Dean D'Agati (dotcom) > BLOG

Yeah I think I'm done with this blog.

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:45:15 -0500

It had a pretty good run.

I have lots of things to post about on here but the TSA broke my...

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:08:50 -0500

I have lots of things to post about on here but the TSA broke my laptop and I’ve been computerless for this whole week. It’s still at the Apple store as I type this from my iPhone. Gunna have to play post catch up whenever I get it back.

HEY. A couple minutes ago it was 11/11/11 11:11:11pm. It would have been cool if I put up this...

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:29:33 -0500

HEY.

A couple minutes ago it was 11/11/11 11:11:11pm.

It would have been cool if I put up this post right then, but I was too busy taking this screen shot on my phone:

It would have been worth it but the iPhone home screen has got to be the worst representation of 11/11/11 11:11:11pm of all time.

So with that giant let down, the second of 11:11:11 did not live up to the hype for me. Good luck to the other time zones.

COOPER CITY BEATS ST. THOMAS & WINS DISTRICT!!!

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:07:31 -0400

^That’s the story on the FRONT page of sun-sentinel.com — which just goes to show how huge this is. It’s higher than Andy Rooney dying and some big coke bust.

Cooper City High School is notoriously known for losing football games. We would always go to the games and the team always played hard, but wins were generally hard to come by. Last year they did great though, they won districts. And this year?

St. Thomas is ranked as the number 9 best high school football team in America. Not Broward, not Florida, but AMERICA. Every year, they slaughter the Coop on the football field, and as it says in that article, in the past four CC v. STA games alone, St. Thomas has outscored us 239-17.

This year Cooper City football is doing amazing. They’re undefeated with just one game left in the regular season, and last night they beat St. Thomas and won the district — the first time St. Thomas HASN’T won the district since 1996.

My Facebook news feed went crazy.

I mean, that’s how I and most of us found out about the win. And these weren’t just high school kids and creepy college kids who still talk about high school (like me), but like all the alumni all the way back through like 06 I saw, showing Cowboy spirit. It was really cool, and so good for the school/city. I wish I could have been there.

As James Pagano so elegantly puts it, “Damn St. Thomas sucks to suck… Beat by a white public school lmao.”

Now they’re going for Regional & State! Go Cowboys!

Watch the video on the Sun-Sentinel article, it’s awesome.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-cooper-city-defeats-st-thomas-aquinas-20111104,0,3724067.story

BriTANicK at the UCB!

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:45:55 -0400

On Friday night Erin and I when to see a live BriTANicK show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

The theater, which is this small, dark, underground, crappy sort of place, is actually really awesome and really popular. It was founded by Amy Poehler among with some other legit people who are part of the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy troupe.

The show was great too. Brian & Nick, the two guys of BriTANicK, are both NYU alums. They did some stand up, some improv, and previewed their upcoming new YouTube video (hilarious).

Anyway, they have a show every month, so Erin and I definitely want to go see another one.

WATCH BRITANICK VIDS:
http://www.youtube.com/BriTANicKdotcom
They’re all hilarious, forealz.

IT'S SNOWING IN OCTOBER?!

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 23:29:34 -0400

Hi.

It’s been like blizarding today. If someone could enlighten me as to wtf is going on that would be awesome.

The past few weeks we’ve had some really nice fall temps. It’s been in the 60’s, a few rainy days but mostly pretty nice. It’s been awesome! Then, all of the sudden it’s 35 and snowing. How is that even possible?? Usually it doesn’t start getting this cold until like December or even January.

Travis is here from Florida this weekend. And the second he stepped off the plane this morning, it started snowing. So obviously I blame him.

At the same time however, the Floridian in me is still pretty excited… until I try to go out in it.

Quality wireless service from AT&T.

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:34:44 -0400

Places in Manhattan where my AT&T cell phone doesn’t get service:

In large buildings.
In small buildings.
In medium sized buildings.
In all apartments.
In all classrooms.
In all offices.
On the street.
On the sidewalk.
In creepy alleys where you’d need to call 911 from when you’re getting murdered.
Underground.
In a car.
On a bridge.
Near advertisements that brag about AT&T’s superior coverage in New York.
Anywhere other people are.
Places where nobody else is.
Any and all bathrooms.
All sporting venues.
Anywhere north of Wall Street and south of 155th Street.
Outside of AT&T stores.

