Beautiful Skies

I had a casting today for Details magazine. The gentleman said "Wow, you have a very thin waist." To which I said, yes I know I'm pretty thin. He replied with "I work with a lot of models whose waists are too big. It's better to be this way." But obviously not today as he handed me back my book and I left. I'm getting really frustrated that I don't fit into a lot of the clothes out here. I'm not supposed to put on any more weight though, so I'll just have to wait for high-fashion designers to find me. I suck at being patient.

But, for happier discussion, here are some photos I took a couple days ago when I was in the Madison Square Park area in Midtown. The sky was so clear and blue with just a little speckling of clouds.

I was walking down Broadway toward 23rd street to get to Madison Square Park when I looked up and saw this streak across the sky that mimicked the angles of the buildings. It was absolutely perfect and I scrambled to get my camera out before the wind took it out of center.
A close-up shot of the Flatiron building on 23rd street, wedged between 5th ave and Broadway.
Go ahead and tell me the sky isn't amazing in this photo. On the left is the old MetLife south tower which was the tallest building in the world from 1909 until 1913 when it was trumped by the Woolworth building. On the right is this awesome new building that's being constructed. The proportions are so interesting to me. It stands in the footprint of an average sized building but stretches up really high. Tall & thin... like me. I suppose that's why I'm so fond of it.
Finally, I blogged about my trip to Ikea a few days ago. Here are the results! I hung the $3(!) curtains on the new curtain rod and hung up the paper lantern I picked up. The bed was lofted when I got here, but I took the loft down since I wasn't using any of that extra floor space and, frankly, it felt like I was living in a dorm room. It feels more like a grown-up bedroom now.
p.s. Happy birthday DAD!!!

Back From the Dark Ages

After some phone calls, arguments with the landlords, and a visit from the city housing department, we finally had our hot water and gas repaired today. I took a hot shower and made spaghetti. It's good to be back in the 21st century.

I had a casting today but I was told I was far too thin for them. Again. I gotta get over to Europe where we stick-figures are appreciated!

Haircut Before & After

I got my hair cut today at this INCREDIBLE salon in the Meat Packing District, Armando Corral Salon. I've been there a few times before and they are great. The design of the place is stunning too! The cut was a lot shorter than I thought it would be. I wasn't too happy at first (thought it looked a little too 'Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby') but it's grown on me and I'm really liking it. I miss the length but this cut works much better with my face. It's much more 'model-esque' than before. The booking agents (bookers) at the agency are happy and that's what is most important. Have a good Friday everyone!


...sorry for the dead stare. There's no smiling in fashion!

Another Good Day! (Apartment Mgt. Still Sucks Though)

Well, I still don't have hot water or gas here at the apartment. I'm eating a lot of toast. This morning I went to the gym early so I could get in a good workout and take a shower in their hot water. I still had to come home and shave with icy cold water. Yeah, that doesn't work out so well.

After I got myself all ready for the day I hopped on the train and paid a visit to my agency in Chelsea. I like to stop in at least once a week just to see how things are going and today they were going pretty well. We had a quick discussion about traveling and now it sounds like Greece might be in my future. Apparently it's really easy to get in magazines there because I've heard from many sources that it's a good place to get some tears for your book. (Tears are pages from magazines you are in. Like they've been torn out to put in your book, see?) ...speaking of magazines, they pulled out the latest issue of DNR magazine at the agency and showed me that I had a photo featured again! I was in the magazine back in June for another job I worked, but it was cool to see myself there again. It's fun to be able to walk into a magazine shop and turn to a page and find yourself! The story was a recap of some of the shows from fashion week and they included a picture from the Antonio Azzuolo show I was fortunate enough to participate in. I was too cheap to buy the magazine so I took it into a corner of the shop and took a photo with my camera.

The other thing I did at the agency was ask about my hair. I was thinking I needed a trim because it's been over a month since I've gotten it cut. It was decided for me that I need a new hairstyle entirely. One of agents said it "looks like I've had hair plugs or something," which I believe is not a good look for me. I currently have my hair kind of slicked back, but they want me to get it shorter on the sides and have it hang messier across the front. It sounds like what I'd pick for myself so I'm happy. I get it cut tomorrow and I'll be sure to post before & after photos. I'm a big fan of before and after photos, as evidenced by my other blog, so I'll try to include them whenever possible.

After leaving the agency, I decided to bum around and go shopping/browsing for a while since I didn't have to work today. I was walking past Grace Church in NoHo (from 2 posts ago) and I remembered that Wednesdays they have "Bach at Noon" so I stopped in for a half hour of Bach music on the pipe organ. It was really nice. Here are some photos from the inside of the church.

Here is the front of the nave with the altar and gigantic stained glass window: Here's a shot of the back with the rose window and pipe organ
To get a good shot of the ceiling I had to turn off the flash. Take a look at that groin vaulting! No giggles now, that's the proper term for the vaults.

On the way home I sat in Madison Square Park and did some sudoku next to the reflecting pool. I decided to come back home to take a nap and got back to the apartment just as it started to rain. Perfect timing!

Thanks to: Ikea & FDNY. No Thanks to: Apartment Mgt.

Yesterday (Monday) started off as a good enough day. My roommate and I took a little trip to the Ikea out in Brooklyn to pick up some cheap stuff for our rooms. I'm pretty excited about the stuff I snagged, it but I'll wait until I get it all put in place before sharing. Quick side-note: the Ikea has a shuttle bus that takes you from the subway stop to their front door! It was amazing! The bus was basically a coach bus that had reclining seats and a radio that was playing ridiculous 80's and 90's music. I'm sure the few other people on that bus must have thought we were crazy because we started singing along and laughing hysterically. I suppose you had to be there...

On the way home he informs me that it is Rosh Hashana and, even though nobody in our apartment is Jewish, we decided to celebrate. I guess it is tradition to celebrate by eating apples with honey. He looked up a recipe online for baked apples and, after a quick trip to the grocery store, this is what he came up with:...and after a little baking:
(btw those are not my horrible cut-offs. That would be of my equally-as-skinny roommate.)
They were pretty good.

We had a friend who is a model with my roommate's agency over and we stayed up pretty late hanging out. By the time he went home and I had gotten ready for bed it was about 4am or so. I was actually reading some of the blogs I follow when around 5am I started smelling something. Smelled like smoke. I looked out the window in my room into the air shaft and to my surprise the whole airshaft was filled with grey smoke. I started getting out of bed and *bang* it sounded like a machine exploded or something. The smoke in the airshaft turned dark black and I started scrambling for the things I wanted to run out of the building with. I grabbed my computer, cell phone, camera, modeling portfolio (I paid a lot for those pics!) and ran out into the hallway. I was met by a roommate who shared my idea of a hasty exit. We knocked on everyone's doors and went down to the street where a lot of our neighbors were gathered around. There were firetrucks everywhere and we stood there for a little over two hours while they drug hoses into the building and broke out windows. Here's a video of the scene.


The fire apparently started from the laundromat on the first floor and went up through the walls into the apartment on the second floor just above the portico entrance on the side of the building. There was some fire damage in the apartment above it on the third floor as well. These apartments are across the air shaft from my window and when the firemen broke the windows out into the airshaft a huge cloud of black smoke and smoldering embers flew up into the sky. I caught a little of the smoke in this horribly blurry photo. One of my roommates didn't leave as quickly as I did (I went straight for the street, I don't mess around!) but on the way out looked through the window and saw flames coming up the airshaft. Not cool! After the fire fighters got everything contained we were allowed back into our building. It was surreal, like out of a movie, when we quietly walked single file back up the stairs to our apartments. The floors were wet and dirty and the walls were covered with soot. It was eerie. I took some photos of the air shaft from our apartment. The windows were broken out on the second and third floor. The guy in the third floor window was leaning out to take a photo of the second floor apartment which was pretty much destroyed. Sidenote #2: Don't I have a nice view out of my bedroom window? This photo was taken out of the bathroom window. My window is about four feet to the right and half-obstructed by that metal laundromat ventilation duct. Sweet huh?

On my way to work this afternoon I took a photo of the front door of the second floor apartment where the fire was the worst. I didn't want to go inside just in case someone was there, but I got a feel for how bad it was just from looking into the doorway.
Fortunately nobody was injured and the fire was stopped before reaching our floor and before serious damage to the building occurred. A big thank-you is owed to the FDNY for their quick response!

Really, I'm unhappy with the building management at this point because I found out today that nine years ago there was a large fire that destroyed the seventh floor of the building. When they renovated the building they didn't upgrade the 100 year old wiring. Also, the building management had padlocked the door to the roof which is a no-no for fire safety. We have yet to have our gas turned back on and we still don't have hot water. I understand that there will need to be some checks here and there, but I seriously want to be able to cook and take a hot shower tomorrow. Hop to it guys. Chop-chop!

