summerscreen (HOLY SHIT)

Sorry, had to stretch the page for this one.

The turn-out for this was INSANE. Our publisher says "8000 (Eight THOUSAND)" came through last night. It was probably not 8000 but whatever, more people showed up than for Feist when I went last year, and that was a sold out show.

I was put in charge of photography so here we go...


Britt, Nick, Elizabeth and Mike


Some hipsters


Danny introducing...


Joe Lo Truglio, Michael Showalter and Paul Rudd


Susannah and Hesper


Mike, Gretchen and Lauren


Some random girl, Paul Rudd, Jen and Nadine


Justine and Linda during magic hour


Nadine, Jen and I


A capacity crowd!

Mercedes and Sandy also came but I couldn't find them in the crowd.

Also, Brooklyn Vegan put up 2 of my photos. Now I'm Brooklyn blogger famous! Woo!

New food!

Praise the lord, a hallel/gyro kart appeared in DUMBO today. Now I can get chicken over rice with white sauce all the time until I get sick of it again, like last summer!

This ship has sailed

otheradam: ugg, its one of those "if all the right things happen at once, she'll be into it"
mako: me or you?
otheradam: both?
otheradam: and you cant really recreate those conditions a second time
mako: pretty much

Well, every town is all the same

South Philly

July 3
I finally visited Alex and Nate over the weekend in Philly. The 4th of July is probably the best weekend to visit Philly right? Meh...not so much. We forgot that almost everything is actually closed on the fourth.

I took a Chinatown bus to Philly and let me say it was the worst thing ever. I was half thinking of driving to Philly and once I got to Chinatown immediately regretted not doing so. A lot more people than usual were traveling on the 3rd and there were not enough space for any of the per hour Chinatown buses (to anywhere). It was basically a mad rush to get on the bus when it came. Luckly I didn't have any bags except my backpack so I was able to just go right to the front, ahead of the suckers who had to put bags under the bus. It filled up quick. I was at the end of the cut off.

I also choose the worst possible time to take the bus- the 6pm bus. Fucking Manhattan rush hour. It took an entire hour to get from Chinatown to the Holland Tunnel. It's supposed to take 2 hours to get to Philly! Uggg, and AC in the bus was like half-on also.

So the bus stopped in Philly Chinatown. Alex and Nate came to get me and we walk like 2 blocks to their apartment, in Chinatown. I almost cried when Alex told me how much the pay for rent. They live with third roommate, Mimi (Michelle) and they have 3 rooms, a living room, kitchen and attic. Nate took the attic as his room so there is an empty room in the apartment now. The rent for this place is less than the average rent for a shit studio that I can't afford in Park Slope.

"Move to Philly", Nate said. I seriously considered it for like a second. "Do they have any alt weeklies here I could work for?". HA. After I put my stuff down, we went to Center City. One of the nicer parts of town and were people usually "go out". We went to a Belgium Beer bar called Eulogy. It was pretty awesome. They had the biggest European beer selection I've ever seen outside of Europe. More than any place in NY I've been to for sure. There were like 12 beers on tap. They even had Quack and Moretti Rosse in bottles! On the way back we stumbled by the Liberty Bell and stuff. I didn't take any photos.

July 4th
So as I said, most food places were closed. Alex and I just walked around the city and explored a bit. We walked by the American Apparel in the shopping district and went in to take a look. How unsurprising that all 3 hipsters in Philly work at the store! No seriously, haven't seen any hipsters all weekend except for at American Apparel. Do they import these kids from NY?



Alex also bought this shirt (not at AA) that he wore in this portrait I took of him. Yes they live .5 blocks away from the Philly Chinatown arch, and right behind the local small music venue The Trocadero, where RZA as Bobby Digital is playing Monday and She & Him is playing at the end of the month. Could you ask to live in a better location? Geez.


Nate in his studio space. Yes, he's still making the same type of stuff.

We then went to meet up with Nate at the Clay studio, which is next to the "oldest street in the USA".


U-S-A! U-S-A!

The Clay Studio has a balcony that overlooks this street. We got Alex's car and drove around to South Philly and walked down South Street for a bit. That area is kind of nasty. Reminds me of the main drag in Camden Town, London a bit.

We also drove by Pat's and Gino's but didn't stop and eat there. Instead we went to a bar called Skinners and had a few drinks. We got cheesestakes at Sunny's. I gotta say, it was one of the most bland cheesestakes I've ever eaten. What a massive disappointment. I ordered it with provolone and they didn't even melt it really, plus there was not enough of it in the steak. Next time we'll have to go to Pat's or Gino's. Then we went back to Skinner's and had more drinks.

For some reason the fireworks on the 4th were at the art museum and not on the river. The river fireworks were going to be on the 5th. But it started to rain a bit as Alex and I walked back to Chinatown and we were drunk so we didn't bother walking to the art museum, which I heard was a hike from where we were.

So we got a six pack and went back to the apartment and hung out with Mimi for the rest of the night. And that was the highlight of the entire trip.

love par avion, part 2

Colleen sent me this beautiful hand-thrown bowl made by some fancy ex-Alfred ceramics grad (I think he was grad) for my birthday 2 months ago. I said I'd put up a photo when I used it for noodles. This weekend I made noodles. Thanks Colleen!

We kinda kicked it in the chill out tent

Photo Margaret Conklin

I went to the free Hold Steady show at McCarren Park Pool today. What a shitty day for a concert. The weather messed up what would have been a great show. It rained twice- hard and fast. The rainfall around 2pm probably didn't really have any effect except deter a few people from showing up. I totally missed the first band, but saw the second band- J. Roddy & the Business

Andrea and Becca came at the end of their set with a stacks of postcards to promote the Block Party and Summerscreen (July 8, ya'll!). I walked around with them a bit while they handed them out. Then it started to rain. They stopped setting up the stage. Then it really started to rain. I met up with Sandy and we went to Alligator Lounge to wait out the rain. Then I got a taco at YALA's cafe (now I'll never forget the name of this place). The taco wasn't as good as the first time I had it. But to be fair, I was drunk after the L party and it was like 1am. Mexican food is always better when you're drunk and hungry.

We decided to stop by the pool to see if the Hold Steady was playing. I thought they might have just canceled the show. I drove by and heard Craig Finn's unmistakable voice. "They're playing!" So I parked the car. Sandy and I walked over and caught the last half of their set. There were still a ton of people there. I was surprised people came back after the rain...or just stayed and waited it out. Well, if any band has that kind of loyalty amongst Brooklynites, its the Hold Steady. The show wasn't as "OMG CRAZY" as Mike made it out to be. I missed all the songs they played off of Boys and Girls in America, if they played any. I bet it would have been a lot more packed if the weather was nice all day.

As I stood there during J. Roddy's set, I was thinking about the pool and how it epitomized hipster culture. It's going to be hard to explain to anyone not native to NYC because "hipster" can mean totally different tiers of stuff to different people. Like someone not very fashionable would think anyone with bangs or skinny jeans are hipsters, which is totally not the case (those people could be fake hipsters).

I'm sure someone better with words then me has already wrote a dissertation on the pool parties. In fact, I remember readying an article about it 2 years ago when they first started the pool parties and the parallels of it to the French and their fancy Sundays when the rich would go to the park and see and be seen. It's the same principle here really. Everyone is dressed in their best. It's hot, less cloths, better for everyone to see and be seen. Dodgeball and the slip and slide add to the "WHY NOT GUYZ" and "spontaneity" of being a hipster.

Too bad the first free show of the summer had to be rain on twice between sets!

Catherine (is fire)

Sales Assistant, The L Magazine

Jump

Andrea

Project Manager, yourlocal.com

But...the light!

I keep looking out the window...at the glorious "after it rains" light outside right now and no one I've asked in the office wants me to take their picture today. It's killing me.

au-ful.

bexo: can I call you the Auster?
otheradam: no.
otheradam: ew.
bexo: haha
otheradam: someone once said "au-some!"
otheradam: like awesome
otheradam: terrible
bexo: that's au-ful
otheradam: i've never heard such terrible puns with my name all in a row like this before
bexo: haha. I would have au-ssumed otherwise
otheradam: REBECCA
bexo: man, this is the best midday game ever

I'm free, bitches

I just mailed in a check for [a lot of money] to pay off the rest of my college loans. When it clears in a few days, I will be totally debt free and a bit poorer. Well, more than just a "bit".

Yay!

Chase, more like rape

Why does the Chase bank in DUMBO want to charge me THREE US DOLLARS to take money out of their ATMs? WTF. I know DUMBO is all expensive now, but geez. Not to mention that my bank would probably charge me $1.50 on top of that.

DUMBO has gotten crazy expensive lately. Bridgefresh, the local mega-deli raised almost all the prices on their menu. Small coffees went from .75 to .95 or something like that - I don't know, I stopped giving them my coffee business the second they raised their prices. And I noticed that bagels went from .90 to .95 cents also.

The place down from them, Jimi's didn't raise their price of coffee. Instead, they started using smaller cups! A small used to be 12oz. They stealth switched to 10oz cups last week. I only noticed because the goddamn sleeves don't fit on the smaller cups. Now I go to the Chinese bakery by my train station before I get on the train.

Dana

Account Executive, The L Magazine

Rent is Insane

Base asking rent in Greenpoint for a proper 2-bedroom is now $1800. $1800. That's $900 per person. Think about that and how inconvenient it is to get anywhere from Greenpoint. I'm priced out of any neighborhood I would like to live in Brooklyn now. Me moving out in the next year is now slim to none.

I really don't think Rosemary and I will find anything I would be happy to move into. I mean, for fucks sake, I was actually considering Greenpoint. And I've been priced out of the area, as I've just learned. I'm not even talking about places near Nassau St and McCarren Park. I'm talking about north Greenpoint like by India St. What the fuck.

Apartments are depressing

Looking at apartments is the most depressing thing ever. The reality is that I can't afford to live in any of the areas I want to, unless it's on the outskirts or border of the neighborhood and even then I can barely afford it.

I went to see a place in Carroll Gardens after work today. It's on Nelson St, which is like 2 blocks away from the border (and BQE). As we turned from Court St onto Nelson, I was thinking to myself "Please be on this block, please be on this block". Nope, it wasn't. It was on the next block (and that block gets cut off with the highway at the end of it).

Sooo after passing the first block I was thinking, "please don't be at the end of the block, please don't be at the end of the block". The broker parked at the end of the block.

Soooo after that I was thinking, "please don't be the corner house next to the highway, please don't be the corner house next to the highway". And it was the last house on the block next to the highway.

Uggg. The apartment was the third and top floor. It's a cute place and the space isn't bad. But the rent is kinda high and NOTHING is included. No hot water or heat. Rose and I would have to pay all utilities on top of rent. I can't afford it.

We're looking at some other places on Saturday. But I'm not holding my breath. Unless we're really, really, really lucky we're probably going to end up in Greenpoint. And even then it would probably cost more than what I can afford looking at asking prices for Greenpoint.

Elizabeth

Account Executive, The L Magazine

Mike

Music Editor, The L Magazine

Getting through the days

It's too bad Colleen isn't at an office job anymore. I have no one to talk to over AIM about all the stupid little things that happen every day in DUMBO that are too dumb to blog about- Like passing by 2 photoshoots happening within 10 feet of each other on the way back from lunch. Or listing to some dude at the park trying to hit on a girl behind me.

A use for V-necks

I have a bad association with v-neck t-shirts because all the skinny hipster boys wear them like their fashionable and I would never be caught dead wearing one out in public. I had no clue why you'd want a v-neck over a regular style t-shirt.

But it hit me this morning. I have a few polo shirts that I like to wear in the summer but wearing a wife beater underneath them (or white dress shirts) are bad because they show through and it looks really ugly. So this morning it suddenly hit me, "Oh shit! V-necks!" Then I can wear these collar shirts and not have the undershirt's collar show! They do have a function!

Time to make use of David's discount at American Apparel or go to Uniqlo.

Group Activities

So sometime last year —maybe in October or so, Dapo and Kevon both became vegetarians in the same week. They claimed it was not a decision they made together (right). Last week, Ming and Dapo had a BBQ and they have both converted back to meat eaters. Again, both within the same week. They like to do things together.

Well its better for everyone now since we don't have to go to anymore vegetarian restaurants with fake meat.

Need feedback, guys

Becca, Events Coordinator, The L Magazine

I'm going to take portraits of the L staff this summer. The one above is a sample. But I feel like I need something extra to make the photos stand out. Straight portraits don't interest me anymore, or rather, I can't come up with a legitimate idea behind these photos other than it's just my nature to document things and I love taking photos of people.

I feel like I need some sort of gimmick or at least an (*gasp*) idea behind them. I don't know. Help.

It's never as good as it once was

The new Death Cab for Cutie album, Narrow Stairs is very slowly growing on me. I didn't like it at all on first listen... Still, this is no We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes or even Transatlanticism.

Cats

So being around Ashley's cat Calvin over the weekend confirmed my suspicion that I'm allergic to cats. I first thought so around Sus's cat but thought it was a fluke. Nope. I'm allergic to cats. This sucks because cats are awesome and if I were to get a cat or a dog, it would be a cat.

Shows

If you're waiting for me to post photos from Alfred's Senior Shows from last week, don't hold your breath because I didn't take a single photo from them. That was not the purpose of my visit.

The L Magazine Production Staff

circa 2008.

love par avion

via Sara Lynch

April pick-ups

Hasselblad 500C/M with 80mm 2.8 Carl Zeiss lens


Samsung LT-32A450 LCD TV that doesn't quite fit well in my room but I got anyway (it's for when I move out! Really)

OR happy birthday to me.

Sounds

Oh geez, this crazy-ass neighborhood. Fucking car alarms go off early in the morning all the time and the next-next door's Chinese neighbors batshit insane dog won't stop barking because it's crazy and they don't know how to take care of a dog.

NOISE POLLUTION KILLING ME.

Rock Bands

It's kinda me


and my hipster guitarist


There's a bartender at Hi-Fi that looks exactly like this, haha. (I made this character before I saw her at Hi-Fi)

Pictures

You know what's funny? I don't have a light meter for my Hasselblad yet so I'm using my DSLR to get light readings and to set exposure for it. I just took 2 Polaroids off of the Hasselblad of my mom. "Back in the day", people used Polaroids as proofs so they can set exposure for film. I'm using digital images to proof my Polaroids.

NY Comic Con 2008

Kevon and I went to the NY Comic Con today at the Javits Center. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be in terms of nerd factor. Not as bad as anime conventions, surprisingly. I really thought I was going to spot someone who looked like Comicbook Guy IRL but I didn't. That was kind of disappointing.

I had to catch a bus from 34th street and Broadway to get get to the Javits center though, and that ride was terrible. Everyone was taking it to get to the convention and the bus was filled with the most stereotypical comicbook type people doing stupid-ass shit. These guys got on the bus and one of them goes "She's a 10 man, 5 up here and 5 down here (points to his face and body). I was rolling my eyes. Geezus. It's funny because I know a guy who's socially awkward and he was telling me that when him and his friends are out they play a "game" where they rate girls they see on a scale of 1 to 10. My friend Paul is like, "only guys who are losers and don't get girls do that shit". That is why I rolled my eyes, because these people were enforcing the stereotype.

The line to get in was massive, but it was moving quickly so it wasn't that bad. There was a very high amount of people wearing black t-shirts though...that's another stereotype. Along with dudes with long hair and stuff... yeah, people who are into comics.

There were a few people from the local Stormtrooper brigade who were "patrolling" the line though.


Yes, there is such a thing as a stormtrooper fan club and they all have names like "The 287th Brigade Local Stormtrooper Squad". They have different chapters throughout America. They get together and dress up as stormtroopers and do... I don't know what, actually. I though "that's awesome" and "I feel bad for these people because this is like one of the most exciting day in their year". There were 2 girls walking around dressed as Princess Leia in the slave outfit too. I didn't ask them to stop and pose because that would have made me feel really, really dirty. Because I know half the people who took pics of them will probably uh, do stuff to themselves with those pictures later.

Then STAN LEE came out and walked around and shook everyone's hands.





He must be at least 70 years old by now and he's still really energetic and lively. Can't knock on Stan Lee.

Seth Green was also there signing a graphic novel (?) he wrote or soemthing.



The dude on the left is a fan, and the guy on the right is the illustrator for the book, I think.

And last but not least, the Frag Dolls.



They are a sponsored group of professional girl gamers that are really good at video games (obvs). They mostly compete in first person shooters (fps) like Halo, Call of Duty, Unreal, etc. The guy in the middle is not a Frag Doll, he was just interviewing them.

Kevona and got there when the show opened (10AM) and by around 2pm we were beat and hungry. We didn't really go to any panels. We just walked around the showfloor and looked at merchandise and crap. It was sensory overload. One of the guys who created the Ninja Turtles was there signing a box sets of Ninja Turtle figures. I thought about getting one for a moment but went against it with my better judgement. Yeah it's probably a once in a lifetime thing to meet the guy but the figure set was $50 bucks and I wouldn't have done anything it except maybe try to ebay it. Selma Blair was supposed to be there too, but I didn't know what time and where and didn't have the effort to find out.

I'm pretty proud I didn't buy many things. But then again, I've grown out of this scene like 6 years ago. I haven't read a comic in about as long. But its still fun going to these things and looking at toys and stuff.

The only thing I bought was a business card case from Square-Enix. There was a really cute mixed girl working the booth too. Man, I was on line behind some guy that dropped like $200 dollars on like the entire Final Fantasy VII action figure collection.

Overall it was alright, but Kevon and I really didn't get our money's worth. Well, we really didn't care about the scene anymore so I guess I went in expecting as much. Ok, now I'm going to go paly with my newly aquired Hassleblad (photos soon!).

Airports

I went to pick up my parents from JFK this afternoon. They were coming back from their 1 month stay in China. They came out of the same terminal that I did when I came back from Italy almost exactly 3 years ago. It was weird being there.

I though I had a photo of us from then, but I don't. Modge's mom took some though.

This is what I do with my money

What have I just done?

Aprils Fools is awesome this year

Is it me or is April's Fools awesome this year?

gmail.com - "gmail custom time"
http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/gday/index.html
http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html
http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html

youtube.com - RICKROLLED teh interwebs! (click on any vid on the front page)
http://www.gamefaqs.com - poll of the day (LOLCATS & RICKROLL)
pizzahut.com
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/01/npenguin101.xml

Surprise Visits

OH SHIT, IT'S MODGE!



I only wear the L shirt to sleep sometimes.

No Voice

I lost my voice. This is the first time that's ever happened to me. I caught a cold Thursday night while we were closing the next issue of The L. It's been a weird cold, the stages have been coming and going, never all hitting me at the same time like usual. But this is the first time in my life I've lost my voice.

It probably has to do with the 2 weekends in a row when I stayed out late and tried to talk loud over the music in bars. That and the fact that I probably shouldn't have gone out last Friday because I was sick. But it was so worth it just for running into someone.

Submissions

Got into work this morning and got a deluge of submissions for The L's photo issue. This makes me happy. My theory of getting good works closer to our deadline is sorta true too. Now I gotta sort through it all.

"I Thought I Saw Your Face Today

but I just turned my head away."

Ah, it's not even worth writing about here. Maybe I'll just write an email novella and send it to a select list of people who will see the beauty in all of this.

"I somehow find what's beautiful in things that are ephemeral" -Zooey Deschanel

Accidental Death

FUCK. I deleted the sticky chocolate at work post by accident. Dammit. That made TWO PEOPLES DAYS.

Springtime of Youth Update

My photography project is coming along. I've gotten enough people who are interested in it to get it started. I just bought some strobes too. It's all legit!

I should have some samples in the next 2 weeks if Sus doesn't flake out (hi, Sus). A friend of mine also going to build a website for me. So I'm going to design it and have her built it for this project. I'll probably relaunch adamkau.com as my photography portfolio. I can't stand the site in its current incarnation anymore.

Also, I told my co-workers about the project and they thought it was an interesting idea and are excited about it. It's all coming along nicely.

Weekend Update 3/16/08

I stayed out late (by my standards) on Friday and Saturday night. My parents left for China on Friday and I feel free as a bird, I guess going out was a way of celebrating. I know I need to move out, but looking for an apartment on craigslist can get tiresome quickly.

Didn't really have a plan on Friday night. Drove out to the LES to meet up with Raymond and Kevon. Ray works the door at a bar that puts shows out in the back room. The bar is on the Bowery and it has no idea what it wants to be or who to cater to- like so many other bars that line the Bowery. Sometimes I wonder why that is. It's the like the border between the LES and SoHo. But from observation it's all late 20/early 30 year old medium-income white dudes that visit these places. "And the NYU chicks who date them", adds Raymond.

The bar was dead. He says its usually packed though. They have red velvet walls shit, like's sorta like a lounge, but I have no idea what the type of people would go to such a place. The venue too. They book local bands that "should not be performing and practicing" according to Ray. It's definitely not punk. It's like the people who are in their late 20s who realize they want to start a band or something so they do but the only people who go to their shows are their 5 friends.

We stayed there for a bit and had a few (free) drinks. When I went to use the bathroom these 2 guys in striped button-down shirts went into the same stall and started doing coke or some shit.

I drove us to Williamsburg after. Passed by Hugs but it was dead. It usually is on Fridays for some reason. We didn't even go in. We headed to this bar on Bedford a block south of Grand. I don't know the name of the place. None of my friends (who've been their multiple time) remember either. Well, it's not like they had a huge sign out front. But it was packed. Seemed like everyone was there that night. Everywhere we walked in Williamsburg seemed pretty empty. So we stayed there for the rest of the night. They played a bunch of music from the 80s, none of which I can recall at the moment. But I stayed till around 2.30am until I got really tied and wanted to leave but Ray and Kevon were too drunk and wanted to stay longer. Yeah, I just left. They didn't leave till like 4.30am and then Kevon passed out on the L train and woke up on it at 8 in the morning.

