Guilty Pleasure Blog

So one of my guiltiest pleasure in college was reading the blog of a neurotic girl who lived in my dorms. I shared this guilty pleasure with a few co-conspirators. one being one of my closest friend i met in the dorm, in fact i think this blog was one of the things that really brought us together. The other person we shared this obsession with is now my current favorite blogger.
today, everyone i know has a blog. each of varying degrees of self truth to them, many just digital collages of what they think makes them seem more interesting. the worst of the worst for me are the tumblr blogs . most of those are just regurgitated bits of other peoples blogs.
Sometimes these blogs are a great way to learn about new thing i might not have seek out on my own, like latest mac technology, political history, information on art and sciences that do interest me but i rarely think to look up when i am online.
The really like a photo journal of a friend from collage does where she takes a picture a day of an outfitin front of some decorative backdrop in or around his bohemian styled home. She poses in basically the same ways, rarely acknowledging the camera, as if someone else were taking the pictures for her, but the abundance of this pictures suggest a person with a lot of free time alone. she then describes the entire outfit and acessories in detail and where they were purchased. its kind of mundane at times but she is a very creative person and it fascinating to see how she brings together her obsession with vintage with (surprise to me) contemporary pieces of clothing she buys at popular stores. until this blog i really thought everything she had was vintage. i never imagined her stepping for in a Bergdorf or MAcy's . but she does and does it well by mixes a vintage Flintstones sweater with fancy knock off shoes and a macy special belt.
Another favorite is a photo log a friend does on flickr where along with occasional commentary on his current life in the peace corp somewhere in Africa/middle east, he has an on going log of cult/ lesser known thriller/horror moves often with female protagonists. i love them . he opens with an amazing articulate synopsis, (he went to NYU) and then give a photo essay that makes you immediately netflix and imdb his subject.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypostylin/collections/72157603831990135/
if your every bored or if you love camp thrillers as much as i do check out is screeencaps and get inspired.

the Gay republican

i found out recently a friend of mine who is competing on the currently shooting season of Project Runway, is a gay republican. This doesn't surprise me for a number of reasons. one being we met in the south, and it was in Georgia that i met my first gay republican and learned about the movement. secondly, he is portuguese catholic from New England, just like me so i can understanfd the climate of conservativism that must have grown up with. The portugues are notoriously conservatie and will smak you up with a life times worth of catholic guilt issues.
Lastly, this person though i love them thrives on a certain sense of self created dramatics. what's more dramatic then believing your way of loving is some how not worthy of be recognized as a union of love. That's one of his main point as a gay republican, that gays shouldn't be allowed to marry. its not a legal or biblical union worth recognition.
I've heard him say this before but honestly i thought he was just be contradictory for flare, i never believed he'd vote Bush over it.
The gay republican is a quagmire for me, i guess for many people. The idea someone could have dueling opinions or be a republican and not fully be taken by all their opinion doesn't surprise me. its that the republican party has long held it position on not recognizing and i feel there for not respecting the gay community. it continuously remakes on it as a moral issue and has long held a negative almost hateful opinion of gay unions.
So how does one support that party. It like being on welfare and being a republican.
Sites like gaypatriot.com hope to dispel such an uninformed opinion such as mine. I have bookmark it with huffingtonreport.com and that will be the extent of my political knowledge. i got some back blogs entries of perez hilton to read.

Trekkers are shitting themselves

So all my trekky friends are going ape shit currently over the new Star trek movie and i have to admit it i am too. i really love Star Trek.Not just Next Generation, or the original but all of them even the lame as hell Voyager cuz if your a fan your a fan.
I like the optimism of Star Trek, its hopefulness. Usually i am opposed to remakes of any kind but this one i am not so offended by because i am so jonesing for am Trek. Also nerd alert its got Simon Peg and hereos Zachery Quinto. Whom though i suspect he might be gay i still have a crush on him.

Once again i get to art direct

I art directd a short film project for a friend of mine yesterday. it was so great to get together with a friend and just create something. I missed dding that in college.
He are some stills. i will post a link later of our first cut.

Currently i am working three jobs. I returned to reality tv out of desperation after about a month of no calls for work. I am on Make me a Super Model with the same coordinators from Project Runway but not enough of the organization. It's not their fault really, its just a very different set up and too much transitioning going on between firing of the AD and the UPM quitting.
What i liked about reality is the set works hours, they don't like to pay OT so you cut out at 12hrs on the dot. its the fist time on a production my bosses have insisted i go home. usually they just keep you till you soul shrivels up and dies a little and you've waited to get every fucking GE teamster props costume etc. persons out time.
but on reality its a 24hr day so pa's are rotate throughout the day.
There is a lot of opportunity to disappear in a day like that. there are so many PA's and so many locations and nooks and crannies to the places we house the contestant i get a lot of opportunity to read and draw on rooftops.
A connection from a film i propped on last summer gave me a lead on a set dressing gig on a Russian feature film. Turns out i know the lead man from a couple of other jobs. its an interesting crew of mostly black men of various ages older then me. they like really like my humor and seem amused by my sassiness. I like crews like this the best because they got nothing to prove, they have the ease of a sense of position that pa don't. some of the guys are old school, have more stories then a library. we drive around and the guys all have a world of opinion on food , ny, productions, and most of all woman. I did well to make them feel comfortable in expressing their opinions, my humors a good tool for that, they finally stopped apologizing for swearing.
The film got a good budget so the rate is good and the hours for set dressing are great at a 8hr day with OT. Basically i make 4 times my rate as a pa when i set dress. We shot in the Gold Club the other day, what a cheesy place, the walls are coverd with several large images of nude women in various poses tat ubscure their bushes and nipples. In some photos its clear they could not full ubscure the nippls so they air brushed anything peeking out.I guess a customer wouldn't be as critical and probably nobody ever notices.
The Lead sent me a text the night before.." We're going to be around strippers .I hope your comfortable". I texted back "I hope they are comfortable around me!"
Just to keep good relations with my gallery job i am also doing a a few days of art handling this week in hopes they take me to Chicago for the SOFA show at the armory in the beginning of November.I make the same rate as i do PAing but for a day that last half as long.
If they ask me to go to Chicago I would have to drive a box truck from NY to Chicago buti have made long hauls in like that before coming and going from college. Or they might just ask me to stay in NY and watch the gallery while their gone. i can use my down time to write and apply for grants while getting a paycheck.
Organizing my schedule has been a bitch but i really want to keep all these good relationship cause winters is coming and money has a way of getting very tight around the holiday on the East coast.
Though i heard that this next month is going to be a lot of work. I am going to put myself on the auxiliary list for local 829 and hopefully i van get some set dress work too.

TROLL THE MOVIE

i remember watching Troll when i was a little kid. My mom let me watch horror movies a lot as a kid. in fact it wasn't even a question with her, which is weird for her because she is usually ridiculously protective.
i think i must have watched it when it played as a Spine Tingler, which where scary movies (usually bad one) that played TV on Sunday afternoons.
For long time i could only remember bits and pieces of it but not really anything scary. it was the idea of the film that always stuck with me. the idea an urban contemporary environment could be transformed into sometime other worldly. I remember shots like the cop being sucked through a tenement door into a magic forest not very different looking then my own backyard. I remember a little person being transformed into a puck or elf-like creature. sometime here in New york when i am in apartment building like the one in the movie i like to pretend behind some door is a door to another realm. its a comforting thought for me.
I always was inspired by the idea of that movie. It been on cable lately cuz i guess they are remaking it possibly with Ally Lohan. I am not gonna hate on it just yet. with some care it could actually make a good movie but Lohan not exactly aking it to another level.

GO GOL BORDELLO

peter callesen

Yolele! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal

Kanta invited me to a tasting at a residence in Crown Heights where a friend of hers, chef Pierre Thiam,was signing his new cook book Yolele!. He says it is the first book written on Senegalese cooking originally written in English. Thiams is an amazing friendly person who talked for a bit too long about Senegal, food, and Brooklyn before he let us dig into the amazing spread of tradition recipes he made for us to taste. Kanta and i were somewhat out of place.
well, me most of all. The tasting was in a brownstone owned by a school teacher and her professional husband. It was a very Cosby-esque place and crowd. most everyone else was an older black professionals , with sophisticated interest in Africa, local community and the arts.
Thaim owns a restaurant that is actually only 2 blocks from my house. i pass it all the time, its a really funky place tat at night is always full of music and life. it kind of hidden too, like a great place in Brooklyn. Cant wait to eat there when i got a job.not that it expensive . i just cannot bring myself to eat out when unemployed, my guilt doesn't let me have much of an appetite.
Thaims talked to me for a bit about Cape Verde, growing up his mother only spoke the in an African Portuguese creole the same my grandfather did.he made me feel very welcome.
I had walked 40 minute from my house there through a variety of Brooklyn neighborhoods, it reminded me of Savannah how it went from good to bad to good again.
I think i might have a dinner party and make some of the recipes. they are actually quite simple fresh dishes. the kind that impress people but don't really take a whole lot of effort.

Dakar is open everyday from 12:00pm to 1:00am
285 Grand Avenue
Between Lafayette Avenue and Clifton Place
Take G train to Classon Avenue

www.dakarcafe.net

True Blood Open Credits

The opening credits to the new HBO series True Blood is absolutely beautiful. I love the music. The first shot of i think a dead catfishin swampy water has me hook everytime. i would have loved to been with the editor of this while he was cutting it. Whenever i see it i like to figure out what might be found footage and what was shot. Also i am really intrigued by the melting film/blood curddling efffect.

Secret Science

http://secretscienceclub.blogspot.com/
http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~trothman/
Christine has been trying to get me to go to Secret Science for months but i never have the time. I went this past Wednesday and heard Princeton Professor, Tony Rothman. HE spoke about his compilation of his book Sacred Mathematics. The house was packed and after a 40 minute lecture of PBR there was a Q & A with some very enthusiastic math/physics fans. It was amazing. only in New York could a lecture on physic pack the same venue indie bands and burlesque shows fill.
I love nerdtastic moments. After the professor was rushed by a crowd with fan fare and additional question on his work. i couldn't look away. Next months topic is Science Fiction, this is repeat show which i am very excited to attend.

Walk the other day

I had a weird walk the other day here in Brooklyn. I took a different route then i usually do and i stumbled upon the crazy couple house from Dave Chappel Block Party. I f you seen the movie you might remember when Chappel came upon this crazy older couple whom showed him their home in Brooklyn. They live in a wild old, thrown together looking building that was like cross between a shack and a tenement building with a little bit of a church thrown in there. It on the movies poster in silhouette. It actually right around the corner from my place, right by my favorite salvation army store. i just never noticed it before because i just beyond the salvation army and i usually stop there and don't go further.
Later on the same walk i literally bumped into this actor...
...while he was walking his beagle.
nice walk.