To the centre of the city where all roads meet waiting for you

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Prada. Saks. Tiffany's.

Prada, one of my favorites. I think Miuccia's best designs were when Sasha Pivovarova was the face. Someone commented that it had a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" feel.
Sak's Fifth Avenue. This one has got to be a "Pretty Woman" - Julia Robert shopping in Rodeo Drive moment. Another one of the photos I took in Union Square in San Francisco in May.

25 days of summer left. Flurry of activity on flickr, and tumblr to come.

 



Tuesday, July 6, 2010

All These Things That I've Done in Brandon Flowers' Boots

much to the horror of some of my friends, ive re-going through my killers phase from elementary/middle school.  ("again??" "OH GOD NOT ANOTHER OBSESSION, PLEASE NO!")
i still credit them for being understanding though :)




To explain all this madness and nonsense, I am trying to win Brandon Flowers' (frontman of the Killers) boots. The same ones he wore on their 2009 tour, and in their London ROYAL ALBERT HALL DVD.
I have 30 seconds to show where would I go, what would I do, and why i should win those boots.
 I believe he would go to San Francisco, and pass out free flowers on the Golden Gate Bridge because that's just what he would do. My first instinct was to go and find a way to interact with crowds - that's exactly his personality. Of course beforehand, he would have to go to the grocery store and buy some flowers, and dance to Mr.Brightside in the grocery aisle with flowers in hand, à la Morrissey. So now I've had my Morrissey moment and my BF moment too. and of course i dressed up like him, how could i not??

it's in black and white, and anton corbijn/hedi slimane/ kathryn bigelow/sophie muller inspired. i think its coincidental that k's first vid was a new order music video, and the killers got their name from a new order music video, and im making a music video for them now. fate strikes again!

I've been obsessing about brandon flowers' boots and pants for a month now. Every time I watch the killers royal albert hall DVD, I look for the boots and pants. They're absolutely rock n'roll, and perfect. i spent most of friday afternoon (a month ago) looking for combat boots like his - i finally settled on a pair of flowered doc martens

GET THIS. RIGHT AFTER - i go on tumblr for my daily favorite bands fix. someone posted a link to a brandon flowers boots contest that had been announced 5 minutes before i saw the link. i almost had a friggin heart attack. it couldnt be. IT HAD TO BE FATE. what else can explain me spending hours looking for boots JUST LIKE HIS, and then a contest for the real thing is announced just minutes after im done searching? destiny was calling me.. :)
i remember when i had my torn duct taped purple converse, people would tell me that if i wore them to concerts, rock stars would take pity on me and give me shoes.

and of course, like all good stories - this one is connected to the cure. and shoes. because we all know that in reality im an old man existing with a pair of  duct taped purple converse for a face.
I went to my first music festival and concert (download festival 07 -she wants revenge, AFI, black rebel motorcycle club, THE CURE!!!)  in these shoes. Met: one of my music industry heroes, online cure friends  for the first time, new cure friends made on the spot. i wore these in the press pit for 65daysofstatic...JASON COOPER (cure drummer) HUGGED ME WHILE I WAS WEARING THESE SHOES!!  the shoes.. its always about the shoes.

so before i start hyperventilating and jumping on my chair (too late for all that), i'd like to thank those who knew of the project and supported me, the rest of the Victims (killers fan club) for welcoming me and lyndsey - the best cinematographer i could ask for.

try to find all the killers references in the vid!

The Trouble With San Francisco (making of the vid pt. 1)
Let's Dance to the Killers @ the Grocery Store (making of pt 2)

Monday, July 5, 2010

Let's Dance to the Killers @ the Grocery Store

kind of like the wombats’ “lets dance to joy division”, remember that?

The intro to our video (see previous post about The Trouble With San Francisco) has me dancing in the grocery aisle to Mr. Brightside with flowers in hand. I think Mr. Flowers himself would do that.
Just as we were filming mid-dance, a girl from our school and her mom appeared in the background (great timing). So yes, she saw me doing my weird dance with a bunch flowers. in the grocery aisle. No wonder she didn’t say hi… LOL. Anyways, they made it into the vid, kind of.

I STUDIED AND PRACTICED brandon flower’s day and age tour dance moves (ANALYZED THOSE MOVEMENTS, BABY!) in front of a mirror.
then I DANCED THOSE MOVES IN A GROCERY AISLE!!!
just for this video, just for those boots.
Then after our too short trip to San Francisco - that almost ended up as a failure but it was SAVED, on the way home I was torn between the need to pee, falling asleep, and having the blood circulation in my legs cut off by my pants.

all great summer memories really..

The Trouble With San Francisco


   For about the fourth time, I got in trouble while visiting SF. Lyndsey and I were on the Golden Gate bridge Saturday morning to film a video for The Killers (details to come later). My camera woman, Lyndsey, hates heights, so we tried to do this quickly. I was trying to pass out free flowers which was the focus point of the video, but that was kind of difficult because NO ONE wanted free flowers. Wouldn’t even take 10 seconds to hold a flower to film the clip - when i explained it was for an art project. I mean, we weren’t coercing them to rob a bank with us, or selling drugs….

I was disillusioned.

  and everyone that actually allowed us to film them taking a flower - were either foreign, or tourists, or both. We only got one original San Franciscan. DAMN SAN FRANCISCANS!  i thought it was gonna be like the youtube videos or movies or commericials where it would be so easy….people would take them smiling and happy. IT’S SAN FRANCISCO AFTER ALL!! Apparently, there isn’t much flowery love this summer… as lyndsey would tell me, “how can you be so naive?? LOLOL”
whatever, we’re gonna go back when we’re famous and they’ll all want flowers. In fact, they’ll be giving us flowers, and asking for autographs.
so we didnt do the free hugs thing, because it was hard enough with flowers. there wouldnt be enough room for it in the video anyways, the people we got were just enough to fit in the video time limit.
The first person we asked was the funniest one of the bunch, and the most animated. He waved us off (but with a smile) when we approached him for “free flowers”, but he asked us what it was for. When I told him - art project, he said “ok” in his characteristic Indian accent. He was actually laughing when we filmed the clip. :)

After that we took to introducing our request as for an art project (because “it’s for this Killers contest” would lead to too many complications). This very kind woman volunteered the guy with her, and easily took a flower for the video. They were tourists we had passed by earlier walking on the bridge, and they were so sweet when we asked. I love her, thank you kind woman if you’re out there!

The third stranger featured in the video was a photographer and stopped and allowed us to film when we asked, MUCH TO OUR RELIEF. too much rejection is bad for the heart. :( This is why I was looking out for photographers, they would be more understanding of, “It’s for art..”

We were walking back (still on the bridge and dissapointed) when a man holding his daughter’s hand walking the opposite direction directly in front of us, grabs my attention. He’s one of those people that should be featured on the Sartorialist - long black coat, black cowboy boots, dark sunglasses, and black western hat. I don’t notice the Western tie until I review the footage we shot. How coincidental… this is the same sort of style seen in “All These Things I’ve Done” (which was being used for our video), and the whole Sam’s Town album of the Killers. And both of them were tall - like Killer’s members tall. He’s either Dutch, Belgian or German, European definetly - his accent wasn’t clear because of the wind and we could barely understand what we were all saying because of the darn wind. His daughter and him smile and it’s one of the best scenes we have from that day.

and i got into trouble with security. Apparently youre not supposed to hold signs on the bridge. ironically, i was joking with lyndsey earlier, “LAWL, WHAT IF THEY ARREST US FOR PASSING OUT FREE FLOWERS?”
well, security found me later on the bridge. and he was like “so you were the one holding up the sign earlier? well youre not supposed to do that.. etc. etc. what’s it for anyways?”
“oh its for an art project, im just passing out free flowers”
“ok, well just to let you know, etc. thank you!”
“ok thanks, bye officer!”
he radioed his fellow officers or whatever after that, and said, “i found her - she was just passing out free flowers”
so apparently they were looking for me after they saw me holding up the sign?? but he was smiling the whole time and he was good looking, so it didnt bother me!

I had a vague feeling that I probably shouldn’t have been holding signs up on the bridge. That’s like the fourth time I got into some sort of trouble in SF. Whenever i get that vague feeling of “I probably shouldn’t be doing this,” I go “but lets do it anyways and not get caught.” It’s always been for the sake of ‘art’ though, I SWEAR. Always for stupid, petty things (that i really should know better for) and the situation is always handled with profuse politeness from both sides.

I’m probably gonna be arrested in that city one day! but for a good cause.. like protesting! A friend of mine told me that DJ must stand for delinquent juvenile - haha.

and the people who catch me are always nice.