Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me.

SO, today is officially my 22nd birthday!!! Went to the fair last night to celebrate with Ish, Bob, Danielle, Heather, Mike, my brother, and Ammi and Mindi (for a hot second) and honestly, it hasn't changed at all in the past 10 years. My cousin and i would get so excited when we were in the 4H horse shows, just waiting, anticipating, DYING to go on all the rides after we got done riding. Now i realize, the fair really isn't half as big as it used to seem. Still, had lots of fun. Blooming onions, stuffed animals and the beer tent are what it's all about anyway. Ish got me some jewelry and the "God Bless America" Daniel Johnston print i wanted :p I also got a crazy amount of itunes cards, which is random, considering no one has ever given them to me before. So now that i've downloaded Animal Collective, Broken Social Scene, Cake, the double Daniel Johnston CD with his versions of the songs and other artists covering them, Devendra Banhart, the Flaming Lips, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Panda Bear, and the Shins, i implore you: WHAT ELSE COULD POSSIBLY BE WORTH DOWNLOADING WITH MY LEFTOVER BALANCE OF $25??? Please, enlighten me here, i need your help. Tonight i picked some more recipes out of my veg cookbook. I made avocado/cucumber salad w/ homemade bleu cheese dressing and penne pesto with carrots, yellow squash, mushrooms and tomato. I even picked the basil for the pesto fresh off our plants- it was yum to say the least. Then i made chocolate chip cookies. Tomorrow- the actual day of my birth- i'm not really doing much of anything at all. I might be able to see Ish for a few minutes while he's in Brimfield limbo, I have a photo assignment i plan on attending solo at 4, and i'm supposed to meet up with Bob and Danielle for a night cap later on. That's good enough i guess, i just wish i got to spend more one-on-one time with Ish- i mean- while we're actually concious and not sleeping next to each other. We've been wanting to go to Howe Caverns basically since we've been together and i think we're going to take a day/night trip out there. They have this special tour where you go later in the evening when the place is closed down and they turn the lights off and show you everything by lantern light for 2 hours. I'm thinking that would be more fun than the regular tour. Plus, it's adults only so there won't be any snotty little brats on the boat with us :) Also, the Baseball Hall of Fame is less than an hour away, and i think that that's one of those things you kind of have to see. Right? Wednesday night i'm going out to dinner with my fam. It took me a while to pick a place, but after some serious thinking i remembered Last Chance Cheese in Tannersville. I went there last year with Ish, Jess, and Gabe and it's really the perfect kind of place for me. They have a crazy cheese list and you can get cheese plates and fondue. Their beer list is incredibly extensive, they have beers from countries i've never even heard of. Well, not really, but they definitely have Chinese beer and that is fucking random. The other great thing about the place is it also serves as an antique shop. The cafe is covered in all sorts of old junk you can just buy off the wall. AND there's a gourmet candy/food shop on the other side, so you can order the cheese in bulk and bring it home or get old fashioned candy. Last time i got those little sugar-liquid filled wax bottles and we drank them all on the way home. I miss Jess and Gabe. I remember me and Jess got hot apple cider with spiced rum and our table was in front of a cozy little fireplace. 23B was closed so we had to take some dangerously windy Jess/Gabe road to get there in their old cold station wagon. It was great. I hope to try the fondue this time. I also hope 23B isn't closed again because i don't want to be able to see the cars that have fallen off the cliff we so bravely drove on the edges of. On a side note: Vermont was fun. Me and Debbie definitely smoked our share of tree and drank our share of beerz. Her cabin is sooo cute!!! I would love to live out there in the wilderness. The closest town/city place is about 10 mins away but it's not like the towns around here. It kind of reminded me of Portland, ME. I'm thinking that once i retire, there's no way i'm not moving to Vermont or Maine. No way in hellll. In the past few days i've also decided i want to go on a cross country road trip. Now that i'm saving up money, realizing that i'm probably not going to have a better time in my life to do it, and craving the opportunity to set my eyes on new sights and surroundings, i think it's probably the best idea i've ever had. Obviously i'm not unique in that sense, but i think the time has come. I'm planning to do it in the spring. I want to bring one other person with me, i just haven't decided who yet. I want to fly out to Colorado and rent a car and just go from there. I want to see Colorado most of all, and i think that skiing will still (hopefully) be an option in the spring (pray for a long winter!). I think i'm going to mark all the places i want to see on a map. I know i want to see California and Oregan BADLY, Chicago too... and the Grand Canyon and all that snazz... and i definitely want to see Alaska though i don't have the slightest idea as to how i would get up there. Maybe i'll take a ship there? Who knows. Then, after i conquer this country, i'll feel more satisfied and ready, and hopefully i'll get to go see a bunch of other ones (besides Italia). Anyway, i'm also really excited about the gallery opening this Saturday!!! I can't wait to see what it looks like and meet all the artists and I REALLYYY hope that someone buys something! That's all for now, it's getting late, but i'll post a couple VT pics. They're from the farm that Debbie applied to and is hopefully going to get a job at. And if this connection wasn't such a piece of cow shit i would totally upload tons more pictures all of the time- but unfortunately, it's an unnecessarily slow and grueling process.

when i wake up in the morning, pour the coffee, and i read the paper, and i slowly, and so softly, i do the dishes. i feed the fishes. sing a birthday sing it like it's going to be your last day. like it's hallelujah, don't let it just pass on through ya it's a giant and long cliché, and that's why i want you to sing it anyway sing me happy birthday 'cause hell, what's it all about?
sing me happy birthday, happy birthday. it's gonna be your last day, gonna be your last day.
sing me happy birthday, happy birthday, like it's going to be, going to be your last day.

-Andrew Bird

Sunshines suntimes.

Went to Ancram community day tonight to take pics. For some reason i just feel like i had a really good time- even though i was by myself. The kids were just so awesome. Some of them posed for pictures and they were all eager to tell me their names, it was so cute. I'm going to post up my three favorite pics. Also, tomorrow, i'm going to Vermont with Debbie! She's moving in on Saturday and we're bringing some stuff up and we're going to check out the farm she applied to. So yeah, it's going to be a chill two hour road trip, i'm definitely bringing my camera! I haven't been to Vermont in so long and i LOVE it there. I'm pretty excited. It's just a day trip but still. Thursday is the Yankees game, Friday and Saturday i work for Leo Fortuna and The Inde, and Sunday is my Col. Co. Fair celebration!!! This week has been pretty busy/enjoyable. Jonestown was priceless- it was great- and the other night i went to Debbie's friend's (Steve) house for his birthday. We went for a really beautiful sunset walk, wish i had my camera for that one. Suppose that's all for now.

Now c'mon peoples- leave me some comment love!!!!!

Wonderland.

I rewrote the press release for Leo Fortuna today. Made it a lot shorter. Here it is:

Press Release
For Immediate Distribution

Title: Wonderland
Dates: Opening September 8, 6-8 p.m. until September 24, 2007
Artists: Roy Bautista, Natalia Porter, Ami Suma
Curator: Melissa Stafford

Leo Fortuna Gallery is proud to present, Wonderland, an independently curated group show featuring contemporary mixed media works that take us down the rabbit hole, into a dreamlike world rife with tortured beings, piles of playthings and puffy protectors of innocence. The term “Wonderland” describes a marvelous imaginary realm, which, because of our instinctual need to place faith in reality, usually features connections to the real world. We all have our own unique utopian visions of the Wonderlands in our heads, and this exhibition exposes three of them. Roy Bautista’s brutally honest drawings explore the concept of fear. His figures, often plagued by an overload of anxieties, are representative of fetishes; they are caught up in a particular emotional moment, often dwelling on or struggling with concepts like “love” and “death.” On the other end of the spectrum, Natalia Porter’s Wonderland is an “Island” of imagination she has created by disassociating objects with the values we’ve assigned to them. Toys are often seen purely for what they are and for what purpose they serve, but Porter changes this all by collecting plastic treasures like vibrantly-colored cars and balls, arranging them in a cluttered heap, drawing them on the computer, and bringing them to life again in the form of a digital print. Fantasy and reminisces of childhood are also largely present in the drawings of Ami Suma. Suma says her “Mr. Ball,” a hypothetical toy made of a plushy ball, with flexible hanging arms and a varying wardrobe, is meant to make you giggle and “remember your childhood, feeling disgusted, but liking something.” All three artists present conflicts of interest between reality and fantasy, trust and mistrust, in ways that take us out of our heads- to a place where anything and everything is possible.


422 1/2 Warren Street
Hudson, NY 12534
T: 518.697.7909
F: 518.751.1292
www.leofortuna.com
gallery@leofortuna.com
Gallery Hours:
Open daily 11:00am – 5:00pm, except Tuesdays-Thursday, and by appointment.

Not, by any means finalized, but still, it's something i've spent some hours on. I also made some business cards!!! My dad said the font is too small and he can't read them. He also has really bad eyesight and needs to see an optometrist, so really, i'm iffy about them but they're just preliminary. It's embarrassing when people ask for your business card and all you can do is write your name, number and E-mail address down on a piece of scrap paper. Also, GO SEE SUPERBAD- It's super awesome!

Evan: You changed your name to McLovin?

