Pokémon Go

So you'd have to be under a rock if you hadn't heard about the international craze that took the world by storm and effected millenials (who grew up on the original pokemon TV show and gameboy games made by Nintendo)and children alike.  At the time of these photos it was in the height of the craze in 2016.  Pokémon go is an augmented reality game where if you're serious you turn off the augmented reality and get to work.  Millions now walk around looking down at their phones.  The sale of portable smartphone batteries skyrocketed because the app drains your phone so much.  We're millenials and liked the show and games either ironically or earnestly, and we got caught up in the craze

Bob and Steven had a 2 week head start because I was working on an insane project that had me working 16 hr days.  I finally was able to start one night.

Pappy Van Winkle 12 year Bourbon down in DC.  Its super rare but Eric's cousin owns a liquor store where they are bestowed but 2 bottle a year.  It's good stuff.  Is it worth the price and work to get it?  Probably not but he, and everyone else really wanted to try it.

Pokédrinks at Abeline our local bar because we love it AND it's next to a Pokéstop.  Niantic, the company that made this app culled the data from another augmented reality game they made previously so geographic features like churches, statues, or whatever else the previous people deemed worthy were then made into "pokestops" where you get items that you need.  At this point Jen is in deep as well and we are both mega dorks.  If you heard the stuff that was coming out of our mouth like:  "You have to raspberry then ultra ball that Charmeleon because its the 2nd evolution of Charmander and its CP are too high for just great balls or standard balls".

on our way to Bob/Jill's rooftop and just inside the entrance of Central park at 59th and 5th ave there is a zombie like crowd of people milling about with the heads down capturing Pokemon.  It's really lame and I felt dirty and cheap.  There were was such a high concentration of Pokemon that to catch them all you'd only be able to walk a few steps before you'd have to engage another one.  At one point we had to stop because we'd never make it through the park.  Literally only 2 peeps in this photo are not playing pokemon go.  Jen also pointed out this lady is doing it on two phones.

I saw these guys in Japan too

Brooklyn Bridge Park by the bridge is always crazy.  I once saw a middle aged man on a bike with the seat low for frequent stops with a handlebar phone mount so he could right around to all the pokestops with maximum efficiency.

Jen actually found a goya (japanese bitter melon) so I made Goya Champuru, an Okinawan dish featuring SPAM (because of US military presence), tofu, eggs, bitter melon

stir frying

Bonito flakes on top, could look better but it was delish.

Jen got invited to get surf lessons at Rockaway Beach by Skudin Surf for the 4th annual NYC Women's Surf Film Festival.  There were a bunch of instructors out there in the water shuttling us off to the next one so there was way less paddling and way more wave catching

Party at LUNA bar presented by Lava Girl Surf.  I'd never been to Rockaway and it's crazy that its in NYC because there's the beach vibe and houses on stilts and the surfer scene.

Will Skudin is the #5 big wave surfer in the world

the film screening with the train going by

also 2016 summer Olympics time.  the photo finish computer generated things were so cool looking

Jen and I walked over to this insane Poképarty (and by that i mean kids using lures that attract pokemon that everyone can catch on the street, there have been actual pokemon go parties in existence though).  We were the oldest by far because it was a bunch of middle schoolers dropping Poké lures before curfew

Jen made some kind of beef brisket and cold noodles 

photo reference for a young reader's illustration

really bad heat wave this summer.  Chris's parent's pool

shiso and cheese stuffed katsu

pokemon hackers/cheaters made it so they can hold ownership of this pokegym.  I'm just explaining all this for my mom.  Fighting at gyms(not real life gyms) is supposed to be fun and its impossible to be the crew holding down a gym for that long unless someone cheats the app like this.  You have to be a mega nerd or be in school and have all summer vacation to do nothing but play this game if you're gonna compete at gyms.

pokemon session in central park again?

Up on Bob/Jill's rooftop the sun had set but was somehow illuminating the tops of these clouds a lot longer than normal so it looks cool.  aaaaaaaand then yet another pokemon session that was the dorkiest yet.  Jen was away in Nashville so Steven, Bob, and I had a boys weekend that consisted of working out and running and then running around central park from pokestop to pokestop and then going out and drinking a lot and then ending up on the steps of the Natural History museum which is a prime poke area at 3am.  There were other pokemon trainers out at this time as well and they looked tough and eventually a crew of their friends pulled up in their car and then blasted the original pokemon theme song and then an insane remix and it was quite an experience and moment

Middle Summer

middle of summer stuff.

one of the bartenders from Abilene in our hood opened a bar in Crown Heights, Super Power.  Tiki themed cool kitsch.

Bastille day on Smith street in front of Bar Tabac.  Petanque tournament

that's right i got you buddy.

for the title.  Meat purveyor D'Artagnan's team won second place, the Bronx Petanque guys got 3rd I guess.  Don't know who won 1st. 

Avan thought double nose diggin' was hilarious

hot summer, cold noodles.
 

Victo is headin' out west.

Viginia's Dad's personally picked Swedish mushroom stash.  Oh the envy.

peeps in Cobble Hill don't want towers being built in their beautiful tree lined brownstone neighborhood and I don't blame them.  

outside The Other Half Brewing, spent hops I'm guessing.

finally started playing Pokémon Go, my very first pokemon looks a lot like someone I know.

Under The Stars

So we went to the Under the Stars camping thing upstate again.  It's put on by Collide and was sponsored by the British newspaper The Guardian, Pabst Blue Ribbon, City Winery

some of the tri state area's mover's and shakers playing flip cup

a really sweaty game of whiffle ball.  In our crew this time around we had Bob, Min, Chris, Virginia, Me, Jen and Steven.

doggy disturbed by drone

dinner.  At this point the free flowing booze has got our party feeling frisky.

At this point stevie was well rat assed and sweaty and swinging the whiffle ball bat over his head while jumping around trying to dance.  He passed out in his tent by 9pm.

Big Thief played and Adrianne Lenker's beautiful voice was almost too good.  They're playing at summer stage in september.

at about 9:30 we found ourselves drinking beer inside our car because of an unexpected rain storm. 

gathered up supplies for stage 3 of the night at the second bonfire by new tent city.

everyone else went to bed and when a guitar started getting handed around and people were singing Wonderwall by Oasis we knew it was time to go to bed.

what's wrong buddy, rained inside your tent?   Chris and Virginia's rainfly wasn't closed and it happened to them too and they had to get a new tent in the middle of the night.  

also Virg locked the key in the trunk so in the end our car had to drive their apartment keys 3 hours back to new york, hand them off to Antonio who go their extra porsche key and drove it 3 hrs upstate to them and then they all had to drive back to nyc in their respective cars arriving around midnight.  We all had various hangovers so thank god Antonio was willing to do that for them because we were exhausted

see you later Ghent, NY