Last week I attended an event at Milk Studios for The Macallan & Albert Watson Present: Masters of Photography: A Journey.

The series is a limited edition set of special Masters of Photography bottles of Macallan paired with platinum prints.

photo courtesy of Angela Pham

I actually got a chance to chat with him  about the photos during his journey between Spain and Scotland, while enjoying the 18 year old scotch (responsibly of course)

” The Macallan came to me with the incredible story of the Spanish sherry oak casks used to make their single malt and asked me to interpret this as a photographic art project. The freedom and encouragement given to me allowed the creation of a visual journey demanding complete artistic integrity.” - Albert Watson

By the way, Albert Watson was born in Scotland and doesnt drink…lol

His work speaks for itself. He is probably best known for this photo of Alfred Hitchcock

Among others

Monkey and Gun

Naomi Campbell

This is me drinking responsibly.

check out the prints from the series by clicking here

Check out this behind the scenes interview

The Masters of Photography – Behind the scenes of the Albert Watson Edition from The Macallan on Vimeo.

Last week I attended a private screening of the HBO Documentary -

SCHMATTA: Rags to Riches to Rags

Ever wonder where the fabric and samples come from for fashion shows?

“schmatta” is the yiddish word for “rag”-

I previously screened this doc with Melissa Davis of TheFatAppleNyc.com and she thought it would be great to screen this in the company of fellow writers, bloggers, fashionistas and tastemakers for the kick off of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.

The event was held at Wix Lounge-

Wix Lounge: A free work & event space for creatives in NYC, sponsored byWix.com, an online Flash website publishing platform.

and produced by

The Fat Apple : Created by Melissa Davis, began as a site covering  Fashion generally and Plus-Size fashion specifically, Lifestyle and Technology from the perspective of a plus size woman. Currently, The Fat Apple encompasses 3 brands, TheFatAppleNYC.com, TodayInShoes.com andGalleryDates.com. New York and the Big Apple is Bigger than you thought!

Special Thanks to the sponsors of this event-

Thank you Jennifer Sohan from Devi-excellent Indian Cuisine!

Everyone raved about the cauliflower treats-I wouldnt know becaue they disappeared so quickly!-

check them out at http://www.devinyc.com/

Location:
8 East 18th Street (between 5th Ave. & Broadway)
New York, NY 10003
Reservations: (212) 691-1300 or make a reservation at www.OpenTable.com

Yummy Snacks

“The Garment Center is the heart and soul of Midtown Manhattan and the backbone of the fashion industry. This HBO feature documentary, produced by Blowback productions, explores the rise and fall of New York’s fabled schmatta (rag) trade as a microcosm for the economic shocks that have changed our lives. Director Marc Levin’s documentary will get you thinking about why your H&M dress is $10″

DIRECTED BY | Marc Levin
PRODUCED BY | Daphne Pinkerson, Marc Levin
EDITOR/CO-PRODUCER | Richard Lowe
LINE PRODUCER | Kara Rozansky
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER | Karl Hollandt
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER (HBO) | Sheila Nevins
SUPERVISING PRODUCER (HBO) | Nancy Abraham
FIELD PRODUCER | Donovan Leitch
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY | Daniel Levin
ASSISTANT EDITOR | Chris Walker
ORIGINAL MUSIC BY | John Zorn

Yesterday I launched a new side project:

www.pocketsquaremafia.com

Essentially it celebrates the handkerchief, pocketsquare and haberdashery

“for the Made or Mad Man”

follow it on twitter @pocketSQmafia let me know what you think-

and if you happen to be wearing a pocketsquare-submit a pic-

On August 26 I ventured to Shaadi Studio to see British designer Saran Kohli’s debut his musically inspired urban collection of bespoke menswear.

Check the video:

The line consists of a full-range of menswear including trousers, shirts, ties, hoodies and shoes. However, the Saran Kohli brand is most recognized for its distinctive style of jackets that can best be described as a fusion of impeccable English silhouettes with an urban vibe.

In 2009, Saran worked with Jay Sean to develop a personalized line for the singer which also resulted in a collaborative photoshoot between the two artists

It was great meeting Saran,  he’s  cool dude, and great designer-

The Saran Kohli Collection gathers inspiration from all aspects of the young designer’s life from music, to dance and his extensive global travels. The line is geared towards the man who prefers a distinctive, more personalized style that blends elements of global culture and music while remaining true to the principles of traditional English tailoring and cut.

Currently the line is being carried through Khubsoorat Collection’s retail stores in London, New York and New Jersey and is the featured menswear collection within the 25-year-old family brand.

Also look out for the collection in the upcoming British action flick London Town (working title) directed by Michael De’Soiye, and set for release in summer 2011.

Thanx to BiBiPr for the invitation and the awesome gift

Snapped in a grocery store in the Bronx

AOL Blogger event drink-BLOG IT TO ME!

vision vodka, liimoncello, fresh basil, fresh muddled lemons, a hint of sugar

Used Jailbreakme.com to free my Iphone 3GS

Diesel Kick Ass Party

Monks Thrift Shop is located on 175 MacDougal St NYC

Last weekend I attended The Next Hope (Hackers on Planet Earth) conference, held at the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC. It is held every 2 years and this is the 4th time I attended since 1998.

This is the badge-

this is the schematic for the badge designed by Travis Goodspeed-

“These badges are active RFID tags which beacon the position of each attendee a few times a second, so that the god damned devil army of lies–by which I mean the Next HOPE badge committee–can track each attendee around the Hotel Pennsylvania.”

There were alot of other cool things to check out such as this USB Typewriter setup and a working EASY button

Here are some topics to some of the talks I attended-

• Circuitbending
• Keeping Your Job While Being a Hacker
• Examining Costs, Benefits, and Economics in Malware and Carding Markets
• Arse Elektronika: Sex, Tech, and the Future of Screw-It-Yourself
• How Hacking is Both the Death and Future of Traditional and Interactive Publishing, Journalism, and the Media
• Reach Out And Touch Face: A Rant About Failing
• Sita Sings the Blues: A Free Culture Success Story

A keynote was scheduled to be given by Julian Assange of Wikileaks , he did not show for obvious reasons, but his partner Jacob Appelbaum and developer of TOR gave a great talk,cover past, present and future developments of the project and showed the much talked about a videotape showing a U.S. Army Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. for more information check out CollateralMurder.com

I got to ride a Segway (video on that later) and got put on to Etherape!-is a packet sniffer/network traffic monitoring tool, developed for Unix (thank you AngelXIII!)

I met threat analyst and journalist, known as a former grey hat hacker, Adrian Lamo  (we now follow each other on foursquare)

He also informed the authorities of the identity of a US Army Intelligence Specialist who is alleged to be the source of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike video leak to Wikileaks.

Which shows guts and balls and I am in his corner no matter what his reputation may now be in the hacker community.

I also enjoyed 2 greats talk and got a pic with Johannes Grenzfurthner

(No-I do not work for @cafebustelo)

He is the founder of monochrom, an internationally acting art and theory group.

I shot an interview with a teacher from The Hacktory, a Philidelphia-based group that promotes the use of technolog in the arts.

(look for that video to be posted soon)

Overall, it was a good time of learning and unlearning.

Note: Most of the videos of the talks can be downloaded at Hattorents.com