40 Days of NY

Follow my steps in NYC from April 28 to June 6.

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SVA.

Anna, my friend who hosted me in Brooklyn for almost three weeks, was studying at the NYC School of Visual Arts and invited me to know the college facilities. Of course, as I'm interested on the educational area, I was really excited about it!

And SVA campus is pretty awesome. As the classes are very small, the campus is small as well - but I must say is very comfy and well equipped. I had the opportunity to study at the best design school in Brazil (as they say) and we have a "out of this world" campus, with trees, a river, some buildings spread across the terrain and it is very beautiful. Even though, SVA’s campus impressed me for the details, the chairs, the iMacs, the magnet walls, the quiet room, everything seemed so clean and new... And the machine lab! What is that! They got from 3D printers, to laser cut machines!

I started to think seriously on going out to study something new, open my knowledge field. Something I’ve hardly considered before. Let’s see what life brings me. :)

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Museum of Natural History.

One thing only: this museum is so awesome that I arrived there 20 minutes before it’s opening and left with the security guys kicking us off there. I’ve spend almost 8 hours inside it (don’t worry mom, I had lunch). Lol.

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Museum of the Moving Image.

This was another surprising museum. Got there without much expectation and left with a good impression. From a high-tech interactive exhibition to a History of The Cinema filled with old cameras and televisions to a Mad Men exhibition with the clothes use by characters and some sets and props.

It’s a little bit far but I think is a different museum, with a lot of interaction and familiar and famous stuff from movies - like the Chewbacca mask and Jim Carrey’s mask from The Mask.

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The Rub.

A friend told me about this party and as I had nothing better to do this night, I went with a open heart. And the party was awesome. There were two dance floors both crowded and with a really good music. From soul and funk to hip hop. And different tap beers at the bar of each dance floor, so moved a lot from one to the other. Lol.

I think it’s a periodic party, so look for it when in NYC.

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Coney Island.

If you had to choose a place to ride your new bike in NY, where would you choose?

I chose Coney Island. Although I’ve been there before, looked like a nice ride and a good stop to eat and drink something.

And I’ve found this sky when arrived there. Good, right?!

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Manhattanhenge.

This is a twice a year event - when the sun aligns perfectly with the city grid at the sunset. So, what really happens is that a lot of people walk on the street and try to get the best shot. And it’s a crowd. I got lucky on this picture, really.

And I saw beautiful pictures from the last year and I think I can say this year it was not a good year. Without clear sky there’s no much difference from a usual sunset, I think. But is a great picture tough.

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My new bae.

Well, sometimes you do crazy stuff in your life. This was one of them. I bought a bike. Yes, a bike. And no, I don’t know how much will cost me to send or take it to Brazil. All I know is that she (yes, she) is everything I was looking for on a bike - for a long time.

Design - check.

Performance - check.

Good price - check.

Well, I saw her from the street, inside the store and just felt in love. Love at the first sight. It is real. We’re really happy together.

I only had chance to ride it for two days because started to rain after that. But I must have made more than 70 km already. Yes, trust me. And god, she knows how to do it.

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A coffee with Natalie.

I met Natalie at the 99u Conference. She helped me on buying the SYPartners Superpower cards at the Studio Session (there’s a post about it at this blog) and a few days after the Conference I sent her a e-mail asking if she would be up for a conversation.

She is Director of Brand Development at SYPartners and she said: “yes, sure!” - so we scheduled a morning coffee in a bakery near her office. I must say I was really nervous about it. It’s a big deal. At least for me it was.

The conversation was so awesome that I didn’t wanted it to end. It was one hour full of insights, tips and methods. After the conversation, I spent one and a half hour digesting and writing down everything I could on what we talked about. And the topics went from hiring to hierarchy, to university partnerships and branding.

I’m really thankful for this opportunity and will use everything I could extract as soon as I get back to work!

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Hudson Mohawke.

I’ll only say two words about this show: FUCKING AWESOME.

Alright, let me put some context on this post. lol

I was looking for things to do this week and suddenly a web pop-up came through and it was saying: Hudson Mohawke is in New York this week, buy tickets here! And I was like: “WHAAAT”. Ok, it didn’t happen exactly that way but almost like it.

This guy is a really good trap musician. And trap is kind of a new style so is not usual to see trap musicians around. I must know about 3 really good ones. And Hudson Mohawke is one of them.

I had already bought tickets for a game fair this day a few minutes earlier but didn’t mind about forgetting it and just buying tickets to Mohawke’s show. And the show was reeeeally awesome. Maybe one of the best nights I had in NYC. The opening shows were really good too. Totally worth it.

Who follow me on snapchat had the opportunity to take a better look on how good the show was.

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Everlane.

I was about to send a cold e-mail to Everlane crew to see if I could go to the NY office and talk to the people there. What happened was that I saw at their Instagram an event and instantly signed up, of course.

The event was a talk between Amy Woodside from OKREAL and Caroline Ventura from BRVTVS. And Amy was interviewing Caroline about what it takes to be a creative entrepreneur - a awesome and relevant theme. They talked about money, how to balance life and work and fears.

Before and after the talk they were offering wine and light snacks (delicious, btw) - and people were just hanging around, networking, looking at the upcoming pieces, new models and colors.. I could even take a look at some panels they use to develop new products.

By the way, Everlane is my favorite brand of all time. I really believe in their mission, admire their work and like their style. So this event was like a dream becoming true.

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Brooklyn Museum.

I was really unpretentious with this visit. Just walked there, wanted to see the Basquiat exhibition. The first funny fact about this visit is that when I arrived at the museum the girl at the reception was so cute I couldn’t resist to pay full price. She was all like: “the suggested price is $16 but you can pay whatever you want!” and I didn’t knew that this museum had suggested prices. Add to that the fact that I was planning to give a high value dollar bill in order to change it. She totally caught me.

Well, I walked the whole museum (it’s not thaaat big) in one afternoon. The Basquiat exhibition was really great but I saw other things that I also loved. As you can notice by the pictures. The architecture of the museum and I flirted a little bit. I love the classical style with the perfect geometry, lines and perspective.

They have a large gallery on the Egypt. And mummies. I like the Egypt since I was a kid and watched VHS from National Geographic on the ancient civilizations, so this exhibition was a time travel, not only to Egypt but also to my childhood, in a certain way. And the mummies, the Book of The Death and this kind of stuff is so fascinating!

There where two exhibitions I found more powerful: one about Africa and other about LGBT in Africa from african artist Zanele Muholi. Totally apart one from the other. The Africa one was about ritualistic objects and the rituals themselves. Sometimes I could feel the power hidden at the objects exposed. This mask in the photo above with horns, is made from a mixture that involves a lot of special elements, like blood, a certain fur, soil and other things.

The chalkboard on the photo was really moving, a part of the Muholi’s exhibit. It contains testimonials from africans who suffered harassment for being homosexuals. The exhibit was focused on lesbians in Africa and had multimedia like video, photos, audio and this chalkboard.

The photo of the platter with a vagina flower was also from a very interesting exhibition, about influent women from all over the world. And the other interesting exhibition was of selected artwork from museum’s collection.

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Mother's Burger.

After I’ve bought the rollers and was on my way back home - walking to the subway station - I noticed that I was hungry. Then started to look for places to eat. When I’ve passed by this restaurant it caught my attention, but I thought it was closed so kept walking.

At the corner of this block, I opened Foursquare and it was there with good rating and apparently open. So I walked back and it was open indeed! So I ordered the lunch special of the day and a beer - as always. And what a choice! The food was great. I mean, I’m already a burger expert and this is not the best burger in the world, but it totally worth it. And the sweet potato fries were also very good.

Mother’s Burger is located at 347 Graham Ave, Brooklyn. If you go near this area, stop by!

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Roller Skates.

When I was younger I used to play Quad Hockey. I don’t remember exactly for how long I’ve played, but one thing I can say: for a long time I’ve been missing skating. It is a old plan to buy rollers and I finally got them!

I discovered this shop, in Williamsburg, specialized in quad rollers. I went all the way there and it was awesome. The girl helped me to find the better model and gave me tips of where to skate and what is going on at the NY roller scene, events and even roller parties!

At the following day I went to skate at Prospect Park and it was really great. In love with my new roller skates. For sure will skate a lot in Rio.

If you’re interested in quad rollers the shop is Five Stride Skate Shop and is located at 455 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn. You can also take a look at their website.

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Chinatown.

In one of my walks I got to Chinatown. This place kind of reminds me Rio’s city center (the part with a lot of china-products stores) with New York architecture. And this is obvious: chineses are chineses, wherever they are. Lol.

But I enjoyed the opportunity to eat in a local restaurant. The menu was all in Chinese and I had to choose the food by a photography. More original than that just in China. The food was awesome.

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Random photos from NYC streets.

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Basketball.

NY is a city where you can do whatever you want because there’s always something to do. But sometimes all you want to do is nothing. And that’s kind of something. Lol

Well, one day all I wanted do to was to walk around and see the city. I’ve stumbled with this courts and stopped to see people playing basketball for about one hour. It was great. I miss playing basketball.

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Fette Sau.

If you’re a meat-eater or just not vegetarian, this is a place that you can’t miss in NY. Fette Sau is a barbecue place with different types of meat and sides a huge selection of whisky and draft beer. I had a hard time to decide what to choose between the meat options.. I’ve waited about 40 minutes to order, so had a lot of time to chose - yes, there where a huge line.

I recommend that if you go there, go with someone because all sides are for, at least, two people. I couldn’t finish my food and got out of there walking slow because of all the food in my stomach. Lol

Fette Sau is located on 354 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn.