HellaFrank

Last week was the first ever Internet Week in New York (and maybe anywhere?). Everyday had a slew of events from EconAds to the Applied Cryptography and Network Security Conference. It was a celebration of the Internet for the New York tech community in a sort of open-source, create-your-own-events format.

This event made it clear that New York is serious about becoming the “global technology hub” that mayor Bloomberg suggests. In fact, in a press conference to kick off Internet Week, Bloomberg announced NYC Seed, a $2 million fund for early stage technology companies. Granted, that’s not a lot of money, especially with the cost of operating a business in New York, but it’s a start and companies also receive advice and guidance from the fund’s members as they build their company. Any buy-in from the city is a good thing, and if that $2 million goes to good use, NYC Seed would definitely see a re-up in the near future.

Taking a seed-funding approach is appropriate for the state of the New York tech industry since many of the companies based here seem to be in much earlier stages than their counterparts on the West Coast. Also, I’d imagine that quite a few talented developers and less-experienced entrepreneurs may not have the relationships with wealthy individuals and VCs to raise a first round of funding they need to get their businesses off the ground. NYC Seed should give them easier and less relationship-based access to that kind of money and knowledge.

Overall it was a great week of events, and even culminated in an Internet Week “old media vs. new media” feud that made it onto Page Six! I guess Amy Winehouse took the week off.

Also posted on LaunchSquad’s Exclamation Blog

I missed you guys. Seriously, I did.

Today was the first real day of regular season major league baseball and whether the Cubs won or lost, opening day has always been a pretty exciting and hopeful day for me. Why? Well, this time of year the Cubs generally aren’t out of the playoffs yet, this year it’s a sign that warm weather is almost upon us (in my younger years, it meant school was coming to an end… Definitely no warm weather in San Francisco though), and somewhere in the April/May timeframe you can start a golf round at 4:00pm and still get 18 holes in.

So I figured that today would be most appropriate to officially announce that HellaFrank is back and excited to bring you some new and improved regular programming.

The initial idea behind HellaFrank was to document my move out to New York. It was fun and from what readers told me, entertaining to at least three of you (not including my parents, of course!).

Now, I’m shifting the focus to things I like writing about and feel are topics with which I have some level of expertise and passion. I love sports, but so do 100,000 other bloggers. I like technology, but so do a million other bloggers. I also love New York and plenty of people write about this amazing city on a regular basis.

What I’m getting at is HellaFrank will sit at the center of all three of these passions of mine. HellaFrank is the intersection of sports, technology and New York life… I will write about each of these topics and the convergence of them when possible. I’m excited to get rolling again and I hope that all of you will continue to read and comment and tell your friends!

So, what do you need to do to stay up to date on HellaFrank? Tattoo it on your arm, bookmark this page or subscribe to the RSS feed (the big red button on the right), but whatever you do, visit early and visit often — you won’t want to miss a post………

Well, sorta. Last week, LaunchSquad had its end of the year meeting and party and I put together a little video tour of the New York office with the office boss, Gavin. Check it out:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YBO7SUwvDU&rel=1]

Wow, October 12 was my last blogpost, terrible. My apologies to those loyal HellaFrank readers. I spent this last weekend in Madison for a party a client was having. I went to a Badgers football game against Michigan — unbelievable football fans who know their football. They were getting upset about the backfield formations and offensive linemen forgetting to shift on an end-around… WHAT?!?! I thought I knew a lot about football, but this humbled me. Look at all the red, it’s insane! Literally every person wore red, it was awesome. Yet another experience that made we wish I went to a real college. Go UCSD surf team!

Some very important people came to New York this weekend… the 49ers, my friend Jared from San Francisco and my cousin Marc. I thought we should all get together at some point, so we decided to go to the 49ers game against the New York Giants.

It was fun to go to a new stadium and see New York sports fans at their finest. There was a guy in front of me that was literally pulling up the leg on his shorts, stomping his foot and squealing like a pig when the Giants returned a fumble for 72 yards. I wish I had video, because nothing I can write can do this guy justice.

Here’s a picture of me and Jared. If you look really closely in the background you can see the embarrassing score. As you may be able to tell, we may have had a drink or two too many last night:

Oh, where to begin. How about I start with my birthday. It started off with a few hours of work and then walking around and exploring this amazing city with my roommate, Ari, and my friend Nic who was visiting for the weekend. Dinner at Cafe Mogador, really good, then the fun and sometimes dangerous birthday night out… I had a few drinks, a couple shots, yadda yadda yadda, we went to central park the next day.

Central Park is incredible. Hard to believe you’re really in New York, and lacks the weird homeless people sleeping in the bushes that we know and love in Golden Gate Park. Oh, and dogs aren’t allowed to crap everywhere.

Saturday night, more of the same, and Sunday consisted of a nice stroll over the Brooklyn Bridge with Chaya, Sam and Nic. I can’t say I was to excited about that activity of the day initially, but once we were there, it was awesome:

The weekend ended with a horrible 49ers game, horrible, and a little Curb Your Enthusiasm, but what I have failed to mention is the highlight of the weekend. Birthday? Fun, but not the highlight. Hanging out with a bunch of close friends? Fun, nostalgic, but sorry guys, not the highlight. Chicken and lamb over rice at 3:30 in the morning Saturday night or the unbelievable French toast I had this morning? Delicious, but again, not the highlight.

