favorite park in Paris, Parc des Buttes Chaumont



my two best French friends both moved to New York leaving me alone and crying in English.



I started my Parisians project on night on a whim.



I did a few illustrations for one of the big news magazines in France Le Nouvel Observateur



My black rapid metal strap thing broke after a year of the metal getting rubbed down slowly and my camera and lens rolled across the street.  Still need to get my camera serviced.



Went to Budapest, Hungary with Yoon.  Who knew Budapest was party city?  It's all about the "ruin pubs".  Some are gigantic party houses basically



we also hit up Berlin.  They are insane there.  Partying at/until/beginning any time of the day or night.  We finally got home at 7am as people were beckoning us to come with them to start partying.



we hit up Holland too and Van Der Kock played host as the stereotypically tall Dutchman that he is.  This is Amsterdam, a canal lover's dream.



I sliced off half my thumbnail with this cheese slicer somewhere in Holland at Van Der Kock's parents house.  It was super ouchies.



Van Der Dad's Van Der Gobble.  He took us around a few small towns.



Of course I explored Paris and took tons of photos.  Somehow I never went down to this corner of Ile de la Cité.  It's super awesome.



I had many many visitors in Paris, 17 in total that stayed at my house, more that stayed elsewhere!!!!  Bob was one of them, we walked all the bridges in Paris proper (aka inside the perpherique).  If you are young it's probably cool, but if you are 30+ it starts to not be so fun after a certain number of bridges (27 total).



Bob encounters the other half of a Zapatilla in Madrid, Spain



we climbed some hill in Granada, Spain



Seville, Spain



we ate Cacio e Pepe in Rome at Al Bric, which I think was the best we had.  This is 1 of 2 times I was in Rome in 2013



we got lost in every sense of the word in Venice.  Venice gets two photos because it was the highlight of Bob's 3 week European vacation.  We met locals, partied went to Venice Biennale parties with them, boated around to other islands, and had the most romantic bro time you could possibly have with your brother





I flew back to NY for a few weeks for #MERALD wedding in a rented gatsby party house in the hamptons.  Fun and Shenanigans for a whole weekend.  Good things happened.  Everyone who was there cited this as their best moment of 2013. 



Alpacamania with my mom in upstate new york.



shootin' guns on the farm.



hanging with these fellas



#SALENIFFER wedding in Maryland at Jennifer's aunt's super pimp southern mansion estate



tons of riding my peugot that still resides in Paris and tons of baguette eating.  I cannot find bread anywhere in the universe of the bread in France and it makes me so sad and mad and sad.  I am bummed I didn't ship my bike back to New York.  Perhaps I will go get it this summer.  I feel naked with out my bike.



I saw the final kilometers of the 100th tour de France on Champs Elysees



I started also interviewing people for my Parisiens series



The Parisiens project was a good one, it took my out of my comfort zone, made me talk to people in French, and allowed me to meet some really cool people that I wanted to draw.  Part two of my 2013 year in review coming up next!

Seville - Part 2

The Royal Alcazars of Seville.  A palace that was originally a Moorish fort.  It's the oldest palace still in use in Europe.



I like how Oriental first of all isn't a politically correct word to use, and second how Oriental just means Chino (chinese) in Spain and probably much of the world.  I thought about it some more and thought maybe they're saying it's "Oriental" and from China and if it was from Japan they would have said Japan, but i'm guessing probably not, it's spain.





more of this stuff.  are your eye balls stinging from so much beauty?  Ours were with all these days of back to back intricate muslim decoration.  That's why there are significantly less photos in this post.  I also have to say how Alcazar doesn't even compare to Alhambra in Granada.  Its beautiful yes but is not as massive and awe inspiring at Alhambra.



it does have this going for it though.  the hall of ambassadors



I said bob, give me the good stuff.  and this is what i got.





just some nip squeezing going on inside there.  NBD







Baths of Lady María de Padilla are rainwater tanks





Oh look Alcazar watercolor buddies



lucky snap.  peacocks make these horrible sounding calls to each other.  there were at least 2 of them on the grounds.



bob is not impressed with what was labeled at "labyrinth" on the map.  we back tracked for 15 minutes to find it only to realize that we had already been through here and it wasn't a labyrinth at all.  that's a lot of work when you're already destroyed.





next we walked over to plaza de españa.





they had these things for every region of spain.  or i don't know what the geographic compartmentalizations were but you get the picture.  bob is illustrating it nicely for you.  is that the good stuff bob?



inside Triana Backpackers Hostel.  You might be thinking, why the hostels Jason?  well my entire life is basically a vacation so i don't really have that much money.  and bob is a PHD student so he has 0 money.





the rooftop.  this was the coolest hostel out of the 4 we stayed at.  very social.  we met some frenchies that were studying in madrid



the next day our flight to rome wasn't until late afternoon so we had more than a few hours to wander around.  there's only one photo from this day, which brings up the fact that we stayed in each city for the perfect amount of time.  originally i thought only a day and a half in granada and a day and a half in seville would be too short but these cities are small and you really can see all the major stuff in this time span.  I at least felt like by the time it was time for us to move on that i was ready and through with that city.  The next step, if you spent more time here would be to get to the un touristy stuff which would be rewarding, but for our short schedule we spent the perfect amount of time in every city on our trip.  See you in Rome.