this city doesn't belong to you anymore

Fingertips

2009-06-27T03:05:00.003-04:00

This is a trailer for a show at Dad's Garage called Fingertips. This is pretty much the first major animated thing I have done so far and though it is pretty "dinky" as I like to say, it still has a charm that I'm happy with. I also did the music, which is just as dinky. Below is the poster for the show that I illustrated.

Human Nature

2009-06-25T23:08:00.010-04:00

In this day and age when it might seem silly to pay so much attention to the passing of a celebrity when there is so much other more pressing and important world issues, I still can't help but feel sad about the passing of Michael Jackson. Like many people my age, he was an important part of my childhood. I was obsessed with him. The above picture was taken in 1989 and I wanted to be him for Halloween. I was sick as a dog and my mom tried desperately to get my hair in gerry curl(and failed triumphantly, as illustrated by my bowl cut.) I would perform Dirty Diana, based on the video concert footage, for my neighbors at my parents request. I saw him in concert in 1988, when my sister bought me tickets to his concert for my birthday. I still have the giant, full color, embossed ticket and the t-shirt from the concert.

It was supposed to be just me and my sister but my parents bought tickets as well just so we would be safe. We tailgated for hours before the concert and it was awesome. We didn't have the best seats, but it was still amazing. Kim Wilde opened for him. My other sister mailed me a tape of Off The Wall when I told her how much I loved Michael Jackson, and I listened to it constantly. Human Nature was my theme song for awhile. It's easy to be ironic about his passing and make silly jokes, but the truth is I got really down about it. The 8 year old in me would be inconsolable. So it is a weird feeling when a hero of your childhood dies. I know I wont feel this way when David Justice dies(yes, I know, Dave Justice, get over it), or when Spielberg dies, based on his age. Typing in the date when the above picture of me was taken shocked me a little at how 20 years has passed. I think I'm more sad about a part of me being a kid has really taken a hit. But it was also a part of the lengths my family went to to do cool things for me. So today has made me sad. Or maybe it's just the wine.

Hardy Arty

2009-06-04T12:41:00.002-04:00

XXX

2009-05-28T20:19:00.005-04:00

A little over a month ago I participated in a little animation project sponsored by ASIFA Atlanta where a handful of artists sat down and animated something for a couple hours or minutes or whatever and then all the animations were strung together to make a little short. I drew about 60 or so frames for a very rudimentary animation. After seeing it it reminded of what Walt Disney must have felt like after seeing Steamboat Willy for the first time. Just replace Mickey Mouse with Beard Man and his Steamboat with a bottle of Moonshine and I think this is about the same thing. My section starts the animation. My friend Jean also participated and his section involves a little man swallowing a bug and getting electrocuted.

Tiger Pancakes!

2009-05-28T15:54:00.006-04:00

When I was little one of my favorite books was Little Black Sambo. It is now pretty much out of print and banned everywhere because of its title and some versions of the book had reeeaaaalllly racist caricatures. The version I had was nothing like this and featured characters with more traditional Indian features. It is such a great little story though. The one thing I loved so much about it is that at the end these tigers run around a tree that Sambo has crawled up and they run so fast around it that they turn to butter. Sambo's mother then makes pancakes out of the tiger butter and they are orange with black stripes across them. I always wanted to eat tiger pancakes. So Amanda made me some tiger pancakes, out of acrylic on canvas.

Here is an illustration from the book I had:

Family Circus

2009-04-30T22:06:00.010-04:00

From time to time I design and illustrate posters and flyers for local events. Here is the latest "contracted" work that I did. It's for Scandal at Dad's Garage. So far, I have designed 3 posters for various shows at Dad's Garage and I hope to continue doing it. Before I knew anyone at Dad's Garage, I always wanted to be involved in some way and since I don't do improv or act(act well anyway), I figured I wouldn't be able to contribute to what they do. Now, I am friends with a great deal of the people there and have weaseled my way into drawing stuff for them, so that's pretty neat.

Here's another one I did for them:

If you have seen the original poster for Blood Car, I used the same blood splat for this poster. I have actually used that blood splat for multiple things, but Blood Car was the first.

Another poster I did recently was for the Catch 23 Comedy Deathmatch, that my friend Rene organizes. Even though it only took about an hour to do, I still really like it. I am working on another one for the May show.

The main thing I am concentrating on right now is a short film I am making. It is animated, which I have never done before, but I am really excited about it. It's the first time I am combining two things that I really enjoy doing. It is still in the early stages, but so far I am very confident that it is gonna be pretty cool. Here is a still of some of the test footage:

I will probably be using this space to update my progress with the short as well as share stuff I have learned about animation in future posts, so hopefully that will be interesting.

