A day in the sun

Spent yesterday on a bit of a photo safari around Williamsburg - and was lured into a local bar by the sight of a man in kilt and Arran sweater talking with a women in, well not very much. Turns out it was 'open to all art class' day and that even I - clod with camera was welcome to join. Hurrah! I promised the model that I'd not post anything that she hadn't seen and approved - so have a folder heaving and straining with pics that I really want to share, but can't yet. This isn't one of the better pics, but it's one of the few that's approved to date. More later. Oh I do love living in the city.

man i hate your band

Originally uploaded by lois lame;.

really should be my personal motto. I keep venturing out to see bands that seem to be derivative, self absorbed and well sucky and then blaming my age for my point of view. Well bollocks to that. Yes I listen to more i-pod stuff than I do radio, yes I'm starting to seal the edges of my musical time capsule but you know what I'm still open to somebody good. So wow me. I have CD $'s. I have download bucks aplenty. Come show me what you've got all.

On yer bike mate...

big_bike
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

So with Jude graduated (post graduated?) my thoughts about a car for michigan turn to obsession. Of course being a professor in management and the environment in a school known for environmental research means that Jude can't just turn up in any old car. The US may not have cought on to Carbon Neutral Fascism yet - but it's coming and Jude wants to look and feel clean. Which means a car that looks and feels clean (and masks the fact that its main purpose will be to shuttle her back and forth to an airport whereupon she'll board public enemy #2 and blow any savings she's made and more)

The real problem of course is finding a car in the US that does decent miles to the gallon. The US likes its cars to be fat and lazy - to have huge displacement, fat torque curves and wallowy seats seperated by think arm rests otop which rest 1700KCal Starbucks drinks.

Take for example the VW Golf (Rabbit in the US)...a frugal 1.4L car in the UK the entry model here is a 2.5l that 24.7mpg in real world driving conditions. Even when you add the 20% that brings a US gallon up to th esame size as a UK gallon you're looking at just under 30mpg - and that's considered pretty darn good (the 2.5L VW is a compact car here)

So we're looking at a Honda Fit (think Jazz with bigger engine), at a Suzuki SX4 (think Suzuki SX4 with standard all wheel drive, 143hp and 24mpg - yikes) and at things like the Toyota Matrix / Pontiac Vibe , the base model (2.0) Ford Focus as well as a Prius that's great in normal conditions but only manages 31mpg in the cold winters of Michigan.

Diesel isn't really an option. You can't find diesel cars. You can't find Diesel at the pumps and the thought of importing from California (where emissions standards make cars cleaner) fills me with red tape heebie jeebies.

Really it comes down to one question. Can the Honda FIt stand up to a Michigan winter or do we need a real 4 wheel drive vehicle in which case the SX4 is the most fuel efficient option. Why the worry? Well the average temperature is sub zero in Detroit for 3 months of the year (lows around -8C on average in January). The annual average temperature is in single digits (Centigrade) and you're looking at around 4 feet of snow a year - if there are no major storms. And there are often major storms.

Anyway lots of things to think about as we headto the NYC MOTOR SHOW this afternoon - templates in hand, ready to take a look and see what we can see. What feels right. And who has the best deals. Remember that cars may be huge and inefficient here but they're cheap... 2.5l Golf - 7,600GBP, Toyota Yaris 5,800GBP, fully load 4*4 SX4 with every extra 7.800 quid.

I just rubbed my hands with glee.

Dr Jude...

Fourth on Lake Austin
Originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.

... so Jude is now Dr. Jude. Dr. Jude PhD. Which is pretty cool. The defense was tense and scary and underlined all that I feared about academia but Jude was calm, made her points, scored a couple of points of her own and left the building a Doctor. Very cool.

In a train station now (wireless huh?) but will post more later

Playing Defense

The answer to all things
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

Jude defends today. Meaning that in 12 hrs or so she'll either be Dr. Jude or she'll be temporarily rueing the day. The PhD. hasn't been the easiest of times. There's been death, sickness and all manner of family bits and pieces. There's been loneliness (you try living in Wappinger's Falls and having no reason to leave the house) and lots of times when we've felt trapped... turning down jobs because they didn't fit with the visa or areas of study because they didn't fit with advisor specialty. Financially it's been a disaster too - costing us close to $1m in lost earnings and opportunity.

Yet here we are - in New York, new friends around us. old friends back in the fold, me in a new job. Jude with an offer on the table and ready to start soon. The sum of human knowledge expanded a little. Can't be bad, can it?

Here's to closing this chapter and opening the next.

