Willo O'Brien

Saturday night, Sarah & I went to Brooklyn to celebrate her friend’s bday

After many drinks, we headed back into the city to the Beauty Bar

Where we met up with Benjamin Wagner, a NYC musician (and regular reader of my blog! :) Benjamin got a serious dose of us in rare form Saturday night! Well, maybe not rare – but in full effect lets just say!

Then we went & met up with Eric & Brian over at Lit. Above is Brian & I, probably shortly after I confessed to him how I was seriously feelin the love for him, since he so graciously showed us a great time in his kick ass city. He’s such a nice guy and although I was fairly inebriated every time I saw him, I can safely say this man RULES.

Photo album of Saturday/Saturday Night’s adventures

Sarah & I are headed out for dinner now – but I just spent all day sorting and uploading all my photos, so until I have time to write more about it all, I wanted to at least post a few photos to show you what a ridiculously good time I’ve been having :)

grabbing a grilled cheese lunch w/ tania & jem

Me, atop the Belvedere Castle in Central Park!
Here’s the full album of photos from Tuesday through Friday in Brooklyn & NYC

Saturday night we hit the Stellastarr* show at Bowery Ballroom (photos here)

me & kat, enjoying ourselves immensely!

Brian (boy licking me on the left) showed us the BEST time!! He was the one who turned us onto the Stellastarr* show and then took us to the Stolen Transmission after party. This man knows how to have a good time and I’m so stoked he invited us along. xoxo

me & marcus (the lead singer of ambulance ltd)

For all of you who I met that night, I had *such* a great time. xoxo

Check out the full album of the Friday night madness!

me with wayne & karrie’s cutie kitty maury (short for maureen)

Here’s the full album of photos from Tuesday through Friday in Brooklyn & NYC and a separate album for Wednesday night’s Sights/Mando Diao show w/ Jem:

I’m in NYC and totally feel like I need to be doing a gazillion more things than I’m already doing. For example, I’m eating an Amy’s pot pie out of Sarah’s freezer, instead of going down to get some tasty NYC slice in the lower east side! I’m a dork – but thing is – I just want food in my belly – and I’m on my 2nd beer – and I’m killing time before heading over the Bowery Ballroom. And my feet are ‘resting’ cuz I just walked all over the city!

I worked this morning a bit, at a coffee shop around the corner. Sidenote for all of you telling me to go to Katz’s Deli… I’m 1 block away!!!! I can literally look out her window & see the sign! :p After working a little (on an illustration, so it’s not that bad!) I showered and met Jem & Tania @ this Grilled Cheese place around the corner. It was yummy!

Then we hopped on the 6 and headed Uptown… them getting off around 59th or so – and me up to 77th for the Whitney Museum. Which was great!!!! The Tim Hawkinson exhibit is TOTALLY amazing… way better than I expected and I’m totally impressed with that man. Really incredible.

Afterwards I bought a Slinky bracelet, a hopper mini-journal thingy, and some cards/postcards in the gift shop. I’m pretty excited about the Slinky bracelet… and the Rauchenberg card I bought, I plan to send to myself.

Tonite Kat & I are hitting a *secret* show. Not really so secret if you’re on a certain list, or if you’re “connected” – which of course since this is WilloToons you’re reading! (haha) Ya, so cool Brian B turned us onto this show where the band is actually performing under a pseudonym: The Ligers. Yesss!!!!

But it’s really Stellastarr*! Yay! Apparently they are playing songs off their new album. I’m seriously stoked. It was hard to decide what to go to tonite… Hot Hot Heat is playing w/ Robbers opening – and for any of you who know me, it’s practically INSANE I’m not at that show cuz I’m a gigantic fan of both of those bands! There was also a Butchies show, Andrew Bird AND some other one. There’s a TON going on here!! Not to mention all the shows I wished I could see next week… The Wrens are coming! Rilo Kiley! *sigh* Thank god I live in kick ass SF where we get tons of kick ass shows!!!!

OK… I’ve written a blog post (while sipping my beer and watching the Beavis & Butthead movie w/ Sarah’s roomate, Mike), and rested my feet – and turns out the potpie was nasty – so I’m throwing it away & going to get a New York slice. :) Cheers!

