September 2010

Yes, that's right....

I am now 37 years of age. Goodness.

Hmmm...

How do actors practice when they're not working on a project. Musicians can play their instruments, but what about actors? Do they just act in their bedrooms?

Sorbet

Made some peach sorbet this weekend. It tastes like orange sherbert.

Movies

Avatar - P

retty good. It was really pretty - even on my 20 in TV. I can't imagine seeing it in 3D. I think my head would have exploded.

Deadliest Catch- Pretty good. Essentially they go fishing, some gets hurt or dies, then they get paid.

Dear Zachary -Really good. Brutal. So sad.

Entourage - Season 6- Good enough. It's Entourage. What else can you say?

Greenberg - Pretty good. I found the character sort of annoying. But I suppose that's just the character.

Hot Tub Time Machine - Pretty good. in fact almost really good.

Mamma Mia - Meh. Though watching Pierce Brosnan sing is fascinating.

Mike Birbiglia - What I Should Have Said Was Nothing Tales From My Secret Public Journal-Oh Mike Birbiglia. He's a funny joke guy.

Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037 - Pretty Good. Interesting on how it all works.

The Kids Are All Right - Really good. Good acting

The Lookout - Really good. Love that Gordon Joseph-Levitt.

This Is It - Pretty good. Oh Michael Jackson.

Toy Story 3 - Good stuff.

Whip It - Oh Juno. Pretty good. Coming of age on roller skates.

Youth in Revolt - Pretty good. It was rather charming.

Zach Galifianakis: Live - Pretty good. Though uncomfortable at times. He's pretty funny. He seems to be in every other movie.

Books

I Know This Much is True - by Wally Lamb - Really good. Really depressing. Really long. Sort of draining.

Yield - by Lee Houck - Pretty good. And get this - it was written by my maple candy supplier! It's about a twenty-something part time hustler. www.leehouck.com

Music

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - by Wilco - Pretty good. I was given this. It's nice and easy.

Museums

Big Bambu - Metropolitan Museum of Art - If you get a chance to climb on it, do it. You can go up on the roof and look at it, but if you want to climb on it, you have to get a special ticket - directions on the Met website.

July 2010

Way Too Hot

People, it's way too hot. Too hot for drawing. But not too hot for the video I made in class today. It's a little bit creepy . Sort of look like Orphan Annie, what with no pupils and all. At the end of class the teacher (who has been out on a date with Bjork AND dated Debbie Harry) said, "You've got a lot going on there, maybe next week , you can work on something more cohesive, a few simple gestures, maybe" It's very tedious, the stop animation. And I'm not to fond of making the model -ergo the half-assed look of mine. There are 24 frames per second of movie. Wowsers! Blah blah blah. After multiple tries uploading here, I went and opened a youtube account.

Look! I figured out how to "embed" it!

Hmmmm....

"Find what you really love to do and then go after it - relentlessly. And don't fret about the money. Because what you love to do is quite likely what you're good at. And what you're good at will likely bring you financial reward eventually." Steve Hannah CEO, The Onion.

See the problem is, what do I really love? I love talking to my bears. I like telling people what do to. I enjoyed putting together my concert. Perhaps I can be a concert promoter for bears...

Jean Shorts

Yeah, I bought some. I think I like them. Jean shorts.

Awesome

Pretzel M&M's - totally awesome

Movies

Little Children - Good enough. I had read the book a while back and was curious.

Big Fan - Good enough. Was interested in seeing Patton Oswalt do a dramatic role

Babies -Good enough. I was distracted by the tween boys behind me. I don't know who thought that this would be a good movie for a bunch of boys. No no no.

Valentine's Day - Good enough.

The Messenger - Better than good enough, but not quite really good. Rough topic, done well.

The Dark Knight - I got confused. It was too violent for me.

It's Complicated - Good enough. Entertaining...

The Hurt Locker - Way intense. I couldn't make it all the way through.

Eclipse - Super fantastic. It was pretty great (for a Twilight movie). It was a like a real movie.

Good Hair - Pretty Good. Documentary by Chris Rock.

