Saturday, September 25, 2010

Saturday Morning

Today:

I turned him down. This is a first. I feel strong.

Got up, did the above, and went for a walk with my roommate. We were trying to find this garage sale that was advertised around the neighborhood where everything is free. (Wouldn't really be called a sale... a Garage Give-Away?). However, we were too late and all that was left were some tin cans and plastic bags.
I walked with her to the Farmer's Market, also. I have no money though (as has been the case for weeks, sadly). So I didn't buy anything, but enjoyed the atmosphere.

Last night:

Simone picked me up from work in her white Jag (borrowed from her sugardaddy/ supposed boyfriend, Dennis). We had some delicious sushi at Cafe Mochi, and the world's best cocktails at Absolutli Goosed. We discussed men and sex... and opening our own herbal pharmacy someday (funded by Dennis, of course).



The rest of today shall be good, I feel it!

Po-Mo Irish Dance

What's That Weird Hand Dance Video? Meet Irish Dancers Cleary & Harding.

(from If Its Hip, Its Here)


This wacky and mesmerizing video has been rapidly climbing the viral charts since its debut on YouTube four months ago. A strange song accompanies a man and a woman at a table in front of an oddly decorated wall engaging in a choreographed 'hand dance.'



What is it? Who are these people? If these questions have plagued you like they did me, read on.



It turns out that this video, We Speak No Americano, is from Up & Over It, self-described as "Irish Dance for the Post-pop generation." A collaboration between Suzanne Cleary, Peter Harding and Jonny Reed, Up & Over It aims to stretch the concept of Irish Dance to its limits.






Cleary & Harding live in Cardiff 2010, Music: Frankmusik - 3 Little Words:


A multimedia production for Up & Over It Spring 2010:


Here's a reel of behind the scenes, outakes and 'bloopers' if you will. Compiled by Johnny reel they call it their "Best Bits" and it really endears you to Suzanne Cleary and Peter Harding:


Up & Over It

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Juggling

I am seeing multiple men. And another just asked me out.

I'm not sure if I've just reached a point after the bullshit that I don't give a fuck about being loyal to one person. Or if this is just a psychological response to the pain I've felt for the last few months.

It gives me confidence, but it also makes me feel guilty at times. And sometimes, when I'm with one, I just wish I was with another.

I think I am scared to fall for one person. And the one I've fallen for, well, I guess I already have ammunition to use if I get hurt again.

And only one of them is someone I could actually, possibly have a legitimate relationship with. But I'm still unsure.

Part of me wants to get rid of them all, and just be me. on my own. no men.
I don't know if I can, though. (It's sad that I've become like that.)

Toilets of the World

Just discovered this. Love it!

Wish I would've thought of that!

I Love the Eighties (and the Swinging Sixties!)

Has anyone ever asked you in which era you would best belong?

I have a friend that really rocks the 70s look. And since she surely knows which decade she belongs in, it made me ponder this for myself.

I love history, antiques, and vintage clothes ...so for me this is a great question to think about. I can think of style aspects of all the decades that I love. But I think my personal style is a definite tie between the 60s and 80s. Both eras featured bright colors and bold geometric patterns and styles (which are a staple for me). I love the leggings, long loose tops, and chunky jewelry of the 80s; and I adore the chicness of classic 60's London with simple short shifts and clean lines and a sort of "cutesy-ness" (think modern-day Zooey Deschanel) . The Beatnik look of the early 60s a la Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face is probably my ideal look, as well!










Recent Inspirations...

(love the blue geometric print and the brown leather bag)




Repeat After Me...

I think that, for me atleast, the key to self improvement is picking one thing to work on and sticking to it. And focusing on only that, until it is achieved.

There are many, many things I need to change right now in my life. I know I am a very intelligent, cultured, unique, kind person. (And knowing that retains my self-esteem.) I have learned a lot and experienced a lot (what I treasure most are the experiences I've had over the past 3-4 years). However, I have not accomplished a lot. Life is about learning and experiencing as much as you can, but also about putting that knowledge and experience to use and doing something with it! My life thus far has been about experiencing, but now it needs to be about doing.

The problem is, when I try to work on the many things that need changing, it becomes overwhelming and nothing is achieved.

Some ideas on my "one thing" to work on....

-Cut out the negatives in my life. (Possibly too broad and vague.. but this would apply to a lot right now).

-Don't avoid things or people.

-Make every decision with the future in mind.

-Decide what exactly I want in life and make every choice according to that goal. (This entails sitting down and detailing what it is that I truly want... which is a complex issue in itself...).

I need to do some thinking on which of these will be my new "mantra."

Saturday, September 18, 2010

I ♥ Street Art

"Momo's Painted Downtown Line" [from NY Times]

By COLIN MOYNIHAN







The thin orange line of paint traces a winding path though downtown Manhattan neighborhoods like SoHo, Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side. Uneven and wandering, the stripe runs up major avenues and across narrow streets, sometimes prominent, at other times so faint and worn that it is barely visible.

Although it has existed for four years, the paint line has escaped most people’s notice. And among those who have paused to register its presence, few have probably spent much time contemplating its origin. It is, after all, just a simple bit of paint: one more arcane marking in an urban landscape filled with street art and random splashings; a small-caliber mystery in a big city rich with secrets.

“The orange drip that flows through the East Village,” Sharon Jane Smith, 57, mused on Sunday as she gazed at the section of the line that meandered past her East Village shop, A Repeat Performance, on First Avenue near East 10th Street. “I have no idea where that orange drip came from.”

In August a young blogger named Nick Divers posted an essay online revealing that there is more to the paint than immediately meets the eye. He was not the first to figure out what the line signifies, but his posting was circulated through the blogosphere, bringing new recognition to what began as an intentionally quiet statement.

Over the last four years hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who have walked by or on top of the orange lines have unwittingly passed what is possibly the biggest graffiti tag in the world. The tag, which is so vast that all parts of it cannot be viewed simultaneously, was created in 2006 by an artist known as Momo and consists of a paint line that he said runs about eight miles long and spells out his name.

It runs from the East River to the Hudson River and extends north to 14th Street and south to Grand Street. The line runs over curbstones and subway grates and zigzags around lampposts and manhole covers. Its route begins at the edge of a West Side pier and ends after crossing a footbridge over the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive.

“I wanted to make a trail that people could follow,” Momo said recently by telephone. “And I realized that I could write something if I planned it out with the street grid.”

Momo, a 35-year-old artist from the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, agreed to talk about the project only on the condition that his actual name not be revealed; it is unlawful in New York to place paint messages or symbols on the streets and sidewalks.

The project was inspired by a series of purple footprints that were painted on Manhattan sidewalks in 1986, stretching from the Upper East Side to Foley Square. Those mysterious markings led to a spot on Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side, where the city had bulldozed an elaborate community garden called the Garden of Eden that was created by a squatter named Adam Purple. Momo said he glimpsed the footprints as a child and was captivated.

“It was a really ephemeral, strange sight,” he said. “And it felt like those footprints created a path that was all mine.”

Years later he experimented for months with a way to make his own paint trail and eventually lashed a homemade funnel-shaped bucket to the back of a bicycle. He fitted the bucket with a hose that was controlled by a ball valve of the sort used in swimming pool plumbing systems. The line was created with 15 gallons of paint dispensed over the course of two covert sorties, Momo said, carried out between 3 and 6 in the morning.

“Everyone was oblivious except for one guy who chased me,” he said. “But I think he was trying to be helpful, believing I was heading to a job site and had a legitimate leak.”

In many neighborhoods the paint is still easy to see. Sometimes the line runs on concrete sidewalks, as it does along Stanton Street or Broadway. At other times it runs on macadam roadways, as it does on Seventh Avenue South, where the tires of countless cars have nearly erased it. In certain areas — along Prince Street, for instance — the line can no longer be seen at all, scrubbed away, maybe, or lost when sections of sidewalk were replaced.

