Images of Bangkok...

What a business trip to Thailand looks like... not quite as exotic as you might think:

Up working at 5am









On set by 7am










8 t0 10 hours of shooting









Try to relax at the end of the day










And then crash out

Trouble in Paradise

Equipment didn't show up. Will need to research the new gear coming in - what are its limitations? Language barrier loses precious time. Conversations run long. Need new strategy. Seven hours of sleep in the past two days (sleep on a plane never counts as decent REMtime). Haven't gotten through all this new material. Eyes swelling. Clock ticking. 7:00 am breakfast set and then slam-bam shoot. What permits? I know I only need sleep. And tomorrow will be brilliant. Fucking brilliant.

The Story Begins...

With a firm handshake and a gentle glance, I meet the man whose story I am here to hear. His stature is short but his stories more than compensate... The years of hard cases, dead bodies, and difficult decisions have been worn off by the warmth of this country. For hours we sit outside under an umbrella. And I listen. A few questions here, a laugh there, but mostly I just let him talk about things no one here could understand. I watch as his face becomes softer and he relives hour after hour of a different lifetime. I can sense that now is his time to set the story straight, to open up to a world he had to close off. And I love the fact that he just handed me a monstrous stack of paper to go through about his life and his investigations. Very few people have seen what I have in my hands now. And I know that more than this is me investigating his life... what is really happening over the next few hours is his investigation of me: how much detail will I remember from these pages? How thoroughly will I read what he gave me? Will I ask the right questions when we meet again after dinner? And ultimately, am I the right person for him to tell his story to...?

Yes.

Einstein

As I prepare for this series of interviews, feeling that I am lacking indepth knowledge of the events, the players, and the motives involved in the situation I am documenting, I look at the quote of the day: Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Some new, some old... Bangers revisited

After over 20 hours in the air and multiple almost-missed connections, it's good to have my feet back on the ground. We landed at Bangkok's new International Airport, which just opened two months ago and is absolutely stunning.

It actually reminds me a lot of Hong Kong's airport as far as the immigration floorplan and the glass-steel (is it steel or aluminum? I'd check but I'm only getting thai google) architecture. Say "sawadeeka" to the BMW that takes us to the airport and a few minutes later, I've moved into my home for the next five days: Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit. It's a favorite from my Hong Kong days when James and I would take quick weekend romps here. Still a beautiful and accomodating hotel. My room looks something like:

We are exactly 12 hours ahead of New York, so it's almost 3am here and I'm wide awake. Figure I'll go through a couple of notes and read myself to sleep in preparation for tomorrow when we meet the lead investigator in the 1978 massacre... a time and a place that is eras away from the view out my window on the 24th floor. Just hoping that the recent violence here doesn't make me feel too close to the story I'm trying to tell...

Happy New Year!!

Dinner with James, Nicoli and the Atlanta crew in New York's Little Italy before going to the New Year's celebration...














Bringing in the New Year at a Soho loft party...















The boys from Atlanta bust it out and break it down...















Big hugs as we bring in 2007...















James gets love from the ladies!

Leaving for Bangkok on the 3rd...

Bangkok explosions leave two dead

Bombs blasts are relatively rare in the Thai capital

A series of bomb or grenade explosions in the Thai capital has killed two people and injured about 30 others, including at least six foreigners.

A first spate of six attacks occurred at sites across Bangkok as streets were filling up late afternoon local time ahead of New Year's Eve celebrations.

Just before midnight, two further blasts rocked the city centre.

The Thai authorities had cancelled all public celebrations for New Year's Eve after the first devices went off.

Click here to see map of where blasts occurred

Police do not believe foreign groups or militants from the Muslim south are to blame, says the BBC's Jonathan Head.

Our Bangkok correspondent says many Thais suspect the attacks were the work of opponents of the current military government, which forced Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from office in September.

There was a big bang and people started screaming and running Chalermsak Sanbee Witness Blasts in pictures

The latest explosions occurred near the Central World Plaza, a shopping mall.

Of the earlier attacks, the largest was at about 1730 (1030 GMT) near a bus station next to one of Bangkok's busiest intersections, Victory Monument.

Police said this caused the biggest number of casualties.

Reports suggest the device was planted beneath a seat at a bus stop or in a rubbish bin.

One witness who was standing nearby, 17-year-old Chalermsak Sanbee told Reuters news agency:

"There was a big bang and people started screaming and running. I saw people with blood all over their legs and faces."

Other blasts were reported:

• close to a police post in the Saphan Kwai district
• at a car park in the Seacon Square shopping mall
• at a market in the Klong Toey district
• in Kae Lai district in the northern suburb of Nonthaburi
• along Sukhumvit Road in the south-east

National police chief General Ajirawit Suphanaphesat said the authorities were inspecting other locations where suspicious packages were found.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6221177.stm

Pics from Arizona research

The visitors center for Pinal County was a tiny wooden house filled with pamphlets and memorabilia...
We drove out to where the manhunt ended and the shootout began... where the road curves into the mountains is at least fifteen miles away off in the horizon.
Is this not just the most quintessential Arizona desert picture you can think of??
the Arizona landscape... take a second before clicking away and look into the picture. There's a overwhelming stillness that takes over when you are standing in the middle of the desert. I think this picture almost captures it:

Get in the Ring

After hanging out around prisons, scavenging law libraries and media files, and trekking through Arizona's most barren and forbidden lands (pics coming soon)... I come to... The Phoenix Airport! Between winter travel and flying on the red-eye flights, my plane outta here is delayed over two hours... not scheduled to depart until 2:30am. Where is the jazz quartet when you need them? Instead, the soothing sounds of the PHX alarm system whine insync with the flashing lights turning the entire atrium blue for a split second repeatedly for minute after minute after minute after irritating minute after pounding minute after numbing minute after seething minute after futile minute after infuriating minute after... ok. the sound stopped but the atrium still looks like christmas lights on acid. except my trip hasn't even started... blink blink blink blink blink...

I suppose I should be frustrated blink but I actually like the time to sit up late at night blink when I work best and click away at blink the keyboard. Think about the things I've seen blink and learned this weekend. The slight tinge of fear as I watched blink hundreds of orange men roam predatorially blink around a massive prison yard only blink separated from me by a wire fence topped with razor wire. The aboslutely stunning majesty of the Arizona sunset where mountains glow orange and slip into unending flatness and silence. Did the blinking stop? Thank god. Where was I? Oh, right... Phoenix.

Tomorrow a holiday celebration with whomever is around and then off to Atlanta! The holidays have always been a bit of a whirlwind. Yes, you've grown taller. Yes, you look older. No, you didn't actually do that to your hair, did you? And as I wander around the country, the world, searching for something that I can't actually touch, I enjoy coming back to homebase and seeing what everyone else has discovered. And never being jealous of it. There is something beautiful in everything people do. Even if they are just fucking it all up. Which was usually me. But I'm past the point of thinking that the things I've done and said were wrong or stupid. Alright, some of them were stupid. But there's no point in not making mistakes. As we start to get older, we start to learn that there are consequences to our actions. And so our actions become more premeditated and our footsteps lighter and our decisions less bold. Because there are c-o-n-s-e-q-u-e-n-c-e-s. I opt that said consquences are there for us to learn from and if we don't make the choices that force us to embrace, wrestling, and kick the shit out of those consequences, then we must not be making mistakes because we aren't actually Doing anything. Not that we want to be wearing bright orange jumpsuits or anything, but c'mon a little orange in your life won't hurt. This from a woman who wears nothing but black, brown, white, and red. Sometimes I just talk myself into a corner, don't I? Well, come on out, put on some gloves, and let's find out what consequences are really out there. It takes more than a few black eyes to win a championship belt. How did I get here? Oh, right... time to go check on that plane.

JFK to PHX

Okay. Wow. I've had massages at the Bangkok airport, walked out straight onto the landing strip in Koh Samui, gotten lost in the airport of my own hometown, Atlanta... but this... this is really something... I'm at JFK in the JetBlue terminal (yes, they have the entire terminal) and there is a jazz quartet playing behind me. Saxophone, upright Bass, Acoustic Guitar, and Drums. Hints of Christmas songs float in and out of jazz compositions and suddenly the brake-lit ride to the airport, the hassling TSA screeners and the anticipation of what I need to get accomplished on this trip flutter away with them... thank you jetblue... i'm completely ready to go sit on my leather seat and pick a movie to watch on my in-flight television screen.

if only.

I'm off to Arizona to research documentation of a 1978 prison break that happened out of the Arizona State Prison, an event that is the starting point of a documentary I will be working on throughout 2007. Most of the records are physically located in Arizona, and I'll be digging through them to find out what actually happened, what was recorded as happening and then driving out to see where it happened. Much of this is in preparation for meeting of a key person in the investigation, whom I will be interviewing in a few weeks. I need to understand in the ins-and-outs of the prison break itself as well as the events that led up to it and the consequenting trials and investigations. A lot of ground to cover in four days.

right now, though, this john vitale quartet is the perfect calm.

Manhattan Morning

The stunning view I woke up to this morning...

London in New York

Pictures from James' family visiting New York for his birthday!

The birthday boy surrounded by his mother and grandmother at Pastis. Check out a review of this place where dinner reservations at 8:00pm are unheard of... and of course, we had Dinner at 8:00pm.














Earlier in the evening... Steph flanked by James' brothers Nico (youngest) and Simon (middle) in their loudest British best...















James' mother Suzanna and stepfather John enjoying a New York smile... plenty of those on this visit! The weather was perfect, the city was bustling, and the evenings didn't stop.














And the rest of the crew enjoying the New York scene... here, at Buddha Bar, one of our favorites... more pics at their website.















And then back at 10 Jones for a little relaxation... one of the few times you'll see them with their shoes off and feet up...

Quotes...

Updated the blog to have quotes on the bottom... scroll all the way down and tell me what inspiration you find...

Oh yeah...

...and a pic of me, alive and doing well...

Gobble! Gobble!

Thanksgiving in New York... what's the old saying 'you don't know what you've got until it's gone'? Definitely missed my family and old friends this year. Plenty of time to think about Thanksgiving past: at Sara's house in Ohio my freshman year, at my grandmother's house in Brentwood, in the warmth of my mother's house. No matter where I've been, that one day of the year has always been filled with bustling commotion, heavenly smells, and lots of chatter... Something was different this year. The annual Parade down Broadway wasn't as fantastical, there were few phone calls and loads of text messages, and everything that the day was about felt more like a holiday on automatic. Or maybe I'm on automatic. Turkey - check. Pumpkin Pie - check. Progress in life - check? The food was still amazing and the company comforting...

Thanksgiving in Brooklyn









James carves the turkey...












The meal, part one:









The meal, part 15 - Rose's pumpkin pie:










After the meal... oh yes, Anne, pour another:

Perfect Day

It's been six years since I've seen an autumn this gorgeous. The leaves have fallen, the air has cooled, the jackets are out, but the sun shines warming the sidewalks and glistening miles of brownstone houses and yellow taxicabs. It's a day when you can breathe deep and watch the world get ready to bundle up. The passage of time happens so quickly when you glance back, but looking forward it seems that there is so much more to come. Autumn promises that summer days will be back again, only when you can appreciate it after months of blistering wind and ducking in and out of heated spaces. Am I ready for a New York winter? Is it the kind of cold that stops your thoughts and freezes your ambitions? Or is it the type of constraint that spawns ingenious ideas? Or does it all depend on what kind of warmth you have wrapped around you to keep you warm?

Would you stay in a hotel that looks like this...

http://www.kuenstlerheim-luise.de/en/rooms/306.htm

Halloween House Haunting...

Housewarming + Halloween =

Other People's Perspectives

Just read a blog from a friend of a friend... as if I had time to be roaming around blogs on the internet... I don't know why I tracked this one down and gave it a glance, but I was struck by what his friend Patricia said. I find it to be true, too. I get what he's saying and where he's coming from and I've never met him...

But lately I’ve been feeling a professional stress that rivals the personal stress I felt three years ago today. I haven’t had my $100mm exit from a business yet. It’s not the money I’m concerned about - it is the execution record that I want to acheive. I have high expectations for myself, and there have been many days in the past few months that I’ve been in a bit of despair about my professional trajectory. Is it time to give up the small business game and get a job as an investment banker?

A number of people whose advice I highly value have weighed in on the subject, but the most comforting piece of advice came last night from an unexpected source. My new acquaintance Patricia called me out for what I am - a generalist - someone who is pretty good at many things but not specialized in any particular field. Specialists begin to peak in their late twenties, she shared. In my experience, I’ve found this to be very true. After five or six years of being in a field, people are developing their comeptencies and, if they’re worth their salt, have begun to have very real successes.

But generalists, she reminded me, don’t begin to peak until their late thirties or early forties - after they’ve had enough experience, mentorship, and screw-ups to be effective leaders and decision makers.

http://turnseven.com/

name games

Whats up with all the "find your xyz name" posts on myspace? And how is it that I get so easily sucked into doing them? Lame little 5 second quizzes that come up with my alternate personality. Do I want to be someone else? I'm infatuated. I try them all. I'm looking for the ghost in the machine who will hold up a mirror... or a reason to think I'm everything and nothing I think I think I am. Or perhaps I'm just procrastinating...

Here you try: www.deadname.com

My Halloween Name: Beautifully Chaotic
What's yours?

Bystander wins at Vermont!

If you haven't heard already...

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone involved in BYSTANDER (that most certainly includes those of you who inspired, encouraged, and supported us alont the way!) on your WIN at the Vermont International Film Festival!

A few thoughts on LA vs. NYC

In LA everyone looks at you to see who you are or if they should know you
In NY everyone looks at you to see if you are about to mug them

In LA the palm tree leaves always remain the same color
In NY every three months requires a new wardrobe

In LA you'll spend a fortune on a car, insurance, gas, repairs
In NY you'll spend a fortune on taxis, trains, and tips

In LA the smog is overwhelming
In NY the stench is overwhelming

In LA your nearest international neighbor is Mexico... and it shows
In NY your nearest international neighbor is Canada... and you'd never know

*cricket* *cricket*

uh oh...
seems my infrequent posts and
unstimulating topics are
discouraging people to
check in and say hi
many things to blame absence on but
ultimately it's my bad
come back
i'll be here

My pirate name is:

Dread Pirate Cash

Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Pics from Bystander screening at the Arclight Cinema complex...

Going in backwards chronology...

The Q&A session after the screening. I am the only female on the stage, Eric (producer, writer, editor) is to my right and to his right is Dan (producer, music composition, editor). We had several people chat with us about BYSTANDER after the screening with lots of excitement about the imagery, layers of connotation, and overall composition of the film.

This is the interior of the Arclight Cinemas complex. Bystander was in theatre 12, on the upper level.

Getting ready to go in! James (lead actor), Eric (producer, writer, editor), and me (troublemaker).

NYOE = 20%!

New Yorkers now have a new way of measuring how obese they are as a city. A recent study revealed a fool-proof way that every resident of the five burroughs can calculate (provided they have completed third grade mathematics) at an instant.

Maximum seats available on a subway car: 40
Maximum butts in seats on a subway car when all seats occupied:32

What is the cause of this descrepancy? Seats are wasted because a high percentage of people spill over onto the seat next to them and no one can occupy those spaces. Please note that this study did not include situations where if a seat is 90% available due to 10% spillage another person sat down to take the seat anyways.

This is called the NEW YORK OBESITY EQUATION (NYOE). According to the NYOE ratio of seats available to seats occupied, New Yorkers are 20% obese.

Next time you are on a subway, give it a try for yourself. Go between cars and count the availability of seats on a packed train. This is not an imaginary problem and there are solutions! Keep counting New York. Let's make every seat available to everyone!

Saturday Mornings

BEEP BEEP BEEP It's what time? What does that read? BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP 3:15 It's dark. 3:15 A.M. BEEP
Click
.
.
.
.
z
z
z
z
BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP
OK
OK
here we go, stumble to the light switch and keep the light low enough that the ones in the Manhattan skyline are still light up much of the room. Clothes. Clothes. Socks. Clean socks. I'm bumping around the room putting on layer after layer of the most comfortable clothes possible. Staring out the window. I know it's colder out there than it looks. Autumn has blown in with its icy breath.
3:40
Out the door. I'm dodging college kids and homeless people - both equally drunk - on my way to the subway. They're still out partying. Bars don't close for 20 minutes. Usually that'd be me. But this is my new Saturday morning.
Trying to get to set before the sun does.
Every Saturday morning.
I Am Legend.

Lagging...

Well this blog isn't proving to be as exciting or eventful as the Hong Kong one and I'm certainly not doing as good of a job of posting the Latest and Greatest events happening here... perhaps the experiences are not quite as exquisite or it's easier to catch up on the phone since I'm not as far away from everyone. But every part of life is an adventure and each place has it's own challenges...

In Hong Kong the job was set, so my explorations were more of the landscape or the social scene. Here my journeys are much more internal. Keeping focused on the ever-moving target of "what do I want" and "how do I get it" in a city where I know almost no one.

In Hong Kong my residence was set for me, so I could leave to wander around the city without worrying about where I'm coming home to. Here there is more a sense of building a home. The process of apartment hunting, negotiating, renting, getting furniture, sorting out cable and bills and misc things that need to be fixed is all-consuming.

And then there's the fact that, well, I'm not in Asia anymore. And it's time to stop looking back at HK with misty eyes and start walking the streets of Manhattan with bold footsteps.

And since this is the Place to Post about BYSTANDER... more good news:
Bystander will be filming at the Vermont International Film Festival in Burlington, VT on Saturday, October 14th at 8:45p (another fantastic screening time!). I'll be there for the weekend...

BYSTANDER festival update

The Festival List keeps getting bigger! If the next fest is anywhere near you, I hope you can check it out!

Moondance Int'l Film Fest*
Los Angeles Int'l Film Fest*
Denver World Cinema*
Vermont Int'l Film Fest
Golden Lion Int'l Film Fest (Swaziland)

(* - already screened)

Back in NYC

... LA happened too quickly! The screening, the laughter, the friends and family and days ending with a sunrise... all a dream... more things are seeming like dreams... not in the i-can't-believe-it way but more in the i-only-wish-i-had-more-time way... finding out more and more in life that i don't get the chance (or don't take the time) to say what needs to be said and shouldn't go unsaid... and i keep reminding myself: say it now
do it now
dream it now
make it happen now

Is that the 3-0 coming on? "No bets past 30"... guess i better step it up... and the temperature keeps dropping...

Steph Online

I've uploaded some images from my Directing/Producing DVD Reel onto the Sunchaser website... check out the preliminary versions at
www.sunchaserent.com/stephanie

and email me your comments, spelling mistakes, thoughts!

Opening Night was SOLD OUT... Get your tickets now!

See you in LA!

With furniture arriving, meetings happening and work set up in New York... I'm on my way to catch a plane to Los Angeles... back to the City of Angels! Check out the quick website below for details of the screening...
http://www.sunchaserent.com/bystander/

See you on the WestSide!

LA Shorts Fest Starts Tonight!

Opening Night – September 5 at ArcLight, Hollywood
“Maverick Film Achievement Award” presented to
Academy Award Winning Writer/Director PAUL HAGGIS Crash & Million Dollar Baby

DO YOU HAVE YOUR TICKET TO SEE 'BYSTANDER' ON SATURDAY THE 9th?!

I will be in town and canvasing the festival on Friday and Saturday... let me know if you're going to be there and let's catch up!

We Apologize for this Interruption...

Wow. What a phenomenal week!
First... THANK YOU for all the birthday messages. New City + Few Friends = Quiet Birthday. And so the little emails and cards spoke VOLUMES!!

Second... You all have to come visit Jones Street New York... where the next New York Scene is starting to happen. James and I moved in Sept. 1 and have spent Labor Day weekend running around town researching, looking, squeezing, and buying everything from a mattress (currently the only piece of furniture in the apartment) to ottomans that flip-top to double as trays. It is going to be a smashing pad with a policy of welcoming friends and family at any and all times. I'm having difficulty transferring pictures off the camera right now, but I will try to get some shots up here soon!

Ok, I'll stop counting now...
As far as work goes - it still goes slowly...
Finished up "The Brave One"
Started "I Am Legend" with a killer 16 hour day
Still setting up meetings and talking to various people in the biz

But I have had some incredible outings. Favorite NY locations so far:
Gramercy Tavern
Les Halles
Buddha Bar
Pressure
ABC Home Furnishings
10 Jones Street!

The Brave One

Haven't had much time lately to throw some thoughts here online... things like:
- a new obesity calculator
- theories on photography
- the latest for Bystander
- birthday festivities
- new york real estate market

Sorry for the silence. But it's been for a good reason. Namely a film called The Brave One. A film where the woman (Jodie Foster) recovers from a brutal attack and sets out on a dark, psychological and physical journey for revenge and justice. Terrence Howard plays a cop who has a tough choice to make... and there's much more to say about it - like how I got here, what I've been doing, and where I'm headed after the wrap party on Saturday - but that's going to have to be another time, too...

...but soon!

BYSTANDER at LA Shorts and Denver World Cinema!

More good news to share with you about BYSTANDER! We have been selected to participate in two more festivals: the Denver World Cinema Film Festival and the LA Shorts Film Festival.

LA Shorts Film Festival is
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 9TH
10pm

This is an ACADEMY ELIGIBLE festival, and attendance to the screening really helps to bolster the success of the short at the festival. So if you missed the previous screening, want to check out some great shorts, or those of you that worked on the project want to show off your talents to friends and family I urge to COME TO THE SCREENING! I don’t think you’ll find a better screening time, venue, and festival...

Here is how the information is shown on their website:
******************************************************
10:00 pm 88 min theatre 12

Program #61: LA Filmmaker's Showcase
The following shorts deal with patriotism. Watch the
characters in these films and study how they are in
situations and make decisions to do the right thing
for their country.

Player Interrupted
Untitled Depression
Roma Sub Rosa: The Secret Under the Rose
Mayflower 2006
Soldier
PFC Krieger
Bystander
*****************************************************

As you can see we’ve gotten a prime time screening slot, which bodes well for the potential success of the film at the festival. The LA Shorts Film Festival usually screens at the ARC light theatre on 6360 W. Sunset Blvd (near Amoeba records), which is one of the nicest theatres in the world. For further information go to: www.lashortsfest.com.

I’m sure we’ll be arranging an after party of some kind and I'm hoping to be in Los Angeles for the screening, so please keep in touch! I'll let you know when we have more information on the Denver World Cinema Film Festival... Thanks so much to those of you that helped make this possible!

Published on the Moondance website...

Steph and Michael Tabb discussing films at an afternoon event:

NYPL

I wish I had found this room weeks ago. There exist collections of books. There exist small buildings that small children trudge toward, the weight of a book report on their shoulders. There exist comfortable internet cafes and majestic courtrooms. And then there is the magnificent New York Public Library. Architecturally stunning, housing over 6 million books and free public internet access, this structure is a combination of every kind of “library” that exists.

I am sitting in the Reading Room… At one of the many twenty-foot long wooden tables illuminated by rows of golden lamps, I find space to think. And an outlet nearby that will let me type for hours. Gentle coughs and quietly squeaking chairs echo upward into the ceiling of this palace of imagination. Notably, the ceiling is not just a roof- even it is painted with images of clouds amidst blue skies. Even it does not dare to contain the thoughts in this hall.

No Sleep Til...

Take the Q line East.
More friends of friends met through phone calls and emails.
I'm tired. Feeling broken but disregard.
Painting on a happy face, springing my step.
Swinging in with a six-pack and weeks of stress and distress, I find...
a late night of sushi and smiles.
Debating theories.
Discussing films.
Thinking outloud.
Talking too loud?
Laughter
Animated and Wanting.
And Friends of Friends became Friends.
And after days of not being able to sleep...
Brooklyn

Where the Nights never end...

Last night: SalonTea Premiere for TLC's 'Dinner Takes All'... Directors workshop with DNA... evening gathering with the Broadway acting/singing/dancing crew... most of it with Guy, a film director who I met at Moondance and whose directing style and thoughtful script interpretation I respect.