The Good Guy- Good enough. Meh.

Books

The Girl Who Played With Fire - by Stieg Larsson - man these books are addictive...good stuff..Too bad the guy is dead

A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier - by Ishmael Beah - really good.

Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal.....[the title keeps going on and on -it's a memoir] - by Jen Lancaster - she's really mean. Light, fun, trashy reading

An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination - A Memoir -by Elizabeth McCracken -Really good. Really sad. Really good.

Mid Month Special

Last Thursday was supposed to be my first class, but the day before the class, I got a phone call saying that the teacher had canceled the first class. Class is from noon to 5:30 and I had gotten permission to leave at 11:30ish on Thursdays.

So I left to go to "class." Went to Katz's for a sandwich, went to the movie "Babies", walked around, blah blah blah.

I felt a little guilty, so I bought some clay and fashioned the above. I don't know. It's not as cute as a real pouch baby. Maybe I"ll do something else. Hmmm...

Once class starts, I'm hoping to post something after every class....stay tuned....

June 2010

Comments

I've noticed that a lot of people (men and women) look about 3 months pregnant.

Did you know you can make a podcast via the Garage Band program? Maybe I'll try that. Like an audio book or director's commentary to the zine.

My class start this week! Alright!

Movies

Precious - I had read the book and the movie was just as rough.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee -It was okay. A little on the arty side. Sorta boring but in a good way.

Quinceanera - Good enough

Doubt - Really good. That Phillip Seymour Hoffman can really act.

Duplicity - Good enough. Somewhat entertaining.

Crazy Heart - Really good. Heartbreaking.

Music:

Glee - Volume 3 - I think something's wrong with the computer, cause when I try to upload it the computer and put in on the ipod, it doesn't come out so good. Guess I'll have to take the computer in to be fixed or something.

Books:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows - Finished this. Really enjoyed it even if I sometimes got some of the characters confused.

City of Thieves - David Benioff -I quite enjoyed this and usually I don't like historical stuff.

Julie & Julia - Julie Powell - I got maybe a third of the way through and realized that I had had enough and was no longer interested. I did enjoy the movie though.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson - Really good. The cover is quite bright and I'm not sure what I thought it was going to be about ,but it's quite good

Broadway

Mamma Mia -My cousin has an exchange student staying with her and I had promised to take her to a broadway show. So my cousin, her 11 year old son, and the exchange student went and saw Mamma Mia. I think a good time was had by all.

Art

Dead or Alive -Museum of Arts & Design - Some really fun (and creepy stuff). A (giant) pile of mice skeletons, a big animal type shape thing covered in horse tail hair, a "diamond" made from a parakeets remains, wowsers. The Bespoke exhibit of bikes is also pretty great.

Mid Month Special

Our encore......

May 2010

Concert Countdown!!!

Get ready to rock and roll!!! Put it in your calendar!! May 14. And don't forget your $6. Start your Friday night off right with a recorder and two guitar concert and then head out and party on.

Recent Fortune Cookie Fortunes

You will spend old age in comfort and material wealth.

You will be advanced socially, without any special effort.

Awwwww....

Went to a pre-concert dinner with a friend and her family.....got an email the next day......

"My mom thinks you would be a really good mom."

Books

The Believers - Zoe Heller - It was pretty good. She also wrote What Was She Thinking - Notes on a Scandal

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows -reading this now....it's a little confusing, too many names...but it's pretty good, I just have no idea what's going on.

Movies

Mad Men - Season 3 - It's a pretty great show.

Music

Give Up by The Postal Service - Really good

Quelqu'un M'a Dit by Carla Bruni - That Mrs. Sarkozy can sing.

Narnia Prince Caspian Soundtrack - I basically got this for the song The Call by Regina Spektor. But wouldn't you know it, Disney has locked CD so I can't put it on the computer to put on the ipod. Mad mad mad.

Broadway/Off Broadway

Fences - This is an August Wilson play starrring.....DENZEL! It was quite good. I was tired so sometimes I closed my eyes and pretended it was a radio program.

