Snow Day

Good morning from snowy Brooklyn. I was going to go into the office today, but I’ll take any chance like this to work from home. I’m assuming everyone else is doing the same. The return of the ol' wintery mix.

Lego Polaroid

Spent a few hours today building this Lego Polaroid camera. The first time in maybe 30 years I've built a Lego set by myself. It was extremely relaxing, and I'd love to do it again. We had on music while Lisa was prepping a stew for dinner. It was a cold, snowy day in Brooklyn. Perfect for a silly indoor project like this.

It's from the Idea Series. I'd also love to build this typewriter someday.

Exit: The Holidays

Every year, the edge of Cobble Hill Park becomes an official dumping ground for dead xmas trees. Last year, we carried our tree all the way over here. We didn't need to make the trek this year. We only had a little garland on our mantle.

Silver Jews Tribute Show

Went out last night to the 4th annual tribute show to David Berman. It was a ramshackle show, but still really nice to hear a bunch of Silver Jews and Purple Mountains songs played live again. A few of the participants were friends of Berman's or had written songs with him, so the event had a warm feeling about it. Proceeds went to a suicide prevention nonprofit. 

New Online Portfolio

I designed, built, and launched a new portfolio at brianfeeney.design. I wanted my online professional life separated from my online personal life, and for my career to have it's very own home on the web. The site concept is of a resume which can be drilled down into, revealing portfolio work. It's still a little clunky, and I'll be improving some of the UI, soon. Making clickable areas more visually clickable. Adding more of my older stuff. Better distinguishing the process work from UI/UX deliverables. I like how it looks so far, which is why I published it, but I'm looking forward to making it better.

New Years Eve for 2024

Lisa and I celebrated with a late dinner at Bar Bête on Smith St. A really nice prix fixe, where we split the cod and steak entrees. The fireworks were going off on our walk home. 

2023 was a challenging year for a number of reasons, but we had some good things to celebrate. Our first full year in our new home, for one. Here's hoping 2024 is a better one, for everyone.

Brooklyn Hawk

Woke up to see this hawk outside the bedroom window planning murder.

Poster House NYC

Visited the small museum Poster House in the city. It's slightly over-priced for having only two exhibitions, but both were interesting. In the basement, posters for environmental movements and events from the past fifty years. The main exhibition was "Art Deco: Commercializing the Avant-Garde" and it included numerous prints recognizable to a student of graphic design. Particularly impressive were these Dubonet posters, which had originally been displayed always as a tryptic to make use of clever puns recognizable by the French. "DU BO" = "de beaux" = "looks good". "DU BON" = "it is good". "DUBONNET" = the brand, Dubonnet. Roughly, translated, of course.

Frankel's

We took the train to Greenpoint to look at a credenza in a vintage shop we considered buying. Despite being kinda cool, it didn't match our current living room furniture enough. We left it for someone else to snag. Afterwards, had lunch at Frankel's. Can highly recommend the smoked nova and bagel or the pastrami egg & cheese sando. It's a cramped, little space, but the park and its hundred benches is around the corner.

Botanical Brothers

There's a new flower delivery service in Brooklyn called Botanical Brothers. A few weeks ago, they were out promoting themselves in our neighborhood, stopped Lisa, and she signed up for a free first delivery. They arrived today and look amazing. We're going to continue with a recurring delivery, hoping they all arrive this beautiful.