The Lower East Side Print Shop, although no longer in the Lower East Side, is a fabulous, wonderful print shop. Not only is the print shop lovely, but so are all the people that work there and all the artists that they work with. And thusly, they deserve everyone who has some extra money lying around to give it to them in support and good will. And if you looked in your wallet and said to yourself, "hey! I have a wad of extra cash right here!", you're in double luck! Because right now they are having a benefit auction, so not only do you wind up helping out a wonderful institution, but they give you real, live art in exchange! The list of artist is amazing, including your's truly, and I promise they you can find something that will match your couch. Check it out, pick out your favorites (most are even framed!), attend the auction on February 24th (or you can buy a bunch of them right now online), and get yo'self some art!
http://printshop.org/web/Collect/Exhibitions/benefit10/sale_preview.html
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Who wants to hear about my last week?
I can hear you yelling and jumping up and down, "Oh I do! I do!"
Oh and you do, I know.
First, the week started off after returning from a wonderful trip to Disney World (oh yeah! I never mentioned family vacation to the wonderful world of Disney!, next time I promise)...but as I was saying, I had returned from my adventures with Uncle Mickey and was sitting on my couch about to do some work on my computer when my computer decided it didn't really feel like working that afternoon. Hoping that it was a passing technological bad mood, put it away for a nap, reinstalled the programs, and had a little chat with my laptop.
To no avail.
So I tried threatening. Backed everything up on my external hard drive, made an appointment at the Genius Bar and turned on the TV to wait til morning.
Stupid computer.
Got to the Mac Store, they wound up wiping my hard drive do to some terminal whatevers and techy hijinks. No big deal, right? I mean I did just back up everything right?
Oh, I wish.
I get home, ready to attach this issue head on, and reinstall everything and start from scratch. Only it turned out I was the only one ready to start out on this new adventure with my naked computer, it however, had very different ideas. So different that I was shocked. It refused to open anything, much less reinstall my back-ups. Back to the doctor you go, little Mac!
Did I mention that I hate computers?
So I make another appointment at the Genius Bar and hope that this next visit will go better than the first. I arrive in a good mood, and 3 1/2 hours later, I leave in a jubiliant mood, cause they fixed everything and upgraded everything, and gave me a bunch of programs that I was going to have to buy! Success! Life is good! Yeah Geniuses!!!!
Oh I spoke way too soon. Although everything looks hunky-dory, my computer is completely uncooperative, and refuses to load any back-ups. Sigh. To tekserve I now go...but it's Saturday, and I can't get there in time, so I'll do it tomorrow. In the meantime I continue to go about my life. Part of that life involves going out to meet friends and occationally have meetings, but often I do have to leave my apartment. Even if I don't want to. So I have this meeting to go to on Saturday evening, and as I leave my wonderful abode, the door knob spins, but isn't making contact with anything...and then it does, and the door opens, and as I pull it open, the door knob on the outside of the door goes flying across the hallway. For real. It fell off. I have a meeting to go to. Now.
I prop the door open with a giant glass cast rabbit from grad school, and try to reassemble my very confused door knob, with no success. But I have to leave, so I can get in so long as the little nobby thing (you know what I mean, the little knobby that holds the door closed that is worked by the door knob...that's the technical term) doesn't go into the door frame I can use the dead bolt and not worry about it. Right? Grab the duct tape, tape the shit out of it, and test it out. I'm brilliant I'm thinking...and I am wrong. The deadbolt doesn't work if the little knobby is immobilized...but I discover that as part of the deadbolt function, it automatically pulls in the little thingy when you unlock it. So I will deal with this much later, and head off to my meeting. Now late.
Meeting goes well, whatever, get home, let myself in no problem, and that is the last time that door knob worked. Sunday I am stuck in my apartment. If you wanted me to come out and play I couldn't, if I had been hungry for something other than what was in my fridge I was shit out of luck, cause you couldn't open my front door. But it would have cost me an extra $50 to have a locksmith come on a Sunday, so I can wait a day, I mean, what would I go out and do on a Sunday anyway?
Monday comes, I call the locksmith. He arrives, I slide him the key so he can let himself in, he pulls a new door knob out of his pocket, he replaces the pieces of what used to be my door knob, and then he charged me $110...four minutes, $110. I am in the wrong field. No one told me to conscider being a locksmith when I grew up. They should have. Four minutes.
But I am free, hallalujah! I am free! I grab my computer, and cart it off to Tekserve...$220. Cause they can't figure out what's wrong with it, it has to go to the real, real doctor.
Did I mention yet that I hate computers? I think I did, but I'm just double checking.
It's going to take a couple days...meaning four days. Four days with out internet. Four days without being about to print anything. Four days of no computer.
I got a lot of drawing done. It's been long time since I was that productive, a little out of the loop in social circles, missed a few parties in the absence of facebook, but overall I survived.
After four days I got to pick up my very expensive, pissy computer...and even they couldn't make the back-ups work perfectly. They recovered my iPhotos, but I lost all jpgs on both my external hard drive and my computer due to an unforseable software glitch that should never have happened. They could be recoverable, but that would be another $900 and in the future I need to wipe and reformat my external hard drive...not that I have somewhere to put everything on it while that happens...so I should just buy a new one and start all over...what? What? The jpgs are all gone? My portfolio is gone. Everything that I have color corrected and sized, and organized, and bunch by who's seen what and what's been sent where is gone? What? $900...
$900...Did I tell you yet how much I hate computers?
I have a few more days to figure out what I'm going to do, because I can't use my hard drive in the meantime, and I need to use my hard drive almost more than the actual computer. At least my door knobs work now.
Oh and you do, I know.
First, the week started off after returning from a wonderful trip to Disney World (oh yeah! I never mentioned family vacation to the wonderful world of Disney!, next time I promise)...but as I was saying, I had returned from my adventures with Uncle Mickey and was sitting on my couch about to do some work on my computer when my computer decided it didn't really feel like working that afternoon. Hoping that it was a passing technological bad mood, put it away for a nap, reinstalled the programs, and had a little chat with my laptop.
To no avail.
So I tried threatening. Backed everything up on my external hard drive, made an appointment at the Genius Bar and turned on the TV to wait til morning.
Stupid computer.
Got to the Mac Store, they wound up wiping my hard drive do to some terminal whatevers and techy hijinks. No big deal, right? I mean I did just back up everything right?
Oh, I wish.
I get home, ready to attach this issue head on, and reinstall everything and start from scratch. Only it turned out I was the only one ready to start out on this new adventure with my naked computer, it however, had very different ideas. So different that I was shocked. It refused to open anything, much less reinstall my back-ups. Back to the doctor you go, little Mac!
Did I mention that I hate computers?
So I make another appointment at the Genius Bar and hope that this next visit will go better than the first. I arrive in a good mood, and 3 1/2 hours later, I leave in a jubiliant mood, cause they fixed everything and upgraded everything, and gave me a bunch of programs that I was going to have to buy! Success! Life is good! Yeah Geniuses!!!!
Oh I spoke way too soon. Although everything looks hunky-dory, my computer is completely uncooperative, and refuses to load any back-ups. Sigh. To tekserve I now go...but it's Saturday, and I can't get there in time, so I'll do it tomorrow. In the meantime I continue to go about my life. Part of that life involves going out to meet friends and occationally have meetings, but often I do have to leave my apartment. Even if I don't want to. So I have this meeting to go to on Saturday evening, and as I leave my wonderful abode, the door knob spins, but isn't making contact with anything...and then it does, and the door opens, and as I pull it open, the door knob on the outside of the door goes flying across the hallway. For real. It fell off. I have a meeting to go to. Now.