I’m not with my baby today (cuz I’m in NYC, if you’re just checking in)… but I got him a brand new scratcher before I left – and hopefully Lulu, who is graciously campin out and sittin the little fuzzy pants a mi casa this week, will give him one of his favorite mice! :) I love you snuggly birthday boy!

Life is well here in “working a little, playing a lot on a semi-vacation” land. Yesterday Karrie & I worked at a small little local cafe (uh, I’ll have to ask her the name) where she new the guys there & it was really nice. A beautiful day, and fun for Karrie & I to be working on our laptops in a cafe together!

Then lastnight her & Wayne took me out for an incredible dinner at this South African restaurant down the street. It was DELICIOUS! Sangria, incredible salads, entrees and we even shared this delicious desert that is a must have if you go. Some pudding thing, it’s amazing. (I’ll get names & such later).

This is me and my sweet friend, Karrie, at dinner. Isn’t she the cutest!? She has the CUTEST little button nose and freckles. I love her!! I’ve soooo loved staying with them for a few days. Her honey, Wayne, is SUCH a doll!!! Oh my god, you could never believe how dang cute they are. It’s really heartwarming to know my friend who I care so much about is so happy and with such a great guy. yay!

Oh! And recently I did a Custom Illustration project for her that I haven’t shown you all yet. She’s a photographer and she’s starting a line of greeting cards with her photos, called After These Messages. So here’s her new business card!

Karrie’s so awesome because she’s so creative. She’s a knitter and a writer and, like me, loves talking about creating your life – and having new experiences to fuel your mind and feed your soul. This morning we were talking about wanting to have more community type salons of sorts in our homes. And I’ve been thinking about this a lot & even had a big discussion with Kat about it – how I really want to start having bigger get togethers with friends for dinner. And I’m long overdue for scheduling a craft night & a girls night out! June’s going to be a busy month :)

:::

After dinner I took the subway into the city to meet Jem at the Bowery Ballroom for The Sights/Mando Diao show. We were both stoked to be at a new venue – neither of us had been before! She was stoked on seeing the Sights – but I had wanted to hit the Heartless Bastards show at the Mercury Lounge. And, unfortunately after lastnight I really wish I had gone to that show instead. The Sights were pretty good – but Mando Diao wasn’t doing it for me. I liked them the first time I saw them at the Bottom of the Hill… but this time I think I realized they are one of those bands I only needed to see once.

I also have to admit I totally wore crappy shoes for the whole adventure. It didn’t take me but about 8 minutes into the 10-15 minute walk to the subway station to realize I had a night of pain ahead of me. So much for fancy shoes! I’m SO wearing my comfy shoes the rest of the time here. :)

So anyway – the show was just OK for me… and I dunno.. I just wasn’t as high on life as per the usual WilloSpazz. Blah. Go figure.

I feel like I’m in a little bit of a metamorphosis actually. A bit uncomfortable… probably because I’m so used to being in my sweet little home, having uber amounts of ‘me-time’ :) and being all independent and hermit-ish. And now I’m having to rely on other people for places to stay & how to get from A to B. But it’s cool. I think it’s good for me to be a little bit out of my comfort zone – and I know for a fact I’m learning a lot from all that my eyes are absorbing in this big locomotion city. I’m excited for the weekend to start and to eat up all the creative goodness in a few museums!!

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Today I’m in Tillie’s coffee shop, on Vanderbilt & DeKalb. It’s busy in here… but I’m drawing away. I brought my wacom with me, as I’m working feverishly on a illustration project for a couple who’s… hmm… actually I can’t tell you just yet. But I will in a few weeks when it’s news for the masses. ;)

Tonite I’m headed over to Sarah’s where I’ll stay for the next few days & experience the Lower East Side like I have never before! woooohooooo!!!!!!

p.s. there’s a few more photos here.. but I couldn’t upload them all cuz the wireless connex in this cafe is slooow. OK BYE!

I finished up my 5 day stay in The Big Smoke and it was great! What a cool city!!

