Tag Archives: NYC

A Moving Poem

11 Jul


Our Living Room


I cannot write too much today because I am still packing.

I can’t believe how much we have; in stuff we are not lacking.

The boxes in our living room – they won’t stop multiplying.

I think we’re now past forty-five; I swear I am not lying.


But hey, I think the end’s in sight – I’m happy to declare;

The bathroom’s done, the kitchen’s near, the bedroom’s getting there.

In forty hours give or take the movers will be here.

They’ll load our stuff;  we’ll say goodbye – I might just shed a tear.


It’s been five years since I arrived here at two-fifty-two.

Twenty-seven, post-breakup and feeling rather blue.

How things have changed!  I’ve left my job and now I have a spouse! 

The next adventure -Fort Greene, Brooklyn – to our very own firehouse! 

That was a creative break.  Back to packing in progress…  xoxo


 

Glorious Light

7 Jul

Thank you all for your loving and supportive comments on yesterday’s post. It’s been a rough couple days but writing and sharing about Shana and connecting with old friends has made it a little more bearable. As always, your support means a lot to me.

To lift the mood a bit I figured I’d share with you some beautiful light-filled photography from the past week.

Here is one of my favorite pictures from the pillow photo shoot I did with Amie in the garden:

 

Doesn’t it have such a magical feel?  God I love lens flare.

I took this using a 10mm-22mm wide-angle lens and then I cropped it and enhanced the blacks a bit using Lightroom.

And here are some pictures from the Fourth of July:

The sunset Monday night was pretty out of control.  I would take a picture of the gorgeous sky and then go sit down and then two seconds later it would be even MORE gorgeous so I’d get up and take another picture and so on.  It was one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve seen.  A nice sendoff for us as this was one of the last evenings we’ll spend on our roof in the East Village before we move to Brooklyn.

Exquisite right?  It was like a watercolor painting with the most intense color!

And finally – a few of my favorite fireworks shots.  Our view was less than stellar this year (they used to be practically right over our heads before the city moved them to the Hudson River) – but I still got some fun shots.  This first one is my favorite.  It’s a very whimsical firework right?  And I like how the Empire State Building is in the background in red white and blue.

Next Wednesday we move so our apartment is filled with boxes and I’m beginning to get a bit sad to leave this cute little one bedroom.  We’ve made a lot of memories here.  But alas – change is exciting and we’re moving on to bigger and better things.  It’s a packing extravaganza for us all weekend – so I’ll catch you next week.  xo

 

 

Recuperating from Bachelorette Madness

27 Jun

As I sit here blogging, a woman from Flat Rate moving company is sitting on our couch making a list of all our belongings that will be accompanying us to Brooklyn next month so she can give us a cost estimate.  Ahh… moving.  I can feel the anxiety begin to bubble inside.   There’s so much to do… sort, purge, pack, change our address, get cable and phone hooked up in the new place, buy some new furniture, measure, blah blah blah.  I did a search online today for a “moving checklist” thinking I’d be all organized and start crossing things off early.  Well according to Real Simple, I should have started this all two months ago!  Oops. Oh well – just like every other big task, it’ll all get done and before I know it, we’ll be settled in our new apartment.  I can’t wait!

As for the bachelorette bonanza this past weekend… I had a great time!  It was full-on Sex & The City-style NYC action starting with dinner in Chelsea Friday night at a new Spanish/tapas restaurant called Selenas.  There we ordered one of my favorite new (to me) bar snacks… Shishito peppers with sea salt.  Have you ever had them?  They’re mini sweet/hot green peppers from Japan – not too spicy, but every once in a while you’ll pop a hot one in your mouth!  They’re super delish.

Here are a couple pics from Friday night:

Pam (Bachelorette in red) and her bridal party minus me.

The metal grate behind the girls was the inspiration for my color scheme in this photo… I wanted to give it a music video/grungy/urban vibe.  It’s fun to mess around in Lightroom.

