MRod says: Is the crew ready? Like spaghetti.

Although I started a new job this week, my old company was gracious enough to invite me to their holiday party, which took place last Wednesday at the speakeasy style bar, the Back Room.

This is the nondescript bar entrance, which is marked by this sign.  In any other city, this would be just plain dirty, but in New York, of course it gives the bar an immediate hip cache.

Then you walk through this tunnel.

And up the steps to this simple door.  Once you step inside, you’re met by the warm glow of the soft wood decor in this intimate split level bar.  Our party however took place away from the plebes in a private room that is accessed by a fake bookshelf entrance.

Perry gives the speech thanking everyone for their hard work.  Note the tea cup which is how mixed drinks are served.  The party opened with the exchange of secret santa gifts.

Tony was my secret santa, so here he is opening his present.  Xbox game.

Cliff with his video game gift card.

Midway, Jim, my all time favorite finance guy (how many accounting guys do you know of who can break dance and recite lyrics to almost every rap song out there?) shows up!  You can’t get more gangsta then the maroon v-neck.

Dave, the self-proclaimed Madden champ of the universe, was my secret santa.  Thanks for the nice Adidas kicks!  My last two weeks at the company I was relocated next to him and basically killed his productivity by engaging him in riveting discussions and arguments as disparate as the history of sneakers, how badly I could destroy him at Madden, and whether Superman or Predator could beat the Green Lantern (I said Green Lantern is superior to both).  Did I mention Dave also used to work as Madonna’s bodyguard in the ’90s?

Damaris thanking Sharon for her gift.

Tom digging through his bag for his gift.

And Tom brough the arts by reading a poem he wrote.

Not only did Marelle receive a poem, Tom also got her this…object, which I understand is called a “see-dee.”  It’s like a record that you put into this machine, and it plays music!  I think my parents have this machine.

Christien opening his gift.  After my sneakers, this might be the second dopest gift!

And he also got hot sauce!

And Perry nervously awaiting her gift.  I think Christien got her a gift card to a massage salon or something.

Staceyann making sure her thoughts are known!

Jim’s like “screw gifts.”  Food, bitches!

Staceyann the diva in full force!

Staceyann thanking Perry.  Note how carefully Perry is holding her glass o’ alcohol.  Sorry Perry for spilling vodka tonic on you later that night!!

Lea freaking out because she thought she knew who her secret santa was.  Wrong!

Lea is very excited about her gift from Tara.

Jim with his gift.  You can probably surmise that he has kids.

The other company who shares the same office spaces gives Perry a little familiar color token of appreciation.

Rory makes an appearance!

Lea doing something here.

Looks like I got two secret santa gifts.

I always tip well.  I think she made about 10 bucks.  Honestly though, this behavior should be encouraged at all bars.

Haha.  Rory and Linda!

Me and Jim.  Note the collar shirt and v-neck sweater combo.  I haven’t dressed like this since college when I was going through my J Crew phase.

Tony will probably claim he was ‘dragged’ out onto the dance floor, although it looks like he is a very willing participant here with his own agency.  Go Ton-y! Go-Ton-y! Drop it low, Ton-y!

Damaris shows her appreciation for Tony’s dancing skills.

Me and Tony!  The bar serves their beer in paper bags.  I guess that’s cool?  Although it seems very non environmentally friendly.

My now former co-workers!  Miss you all!

Lea trying to choke Damaris.

Haha.

By the end of the night everyone was treating the bartender like an old friend and coworker.  Gawd, open bars rock.

Dance dance revolution in full effect.

Haha.

Tony and his harem, I mean very respectable and awesome coworkers!

Tony and Marelle.

After the open bar ended, Staceyann, Lea, and I got the munchies.

Ah, the drunken mouth open photo shot never gets old.

See!  It never gets old.

Mmmm pizza.

Lea conducting a pizza orchestra.

Not sure whether Staceyann is laughing or about to throw up.

After pizza, I insisted on McDonalds, where Lea got us four cheeseburgers, fries, and a 10 piece McNugget.

But this is what’s crazy!  THREE out of the four cheeseburgers did NOT have meat in them.  What the fuck?!  At least we were able to get a comped refill on our soda.

Watch this video of this college kid (note the cinder block walls and extra long twin beds…ah, college life) playing Fire and Flames on expert level.

Fomer coworker aka The Big Boss aka Lea had a small party at her apartment with her coterie of international friends.  The party was a rare treat in that it was near my apartment. 

Chris decided to rock the…couture cowboy look.

Needing to buy some beer for the party, we had to pick between the upmarket Fort Greene Farm or the more pedestrian, contrary to its name, deli: Superior Market.  We went with Superior Market for its surprisingly greater beer selection and cost savings.

Former coworkers flashing their pearly whites as usual.  Tony unlike last time left his shirt on.

Take two.

Chris showing off his yo-yo skills.  Like sexyback, the yo yo is back ya’ll!  My former company (former as of last Friday officially) also does various street team and promotional events for clients.  One client provided us with all types of promo items to distribute including yo-yos.  I spent the last two weeks at my ad agency walking around the office and Soho playing with the yo-yos.  The best we could do is walk the dog, around the world, and 2/3s of rock the cradle.  Chris is on expert level with these things.

A joint birthday party for someone (Sorry, I forgot your name!) and Sophia.  Happy birthday Sophia!