The great defender

how long to boil this egg?
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

Jude defends tomorrow. If it goes well then she's Dr. Jude. If it doesn't then she's back to square one with a a whole hill o' razor blades to climb. I have to say that the US PhD. system seems far more rigorous than the UK version. Heresy I know but she had to take two years of graduate classes in some pretty hardcore methodologies before she was even allowed to start thinking about what she'd do and the pressure to publish and appear on public stages has been constant and intense.

The actual defense is a mixture of public forum and private torture. So I'm going to head up and watch the presentation / opening questions before being kicked out while they grill her in what I'm thinking of as the Mastermind specialist sunject round. After that round they kick her out and deliberate. This can take anything from 10 minutes to 4 hrs.

My contribution to the preparation has been minimal. I've taken pictures (like the one above) for the powerpoint slides (20 in the presentation, 43 prepared in case of questions), I've slouched off with the dog to provide 'alone time' and I've plied with wine when I thought it neccessary. And at every step and stage my conviction never to follow the PhD. path has grown stronger. It takes a certain type of person here and I'm not that type of person.

But it's 8.28 and my train is at 8.42. I must dash. Have a great day all.

Sleeping diseases

elmo
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

I think that I slept for about 10 hrs yesterday. This is unusual for me as I'm not really one for lie-ins. However I've been knackered ever since our two day session last week. There's something about being responsible for every step of a process that really does slow you down - you get to the end and you just crash. This time it was stimulus, venues, exercises, shopping trips, introductions, ideas, groupings and enough energy to carry everybody through it all. I though that I was fine, I wasn't obviously.

Meanwhile Jude is up at the crack of St. Early the Riser and starting on charts for her thesis defence. It's on Tuesday and everytime she sits down to look at the screen she gets wound just a little tighter. It's an amazing physical reaction and one that I recognize after 4 years in an advertising agency that worked only on crisis and panic. Most of which was self created.

The problem with where I used to work was size. It was a huge agency, with huge clients and lots of people. The problem was that the number of great people, the people you wanted to work with and for, was tiny. And these people were in demand, on everything. So if you wanted them you had to convince the powers that be that your problem was bigger, more urgent and more scary than any other problem in the building.

"I need these people now or the whole account is going up for review, the work won't be delivered, we'll be sued and the client is threatening to take a crap through your letterbox." was the general tone.

This led of course to several consequences. Hyperbole is one thing, constant hyperbole starts to have a physical effect. People started to believe the desperation of their own circumstance and the stress levels soared. They aged. They got sick. They went grey. They upped the doses of alcohol. They looked for people to blame, for people to shout out.

And then of course everything was rushed. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so of course thought, care and attention to detail were frowned upon. "Get it out of the door Jenkins" was too often the mentality.

And finally there were the defections. Constant seige leads to shell shock and people leaving the trenches to pursue careers in cabbage management, or fluffy hat wearing.

It was miserable and right now Jude is in her own solo version of this hell. Thank God Tuesday sees the end of it.

I loved this picture...

My angel...
Originally uploaded by Blueberry Fields.

... and I'm not sure why. Could it be that all around me cohorts are flying in from holiday with children attached to their hips? That brunch these days often involves a highchair and a cherub faced picture of all that we're missing? Or is it just a great picture? I'm not sure - perhaps it's just my wanting one more subject to photograph - somebody cute, uncomplaining and in my own image. Selfishness then. Probably.

Time for more scans

8
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

It's April, which means more scans. Of course this is the US and I still haven't been billed for my original scans due to the hospital sending the bill to my ex insurance company and then disappearing off the edge of the world. I'm assuming that all is well but expectying problems when I want to head for the MRI machine and the receptionist gets an 'unpaid' message flash across her screen.

I'm due at the dentist too. $7200 for work that really isn't neccessary but will see all of my UK dentistry finally fixed by somebody competant.

There's a correlation between poor dentistry and cancers (as well as heart attacks) that's hard to deny - it's oft cited but seems to be a smaller debate than you'd imagine. Maybe sick people don't have the energy to sue their dentists. Or maybe dental hygiene is something that's hard to prove in a court of law. I'm not sure which it is but I do have to call both Adela at the hospital and Tatiana at the dentist today. Don't let me forget.

work

work
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

a lot of people have asked what it is that I do for a living.... the answer is this... kinda.

Take a loft, a rug, an illustrator, some very senior clients, a ream of colored paper, some scented pens, cat poo coffee and a 'box of childhood' and you end up with 16 great ideas.

All a tad odd though... huh?

More Idol

Melinda Doolittle - American Idol Memphis Auditions
Originally uploaded by Jackie Sometimes Art.

So last night was American Idol with a barely alive Tony Bennett, who seemed so happy to still be upright that all he could do was lavish praise upon those upon whom he intended to later feast.

