and

Ohhh my god it's been a long time since I've updated this. Many new, exciting and highly vlogable things have occurred in my life, yet, for some strange reason (I am a bum?) I haven't done anything. But my first reaction to what happened this morning was this: I have to vlog about this. Not blog, but vlog.

I am currently living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It has a lot of families and imigrants, mostly from Lebanon, China, and particularly in my building, Eastern Europe. It's a nice little area that's safe and quiet. The most noise at night is a car alarm that goes off when dudes with their ghetto cruisers pump their bass too loud. Around 5:00/5:30 this morning, however, a crazy-ass thunderstorm woke me up. Growing up in the midwest/Iowa, you get used to storms, so when I say crazy-ass, I mean there's no pause between thunder and lightning and there's a lot of it. But as a midwesterner, I slept through the majority of it. When I woke up this morning, I thought nothing of it and hurried to get to the train as per usual so I could get to Taïm for my second day of work. However, when I got to the station, I saw a large group of people standing outside. Always willing to play the pissed off native Brooklynite, I pushed my way through wearing a scowl only to find that none, repeat, none of the trains were running. The lone attendant fielded annoyed questions in both English and Chinese. I was told to try to catch a bus that would take me to 9th St. station where I could get onto a D train which would take me into Manhattan (note: I have to take the R to get to the D, hence the title). As I walked towards the stop, I saw what the trouble was all about. There was broken glass everywhere. A line of fire engines blocked off a street with huge tree debris. I heard talk of building collapses. But as the good little capitalist, I was still trying to get to work. A woman offered to split a taxi with me--after about ten minutes of waiting, she politely told me she was going home. I then tried to catch a bus, which, as I had noticed before, were so full of people that they would just drive by without stopping. After another ten minutes of this, I considered my options: walk the 60 blocks to 9th St., wait for more buses, wait for some cab, or go home. (Bonus option: attempt to get a ride with somebody in a car. Sh'yeah, right.) Home I went. Naturally, all of these adventures in waiting were fraught with anxiety, anxious calls to my bosses, and more anxiety. Missing your second day of work really does make you a bum, but what is to be done? R train, even though you are old and not as nice as 1, 2, 3, A, C, or E, but this girl wants you to know right now: I miss you.
As for the community: the main damage seems to be on the other side of 4th Ave. Lots of helicopters are patrolling the area (they've been up there for about three hours now), as well as plenty of police and firemen with some private contractors for towing and glass thrown in. (I had one of my kitchen windows schedueled to be replaced today, and miraculously, he showed up. He said he'd been busy.) The main damage that kind of made me sad was the church on 4th Ave near 67th that had it's entire, probably 50ft. window blown out. That's probably where a lot of the glass came from. Lots of gawkers making the rounds. The big fat guy who sits in front of Steve's Bagels/Steve's Florist (near "The Best Breakfast in Bay Ridge", which is also owned by Steve, I believe--lots of yummy Greek treats) finally had something to talk about with his other sidewalk sitting pals.
Right now, I'm going to go out for some cheap falafel and The Simpsons movie. I will also grab some more footage.

Cheers, friends, I'm back.

Labels: Bay Ridge, MTA delays, thunderstorm

The final part of the triptych. Click here to view.

Special poignance? I have to take the GRE tomorrow.

Self loathing? At all time high.

Special thanks? To P. Reed.

PS: titlecards are supposed to be too fast.

Click here to play.

I went to the rally this past Sunday, then had an informal chat with my poli-sci pal, future auditor and current patriot, Wes Blancheflower. Even though the even was really supposed to be about Chet Culver's run for governor, pretty much everyone was there for Barack Obama. A political superstar, there has been a lot of discussion of whether or not he will run for president. (He's recently said no, but I don't believe it...) After seeing him talk, I am really confident that if he were to run, he would be the person that gets the democrats back on track. Later this week I'll post some more stuff, specifically the entirety of his speech along with my run-ins with the MSM. This video is kind of a tease, but that's how it really was.

Also, because I shot over two hours of footage Sunday night and have school and work to attend, this isn't as polished as I would like it to be. (To boot, some files got deleted...I'm sure as part of some sort of conservative/MSM plot...) The sound is pretty bad, so I advise headphones. At any rate, enjoy what Mr. Blancheflower says, 'cause it's pretty awesome and funny. Maybe he should dare to have the audacity of hope and run for office. Your thoughts?

I got fixed! Watch it here. Special guest appearance by Docteur Génessier.

(Note: in honor of Halloween, candy, and the deluge of Christmas items now avaliable at fine local retailers, this is not part of the body triptych.)

"Behind the message of self-improvement is, of course, the message that you should be anxious about what you do not have yet and who you should be."


The second part of the body triptych. Click here to watch a magical blend of infomerical, watered-down theory, and a Morrisey-tastic non-sequitur. Special thanks to Brock Muench, Sam Caster, and Tim Hau.

Music: Morrissey, "You Have Killed Me".

Text adapted from Practices of Looking, "The Manufacturing of Desire" by Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright.

I have decided to do a triptych on the body, specifically mine. This first part, deals with my experiences with bulimia. In my experience, representations of eating disorders are poorly constructed and oversimplifications of these diseases, thus I submit my interpretation to you. It does not make me uncomfortable to let people know, but I understand if it makes you uncomfortable to know. If so, I am sorry. And, if it is not already apparent, I want to make this very clear: I am not doing this to glean pity, so please don't tell me you're sorry or give me sympathetic comments. For the love of god, do not tell me that I am "brave". Judge this as you would any other art object.

PS: I was planning to do this before I saw Matt's piece. I swear. Another unintentional mime.


Click here to play. Thanks to Mika Kibburz for her camera.

Click here to play video.

For one R. Standfest. The softer side of Lucca.

And for whatever it's worth, advice.