Asylum - This was written and performed by James Braly and performed at Dixon Place. I had heard a story of his on the Moth that I quite enjoyed.

Art

I've recently joined the Whitney Museum and MoMA. And through mom, I'm a member of a bunch of other museums. I think I'm done with broadway for a bit and will now shift to museums.

Marina Abramovic - The Artist is Present - MoMA - This is the one where you can sit at a table across from her. There is a retrospective upstairs that's really loud and naked. There are real live naked people. In one exhibit, there is a (naked) man and (naked) woman standing opposite each other in a doorway. If you want to get into the next room you have to pass through this doorway (or the other doorway on the other side of the exhibit) I made myself go though the naked doorway, boy did I have to get myself psyched up. Oh art.

2010 Whitney Biennial - Whitney Museum - It's a lot of stuff. I've been twice and sort of run through it. That's the beauty of being a member, you don't have to see it all in one shot. You can go back whenever you want.

Mid Month Special

April 2010

Man oh Man

I don't know. I just can't put together a zine lately. They seem to get shorter and lamer. I'll try harder. I'll blame it on lack of exercise, practicing for my concert and low grade depression.

Concert

Yeah, seriously. I'm doing a concert in NYC on May 14, 2010. $6. It's going to be awesome!

Conversation with Mom

Mom: Do you have those leggings that look like jeans?

Me: Umm, no.

Mom: I saw them on TV yesterday

Movies:

The Hangover - Pretty good. There were a couple moments when they go a little too far.

Project Runway Season 5 and 6 -Meh. Season 6 was pretty awful. Nothing really compelling.

Eclipse is coming out June 30, 2010!!!!

Marley and Me - good...sad. sad. sad.

Fame! - the original version. Good stuff.

Mad Men - Now I'm in Season 2. Good stuff.

Band Slam - Good enough. I had high hopes for this.

The Broadway

Lend Me A Tenor - Pretty good. It's something that my mom will enjoy. Like Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, but not. Tony Shaloub, Anthony LaPaglia and the young man from The Hangover.

Next To Normal - Really good. Who doesn't love a musical about someone with bipolar.

God of Carnage - Good stuff. It's pretty entertaining.

Red - Really good. Alfred Molina as the artist Mark Rothko. Truth be told, I fell asleep for a little bit (as I do at most shows), but the parts I saw were excellent. It's rather intense.

Music

Ingrid Michaelson - Found her on the Pandora from my Regina Spektor channel. She sounds like well, Regina Spektor, it's sort of pleasant and non-impactful.

Books

American Wife - Really good.

In Defense of Food -I stopped reading it, I got bored.

Blink - Read about half of it, I got bored.

Mid Month Special

Little Miss Matched.....Project Sock Design Contest -Season 2

Entry deadline April 15, 2010.

Check it out.

http://www.littlemissmatched.com/ProjectSock

Little Miss Matched is primarily known for selling packs of 3 non-matching but somehow related socks. No limit on the number of entries! Here is the first of what will be one of my many submissions.

March 2010

Hmmmm....

Didn't really start this until yesterday.......got a little depressed toward the end of the month and got behind schedule. So this month it's sketches that may or may not evolve into something more at a later date.

Taxes

Done! Refund!

Cholesterol

169. Wrong!

Media:

Movies:

Inglorious Basterds - Really Good. Super intense and violent. OMG.

Enlighten Up - Good enough. An exploration of yoga. Not super interesting.

Louis CK - Chewed Up - pretty funny.

The Graduate -Pretty Good - Watching a young Dustin Hoffman is pretty great.

Mad Men - Season One - Half way through, quite good.

New York I Love You - Good enough.

Books:

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - by David Wroblewski - Really good.

Olive Kitteridge - by Elizabeth Strout -Really good.

Push:A Novel - by Sapphire - really good. Rough. Don't know that I want to see the movie.

In Defense of Food - by Michael Pollan -just started this...

Drawn To Life - Walt Stanchfield -working my way through it.

