Less than one month to go!

In the front row having an awesome time.

Living in New York City for the summer I was fortunate enough to see one of the most beautiful Fourth of July spectacles in the Country. The Nathans Fourth of July Hotdog eating contest. For those of you who are not aware Nathans is a world famous Coney Island which has been on the corner of Surf and Stillwell serving hotdogs for years. Every year on the 4th of July they have a hotdog-eating contest that brings out the best eating competitors in the world. However the real and only story is the battle between Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut. Kobayashi who has won the contest easily for seven or so years was de-throne last year by Chestnut. Reports say he had a jaw injury so this year was being talked up like it was Ali Fraser II. Also they lowered the time limit from 12 min to 10, this was going to be a factor in favor of Chestnut as he starts of big and Kobayashi tends to end strong.
A break in the action and let me tell you my cool story about my day there. I wanted to bring my big camera down their in hopes to get some cool photos for the blog. So I woke up early at about 8 and met my friend Kevin who would be joining me for the day. It takes about one hour on the subway to get to Coney Island from where my apt is. Not a bad train ride if the sub is not packed. We left so early because we wanted to get as close as we could to have good spots. However upon our arrival merely 2 hours before the show begins it was already packed. I have certain techniques that I have learned that I use to get into events or places with my camera that normally I would not be aloud access to. I was hoping to put those to the test there. Once getting there I went into sneaky mode and successfully attained a media pass for the contest. On top of that I was also able to acquire a VIP pass for my friend Kevin. So already the day was going very well. I shot like crazy in the just 3 hours we were there and was very satisfied after I was all done. Although a lot of the photos you see below are some of the best I had a hard time editing, really what problem every photographer loves to have. Accordingly I didn’t want to put everything up here so if you like what you see and want to see more get with me I have a ton.
So Chestnut and Kobayashi ended up in a tie at the end of the 10 minutes with both eating an astounding 59 hotdogs (YES I know 59 hotdogs with the buns in 10 MINS). So in the first time in the contests history the contest went into a 5 dog first one done wins overtime. In the end Chestnut pulled out the W keeping the title and the mustard colored belt in the USA for a second consecutive year. I believe the photos tell the story and I had an amazing time there. So many years have I bet on this with my older brother Tom and to finally see history in the making in person was an awesome 4 of July experience.

Whelp less than A MONTH to go here in NYC then its back home to chill for a lil bit. Then on my birthday I will be seeing an AMAZING concert with a bunch of the guys and then the very next day, very early I have to drive to Petoskey MI for Camp Quality. One month left in NYC and I am surely feeling the money pinch. I want to leave with some money because I have so much to pay for once I get back to school. However I don’t want to short change myself for my last month. I truly feel I have really pushed myself to get out there and explore the city and I am very happy about that. So one month left keep coming back for updates and I will try to keep the blog as fresh as possible.
CYA BYE
PS





The most coveted award in all of Major League Eating, the mustard colored bet!



He is a machine




The Tsunami



Thought this one was really cool.




This is George, he is the MC for the event and he truly is the heart and soul of the Nathans Hot-dog eating contest. Basically he does a lot of shtick in between and before the contest, "hes a hype man".




Pat Berttoliti "SP" was one of the main contenders, he used koolaid to get his buns wet to consume them easier. I got some on my shirt i was mad.



There was one part where Kobi had taken the lead and Chestnut looked over and knew he had to turn up the heat. He went nuts and came from 2 and a half down to tie it up in the last secs.



History in the making the first time ever the contest went into a five dog over time and Chestnut pulled it out in a photo finish.



There can only be one! USA USA USA!!!










All photos property of Patrick Siller
Ok thats all for now I am tired of uploading hope you like them.

The soon to be INFAMOUS B.E.P. story.

HAHA If you don't know ask me about it. The story is not Blog appropriate but here are the photos for all who heard already and want to see. It's not like its a dirty story at all. It is just much better if I tell you. So ask me sometime and I will fill you in!