Blake Edwards starteds with his tradmark Jamiroquai with arthritis slide and delivered an okay "Mack the Knife" that was free of both beat boxing and vocal range

Phil Stacey's performance of "Night and Day" was as flat as his voice... the man has to go home and soon

Mindy Doo started shaky (could it be her newfound neck putting her off) but finished big... she has to be safe tonight and if she isn't she should bring in the Richard III preservation society and demand a recount

Chris Richardson managed to turn "Don't get around much anymore" into his usual nasal dirge. This week though it was an upbeat dirge which should keep hime safe

Jordin Sparks is 17. This means that her ability to sing is 'amazing'... "On a clear day" was old fashioned but in tune. Grannies everywhere will have pointed their walkers toward their rotary dial phones and clawed arthritically at 1-866 idols 05

Sanjaya Malakar is 17... his inability to perform has made him a national joke. He's okay with this, which makes him okay with me. His 'cheek to cheek' was anodyne enough to reassure parents everywhere that their pre-teens aren't having sexual thoughts about him. Game on sanjaya.

Smile is a great song. Gina Glocksen is a chunky chick with badly styled hair who does a passable Joan Jett karaoke. You do the math.

Haley Scarnato is entertainment Quaalude. I'm sure she did whatever song she did competently... I'm not sure that's enough.

LaKisha Jones managed to get away with that lisp again (when will they mention it?) but also managed to do that menace in her eyes thing that she does so well when she's 'in the zone'... I feared for Simon's life and for Randy's virginity but she knocked it so far out of the park it almost cleared her bosom.

A quilcie this morning

8
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

it's 6.45am I've already printed out the lyrics to "Baby it's cold outside" and I have a long say of Twister Mixed Cocktails, deep fried mars bars and general oddness in front of me. It ought to be good - but if it isn't there's nowhere to hide and as all of this is new to me I'm a little concerned that I'm the virgin in a virgin process. It's a little like organizing a gang babg at Jesus Camp - you know that they really should go for it but you're always just a little worried that the kid with Jesus in his heart is going to ruin it for everyone else.

My Civet coffee arrived

CRW_1069
Originally uploaded by goldenticketstudios.

Kopi Luwak or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee cherries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The animals gorge on the ripe berries, and excrete partially-digested beans in their feces, which are then harvested for sale. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, in the Philippines (where the product is called Kape Alamid), in the country of Vietnam, and the coffee estates of south India.


Cool beans, huh?

Cool day today

Ishockey NHL
Originally uploaded by Hakan Dahlstrom.

after a night of drunken debate with displaced Cubans we started the day gently, with a brunch. Our friends Michael and Joanne and their increasingly lovely son Ollie joined Xtiana, Alex, Jude and I in a quite Tribeca brunch spot before we all spilled out onto the streets in search of saucy underwear (Jude), coffee (the Xs) and fuel for their giganta wagon (Michael, Joanna, Ollie and all)

Then this evening it was Ice Hockey. Our neighbors gave us really great seats, one row behind the opposition bench and we dragged J.Lum (a friend from Oz) with us for an evening of bafflling stopages, loud musical interludes, very polite fans and the occasional stand up fist fight (on the ice)

Big week for me at work this week so time for The L Word (am I the only person still watching?) and then bed. 8am gym tomorrow and then a LONG day ahead.

You do see all sorts

11
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

You do see all sorts in New York bars...

A day of photos

photog
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

it's been a day of phoos today. Our friends from London blew their reasonable carbon footprint allowance on a weekend in New York and I've been flashing the cam' at them and them at us ever since.

Too much food to date (and we have Japanese tonight) but a very chilled day that seemed to go breakfast, brunch, drinks in a bar where drunken homosexuals were drawing an overweight and near naked burlesque 'star', a quick Troy fix and then dinner.

Not exciting I grant you - but good to hang with the people that we miss most

Friday

traffic
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

It's Friday, the sun is shining, the traffic lights are all on red, Alexa is eating toast (noisily) as I write (I'm at work)... we've already had an e-mail about overflowing toilets and a request for directions to a Bongo store. All rather suspect and oddly all rather typical.

I do love New York springs. They're short but the skies are blue, the air is crisp and for a month or so you can forget that you're breathing in the combined pollution of 12 million people who care less about smog than they do about CostCo's "Buy 144 get 144 free" offers.

We have Alex and Xtiana (Alextiana?) here for the weekend - a good excuse to stay out late, eat early and generally let down what hair we have left.

