Eamus Catuli!

AC006198

"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it."

I feel very compelled to write something today. One reason makes me smile, the other reason makes me feel dirty.

OK, dirty first. While I was doing laundry today, they had Martha Stewart's show on. I can't staaaaaaand her. But she was talking all about how her friends tell her that you should blog when you feel inspired to share something. My blog entries have much to be desired in the inspiration department, I just like to vent. I guess that made me feel a little shallow....

Then I got an email from a coworker from Chicago complimenting me on something I've never been complimented on and something that is my favorite part about me. Anyone that has spent any quality time with me knows that my attention often gets drawn to strange things, or not strange things that most people aren't drawn to. I investigate everything. I take pictures of everything, and I think I'm pretty damn good at it. I've been mainly criticized for this. Not for being good at it; the feedback for that has been mostly great. But for being the one that embarrasses all her friends by pulling out a camera every 5 minutes. And for wanting to share them. I have hundreds and hundreds of photos of basically nothing from my days of train travel. Many people I would normally respect gave me comments such as "send us pics of something cool." What's cooler than something that 99.9999% of Americans will NEVER see, witness, or experience!??!?!?!!?!?!

It was all those quiet, peaceful, and completely untainted moments that make living in a place like Chicago, and moving to a place like NYC so much more enjoyable. I didn't fully appreciate Chicago until I left it for a life of 3 days a week in the middle of nowhere with no communication. When I got my fill, I came here. All those little odd things that most most New Yorkers just pass by every day are what makes living here so great. Since living here I've taken maybe 2 pictures of the skyline, and NO pictures of Times Square. And that's how it will stay. That's no fun. You can find that anywhere....TV, books, magazines. The true beauty of a place is in what isn't being shoved down your throat every day. It's in the odd things found at street fests and the strange performances in bus terminals and worn away signs on subway platforms and the hole in the wall (litterally) bar that will play your favorite sports team.

I'm going to keep taking pictures of everything. Photography is the one form of art that I am A. good at, and 2. haven't done professionally or part of an organized group/project. Yes, my work is out there, but that wasn't the intention. That's what keeps it so enjoyable. It hasn't become a chore, or a necessity. It's a release.

For those of you that I promised to send more touristy pictures, the photo of me spinning the NYU cube while drunk will probably be the last. I just started working on a collection of transit related photos, so that's what you can expect.

(Don't worry Jenny, I'll still take you to Times Square when you get here)

what a strange week...

i'm feeling kinda funny. last week i started working for a new company, which i will never work for again. it was the most unorganized, unsafe, and completely ridiculous call i've ever been a part of. the first day was beyond awful, but i went back for day 2 giving them the benefit of the doubt....i mean, nothing could be THAT bad again. it was. part of the show was tied in with jumper cables. i was scheduled to go back for a third day, but didn't, mainly for my own safety. no one called to find out where i was. no loss there.

the next few days were just weird. don't get me wrong, TONS of fun, but weird. did way too much drinking and such which at one point led to me buying a shirt with a drawing of a woman's midsection, and "good bush" written above it, then a drawing of george w with "bad bush" written above it.

totally wasting today, but i think i need a break.

Die Fashion Week, Die

I don't really know what to say, except, I HATE FASHION WEEK. These people live in a bubble, and it's sad. At one point I heard a fashion designer say "there is nothing more important happening in NYC today" referring to the show, then someone said "you know it's 9/11 right?" and his reply was something along the lines of how he doesn't like distractions like that.

The show was in a bank lobby, so we got to set it all up Monday night, do a tech rehearsal, then stash everything so the bank could open in the morning. Shitty, very shitty. Monday went OK, got done somewhere between 2 and 3 and shared a cab with a couple other people that live in Astoria. Then Tuesday happened....

"Lisa there's no power. I can't figure out why, but nothing has power." That's when I found this.

Can you see what's wrong? Yes, those are my tails, NOT CONNECTED TO ANYTHING. I thought it was bad the night before when the building electrician decided to start flipping breakers on while I was hooking up distros, then he decided to just undo the tie in. Brilliant. The rest of the evening was filled with so much ridiculousness that I don't even want to consider writing about it. The models kept stepping on the LED fixtures. We changed the color of the uplights about 37 times. The clothes were pretty hideous but of course the designer was treated like a god. It did definitely make me appreciate that I am not one of those people. I can think for myself and my life is not run by if I will be more stylish than the person next to me, which in the case of this event could have been the woman who's dress BARELY covered her chest.

The out took forever, and to make it even worse we were kicked out of a bar afterwards. Yep, the bartender shut off the lights, held the door open, and told us it was time to go. Bastard.

Tomorrow it's back to the fun....

customer service my ass

I know it's a stupid gripe, but nothing puts me in a bad mood more than trying to get a simple question answered by people who's job it is to answer simple questions. I'm having serious DVR withdrawl, so I called my cable company to double check that the office in Long Island City is the place to go to exchange boxes. Apparently in their bubble, people don't move. The concept of me living in New York, but having a Chicago area code is a mind blowing concept to them. They keep transfering me to a Chicago office (where this company doesn't even offer service) and I say "I need to know the nearest office location to Astoria, New York" and they go, "oh, well let's transfer you to a New York office" "What is you telephone number and how can I help you?"......"773........And I want to add a DVR to my account...and I live in New yo...."....."ok, I'll transfer you to that department"......."thank you for calling RCN in Chicago, how may I help you?".......

^&*#^#gJ&^#%!!^@*(#

That was the aneurysm that just exploded in my head. The nice lady in Pittsburg was able to help me out.

Great start to my day.....I need another pot of coffee; is it to early to Irish it up?....

are you ready for some football?

I have no idea how I'm awake and functioning this early. It's only 4 hours till the first kickoff. The phone calls haven't started yet, but that's a good thing about being an hour ahead of everyone else in the pool I guess. I just know that if we have to hear about Michael Vick all day, I might vomit. Not many people, including his teammates, liked him before we knew he killed dogs now all of a sudden everyone is "hopeful for his recovery" and crap. I say fuck him. Plus, Atlanta's new QB has been doing really well in the preseason, and the owners and coaches are very pleased. They don't really seem to miss Vick, so why is the media making this out to be like someone died? I just want to watch football, and have the commentators talk about what is actually going on down on the field, not what could be going on if this "horrible tragedy hadn't occured."

I got a text message last night that said "all waz no answer say hi to your boyfriend you suck and make me feel bad." Wow. I've never been wrong number texted before.

Big wins I need today are Dallas, Denver, Pittsburg, Philly, Washington, and New England (as dirty as that makes me feel). If you have black magic abilities or anything and can make them all win I promise I'll buy you a drink with my winnings.

BEAR DOWN

Only in Freakin' New York

So taking the CTA Green Line to work every day I saw some messed up crap. Lots of freaks, homeless men masturbating, obnoxious people, and plain old scary people. But I have to hand it to NYC, the ratio of "WFT?!?" to normal people is a lot lower. This has been a weekend of seeing some pretty funny shit.......

Saturday was a musical day. While heading to the upper west side to watch the Illini game we saw this

AND THIS.....

A mariachi band I understand. They're pretty common, though still amusing. But what the hell is that guy playing?! Yes, he is blowing into the keyboard. Should I mention now that he's blind? Our reactions were pretty much the same as the guy on the right.

The Illini lost. But it was close. It might have been our 3+ pitchers state at the time, but the subway ride home exposed us to the ugliest baby I have ever seen. Yes, there's a photo of that too, but again, due to the beer, it's kinda blurry...

Really, he was like 18 months old, and the kid's eyebrows were about as thick as my arm.

Sunday we decided to try the Shakespeare in the Park thing....which is ridiculous. The 8 PM show is free, but tickets are handed out at 1 PM.....our friend that is in the show suggested to get there at 10 AM, and of course we said "that's crap, we'll get there at noon." At noon the line was at least a half a mile long. People were camped out. We got in line anyway and had a street vendor lunch. Once the line started moving, this ex-hippie looking guy started riding by on a bicycle. He was holding a sign that said "Dracula 7734." He proceded to say "I'm an innocent man but I'm the real reason the World Trade Center exploded. Google this and you'll believe me. The government doesn't give you all the answers. We googled it, and only found a blog by a tourist that saw the same guy a couple months ago. While this is going on, there's a nice looking guy playing Beatles songs on the flute. It struck me as a little odd that he was very neatly dressed to go stand in the park and play music all day, but whatever. Then it happened. He tucked his flute under his arm, and started reading, no, YELLING POETRY!!!!.....

Really, that other blog we found also mentions the strange flautist. We didn't get tickets, but oh well, it was a learning experience. We saw Balls of Fury, which was great, then headed home, strange peopleless........HA...NO!.........

He was playing the keyboard and the dolls were dancing. Creepy. The other creepy thing I left out was the man on the subway with his 3 kids, and sweatpants boner. No, there is NOT a picture of that......

Today we're taking a drive down to one of the closer beaches on Long Island. Visit Jason's Blog to learn why this will be nothing short of an adventure....