The End of Movember, the End of the Journey

I'm sad to say it, but Movember is finished. All in all, I raised $225 to help raise awareness for men's health issues. And because I raised over $200, I was able to attend, for free, the prestigious Mo Gala at the Capitale in Manhattan. As mentioned earlier, Jill's had some health issues in her family that made it impossible for her to attend. But our good friend Jackie filled in admirably. The event was a big dance party, and we had a lot of fun. We were a bit miffed by the outrageous drink prices (seriously, $10 for wine and champagne? $9 for beer? $6 for water? Please . . .), but that was somewhat ameliorated by a sweet goody bag, which included a Norelco razor! Sadly, I did not win any of the awards (best Mo, best costume, etc.), but come on, look at these pictures -- do you think anyone there looked better than me?








So now that Movember is over, I've shaved off the Mo -- although it was a lot of fun, I really think I'm more of a beard man. I've gone completely clean shaven, and I'm now rebuilding the beard from the ground up. Check the Mo-less Niko:



Once again, a huge thank you to everyone who contributed money to my Mo fund. Words can't express my gratitude.

Now that we're back in New York, I think that will just about do it for this blog. I'm going to keep on blogging over at my site, scream|whisper|shout|stutter (http://nikotaylor.vox.com/), and you can keep tabs on Jillian's music over at http://myspace.com/jillianlubow and http://jillianlubow.vox.com/. Thanks for reading -- it's been a lot of fun. Now that we're back in New York, however, you can see us in person, so pick up the phone and call us!

Update on Niko's Mo/Back in NY

So, I'm very happy to report that Niko's Mo fund continues to roll along. I've received another donation, which brings my fund-raising total to $225.00! I can't believe I've raised this much money. Thank you all for your support.

And, as always, with a donation comes a Mo update. Here's the mustache's current state:



I'm also excited to report that the big Mo Gala is this Tuesday evening in Manhattan. Jill's go some health issues in her family at the moment, so she won't be able to come along -- but our great friend Jackie has kindly offered to be my date. I'll be sure to post here about the evening, along with pictures -- I'm sure there will be some interesting and bizarre mustaches to be seen!

Last, but certainly not least, we're back in New York! Honestly, we've been so busy that we haven't even had time to process the fact that we're back: there's been preparing for traveling, traveling, Thanksgiving, catching up with family members, finding a place to stay (our Brooklyn apartment will be occupied until December 22 by our subletters) -- it's been a whirlwind few days. I think once all this craziness dies down and we're back in Brooklyn, in our apartment, with all our stuff, maybe having just seen our friends in our dear city -- maybe then we can sit back and say, Wow, we were in California! And now we're back! Wasn't that awesome?!? Until then, however, we're just getting by.

I'm going to keep posting here with the final Movember updates (and maybe one last round of San Francisco pictures), but after that, I'll be switching gears, focusing on my newly revamped blog (and music site), http://nikotaylor.vox.com/. If you're interested in following my musings, follow me over there!

And the donations keep rolling in . . .

I cannot believe the generosity of all the wonderful people in my life. With the latest donation, we are now up to $220! I know it's not a huge amount of money, but come on: it's $220 going toward efforts to promote men's health issues that wasn't there before. And that's all because of YOU! Way to go!

So here goes the Mo. By the way, also check my swanky Bumble & Bumble haircut. This is by far the nicest haircut I've ever gotten -- they even used a razor to eat into the daunting thickness of my inky mane!

My new camera!

My dear Jillian was kind enough to give me my Christmas gift early: the totally rockin' Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTI. Yes, that's right, no more point and shoot for Niko: this is a man's camera, baby!

I've still got a ton to learn, but here were some of the shots I was happy with on my first day of playing around with it. Enjoy!

Wave Organ

From Wikipedia:



The other weekend, Jill and I had the pleasure of visiting this very interesting art installation. It's located in such a beautiful spot: on the northern edge of the city, you're standing right on the water with EVERYTHING in front of you -- the Golden Gate, the bay, Alcatraz, everything! So, of course, we had to take a picture:



And, of course, Niko had to take a dip in the water:



One thing I can tell you about the San Francisco Bay in November is that it is damn cold.

But anyway, I digress. The Wave Organ. So it's this weird stone structure at the end of this long strip of land jutting into the bay. It's so jagged and rocky that it almost looks ancient. So, of course, Niko had to take a picture (do you a theme developing here?):



There's all there are all these strange-looking tubes poking out from the ground, and when you stick your ear up close to one of them, you can can hear the sound of the water sloshing around below your feet. Very cool. So, of course, Niko had to take some video to capture the experience. Enjoy!

My favorite place in San Fran

Golden Gate Bridge? Nah. Presidio? Please. Embarcadero? Eh, maybe. Really, there's only one choice: Amoeba Music, the world's best record store. Located in the Haight, Amoeba is the music store to end all music store. Their selection is HUGE, especially in terms of used stuff. And the store is enormous, well organized, and just, in every possible way, a music aficionado's dream come true.

I mean, they've got listening stations where you can scan in any title and listen to the whole album right there. And did I mention the prices? How about almost any used CD from the Elvis Costello back catalog for $4.99? Or a whole other cornucopia of great stuff for not much more?

About a week ago, I had the great pleasure of spending about three hours wandering around this enormous musical treasure trove. I picked up a grocery-store-style basket and filled it up with stuff, listened to samples, rethought my choices, put stuff back, grabbed more stuff, discovered things I didn't know wanted, remembered things I forgot I wanted -- oh my goodness, I was in heaven. The most I paid? $9.99 for a brand-new copy of Tom Waits's excellent Frank's Wild Years. Not too bad at all!

Seriously, this will be the thing I miss most about SF. Well, this and burritos!

Anyway, check out my haul from my last visit to Amoeba is quite some time. :-(

We've reached $200!

Thanks so much -- we've reached our goal of $200! Our friend Marissa's kind donation put us over the top, and now Jill gets to go to the swanky Mo gala party with me for free. Woo hoo! It's being held at the end of the month at the Capitale. Apparently this is some very fancy place: their tag line is "Elegance Redefined." Well, wait to we get through those doors -- they won't know what to do with our un-refined asses! But, really, thank you all for your contributions. It is really gratifying to raise all this money for a good cause.

And, just so you know that I'm keeping up my end of the bargain, here's the latest mustache shot: