Posted By Missy on January 1, 2009

Messing around with our respective cameras selfie. Coney Island.

Tomorrow I return to work after being off since December 17. I’m feeling really bored but I’m nevertheless regretting not scheduling my time off until the 5th. My thinking, brilliant at the time, was that I should ease my way back into work with a one-day week, a one-day week in which most others will still be out.

Bored. I was just thinking about how much of my break I’ve spent in my pajamas, listening to WOXY and staring at my tree or spending inordinate amounts of time on the internet.

Then again, I was thinking about how I hung out with friends on something like six separate occasions; I got a tattoo, and watched the whole season of Flight of the Conchords during the initial pajamas-wearing healing of said tattoo; went to the dentist (no cavities!); watched Twilight (you read that right), Flight of the Red Balloon, Burn After Reading (kind of a stinker), L’Eclisse, His Girl Friday (again), Reprise (again), Singles (also again, partly out of a bout of nostalgia and partly because it popped up as a recommendation when I discovered that I could stream Netflix films), Wall*E (brilliant beginning that slides unfavorably into Making A Point), The Secret of the Grain, The Dark Knight, Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story and a few episodes of The Young & the Restless; I helped my mom shop for a new leather recliner (so she can, you know, watch Wall*E) and played with my brother’s dog; saw a band with the man I’ve been seeing and rode bikes to and from Coney Island on my birthday with him; had a birthday and, subsequently, a couple of birthday dinners; celebrated two others’ birthdays and an engagement; shot and developed some film for the first time in awhile; crashed a film critics pre-New Years gathering at the Brooklyn Inn, though stood inside to stay warm while this podcast was being recorded; at that bar, bumped into an old friend from my grad school days whom I haven’t seen in over ten years; I did a little yoga to counteract the slow December weight creep; I cleaned my apartment and my closet; I got a massage and a pedicure, and I read a fair amount (though probably retained little); I left Brooklyn only to travel to Ohio; I wrote my goals for 2009, which are ambitious and risk over-scheduling my time at the expense of having more fun.

Really, I don’t know why I think I need that extra day. Besides, I also need to ease my way back into Manhattan so I can spend this last holiday weekend getting myself to that Eggelston retro and to experience, hopefully, the womb. Let’s go, 2009.

Category: Brooklyn, apartment, arts, bands, bicycle, family, friends, meta, photography, self-indulgence, vacation | 3 Comments »
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Posted By Missy on December 31, 2008

Still from Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light

1. Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas). Film Forum will be running this film for two weeks in January.
2. Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme)
3. Man on Wire (James Marsh). When Philippe finally stepped out onto that wire, I think I stopped breathing.
4. Reprise (Joachim Trier)
5. Momma’s Man (Azazel Jacobs). Directed by the son of filmmaker Ken Jacobs and featuring Ken and Flo Jacobs.
6. Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
7. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
8. Ballast (Lance Hammer)
9. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen). Wendy and Lucy and The Wrestler got bumped from the list; VCB was too sexy and funny to resist.
10. Lou Reed’s Berlin (Julian Schnabel). Arguably my most controversial selection. Among other things, that encore of “Candy Says” between Reed and Antony Hegarty knocked me flat. After seeing the film, I don’t feel so bad for having not gotten tickets to the actual performance.

*Ordering approximate

Category: arts | 5 Comments »
Tags: film, top ten

Posted By Missy on December 29, 2008

The best way to kick a post-birthday wine & beer headache, to clear the fuzziness and make yourself right with the world– now that you’re 37 years old–is with a cup of tea and a chocolate cupcake made from scratch (thanks mihow!)

Category: self-indulgence | 14 Comments »
Tags: bedhead, birthday, cupcake

Posted By Missy on December 18, 2008

Jon Spencer playing with Boss Hog at the Bowery Ballroom on December 17, 2008. Shot with my point & shoot.

Category: bands, photography | 3 Comments »
Tags: bands, boss hog, bowery ballroom, jon spencer, photography

Posted By Missy on December 14, 2008

Accidental mid-blink selfie

(I know, I know, loose chinstrap.) I traded the hoodie for some Patagonia fleece. Now if only I could solve the icicle toes problem, no doubt exacerbated by my choice of footwear.

Two and 1/2 days until I’m done with work for the year! I know! I can do this kind of thing every day if I want to. What if I subjected you to the 12 Days of Missy Panda Shots? You might never come back, probably.

Category: Brooklyn, bicycle, photography | 2 Comments »
Tags: bicycle, selfie

Posted By Missy on December 5, 2008

Often looks a little something like this:

~7:15 am, on the Brooklyn Bridge and in Tribeca. Temperature: mid-30s. If I look sleepy and grubby, it’s because I more or less roll out of bed and go. The shower and prettying comes later.

I also purchased a new point & shoot camera for these such occasions.

By the way, I’m about done deleting all of the duplicate archive posts that manifested when I migrated from MT to WP. Unfortunately, some of the comments went with them. At least my archives will now be slightly less painful to read through.

Category: bicycle, meta, photography | 4 Comments »
Tags: bicycle, commute, morning, photography, selfie

Posted By Missy on November 30, 2008

Many of you know that my grandmother recently passed away. While I was in Ohio, I found some old heirlooms, such as my great-grandmother’s McGuffey Reader, my grandfather’s German hymnal that was given to him on his confirmation, and copies of Evangeline and The Scarlet Letter that date to maybe the early 1900’s. My aunt had collected old photos and I brought some home to scan. Here are a few:

The Long family at their home. The Longs were my great, great-grandparents through the female line, and possibly the only sliver of non-German in my heritage. Look at that beautiful dog! Many of the photos reveal that I come from dog people. Dog-owning people, I mean, not that the sliver of non-Germans are half-man, half-dog.

My great, great-grandfather Long. That, sir, is a damn fine bull.

I think the woman in the middle is my great, great-grandmother Eibling. The clothes throughout these photos are what most fascinate me.

My great-grandparents, Jacob and Iva (Long) Eibling.

Jacob (right) and his brother-in-law John, who was married to Iva’s sister Maggie. (I think I got this right.) I also come from farmers, if that wasn’t obvious by now.

Jacob and my grandmother on the left. The caption said, “Where I helped tile. North 40.” I Googled ’tile’, which revealed some sort of agricultural drainage process.

My grandmother, on the far right with white hair and a light dress, in a class photo c. early 1920’s.

My grandpa and grandma Borger. He was in the WWII Glider Infantry.

I’m told my grandpa was a proud man (not to mention, he had a strong German work ethic). I think these photos of his tractor and his car reveal as much. He died in 1983 and my memory of him consists mostly of his impenetrable German accent and his terrorizing us kids with his dentures. (I’m also told that great-grandma Borger spoke no English but that grandma Borger yelled at my grandpa whenever he muttered in German.)

Not the best photo. But, I just learned that my grandma used to chop the heads off the chickens. Somehow, I am not surprised by this.

My mother with some of her cousins, Charlie, Jim, Bill, and another Jim. I love this photo because of the squalling Jims.

Category: family, photography | 23 Comments »
Tags: family, photography

Posted By Missy on November 17, 2008

I got hit by a cab today. I was in the bike lane on Warren Street; he decided to pull out into traffic without looking. I saw it coming and slammed my brakes and somehow–somehow–there was absolutely no damage. I can’t figure it out because I swear he hit my wheel. Maybe it was just my pedal? It seemed unnecessary to waste everyone’s time by bringing in the law, but I wasted no time getting in his face and bawling him out for a solid five minutes. I didn’t even get nasty. By the time I left, I had him saying, “I respect bicyclists. I respect bicyclists.”

It could have been much worse, I know. I realized this when I finally got to the light on the other side of the bridge and burst into tears. Before I get calls for “Be careful!” or, worse, to hang up the wheels, I need to say that AM careful. I wear blinking lights on the front & back (other cyclists, please do this - I can’t see you when you’re coming toward me on the bridge); I signal; I’m assertive without being an asshole; and I’m always watching for the next cab to pull a dick move. I’m just upset that drivers can be so careless.

Category: bicycle | 8 Comments »
Tags: bicycle

Posted By Missy on November 11, 2008

Swedish pop/soul band Those Dancing Days, “Hitten”.

That singer is adorable. She’s like an alterna-Mariah Carey.

(First in an occasional series.)

Category: bands | 3 Comments »
Tags: new favorite song, Those Dancing Days

Posted By Missy on November 9, 2008

Hillary had two rear-wheel flats today (actually, just one, but the patch didn’t hold and so the tube had to be replaced). Luckily, Ezra builds bikes and Bill fixes them so they had every tool and tube necessary to fix her up quick.

We also had some unfortunate encounters with poop somewhere in the vicinity of the second flat; I got off light by merely rolling through it, Ezra’s mom stepped in some, and poor Joy put her (gloved) hand in yet more when she sat down waiting for the tube to be fixed.

However! It was a great ride through Van Cortlandt park (despite the treacherous blanket of damp leaves) after passing by the Bronx Zoo and Botanical Garden, back around Inwood Hill Park, and the Harlem River Drive, followed by brunch at Toast in Morningside Heights. I think I totaled 30 miles; it felt good but I’m still trying to wrestle down last night’s hangover–my first in a long time–and my legs are surprisingly tired, so I’m going back to bed. See ya!

Category: bicycle, friends | 4 Comments »
Tags: bicycle, Bronx, dog poop, Inwood