Monday, October 4, 2010

Ah, Autumn Approaches...

and I've cleaned out the roaches, so to speak. My blog has some groovy new tabs and I have updated my performances list, and videos. I will soon be posting most of the stories that have developed from storytelling, live. Thanks to my friends and family who egg me on to recite my stories of my drug laden days, and alcohol induced high jinks, my horrendous first dates, and first loves, breakups, and break downs. I hope you enjoy and stay tuned. I will regularly post events to the events page as well, so our storytelling social circuit can see all events and happenings. At this point, there are so many wonderful events that they are doubling up nightly. Oh my. Here is a list to begin and to give a great big shout to my colleges that host these wonderful events, and I can vouch for the storytellers; all great, all unique and no two people are alike, yes like snowflakes. There are no scripts, just a bunch of folks who find it exhilarating to stand naked among you and shed their true colors weather you like them or not.
This week I want to highlight:

Wednesday 10/6/10


YOU WENT TO COLLEGE FOR THAT?
7.30
Union Hall in Brooklyn
hosts: Ophira Eisenberg and Adam Magazine

Thursday 10/7/10

FIRESIDE STORIES
8:00
at Belleville Lounge in Brooklyn (I will be performing)
hosts:adorable Jenna Brista and sexy Ashley Harrell
STRIPPED STORIES
9.30
UCB, Manhattan
hosts: Margot Leitman and Giulia Rozzi (Giula's excellent piece on catcalling for Huff Po is here, and ladies this is good.)


The best way to get more info on these shows and get invites is to FACEBOOK their asses.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Architecture of Dance



David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center. (Architect: Philip Johnson)

I was lucky enough to attend Peter Martin's, ballet, Mirage to see the set design that Santiago Calatrava designed. Now the unique aspect about this is that the Choreographer, costume design and orchestra designed around the set. That is a rarity. The minimilist feel of the outfits, stage, dancers and music that accompanied it, made this a fluid, architectural, serene, birdlike outfit. The combination was tight, articular in seamlessly consistent it’s theme and tone. I was unable to shoot while the dance was in session.
However, I can share this commissioned photograph by Paul Kolnik
set piece at small scale
And back to Philip Johnson, a cool little rendering of the theater.

Architecture of Dance



David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center. (Architect: Philip Johnson)

I was lucky enough to attend Peter Martin's, ballet, Mirage to see the set design that Santiago Calatrava designed. Now the unique aspect about this is that the Choreographer, costume design and orchestra designed around the set. That is a rarity. The minimilist feel of the outfits, stage, dancers and music that accompanied it, made this a fluid, architectural, serene, birdlike outfit. The combination was tight, articular in seamlessly consistent it’s theme and tone. I was unable to shoot while the dance was in session.
However, I can share this commissioned photograph by Paul Kolnik
set piece at small scale
And back to Philip Johnson, a cool little rendering of the theater.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

The Salon series at Johnson & Johnson


underground forest #0707-10333 (up to 13,000 years old; pretoria, south africa)

la llareta #0308-23b26 (up to 3,000 years old, atacama desert, chile

I attended The Salon series held at the Johnson & Johnson Global Strategic Design offices on Thursday and the theme was, Investigation. The two artists who were in the lecture showcasing their work were Rachael Sussman and Vaughan Oliver. Rachael documents biological life form, plant life from all over the world whose age is incomprehensible. Rachael has spent time researching some of the world's oldest living specimens, finding them in various origins both far and wide. She needs to apply for grants to fund her travel, as most of these places are very far from the Americas. I feel it takes great devotion to find and travel to and shoot these profoundly odd and old living organisms. I admire her fascination with this body of work and moreover, I am grateful for her bringing them to us, who would never otherwise be fortunate to share in the splendor of seeing these plants and trees.


Vaughan Oliver is the Creative Director to the Pixies’ albums on the 4AD label. He hired Simon Larbalestier, the photographer whose black and white, gritty, industrial aesthetic framed the 4AD music mold. It was the changing of an era. The Pixies album first came out in 1988 and this was around the time when cds were replacing albums and thus artwork had to make an emotional impact at a smaller print size. I was excited to attend this lecture and meet the man who worked with Simon. I had just purchased a print from Simon from the Surfer Rosa series of the Spanish dancer. I bought it for my brother for his birthday. My brother and I both loved the Pixies in 1988 and further on. “Surfer Rosa”, and “Come On Pilgrim” being our favorites. The print was an edition of prints created from the original polaroid transfer. The work is very surrealist and kept in form with their compatriots: Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, they shared in it’s gothic and surrealist aesthetic. In all, it was inspiring to hear from a 1990’s 4AD Creative Director who has just completed the Pixies box set.

