the pod hotel

i stayed in the pod hotel in manhattan.

it's a very cool hotel. it's got a lot of style and also it's as cheap as you like.

this is the inside of the lifts. it always made me feel like falling over.

it was hard to see the corners of the lift... quite an optical illusion.

this is the inside of my pod.

i can best describe it as being like a luxury prison cell. it was tiny, but it had everything

you need in a room. the eames chair and patterned bed cover / cushions were a nice touch.

it had a plasma screen tv, wi-fi, safe, loads of storage space. 

yes, i'd definitely recommend it.

www.thepodhotel.com

young me, now me.

there's a great little website to look at while you're having a cup of coffee

( or tea, if you must )

www.zefrank.com/youngmenowme/blog/

it's just people recreating photos from when they were younger...

there are some really good efforts on there.

anyway, i have an old photo of me as a nipper holding on to my teddy bear

and i still have my teddy bear... so...

here's me and little ted today

hmmm...

times square in the early hours

my first night's sleep in new york wasn't that clever.

i woke up at 3.30am wide awake.

i decided that i'd go for a walk to times square and take a self-portrait.

i posted this last week but here it is again...

i also took a few shots of times square while it was empty

bless him... look at the security guard in the middle of the photo.

his job ? to keep people off the illuminated red steps behind him.

i didn't venture onto the steps but it wouldn't have been difficult

hmmm... at least somebody was having no problem sleeping.

it was about 4am. it was absolutely freezing cold. as you can see from my

self-portrait, i had a woolly hat, gloves and many layers on. the snoozing security guard

was also well protected against the bitter cold.

however, not everybody walking around at 4am was that well wrapped up...

ay carumba !

new york knish

the first thing i did after checking into my hotel last week was to head

out to the east village and visit yonah schimmel's knishery.

i ordered up a jalepeño and mozzerella knish...

pure genius !

this is the view from my table

the bloke sitting two tables infront of me was telling his daughter all about the history

of the place. it was very interesting indeed.

the wall to my left was full of letters of thanks from celebrities ( including jamie oliver )

and photos of famous people visiting and eating here.

it seems that larry david and woody allen are regulars... fantastic !

www.knishery.com

next time you go to new york, seriously... go to this place.

only in america !

while searching for a coffee in new york last week i found a cafe 

advertising these hot beverages...

... er, no thanks

hp7

remember maybe 10 years ago when the first harry potter book came out in america ?

they couldn't handle the original title

"harry potter and the philosopher's stone" 

so they changed it to

"harry potter and the sorcerer's stone"

well it seems that they are not too keen on the latest film title either...

in the uk the posters show the full title

harry potter and the deathly hallows ( part 1 )

and here are a couple of posters i spotted in new york last week...

hmmm... it seems that over there they prefer to call it hp7

it sounds more like a computer program than a film.

( i was going to say computer programme but i just discovered that when referring to computing, the correct english spelling is program )

... er anyway... hp7 indeed !

sketch pop-up cafe

i had a shoot at the royal academy yesterday.

( sketch is opening up a pop-up cafe there next week )

as you would expect, i managed to knock out a self-portrait.

here's all you need to know:

it was shot on a leica m9 with a 21mm lens.

mr whitfield is wearing a jacket by maharishi, trousers by marc jacobs and nike yeezys.