Jack Cardiff Is Dead

2009-04-23T01:15:00.003-04:00

und

The Maxx

2009-04-13T22:43:00.005-04:00

The Blue Hammer

2009-04-03T15:11:00.006-04:00

Operation Counterpunch

2009-03-30T15:44:00.008-04:00

Paperbacks from my parents collection:

A List Of Films That I Liked This Year.

2008-11-28T22:42:00.005-05:00

While I still have yet to see Slumdog Millionaire, Revolutionary Road and Benjamin Button, I decided to jump the gun and list my favorite films of the last year.

10. Man On Wire

9. Paranoid Park

8. Let The Right One In

7. Rachel Getting Married

6. Vicky Christina Barcelona

5. Milk

4. Snow Angels

3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

2. Edge Of Heaven

1. The Wrestler

Others I enjoyed:

Shotgun Stories

Synecdoche, New York

Rambo

The Fall

Jellyfish

Don't Mess With The Zohan

The Dark Knight

Art Star

2008-11-23T03:50:00.004-05:00

I saw a documentary tonight titled, Guest of Cindy Sherman. It was made by a guy who dated her for just over 5 years. He was there and did a Q&A, slightly high/drunk/eccentric(pick one). The doc was sloppy and not well put together. Probably a nice guy, but not that interesting as a character to watch it a film. It seemed as though he thought being insecure in a relationship was something groundbreaking. Welcome to life Paul H-O. I was still fascinated, however. Cindy Sherman is in it and they briefly chronicle her life and the art world she eventually dominated. I learned that Julian Schnabel painted before doing films and he was an asshole and a part of a machismo-style art fraternity. The film shows Cindy in her apartment taking photographs of herself for an upcoming exhibit. Her process is shown and it is so simple yet completely wonderful. It confirmed a lot of how I feel about art and its "purpose", and also why Cindy Sherman is one of my favorite artists. So I called her tonight after the film and we talked and, yes, we are married. Cindy Pinney. Get used to it.

How To Succeed In Not Making Your Film Festival An Ass Clown Festival

2008-11-15T22:49:00.002-05:00

Ok Film Festival, I must admit, I was really excited when I read your program and saw all the awesome films you had playing. A more impressive lineup of films than a lot of festivals. You have a large emphasis on big foreign films, including The Class, the winner of the Palme d'Or this year. The Heartbeat Detector, which has the guy from Diving Bell and looks amazing. The Unknown Woman, Let the Right One In, Stolen Holidays, Wonderful Town, Timecrimes and a handful of others. You also have a couple mumblecore movies, Yeast and Nights And Weekends, which I always enjoy watching. You even have The Wrestler. THE WRESTLER. So, you have all these BIG movies, ones I'm sure might even come to most theaters at some point, but it's pretty neat to see them early. You don't have a whole bunch of small features, but hey, that's ok. You have a great lineup of docs also. Hey! Look At This! You have 13 shorts programs! 13! You are also giving away 7 prizes for shorts! 7! Wow, Film Festival, you must really like shorts. And one of them I actually worked on as Director of Photography. Wow! So how did you ass clown everything up Film Festival? I'm not sure how you did that, but here are some things you can do to avoid ass clowning in the future:

A. Give Filmmaker passes to, now follow me here, Filmmakers. I know this sounds a little ridiculous, but trust me. Currently, you give Filmmaker passes to people with feature films in the festival but not shorts. Wha? So, I did the math on that. After the math, I realized about 3 or 4 people got Filmmaker passes. How is that possible with so many features though? Well Film Festival, most of your feature films are BIG films, foreign or not, which I mentioned earlier. These people are not coming to your town out in the middle of nowhere. Come to think of it, I doubt most of the people with shorts in you are gonna make the trip, especially if they don't have a pass. So why not give any Filmmaker, with a a film in you, who shows up, a pass? Makes sense to me.

S. So you don't want to give Filmmakers a pass, ok. What do you currently give them instead? 4 "vouchers" for films. So they still have to go to the ticket booth, the same time as everyone else and trade in their voucher for a ticket. This sucks. Refer to point "A" for how to resolve this.

S. Don't have 2 venues that are 15-20 minutes away from each other. Here is why:

C. On your day of shows, your tickets sell out an HOUR AND HALF before the show. That means you have to show up almost 2 HOURS before the show to get a ticket. So if you want to see two movies at two different theaters, forget about it, you're fucked. It would be great for the Filmmakers who came to your festival to not have to deal with this by having a Festival Pass. That would be kinda smart and a favor to the Filmmakers. How about that? No? Ok.

L. Don't be in St. Louis.

O. I don't have any more points, but I need to finish the list for the bad joke.

W. I'm really just upset because I showed up to see a movie and it was sold out and had to drive 15 minutes back home. I poured a little scotch and decided to blahg.

N. I know I didn't direct or produce the film we have in you, Film Festival, but I did shoot it and I have gotten passes at every other festival. I know I could be a normal person and stand in line and show up early and all that, but, I'm not a normal person. I'm a Filmmaker. And you are a Film Festival. Do you make Battery Makers wait in line and pay to go to the Battery Festival? I don't think so. Normal people have to wait in line at the Battery Festival, but not Battery Makers. (3 posts, in a row, with batteries mentioned, YES!!!!!).

And this is an added point, but, Film Festival, a cash bar at the parties? You lose Film Festival. You lose.

I Like Your Take On Leopards. I Like Leopards.

2008-11-13T14:29:00.009-05:00

Movies Seen This Week:

Role Models- eh, sure, entertaining.

Zach & Miri Make a Porno - eh, sure, entertaining.

Happy Go Lucky - eh, sure. (I wanted something a little more brash from Leigh)

The next week should be chock full of good movies though. Here's just a taste of what I'll be seeing this week. Syncedoche New York, The Wrestler, Let The Right One It, Wendy and Lucy, AND a documentary about a guy who dated Cindy Sherman but couldn't deal with her superstar status in the art world. Should be fun.

Went to the Wolf Parade concert. It was inside of a college(or university, whatever) in a small basement/fire tragedy waiting to happen kind of room. The show was amazing though. It was jam packed. They played 16 songs, which is an enormous amount of music, considering one song is 10 minutes long. They don't serve alcohol though, on account of it being in a school and all, which was not as much of a bummer as I though it would be. Good Times.

On Sundays Clay goes to a local sports pub and watches the Falcons game. I have joined him both times and it is pretty easy to get caught up in enjoying a football game. A homeless man came into the bar and was trying to buy food with batteries. I didn't think to much of it at the time but in retrospect it is a pretty sad site.

Played catch in the park and went to the zoo again. There was a 6 month old Leopard named Sophie that was awesome. They have several exhibits were the the Big Cats can come right up to you and you could touch them if you stuck your fingers through the cage. Sophie was watching everybody. As I came up to the cage, she hid behind the 2 foot tall divider. She then jumped from behind it, straight at me. I ducked down behind the divider and she did the same thing. I would peek up slowly and she would jump up and at me every time. Unlike the older animals who have become hardened by life on the inside, it was refreshing to see a young animal, being playful and interactive. It makes me want to learn more about how animals come to be in zoos and if it is beneficial or detrimental.

Also did this:

We call it SuperCatan. It's pretty much every version of the game, all in one. Here is the aftermath:

I won the game, but I also played a game we call SuperCatan for 6 hours. So you be the judge.

You Cantada Touch This (HOLD FOR LAUGHTER)

2008-11-03T00:59:00.014-05:00

I have spent the last week in Toronto, Ontario shooting the pilot for a new show. I won't go into what the show is about because I'm not sure you are allowed to talk about those sort of things, but it is definitely a unique take on a proven genre and might actually be entertaining and at the same time informative, which is rare these days. This is also the first job I have worked in quite a long time and jumping back into production was not as stressful as I thought it would be. It was not a cake walk by any means, and the hours where long, a 22 hour day at one point, but it ran smoothly and overall I had an enjoyable time. Because of the long hours, I was not afforded the chance to explore the city or see any of the sites, unless of course I was shooting the talent going to certain places. So I only took a handful of pictures, all within minutes, in the hotel room.

Here is the view from the room, with the inside of the room in the reflection.

This was my roommate for the duration of the trip. He came in with the rest of the crew from Los Angeles. I'm not exactly sure what his position was and he never told me his name. He carried the pint glass you see pictured everywhere and demanded that our PA, Isaac, always keep it filled with either beer, opaque liquor, or "baby formula". One time, delirious from lack of sleep, Isaac filled the glass with donut holes, which they call "Tidbits" in Canada, and the Nameless Man defecated in the Walkie Dock and demanded Isaac clean it out. Isaac was also a local, Canadian through and through, which already was a strike against him in the eyes of the Nameless Man, so the constant ribbing and defecating never let up. One minute you would be setting a light for an interview and the next minute there would be poop all over the egg crate because Isaac accidentally poured the Nameless Man a glass full of lithium batteries. I seemed to manage fine with my roommate though, most likely on account of our shared interest in drinking heavily. Which leads to the second contest in my What Am I Eating*(*drinking) contest. Name that food*(*drink):

There are some stipulations to this contest though. If you have been to Toronto, you are exempt from participating. Mainly this applies to Baby Courageous, who has been to Toronto many times and also won the last What Am I Eating contest. So you're out. Sorry bud. Also, in this photo, I am watching the Nameless Man poop on something. If you can name that item, you also win a prize (HINT: it is something a Canadian PA might use to comb his hair with). The trip was full of interesting moments from the Nameless Man which I will explore in future blahgs. Here is the Nameless Man in one of his lighter moments, wearing the PA's jeans, and, you guessed it, pooping in them:

Rachel cleans Margot's clock. Yup.

2008-10-25T19:29:00.004-04:00

One thing I wanted to avoid when decided to do this blahg, was that I was not gonna write movie reviews. It's a hard thing to avoid when most of your time is spent watching movies, though. With one exception, I've been pretty good about it, only giving brief thoughts on the films I've seen. So here is exception #2. I only do it, because there are so few good movies that come out, so I will only write an extended opinion on one if I feel it was good. If I don't like something, you won't hear about it.

Rachel Getting Married is pretty darn good. I had lowered expectations going into it because the trailer and title were way too reminiscent of Margot At The Wedding, a film I have mixed feelings about. It looked to be a more "Hollywood" take on that film. If it didn't have Jonathan Demme's name attached to it, I probably would never have gone to see it, no matter how hot Anne Hathaway is. I was wrong. In the first 10 minutes, I thought I was right, but once you get past those overwritten first minutes it's pretty much smooth sailing to uncomfortable island. I felt like I was watching a Lars Von Trier movie at times, and while it's not nearly as hardcore as those, the film still manages to create moments where I squirmed in my seat. I also got choked up a lot. It's family drama done well, and only creeps into being overly dramatic a couple times, which is tolerable based on how good the rest of the film is. One thing I loved was how many moments were just allowed to continue. Most films are just meat and potatoes, but this had the green beans and garden salad as well. (that's ridiculous, I'm sorry). But yeah, certain things play out for awhile, and I loved it. So there you go. I didn't even give away any plot details. And Fab Five Freddy is in it, so if that's not reason enough to see it, I don't know what is.

I'm A Lone Nut With A Gun, But I Wouldn't Hurt Anyone

2008-10-23T21:23:00.005-04:00

Here are a few things that I love right now.

I went to the St Louis Art Museum and they had an exhibit called Action/Abstraction, which had a focus on Pollock and de Kooning. To say the least, it was wonderful. And while the focus was on Pollock and de Kooning, the exhibit itself was much larger and included tons of artists. The exhibit also showed an evolvement of art since Pollock. One of the artists I was introduced to was Gerhard Richter, who has various styles he employs in his different pieces. I was surprised this was included in the exhibit since it's photorealism, but I'm glad that is was. This painting is called Betty and it won the my favorite piece in the whole exhibit award.

The rest of the museum was actually pretty fantastic. It's located in Forest Park which is, hands down, the most beautiful and serene place in all of St. Louis. The rest of the Museum had tons of great art and also that one room, that all museums have, that have the 3 or 4 best things ever all in one place. In this museum, it was a Chuck Close, a Lichtenstein and a Warhol all in a small room the size of a bedroom. In Atlanta, there used to be but is no longer, a room with a Richard Estes, a Rauschenberg, and an amazing painting (not sure on the artist) that was huge and basically a black silhouette of a house against a black sky with a lone window light on. I would spend so much time in that one room. Another pretty fascinating piece at the STL museum was a video loop called Placebo by an artist named Saskia Olde Wolbers. Here it is, taped off of the actual exhibit wall, so it's a rough version, but still illustrates some of the rad stuff in it.

Thanks to the constant gushing by Hugh and Emmi about how great Mad Men is, I finally sat down and gave it a shot. I usually find it hard to believe that something on TV can be that great, especially if it's not on HBO. Boy oh boy was I wrong. I can honestly say that Mad Men is the best thing I've seen, on any medium, in a long time. I don't find it to be a show about morally absent people, but more of a show that examines impulsiveness and instant gratification in human relationships and personal endeavors. It's dark and sad and constantly surprising to see the means to these characters ends. I tried to find a single clip on youtube that conveys what this show is like, but it's almost impossible. While the easy one to show would be the "Carousel" clip, it doesn't work as well out of context, knowing what there is to know about Don Draper. So I chose this one, which conveys, microcosmically(is that a word?), the emotional failure of pretty much every character on the show. And it is more bizarre in context than it is out of context, which is a testament to this program.

So, art, television, and now music. There is a trailer for the new Sam Mendes film, Revolutionary Road, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and it looks fantastic. It actually looks like it could be an episode of Mad Men. But I think what makes the trailer awesome is the song that is playing in it. I had never heard it before so I did some research and found out it is called Wild Is The Wind and is being sung by Nina Simone. It's a song that has been sung by what seems like a million artists from Johnny Mathis to David Bowie to Cat Power. But this version, by Nina Simone, is wonderful. It's the kind of song you want to listen to after a couple glasses of scotch. There is a short version and long version, but I'm gonna include the long version here because the song deserves the time. The accompanying video is nothing, and not important, but just listen to the song. Have a few drinks and just sit back and listen to this song.

I did some research on Nina Simone and listened to a handful of her songs. She was around during the civil rights era and was a proponent of violent revolution. She had bipolar disorder and died of breast cancer. Listen to her other songs. Amazing stuff.

Finally, to wrap up this video heavy post, I want to include one of my favorite things ever.

John Currin is not John Curran

2008-10-19T00:14:00.004-04:00

I was introduced to the art of John Currin years ago. What initially drew me to his work was the above painting. The subject of the painting looks just like the girl I dated all though college, who was also an artist. I went to New York a few years ago and visited the Whitney. To my surprise they had a Currin exhibit and it was wonderful. What brought him up again, recently, is that the actor in Mike Brune's The Adventure is also named John Curran, but with an "A" instead of an "I". I realized this connection today.

Bush is the UPS Store Passport Photographer of Presidents

2008-10-17T19:05:00.005-04:00

The very nice people at the UPS store had never used their Passport Camera, nor had they been trained on how to take pictures properly. This was attempt 2 of 4. At least they could have a career at Vice magazine or shooting American Apparel ads if the whole UPS thing doesn't work out.

I saw W today and I enjoyed it. Most of the reviews say it paints a somewhat sympathetic portrait of the man, and I can't disagree. The film portrays a man who, after a handful of false starts in life, would be just another guy at the bar on a Friday night, with a pretty wife and humble home, if not for the lofty standards of his family. I can get behind that guy. My mom, who is a left-leaning Republican, a lover of cinema, and also a great lady in her own right, despises Oliver Stone because of his revisionist take on history. And maybe I have to agree with her on that, because Oliver Stone made George Bush human. Which we all know he is not. Kidding. I'm actually not one of those people who thinks GB is a "bad" person, just a bad president who has made bad decisions for bad reasons, and maybe that's why I enjoyed this film, because it doesn't make him Hitler, it makes him out to be your average guy, who has no right or want to be president, just happen to become president at the worst possible time, surrounded by the worst possible people. So less like Hitler, and more like a Hitler Youth. THE BEST PART OF THE FILM, though, is the end credits, where you will see Chris Campbell's and Hilton Garret's names while Bob Dylan plays. Pretty Neat.

He Certainly Is A Good Walker

2008-10-15T15:34:00.010-04:00

I went to the zoo yesterday. The zoo in St. Louis is in a place called Forest Park, which is actually a really pretty and scenic place. It is Atlanta's equivalent of Piedmont Park, but once you are in it, you don't feel like you are in the city. The zoo is also free, which is perfect for people who want to go to a zoo and not spend money to get in. I did spend $5.75 while I was there, though, on a hot dog and a Coca-Cola. I tried to take another blurry pic for the "What Am I Eating?" series, but a hot dog is a hot dog, no matter how much you try to hide it.

On that note, we do have a winner for the first "What Am I Eating?" pic. And despite Ablebody's late paper drop into the hat, only one person came out on top. And that person is.....

BABY COURAGEOUS!!!

It was a burrito, that came with sour cream and lettuce on the side and as I was getting down to the end of the cheese covered burrito, I decided to cut it up and mix everything on the plate. I intended on buying something from the Zoo gift shop as the prize, but it was closed, as was the zoo, as I was leaving. But don't worry. I'll find something in this town for you.

Before I get back to the zoo, I'll just recap a couple things I've done this week. I saw two movies, Religulous and Appaloosa, neither of which blew me away. The theater was in a luxury hotel called the Chase Park Plaza.

While neither movie was particularly noteworthy, the one weird thing that did happen was that as I was getting my ticket torn, a man who looked like John Waters was walking out. I was pretty sure it was him, but was a little baffled that he would be in St. Louis. I walked into the lobby and went over to some local rags, and sure enough, a caricature of John Waters was on the cover of one of them. He had a one man show in town and also Pink Flamingos was playing as a midnight movie at another theater. So yeah, I saw John Waters. I sat in the theater before the movie started and regretted not talking to him, because there is a great possibility he has seen Blood Car. I thought about all the adventures we could have gotten into together in one crazy St. Louis weekend. Oh well.

Back to the zoo. I didn't take too many pictures at the zoo. I don't take too many pictures in general, but especially not at zoos. The zoo was practically a ghost town, but the few people there were all taking pictures. With cell phones. Of every animal. I don't get it. Here is a picture I took:

I asked a zoo employee nearby why this lone ostrich was in the same exhibit as a bunch of giraffes and she said they organize the animals in the zoo by awkwardness.

I also took a couple "movies" with my camera as well. They won't upload properly, and actually freeze my computer whenever I try to do anything with them, but one in particular was really beautiful to me. It was two katydids moving on a leafy branch. Katydids look like bright green leaves with legs. They are actually one of the more pleasing insects to look at. There was something about it that really touched me.

Before this moment, I was gonna write a whole post about how zoos are sad and animals in cages and blah blah blah, and then I shot these two bugs on a branch. I spent the rest of the day at the zoo in a very introspective mood. I thought about a short story I had written about two people at a zoo, which was actually inspired by the last time I was in St. Louis a year ago and went to the same zoo. The story started off in front of an eagle cage. Here is an excerpt from that story:

"The eagle looked old, but Alan couldn’t be sure if it just looked that way or was actually that way. The feathers on the bird’s head were a dirty white and a bit tattered, and if he were a person, that would lead one to believe he was old."

I went and revisited the eagle that inspired the introduction to the story and stood in front of it, alone, just staring at it for about 10 minutes. It might just be me and the weight that eagles have in our culture, but I felt like I was staring at a mythical creature. The eagle arched its neck every so often and let out a very weak "caw".

I went to the monkey house(I'm gonna call apes, monkeys, and vice versa, so just get over it), which at this zoo, they call JUNGLE OF THE APES! I always think about The Graduate when I see the apes and monkeys at the zoo. Ben shows up in Berkley to see Elaine and she has already moved on with her life, but he wants to marry her. He follows her to the zoo, where she is meeting her fiance. Elaine and her fiance leave together and Ben is left with the monkeys and apes.

Ben looks up from this shot and stares at two chimps sitting together. Ben stares directly into the camera and the lens zooms past his shoulder and focuses on a gorilla, sitting alone on a rock. It's sad and strange and wonderful.

My day at the zoo was one of those days that highlighted why I left Atlanta. It was me, alone, getting a little closer to realizing what is honestly important to me. Cinema is one of those things and it is something I have been really down about lately. And it wasn't the two mediocre movies I saw earlier in the week, or my could-of-been adventure with John Waters, that lifted my spirits a bit. It was simple, personal moments from everyday life that touched me, like two bugs on a branch, an eagle that snuck into one of my stories, or some chimps and apes that reminded me of a great film, like the Graduate, which in turn made me think about the people I love and miss. I wish you could see the little video of the katydids, and maybe it wouldn't mean as much to you or you wouldn't see what I saw, but, maybe you would, and it would put a smile on your face.

The Short Sad Life Of Nathan Ley, and ME!!!

2008-10-07T18:05:00.005-04:00

And here it is in glorious color.

And the young woman's name was Christian Gooden, although I think she might have introduced herself as "Chrissy".

Our Church Has...Wait For It.

2008-10-06T20:07:00.030-04:00

I realized today that if you make an effort to do anything, anywhere, something will happen. But, tomorrow, in the city of St. Louis, the entire city might be seeing a picture of me, staring directly at the "N" word, just because I left the loft to have a look at what the downtown area of St. Louis has to offer.

Today I was supposed to be finishing up an editing project, but it had to be put off until tomorrow because of whateverwhocares. So, I played a little Mega Man 9 (holy cow guys, it's pretty great), and then threw on my empty computer bag and headed out for a walk through the city. I literally live downtown and can walk anywhere you've seen in a postcard of St. Louis without breaking too much of a sweat. I was really psyched about seeing the Public Library, which appears to have been constructed whenever the city was being built. On a side note, I will make no effort to actually research anything about this city regarding history or founding, so everything I say will be speculation. But this building looks like it was made by the Romans. A Real City Public Library. I took this picture of it and purposely waited for the guy in it to cross in front of my frame. It doesn't come across in the pic, but he scrambled in front of me like an idiot trying to get out of the way of a picture.

