This great designer & illustrator hailing from Ohio guest blogs up a recent trip to NYC for a show @Skylight Studios as part of Want2bsquare.
Besides hailing from the same city as me, Toledo, UPSO is a designer and artist who's got some serious accomplishments. He hardly needs an introduction, but let's quickly cover some of his stats: He publishes the highly amazing arts magazine Faesthetic, he does brilliant illustrations and design work with his wife for companies & magazines like XLR8R, Atlantic Records, Computer Arts, Flaunt, Anthem, The Drama, and many others under the umbrella Sans Nom (they're problem solvers!)... He's shown his work all over the world and is just a great guy. So we were very pleased when he agreed to guest blog up his recent show in NYC. Below are his words and photos. -Trippe

our trip to NYC for the scion want2bsquare show started out pretty bad. somehow we misread our travel itinerary, and showed up to the airport a day late. luckily we got on another flight, but unfortunatly when we arrived in NYC our hotel room had been given away, and we had to wait around a few hours for it to be sorted out. we were stressed, and ended up going to PASTIS across the street. it was there i had an amazing tuna sandwich.

after we got to our hotel, we went over to Skylight Studios, where the show was happening. scion had a camera crew come out and interview all of the artists before the show started. this is what i saw.

they had Dr. REVOLT interview us. he was super cool. he claims to always have sunglasses on him, because you never know when you may be out partying all night, and need them on your walk home in the morning.

so the show's theme was boxes/cubes/squares, and scion had us make all of these square pieces of art, that they built cubes out of. they were suspended from the ceiling, and in the case of the bigger cubes, they encouraged you to stick your head inside. this is a peak inside of MATZU's cube. he was a super nice feller.

they also had a cool little photo booth set up. you climed up into a box that was full of mirrors, and it took your pictures. this is me.

the first night was a media preview night, which was pretty chill. dalek (foreground) and i took a cab over to 555soul, where mike giant was having a lil opening. he had painted the walls, and there were a bunch of people out to see him. we arrived right at the end, when everyone was pouring out.

this girl was telling mike how she aspired to look like the girls he draws. ps: mike is the nicest man on earth. it was great to see him again.

mike and dalek went off to dinner, so i took a cab back to the scion event at skylight just as things were winding down. our buddies Andrew Andrew were there, and here they are seen talking to Evan C. He got the art together for the show, and also runs the Lab101 gallery with his wife Freddi C in culver city. Good people all around.

Andrew Andrew convinced me and Jemma to come out to Brooklyn, and check out a band called lesbians on ecstasy at studio b. it was weird, and wicked, at the same time. there were topless women with moustaches dancing everywhere. casey spooner from fischerspooner was there... i wanted to say hi but i chickend out. we then took a hellish cab ride back into the city.

we went back to pastis (because it was so great at lunch) and had a late night meal. great way to end the day.

next morning we headed out for a late bruch at spring natural. we always end up there, every time we're in the city. i think jemma used to eat there a lot when she lived in brooklyn.

much much much needed espresso. i foolishly sweetend it with stevia, and was reminded how wretched it tastes.

we headed over to uniqlo, which was pretty much the most overwhelming store ive ever been in.

mountains of denim.

i know its childish to point out, but that mannequin in the blue had the biggest mannequin boobs ive ever seen.

back to lightbox studio for the party. people in new york wear much brighter colors than we do in ohio.

heres a view inside my big box. it was rad seeing people standing inside.

the infamous cobra snake and corey kennedy stopped by. i've been talking to this dude for years via email, so it was great to see him in real life. he looks just like all the pictures he takes of himself.

here i am, looking quite haggard with sage vaughn. one of the weird things about this show was none of the artists were officially introduced to each other, so i made a point of grabbing people when i realized who they were. sage was on his way out for the night when i caught him. my friend geoff lillemon is in the background talking to jemma.

we ended the night by bar hopping a million times. got a chance to see a bunch of friends, and catch up with everyone. bars in ohio close at 2.30 but bars in new york close at 4, allowing for an extra hour and a half of beer. here we see geoff again, and one of his partners in crime matthew poitras. matthew is a character... the first story he told me that night was how he rubs cd-roms on his penis to update his website.