What is now:
Perfect Yours Truly nestled into her favoured wi-fi hotspot at JFK, after a day of school and a plunge into the big-boy world of super duper mega supra pixels. And, as is his wont, heard from Spending Guru as I was trekking the final last long block towards B&H - post JR meet-up. I said to him Do you realize that since I've known you there was only one time I went to B&H without getting a call from you. It's a serendipitous tradition if ever there could be one.
Special thought:
I truly believe everyone, and I do mean every one of You, should have as the first song selection on your iTunes, should you have iTunes, be Bad Co's Good Lovin' Gone Bad for I can think of no better song to begin laptop projects, work and art.
Speaking of art, I've been accepted into two groups - a discussion group for vlogs and a group of artists who make the same. More groups and I am so not a grouper.
Glancing up at the pair of JetBlue-approved monitors I see ESPN is broadcasting footage of athletes attacking photogs of all genres - on the right a live shot of a pickup truck on a so-called rampage, driving à la OJ down some highway. I find the footage on the left disturbing, as I feel it's shown as comedic sidebar, another slap at the trade and the rights of any journalist shooting a celeb in a public place.
Time to further investigate and delve into vlog world as I'm at JFK with an extra 25 minutes of wait time.

Love Waits for No One.

Special blogpost for patchouli oil wearers who ride airplanes.
(I think You can see where this is heading.)
Airplanes are small capsules (petri dishes of sorts) with repumped air. Twist open the overhead vent device over your seat and all that is whizzing out is more of the same repumped matter. Add your patchouli oil to the mix and you have one big hippie olfactory luvv fest, unasked for by your fellow travelers. You love that shit, 99.9% of the rest of the planet does not.
Spare us, slather yourself upon arrival, share this woody scent with your familiars.
Thanks for your attention in this matter.
Sitting in a borrowed studio waiting the arrival, the studio visit, of Anthony, my former advisor here at Parsons. To show him what's what with the digvids.
Sparing You the concurrent commentary track, in a gesture of diplomacy, restraint and such.
Such love.

+ +
This just in:
Always needing a side project of sorts made an executive decision at roughly 3PM this very day to create a vlog, the video twin of epinw, if you catch my geeked-out drift.
I should link it from epinw but let us see what in hell is premierly entailed in streaming &c and then, secondly, how in hell it looks.
Middling City happy vibes amassed evaporated with each passing Parsons minute forging onwards, only six school weeks to go.

With a slightly-failed and collaborative mehendi up my right leg I blog.
The Artvoice Street Fest was fun, breezed in with Kennedy to see Medeski Martin and Wood and some pals to boot.
Added bonus was seeing The Ramrods on a much more humble stage near the liberry with Bill Scott, thee Bill Scott, up there doing his charismatic vocals thing. And, as is de rigeur with his frontmanship, there were entanglements of chords, and near spills. All in all a good time.
Hung in Kunji's booth, this is where the slightly-failed and collab mehendi comes in, and decided to give the primitive body-marking process my annual whirl. It began as sort of a floral motif with a long stem. Seeing my hesitation Allen grabbed the squeezey bottle and added my iconic bumble bee, some other items as well as the initials of Yours Truly. He felt this handiwork may have caused the loss of a few potential customers. One teen was getting some symbol, maybe sanskrit, but who the fuck can say for sure if it indeed meant peace or whatever, I showed her my leg and said Don't you want THIS instead, it's number 43. She looked pained, wanting to be polite yet visibly thinking Yikes, no, not that assemblage.
As we left the scene Government Mule was warbling out their Southern Rock into the chasm that is the Middling City's Main Street. And there was a 'subway' sighting.
Always a thrill, it eking past, empty.

Thrills of Love.

