Sachin Agarwal: September 2007

Earlier this month I went to Amsterdam for IBC, the large broadcasters conference in Europe. The week basically consisted of being on the show floor all day, and then going out for dinner and drinks every night. I didn't get any time to explore Amsterdam, but that's fine since I've been twice before.

Highlights include:
The random student club we found one night
Hanging out with Garry Tan and his brother James
James's first drunk experience

The food highlight was an amazing 5 course dinner at a restaurant called Envy. The courses were broken down as appetizers, seafood, meat, cheese, dessert. So each course was a variety of items, not just one small piece. Each item was perfectly prepared, a small portion to savor. We did wine pairings which were also very generous. Highly recommended.

As for the conference itself: it was great. Talked to some really interesting people who had good comments and feedback for our prodicts. Overall the people here were more knowledgeable than those who go to NAB in Vegas. And no surprise, the RED camera stole the show. Luckily FCP natively edits RED footage so people were psyched about using FCP, some for the very first time.

Didn't get a chance to take too many city photos but here are some highlights.

Click here for all IBC pictures.

I don't cook at all in New York. But i still try to find low cost *healthy* food to eat day to day. Food that is high in protein, low fat, not greasy, etc. Gotta save the carb calories for beer.

Everyone at my gym always raves about Eva's, a healthy food shop. I pretty much ignore them once i hear "health food". But tonight I got delivery from them and it was amazing.

It's exactly what I want to eat on a nightly basis. Chicken breast in an awesome, spicy sauce over brown rice. The menu is huge so I probably won't get bored of it. And since it's a health food restaurant, you know it's cooked in little to no oil without any bad additives.

This was awesome, and only like $10:

Chicken Coop - Grilled Chicken Breast with Tomatoes, Cucumbers, and Onions Baked with Tahini and Soy Sauce and served over Brown Rice, Can Be made Spicy If You Request

Highly recommended. They are on Seamless Web for delivery

Cooper Hotel at night. They started putting the glass on it. As bad as
this looks in the east village, I kind of like it.

Cyndee brought me this scroll from china. It's amazing. Thanks, Cyndee!!!

Tonight I went to the premiere of the movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Overall it was a good movie. It was a bit slow and repetitive, and I had trouble keeping track of who was related to who and who killed who. But otherwise it's beautifully shot, a great story, and Casey Affleck gives an INCREDIBLE performance.

Before the screening it was a total red carpet event. Well, we didn't get to walk on the red carpet but others did, with tons of paparazzi snapping photos. I was able to see Angelina Jolie over a crowd of people, and got a pretty direct shot of Brad Pitt. I've loved Brad Pitt ever since he did Seven and Fight Club. Oh, and that AWESOME episode of Friends he's in when they bring up the "I hate Rachel Green Club"

Photos

I uploaded a bunch of new photos from the past couple months. Click here to see them all

Gary's 27th bday- Had a group of 20 people on a booze cruise. Tons of fun.

US Open 2007- Went for opening night and saw both Williams sisters. Also went the second Tuesday for the entire day and night sessions (over 13 hours) and saw many great matches. It's amazing that in NYC you can jump on a train and get dropped off right in front of the US Open, Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, etc. So convenient and awesome. Yay for well designed cities.

Other NY pictures- Other photos of NY

I'm back in New York after a week in Amstedam for IBC (video conference). It was a fun week full of drinking, conferencing, and more drinking. Six straight 4am nights of partying might be a bit too much. Luckily drinking Heineken doesn't give you hangovers. (Been drinking tons of Heineken recently because of the new mini kegs, US Open, and then IBC. It really isn't so bad when not from a bottle or can)

I got back to my apartment to find the water was shut off in the bathroom. They are renovating the apartment next door so they probably turned my water off by mistake. I ran to the property management office to report it. On the way back I ran into my UPS guy.

UPS guy: Did you just get back into town?
Sachin: Yeah I just got in today. Do you have something for me?
UPS: No
Sachin: So how did you know I was out of town?
UPS: Because I didn't get anything for you

It's nice to be back home in a familiar place :)

This is awesome. The next version of Mac OS X is resolution independent, and includes super high res icons for all the applications. This is the icon for TextEdit:



Here's a link to the original commercial

In other alcohol related news, Tanqueray is rolling out their Rangpur flavor nationwide! This gin is distilled with Rangpur limes from India and "goes with everything".

After a six month stint of Manhattans, I'm excited about switching back to a high quality gin and tonic. Hendrick's has been my favorite gin, but sounds like Tanqueray Rangpur is going to be up there.

I love Tanqueray's new marketing campaign: a character named Tony Sinclair who has dedicated his life to cocktail perfection. Just like me :)

Here's a 10 minute movie about his search for the Rangpur lime in India. You can find other hilarious commercials on youtube.