THE FUTURE DOES NOT COMPUTE

New York is well known for its plethora of curious and strange characters and this man is no exception. I present to you the Human carpet. I literally bumped onto ‘Georgio’ at a party in Brooklyn. It was a rusty and dirty auditorium annexed to what seemed to be a church or chapel. Hundreds of people exuberantly dressed as brides and grooms for the ‘Winkel and Balktick Wedding’ party. Underneath the bar, a strange figure laid wrapped under a carpet. He was wearing big black eye googles as to disguise his identity. He urged people to stand on him. Party goers had no other option but to do so if they wanted to order a drink as this man was clearly in their way. It quickly dawned on me this was the famous Human Carpet, a rumor and novelty amongst the nightlife of New York. I reached for my camera, the closest friend and snapped away:

The more people who step on the carpet, particularly if they are women in heels, the happier the man is. Some are timid, others are audacious. Some dance on the man. Some step on him while ordering their drinks, completely unaware that a live body is underfoot. Some just stand there, frozen, looking totally freaked out.

The New York Times has a great article on him, giving you a little insight on this strange man from Malta.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/fashion/14carpet.html?_r=1

You can also see the rest of my ‘Wedding of Winkle and Balktick’ party pictures here.

It seems like whenever I go out I spend half the time trying to communicate with friends, cutting down my partying time. This Halloween, I was overburdened trying to give directions to friends, comparing parties and trying to tweet for those far away (ahem, Jordan). It was the first time where I had half the conversations of the night looking down at my phone. It’s a tough situation because you’re always on the lookout for the next big thing, so you’re texting friends about directions. In the meantime your friends that are running late to the first party have to be informed that you’ve moved on and therefore will have to be given directions. It’s all one big chain. I feel this is a complex for people in big cities like New York. In other regions there might be one option for the night and all your friends are expected to be there. Twittering has solved some of these problems but not all my friends are on Twitter, so they still rely on one to one conversations. Google also has tried to solve this problem with a great app called Latitude. It works great if you can get your friends to sign up. Many feel it’s too intrusive, as it shows your location to all friends on a map. Social networking can solve this problem, it’s just a matter of deciding on one medium to communicate with all friends effectively, without having to text every 5 minutes.

Oh man, what a crazy friday night. I haven’t had one like this in a while. Chance encounters with all old friends and making new ones. First party was a friend’s birthday party. The theme, a Masquerade ball Brooklyn style. Live band performances, art and DJs. All of this bundled in a large and impressive loft in Greenpoint. A lot of interesting characters, from an extremely tall cross-dressing goblin to Inky from Pac-Man. Check out the pictures bellow:

Second party, I rounded up a group of friends and headed to The Wedding of Winkel & Balktick. Huge underground party in a historic Fort Greene church. Think of this as a post burning man celebration, full of art, music, drugs, strange characters. People walked around on stilts, minimal techno blasted through the night and many ‘got married’. Polygamy was the theme of the night I would say. Brooklyn is full of characters but there was one last night that truly stood out. This was the human carpet man. This man wrapped himself in a carpet and laid in front of the bar allowing everyone to step all over him. He did this all night. You can see him in the pictures below:

All in all it was an incredible night. Brooklyn has so much to offer when it comes to nightlife. It definitely beats going bar or club hopping with a bunch of yuppies.

Thursdays are the new fridays did you know?! Geez where have you been? living under a rock?! Well here are some pictures from last night’s excursion.

(Click to launch gallery)

God, what a night! Started out with a little pregaming at Seth’s with some beer and Vodka. Arrived at the Delancey around 10:30 and it was already packed. About an hour later, they closed the roof because it was too crowded, a lot of people were not able to get in so we decided to go to another bar. We all split, some went to Speak Easy and several other bars. Later we rendezvous at Seth’s again just to continue drinking in the wee hours of the morning!

Hey Cyril thanks for the amazing night, and good luck in Hong Kong!