I feel very lucky to get to have part of my day leading a visual life.

i can appreciate good criticism

One of the very few feminine traits I can admit to having and not be ashamed of is being a humongous Sex and the City addict. Always have been, always will be. The new trailer for SATC 2 almost brings me to tears. Tears of happiness and nostalgia covered with very shiny glitter.

SATC has made me feel very free about wearing pretty absurd outfits on a daily basis. I wear dresses with pants, red high heels which are very contrasting to my very white legs, I even own a huge butterfly which I wear as a necklace feeling absolutely no shame. Seriously, I can look pretty ridiculous to others while feeling amazingly fashion foward to myself. However, I can appreciate (and agree) with a lot of the criticism I read about the series and, especially, about the movie.

To be honest, I was a fan of the TV show when it first aired. A female writer living in New York and dealing with messy relationships? Of course I could relate. Of course I was attracted to the glitter, the nightlife, the search for love and the dating psychodramas. ... But the movie made me want to cut myself. It was a showcase for how hollow and soulless these characters were. Do they have hobbies, aside from shopping? Interests? ... I was seriously offended when Charlotte wouldn't eat anything except packaged chocolate pudding on their trip because "It's Mexico." I was also offended by Miranda's rudeness to her nanny and Samantha's "Honey, we can pay people to do the stuff we don't want to do" attitude. Then it dawned on me: These women are assholes. [link]

ny

Alicia Keys and Jay-Z performing Empire State of Mind at the VMA. Gives me the chills.

anycoloryoulike

"TRASH: anycoloryoulike is a vivid art intervention for urban beautification and environmental awareness. The project consists of select city blocks in which new artist-created bags transform standard piles of trash into vivid sculptures of color through the participation of local business owners and residents. Each TRASH bag is 100% biodegradable and naturally scented to repel insects and vermin."

aw, man! i wish i was in NY

New York artists Mina Karimi and Kara Suhey are planning to reenact the awesome Beatles sing-a-long parade scene in 1986's Ferris Bueller's Day Off for the Greenwich Village Halloween parade. They're hoping to get a couple thousand "agents" to dress up like people from the era (the 80's), and dance to "Twist and Shout" as the float goes by. As they say it, "this will involve tens of thousands of people breaking out into the world's largest Beatles sing-a-long." They've even invited Matthew Broderick to play his original part!



And they taped a hand written letter to Matthew Broderick's door:

Dear Matthew Broderick,

In 1986, you made a movie that has been the standing template for cool since the day it was released. It has inspired and given people the courage to rock and roll and live authentically, a principle we would now like to celebrate in a most festive fashion this Friday night.

At 7:00 pm in the middle of 6th Ave, we are recreating the parade scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off as a part of the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. We’ve got a 28 ft float, over 1,000 volunteers, balloons, sound equipment, and a whole entire marching band. There are no corporate ties to the event and it’s mostly just a group of friends looking to cultivate massive amounts of positive energy and for everyone to have an epically good time.

Our mission is to get everyone on the streets of NYC dancing until we reach or surpass the approximate enjoyment level of the original scene. We’ve been working hard to get all the pieces in place to give us the best chances of accomplishing this, and would now like to invite you to help us make this happen!!

Your role, if you choose to accept it, is to take over the float for one lip synching rendition of Twist & Shout in front of the TV camera crews stationed at 10th St & 6th Ave. With your brilliant coup, the crowd will absolutely go wild and NYC will erupt into one of the greatest and most joyous celebrations in the history of celebration in general.

Please let us know if you’re up for it. 2 million people are anticipated to view the event and would outrageously enjoy seeing you.

Thanks so much and have a super excellent evening!
Mina Karimi & Kara Suhey
projectbueller@gmail.com

[via NY News/NBC]

makes me love it even more

Amazingly beautiful photos of old New York City.

















More here and here| digg story

wish i was there

Unfortunately, this year I'm not going to be anywhere around NY, Chicago or San Francisco this time of the year, but to those of you who are lucky to live in one of those three places, here's my recommendation:


RENEGADE CRAFT FAIR:

Brooklyn: June 14 + 15 from 11am - 7pm at the McCarren Park Pool

San Francisco: July 12 + 13 from 11am - 7pm at Fort Mason's Festival Pavilion

Chicago: September 13 + 14 from 12pm - 10pm along Division St. between Damen & Hermitage in Wicker Park.

Here is one of the reasons why I will live in NYC one day.

via Harpy

my latest book purchase

This is the next one on the line for me: "The Warhol Economy". It seems fascinating and could not be more relevant specially to professionals in the creative industry. If you are in any way, shape or form related to the field, or if you are at all interested in public policy, it's a must-read.

Check out a great interview with the author, Elizabeth Currid, following below. Currid is Gawker's "Celebrity Theory 101" author. By the way, this is her first book. Not too shabby.

*********************

Here's from a review from the New Yorker:

"Any discussion about New York City's economic well-being tends to start and end with one phrase: Wall Street. As the Street goes, we assume, so goes the city, which is why politicians will do almost anything to keep the brokerages and investment banks happy.... [In] The Warhol Economy the social scientist Elizabeth Currid argues that this fixation is misdirected, and that it has led us to neglect the city's most vital and distinctive economic sector: the culture industry, which, in Currid's definition, includes everything from fashion, art, and music to night clubs. In other words, it's SoHo and Chelsea, not Wall Street, that the politicians should really be thinking about. Of course, everyone knows that art and culture help make New York a great place to live. But Currid goes much further, showing that the culture industry creates tremendous economic value in its own right."
-- James Surowiecki, The New Yorker

Here's from a review from The Economist:

"New York's cultural economy has reached a critical juncture threatened by, of all things, prosperity. The bleak economic conditions of the 1970s allowed artists to flock into dirt-cheap apartments and ushered in the East Village scene of the early 1980s. The boom of the past decade, by contrast, has priced budding Basquiats out of Manhattan, pushing them across the water to Brooklyn and New Jersey. Studio flats meant for artists-in-residence get snapped up by bankers. The closure last year of CBGB, a bar that became a punk and art-rock laboratory in the 1970s (and whose founder, Hilly Kristal, died last month) came to symbolise this squeeze. Ms Currid sees this expulsion of talent as a serious problem. The solution, she argues, lies in a series of well-aimed public-policy measures: tax incentives, zoning that helps nightlife districts, more subsidised housing and studio space for up-and-coming artists, and more."

Here's an excerpt from the official description:

"The implications of Currid's argument are far-reaching, and not just for New York. Urban policymakers, she suggests, have not only seriously underestimated the importance of the cultural economy, but they have failed to recognize that it depends on a vibrant creative social scene. They haven't understood, in other words, the social, cultural, and economic mix that Currid calls the Warhol economy."

And here is my favorite, an excerpt from Annie Fischer's Villace Voice article: "there's now documented proof that New York's taste makers need to drink together for the sake of the city's financial health. Cheers to that."

*********************

You can click here to check out the entire video - you can't control the timer, but it's all in there - or you can watch it below in three parts.

hospital and stuff

The past two days have been filled with running around to and from the hospital, making sure my friend is ok. I'm tired, but it's good to feel useful.

Here are four things I'm looking forward to:
1. Laying by the pool for at least half of my day tomorrow.
2. Getting the new prints I just got from Etsy framed and hung on my newly painted walls.
3. Seeing my best friend from Brazil next weekend/week. Ah! I can't wait.
4. Going to NY! (I think on the 27th. Not sure. But Yay for that anyway!)

Want to hear something great? I installed the "Honesty Box" application on my Facebook profile. Here's their quick description of it:

"Honesty Box lets you find out what your friends really think about you, your haircut, your body, your friends etc, by putting a box on your profile that people can use to send you anonymous messages. You can even reply to your anonymous messages!"

So far I got one. Check this out:



Ah! Isn't this great? I love that application. I'm just hoping someone else will write me and actually tell me something new. I replied to that first one, of course: "I know... I try to work on it, I really do, but when I realize, I already said it! Sorry! Hope I haven't ever been rude to you. I'm not a mean person, I just don't have great manners..."

Ok, big deal. Somebody told me I'm rude. What a shocker; I haven't heard that one before. But really, I don't see myself as a rude person. I'm just very honest, and I'm very good at voicing my opinion at all times. I don't mean to hurt anybody's feelings, I don't want to be evil. For real, I don't. Seriously. Get over it, people. Grow some balls or something. And please send me more comments.

I'm super tired. Good night, peeps.

3 WORDS: I NEED HELP. NOW! PLEASE?

I know, I know, I did it again. Neglected my blog. Oh, well... the truth is, I've been busy with my newfound obsession: GREY'S ANATOMY. Now, how late am I?

I had never watched an episode until about a couple of weeks ago. My friend Kira used to watch it all the time, my coworkers would talk about it, and I never knew what it was about that show that had people so worked up. But I decided to get the DVD of the first season the other day.

OH.MY.GOD. Help me. I love it! I watched that DVD in one night, then got disc 2 with the rest of Season 1 episodes. Season 2 just came out last Tuesday, and I LITERALLY ran to Blockbuster to make sure I got my copies. 5 discs overall, about 5 to 6 episodes on each. (Let's make it clear that I'm watching the last episode of Season 2 as I type this, probably for the 5th time). It took me about 4 days, but I finished them all. I was going to bed at around 3am every morning, and I was exhausted all week because I could not make myself stop watching. Now I keep re-watching my favorite parts, and I am also loving the soundtrack. The thing is, Season 3 starts tomorrow and I feel like a kid the night before 1st day of school. I'm so anxious I could just slap myself! How pathetic is that?!

The funniest thing is that I actually met McDreamy, a.k.a. Patrick Dempsey, last May during the Indianapolis 500, while interning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I mean, he was RIGHT THERE 2 feet away from me for hours and hours, bumping elbows, making jokes, just hanging out. And I didn't ever bother to freak the fuck out! What is wrong with me. MCDREAMY! Why, God, why am I such a dummass??

I don't tend to obsess over anything on TV. Most of the time I'm so entertained with my computer, and work, and other things, that the only time I actually watch anything is really late at night, before going to sleep. But now I'm hooked. And I decided I'm getting cable again. Why deprive myself of the beauty of cable TV, when I could be having enlightning and education experiences following the Real World, What Not To Wear, Trading Spaces, Lucky Louie... Oh, so many options.

On another note - New plans: I'm going to NY for a weekend beginning of October. New job: going great. I work a lot, like the people, am learning a lot, and most of all, I get to afford cable TV.Yay!