A Years Worth Of Illustration Spread Out - Part 6 Thats it for 2016

Teens, young people, and more have been hanging around common areas playing Pokemon Go and community associations and homeowners aren't too happy about it.

2017 is the year of the rooster.  White Roosters are auspicious symbols associated with the rising of the sun.  Onagadori roosters are prized and raised for their long tail feathers.  A phoenix usually sits atop Shinto Mikoshi shrines carried at festivals.  

Denzel Washington as Malcolm X for theringer.com. They ranked Malcolm X as his best film.

Good Riddance to the dumpster fire that was 2016. Mother Jones is calling the 2016 Dumpster Fire the Meme of the year. Thanks to AD Paul for giving my art all this room to breath

The dumpster fire that was 2016 is over. Life springs anew in 2017. Let’s make the best of things and cultivate the newly sprouted year. Stay positive but stay diligent in facing what’s to come. Happy New Year!

2016 The Year in Review - Part Two

we got our dad this smoker for fathers day and although it's not ours we have reaped the benefits of it a few times now and it seems to be a gift enjoyed by all.  He's been smokin' pulled pork, chicken, and even our Christmas turkey.

A forth of July party was assembled in 2016, the first time in a while and all of mom's sisters made it out and a bunch of my friends too.  We camped out and it was a swell weekend.

the Raish boys (Me and Bob) came so close to beating the Raish men (Dad and Ed).  Maybe 2017 will be our year when the guard changes.

Jacob Riis beach

watched a lot of olympics.

hiked the Shenandoah National Park overall run hike and came face to face with a bear on Steven's 30th birthday weekend

enjoyed the playland that is our Aunt Jill and Derek's new digs in Sharon, CT.

another full petanque season, we even had a petanque tournament.

caught out in a storm in central park with Bob

Played a whole lot of Pokemon Go

Fire Island beach day whilst checking out Ellen and Luke's new place in Bellport.

Went to Under the Stars camping trip again.

my 9 most popular instagram posts of 2016.

a failed but hilarious attempt to navigate the Canisteo River late in the season.  we got no where and had to give up.

shot a shotgun for the first time, well, a really old one with really old ammo so it was like all the stereotypes you've heard, it hurt like heck.

Steven bought a bow and since we all did the intro class at gotham archery we all were psyched to shoot it.  And shoot it we did all weekend.

racquet ball with Chris and Steven.  It was our first time so we like incredibly stupid.

hiked breakneck ridge along the hudson river

fried turkey for thanksgiving with Jen's sisters and fam.

Donald Trump beats Hilary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.  Yes Donald Trump is now our president.

did a huge advertising project with Chris(he photographed the glasses) for Morgenthal Frederics' 30th anniversary

finally got our thank you cards mailed out 8 months later.

Jen got a record player for xmas, no not this one, this one got returned and we got a different one (i'll post it up later).  But thus begins our decent into the world of vinyl.

Our best Christmas present ever?  We hope to see this newfoundland weathervane high atop the barn for a long time.

Had a 28 yr old VHS tape converted to digital and we all took a sentimental journey on Christmas eve.

and we properly blew up our gingerbread village this year.

as far as the rest of 2016 nothing happened and we partied too hard the night before and spent new years eve on the couch relaxing.  My tax status changed in 2016.  I didn't leave the USA this year although Hawaii might feel like it.  Things to look forward to in 2017 are but not limited to:  Mexico, Japan, Korea, archery, petanque, Canisteo NY, beer brewing, bread making, making artwork, record collecting, and Jen.  You'll see it all go down on this here blog.

2016 The Year in Review - Part One

There are multiple pics of snow because we got hit with multiple polar vortex storms and it made life miserable

the most xxxxtreme sledding in prospect park was done by us this day.  

we brewed a gallon of beer and failed.  three idiot monkeys practicing a siphon here.

saw Blackbird starring Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams, thanks Julian!

our save the date

we got married in Hawaii with our close friends and family!

swimming in the moonlight at midnight in Kailua

we stayed in the historic John Walker house in Lanikai for 5 days.  It's right on the ocean.

a slightly terrifying misadventure getting rolled onto reef multiple times and getting all cut up and bloody because we were dumb and went straight at the islands like the said not to.  Then we had a little aqua party and all was right with the world.

we saw a volcano on the big island!

we walked in a volcano

we did the slightly crazy walk down into the Waipio valley.

we had a welcome BBQ at the historic John Walker house in Lanikai and were treated to a blood moon over the moks islands, the weather was perfect, our friends and fam were there and all was right with the world.

we karaoke'd with no karaoke machine and woke up the whole neighborhood and they were p!ssed and complained to the real estate company.  It was the misfits last night in this house anyway so it was ok.

the long hard hot mid day march up coco head

sun rise over the moks

i helped judge the FIT illustration show.

our best mother's day gift yet?  We had a whole ikebana afternoon with stuff foraged from the land, had a picnic, and everyone got really into it and made cool looking arrangements.

another year another cherry blossom picnic on Roosevelt island

first time in the sunday times paper.

growing herbs from seed.

we cooked a lot of stuff

a lot of bad stuff happened this year, many mass shootings, many hate crimes

started making bao in 2016 and even made these bao hot dog buns

got to try some of the legendary and elusive Pappy Van Winkle whiskey thanks to Eric

and finally this is from last year that I forgot to put up, I made a Raish family crest (relevant to our nuclear family) featuring a newfoundland dog mimicking the pose of an old european lion.  theres a the tree at the top with two branches representing our parents and two apples are us.  We had it made into a flag and window clings for cars and such.