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Cameras and Comics.

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

Well, I officially killed my camera. I carry it around in my purse and it gets kicked and punched and dropped regularly (because it doesn’t cook my dinner the way I like it! Why do you make me hit you?!) and it decided to rebel by not taking pictures. Oh, it acts like it’s going to, the flash goes off and it makes a little “click” noise and you think, “I have taken a picture!”, but when you go to the memory card… no picture. So I went on my ole buddy Amazon and bought m’self a new Canon Eylphe OCD-2000 or whatever in slate blue. I will also get a case for it, so while it will continue to hang out in my purse with my keys and a myriad of other scratchy pointy items, it will be protected.

So, this past weekend. Cool experience. My friend Jem was in town (Glamor and glitter! Fashion and fame! Truly truly truly outrageous!) for the Comicon in the Javitz Center. I met up with her on Saturday night and we went to a utterly touristy place for dinner, Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Co. It’s one of those places I wouldn’t go to unless I’m with a friend from out of town. It was a lovely dinner, though. If you go there, I recommend the Louisiana Lemonade paired with either the dippin’ shrimpin’ broth or the spicy Louisiana shrimp with jasmine rice. Afterwards, Jem told me about a party occurring in her hotel. Here’s the back story: Person A bet Person B that he couldn’t get a Wolverine comic book signed by all six contributors plus Hugh Jackman. Person B accomplished the task and now Person A, having lost the bet, had to kiss Person B’s rump. The gathering in the hotel was to witness the booty-smootch. We showed up for a short while, but people were kinda just sitting around and talking quietly amongst themselves and no one was going to kiss anything for some time, so we said, “See ya,” and headed over to Connelly’s Bar for the Marvel party. It was, to use the common vulgar term, quite a sausage-fest. I am not what one might consider “smokin'”, yet a drink was purchased for me by a male. I attribute this to the lack of bosoms on the premises. I ended up in a corner talking to the guys who run the Toronto Comicon. They kept pointing out important comic people to me, saying things like, “People cry when they meet that guy… he’s like one of the gods of comics,” and to me, the man referenced looked like a sweaty bank employee – no shoulders, pasty and plain-looking. It’s amazing how ordinary celebrities can look if you don’t have a freakin’ clue who they are.

Next entry: Westminster Dog Show. I something-other-than-a-poodle won. I am happy.

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Bad calligraphy makes the baby Jeebus cry.

Monday, January 26th, 2009

Look, there is nothing to be ashamed of if you can’t write in a calligraphic hand. That being said, if you can’t, please don’t. I have to walk by this sign in front of a pub on the way to work almost every day, and I wince at its suckiness every time.

Oh dear. There’s so much wrong with this. The biggest offender, for me, is that “K” at the end of “DRINK”. The painter isn’t even trying anymore. “I hate this typeface, I’ll just put a big ole curly thing on this K, and then I’m done! Whee! I’m getting paid in beer!” So profoundly crappy.

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Windows at Zahks.

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Zahks = Saks Fifth Avenue. My grandmother spoke with a heavy German accent and so she referred to Saks as “Zahks” (pronounced like “socks” with a Z). Therefore, I refer to Saks as Zahks. Anyway, the windows this year were particularly cute. For the last few years, they’ve had beautiful windows, but they had creepy dolls in them. Moving creepy dolls.

Brrr, instant nightmare for me. It looks like the demonic ghost of Jon-Benet come back to wreak havoc on those who did her wrong. This year, they found a book (or they had a book written for them) called A Flake Like Mike.

http://www.intergalactico.com/work/design/print_illustration/a_flake_like_mike_1.php

It seems like a nice book with a positive message, but here’s the best part: Saks has some kind of relationship with Swarovski, the crystal manufacturer, so everything was BLINGY BLINGY. Me being a magpie, I was in heaven. And the characters from the book are very cute, so I took some pictures of my favorite parts of the windows.

This is a window of how Mike blends in with all the other snowflakes. It’s all done in felt, which is a very matte material, so there’s no flashy anything. But wait! The hexagons around Mike’s face flip over:

MAD blingy bling. Three-dimensonial sparkly goodness. I stood in front of this window for longer than you’re really supposed to, but I was so entranced. It combines so many of my favorite things: hexagons, repeating patterns, the aformentioned sparkly goodness, radiating lines, etc. You know when you play peek-a-boo with a small child, and you cover up your face and then you “Peek-a-boo!” at them and they laugh over and over? That’s what this was like for me. These panels would flip to plain snowflakes and then flip to this and- “Ooooooh!” -I would be dazzled all over again. I found video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu7ieKBGhpM

The other window I loved was the last one. All the snowflakes are happy, but the best part were the snowflakes riding a merry-go-round of sorts at the top of the window. They were the HAPPIEST SNOWFLAKES EVER. You couldn’t stop smiling at them.

And they’re riding around in a circle, you can practically hear them go “Yay!” “Whee!” “Whoo hoo!” as they swing by. I hope this is a trend that Saks keeps going with, the cute, almost kawaii-style windows. With a great deal of crystals. Gotta have crystals. Blingity bling.

Posted in New York, Random Art Bloggery | 1 Comment »

I designed something. Let’s all look at it.

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

It’s a cover for Publicis’ annual thing that they send out with a review of the year’s activities (businesses won, people hired, awards, etc.) Publicis seems to like a great deal of ornament and layers with drop shadows nowadays, so I’m pretty pleased with what I came up with. It’s so lush and detailed. Definitely in keeping with their look. Hooray for me.

It’s like a Christmas present and when you unwrap it, you get… well, you get information and facts about our company, which isn’t on most people’s lists, but whatever, it’s still a good-looking cover. The insides were really cool too, but I don’t want to post any pictures of them here. I don’t think any of the information was sensitive, but I’d rather play it safe. Don’t wanna dooce myself.

Posted in Advertising, My Art/Design/Business, New York, Teh Intarwebz | No Comments »

Lights.

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Ah, the holidays. They come at this wonderful time of year when the sun sets at four in the afternoon and I fall into a deep depression from lack of vitamin D. Thankfully, I work in an area that has a spectacular array of Christmas lights, which helps when even if you get out of work at a reasonable hour like 5:00, it’s still dark. On my walk back to Grand Central, I get to see this:

And directly in front of me as I exit the building, I see this:

It soothes the soul, it really does. Even better, this year they have this new thing going on. See those trees in front of Macy’s? You may remember them from the Thanksgiving Day Parade post, when I cursed them for blocking my view. Well, now I love them, because they have LED lights in them that make them look like they’re dripping phosphorescence. 24/7 electrical repair by Sunny Air Conditioning, Plumbing & Electrical offers emergency service for unexpected breakdowns especially if you set up a lot of lighting fixtures in your home. If you need professional electrical services, then make sure to consider hiring the experts. Bray Electrical provides reliable electrical panel replacement services to keep your home safe and up to code.

The first time I saw it, I stood there with my mouth agape like I just strolled out of the mountains of West Virginia and I done never them lit-up things. I took a video of it with my camera and turned it into an animated gif, and even though the footage is very grainy, hopefully it will give you an idea of what it looks like.

SO PRETTY. It’s mesmerizing. I hope to trek over to Saks Fifth Avenue and take pictures of their windows. They’re really good this year. They’re about a snowflake named Jeff Mike who didn’t fit in with the other snowflakes. Awwwww.

Addendum: Here’s a lolcat that shows, fairly accurately, what I look like when pretty Christmas lights are flickering all around me.

Posted in New York, Stuff | No Comments »

I would like to give props to my homies (insert gang sign here).

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Normally, I don’t use people’s real names here because I don’t know if they want to be written about on a blog. However, today will be different. Recently, two people that I went to college with or worked with are REPREZENTIN’ and I want to bring your attention to them.

First, I went to SUNY Purchase for my BFA and studied in the Conservatory of Theater Arts and Design (major: Set Design). You know how there’s always someone in your class who you know is a winner and will succeed because they’re just that terrific? Jason Lyons was in my class (major: Lighting Design). Immediately, he was that guy, a “Most Likely To Kick A Copious Amount Of Ass In His Chosen Major” type of person. I was more of the “Most Likely To Be Not Here Next Semester” type. Or the “Most Likely To Snap Late One Night And Shove A Drafting Tool Into Her Eye” type. So, now about ten years have passed since we graduated (him – with honors, me – not so much), and I get an email about a comedian I like a lot, Mike Birbiglia. Lo and behold, Mike has a show off-Broadway.

And would you look who did his lighting.

Look at that resume. LOOK AT IT. Boy’s makin’ good. I am so proud of him. I mean, it wasn’t in doubt for a second, but still, it’s nice to see the best thing possible happen to talented people. I should also add that Jason is a super-nice person and should you happen to make his acquaintance, you will see that for yourself. Go see Mike Birbiglia’s show. Mike is great, and I guarantee he will be well-lit.

Second, I worked at BBDO for about five years, and I met a variety of art directors and such in my time there. One of those people was Jayson Atienza. He has a distinct painting style and his main canvas is shoes. I built his website for him originally as a side gig when I was at BBDO. The other day I was in Pylones and saw a book called Custom Kicks.

It’s an excellent book, full of really cool ideas. And not only does Jayson get his own page, he gets the closing page as well.

Jayson is also possibly the only person who can look good in a mullet. Really. Not bad at all.

So I just want to say congratulations to Jason and Jayson and I wish them a ton more success. It’s always so wonderful to see that.

Addendum: Here are a few pics from Custom Kicks that I thought we also excellent representations of sneaker adornment. Good design.

Posted in My Art/Design/Business, New York, Random Art Bloggery | No Comments »

The Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

One of the reasons I took the job at Publicis is because it is in Herald Square directly across from Macy’s, which makes it ideal for watching the Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. I have always wanted to see the parade, so I have been planning my seating situation for months now. I scoped out the best seats, I bribed people, I had to sell a kidney, but it all worked out. Aside from the “waking up at 6:00 a.m. when it’s still dark out” part, it was pretty awesome.

Mom came with me, which was lovely. We got there before the parade began, so we got to watch the cheerleaders who open the show practice their routine.

Before we really get into this, let me tell you how annoying that tree was. See it? The last tree in New York with leaves on it? The one blocking half my view? I hate that tree. I hate it with a white-hot hate. Stupid crappy tree.

So the cheerleaders did their thing and shook their red sparkly pompoms and Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer went into their booth, and then… I spent the rest of the parade guessing what was happening. I can’t tell you how important the newscasters are to the parade-watching process. You really spend a great deal of time not knowing what is going on and why. Luckily, I am a massive Broadway nerd, so I could immediately figure out all of the Broadway shows (The Heights, White Christmas, The Little Mermaid, South Pacific) but since most of the floats were partially cut off by the STUPID TREE, I was flummoxed by many of the activities below. I totally missed the best float:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL-hNMJvcyI

I love Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, and the parade being rickrolled? Missed that too. So sad. *mimics tear running down cheek*

The Rockettes welcomed the parade to Herald Square. Their precision reminded me of Lipizanner horses, those Viennese precision horses that do perfect maneuvers in arenas. I’ve seen them three or four times. Here’s a link:

http://www.lipizzaner.com/home.asp

There are two things you can count on when you see the Lipizanners: one, they will be in perfect formation and two, some of the horses will take massive dumps while performing. The Rockettes did well on #1, but no #2. Literally and figuratively.

Then the cops came in with their motorcycles a-flashin’ and it was all very exciting, except that the Rockettes (who you can see lined up there) split in half and did a Heil Hitler thing to welcome the cops in, which was flat-out creepy.

Frankly, there was a great deal there that reminded me of World War II. If you watched a great deal of PBS or, later on when cable came to your house, The Hitlery Channel, you saw a great deal of people in large groups marching in precision. So every time a band turned down the street, I felt like the next thing I would hear would be, “The Allied Forces realized that they would need the full power of their combined armies to blah blah blabity blah…”

The view we had was ideal for watching balloons come by. We could see them for a good ten minutes. I was thrilled to see some of my childhood standards make their way by. I will say I definitely got a little misty-eyed when Kermit came by. I gots a big ole soft spot for Jim Henson.

I also got some pictures of the odd float here and there. I tried to figure out who was performing on what float. I deduced Idina Menzel was performing on one float because I could tell by her voice wafting up to the window (she’s a Broadway performer and was in one of my favorite shows Wicked, so I can recognize her voice very quickly), but other than that, I was pretty lost. There was a male country singer, some teeny-boppers and a Native American performer.

I knew Miley Cyrus would be singing on a float, and when I saw this big stone rhino coming down the street with people rock-climbing and scaling it and then heard a woman singing on it (I couldn’t see her, of course, because of the STUPID TREE AAAARGH). I assumed it was Miley, and then I tried to guess what the stone rhino represented.

The best thing I could come up with is the stone rhino represents her strong Christian values and will to keep her virginity, and the people scaling the rhino are the bad influences trying to break her down, but no, her stone rhino will stay intact until marriage. As represented by a float in the parade. Probably not. I couldn’t think of anything better. Then I saw this float and thought that maybe Miley was on this float, because it was super-girlie-looking:

And maybe she was. I still don’t know what float she was on, and frankly I don’t care. I REALLY want it to be the stone rhino, and I REALLY want the stone rhino to represent her maidenhead, but I’m guessing I’m wrong on both counts and that’s fine.

It was nice to see some staples that I’ve been seeing since I was a wee tot, like the turkey that blinks and looks totally demented, and the Macy’s balloon that looks like… a balloon (revolutionary!) and the sparkly gold Macy’s stars.

My favorite moment was when Alvin Ailey Dance Group performed the piece I like best choreographed by him, Wade In The Water:

And were followed by a Keith Haring balloon. Awesome moment. Awesome.

I’m sure there was a ton I missed, because both Mom and I were falling asleep by 10:45. We collected ourselves and headed home by 11:30, so we missed Santa coming into Herald Square, but maybe I’ll do this again next year and then I’ll see Santa.

Posted in Advertising, New York, Stuff, The Telly | 1 Comment »

Mental Detritus.

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

I have nothing terribly interesting to report about anything going on at my end, only that I’ve been working like a dog and I hope to go see August: Osage County with my father tonight. I’ve seen it once already, but it’s a new American Classic kind of play, and there’s lots of psychological tension, and my father loves that kind of thing. He’s been a good boy and finished all his vegetables, so I thought I would reward him.

1. Ruby came with Nelly to work the other day. On the same day, Harley came to work with Mili. It was a day that included much petting and snuggling.

This is Ruby being bored and doing her best impression of a worm. You can almost hear the full-body sigh.

Later on, Ruby sat on Nelly’s lap and while Nelly talked to various account people, Ruby did her best impression of a sentry, or perhaps the nekkid lady on the prow of a ship.

And Harley was not be ignored either. She’s a very sweet Yorkie. Here she is sitting on Mili’s lap while Mili coos over her, but in this pic Mili looks like she’s going to suck Harley’s brain out of her ear. Which is totally feasible, considering I’ve eaten entire burritos bigger than Harley.

I am so lucky not to have Mili’s hair. Her hair is naturally that blond (I call it “Playboy Concubine Blond”, since Hef’s “girlfriends” often sport that color), and if my hair was naturally that blond, I would consider it God’s way of saying, “It’s a blank canvas! Dye your hair green! And blue! And pink! All at the same time! You will resemble a pinata! Avoid blindfolded children carrying sticks! Go vivid or go home!” and then I would have gross Manic Panic hair all the time and my tub would look horrifying. I don’t know if you’ve ever dyed your hair with Manic Panic or any of its competitors, but your hair runs and leaks every time you wash it, and often your grout turns whatever color you have adorned yourself with and you leave rings o’ color everywhere, it’s unavoidable and extremely unnappetizing. What I’m saying is I would not be able to resist the call of the nuclear hair colors.

