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you know the problem i have with applying for shows is that while i'm doing that, i can't make new work. its good to reflect and all and write about what you do, it helps the work grow, but damn, how much time do i spend formatting my pictures as "jpgs 1900x2400 with a black background" or "no bigger than 100 pixels wide" or "powerpoint format only please". ugh. then again, slides were probably worse.
anyway thats what i've been up to all week (except for going to work), so no wheatpasting. boo hoo.
listening to "Generation Bass!" on radio 1, mary ann hobbs show. can't say i've heard mych dubstep, but i have heard ABOUT dubstep for quite awhile. reminds me a lot of pirate radio from back in the day (alien sounds to my 20 year old head) , but more of a mash up. i think i liked starkey the best, but then i was listening through a timy G5 speaker which i know doesn't do any music justice. ok, maybe i like them all. but as usual, where's all the women DJ's? its always boys, boys, boys. why?
"derive" has been on hold due to achy swollen ankle, but finally moved into the studio today, ace bandaged up my sprained ankle and set out into the world. have found some new spaces to wheatpaste onto (ok, one is old and close to my house, but its still valid). i lost my cute little measuring tape though and can't seem to get started until i find it (yes, just buy a new one i know). so many places to work with, its kinda insane.
i'm just itching to walk somewhere, anywhere, but i don't want to mess this ankle up more than it already is. double urgh.
haven't visited my old sites as of yet because of the ankle, but i will tomorrow and take some pix if things still exist. having some ontinuity issues in myhead, but what else is new. worried about the new semester, but can't seem to sit the fuck down and flesh it al out. so many ideas in my head, how do i get them out and into the world? urgh.
worried about my apartment too. we don't know whats happening to us. for the first time in 17 years i have no lease. we seem to be owned by a rather faceless "management company". i know , this is new york, get used to it, but i think we had a good run here. now its time to face 2008. kicking and screaming, but that means its worth it right?
took my old comuter to the studio today, and got lost in a pile of old scans, chunks of collaged photos i'd taken years ago that i scanned a few less yeas ago. some are super cool, but i'm not sure what to do with them. ugh, this whole continuity in project land is frustrating. or whatever.
ok, gotta elevate this ankle and watch some more "the wire - season 5". in the meantime, contemplate this picture of a midtown highrise. i couldn't figure out what was actually going on. why all the doors?
started to talk about it, but have to finish it later. took awhile to learn this here flickr thing. here's some pictures from my recent trip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beatricethecat/sets/72157606790402144/
i sprained my ankle mere hours before leving seattle, and have been battling a wee bit of a cold. so i'm hobble-y and just plain tired. but back to work tomorrow, i hope i can ride my bike! the swelling has gone down.....hmmmmm
back to home, back to new york. i can't help but think what it must be like to see this place form the outside. i've been looking at cities from the outside for a month now, even my hometown of pittsburgh to a certain degree. what would i feel about this place is i was visiting it for the first time? just moving here? hard to tell. its my home, and that feeling usually kicks in within seconds of seeing manhattan's magnificent spread of urban verticallity. all other cities are compared to new york, and all others pale in comparison, at least visually, and each has its own identity nevertheless.
soon i will be buried in a fall semester work avalanche of my own making, and any fresh outside-of-new-york thoughts i have right now will be lost, therefore i will try to just talk about them now. i've only been back a day and feel that my attention span has been lost, my mind is darting through 500 things i need-to-be-doing-right-now. shake it off, ladie, shake it off.....
i'll save the trip pix for flickr. too many for here. looky: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beatricethecat/sets/72157606790402144/
i visited 5 cities, and each one was different, of course. some i'd been to before, some not. i had friends who lived in (almost) all of them, and therefore fell like i had a bit of an inside edge.
chicago (3 days). could have been the stress of friends getting dicked around about their potential new apartment situation, and the stress of getting out of new york wearing off, but chicago just seemed gritty. i didn't see all of millennium park, but it just didn't seem like enough of a park for the whole city. there was much walking, and it seemed like the place was sort of divided (like so many big cities) by a giant highway. downtown had some hoping spots, probably mostly during the day, but the action was really somewhere else. the area where i was staying was being overrun with gentrification, much like my neighborhood here in new york. overall it seemed like a big city, but something was missing. once again, i didn't see everything, so i am unfairly judging probably. good food, lots of nice shops, but it did seem like it was trying to prove itself.
vancouver just felt very star trek to me. star trek with uber nature. new new new condos everywhere, kinda freaky really. then the old bit was full of the homeless and addicts, much like the east illage of old. so radical of a contrast. it didn't make sense to me. beautiful place, but odd.
san fransisco. this is the second time is was there, and i realize i might have judged it unfairly last time i was there, because i had a nasty cold. once again, there for only a few days, but i could see why people compare it to london. the "mission" style architecture still throws me for a loop, and i know it actually is california, but it just kinda doesn't seem for real, like it should be a movie or something. it felt like a proper city this time, all big and impersonal and with museums on hordes of tourists and the hassle-y hussle and bustle. and some bad ass coffee at ritual. (vancouver also had good coffee, i must admit)
portland oregon was a big suprise for me. i knew absolutely nothing about it before driving there. once again, i walked quite a bit, then found a cool guidebook, and was just really so pleased with the whole day. it felt so nice there, almost kind of familiar. also, my day began with some nice trash on the street to photograph. but they are so serious about their beer, and their bicycles, and their local produce, and their public transport, well, it just was a mighty wonderful place. i'd like to visit it again sometime soon. my friend robin tells me the downside it that it rains much of the year (london anyone?). hmm,,,,,,.....
and lastly, seattle. theplace that gave me a sprained ankle on my way out. well, the henry art gallery is awesome, and i'm sure so is the REI store, but overall i thought it was a bit bland there. sure, it had some interesting bits, but so spread out. took to long to walk between neighborhoods, and there was just dead space in between.
more to say but my head is back in new york now. for better or worse.......
well, i thought i would have posted more, but its funny how tired you get when travelling....the thoughts are there but the discipline to sit down and write is lost. driving is also tiring (6 more hours to portland from california). but i'm on the last leg of my trip and looking forward to going home actually. even though i will be busier than ever once i get there.