I prop the door open with a giant glass cast rabbit from grad school, and try to reassemble my very confused door knob, with no success. But I have to leave, so I can get in so long as the little nobby thing (you know what I mean, the little knobby that holds the door closed that is worked by the door knob...that's the technical term) doesn't go into the door frame I can use the dead bolt and not worry about it. Right? Grab the duct tape, tape the shit out of it, and test it out. I'm brilliant I'm thinking...and I am wrong. The deadbolt doesn't work if the little knobby is immobilized...but I discover that as part of the deadbolt function, it automatically pulls in the little thingy when you unlock it. So I will deal with this much later, and head off to my meeting. Now late.
Meeting goes well, whatever, get home, let myself in no problem, and that is the last time that door knob worked. Sunday I am stuck in my apartment. If you wanted me to come out and play I couldn't, if I had been hungry for something other than what was in my fridge I was shit out of luck, cause you couldn't open my front door. But it would have cost me an extra $50 to have a locksmith come on a Sunday, so I can wait a day, I mean, what would I go out and do on a Sunday anyway?
Monday comes, I call the locksmith. He arrives, I slide him the key so he can let himself in, he pulls a new door knob out of his pocket, he replaces the pieces of what used to be my door knob, and then he charged me $110...four minutes, $110. I am in the wrong field. No one told me to conscider being a locksmith when I grew up. They should have. Four minutes.
But I am free, hallalujah! I am free! I grab my computer, and cart it off to Tekserve...$220. Cause they can't figure out what's wrong with it, it has to go to the real, real doctor.
Did I mention yet that I hate computers? I think I did, but I'm just double checking.
It's going to take a couple days...meaning four days. Four days with out internet. Four days without being about to print anything. Four days of no computer.
I got a lot of drawing done. It's been long time since I was that productive, a little out of the loop in social circles, missed a few parties in the absence of facebook, but overall I survived.
After four days I got to pick up my very expensive, pissy computer...and even they couldn't make the back-ups work perfectly. They recovered my iPhotos, but I lost all jpgs on both my external hard drive and my computer due to an unforseable software glitch that should never have happened. They could be recoverable, but that would be another $900 and in the future I need to wipe and reformat my external hard drive...not that I have somewhere to put everything on it while that happens...so I should just buy a new one and start all over...what? What? The jpgs are all gone? My portfolio is gone. Everything that I have color corrected and sized, and organized, and bunch by who's seen what and what's been sent where is gone? What? $900...
$900...Did I tell you yet how much I hate computers?
I have a few more days to figure out what I'm going to do, because I can't use my hard drive in the meantime, and I need to use my hard drive almost more than the actual computer. At least my door knobs work now.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
another opera first
Simone Bocanegra.
My first Placido Domingo performance.
And it lived up to his reputation. He was fantastic. Everyone in the cast was fantastic (almost...a couple needed to warm up a bit, but then they were great). It was the first performance at the Met that you could actually hear everyone signing their parts during a Verdi classic cinquette...or whatever you call them. It wasn't as profoundly moving as House of the Dead was, but it was sung beautifully, and low and behold, Placido can act! He died like 5 times! He's old, man! And each time he did dead-guy face plants.
But that's not the real point of this story...for the first time in all my solo visits to the Metropolitan Opera an old man tried to pick me up. Oh yeah. He came up to me during intermission and offered to have me join him in the seat next to him on the orchestra level. To which I kindly explained that the sound was better up where I was sitting, with a smile naturally. I guess I looked good tonight in my new jeans, ancient sweater, and $5 pashmina...or at least hot to an old German man...and I'll giggle about that for days.
If only he had been as suave as Placido...
My first Placido Domingo performance.
And it lived up to his reputation. He was fantastic. Everyone in the cast was fantastic (almost...a couple needed to warm up a bit, but then they were great). It was the first performance at the Met that you could actually hear everyone signing their parts during a Verdi classic cinquette...or whatever you call them. It wasn't as profoundly moving as House of the Dead was, but it was sung beautifully, and low and behold, Placido can act! He died like 5 times! He's old, man! And each time he did dead-guy face plants.