Hello Mr. Emmy- " I felt like Kramer, when he saw the sunrise from Liza's, no not Menelli's.



The Black Eyed Peas suck and I hate them lol.

Little time to think

So since I have not been doing the best with posting new stuff while I’m here in NYC, I am making up for it and doing two in one day.

Well here I am mostly thru June and my time in NYC is flying by. I have learned a lot: photography, lighting, video, and mostly the business end of the media world. Coming out here truly has been so far amazing. One of my major goals for the summer was not do all and see all I could while I was here. What would kill me would be coming back to Michigan and feeling a sense of regret like I could have done more. Now I know I’m not going to do something crazy interesting every day but I have really been pushing myself to when I get some free time on the weekends or after work to not just sit on my butt and watch TV but to get up and go for a walk or a run in Central Park for examples. Recently I have done several things; I have gone to Coney Island, the Met art museum, and even a really swanky nightclub. Moving into the end of June and into July I have some amazing things on the horizon to look forward to. For one next week I will be attending a concert at an arena in Times Square with one of my best friends from CMU Peter. Both of us have been looking forward to this show for some time and should deal some good photos and stories. I can also look forward to some other guests coming in including friends from the old days in public school Kyle and Ed. Hopefully I will be getting a few more guests from the Maroon and Gold sector but prices for tickets and gas are high so the operative word is hope. As for this weekend not sure of the plans but hopefully I get some new pics to throw up. Continue reading towards another post and a couple photos.





This is on set in Time Mags personal studio. We were shooting some fashion stuff for someone, but i know it wasn't Time. Oh well it was cool and i got paid chicka chicka yeaaaa!




" Shoot The Freak": This stand on the boardwalk at Coney Island. You could pay different amounts of money for different amounts of paintballs to shoot at a live human target. HAHA I know right. Well anyone who knows me knows my paintball past so I was excited to see this. However I got a little less excited when I saw the prices and then saw the markers. I mean why would I pay for something that I used to do for free with my big brother Tom with both of us shooting at our little brother Alex Right? hahah ( Again anyone who knows my family can totally believe this.)



Ahh sit back and take it in. The B E A utiful beach at Coney Island. Plenty of litter and diapers off the ground to go around!!




You know how I do!!!!! No but seriously this is from my night out to the club. The other guy is Kevin whom I met through my friend Steph. whom I work with. These lovely Ladies were dancers at the club to i guess help make people want to dance. I didn't get it but they were nice to look at, sorry MOM people asked to see them!

Observations from an impartial intern.

Let me first describe to you where I come from. My home is located in the metro Detroit area. Although I have been in downtown Detroit several times for sporting events, concerts, and various other reasons I live in a place that is VERY different than Detroit itself. Now as far as where I attend school, Mount Pleasant Michigan. The easiest way to describe MTP, is basically like a recipe; take four parts farming, two parts college town, one part food joints, four parts bars, and add a Indian reservation with a casino resort. Mix it all together and you get Mount Pleasant The Chippewa area.

So my whole point is it is VASTLY different than NYC. Naturally coming into such an amazing city I have noticed several things towards this city that you can only experience first hand.

The stereotype that NYC is full of people who don’t care about you and are complete jerks is still true. However I was utterly surprised and impressed with how may people combating that there are. I have met so many people in this city who are so unbelievably nice and accommodating, it has southern hospitality getting a run for its money. Accordingly the feeling that a lot of people talked about post 911, about the feeling of pride for the city and being a New Yorker can still be felt through out the city.

Learning a second language is REALLY important. Considering it seems that more than 75% of the city don’t use English as their primary language.

It truly feels like this city never sleeps. Honestly I think the only way you can truly feel this is to live here for some time. Just walking down the streets it is just go go go.

If you have a passion for the arts you are in good company. More and more people everyday are doing or trying to sell you some form of artistic expression. Jewelry, music, comedy, painting, clothing etc., it goes on and on. This is the Mecca of artistic expression.

