Year of the PIG

Went to Chinatown today with Jackie to watch the second Chinese New Year Parade. It got mad packed. We stood on the steps that led up to a Beauty Parlor that my mom's friend owned on Mott Street.

Some Chinese actress, who's semi famous I guess, came out of either the beauty parlor or the clothing store next to it at one point. Some guy who was also standing on the steps with us pointed it out. I don't watch Chinese programming so I wouldn't know.

The parade lasted for about an hour and a half, which seemed really long, and I got bored half way through. After we had enough, I took Jackie to a Shanghainese restaurant off Mott St. We had pan fried dumplings, scallion pancakes, and the signature dish, which is a thing of steamed dumplings with soup inside the dumplings. It's hard to describe, but it's amazing and cheap.


The Foxwoods float.


Some Chinese people on a float.


A pig carved out of ice, by the people who make some Asian beer that I've never heard of before


A semi-important Chinese celebrity (?)


A dragon dance company.


Another dragon dance company. This dragon was so long, there were about 20 people moving it from front to end.


Jackie watching the parade.

Nina!

Nina came to NYC today. We had lunch at Yaffa Cafe with Lori.

At Union Square waiting for Lori


At Yaffa Cafe

Moneys! Part II

I few post back I showed you all these red envelopes I got for Chinese New Year. Tonight I took all the moneys out of them. So far I got a little under $300. Not too bad. I get around this much every year. That about pays for the Nikkor 50mm 1.4 that I got. I don't know if I'm going to keep it. It's very impractical for me actually. I just bought it so I'd have a fast lens. I might want the Sigma 30mm 1.4 HSM instead. It's more versatile for what I want to do.

I Hate Noise

I finally bought the Nikon D80 (technically second time, but that's another story). I've been looking for it for the past 2 weeks in New York and every store that sold it for $925 was out of stock. Calumet had it for $950 but I didn't want to spend the extra $25- last week anyway. I couldn't wait anymore and bought it there today.

I also picked up a Nikkor 50mm F1.4 lens at B & H. It's not ideal for everyday situations but it will have to do until I can get a Tamron 17-50mm F2.8.

I compared shots to my company's Canon 20D, which I really shouldn't do because that camera is a different class than this one. The Canon, to me takes better photos. They have less noise. But I already knew that Canon's produce less noise as a general rule of thumb. I didn't but a Canon because the low end DSLRs they have looks cheap and are really mass consumer oriented. You can say that about the D80 but it feels more high quality than the Rebel XTi.

Anyway, I guess I'll have to learn to deal with the "noise", which in reality is like film grain, it's not noise at all! It just bothers me that the D80 produces a grain that isn't as fine as the 20D. But I can kinda fix it in post processing.



The above shot of the Final Fantasy III Trading Arts figurines was taken with my new toy with the aperture set open at 1.4 or 1.8, I forget. I deleted the RAW file.

Moneys!

Red envelopes I got so far for Chinese New Year. There's more comin' too.

GimmeShelter Art Opening

Jill Rittymanee had a piece in an art opening last night. Evil Paul and I decided to go. It was in the other ass backwards part of Brooklyn- Greenpoint. We had to take the G TRAIN man! Ewww.

I google-mapped the directions and didn't zoom into the map all the way, so a whole bunch of side streets were not on it and I thought, "oh, its only 3 blocks from the subway, easy". WRONG. It was double that in reality. And it was cold.

After the opening Paul, Glen and I went to Alligator Lounge and had a few beers with pizza. And played a few rounds of pool. We paid $1 to get on the table and proceeded to beat everyone who challenged us. We played doubles but at one point a flaming gay guy was up and didn't have a partner so he played Paul. It was so funny watching him play, he would poke the cue ball and pop up really fast.

Photos after the break, if I can figure out how to make a fricken break, otherwise photos just below this line of text...


Me, Angelina, Jill, Paul


Jill with her piece


Mmmm PBR


Paul


Me and Pedro. Haven't seen him since Highschool. Almost forgot his name too.


All the peeps that came to support Jill. PS Jill, get some more girlfriends PLZ.

Why Doesn't Anyone Have This Stuff to Sell Me?

No reputable store in NYC with a decent price has a Nikon D80 body, Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 lens, or Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens in stock. I'm ready to drop money dammit.