tigertail in new york

Leaving on a jet plane..

2008-10-27T20:10:00.002-04:00

I fly out tomorrow to my homeland for my first visit since I moved here. I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. Excited cos there's so much to do and so many people to catch up with, but nervous cos as much as we'd like to believe everything back home has been encased in a beautiful bubble waiting for us to return, that's not the case.

People have left the city, moved interstate and overseas, changed careers, changed lives, fallen in and out of love, conquered demons, fallen of the wagon, disappeared from the face of the earth..

I was supposed to pack today, and then have a leisurely day tomorrow preparing for my flight and finalising everything from my last job. Instead I was woken with a phone call at 9am after getting home at 3am after wrap drinks for the film I just finished working on. Keys for a truck were nowhere to be found, and people meant to drive to the set to wrap it out were nowhere to be found.

I ended up driving out to the far reaches of Long Island to get another set of keys, delivering them to Jersey and then driving back into the city to run errands, buy some things people have asked me to bring back to Australia and have farewell lunch with my brother.

I got home at 7:30pm.

I don't want to be packing till 3 or 4 am like the last few trips I have been on, so I'm about to make some calls and get started.

I really need a vacation... Hopefully I'll get to rest a little on this trip and not spend all my time going through boxes of stuff sorting out what to bring back here ;^)

Wish me luck!!

It's been a long time...

2008-10-21T12:42:00.007-04:00

Long time coming, long time since I've written, long time since I've been home...

And although I've been slack and haven't emailed or written on my blog in a while, it doesn't mean I've forgotten people or haven't missed you all - I just rarely get a chance to sit in front of my computer to do anything non-work related.

On a side note, I mean slack in the Australian sense of the word, not the Carribean version:
Slack (Australian) - lazy, but not deliberately so
Slack (Carribean) - kind of slutty, man-stealing

This caused great confusion and hilarity when I mentioned how slack I'd been to some of my friends over here.

But I've just bought a ticket to Sydney for a visit, my first since moving here, and I'm very excited! I'm going home next week for 3 weeks. Two very good friends are getting married, and I'm looking forward to celebrating with them.

I'm also looking forward to catching up with all my fantastic people back home - friends, family, old work colleagues.. And seeing 2 cousins born since I left..

I'm starting a list of other amazing things I want to do:

(a) go to my beach and swim in the ocean
(b) eat at Tetsuyas
(c) go to the fish market and eat all the fresh seafood I can handle
(d) eat really good Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian food that tastes authentic and not watered down for American tastes
(e) walk out on that new glass platform thing they've attached to Centrepoint tower - or maybe not - walking on a transparent surface attached to the highest building in the city maybe not such a good idea
(f)buy "The Late Show", "Monkey", "Blue Murder" and "Best of the Chaser" on DVD
(g) go to the Korean baths
(h) visit all my old haunts

I'm still adding to the list...

It's also the opportunity to clear the slate - I'm currently archiving 1000 emails related to the last two films I worked on, and archiving old personal emails I never managed to respond to. I'm hoping I can catch up with people and we can go from there. Start anew with me not being a slack-arse (Australian version).

I can't wait...

Now I just need to finish up this film and I'm out.. currently on location tying up loose ends...

One week to go!

I'm back beeyatches!! (Mark II)

2008-06-13T19:23:00.004-04:00

I hear you.. Oh what a slacker!! I emailed her, commented on her blog, sent her pictures, left her messages on Facebook, she never responds - what's up with that???

I know it has been forever since I posted, but I really have been extraordinarily busy, and not the kind of busy where you sit at a desk in front of a computer. Busy like: get 4 hours sleep, go out into the wilds of New York City and State, find many and varied locations for filming, and negotiate with the owners, come back to an office or my apartment and merge all of the pictures together (maybe 3 or 4 hours worth) and then crawl into bed, only to wake up the next day and do it all again.

That's when I'm not on set for 12-18 hour days, or moving to new parts of NY.. or finding time to go to a bbq or dinner, or just hang out at a neighbourhood spot for a couple of hours of down time.

So quick summary before we move ahead for those who missed it:
* I moved to Brooklyn. I spent a lot of time hanging out with my friends in the Bk, and when it came time to move, Brooklyn seemed like the logical place to be. I don't know why I needed convincing - I love living here! Currently sitting out on my back patio with a glass of wine while I write this. Am soooo going to get a bbq so I can have bbqs out here over the next couple of months!

*I've been working with a bunch of different people, doing a bunch of different things, increasing my employment base, and networking opportunities.

*I met a whole bunch of new people about 3 weeks ago, through very random circumstances, and have made a whole bunch of new friends - now if only I had the time to post pictures online of the bbqs and book clubs I've attended, hopefully I won't lose these new people as my friends, and still hoping I haven't lost my old friends as work keeps me so busy I don't even notice months vanishing before my eyes.

*My parents are coming to visit and we're all going to Hawaii!!!! Haven't seen my family in 2 years, so really looking forward to that. Plus - real beaches!!! Blue water!!!! Scuba diving with beautiful fishies, and turtles and manta rays!!!

So expect little postings again from me - little wry anecdotes about cultural difference, some of my fave quotes from overheard, some very vague industry anecdotes (very vague - hey I still want to work in this town!) - you know, the usual.

Hopefully you'll all still come visit and read, and hopefully you'll comment now and then, just so I know you don't all hate me for vanishing off the face of the earth!

Oh, and hello to all the people still finding me by searching for how far they can park from a hydrant in new york - the answer is Within 15 feet (5 m) of a fire hydrant, unless a licensed driver remains in the vehicle to move it in an emergency. Watch me shoot up to the number one google spot!!

Or, better still, watch it

2008-03-21T16:15:00.002-04:00

This is what Hope and Change look like

2008-03-19T18:01:00.001-04:00

This is the world I want to live in, the world I want for the future. Not only for this country, or my home country, but for all of us...

Please take the time to read this

Finally, we are Sorry...

2008-02-13T01:10:00.009-05:00

Today, February 13 2008, is a landmark day in Australian History.

Today, our newly elected Prime Minister offered an official apology to our nation's Indigenous people for the wrongs of the past, in particular for the taking away of Aboriginal children from their families.

Today Australians re-started the journey down the path to reconciliation, to acknowledgment of past wrongs and to new hopes for a better shared future.

Today will be remembered as the day the wheels were set in motion for all Australians to have the same opportunities, to celebrate our backgrounds and communities, to experience our cultures and share them with other Australians, to work together so we all can live together in peace and harmony.

It's been 8 years since I joined with a quarter of a million other Sydney-siders and walked over the Sydney Harbour Bridge for reconciliation. And for a long time I felt like the powerful surge of support for Indigenous Australians that was so much a part of that day had been lost under the previous government.

But today I feel proud. Today I feel uplifted. Today I celebrate. This is not the end of the struggle, but this is the beginning of healing together to move forward to a brighter future.

I know my Mum & my Aunty are out there flying Aboriginal flags today, and I'll be wearing my Aboriginal colours pin today in recognition of this great moment.

After so many years of being ashamed of the racism, intolerance and petty-mindedness of the previous government and what they were doing to our country, today I feel I can hold my head up and say "I'm Australian".

Because today we said one simple word that signifies so much.

Today we said "sorry".

My Fellow Australians..

2008-02-08T00:06:00.000-05:00

The other night a friend and I caught a car service (read: what used to be called a gypsy cab, Dad) to a spot in her neighbourhood. The driver was on his phone in Spanish, so my friend nudged me to speak Spanish to him so we could get a good price. So when we got to our destination, I spoke to him in Spanish, telling him that here would be fine.

He was surprised.

In Spanish
Cab Driver: You speak Spanish?
Me: Ummm.. yes I speak Spanish - we're speaking it now!
Cab Driver: Oh, you're very fluent! Where did you learn?
Me: I studied for 3 years at university, and I went to Cuba on a study exchange.
Cab Driver: Cuba?? Really?? Where are you from?
Me: Australia. Where are you from?
Cab Driver: the Dominican Republic. Australia, eh? With the Kangaroos??
Me: Yes - the kangaroos.
Cab Driver: and Heath Ledger!! So sad... (pause) Oh!! And Arnold Schwarzenegger
Me: Arnold Schwarzenegger?? Nooooo, he's Austrian!
Cab Driver: Oh, not Australian.. Austrian...

We managed to get a good deal on the ride, and I gave our cabbie a tip, despite his almost-inclusion of a right-wing former Mr Universe-turned-Governor in my country-folk.

Home is in every moment...

2008-02-07T23:32:00.000-05:00

Many people have asked me where I feel more at home - Sydney or New York - or whether I feel that New York is my home now.

Sydney will always be home to me because I belong to the land and the ocean there, but I have felt at home in many places around the world.

For those of you who don't know me so well, I've left Australia 12 times to travel all around the world. And I've been out of the US twice since I've been here. Sometimes those journeys were short and close by, other times they were much longer. Sometimes I stopped for a while and put down some roots before moving on again and a few times it felt like I'd barely scratched the surface, no matter how long I'd been there.

In some respects it feels like home can be found in so many places that I carry in my heart and in my memories.

I saw this today, and for me it really encapsulated how I feel about home, and about travel, and I wanted to share it with you.

Lies and Damn Statistics

2008-01-18T12:19:00.000-05:00

Maybe I should post more.

According to my site meter, most people get to my blog by searching google for how far they need to park away from a hydrant or where to get the best pho in NYC.

Sigh.... I'm officially boring...

Pho & Photography

2007-12-05T23:20:00.000-05:00

The pho was ok - not the best I've ever tried, but not awful either.But then I went to MOMA (for free thanks to a good friend and her special work connections - thank you!) and saw some great stuff, including some amazing sculpture by Martin Puryear and some great photography by Garry Winogrand including this great work New York 1963

I just love the way everyone is looking at the walrus, and s/he's looking at the photographer like "oi, you! whaddya think you're looking at?"

The Martin Puryear sculpture Ladder for Booker T. Washington is hung from the gallery ceiling in the attrium. All of his work is monumental in size, and spans several floors of the gallery as it ascends the wall. You can see it here in my photo.

There were a lot of other great works too, including Roni Horn's Some Thames and Allan Mccollum's The Shapes Project, which you can see my photo of here.

A pretty enjoyable day, and after yesterday's visit to the International Centre for Photography to see their amazing current exhibitions focusing on the Spanish Civil War, it's been a very arty week!

1st photo is copyright Garry Winogrand, but the other 2 are my own and are copyrighted.

Sugar & Spice

2007-12-05T10:54:00.000-05:00

I love spice. Hot spicy food, definitely, but also the strength and delicacy of spices and their flavours.

I love cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamon, lemongrass, galangal, star anise, cloves, corriander, tamarind.. the list goes on and on.

So, although I've been very happy with pumpkin spice and gingerbread lattes at Starbucks, foods I love, like fragrant pho bo, laksa, rendang, salt & pepper squid, and foods I love to cook - soy & star anise simmered chicken, whole steamed red snapper with chillies, lemongrass and Shaoxing wine, have been in short supply here in New York City.

Sydney has Thai restaurants like my neighbourhood here in NY has Chinese restaurants - they are everywhere. Within walking distance of my place back home were at least 8 Thai restaurants, and 6 of those had really good food. I miss the diversity of authentic food we had back home.

Because as much as I love spices, what I can't stand is bland food, and in particular bland food when an authentic version of the dish would not try and appeal to a generic american palate.

Chinese dumplings here have wrappers that are thick and tasteless - almost like a pancake has been wrapped around the delicate shrimp inside. No delicate see-through Har Gow to be found at local chinese restaurants. And generally Thai food has been boring, except for a few notable exceptions (like Sea in Brooklyn, and a mid-town spot my brother and I found).

For a few days now I've been craving pho bo - Vietnamese Beef noodle soup. In Vietnam I ate this almost every other day for breakfast, lunch, whenever the mood took me. In Sydney, I sampled several versions, always trying to find one that matched what I had tasted in Vietnam. Oh how I miss XIC Lo, Naughty Chef and Pasteur near my old work.

So today I'm on a mission - I'm going to try and find the best Pho in New York. I've had several suggestions, and think I'm going to check out a place on Mott St. And tomorrow my brother and I will try and find the best laksa, which he's been missing.

Suggestions are gladly welcomed!

All in a day's work

2007-12-03T12:33:00.001-05:00

I finished a job recently, and the weather has started to turn cold - first snow yesterday.. brrrrr... So I've spent a lot of the last week cleaning up my room, making space and putting away all of the stuff from the last few jobs.

I found something during the clean up that I want to share.

Most people in a film crew work long stupid hours and get very little thanks and/or recognition for it. So it's nice to occasionally get a bit of praise, a thank you note, something that just says hey - we know you worked your arse off, and we just wanted to say thanks.

On the last big job I worked the producers and the director often noticed when our team had done a good job, and that was actually a nice change from some other things I've worked on. But on that big job, after filming on location, we got a fax from some of the people we'd worked with there, and it made our day..

Dear [Tigertail],

just wanted to thank you once again for an interesting day. You, [Fred], [John], your staff, your crew are unbelievable people. We've had all kinds of characters come through this place, some certifiable nuts. You helped restore our faith in humanity. You screwballs were professional, courteous, and some of the nuttiest bastards we've ever met. Everybody loved you. You folks are welcome at our joints any time. You can film here any time you want. On a more personal note I just want to tell you that you're my all-time favorite Aussie, beating out that bum Paul Hogan. Good luck, and don't be a stranger.

With Love,
[Steve], [Bob], [Sue] and all the staff of [No Name]

Sometimes being called a "nutty bastard" can make you smile..

This is why I love New York

2007-11-28T13:56:00.000-05:00

no, not the train-wreck of a tv show that is somewhat addictive, but:

You Look a Lot Less Like You in Person

Man #1: What is going on here?
Man #2: They are filming the new Sex in the City movie with Sarah Jessica Parker. They have the entrance to the subway blocked off.
Man #1: Wonderful. I wouldn't even know what Sarah Jessica Parker looks like.
Woman nearby: Hi. I'm Sarah Jessica Parker.
Man #1: Nice to meet you. Can I go home now?
Sarah Jessica Parker: Sure, go ahead.

--Outside 6 train entrance

Overheard by: Matt

via Overheard in New York, Nov 27, 2007

All's fine & dandy until a tent comes crashing down..