After finishing the tag, Momo made a short, impressionistic film about its creation. He told friends about the project but decided not to publicize it widely. Although street-art and graffiti insiders noted the tag, few others did.

That began to change somewhat last month when Mr. Divers posted a description of Momo’s project on his blog, Best Roof Talk Ever. Mr. Divers said that he first became aware of the tag in 2007, when one of his friends, Aaron Cahan, figured out that the paint line spelled the name Momo, then got in touch with the artist, who confirmed that he had created the markings.

In a short essay, which was reposted about 1,500 times, Mr. Divers wrote that he was intrigued by the fact that Momo had created a tag so large that it was, in effect, hidden, because it could not be viewed in its entirety.

“It’s simultaneously the biggest and smallest artistic statement I have seen,” he wrote.

Despite the new attention generated by Mr. Divers, people who recognize the tag are still in the minority. A recent trip along the paint line’s path found that nobody among more than a dozen asked knew the story of Momo’s creation. But the trip did reveal, perhaps, that the paint line had found a place in the city’s collective subconscious, with people who said they had barely noticed it before quickly proposing a range of purposes.

Some thought that it marked the site of future excavations by utility workers. Others suggested that it was part of a code between drug sellers and users. On Avenue B, near Tompkins Square Park, three young men, including one carrying a knapsack and a sleeping bag speculated that the paint marking might reflect public policy toward the homeless.

One, Antoine Fisher, 23, said, “Maybe this line tells you where you can sleep on the sidewalk, since you aren’t allowed to sleep inside the park at night.”

Informed of the true purpose of the line, the three paused to look again at the ground.

“Oh, that’s pretty cool,” said Ryan Sowulski, 22. “You know how hard-core that is?”

Monday, September 13, 2010

The past few days...

-Short roadtrip to Indy for some bonding with the new roomie and quality time with my family there!

-Sex, sex,sex!

-Free meals

-Meeting Simone's wealthy, and large, new man

-Not cleaning or doing anything productive at all. ( :/ )

-Possibly getting a car (for $500!!??)

-Possibly getting an under-25 lbs. dog!

-Lovely new chocolate leather furniture.


Tonight...gelato with a friend.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Vay-cay

I'm off for the next seven days and that is fabulous!

What is not fabulous is that I have no money. (literally. none.) And no car.

So, I'm going to get out and do things on foot. Free things. Walk in Tower Grove. Walk to Compton Hill. Explore the neighborhood on the north side of the park.
And also productive things that I've been putting off. Like organizing my closet/wardrobe, downloading songs/podcasts to put on my iPod, dealing with credit card and loan companies (as noted here), and cleaning my room.

It is after 2pm and I still am in my pjs and I'm loving it. I've been looking at street style blogs for hours. They make me happy.
Here are my favorite looks:


(I've yet to find any flat ankle boots as per the current trend, that I like.... until now!)



Double Life

The past six months have taught me a lot about secrecy. I've always been an extremely open and honest person. I love honesty- I kind of get off on it in a weird way. And I respect the truth from others.

However, lately I feel like I'm leading a double life. There are things I am hiding from lots of people. All related to men. Living like that sort of brings out the extremes in me. I know it can't be healthy though- to have such a divide in myself. I need to make some choices in order to be whole again. And honest.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

complain, complain

There are a couple of issues in my life I really need to deal with. One of which is my debt and resulting financial problems. I have been ignoring phone calls and mail for months. It is really going to catch up with me soon if I don't face it. I've been in denial for a long time and even typing this paragraph is making me cringe. But I HAVE to face it.

I'm just scared to lose my apartment, and to go without a car forever. Winter is coming, and I'd really like a car. Don't get me wrong, there are many days I love using public transit. But I am a baby in the cold, and I miss not being able to go where I choose and not being able to travel at night. (Since I don't like to be on the bus by myself at night).



I think I just need to take baby steps to make improvements in my life. Little steps to fix things that need fixing. And little steps to add more joy to my life--decorate my cubicle, bake myself cookies, hang photos in my apartment, and read more books.

..............Now watching Mad Men, and going to bed!