I entered the library, passed a no-weapons sign, and went through a metal detector. Why would you need a weapon to steal from a place that gives you stuff for free? This place is huge. It's the real deal. When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was that there was some sort of exhibit going on. A lot of glass cases with historical documents and giant partitions with paintings and words and such. Here is the first thing I looked at:

Below the photograph is Abraham Lincoln's John Hancock. Pretty Neat. The whole exhibit was about Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation and the freeing of slaves. I looked at a couple more things there and then a sweet young woman approached me and asked if she could take pictures of me looking at all this stuff. I think her exact words were, "Hey, I'm from the St. Louis Post Dispatch and I was wondering if I could take pictures of you looking at this stuff. It's a REALLY slow news day and they wanted an article about this exhibit and you are the first person to come in here and look at this stuff." I said, "Sure". She told me to just go about looking at stuff and not even think about her being there. I started looking at stuff and heard the "click click" of the camera. I stopped and asked her if it was okay if I just did what I want and look at whatever. She said, "Please, yes, don't play up to the camera, just do what you want, if you walk away and leave, do that." So, I walked around, looking at this exhibit and reading about how Lincoln freed the slaves. Here's the thing, though. The exhibit had all these quotes, in HUGE bold letters from anti-abolitionists, and the main word in most of these quotes was "nigger". SO, I focused all my attention on that word. CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK, at least 15 pictures of me staring directly at the word "nigger". I moved on and found a political cartoon of Abraham Lincoln sitting on a cage of rail ties, encasing a slave. I looked at this cartoon and played up a face of disgust, CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK. So, she took pictures of me and I asked her what kind of paper the St. Louis Dispatch was. Apparently it is THE paper in St. Louis, the AJC, if you will. I'll let you know if I make it in print. Here's the nice young woman who took my picture. I forgot her name, which is something I need work on when meeting people.

I walked around the rest of the library and then, as I was heading out of the library, I saw that she was taking pictures of a young attractive woman looking at the exhibit. So, I have a feeling I won't make the story, because, really, who wants to see a guy with a gut and a nose looking at the the word nigger in a library.

I then went to a very small city grocery store called The City Grocery. I went intending to buy dinner for Clay and I, but instead I bought Brie cheese, basil and sweet pepper crackers and a bottle of spanish wine. The store is mainly fresh and organic foods, with a bit of the mainstream stuff like Coke and Pringles. Pretty cool small place within walking distance. It's on this corner:

Anyway, the real story here is the girl at the register. Now, I'm not pointing this out to be mean, or to exploit anybody, or any of that bullshit. It is merely an observation. The girl at the register had a baby-doll hand. One arm and hand was completely normal and the other ended at the elbow and had a baby-doll hand in place of a forearm and regular hand.

Imagine this with no wrist or forearm and a full grown woman attached to it. The weird thing about this is that I saw an SNL skit recently that was COMPLETELY about a woman with baby-doll hands for hands. This is one of those things where you see something you are not used to seeing, then you see it all the time. I am going to be seeing baby-doll hands on everybody now.

I also walked to the St. Louis Arch. There is actually a really nice little park around this place with a great pond. You can also sit and look out at the Mississippi River.

Here's the kicker to the day though, that actually occurred after the library and before the baby-handed registrar, but made my fucking day. There is an awesome Cathedral across the street from the library. I walked in and it was completely empty, like any good cathedral.

The sculpture at the head of the Cathedral was pretty impressive. There was Jesus in the center and then around him, were tons of guys(and a gal or two) holding different objects that were shaded darker than the standard light beige you see in this pic. Staffs, books, crosses, and other religious accessories were all in a darker brown. I've studied architecture and sculpture in a varying forms, but never really appreciated it, but there is something there and worth seeing and maybe because I'm older, i can appreciate this type of art. So, seeing this was pretty awesome...but not nearly as awesome as this, in the same church:

I actually tried to straighten this banner out so there would be no question as to what this said, but it almost fell over as soon as I touched it and I heard a man cough in the nave...

This City Doesn't Belong To You Anymore

2008-10-04T20:50:00.073-04:00

And here I am. St. Louis. For now. But before I get into that, I just want to let everyone know what an awesome "going-away" night I had. It felt like a funeral reception, but I was able to be there, and everyone was happy that I was still alive. And, by the way, if I do die one day, please hire Neil Hamburger to give the eulogy. But to everyone that made it out, and to those that couldn't be there but wished me well, thank you so much. It really was a wonderful night.