Well, I know the suspense is killing you, so I’ll come out and say it. The highlight of my birthday weekend was the CUBS MAKING THE PLAYOFFS!!! Nothing like a little October baseball… You gotta love it!

Alfonso and Carlos:

Another story from Yom Kippur that I thought I’d share is called the Jewish Beer Dilemma.

After services, my friend Chaya and I went to a friend’s house to waste away some hungry time. Flipping through the channels on TV, the best we could come up with was a Yankees rain delay and some really awful college football matchups (Cubs were on but no FREAKIN’ WGN!).

We settled on the best game we could find - Louisville vs. Syracuse. Riveting. Actually it wasn’t, and Chaya and I resorted to betting on trivial aspects of the game for a dollar each. Examples were “hey Chaya, this kickoff will be caught within the ten yard line, yes or no?” or “hey Jeremy, there will be a running play in the next three plays, yes or no?” Ridiculous. Gambling, essentially. Exactly the kind of activity us Jews are supposed to be doing on our day of repentance… Right.

We then left the house, Chaya up five bucks, and both of us starting to feel a little delirious — destination: Professor Thom’s for the Michigan football game. Then came the big dilemma…

As the game rolled into the third quarter, the bar became excessively hot and the bartender made an announcement that the A/C had shut down. It was uncomfortable but I was too hungry to move, so we stayed, surrounded by crispy amazing fried treats and massive nacho plates.

The bartender came to our table, apologized for the heat and in what seemed like slow motion, delicately placed a frosty, tall, glowing pitcher of beer on our table. Wow, exactly what I wanted at that specific point in time. Exactly. What ever was a young Jew like myself to do? On the one hand we are taught that Yom Kippur is the holiest holiday, fasting is very important and to respect the tradition. Couldn’t agree more. On the other hand, if we’re talking tradition, how many Jewish people’s parents, grandparents and probably great-grandparents would ever turn down a great deal like that?!?!? Yeah, that tradition goes pretty far back for all of us I think.

Well, Mom, I’m proud to say that I stared that pitcher square in the eyes and generously passed it along to the goyim sitting with us (besides, I think it was Bud Light).

In the back of my mind, I wished I could have watched this dilemma as an outsider, leaned over the Chaya and said: “Double or nothing Jeremy doesn’t cave and drink the beer.” Instead I bought him half of his meal later that night (see: Break-fast at Katz’s)

Yesterday was Yom Kippur and after a long day of fasting and watching Michigan football, I thought I’d end the fast in style. A couple of friends and I went to Katz’s deli (since 1888!) and had an amazing meal. Overall we ate knishes, potato pancakes, blintzes, lox, bagels, egg creams and an amazing piece of cheesecake. It hurt a little, um, a lot, but it was well worth it. I think I want to try their hot dogs next time - seemed like hot item. Here’s my pastrami sandwich and egg cream (FYI, there are no eggs in an egg cream):

Apparently if you ask for mayonnaise you get smacked upside the head. Look at how thick that pastrami is… Phenomenal.

I also just tried via phone and internet to get Cubs playoff tickets, which went on sale today — no luck. But, I guess we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves since there are seven games left in the season. Cubs are 2.5 games up in first place, but weirder things have happened to those lovable WINNERS!

THE MAN!

Last night I went to the launch part of Barely Political’s newest video “I Like A Boy” sponsored by them and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA). Barely Political is a LaunchSquad client and the brains behind “I Got a Crush on Obama,” “Debate ‘08” and the Romney Girls. It’s all really great stuff, I recommend you watch them if you haven’t already.

Pretty soon after getting to the party, my friend Chaya and I met Bubbles, Andre Royo, from The Wire!! Pretty good start to the night, eh? The Wire is one of my favorite shows (tied with Lost and any Cubs game, I think) and Bubs was the coolest guy, super friendly and we talked about the show and other actors. Next time you see me, I can tell you some interesting tidbits about the cast. He was with his friend Craig “muMs” Grant who has also done some cool acting and writing. And YOU KNOW I took a picture with them!

They are in a play together at the Public Theater here in New York called “A View From 151st Street” and please believe I will go see it. There are a couple of other Wire actors in it and from what they said, it sounds really great. Toward the end of the party, Andre and muMs came and found me and Chaya to say nice to meet you and goodbye — how cool is that?!?! That would have been enough for one evening, but there was still a party going on.

Almost everyone from past and present Barely Political videos was there (I didn’t see Giuliani girl) including Ben Rellis, the creator of Barely Political:

And of course, Obama Girl:

Leah Kauffman (#66), the behind the scenes singer who performed all of the songs live at the party:

… and the Romney Girls who are the sweetest nicest girls. Triplets! I think they were half Chaya’s height.

Unfortunately, Mims, (This is Why I’m Hot rapper) who is featured in the new video was nowhere to be seen.

It was a fun party, and meeting Bubs and muMs was awesome. The open bar may have had something to do with how fun it was, but I’m proud to say it didn’t get the best of me. As for my friend Chaya, I can’t say the same, but the falafel we had after in Union Square (the NY one!) had a bit of a sobering effect… I think.

The Barely Political Cast and Crew

And the lastest video

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFnzbjftMwc]