Who writes Nash?

Here's a great pic of Neil Nash from a couple weeks ago when we had lunch together. But lay off, Mayor Bloomby: he did not take the tag above his head! Although I love the fact that Neil's kids, as Neil pointed out, would not believe this. Looming above his head ever so slightly is the new Cooper Union building, which is almost finished, and which I'll post about at a later date, I promise.

Ah, Wilderness!

Photographer Bob Arihood has a blog called Neither More Nor Less that I started reading a while ago for his great updates about local protests and various goings on in the East Village. He catches an awful lot of action on his camera (some of it quite louche, I warn ya.). Case in point: check out his post of a red-tailed hawk catching a rat in Tomkins Square Park! And this one, which shows how a pair of mating squirrels narrowly escapes the same fate. My goodness!

Documentary showdown

I saw two documentaries this past weekend. The first was MAN ON WIRE, which I realize has been a big hit with everyone, but sadly I didn't really dig it. I've just had it with Phillip Petit, I think. Yes, it's amazing that he crossed the towers and anywhere else he threw a wire. But lord. What a narcissist! And I say this sadly, because before this, I always had a fondness for him. The Chelsea apartment he lived in when he crossed the Towers was on 22nd Street, where I grew up. I remember him and his crew stretching out the wires on the street on what must have been the day before the event, and I remember seeing the noticeable carrot-topped (i.e., fathead) Petit on the block and walking around the neighborhood.



There was just something about watching Petit tell the story with such blind gusto, as if he'd learned nothing, while his friends told it with such thought and feeling, that struck me as unnerving. And the film itself seemed thin, as there were a bunch of unanswered questions I had about things like how Petit supported himself while he obsessed over his projects and what exactly happened with his friendship fall outs.



On the other hand, DEEP WATER was a revelation! I can't say much about it, because one of the pleasures of watching it is not knowing what happens. But it's only fair to say it's not a gentle ride...so beware.

Here's a non-spoiler-y synopsis from Netflix: In 1969, Donald Crowhurst, a former engineer whose bravado outweighed his sailing expertise, entered a London Times-sponsored yacht race around the world. This thrilling documentary incorporates actual footage of the race to depict the harrowing conditions Crowhurst faced. Refusing to turn back even as his homemade boat took on water, he depended on his ingenuity to survive the dangers of the sea and the threat of insanity.

It was weird how DEEP WATER seemed to be exactly the opposite of what I meant when I was complaining about the paucity of this or that in MAN ON WIRE. DEEP WATER is an immensely satisfying, character-rich, dizzyingly fascinating and gripping tale that's very well told. But I can easily see how DEEP WATER wouldn't be every one's cup of tea...O.K., that's TWO warnings! Watch at your own risk! And if you do watch it, make sure to check out the cool extras on the DVD.

Stripes Friday

Hey, hey, it's stripe-ay Friday. Actually, it's Stripes/Plaid day, but my stripes and plaids weren't getting along, so I had to separate them. Tut tut tut. I really must thank you, Leya: you are so cool to have inspired this go 'round of kinetic pic snapping and color noticing 'round the so-called blogosphere. I've had tons of fun making these silly arrangements on my desk and even more fun clicking around and seeing what others snapped. Hooray for color! Hooray for stripes! May the Lawd bless cotton-striped socks, stockings, and dishtowels! And the cat scrap of fabric is exactly that, an amazing scrap I'm not sure I'll ever do anything with other than marvel over it. Have a great weekend, everyone. Until the next color challenge, I salute you!

Pink Thursday

Part four of color week: PINK. Ye gods. I think it's fairly obvious to those who know me that I ain't no girlie girl. And I certainly did have to poke around in quite a few cigar boxes and old toffee tins to come up with the items pictured above. And I must say, I could easily blame the whole mess of it on the existence of this kid (every pink button, ribbon, zipper, and thread I plan to festoon on none other than her and no one else!) — but then, that wouldn't exactly explain all the tarty lip products and the blusher. Whatever. This is pink day. Enjoy!

Yellow Wednesday

Today's color is yellow, and I was happy to realize that I have an awful lot of sunny stuff on my desk, too. I especially love the speakers P found on the street and rehabilitated. And the box of tea-tree oil toothpicks couldn't be closer to my heart, as without them, I could never have bid adieu to my old smokey smoke cigarettes. Yes, this arrangement is very sunny, indeed.