Left Cheryl's demi-sunny garden mere moments ago sufficiently caffeinated and such. She is en route with Liz to a rally for Garden Walk. Would Yours Truly invite the general public to meander through my garden, if it were in a less-industrialized neck of the woods. I think not.
May hop into Artvoice's pro bono Middling City showcase street fest a bit later as Medeski Martin and Wood are playing and Kunji and Allen just phoned to see if I'd be stopping by her mehendi boof where she imprints (usually) ladies with time-honoured henna paste leaving behind designs nouveau arte and whimsical. I usually mehendi myself at her stand, squeezing out a semi artful blob that lasts for about a week. Speaking of body markings shot a bike race yesterday and spotted a guy with a hideous photo-realist tattoo of what I assumed was his beloved and departed german shepherd, regaling most of his shoulder.
The Middling City feels more humid than the Shiney Apple and I am enjoying the space of it all until mid-week when I jet back to school for a few seminars - will be showing and telling new work on Wednesday to the shrink et al.
Seedlings replanted at Kennedy's warble out of the ground, and mine own is jam-packed with the regular perennials and Extra excitedly tells me how happy he is that the cat mint proliferates. At least twice during the summer I spot him lolling amonst its fragrant leaves, getting all wacked out and when he notes I'm watching his debauchery he stares in wide-eyed panic and splits.
Time to water the cat mint et al.

Minty fresh love.

Beth Dearest and Yours Truly this early afternoon did the girlie version of playin' the nines, and this is an exciting brand new conceptual development spun out whilst waiting once again in the concrete luvv of (no, not the Guggenheim... but close) JFK airport. Playin' the nines, girlie stylee, means tossin' out the angst con brio, then there's a counter toss, and so on and so forth until you've walked several long city blocks, whipping each other into a frenzy of purge, anxiety building to fever heat and then
*P O O O F *
it goes away. Usually. Nines over. Misery quelled, time to move on to fuckin', much-deserved FUN.
Armed as usual with anti-fellow-traveler devices: earplugs, iTunes, laptop, mags, liquids, and, most important, a don't-fuck-with-me-NO-don't-even-look-at-me aura. No, scratch that, it's more the aura of ignoration, ignoring fellow travellers. High on pet peeve list: those who apparently haven't travelled in the last half decade, astonished that they must show picture id, take shoes off, de-jacket, etc. Those who (come to think of it, just like tourists on Broadway in SoHo) move in slo-mo to come to halts for no apparent reason. Time to plane.

Plane ol' Love.

This just in:
JFK is playing REM's At My Most Beautiful over the creaky p.a. - heard in this joint before and still a surprising choice for sonic vibe control.
Sonic Vibe Control, one more amazing band name by YT.
This also just in:
Liz tells me that epinw is linked from her own blog and I'll be dang-blamed, it is like so true.

So, here's what the shrink had to say about the work of Yours Truly. After my illuminating and oso brief description of what It is (moments of people moving through art spaces as well as of industrial spaces).
He said, and I paraphrase:
Well, I see the connection, industrial spaces are oftentimes transformed into art spaces so there is a parallel. He (Mark, the Brit) went on with such beautiful clarity I made mental notes all over the place as there he was spouting forth a grand thesis statement, a raison d'etre et art if You will.
At some point Mark was speaking of the mango. The mango. I wrote this down. Now, after decades of shooting and witnessing great rock moments I sometimes mis-hear the world. So, the mango. It was after some careful calculations that I determined it was not a mango he was speaking of but a main goal.
Voi-freakin-là.
After class Beth and I meandered in an out of three bookstores, including The Strand where David Sedaris was to read from his newest book. We did not stay as I've seen his schtick before and there were more books to find in other places.
Time to return the XL1 to Parsons School of Destinations and then witness great moments in art past before meeting with Mark the Shrink again for more elucidations.

Lucid Love.

Dorota just made her patented jet fuel and soon it will be time to ka-zing out of the loft and drift through the streets before our class meets collectively with a - dig this - shrink. I like telling people that Parsons has supplied us with a shrink for it sounds like so new age yet parental and proactively imbued in quirk.
Last night, whilst waiting for Justin at the usual designated meeting joint, Sweet and Vicious, met a guy named Peter who was waiting for approx fifty to be showing for a bon voyage celebration. We talked over the din of a table of guys getting redder in faces celebrating a b-day. He intrigued greatly as he runs a super-swingin' p.r. firm and I'm sitting there with all my fab skill of write thinking Buddy, you have NO idea that you're sitting next to your next copy writer. Yet.
Just checked out his website and it's rather subdued, not very flash.
The evening evolved into a spot in Brooklyn named Floyd. As in Pink. But not.
Saw all the gang and it was a treat.
Time to wend, not to spend, to learn and be learned.
Missing Kennedy greatly.

Missing Love.

One productive meeting with JR down, one thesis show to go.
Just did a show + tell for about 1.5 hours, showing Jim all the new things - the highs, the lows, the dodgey experiments, the curios, the cinematic triumphs. And for the triomphes cinématiques a rare epinw exclamation point. !
Dropping major baggage (literally, not figuratively) at loft before wending my way uptown to get inspired. Read: look.
After a while I will socialize with schoolies and others on the A list.

A listed Love.

Today's theme: readjustment.
Changed JetBlue itineraries for rest of the ultimate semester resulting in no rising + attempting to shine at 4AM each bookish Monday to catch the 6 (not green line, as in subway, but actual hardcore 6AM flight out of the Middling City) en route to Parsons School of Non-Details. Learned, amongst other things today, that school starts at noon on Mondays, not a minute earlier. 12 - 9 = 3 hours to wend way from JFK to PSD.
More readjustment.
Shiney Apple sleeping destination was changed from sublet situation in the easterly twenties back to the beloved and familiar SoHo - i.e. Loft of Dorota et al. I am here now, wondering if I can muster up any more energy to do a bit more digvid tweaking. I think not. There is always tomorrow, with tomorrow's fresh eyes, tomorrow's turbo-powered café (heading straight to Ceçi-celà when the sun rears its drastic summer head), tomorrow's revamped badassness, tomorrow's free day status following meet-up with Mentor JR.
As I told a schoolmate in the elevator today Art is not a life or death situation - art is supposed to be fun, fercrissakes. Put that on your wisdom-rich wall calendar and smoke it.
I remain artful and oso much more.

Oso Love.

Well, one thing to look completely forward to this summer (besides looking at Modern's Friedlander retro) is the pending release of Johnny Depp in the Wonka remake - although he looks very peculiar, thanks to director Tim Burton. Did this movie need to be remade. I think not.
So Anita West is on 97 Rock blathering about the new release by Ringo Starr and that he looks fantastic. Colour me doubtful, about both.
Finished shooting a weekend of weddings - one in Erie, PA and one out in the exurbs. In Erie I learned some valuable things. Such as small Catholic colleges are not shy about commissioning grand stained glass windows, there's a small vintage smokeshop on State Street and that there's a private club on same called Marinator or some such thing - a place employing snippy bartenders who wish to make photogs drink from plastic cups, which I ixnayed. A real glass, puh-leez. I mean really. Hired helpers dig real glass, too.
Just back from a coffee/love fest with Allen and Kunji - a much-needed jolt of both.
So back to digvid edits, dad's day restaurant foray, more edits, more errands and then jetting off to school. New protractor, new shoes, new semester.
Hello anxiety.

Anxious Love.

Relevant and lighthearted theme du jour/blogposte:
Losing one's way, thematically/artistically/orientationally/intentionally.
Delivered a gig to Hyatt "Regency" in downtown Middling City, after basically missing correct left and heading into setup for the MC's weekly summertime Thursday in the Square and got giant pangs for shooting music and seeing the regulars. That's one way to lose one's way.
Then in the lobby I am waiting for appointment and am looking up at the tinted mirrors and eavesdropping like mad when I essentially walk into NYS Attorney General (no bars, no stars) Eliot Spitzer, who I've photographed before - a sharpie to be sure. That would be the orientational losing of way.
Then I am waiting for appointee and am outside her office and meander over to look at the samples of wedding cakes - different frosting options, before amusing myself by reading the MC News.
Then mere moments ago I open up mail to discover a sizable bill from the day You may recall when Yours Truly was completely and hopelessly LOST on the 407ETR up to the north until aided by a nice and large cop in a sedan - You know, the one who drew directions by drawing a rather long line with the number 407 underneath. The Gee, merci moment of that moment. So the bill for the lost condition of me that day - exiting, re-entering, heading ouest/west then est/east, exiting and re-entering (repeat a few times) totals $62.86. Not even kidding one tiny bit. $62.86. You can bet your OPP that phonecalls will be made, heads will like totally roll up there in Maple Country. Moral of all: do not get lost. Do not lose a way. Any way.
As for the art direction that is another matter, for that You must read and re-read between lines both short, long, longest.