2007-11-21T00:03:00.000-05:00

So a lot of what I do on set requires quick thinking and initiative. It also requires some lifting and carrying, delegating of tasks, supreme organisational skills, and the ability to be 20 steps ahead of everything else so as not to be suprised.

So one fine day back in September, I saw someone trying to take down a pop-up tent on their own, and went to help them. Unfortunately, just as I went to help with one side, it was released, and the metal support beam came crashing down on my head.

I slid to the ground holding my head, like some bad actress doing "injured" in a theatresports show, and the person was making jokes, until I pulled my hand away from my head and my fingers were covered in blood.

At this point he called for the on-set medic. Whenever you call on the walkie-talkie for the medic on set, you need to specify if it's an emergency or not, so that s/he knows the gravity of the situation. For example "Steve for Bob, set-medic, non-emergency". This is usually something like someone needs headache tablets, a bandaid, some antacids. An emergency situation usually involves lots of yelling and shouting, followed by running to the scene of the problem.

The call for the medic for me went like this:
"Bob, set-medic. We need you over on the street here"
"Is it an emergency?"
"Well, there's blood..."

I was doing ok, until the medic decided to tell me I'd need to go to the hospital, and that I'd need stitches - IN MY HEAD.

I don't really like hospitals, and I especially don't like the idea of getting sick in this country where there is no universal healthcare, and I hear awful stories about the emergency room. So I was nervous about going to the hospital anyway, but the thought of stitches made it worse. To top it all off, they almost sent me to the hospital with a PA who not only was a little manic, but had been trying to holla at me all day - not what I wanted at all.

So I finally made it to the hospital, sans annoying PA, my brother came to meet me, and the wait time wasn't horrific. And then the doctor who saw my told me he wouldn't be giving me stitches, no no no - he'd be using STAPLES instead.

STAPLES!!!!!!! in my HEAD!!!!!!

I was nervous as hell, and the pain of having someone staple-gun your head is not easily described. You can actually feel the metal entering your skull and pulling the wound together. Needless to say it was an experience I wouldn't wish to have again in future. Staple removal a week later is no fun either.

So I am now without staples, but I get the occasional headache more than I used to, and my neck and shoulders hurt more too - have to look into a doctor for that asap.

Now that I have a little more time off I'll definitely be following that up.

Stay tuned for more pleasant updates :^)

I'm back beeyatches!!

2007-11-20T21:51:00.000-05:00

Yes - hello again... mea culpa for a long hiatus.. was working like crazy and never had time to answer email, write blog posts, return phone calls or even clean my room - I have piles and piles of things that need to be gone through and sorted.But I'm back - so hopefully there's still a reader or two out there who haven't forgotten me....

It wasn't like I didn't want to post while I was gone, just that whenever a great idea for a post came to mind, I was usually on set, not near a computer, or if I was online, I was in the middle of some huge emergency and couldn't stop for anything.

So a quick summary:
* had a work accident and had to go to the emergency room - yep I'll be posting about that with pics.
* worked my ass off on a tv show which I've just finished working on, also worked a commercial with a very big name star, and have just done some scouting for a reality show.
* met up with 3 different cousins - one who lives here, and two who came to visit
* had one of the best meals of my life for my sister-in law / sister-in fact's birthday dinner
* read some great books
* joined a newer networking site, and found myself explaining why I didn't have time to respond to greetings over there either
* went on two brief trips to the Bahamas and Montreal - yep, will be posting with photos.

I'm sure a bunch of other stuff has happened too - but will need to retrace my steps so I can even work out what I missed and where I'm up to.

This year has flown by so fast I feel like my head is spinning - there's no possible way it can be November already.. my calendar still says September, and the last time I changed it, it said May or June... where did 2007 go???

So stay tuned for more updates, and please drop a comment or two so I know I haven't lost you all...

I'll post soon, I promise...

2007-10-29T23:19:00.000-04:00

in the meantime, enjoy this word from our fave site:

1PM It's a Lovely Chenille

Employee: I didn't ask to be employee of the month -- the mantle was thrust upon me!

Housewares store
New York, New York

Overheard by: Tigertail

via Overheard in the Office, Oct 29, 2007

I'm so proud

2007-09-23T22:22:00.000-04:00

12PM Homer Simpson: You Say That Like It's a Bad Thing
Video editor: I don't think we can use any of this stuff with these yellow people at all... Stupid yellow people. [Shocked coworker stares.] No, no, no! The color of the footage is all out-- Everyone looks yellow!

108th Street and Broadway
New York, New York

Overheard by: Tigertail
via Overheard in the Office, Feb 7, 2007

More Overheard..

2007-09-23T12:48:00.000-04:00

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/010752.html

Jesus Plays the Race Card

Black guy: Here, this is for you, man, 'cause you look like Jesus.
Homeless guy: I thought Jesus was black!
Black guy, coming back: For that, my man, you get a dollar.

--55th & Broadway

We Probably Shouldn't Depend on White Superheroes
Black guy: Yeah, Superman -- he hangs out around 42nd Street. He might go uptown every once in a while, but you never see his ass in Brooklyn. That's ridiculous -- Superman can not be killed by bullets, and he still won't come to Brooklyn.
Black lady: You're right. What about Batman?
Black guy: Oh, he probably has to come through Brooklyn -- you know, that brother lives out on Long Island.
Black lady: He probably comes through Brooklyn, but you know he's not getting out of that Batmobile.
Black guy: I'm sure he's damn careful when he stops, too. Those are some ballin' rims he's got on that whip. If he ever parked, them shits would definitely get stolen!

--3 train

Overheard by: Chris
via Overheard in New York, Jul 9, 2007

Homesickness....

2007-08-29T23:40:00.000-04:00

My Dear Friends in Australia,

I miss you. I miss having people who know you really well and are there for you in ways you don't even think about till after they're not. I miss calling people up on the phone for a good yarn (talk) and knowing it's only going to cost me around 30c no matter how long I talk. I miss hanging out on weekends in the summer in Sydney with no real plans - just going to the beach, an impromptu bbq, walking by the water, dinner parties - oh how I miss dinner parties!!

I miss girlfriends who listen to your stories and problems and remind you how you told them three years ago you weren't going to do stupid things like that again. I miss hanging out with my posse of gay boys. I miss lunches in the park or Chinatown halfway between my work and my friends' offices. I miss late afternoon chocolate runs to the convenience store and knowing who in the office wanted want if they weren't at their desk.

I miss house parties in the inner-west, in the eastern suburbs and in suburbs that used to be all industrial as you started to buy places. I miss hanging out in kitchens talking about food, and late night emergency dinners over bottles of red wine. I miss new friends and old friends and oldest friends in the world, and friends-of-friends who became friends, and friends of friends that I saw all the time. I miss women I grew close to in my last few years in Sydney as I started to rebuild my friendships and develop new ones after the end of a long relationship. I miss my girls, and my "girls" and my boys.

I miss having lots and lots of different groups of friends, and bringing them all together for parties and special events. I miss remembering parties "back in the day" and looking around to see who is still there. I miss seeing people I've known for years and years change and develop and grow into new people, new couples, new individuals while still maintaining their old values and old friendships. I miss buckets of sangria, and all-vegetarian dinner parties, and our standard order at Saigon Bay with all the foods exes and partners didn't eat. I miss going a few suburbs over to hang out with girlfriends, and driving back late at night to still find a parking space outside my house.

I miss dressing up to go out dancing, and never finding any places where we really, really liked the music. I miss complaining that all my friends live in a different area, but all the while preferring living near the beach.

I miss random connections and random meetings in the street and shop keepers who know you and work events where you really can have a good time. I miss wandering around my city and remembering events that took place there when I was a kid.

I miss roaming thru city parks and streets full of memories of friends who are no longer friends, friends who disappeared, friends who changed into people I didn't recognise. But I miss remembering them as they were - back when time didn't matter, back when life was stretched soooooo far out in front of me I couldn't imagine being more than a few years older than I was then. I miss seeing the ghost of myself cross the same street I did 10 years earlier, trying desperately to remember how I felt then, and realising how much I'd grown.

I miss re-visting places of significance - first kisses, first street-pashing, first break-up, first dates, first meetings, favourite restaurants, fave new spots, fave old spots that change names a thousand times, last meal together, last boyfriend's favourite bar, last place I saw someone cute and went and spoke to them.

I miss knowing my city, and being able to share it with new friends who'd just arrived...

A package arrived today from Australia. It's from a newer friend - someone I became friends with in the last 6 months I lived back home, but became very close to.

The last line of the accompanying letter reads:

I miss my friend. I think of her often

I'm crying as I write this... I miss her too - both my friend who wrote the letter and her friend. The one who encouraged her to stay in Sydney when she felt overwhelmed. The one who told her she'd love it there and would make lots of friends, the one who had no doubt that just as her friend could move to the other side of the world and have a good job and a nice place to live, and lots of new friends, that she herself could do the same thing, no worries.

I miss that fearless, determined, don't take any crap, stand up for what you believe in, party-for-your-right-to-fight, world citizen girl. In some ways I wonder if she ever existed, or if she was a projection of other people's opinions of her.

And yet - sometimes I find myself telling people about some of the things I've done in my life, and I see from their expression that they can't believe how fearless and brave I am. A lot of the time I don't feel fearless and brave. Sometimes I feel tired and scared, and overwhelmed. Sometimes I feel like someone somewhere has made a mistake, and soon someone somewhere is going to look at my file and realise I was meant to have a mundane ordinary existence, and that this moving to new country and actually getting work and moving very quickly through the ranks was all a dreadful mistake. That the fact I've made a lot of wonderful new friends was all a clerical error and they'll disappear with a little magic eraser. That my cheap rent will sky- rocket tomorrow with no offset in location, features or cleanliness, and I'll have to live out on the street or somewhere in Jersey.

I came home today at 11:30pm. I left my house at 5:30am and I've only been at work, so that's basically a 16 hour work day plus travel time.. I'm exhausted.. And I've come home to my room being messy, and it looks like my roommate's cats knocked over my dresser, and all my jewellery is on the floor, and all my clothes in the drawers are wet from my water glass that was on top. And I'm about to crash and then get up and do it all again tomorrow.

But the package and the accompanying note got me thinking...

To my friend who sent it - thank you.

I miss you too.

Old School Heroes

2007-08-25T12:24:00.000-04:00

This was a post I started a while back, and never got to publish - the actual krs-one show concert was back in June or July, but rock the bells was at the end of July - time is going by waaaaay too fast people

I'm really into Hip Hop. Really. A couple of years ago when I went on a Hip Hop Tour of NYC with Grandmaster Raheim from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, I was the only one who knew the answer to the question "Who was the grandfather of hip hop?" *

Mind you, a lot of commercial hip hop that's around today really isn't my thing, and I find it difficult to find a good radio station here that plays a diverse range of music and not just current commercial hip hop - I'm missing Koori Radio like crazy. (Big shout out to all the crew - Brad, Naian, Donita)

So I was very excited the other night to get to see an old school hero of mine, KRS-One. Ever since I first heard KRS-One back in the day, I've always loved his ability to tell stories and to literally teach people about what they need to know. And he's still got it - the show was great - and it was upfront and personal in a small club in Brooklyn. Stuff like that never happens in Sydney... If I get 5 minutes this weekend, I'll try and put my video footage on You-tube and then link it here..

The other big event I went to after this was the Rock The Bells festival on Randalls Island. I had a great time, despite misplacing all my friends, and having to stand in a line for terrible food for 45 minutes while Cypress Hill were on.

I saw Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Public Enemy, The Roots, Cypress Hill, Wu Tang Clan and Rage Against the Machine. PE started off great. I was thinking to myself wow! They've really tightened up their game since I saw them back in Sydney in the mid-90's and Flav was so far gone on coke that they didn't finish a single song

And then it happened. Flava Flav has become a reality tv star and so clearly the idea was to cash in on some of that and have him talk a little bit and then do 911 is a joke. Except Flav doesn't know when to stop. He started off ok, then brought his kids out and made them individually say hey to New York. Then he started rambling, and Chuck D tried to move into the song, but Flav shut it down and kept talking and promoting his TV appearances.

What had started off as smiles and nods and appreciation from the crowd was starting to turn into embarrassed laughs and silences. Finally Flav did his song (which by the way was never one of their greatest anyway, IMHO). And finally when it was done, Flav insisted on showing off his drumming skills, which used up any more time that was available for more PE songs. Chuck D had walked off the stage, and didn't come back.

The Roots did one of the best sets I've ever seen them do - complete with a New Orleans Style brass band. It was fun and funky, and they were great! Unfortunately the rest of the crowd wasn't feeling it as much as I was...

Wu Tang had 50 guys on stage and only 3 of them seemed to do anything, but that's what they do. The whole time I couldn't help but think of the Skit from the Dave Chappelle Show.

* It's DJ Kool Herc for thos of you who don't know...

Conspiracy...

2007-08-25T11:38:00.000-04:00

If there's one thing that really bugs me, it's conspiracy theories. You know what I'm talking about - any recent disaster / tragedy was really some evil plot perpetrated by [insert name of alternative ethnic or religious group here] in order to make someone else look bad; aliens are real and the US Government has had specialists working with their undercover agents for decades; the CIA did it [can be used in reference to pretty much anything].

This isn't to say that (a) no-one was responsible for bombings, massacres and disasters (b) there aren't some pretty unexplainable things out there in the world (c) that the CIA hasn't done some pretty messed up things in different countries all around the world.

However the idea that a well organised governmental machine put every little piece in place, and had amazing control of every single detail, and managed to cover it all up, and no-one has found out about it seems ridiculous to me.

On two recent jobs I've had to deliberately extract myself from people who wanted me to know THE TRUTH about something. First one was some 9/11 conspiracy theory. I was in the middle of working, I had been having a reasonable day up until that point, and I did not want to engage in any kind of debate about how some third force was really responsible and had their agents secretly infiltrate the US Government to use them to help bring down someone else and blah blah blah blah blah. I told him I didn't want to talk about it, and when he pushed it, I stared at him and said, "some things I just don't want to talk about, ok?" Maybe he thought I was personally affected by the tragedy, but I just couldn't listen to another word.

The second one was alien talk. I'm sorry, but there may be life on other planets, sure, but to think that they all live here amongst us undetected and that they are called greys and blues and the US Govt has some sort of deal with their leaders... well I just walked away from the lunch table..

More effort should be put into saving our planet from environmental disasters, getting rid of third world debt and helping provide food and shelter to those on our planet who have nothing to eat and nowhere to live. Some of the food wastage I see here is unbelievable, and the lack of consciousness about rudimentary recycling depresses me.

Pride cometh before a fall..

2007-07-24T09:23:00.000-04:00

For those of you who don't know, Australia's Prime Minister is John Howard.

And this is video of him stumbling on his way to a radio interview... I love the fact that the journo (that's journalist to those of you not from the land of Oz) decided to do a slow motion version just to savour the moment ;^)

Tourist baiting in NY

2007-07-24T09:18:00.000-04:00

This Also Scares Away Demons

Tourist in crowd waiting for crosswalk: [Sneezes.]
Suit: Shut the fuck up!

--47th & 6th

Overheard by: dan.j.w.

via Overheard in New York, Jul 23, 2007

Parking Peeves

2007-07-20T12:03:00.000-04:00

Ok - so I've been driving a lot in NYC.

This means I've had to park a lot in NYC.

Know what I can't stand?? Picture kind of gives it away, huh... That's right - HYDRANTS!!!

Scenario: You're driving down the block. It's very late or very early - in any case you've worked a long-arse day and you just want to get home. There's a big open parking spot right near your place Thank you! you silently pray to the parking gods. And then as you get closer you see it. Silent. Deadly. The Bloody Hydrant.

OK, so I can't park in front of it. But how close to it can I park? No-one seems to know exactly, and sometimes there seems to be enough space, but if you park there, sure enough you'll get a ticket. Or in worst case scenarios, the fire department will break your windows and run the hose through the car if they feel you're blocking the hydrant. There's one street near me where the block has 6 hydrants on it! And it's a small block - maybe 15 cars could park along each side.

Why is is in Australia the hydrants are underground, and you never have to worry about parking in front of them? How is it possible for us to fight fires without taking up half the street?

And then there's the whole water wastage thing - every single day in summer hydrants on my block are opened up and water gushes out and kids frolic. Which is picturesque and charming and adds character to the neighbourhood. The first few times I thought wow - this is so New York! It's just like in the movies! And then after several days straight I started to think about the planet and how back home people do everything they can to save water and help relieve drought conditions. Like having a bucket in the shower to catch the water before it gets hot enough to shower in and using it on the garden. Like the bans on washing our cars, watering the lawn and using water to clean driveways. Like using bore water to irrigate public green spaces.

And then I thought about how much drinking-quality water has flowed out of the hydrants on my block for hours on end for the last several weeks. Then I multiplied that by the number of blocks around me where I've seen it happen too. And then I thought about all the blocks all over the city where this happens... Add that to the lack of proper recycling in offices and in apartments, to the food wastage I see every single day and to the humongous SUVs and hummers I see driving around town that go through fuel like it's going out of style.. It's making me depressed people!!

Then there's the whole alternative street side parking thing... In order to clean the streets, everyone has to move their cars from certain sides of the road on certain days at certain times. These just usually coincided with the only place I could find to park, on days when I got home at 4 am from work, and didn't have to be up until the late afternoon. In those cases, I just couldn't get up 4 hours after going to bed to move the car - I just looked for parking further away and walked 8 blocks to my house.

But I shouldn't complain - it hasn't been that bad lately, and having a car at all is a very good and beneficial thing when I need to get to far away places. Or even Brooklyn on a weekend ;^) I just wish someone could explain to me why hydrants aren't underground here, and how far away I really have to park..

"Subway Stories": A new film by David Lynch

2007-07-17T12:02:00.000-04:00

Only the Pod People Remain 'til the End of the Line

Black kid #1: Are you getting off at the next stop, son?
Black kid #2: No, man, this train goes all the way to Harlem. Everyone else gets off at 34th, 42nd... By the time we get up to 96th, it's me, a crackhead, and a midget.

--3 train

via Overheard in New York, Jul 16, 2007

Overheard Uptown..

2007-07-05T10:34:00.000-04:00

I can't help it - this really is my fave website...

Wednesday One-Liners for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone

Conductor: This is your conductor speaking. This station is 125th Street... Welcome to Harlem world.

--2 train

Overheard by: mo love

Geeky white hipster: Some guy would try to mug me and I'd be like, 'Yo, I was born in Harlem!' And he'd be like, 'Damn.'

--Fordham University Ram Van

Woman on cell: Yes, I'm still in Harlem.

--Flushing, Queens

Hipster waitress, after describing dull evening in Harlem: I guess you take your chances, going all the way out in the middle of nowhere like that.

--Hope & Anchor, Red Hook, Brooklyn

Friendly man to lady passerby: Good morning! [She ignores him.] Come on, this is Harlem! In Harlem we say, 'Good morning'!

--145th & Broadway

Young black kid to group of white ladies: There goes the neighborhood!

--116th & Frederick Douglass, Harlem

via Overheard in New York, Jul 4, 2007

Driving, driving, driving...

2007-07-04T11:44:00.000-04:00

The first time I ever drove in the US was on LA freeways. I was visiting the states with my oldest friend in the world on our 3 month trip around North and South America. Her aunt had died in a car accident the first time she visited America and went driving, so we'd promised her parents we wouldn't drive.

What this meant was that when we arrived in LA (where everybody drives) and went to stay with my ex, we hired a car and he drove it around. One of his fraternity brothers worked in a car rental place, so we actually got some really nice car which I would probably have felt weird driving anyway. In fact I think we exchanged it for a less flashy model because it was too nice a car and my ex thought we might get pulled over for driving it.

On the last day there, we had to return the thing and then get back. So my ex borrowed a friend's scooter which he drove to the rental place, and I followed in the car. I remember I had no idea where I was going - I just had to follow the scooter ahead of me. Huge concrete roadways that crossed other roadways, heat rising from the ground, lots and lots of other cars.. What I remember most about that trip was returning, my arms wrapped around my ex's waist as we drove on the scooter through LA traffic ;^)

Driving everywhere is different, what's the big deal? I hear you ask. Well, we drive on the other side of the road. The steering wheel is on the other side of the car, the indicators you turn on with your right hand, and when you turn around the corner you turn on to the left hand side of the road. So getting used to everything being reversed can take time - time that at that stage I didn't have. It was get in the car and go.

Flash forward to me moving here last year. I've had many many years of driving experience in Australia - I have my gold license, I owned a car, I was a member of the NRMA (like the AAA here) - but I still hadn't done anymore driving on the American side of the road.

In the industry, everyone assumes you can drive - it's kind of part of the job. The first time I drove, it was to move a cargo van out of a lot and park it on the street - not difficult, right? I did it with style, even though it was down near South Ferry surrounded by trucks and police cars. After that there was the Jeep from Queens into Manhattan, then a 15 pass van - driving from Queens into Manhattan over the Queensboro bridge, and parking in the LES, and finally a BMW SUV which I had to re-park during the middle of a shoot in downtown Brooklyn in the middle of a work day.

So when I got a call to go pick up a car from set in Queens and drive it home, then use it to get to work everyday, I was still a little apprehensive. The other trips had all been short, and this was over really long distances where I would need to know exactly where I was going and alternate routes to cope with traffic, and I'd also need to find parking when I got back. The fact that all the other vehicles had all been really big made me hope it was a little car - much easier to park.

And now it's been a couple of months and I've been given a car for two different jobs here lately. I've been driving all over 4 of the 5 burroughs, and even up state a little bit. I'm a really good driver, and I'm getting to know my way around really well. I was on my way to knowing the city really well before, but driving it is a whole new experience.

I'm also becoming more of a new york driver, but don't expect to see any scenes from Bullitt or The French Connection anytime soon...

Overheard...

2007-06-18T11:33:00.000-04:00

Bus driver on intercom as it starts to rain: You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey... C'mon, everybody!

Entire bus, singing: You'll never know, dear, how much I love you -- please don't take my sunshine away.

Chick: I think that was the least-New York moment of my entire life.

--M79 bus

13-year-old goth boy: Hey! You look like a hippie!
Hippie: Yeah...
13-year-old goth boy, offering hand: My name's Jason*. I thought I should introduce myself since I said you looked like a hippie and all.
Hippie: Okay...
13-year-old goth boy: You know, you look like a Tim. I've got a friend named Tim who looks just like you, only his face is mousier.
13-year-old goth girl: Oh. My. God! That's it! No snowball for you!
13-year-old goth boy: Christ! I can't play with dead squirrels, I can't talk to the hippie...! What the hell can I do?!

Snowball stand
Stewartstown, Pennsylvania

All My Eggs in One Basket

2007-06-07T12:17:00.000-04:00

Have taken a job starting tomorrow, and the work will prob see me through for a few months. Very excited, but also nervous that I am putting all my eggs in one basket.

Especially as I had to turn down other work to do it (albeit lower paid work), which always makes me nervous.

Still this is a great opportunity, and I'm excited - just nervous about that ever constant balance between working and being exhausted, and not working, but having no money.

I've lost a lot of weight through working - cos I'm constantly on the go, and come home exhausted after midnight and don't eat dinner. I do get fed though on set, so that's good. Have to go today and buy new pants, cos lots of my old ones don't fit me. Like pants I had made for me in Vietnam, that are now way too loose. Also need new work accessories cos my old ones are falling apart, but still waiting on cheques for jobs.. Hello Australian credit card

Maybe once this job starts I can actually convince the bank here that I'm not a security risk as I have only international banking history and get them to give me a credit card...

To sleep perchance to dream

2007-06-04T11:47:00.000-04:00

I've been working so hard lately that when I didn't leave the house yesterday and almost didn't leave my bed, I didn't even feel bad about it. Actually I probably worked harder on my last film, because ultimately everything rested with me. But these last few days have been really long hours, and because more money was involved in the cost of the shoot, more was expected, like blocking off an entire footpath during morning peak hour, and holding the whole block on some of the busiest streets in the city.

Saturday was 7:30am - 2am on Sunday. Then we went and had a drink, and then I came home and collapsed and didn't leave my bed until 6:30pm on Sunday afternoon.

I had some incredibly strange dreams - totally vivid and involved.. one about a detective who was murdered and I was involved and had the keys to his car.. very noir. I remember that I needed to get rid of a whole lot of evidence, move the car, make sure my prints weren't on it and somehow make it back somewhere on time without anyone knowing - and all to protect someone else, as I hadn't done the killing. Bizarre...

Today I'm slowly getting around to cleaning my room, getting my washing together to take to the laundromat, maybe getting my hair cut, going grocery shopping, going to the bank.

I haven't done a proper shop in at least a month. A few stops at the local shops for essentials, but given I get fed on set, I rarely eat at home, and so a few breakfast foods and some snacks have been all that's been required. Mind you, no-one in NY buys their groceries in a big lot once a week or once a fortnight anyway - people shop on their way home. But given that "on my way home" has usually been around midnight or 1 am, I haven't really had a chance.

So yesterday I slept all day, got up for a few hours and then went back to bed. I'd planned on going out to get some food, but it was raining, and I was tired, and so I was so glad not to leave the house.

Today is slowly slipping away from me too.. Really hoping to get the essentials done - but still have a few follow up phone calls to make. Meanwhile everyone back home is still waiting on replies to emails from a month or more ago... sigh.

I think I need a more advanced phone so I can reply to emails when I'm on set - I can do it now, but it takes me forever cos it's using the buttons like a text message and the formatting is terrible. It'll be easier to keep in touch and maintain what I need to be doing at the same time. Maybe next pay cheque..

Something exciting is in the works, but I haven't had the energy to even get excited about it yet, and I'm not talking about it till it comes thru - you already know the deal with me and jinxes ;^)

American Standards Association

2007-05-21T11:49:00.000-04:00

There are some things that are just standard in America - things that if you've lived here all your life seem normal and usual, and if you haven't, they take a little getting used to.

Toilets are designed in a way that makes them susceptible to easy clogging. This means that every toilet has a plunger next to it to be used in such circumstances. Now, given that back home a plunger is something you make coffee with (that's a french press to Americans) this is already strange enough, but it begs the question - why not just design them better so they don't clog as much?

When you buy a sandwich in a deli, it almost always comes with mayo, chips and a pickle on the side. This is fine with me - I like the chips and the pickle, and mayo's not so bad either. But back home we use butter, and I never had it on my sandwiches, so now I feel I'm getting just a little bit extra fat I don't need with every sandwich. But the question is: Who decided that chips and a pickle were the way to go?

"Regular Coffee" if ordered in a diner usually means with milk and sugar, and it's always drip filter coffee, which really does nothing for me. If you want to order any kind of espresso, you need to have a special long code at the Starbucks, or find a cafe where they serve proper espresso. My current order at Starbucks (embarrassingly enough) is either a double tall skim cinnamon dolce latte no whip or a double tall skim latte. I've heard orders that take longer to say than the coffee does to drink.

If you work in an office - regular or production, instead of going out to get lunch, a lot of people will order in. This means you have menus from local restaurants, and once you phone in your order, a delivery person will rock up with the food about half an hour later, for which he or she gets a tip. So when you are walking around the city at lunchtimes, you'll see all these people on bikes delivering food to offices. No harm, no foul (as people like to say here) but are you really that busy that you don't want to walk away from your desk and get some fresh air, even for 10 or 15 minutes while you buy lunch?

Picture Credit: Mark Kostabi, American Standards, 1988

Fave Quotes

2007-05-20T12:58:00.000-04:00

These are a few gems from my life in film the last month or so:

Director: I don't give a damn about [insert name of famous rapper/actor here] - I'm down with 5-0!!
talking to police assisting with shoot, followed by uncomfortable embarrassed silence by other film crew and police

Film Crew 1: I'm a huge supporter of [insert name of right-wing media organisation here]
Film Crew 2: Yeah, we're all right-wingers here - I'm a card carrying member of the NRA and everything!
talking to security guard outside aforementioned right-wing media organisation where we were filming, who then left us alone to film in peace.

A.D. to film crew: Action, vegetable!
Yes, our talent were vegetables

Police officer to me: You're probably the most well-protected woman in New York right now.
Yes I was! Having lunch with 7 police officers assisting with the shoot

Apparently I'm confident...

2007-05-17T14:24:00.000-04:00

You Are Confident Sexy

You're one sexy chica, and you know it.
You've got the confidence to strut your stuff...
And approach any man who happens to catch your eye.
You may make a guys run away, but the true men will appreciate your moxie.

