Mad Men Slideshow

Yay! Finished a slideshow for the Mad Men contest and used the song 'John Reilly' by my old band Aye Aye Captain! ♥!Here's the links- slideshowand voting. Only 5 days left!

Time Eternal

Hi Blog I've been neglecting! I have so much to tell you little bloggy. 2010 has been a rollarcoaster year thus far. Maybe more downs than ups, but very extreme in any case. Started w/ earthquakes and the woe got closer to home each passing day. Anywho, thankful more than ever to be alive. This isn't a greeting card, but I am thankful to all my friends and family, near and dear, near and far. The world seems smaller and more cozy with you in it. On the upshot, I have been playing a lot of music (generally getting paid in beer) and doing a lot of art (finished 2 altered books and 4 full pages are in Vice magazine's August "Anti-Music" issue) and I made the most of a very ruff school year. I saw Devo, Joan Jett and Rihanna! I am now mid-swing in a media blitzing campaign to be on Mad Men that will go on until my birthday. My friend/hairdresser Cherie Savoie is the photographer that took the Auto Da Fe pics that were so beautiful last year. She was bleaching my hair and suggested I try out for Mad Men. She had all the info cuz she had entered the contest last year. She styled my hair in a little bouffy bob and came over with her friend Susie's camera after I had pulled out some dresses and scouted locations. She shot like 300 pics so there were bound to be some keepers. Here's a few-

I really liked this one-

and this one, it was just so natural-

I posted most of these on Facebook and the one below is the one that was chosen by my friends. I figure they know better than me, since it is hard to judge oneself. It worked out best cuz there was no photoshopping needed (tattoo or anti-60's indicators). The competition is very stiff and I love some of their photos and wonder if they just live in the 60's in their mind. I heard an interview w/ Matthew Weiner (the exec. producer and ex- Sopranos writer) on NPR where he said that being from Baltimore is what really inspired him to do the show. He said Maryland had not changed from the 50's-early 60's era until the mid 80's. Being from Baltimore and having always been fascinated by this era, I have to agree. I moved to California in 1982 before the state started to shift stylistically. My neighbor when I was little, Pat Moran was John Water's fan club president and casting director. She had a bright red beehive and a house of french colonial furniture. It seemed totally normal to me as a kid. I loved going to Hutzler's department store's ritzy cafe w/my great grandmother to eat an ice cream on a doily w/ a cone for a clown's hat and a cherry nose and little raisin eyes or to the flea market at the beautiful 50's Edmonson Drive-In. I collected everything from matchbooks to buttons to tins of shoe polish because they seemed old and better designed. My best memories involved old artists that I knew as a child that lived in that 50's sort of idyll. Everything around them so used, so loved, so old. The country itself so verdant, so alive, so haunted. I felt like such a little urchin, sand always shifting beneath my feet while the old artists and musicians were all so solid and full of tradition and good ideas. I love going back every year because most of what I knew is either still there or being taken back by nature. Is it healthy to prefer the past to the frightening future? The present is the only thing we can truly cling to I guess.