Fall's Coming! Yes!

Today was a great day. I didn't have any castings and I didn't have to work which left me to roam around the city. This week has seen the first real inklings of fall and I really couldn't be more excited. The temperature has started to drop from the unbearable 90's I've had to endure the last couple months and the cool breeze is feeling great. I had to run an errand down in the West Village so after sleeping in to a ridiculous hour in the afternoon, I hopped on a train and went downtown.

I wandered around, stopping in little shops and high-end clothing boutiques. I wore a sweater today for the first time since I was in Fargo. I was talking with my friend today who lives in Phoenix about the weather and she was pretty jealous. Apparently Phoenix doesn't have seasons. She wanted to live vicariously through me, so she wanted a picture of me enjoying the fall. This is what I got:
That's the pumpkin spice latte Starbucks just got back again. Can't get much more 'fall' than that, huh? After finishing my latte I did a couple sudoku puzzles and called a couple friends back in Fargo to catch up.

A great day!

...now for a couple photos. I took these back on September 11th on the way to the train from work. This is Grace Church on Broadway. The church was built in 1843 in the Gothic Revival style and is open to the public for a while every day. Sometimes I'll duck in there on my way to work and say a little prayer or two. It's a nice place to relax and have some quiet in a busy city. It was cloudy that night and the moon looked pretty cool. I was really glad I had my camera!
This second photo was taken looking toward ground zero from Union Square. I had seen those lights on TV before, but it's such a different experience seeing them from within the city. It was strange to be standing somewhere I am all the time in the city, then realizing that pre-2001 there would have been those towers in the skyline. Whoever thought of those lights was a genius. For a person who had never been to NYC before 9-11-01 and had never seen the buildings in person, it brought a reality that I never felt seeing images on TV.
So, why are all of these photos blurry? I didn't use a flash. My bad.

Welcome to my Blog!

Greetings, and welcome to my new blog. My name is Nathan. Have a seat and stay a while!

For the last year I wrote a blog documenting the process of purchasing, rehabbing, and ultimately selling an eighty year old house in Fargo, ND. As that blog comes to an end with the house's sale lurking in the distance (hopefully not too far) I decided to start a new blog about my life in New York. Just in case anyone is interested. If anything, this will force me to do more interesting things with my time!

Just as a little background to get the story started I'll try to wrap up the last 20ish years in one paragraph. Here we go! I was raised in a small town of about 9,000 people in Southeastern North Dakota. I have an amazing, loving family consisting of three sisters, one brother, and two of the most supportive parents I could imagine. Seriously, Dad and Mom were ok with me dropping everything to chase some wild dream halfway across the country. How cool are they? Back to the story... I graduated from high school, and was attending North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND for Architecture.

...this is where the story turns from the average North Dakota tale...

In March, on spring break, I flew on a whim to New York City. I met with a few modeling agencies, even though I had no experience modeling, and was offered a contract by one of the top agencies in New York! I flew back to Fargo to finish out the semester in school, then moved out to New York to pursue a fashion modeling career. Woah!

Since May, I've been trying to break into the modeling industry which has been more challenging then I had imagined it would be. I've booked a couple jobs so far, but my portfolio is still fairly empty. I've been working part time at a retail store and working as a waiter for a catering company just to make ends meet (or as close as I can at this point) and pay those bills. Things are moving in the right direction though and from the feedback I've been given I'm optimistic about finding my niche in the international fashion modeling industry.

I carry a camera with me every day and stop randomly to take photos. I'm going to force you to view my random 'kodak moments' because I think they're pretty cool. If you don't think so, feel free to scroll down or click that little red 'x' in the upper right hand corner.

New York truly is the city that never sleeps and something interesting or noteworthy is always going on. It is so different from North Dakota and I'm surprised or inspired by something new every day. The city is so dynamic that I'm sure there will always be something interesting for me to share. The people are from all walks of life, the buildings are an architectural addict's dream, and there are little quirks everywhere that make New York what it is. Lots of photos to be taken here!

Well, that should cover it. Past history, present circumstances, and premise for the blog.

Here's a photo just to get things going. The photo was taken in Bryant Park a couple weeks before the tents went up for Fashion Week. The grass is pretty much trashed now. The uber-bright building in the distance is the Empire State Building, my favorite building in the city. The building closest is the Bryant Park Hotel. In real life you can see the top of the Empire State Building flashing from the tourists at the top taking photos. It's pretty cool.