What Kind of Sexy Girl Are You?

I'm Baaaack!!!!

2007-05-14T18:12:00.000-04:00

Apologies to those who thought I'd died and not had the foresight to tell them.. I've been in film-land, that magical place where you work long-arse days (16+ hours), get very little sleep (averaging 3-4 hours a night), have no food in the fridge (unless you count vitamin water, red bull, a jar of branston pickle, jalapeno slices and some sweet thai chilli sauce), have no social life, and don't get to respond to emails or texts unless they specifically relate to the project you're currently working on.

I actually got a text from a friend here that simply read have you disappeared? I had to reassure him that I hadn't been kidnapped by aliens. Other friends who knew the deal sent me encouraging "we're thinking about you texts" which helped keep me sane when things were totally otherwise on set.

So if you were wondering where the hell I was, the answer is something like:
Production Office / Queens / Brooklyn / Manhattan / coming home and collapsing and getting up in the morning and doing it all again.

Of course it's more complex than that, but the internet is a very big place and you never know who may drop by via a well chosen word in a google search, and I'm not the most anonymous of bloggers, so no juicy salacious info from me - sorry!!

However, some personal highlights include:
*learning my way around some obscure parts of the city to the point where I may even know them better than my own hood
*networking / negotiating / dealing with people and reminding myself I'm really good at it and have heaps of experience in this area, and haven't used it professionally for a while
*negotiating the ups and downs of film permitting in NYC and coming out the other side with a much better understanding of how it all works for next time
* becoming a new york driver in 1.5 hours while having to suddenly move 6 vehicles and personally re-park a 4 wheel drive / SUV in downtown Brooklyn in the middle of a week day
*remembering that I'm really good at training people and helping them get the best out of their experiences so they'll do an even better job next time (as long as they have initiative - without that, as Flava Flav says I can't do nothin' for ya man)
*pulling off a few coups that people didn't think were possible and getting praise for them and for the job I was doing from a whole bunch of different people.
*working with a great crew of people, and making some good friends and great contacts for the future.

Have lots more to write about (like how excited I am that my friends Tom & Ish are here!), but this will have to do for now... another 5am start tomorrow...

Hasta la proxima,

Ness xxx

work work work work work work work

2007-04-12T00:55:00.000-04:00

Conductor, as rap music blares through speakers: Yo, this is a shout-out to all my niggas keepin' it real on the 1 train. Takin' the 1 to the Bronx at four a.m. -- that's gangsta, son!

--Bronx -bound 1 train
Overheard In New York

It's not quite 4 am when I return home from work on the 1 train, and I'm only going to Harlem - not as far as the Bronx, but I have been working crazy hours on an independent feature... Crazy, stressful, but good - really like the people and the work is challenging and interesting.. and so once again - if I owe you an email I apologise. Had managed to get them down to one page and was all ready to respond to everyone when I got this job - email inbox currently at 197 and counting..

So no great insight from me - just wanted to assure people I'm alive and haven't forgotten them.. Got a text from a friend back home checking I hadn't fallen under a train.

Speaking of trains, have to share something I've been thinking about for a while. Often, when a subway train pulls away from the station, something to do with the tracks, or the brakes or I-don't-know-what creates what sounds like 3 musical notes being played. Those 3 notes are the first 3 notes of Somewhere from West Side Story - the "there's a place" notes... It's happened far too many times to be a strange coincidence.. Maybe this is where Leonard Bernstein got his inspiration from?

Tried to demonstrate to a friend one night, but of course it didn't happen then...

Hope you're all well out there, and are eating a little better than me at the moment.

Very Superstitious..

2007-03-28T22:06:00.000-04:00

Aside from being a great Stevie Wonder track, very superstitious describes my illogical, irrational belief in all kinds of jinxes, hexes, weird tricks of fate, karma, feng shui, curses, evil eyes, santeria and superstitions.

I won't walk under ladders, I throw salt over my left shoulder if I spill some and I truly believe that if I'd managed to curse my thieving tour guide in Vietnam for seven generations, he and his family really would have suffered. I tend to leave black cats out of it tho' - cos I like kitties ;^)

I know all this behaviour can't be rationally explained. But I've never been a conventionally logical or rational person. One of those personality profile things you do once described me as having my own internal logic and belief systems that could be added to and subtracted from as the need arose, without causing any kind of conflict, doubt or loss of faith. I think it was incredibly accurate. And I've been to a whole lot of different places in the world and seen things with my own eyes that can't be scientifically or rationally explained either.. so there you go..

So I'd been feeling like maybe the universe was a little against me - two jobs lost, one guy I'm dating being slack about returning my phone calls, none of my hustling for work coming to fruition and a general sense of malaise. I wondered what it was I'd overlooked - why was my nasib, my fate, so bad at the moment?

Then I remembered that Chinese New Year and come and gone, and suddenly thought that maybe the feng shui pig I'd had attached to my wallet from last year was too strong in the year of the Pig. I was down near Canal Street, and so suddenly I was on a mission to find a replacement for this year. I had to dodge sellers of fake handbags, perfume, "designer" watches, but finally I found a little store selling what I was looking for - a rabbit for this year, because I'm a Tiger.. I can explain it all if you want, as it was once explained to me, but just trust me on this one :^)

Literally half an hour after swapping them over, I got a call from a guy I'd met a few months back in a networking situation, asking if I'd be interested in taking on a Head of Department (read Manager) role on an independent feature, and then the next day I was asked to come in for an interview with a different production company as well.

So - in a complete whirlwind turn of events, I had two interviews in one day; worked another one-off freelance job in a slightly different, more varied role than before, and I've just started working on the feature!

I'm also having drinks this weekend to celebrate my (belated) B'day and 6 months in the city, with some of the great people I've met since moving here..

So things looking up a little - maybe due in part to a little jade rabbit...

News from home - A shameless strip for trip to the Steppes

2007-03-21T12:12:00.000-04:00

Back home in Sydney there is a State election going on, our Prime Minister made a "secret" visit to our troops in Iraq but refused to say when they might be able to come home, diplomats and journalists covering the Foreign Minister's visit to Indonesia aren't accommodated in the VIP section of the official plane and so several die in a plane crash on the commercial flight they'd taken instead.

But in typical larrikin fashion, the main stories I hear about today are a pro surfing woman getting bitten by a shark and blithely saying it was just like a small dog bite, and this - a tribute to Borat and pubic hair...

IT WAS a morning of pimply cheeks, hairy buttocks and waxed nether regions as the contestants for the Borat-inspired "mankini" competition strutted their stuff at Martin Place yesterday. A sobering, if not disgusting, display of the male anatomy, the parade of five finalists had the hosts, radio talk jocks Merrick and Rosso, squirming, especially when contestant number three, Steve of Rockdale (aka "Pubes of Fire"), performed a few cartwheels and risked full-frontal exposure.

But the day belonged to contestant number five, the hairiest and most daring, Matias Stevens. Bounding onto the stage with a Borat beam and accent to boot, Matias then pashed judge Dicko (of Australian Idol fame) on the lips.

The judges considered "hair displacement, cuppage and tortion" and Dicko anointed Matias as the mankini king, proclaiming: "He is clearly the one with his embarrassment gene removed."

But the joke was on the judges. Matias, 28, is a recent NIDA graduate, originally from Brisbane. He embodied the Borat fake-personality perfectly and walked away a winner.

"When I was back in Queensland for Christmas I had a moustache, and people would stop me in the streets saying I look like Borat," he said. "They took photos and everything. Everyone told me I had to enter this. I'm also the biggest fan of Ali G and Borat." Or is the joke on him? The prize? Return air fares for two to Kazakhstan, including five nights accommodation.

"Is there even a cafe there?" Stevens asked.

Source: SMH

You win some, you lose some part 2

2007-03-21T00:20:00.000-04:00

I was made redundant (as we like to say back home) from another job recently. Unlike the first time where production is likely to pick back up in June, this was something that was supposed to go for 5 weeks and I only got to work 2 of them. The reason behind it may or may not have been legit, but I'm going to trust the gods and believe the reason they gave me, which was around a budget issue, cos I'm trying to be positive and not think badly of people.

In any case, this is how this industry goes - I know this. HOWEVER, unlike last time where I'd been burnt by telling people I wasn't available, I had been very coy about exactly how long this gig was. In fact 2 days before I got a phone call to say it was all going to be over, one of the companies I work for had asked me how long I was going to be on that job, and could I tell them when I wouldn't be available.

"Oh, I'm not 100% certain, things are still a little up in the air", I'd responded, feeling a little bad for not being completely honest, but remembering what had happened last time.

Sure enough, this was the best answer, because a few days later I was back on the phone trying to see if they'd already found someone for the job they'd offered me a few days earlier that I'd had to turn down, and luckily they could still slot me in.

But more disappointingly, I had been offered some fill-in production co-ordination work, that I'd had to turn down, and when I tried to pick it up again, they'd already given it away...

Back to hustling for work...

Article 25. Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2007-03-20T00:03:00.000-04:00

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

I've moved from a country with free healthcare for all (save medicare being destroyed by the current government - vote to ensure its survival people!) to a country where people can be turned away from medical services if they have no health insurance, and you hear stories of people digging bullets out of themselves rather than pay to go to hospital.

I hadn't been feeling the best for a couple of months, and wasn't really sure how to go about going to the doctor. I'd heard horror stories of hundreds of dollars for a basic check up, and whenever I tried to investigate clinics for people with no health insurance, the requirements to prove lack of serious income were always hard for me, given that I'd only been here a while and didn't get paid a salary.

I finally found a clinic not too far away that only required I bring in the documents I had. The entire visit took 4 hours, but the doctors were great, I walked out of there feeling better and the whole thing was free. They have a dentist, general healthcare, women's health services, community outreach programs and much more. Not all of it will be free, even to those of us making very little money a month, but there are also people to help you sign up for government sponsored health insurance for lower-income earners and to give you advice on where else you can go to get help. Glad to know that being not so well off has some benefits!

I was really glad to know that such a clinic existed. I'm lucky - if I went home tomorrow I'd be able to go to the doctor for free, or if my freelance work suddenly picked up dramatically I could join the freelancers union and get health insurance, or if I suddenly landed a well-paid permanent job with health benefits (well, we can all live in hope, can't we?) then I'd be in a better position to get all sorts of health things covered (like a massage for my sore shoulders, acupuncture etc etc.) But for some people, none of those things are ever going to be an option, and when it doesn't look like the US is going to introduce universal healthcare anytime soon, you've got to be able to have services that help support those who need it.

A friend of mine suddenly had heart palpitations the other day from a supplement he was taking. He went straight to the emergency room at the hospital. It was a public holiday here, and he has no health insurance, because, like me, he works freelance at the lower end of the scale, and can't afford it. He still hasn't seen the bill, but he's worried about how much it's going to be... I'm just grateful he's ok, and that I haven't ended up in that situation.

Customer Service

2007-03-11T13:36:00.000-04:00

An actual conversation I had on the phone this past week with a large electronics store... let's call it Tech Town

1st Call
Tech Town Operator: Hello, welcome to Tech Town, how can I help you?
Me: Oh hi, I need to exchange a photo printer I bought in the store yesterday..
TTO: I'll transfer you
sound of phone buttons being pressed; dead silence

2nd Call
Tech Town Operator: Hello, welcome to Tech Town, how can I help you?
Me: Hi - I need to exchange a printer..
TTO: I'll transfer you
Tech Town Guy: Computers
Me: I need to return a printer. It's the HPA516. I bought it yesterday; it doesn't work. I need to know if you have any more in stock because when I bought it it was the last one on the shelf.
TTG: Let me check for you.
Goes off to look, comes back, tells me the model number doesn't exist. I say it does I'm looking at a box. Eventually he discovers that it's for printing photos
TTG: Oh, it's for photos? You'll have to speak to the camera section. I can't tell you that from here.
(Note: I've been in the store - the camera section is 200 feet from the computer section)
TTG: I'll transfer you.
Transfers me back to the Operator
TTO: Hello, welcome to Tech Town, how can I help you?
Me: Can you transfer me to Cameras?
TTO: I'll transfer you
sound of phone buttons being pressed; dead silence

3rd call
Tech Town Operator: Hello, welcome to Tech Town, how can I help you?
Me: Can you transfer me to Cameras?
TTO: I'll transfer you
Me: Hold up. I've been cut off twice now when you've transferred me, so can you just make sure I get through?
TTO: Ok
transfers me through to the automated centre which directs me back to her

Hang up after 20 minutes incredibly frustrated

Happy Birthday to me

2007-03-06T12:45:00.000-05:00

Today is my birthday - Tuesday March 6th. I'm sitting here on my own in a room in a back office of a large studio. No-one here knows it's my birthday.

I've had some emails, calls from home and a few messages on that omnipresent networking site that everyone here is on - and that has been lovely - soooo good to hear from people. My parents still haven't called me - but I did speak to them last week, so maybe that was it? But other than that, it's kind of like having a secret birthday.

In some respects it's kind of sad to have a secret birthday - no-one wishes you happy birthday, no-one buys you cake, no-one makes a fuss of you. And when you've moved to the other side of the world, not all of your new friends know it's your birthday either, and I'm not one to brag or blow my own horn, so don't really feel like ringing up everyone I know and saying "hey - it's my birthday - make a fuss of me!"

However there is a benefit to having a secret birthday when you're working at a new place - you avoid the horror of the "fake-happy" celebration of your birthday by co-workers who don't know you.

I've had good birthdays, bad birthdays and a few that I don't like to think of cos they're a little painful. In terms of office birthdays, the last place I worked in Australia was great. It was a chance to catch up with people, and everyone was friendly and sociable, so we all enjoyed it. It even got to the point where one of us (in fact that would be you Kimba) bought silver cake forks for our section, just so we could celebrate birthdays in style. Ah, good memories...

But by far the worst office birthday I ever had was just after I'd returned from living overseas and I started working at a music production company who composed music and did post-production for tv shows and commercials.

The place was medium-sized, but had started as a 2 person company, and those 2 people didn't know how to let it grow larger without them having control of everything: 2 employees (including a long-term 8 year employee who was married to another employee) were fired in my short tenure there. There was also a very insecure production assistant who copied everything I did (wearing similar clothes, bringing her lunch instead of ordering, reading the same book at lunchtimes) who tried to make things difficult for me because she thought I was trying to take her job.

Somehow the receptionist found out it was my birthday. She got everyone to sign a card, got everyone in the Melbourne office and the one office overseas to send a birthday fax through, bought a cake and champagne, and organised a get together with speeches.

How nice! - I hear you saying... well, no.. the whole thing was done with such a sense of duress by all the staff, and with such bad grace - including messages such as "I have no idea who the hell you are, but happy birthday" - that it felt totally forced and contrived. The icing on the cake (ha ha) was the speech given by one of the Directors, who I hadn't worked with at all, and who really didn't know me. He made a slightly tipsy speech - this was 11 am - about how he was sure I was a great gal and if he ever got to work with me he was sure he could think of nice things to say, but cos he hadn't he was at a loss for words.

Needless to say all I felt like doing was dropping through a hole in the floor - especially as it hadn't even been my idea in the first place. Either that, or bitch-slapping the stupid we're soooo cool and ironic that we think this is very funny at your expense smirks on people's faces.

I left soon afterwards to make a film. I found out years later that the very young girl they'd hired to "buy lunch / do odd jobs" and was the reason they didn't create a permanent position for me (read: she was cheaper to hire than me and had had no experience) ended up becoming a drug supplier to many of the staff especially when they were all hanging out at some of Sydney's dodgier nightclubs... classy

*don't ask me about the picture - that's what google gives you for "office birthday"..!

Se habla espanol

2007-03-03T17:45:00.000-05:00

I've just returned home from shopping at El Mundo - the Spanish dept store near me. One of my roommates has stopped shopping there because she says the quality of stuff isn't great, and the prices aren't really all that cheap for crappy stuff.

She's probably right, but when you need some stuff for round the house - like a bucket, dustpan, plastic food containers and window cleaner you just can't beat shopping at a place on your street corner.

It's kind of a cross between a 99c store (that's a $2 shop for people back home - guess exchange rates can make differences everywhere!) a lower-end department store, and the markets. I once saw a guy try to bargain for things at the counter, which the staff weren't too happy about.

I've been trying to get a mirror for my room since I moved in. I have a small one from El Mundo, just so I can put on make up, check my hair etc, but getting a full length one there was out of the question. All the frames were hideous ornate gold things that would look more at home in a Dracula movie, or something about the French Revolution to show how crass the bourgeoisie were.

But today they had cheap full length mirrors with simple black frames that are light enough to hang on a wall! This is great, as my other option has been Bed Bath & Beyond, and negotiating the subway with a full length mirror, or catching a cab, which adds a lot of money to the price.

I took my purchases up to the counter. The clientele of El Mundo is as diverse as the neighbourhood, but a large majority speak Spanish, as do all the staff. Usually it's a bit hit or miss as to whether I get spoken to in English or Spanish - sometimes one, sometimes the other, depending on who's behind the counter, and whether I'm wearing casual neighbourhood clothes, or not. Since I've had my hair done it's a bit darker, and although it's no longer straight, perhaps I look a little more "spanish-speaking".

Today was straight up Spanish - we had an entire conversation: discussions about prices, specials, a small error when ringing up 2 items, the deal to fix this error, and where the customer copy of the receipt had gone. Not once did she switch to English, which has happened in the past when I didn't know the Spanish for "plastic container that could be used to catch dripping water from the leak in the ceiling". So either my Spanish is regaining its complete fluency, or I just blend well enough for people to ignore a few grammatical errors.

Hair in the 'hood

2007-02-27T23:58:00.000-05:00

Before the heat and hot water fiasco, I got a haircut. It had been far too long. I had been postponing it in the vain hope I'd win the lottery and could fly my hairdresser from back home here. But I finally faced up to reality and went to find a hair salon near me. I wanted a neighbourhood salon, cos I like to support local businesses - it's about supporting community... that and the fact I can't afford an expensive salon downtown :^)

There are 3 salons near me - right around the corner. I sussed them all out, and chose the one I know is always busy - like restaurants, an empty salon is never a good sign.

It's a Dominican salon - so we negotiated colours for my hair partly in Spanish, and partly in English. Then I held the protective cape around my neck as I leaned back in the chair to get to the sink. No lounges and scalp massages here..

The colour on my head was bright red. I asked in Spanish if it was going to be that bright.. no no no I was assured.

Eventually it was washed off, my hair cut and to top it all off, they blow dried it straight, and curled the ends. It looked amazing. I still don't think straight hair really suits me, but it was really good. I walked out into the street and suprised the guys hanging outside who always see me go by to take my washing to the laundromat.

I saw my brother that night and 2 other friends, and then worked the next day with straight hair. Most people were suprised, a few didn't notice! One guy I know asked if the curly or the straight hair was natural. I told him how my mother is convinced I actually have straight hair, and if I just left it alone, it'd be fine. Once I went round to see her after the only other time I've had my hair blow dried straight. She saw me and said "See??!! I told you if you left it alone it would be straight!" I had to tell her that it had taken 3 hours to get it to look like that :^)

The best thing about the haircut is that now I have a great local salon to go to, it isn't that expensive, and I even managed to negotiate the discussing hair in Spanish and mandatory tipping.

From 90 to 50 in 3 days

2007-02-26T23:26:00.000-05:00

Degrees that is - in my apartment...

Last Thursday and Friday it was 90 degrees - so hot I had to sleep with the window wiiiiide open, and thought I was going to die of asphyxiation. Then our heat and hot water went out for three days. Oh there were times when it came back on briefly. Just none of those times happened to coincide with me being home to take a shower.

Now I'm a tough woman. I've been to 10% of the world's countries. I've slept in a thatched shack on stilts in a coconut grove in the far reaches of Indonesia's eastern islands, where the bathroom was a tiled floor, open to the sky so you could see billions of stars as you used the facilities late at night. Where the bak mandi was filled with cold water that you ladled over yourself in order to bathe.

I've also had a mandi in the disabled toilet in Jakarta airport after 30 hours of flying from London via Frankfurt and somewhere in the United Arab Emirates.

In fact I've gone without showers before - sleeping overnight in villages in Vietnam, once in Sapa, where to bathe would have used far too much of the village's water supply, and once in the Mekong, where out host had kept us up the night before drinking banana palm wine till we were totally drunk and stumbled to sleep on whisper-thin mattresses on the ground beneath mosquito nets.

I've had a freezing cold shower in winter in Spain before leaving a hostel because the hot water wasn't turned on until half an hour later - no exceptions! I've developed an entire bathing system based on 2 plastic bags and a door handle to cope with showers the size of portaloos in unisex bathrooms in Italy. And I've negotiated the difficult twist and press method of getting hot water and water pressure out of showers in Cochabamba in Bolivia.

But when I came home yesterday after fighting my way through crowds at the supermarket, dragging my shopping up the hill, with just enough time to shower and get to my friend's Oscar party, and got in the shower only to discover the hot water wasn't on again, I almost cried.

And when I got home from the party - in a snow storm - to find there was still no heat or hot water, I only got more upset. And then this morning - still no heat or hot water, and to top it off, my light blew as I was trying to get ready for work in the semi-dark.

So what did I do? Well, it was as if I could hear my mother's voice from some long ago distant memory of childhood blackouts and baths taken by the light of oil lamps. I put a large pot of boiling water on the stove to heat the apartment, and filled up the tea kettle and let it boil.

Then I had a warm bak mandi with the tea kettle water mixed with some cold water in a bucket in the shower.

I am nothing if not resourceful... ;^)

Today I came home to hot water and heat and had the best shower I've had in a long time.

But I'm afraid that I may have jinxed my friend who had the Oscar party. Because today she emailed me to tell me that her heat and hot water went out the day after I was telling her about mine...

Paris is Burning

2007-02-18T14:37:00.000-05:00

I just watched one of my favourite documentaries - Paris is Burning. I had been planning on going and wandering around, but it's cold, and I'm heading out later, so when I saw it was on, I stayed and watched.

I've always loved this doco - it's about a specific community celebrating who they are and in the process influencing fashion and culture in general, although that wasn't necessarily the intention. I hadn't seen it for many years, and seeing New York in the late 80's and the culture of the ballrooms made me wonder if any of it had survived. A few Google / Wikipedia searches later, and I discover that not only have several of the major players since passed on, but that one of them has her own myspace page, and has appeared in a film with with Danny Glover and Matt Dillon, however the director hasn't really made that many things since. And the ballroom that featured many of the balls is still a venue, soon to be hosting an American Metalcore band concert...

You win some, you lose some..

2007-02-15T21:53:00.000-05:00

I have been planning to write a post here about my new job (well - my new 4 week gig, which counts as a job in this industry)... except that I've been so busy with aforementioned new job that I haven't really had time to write it (or to finish responding to my 70+ emails, and so I'm still a slackarse to all my friends, but that's another story)

So I'm finally sitting here, I've eaten dinner, it's not after midnight and I'm not exhausted. Why? Because aforementioned job ended early - shooting was pushed back to June, and consequently I'm unemployed again.

So being made redundant has its benefits - I slept in till 1pm today - catching up on much needed sleep. I wasn't even woken up that much by the guy who came to fix the hole in the ceiling. I managed to clean my room, the kitchen and the bathroom. Tomorrow I may go to a museum or do some wandering around the city if it isn't too cold. Or go to Central Park and take pictures of the snow.

The job was really good - costume assistant on a documentary series. I got to use my research skills, got to go and hunt down samples of things in the fashion district, make contacts with wholesale suppliers of cloth and braid. I was learning new things - I felt challenged. And I need to feel challenged, otherwise I get very bored.

But the shoot has been pushed to June, so for now I'm out of work. In June, they'll bring me back on board, and I have a few days lined up in the meantime, but nothing long term, and nothing seems to be really busy here.

But that may change. The designer I was working for was fantastic, and he's going to recommend me to other people he knows. It is pilot season here, which is when the TV stations commission one-offs of all their new shows in the hope that some of them will be good enough to be picked up.

I don't want to say more, because I don't want to jinx things. I was so excited about the 4 weeks of work that I told a bunch of people and then it all ended. Call me superstitious, but in an industry where things change so quickly, and everything is flexible and moveable, I guess it's not such a good idea to be so public in discussing what you're doing, in case you come in the next day and find it's your last ;^)

Lizards r us

2007-02-14T00:28:00.000-05:00

This is for SimplEnigma - to help her overcome her fear..

sorry - that was mean... ;^)

But blue tongue lizards are nice...

If teleporting were only possible

2007-02-13T00:39:00.000-05:00

Things I'd do if I could just pop home for a few days

(in no particular order)

[visiting friends and family is a given, no questions asked, so not included here]:

* go to the doctor. Free healthcare is a wonderful thing: self-diagnosis via the internet is scary and depressing

* ditto the dentist. Although not free, no-one would be trying to make me have a root canal.

* eat Binkas all-natural snakes or jelly babies. Hmmm.. maybe why I need aforesaid trip to dentist? LOL

* visit Hung, my amazing acupuncturist

* go to kickboxing with my girls (although this would be made harder by the fact the dojo actually closed - hey to Sensei Jo and Shihan if you're reading this)

* go to the beach and the women's baths at Coogee, and snorkel at Clovelly.

* visit the Korean baths. A long soak in the ginseng bath followed by a full body scrub, a facial and shiatsu massage.

* get my hair cut by Zaya at Cazac

* eat tons of seafood from the fish markets

* buy a case of sirena tuna in chilli oil to bring back here

* listen to the sound of the wind whistling through the bamboo in the botanic gardens

* do the cliff walk Coogee to Bondi via Waverly cemetery and Bronte

* Smell the salt air and feel salt water on my skin while feeling the sand under my feet and between my toes

I'm sure I'll think of more...

Erratum

2007-02-12T23:05:00.000-05:00

Both my mother and my aunt have pointed out that Invasion Day actually commemorates the landing and settling of Captain Phillip and the first fleet at Sydney Cove, not when Captain Cook "discovered" Australia, which was in 1770.

In any case, as they would both agree, the whole terra nullius thing is still dodgy..

Ceiling update

2007-02-06T00:46:00.000-05:00

13 days later...

Overcoming Cultural Difference

2007-01-31T22:56:00.000-05:00

Anytime you travel to or live in a new place, you're almost definitely going to encounter cultural difference. Sometimes these are really large differences, and sometimes they are minor, but amusing.

However the big mistake that people make when going to another country where they speak the same language is thinking that everything is going to be the same. Maybe this is only true for english-speaking people - I'm not sure how many Bolivians think they're going to go to Spain and be able to order mate tea and chew cocoa leaves.

In any case Australians make a big deal of how Americans don't realise they are coming to a different country with a different culture when they come to Australia, and not just an outlying outpost of the good ol' US of A (despite the fact our tv is full of US shows, our movie theatres packed with Hollywood blockbusters and you can find dozens of white suburban homeboys dressing and speaking like they shop on 145th st and roll in the hood.)

When we go to the US, we think we're pretty savvy at knowing what the differences are from Australian culture. We know that we can't call Sprite 'lemonade', that taps are called 'faucets', that flatmates shall now be known as 'roommates' and that what we call mobiles are 'cell phones'.

But no-one talks about pop cultural difference. You know all those little things that everyone knows because they form part of the culture, and are a reference to a specific shared cultural experience.

In Australia someone can refer to themselves jokingly as a 'skip', and most people will know it refers to them being of white, anglo-saxon decent (from Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo.. oh it's to difficult to explain - check out the video below). Or I can ask someone what they did on Invasion Day, and they'll know I'm talking about Australia Day (being the day Captain Cook rocked up to Australian shores and claimed the land on behalf of England, declaring it terra nullius or 'there's nothing here' ignoring 40,000 years of Aboriginal culture).

There's also the dozens of tv shows that people reference back home that no-one would 'get' here like The (Australian) Late Show, Monkey, tv ads and so on and so on. Funnily enough, I really didn't think there'd be all that many things like that I wouldn't get here - I mean the world's a lot smaller now, and American culture is all-invasive - surely I'd know most of the references? I've seen the hit tv shows when they screened back in Oz - I'd know the references...

Well gradually I've been discovering that isn't actually the case - so shame on me for making assumptions, especially when that's something that really bugs me when other people do it to me. Especially when it involves Steve Irwin or Fosters..

Here are some of the references I'd missed:

Referring to dating:
"You ate the food, you drank the wine"
this refers to a date from an online dating website that went horribly wrong - unbelievable - but you need to read about it here. Make sure you listen to the audio samples too - seriously worth it.

A Special Xmas Present
"Step 1: Cut a hole in the box
Step 2: Put your junk in that box
Step 3: Let her open the box"
this refers to a Saturday Night Live sketch with Justin Timberlake
If you're easily offended, or have no sense of humour, just don't click on the link (mind you, can't think of anyone I know reading this who would fit into that category!)

The Chronicles of Narnia
another Saturday Night Live (snl) sketch, which in itself is a big pop culture reference..

There have been lots of others, but these are the ones that immediately spring to mind. Of course America is a big place - even NY is a big place, and not all cultural references translate even across the island of Manhattan or across different cultural groups here. The other day I was talking to someone about people who busk on the subway, and she mentioned kids who danced and then asked for donations. For once I knew what she was talking about! "Oh, like those kids who are doing the Chicken Noodle Soup dance?" She looked very puzzled - maybe the Chicken Noodle Soup dance didn't made it that far out of Harlem..

And now we bring you Skippy:

and just because I can - from one of my fave Australian tv shows:

I wish they had some of the more classic sketches here, but guess I'll have to wait till someone uploads them

I heart NY

2007-01-31T22:12:00.000-05:00

Apparently I don't belong uptown at all, but rather in Brooklyn..

which is where I thought I'd be living when I moved here, so guess some things are meant to be! I'll prob move to the BK eventually, but for now Harlem is where it's at.

You Belong in Brooklyn

Down to earth and hard working, you're a true New Yorker.
And although you may be turning into a yuppie, you never forget your roots.

Where Should Your Inner New Yorker Live?

Snow!!!!

2007-01-31T14:17:00.000-05:00

It snowed last night - quite heavily for the first time. I think I actually prefer it when it snows, because it's really beautiful, and the temperature gets a little warmer. Before the snow, the wind is icy and cold and can pierce every single layer of clothing you have and get into your bones.

The other night it went down to 9 degrees with the wind chill factor. Wind was blowing at 25-30 mph. Hmmm translation - that's minus 13 degrees celsius with 40km/hour winds. I went out. I'd met a new friend at a function to do with my old job that was happening here in NYC. She's Australian, but she lives in Scotland, where I used to live, and we just clicked. So we went out to have some drinks and a bit of a dance in the freezing cold.

The problem is that outside it's freezing, so you wear thermal silks, several layers, a big coat filled with goose down, gloves, scarf, hat... and then you go into a bar or restaurant or club, and it's all warm and toasty. Thankfully most places have coat check, but at the last place we went to, not only was there no coat check, but it was so warm and we wanted to dance, so i actually had to strip off down to a little funky top standing next to the dance floor.. I don't know what people thought when it looked like I was down to the last layer and then took that off too to reveal a shirt to dance in, but we soon had a whole bunch of guys coming over to talk with us.

Arty

2007-01-26T15:31:00.000-05:00

My girl Jen was in town - mainly for work, but we got to hang out a bit too - which was excellent - sooo good to spend time with people who know you. One of the things we did was go to Moma, which I love. I love taking photos of the sculpture there.

Visited some old favourites, but found a new sculpture that I loved - I love the sense of movement in the work - made me think of all the people outside walking into the wind - some of them scurrying by, but this sculpture is boldly striding through the crowd..

Harlem Blues *

2007-01-25T16:39:00.000-05:00

Well, I was going to write a post about many exciting things, but it's going to have to wait... because I want to talk about my apartment for a minute.

I like my apartment, and I like my neighbourhood. My room's kind of small, but I have 2 great roommates, 2 cats and it's not too expensive. But there are a few problems - things don't get fixed quickly and easily if something breaks or leaks. Our buzzer hasn't worked the entire time I've been here, and there was a while there when we didn't have heat or hot water.

Consequently, when we rang to complain about the heat and hot water, they adjusted it so that the next few days it was over 80 degrees (more than 26 degrees c) in my apartment, and at night with my bedroom door closed my room felt like it got up to 90. It was as if somewhere someone went "you want heat? I'll give you heat.."

But now it's settled down a little, which is good. Only problem is, our radiators have been leaking, causing an overflow of water in my roommates room, and a vague smell of mould in my closet which is on the other side of the wall. And the ceiling has been dripping from a repair done by a guy who plastered over some mould and painted it.

So a guy came to fix the radiator this morning - good. We showed him the dripping ceiling, and he went upstairs to our neighbours to see where it was coming from. Then he came back, and knocked a big hole in the ceiling, and left again to go upstairs.... and he never came back!

At first we thought he'd been caught up doing something, but after an hour we started calling different people to see where he was. We called the dispatch company ("Oh, we're trying to get a hold of him - we'll call you back") and finally after another hour, I called our management company and left a message for the same woman all the other complaints have gone to.

She actually called me back and told me that he was leaving it like that to see where the leak was coming from. She then said that a guy would be back to fix the other radiator this afternoon. I told her I'd be there till 4:30. It's 5 now, and no-one has returned.

The best bit about it all is that the guy just walked out, not saying where he was going or that he wouldn't be coming back, and left plaster and debris all over the kitchen - on the counter, on the stove, on top of the cupboard, and all over the floor. It looked like a building site.

So I cleaned it all up, cos I really couldn't face everything being covered in plaster, dirt, and rusty smelly water from the leak. Problem is I'd already cleaned it all up yesterday cos I was sick of the kitchen being a mess..

I just wonder how long it'll take to fix it all up... I'm not holding my breath...

* after a song from a fave Spike Lee joint Mo Better Blues

Yayyyyyy!!!!

2007-01-25T01:11:00.000-05:00

Well, I think i fixed my blog template, so it should be back to its snazzy self.. at least it is right now, and I'm praying when I log back in tomorrow and actually write a real blog post, that my foray into deciphering css and working out where to put bits in the html coding has not been in vain.

Knowledge is a wonderful thing..

2007-01-13T23:37:00.000-05:00

Apparently no-one listens to Australians in New York

Subway Superhero

2007-01-11T00:49:00.000-05:00

Don't know if it made the news back in Ostraya, but last week a guy had a seizure on the train platform and fell down into the path of an oncoming train. A guy standing nearby saw it happen, dove on top of him as he lay between the tracks and pushed him down so that he was saved.

Pretty amazing story, eh?? And it all happened at my subway stop - the one I use every day..

You can read about it here and here

Much needed update.. Part 3 New Years; new friends

2007-01-09T16:28:00.000-05:00

So I spent my first NYE in New York since I moved here. I've done it once before - I was 17, my family and I did the whole Times Square thing.. except as my bro and I had never seen the New York Times Square extravaganza, we had no idea what the hell the whole ball thing was or why we were supposed to be looking for it.

This was different. My brother has lived here for several years, and he has a whole bunch of different friends. We went on a party bus that took us around to a whole bunch of different parties. I had a great time - the bus was excellent and not at all cheesy; the parties were fun, and the people I was hanging out with were great. Got to know a few people I'd met before a bit better, and met some new people. Ended up in a place in Brooklyn after the sun came up, and got home around 10:30am! One of the best NYE's ever, I'd have to say.

The other night I went to a party in the BK (aka Brooklyn) for the birthday of one of the guys who I'd met several times before and had been on the bus. He's been here for a long time, originally from the UK, and a lot of the people who came to his party were people I'd met before - or met NYE. It's very different meeting people in a much more sober context than the first time you met them... luckily nothing too embarrassing had happened, and seeing them all was a good thing.

So I now have a bunch of new people from various contexts that I'm getting to know. Some of them make an effort, but some of them are what is known as "flaky", which is a kind of new concept for me, but I'm hoping not to be too put off by it. This year I've decided not to stress so much about things like people being flaky - I'm just going to keep doing my thing, and I'm going to meet lots of people and make some really good friends. Most of the people I've met so far have been guys - well I'm working in a very male-dominated industry. But I really miss hanging out with my girls. Looking to make friends with a bunch of strong, intelligent, independent fun and feisty women to hang out with.. and guys too of course! so if you have friends like this in NYC, holla at ya girl ;^)

Much needed update.. Part 2 Beyond Xmas

2007-01-09T16:07:00.000-05:00

So December was very slow work-wise.. so slow that I began to wonder if it was ever going to pick up again, or whether I was going to have to start applying for office jobs..

However I managed to pick myself up from the gloom and achieve a few things, as well as meet some people, do some networking and social acitivity, and try not to spend too much of my non-existent money. However Xmas is a big-spending time of year, and try as I might rent and bills just didn't go away.

I spent Xmas in Florida (see previous update below) and then came back to NY to find my apartment had no heat or hot water for two days. We called all the numbers and eventually it came back on, but it was cold and I couldn't actually shower, which was awful. When I told a friend of mine that it took two days to fix it, he said, "well, what do you expect? You live in the hood." This from a man who lives in a warehouse in a so-called dodgy part of Brooklyn, and who grew up in the Bronx in the 70's.

The whole building was out, so none of us were happy, although it did give people something to say to each other in the hallway of the building. I've become friends with one of my upstairs neighbours. I was sleeping on an air matress when I first got here, and then saw an ad downstairs near the mailboxes for a bed for sale. I went and checked it out, and met the people who live upstairs - the guy who was selling the bed of course moved out, but his room mate and I got on really well and have hung out a few times. I'm also making friends with some of the people I work with, and with a few through other people I've met along the way.

One of these was a guy I met at a party. He's an actor, and he was in a play that was part of a series of short plays based on the themes of nudity, blasphemy and violence. Kind of like Short & Sweet in Newtown for those of you back home. So I went along to see the plays, and it didn't even occur to me until I was almost at the theatre that he might actually be naked...

Sure enough - first play, there he is, completely stark naked with angel wings, playing the archangel Gabriel. Of course, I'm not someone who's bothered by nudity, but it was one of those moments where I forget people I meet here don't know that I used to work in the arts, and that at one point almost everyone in my department had seen the Manager naked from his days as a performer with the Sydney Push.

Much needed update.. Part 1 Xmas

2007-01-09T12:50:00.000-05:00

Well, I have received gentle reminders that it's been a while since I updated my blog..

Xmas I spent in Tallahassee with Rach's family. It was really great to have such wonderful hospitality, and just to feel at home. We had a big tree, lots of food, an engagement party for Rach's brother Michael and his fiancee Alison, trivial pursuit, shopping - it was a lot of fun.

Did miss my Newcastle Xmas crew - spent time texting them and asking them to drink my favourite champagne and eat prawns for me - they had 3kg!! (translation - shrimp - 6.5 pounds). Also missed my traditional December / January beach-goings with my friends back in Coogee and Bondi - but the weather has been kind of funny back home, so perhaps I wouldn't have been spending as many long summer days at the beach as I dream about.

Tallahassee is northern Florida, so not like going to Miami, but still warmer, which was great.. I told everyone I was going to go for a swim - because I've been missing salt water on my skin like you wouldn't believe.

First day was overcast, but the temperature was 70 degrees (that's about 20 celcius for those of use who think zero for freezing rather than 32 is a smart idea). However boxing day was only 50 degrees (10 degrees c) so there was no way in hell I was going in the water. I have swum in Sydney in July, but it was an unexpectedly warm beautiful day and the water was bearable. I was incredibly disappointed not to be able to swim, but at least I got to go to the beach - see the sand and the water. And one of the best things was that there was no-one else around - parking lot was empty, beach stretched for miles in either direction facing the gulf of Mexico without anyone in sight... I brought a whole bunch of shells home with me to bring some of the sea inside. We ate oysters by the beach and I had some incredibly strong cocktail called a hurricane, so lucky I wasn't driving!

Boxing Day - that's Dec 26 for those of you who don't get an extra holiday to wrap up gifts or food or give to charity or whatever the day is for... just realised that some of my American readers might not know it. Which means of course that they don't know about the very special way you can celebrate your birthday - birthday eve (the night before); birthday (ummm - obvious); and boxing birthday (the day after). This is a recognised Australian way of celebrating your birthday and making it last for 3 whole days... so you get to celebrate by drinking lots of fosters and riding kangaroos...

okay, I made that last bit up, but considering how many words, phrases and ideas really are different here, maybe I should start a glossary or something. Might help people whenever I forget and mention that I'm going to use a torch (US: large flaming stick - often seen on tv shows like survivor) instead of a flashlight..

Grey New York Day - forecast for Piceans

2006-12-30T16:15:00.000-05:00

Pisces
You may begin the day feeling a bit hazy about what to do, where to go and possibly even how to go about it. So what you should do is simply slow down, write some lists and then just go down your list. Focussing on practical things helps dispel this sort of confusion. Try not to go down old roads of thought about things as that may make you quite sad. Start the new year with hope for the future. Have a happy and safe new years eve.

For me, and Kim and Jen and Siobhan..

My (current) fave website

2006-12-24T21:13:00.000-05:00

Even before I came to NYC, I loved reading the Overheard In New York website.

Recently, one of my submissions was published. I felt so proud. You can read it here.

But today I read another one that made me laugh - makes me proud to be a (newly arrived) New Yorker.

Santacon!!!!

2006-12-23T14:32:00.000-05:00

Well, this year I finally made it to the event I've been hearing about for years - Santacon. Basically a large and boisterous pub crawl, it involves all the participants dressing up as Santa or other holiday related people, like Rudolph or elves or Mrs Claus, or in my brother's case, Hannukah Harry. On this day every year, my bro is like a minor celebrity, with almost all of the 800+ participants greeting him by name and wanting to have their photos taken with him.

We all travel via subway and walking to lots of different pubs and public places. Imagine being somewhere and suddenly being invaded by a massive crowd of santas, and you'll get the picture.

It was a hell of a lot of fun :^)

So here are a few pics, but there's a full album online too.

Santacon

Currently in Florida for Xmas - really enjoying the warmer weather and the great hospitality, but will write more about that later..

Wishing everyone a very Happy Holiday Season!!

xxx

Happy Anniversary to me..

2006-12-13T21:56:00.000-05:00

Today is my 3 month anniversary of arriving in New York.

Anniversaries are usually a time for reflection, celebration and present giving.. I'm going to do the reflection and, depending on how I'm feeling, some of the celebration, so feel free to do the present giving, either in electronic form, or if you prefer, by mail.. Just wait till I have a couple of hours to go to the post office to collect it..