The Broadway

A View From the Bridge - by Arthur Miller - Really good. That Liev Schreiber can act.

Next Fall - by Geoffrey Nauffts - Really good. Entertaining.

On the Internet

Facebook - I'm on the Facebook. Almost. Kinda sorta. The profile pictures of Robbie and Joe are drawings that I've done.

School of Visual Arts - Continuing Ed- Course Finder- Illustration and Cartooning - Under "Class Artwork" for Cartooning Basics are two examples of my stuff.

Mid Month Special

Went up to Rob and Robbie's country house for the weekend. Eat, Lounge, Sleep, Repeat. Look at Pete. Isn't he sweet?

February 2010

Annoying
There is a guy on the morning commute who drinks his Starbucks and then leaves his cup on the train. C'mon man! Perhaps I should be more zen and ask myself why it bothers me. Answer: Because he should take his garbage with him.

How Does That Work
When I read an article about an artist (actors, playwrights, writers, painters etc.) I always wonder, do they make their living off of it and how much money do they make? I mean, if they had a day job, wouldn't that be mentioned that in the article? Or maybe they don't because who wants to read an article about the hot new playwright who also works at the local cheese shop.

Annual Physical
Blood results aren't in yet....but I've gained 5 pounds since last year. Ugh. Gotta get unfat since a medical professional has said I should lose just a little. But I've only gained 10 pounds overall since 19998, not so bad.

Broadway Show
After reading the reviews for A View Under the Bridge, I decided I really wanted to see it. So I went to the box office and bought a ticket. Who knew it was so easy to do that? Seeing it on Feb. 21, review to follow.

Golden Ticket
Went to the employee-only cafeteria of the majority tenant at work. They don't accept cash, you have to have a special vendor card. A co-worker has a card. Not sure how, don't want to know. So we went, it was pretty great, but it felt a little wrong.

Recorder Inspiration
Went to a production of The Two Noble Kinsmen by The Guerilla Shakespeare Project. I think the best part was the guy who was rocking out on the recorder! He played a lot of Beatles and some Don McLean. Amazing! I've been practicing, practicing...

Movies
500 Days of Summer - Really good. I bought it.
Adam - Pretty good. I think I had Aspergers for a couple hours after watching the movie
Away We Go - Not so good. So friggin' boring. Ugh.
Funny People - Pretty good - dark and a little too long.
Glee - Bought the first season. Good stuff.
Julie & Julia - Really good. Though Amy Adam's voice sort of bothers me.
Leap Year - Not so good. It was cold out and it was the next thing playing.
Mysterious Skin - Pretty good. After watching 500 Days, I was curious about the other GJL films. Brutal. Not for kids.
Up - Really Good. I bought it. I cry every time.
Valentino - The Last Emperor -Pretty good.

Mid Month Special

Portraits of my buri squirrel christmas ornament from Crate and Barrel

January 2010

January zine

January 1 sort of snuck up on me, and I hadn't really thought about the zine until today. Since I want to get this uploaded today and go to bed soon, it's a little slap-dash and short. These things happen.

New Friends

Picked up two half price ornaments at Crate and Barrel. So cute! A squirrel and a bear. Made out of buri . Maybe I'll do a portrait of them.

Fancy Pens

My fancy Rapidograph pens are broken. More accurately, the ink in them has dried and they're all clogged up. Sigh.

Story I'm too lazy to illustrate......

Scene: Christmas Eve party at my Aunt's house. Alex and I are sitting on the couch.

Alex - My cousin's little kid...he's two and half, we see each other maybe twice a year.

David (Alex's uncle): Alex, come sit next to me!

Alex: No. I want to stay here next to.....(turns to me and it's clear that he has no idea what my name is)

Me: My name is Queen.

Alex: Queen!

Movies:

The Blind Side - Pretty Good

Up in the Air - Really Good

The Professional - Really Good (Yes, an old movie)

Aliens vs. Monsters - Not that good

The Proposal - Pretty Good...it doesn't aim high, doesn't hit high

Zach & Miri Make a Porno - Good enough, not great

Adventureland -Pretty Good