The morning of the day I left Atlanta I woke up in the basement of a house in the suburbs. I stepped outside into a cul-de-sac and a mom was holding a baby and watching her two other kids, one on a bicycle and the other on a razor scooter, wheeling around in circles. She was probably as old I was and that made me feel old. She waved with her free hand and said "hello". I said the same thing back and smiled and headed to a gas station to get some Ibuprofen and a Red Bull(I swear by this combination). In the car, still in the suburbs, I drove with the window down and slowly passed an older guy placing a McCain/Palin sign in a yard. He looked up, smiled and waved at me, and my response was a loud, obnoxious "BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!", out the window, directly at him. I made it to Hugh's and said my goodbyes. It was low key and not outwardly emotional, but the truth is I will miss Hugh and Emmi Braselton more than the rest of you. They are good people and I love them deeply. I gave Hugh a simple man hug and then went to my parent's house and then from there I headed out on the road to St. Louis.

The drive was uneventful and actually kind of sad. I spent most of the time thinking about the people I was leaving behind. I got a handful texts wishing me well and one text that created a knot in my throat for a second or two. The only reply to that text I could come up with was to take a picture of the open road with my camera phone and send it back. This picture I took below is pretty close to the one I took with my phone, except there was a ghost in the other one.

About 4 or 5 hours into the drive I started getting tired(I was up to, like, 6 or something the night before) and decided to get some food. I got McDonalds. I know, but shoving fries and hamburgers and cokes in your face while driving will keep you awake. The last 30 minutes of the drive I thought I was gonna slit my ankle tendons. It was taking so long. But then Alex called me and told me how awesome the new Charlie Kaufman film was. I know a movie will be great when Alex tells me I will love it and the rest of the world will hate it, despise it, and have no idea what to do about it. Alex said he saw the film at a special Creative Screenwriting Screening at which Charlie Kaufman would do a full length interview afterwards. I asked Alex how that went and he said he left as soon as the movie ended because he didn't want his idea of the film to be tainted by this interview. He walked out of seeing Charlie Kaufman talk. That's something. At about 10:00 at night I was crossing over the Mississippi River and into St. Louis. The skyline at night is actually quite impressive with the arch and all. Here is the picture I tried to take of it while I was driving:

I made it to my new home, a loft in downtown St. Louis, and was greeted by Clay, one of my best friends from grade school, and unloaded the few things I had brought with me. I was tired as shit so I fell asleep shortly after arriving. I had dreams about photographs with secret colored codes that, when combined, formed into a solution for something. I actually think it formed into a portrait of a patriot or something. ugh. sorry. We spent the next day in the "Loop" which is a pretty rad part of town. They have an old fashioned movie theater called the Tivoli, which is owned by the Landmark theater chain. They were showing Trouble The Water(please see this, it's devastating), and a film by that anime guy who made Princess Mononoke. A young woman was standing outside making cotton candy and selling it for a dollar. Every time she starting "spinning" the candy she would hold her hand over mouth, which is the main reason I did not buy any cotton candy. Relating to the movie scene in St. Louis and people questioning why I would move there, since St. Louis has no movie and/or film reputation, let me present exhibit A, in defense of the St. Louis film culture:

Those are my shoes. And that is a St. Louis walkway of fame. On the same main strip there was a stage set up and performances going on. It seemed to be some sort of talent exhibition for dancers. A bunch of little kids with perm wigs were square/river/polka dancing. It was adorable for about 10 seconds. After them there was a group of young women in bathing suits who were performing cirque de soliel type tricks in bathing suits to some sort of Russian Techno Pop music, which I will call R-Pop from this point on. I tried to take a picture of that, but I had the camera set to manual and it was way overexposed. After them, a young guy and gal came out and started to do a dancing-with-the-stars type dance and I left, cause that's adorable for no seconds.

I also ate my first St. Louis meal. This will be sort of a contest. I took a blurry picture of what I was eating and if you can guess what it is I will send you something amazing. Here is that picture:

But, for now, let me get away from all that and address the blog title and pic. The picture is a detail from a Cindy Sherman photograph for a series of towels, of which Jeff Koons also participated. If you don't know about Cindy Sherman, look her up. She is a huge influence. Cool stuff. I am also a huge admirer of The Graduate and Ben's tendency to drift in pools and what that means in the great big scheme of things, so the Sherman photo seemed appropriate. The blog title is a line from a Wolf Parade song. They are the only band playing here in the next few months that I will probably see. I'll let you know how that goes.