I feel so lucky to have had Kat showin me around the town and letting me crash her life for a few days. That woman knows how to have a good time! I met a ton of her friends, all of whom are very cool, and we did a ton of eating, drinking, walking, talking and chillin (much needed and totally luxurious for me!).

Monday I worked a little and then went & had lunch w/ Hyedie, a girl I met on Illustration Friday. She’s a fellow illustrator/web designer and we enjoyed a yummy lunch at Fresh on Queen St. She was super sweet & it was fun to talk to her about what we want to do with our illustrations – and where she’s at in her Web Design career right now, etc. And of course we talked music. She likes Feist, too. :)

Monday night Kat & I grabbed our individually chosen dinner cravings (her: sushi, me: pizza) and went back to her place to watch Super Troopers. That movie is ridiculous. In a good way. It’s like Reno 911 on crack. Worth watching for sure.

Tuesday I got up, went for coffee, and opened the laptop to see if I could possibly get any work done before I had to start packing & head to the airport. As soon as I did, I noticed a comment that was left by Justin, a fellow Blogger/Web Designer/Developer (aka Macromedia-geek) and regular reader of my blog who I’ve emailed with a couple times over this last year or so, who lives in Toronto! I had spaced! I had a sneaking feeling as soon as I left Toronto I would remember a ton of people or places I should have connected with while I was there. And Justin was a near miss of exactly that – but I still had time! So I emailed him quickly (and tried Paris, too – who is a regular reader as well and apparently lives 20 miles north of TO? but I couldn’t get ahold of her in time) and set up plans for brunch! yay!

I had actually been craving Eggs Benedict, ever since Kat gave me a full discourse of the beauty of eggs with more egg on top (falling asleep last Thursday night she gave me a play by play on how to make hollandaise). Unfortunately, the place she’d raved about near her wasn’t open for breakfast on the weekday, but Justin knew of a breakfast place AND offered to take me to the airport (awesome!! thank you!) and so the plan was set!

It was very cool to meet yet another “internet friend” in person and connect a face w/ a name. (Justin wrote up his POV of the morning here.) Plus, he’s all Freelance now, too, so it was great to chat w/ him about what he’s up to. One thing he’s doing that’s very cool, is that he’s curating and producing a Design conference in Toronto: DesignFest ’05 – Check it out!
Lastly, a big congratulations to Justin and Jerrie – who are expecting a baby girl in September!! So if you go to the DesignFest, be sure to ask him if he’s gotten any sleep. :)

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My flight down to NYC went smoothly… a little snoozin, a little reading (new book!)… and then I hopped in a cab to Karrie’s house in Brooklyn’s beautiful Fort Greene neighborhood. She had already had to take off for her PT job in the city. She’s a Freelance writer, but she has this side job where she goes in, watches TV and reviews shows for some internet site. Tough job! hahaa She’s such a great writer, and so it’s no surprise she’s found herself getting paid well to do something funky like that. :)

Anyway – so Karrie was off at work already, but her boyfriend Wayne was here to welcome me and show me around. He’s soooo sweet! They’re such a great couple – and actually are just closing on a place here around the corner from their current little home. I’m so excited for them! I want to be a homeowner!!!

I’d made dinner plans with an old friend, so after settling in and meeting their 2 fuzzy wuzzy cutie kitties, Wayne showed me the way to the subway station and I headed into the city to meet Katrina in Union Square.

At Karrie & Waynes recommendation, we ate at Dos Caminos and it was YUM!!! We had a bit of a wait, so by the time we got seated we’d had 2 margaritas each & some guac at the bar – totalling to $65. Welcome to New York! :)

After dinner, Katrina & I said goodbye & I taxi’d over to Sarah’s for a quick beer, while I waited for Karrie to get off work so we could come back to Brooklyn together.

A great night to start my trip here and I’m excited what the next couple days have in store!

hi everyone, i’m kat! (we were shopping for the dinner party where she made some super yummy food!)

kat & I after saturday’s brunch

kat made me brownies!! (and yes, I got some yummy brownie batter too!)

me & kat, ready for a night on the town!

snuggly fuzzy kitty!!

mike cringes as kat makes scott thompson laugh

me & scott thompson! (yes, scott from kids in the hall! super sweet guy)

jeremy & me at the cadillac bar

beautiful adrienne & I at some random party

willo in toronto!

for all these photos & more, view my toronto photo album!

add this one to the list of festivals I wish I had nothing better to do than travel around & hit!

