Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The Little Mermaid- or, absolutely hilarious puns.


Drama!
Originally uploaded by chlorinebeach.
Today! I woke early, + dressed myself for the day: Pink spotty skirt, paint shoes, blue double-u-neck American Apparel dress, boat sweater, fish earrings, Mrs. Lovett hair (I woke up with A Little Priest in my head). I really don't think I went overboard- I could have worn my mermaid skirt from Halloween (speaking of which, I must begin planning my costume immediamente).

On the train in, I read Fuddy Meers, which was vaguely confusing, but an entertaining read. Not really any (female) characters that I'm attracted to, but I won't be in the United States (hopefully) when we do that, so no loss. I can see, however, why Lindsay-Abbare is Matt Koenig's favorite writer. As I tittered over the script, the man across the aisle from me tapped me on the arm, and asked
"Are you an actress?"
"I'm in school for it, yes. Why?"
"Oh, well it's just that you really don't see too many people carrying around scripts these days."
"I guess that's so. Are you involved in theatre?"
"Well, I went to Carnegie Mellon for design, but..."
Ha! We had a nice little chat after that. He's apparently a web designer and photographer now, but that was cool.

I met up with Mary at the Lundt-Fontaine, + we got our Little Mermaid tickets- right in the front row. Then it was skipping off to MoMA where we were total badasses and walked straight past the line (after one of the guards was very rude to me) to the information desk for our free SUNY tickets. HA! I was looking for the Dada exhibit, but couldn't find it. However, we did see some stuff by Olafur Eliasson, who "concieves immersive environments- from model room featuring visionary sculptural maquettes to fluid light projections and multipart photographic series ... Probing the cognitive aspects of what it means to see, Eliasson creates complex optical phenomena using simple, makeshift technical devices." (-Museum Guide) It was quite neat- yellow lighting turned everybody black + white (although, when I tried to take a picture, everything just looked yellow), there were some neat mirror/spotlight tricks, and some things which I think were created just so the artist could laugh at his audience. Mostly though, we walked about being pretentious and playing name-that-ism. I also got to yell at The Absolutely Naked Fragrance, although not quite as much as I wanted to.

Hungry, we got some Italian food, which was good, but unimpressive, and then went to the theatre, where I dropped off a note for Merwin.

WELL! Disney certainly does have enough money. It's been a while since I've been to a real out-and-out splashy Braodway musical, so it was good, but at some points I felt like I was watching a Vegas show- I concluded that Ariel actually only wanted to go to the surface because all of the mermen were homosexuals: she needed somebody who could actually love her (and how's THAT for vigorous misuse of hyphenation?). They really took the Ursula-as-vamp thing + ran with it, which was delightful. The boy playing flounder was really cute, and overall, it was quite well done. I mostly spent the whole time drooling over all of the costumes.

During curtain call, I waved madly at Merwin, + he waved back I made a come-to-the-stage-door motion, which I did. He explained how the guy fell from the rafters, showed us the special 3M floor, the tracks, the costumes, all the bits. It was quite interesting, + quite a bit smaller (duh) than the last backstage of his I saw, at the Mariott Marquis, because it is supposed to be a straight play theatre, not a musical theatre (with 1400+ seats...?). There is therefore less storage space, and the flies were used rigorously. I will also never, ever complain about having to do things for a show- he had to learn all kinds of new forms of locomotion for the Merboots, does at least six different costume/makeup changes and climbs about 100 flights of stairs per show. There are also well over 500 light cues alone.

On the train, I read The House of Yes, which was unabashedly glamorous. I am extremely attracted to that show, I would love to be either Jackie-O or the mother. I guess I'll start thinking about my monologue soon- hopefully something from August: Osage County. Driving home, we stopped to let a turkey and her 14 chicks (turk-lets? turkey-tots? turkins?) cross the road. They were SO cute!

Now, a casa, it is time for some relaxing, and perhaps some more work on the skirt I started yesterday. I love my friends and all, but it is so damn convenient to be able to be a complete hermit for a month- I get to really get lots of me-things done.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Style Meme


In the Car
Originally uploaded by chlorinebeach.
Job?
Waitress/Hostess/Student

Best Sartorial advice from your parents?
It is always better to be over dressed than under dressed.

Style icons?
Friends: Sara Pauker, Megan-Sara Karre, Dallas DeFee, Jess Condyles
Public Figures: Gala Darling, Bjork, Zoetica Ebb, Tilda Swinton

Describe your personal style
Pants: Destroyed Jeans or shorts over tights
Skirts: Long and flowing. Homemade.
Dresses: White
Shirts: Oxford, wifebeaters, corsets, American Apparel, backless, homemade, NEVER t-shirts
Winterwear: Sweaters (preferably handknit), knit beanies, a pile of handknit scarves or beanies.
Footgear: Sandals, High Heels, Boots, NEVER sneakers.
Headgear: Turbans, scaves, sunhats.
Jewelry: at least five rings on each hand. Big earrings. Maybe a beaded bracelet.
Underpants: Anything cheap from H + M

I build my daily look around?
Depends- not too much white if I'm going to be in the studio. Usually I plan a bunch of outfits a week in advance, + put those on when the whim takes me. The color of the sky helps a lot.

Personal Style quirk?
A fistful of rings

Most cherished item?
Baby blanket quilted for me by my Tanta Gale when I was 5.

I feel best wearing?
pink lip gloss + my rockstar sunglasses.

The first thing I look at in another Sartorialist?s outfit ...
Style- do they absolutely love what they are wearing? Does it make them feel great? Did they decide to put those things together, or buy them straight off the store model?

I always break this fashion rule.
Tall women shouldn't wear heels

Never caught wearing?
Any of these: Sneakers, sweatshirt/pants, baseball cap, t-shirt.

Most underrated item in menswear/womenswear?
Bright color near the face.

Dress to impress who?
Myself, and whoever I decide I have a crush on that day.

Shine your own shoes?
Don't need to.

Shoetrees?
What?

Favorite stores?
Anthropologie, Goodwill, American Apparel, Brooks Brothers, Etsy,

Your next "must have" purchase?
Green Sunglasses

I skimp when buying ...
Drawing Paper

Favorite item of clothing
Recently, my painting smock I fished out of the scrap bin in the costume shop.

Guilty pleasure
Leggings

Cologne, skincare?
Cologne:
So In Love by Victoria's Secret... looking to change that one soon.

Skincare:
Uhh... whatever seems to be working at the moment. Clearasil facewash, Burt's Bees exfoliant, Dermatologist stuff, and Dove face lotion.

Most stylish city?
NYC, natch.

When I was in high school I wore?
Oooh... I went straight from off-the-shelf goth to Thrift store hippie

Sports?
Watching? Baseball, Polo. Playing? I'll swim.

Favorite fashion magazine?
French vogue

Favorite vacation spot?
Bermuda, Rome

Favorite neighborhood restaurant?
Binghamton: The Lost Dog, Tilly's, Moghul
Mahopac: Kira Sushi, Jaipore,
Manhattan: Afghan Kebab House

Monday, May 12, 2008

Sky grey-bleu.


The Violence of Flowers
Originally uploaded by chlorinebeach.
Today is not a day for studying for tests. Tests written by the man considered to be the toughest grader in my department. Oh no. Today is a day for going to see "Einstein's Knees", my friends synesthetic light show based on Einstein on the Beach. It is a day for lying in bed reading letters + lamenting the loss of the art of letter writing. A day for eating chocolate, drinking tea, + fantasizing about the cracker-cheese-sausage pyramids I am going to build when I get home for the summer. Bonus points for listening to mixes composed of Iron + Wine, Timbaland, + the Kronos Quartet.
___

You know what was a horrible movie? Iron Man. I know, I know! It has gotten almost universal (93% positive on rottentomatoes.com) good reviews, and everybody rants and raves about how good it was. And it was probably a big mistake for me to go see that- I'm more of a El Labrinto Del Fauna and Persepolis kind of gal (although I'm really excited for Dark Knight and the new James Bond movie ... so sue me).

But really. It was vaguely well-written until the giant robots showed up and they fired the screenwriters, and Obadiah wore some friggin' sweet neckties, but mostly I just spent the whole time laughing at how terrible it was. Plus, it took seven of my last ten dollars. I'm allowed to resent it for that, right?

My favorite part was when Pepper ran at a dead sprint in an hobble skirt and spike heels across open gratework, when the rest of the movie she had been sort of penguin-ing around the whole time.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Drawing Homework


So many things
Originally uploaded by chlorinebeach.
I have to draw a landscape for Drawing, and it is so much harder than I ever thought it would be. I've never really done landscapes before. But, it's given me a project for the summer- because landscapes are pretty easy to get access to, particularly in Putnam.

It's very nice to just sit outside right now, though. It's still cool, but things are growing, and I've seen baby turtles and little goslings and energetic frogs. Plus the soundscape ain't bad.