Emily August

Reposted from www.prize-pony.com.

The Winners of the Apartment Therapy Small Cool 2008 contest were just announced, and I am really taken by the East Coast winners’ abode: Tony and Hilary’s tiny space looks like the penultimate in organized living. I am so impressed with the floor plan that I’m feeling like our own apartment is a tad too big! Maybe its all of the downsizing I’ve been doing this year: selling CDs and books, getting rid of clothing and other non-essentials. I keep kidding with Rory that I’m preparing to move across the country, but what I really mean is that un-cluttering your life can become a really nice addiction. I am so inspired by this Small Cool winner that I wanted to link to it here, so that I remember this over the weekend when I’m going through stuff I’m holding on to for no reason! Think of the potential for relaxation and calm in a space where you know where every thing is.

Too Cool. Bravo.

little licks for big kicks

Rory is graduating tomorrow (!), and we’re leaving for Ireland in two weeks (!!). Meanwhile I am playing catch up at work in the way where I literally need to close my office door to concentrate, and its not easy.

Feeling a little discouraged lately; I am getting very impatient with myself as my debt dwindles away–the process is agonizingly slow, like jogging through quick sand. I guess there is something about pushing yourself so hard all the time that leaves you feeling quite negative. I am trying to figure out how to find a good balance of ambition, expectation, reality, and true happiness. Yes, these things are all tied to money matters, but they also involve pursuing further education, or being in the right place at the right time to find a good opportunity.

My antennae are up. I’m suddenly finding myself in a bad mood, but maybe vacation will help. Just need to make it through until then and keep being responsible with my money. Oh, how I long for some new Spring clothes, but I’ll have to make do without.

Sometimes its nice to express happiness. Often I feel like my photos might be perceived as serious or too contemplative for comment, but here are a few that are just wonderful on the eyes, randomly shot last night in our apartment. There is something about Allison’s shock-of-red hat, this general moment in our lives, and the lovely weather we’re having. Life is pretty amazing lately.

We are all figuring it out as we go, but it feels like sometimes you catch your own stride and really get somewhere. Its like that right now, I think.

More on flickr.

Someone from MAKE magazine featured Rory’s Square Band in the MAKE blog, probably after seeing it at the ITP Spring show last night.

Congratulations, Rory! Now everyone will believe me when I say that my boyfriend can sew. Not to mention the fact that this little instrument is a lot of fun to play with!

Special Announcement
So, Mother’s Day was super fun and fulfilling this year, but I’ll get to that in minute. First, I’d like to announce that I’ve signed on to volunteer at the Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City, right near the Liberty Science Center (just a short bike ride from our apartment). I am officially taking a position as their new Web Photographer, so I get to visit once a week, photograph the new animals that have come in, and write their descriptions for Petfinder. I can think of no other position that would suit me so well, and I can’t wait to get started, the week after Rory’s graduation. I’m sure you’ll start to see more animal portraits on my flickr page from now on. They are also hosting a few big events this summer, and planning some pretty amazing video shoots that I get to help with as everything comes together.

gratuitous ruby shot.

They also gave me permission to host a benefit show in town, which I’ll have to get to work on soon! Luckily I’ve run into Ryan Doyle enough times recently to recruit him into ganging up on Kevin Huelbig to come and play at the show! Expect more news soon.

Willie Mae
Willie Mae Rock Camp has also asked me back as a photographer for their summer camp, and they are currently looking for volunteers. The deadline to sign up to help is May 16th. Registration is still open for the Ladies Rock Camp.

my beautiful mother and older sisters,
from a few months ago.

Mother’s Day Weekend
This weekend A bunch of my siblings and I converged on my parents’ house in Bricktown, and spent Saturday afternoon unloading trucks of food for homeless people in Ocean County, New Jersey. My parents’ church is really awesome because they do a lot to help the community and they are really faithful when it comes to helping others and sharing their message through hard work and sacrifice so that others’ needs can be met. Here is their mission statement. If you are someone who claims to love God, I feel like this is the kind of church you need to be a part of. I was so impressed. I also felt very much at home when I attended their service on Sunday. My guess is that I’ll be back.

More info on the Ministry
The OCC Food Pantry Distribution – takes place the last Saturday of the month at 9am in the Parish House. For more information, please contact Tom LeBert at 732-240-2529

Jacob’s Well – Items needed and distributed

2nd Sunday of Every Month:
Manna Meals/Soup Kitchen – 4:00PM in the Parish House

Please let me know if you are in the area and want to donate or lend a hand. They help a ridiculous amount of people on a weekly basis, and I think I am in love with every single person at that church.

