Thank You

Thanks to all who came out for My Co-Birthday Party with Alexis. Being surrounded by my friends on such a cold February night is all that I need to keep me warm.

Dinner was quite tasty and the wine was divine. I apologize for not being as mobile as I could have been. I think I missed talking with a couple of people, but I was building the collective mythology and talking about some of our exploits on various film shoots.


After dinner, we went out dancing. I had to stop and take this photo as we walked over to Hiro, our first club stop, Hiro. They had just opened for the night, so it was dead as well as being very expensive, though there was no cover.


Alexis at Bollywood Thursday.


Katie met Adam at the Bollywood Thursday event and found out that it was also his birthday that night as well. Small world.

We closed the Canal Room at about 3am, and then went over to Florent for breakfast. It's over in the meat packing district, so the neighborhood is industrial and funky at night. The food was very good. I wrote most of this last Friday, while it was still fresh in my mind, though it's been a few days, so I forget what I had to eat.

I thought I had already posted this thank you, but I never finished editing it. I left later in the day, Friday, to meet my family at the Met to see The Magic Flute. That was really great and it was also Mozart's 250th B-day.

Which one?

I shot this just before Christmas, while at the Mayor's Office of Film and Television. I liked the way that the light was kind of feathered off, on the bricks and the fire escape. The light was just on the verge of being soft and shadowless. It still had direction, but an interesting kind of fall-off, which isn't quite as noticable in the digital image. I was having trouble opening the window, so I just shot through the glass, before the light changed.

I have two crops. The shot above is of just the area I was interested in, the other, below, is a wider shot with some interesting elements. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on which crop is better. I'm debating whether or not to post the full frame.

AtomFilms to finance filmmakers

AtomFilms has started AtomFilms Studio, which will finance select projects.

"The Internet video pioneer, which already runs a Web site for pre-produced video shorts or clips from independent creators, plans to keep banking on those projects, which it calls "atom-ized" pieces. But with AtomFilms Studio, it will finance select projects, investing upfront in the production of original content designed for Internet-based delivery.

The development house has six projects under production already - due for release in the spring - and as many as three dozen others planned for the studio's first year. The initial round ranges from a Craigslist-inspired online dating reality series to a short film about a man who finds himself fighting for his life after a successful date."

Go here for the full story.

Bill! Let's get these guys to finance your feature! We'll shoot on video instead of film, perhaps. Or maybe S16. Man, that would be great to shoot 35, though.

Alright everyone, get your pich on!

AtomFilms submission info page. This is for regular submissions. I didn't see anything about them finacing people on the site.

Spring in January

Today was a surprisingly warm and sunny day. I met Andrea and her boyfriend, Mat, at Union Square early this afternoon. Both Andrea and Mat work nearby at the cafe inside a large bookstore.

Of course I was late. Once A&M arrived we went over to another famous bookstore to bug Tricia, whom Andrea hadn't seen in a while. We spent about half an hour there chatting and catching up. Tricia had worked with me earlier in the week, so all the attention was on Andrea, Matt and Tricia. I ducked out to take a call from Francis.

Tricia had to get back to work, so we said our goodbyes. Mat had left a bit earlier, so Andrea and I went out to get some food. Before we left though, a sparkly, velvet flocked case full of Elvis note cards caught my eye and I decided they would be perfect Christmas Thank You cards. They were even on sale! Andrea asked for a card with Hawaii Elvis- a medium close-up of Elvis in his white jumpsuit singing into the mic with leis around his neck. She wanted me to write "Andrea is Awesome" in it. I will have to work on it on Monday. I'll get some colored magic markers and make it look really groovy, 'cuz I took 2-D art in college.



We had some very tasty Japanese food at Ennju, on 17th St. The food was really good. Andrea got salmon sushi and I got the katsu don, sliced pork cutlet over rice with egg and onion. The onion was cooked so that it was sweet and gave the whole thing a nice flavor. I was thinking of getting some katsu sauce, but decided against it.

I was psyched when Andrea told me her boyfriend was also half Japanese. So, now we're Bro's.

Andrea told a funny story about being sick last month. She thought that she had strep and was feeling better, but then the anitibiotics wore off and then she felt really sick. She was feeling particularly awful and asked Mat to take a look at her throat. When he looked in, he screamed and jumped back. Her tonsils had turned black and were swollen.

Some help. But we had a good laugh at the re-telling. She thinks it may have actually been mono. Thankfully she's in good health now.

After lunch, we headed our separate ways. It was so lovely out and still sunny, so I headed into Union Square to absorb some sun and take a few pix and Andrea headed back to Brooklyn.

Soon, me beauties.

Hey Y'all,

Busy for the next few days. I'll be posting some pix later, if I get the chance. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until Friday-sorry. If you're bored, you can always check the archives, if you haven't already.

There'll be some fun photos and a story with photos about my first trip, on foot, over the Queensboro Bridge.

Hi DanZ!

A funny note: I brought my camera over to Alexis' apartment so that she could output the video she and Matt shot for the Hallmark Channel. The camera that she had borrowed, didn't have a video in, so she asked to borrow my nifty XL2.

My reward for helping Alexis output her video was dinner and a bottle of vino.

We spent a lot of time trying to figure out if her video was broadcast legal. After checking various settings and calling Bill, we decided to just go for it and started making tapes.

We output her piece onto couple of Mini DV tapes and then had dinner, since it was getting late. We'd make a VHS copy after dinner.

Dinner was a very yummy homecooked meal of shells and a fresh tomato red sauce. Outstanding! Alexis loves to cook and is a great chef. Some hot pepper added a little heat to the garlic and tomato sauce. We also drank a couple of different red wines. I got to bring one home.

Dessert was vanilla ice cream with fresh blueberries and almond butter cookies. Sublime. She had wanted to serve them in martini glasses with a strawberry liquer, but she did not have either. It was still highy yummy.

I wasn't fond of the American cabernet, but the italian wine went well with both the meal and dessert.

After dinner I made the comment that she only liked me because I output. We both had a good laugh. It was funnier at the time.

After dinner, we played back through my camera to her VCR for a VHS copy.

Beautiful cappuccino

My cappuccino, served to me after having lunch with clients in Billberg, at this funky Japanese place. Check back later tomorrow, I'll find out the name.

JT LeRoy a Hoax

JT LeRoy, October, 2005


JT LeRoy, January, 2000


JT LeRoy, April, 1994

Anyone who read my blog 11 years ago will know that my calling JT LeRoy a fake has been borne out. I mean look at this guy, it's at least two different people. And it's a woman. Sheesh


JT LeRoy's site

Way Up High

I was out and about today and saw this while going to drop off film that I shot yesterday, for a still photo shoot. I was wishing I had my 80-200 so I could get the steel worker, toiling under the flag.

Lots of holes

My big day out. I got Eggs Benedict with homie fries at Cafeteria. I was surprised that brunch was actually affordable at eight bucks and a buck for the coffee.

I was rather captivated by all of the holes in all of the chairs. I was trying to make sense of it all, when my eye fixated on the bright patches through the chair in front of me. I did have to do a little Photoshop clean up to eliminate a bit of shadow from the table behind. But nothing really to speak of.

That's the nice thing about no longer being a journalist, I can photoshop anything I damn well please. I do try and stick to basic, crop, burn and doge, but sometimes I have to do a little more. This was one of those times.

I was trying to remember if I had gaffed a shoot with Chris Webb here. Upon further inspection, I remembered that that was over on Ninth Ave. This is over on Seventh. Nice place.

Happy Birthday Elvis

Today is Elvis' birthday! These pix are from Elvisphotos. I'm gonna go and rent Viva Las Vegas and Wild At Heart- You boys have the same energy E had!