Best 23 Year Old Birthday Present

First of all, out of respect and decency for my Mom, you shouldn't do any math in your head as you read this post.

Yesterday my Mom sent me photos of what I gave her on her 28th birthday when I was 5. Not that I hard forgotten what I made her. They are dinosaur and Star Wars placemats that she liked enough to have laminated. Because they're awesome. It's funny, I remember working on these quite vividly.

Here we see two dinosaurs fighting. I believe the cover of one of my dinosaur books inspired the basic theme, beasts, and stance of my drawing, but I left a lot of elements open to my own interpretation.



This is a gathering of dinosaurs on there way to get somewhere. Probably somewhere where you eat lesser dinosaurs. As you can tell from the menacing slant of their eyebrows, these are mean dinosaurs.



Okay. This, apparently, is a tree, a sun, and an ant. Or maybe some sort of tiny dinosaur? I don't remember this one. Maybe it was an effort at something nice and pretty for my young mother.



Well, it's obvious what we have here. At AT-ST, an AT-AT, and a probot. As you can see, I modified the AT-AT and gave it an additional weapon not seen in the Empire Strikes Back. It's some sort of transparent box full of something with a second device inside of it. I think that the second device is supposed to drip acid all over those dots inside the first device, and that the AT-AT then drops those dots over rebels that are beneath it. Because, if there was anything I learned from the Empire Strikes Back, it was that AT-ATs are vulnerable from beneath.



A very basic dinosaur drawing. Clearly a pterodactyl and the duck-billed kind of dinosaur.



Two styracosauruses enjoying a calm domestic scene. Until the gang of eyebrowed-dinosaurs show up to eat them.



I think this actually isn't a Star Wars picture but a group of fighter jets I invented myself, probably inspired by Battle of the Planets (G-Force). The one on the far right is supposed to have tiger stripes, that I know for sure. And I think that's a ramp coming down from it, so it must deploy things.



Finally, here's a happy stegosaurus. Also, from this drawing you can see that even back then I really, really liked tacos.

Best Mom I've Ever Had

UPDATED It has been confirmed. Today is definitely my Mom's birthday. If you've had the pleasure of meeting her, perhaps you should leave a birthday greeting in the comments? Or maybe you haven't met her, but think I'm pretty cool, then you've got to know some of that must come from her, and that's grounds enough for a shout-out, don't you think?

Unless I'm totally, totally wrong, today is my Mom's birthday. And here are some pictures of my Mom. Because that's probably what she wants for her birthday, lots and lots of pictures of herself on the internet.

Maybe you think you've seen this photo before. You're wrong. You're thinking of a picture that looks just like it.



This is from when my Mom dropped me off in New York back in August 2003 and we went and saw Thoroughly Modern Millie, the only musical I've ever been really into.



This is from that same day. Mom and Greg and I were walking all around New York and nearly died of the heat but we ducked into the NBC Store at Rockefeller Center, tried on peacock hats, and survived.



And this is Mom and Dad when they visited me in April 2004.

At one of those crazy Indian restaurants.



And at Peep. If you can believe it.



But don't get distracted by those pictures of my Dad. Because, while he's great, it's Mom's birthday (I think/hope), and that's who you should be thinking of. So, Happy Birthday Mom. From Brigham.

Best Self-Promotion

As seen on a lamp post in the middle of Broadway at 114th Street.




Everytime you try to scratch this ad down . . . The more my image gets burned into your mind. You will never forget the V.Riviera image! Thanks. Keep focus on this pic as you scratch! Give me more power over your brain. Thanks to me you have a hobby now! Keep chasing my ads. You are a true fan!

Thanks!

Vernon Riviera

Here's a bigger look.

Best Reunion Dinner

It was a weekend full of events worthy of recognition, but the event I choose to spotlight here is the combined awesomeness of old High School Pal Lucas being in town from Chicago AND meeting up with old High School Pals Pete and Hannah for the first time in ages. After meeting at Pete and Hannah's place we headed out to the Queen's Hideaway, a new smoked-food restaurant way out in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It is fair to say that this restaurant is far from the beaten path, but worthy of the trek out. In fact, I'm anxious to return, but I don't know that I'd be able to find it.

While the restaurant does have a charming interior and all, summer dining is best enjoyed in the backyard. I'm not even going to say that the restaurant has a "patio out back" or something like that. It's pretty much just tables and chairs in a backyard. Except for the constant attentive and friendly service and the fact that there's a bill at the end of the meal, you'd think you were chillin' at someone's house. Well, I suppose you practically are.

Here Hannah presents Lucas one of the Hideaway's "retarded good" carrots. (The designation was thought up by a member of our dinner party, they aren't listed as "retarded good" on the menu)



An amigo like Pete deserves a slightly more flattering photo than this one, but it's all I got. I'm just not as clicky with the camera these days as I used to be. I think Pete is eating one of my peapods in this photo, but I could be wrong. But one thing of which I am sure is that he has new glasses.



