The Sand, The Sets, and The Stupidity

Yet again, too much going on in the past couple of weeks to write. Quick recap:

The Sand

So I finished up my week in Myrtle/Surfside Beach, mainly nursing my sunburn and attempting to lose less than ten golf balls per course. Neither was really successful. But, I still managed to get to a few of my favorite Myrtle Beach places.

This place is The Maze. Now, this place started off as a random tourist attraction a few years ago, but since has become a Reilly family proving ground for any newcomers to the family vacation. That means any new boyfriends/girlfriends/spouses must make their way through this exhausting wooden trap. I just do it for fun, but sometimes I wish I could just watch to see the new members of the family reach another dead end wondering if my family was worth this hassle.

No, that is not a giant condom on my head. or a thing for the KKK, although from the road it does look like a Klan Konvention. This is part of Rude Dick's, a restaurant that prides itself on bad service and insulting its customers. It also makes these hats that have a dumb joke to laugh at, especially when your Dad's hat says "Viagra makes my wrist hurt".

I finally started taking photos again! Really happy with how these two and the one up top turned out. The night one is at the Surfside Beach Pier, while the bottom one is a burger I ate that consisted of 2 burgers, two eggs, cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, two grilled cheeses for buns, and two giant onion rings. Truly an American delicacy.

But now I'm back in...

NEW YORK

The Sets

The end of CollegeHumor's business quarter is coming up soon, so they have been working nonstop to create new sketches to impress the bosses. The picture above is from one of the funnier sketches I have been a part of, "The Greek System Bails Out Greece". Really funny sketch with some of the most entertaining actors I have ever met.
But, the bigger set I was a part of was "The Six Friends of Your Girlfriend". If you are unaware, CollegeHumor has an ongoing series called The Six, a super-stylized series that always shows six things that are common for people to run into. I don't give it the credit it deserves, because they actually are extremely well done and probably have some of the highest production value at CollegeHumor.
But, after a long week of sets, you have to celebrate the weekend with...

The Stupidity

This idiot. Again. We did some cool shit. Like an interactive mind-fuck of a play called Sleep No More.

Those guys in the masks? That is actually the audience, following around the actors through seven floors of 1930's Macbeth. Beyond creepy, but nevertheless breathtaking as a completely unique way of performing. I'm definitely going to it again before the summer ends.

Next, a little bit of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, a cool, young area that truly breeds one thing: hipsters. But good hipsters, like the ones that will offer you a cool new artist to listen to while telling you about the best hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Also, I got some flannel, if you couldn't tell from the pic above.

Also made it to the Gugenheim, which is a famous art museum along the Museum Mile. Cool, abstract art and a photographer who specialized in transition portraits really added to the feel of this architecturally beautiful building.

Finally, Alejandro and I made it to the king of the tourist attractions, The Statue of Liberty.

First off, I didn't plan wearing a shirt with the Statue already on it. Or having the New York state quarter, which also has the Statue on it, in my pocket. I felt idiotic. But whatever, still worth the trip. The Statue is surprisingly small compared to all the hype around it, but still worth it to see a symbol of America that has been around for over 125 years.

Oh, to complete the stupidity, Alejandro tried to have me call a coin flip and ended up spouting off this:

What a winner.

Out of the City

So, after one month of living in NYC, I left for family vacation in South Carolina.

It's nice as hell here. But, there is a lot of sun. Like, more than any man with the last name Reilly should ever have to sit in.

You had one job, sunscreen. ONE JOB!

But, one thing that I really felt since leaving the city (other than excruciating skin pain) is a genuine longing to be back in New York. Everything outside of the city seems to move really slow, and the lack of public transit is really discouraging. I admit, it's sad that only a month in the Big Apple has already caused me to have the mentality that anything outside New York is unimportant. But, that doesn't stop me from missing all that New York holds in it!

Speaking of New York, here is probably the quickest break down of things that I did During these past two weeks in New York.

Sets!!!!

Good amount of sets that I worked on, and a few of the sets I worked on previously finally finished the videos.

Here's one I helped art direct:

And here's one I was a production assist for:

CollegeHumor’s Favorite Funny Videos

Really happy how each of these turned out. Tune in next time for when more random videos that I worked on fill my blog!

People Visit!!!

So a bunch of people came and visited this weekend. On Saturday, Jason, Jordan, Morgan, and Dave were all in the city. Despite the 100 degree weather, we made it through most of downtown and parts of midtown. But, the real highlight was the fact that I finally met Dave. Jordan was super happy that the two people he wanted to meet from his groups of friends finally got together, and it was interesting to say the least.

Definitely some interesting discussions between the two of us. Hopefully, he and Jordan will come back soon.

And Morgan stayed for the entire weekend, which lead to a bunch of debauchery within the city.

Too much cute in one picture

Sunday had us wandering around midtown, where we found a giant street market that took up a bunch of blocks on Madison Ave.