On Saturday we all went to Nicole's birthday thing at the Levee. I once knew a girl who went there but I've never been their personally. I've heard about the cheese balls and twizzlers though. As we went in some shady black man stopped Yudah and Kevon and asked them if they wanted to be underwear models for "his book". "Can you fill up the underwear?" he asked. W-T-F? Yeah Yudah and Kevon rejected the offer.

Dapo's ex-girlfriend was there and came over to talk to Kevon and I and she didn't remember who I was and I was like "thats ok, we never really hung out". But they later I realized I had totally mistaken her for another of Dapo's ex and not this girl. This girl and I had never met, but I knew who she was. Oh well!

Then we went to Hugs. It was packed. Dapo and Ming had never been before. I told Yudah about it last time but he wasn't interested because I told him a bunch of hipsters go there and they play Daft Punk (which may or may not be true, but Daft Punk is probably over by now so who cares). Yudah's kinda like Paul, they both be feeding for girls and that's all. Paul is worst though. Jeezus christ. Can't even get the kid to go out for a drunk and catch up cus no fucking Asian girls will be where ever we go.

Hugs was also playing a bunch of mid 90s stuff, like shit from 6th grade (again, none I can recall from name but everyone knows those songs). Sometimes I think the DJs are really ingenious for playing those selections because they know the general age of the crowd and they play shit from when we were in like middle school cuz "that shit was hot!" Everyone knew the words to all the songs too.

At least this time no dude came up to me and tried to give me pointers on how to dance like last time I was there. "You just gotta move your hips" he says. "Don't worry, I'm not gay or anything" he said right after. We didn't ask or imply you were son.

But being there with my friends made it really evident that a lot of white guys can't uh, dance. It was kinda funny. "OMG the stereotype is true!". These 2 dudes were on the stage like shouting to themselves and doing some really terrible, terrible stereotypical things. It was painful to watch. Ming also wondered out loud how some of these guys are with these girls (hotchickswithdouchebags.com).

There were a highly unusual amount of girls with short hair there that night. I don't know why. But it was hot.

Sneakers and a PStwo

I don't know why I have the urge to post new crap I've bought in the past week.





This was a deal of the day on Amazon. It's replacing my old fat PS2 (that I am selling for $60, guys)

Color in film

Went to Coney Island last week when Alex and Nate were here visiting.






I love film, but it's the biggest hassle in the world to get it to the point you see above. I could have bought 2 4gb memory cards for the time and price it took me to get a roll of 36 frames to be developed, scanned, touched up and uploaded to flickr.

But sometimes it's worth it. I love the color in these photos. ( Is $22 dollars to develop and 36 4x6 photos worth it? Guys?)

Let me photograph you for...

..10 years (if you are female). This is my most ambitious project to date.

-----
'The Springtime of Youth'

I've been thinking a lot about aging recently and how our bodies change. The most physical growth happens from the age of 0-16. Our bodies then grow at a slower rate until we are around 50 when we grow old and regress.

The period of change between the ages of 20-40 are the most fascinating to me at the moment. That is the period where most of us 'mature' emotionally (I think). And physically, it is the the period of subtle changes, we do not grow as rapidly as we did in our youth. I also think its the period where people really (really) discover themselves and feel comfortable in their own skin.

I am looking for 6-10 woman to photograph once a year for about 10 years. The ideal starting age would be between 20-25. The reason for this is that so by the time I finish photographing, a few major events in the lives of these women may have transpired- careers, apartments, relationships, marriages, pregnancy, "settling down" (whatever that means), etc and I think these events will have profound effects on how the photographs will turn out.

Since this is a documentary on the subtle changes of the body (well, other than pregnancy) the photographs will be tasteful nudes in the model's current place of residence. No one that age (early 20s) usually settles into a permanent residence and that will add another layer and variety to the photographs.

For the models, this project offers a documentation and history of those 10 years. There are deeper ideas I have about this project that I don't want to say yet, but anyone interested should contact me discussion and thoughts on the process of how this will work.

Please forward this to anyone that you might think would be interested in this.

This series of photos that I took last year was a precursor to this project but not necessary the only type of women I am interested in photographing.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/otheradam/sets/72157600724849986/

My email is augraphics@gmail.com

Adam

Zooey!

I cannot stop listening to the upcoming album Vol. 1 by She and Him (Zooey Daschanel & M. Ward). It is the (technically 2nd) best album I've heard so far this year. Everyone needs to get this when it comes out on March 18.

Yes I have access to it a month before it comes out. That's a perk of being in my field of work.

The wonders of Italia

I was looking at a place in Park Slope and one of the roommates is a girl from Naples who came here to take classes at the International Photography Center (IPC). That means she's Italiano, guys. And into photography. After I had looked around the apartment she left with me to go into the city (we we're both going to Union Sq). Had a chance to talk to her about photography and Italy a bit, and the differences in culture, food, COFFEE, etc. It was great. We talked about the horror that is the americano (drip coffee) compared to cappuccinos. I really miss Italy. I gave her my business card, hopefully we keep in touch.

Oh yeah, the place was ok too. It was pretty big. I don't know if I will take it. I guess I will decide if they call me back.

After that I met up with Pauline in Chinatown to photograph the (still going on) Chinese New Year festivities. It was a day full of photography talk. I didn't take many photos I'd keep or show though. I can't deal with crowds. Its too hard to photograph.

A year without lights

At the end of the day there are certain people you can count on.

Damn, January went by slow.