Good times

A window on the world

view
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

Took this pic on the subway yesterday, I quite liked it. I'm not sure why, because it seems like a pretty miserable scene. Not a great deal going on with Jude away and me busy - thinking about taking a couple of months out for a project in Seoul, South Korea. We'll see; it's a timing thing really. If it wasn't for dogs, cats and the like I'd jump on a plane tomorrow - but responsibility, even minor responsibility hangs heavy on my shoulders. At work now so this needs to be short.

America threw chubby back - Chris Sligh booted on Idol

More IDOL on FOX

So Gwen Stefani night on Idol. La Belle Gwen of course has a back catalogue shallower than pre-retreat Richard Gere and so the show was split into 'Songs by Gwen' and "Songs by people that Gwen quite likes" So likes The Police it seems.

Chris Sligh wrapped his lard lubed larynx around "Every little thing she does is magic" - racing through it at a pace that I imagine his (surprisingly lovely) wife insists he apply to any sexual liason between then. Like those liasons this was fast and messy. The lardy one is now there on his increasingly stretched sense or humor alone.

Gina Glockson dragged herself away from the mall for long enough to soldier through "I'll stand by you" like a suburban Bette Midler post lobotomy. She's 90% hips that woman and her boyfriend needs the red dye slapping outta his hair.

Sanjaya now knows that he's immune from ejection - and has decided to go with the Worst Idol Ever thing. This is a shame because he could be pretty good on the show if he wasn't courting Howard Stern, VotefortheWorst and every late, late night comedian. He has the show saboteurs, the ironic watchers, the pre-teeners and every gay man's vote, he's safe - but he should reallytake some time out during the week to learn the words of whatever song he's going to sleepwalk through.

Scarnato hid the legs and the personality on an insipid True Colors that had me looking for a bucket of cold water into which to plunge my head until it was over. I even started to daydream about hunting down Cyndi Lauper with a "WHat have you wrought?" question that I'd wield like an axe.

Every Breath you take proved, to me anyway, that Phil Stacey is probably great in the shower. He carries a tune well over minimum accompaniament, but when the band chimes in he sees it as competition rather than accompaniament. This was an 'in the shower' performance.

Mindy Doo sang something or other in the style of Gladys Knight - sang it well but still managed to hide her neck under a bushell.

Blake Lewis dropped the Police Academy theatrics and sang something relatively straight. Simon thought that he was the best of the boys, which is a little like being the most likely to succeed in a Southern Trailer Park.

Jordan Sparks channelled Hit Me Baby One More Time Britney (the short schoolgirl skirt) and that singing hippo from YouTube (everythig else) as she huffed, puffed and harumphed herself through "Hey Baby" in the way that a crowd more easily pleased than a frotter in Tokyo rush-hour lapped up

The last one is just too easy. Everything through the nose specialist Chris Richardson murdered "Don't Speak"... the correct riposte? "I'd rather you didn't sing"

Another fun night in

A time for breakfast

tedlar
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

Velcro went to daycare today. Or rather I should say - she RAN to daycare. This is a good sign.

Yesterday had been her first day and she came home knackered, refused to move all night and was generally a joy.

Of course she'd earned her knackered status.

"Erm, she's very playful" quoth the harried dog watcher in what I think was a triumph of understatement.

But today she was up, ready and heading in a daycarewardly direction before I could say "Aye oop you, what's going on here?"

The good thing for me is that post drop off I headed for Egg - a local, sustainable, shared breakfast space that owns its own chickens and buys only local product.

Had the most amazing omlette. Ate tomatoes (I know) and generally chillled out. Breakfast in the sunshine (it's 22C here today) is a good thing. It's put me in quite the laid back mood. Which is cool.

The people above btw aren't naked (sorry it was a public place and they weren't for the convincing) but they are lovely people that I once worked with once upon a lifetime ago.

end of privacy?

cameras
Originally uploaded by hanelifou.

I've been thinking a lot about
the end of privacy and the generational debate that it's sparking.

On one side you have young people spilling their every thought and detail
for the the world to see on community sites, in blogs and (increasingly) in
the on-campus porn magazines that seem to be popping up everywhere. Of
course Madonna was way ahead of this trend as far back as 1991 when she
released her sexual fantasies to the world with the book Sex, her life to
everyone with Truth or Dare and forced an exasperated Warren Beatty to frame
a debate still 15 years hence with this little outburst

"She doesn't want to live off-camera, much less talk. There's nothing to say
off-camera. Why would you say something if it's off-camera? What point is
there existing?"

So on one side we have 'the kids' asking What's the point if it can't get me
hits in You Tube

And on the other hside of the coin you have parental hysteria - either
wrapped in concerns over pedophile access to kids (imagine a day when every
kid has a camera in their bedroom and every pervert has access to the
machine that it's on... Ooops did we really buy Timmy a mac with built in
i-sight camera?)

Then there's the Orwellian objections being stirred by concerns such as this
(from today's newspaper)

"It is not entirely absurd to imagine that supermarkets' loyalty card data
might one day be used by the Government to identify people who ignored
advice to eat healthily, or who drank too much, so that they could be given
a lower priority for treatment by the NHS"

"With sensitive personal details readable over a distance, it could even
become possible with appropriate antennas and amplification, to construct a
bomb that would only detonate in the presence of a particular nationality or
even a particular individual."

As I said I'm not entirely sure where this is useful but it's splitting the
Western world across generational lines in a way that we haven't seen since
Punk and that's got to frame how we judge the ideas that we're having?

Personally I gave up on privacy years ago. Google me long enough and you'll
find pictures not just of me, my family, my various weights, beliefs,
disease history and hairstyles but pics of my innards (I have CT scans
posted), and of course my thoughts on the 2006 UK
panto season.

Amazing what a smell can do...

So this morning I opened the cupboard just to the left of the sink, the one where we keep the dog's cookies and I was immediately in a dull green recliner waiting for chemo. The smell of the cupboard just rushed over me, enveloping me in a churning wave of nostalgia, nausea and sensory recollection. This was the cupboard where we'd stored my chemo drugs. Weirdly the sensation hasn't hit me before but I really did get dragged under by the smell this morning; very odd. And somewhat disconcerting - now wondering whether this was memory or premonition.

The national gas competition

DSC_5114_2
Originally uploaded by PaparazziVM.Com.Ar Argentina.

heats up again - with the arrival of Ms. Argentine

christina aguilera

christina aguilera
Originally uploaded by seb the web 71.

To MSG last night. Home of boxing, countless Elton John sell-out shows and for one night only home to Durrrrty gurl Xtina.

First up of course is running the gamut of high fructose corn syrup fed mid-westerners, over stimulated, under educated and distracted by the famrmyard utensil sized buckets used to feed them. Squeeze past and you're inside just in time to watch the support's support act The Jizzety Hoes (or some such) do their shouty, short skirted 'thang' with more gusto than elan. After their 'performance' they're presented with a disc commenorating 1m sales - they must have had a very busy fleet week is all that I can say.

Next is the Pussy Cat Dolls. Basically a bunch of don't take it off strippers with a record deal they gyrate, bounce and do their stuff through the hits, whilst Nicki their lead singer, manages to look stunning and sound amazing. Mid-way through the set she drifts off into a semi-Latin stripper bendiction. Good stuff - she just needs to tame the Ki-op verbal tick now.

And then finally Xtina takes the stage. Costume changes galore. All of the hits (and my how many of them sound alike) and a sickly sweet 'you're great' fan video combine to make for a good set. Alas Xtina has terrible diction. She sounds as though she's chewing a baby tiger, all yelps and low growls and the result is best described as 'gutteral'

Not a bad night out (for the money though $10 per ticket 'service charge' is extortionate) but not one that I'd pay to live through again.

Ok, late for the gym and a new machine....

Tonight's the night

Pussycat Dolls (47)
Originally uploaded by Thomas Hawk.

tonight Jude and I are off to see Xtina Aguillerra and The Pussy Cat Dolls....

... who said I didn't know how to show a lady a good time?

Review tomorrow...

Lots going on today

Lots going on today. My granddad is in hospital following a very minor stroke, Jude may well have a job lined up (fingers crossed and I said nothing) though her body is falling apart post PhD. - nothing major just incident after incident that seem to leave her thinner and more ill. She's doing all of the right things though. My niece was one yesterday, I wish I was closer at times - it would be great to cook for her. I've been working with lots of people whose theories on brain fat composition and child development make sense to me.

Additionally I came across this picture this morning (though not literally you'll be glad to hear, I'll leave that to the Saudi visitors who pop up whenever I mention sex, butts or Lindsay Lohan's drunken escapades with an epilator on the blog) and it reminded me that Booties - the ass lover's version of Hooters - is a very, very good idea.

Oh and Stephanie Edwards went home yesterday - expect a thin voiced Beyonce wannabe walking the lonely roads by the docks of Rhyll any day now

Runnning Late

Two as One
Originally uploaded by Sindri Svan.

For some reason the well oiled machine that is my morning routine came off the ralls this morning and I arrived at the office to find it full though humming with silent intent. Everyone is home from the road and catching up with putting what they saw into a format that's useful and so whilst seats are scarse so are decibels. It's a weird feeling actually. No balloon races, no shoe bowls, no women interviewing by teaching Tae Kwan Do or men bringing in hyper obedient dogs who lose control at the first whiff of crotch. It feels like an office. An office with beanbags, purple sofas and rubber chickens to be sure, but an offive non-the-less.