Purple Tuesday

For Color Week, part two: Here we have some lavender soap and some lay-it-on heavy cream with an old pair of violet-handled scissors, along with a self-explanatory vintage book and a local take-out menu from one of my favorite joints. It's all just so damn purpley. If only I had some grapes.

Blue Monday

I'm joining in a fun blog-gy thing this week, created by Leya over at Curious Bird. It's a week of color, a sort of color challenge...what? Well, each day this week, I'll post one to three photos of the colors Leya chose for this particular week of color. Today is BLUE! And this is my blue photo. It's funny, I intended to venture outside and take pictures of things like the ubiquitous blue scaffolding that's everywhere in my neighborhood these days, but it ended up being more fun to focus on a few things within arm's length on my desk.

Another great gift

I had to post about this stroke of gift-giving brilliance on P.'s part. I love my cats but strangely, I do not love cleaning out their cat box. We even use the new-ish cat litter that allows for even longer stretches between the toilsome task, and P. and I take turns we track with a Google calendar but alas! when the time comes around I still beg, plead, and plot to get out of doing it. This works probably less than one percent of the time. The rest of the time, I wear a bandanna over half my face for obvious reasons.

Well, now I have a new bandanna, and it lets me choose whether to be a LION or a TIGER. (It's one bandanna with a design on each half.)



And no, P. won't tell me where he got it, only that he bought it "from the woman who made it."



ROWRRR!

Goodbye, trees

Isn't it so sad and bittersweet to see all the Xmas trees in the garbage, in the gutter, with bags on their heads, etc., these days? Picture courtesy of Last Night's Garbage.

What a perfect answer it would be, then, don't you think, if the city were overrun by small hungry elephants to perform the clean up? Yes, the NYC sanitation department has a whole tree-recycling program already in place, and that's great, but come on...little elephants.

Perfect present

Check out my sister Erica's present to me for Xmas...a beeyootifully done quilt-y pillow with my first initial on one side, and my other initial on the other. Yes, she made it herself, patching all those colors together so well, I am totally impressed. Nice job, sis!



I love it.



So does Beatrix.

1 to 100

If you haven't seen this already, lookee lookee. "By Lenka Clayton and James Price as part of www.portablefilmfestival.com. People in Order's Age is part of a series of short films that assembles the people of Britain in a given order."

Uh...not that I'm fixated on anything that reminds me about getting OLDER these days. Oh, no, not I!

Enjoy!

A planetary disturbance

I haven't started tagging, I swear. Although I must say, the genius who tagged this on the Upper West side somewhere (thanks for noticing and sending me the pic, Wolf) does inspire me to get in the game. I like this "Jocelyn World" concept.

Seasonz Greetingz

Was there ever, or has there been since, a better urban photographer than Berenice Abbott? I don't think so.

Fa la la la la

I read two great books one after the other recently: The Three of Us by Julia Blackburn and While They Slept by Kathryn Harrison. Yes, I suppose it's obvious, these are both very dark tales and shouldn't be snapped up without a warning. It actually makes me a little sad to realize I've wised up and can't try to convince everyone I know to read them simply because I think they're so great. But if you're in the mood...it's the holiday season, after all! What better time to make an "inquiry into the murder of a family?!"

Perhaps you're already familiar with Julia Blackburn's book, from when you noticed the arresting image on its cover somewhere.

Well, this cover annoys the bejesus out of me. One of the many excellent aspects of The Three of Us is how Blackburn included photos from her life throughout the book with no explanation other that what you pick up from reading the text (none of the pictures have captions). It gives the reading experience an extra-added intimacy. But it also becomes immediately obvious that the cover photo isn't the author or anyone she knows. Not that it has to be...but for consistency's sake, wouldn't it make sense if they'd used a "real" photo on the cover, too? You end up wondering who the heck the half-submerged lady is and why she's on the cover of someone else's book. Or, you do if you're a persnickety realist, like I am!

This earlier version of the book cover from how it was published in London is accurate. I know, it's not as visually captivating as the above cover. But at least these are photos of the actual people in the book!



Hm. Now that I've written this all down I wonder if it's just my own odd take on it. I guess I should just get over it. And wrap some presents!

Crazy long lashes

The illustration I did for this year's Pet Beauty Contest! Here's last year's and one from the year before.

A heavy head

Robert, Social Tees owner and animal rescuer extraordinaire, had the brilliant idea last month or so to turn his shop window into a kind of kittens-and-cats-up-for-adoption display. As a result, there are always heart meltingly cute scenarios going on: heaps of sleeping cats, a kitten hanging off a ledge by one tiny paw and batting at other kittens with its free paw, etc. Lately, a little grey cat grabbed my attention because she/he seemed to be really hanging its head over her/his current situation. Hyuk, hyuk.



There's always someone or several someones admiring the cats of the day, and when I took the above picture a concerned woman asked me to knock on the window and make sure the kitten was OK. I did, and the kitten woke up, looked around, and then went right back to sleep. You can see her/his little ear in the pic below, evidence she/he moved!



A few days later, the grey kitten seemed to be hanging out a lot with a calico kitten, and then, a few days after that, all the kittens were gone and currently, a bunch of solemn full-grown cats are occupying the space. If you're in the market for a pet, stop by! There are tons of basement rooms in the back of this place, housing all sorts of homeless creatures, including lizards abandoned by wannabe lizard-owning East villagers and snakes dropped off by mothers of snake-loving sons who had second thoughts.



I hope the grey kitten found a good home and a new comfortable place to hang her/his head.

The drawing bug

I took two random yet similar pics of Henry and Hazy when they were in town this past week for Thanksgiving. These kids really like to draw. Not surprising considering how their Mom is a super superb artiste. It's in the blood, yo!



The picture below makes me laugh. Not because heart head was looking on (that's P., who still insists on remaining anonymous on this blog). Because H and H had just taken their baths and were supposed to jump into bed for stories but instead they went over to the table and Hazy began drawing in her Nintendo thingamabob and Henry got lost in a puzzle book. "They just don't want to go to bed," explained my sis, and it was so funny to me how quiet and focused they were being in their sleep avoidance.



Oh, and that little dog's name is Coconut. Aw. I miss you guys!

The comics crusade

My brother Wolf and I collaborated on many crazy projects when we were little, so I suppose it was only natural when we started an ongoing comic together for no real reason other than to crack each other up. This was back in the early 90s when I was living in L.A. (L.A. in the 90s! Woot, woot!) and Wolf was in New York, so we'd send them via good ole snail mail, and I remember Wolf used to (I'm not sure I did) draw really hilarious things on the envelopes. Damn, I should post one of those envelopes. Maybe I will!

Anyway, here are the first couple frames of what we ended up with. His is the first three frames, mine are the next four. I'm too lazy to post all 8 pages, but I'll tell you this: there is no way you can possibly guess what happens to this poor head and its resulting headless body. So much. Too much!



Well, recently a little bird reminded me about this strip (thanks DPE IV) and I un-filed it and read it again after lo, so many years. Wolf and I had some fun chuckling over it again, and he reminded me that we took something more like six or seven, or, ahem, eight? years to finish(!!) — considering it's not so much finished as halted since we just dropped the ball completely at some point, but aha! still managed to tack a satisfying end onto it, if you ask me — as opposed to the mere two years, as I originally thought. In other words, we were a bit lazy about passing it back and forth.

This step back in time coincided some with Wolf's birthday this year, and we were inspired anew! Wolf dared me to start a new comic for us to collaborate on by his birthday (Nov. 17). Well, ha! I did it! The below is the first installment. So it's your turn now, bro. Get to work!

Click below if you'd like to see it larger.

30 rocks

What follows is the ultimate tribute, to anything — in this case, a Sesame Street sketch inspired by the brilliant TV show 30 Rock! Now, in my opinion, if you've never seen 30 Rock, you're crazy — no, wait, that's not what I was going to say. If you've never seen it, this won't make you understand why people (like ME!) keep rhapsodizing about how great the show is. So don't go ahead and watch this and then be all like, See? I knew that show wasn't for me. That would just be dumb. O.K., glad we cleared that up. Enjoy! And thanks, Keith!