Sunday, April 24, 2005

Obsessed with Food Today


Max of Eastman Place
Originally uploaded by Jim Van Meter.
I had a huge meal yesterday. Non stop eating. I can't stop thinking about food. In the supermarket today, I wrestled with myself: do I make enchiladas for myself or buy salad fixings. Of course, I could have done both. But I would have been overwhelmed. I'm still hung over from Friday. Well, I'm still tired because I've not caught up on my sleep.

It's too early to eat again. Well, maybe it isn't. I'm going for the roast chicken square meal option right now.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Too Much Guitar? NEVER

I am hung over and my head hurts. Last night, I celebrated receiving a bunch of checks from record companies that are using my photos on CD sleeves... its been a long time since I drank six martinis in one night. I tried to mitigate and if not even pre-empt the hangover by eating a couple tacos from the 96th St taco truck before going to bed.

Didn't help. Woke up early for dog duty and to attend a seder brunch with my friend, her family at her mother-in-law's house in Queens. Meaning I had about an hour to travel to meet my friend before getting into her car and driving a half hour out to Queens and then the five hours we spent over the seder while I was hung over and trying to be nice and polite. It was physically painful to be alert!

At least on the way to and from, on the long subway ride (even though it was an express train both times), I listened to the best album of 2004, TOO MUCH GUITAR.

I'm obsessed with that record. Obsessed.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Protein Overload


factory/farm egg comparison
Originally uploaded by Azure.
I eat too many eggs.

I used to like them a LOT because an omelette was a nice, light dinner. But then living in Cleveland while on my writing project, off my savings, and only spending money, not earning it - I found that eggs were the best bang for the buck in terms of nutrition.

Protein does make you feel full and satisfied. But until I cash this check in my bag, I have to rely on what's in the fridge. (Yeah, I know you're saying - so go cash the check. It's not that easy. I don't have a bank account here!)

What's in the fridge? EGGS. I have a hunch that in a little while I'm gonna feel like Paul Newman in that movie where he eats 50 eggs...

Thursday, April 21, 2005

I need a haircut!


Sandy
Originally uploaded by Theresa K.
Here's a picture of Sandy Kramer. She cuts my hair. Her salon is in Detroit. But she's the best, and worth traveling 500 miles for a haircut.

Last haircut I got was January 29. It's April 21. I am overdue!

Actually, there's a great guy here in NY who cut and colored my hair for years: Paul LaBrecque. He has two fabulous salons: one on the East Side and one on the West Side. I just can't afford it, even with the discount he offers. For one haircut by Paul, I can get three from Sandy. The end result: I look better longer and more often.

Well, the bottom line is that I need to look fab on May 19 at my photo show. I guess it will be a trip to Paul's...

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Its Hot and Fabulous in NYC


025_25
Originally uploaded by Cool Auntie.
These ultra-colorful flowers are the best I can do to replicate a house landing on a witch and the world going from black & white to color.

Am in NYC. Its hot and humid (already... and its only April) but it is so alive. The difference is the people, the vibe, the attitude. A can-do place. And the food.....I think I lost about 15 pounds in Cleveland, since I had no car and walking to the thing that passes for public transportation was a mile away, guaranteeing me a 2-mile walk each and every day... I hope I don't gain it back here indulging in NYC's culinary delights, but boy would it be fun.

Still, none of these Greek supermarkets deli's can rival my Aunt Maria's Galaktimburico (you think I can spell that? its the custard between the filo dough...)

The pigeons are pooping and cooing outside my window. Its great to be back.


Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Coming up roses


White Rose
Originally uploaded by gragsie.
Arrived in NYC at midnight yesterday. Already, everything's coming up roses.

We found a place to park right in front of Mishka's place. It was a breeze bringing all my stuff upstairs. Slept like a baby, took stuff to dog-sit without a hitch.

Once I got here, my phone started ringing with work offers.

All I had to do was leave Cleveland...


Sunday, April 17, 2005

Most popular photo


Stiv & Sabel Starr
Originally uploaded by Theresa K.
I keep 100 of my photos on Flickr. Of those 100 photos, this one is the most popular, according to the feature that tells me which one has the most views.

Stiv Bators & Sabel Starr, backstage at the Whisky, 1980. Stiv had a charmed life - but it had its share of darkness and doubt. But thinking about him this whole time I've been i Cleveland has inspired a new volume of photographic work. So that's a plus. The winters here last 2 months longer than they do elsewhere.... its a big insight into many many things.


Thursday, April 14, 2005

No War


no war30
Originally uploaded by Cool Auntie.
I took this photo in March 2004. I was visiting Detroit and during that week, I took Jim and Troy and Laura to see Bob Dylan at the State Theatre where we spent more time in the State Bar than in the Theatre itself... it was a nice week in Detroit, however, and I took a lot of photos that I really like.

