My Living Space

This was an assignment for my Design II: Line to Pixel class. Not a totally accurate representation of my NYC apartment....this space is bigger than my apartment! I really like how it looks like a set on a theatre stage. The only things true to life are the view out the window (my actual view!), my dog, and my friend Sabrina.

City Views

My Latest Adventure

I'm surviving life in the Big Apple....barely. I have completed my first semester at Parsons The New School for Design and have not fully adjusted to my new "home". Manhattan is quite a change from quiet Northern California.

It's 2010 and I've decided to..... I've decided to join the living. I'm crawling out of my shell and facing the world. I can't hide forever I suppose. Not sure where life is taking me but, I might as well try to enjoy the ride, right?! My iPhone has been a fun way for me to capture my new life here in NYC. I think I'd like to post photos on a regular basis. We'll see how long this lasts.

Looking at my last post....wow! That was a year ago. That was my Parsons Project. Sadly my Grandmother passed away in May of last year. She was the best model! She was so eager to help me get into art school. Grandma you are missed. I hope that I'm making you proud.

The Parsons Challenge

My grandmother is not dead. Sometimes I forget that. I have to remind myself that she is still with us, the living. The fall and the broken hip sent her away and I let her slip from my consciousness.

I pass her by five days a week on my way to work. Speeding along in my car, oblivious to my surroundings, sucked into my own self-centered world of made up miseries and dramas I see her “home”. The skilled nursing facility jogs my memory. I’m brought abruptly back to the moment.

So involved in my own life I have forgotten hers.

She sits patiently in her wheelchair, quietly watching as the world leaves her behind. What does she have to offer? She’s tired of this “job” and would gladly quit at any time.

If only God would let her.

Still, she waits for me. I try to remember the last time I saw her and I can’t. What day was it? Saturday? Sunday? My life has somehow become more important.

When did Grandma become irrelevant?

When I see her it is not the woman I remember and knew as a child.

The woman I remember would swim with me in mountain lakes on family camping trips. Her soft arms wrapped around my cold, wet little body.

Her warmth would envelop me and make me feel safe.

She sat with me on the back porch after her brain surgery. I see her smile and hear her laugh. We’d pet the cat and talk about our love of animals.

I’d sit and listen to her play Baby Elephant Walk on the organ for the umpteenth time.

She would always play it just for me.

When I was ten Grandma took me to the movies to see Annie. That was the beginning of my love affair with musicals and it was one more thing we had in common.

She braided my hair even though her hands were stiff and arthritic. She didn’t complain.

She did it because she loved me.

How did it come to this? How could I forget her? Where have I been?

I see her hands and think about the life she has lived.

Her hands have held the hands of ancestors that I have never known. They have felt the ancient redwoods of the Pacific Northwest, canned peaches in the farm towns of California, and stacked cords of firewood in the Sierras.

Those beautiful hands have danced with, held, and lost the love of her life.

They are the hands that cared for a husband until he couldn't fight the cancer anymore.

Her hands changed countless diapers of four children who are now grown and have children and grandchildren of their own.

Gentle hands tended and mended skinned knees and bruised egos.

They took care of me.

She takes my hand and gives me a kiss and I thank God that she is still with us, the living.

And I remember

My grandmother is not dead.

New York, New York

Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it, New York, New York
These vagabond shoes
Are longing to stray
And make a brand new start of it
New York, New York
I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps
To find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap
These little town blues
Are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you, New York, New York.

I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps
To find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap
These little town blues
Are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you, New York, New York.

Get Smart in Soho

Wooooohhoooooooo!!!! I got to see Anne Hathaway live and in person!!! I even got to ask her a question!?!?! It was a fun event at the Apple Store in Soho for the movie Get Smart that opens tomorrow. I waited for a few hours in the rain to be sure I'd get a seat. It was worth it!

I was the fifth person in line. As the line grew longer, more and more people stopped to ask "What are you waiting for?" So we made a sign in an attempt to curb the questions. Unfortunately, Mr. Apple Employee made us take it down.

This is Steve Carell's #1 fan Elisa. She had been to Good Morning America at 4am. Regis and Kelly at 9am. She had tickets for The Daily Show but decided to wait at the Apple store instead. She had been waiting in line since 1pm for the 9pm event. Elisa you are awesome! I'm sure that Steve Carell would appreciate your enthusiasm.

This is a very unflattering photo of Anne Hathaway. She was inside doing interviews. Alas, I had no press pass.... I don't think she saw me with my face pressed to the glass drooling like an idiot.

Anne Hathaway and her "people".

This was the line for the event.

The line wrapped around the block....

The fantastic five up front..... only one (and #1) Anne Hathaway fan.

A link to a news article about the event:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-06-19-getsmart-apple_N.htm

The surprise guest was Stephen Colbert from The Colbert Report. He conducted the interviews. He was so funny! He and Steve Carell had been in Second City (comedy troupe in Chicago) together and can't be serious around each other. Anne Hathaway was lovely and gracious as usual. Keep an eye out for the podcast on iTunes.

I, unfortunately, was not the photographer of the photos below. Perhaps I should make a career out of shooting celeb events?

Sunset Stroll in Soho

My feet and mind were restless. I needed to get out so I decided to go to Soho and try to catch the beautiful light of the Golden Hour. This is the time from when the sun is about to set until just before it is actually dark. This is when many artists feel that light is at it's best. I was shooting with my Holga lens so all of the photos are soft/fuzzy.

I've also developed a strange obsession with the rooftop watertowers. They always remind me of Old New York, Lower East Side Tenements, and E.L. Doctorow's Billy Bathgate. Not sure if that's a good image or not? I've seen way too many movies! "Living in the Lower East Side really sucks."- Johnny Dangerously