I was on MTV.

MTV is letting people be part of their studio audience for 24 hours. Here is a picture of some friends and me watching the band The National at the Times Square studio. Can you spot my back? To see more of it, click here.

Strawberry Drink Mix or Nazca Lines?

Does anyone else think this is funny?

Back in New York

Graduation

Click here to see pictures from my graduation. Maybe now that I'm officially done with school I can change the name of this blog. Maybe.

Separated at birth?

I'm not the only one who thinks there is a resemblance between Vice President Dick Cheney and Creative Track Faculty Head Doug McKinlay. Several former advertising students had the same thought at graduation. These men look even more alike in person.

Why I was an hour late to church today

In an ideal world a magic pigeon would land on my window sill and fly me straight to church on Sundays. (See diagram 1)

Instead, today I got to the subway to find there was no uptown service from my stop. I had to take the C train all the way down to 59th Street in order to catch an A train back uptown. At 59th Street I hopped on an A uptown train. Or at least I thought I did. By the time I woke up from my dozing, I was somewhere in the Bronx. The only logical explanation for this is that the train switched from being an A to a D just for fun. (This actually does happen; trains will switch on a whim if they want to.)

So from Tremont Avenue in the Bronx I had to take another D train down to 145th Street in Manhattan. Finally at 145th Street I caught another A train up to Inwood and made it to the chapel. (See diagram 2)

I seriously love the NYC subway, but days like today make me wish I had a car.

Or a pigeon.

Abbey Road, 2004-2007

Yesterday I left my coveted Abbey Road poster in a bathroom at LaGuardia Airport. It was devastating.

The Beatles and I have been through so much together over the past few years--from apartment to storage unit to apartment again and again and again. I remember the time we had to hold the poster in our hands out a car window because it wouldn't fit inside. I remember retrieving it from the side of the road when it flew away. I remember my poor nephews holding it up over their heads in a van so it wouldn't crush them. And, of course, I remember the thousands of times the foursome greeted me at the bottom of the stairs in The Colony.

Earlier this year I finally got around to stripping the cardboard backing off, peeling off all the tape, and rolling it up so I could take it to New York. So excited was I to hang the masterpiece up in my new Harlem bedroom.

But after making it all the way across the United States my poster has found a new owner. In the time it took me to get a gate pass and make it through an extra round of security it had already been lifted.

To me the event was more tragic than I'd like to admit, but I take comfort in knowing that I have shared the magic of the Beatles with another fan. Maybe this is what John meant when he wrote "Come Together."

The Tiny Little Night Club and the Great Big Condos

Friday night I saw this ad on craigslist:

Being the connoisseur of free things that I am, I knew this opportunity was not to be missed. The next morning I made the trek down to the Lower East Side. I had never been to Tonic before, but as soon as I walked in I could feel of its importance and history--something not unlike the way it felt to walk into the late CBGB. (R.I.P.) Tonic has been a home for artists such as Moby, John Medeski, Regina Spektor, Thurston Moore, and Yoko Ono.

I spent the next hour rummaging with other treasure seekers through the dark wreckage that was once called Subtonic, an underground extension of the venue. Moldy glasses of alcohol sat atop dusty amps. Chairs without legs lay in a pile beside a typewriter that looked as if it had been thrown off the Empire State Building. It was truly an experience to behold. I walked away with a new nightstand, some cool light fixtures, some LED lights, some CDs, and some old music magazines.

While unscrewing one of my finds from the wall, I began to hear the screaching of a saxophone from upstairs, followed by other noises I'm not quite sure how to describe. Then followed the sound of applause. By the time I made it upstairs with all my loot, the club was filling with an interesting assortment of fans, many of whom it was obvious had returned after having partied there the night before.

It became a sort of open mike affair. Artists would share their parting words and perform a song or two. A cellist performed a bizarre number reminicent of the saxophonist's screaching. An older woman sang a haunting farewell piece a capella. A couple played some African xylophones while chanting. It was stunning.

It was then that I learned of the larger story. Tonic is the latest in a string of important clubs that has been closing down in recent months due to skyrocketing rent costs. These venues, each having contributed to giving New York its authenticity and unique culture, can't afford to stay open amidst the many developers building luxury condos. Tonic is a textbook example; a giant glass building just went up on the same block.

I was impressed with the folks at Tonic. I got to chat with the owner and a few enthusiasts of the club. While I had to leave early to get on with my day, many of the people there were planning on staying at the club well into the afternoon as long as police would let them. They even had a box full of protest signs ready.

It's sad when investors cash in on the hard work that artists and residents put in to making neighborhoods safe and desireable. If you take a look at the website for the condos, look at the way they advertise the neighborhood. While other nearby LES venues such as Mercury Lounge and Bowery Ballroom are pictured, Tonic is nowhere to be found. How ironic.

I hope these developers realize that the as they run these artists out of the city they too will one day go out of business. Without artists, New York will cease to be New York.

Tiff Jimber

My high school friend Tiffany played a rockin' show this weekend at the Alphabet Lounge. She only got to play four songs, but they were all very scrumptrulescent. I totally surprised her, too. She had no idea that I was in New York, let alone that I'd be at her show.

After her performance I had my first celebrity sighting since I've been in New York. Common (the socially-conscious rapper gone Gap poster boy) entered the Alphabet Lounge as we were loading Tiff's car. You'll all be pleased to know that I resisted the urge to go up to him and ask, "Do you know who you are?"

Yes, folks, my days of harassing the stars are over. My friend Bryan told me that there is an unspoken law in NYC that you can't go up to a celebrity unless you know them personally. I don't like this law one bit, but after awkward moments with Sufjan Stevens and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon last summer, I've decided I must comply.

This is what happens when you ask Google Maps for directions from NYC to Dublin.

I Can Die Happy

EW.com Exclusive: Sorkin Will Script Flaming Lips Musical

The ''West Wing''/''Studio 60'' creator will write the script of a musical based on the psych-rockers' ''Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots''

By Michael Endelman

The Great White Way will never be the same: In an exclusive interview, Wayne Coyne, lead singer of the Flaming Lips, told EW.com that the psych-rock band will team up with acclaimed TV writer and show creator Aaron Sorkin to turn the group's 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots into a Broadway musical.

Sorkin's reps confirmed on Tuesday (March 20) that the West Wing creator has officially signed on to write the musical's script. ''Maybe that means they'll need to build a stage with lots of hallways on it,'' joked Coyne of Sorkin's fondness for walking-and-talking characters. ''It will be a giant tube that's always moving!''

Sorkin is just one of many marquee collaborators attached to the project: Tony Award-winning director/producer Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys, The Who's Tommy) will be overseeing the show. In fact, the unexpected collaboration grew out of McAnuff's fondness for the Lips' acclaimed Yoshimi album. ''When Des heard the record, he heard a lot about death and loss and the triumph of your own optimism... he had an emotional attachment to it,'' Coyne says. The San Diego-based theater producer pursued the idea and convinced the band that the album would make a compelling musical — other songs from the Lips' catalog will likely be included as well — despite the abstract, trippy nature of the source material. ''I tell people all the time, it's not really a story. It's more like a mood,'' Coyne says. ''There's a Japanese girl; she fights some robots; that's five minutes. After that I don't know.''

Sorkin was brought in by McAnuff, who recently directed Sorkin's play The Farnsworth Invention at the La Jolla Playhouse. According to Coyne, the TV scribe listened to Yoshimi while driving from San Diego to Los Angeles; the next day he signed on to write the ''book'' of the musical. ''I didn't know if that was a big deal or not,'' Coyne explains. ''But then Des [McAnuff] called me and said, 'Believe me, that's a big deal!'''

The musical's debut is likely years off, and details of the plot aren't specific yet.

Coyne compares the proposed concept to Terry Gilliam's dystopian sci-fi movie Brazil. ''There's the real world and then there's this fantastical world,'' explains Coyne. ''This girl, the Yoshimi character, is dying of something. And these two guys are battling to come visit her in the hospital. And as one of the boyfriends envisions trying to save the girl, he enters this other dimension where Yoshimi is this Japanese warrior and the pink robots are an incarnation of her disease. It's almost like the disease has to win in order for her soul to survive. Or something like that.'' Sounds bizarre, but so does a musical about a ''deaf, dumb, and blind'' pinball virtuoso. That one turned out okay.

Cheney to Give BYU Commencement Speech

PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney will give the commencement speech at Brigham Young University on April 26.

It will be one of only two graduation addresses by Cheney this spring, said spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride, who declined to identify the other school.

"It turns out that in 2006, President Bush was invited and unable to attend," McBride said from Washington. "We reached out this year to the BYU board of trustees. They were excited at the suggestion and sent a formal letter of invitation."

BYU is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is in Utah County, very friendly territory for conservative politicians, 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Cheney will find a "very receptive and very hospitable" audience, predicted Kelly Patterson, director of BYU's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.

I am not sure how I feel about this. My first response is that BYU is overstepping it's grounds by showing political favoritism. It seems to suggest that BYU (The LDS Church) supports the war in Iraq. I know that I have the tendency to jump to conclusions, but it's doubtless that many will view his presence on campus in a similar fashion. Regardless of whether or not this is true, BYU has historically honored it's political neutrality in public. Usually a general authority gives the commencement speech.

On second thought, however, Dick Cheney is currently in office as vice president. So, using that logic it could be considered an honor to have a current political leader speak at our graduation ceremony. Still, it seems very unlikely that BYU would have invited the vice president to speak if he were a Democrat.

I think this is going to turn into one giant controversy à la Michael Moore at UVSC. Expect boos from some members of the audience.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day from the parade on Fifth.

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