MAKING MOVES

Who works on Memorial Day?

0484, that's who. Well actually, not Matt. He had a BBQ - so really just me.

No big deal. Had a meeting in OC today about a fairly major web project. We're excited about it. We really can't talk about it at this point - but it's a type of project we've wanted to work on for a long time and the client is someone that most of you kids have heard of. I'll leave it at that for now. If it wasn't pretty legit, I'd have been at the BBQ, let's put it that way.



On Tuesday I met with a couple of the lawyers we work for. Working for some of these plaintiff attorneys really makes you feel sort of invincible - like if anything in my life were to go epically wrong, it's not a problem because these guys would step in, take care of the situation and secure punitive damages of my behalf. Sometimes I actually catch myself actively looking for people who might need to be sued.


Check out this letter we got this week. I actually find the handwriting to be pretty cool but I think it confused the postal machine because it was metered upside down.

Last week was lightweight busy - a lot of meetings and stuff. This week is going to be ridiculous.

Sometimes this whole thing feels like we don't even have jobs - since we set our own schedule, etc. And other times it's as if we really have 10 concurrent full time jobs because we're working for so many different clients and every once in a while all the deadlines happen to coincide.



We printed the first batch of this year's Kobe tees on Wednesday. We're working on the new site right now and then we'll have to get the posters up soon since the Finals start Thursday.

Speaking of which, tickets to the first 2 games go on pre-sale tomorrow at 10AM. With everyone wanting to get revenge against the Celtics for '08, these tickets are going to be extra impossible to get a hold of. It's good the Plum card has no pre-set spending limit.

THE DISTRICT

Rest of the DC pics.



Stayed with my boy Ruchir at his place near Washington Circle.

Ruchir just finished his 3rd year at George Washington Med School. Basically that means that just few years from now he should be well on his way to discovering the cure for cancer. (I'm not really joking)


Played tennis out in Mount Vernon every afternoon - except the last day of my trip when it rained and we had to play indoors inside this giant outerspace-like dome (which only cost a small fortune).



And on the off chance that Ruchir fails to revolutionize modern medicine, his family's legacy can always fall back on my his little brother Rishabh, who just finished his first year at GW Med.



Caught dinner at this place Vapiano one night. The pasta was subpar but the pizza was decent.


The only truly redeemable quality about this place was that they had gummy bears at the hostess desk.



I really had already done most of the touristy DC stuff all before but I did manage to stop by Newseum.




Watched a little 3D movie about the history of news.





On my way to Dulles, we stopped by California Tortilla - basically an East Coast Mexican place that they would have you believe has West Coast roots. Food was pretty good though either way.

COMING SOON

Represent Kobe. Part II.

Bigger than last year and even more inexplicable.

It's in the works. Stay tuned.

SB

Went up to Santa Barbara for the weekend.

Had a meeting Friday afternoon in Costa Mesa and then I drove up after that.



My boy Daniel lives in Santa Barbara and pretty much owns works for Aflac. He sets his own schedule and he's probably the only kid I know who tries to vacation more than Matt and I.



Speaking of which, Matt went out to Wisconsin this weekend. I told him to post some photos to the blog but if I were you I wouldn't exactly hold my breath or anything.


Daniel is scared of snakes. While on the other hand, snakes are scared of me. That's pretty much the difference between Daniel and myself.



Anyway, Matt's gone for another couple days (must be nice) and there's a million things to do this week, so I suppose one of us should get back to work.

NYC FLICKS

Few photos from the trip.


0484 NYC office. Not a bad little set up - as far as overpriced, miniature Manhattan hotel rooms go.


Had this tiny new Powershot shipped to the hotel. Theoretically this should mean that soon the blog should be virtually rid of all grainy cam phone photos but I'm not making any promises.


First things first. You already know what it is.



Went by MOMA. Cooper Hewitt was under some type of renovation and apparently the Guggenheim is closed Thursdays, but this place was pretty legit as far as third choice museums are concerned.




Warhol soup. Not sure who this kid in the purple was. (I think I generally pay more attention to random intruders when I'm taking pictures but I'm going to blame this one on me getting used to the new cam)


They had this weird Eastern European "performance artist" there who basically just sat in this chair all day. It's hard for me to describe how uncool I really find these types of gags that people come up with and masquerade as art. This is not art - this is a mockery of art. I'm not sure if I'm more disappointed with her, the people who killed their day watching her or folks at MOMA who let her in the building in the first place.



Since you have to walk to get everywhere in the city anyway, you might as well keep your eyes peeled for some interesting graffiti.





And finally, the original Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. Not really sure how to describe this place because I still don't understand it myself. It's basically In-N-Out with a slightly larger menu and better shakes. The only confusing part is why there's a perpetual hour long line at this place all day, every day. For real - their site has a webcam which shows the current length of the line so you can plan your visit accordingly. Whatever, good for you Shake Shack, keep doing your thing.

Anyway, it was a good few days in the city. Weather was good - felt like Southern California - you can't beat that.

BACK TO THE GRIND

Matt and I met with a new agency Thursday morning.

They just moved into a new office in Costa Mesa. Pretty legit space. Great location. There were some vacancies in their building - could be the future home of the next 0484 office. We'll have to look into it.



Grabbed lunch, then got on a conference call about a video game website we're working on. We finished a web proposal for a big international refrigerator component manufacturer. Then we killed some time brainstorming names for a new automotive branding project that we just started.



Drove up to Beverly Hills in the afternoon to finally check out the Choe show in person.





Just the pop up space itself that Lazarides Gallery rented in Beverly Hills was impressive. Especially since the last show of theirs that I went to, Banksy's Barely Legal, was held at that sketchy rundown alley in downtown LA.



Then we rolled over to Hollywood.





Victor from The ID Agency invited us out to a Brazilian Soccer World Cup event that Nike Sportswear was throwing at their space at the Montalban Theater.





Friday - Lunch at Rooster Cafe before a meeting about a pretty cool sports video site we're going to work on.



Saturday - The weather was good so we went out to the beach in Newport. After all, working 2 consecutive days can be a killer so we had to relax a bit. I'm sure you know what I'm saying.

HEADING HOME

I'm on the flight back to Cali.

Few million things to do back home. First meeting tomorrow is at 10 (good thing I'm on still East Coast time).

I'm sitting next to a freelance cinematographer. He used to shoot Quiksilver surf footage out in Hawaii. Tomorrow he's heading to Miami to shoot The New Kids on the Block on a cruise to the Bahamas for Interscope Records. (My roommates are going to be really jealous when they hear about that)

Anyway, the wifi on the plane costs a small fortune, (yet access to the power outlet under my seat is free - I feel like maybe it should be the other way around?) so I should get back to work.

0484 D.C. OFFICE

Shot of this week's mobile office.

Back in DC for a few more days, staying at my boy Ruchir's house. Still have a bunch of photos from NYC but I'll sort through all those when I get back home.

I hate Rubik's cubes by the way.

Ruchir's a big Eminem fan so I got this autographed photo for him for Christmas.

This is Ruchir's head morphed onto a kid's body sitting on Em's lap - weird, I know - but there weren't other choices and I'm pretty sure the money went to charity, so whatever

And he actually snagged these for me a few months ago when he ran into the Lakers while they were hanging around DC.

Pau


Luke



Stopped by Meiwah for dinner. Best Chinese in DC.


Everybody says so