Unfortunately, Don Draper was not present

Also, got to see my first Broadway show this summer, Rock of Ages!

For anyone who isn't really a Broadway person, this show is absolutely perfect. All the songs are 80s hair metal hits, and the entire musical is very self-aware of the tropes that come with a big-production Broadway show. And, if you love Broadway, it is pretty great too.

Finally, Sunday we explored Central Park, and, I must admit, it is the best park in the country.

From the southern tourist attractions like the ice rink to the northern hills that hide vast lakes and meadows, Central Park is a perfectly laid out piece of architecture. We pretty much hit most of it, starting at the bottom and making our way to 86th Street, but I still feel I would need a good week to soak in all of it.

Also, there was a random carnival in the middle of the park.

So that has been most of what has happened. I'll try to update about beach stuff this week!

Final note, I spotted this guy selling Obama Condoms in Soho. They are exactly what you think they are.

2nd Week Recap

So, yet again, I forgot to blog earlier in the week. I apologize. Here are some cute photos to make you feel better.

Feel better now? Alright, let's do a countdown of the five things that happened since I last blogged.

5. Saw Childish Gambino

When someone texts you late at night and asks if you want to go to a Childish Gambino show in Brooklyn, you don't simply say no. Prospect Park, a beautiful place in the middle of Brooklyn, hosted Childish Gambino for his second night in NYC, and I was more than willing to take a ticket from my friend.

Surrounded by hipsters and high schoolers, I went nuts to some of his classic hits like Freaks and Geeks and You See Me. Unfortunately, he didn't play the song that originally got me into his music, New Prince (Crown on the Ground).

But still an amazing concert. Also, I can't really look at him without remembering the good old days where he starred in the vulgar, at times childish, DerrickComedy.

4. Went to the Catskills

So on Friday, I travelled with a film crew up into the Catskills Mountains to film at a random house. I never really found a reason that we needed to travel so far to film there since we really didn't use the scenery, but I wasn't complaining. The Catskills are incredibly beautiful, with rolling hills of lush forest and sparkling lakes.
But beyond the beauty of the place lies the history behind it. I was standing on comedic sacred ground up here, wandering around the places where people like Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld, and Woody Allen honed their craft. This area created some of the most famous jokes in comedy history, and here I was filming a parody of Call Me Maybe. Great to see how comedy has advanced...

3. Free Movies in the Park!

New York has to be one of the greatest cities when it comes to free events. Any day during the summer, I can go to one of the many great parks and see a show or movie. Now, back home in Pittsburgh, our local theater had Monday Movie Night, and luckily, New York's Bryant Park has been able to meet my Monday Movie needs. Every Monday, Bryant Park hosts a classic film for free, ranging from Westerns to Golden Age Hollywood. This week continued to impress with The Wizard of Oz.

Watching this movie for the first time in over a decade, I started to realize why this movie stands as such a cultural phenomena even today. The music, story, and characters are all fantastic, and it holds morals and ideas that can relate to any time period.
But, there were some weird things people forget. Like how Glinda, the "good" witch, actually is a bitch. She could have saved Dorothy all the time and near death experiences if she had just mentioned the teleporting shoes in the beginning. But noooooooo, she had to let Dorothy wander around an unknown world, get captured by a hydrophobic witch, and then get high off of poppy seeds.

And don't even get me started on the disturbing performance by the Lollipop Guild. They all look like they are suffering strokes as they sing.

2. Art Directed a Shoot

When film companies can't afford to pay actual professionals for important jobs, who do they look to for free labor. Interns! And that's pretty much how this job came about when we couldn't afford to pay a real art director for pick-up shots. So, using the props we already had, I decorated a small Brooklyn bedroom into a tween's paradise, complete with stuffed animals, bright sheets, and collages of the famous pop stars of today.

For my first art directing job, I would say it doesn't look too bad. We also had to fling feathers all over the place whenever the scene called for her to destroy the room, and I quickly found out that a bag of feathers and a bag stuffed with a feathery boa look very similar. That is, until you try to throw the boa and 10 feet of cloth goes right into your actress's face. My bad.

1. July 4th Party!

So, this dingus named Alejandro decided to visit for the weekend, and we spent the majority of Saturday up in Westchester for our friend Amy's July 4th party! Before we get there, I want to point out the beauty of the Hudson River Valley.

The train ride is, in itself, a beautiful contrast to the industrialized city that I see everyday. This trip combined with the Catskills really gave me a taste of nature that I haven't seen since I was home.

But, of course, the real excitement was at the party.

Oh, what are those? Are those giant inflatable things that I will play on even though they are meant for kids 10 and under? You bet I will. So, the party was amazing! They had rides, a lake, an ice cream truck, a fully catered meal service, and even live music! The whole thing was extravagant and incredible, and seemed to not have too many limits on what we could do. At one point, Alejandro and I rode a kids ride while smoking cigars, and I don't think it got much better than that.

Cigars and ice cream. Classy.