You know it's a bad night when...

I stay in with Ben & Jerry's and a diet coke. I haven't done this since New York. I think Anita knows all too well that I have a tendency to run to a bodega and buy the two when I'm in a bad mood. A drunk guy at the deli paid for my food but then I realized he must have been really drunk considering how disheveled I looked so I felt bad and made him take the money. Then I felt stupid because I totally could have gotten free ice cream.

I have sinusitis and an upper respiratory infection and midterms are approaching quickly. Spring break come quicker!

Recap

So Emilia and I have made friends with Jordy, the guy who works the door at a weekly party that bands play at. We saw him a couple of nights ago and he mentioned he was doing the door on Tuesday for "a New York band you might know...MG something..." MGMT. So he told us he could get us in and wrote down the address for us. I started to get skeptical when I went home and saw that MGMT was in fact playing London that night but it was sold out and not at the address he gave us.

We showed up at the address he gave us anyway and it turns out that Jordy was working at MGMT's afterparty, not their show. So I didn't get to see them perform but I did get to gawk at how cute they are up close and act awkwardly around Kelly Osbourne.

I brought my camera to get some pictures of the show, but there was no show... so its just pictures of Emilia and myself sharing a pina colada. Did I mention it was a cheesy Hawaiian themed bar somehow turned hip?

SeeqPod - Playable Search

muuuuuusicccc

I should be working at Bonnaroo again this summer, and I'm pretty pumped even though the lineup is weird... It's not set in stone, but my fingers are crossed. Here are the bands that I'll be sure to see if I'm there:

MGMT
Broken Social Scene
Sigur Ros
Vampire Weekend
Rilo Kiley
Against Me!
Ladytron
Tegan & Sara
Jose Gonzalez
M.I.A.
Talib Kweli
Ghostland Observatory

I don't know what I'll be doing for spring break since I have no money, but if I can scrounge up enough, I really want to go to Barcelona for a weekend to see these DJs

Barcelonaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

Another night on the job

This party was a tad bit better and I used light tricks that I normally never use for parties... but it turned out pretty well I think. I didn't end up going to Windsor today because I STILL have a cold and really don't think standing outside for 6+ hours would be good for my health. Here are some pictures from last night, though:

As if I don't have enough work to do already...

I have just begun doing research for the next edition of the book Bestsellers by Clive Bloom (on Amazon here). I won't get paid, but I'll get credit in the book! Am I a huge dork for being excited about this?

Well, work in my classes is beginning to pile up already. This usually doesn't happen until the middle or end of the semester, but I guess they do things differently over here. The work load is incredible. Monday, I woke up early and went to the library. Then at 2:00, I went to class. After class, I went back to the library and after that, I went to a lecture. Tuesday went the same way. Today, I've just been tapping away at the keyboard, trying to finish a few essays that are due (...tomorrow). I'll probably be up all night finishing the essays, then tomorrow I have to get up super early to work on a photoshoot before being in class from 9:30-6. Then I'm going to work taking more photos.

Feel bad for me!

Sorry, no pictures, I haven't been doing anything picture-worthy. But Friday I am getting up at the asscrack of dawn to go to Windsor. Puke puke puke. At least there will be pictures!

If you completely ignore all of the work stuff I had to do, this weekend was pretty brilliant. Thursday was Valentine's day... before going to photograph the lame party, my friend Stephanie and I went to a burlesque show. The dancers were all so clever! One of them came out wearing nothing but rose petals and cupid wings and sang cute love songs while walking through the crowd, handing out giant heart-shaped balloons. Her last song was "Tainted Love" in which she pulled out a giant knife and personally stabbed every one of the heart balloons she had handed out! Then she used the knife to cut off the cupid wings, fake blood and feathers flying everywhere... brilliant! Too bad I had to leave early. I only managed to take one picture of the first burlesque dancer...

I also got some really incredible news from my sister this weekend (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I went to the Museum of Natural History, which was kind of lame and obviously for children but whatever... the only other noteworthy thing that happened recently was getting hit on by someone who is quite famous in the UK but I had never heard of before. He looked like just some drunken Chav... he kept on trying to get me to sit at his table and drink with him but I walked away and someone was like "You just dissed Frank Lampard!" (The captain of the Chelsea football team)

Oops. Whatev...

Venting

The new job kind of sucks. The party was lame... music/crowd was not my style. I had to meet with the other photographer last night so I could see how they want it done. He explained to me that he uses a lot of cropping and Photoshop. I explained to him that that's not how I do it. We are both very stubborn people and it's really not going to work out. I told him I'm not willing to change the aesthetic of my photos to be something more boring... but I'll keep going with this job and see how it pans out. The other photographer also had an attitude because he's been doing this job for "kind of a long time" (a year)... Come on! I've been working steadily as a photographer longer than that!

Anyway, I think I still managed to make a boring party look decent. What do you think?

Internet went out in my building today. It was total anarchy. I went to Starbucks because I had to figure out where I was going for my job interview... yes, I finally got a job interview! And as of today, I also have a job. Boo-yah.

It's not really a stable job, though... I start tomorrow night photographing a party for 50 quid. Not bad. They also want me to work as a host, bringing people in... this job is much more difficult but if I can pull it off, they'll add another 100 quid and bottle of vodka for each night I work. Not bad. I'd rather just do the photography but that won't pay the bills.

Update later on my first day on the job.

I'm sick and I miss New York

I've been sick for a week plus and it's getting really old. I'll probably never recover because I have to stand outside for 3 hours every Thursday and sketch architecture. Then I wake up on Friday with a bad cough and by the time I start getting over it, I'm outside sketching again. Anyway.

The weekend is over... I went to the Tate Modern on Saturday... it was incredible! Lots of Francis Bacon, one of my all time favorites. I picked up some cool postcards there too; they're blank and you're basically just supposed to draw your own picture. You can draw them while you're there and leave them in a box and they post the ones they like on the wall. I did a contour drawing of my hand holding a pencil that says "YOUR PENCILS ARE DULL"... (they were). Then I decided I wanted to take it with me. Nikki, if you're reading this, thanks for the museum reccommendation! I'll send you a postcard if you email me your address.

Friday I went to Cambridge. Pretty boring but the colleges there are beautiful. I'm so jaded from having to sketch architecture that all Gothic buildings are boring to me now. Example:

hey look, a boat!

I should probably go to class now. I'll leave you with this song that I can't ever get out of my head and it reminds me of NYC

Bath & Bristol

All of the buildings in Bath are made out of the same yellowish stone... beautiful!


Bristol looks a little grungy from here, but it was an awesome city

Pancake Day! Epic!

In the US, you may be partaking in Super Tuesday... here in the UK, we have Pancake Tuesday. Probably one of the best days of the year. We had every kind of pancake with every kind of topping imaginable... feast your eyes...

me slaving away in the kitchen




The masterpiece pancake I made!


We also flambed bananas and yellow plums for the pancakes... sooo good.


the Marmite that I love so much

STONEHENGE

WAS... AWESOME