Lust

I'm totally lusting after these shoes from Sam Edelman.  See them at Zappos.

your Fire Island against my Sonoma

I like this.  It kind of reminds me of myself a little bit.

Topography

Sharon Olds

 

After we flew across the country we

got in bed, laid our bodies

delicately together, like maps laid

face to face, East to West, my

San Francisco against your New York, your

Fire Island against my Sonoma, my

New Orleans deep in your Texas, your Idaho

bright on my Great Lakes, my Kansas

burning against your Kansas your Kansas

burning against my Kansas, your Eastern

Standard Time pressing into my

Pacific Time, my Mountain Time

beating against your Central Time, your

sun rising swiftly from the right my

sun rising swiftly from the left your

moon rising slowly from the left my

moon rising slowly from the right until

all four bodies of the sky

burn above us, sealing us together,

all our cities twin cities,

all our states united, one

nation, indivisble, with liberty and justice for all.

27 of 154

After a trip to the library yesterday I came home with Shakespeare's Sonnets.  I've never really read any of them, and I'm curious to see what all the hype is about.  They're supposedly these great passionate writings.  I really just wanted to see and know for myself.  After a brief look through last night, I read one that holds truth in it and wanted to post it here.

27

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,

The dear repose for limbs with travel tired,

But then begins a journey in my head

To work my mind when body's work's expired;

For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,

Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,

And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,

Looking on darkness which the blind do see;

Save that my soul's imaginary sight

Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,

Which like a jewel hung in ghastly night,

Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.

   Lo, thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,

   For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.

I kind of really love this

So Kanye West was at the 2010 Singapore Singfest earlier this week wearing what may be the brightest suit I've ever seen.  I saw a photo over at Go Fug Yourself and wanted to post it here because like the title says, I kind of really love this.  It's so bright and just awesome to me.

I do zombies too: Part 2

Back in June I posted images of my costume that I had wrecked for my dance recital.  Over the last week in July I was in Ocean City with the rest of the team for the StarPower Nationals competition.  We took a few dances including Ramalama, in which we're all dead/zombie ballerinas.  So thanks to Universal Event Photography I was able to purchase a few photos of myself from the day, and I'm posting them up here to show the completed costume in action.

Eastern State Penitentiary

Recently I went to Philly for the day with Errol, more specifically we went to Eastern State Penitentiary.  It was pretty awesome I have to say.  Being able to walk around and explore a prison that's in a constant state of partial ruin is cool.  Now only certain cell blocks are open and a lot of it does look the same, but that didn't deter either of us from taking photos and finding shots.

Here are a few of my shots from the day.  I took a few Polaroids also, those will be up as soon as I scan them in. 

I brought my friend along with me.

Al Capone's cell

Photo Exploring!

So on July 1st I had the opportunity to walk through and explore an empty apartment building that's scheduled to be demolished.  Now how was this possible without sneaking in?  All thanks to a friend of mine that works as a security guard and happened to be working the building that day.  I went with Ashley and we did what I like to call the exploration of an apartment building scheduled for demolition documented through photos.

I had to settle with my digital since I didn't have any film for my Polaroid, though I think I managed to get some good shots.  After looking through everything that I took, I've pulled a selection of photos that I enjoy and I think work well together.

I do zombies too.

Ok, so it's June.  And with June comes the end of year performance put on by my dance studio.  I'm in a few numbers this year, but I think the costumes for one dance in particular are going to be extra awesome.  The dance is a lyrical/modern number to the song Ramalama (Bang Bang) by Róisín Murphy, and the concept is that we're ballerinas that have risen from the dead.  Everyone in my class was given a costume with a tutu from a previous recital and told to have at it.

I received:

1 sort of sky blue costume with velvet bodice, a few embellishments, and a long flowing skirt, slightly Cinderella-esque

1 white tutu

My materials:

1 pair of scissors

1 razor knife
a few pairs of rubber gloves

4 colors of spray paint - red, black, silver, and copper

1 color of screenprinting ink - dark charcoal grey

1 half full bottle of fake blood

2 other costume elements - elbow length white gloves and flesh toned stockings

Assistants:

My mom

My friend Ashley

I spray painted the tutu with the four colors to make it look dirty, old, and a bit bloody.  I then tore the bottom edges for some deconstruction and wear, and also cut some slashes and pieces with my razor knife.

I had my mom help me achieve the shape I wanted for the dress by first jaggedly cutting the skirt shorter all the way around.  Next we cut straight up the center of the skirt in order to open the front to show some tutu, and also get a bit of a drape.  I didn't want the skirt completely even, and I liked the drape effect, so we tacked up different areas of the skirt to give it a careless yet cohesive look.  The shape was right, but it was still too clean and nice.

Time for the fun part.  Ashley and I took the dress, gloves, and tutu outside to a grassy area to get some nice dirt and grass stains on both the gloves and dress.  Next came the fake blood.  We generously poured and splashed fake blood down from the top of the dress to get a good look going.  The dress was laid down on the grass and we splashed and splattered the blood over the front and back.  While that dried some we went to work bloodying the gloves and splattering a bit on the tutu.  Last came the grey screenprinting ink.  We both pressed our palms into the ink and proceeded to randomly grab the dress to leave marks.  We had been discussing putting tire tracks across the dress, but decided it wasn't necessary after the work we did.

Last was to cut the gloves a little bit - just a few cut off fingertips, fingers, and a couple of poorly sewn up holes - and to get a little fake blood on the stockings.  Luckily the stockings are basically a perfect match for my actual skin color, so I'll just look like I have blood on my legs while up on stage.

And finally, some photos!  I don't have any photos with the tutu under the skirt giving it shape yet, so just imagine for now!

Front view.

Detail.

Back view.

Detail.

Detail.

Detail.

Gloves.

Underside of glove.

Tutu.

Detail.

Waistband detail.

Bloody stockings.

Stockings detail.

Polaroid Adventures!

It's almost the end of May, and I haven't been up to as much art wise as I'd like to be.  However, I did take a Polaroid Adventure about two weeks ago with some expired 669 film that had been in my refrigerator for about two years.  I'm definitely interested in taking some more Polaroids, it's just about finding the film.  Of course ebay has pretty much everything anyone could ever possibly want, but there is a site called the Impossible Project that has recently expired instant films for Polaroid cameras, and I believe they also manufacture some of the films.  Definitely a site to check out.