Pancakes and Chip Kidd

Monday was nice!

First, Taranika decided that she wanted Swedish pancakes for breakfast and I decided that I wanted some too. So I got up at 7.30 and called Sara to join us, which she did.














As a native of the country of Swedish pancakes, I am somewhat ashamed to say that Taranika's pancakes (left) turned out way better than mine (right).














Durrh....ergh...ergh

After a couple (read: a bunch) of tries the pancakes started coming out nicely. My dad has a recipe where he adds sparkling water to the batter, supposedly to make it more fluffy. I tried this, but couldn't really tell any difference. A funny thing: In Sweden, it's hard to find corn-on-a-cob that is not canned. Don't ask me why. In the US however, it's hard to find proper whipping cream. The store I go to only carried spray-can whipping cream or Cool Whip. It's kind of weird to not have access to the real thing.














The Cool Whip on the far right.



















Pancakes, yeah!


After the pancakes, we were all full and happy. Me and Sara went to a café to study until the Chip Kidd reading started.

Chip was a very theatrically gifted reader, and the new book The Learners (a sequel to his first novel, "The Cheese Monkeys" (not to be confused with Cheese-eating Surrender Monkeys).

Whereas The Cheese Monkeys was an academic satire and coming-of-age tale about state college art students who struggle to meet the demands of sadistic art instructors (Wikipedia), The Learners is about the protagonist Happy having graduated and now working at an ad agency while simultaneously partaking in the Stanley Milgram's famous Obedience to Authority-experiment.
Should be interesting!
I also found out that Kidd has a band.
Not exactly my cup of tea, but hey...














Me and Chip

(Extremely) short snippet of Chip talking about his band (complete with mannerisms):


Amusing, but scary promotional video for the book:
(Wait for the hamster)

Some Observations

Had the meeting with James about the End-of-Year show. We got a bit further but only as far as ideas. (I should post more creative work to actually show what I'm doing...Oh, well.) Since school was closed last Friday, we went to a cafe around Union Square called Thé Adoré which was run by Japanese people. Now, I don't know whether it was the fact that they were Japanese or whether they just liked bite-sized food, but the breakfast sandwich I got was comparable in size to a tennis-ball. (See below) Very cute and cozy though.














The Adoré used to be an old printing press! Oh those were the days.














Small but tasty. But small.


After an observation by Mark at the Design Office about a certain shape of the negative space in a subway-ad, I now cannot undo the harm to my eyes. Is this how the patriarchy subliminally enforces its powers on womankind? I guess we are evil after all:








Watch that negative space, designers.
(Needs to be viewed in full-size. Click!)


On Friday there was an art-school party in a studio-space almost right next door to me. One stop over on the JMZ-line. Me, Anna-Sophia (from Halifax) and Sara tried out some different beers (a pirate-beer among others, yarr!) at a Williamsburg-cafe before heading over to dance a bit.














The munchies set in somewhere around three o clock

Saturday was laundry-day and I was fascinated by this machine that had this lovely rhytmical beat to it. Unfortunately it wasn't my machine, so when the woman whose revolving underwear I was filming came back, I had to apologize and ask if it was ok.


The funky laundry machine. Turn the volume up.


Went out with Taranika on Saturday to Lotus in the Chelsea/meatpacking-district. It was...intense. Let's just say I learned a little about New Yorkian and U.S. club culture. VIP and free drinks are never bad though.















Tomorrow Chip Kidd is speaking about his new book at Barnes & Noble in Tribeca.

I hope that I will meet some ECI people there as they are now in town!

Valentine's

Valentine's came and went, sort of. Never been affected by it until yesterday. Perfect example of how consumerism gets you in its vice. Felt kind of bummed.

Went to school, did some work (PWP is moving along. Will post some updates soon.) Went out to lunch with Mark and Inessa at the Design Office, where Mindy (my instructor) is the manager. They take care of all the posters, invitations, reports etc., that need to be designed as soon as Cooper puts something out. It was weird to go have "lunch"-lunch. At a proper lunch-restaurant. At lunch-time. With lunch-specials. With non-students. I think the latter was the most weird. I've become so used to my flexible student-schedule and bringing my own food to school that actually sitting at that restaurant in that way brought back memories of the office-jobs I've held. Not sure whether they were good or bad memories. Perhaps both.

Got my screen.








Amelia washing out her screen.













Size-comparison.
(look at the size of the sucker!)



Prepared it for use and then met up with Sara to check out Good World which apparently is a......Swedish-owned place. (They also have a big reindeer on the wall). Amelia (see pic) apparently has a Swedish mom (I told you I can't escape them!) and recommended the place. Went there and had a coffee, but it wasn't that good. Since me and Sara both have our birthdays in April we were thinking about going there for princess-cake sometime though. (The link is to a Swedish bakery in Vancouver for those of you who want to try)

We moved on for delicious grilled sandwiches at the Grey Dog and called it a night. All in all: bad day that got better through good people. Screw you Valentine.


Today I'm meeting with James to discuss ideas for the End-of-Year-Show poster. Ideas and/or inspiration welcome!

Food, Classes, Roommates and the Scandinavian Contingent

Hello y'all. Sorry for the wait.
It's kind of typical of me to do stuff in big chunks instead of small.
This is something I have resolved to change though!

Ok, so, life is moving on in a steady pace.
I am very happy I chose 13 credits instead of...more than that. However, I was under the impression that every class was supposed to be of the super-intense, work-til-you're-comatosed kind. Instead, it has proven to be has a extremely laid-back tempo that fits me very well this term. I wonder if it's just the classes I'm taking....

Some thoughts on well-being:
My fear before moving was that I would live an unhealthier life in New York due to what I thought would be a more hectic city, a more intense school, and the impression that healthy food here would either be expensive or hard to find.
Albeit being a vegetarian here is not as easy as on the west coast, I am actually living healthier here than in Vancouver. If I examine the three abovementioned fears I find that the city is actually as friendly and calm as anywhere I've been. There is a positive energy (might just be the simple fact that sun here actually comes out once in a while) here that I can really feed off, and a heterogeneity that makes me feel normal.
As for the second one, see above.
Concerning the third worry: if one just looks, there is no problem making healthy food-choices, and given that I am taking only 13 credits, I actually have time to cook my own food, take it with me for lunch, go to the gym, plus socialize(!). All in all, its a lifestyle that makes me happy, that has increased my fall-back margins when things get stressed and imbalanced and it's something I want to remember for the rest of my life. I'm all for living, breathing and sleeping design, and god knows I have, but one must create healthy habits that can be sustained for the rest of one's life lest one will crash and burn when outside the safe environment of school.


Ok, back to classes:
I'm trying to adjust to the Intra-disciplinary Seminars-class.
Although interesting, critical studies is not what is making me tick right now. Every week we have a seminar with accompanying readings as well as having to write a page about each seminar plus three questions. You get two "free passes" (meaning that you can skip writing about two lectures of your choice). I've already used up my first one. I also have to get used to the fancy-schmancy language of academia. What's interesting about this course, however, is how diverse the themes of each lecture are. For instance, the first reading was on the emergence of the Christian Right in the US, the second the concepts of Perruque and bricolage and how they can be used to create social space in society for people of minority. The third one was on biological warfare(!) and the latest one on human rights.

Professional Practices is a bit less strugglesome (Not a word? It is now ;)), and even though my instructor seems slightly unnerved at times by my approach to the project, she seems to be willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. Yesterday, on my request, I met with my client, or should I say, clients: Pam, Pat & Pat of PWP. Three vigourous ladies in their 50's and 60's that explained to me what their organization is about and how it's changing.

I won't go through everything they said, but here are three major points I got from the discussion:

1.) Even though women have a better foothold in the business of photography, men are still dominant.
2.) The PWP is not only below the radar in the field of professional photographers, but also when comparing to other, similar organizations.
3.) The PWP is going through a re-structuring and rejuvenation-phase (trying to attract younger members).

With this in mind, I went on to sketching on a logotype,
and here are some of the results:









(click for bigger version)

Me, James and Mindy had a discussion and I was happily surprised to receive some input that made me see things I did not expect. I will post the parts that I will continue working on as well as the rationale behind them. Any opinions and critique welcome.

I also asked the members of PWP if they had a member whose studio I could visit for a brief chat and too see how a professional photographer works, and received thumbs-up yesterday! On a recommendation from Theresa I sent the same query to the photographer-duo Cate & Camilla but somehow my mail never got sent, plus it's somehow erased...which sucks, because I spent half an hour trying to craft it as precise and eloquent as possible to not sound like a creep.

Silkscreening is so nice! I was afraid that I was wasting my time on something that I have the materials for at home already, but I get a tingle in my toes and my heart goes pitter-pat everytime I think about what I can do with it and that I will learn once and for all how it works (hasn't gone very well doing it at home). The instructor is really slow and methodic about the mechanics of it which is fine by me, since I'd rather do it right than get frustrated over and over again. Also, he brings bagels, cream cheese and fruit every morning!! It's just a fantastic morale-raiser for a morning-class! Don't ask me where he gets the stuff from though.








Lovely silkscreen breakfast.

Science of the Mind (another morning class) is also exciting. We are learning about how the brain perceives information, how its structured, about Freud and LSD and the current state of the field of neurology. All very interesting.









Peter Nadin, the instructor.











Some notes from the class.



In other news:
Got a new roommate! Her name is Taranika, orginally from Chicago and now working within PR on Manhattan. The funny thing is that she worked in Sweden as an au pair in Saltsjöbaden for a year, so before I met her, I received a note on the fridge, in Swedish(!), that she was moving in. She also has a Swedish boyfriend who is moving here in a couple of months.








Logan and Taranika, my roommates

I've found myself only hanging out with people with a Scandinavian connection, be it Swedes, Norwegians, Finns, or people who have a connection to Sweden and it's a bit annoying. I should be able to find at least one New Yorker that I can befriend?


Went to Brighton beach the other day with Silje and checked out the beach as well as the Coney Island amusement park. Three things reminded me of Sweden there: 1.) Overcast 2.) Few people 3.) Windy and cold. The beach was huge! I can only imagine how it comes alive in the summer. Afterwards we went to this sunglasses and mustache-party.







































Russian community+beach=?










Coney Island











More Coney Island








Some guy ate 66 hotdogs in 12 minutes. What!?









Silje and ...err, palm tree














School bus parking lot. Or graveyard(!)Duhn duhn DUHN!









Guy fishing on the pier. Caught some kind of ray-fish?















People kept telling me I looked like Borat. Did not.



Also visited Moto the other week. It was a bit like entering another world. Everything was just thrown back to 1938. Even the band. Truly cosy and with nice food and people though. I found out that there is a documentary about its making.









Nice script on toilet rim at Moto







The band





Misc. pics:













Saw this on the subway














Went to the Pan bakery in Little Poland (Greenpoint, Brooklyn).
Got this donut with donut-scraps on top.














To have a beer with this name would be funny only in Sweden.














The school arranged an intimate lecture about intellectual rights-issues. Very useful.















Since when did one ever need a reason to eat curry?














Started to use my studio space














"Free Ice Cream Day" in the lobby! Hooray!














We went here before going to the moustache-thing.
Free nachos and salsa, but $7 for a beer.














Say what-zky?














Behold the power of organization














Bunch of snow came yesterday

Intermission

Major post coming up.
In the meantime, I just want
to say how much I miss everyone.
And I mean everyone.

That means you too.

New Favourite Place

Overslept today. Probably because I got home at 1 and had to get up at seven. Lots of hypertext in this post.

Last night, I helped Silje (Norwegian) move a bed and then went for Thai. Afterwards we had a couple of drinks at the Union Pool in North Brooklyn.

They had a bonfire on the patio outside and you could smell the lightly woody smoke from a block away.

The crowd were all white hipsters, but for some reason I felt ok with it (as opposed to Gothenburg or Vancouver). Don't know why. Great music was played, and I was pleasantly surprised when the speakers started blasting Last Night by the Mar-Keys, as it is the is the end-theme of Bottom (covered by the Bum Notes).


Tried some different beers as well.

Just talking and drinking is something I've missed too. Want to do that more.

Even though I was happily surprised to see Zohar (see previous posts) and two of his Israeli friends walk in the door, I was even more surprised when I met Kim Öhrling, a Finnish-Swedish photographer friend that recently graduated from ECI. With him was a Swede, Gustaf, who iss a working as an Art Director at a French firm here, the name of which I cannot remember.

All in all, great night, and I look forward to doing it some more.

Next: Potato-lentil soup.