Join me this week Tuesday, March 3, from 7-10pm, fellow Jersey City Craft Mafia member Megan Gulick opens her show Down the Rabbit Hole at LITM. I’ll be the photographer so come and say hello.
LITM
140 Newark Ave
Jersey City, NJ
1/2 a block west of Grove Street PATH Station
for more information on the gallery, visit www.litm.com .
Megan’s show runs through the end of March.
I am happy to announce that I have joined the ranks of the newly-formed Jersey City Craft Mafia alongside some amazing like minded and creative neighborhood heroes.
Links to each of their web sites are over on my side bar, and I will try to post regularly about upcoming events we are going to host such as an art supply swap, classes, and craft fairs! I am so excited to get to be a part of this. It makes living here all the more fun and productive. Now that the holidays and travel are all out of the way, I can focus again on my Etsy shop and creating more handmade things!
I am scanning old pictures for a friend (okay, trying to find good ones with no luck is more like it — I am so sorry, I will keep trying), and I ran across this photo of me with my old friend of friends Kevin Jacobs, whom Brendan and I ran into at the diner just the other night when we had our annual meeting in our home town. This, after not seeing him for about six years, and missing him at the funeral of a friend and then probably this is the one picture I have of him. I like coincidences like that. It makes me think things happen for a reason, and this keeps me safe in my little bubble of God.
Whenever I tell people where I am from, they cannot believe there is a place called Brick Township. Well, I and my fellow schoolmates (plus lots of people from the NJ scene board) can tell you, it does exist and it is on the shore and I miss living near the ocean and I secretly hate the city and how mean everyone is to everyone else. And it is dirty. And maybe I’ve been drinking a little bit too much wine in preparation for posting details of this fabulous party we are having this month:
We, in conjunction with James of Draw and Quarter are showing a great movie with a modern twist of soundtrack. We’re showing Man With The/A Movie Camera to the tune of a great album by The Books called The Lemon of Pink. It was probably on your radar in 2007, and Rory and I discovered they are a perfect match for the film, which has its own soundtrack that we’ll be sure to play some of as well. Please come if you can make it to our party! Out of towners are welcome to the floors and couches.
Last time we had a show in our apartment was about a year ago, but tonight we are hosting Tim and Herbie from Brown Recluse Sings for a tiny apartment show, as they are stopping off during their mini-East-Coast tour! Its only two of the guys and they are old friends. Should be a nice, mellow evening, so message me if you want directions and more details!
Here is what you are in for:
Sorry I’m still in hermit mood! Grad school applications are about 45% done, now, and the deadlines are all right now. I’ve also been spending a lot of free time babysitting for Rory’s nephew. I’ll be back soon, I promise.
Friday night we had the best time out in Jersey City I’ve had since moving here, and its for the dorkiest reasons. Literally two blocks from our front door, these guys put on a show with music created solely with low-bit technology like Gameboys and drum machines. They call it Chip Tunes but I sort of like to call it 8-bit or just plain nerd heaven, and we danced it up just to prove our love. Rory’s friend Mike and his girlfriend Rita met us there. It was so much fun.
A self-portrait I did a while ago that explains everything about my relationship with video games and outdated technology. I don’t want to turn this blog into a classic gaming showcase, so I won’t. But I could. Oh my goodness, could I. The only trouble would be that I wouldn’t stop.
The show I hosted at The Lamppost in Jersey City went off great last weekend. Not everyone who said they were coming could show, but we had an amazing time. Lots of dancing, and happy to find the bar amenable to our whims. I was so happy to have our Portland friends here on the West Coast, and to have a pretty decent turnout from friends both new and old. Here are some of my favorite shots of the night.
Today I’m heading out to photograph at the Music Hall of Williamsburg (ex-North 6th) for the first girls rock camp showcase of 2008! Campers will be performing original songs with the bands they formed while at camp for the past week or so. I’m so excited to see this in action!
