design-newyork.com

Bad Blogger Jessica, Batman Begins, and Pigeons.

January 18th, 2008

I know it’s been eons since I wrote anything, but there are a few reasons for that. One, nothing that interesting has happened recently, if you don’t count the fact that my bathroom redo-ers had to submit draftings to the City of White Plains and they may not approve my bathroom redo for a month or two, which SUCKS. Two, I’ve been working a freelance job in Manhattan at a big ad agency and I don’t get home until 8:30. Then I snork down some food, watch something on TV for fifteen minutes and fall asleep on the couch. Good times, good times. So, between the nothing-of-interest-to-share and the tired-when-I-get-home, I’ve been neglecting the ole bloggybloo. I promised pictures of my new apartment and I shall deliver. I also have some purses that I painted that I will take pictures of as well and then, THEN my friends, there will be cool things to look at.
At work when there is nothing to do I watch illegally uploaded films hosted in China. They’re not very good quality and they have Chinese subtitles at the bottom, but whatever, they’re free and I’m trying to keep myself occupied during the lulls. I’m very excited to see the new Batman movie with Heath Ledger as The Joker (he looks cah-RAZEE in the preview), so I watched the Batman movie from 2005, Batman Begins. Umm, did anyone else think that it was kinda not so good? Like stilted acting and bad plot and whatnot? If you have the opportunity to see it, go ahead and pass. It’s… well, “bad” is a strong term. It’s just not very good. Let’s all pray Crazy Joker Heath will be better. Here’s the preview for the new Batman movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk1Tz5bumhw

See? Cah-RAZEE.

I’m also reading a book called Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird. I like books about things. I’ve read:
Salt: A World History
The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadaver
A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis
Jewels: A Secret History
The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade

So right now, I’m reading about pigeons. I’ve learned a great deal about pigeons. I now consider myself very knowledgable on the rock dove. One thing that amuses and horrifies me is how, predictably, people decided to take genetics into their own hands and through selective breeding, made some of the weirdest-looking pigeons ever. For example, the fantail. The fantail is a nice bird, except that its chest is so big it can barely see over it. Eating has got to be a problem. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLMaCZ6IlgA&feature=related

Yeah. That’s the Pekinese of the pigeon world. Not good, people. Also, there’s a pigeon out there called a parlor roller. It rolls. Backwards. On the ground. No one knows why. Some people think it’s pigeon OCD. People get together and race their parlor rollers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1gXvYTu0f0

I don’t get it either. Pigeons is a very raw book, because people are very mean to pigeons and it addresses all of that. But if you’re interested in learning about them, I recommend it.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, Movie and Book Reviews. Possibly With Spoilers., Nature, Stuff, Teh Intarwebz | No Comments »

I’m “hep” and “with the times”. Oh yes.

January 8th, 2008

I like to let technology do its thing, and after ten or so years I decide whether to get on the bandwagon. (Examples: I got a cell phone two years ago. I used a typewriter to type my papers all through high school (1991 – 1994). I started this blog in 2006. You get the idea.) Recently I discovered there is a terrific comedy duo called Flight of the Conchords. Then I found out they have a show on HBO and they’re actually quite popular and I am once again totally out of touch. Anyway, perhaps there are others of you out there that are also in the dark about them and I would like to enlighten you. Here’s some Wikipedia info:

Billing themselves as “Formerly New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo”, (having been bumped by a tribute band of themselves, Like of the Conchords) the group uses a combination of witty banter, characterisation and acoustic guitars to work the audience. The duo’s comedy and music became first the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series, which premiered in 2007, also called Flight of the Conchords.

I think they’re nifty. Here are some videos from YouTube I found of some of their more rockin’ tunes. Some of them are a bit risque, so if you have wee tots in the room and you don’t feel like explaining things to them, I recommend waiting until they’re off playing something on their Nintendo DS before you watch these.

Business Time

Frodo, Don’t Wear the Ring

If You’re Into It

Foux Da Fa Fa

and my personal favorite:

Rhymenoceros and Hiphipapotamus

Posted in The Telly | No Comments »

New Year’s at the Big Apple Circus.

January 2nd, 2008

I rang in 2008 at the Big Apple Circus in Lincoln Center. It was super-duper-awesome, one of the best new year’s ever. I highly, highly recommend it. And it’s not just for kids. There were college kids and many many middle-aged people just whooping it up. Now join me on my travels back to last night.

This is the Christmas tree in Lincoln Center. It’s next to the fountain and it’s very pretty, but I think I liked it better when it was covered with large musical instrument ornaments instead of LED stars. Musical instruments are more Lincoln-Center-y. But still very beautiful.

This is the sign that greets you as you come into the circus. It’s up because this is the 30th anniversary of the Big Apple Circus, but I pretended it was because of New Year’s.

This was the only stunt I have really great pictures of. There’s a ladder on the left. Two men are on top of the ladder. In front of them is a teeter-totter. On the left is a man holding a woman on stilts who is holding a chair on a pole. The idea is that a man stands on the end of the teeter-totter, the two guys jump off the ladder, the guy FLIES through the air and lands butt-down on the chair. It’s insane and totally fabulous.

There he is flying… ohmygodohmygod…

… and he made it. The whole audience went nuts. We were screaming and stomping our feet.

Then the show ended at 11:45 (the circus started at 9:30 to facilitate ending near midnight) and they handed out headbands and red noses and noisemakers and champagne glasses. From right to left: my friends Collie, Frog, Feena and me. Oh, and don’t think it was just women sportin’ all this finery. Oh no.

Yep. That’s Cricket. Doesn’t he look smashing?

Then you make your way down to the ring and move around anxiously waiting for the countdown…

Happy New Year! Streamers and confetti went everywhere and the band started playing and everyone started dancing in the ring. There were couples slow-dancing together and people just boogying in place. Someone started a conga line. It was such a good vibe.

That rather happy fellow you see there started the conga line. He was a jocular fellow. I think if the circus had lampshades, he would have been wearing one on his head.

Okay, all these Upper West Side people just stood around the edges watching. I think they thought they were too cool to get jiggy with the commoners and I just wanted to yell at them, “You’re wearing clown noses on your ears! That lady has the biggest taffeta full-frontal wedgie I’ve ever seen! Your dignity left hours ago! Just dance already!” My favorite is the guy in the top picture on the left pondering something, like he’s Jane Goodall and we’re gorillas. “They seem to be celebrating something important in their group. If only they could talk so I could figure out what this all means. My research will have to continue until I have a better idea.”

Then we left and everyone went their separate ways home. Cricket and I took Metro-North and luckily I got through the whole evening without seeing anyone throw up, so it was a success all around. If next year you have nothing planned for New Year’s, may I recommend the Big Apple Circus. A good time was had by all.

Also, Feena climbed up on the fountain and I was able to snap this photo before the guards got to us. Happy New Year.

Posted in Activitays, New York | No Comments »

Happy New Year!

December 31st, 2007

I hope everyone has a lovely and safe New Year’s Eve. I’m going out to dinner with a bunch of friends and then we are going to ring in the new year at the Big Apple Circus, which should be fun and cool. I’ll have pictures. In the meantime, here’s a drawing I made that is going on plates. They are two forest creatures confined in a square. I love them.

Posted in My Art/Design/Business | No Comments »

Absinthe and Sweeney Todd: The Movie.

December 24th, 2007

1. I was watching “Modern Marvels: Distilleries” and I learned all about absinthe. It doesn’t cause insanity or hallucinations like everyone says; That rumor was spread around by the French wine people because people were drinking absinthe instead of french wine and the wineys were… well, whiney. Absinthe is basically gin in the sense that it is neutral grain alcohol with herbs in it. Gin has juniper berries and then a collection of botanicals such as lemon and bitter orange peel, anise, angelica root and seed, orris root, licorice root, cinnamon, coriander, and cassia bark. Absinthe contains green anise, fennel and wormwood. Now, the interesting thing is that while you could probably make gin at home, you should not make absinthe because if you mess up the wormwood extract, you get too much of a substance called thujone which can cause renal failure and which in large quantities is a convulsive neurotoxin. So, no making “bathtub absinthe”.