I'm not feeling the best today - came down with a sore throat yesterday evening, and by this morning I was really under the weather. Had to call in sick to my internship, which I felt really bad about. Still better to try and get better today, then have to cancel a paid gig tomorrow or Friday. Except that tomorrow was cancelled today, and so I'll have tomorrow to get better too.

Steady work is still eluding me, although I know that some of this is due to the season. I did manage to get some freelance research work, which I can do from home, so I'm very lucky, but so far it's only a couple of days work and we'll see where it goes from there. It was the quickest interview I've ever had. She had asked me to come in after seeing my "fantastic resume", we chatted for about half an hour and then she offered me the work.

I've managed to cut my resume down to the regulation 1 page required here. That's right folks - one page. Forget putting all the things in there that show how diverse you are, forget a detailed work history, forget grandiose statements about what amazing skills and training you have - one page. And then in most cases you have to include it in the body of your email, so forget fancy formatting too.

But enough of (lack of) work, this was about my anniversary. I'm doing ok - have a nice place to live, great flatmates, some new friends, somewhere to spend Xmas with my wonderful brother and sister-in-law (or sister-in-fact.. whatever Dave) but I don't have the solid, real friendships I had back home. I know that this takes time, and that meeting as many wonderful friends as you guys back home isn't necessarily going to be easy. And I think about fabulous people I know who upped and moved cities, states and countries and who I still have strong bonds with - whether I met them before or after their big moves (I see you - Jen, Kim, Kate & Dave, Sherrie, Gabina)

But it can be lonely, and you can feel like you're way to eager to make plans with people and then you get frightened you'll scare them off. Or they seem really keen to hang out and then somehow never call, or always have something else on. So you start wondering if it's this town, or whether it's you or whether you should fake being more blasé. But I'm a very straight up person - I can't be fake and pretend to be your friend if I really don't like you. So conversely, if we get on really well and I'd like to hang out with you, then I say so. And if we make tentative plans to do something on a particular day, then I'm thinking that we'll be talking about it closer to the day to organise it.

Maybe I expect to much of people - hey I know people are busy - I've been really busy too. And maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrite as I still have many unanswered emails to respond to. I just can't help but feel disappointed sometimes. And I don't like being disappointed in people. I like to think the best of people and when they don't come through I can get hurt. Too much time waiting for phone calls that don't come through, or doing things on my own, which I actually don't mind - just not all the time.

So that's the downside of the reflection. On the more positive upbeat side, there are some new friends who make an effort - and I'll be hanging out with one of them on Saturday. There are also some networking people I've made contact with, and that's going ok too. Work, when it doesn't fall through, is really good - reminds me why I moved here and didn't stay at home where film / tv work was very thin on the ground. I do miss the people I used to work with back home, and of course the salary...

I have 2 cats - well, they're my flatmates, but they're here, and so for the first time in a long time I get to have pets. And they're very cute, except when they run up and down the hallway at 4am mewing. And except for one day, the weather has been ok - not too cold. Never thought I'd be saying that 14 degrees c was ok, but there you go. Also never thought I'd be working a job where I had to be there at 5am, and had to leave my house at 4 am to get there on time.

I had a wonderful thanksgiving, and I'm looking forward to Xmas, so there are many things to celebrate - and of course there is the city itself. New York is an amazing place - there's lots of things going on and lots of places you never knew existed. I'm sure that as I have more work, and therefore more money, I'll be able to enjoy some of the more costly things here, but until then I'm just enjoying getting to know my neighbourhood a bit better, and how to get to places on the subway.

I know it's not that time of year yet, but...

2006-12-12T23:59:00.000-05:00

Your Birthdate: March 6

You tend to be a the rock in relationships - people depend on you.
Thoughtful and caring, you often put others needs first.
You aren't content to help those you know... you want to give to the world.
An idealist, you strive for positive change and dream about how much better things could be.

Your strength: Your intuition

Your weakness: You put yourself last

Your power color: Rose

Your power symbol: Cloud

Your power month: June

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Working hard

2006-12-09T16:17:00.000-05:00

gaffer fingernails - yes - very bored...

telephone booths....

So i'm currently on a job.. But how are u blogging, i hear u ask. Well i recently discovered that u can email yr blog, so i'm giving it a go.

But how have u got time to blog - surely you're working really hard?

Well, usually - yes. But this is a gig for a corp client, and most of the work is done, so we're sitting around waiting till 5pm so we can go, but still get paid for a full day. I just found out that monday is going to be more of the same. If only i could bring my laptop & respond to email i'd be fine...

I'm seriously sitting here while The Beatles' Yellow Submarine and some wacky dude who trials dirty jobs play on the conference room screens, and some bizarre xmas carol plays on the pa..

Def Poetry Slam

2006-12-09T15:52:00.001-05:00

Last night i went to an hiv/aids & refugee benefit @ columbia. There were a bunch of def poetry jam poets there, donating their time, as well as a young colombia student poet. It was amazing - some of the best spoken word i've ever heard.

The best poet was this guy called Ainsley Burrows. He's Jamaican, and his poetry was mind-splitting. At one point he was joking around, and someone yelled out "spit that fire!" He was so good that i bought a cd. It was called 'climax', so i should have perhaps guessed when i listened to it on the subway this morning that it wasn't going to be the political stuff of the evening before. Instead my 7am listening on the way to a job was some of the sexiest stuff i have ever heard - spoken word, music and a jamaican accent to boot.. Mmm...

Unfortunately it wasn't helping with my early morning commute, so had to change it..

The event was only 14 blocks from my house, so i walked there, and was so mind-blown that i also walked on the way back, even tho parts of those 14 blocks are perhaps a little dark. But i was feeling like nothing could touch me after what i'd heard. If you hear anything about the def jam poets, make sure u pay attention...

Another one bites the dust

2006-12-07T14:41:00.000-05:00

Well - I've lost one of my favourite earrings.. Not the most earth shattering news I know, but I'm annoyed...

For those of you who read my travel blog last year, you'll remember how my stuff was stolen in Vietnam. Amongst those things was a pair of Bolivian earrings I'd bought in La Paz several years earlier. Last year at the Newtown Festival, I bought three pairs of Peruvian earrings to replace them.

And now one of them is being trampled somewhere on a new york street...

It probably got caught on my scarf, or on my new hat, which I've been wearing because it's been so cold here. Yesterday the weather was "feels like" 29 degrees F. Yes - 32 degrees F is 0 C. Yes - it's damn cold, yes, I'm missing the beach and the warm weather. But on the positive side, I now have cashmere lined leather gloves and a beautiful wool hat.

Rolling, in the neighbourhood..*

2006-12-03T21:05:00.000-05:00

Today was another day of not-working when I thought I was going to be.. but today was going to be different! I was going to get outside before the sunset and do things! I did have an appointment downtown, but it was such a nice day I didn't feel like spending more time indoors, so I postponed it till tomorrow and took off up north...

The furthest north I've been in Manhattan is Fort Tyron Park - waaay at the top end of the island near the Cloisters. But the furthest I'd walked, until today, was 148th st - when I was looking at apartments. Today I walked up to 155th street. I walked along Riverside Drive, which runs along the Hudson, but elevated and before the west side highway, until I came to Trinity Church's cemetery and mausoleum. Since Trinity is way downtown, I wasn't sure if it was the same, but apparently it's one of 3 of their graveyards.

Those of you who've walked along the coast from Bondi to Coogee know how beautiful Waverly Cemetery is. Well, this was smaller, but divided by a road, and didn't have the amazing ocean views, but it did have views of the Hudson, and it was like something out of a movie. A small delicately designed cemetery, with some mausoleums looking like no-one had even tried to open the doors for over 100 years. Huge trees with massive trunks and spindly dried branches. All the leaves have fallen off and lay in huge swaths across paths and steps like some kind of patchwork blanket. The cemetery is built on a hill, so as you walk through, you ascend until you can see all the lower graves spread out below looking like they run down to the river.

So here are some pictures so you can see how beautiful it was..

From the cemetery I walked (a) through a dodgy tunnel (b) across a caged-in bridge over the train tracks (c) under the west-side highway to get to Riverside Park.

Riverside Park runs along the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan.It goes all the way up to Fort Tyron Park in the north. Until recently I hadn't been that much further north than my brother's place - maybe as far as 119th st. But when I moved uptown, we have a section that is the Riverside State Park extension - it has soccer fields, basketball courts, a running track and as I discovered very recently, an ice-skating rink, and... drum roll please.. an INDOOR SWIMMING POOL. That's right kids - no, it's not an ocean, but just to be able to swim is fantastic.

So I checked it out yesterday and then today I went for my first swim! It only costs $2, and you need to bring your own padlock for the lockers. The water is heated, but not overly so like some indoor pools back home, and although it's not salt water, it's also not chlorine - it's this new oxygenated system, so it doesn't get in your eyes, and make your skin smell terrible. There are free hot showers, and lap lanes and it's open 7 days a week - I'm so happy.. I did 12 laps!

So in the end I did achieve a whole lot of stuff - and had two phone calls tonight from people I wanted to speak to, so hopefully things are picking up!

* - the title of a favourite 90's song of mine by Sisters Underground for those of you who may remember...

My Neighbourhood

2006-12-03T12:51:00.000-05:00

some new photos..

my neighbourhood

No Work = Loss of Motivation

2006-12-02T23:01:00.000-05:00

I've been very lucky - have had fantastic amounts of work, worked on great stuff, and worked with good people. But as things go when you're freelancing, it's the week after Thanksgiving, and its been a very slow one.

I've had no paid work for over a week, but the worst is I thought I had work fri, sat and sun and only found out on thurs that I didn't. I still worked at my intership on tues and wed, but the rest of the week has been v slow. I've tried to be productive - catch up on all the things around the house that needed doing - like food shopping and cleaning and getting a new bathmat cos the old one was really bad. But with downtime, I get totally unmotivated.. it's like swimming through treacle and it takes me back to the first month I was here when things were quite difficult and there was no work on the horizon.

Some things have been achieved - I called all my relatives for Thanksgiving, and so made contact with all of them, which was nice. I got a bookshelf and some curtains from the offices where I'm doing the internship, so my room is a little more furnished. These go along nicely with my bed - purchased from a guy upstairs who was moving back home - so no more air mattress for me!!

I've also managed to beat the bureaucracy and open a bank account. Opening an account here since Sept 11 has been very difficult. America relies only on the banking records within this country, and yet to prove I lived where I did, I needed to get a bank statement sent from Australia with my address here on it. I can't get a credit card, because I have no credit history in the states - doesn't matter how good my credit is back home. So the best I can do is to pay my cell phone bill on time every time and eventually take out a small loan with my bank against my own money and pay it back. Then, and only then will they think about giving me a credit card.

So I went to open my account three times before they'd let me - you'd think I wanted to convert religions or something. Finally on Thanksgiving eve I went to my local branch in Harlem to open my account. It took 2 hours... because everyone was in there trying to get money the day before the holiday, or trying to get credit - bad day to go to a bank, especially when the banking system here relies almost entirely on cheques.

That's right - cheques. You can't transfer money to other people's accounts easily - and don't even think about it if they aren't with your bank. In fact even if they are, but in another state, forget about it. You write a cheque for everything, and because credit cards aren't easy to get either, you pay a lot of your bills with cheques.

So I set up my account, and deposit a cheque. I should be able to write my room mates a cheque for the rent, right? Wrong - because it's a new account and I may still be some kind of evil doer (despite the fact I'm depositing money) they're holding most of my cheque for 6 days..

Luckily I have understanding roommates..

Technology

2006-12-02T13:53:00.000-05:00

Hmmm.. well looks like my template wasn't stuffed up after all - just some down time of bloggers...

On another note, have managed to work out how to post to my blog from email - thus from my cell phone, thus hopefully i may be a little more frequent, but posts may be a little less well-laid out..

Bloody Beta

2006-11-30T19:34:00.000-05:00

switched to blogger beta, but it stuffed up my template...

grrrrr..arrrrgggg...

will take a few days to sort it out, but I'm going to have to learn more about html..

if anyone out there would like to volunteer to help me change my template (free of charge - or for a nice comment on your blog) I'd be very grateful... (bats eyelashes...)

Sight seeing @ dusk

2006-11-30T17:47:00.000-05:00

well, i'm doing it again.. Sight seeing at dusk. Not exactly the plan,
but the sun has started to set at 4 pm, so today by the time i'd
caught up on sleep, checked my email, tidied the house a bit and tried
to create some kind of breakfast, the daylight was almost gone. So
for the umpteenth time i was faced will finding somewhere safe & easy
to go for a walk as it was getting dark.

Thanksgiving

2006-11-28T14:36:00.000-05:00

Well folks - I celebrated my first Thanksgiving in America. Given the actual nature of the holiday, many Americans feel it's the one unique "American" holiday that all can participate in, regardless of race or religion. I'm not really sure how Indigenous Americans feel about it, but as you can imagine, the repercussions of that part of the whole day on Native Americans is not widely discussed or even mentioned..

Mainly it's about people wishing each other "Happy Turkey Day" (I kid you not - although this is somewhat tongue-in-cheek), major shopping for food, visiting family, eating like crazy, a big parade, and then the inevitable post Thanksgiving day sales, which are referred to as Black Friday.

My flatmates devolved cooking of the turkey responsibility to me, and I'd like to state for the record that my turkey was excellent - all that practice I did last year really paid off. I also made a slightly different version of my grandmother's candied yams recipe - all of this without any of my cookbooks, which are all in a box in Australia.

I'd also like to point out that for the first time I can remember, I'm living in a place with very little kitchenware. For those of you who know me well, you'll know how hard this is for me.

We don't have:
(a) tongs
(b) small plates - like bread and butter or salad
(c) more than 3 standard knives
(d) more than one good cooks knife - which I bought
(e) any casserole dishes
(f) no roasting pans - we bought some small things and a disposable turkey one the day before

Never the less, dinner was superb - guess I'm embracing minimalism ;^)

For those of you who are the proud inheritors of a whole lot of my kitchenware - I hope you are enjoying it, and are putting it to very good use!!

Thanksgiving

Photos

2006-11-16T00:19:00.000-05:00

Have done a little rearranging:

Halloween

Decom Party

One Down...

2006-11-13T22:52:00.000-05:00

Got an email from my Aunt -

What a difference one Aussie radical makes to US politics. You're hardly in the country and you've changed the balance of power.