Just in case you weren’t aware, my roommate was born on the Fourth of July, and every display of fireworks is held in her honor. This year in celebration we got several free pairs of tickets, and recruited a group of friends to see Sonic Youth and The Feelies play in Battery Park. I am always impressed by the River to River summer events, because they are usually well organized and the sound quality is amazing, despite the noise of the city surrounding the event. The Feelies had a really nice, lush sound, and Sonic Youth were given a great mic setup, so drums, baseline, and walls of mind-splitting sound were all perceptibly distinct and just awesome. We should have packed a picnic for this event, but we were scared off by the threat of having to throw out certain things for security reasons, as if we were getting on an airplane. Next time, Kim Gordon, we will bring you some magic cookies.
Next we hopped back on the PATH and got off near Exchange Place for amazing Mexican Food at Baja. I’ve never been there and didn’t know it existed, despite having lived in Hoboken and Jersey City for two years now. Baja is like Disney Land in Mexico… it was a total escape from reality because the decor was amazing, and the food was supremely satisfying. Allison pointed out they were playing Brazilian Girls, which was brilliant.
Finally, we took a tip from what we learned last year on the Fourth of July: why hike to the waterfront when we could see fireworks from the roof? Don’t tell our landlord, but we climbed the fire escape and were able to see both Jersey City and a tiny corner of the Macy’s Manhattan fireworks right from the roof! If we didn’t love our apartment before, we do now.
The rainy, hazy weather made it impossible to capture any fireworks on film, but here are some shots of the street below:
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!
Photo via last.fm.
This is happening in August, approximately one mile from my front door. I am seriously debating the purchase of the very expensive ticket, because maybe we’ll be able to hear everything from our rooftop. How upset will I be if it sells out, and I have to suffer from hearing the noise and amazement of the crowd, without being able to join them? Will I regret not being on the ground floor and grabbing amazing photographs? Should I try and find an organization that wants me to cover it for them?
I’m not one for crowds, but the bands I am most interested in seeing are:
Radiohead — Friday and Saturday
Underworld — Friday
The Go! Team — Friday
Girl Talk — Friday
Juana Molina * — Friday
Andrew Bird — Friday
Grizzly Bear * — Friday
Mates of State * — Friday
Animal Collective * — Saturday
Chromeo * –Saturday
Cat Power — Sunday
Neil Halstead — Sunday
(* And I’ve already seen them another time.)
It took a long time for us to find out that this was even happening in Liberty State Park. Certainly we hadn’t heard about it until after ticket sales were open online, and much of the event had been planned. I wonder how much press the show will get, and furthermore I wonder if we can rent out our couches to show-goers at an outrageous fee, since there are no good hotels in the area.
The only event we have attended in the park was going to see the simultaneous fireworks displays both in Jersey City and lower Manhattan this past fourth of July. The crowd was pretty intense, though the ride over by Hudson-Bergen Light Rail was quite easy (its just one stop over). Most of the walking comes from actually crossing the length of the park. If we could hop on a boat over to the end of the park, it would take all of three minutes to get here.
In fact, that is pretty much my neighborhood up above in the picture on the foreground of the left hand side of the photo. You can see the Statue of Liberty between buildings as you walk in certain areas of Downtown Jersey City, and its quite nice!
Now, is it worth $300 to attend the three-day festival? You can’t bring food or drinks, and its certainly going to be more crowded than on the fourth of July. I want to make a decision soon so that I’m not locked out of buying tickets if I decide to go for it!
Something amazing is happening tomorrow at Union Pool! You may remember me posting about how I was doing some promotions for the Girls Rock! movie. Well, tomorrow I get to attend and photograph a mini-rock camp for girls. The mini-camp is being held by the Willie Mae Rock Camp For Girls, an organization that hosts a rock camp in NYC every summer, as well as an amazing Ladies Rock Camp, which serves as a fundraiser for the organization so that they can provide financial aid to campers who otherwise may not be able to afford to come to camp.
Advance tickets through the web site are $10 per person (18 and under).
Adults come free with a kid.
This event is best suited for kids ages 5 & up.
Adults who wish to attend without kids will be charged $12 at the door.
If you can’t make it, but would like to help out, you can make a donation on the web site, or bid on Fender Stratocaster “Girls Rock!” guitar right now on eBay!
To volunteer for future events, check out the volunteering page. Check out girlsrockcamp.org to read about the history of Girls Rock Camp, and how this all got started in the first place.
Allison and I will both be there, so if you can make it, please say hello.
Rock On!
Artist Steph Tichenor, of Montclair, NJ, used some of my photos in her blog regarding the THREADS wearable art and fashion show this past weekend in Jersey City:
‘undercovers’ being carried on stage.
rosalie modeling ‘undercovers’.
threads finale.
post-finale.
She also linked my post in a wonderful round up of the event via blogs and web sites, here. Thanks, Steph!
Oh, and Rory also linked me on his blog, but that hardly counts if we are in love. Or so I’ve been told.
A few years ago, I lived with a dear friend and roommate of mine who had a lovely house on mountain (still does!) that was just perfect for putting on shows and hosting parties. We put on a show to benefit Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls in a drive they did to have 50 shows in 50 states in order to raise funds for the camp to continue. Basically, the organization runs camps for girls to attend in order to learn self confidence through musical education.
I’ve taken this directly from their site:
Mission
The Girls Rock Camp Alliance is an international coalition of organizations whose shared mission is to empower girls and women using the tools of music education to foster self-esteem and confidence. To this end, the GRCA promotes, strengthens, and expands services provided by its members.
Core values
We value the power of music as a means to create personal and social change;
We value efforts that actively expand opportunities for girls and women;
We value positive approaches to fighting sexism;
We value integrity, honesty and respect;
We value appropriate sharing of resources, cooperation, and collaboration;
We value using our collective voice to further our mission;
We value diversity.
So, super cool, right? I am so excited to see a documentary about the experience of girls in this camp that I decided to sign up and get promotional materials to spread the word! I sent out a mass email to friends asking for their support, and it looks like a bunch of us will be attending the opening weekend on March 7th. Last night while we were out on the town in a local bar, I snuck some flyers and stickers onto a table, and I’ve got my sights set on bringing posters to local coffee shops where you just know some local musicians have got to be spending a lot of their time. The posters are huge! I wonder if anyone will let me even hang them!
Anyway, included in the press kit were a ton of amazing stickers from the organization. I would love to send some out to you if you are interested. Please email me your name and address to my gmail account, which is emilyaugust.
Hooray for Girls Rock Camp and the movie!!
Today, Rory, Allison, and I attended THREADS: Wearable Art Fashion Show at the Jersey City Museum. The event was sponsored by the museum and by gaia studio. In total we had to walk about four blocks to attend this event, as it was right in our amazing neighborhood.
Rory knew a few classmates from NYU’s ITP program who were showing work in the fashion show, but, more importantly, we went to see Despina Papadopoulis, a teacher and designer with whom Rory has been working closely this semester at her studio, Studio 5050. Despina was a key speaker along with the two women who founded BurdaStyle! For those of you who sew, BurdaStyle is a must for you to bookmark: sign up, find inspiration and free, copy-right free patterns and designs, and upload your own creations. The women from Burda Style (Nora Abousteit and Benedikta Von Karaisl) gave a presentation on the Open Source aspect of the site, and the ways in which involving the community of sewers and DIY fashion designers across the Internet is revolutionizing many aspects of communication and sharing amongst fashion designers of every skill level. It made me excited to have some time this week to do some sewing of my own. I loved how they stressed the importance that web sites like flickr and etsy are having on our culture.
Studio 5050′s Despina spoke next about the history of the availability of textiles and fashion and the ways that consumerism has affected and been affected by our need to clothe our own vulnerabilities and communicate information to the world. The work that she does involves exploring new ways to combine wearable fashion with technology in order to play with the dialogue we have between our selves and the spaces we create around our bodies. I’m very excited to say that she invited me down to the studio for a visit this week, so I’m going to check it out one day when Rory’s working there (he’s one of her interns).