The notion that NYC has some of the best pizza places is completely TRUE, I prefer Bens Pizza.

Frankly I am just going to stop listing them right there. Frankly this is just such an amazing city and I have been blessed to work and live here for even this short time. I will urge all to at least take a trip here. New York really is the greatest city in the world.

More observations and Clips and Scripts from the intern to come thank you to all who is reading.




Nathans is an American institution; the hot dogs of the original Coney Island are amazing. And I will be there with camera in hand for the hot dog eating contest on the 4 of July!



This was one of the kids I went to Coney Island with who was a relative of my neighbors Ryan and Kate. He loved his experience, obviously.

Making Waves

Whelp into my fifth week in the Big City and I can honestly say that I feel pretty comfortable here. I was on a subway yesterday and to guys just started yelling and then fist fighting right next to me and I didn’t even care, Ahhh what this city can do to ones nerves. So since I have gotten out here for my original internship I have on top of that lined up yet another internship through a photographer here in the city named Chris Militscher, check him out he’s sweet. I started off as a bitch grunt basically just doing what I was told and running around. I fought through it and now have recently been promoted to 2nd assistant and NOW WILL BE GETTING SOME PAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I don’t really know how much this is going to be but its some income and that’s huge for me right now. I got a phone call from them telling me how impressed they were with my drive, knowledge and ability. So that has made my week; honestly now im a little nervous because they are starting to ask me to do more days and im worried about pissing the boys from Phear off so we will see how it goes. To be fair everyone at Phear has been very supportive with me busting my ass getting another gig or two and have said to just make the most of my time here, so I’m trying to do just that.
Speaking of that I worked for Chris yesterday in some Penthouse apartment near midtown. This place was pretty awesome, outside garden 30,000 dinning room table very cool. We were shooting some fashion for Samsung and their new phone coming out in July that is supposed to rival the Iphone. I have included a couple pics from the cool apartment just to have a couple images with this post. Tomorrow I was asked to work for them again but from what I am told it will be mostly in the studio, so that will be a cool change of pace.
This weekend I shall be going to the Hamptons. I am going out with Phear and we are going to be shooting a pilot for a show about these rich women throwing this lavish tea party’s and inviting these important people to the party’s. Im looking forward to getting a taste of the REDICLOUS good life and who knows maybe I will run into the Olson twins or something lol. So expect to see some cool photos from that soon.
Other than that not much else really hoping to line up some people to come visit me and hang out. If not no biggie just having a great time here and looking forward to making some cash here soon.

Later

PS

Working hard

Pictures:
1. This photo was of Ground Zero, the location of the World Trade Center.

2. This was taken when I went and visited Central Park. A very cool place to hang out.

2. Finally this picture was when I made a visit to Times Square.




A couple new things over the last week. While I was in a store of my specific interest a little while back I got to talking with the guy siting at the counter. I talked to him about what I was doing in NYC and what i was hoping to accomplish and he seemed to be impressed; he then gave me then name and number of a buddy of his who is a fashion photographer in town. After calling him and telling him the same story i was invited to come to a shoot of his and help out. So on last Friday i went on this fashion shoot and did a bunch of production assistant work. by the end of the day i had a seconded internship for myself for the summer as they asked me to stay on. So that was some good news.

Over the weekend I did some touristy stuff. One of which was going to ground zero. Needless to say it was not really what I had expected. While down there the whole area had a very touristy feel to all of it. It was just a very weird feeling all together. Although I am glad I took the time to go pay respects, as I think everyone should do if and when they do go to NYC for the first time since the attack. I also went to mass on Sunday at St. Patrick's Cathedral which was awesome.

Other than that not much else going on just working and running around trying not to take any day for granted. Tonight you will find me at Off the Wagon the bar right next to my apt. cheering on the WINGS and watching them hoist Lord Stanley's cup.
New posts to come.

GOOOOO WINGS!!!!!!

P.S.