New Years

I had a pretty fun new years this year. Had dinner with my friends at a place called Anytime in WillyB. It was very mediocre. Dapo goes because they have a vegetarian pasta dish that he enjoys. We met up with Santi and his friend Jim. Jim had never heard or had Hoeggarden before. I ordered a pint and he did to try it and really enjoyed it.

Then we met up with Margo, Ray, Kevon and Julie at a loft party in Manhattan. It had a pretty steep (for me) cover but what the hell, it's new years. Open bar for a few hours so it was all good. Not really my crowd though (all the hipsters were in Willyb or the LES).

I was on line for the bathroom at one point making small talk to these 2 black guys when a black girl came up to us and asked one of the "where all the black people at". And one of the guys goes, "well, I'm here, he's (pointing to other black guy) here and the rest are in the other room". She goes off. The guy turns to me and says, "sorry I didn't include you man" I'm thinking, "ok, I'm not black" but I said to him "well I am black by association, na mean??" And he's like, "yeah! you a minority, you know how it is". Then I went inside to pee.

At one point we all went to Dapo's car and uh, "sat around" for a while. Kevon passed out so we left in in the car while we went back to the party" "Kevon, don't throw up in my car" Dapo said. We went back later and Kevon had thrown up all over the passenger side door. Ewww. It was the funniest thing ever. Then I walked with him and Julie to the subway and literally everyone on the street was stumbling around drunk as fuck. Some people were sitting on the floor and couldn't walk. It was the funniest thing ever seeing the entire city drunked out.

Fanboys

I was at Best But with Dapo the other day because he wanted to buy an Xbox 360. We're standing in line and talking about which games he should get and this dude in front of us turns around and goes "you should get a Playstation 3 instead".

Ooooh boy. He starts going on a tantrum about how the PS3 is superior to the Xbox. FANBOY ALERT. Dapo and I are rolling eyes at each other as this guy is telling us how great the PS3 is because it can play blu-ray (!!!!1) and all the great games coming out soon. We argue back that is every PS3 fanboy's excuse. I don't care what's coming out in a year, there's nothing to play on it now. Why would I buy a $500 dollar paper weight? Wait, to play blu-ray movies! He also goes into some other crap, but I know no one that reads this blog cares about video games really so I won't go into it.

I do have to commend Sony on their brilliant marketing over the years. Do you know who have been buying PS3s in the past year? Non-gamers. I don't mean casual gamers like all the people buying the Wii either. I'm talking about all those mid 20-3o year old dudes who have a lot of disposable income who like Sony's commercials and think the PS3 is 'cool'. 2 of my friends own a PS3 now, after asking me which system they should get to play games with and I told them "not PS3". They did it anyway. And they will be bored with it in 6 months to a year because they don't play games. Which is good for me, because I can buy it off of them for mad cheap then!

Year End!

My best of list for 2007 and a reflection on the past year of good and bad (mostly bad).

Top Albums
This list is in no particular order because I don't feel qualified to rank anything. I don't listen to nearly enough music to have a true top 5. Look in the newest issue of The L Magazine for that (I only agree with most of that list).

Bishop Allen- The Broken String My best "new" band discovery this year. This album is amazing.
Arcade Fire- Neon Bible Is it better than Funeral? I can't decide, but I think I like Funeral more overall.
Feist- The Reminder This album was really good and still is but I kinda overplayed it and can't listen to it that much anymore.

Hmm, this is it for anything I can remember off the top of my head. That's sad... I'd put Vampire Weekend on the list, but their album isn't technically coming out until next year. I really just listen to whatever Mike puts on at work or writes about now (Vampire Weekend and Bishop Allen, lolz). There were a lot of 'meh' albums this year for me though. Namely, Challengers (The New Pornographers). It sounded too much like their last few albums. Very indistinguishable. I also don't get all the hype with Boxer (The National). I really can't stand the guys voice, mainly because his voice reminds me too much of a certain friend's ex-boyfriend who is in a band. The new Modest Mouse album was also very meh, I listened to it maybe 3 times and forgot all about it. Cassadaga (Bright Eyes) had a few standout songs (mainly Classic Cars) but other than that, it all sounded like a mash-up of his 2004 efforts A Digital Ash in a Digital Urn and I'm Wide Awake It's Morning but not in a good way.

Some huge disappointments though. Mainly Under the Black Light (Rilo Kiley). So much I hate about this album that I can't even talk about it. American Gangster (Jay-Z) I couldn't really get into either.

I think I've seen like 4 movies total this year in the theater so I'm not even going to bother talking about them. I can't even remember what the last movie I saw in theaters was. If you ask me, the act of going to see movie is a huge waste of money. $12 for 1.5-2 hours of entertainment? Fuck that. I didn't even pay that to go see The Darjeeling Limited. I did see Knocked Up through other means...but it was kind of disappointing. I don't know what all the hype about that was. It wasn't really that funny. Superbad, on the other hand, was decent.

Games
What a great year to be a gamer. Right behind 1998. There were literally so many good games this fall that I didn't know how to play it all- and my wallet wasn't too happy about it either. Started with Bioshock (Xbox 360) in August. What an amazing experience. It's about a man named Andrew Ryan (Ayn Rand, GET IT?) who builds a city underwater called Rapture with no rules where man can further science and art. Of course shit goes terribly wrong because people are conducting unethical experiments and there's a crazy (or brillaint) artist who plasters humans and makes statues of out them.

