Me and Barry McGee

Flipping through the pages of a magazine the other night, I stumbled upon the artist Barry McGee.

I'm a big fan of geometric shapes in aesthetically pleasing colors so naturally I oozed with delight at the pages upon pages of the stuff.

He does more than just shapes, including portraits and the very popular 'street art'.

Now we shouldn't get into a debate about what art is and what art isn't since I do not claim this to be art. I do however claim it to be very nice to look at!

And that's why, I painted some of my own on canvas today.

The wonderful thing about modern art is that 95% of it can be duplicated!

See also my take on Warholian portraiture during my senior year of high school:
Lovely!

You've Been Drafted (a Ticket)

There are many things I love about Philly. Driving around the city is not one of my favorite parts though. Trying to find parking drives me crazy. As a positive note however, the last two times I drove down there, I found prime spots throughout the days.

Thankfully, having a bike gets rid of 90% of my traveling problems. I can't give it a full 100% because rain and cold make me sad. Especially rain.

All blibberblabber about my Victorian-born item of transportation aside, the whole point of this post is to talk about a new show on A&E called "Parking Wars". The show depicts meter maids and the workers of "car pounds" dealing with parking tickets and more importantly: Angry customers.

The show combines some things I enjoy:

1. People who work in the service industry
2. Angry people
3. Philadelphia

I work two jobs: one as a waiter and one as a steamer of milk ( I refuse to use the word that the corporation wants us to use ), I deal with customers all day. Thankfully, a good portion of the customers who come into the restaurant where I work are really nice and not so problematic. I think it has something to do with being organic vegans or what have you (not that I'm pushing an agenda or anything!). But as for the coffee chain where I work, there are many particular people who get cranky when things do not go perfectly. Or if there is not enough whipped cream. Or if they can taste that I put regular coffee in their cup as opposed to decaf.

As for angry people, I like watching them make up stuff and try to get their way which never ever works. This show is very similar to "Airline". This show is also similar to my real life experiences at Dorney Park, which could be an entire post or blog in itself.

And finally, the show is set in Philadelphia. Nothing makes me more excited than to see things I see everyday in real life, on tv. No jokes. Right now summertime is in full swing so there is probably a low chance of me seeing myself. Perhaps I'll make it a semester goal to get on that show (in cameo, no fights or parking tickets please!).

Enjoy.

Edit: Right now they are strolling through the ghetto(aka anywhere in the city that's not center) and everyone is hootin' and a-hollerin' about them being there. Eee I like this show a lot. Go see it.

On Barcelona and Teen Pregnancy

Well I did it.

I finally went to see a motion picture. My first one of the year 2008! The movie was of course, Juno. I'm a bit behind the times, but still, it was a great effort to get me out to the cinema. The last movie I saw before this was The Darjeeling Limited (a good month after that came out too) and before that, Harry Potter in the summer time.

Anyways, I enjoyed myself immensely! I was very surprised by the whole thing. Instead of cliche super-indie film material (See: Garden State), the movie was very fresh and I laughed several times. While I found Juno's cynicism to be a little over-the-top, I reminded myself that it's just a movie and to have fun with it. Which I did. Also, some unexpected drama with the adopting parents made it all the more interesting.

Has anyone seen Ellen Page's earlier film 'Hard Candy'? I was basically reminded of that. If you don't know what I mean, Wikipedia it.

While the soundtrack was very expected (acoustic-y equally-as-indie-as-Juno tracks), I did enjoy it too. Aka The Velvet Underground and Belle & Sebastian.

Another aspect I liked: The costumes. Many things can be bought from American Apparel:

-- Track outfits (with the exception of the boy's shorts)
-- Tube socks for sure
-- Several of Leah's outfits such as the track suit jacket in yellow
-- Almost all of Paulie's hoodies (including a black FLEX-FLEECE at the end)
-- Juno's cranberry hoodie
etc.etc.

Personal favorite item I recognized:


The Laroche sunglasses worn by Juno when she and Leah are looking through the Penny Saver.

So that's that! Go see it if you haven't.

Also, another fantastic part of the evening was seeing my great friend and loyal No Nasties reader, Yasmin
Me holding Yasmin back during THE FUTURE (party at Nicki's house).

Yasmin and I discussed Spring Break plans which brings me to the Barcelona part of the post. I will be flying over to the Spanish paradise to stay with a bunch of friends in their apart from about a week. I am pretty excited for this to go down and it will officially begin my travels abroad.

Stay tuned!

Another One of Those Bergman Sort of Days

Ingmar Bergman, the Swede who launched a thousand artsy student films, is widely recognized as the greatest director of avant-garde and even modern cinema. Apart from directing the deadly VHS tape in the Ring (psych!) he has made billions of films synonymous with existentialism, bleakness, and creepy soundtracks.

On a side note, black and white seems to be a very popular choice for existentialist work (See my last post on the new Camus book covers).

French and Saunders are widely recognized as the greatest satirists of all time (in my household), so it's only natural that these two titans of spoofery would take on the Thor of cinema.

For an annotated guide to Bergman films and a good laugh, watch this clip:

Black and White and Read All Over

I apologize for my lack of updates.

New Year's Eve was not as exciting as expected BUT I still had some good times, as I hope you did too.

A small update will hopefully snowball into some more and more frequent updating.

Either way, I wanted to comment on some semi-new book cover designs for Albert Camus.

The designs are so simple, clean, neat, and make me want to wet my existential pants!

Enjoy: