THIS JUST IN:
The finely-wrought format of epinw is such that a ThisJustIn is to appear at the end of blogposts. But. But this is way too. So, trotting out of school in a northerly fashion, I pass Valentino's, a deli, a shithole diner that nets probably $1or so millions from me and my cohorts. Thinking in a most efficient manner Hmm, should get some healthy thing to eat as who knows how long I'll be stranded in the Far Rocks, and grab a tofu and vegetable thing. A thing. Remember this word. So I get to JFK and, as I've changed days, times, itineraries, focus, etc. many times this summer I get the SSSSSSSSS treatment. This means Secondary Search. This is not what you want on your bp (that's coolhand frequent flyer lingo for a boarding pass, dig.) and then you and the other suspects are corraled into the S is for Special line. Moments before I see the SSSSSSSSS on the bp I begin to take a bite of deli sandwich. It tastes very . . . acrid. It is really stuck to its paper plate that it's wrapped against. I pry the sandwich off the plate and - lo & freakin' behold - it's COVERED in black mold. Not a smattering of mold. A full-throttle blanket of mold. A sandwich cosy of mold. I had had two bites. Bite number two I made come back out but bite number uno was floating down towards the stomach acids for efficient chemical deconstructing and such. So now there are mold spores in my tongue cells and the taste is quite . . . unforgettable. Now I'm going through Special Treatment Line. It's taking for forever. Finally I get to my last handler and I can't resist. (NB: I've already been quite mean to this little man telling him my bags are full of expensive electronics and I will carry them, etc. etc. etc.) So he's going through everything and then I say Want to hear something gRoSs? S is for Ssorg. So I tell him my sad culinary tale. His eyes widen, he's really digging the story. He asks if I have a sensitive nose, a sensitive palate. ? I say yes. So does his wife. I mean, fancy that. So he turns out to be a decent person and I tell him that I told him in case I spewed in his vicinity so he wouldn't tink it was due to Nerves - or Drugs. Then I tell him what's next on agenda: go over to food area and order what I determine to be the thing that will best cover taste of mold spores. After some quick analysis I determine (despite tomato allergy) it is pizza, full of more (non-moldy) vegetables and topped with about 1/8" of garlic powder.
I do feel sorry for the wi-fi-heads on either side of me at this juncture. But oh well, beats the sight of me vomiting black mold spores. Hey, reminds me of the book Christy Rupp recommended so many years ago that I love to quote from - Hot Zone.
I do not have ebola. I will never have ebola. Oooh, knock on wood.
Wooden Lovelettes.


It is not Friday, as previously thought by Yours Truly, but Thursday.
As I told a few: woke up Monday AM on plane to Shiney Apple and had no idea where I was when I lifted my weary head off of the tray table.
A Where AM I but on a plane. Cheese & Crackers.
Met with JR today about final edit of thesis snippets on the big timeline and he questioned a few. The establishing shot/moment as well as another on Met steps as the light is way different. Told him about the new Whitney shots and said I'd think about reshooting the steps about an hour before they close.
What does this really mean.
It really means that YT will be lugging two heavy bags again, not one heavy and one lighte. Laptop, hard-drive, camera, assorted cords, books, a tiny and random selection of attire.
Speaking of attire, there is a great green skirt in the Diesel store in Union Square, hanging just to the left as you walk in. This would make a great pre-graduation gift.
Thanks in advance and for Your attention in this matter.
So what did I shoot at the overly-secure/uptight Whitney.
Amongst other shots I snuck my digvid cam into a video viewing gallery and made a great shot of a woman who I believe was only in there to cool her jets so to speak. But she was ideal as she did not move one millimeter as the action on screen continues for many minutes. I can't say what show or what footage as what if some Whitney hack reads this, contacts Parsons School of Debunking and creates a ruckus.
There is another Whitneycentric shot of the stairwell, what I think is key to experiencing the joint. The dark and odd stairway that is two flights up per floor, with seating areas. I waited like a beer-soaked hunter in a blind for a moment and finally a woman came up the stairs and the edge of her hand is/was visible.
Eu-frea-re-kin-ka.
Now to capture, wedge it into the project, burn the dvd, get the scrim and projector, and dowels and wire and whatever hell else, hang the whole dang thang from a ceiling and write and research and defend dissertation.
Now to seminar, then to JFK.
You know, You know, what YT has dubbed the Guggenheim of the Far Rockaways, one of my branch offices.

Branches of Love.

Did not get the eBay item, the projector, as I was offline and missed a frenzy of last-minute bidding. Now I'm onto another auction and have also checked the universe for more used LCD projectors for digvid.
Before sleeping last night saw the lofty roomies - Dorota, Jason, Keren Ann. I told them how JR critiqued my apparent out-of-character summertime enthusing yesterday after our meeting of sorts. I informed him that I had finally found some supreme and school-related positivity and was expressing that amongst the required dourness of grad school thesis show preparations. Of course I'm stressed about this process but I am also determined to get the work done in a manner that allows for some enjoyable creativity and the serendipity I have in my working method.
Off shortly to the Whitney to do some shooting as I've been obsessed with an image that I'd like to add to the work for show.
Started using the browser Firefox by Mozilla for the vlogging and it really is better, stronger, faster (just like the $6,000,000 Man), just as those vloggers said it would be. If You have woes of internettal variety, do this.
Recently JW,Esq. suggested that Peet's Coffee had more chem oomph than Starbucks. I did not believe him. Gourmet Garage in SoHo just switched brands, swinging over to this left coast concoction. Halfway through my first disposable cup I thought OK, you win, and tossed it into one of those overstuffed wire municipal trash heaps.
After today, and then tomorrow's seminar, there are four more weeks of grad school.
And nine more plane rides to & fro.
And several more oodles of dollars spent.
And dozens of coffees slargled.
And scads more worrisome molecules unloosed into the general vicinity.
And then.
And then.

And then love.

John Massier, one of the curators at Hallwalls, sent me some good thoughts about digvid projecting, stating its become the paradigm of sorts but does the work scream for it. I'd argue it so does.
Especially now that I'm top bidder, no, sole bidder, on a fine used LCD video projector that I'm quite excited about and it so makes sense that I am hanging out at the Geek/Mac Clubhouse working on my vlog as the seats are as comfortable as my aeron chair, the wi-fi is tops, the a/c is maximus and the neurons fly quickly around all this wisdom.
The "studio" at the school is beyond laughable, a flimsy cubicle of some drywall and due to the communication snafu of mid-July somehow Pam and I are not with our classmates in a studio building on 13th Street but are the sole grad students located off the computer lab, in a former classroom. This is what Ivy League level tuition gets one in this city, at this school which promotes distance learning. But distance learning means just that, as I've said before, distance. And manytimes a distance student is treated accordingly. Witness above.
Sans furniture available around the "studio," and not wishing to pay more for furnishings after weekly travel, exorbitant tuition, other expenses, and really expressing my true ADD nature, I need several venues to make work (eschewing the "studio"). So I have a short list of joints and locations where I squat.
And, when it comes to wi-fi squatting, several factors are of utmost importance:
1. caffeine in vicinity.
2. bathrooms in vicinity.
3. honest-seeming people in vicinity so mutual quick babysitting of belongings can happen.
4. outlets are crucial.
5. comfortable chairs are crucial.
6. snacks are a bonus.
7. the wi-fi connection should be at least 50%, 75% is fab and 100%/four bars is dreamy.

Dreamy Love.

*correction of sorts*
Chris, another distance learner, is part of the adjunct studio space.
Note to self: scour building at 66 5th Ave. for 1 comfy chair + average small table.

You know how those inventors would always get electrocuted or accidentally shot or what have you and then after some deducing and calculations - voilà - hello patentable objet d'idea?
Well, today, I hopped aboard JFK's AirTrain and suddenly looked up from my reading and thought You know, this whole landscape is so different. Hmmmm. Calculations were quickly made. I noted that I was not heading towards Station A/Howard Beach but, rather, Station D. In lieu of the A the E was taken, zipping Yours Truly up around Queens and back down on the east side and then over to 8th Ave. Getting me to the school's general vicinity in a much quicker fashion. You see, mistaken happenstances can result in positive and cheering results. Never mind the part where I was trying to figure out the route of the speeding train from my incomplete micro-mini subway map and asking a woman who spoke no English but looked at me to suggest to me that she is one who is very wizened, with all sorts of calming hand gestures at her disposal and if in fact the goddamned transpo was going to get me to NYC any time soon but then secretly thinking Well, if not, no skewel and ojoy but then realizing that all good subways are essentially as looped as an NJP art vid.
So on to the good bits.
Went to a model call for hair. They said We like your hair, howzabout a cut in November.
I mean, really.
When I want a cut, a trim, a life-altering tonsorial wack I want it like so right NOW.
Met a fun gal in line with me and we discussed oso many things. And at some point Cocteau Twins were playing on the hi-fi and I recalled Jeez, I really like(d) them, why don't I listen to them ever.
The best post-salon-type thing was afterwards, call from the NYC p.r. firm that wants me to work with them again, this time in Rochester, NY. Sent them a proposal of sorts. Would mean jetting the hell outta the Shiney Apple for a quick jaunt over to the left again and then right again and then left again and repeat repeat until the MFA thing happens.
And then, and then, I will be once again able to be in the Shiney Apple as I see fit, on my own terms.
And that makes YT so very very thrilled.

Love Term.

The Middling City this weekend has been both the center of the annual eatathon downtown as well as a music fest of sorts at SoundLab. I attended the latter. Back then I would doc the feeding frenzy early in the day, usually hitting the chianti or was it sangria slushie booth at some slurpy point.
At SoundLab I set up the PowerBook (still miraculously working though I hear a haunting voice coming from the Genius Bar - Don't get too kocky, the mother board is craaaaacked...) and external harddrive to work on some art matters at hand. I commandeered a corner of one of the booths that features an electrical outlet in proximity, nestling in with two stranger boys from Ohio who had motored in solely to hear Tony Conrad perform. And it was great to see Tony, as usual, he's always personable, funny. Accompanying him onstage was a woman who played the church bells - three - but it was much more fun to say she was playing cowbells and to refer to her as Mississippi Queen. She had BladeRunner-esque eye shadow, a band of orangey pink across her eyes. Eremite thought she was hot. I think he is nuts. Afterwards directed Eremite's band to get to la maison and met them over there and got Eremite all hooked up with a snooze center. Nice to think the empty joint was being used, in a good manner. There was a party of sorts and Baumann was there momentarily, speeding off and announcing that he was going to pick up a new puppy. Long live the memory of Memphis, beloved Memphis, but it is time for him to have a new shaggedy companion. And I should probably offer up my auntie services to this new rascal.
Time to panic about having to leave for school again again again tomorrow AM. Wanting to change all the flights to a Thursday night exeunt as the flights are ALWAYS late and when late on a Friday the anxieties get too intense, especially when there's loads of work to be done on a Saturday. Appeals to JetBlue will happen again, to appeal to their sense of humanity and let the penalty fees slip slide away.

Sliding up Love.