By the way, lifting heavy bags of canned goods is torture for the back muscles, but does wonders for your soul. GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND HELP PEOPLE.

Rory graduates on Saturday from NYU. He’s all done building robots and earning his Masters degree in Interactive Telecommunications. Tonight we went to visit him at the spring ITP show, which is also open to the public again tomorrow night.

Thanks to the wonder of the internet, you can view Rory’s thesis presentation online. Also be sure to check out Eugene’s presentation, which has a film starring Rory that was filmed in our apartment (and “our” park) in Jersey City. I promise they are worth the wait to download.

PS If you go to the show, take a minute to sit down and watch Nancy Garcia’s presentation. She’s got a small room set up with about six television monitors displaying her thesis. Its calming. She is also playing live with Thurston Moore on Friday!

I decided to give my digital art its own very simple home on the internet. Instead of posting big image files here, where the layout cuts off many of my images, I set up this new blog to be free of formatting and only feature the artwork as an image file to link into flickr. If you are interested, you can check out emilyaugust.blogspot.com, or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Both blogs are also syndicated on LiveJournal:
gogodistro.
emilyaugust.

What a seriously gorgeous day in Downtown Jersey City.

Allison and I walked all around the neighborhood then took some of our work to the tables outside Beachwood so we could dog-and-people watch while giving the NYU film crew some room. When we walked back, they were filming on the corner. I think they’ve since headed to the park.

Here are some of the pictures from our walk, during which the need for me to purchase a bicycle became apparent. I love Jersey City.

electronic dancer.

A film crew from school is coming over to film Rory this morning as part of someone’s thesis project. I was given cursory information, but it was lost last night with the whiskey I injested. They’ll be here in approximately thirty minutes.

Meanwhile, Rory has transferred his cold to me, and I’ve a headache from the drinking we did last night for Nancy’s big birthday bash. I’m trying to decide if visitors warrant getting dressed while Rory is doing something to the shower curtains.

We went to a lounge on the Bowery where they served possibly the most elusive item for me to try (and fail every time) to make at home: fried polenta. I also had a lemon-basil martini that tasted nothing like lemon or basil. Everything was delicious (except for my martini), but two of the girls never got their drinks by the time we were ready to leave. We were all a bit confused by that, but I think we all enjoyed it. The restaurant is also going through some construction, and they are closing down in two days! The overly apologetic host was falling over himself to seat us, and he made things nice, though I have to say that the seating was really haphazard. Then again, we had no reservation and we ended up being a group of ten or so, so Bravo, Marion’s.

After Marion’s we went to the very swanky basement of the Chinatown Brasserie, where, because we were quite early for the crowd, we scored a booth at which we normally would have had to buy a bottle of Cristal to remain seated in. We had a really great time, with lots of talk about different projects going on by everyone in attendance: dancers, photographers, electronic artists, writers, and myself, the lowly administrator. When paparazzi started coming around (seriously, though we told the guy to stop because we aren’t famous), we thought we should probably leave. The fact that they started playing Ice, Ice, Baby also sealed the deal. That’s when some tramp drunkenly stepped on my foot, boring her ten inch tramp heel into my foot! Classic.

Rory just told me to get dressed.

So, this weekend has been pretty great so far.

This morning, Rory and I used the sage that I’m growing in the windowsill to make some delicious omelettes, and I juiced a few carrots with ginger and an apple. We both are working on some things: my shops online need tending to, and I’m researching grad schools, while Rory is working on his thesis. We took a break, visited the laundromat, picked up some bagels and coffee, and got right back to work. Its weird to think that I used do nothing on weekends. I can’t remember what that feels like. Even my nights after work I have been very busy, productive, or at least diligent in getting things done around the apartment (except for Thursday when I purposefully ate some of the potato chips that Cyra left here and watched a few episodes of this show about Obesity Clinics). I think I can still chalk this productivity up to going to the gym regularly, and not having children to tend to, or a dog to walk.

I also hope that I can at some point also chalk the gym up toward my being able to take a decent photo of myself from more than an arms length away.

In attempting to take several photos for upload onto etsy and eBay this weekend, I have run into a major problem. I am a horrible model. Just really terrible. In every photo, I think I look like a pale sack of alien potatoes with bad hair glued on top. At the very least I look awkward, and the worst I look simply horrified of the lens. Seems I am much better off taking pictures of the cat wearing a dress, or the clothes posed on a dress form. This just proves to me how much I belong behind a camera at all times. I’m going to go recruit some models in the wild streets of Jersey City, or maybe at the party we’re going to tonight.

Someone please send me pretty girls so I can stop taking pictures of myself.

Many thanks.