2. I saw the Sweeney Todd movie on opening night, and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I’ll tell you, I was scared because I am a big fan of the original 1982 DVD and I just didn’t see Johnny Depp in that role and I thought it would suck and be lame and all hollywood-ified. Happily, I was wrong. Tim Burton really captured the ickiness of the Industrial Age with the smoke and the coal and the overpowering greyness. Even though Johnny Depp totally looked like Edward Scissorhands, he pulled it off quite well. And they cut out several songs, one of which I hate so much I want to rip my eyes out and shove them in my ears when I hear it,* so that’s a plus. Only two things bothered me. One was the blood. Oh my goodness, was there blood. Frickin’ torrents of the stuff. The opening credits alone almost made me hurl (BLOOD! RUNNING IN GUTTERS TOWARDS YOU! BUBBLING AND FROTHING! ENJOY YOUR POPCORN!). Then there was the slitting of the throats (BLOOD! BEING ASPIRATED! SHOOTING OUT OF CAROTID ARTERIES! SPLURT SPLURT! GETTING IN YOUR PEPSI!) and the bodies dropping down the chute, did they have to SLAM into the ground like that, with the bone-snappy noise? Did we really need that? No, we didn’t. The other thing was the ending. The ending of the original musical is so creepy, with the Toby reciting poetry and grinding meat and generally going batpoop insane. In the movie, Toby says nothing, slits Sweeney’s throat, Sweeney bleeds out all over the floor (BLOOD! LIKE A WATERFALL! A WATERFALL OF CAMPBELL’S TOMATO SOUP! IN YOUR NACHOS!), aaaaaaaand… the credits roll. Wha-huh? You left out the creepiest part? Why did you do that, Tim Burton? It’s a no-brainer – little kids reciting poetry while slitting throats is CREEPY as HELL. And then grinding meat with the corpses all around – ULTRA-CREEPY. And you chose to leave that out? I am not happy about that, Tim, not happy at all. But it was good otherwise and I recommend you see it in the theaters because I don’t think it will have the same impact on your TV.

* “Kiss Me”. God, that’s a grating song. Actually, anything sung by Anthony and Joanna is grating to me. I find most heinous the romances where the couple just met two seconds ago, but they know they’re going to be together forever and then they sing about deep meaningful instantaneous love for ten minutes. Les Miserables is another one. Hello, France is at war, Marius and Cosette. Nobody cares about how you just met. Go to a cafe for a few hours, chat for a while, see if you have interests in common before you start professing lifelong commitment. People like you is why people like me have to drink vodka for breakfast.

Addendum: Ah, YouTube, you never fail me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNkPqPVCXX8

Here’s the opening sequence. Enjoy your popcorn.

Posted in Movie and Book Reviews. Possibly With Spoilers., The Telly | No Comments »

Skeleton man.

December 18th, 2007

I like working with negative space, so here it is:

Curly bones. I thought that would be an interesting take on bones. Very Dia de los Muertos. I will find a use for him and his curly bones. Perhaps I will get a request to do something for Halloween or a really macabre bar mitzvah invitation and I will be ready to go with my skeleton man.

Posted in My Art/Design/Business | No Comments »

Alvin and the Chipmunks.

December 17th, 2007

There’s a movie out, Alvin and the Chipmunks. No, really. They made a movie. Jason Lee’s in it. Here, look.

http://www.thechipmunks.com/

The only problem I’m having is that the chipmunks use those high-pitched voices. Now, I’ve watched a little-known film called Joe’s Apartment maybe twenty times and I know all the songs from it by heart. It’s a movie about a guy who moves to New York and his apartment is inhabited by singing, dancing cockroaches. It’s a great film. However, these thespian roaches have the same high-pitched voices as the chipmunks, so I cannot see a preview for this stupid Chipmunk film without thinking of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBM5DdIB53E

And if you enjoyed that and don’t have a problem seeing the nastiest bathroom in the world, there’s also this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk97Oil2qnc

Posted in Movie and Book Reviews. Possibly With Spoilers., Teh Intarwebz | No Comments »

The thing I saw on the street.