This photo of the fur-coat wearing bum on the bench in front of a building bearing the address 1515 Broadway (which is the address of MTV's building in NYC, where I worked for 4 1/2 years) with the NO WAR card in the window is one of my favorite pictures.

NO WAR has kind of been my motto for the past 6 years. Its been a kind of weird past 6 years, but hopefully the weirdness will give way to normalcy soon.


Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Homeward Bound


NY Trip 16
Originally uploaded by c_2_g.
a sigh of relief

mishka is driving me to nyc

i will be so happy when i cross the brooklyn bridge

Going to NY on Sunday...


mishka
Originally uploaded by Cool Auntie.
is the wonderful Mishka Shubaly going to be able to give me a ride? He's going to be in Athens, OH, about 250 miles from here, in kind of a big detour.... man, I hope so.

It would be nice to have 7 hours to hang out with him, help him drive and not have to be on the Amtrak...


Sunday, April 10, 2005

Sunflower test


028_28
Originally uploaded by Cool Auntie.
Blogger is down!
This is a test to see if I can post to it remotely.
If not - no harm done, I'll just take a walk.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

My fave pic


Girls & cars
Originally uploaded by Theresa K.
Margaret and Tara posing in front of the car one of Tara's aunts gave them so they could go on the road.

I love this photo. Its one of my favorites. I don't think you could ask anyone to strike these poses. It was just one of those split seconds of time I was able to capture.

Another nice spring day today and my head was all over the place with schemes and obsessions, both. Mastered talking and walking without too much pain in my phone-holding hand. I just don't want to be one of those dorks wearing a head set on the street. At my desk is another story.

Still didn't pack up my winter clothes but will do that tomorrow. Really. I will. I have to.


Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Summer Days

It's early April and it already feels like early summer. Oh well.

Summer Days is a show-stopper in the new Bob Dylan Show, let me just say.

I think there is something to Seasonal Affective Disorder. During the relentless winter, it was depressing because people were depressed. Unlike me, people around here hated the snow. I just see it as another photo backdrop; they say it as a deterrent to driving, walking and getting around. But then winter gets hard. Its cold and doesn't let up. Finally, when you think you can't take it anymore, the Vernal Equinox is upon us, the swallows return to Capistrano, the time changes and flowers start to bloom. The day is longer and everything is bright.

Of course, there are no flowers yet, but we have pictures!


Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Spring in Ultra Color


026_26
Originally uploaded by Cool Auntie.
I just love Kodak's line of Ultra Color Film. These flowers were captured in Portra UC. I think the Ultra Color line was so good, that Kodak decided to make a dedicated Ultra Color line.

(oh, yes, I've gotten a ton of free film from Kodak, but if it was crappy, I'd tell you the truth)

Spring is here. I'm just waiting for the flowers to pop out of the ground.


Winter is OVER!


trees
Originally uploaded by Cool Auntie.
Well, the time changed and Daylight Savings Time kicked in. If that isn't the last call for it to be Spring, what is?

These bare trees were photographed from my hotel window in Youngstown, Ohio in mid-March. The trees around here still don't have any leaves or buds yet, but the sun is bright each day, and the temperature is climbing each day as well.

I was in Chicago over the weekend, and I understand there was a nasty freak snowfall in Cleveland on Saturday. I'm glad I missed it - because I was enjoying 70 degree weather and seeing Bob Dylan, not once but twice. Not that inclement weather would have mattered, because everyone is "....expecting rain."

So - Bob Dylan. What an enigma but of course. And what an amazing set he played each night I saw him. I quoted "Desolation Row," which was close to being a showstopper, but not like "Mr. Tambourine Man," which was once the jingle-jangle anthem that turned my childhood world from black & white to color (OK - it was the Byrds and their Rickenbackers that did that but of course, without the song, they couldn't have landed the house on the witch, ya know?).

Instead of the imagery of a young man longing to join the circus that's coming through town, its the intimations of Mortality that we hear instead. Instead of imploring the circus to take him, the singer is perhaps talking to God, rather than the devils that once promised life would be fun. Very deep stuff. And there was the fun side, too. Like "Cat's in the Well" taking off as if it were "Treat Her Right," because the riff was the riff to "Treat Her Right." Wouldn't that have been cool?

Bob paid homage to his opener, the great country crooner and custodian of ironic tales, Merle Haggard, with his faithful and heart wrenching version of "Sing Me Back Home."

Haggard himself was quite the artiste. I can't get over his live delivery of "Unforgettable." Knocks Nat King Cole out of the water.

Country bumpkins are ruling this roost, oK?