Of course you all know about Rock Band (Xbox 360)because I've been talking about it non-stop. I was going crazy the 2 days leading up to the release of that one. It was worth it. That game is so much fun and you can learn how to play drums with it! I had a few people over a couple of times to play it and everyone loves it. Jackie can't believe how much she loves to sing and Justine is a pretty good bassist. I don't know what it is about bass and girls. Kevon's girlfriend Julie really got into bass too.

I couldn't help but smile every time I played Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Wii). It just brings me back to childhood nostalgia and it's so innovative it's mind-blowing. It's colorful, Mario is jumping around yelling "woo-hoo!" and being all dainty. It's great.

-----------

Personally, it's been a decent year, I guess. Time and distance sure took it's toll too (out of sight, out of mind) or another way to look at it is that I'm finally free now. I'm kind of sad and happy about that at the same time. I really wish there were certain people that were close by that I could see more, but everyone has to follow their own path.

I was lucky enough to be hired by a magazine that I enjoy working at greatly. Left my previous job and haven't looked back (literally). I can now proudly tell people what I do when they ask and I think that's a lot more than a few people can say at this point in my life.

I guess that's it. Aside from getting a new job, nothing notable really happened for me in 2007.

Mo Money, Mo STUFF

I spent way too much money in the month of November. I just added up the amount I spent, sans necessities and it is not pretty. I've more or less spent all of my income of November in November.

This whole keeping a spending log thing is scary. Especially since I decided to start it at the beginning of the most costly 2 months of the year for me.

Finally.

It's December. Since I don't go to school anymore and don't mark the passage of time with it, I use release dates of various things now (videogames, movies, new music, ipods etc.). And for all the great things that came out in November to seemingly make the month go by faster, it has actually felt like one of the longest months ever - the final 2 day stretch for Rock Band was brutal.

I really, really hate the month of November. Seems like for the past 3 Novembers now, some bullshit is happening between me and someone I care about. This year it wasn't as much as an instant punch in my chest as the previous two but I'm a lot more disappointed in what is going on right now.

It all comes down to something called loyalty - something not a lot of people I roll with have apparently. I've come to terms that people change and you just have to accept it but it still hurts when you are being treated like a second-rate friend reduced to lunch meetings because you have more important people to hang out with at night. Or not hanging out at all now. And being lied to in the face. Blatantly.

Oh say, say,say, oh say, say, say

After Thanksgiving dinner, my sister and I played Rock Band for a bit. She has absolutely no rhythm (I don't either, but I'm getting better at it). I started her out singing because that seemed to be the easiest- you don't have to follow color-coated bars on the screen, just sing the words that come across. Except, she completely ignored the the genre of music known as 'rock' for all her life and doesn't know ANY of the songs in Rock Band. So she's literally saying the words in a monotonous voice. It was horrid, I wanted to throw my guitar (controller, lol) across the room at some points it sounded so bad.

She really wanted to try drums and she was ok at it on easy. At one points, I forget which song, she actually kept the beat for like 10 seconds, and we were playing in sync, and you can hear it. My mom, who was reading a chinese newspaper also heard it, and looked up at us and then carried on reading the newspaper. For those 10 seconds, we were a ROCK BAND.

I'm getting ok at the drums now. The base pedal is going to rip me a new one on harder songs though, but it's really fun and "I'm almost actually playing the song!". Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is REALLY FUN to play on drums because it has a really good drum line.

I wish I knew some people who were at least semi decent at music rhythm games (Ray excluded) because when it all comes together and all 4 people are playing in sync and on beat, it's magical.

Black Friday stuff

Oh man, I totally forgot about black Friday deals when I wrote the last post. I just saw all the leaked black Friday ads and there is almost nothing I want so that's good at least. A part of me feels really disappointed though. This year's black Friday sales are the most lacking in the last few years, easily. Well, I'm glad I won't have to get up at 5am and line up at some store in the cold to get shit this year.

I'll probably post photo's of all the crap I buy in the next two months to see how my spending habits play out. I'm picking up Mario tomorrow. Toys R Us is giving away $25 giftcards with purchase, which is INSANE. So the $25 will help towards the purchase of...another game from my last post.

So, So Broke

Oh god. This month:


$50 11/12


$60 11/13


$60 11/20


$40 11/20


$170 11/20

Total: $380

Ok, I'm obviously not going to buy all this crap this month. Fuck. I hope I don't. I'm only getting Rock Band (being overnighted to me from Amazon) and Super Mario Galaxy for sure. The rest can be holiday presents. *wink

Gaming hasn't been this exciting since 1998.

/geek

That Didn't Last Long. At All.

Well, my blackout didn't last long. This is stupid, it lasted for like 2 days. Didn't even get past the first weekend. I gotta stop being so nice.

But it still feels shitty to be dropped like Britney Spears drops babies =(

For the worst thing of all too. Fuck people with no loyalty.

Life

I haven't been updating this blog as much anymore. The reason there are less posts is because I'm trying to get away from righting about everyday life and shit I'm doing with people.

Some stuff from the last month (extremely abridged)

-There's always some movie/music video/photo shoot happening in DUMBO. Literally every day some shit is going on. A few weeks ago a movie was being shot. I was walking to the bar with some co-workers and telling them how I never spot celebrities even if they walk right by me. I was telling them about the time I saw Natalie Portman. As I'm telling them this, Antonio Bandaris walks by us and "brushes up against me" and I didn't notice. Morgan Freeman was also spotted. I didn't pay attention to either.

-Alex was in town a few weeks ago. We went to Union Pool.

-Colleen, Adam, and Cassidy was here last week. We went to Union Pool.

-Kevon and I was supposed to go to Union Pool last night but it was too chilly.