 

And here is Steph (bridesmaid), Pam (bride) and me – being a goofball… trying to do a sexy face… but definitely more goofball than sexy. :)

The party continued Saturday night with a ridiculous hotel suite at the Bryant Park Hotel, where we pre-partied and then slept over. Dinner followed at a crazy scene of a restaurant called Beauty and Essex and at midnight, we left the restaurant to go dancing at the hot, sweaty alphabet city spot No Malice Palace, where we proceeded to shake our butts for three hours.  I have to say… I’m pretty much over the whole hot, sweaty bar/club scene (wine over dinner out is more my speed these days), but I do love myself some hip hop and it was fun getting my groove on.  Plus, I got to show off my rapping skills.  Really – in this little head of mine I’ve managed to store every word to hundreds of hip hop songs from high school and college and for a white girl from Massachusetts, I’ve got some serious flow.  Anyway, we got back to the hotel suite at four in the morning.   A crazy night for sure.  It’s nice to know I still have it in me every once in a while!

Meanwhile, I must have left my contact lenses in for too long and not slept enough because today my eyes are all watery and sore.  And you know how when your eyes tear, your nose starts to run too?  Like when you’re crying?  Well I’m a total mess today.  It’s not pretty.  I’m all stuffy and I’m in my glasses and I’m afraid to go outside because it’s super bright out.  So I think I’m going to continue to hibernate for the rest of the day.  A girl’s gotta rest after a weekend like that right?

Later this week Amie and I are planning another photo shoot with her beautiful Guatemalan pillows.  This time we’re going for an organic, overgrown natural look and we’re setting up shop in a little garden on our block.  I’ll report in on Thursday and hopefully I’ll have some shots to share with you then. Bye for now!

Hello Lovely Weather

3 Jun

Flowers on a Windowsill

So now I just want to freeze time.  It is so amazingly beautiful out today.  It’s that lovely mid-seventies springtime weather that is my absolute favorite and unfortunately, typically lasts for just a few weeks before the hot, sweaty, smelly summer rolls in to NYC.  Adam is out of town on a shoot this weekend, so I’m enjoying a girly weekend with my dear friend Faye – a friend since childhood.  Faye is a little over five months pregnant, which is a total trip for me!  She’s got her cute bulgy belly and everything.  I keep freaking out every time I look at her (in a good way)!

I’m enjoying feeding her while she’s here.  I think my future kitchen-to-be is inspiring me to get my cook on!  Last night I made turkey burgers, roasted asparagus and a salad.  This morning I made egg sandwiches and I just made her one of my new favorite snacks that I make for myself all the time for lunch.  I had it in a restaurant and decided it was easy enough to re-create at home.

Avocado Toast:

1/4 ripe avocado (easily spreadable)

Good olive oil

Sea Salt & Pepper

Parmigiano Reggiano (shaved thin)

Lemon

Piece of healthy bread (I’m using whole wheat)

Toast the piece of bread in the toaster.  While it’s toasting, cut the lemon in half, shave some thin slices of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and slice the avocado open.  When the bread is toasted, put it on a plate, drizzle it with a little bit of olive oil and sprinkle with a little sea salt.  Then scoop out 1/4 of the avocado and spread it on the bread.  Squeeze fresh lemon juice on top of the avocado and then add the shaved Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.  Sprinkle a tad more olive oil on top and add one or two twists of the pepper mill!  Voila!  A super easy, tasty, snack that is nice and filling.  It also has fiber (bread & avocado), protein (cheese) and good fats (avocado and the olive oil).

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

PS – I took the above photo walking around in the west village.  It totally feels European to me – the faded green watering can, the bright flowers, the open window with no screen.  Charming isn’t it?

The Window Outside My Window

31 May

The Window Outside My Window

This was a photo I took a while back and always kind of liked.  It is the view outside my living room window – but zoomed in.  I liked how the curtain was blowing in the breeze.

Anyway – apartment stuff should be settled tomorrow so I’ll fill you all in when the papers are signed!  Brief post today – we are in dire need of serious couch floppage right about now.

Til tomorrow!

Moody Shmoody & Hello Lonesome coming to NYC!!

27 Apr

Sorry for exposing you all to my bummy mood and overall ho humminess on Monday.  I was just one of those days you know? Thankfully, I’m over it.  I went to the nursing home yesterday and made collages with the lovely ladies of Cabrini then went to the gym and sweated my butt off for an hour, which felt really good.  I read half of The Zen of Social Media Marketing… yes, I’m becoming a Twitter machine.  Then I hit up Whole Foods and bought tons of yummy veggies and made a healthy veggie stir-fry for dinner – shitakes, snow peas, baby corns, broccoli, red & yellow peppers, onions, garlic, ginger – twas delish!  I’m trying to get us to eat a little less meat these days.

Meanwhile, exciting stuff going on here.  We are preparing for a theater run of Hello Lonesome (updated website HERE) for one week at the Cinema Village theater in NYC!  It’s a really cool theater – one of the oldest continuously running art house theaters in NYC!!  The movie is going to be playing from 5/27 – 6/2 and we are PSYCHED!  I’m doing everything possible to spread the word.  At every festival we’ve played at, people have really seemed to connect deeply with the film – it’ll be exciting to see how our hometown responds!  So… if you live in NYC or know anyone who lives in NYC, please tell them to become a fan!  You can follow our progress and get showtimes on Facebook, Twitter or on the Hello Lonesome website.  This is the big push baby!

Here is our updated trailer:

And here is our updated poster:

Hello Lonesome

PS – does anyone watch Friday Night Lights?  Because we just started watching it from the beginning of season one and I am so hooked!!  I could watch like fifty episodes in a row.  I’m obsessed.

The Post-Project Mini Panic…

25 Apr

It’s creeping in… I can feel it.  I took a few days off blogging over the weekend – as I felt rather blocked – and a little moody.  I think it’s the completion of my 365 project.  For an entire year, I had a daily goal – something I was continuously working towards and now it’s done.  It is a relief and a burden at the same time.  I’ve been deciding on a daily basis now – whether or not to bring my camera with me when I go out.  Sometimes I make the choice to be unencumbered and I leave it at home, giving me the opportunity to actually sport a cute purse for a change (instead of my big ass camera bag).  I feel light and free for a few minutes and then this pit develops in my stomach (guilt? regret?) and continues to gnaw at me as I see one amazing photo op after another that I am missing out on and will never be able to capture again.  Other days, I decide to bring my camera with me, and I see nothing – and it rains, and I’m worried about it getting wet, and my shoulder hurts and I’m annoyed that I’m stuck lugging it around all day.  Wah wah … and so it goes.

Now that this project is over, I’m feeling a craving for some sort of external experience… something that’s not at all about me. Like my time spent at the nursing home (which I still do every week and love) – but something else.  Something where I can get outside of myself a bit and get a little perspective.  I’ve been putting so much OUT this last year… blogging, posting my photos, etc.  I’m a little sick of me!  I feel like I need to spend some time absorbing now – to re-fill the tank a bit.  You know?  I kind of want to hole myself up in my apartment for a week and read like twenty books in a row and not talk to anyone.  Is that weird?  Or else it might be time to go on a trip somewhere I’ve never been – somewhere quiet and beautiful to get re-inspired.  New York is feeling rather draining to me at the moment.  Anyway, little miss moody today – huh?  I’m sure I’ll snap out of it.  It is a foggy gray Monday and all.

Here’s a cool picture I took of Adam waiting for the subway yesterday… love the bokeh!

Adam Underground

and a gnarly old tree in Tompkins Square Park:

Gnarly Old Tree Trunk

Photo Shoot with Joe Overstreet

18 Apr

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope the weekend treated you all nicely.  We had a real relaxing weekend in (very needed) – and the crazy storms all day Saturday worked just perfectly with our plans to plant ourselves in our apartment for some hardcore chill time.  And of course, now that Spring finally seems to have arrived (sort of) in NYC, my allergies are suddenly going nuts.  Just perfect.  I’ve started eating a teaspoon of local honey every morning – I heard that works to combat seasonal allergies.  I’ll let you know if it works for me at all!

Anyway – before all the Saturday storms started storming, I managed to fit in a photo shoot with Joe Overstreet - the artist who lives on my block.  I’ve only done a few real photo shoots at this point – and mostly with friends.  But even with friends (hell – even with my husband), I tend to get really nervous being in that director role.  I think it just stems from the fact that I’m not super confident in my portraiture abilities yet – but I’m trying to do more and more, because just like with everything else, the more practice I get, the less nervous I’ll be.

Joe is a pretty non-threatening guy.  He’s in his mid to late seventies; he’s quite jovial and relaxed and he seemed genuinely flattered by my interest in him.  All of this enabled me to loosen up a bit and not take myself so seriously.  I decided to take a more documentary approach with this project.  I wanted to show Joe as the artist he is, around art – both in his gallery and in his studio.  I also wanted to capture him outside – on the block where he’s spent the last forty years.  He has such a deep connection with this neighborhood, so I thought that was important to document.  I went to the shoot prepared with some locations in mind and I told him to pick out a couple looks beforehand.  He got all dressed up in his fancy duds.  Cute.

Here are some of my favorites.

Joe in the Wilmer Jennings Gallery he owns with this wife Corrine

Joe in front of mural outside his building

Joe in his garden

Joe's reflection in an antique mirror in his garden

Joe in his studio

I feel fairly good about these – this being my first attempt and all, but I’d definitely like to go back and get more if possible.  There were many challenges (as there always are) – lighting being one of the major ones.  Speaking of – that’s the next class I want to take… a lighting class!  Lighting is EVERYTHING and I want to get better at using it to my advantage – maybe even investing in a few tools (like a flash).

So that’s that.  Now – it’s chicken soup time baby!  I’ve got a pot of homemade soup that’s been bubbling away on my stovetop for the past three and a half hours and I think it may just be time to attend to that.  See you tomorrow!

Off to Oregon!

1 Apr

I must be brief tonight.  We’re getting picked up at four-thirty in the morning to head to Newark airport.  Ew.  And of course we haven’t packed yet and we’re waiting for our dinner to be delivered and I’m tying up all kinds of loose ends before we leave.  We’re both a little strung out with tons going on… movie stuff, moving, taxes, work, etc.  But ahhhhh… by one-thirty tomorrow afternoon, we’ll be in Portland, OR – with a full week on the other side of the country providing (hopefully) a little headspace and some serious relaxation.  We’re bringing several fun lenses and I’m bringing my computer so I will be checking in throughout the week to dish on our trip and on the festivities at the Ashland Independent Film Festival!  And actually, now that I think about it, I think I’m going to be posting photo #365 out of 365 on Sunday, April 10th – the day we’re taking the red-eye home from Ashland!  Crazy.

So without further ado -

Photo 356 out of 365 – “Cornelia Street Cafe”

"Cornelia Street Cafe" - Settings: ISO 100, f/2.5, 1/250 sec, 50mm lens

My friend Jessica took me here yesterday for a delicious lunch.  The Cornelia Street Cafe is a “cultural landmark” in NYC – serving excellent food and promoting artists and musicians in the West Village since 1977.  I ate huevos rancheros and they rocked.  I’m a sucker for huevos rancheros.

Ok -off to pack now!  Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Renegade Accordion

30 Mar

Photo 354 out of 365 – “Renegade Accordion”

"Renegade Accordion" - Settings: ISO 6400, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, 10-22mm lens (22mm)

We saw this guy in the 14th street F station yesterday.  When we arrived he was playing Mad World by Tears for Fears and then as we were hopping on the train, he started playing the Super Mario Brothers theme song.  Awesome.  He has a fan page on Facebook, a Twitter account and countless videos on Youtube.  In a video interview, he claimed that he actually makes his rent by performing as a street musician.  He also said that he definitely makes more money when he wears the Boba Fett helmut. Meanwhile, taking a closer look at the sign…

Renegade Accordion Sign

He has a Masters degree in engineering from Columbia and can’t find work in engineering.  Crazy.  I have to say – he seems to be getting a lot of positive attention doing this!  It’s pretty badass if you ask me.  It just goes to show you that attitude and creativity (and taking chances) can lead you in all sorts of directions… even when things aren’t working out as you originally planned.

Fun.

Meanwhile, I came across an interesting question yesterday and wanted to share:

“If you could master any skill instantly, what would it be?”

Hmmmmmm.  I’ll let you know my answer tomorrow.  What would you choose?

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