Photos:
1:This is one of the shots from the Fashion show night. Frankly it was the only one i really liked out of the whole mess. I had plenty of good ones but most were straight on fashion shots. I moved towards the end of the show and got a different vantage point and got this angle.
2-3 : So I did it i went to the number one thing i was looking forward to see in NYC. Now i know how big of a nerd this makes me but I DONT CARE ITS FREAKING COOL!!!!! I went to the Fire house that was used in the filming of the movie Ghostbuster 1 & 2. I mean i was walking up to it and i got goose bumps. thats one of my favorite movies and its like seeing something like Jaws at Universal or something you like from one of your movies. Well i thought it was cool. It is still a working fire house and infact while i was standing right there they went on a call and i got to see the sign with the ghost used in the movie that hung on the side of the building, i have a photo of that but these were better.



So here I am going into my third week in the Big Apple and it has gotten a lot better, not that it wasn’t good before but I feel that I am falling into my spot here and I am feeling a lot more comfortable. My new roommates have arrived and have added a certain flavor to the apartment haha. Both are very nice and have been very helpful even in the short time of them being here.
The one thing that continues to bother me through this move is how hard it is to meet new people. I feel like the new kid in my 2nd grade class sitting by himself at lunch. Not quit Steven Glansberry but almost haha ( That’s a movie reference for those who don’t know). I mean it is hard but I will get there.
So the big question: what have I been doing????

Well At work since the high school fashion stuff has been shot I have firmly assumed the role as the “ INTERN” or gopher ( go for this) get it. I mostly have been running errands and dropping things off to clients. I really don’t mind this at all right now simply because im just going around the whole area on and off the island to various people in the business seeing new areas and collecting more and more business cards for myself and future opportunities. I have recently gone to the MTV building seen in the pics of Times square to drop off episodes of “ Damien’s other show” a web series we do for MTV with the guy from TRL. You can find them on MTV.com and there actually pretty funny. I also have gone to Brooklyn and much much more. OOOOO and I also inventoried and labeled all of their equipment ooOoOOO lol. Let me say this NOW so that all my uncles reading and all others, I AM NOT BITCHING OR COMPLAING!!!! I am well aware that this is normal. As I said above I liked doing the errands for now. I realize this is how you get into the BIZ. ANY WAY back to the action; Recently I have just started a cool new project for scouting locations for a new project we are pitching soon. The project is with Amy Poehler from Saturday Night Live. Basically its another web series thing were she will interview woman who are really high up in their fields I.E. an astronaut or something. What they want is for it to be done in a area bar or pub with a stage and a band. This is where I come in I am running around Manhattan right now going into bars snapping pics and talking to owners and hopefully setting up possible locations. So I think that is pretty cool. Again it gets me out there to new places meeting new people exploring the world. So that’s pretty much work. The two other interns come soon so im hoping there cool and looking to go out every now and then.

Out of work I am pretty much still in the exploring stage. Although I had a pretty cool weekend. Friday night I went out with Ashley who is a friend of my cousin Ashley. We met up and went to a bar right next to my place that is awesome. I have already gotten to know most of the bartenders ( I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing). But we hung there had some drinks and cheered on the WINGS TO A GAME WON W. Saturday I went to the Czech and Polish fair outdoor beer garden thing in Astoria. It was a lot of fun going with my roommates neighbors and their friends. It was a bit weird being there with some of the people i was there with but like I said it all adds to the New York Experience. And Sunday I went out exploring again looked at some cool art and walked around a bunch. When I came here I want to leave with some really cool stuff to come home with. Some things I can always have to remember my time here. Since some things I had wanted to get are falling out of the picture now I think some clothes and some cool art are looking like the best options we will see.

So I have decided that I am going to try and post on this as much as I can. The postings will obviously get smaller than this but they will keep coming so keep looking back. And I am really liking the few comments I have been getting so feel free to leave them.

Oh as far as pictures go these are just some i have been snaping either from my good camera or my point and shoot.

P.S.