After dinner our band parted ways . . .



. . . and when I say parted ways I mean parted ways as them three headed up into Queens in search of other old high school friends (this time Iraqi musicians) and I headed down to Prospect Park. (It was my second trip to the park that day, but I didn't take any pictures at the ward barbecue, because, as I said earlier, I feel less clicky these days)



After like 16 stops on the G and a half-dozen on the F and much wading through throngs of Brooklynites it drippy-hot weather, I met up with Mitch, Di (hey Di, this is your shout-out, Di), Amber, and Becky at the Celebrate Brooklyn Early-Canada Day festivities.



While numerous Canadian bands were playing, I only caught a portion of the final set by the New Pornographers. Up until that night I was only familiar with the band because of their name (and in a "what's the deal with that band's name, anyway?" way) I enjoyed the songs I heard just fine, but enjoyed walking, talking, and riding the subway home better.

Best Reason for Me to Hope That Your Work Computer Has Speakers

The New York Times has some interviews with Mormon Missionaries online that, if you ask me, are awful nice, maybe even sweet, if I may use the word. Considering that missionaries are viewed as interlopers and a nuisance by many, this small feature is very sympathetic to the guys (and girls) as it examines, briefly, their personal motivations and experiences. It's nice, I hope everyone will check it out.

And for the record, I've met, worked, or eaten with each of the Elders shown in the pictures. I'm nearly 100% sure that I know the sister who starts the interview off (her voice is very familiar, but of course I can't remember her name) and the Elder in the lower right hand corner, (Elder Donaldson), is definitely the Elder that talks twice in the interview.

And Last night I finally saw Batman Begins. Not so bad, really. So different from the other Batman movies (especially the first one) in that it didn't seem to contain any moments that junior high boys would be going "Oh man! And remember when Batman did This? Or when he did That?" Compared to the Joker being pulled from a helicopter by a gargoyle tied to his leg, the dispatching of this film's villains is quite underwhelming. So not your typical comic book movie that it could have been called Law and Order: Gotham Superhero Unit. Yet, like the original Batman, Batman Begins did contain lousy "I've got to get one of those!" sorts of lines.

And it was just weird when he'd lie down to drive the Batmobile. Reminded me a little of Condorman, but not enough.

But worthy of note, at the same time I saw Batman there was a special sneak preview (if the night before official release counts as a "sneak", that is) of Rize at the theater. While waiting outside for Mike an SUV pulled up and out came, I'm not making this up, clown after clown (including the "famous" Tommy the Clown who invented the clown-dances that the movie focuses on.) Joining the clowns was the film's director, David LaChapelle. Not that I know what David LaChapelle looks like, but, c'mon, who could the artsy white guy with all the clowns be but David LaChapelle?

Wow, I really like to write "David LaChapelle"

Best Attempt to Clear Up Nerd Situation

I've realized that yesterday I wrote that I stayed up all Saturday night playing Pokemon Puzzle League with Matt and Mike. Then it dawned on me that the majority of my readers might take that the Lemmons and I spent all night sitting in a circle with a big stack of cards with little cartoon creatures on them, battling it out to see who was the ultimate Pokemon master, or whatever it is that you battle it out for with the Pokemon cards. But that wasn't what we were doing. No, we were doing something much more respectable and cool. We were staying up all night playing an oldish Nintendo 64 Tetris-like videogame "starring" Pokemon characters called Pokemon Puzzle League. It's probably the most intense Tetris-like videogame there is, and if you ever played it and took the time to learn it's "intricacies" then you'd surely understand why it had to be that we spent all night playing the game. Also, for some reason, I had a really good and long winning streak against the far more skilled Mike and Matt, but that was due to some sort of bizarre brief aligning of the Pokemon Puzzle League cosmos.

So, now that I've cleared that up, I'm sure you can all go back to thinking I'm not a nerd at all.

Best Guest of the Weekend (Days Two and Three)

Saturday We had dinner at Dumont in Brooklyn. It turns out that the restaurant has a magnificent outdoor dining area in back. Just when you think Dumont can't get better, it pulls out surprises like this. If you're living in New York and you haven't been eating at Dumont, what have you been eating?



After dinner I caught some Jonathan Richman at NorthSix. When I first got my Jonathan Richman ticket I just thought I was going to see some guy that would be singing songs and playing the guitar. Only later did I find out/realize that Mr. Richman is/was the man behind the Modern Lovers. That news was like winning the lottery for me. And while I dared not admit to be hoping that he might play a Modern Lovers song, imagine my satisfaction when he layed down modern versions of the songs "Pablo Picasso" and "Girlfriend."

After the show I had maybe the best Neck Face sighting of my life. Or does stuff like this even count?