Despina and the ladies of BurdaStyle.com taking questions during a Q&A session. I loved the flyer design, which you can see projected up on the screen behind them.
Below I have pictures of the opening piece, “Body Bootie” by Juliana Cope. It was absolutely fun and amazing. These are knitted plastic bags formed into a costume worn by performance artist Glenis Holder. Her movements were whimsical like a puppet bobbing around on the stage. Halfway through the performance, she altered the suit to reveal a very pregnant belly and access for her hands to begin throwing streamers of bright orange plastic around as she twirled. It was really amazing and a great start to the show.
“Body Bootie” by Juliana Cope
“Undercovers: A Bespoke Burial Blanket” by Tichenor, Tichenor & Mayoff.
The model was carried on stage by six pall bearers wearing black.
The shroud is meant to be a biodegradable coffin replacement, incorporating
several materials to represent Life, Spirituality, and the Beyond.
“Tampon Couture”, Danielle Fotopoulos.
Yes, the non-traditional materials used in this dress
are, in fact, feminine hygiene products.
The overall affect was quite elegant, though
someone did briefly warn the model to be careful of other
people carrying red wine at the reception afterward.
The picture above represents both the pall bearers
carrying the body enshrouded in “Undercovers” off the stage,
but also the project that brought me the most joy.
The model walking up the aisle with the feathery afro
(my dream hair, by the way) was wearing “The Aphrodite Project:
Platforms”. These babies are super high-tech hooker shoes!
They incorporate safety, video, and even GPS technology.
One could receive information, or set off an emergency alarm with these,
as well as stash such necessities as money and condoms in a hidden
compartment. The GPS would help them in a dangerous situation,
alerting others to their whereabouts or just helping them find
their way home. Wherever that may be.
“Tabbed” by Pollie Barden, designer and neighbor or ours.
Peel away clothing inspired by paper dolls.
“The Muttering Hat” and “The Talk to Yourself Hat” by Kate Hartman.
Die hard emilyaugust followers will realize that this was
the hat that I tested just about a year ago when Kate was
looking for volunteers at ITP. (That is the program where
my boyfriend Rory is working on his Masters Degree.)
mutter, mutter, mutter…
There were tons of other amazing projects at this show, and lovely little giveaways. I am treasuring the little Burda Style buttons I received. Check out the Events Page at Gaia Studio for more information, and for upcoming events.
More photos from this event can be found in my gaia fashion show and lecture flickr set. Contact me directly for use of these photos or to request high-resolution larger photo sizes.
After an invite to the movies from a friend today, I discovered something amazing going on this Thursday night at Angelika Theater! I don’t know if I will go, since I have already decided to attend an open house for a graduate school program that I’m interested in. I am torn between exploring something that will affect my future, and enjoying the creative process of something that influences my present mindset very heavily… then again, since only 203 tickets are available, I have a feeling that a casual drop-by after work on the day-of would not warrant me a ticket.
From the Angelika Theater Blog:
Radiolab, the syndicated, top-rated NPR program is premiering its 4th season at the Angelika New York on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 7pm. The free “listening premiere”, held in conjunction with WNYC public radio, is open to the first 203 lucky fans to arrive at the theater – attendees will be treated to some pretty cool guests, including one of The Onion’s hilarious editors, an underground musical act and the chance to meet the Radiolab hosts themselves!
Hosted by award winning, cult-journalist heroes Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, Radiolab airs locally on WNYC and takes an accessible, documentary-style, intelligent (and kind of odd) approach to tackling existentialist-friendly topics and current events (past shows have featured such titles as Morality, Beyond Time, & Who Am I).
For more info, visit the Radiolab Website. And keep checking back at our blog for exclusive media from a some of the [wacky] participants….
Check out Radio Lab on wnyc.org.
And, by the way, the films we want to see are Persepolis, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Has anyone seen either of these yet? Also, Little Known Fact: This is the theater where Rory and I had our first date. We saw a very inappropriate film by Vincent Gallo, and sat nervously ignoring each other’s reactions to the graphic content. It was really romantic.
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