Tonight: Hoping the train off the island to: Summerscreen... avant music and old-school films in Brooklyn. A Blurb: The music, by local hip-hoppers the Cold Hands Collective and avant-classical musician Miya Masaoka, begins at 7pm; the movie starts at sunset. We're screening Do the Right Thing, in honor of that time last week when it was so hot we all started throwing garbage cans through pizzeria windows.



... you don't want to know how boring my days have been...

Coming Soon!

Pics from: Coney Island music festival, Ava rooftop, NY nightlife

Flip Flop Phenomenon

No, we're not talking about John Kerry's presidential election strategy... but something nearly as strange...

It's been hitting 100 degrees in New York the past week. Hot Hot Hot. And the miles of concrete and lack of shade, save from miles of concrete that extend upwards as well, only exacerbate the heat. How does one survive?

Flip Flops.

The more I walked around, the more I began to notice the red, purple, and orange toes roaming around Manhattan. It makes sense that having two wardrobes to cope with the weather would include having several sets of shoes as well. Girls with jeweled flip flops, boys with rugged ones. Black, tan, heeled, strappy, studded, bright, thick, paper-thin. Limitless options for the summertime. Flip Flops are a reflection of oneself here as much as purses and man-bags are. But seriously this city is filthy! Between the dogs urinating on the sidewalk, the rush of contaminated water running towards the sewars, and all the other shoes that have no problem walking on your feet... why flip flops? Why expose yourself to the worst elements of city life?

...and then I walked twenty blocks "for fun"... in heels.

Flip Flops it is.

Good things that come out of Atlanta!

This is for those of us who are magnets to people who can't take a hint or can't take "no" for an answer (and many who apparently can't take showers, can't brush their teeth, or can't seem to go out in social settings without awkwardly embarrassing themselves)... a phone number you can give out if you just don't want to give out your real number. Callers hear a humorous Rejection Hotline recording and are not-so-subtly informed of your non-interest... and it all started in Atlanta.

Comments from a satisfied rejectee:

"So I guess I'm one of the 'rejectees' mentioned in the L.A. Times article, because I had a girl give me the Rejection Hotline number at a bar a few weeks ago. But I'm not writing to complain about it at all. Just the opposite, I'm writing to say THANKS! Not only do I think it's hilarious, but I love that I could go on letting my buddies think I had gotten her number that night and none of them were around to give me $h*t when I made the call a few days later and heard the Rejection Hotline message... [and I] realized I've still got a lot to learn when it comes to knowing if a girl's interested or not. Thanks for the laugh and the reality-check!"
-- Curt, Los Angeles

http://rejectionhotline.com/

**note: even though I now have the NYC Rejection Line number locked into my cellphone, I have no problem telling someone that they AREN'T getting my number... however, that being said, there are those scary ones that won't let you get away without grabbing your arm and when you're by yourself, this could be a saving grace!

Herr Producer and Herr Director

Eric came to be one of my favorite people in Los Angeles... producer/writer/genius of BYSTANDER... he's a gentle but fierce creature who knows how to balance expectations, speak diplomatically, argue persuasively, and laugh loudly... and he's probably the only person I know who works harder than I do (and more consistantly!)

This just IN!

Cast and Crew at the premiere of "Bystander" at Moondance International Film Festival, July 2006. We are in the building that was Charlie Chaplin's old studio...

L to R:
Eliah (Commander Jessup), Steph (director), Ken, Eric (writer, producer, editor), and Eric's friend.

The Internet, as explained by those who want to have control over it...

Hey, I may live in a state that elected a Senator who wasn't even a resident to represent them, but as far as not knowing what you're talking about, this transcript from Alaska's Senator Stevens, who wants to defunct net neutrality in favor of phone and cable companies, (http://internetweek.cmp.com/news/189601945), takes it! Check out his astute description of what the internet is...

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially...

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/02/sen_stevens_hilariou.html

Almost Suicide

It might be cliche to say that committing suicide is hurting other people as much as yourself, but this picture is why we have cliches in the first place:

A multi-billion dollar building destroyed and several people hurt because one man would rather kill himself and take down the building than let his estranged wife get her hands on it...

Man 1, Building 0

now, guess who gets to spend their life wishing they were dead.... not the building.

Big Smile for the Big Apple

An old picture, but the smile is still as big...

New York, I have arrived!
BRING IT ON!