Nice to know my efforts are appreciated ;^)

Seriously though - I voted. Still via absentee ballot, as I was still registered in Michigan, but I'll be changing it over before the next election to NY...

Was very exciting to be here, but the mood isn't the same as back home - because voting isn't compulsory it's not discussed as much, and in fact getting news can be a difficult endevour.. (ahhh still spelling like an Aussie!!)

I'm surprised by some of the people I know here who didn't vote...

Homeland - the feature

2006-11-13T19:57:00.000-05:00

Just realised I never talked about the feature I worked on! It was called Homeland and was a kind of Romeo & Juliet story between a Palestinian girl and an Israeli boy set in NY.

It started out with me getting 2 days of work as a PA on the film through my bro, Dave. On the second day of the shoot - (which was actually a all night shoot at a bar in the 30's) - the Exective Producer / Writer approached me and asked if I was interested in doing wardrobe, as they had had 2 diff wardrobe people, the second of whom had to leave to go back to college, where he was studying catering.

Not really being a wardrobe person, but seeing a good opportunity, I said yes, and found myself dealing with continuity issues related to wardrobe where photos were never taken, or things were wrongly labelled. Neverless, I'm always one to rise to a challenge, so I managed to sort it out, deal with it, get on fabulously with all the crew, and have a really great experience over all.

Some highlights:
* meeting the guys from the production company and checking out their collection of swords
* having to be in New Jersey at 7 am
* going shopping for extra clothes for the Palestinian mother character in Patterson New Jersey. Now a very Palestinian area - restaurants, clothing shops etc - but previously it was the place where Rubin "Hurricane" Carter was arrested by the police for 'something that he never done'. I was a little worried, but luckily times seem to have changed in Patterson
*Hanging out with everyone from the cast and crew - silly jokes on set, a great wrap party.

So - it was not only a great experience and great crew, but it's led to other stuff too, and that's been fantastic.

Me & Yogi Berra

2006-11-13T19:11:00.000-05:00

Well, as I said in my last post, I've had a lot of work lately. In fact, this week will be a 7 day straight stretch for me:

Mon: PA on shoot for Yogi & A Movie with baseball legend Yogi Bearra
Tues: Intership with documentary company
Wed: Green screen shoot with Dave - not sure where or what yet
Thurs: supposed to be intership again, but need to go and work pre-production at the production company in Queens for the next shoot
Fri, Sat, Sun: 3 Day shoot for a local commercial in long island

And then Monday I go to work at the production company to do follow up!!! What a week! Still - I'm so not complaining - it's mostly paid work and it's with good people, and my rent, groceries etc etc will be covered.

But back to Yogi Berra. For those of you who don't know, he's a baseball legend. Yankees catcher and then Manager, Hall of Famer, and a statstical record that probably means something amazing if you follow baseball which unfortunately I don't.

However, he's also renowned for his personality - his sense of humour and his funny sayings.

The day went really well - as I said, it's for a segment called Yogi & a Movie. When there are rain delays, the channel shows these segments which are usually sports based movies, with little linking segments with Yogi. It was a lot of fun to hear him talk. I was hoping to get a picture with him, but the timing wasn't right, and at the end he was tired, so it was just easier to let it go and not to look star struck. It also would have been a little cheesy too, especially as I'd only vaguely heard of him before today.

Mea Culpa..

2006-11-08T00:03:00.000-05:00

Yes - I've been a little MIA - so missing in action in fact my friend Kim put out a missing person's bulletin on her blog for me....

What has happened is that I got a some PAID work on an independent feature film - what started as 2 days led to over a week. I'm talking 12 hour days starting at 7 am in New Jersey, including a night shoot, and then this has led to other paid gigs, and I've been coming home and collapsing, and then getting up and going off to work again the next day. Any days off have been filled with doing laundry (a very different concept when you have to go to the laundromat, and can't just wash it in your apartment and hang it out late at night), buying groceries and attempting to unpack, as I stupidly moved to my new apartment on my first day off from the shoot!

My new place is great - I've moved to Harlem / Hamilton Heights. My neighbourhood is really diverse, and not as gentrified as further down the subway line where my bro lives (which in turn is no where near as gentrified as a few stops futher down again). At the end of my street near Broadway is a big mural with Brother Malcolm X - just up from El Mundo - the Spanish discount department store. When you get off the subway in the evenings, you can hear people calling out "Tamales, tamales". When the weather was a little hotter, they were selling ices on the corner, with flavours like guayaba (guava). And the deli on the corner near the subway station does amazing breakfast sandwiches for $1.50

Neighbourhoods here change literally block by block. When I was looking at apartments, I looked at a place on 148th st. I walked up from my bro's all the way up there to get a sense of the neighbourhood, and when I turned off broadway to go to the apartment, I passed 2 or 3 crack hoes and some very dodgy guys sitting on stoops near them. So i decided there was no way I was moving in there and gave it a miss. However a few days later I had the opportunity to see the place itself and did the same walk. This time, once I'd passed Amsterdam, suddenly I was in front of amazing architecture, wide streets and trees - the apartment was in Sugar Hill in Harlem - long renowned for its desireability.

The guy was nice too, but ultimately (after seeing some other places that were so bad each flatmate had a big padlock on their bedroom door or the carpet didn't actually fit in the flourescent blue room) I decided to move in with the two girls I'd met first. They are great flatmates, and we also have 2 cats - which is great.

And every neighbourhood can have an off day. The day I came to get the keys before I moved in, I brought a friend who'd volunteered to come walk around my new neighbourhood with me, and all the crazies were out.. didn't make for such a great intro..

My room is still small, but hey, this is new york, and it's big enough for a bed and it also has a large-ish built-in wardrobe, parquet floors, and if you stand near the window, you can see sunset through a gap between 2 buildings. There's also roof access (or tar beach as my Dad calls it), and that's great just to go and get some air, or to do a morning weather check. You can see the Hudson River, and the elevated subway between 125th and 137th. In summer hopefully we can have a party!

So aside from El Mundo the neighbourhood also has a really large Fairway - the gourmet food store / market. It's unbelieveable!! I went to buy food, and it took me 3 hours, and I still didn't make it into the cold room where they give you jackets to put on! The cheese section is amazing - and you can taste everything before you buy. The fruit and vegetables alone took me over an hour, and I still didn't even finish going around the whole store.

My new flatmates and I got dressed up and went out for Halloween. The whole city was out in costume. I went as Kali, the goddess of destruction, a reprisal of a costume I wore to Sandi's housewarming party, and a vital ingredient of which was the wig that everyone laughed at me when I said I was thinking of taking it, and so I gave it to someone or to Vinnie's - I can't remember which. This meant I had to buy a wig - and they didn't have the same kind here, so I ended up having to buy a "rasta / braided" wig, cos it looked kind of similar, and could pass as Indian goddess hair, but which was a bit odd wearing down the street in my neighbourhood! It was even weirder when I wore the same costume to the decompression party at Third Ward out in Brooklyn last Sat night, and so was coming home at 5 am on my own in the costume and wig when no one else was in costume... When I got out of the cab on my corner, suddenly every car passing by decided to honk at me - more so than just the car service (aka gypsy cabs) guys looking for fares.

I've been making some of my own friends - I hung out with one of the girls from the film the other night, and we went to one of her friend's birthday drinks at a very trendy bar in the meatpacking district called Five Ninths. It was very Sex and the City. Afterwards we hung out at her place and it was one of the biggest apartments I've ever seen - it had a hallway with columns!

Putting some more pictures up - so check them out!

I also promise to respond to emails - tomorrow is a rare day off as a job got cancelled, so hoping to get back to all of my very patient friends... ;^)

Lots of love,

Ness xxx

2006-10-16T12:50:00.000-04:00

Six Feet Under Finale Clip

WARNING - Spoiler!
If you haven't seen the final season of Six feet Under, then don't watch...

But this made me cry, and I really related to Claire..

Busy, Busy, Busy

2006-10-16T00:07:00.000-04:00

Well, so far in NYC I've been alternately very busy, and then just sitting at home emailing off my resume..

But the good news is that the emailing has resulted in an internship which starts next week. It's with a very well known doco company, which is a really good thing, and it's 2 days a week. The bad news is that it is an internship, so it doesn't pay, but I'm really hoping the contacts and experience will be very beneficial.

The other news is that I'm moving out of my bro's place into a very small room with two great girls and two cats, three subway stops north of my bro's place.

I'm looking forward to it, but paying rent without a job isn't going to be the easiest thing to do, so things will need to speed up asap!

Other than that I've:

(a) had the best meal so far in NYC at Henry's - Grilled Seafood Salad
(b) seen the Cosmic Collisions show at the Planetarium
(c) done a walking tour of Harlem focussing on the Harlem Renaissance
(d) seen Cat Empire at the Speigeltent
(e) hung out with my friend Kirrilly who was in town to make a documentary about Elise who's here to work at the UN as the Australian Youth Representative, and been shown around the Un by Elise
(f) worked on shoot with my bro
(g) taken advantage of the Mon-Wed $21 manicure and pedicure special
(h) walked around Brooklyn with a friend, concentrating on different neightbourhoods and possible rental options
(i) walked over my favourite bridge - The Brooklyn Bridge
(j) gone to Burning Man happy hour
(k) seen The Departed - a US remake of Infernal Affairs - loved the original - the remake is also really good
(l) seen the Dr. Eddie Henderson Quartet (he usually plays with Herbie Hancock) at Smoke - a jazz bar near here
(m) looked at some apartments to rent - including 2 nice ones and one incredibly dodgy one...
(n) picked up boxes from the airport
(o) attended a really interesting talk at Columbia by Bill Fletcher Jnr
(p) seen the Hopper exhibition at the Whitney
(q) been on the Surveillance Camera Players Tour of the Upper East Side
(r) wandered through the rapidly gentrifying artists' spaces and warehouses of DUMBO for the Art Under the Bridge Festival, as well as pretending (with a friend) to be a couple interested in buying an apartment in the multi-million dollar apartment development, and being treated to free stuff as well as a personal explanation and demo of what "our" apartment would be like

So check out the photos, and drop me a line...

Ness xx

Photos

2006-10-15T23:57:00.000-04:00

I've been busy taking photos, and you can find them here:

New York

Food and Shopping

2006-10-06T16:19:00.000-04:00

There's lots of exciting things to talk about when you move countries - new friends, jobs, events, dating, sightseeing and so on and so forth...

But let's leave all those just for a minute to talk about some very important issues - yes I'm talking about Food and Shopping.

America has a 24/7 Food network on cable tv, where you can learn how to prepare prosciutto-wrapped fresh figs stuffed with a delicate blue cheese, or alternately prepare some of the fattiest foods I've ever seen (hamburgers stuffed with pats of butter and sausages), in the back of your ute.

Some people would have you believe America is becoming a gourmet nation, but I've seen / tried some things here that go beyond cultural difference, and I've been here so many times before, so it isn't like I expected things to be exactly the same as at home, or I'm talking about the standard things all Australians are amazed by in the States - eg. how gigantic the servings are.

I'm talking about an entire restaurant that only serves macaroni and cheese. That's right folks, only macaroni and cheese. Now I've never eaten macaroni and cheese before (pasta al quattro formaggi, sure, but that's slightly different) . After this experience, I won't be trying it again.

Now I'm not saying the food was bad - it's just not my thing. Two bites as a side dish, maybe, but as an entire meal it was scary and disturbing; the place was packed.

Which brings us to shopping. I'm very lucky - my brother's neighbourhood has an amazing store nearby which has a great selection, and very fresh fruit and veg, as well as a whole lot of deli favourites - meats, cheeses etc etc. There's also a supermarket one block in the other direction.

It takes me hours to go shopping. I spend an insane amount of time trying to read packets and work out what the difference is between the 75 different types of the same product. I tried picking the first thing and buying it, but came home with crackers that have the taste and texture of shredded wheat cereal, but are flavoured with fake tomato and basil flavouring.

Despite this, choice is not an option when it comes to things like jars of kalamata olives (one type, pitted), preserved lemon (specialty item - one type - not what I was expecting) and flavoured tuna (it doesn't exist).

I have, however, discovered Israeli couscous, and as soon as I can find it in a shop I'll be making up a great dish I tried at a dinner party - olive oil, mushrooms, garlic - delicious!

Some pictures from NYC

2006-09-28T00:51:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from the street fair - that's my liddle bro David and Rach, and the lake in central park - note the apartment block they used in Ghost Busters, which (as my bro says) you can see easily from the park, but try and walk along central park west and find it, and you can't... spooky... ;^)

so good they named it twice (and other clichés)...

2006-09-26T00:43:00.000-04:00

Well - after a number of really great farewells, and a very sad goodbye to friends, family and the ocean, I'm here...

And so far it's been mainly settling in - I've seen more of the Container Store, Bed Bath and Beyond and the Cingular cell phone store than anything else! But what that means is I don't have to dig to the bottom of my incredibly well packed suitcase (thanks Dad!) to get to my clothes. I'm the proud owner of a snazzy wardrobe rack, some container store shelving things and a shoe rack - all very portable for when I eventually find my own place.

But it hasn't all been unpacking and resume writing - my brother Dave and his girlfriend Rach have had a large number of social engagements that I've tagged along to, and met some great people from the nyc burner community.

I've also had my very first visitor (sorry to those of you who were hoping to claim that title). Om David (also known as Om Brewok to some of you) my old boss and lecturer from the Indonesian Dept of UNSW was in town doing some research for his latest book, and we caught up for drinks at a very nice bar called Sugar down on 82nd street. It was a rare quiet night for them, but I'll be going back for the music at some stage in the not too distant future!

Also met my first independent friend (ie not connected to my bro). Had lunch with Gustavo - an old friend of my friend Ravit's - and we got on really well, which was great.

And did a very NY thang.. went to a street fair. Not just any street fair either. The first weekend Dave, Rach and I went to the Columbus Ave Street Fair - beautiful weather, and great food - I held out all the way down the street until we reached the New Orleans Restaurant and I had jambalaya.

So I'm sure there'll be more exciting news to come, but probably less writing than the last blog - not so many exciting and new things being squeezed into every day when you've moved somewhere rather than travelling - sorry traveling - gotta learn to spell American ;^)

5 weeks to go...

2006-08-06T21:11:00.000-04:00

Well, I was trying not to count down, but so many people have asked me how long I have left, and so I finally did it...

Hmmm - okay - that's enough thinking about that for now...