Places in Manhattan where my AT&T cell phone does get service:

Inside AT&T stores.
Inside of all “cell phone use prohibited” performance venues and movie theaters. (Jk those annoying texters probably have Verizon)
Florida.

PS. If you’re wondering what that picture is about, see this post.

Fall in New England & the shortest road trip ever!

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:07:00 -0400

My parents were up in Vermont visiting UVM for Parents Weekend, and I decided to drive up to see them and my sister (pictured). Problem is, I don’t get out of SNL until 1:30am on Saturday nights, and have to be back at SNL on Tuesdays at noon. So it had to be the shortest road trip ever.

Of the 36 hours this trip lasted, I spent 10 of them driving, 7 of them sleeping, and the remaining 19 actually there. And it was all totally worth it.

The last time I went to Burlington, VT, I flew there. It’s like a 40 minute flight from JFK, but getting to JFK takes like over an hour, then you have to deal with security, and waiting to board, and boarding, and waiting on the tarmac, and waiting to take off, and then landing but waiting to taxi to the gate, and then waiting for your bags, and then waiting to be picked up from the airport.

So I just wanted to drive.

Plus, I’ve never driven in the northeast before and it’s fall! So I rented a car and did it (because the whole “you have to be 25 to rent a car rule” doesn’t apply to New York for whatever reason).

Hey guys, there’s this place, it’s called Upstate New York. It’s BEAUTIFUL. You should check it out.

Seriously, the drive was amazing. On the way up I went through New Jersey, into upstate New York, and drove all the way up and then crossed over into Vermont. On the way back, I drove down through Vermont, through Massachusets and Connecticut, and then back into New York.

I also drove in Manhattan/Harlem/The Bronx for the first time which was crazy but exciting and not as scary as I thought it would be.

Anyway, the point of the story is that I can never drive in Florida again. I wish I could have taken pictures of the mountains and hills and leaves changing colors, but ya know, I was driving. I do, however, have a few pictures from Vermont which is what’s scattered through this post. Seeing the fam for a few hours was nice too.

NYC CELEBS

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:39:00 -0400

I’ve seen some cool celebs around NYC over the past week:

This is Guy Fieri and Mario Batali (in the convertible) right outside of my apartment. I could literally see this from my window. No idea why they were shooting on my residential street in the Village, but I’ve been told it was for Diners Drive-Ins and Dives. I was on my way to class when I noticed this so I wish I could have stuck around to watch for a while.

Then, as I was leaving NBC on Tuesday I saw Simon Cowell out front. I was amazed at what a nice guy he is! Like okay, he walked out of the main door at NBC. He didn’t have to do that. There are plenty of other more discrete exits that he could have used and chose not to. Then, he didn’t go running for his car. He stopped and chatted with all the people on the street who immediately recognized him. Made some jokes with people, took some pictures, signed some autographs. Totally not the Simon we all know from American Idol.

I mean, I didn’t talk to him, but I could have if I wanted to. That picture isn’t zoomed in.

Preordering iPhones is so obnoxious.

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:41:00 -0400

I’ve purchased one iPhone in my life, and that was the first one that came out in 07.

Every year since then, when Apple releases a new iPhone, I buy it, then sell my previous phone unlocked on eBay. The first time I did it, I actually made a profit, and the other two times I just about broke even. So it’s awesome because I get the new iPhone every year, without actually having to pay anything (because I’m a broke college kid lololol)

It’s kind of crazy actually but I guess in some foreign countries, you can’t just go out and buy an iPhone like you can in the US. Or you can, and it’s just super expensive. So what a lot of people do is they’ll buy used, unlocked American iPhones on eBay so that they’re still getting a good deal, but also paying enough to cover the cost of my new phone. eBay can be annoying because you usually have to deal with people trying to scam you, but once you find a real buyer, it’s always totally worth it.

So anyway, as everyone knows the iPhone 4S was announced this week and pre-orders opened up today.

Pre-orders were supposed to start at Midnight Pacific time, which is 3AM over here on the East Coast. So I stayed up till 3 and waited, even though the site didn’t actually go live until 3:45. When it did, it was overloaded with customers and didn’t work right (this happens every year fghksjgdksdghkjgd). It just hits you with errors or would sit processing forever. At 4:30, I gave up and went to sleep.

A mere 3 hours later I got back up, and tried again. This time, the system was working, but it was only willing to ship my new phone to the “billing address” on my account. Well, first of all, my grandparents own the account, and second of all, the listed address was their old house from like 5 years ago. Nobody lives there anymore! And it doesn’t let you change the address. So. Frustrating.

So I tried to call Apple, but all the lines were clogged. Then I tried calling AT&T and amazingly I got through, and the guy was able to set up an order for the phone to be sent to me here in New York. Hopefully that all works out.

Then I had to rush to be in class by 9:30. It lasted until 4.

Overall, not a great day. But new iPhone in a week! Whatuppp

Oh hey, I'm still alive.

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:26:11 -0400

I try to post something on my blog at least once a week, preferably more.

Woops.

It’s been like a month since a posted anything. And it’s not like I necessarily forgot, it’s just like, it’s been so long that I don’t even know what to write. So here I am, one month later writing about how I don’t know what to write. COOL! Not that anyone particularly missed my posts or even noticed that they weren’t here, but I like to kind of have a log of everything I’ve been doing to look back on later. Which is the reason why I don’t reblog pictures of like tv shows and hot girls like everybody else. Don’t get me wrong tv shows and hot girls are great, just not on this page ya feel me? Why am I explaining myself?

Anyways, lotsssss of stuff going on so I think I’ll do some additional posts after this one with some stuff that’s been happening recently.

In general I’m just really busy with school and my internship (one of which sucks and one of which is awesome, guess which is which) so that’s what has been consuming my life this past month. Oh, that and all of the new shows that are on TV now. #supercoolkidrighthere

So I’ll talk to you all soon!

PS. It’s the internship that’s awesome.

Footage I took from the 9/11 Memorial, the Tribute In Light, and...

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:36:49 -0400

Footage I took from the 9/11 Memorial, the Tribute In Light, and the memorial at Battery Park.

September 11th - Tenth Anniversary

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:54:15 -0400

As tragic an event as 9/11 was, it’s amazing what it’s anniversary does to this city. It brings out the patriotism and brotherhood in all of us, and I’m honored that I got to be here for the tenth anniversary.

Despite the fact that there were new terror threats made on the city, on the 9/11 anniversary, I know that New York City and this country are safer than they’ve ever been. The NYPD has been out in full force the past few days, and I felt perfectly safe going down to Ground Zero 3 times during the past 5 days.

Last night, on 9/11, I went down to the World Trade Center area to take some pictures of the Tribute In Light and 1 World Trade Center (formally known as the Freedom Tower) sporting red, white, and blue.

I couldn’t go to the official memorial yet because it was only open to the families of the victims of 9/11 yesterday, but I walked all the way down to Battery Park where they had placed one American flag for every single person who died in the tragedy. Then, each flag was made up of the names of the victims. It was very cool.

Then today, I was extremely lucky to be able to see the official 9/11 Memorial on the first day that it was open to the public. They’ve got a system set up where you can’t just show up and go in, you have to get a visitors pass online. The passes are free, but they’re sold out all the way through mid-October. I wish that I could say I have awesome connections that hooked me up, but really I happened to log into the site at the exact second somebody cancelled and was able to get a ticket for today. If anyone found this post and is looking to get tickets, definitely keep checking the site (911memorial.org) for openings. You could get lucky.

Anyway, the memorial is absolutely amazing. Anyone reading this no matter where you live should check it out someday. It’s got these two huge empty craters in the ground in the exact footprint of the original Twin Towers. Then, inside, are the largest manmade waterfalls in North America, and around the border is the name of every single victim inscribed in bronze. The rest of the plaza is filled with trees and seating areas.