The Salon series at Johnson & Johnson


underground forest #0707-10333 (up to 13,000 years old; pretoria, south africa)

la llareta #0308-23b26 (up to 3,000 years old, atacama desert, chile

I attended The Salon series held at the Johnson & Johnson Global Strategic Design offices on Thursday and the theme was, Investigation. The two artists who were in the lecture showcasing their work were Rachael Sussman and Vaughan Oliver. Rachael documents biological life form, plant life from all over the world whose age is incomprehensible. Rachael has spent time researching some of the world's oldest living specimens, finding them in various origins both far and wide. She needs to apply for grants to fund her travel, as most of these places are very far from the Americas. I feel it takes great devotion to find and travel to and shoot these profoundly odd and old living organisms. I admire her fascination with this body of work and moreover, I am grateful for her bringing them to us, who would never otherwise be fortunate to share in the splendor of seeing these plants and trees.


Vaughan Oliver is the Creative Director to the Pixies’ albums on the 4AD label. He hired Simon Larbalestier, the photographer whose black and white, gritty, industrial aesthetic framed the 4AD music mold. It was the changing of an era. The Pixies album first came out in 1988 and this was around the time when cds were replacing albums and thus artwork had to make an emotional impact at a smaller print size. I was excited to attend this lecture and meet the man who worked with Simon. I had just purchased a print from Simon from the Surfer Rosa series of the Spanish dancer. I bought it for my brother for his birthday. My brother and I both loved the Pixies in 1988 and further on. “Surfer Rosa”, and “Come On Pilgrim” being our favorites. The print was an edition of prints created from the original polaroid transfer. The work is very surrealist and kept in form with their compatriots: Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, they shared in it’s gothic and surrealist aesthetic. In all, it was inspiring to hear from a 1990’s 4AD Creative Director who has just completed the Pixies box set.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Humble Arts Foundation


photography by: Lyndsy Welgos


Photography by Louise Menzies

Humble Arts Foundation is a wonderful organization that features fine art photography, that is both contemporary, but not pretentious, new, and not contrived like some of the work that is considered ”emerging" in the Chelsea circuit. It seems to reach back to the roots of when you first discovered your love of photography, as a personal and internal awaking, reminiscent of adolescent feeling that you were no longer a child but an individual with your own conscious and sexual awareness. This of course, is purely my own feelings, interpretations and psyche based on my gut reaction to the work produced here.

I fell in love with photography as a medium about 15 years ago, and it was a revelation. Since then I had graduated far from documentary, black and white, self-portraits, to color architectural self portraits, as I felt my surroundings and my psych was heavily empowered and influenced by my surroundings. In any case, this work is a refreshing break from the work without soul that clings to the cold, stark, white, pristine walls of a Chelsea gallery. It is more work for one's self and peers, and less for the preconceived prejudices viewers can sometimes hold when they're told how to perceive art from a recent art review.
Humble Arts Foundation is a not-for profit organization based in New York. They offer 2 $1,000.00 grants per year, and you can apply to showcase and sell your work on their website. And their blog is visual and direct, without words or frills.

Humble Arts Foundation


photography by: Lyndsy Welgos


Photography by Louise Menzies

Humble Arts Foundation is a wonderful organization that features fine art photography, that is both contemporary, but not pretentious, new, and not contrived like some of the work that is considered ”emerging" in the Chelsea circuit. It seems to reach back to the roots of when you first discovered your love of photography, as a personal and internal awaking, reminiscent of adolescent feeling that you were no longer a child but an individual with your own conscious and sexual awareness. This of course, is purely my own feelings, interpretations and psyche based on my gut reaction to the work produced here.

I fell in love with photography as a medium about 15 years ago, and it was a revelation. Since then I had graduated far from documentary, black and white, self-portraits, to color architectural self portraits, as I felt my surroundings and my psych was heavily empowered and influenced by my surroundings. In any case, this work is a refreshing break from the work without soul that clings to the cold, stark, white, pristine walls of a Chelsea gallery. It is more work for one's self and peers, and less for the preconceived prejudices viewers can sometimes hold when they're told how to perceive art from a recent art review.
Humble Arts Foundation is a not-for profit organization based in New York. They offer 2 $1,000.00 grants per year, and you can apply to showcase and sell your work on their website. And their blog is visual and direct, without words or frills.

Monday, January 18, 2010

POEMS :: Observations (train)

train

Ladies and gentlemen
I’m hungry
A dollar
A nickel, a penny, anything would help
Maybe a piece of fruit
And if you are feeling up to a hug

Heads shift up out of habit
But then retire back to their book
Anywhere to avert their eyes

Same ol' song and dance
For some, this F train
has been their performance space, platform , and sounding board
for years

No woman, no cry no woman no cry
I remember whenna we used to it…

In between, fade outs of public speeches and entertainment
we sit unfazed or at least sport a mask of sub-emotion
fade back in, and become the clinking, the clattering of the train amid a fog of conversations

“Delancy, East Broadway next stop”

train escorts us along
paranoia sets in, of my fellow, intimately situated stranger
reading my most private of thoughts
I look up to determine that he is quite submerged in his own reading
My narcissism, such self-importance to assume this stranger is just aching to share in even just a glimpse of my material
My profanity on paper

Any concern for privacy
Material for my own consumption

look around and take in all of the people in my wide-angle view, my telephoto
outcry of averting eyes
towards public ads: CUNY
Legal assistance, en espanol

Glasses, sans glasses, headphones, black, white, ipods, iphones, blackberries, songs seeping tinny through cheap phones, muffled crap music through others

A palette of fluorescent light and mundane hues, not too foreign from the office I just escaped

We ride in this familiar interior for 20 minutes and more a day strangers to one another we are the pole holders, or the lucky few who are the seat dwellers
We are strangers we are each other, we are new Yorkers.




POEtry



train

Ladies and gentlemen
I’m hungry
A dollar
A nickel, a penny, anything would help
Maybe a piece of fruit
And if you are feeling up to a hug

Heads shift up out of habit
But then retire back to their book
Anywhere to avert their eyes

Same ol' song and dance
For some, this F train
has been their performance space, platform , and sounding board
for years

No woman, no cry no woman no cry
I remember whenna we used to it…

In between, fade outs of public speeches and entertainment
we sit unfazed or at least sport a mask of sub-emotion
fade back in, and become the clinking, the clattering of the train amid a fog of conversations

“Delancy, East Broadway next stop”

train escorts us along
paranoia sets in, of my fellow, intimately situated stranger
reading my most private of thoughts
I look up to determine that he is quite submerged in his own reading
My narcissism, such self-importance to assume this stranger is just aching to share in even just a glimpse of my material
My profanity on paper

Any concern for privacy
Material for my own consumption

look around and take in all of the people in my wide-angle view, my telephoto
outcry of averting eyes
towards public ads: CUNY
Legal assistance, en espanol


Glasses, sans glasses, headphones, black, white, ipods, iphones, blackberries, songs seeping tinny through cheap phones, muffled crap music through others

A palette of fluorescent light and mundane hues, not too foreign from the office I just escaped

We ride in this familiar interior for 20 minutes and more a day strangers to one another we are the pole holders, or the lucky few who are the seat dwellers
We are strangers we are each other, we are new Yorkers.



transport me, transfer me

Transport me, transfer me
Serrendipously, lovingly
In this vessel, this silver submarine
Sleepy and serene
With out an exterior scene
We are forced to look with in
With those we share this 60 feet tin
A temporary place with our urban kin

United we stand
United we claim our place in this 20 minute space

Us lucky ones sit

Unyielding
Colors in dream
redeem
a seat or
a lean

Conversations in Yiddish, Russian ,Spanish
Brooklynish

We ride along in a daze, day dreaming to be someone else, somewhere else








love

A grab from around the waist
As she does the dishes
A stern, ‘not now Joe’
To follow

‘to my beautiful wife’
‘to my loving husband’
this is how they address one another
on paper during holidays

she wears the pants
he provides them

she dictates
he educates

she reads circulars
he cuts the grass
she leans into the dishwasher
he smacks her ass

they argue, they fight
they bitch and they yell
they dwell
in safety and support
in love
a communion only they can know

kids they come and go
they come and go

pets they live and die
they live and die
a couple , they grow and grow
fore ever they grow

he calls her Bell
she calls him Joe,

Saturday, January 16, 2010

The Moth at the Bitter End 11/30/2009

Here is my first story at The Moth at The Bitter End in New York, NY on November 30th, 2009. The theme of the evening was "Nerve" in which I told a story about my tryst with a New York fireman. (Because the video is 104 megs I cant link directly to You Tube, so please copy, cut, paste)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWCZECLJQcs

Sunday, January 3, 2010

First person arts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tO2rj-4Q6o