I finished the night off by partying a little bit down by the river and then playing Pokemon Puzzle League at Mike's house and staying up all night with the Lemmons.

Sunday In the afternoon I met up with Kurt, Mike, and Matt as Matt made his final dash to enjoy as much of New York as possible.

Can your brain even handle the full force of the Mike/Matt dichotomy?



On East Houston Matt copped a hat from the hip hop store.



We checked in on the Mr. T dolls exhibit again. I was able to correct my grave error of not having photographed the Elvis Mr. T last time.



And noticed lots of dolls that I didn't remember at all from my first visit.











Also, we met the guy (Greg Something, I think?) who collected all the dolls and talked about trying to get Mr. T to come out to see the show and the grand history of his project. Also, Kurt (right now I'm noticing I didn't get any pictures of Kurt. My bad) made a panoramic shot of a bunch of the dolls which you can check out if you click here. Seriously, if you only click one link ever at Steady Mobbin', let it be that one. Once the picture loads, make sure to click on it to see it in all its enormity. And, once again, I didn't make that picture, Kurt did, and I you're thinking about that as you view the photo.

Then we went to Rice to Riches. Or maybe these pictures are from 100 years in the future?





Not too much later it was time for Matt to return to Utah. I went along because Mike has a car, and it's pretty hard for me to pass up an opportunity to ride in a car these days. I guess I also went along because Matt's my friend and I wanted to see him off, too.

Best Evening Supplement to the Day's Post

For a limited time only, you can download a folder containing videos of old men dancing crazy at Lincoln Center Friday night here. The videos are all a little dark and they're all a little far away, but if you use your imagination, they're something else.

Best Guest of the Weekend (Day One)

Early Friday morning Ol' Matt Lemmon flew into New York for the weekend. Mike picked him up at the airport and then we headed down to Soho (here we can be seen after parking on Bowery) for a power breakfast at Balthazar.



We all ordered the Full English Breakfast.



Matt has long been a fan of English breakfast mushrooms. (This is a photo from when Matt and I went to London in November 2003)



Then we discussed psychic powers. (Me: "They don't exist and never will.") (Matt: "That's no way to have a fun and interesting conversation.")



Mike listened intently and had his own well-reasoned theories ("But what if you could hook your brain up to a computer?")



After work Amber and I met up with the Lemmons at the Moma. Here Matt and Mike can be seen standing in front of a video of a lemon and posing like their brother Scott.



On this visit to the Moma I took my first look at the print collection.







Perhaps I shall go into photographic portraiture?



Then we went with Jenna to the Burger Joint. Of course.



In case you were wondering, the one that isn't Mike Lemmon in the photo is me. Because my picture hasn't been up here for a while.



Then we sort of wandered for a while and wound up at Lincoln Center where there was a big outdoor latin-dancing situation.





There were lots of awesome old men dancing around all over the place and none of them would keep still long enough to be photographed.



Then I had to head home before everyone else so I could get up early Saturday morning, but the Lemmons kept it poppin' all night long, from what I understand.

Best Operation: Hot Webster

The internet seems to be full of reviews of this week's two Bloc Party shows at Webster Hall and no one is happy that the shows were at Webster Hall but they all liked Bloc Party. Let me say that, while Webster Hall was really, really hot and sweaty and drippy and it does seem that the floor might collapse someday and leaving the venue always verges on being a panic-inducing experience and you can totally tell that it's more of a place for bridge and tunnel dance parties, Webster Hall IS right by M2M, the city's absolute best convenience store. That almost makes up for everything wrong with the venue. And, little story here, one time I went to the M2M and bought a rootbeer and the guy at the register asked to see my ID.

Anyway, Bloc Party was great, of course. My one word concert review? "The Band was: Charasmatic" If you've seen them before, then you know what I mean. The whole band (particularly the frontman, of course, who's name I don't know, of course) send off a very welcoming, "let's have fun" vibe. Were the whole audience not about to pass out from the heat inside Webster Hall, we probably would have returned a lot more of the love.



I spent all week trying to better familiarize myself with the Bloc Party catalogue, but I was still reduced to thinking: "Oh, hey . . . it's that one song . . . no, wait, my bad, this is that other song . . . man I like this song!" throughout the set.



You might be thinking, "Gosh, Brig, for a band that's supposed to be so great, you sure didn't take that many photos." Exactly. The show was so good that I decided I'd rather not be trying to get the best pictures I could the whole time. Besides, if you want pictures of Bloc Party, it's not like the Cobra Snake has anything besides pictures of Bloc Party playing.





During the encore the back of the stage lit up like stars. Which is fitting, as lots of Bloc Party's songs sound like they could be played against a backdrop of stars.



Also, the opening act that we caught, the Engineers (I think), they weren't bad at all. And they played a set of absolutely perfect length, like 22 minutes or something. They were a little bit like the droney Ambulance Ltd. stuff, but just a little bit.