But that's not the real point of this story...for the first time in all my solo visits to the Metropolitan Opera an old man tried to pick me up. Oh yeah. He came up to me during intermission and offered to have me join him in the seat next to him on the orchestra level. To which I kindly explained that the sound was better up where I was sitting, with a smile naturally. I guess I looked good tonight in my new jeans, ancient sweater, and $5 pashmina...or at least hot to an old German man...and I'll giggle about that for days.
If only he had been as suave as Placido...
Monday, 11 January 2010
18" of snow in London!
I know, that's the headlines everyone was hearing...18" of snow in London...
Gatwick closed, Luton closed, Heathrow closed for a few hours, flights canceled and delayed for days! Tubes shutdown, school canceled! Shops and restaurants closed because people can't get to work! Absolutely unheard of chaos! On top of that it was just freezing outside! A whopping -1º C (that would be 30º F for us Westerners, who during the winter would think about breaking out our beloved flip flops if it was that warm outside).
It never snows like that in London. And I mean never. I mean, um, I was there, and I didn't see 18" of snow on the ground. Well, maybe 18 mm, ok, maybe a little bit more than 18 mm, but not much. I'll give it 3" and that's being generous. Emmanuelle (a fantastic friend of Kelly's) lives near Hyde Park and she claimed to have 6" or so on the ground, but she might have been exaggerating...I mean, she's only a 30 minute walk from Kelly's place in Shoreditch, and I find it hard to believe that the small street Kelly lives off of is in such a microcosm of weather anomaly.
Shut down the airports? For an imaginary 18" of snow? I don't doubt that it dropped feet of snow in Scotland. It's cold up there, but Scotland is really far away. London? Come on.
I even have proof. This was taken in Hockney Park the night after the city was snowed in with the storm of the millennium.
Does that look like 18" to you? It's beautiful, I'll admit that. London in the snow is pretty magical. The dogs loved it, and it was kinda nice having to hole up in the apartment and eat all the cheese and pate and drink the plethora of wine we had stockpiled for just such an occasion (in the event of a zombie invasion, I'm placing my bets on surviving the longest in Kelly's flat, meet you there).
This is probably where I'm supposed to add in the joke my mom made about British men and if this is what they think 18" looks like, just imagine how small 8" is (see, I come by it honest)...ah, London.
Gatwick closed, Luton closed, Heathrow closed for a few hours, flights canceled and delayed for days! Tubes shutdown, school canceled! Shops and restaurants closed because people can't get to work! Absolutely unheard of chaos! On top of that it was just freezing outside! A whopping -1º C (that would be 30º F for us Westerners, who during the winter would think about breaking out our beloved flip flops if it was that warm outside).
It never snows like that in London. And I mean never. I mean, um, I was there, and I didn't see 18" of snow on the ground. Well, maybe 18 mm, ok, maybe a little bit more than 18 mm, but not much. I'll give it 3" and that's being generous. Emmanuelle (a fantastic friend of Kelly's) lives near Hyde Park and she claimed to have 6" or so on the ground, but she might have been exaggerating...I mean, she's only a 30 minute walk from Kelly's place in Shoreditch, and I find it hard to believe that the small street Kelly lives off of is in such a microcosm of weather anomaly.
Shut down the airports? For an imaginary 18" of snow? I don't doubt that it dropped feet of snow in Scotland. It's cold up there, but Scotland is really far away. London? Come on.
I even have proof. This was taken in Hockney Park the night after the city was snowed in with the storm of the millennium.
Does that look like 18" to you? It's beautiful, I'll admit that. London in the snow is pretty magical. The dogs loved it, and it was kinda nice having to hole up in the apartment and eat all the cheese and pate and drink the plethora of wine we had stockpiled for just such an occasion (in the event of a zombie invasion, I'm placing my bets on surviving the longest in Kelly's flat, meet you there).
This is probably where I'm supposed to add in the joke my mom made about British men and if this is what they think 18" looks like, just imagine how small 8" is (see, I come by it honest)...ah, London.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
My God it's cold out there
For the first time this winter, not that it's been particularly cold so far, I woke up and with much groaning and protesting had to get out of the my nice warm, soft bed to close all the windows in my apartment because it's freezing out there, and even my Brooklyn uber-heat couldn't fight it off. It may be December, but I do not recall giving it permission to get this frigid yet.
But despite the arctic wind blowing through the streets of Brooklyn and down the alleyways of New York, I have something that may warm your heart and soul: another opportunity for you to see my art (I know! I am so generous giving everyone all these opportunities to support the arts all the time!). Although it will be in an even windier location, but maybe it's warmer than here...
None the less, if you happen to find yourself in the windswep beach town of Narragansett, RI (where I spent many an afternoon in grad school laying on the beach working on the art of my tan) feel free to stop by One Way Gallery for their winter show, opening tomorrow night. Sadly, I will not be able to attend the opening myself, but I will be there in spirit. Truth be told I'm debating not going outside until spring...I hate wintertime...
http://www.theonewaygallery.com/HOME.html
But despite the arctic wind blowing through the streets of Brooklyn and down the alleyways of New York, I have something that may warm your heart and soul: another opportunity for you to see my art (I know! I am so generous giving everyone all these opportunities to support the arts all the time!). Although it will be in an even windier location, but maybe it's warmer than here...
None the less, if you happen to find yourself in the windswep beach town of Narragansett, RI (where I spent many an afternoon in grad school laying on the beach working on the art of my tan) feel free to stop by One Way Gallery for their winter show, opening tomorrow night. Sadly, I will not be able to attend the opening myself, but I will be there in spirit. Truth be told I'm debating not going outside until spring...I hate wintertime...
http://www.theonewaygallery.com/HOME.html
Monday, 16 November 2009
opera number 2
So after the horridness that was Aida at the Met Opera, I was a little apprehensive about the House of the Dead, and opera that I'd never heard of and hadn't been performed at the Met since forever...
IT IS THE BEST OPERATIC PERFORMANCE I'VE SEEN, EVER.
It was so amazing, at the end of the show the audience took a second to start applauding because we were all so blown away. It was the first opera I've been to in years where the standing ovations and bravos were well deserved. It had me sitting on the edge of my seat, they actually acted, and I'm still moved by the writing. Janacek, I had no idea you were so fantastic (For everyone, like me, who had no idea what this opera is about, it's set in a Siberian prison with an almost completely male cast of about a hundred singers). I'm actually tempted to read the book it's based on, also called House of the Dead by Fydor Dostoyevsky, so you know it's happy (ha! who's ever heard of a opera making you want to read a book! Could I get anymore bourgeoisie!).
IT IS THE BEST OPERATIC PERFORMANCE I'VE SEEN, EVER.
It was so amazing, at the end of the show the audience took a second to start applauding because we were all so blown away. It was the first opera I've been to in years where the standing ovations and bravos were well deserved. It had me sitting on the edge of my seat, they actually acted, and I'm still moved by the writing. Janacek, I had no idea you were so fantastic (For everyone, like me, who had no idea what this opera is about, it's set in a Siberian prison with an almost completely male cast of about a hundred singers). I'm actually tempted to read the book it's based on, also called House of the Dead by Fydor Dostoyevsky, so you know it's happy (ha! who's ever heard of a opera making you want to read a book! Could I get anymore bourgeoisie!).
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
I know that it come across sometimes that I'm just tooting my own horn: look at my fabulous art, listen to my amazing stories of international travel and adventures, come to my amazing show filled with sexy friends...but you know, in a way, someone's gotta get things done...and you know it's better than reading the paper...sometimes at least...I hope...
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