Longest Love.

Ace Heat Manager Yours Truly here sitting amongst all sorts of paraphernalia and dehumidifying regalia to enable working at optimum conditions - sort of like an electronic venti coffee du jour from Starbucks, if you will. As the dehumidifier fills up the papers lie more flat, the computers sigh a sigh of relief, as I do.
Completely lost my last blogpost into cyberwherever last night/this morning and not sure what the hell happened but it basically recapped my experience at Music is Art, Jon and Robbie's music and art and curiosity extravaganza. Wended my way from Deb's home to MIA through sunstung and fried-food-outfitted masses, noting the item of the year at Allentown Art Fest appeared to be a curious copper bowl atop a 4' stick with some sort of glass globe incorporated in the design. I didn't get what it was other than whimsy. Whimsy on a stick. Deb suggested people loved it because it was affordable. Suppose she is right, a far cry from the overpriced, sofa-sized work on view. Kennedy asked for an "art" report and I had very little to report from my short wend: I did proffer up some details about a very hairy and surly-faced man sitting on top of one of those director chairs with extended legs, apparently guarding a display of small watercolors of flowers. Floral whimsy, made by a hairy, angry man.
At MIA saw many of the rock and roll crowd, some from the photo world and paid for a ticket to watch what I anticipated greatly inside the sideshow tent. Nope, not The Enigma, who I've shot to date thrice at Jim Rose Circus Sideshow. Word on the street, alongside the tent, was Enigma's wife was there, Cat Woman, tattooed with a tabby cat pattern over her entire body. From what I saw she was perhaps tattooed over 90% of her plump self, sans boob tattoos. What a pair - puzzled and kittified.
I was there to see the suspension team Jon had told me about and waited impatiently in the hot shade to see a woman with cinched waist and long dreads and three-inch hooks in either shoulder blade pretend to be stabbed, be carabinered and lifted into the air but not before the faux jealous lover (murderer) danced with her à la Last Dance With MaryJane. Wondered nearly aloud - was this crime pretense really necessary. My Perfect answer. Absolutely not. She was pushed to and fro and about ten minutes later I thought Well, now I can say I saw a woman hanging from two 3-inch hooks in her self. Onwards.
Last night dined under the grape chandelier at Chef's with Allen, Kunji, Laura. Saucey high times and then onwards to sip on beers regarding my most favoured view of the grain elevators from the foot of Hamburg Street. My holiday card tree now covered in lush green leaves and tall green grasses blowing nearly horizontal in the Buffalo River breeze. Cops motored by slowly, not bothering to bother us with our open containers, our Yeah Yeah Yeahs emanating from the golden Forester.
Told Laura today had a brief thought of driving solo to Boston today for the 50 Foot Wave (Kristin Hersh) and Pixies gig there but the seats left sucked and really, I do have a shitload of work to get done like right now.

Now like Love.

So here I find myself once again blogging on the blazingly quick machine in the Apple/Geek store/h.q.
Here to aquire external hard drive (that'd be h.d., to the uninitiated) to make more more more digvids - each nanosecond burns up memory like mad. Last night spoke to Beth as she was working hard on her art for today's viewing and explication rite at Parsons School of Disorg. All of a sudden I heard a screeech, a bang, and then she said Oh, Deb's cat just knocked over my art, gotta GO. Felt sad for her, nothing worse than forces of nature working against the ol' creative process. In Canada that would be pro-sess.
Just found another slammin' pair of summer in the city sandals, accidentally, of course.
Described them to Kunji as one part functional, one part girlie - parfait for traipsing about in the Shiney Apple in search of art and high times.
Speaking of such, been in communications with several Shiney Applites to tell them my ETA. And, NB, this is one week after the so-called residency at school. Due to a communication snafu Yours Truly is not there, is working hardly in the Middling City making art, finishing up gigs, weeding, and the like.
Just got email from and replied to Peter Brøtzmann who orders me to stay in touch, which I will certainly do as he's a keeper of magnanimous proportions.
Just also dropped Kennedy at airport as he's off to the Shiney Apple to see PB et al during the VisionFest.
The nice Apple store boy just fetched me my new h.d. - a $400 model holding 500 oodles of pixels and other digital video molecules. A fresh new h.d. for fresh new work.
A fresh new summer, a fresh new pair of gardens, a fresh new semester, and then - and then - a fresh new Master of Fine Arts and Universe degree. Come hell, high water, Oban, and more.

