Time to "Plan" Another Trip

Keri and I are headed off to New York in March. She has been wanting to get us there pretty much since we realized we were a thing. She’s been able to go a few times since we started dating, but those were pre-planned trips that I would not have really fit in on. Well, the stars have aligned and I’m finally going.

This will be my first trip to New York and I am pretty pumped. We have reservations for Sleep No More at the McKittrick Hotel which should be an amazing experience. It’s an interactive film noire style retelling of Macbeth that takes place on multiple floors of the hotel. We are going to the Guggenheim to see part 1 of the huge Mapplethorpe exhibition they are presenting this year. There will be food of course and pizza and ramen are two must haves. I’ve also had a few suggestions from friend to be on the look out for.

I’ve also been paying close attention to my instagram feed for possibilities. It’s generally the most fin when you fall down a hole of referential links and stumble on something interesting. Example. Anthony Campusano is a maker in Brooklyn. I have no idea where I originally started following his feed, but he was working on an art project and posted something that he had shown at a place called NY (G) Wall Space. That feed had a few interesting posts all located at New York Ice Cream Gallery, so now it’s on the list. We might not make it there, but if we are close and the weather isn’t crazy it might be fun.

Vegas - Not One Penny Gambled

I’ve never been a big gambler and when I suggested Keri and I go to Vegas that wasn’t even a consideration. We went because we knew at the very least we’d have a blast hitting restaurants. Vegas has a ton of really amazing places to eat. It is relatively easy to get to from Nashville, Southwest has direct flights which are so much more preferable to layovers. Off we went.

The flight went quite smoothly, we planned and scheduled a shuttle to take us to our hotel which was quite fortunate instead of renting a car. What we discovered upon landing was that we chose an arrival on one of the 2 days the strip was closed. The Rock and Roll marathon was taking place. It took us roughly 1.5 hours to get from the the airport to our hotel.

The first full day started out nicely with a good breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris casino. Then confirmation we were indeed in Vegas.

I’ll just drop a few food photos here. You can’t throw a rock without hitting good food in Vegas.

We saw two shows, Body which was in the Luxor and the posted that photography was prohibited, but I had to snag this shot because reflections and perspective.

We also visited the Arts District , we went in the middle of the week, mid day and there wasn’t a lot of activity. There is some pretty impressive graffiti in the area. This is an area that is getting revitalized so you may some some homeless folks and I’m pretty sure there was a tent city on a pretty large lot. Hit the link and check out what is going on there though. It has some potential and there are a couple of nice restaurants planting themselves there.

The High Roller is not to far from the Westin where we stayed. We walked under it a few times and the following photo is one of my favorites taken with the iPhone.

Rejected

I have a DJI Spark. I picked it up a couple of months ago and have only flown it in my back yard so far. I've not shot anything anyone would consider more than amateurish of course. I haven't really had much practice time. 

This weekend I took it with me to my girlfriends restaurant which she is currently in the process of reopening in a new format. Formerly known as IvyWild, it was a farm to table fine dining restaurant. The food was amazing and it was a popular spot for special occasions in the town of Sewanee, TN. The new format is a wood fired pizza and wine bar. Soon to open and it is going to be wonderful. I'll post more about octo π soon. 

My plan was to do some exterior shots for her and just get some more time on the drone with some real settings that would give the footage a bit more of a cinematic look and feel. Sadly, no flying or footage in her location as there is a small airport near there and her restaurant is just inside the no fly zone. Rejected..