Lester Afflick was one of my best friends, and before his untimely and sudden death January 2000, I considered him my best friend. Lester was a poet, and while he seemed to live on the fringes of society, and on side jobs and family help, he was sought after by many for the parties and good times surrounding him.

It was weird how Lester Afflick passed on – he had a twin brother who lived in England who died the day before he did – he had been out, partying, as usual, right after the turn of the century and all of a sudden – he was found dead in his bed.

And I went to his funeral about a month later in Queens, and many people came to it, even on a cold, snowy February night – hundreds came.

I was at a reading tonight for I Dream About You Baby – Poems by Lester Afflick and I bought a copy – I also had dinner with a few friends; there were about 30 or more people who attended the reading tonight – here’s two videos I made from the Lester Afflick reading:

After leaving the reading I went to another parted on 5 Spring Street – for Wired Magazine – briefly connected with a few people at the party, and then left and came home, eager to blog about all of this.

I went over to the tail end of the Blurries event tonight because a friend of mine, Maurizio Fionda, asked me to and I had a good time – it’s part of Internet Week that’s just ending on Tuesday (today) and here’s a video I made for my friend, Maurizio, of the event.

I went to bed last night feeling that I wanted to scan and upload all my sketches from the last two weeks, but I only managed to put up 4 of them in Internet Week Drawings – plus a few more – part 1 and I could not get the rest up, too tired. Here they are:

I sketched a young musician on my way home one night recently, it was on the Subway, F line, was kinda surprised the musical instrument seemed to blend in with the backpack – spend about 20 minutes on it.

It was Friday night, not this week but the week before, and I went to pick up two new Sketchbooks at DaVinci Art Supply ( the sketchbooks I buy are called “hand.book journal co.” and are Acid Free – 128 pages each) – these are my favorite sketchpads and the only thing I buy now – I’d addicted to them and carry my black sketchbooks wherever I go).

Anyway, I had dinner at Markt on 21st street and was drawing the view outside, from a sidewalk table, and had tweeted about being at dinner and sketching – when in walks @fredrickGuarino to have a drink with me – which ended up taking about an hour and half more. I left Markt around 9PM and headed home, having left my credit card at the table and forgot about it – but the next day I realized what I had lost, called Markt up and they had my card, so I went back and picked it up.

Then I realized the symbolism of leaving the card probably had something to do with finally ending a friendship for someone who I often met at Markt – this had been going on for a while but it reached a resolution recently.

Meanwhile, I have been trying to avoid going to dark in these drawings, which I know I have a tendency to do.

And that last paragraph ties into my lunch at restaurant in Windsor Terrace last weekend and sketching the window view, from the inside.

I’ve become quite a fan of BAR TANO which is located near BAG and sketched the large indoor mirror yesterday along with two outside views from the sidewalk last week and a few weeks before. Here’s the large view I did yesterday – it’s on two pages and you have to click on it to see the enlarged view.

And here’s the rest of the drawings:

Another drawing on my way home one night, on the Subway, felt like drawing – needed to – but what was the subject – couldn’t find anything much so I drew my foot.

A similar drawing is the one below, which I drew someone who was asleep, but got up too soon (for my drawing, that is):

And then, the last drawing, for the purposes of this post, is below:

It has no title and no obvious subject – it’s just a feeling – a tough feeling – just wanted to express… not sure what – drawing from my emotions – while in transit – deciding where to stop and this is as good a place to both stop the drawing, and this post.

Been sketching a lot – and enjoying mixing in different pen work and pencils – though I do notice my drawings often get very dark, like this one that I did of a garden nearby from where I live in Brooklyn:

I worked hard to try to get the color of the paper drawing as exact to my notebook as I can, and often I compare the two as I’m editing the settings.

I also did this larger sketch today in a larger sketchbook I bought recently.

Lately, I’ve been aware that I don’t need to cover the entire drawing, that I can leave some things out (see below):

It’s just deciding when to stop.

I also did a quick drawing of a model who I liked today at Brooklyn Artist’s Gym (but it was too hot to work much):

I have more drawings to post, but I’m ready to collapse – been a long day, and a hot one as well.