New York, baby!

Wow! It's been a long couple of weeks and pretty stressful, with relaxing moments in between. But stressful mainly.

Thanksgiving was on 22nd November and I took advantage of the long weekend by spending five days in New York at a friend's place. It appears that Thanksgiving is just about the turkey. And thanking. But thank who/what you like for whatever you like, it doesn't seem that there is any kind of a philosophy attached to it. There is an obligation to see family. But it seems important nevertheless to have a pan-American festivity in a multi-faith country. I had tofurkey. It's underwhelming. Chewy. I don't recommend. Other things I managed to do in the Big Apple were: buy some clothes (never seem to go to nice shops here in LA, time and transport factors), buy a Canon G9 digital compact camera that could just change the way I photograph forever (ie my photographs might actually not look shit), go to umpteen Chelsea galleries and MOMA, Whitney, Guggenheim and International Center of Photography. Had nice time. Met some cool people. Ate calorie laden food. Experienced REAL cold for first time in ages. Had to borrow coats before I went from Dana and Alexis and needed to borrow scarves and hats too. The thing about New York is, it puts you on to an extent, it takes the edge off any yearnings for Blighty. Not that I really miss home that much. Friends and family and Dad's tea excluded.



Had some deadlines: showed my work in Image & Text, a presentation in After Archive, a scholarship application and more coming up next week. I did my After Archive presentation after 2 hours of sleep followed by 3 hours of broken sleep on the plane. I went to class direct from the airport. I gave a good talk, but I did not get through all my material because my presentation was hijacked by two hecklers. These two men in the class gave me such a hard time over my work I felt really dragged over hot coals. I really felt that they were bullying rather than constructively critiquing. I am not sure how I handled it, but people came up to me after class saying they liked my work and were really pleased I stood my ground. The funny thing is that the person who went before me was woefully under prepared and he only received support from the class.

On a more positive note, I have now had studio meetings with Allan Sekula, Kaucyila Brooke, Leslie Dick and another with Billy Woodberry. I've found them all really helpful in terms of advice and support, but also I really like and respect them as people. Even Allan. He's great, he likes me. And as for being initially scarred of Billy, I can't believe it, I think he's amazing. He's so knowledgeable and I think he has an incredibly accurate, insightful reading of my work. At my last meeting with him, he shook my hand with the parting shot, 'You're beautiful'.

Assorted good news: an editor from Source magazine contacted me wanting me to send him some j-pegs of my work. I have done. Not heard back from him though. I went to a panel discussion at LACMA this week, chaired by Charlotte Cotton, who I spoke to afterwards, she gave me her email address as she loves CalArts photo people and wants to hear how I'll get on. I'm trying not to think about this too much, but a scholarship that I applied to for 2007-8, that I was put on the waiting list for, has contacted me. There is a slim chance of getting money from them, like now. That would cover for my next tuition payment. Fingers crossed.

The complicated news: the A situation got out of hand, and today she moved out of our suite and into another one. When I pass her now, she ignores me and crosses the corridor/street. I don't want that. I had to go to housing and make a complaint against her though, which I feel bad about, but the situation got far too bad. Very negative. With bad things being said. It's a sad situation though, and one I hoped to avoid.

Fires in California

Just to let you know, some of the fires got quite close to campus, although in the end they blew the other way. Campus was not officially evacuated, but we were all encouraged to leave. I don't have a car so I got a ride with Dana with one of her friends. Dana has been through Katrina and she knows how to evacuate. I did not want to leave so I did not know how to pack! In the end she had to shout at me to get in the car and go. I wanted to finish my cup of tea. English people will understand that. One reason why I was dragging my heels is that N was as calm as a Hindu cow and was adamant he was staying on campus. Dana and N are my family in California and I was torn between their two very different attitudes. I also did not want to choose between who I stayed with. In the end I told Dana I did not want to leave N (or my dresses) and although he did not come with us she shouted at him enough for him to get his ass into gear, pack his stuff up and go with his friend. In that moment there was a weird role reversal of family positions. Dana became the Alpha male, sorting out every single person she knew, fixing everyone up with rides to somewhere safe. She became a hub and as we left she called campus housing and she told the who was going where. Campus housing were blown away. Everyone was calling them and freaking out, wanting to know what to do and there was Dana calling them and listing them who went where in our suite, how they got there etc. Tornados are a regular occurance in New Orleans and her and her family got out well before Katrina hit, even though they lost everything. Everthing. I can only say that whilst I am in California and Dana is in my family, no harm will come to me.

I ended up at a friend of Dana's appartment in North Hollywood, with a dozen actors. They were all hungry and went for a bite to eat at a cool place called Alcove. On the way there Dana realised that the actors were going to stick together and have fun and be actorish, so she looked at me and said, call Alexis, have her pick you up. She knew that as a non-actor that would be a bit much. So Alexis knew the Alcove and was happy to come meet me. I spent the night here and we had fun and I think we are going to the Getty this afternoon. Totally safe here in Hollywood. N just called and he ended up in North Hollywood too. He's off to MOCA. Dana is still in North Hollywood - just spoken to her - she has a hangover.