Yesterday could not have gone smoother getting here. I did a long term parking deal at a BART station in the east bay (which saved me a good $20-$50 from the airport’s long term parking), and it was easy as pie to hop on the shuttle from there to the airport, getting me there in plenty of time to wait in the ridiculously long security line (Oakland airport always seems a little out of control in that dept).

I was SUPER glad to have a 3 hour layover at JFK, because it was JUST enough time to go to baggage claim to get my suitcase from the first flight, take the airtrain to a diff terminal, check-in for my next flight and even grab a bite to eat. However, I must say here – what is up with JFK? Man, that place is crazy! I thought they’d have it more together there.. it’s like a twilight zone! But no big deal, besides the piling us all on a third-world bus to drive us to our puddle jumper plane, it all worked out.

That flight left a tad late, but got in at the same time – and there was Kat! United at last! haha! I was afraid I wouldn’t recognize her, but all I had to look out for was a girl who looked like someone I’d hang out with – and so as soon as I saw her striding towards me, I knew it was her… and she’s awesome!

So we cabbed back to her place, chatting away (which is good, because you think – shit, what if I don’t get along with this girl at all? Ya, *no* problems there!) and us already getting into a good stream of “wait, where was I?” and then helping each other back to our train of thoughts that spiral in 10 different directions, a mile a minute. We drop my stuff off, check out her place, I meet her Australian roomate, Cass, and Kat & I head out for dinner.

kat, showing me the sights of toronto

If any of you are familiar w/ Toronto, she lives near the Kensington Market, which is Chinatown/Little Italy area… very cool and eclectic, like our Mission (and our Chinatown I suppose, but not as crowded?). Lastnight we walked down College Ave. to a sushi place and then afterwards to her sweet local record shop, Soundscapes. Great little store, and nice people. Kat bought some records and we chatted w/ Marco, who works there. In fact, I just ran into Marco while getting coffee this morning. It’s already feelin like a small town where I run into people who say “hey willo!” while I’m walking down the street – haha, how cool is that?

Kat got the new Guided by Voices, The Duke Spirit* and the new Spoon! Nice! I wanted to pick up the new Pony’s, but didn’t. I might have to go back for that. I also can’t wait to get Feist (Jem, do you have that yet?).

*We picked up The Duke Spirit after I asked Marco if he’d heard of The Heartless Bastards yet… he said he’d heard some ppl ask about them, and it was in their listening stack so he popped it in. After hearing it he said it reminded him of the voice in The Duke Spirit, and so he popped that in & he was right – really similar. Except The Duke Spirit isn’t as hard edged, it’s more flowy and we liked it! So she picked it up. woohoo! Kat & I are stoked to swap some music this weekend.

Oh also when I mentioned Heartless Bastards, some guy said he just saw them live & they were really good – which is great to hear because I hate it when I start loving some band and find out they suck live… so I can’t wait to check them out myself sometime!

It’s pretty funny to hear how close knit the music scene is here. She’s got stories about seeing, knowing and hanging out with everyone from Metric, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, and Constantines. Where they work around town, who play where on random open mic nights, etc.

So ya, lastnight Kat & I met in person for the first time and holy shit, she was right. We are SO cut from the same cloth. She’s rad. Lastnight was super fun, and the weekend is only beginning! Tonite she’s having a dinner party so I get to meet her boyfriend and a couple of her friends, which will be very cool. Plus, apparently she’s a crazy good cook! yay! I love it when people are good cooks AND they cook for me! So I’m so happy she’s having this dinner party while I’m here. What she’s making sounds amazing! woohoo!

So ya, today I’m finally up on the internut, after a slight delay – but I’m connected now! And listening to Bagel Radio’s live show (you should tune in toO!). Alright… best see if I can get some work in today since this weekend there will be no working and tons of playing! yay!!!