PICTURES

[jhameia]

From NYC!

For pics from this year's SPWF, go here. Yes, I know a con report should be coming but my brain is not working.


So, dmp (henceforth referred to as D, and her partner Ash very kindly offered to give me a lift into NYC where I would stay with melissagrey, henceforth referred to as Mel.

We left the Crowne Plaza in the morning with Paul, known more famously as Professor Elemental, to whom Ash also offered a ride to NYC. We had lunch at IHOP, which Paul generously paid for, and drove in, dropped Paul off somewhere so he could go mosey on his own to Coney Island (it ended up being closed, alas for him!).

After hanging out at D's place for a bit, we decided to head downtown to hang out with some of the Texan steampunks who were in town for the day as well, and after drinking somewhere in some lovely Irish pub, went to check out Times Square.

My attention was caught by this military recruitment center in smack dab center of the place:



The side of it, in case you missed the American militarism:


More Times Square:




Buncha giant billboards, really.

We hung out on the biggest mall bench ever:


(Cameron aka Sixpence the Mime, Ash aka Lucretia Dearfour, Alex, D, Pablo aka Mr. Saturday)

Mel came to meet us at Times Square, and we parted ways from the Texan steampunks. Then, through luck of some sort, authoress O.M.Grey (Olivia, or Christine) joined us because her flight had been cancelled due to tornado warnings! We had dinner at a nice Thai restaurant. Paul also returned from his sojourn to Coney Island, and we had ice cream together:



(Ash, D, Paul, Olivia, Mel)

Mel's totes a working girl so she and I left the others while they went a-drinkin', and her working day starts with a commute into Grand Central, which I am too lazy to post many pictures of:


They were crappy pics anyway.

Mel lives out in Westchester (fancy right!) and her dad has a birdhouse out back and squirrels got to it sometimes:


NYC, to give it credit, has many nice parks, and here's a bird's nest in Central Park where I was trying to get lost in before meeting holzman:


That was a particularly busy day: wandering in Central Park, lunch with Dan, then coffee with another friend Lou from Model Mayhem, and then going down to Brooklyn to check out the Way Station, a steampunk-themed bar full of geeky goodness. Check out these digs:







That's Mel sitting at the bar, which is by the TARDIS restroom. It really IS bigger on the inside. I wish I took pics of the inside but that seemed a little creepy somehow:


Here's our bartender, Jim, holding a box of tissues:


And as if this nerdery wasn't enough, I took a shot of the cocktail menu:



Mel and I had dinner there. Good times were had. I spent a lot of money on booze that day.

The next day, I bid Mel thanks and goodbye and she was awesome ya'll. I made my way to D's place and we chilled out until evening time, which was the Steampunk Bible signing. First, a presentation from Jeff Vandermeer and SJ Chambers, editors of this fine book:


Contributors were also asked to present a bit on their current projects, so I used the opportunity to talk about: the steampunk Shakespeare antho I'm editing, my MA project, and the Steam-Powered anthologies. Then there was signing. I only appear in two pages in the book so I wasn't sure why I was signing but hey. There were many awesome people there.

And then there was drinking, of course. Here's my compatriot, D, aka Ay-Leen the Peacemaker:


And here she is taking picture of other people:


And here is a not-so-delicious dessert I shared with some other folks:


And finally, myself, Ann Vandermeer, Jeff Vandermeer, D and Ash:


Unfortunately I did not get pictures with other fine people, such as Martha (a documentarian) and SJ Chambers. =( Next time, dammit!

Thus concludes my NYC adventures.