2. A tidbit from MetroNorth this week:
Hey, 40-something, sweating, paunchy, balding businessman reading Twilight – you look like a pedophile and you’re creeping me out. Maybe you know the movie’s coming out and you want to be current on pop culture. Maybe your daughter recommended it and you want a topic to bond with her on. No matter what your reason, I just see you hiding in bushes somewhere drooling while watching some prepube brushing her hair before bed. It’s awful and it’s not the way I want to start my day, so knock it off.

3. I was at Cricket’s house the other day. I went outside and was blinded by all the red and orange and yellow. It was overpowering on the eyes, like I imagine being in a lavender field in full bloom would be to your sense of smell. I took a picture of one small corner of it before I fell down on the driveway and had a seizure.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, Nature, New York, Stuff | No Comments »

New president.

Friday, November 7th, 2008

After Obama was elected, I came to work the next morning and talked to my co-worker Z. He said, “Where I live in Brooklyn, there was partying in the streets. You know at the end of ‘Return of the Jedi’, when the empire is defeated and the Ewoks are singing the yup-yup song? That’s what it was like.” I think that is the best description of post-election rejoicing I’ve heard so far. If someone can find a description better than “Ewoks singing the yup-yup song”, I would like to hear it.

Addendum: B. informs me that it’s the “yub nub” song. And he sent me a link of a barbershop quartet singing it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN62wqBdbxA

Posted in New York, Teh Intarwebz | No Comments »

Religilous and A Man For All Seasons.

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

I saw Religilous this weekend. It was a rough movie to watch. I don’t like movies where simple regular people are made fun of without them knowing it. That’s why I didn’t like Borat. And this movie was just chock full of hurtful mockery of people’s beliefs. It’s sad to watch, regardless of how silly I believe their faith to be. The point of the movie was Bill Maher basically proving how idiotic and irrational religion is, which (surprise!) did not go over well with the devoted religious followers he was interviewing. Here’s the preview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iUyAppOOU0

I won’t comment on whether I agreed with what he had to say because I try to stay away from inflammatory topics here, but I will say that opposed to the usual “religion is dumb because it’s all fairy tales” argument most atheists take, Bill most eloquently said something along the lines of:

“I am a preacher. I am preaching doubt. We don’t know what happens after we die or if there’s a God. And I’m okay with that. A great deal of people are not. However, now we have the luxury of doubt. When a man is in prison and he says, ‘Jesus is all I got,” that’s fine. When a man is in a foxhole, he needs God. But our society is well-fed and well-taken care of, we have scientific answers for things, the concerns of the black plague are no longer a major concern. Yet people, people who are rational and intelligent in every other aspect of their lives, choose to believe that a man lived in a big fish – I can’t understand that.”

It was nice to hear an smart argument for a change. Religilous is the kind of film that sticks with you for a long time. You go to sleep, you’re thinking about it. You wake up, you’re thinking about it. You see large masses of people (which I do all the time, I work in Herald Square next to Macy’s) and you wonder, “What does that person believe? And that person? And does the first person hate the second person for their religious orientation? And how much is your religion based on what religion you grew up with?” It’s a gristle-y film that you have to chew on for a while.

I saw Religilous on Friday night. On Saturday, I went with my mom to the city and saw the play A Man For All Seasons. Wow, that was a bad idea. Not the play, the play was excellent and Frank Langella was freakin’ awesome as usual. It’s just that when one is still reeling from Religilous, it is a poor idea to see a play about a man getting beheaded for his morals and devotion to the Catholic church. Technically, Sir Thomas More was beheaded for not signing the document that King Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine so he could marry Anne Boleyn and sire sons (all this brought about the beginning of the Church of England). I wanted to scream at him, “Sign the damn document! Just sign it! Bless the stupid divorce already! God doesn’t care! He’s busy with other things, like creating a new kind of badger or something! Sign the document!” I probably would have enjoyed it a great deal more if I wasn’t all rankled up the night before. Oh, well. Honestly, if I had a top rated divorce lawyer like I wish I did right now, maybe this whole process would be a lot less stressful.

Posted in Movie and Book Reviews. Possibly With Spoilers., New York | No Comments »

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