runaway

i snapped this photo at a freelance catering job i did a few months ago in a house on the upper east side. this little redhead 8-year-old was teasing me--asking for photos then running away. something about this image makes me love life....

i'm in love...i'm all shook up.

thursday, 26 february, 2009: jakob the docent

i used to be the docent in this amazing art class, which means i was a helper. now that i'm the exalted teacher's assistant, i realize what an overachieving docent i was (surprised?). docents come each semester and they go. but only until jakob came this semester did anyone measure up to the advanced level of genuine ass-kissing, bending-over-backwards, and intuiting-my-every need that i did. and now i understood why everyone loves me.
because i love jakob. he makes life easier and so pleasantly too. and i love how, despite the fact that there are 200+ built in seats with desks, jakob insists on sitting in a separate chair in the corner. all the better to jump up and help kitty joe's any whim. including feeding the parking meter quarters at hourly intervals when i have the boss's truck. oh, abuse of power....

waking up in bed stuy

these days are long and full. i've been waking up with the sun...

un dia tipico

what can i say? i've abandonned you. you've probably abandonned me. sorry! life is transient and jammed packed as i head into my final three weeks of school running way behind. i have secrets i cannot tell, so i give you a new photo from habana vieja, whose spell i haven't yet shaken.

in print!

ah, life. so many crazy changes going on right now that i'm not at liberty to discuss here. because then i'd have to kill you. can i SAY that? does that qualify to someone who just stumbled on my blog because they googled "crazy vegetable porn" (oops, there go the hits!) as a threat? okay, but back on track. so many things going on right now that i didn't even tell you about THIS major thing. this major thing that i've waited for precisely three years. patiently, impatiently, laboriously, with hope, totally hopeless, and then poof, just like that, i return from cuba and there are three copies of tape op sitting on my table with my photos of sufjan stevens in it.

now i'm absolutley going to be so obnoxious as to scan and reproduce every page, every photo in the article for you. because, come on. three years. and clearly i am not a modest person. give me more success, and i'll give you some modesty. until then, i will sing my pittily splashes from the banisters of all y'all homes.
(in case you're not keen on details)

but i warn you--the article, even if you click on the photo to enlarge and read it, will be of no interest to you. unless you have a knowledge and lust for microphones and recording lingo. this magazine is well known to me. it has held court in my bathroom magazine rack every month without fail for the past thirteen years. because i've dated recording nerds for that long.


this all came about thanks to my friend rafter, who called me up one whirlwind weekend visit and said, "i'm interviewing sufjan, won't you come along and take photos? if you don't do it, i'm using my cell phone camera!"
and well, with that kind of flattery, who could say no? but i will admit i had a lot of nerves, as the lens i brought along had no auto focus, lighting conditions were terrible, plus i was working on a healthy crush on sufjan that pretty much comes standard issue with the territory of ever sharing a meal with him. (below, see outtake demonstrating said ridiculous charm).

all this was dispelled by a gorgeous dinner at a fancy raw restaurant where rafter, sufjan and i passed around tasting plates of heavenly bizarre conconctions, searched endlessly for a quiet place to record an interview and ended up on the floor of rafter's hotel hallway for a midnight to 4am chat. studio visit followed in which i photographed sufjan playing drums, guitar, oboe, and showing off the mics he's been ridiculed for using.

i ended up transcribing the interview to speed its publishing. do you know how much work that is? so, yeah. this was a labor of love. a really long, three year labor. enjoy.

and because everybody loves more outtakes...
and here, i pretend to be rockstar while sufjan pretends to be photographer.

and just as i thought this article must be stale and irrelevant, i see it's inspired 7 pages of message board posts.... but that's the sufjan touch.
oh, and this kind of thing excites me too.....

rez's mom

tuesday, 24 february 2009 rez's mom

it's another poll. which one do you prefer, and why? these two benefit from clicking to enlarge. i'm most interested in the sparkle the sunlight gives to little details like hair, eyes. and the fine lines that women try to hide, yet, how beautiful she is.

breaking news: students and faculty protest the impending graduation of kitty joe

"she will be missed greatly around here. these halls will just not be the same without her stellar fashion sense & broad smile. i'm considering dropping out....", remarked one student dressed in black and carrying vigil candles.
police were sent in when overzealous students blocked her exit.

okay, if you want to read the real story, it's here.

room with a view

the crazy thing about this building across the street is that i could see somone inside sweeping...

waffle woven

despite the fact that i stayed an extra week or so in cuba, i didn't really get a chance to slow down enough to capture the little magic moments that made it so special. but this was a rare one that i did. just the bedspread at the casa particular.

traffic jam-havana style