High water love.

Day of dual/duelling fests and heading shortly over to Jon's - the Music is Art affair, paralleled with an art show at Albright-Knocks that I saw yesterday that includes an overview of the work of Mark Freeland, Middling City bon vivant of sorts.
Had an art date with the niece yesterday and whisked her out of her suburban setting and headed to the aforementioned for meaningful meandering and lunch. During a break in lunch action we headed into the courtyard to climb on a fruity tree when Don Warfe appeared to not only tell us to get down but to wash our hands immediately as said tree was coated, apparently, in chems.
Meeting up with a few over in Fest 1 as long as the SPF holds out and thoughts keep involuntarily wavering over to the reality of Shiney Apple Reality heading my way in about a week.

SAR Love.

So there I was, perfectly documenting the race, the Corporate Challenge, for Middling City U in the swelteration and the good people under the tent gave Yours Truly a nice straw cowgirl hat for sunproofing. I asked Laura, who works at MCU, if, with my bitchin' shades I resembled Kid Rock. Her reply was a weak affirmative. Saddled with approximately 30-40 pounds of gear, trekking to the start, course and then finish lines I nearly faded out. Me + Heat = Bad. Memory drifted to the sun stroke I'd had in the Phillipines, when I hallucinated that I saw a man's head where the pig's should have been at a roast one beautiful evening. The daytime found me splashing in the South China Sea, and then hiding in the shade - with SPF a gazillion all the while. Then I nearly passed out in a bathroom but not before spotting one of the planet's largest cockroaches and then was put to bed for a day and a half in the bedroom of the family I stayed with, wealthy enough to have a generator-powered AC situation despite brownouts. And, once I drifted back to non-dream land, the fever dreamscape, I discovered the Qu'ran on her bedside table and read much of it. She, a Muslim, despite the sweltering Catholicism of the island Luzon, and the family she was in. Like many of the rooms of the wealthiest Filipinos, the walls were mahogany, restive mahogany left to its primal coloration, like the walls now of the room where I dream at the edge of the Middling City. Time for volunteer biz, to help Jon et al set up for Music Is Art Fest at the edge of Allentown's own, history-saddled fest.

Edgey Love.

So apparently, whilst attempting a way-rad stunt of sort, nephew careened off his bike and shattered his forearm and elbow, resulting in several plates and screws to keep it all - theoretically - together. Rushed to hospital to see his post-op self, armed with a gift bag full of mags and candy. One of the mags is all about skateboarding so I penned in a caveat about trying this out post-hosp.
As he drifted into a morphine dream he sweetly said Peace out, Auntie.
Time to rush off and shoot a bunch of ladies having tea at the presidential manor of Middling City's U's Simpson et al.

Elbow Love.

Let Us say that this shall be filed under H, for Hardy Freakin' Har.
Middling City U gig this noontime was to capture the likeness, steal the soul of one Senator Chuck Schumer (of GOFORIT Fame), weeks ago highlighted within epinw, Your source for Perfect news, advice, tidbits tantalizing and fraiche.
So Schumer, as is politco wont, is missing. Then he appears, and so does his crackerjack team. I know one member of the team quite well, we sat on an artsy committee aeons ago. So he gives me the ol' kissonthecheek and then says You know, Nance, I just told X that if Schumer gets sick, I'm breaking your camera. There is a moment's pause, a quizzical aura hovering over my head and a near violent one to boot as who in hell wants to hear that one's trade tool(s) is being threatened. It takes me a moment to realize he's wryly reffing the Hillary moment, the ol' Gripping the Podium shot. He said, Well now, I didn't choose sides. And on and on and then I said a few words. I mean really. Wasn't that about one hundred years ago, wasn't it news, wasn't it an elected official in my sights. Onwards.
Made art today, this fine AM before the gig, all shallow depth-of-field wispiness I cannot divulge too much of. But let us say it is Perfect, it Rocks. It is going to be shown in a gallery in the Shiney Apple on Fifth Avenue this fine, pending summer.
I pre-rest on my pre-set laurels.

Love of laurels.

Have an op to go to Lollapalloowhatever this summer and the big question is this: can Yours Truly dig on a two-day rock extravaganza sans camera. Think Who can I get some creds from to shoot it so at least I'm not another sweaty pedestrian. Thinking still.
So art is afoot and it goes well, need to make several days to edit them all but there are actual story boards to remember what's on all the tapes.
Yesterday shot a wedding which was a good time, knew a lot of the guests so it made it more breezy than not and engaged in a conversation with two about the differences between the sexes - processing of info and all.
Steve S cornered me at some point, as he does, to ask a shitload of prodding questions and I know he means well but allright already I say to that.
Questions about where I'm on the map, so to speak.

Speaking of Love.

And the Middling City crumbles further still.
Apparently the housing gendarmes who filter violent activity between nearby bad people and nearby decent people is fading out. Meaning. Yours Truly lives on the DMZ between Project Land and Working Class Land. Housing Cops are going bye-bye and allegedly during the summer they expect a blaze of activity, that the scene will be "busy." Heard on one MC radio program that two people were stabbed yesterday on Fulton Street en plain air and that'd be a stone's throw or so from where I blog.
Onwards.
Yesterday, while Judy Jetsoning out, saw four cop cars speeding westward (perhaps to scene du crime du jour) and in front of the pizza parlour a youngish guy watched the approaching cars and nervously wrapped his t-shirt, that he had removed and was holding, around his right fist as if getting ready for a throwdown.
Urban Pioneer Reality at its most real.
Then I went out to Middling City U to shoot another EC-produced event, this time featuring a man whose big thing is e-poetics. And he explained to sleepy students how poets working in this media hide some of their words within html code. And I thought What the hell, I like reading pomes pennyeach but who has that kind of wherewithall to be dragging an online pome's code into the light of day to read it in its entirety. Give me the word on the printed page, s'il vous plait.
He went on to say that Duncan (that'd be late great Robert Duncan), when he became himself a hotshot, would dictate to printers and publishers what font he wanted his work to appear, that he chose Times Roman for its spacing. First time I'd heard that and I find it rather suspect but oh well, let us run with it.
Today is a bad day for filming anything in the grayscape.
Time to gather the work to be delivered and disseminate images . . . and miles of smiles.

Love's Smile.

Latest in the cavalcade of hotshots photographed by Yours Truly was a hotshot from a certain Ivy League joint - this afternoon in the Middling City while said hotshot had a beetle crawling about his collar, unbeknownstingly. Hours afterward, whilst speaking to the person who had hired me for the gig - thee Elliott "GimmeAnEmmy" Caplan - I remarked on the progress (and perhaps even prowess, or prowling capabilities) of the bug. EC said he wanted to reach over and flick the dang-blamed thang. I also commented upon the fact that the man in my sights (i.e. subject) was gripping his venti Starbucks (swoon) paper cup like a shield, a prop, a signifier to such an extent I wanted to fling the goddamned thing more than the bug.
Now it is night and it is time to shoot video of things at night that you are accustomed to seeing during the daylight. My first recollection of the day for night for day or whatever phenom was when I found myself on a curious date of sorts in a large public garden at night and realizing how different nature or penned-in nature looks in the dark hours. Onwards. Today, in the garden store a man urged me to help him look for eggplants. Being ever-pleasant or rather always looking for a good blogpost and sensing one in this oversized odd man, I searched for young eggplant plants. And found him three, chatting all the while. He actually asked if my hair was a natural shade. Or, rather, he was going to pose that rather prying question until I bent over to fetch an eggplant young plant from a shelf and he saw that in sooth I am a happy natural light brunette with tinges of reddishness rather than faded primary red with scrapes of yellow faded into an interesting mélange of who can freakin' say. All thanks to beloved Jon who is in throes of working on his Music is Art Festival happening on the 11th and 12th in Allentown, a quadrant of the Middling City. Jon promises it will be one freakin' fab time with more artists, a collective of body challenging/punishing artists and more more more. Music by the usual suspects and then some more more more.
I explain to people quite frequently that my hair lies in the hands of Jon, that I like sitting down in his chair and tossing him all my trust and not really knowing what the hell I'll look like when I embark.

Love's Surprises.