-Spotted: L Magazine in Gossip Girl, for a split second. The Fiction Issue!

-There's a blackout coming soon.

ROCK BAND!!

I was around 23rd and 6th this afternoon to take a photo of the window dispaly of Brian Oglesbee's photos from his new book Aquatique. The one of Colleen was in the window and she wanted me to take a photo of it for her. I think the one of Kate is also in the book.

After that I went to Best Buy across the street to browse and to my suprise, they had a Rock Band demo set up with the guitars, drums and mic. No one wanted to sing in Best Buy so it wasn't even touched. But OMG, I tried the drums and guitar a few times and you don't even know how excited I am for this game. Drumming is sooo much fun.

The songs you can play (not counting the unlockables)-
list courtesy of ign.com

1960s

• Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter"

1970s

• Aerosmith "Train Kept a Rollin'"*
• The Who "Won't Get Fooled Again"
• Boston "Foreplay/Long Time"
• Mountain "Mississippi Queen" (cover)
• The Police "Next to You"
• David Bowie "Suffragette City"
• Black Sabbath "Paranoid" (cover)
• Blue Oyster Cult "Don't Fear the Reaper"
• The Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop"
• Deep Purple "Highway Star"
• KISS "Detroit Rock City"
• Molly Hatchet "Flirtin' With Disaster"
• The Outlaws "Green Grass & High Tides" (cover)
• Sweet "Ballroom Blitz" (cover)

1980s

• Rush "Tom Sawyer"*
• Bon Jovi "Wanted Dead or Alive"
• The Clash "Should I Stay or Should I Go"
• Faith No More "Epic"
• Pixies "Wave of Mutilation"
• R.E.M. "Orange Crush"
• Iron Maiden "Run to the Hills" (cover)

1990s

• Foo Fighters "Learn to Fly"
• Metallica "Enter Sandman"
• Nirvana "In Bloom"
• Stone Temple Pilots "Vasoline"
• Weezer "Say It Ain't So"
• Smashing Pumpkins "Cherub Rock"
• Radiohead "Creep"
• Beastie Boys "Sabotage"
• Hole "Celebrity Skin"
• Garbage "I Think I'm Paranoid"
• Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun"

2000s

• The Hives "Main Offender"
• Queens of the Stone Age "Go With the Flow"
• The Strokes "Reptilia"
• Jet "Are You Gonna Be My Girl"
• OK Go "Here It Goes Again"
• Nine Inch Nails "The Hand That Feeds"
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Maps"
• Red Hot Chili Peppers "Dani California"
• Coheed & Cambria "Welcome Home"
• Fallout Boy "Dead on Arrival"
• The Killers "When You Were Young"
• New Pornographers "Electric Version"

The New Pornographers!!!

Look for my Rock Band party on black friday invite soon. My Rock Band band is going to be called BLACK FOR ASSOCIATION. Oh yeah.

Pane alla olive

For the upcoming Food and Drink issue. We didn't end up using this version in the mag, but I still like it. Cover shot coming soon.

Falls Apart

Deterioration, digital print, 2006

I feel like I should continue making my prints. The time now is as relevant as it was back then. The vicious cycle of change never ends.

Sharon's Wedding

Went to a wedding on Saturday night for my mom's friend's daughter Sharon. It was in freaking Flushing. Why? I don't know. All their relatives and friends live in Brooklyn... The grass is greener.



Tea Ceremony! She's wearing a Chinese wedding dress. Same as Michelle did at hers. It's the same dress. My mom was the tea handler person. I don't know what you'd call that in English. She's the one standing in the middle holding the tray.



Games are often played at Chinese weddings. They are playing what is, essentially Marco Polo here. The bride and gloom has to find each other.



There are also a few other games, that they didn't play. They can get pretty elaborate. I remember when I was a young lad attending a wedding in Chinatown. The only game I can remember from that involved a blindfolded gloom trying to grab boiled eggs from the bride's leg. Or something.

They had an open bar. That was the first thing my sister and I did. I had 4 rum and cokes throughout the night, but didn't even get really that tipsy. I had 2 before we started to eat. I guess the food negated it.


Cheers.

A few more photos at my flickr.

New Photos of Sus

2 weeks ago I had a photo shoot with Sus in her apartment. After viewing some of these, I realize that sometimes it takes me a while to really "see" a photo and its merits. I had converted a few of these but didn't upload them till today. After the initial impression, I didn't look at them for a week, then I came back to them and was pleasantly surprised at what I had. Some photos are like wine, they get better with age. Or at least, you start to see things in certain photos that you don't see at first glance.





This one reminds me of a classical 1/3rd view (is that even the correct term?) portrait.


This one was a study for a long term project idea I have. We tried a few in this pose, but the lens distorts Sus's legs and make them look un-proportionally long. I gotta figure out how to fix that. That's what this study is for.

A few more photos at my flickr.

For the Bitches That Come Over for Haloz

I'm so getting pink controllers.

Weekend Update 10/1/07

-I was having coffee with Heather at Joe's this weekend and a (cute) girl walked in with a big-ass cassette tape player strapped to her right butt pocket. It was awesome. This was one of those things where the person is rocking it so nonchalantly that it works, not in a douchey trying too hard to be cool kind of way either.

-Went out in Dumbo this weekend. It was really strange because I'm there all the time now and not use to seeing it in such a perspective. 68 Jay was bustling! The DUMBO arts festival was going on too. Apparently there's an artist in a side room right next to my office...we went around looking for random art parties to crash, but we went a bit too late. Everything was kicked.

-Saw Andrew Eridos sitting outside of the place I get coffee from in the mornings at 1AM in the morning...