December 10th, 2007

I’ll get to the thing I saw on the street momentarily. I saw a play yesterday and it was terrific. I would highly recommend it to people who like straight plays, no music. It’s called “August: Osage County”. Go see it if you have the chance. When I found out it was three hours and twenty minutes long, I got all kinds of concerned, but it didn’t feel long at all. There’s one character, the family patriarch named Beverly Weston, who opens the show with a long story that really clarifies his character and helps us understand his wife’s character as well. The way this particular actor chose to speak was great. He would bark his sentences and yell certain words for emphasis. All of his sentences ended with exclamation points. “I noticed we were LOW on EGGS! So I went to the FOOD MART and picked some UP! Now we can make TOAST to go with the EGGS! Prob’ly shoulda picked up some MILK, but I FORGOT!” etc. For some reason, I just got a kick out of listening to him talk. By the way, this has almost nothing to do with the play, so I’m not ruining it for you, you can still see it and it will still be terrific. Also, the set is neato too. It’s a whole house onstage, the whole thing. You can see a picture of it on their website (so technically I’m still not ruining the play).

Okay, so I was walking to the theater and I passed a record company that had pictures of recent CD covers on the outside of their building. Here is the picture that caused me to laugh:

Let me explain. When I was a child, I read a great deal of Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl wrote a book called The BFG (The Big Friendly Giant) which is a phenomenal children’s book. There’s a big friendly giant in it, but there are also big yucky unwashed hairy giants who eat children out of their beds at night. Some of the names of the bad nasty giants are Childchewer, Gizzardgulper, Maidmasher, Meatdripper aaaaaaaand Bonecruncher. See the name of the artist on the CD in the middle there? When I saw that, all I could picture is the illustrations in my copy of The BFG from my childhood. I thought the album cover would look much better like this:

Quentin Blake’s illustrations really capture a sense of unwashed blechiness, don’t they? So, quick recap: If you’re in the New York area, see August: Osage County. And if you like to read, buy The BFG and read it.

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

A Bat and the Holidays in New York.

December 9th, 2007

Along with the acorn and the octopus, I also drew a bat that will be a pendant and a brooch.

He’s a cutie, flying away with his flying parts. I think he will do well in the store. For people who like bats, he’s a bat, no problem there. And for people who think bats are creepy, he’s a non-threatening bat. A bat for all seasons.

Also, I was walking to Grand Central the other night, and I walked through Rockefeller Center. I know the tree and the ice-skating rink is hokey and for tourists, but it’s still really pretty. Enjoy these pics of the giant Norwegian spruce and the flags and the lights and the mist.

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

Squiggles and acorns and octopi, oh my.

December 7th, 2007

I designed some curvy organic shapes for a booklet I was working on, but the client changed the concept, so the curvy shapes were canned. I like them though, so I will try to use them someday on another project.

But I also drew some stamps for myself and I think they’re really sweet and kind of fun. One is an acorn:

And the other is an octopus:

A smoochy little octopus swimming earnestly through the big scary ocean. Go, little octopus, go.

Posted in My Art/Design/Business | No Comments »

design-newyork.com

Bad Blogger Jessica, Batman Begins, and Pigeons.

I’m “hep” and “with the times”. Oh yes.

New Year’s at the Big Apple Circus.

Happy New Year!

Absinthe and Sweeney Todd: The Movie.

Skeleton man.

Alvin and the Chipmunks.

The thing I saw on the street.

A Bat and the Holidays in New York.

Squiggles and acorns and octopi, oh my.

Pages

Archives

Categories

Blogroll

Meta