Overlooking the memorial is the brand new 1 World Trade Center, which is about 82 stories right now, but when construction is completed in a few years, it will be the tallest building in America at 105 stories.

Finally, this is the “survivor tree.” It was planted at the Twin Towers when they were constructed in the 70’s, and survived their destruction in 2001. It lives on at the memorial.

For more info about the memorial go to 911memorial.org. I highly recommend everyone check it out, and it’s just going to get even better as they finish the museum (opening next year) and all of the new surrounding World Trade Center buildings (all opening within the next few years).

I posted a lot more pics on Facebook here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2148380264464.2107748.1095030269&type=1

USA <3

Rebuild, Recover, Remember.

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 13:45:12 -0400

Rebuild, Recover, Remember.

Back to schooooool.

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:58:16 -0400

Well this week was the first week of school, and it officially feels like the summer was a year and a half ago.

I’m actually only taking three classes plus an internship this semester. They are: Intermediate Short Form Production, Producing for TV, Production & Technology (GenEd) and the internship with SNL.

(Haha, I just noticed that every single one of my classes has some variation of the word “produce” in it.)

So far everything seems pretty good. A little more work than I was generally expecting, but I think it’s manageable. And my schedule works out so that I only have class on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Then I’ll work at SNL on Saturday and Tuesday, so I still get a weekend on Sunday and Monday.

I am in a production class so I will be making some new stuff this semester. But unlike last semester, it won’t be one big short film. It will be a bunch of smaller projects. Should be cool, we’ll see how it turns out.

As for SNL, I haven’t actually started yet. I’m starting this Tuesday but as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really going to be able to blog about it.

Thanks for reading all the pointless stuff I put on here!

Stupid video I made yesterday haha.

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:24:59 -0400

Stupid video I made yesterday haha.

STUCK IN VERMONT!!!

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:54:00 -0400

So I came here to Vermont because my sister is starting college at UVM next week. The fam has been here since last Tuesday, but my plan was to fly up Thursday from NYC, be there when Kristi moved into her dorm yesterday, and then fly back on today, while my parents were supposed to fly back to SoFla on Sunday.

Hah. Then Hurricane Irene happened.

The storm that was supposed to give some South Florida kids a few days off of school has turned north, gotten stronger, and is now ready to distroy the east coast. My flight today was cancelled, and all flights on Sunday and Monday have also been cancelled.

At first, my parents and I were going to try to get on the last flight out of here and ride the storm out at my apartment in New York, but is it really worth trying to get on a flight that may or may not get cancelled just to fly to a city that may or may not be destroyed by a big storm?

So we’re staying here in Burlington, Vermont until Tuesday, which is also scheduled to get hit with Irene, but will probably just get some heavy rain and wind. I didn’t bring enough clothes (or even my laptop) but it’s probably the safer choice. I mean, the pic above is the view from our hotel, so there are worse places to be stuck.

Here’s to hoping my first floor apartment still exists when I get back.

I SURVIVED THE EAST COAST QUAKE OF 2011!

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:04:56 -0400

Actually I didn’t feel it at all.

I was walking down 14th Street at the time and nobody on the street even noticed anything. We were finding out via text, not via earth vibrations.

They were saying on TV that, in NYC anyway, people on the ground weren’t really feeling it, while people in buildings, especially high rises, were seeing some small shaking. So all the local channels went into all out news mode, and were trying so hard to turn this into something significant. But really it was nothing. This girl sums it up nicely:

http://yfrog.com/np90lz

What we really have to worry about now is a hurricane headed directly for NYC. Sweeeeet.

That picture I posted earlier was featured on CBS2 News here in...

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 01:05:48 -0400

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

That picture I posted earlier was featured on CBS2 News here in New York tonight!

PS. It’s Dee-Uh-Gah-Tee, but nice try Lonnie.

Lightning over New York City. I took this during tonight’s...

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:36:52 -0400

Lightning over New York City.

I took this during tonight’s lighting storm from my friend’s place downtown. It was so cloudy that you can’t even see the skyscrapers that would normally be in the picture. It took a few tries but I ended up with a pretty cool shot (courtesy of my new camera!). The colors were adjusted a little bit in Photoshop.