This is sort of two pictures in one.  First there’s Lea and Staceyann sharing a treat.  And then there’s Tony in the background extremely happy at the scene in front of him.  He and I were like the Girls Gone Wild photographers.  “Come on, just share the cookie.  No one is going to see this anyway.”

Chris working on his mad yo yo bag of tricks.

Sophia the Birthday Girl (who basically crashed the actual birthday girl’s party!).

Staceyann, and Tony in the background talking to Steve.

Sophia commandeering the camera.  Her aim is not so good here.

Take two.

Gah, I forgot your name!  But this cat was a cool dude who works at Atari.

Uh oh.  Staceyann flexes a pose.

The hipster ninja!

Staceyann running away from hipster ninja.

Hahaha.

Tony wants no part of what’s happening above.

I’m not quite sure what Chris is doing to Lea but it makes me laugh.

“Eat it, bitch!”

Take one.

Take two.  There’s a lack of facial pose consistency in this photo.  We need practice.

Getting ready to leave.  Thanks Lea for the hospitality and fun party!!!

I see this subway platform ad everywhere.  Apparently it’s for a documentary about this basketball team named the Nimrods.  Of course my narcissistic side immediately saw the “mrod” connection, although nimrod might truly be more correct.

Saturday morning I woke up ass early to catch a NJ transit bus at Port Authority.  Tony and I offered our company’s painting services to one of my former coworkers.  I don’t know what we were thinking.

Tony doesn’t look too thrilled either.  But then again he always has this expression, unless we’re playing Halo 3 or drinking.

Painter me.

Coworker Laurie’s house is right near the diner used as the backdrop for the finale scene to the Soprano’s tv show.

Look at our expert abilities.

This turned out to be a two day affair that left us effing exhausted by the end of each day.  Saturday night, we just got some fish sandwiches, onion rings (total bill:5 bucks!) and played Halo 3.

Our painting company is currently on hiatus while the management (Tony and I) rethink this labor-centric business model of ours.

This print ad from the creative minds at Saatchi & Saatchi for a vodka is clever for its usage of stock illustrations to tell a story about what happens when a guy goes to a bar and drinks a lot of vodka. The repetitive usage of images seems reminiscence or derivative of this popular (and effing hilarious) political comic strip, “Get Your War On.” Anyway, I’m not sure about this ad’s effectiveness in terms of getting people to purchase and order “42 Below” vodka, but it’s worth a good “hah!” chuckle and gives a nice edgy buzz to the company, which is sometimes 99 percent of the marketing battle. Uh oh, by blogging about this have I fallen into some marketing guru’s trap?

Someone did a digital analysis of the final scene in Lost in Translation and uncovers what it is exactly that Bill Murray whispered.  Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those trick videos that draws you in before some screaming horror girl pops up on screen to scare the bejesus outta you.

Double Happiness closed.

I was walking by a deli near my apartment the other day and I noticed that it had a crude hand written sign on its door advertising “Manhattan” “clam” “chowder.” Written just like that. With the quotation marks. Is “Manhattan” “clam” “chowder” a euphemism for something else? I got a slice of pizza instead.  Not “pizza,” but straightforward I-know-what I’m-getting-good-ol’-American pizza.

Okay, they aren’t really stripping, even by Chicago’s no-nipplage standards.  More accurately, they’re gyrating, but that shouldn’t detract from how awesome it is that these girls are gyrating on a busy N Train, especially the passenger later in the video who gets a lap dance and totally breaks the “no touch” rule.

Nothing too crazy going on during the weekends.  This Saturday I went snowboarding with Chris.

In the lodge getting lunch.  I was starving.  Note Chris’s snowboard in the background.

My healthy lunch of hot dog, burger, fries, and Pepsi.  Mmmm.  Lunch of champions right here.

Chris looking not too excited about his burger.

On the drive back home my cell phone camera snapped this really trippy picture.

McDonalds coffee (yes, SUPER hot) is surprisingly delish.

I title this “sky.”

Saturday night I dropped by Stan’s place to rescue him from a work-related mixer.  Thanks for not inviting me to that open bar mixer, jackass!  I have scrubs.  I’m Asian.  I could have fit in!

We watched Gladiator and Old School (why is this movie so hilarious?) while kicking back some beahs before heading out.

Stan checking to see if he somehow magically got cell phone signals in the subway platform.

This is something really interesting I came across that I never knew existed (Shocking, I know).  There are really brilliant screenplays that float through the circle jerk of Hollywood without, for various reasons, ever becoming celluloid and each year a list is compiled and released of these screenplays.

Started two years ago by a young executive at Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way, who polled 90+ peers to send him their 10 favorite new unproduced screenplays to read over the holidays. The underground list was e-mailed around and quickly became a Hollywood phenomenon.

I can’t lie: the various synopses sound really interesting, except for the political ones (link above).  This is going to sound completely ludicrous and outrageous, but I’m sorry, the best political movie was already made and that’s that.  All the President’s Men.  

Back in college I attended a talk by Doug Liman who directed one of my all time favorite movies, “Swingers.”  Although he was there to talk primarily about the user created video content website he started (which I believe folded in the dot com bubble burst 1.0), we primarily only wanted to hear about Swingers.  As he explained, this seminal film was actually one of those screenplays that circulated heavily, because of its brilliance, but for whatever reason people passed on actually producing it.  Good thing it did, because without it we wouldn’t have catchphrases like “you’re so money,” “beautiful babies,” and leaving extended and very awkward voicemails to girls.