Seth: It doesn't even have a first name, it just says McLovin!

Evan: The guys either going think 'here's another guy with a fake ID', or 'here's McLovin, 25 year old Hawaiian organ donor.'

Fogell: I am McLovin.

Rainy day woman #2.

Today is the second gloomy, cold, drizzly day in a row. Perfect because The Inde hasn't given me any assignments in about a week and i can drink tomato soup and take naps at my own leisure, and not so perfect because i'm not making money. I could go strip frames for a couple hours, i'm just not feeling ambitious enough for that. On the up and up, i landed a job with Leo Fortuna Gallery on Warren St. in Hudson. My boss Adi is great, but i'm only getting $8 an hour because it's an "internship" and because he's running on a low budget- it's a brand new gallery. Sitting at a computer for hours on end each weekend can be pretty awful, but i'm learning a lot about: how galleries operate, various contemporary artists, strawberry banana smoothies from Nolita, etc. Basically, i've become really great friends with Adi's pit bull, Flower. Our next opening, "Wonderland," will be September 8th at 6 p.m. We'll be featuring mixed-media works by Roy Bautista, Natalia Porter and Ami Suma. Shameless plugging? Course it is! Come and buy some amazing art!
Lake George was great. Now that i'm older and probably more cynical, i've realized that EVERYTHING in Lake George costs money. Probably more than most of it is worth. Nonetheless, it's good to get away for a while and drink beers on boats. Two of my favorite things in one sweet little package. I posted the pics from my dad's camera on Facebook, but i have yet to deal with the ones i took on Ish's camera, so there are still more to come!

My birthday is actually coming up soon too. 22 here i come, woo. Feel free to give me either of these signed Daniel Johnston prints as a gift:

http://www.hihowareyou.com/ I would love you forever.

Aside from my birthday i'm excited about:

1. Heather's bridal shower, Sat. Aug. 25- my oldest friend, my first ever bridal shower.

2. Jonestown, Sat. Aug. 25- the first in a really really really ridiculously long like probably 10 years time. Beer, BBQ, jams, and drunken townies galore <3.

3. Yankees vs. Red Sox, Thurs. Aug. 30- my third game of the season, my second Yanks/Red Sox game ever. Buck Foston.

4. Columbia County Fair, Sun. Sept. 2- BIRTHADY CELEBRATION WITH BACON BROTHERS MOTHER FUCKERS!

5. Of Montreal at the Roseland Ballroom, Sat. Oct. 13- Me+Lauren+Of Montreal= parrrtayyy.

As for pictures, the only thing i've been taking as of late have been newspaper pics and pics of antiques. I'm guessing you'd rather look at the newspaper ones, huh?

I obviously didn't take this one, but i did ride in a motorized parachute while Kate was here. I went to take pics of Diane Valden flying with the crazy Mr. Fox for a story, and then they asked me if i wanted to go for a ride! We flew over my house and my dad came out on the porch, shirtless, and waved to us.

Here i am high up in the sky, above the treetops.

Oh yeah, i also got a weekend-long press pass to Falcon Ridge! Here's a night shot i took. Wasn't published, but i think it's pretty cool.

Alright, these last two made the front page. Also, i got to go to the courthouse last week and take pictures of a murderer! They put it on the front page too, but i don't think i want to put it up. Mainly because i don't want to die. Think i might be sending my dog wedding piece into Chronogram, but i'll keep all you thousands of readers/fans updated. I think it'd be nice to work for them... maybe when i have more free time. Haaah. Cheers.

Just another day.

Harry Potter party at the Spotty Dog and Columbia County road trip! P.S.- Kate's here!!!

New happenings!

Sooo, i quit my job at Cascades, hooked up with the Independent again for freelancing, and my dad bought me a new Canon 30D!!! My boyfriend is in Ireland, my brother is in Australia, and I'm spending the 4th of July with my dad. Anyway i've had a lot of free time to hang out with my family and see some friends that i haven't seen in a while, not to mention, test out my new toy. Since i haven't updated in a billion years i figured i'd load this thing up with some new pictures ;) I'll be posting more once i finish the Cascades on Saturday and start getting some more assignments. Here they are kids, enjoy!

Sandy Skoglund

I just wrote a paper on Sandy Skoglund for my final color photo class...and i mean, i actually wrote it...by hand, made use of my 3 year old white-out and everything. I've loved Skoglund's work since Mrs.Debonis introduced us to it in high school. Here are the images i wrote about!




...so today i finished my 1,000 word "Own Town" review (see below), edited the paragraphs and pictures in my senior project, printed 3 pictures in the darkroom, and wrote this Skoglund paper. I'm pretty much amazing...and DONE!