Idol news. The boys sucked again last night. One audience member lost control and sobbed like she was witnessing the Beatles at Shay Stadium. Lekeisha was fat and rubbish and Doolittle remained a talented dwarf.

Actually let's break it down.

Guests Lulu and that tombstone toothed bloke from Herman's Hermits. She tries to outsing every contestant (and does) he's happy to prove that he's still alive and available for the Chicken in a Basket circuit.

We open with Haley Scarnato who does "Tell Him" in wobbly heels and in wobbly voice. She doesn't have the legs for shorts. Especially for hotpants.


Chris Richardson attempts a ballad "Don't let the sun catch you crying" and comes across as a scratchy voiced adanoid patient. It's more horrible than Scarnato's legs. Or Nigel Lithgowe's teeth

Stephanie Edwards should be a young Shirley Bassey. That is a prostitute in Rhyl. Her version of "You don't have to say you love me" sounded like Mary J Blige having her larynx sanded. Worse than the thought of Scarnato in a g-string.

Blake Lewis likes to beatbox. Like hightower in the Polce academy movies. Only 25 years later. And less tunefully. "Time of the Season" comes across like a YouTube back bedroom performance. The audience lap it up like cats at a leaky udder.

Lakisha Jones did "Diamonds are Forever" against Lulu's advice. She claimed to be wearing a million dollar's worth of diamonds. They were barely noticable stretched around her vastness. It was okay. Lulu had been right.

Phil Stacey sounded pretty good when he sang "Tobacco Road' to the Hermit guy and appalling when he screamed it over the band. He's going home tonight.

Jordin Sparks sang " I (who have nothing)" - quite beautifully. She's good. Real good.

Sanjaya Malakar made one little girl sob when he hammed his way through " You really got me going"... between the tears and snot was a spirited performance. Bless him.

Gina Glocksen is like your mouthy cousin. She's the coolest girl at the mall but has all the authenticity of a Ryan Seacrest smile. Her version of "Paint it Black" was supposed to be satanic - shame it was just bad.

Chris Sligh started "She's not there" by walking through the audience without once looking at any of them. He's a fat fool who's getting by on being self knowing... I liked "Fro Patrol", increasingly I dislike him and his variations on the mediocre.

Melinda Doolittle - does america need or want a hunchback Gladys Knight? We shall see. She's great but looks (literally) like a car crash and that may be unforgivable.

Statue of Priapus

Statue of Priapus, Pompeii, House of the Vetii.
Originally uploaded by italiangerry.

Always seems to make student groups giggle for some reason... I've not posted today - too busy checking out chocolate stores, drinkling suggestive lattes and taking slices off the boss's chocolate breasts (nobody touched the oh too realistic nipple)

Have a presentation to finish up in the morning and then a day or two of clear space during which I intend to enjoy the clear skies and warm weather.

What are y'all up to?

a Jude not a Nude

sunshineface
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

yesterday the light started to strea in burnt, orange, harsh and just smelling of portrait and so JUde gamely leapt into America's Next Top Supermodel pose mode and 'gave it fierce face'... got a few pics out of it before the sun disappeared behind a building and left us in darkness. I think that this is my favorite, though I'd be hard pushed to say why. Perhaps because it looks very heavily treated when in fact I pushed very little or perhaps because it achieves both gingerness and hotness (something about 4 people in the world have managed this decade - I think I know them all)

Anyway today will be spent framing positioning areas in a way that allows anyone to have ideas off of them. It's something I enjoy - framing the essence of an idea. Party philosophy, part common sense, part stand up comedy, part exercise in linguistic semantics. I once spent 3 months on a project and ended up changing the article from definate to indefinate... it worked as well.

Off to work with me I think

Avoiding work

The Beach
Originally uploaded by Protection Island.

I promised to help out some old friends this weekend - by looking at something that they'd written and making a few changes here and there. Turns out I'm rewriting everything - or I would be if I could just settle down in front of the computer and actually do it.

Why is starting work on something so hard for me these days? Time was that a looming deadline was all that I needed to scare me into frantic typing mode. These days I sit back and enjoy the whoosing sound that those deadlines make as they whizz past.

In a bid to avoid the whole thing I'm carrying Jude off into the city to look at murderously expensive jewelry (she's after an "I've graduated" Right Hand Ring) and wondering whether I could extend the shopping trip to some local galleries that I love. What could be more civilized?

Okay 1 hr of work and then into town. Here we go

steve practises for...

steve
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

.... Steve practices for Close Up In your Cardigan April

Jude gets in on naked March

judedove
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

in a Dove kinda way of course... not a fantastic pic but one that I really like. I do like this photography malarky...

The path to Nirvana

Follow The Path Of Rocks
Originally uploaded by lestrim rose.

Lots of new restaurants opening in the 'Burg this weekend. There's a new Japanese that looks plush, a Turkish looking thing that looks delightfully low rent and a Vietnamese that looks very high concept (seats craftyed from crates etc.) All tempting - all off limits as I continue on the path to magnificent emaciation.

I've always thought that Mariah Carey should have come back with a paen to her recovery from bulimia with an album called "The Emaciation and Emancipation of me, ME!"

But then that's just me.

About 4 inches of ice out there from Yesterday's Ice Storm. Will make for some interesting falls during the most drunken parade of the year - St. Patrick's Day. I'm on ER admissions up 200%

Poof!

secular
Originally uploaded by errantentity.

I got home last night to find that our computer had blown its hard-drive. Nothing but blue screen and a mac booting up symbol. It's not the first time that the computer had played up (cat hair and spilled tea helping foul things up the first time) so although the repair would have been around $200 we decided to swallow hard and buy a new one.

And so I'm writing this from a new 20" G4. Hurrah. Heavy as hell to get up the stairs but decent screen size, decent speed and of course a lovely new keyboard unsullied by jam, toast, cats, hair or 'unspecified smears'

Looks like being an expensive week as it seems that the water tank in London is leaking through the kitchen ceiling again. We'll get a plumber in to take a look asap - just need to make sure that he's DirectLine approved for insurance purposes.

OKay enough of this - work to be done, dogs to be walked, rain to be braved (20C yesterday - 0C today btw, wtf?)

hairless and fearless

hairless and fearless
Originally uploaded by massdistraction.

for those of you that demanded a nude cat (said he avoiding the single entendre)

A few days in Switzerland

odd_spire
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

So Switzerland took me away from the computer for a day or two but managed to fill me up with some fresh stories, some new enthusiasm and a bunch of pictures of 'peasant folk direct from central casting.'

The trip went well - we were ferried around by an international bright young thing in too tight trousers. Taken for dinner in the up and coming warehouse district. Managed to stay in a hotel that seemed to be held together solely by the yellow residue of a million cigarettes smoked there. And of coiurse we did sme work - which led to some ideas that I can genuinely be excited about.

Swiss Air are exactly what you'd imagine them to be. Well organized, ever so slightly stiff and frugal in the places that they think you won't notice. On the way back a round faced steward attempted conviviality - with a walk around the cabin saying 'hello' and telling unamusing stories about Geneva. His conspicuous glances at the passenger seating chart before talking gave away the fact that this enthusiastic greeting was a chore - as did is totally ignoring me due to the fact that I moved seats, throwing his plan into disarray and making me invisible to him - at least socially.

It's late though, I'm tired and it's getting harder and harder to actually type with any degree of accuracy or fluency so instead I'll sign off for now pausing only to say that this picture is untouched... unlike the nude that I will post tomorrow (!)

quick blog

cat2
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

At the airport in a sunny switzerland overrun by easyjetters.

more tonight

Sweet Weekend

With Jude crippled by both workload (one day to 'hand in' of the thesis- I've read about 80 pages and it looks good to me) and by her arm injury it's been a quiet weekend.

I managed to catch up on sleep despite the clocks going forward way too early in the year. We had a good meal at Bozu (their Tuna takatki is my fave), we watched Battlestar Gallactica (season 2.0), I went to the gym twice. We drew giant flip-charts for my meeting on Tuesday (my favorite is Jude's enormous dominatrix for a game called "dominatrix matrix" that I want to play with some Swiss people. We bought cool clothes in a sample sale sell off. We talked with friends and family - and of course we walked the dog in temperatures 25C warmer than last weekend. Quiet but fun. I'm so chilled. And I think that it's just the sleep. lack of sleep is a creeping thing - you think that you feel fine but of course you don't. You're screwed.

Anyway time to throw liquids of 3 fl oz. or less into a ziplock bag and head out to the airport. Swiss Air here we come.

A long, slow day

It's been a long, slow, tired day today. Neither Jude nor I are sleeping, she has the PhD to hand in in 48hrs and is hampered by having only one working arm. I'm concerned about her and so the cycle continues. I was crap at the gym this morning and have spent the day on tiny errands. Picking up packages, buying Guatemalan Worry Dolls, trying to find an unscented 'feminine wash' (it's all I use on my face these days!) and all the while I've been knackered.

Very tempted by the idea of burning man and sitting around in a comfortable circle feeding of the energy of the sun and the 'your karma ate my dogma' vibe of the whole thing. We'll see

The guy on the left

swiss insurance ad
Originally uploaded by antjeverena.

has 'hockey player teeth' doesn't he?

Busy day today, which was nice. Sent out a proposal for a piece of business that was both well thought out and well written. No jargon, no padding - just spare yet human.

The clocks spring forward this weekend (I have to remember, I'm on a flight on Sunday) and it feels as though everything is finally happening for us.

Jude is hot on the trail of something to do post-graduation. I'm finally getting into my IP stride, the weather is promising a more positive swing into the plus side double digits.

AND my power adaptor turned up today - in time for my Swiss trip.

Hurrah!

A boring entry I know - let me conclude therefore with the way I reviewed Wombat's Aussie Burger just yesterday

"Juicier than a well lubed nymphomaniac"

Roadkill

014
Originally uploaded by refractionless.

It;s been a weird week. I've not done a lot, physically at least and yet I feel as though Ive been run over by the tired bus. There's something exhausting about being in a room full of young, smart, bright people -all of whom are full of good ideas and short on the skills that allow them to express their thought process. Quite often they're unaware of how they came to an idea - they just know that it feels good. All of which of course makes me an absolute fogey. I know how I think. I can draw it. I can diagram it. I can explain it. And yet I haven't sold it. Well not yet anyway.
Deviant Thinking anyone?

Off to Switzerland

IO'm off to Switzerland for a couple of days starting this weekend. It's work but they've built in a nice cushion - arrive Monday, work Tuesday, leave Wednesday... all very civilized. As of course is Switzerland (I'm told)

I'm hoping to get out to where Jude went to school (Leysin) as well as get a couple of pics in (it ought to be photogenic, this is after all God's own land). I also secretly hope to meet David Bowie, Iman, that teenagert shacked up with Phil Collins and the Ghost of Freddie Mercury. But maybe that's a bit of an ask.

Chocolate coins, nazi gold and cuckoo clocks for all

Yup we have snow

Snow Guitarist
Originally uploaded by Sel S..

which means tahat the dog is going bonkers, New Yorkers are risking heart attacks as they shovel aerobically and the city looks cleaner than the mind of a freshly lobotomized virgin.

I've spent the last two days in a company meeting that has actually proved quite fruitful. I woke up this morning thinking that we should ban the word idea. If I was writing a process now it would go from TRUTH to PROMISE to ACTION.

So a TRUTH

'Young guys think about women a lot, yet they're hopeless when it comes to actually getting them"

Leads to a PROMISE

"We need to help young guys in the dating and mating games"

Leads to an ACTION

"Lynx grooming stores" / "AXE chat up books"

There are a million examples... the process dowsn't change but the vocabulary gets less loaded. People panic and overthink when asked for an 'insight'... they fudge and flounder when asked for an 'idea' and they pass the buck when asked for an 'execution'... so let's change the language and see what happens.

Okay - I'm off to work... wearing sweatpants (they're warm ok?)

Steve

The Nekkid Farmer

The Nekkid Farmer
Originally uploaded by Amber... Bamberboo.

Man it was cold today. Stupidly, ridiculously, mind numbingly cold.

Which explains why this entry is so late and so short.

A better entry tomorrow, I promise

;-)

If Nora Jones channelled her dad

Lady with a Guitar
Originally uploaded by Jessica Bender.

... the result would look something like this.

Have a busy couple of days ahead with a three day off-site at work coming right before Switzerland next week. And of course I may have to take time out to help Jude with the typing of her thesis now that the muscles in her right arm are torn (a fracas and crushing incident on the subway). She's not looking good, so with deadlines loming it may be time for me to take a day off and take some dictation.

Today was too much TV day. LOVE Rob and Amber on the Amazing Race, HATE Jenny on The L Word. In between Denise Van Outen on You're The One That I Want, lots of animals on Discovery HD and of course pratfalls galore on AFV.

Close to midnight here and as ccreatures crawl out from every tomb and Vincent Price adds depth to Micheal's yelps it's time for me to turn in for the night. Night all.

HDMI rocks

Please suggest a title
Originally uploaded by se.nsuo.us.

So having been seduced into buying too big a TV I decided to invest in HDMI connectors. Now HDMI has been the subject of much 'rip off police' debate of late as the big stored try to sell on $80 connectors with people's new purchases. Of course they're not $80 connectors and can be had online for $15.

I paid $20 for mine today and used it to connect Hi-Def Cable Box to Hi-Def TV entirely via digital signal. And the picture ROCKS. I knew that the HDMI from DVD to TV was good (I'm using a DVD with an upconvertor) but the cable connection is amazing. Add in digital surround sound via last year's gift to self Home Theatre system (connected by Digital Audio Cable) and you get something amazing.

I don't wanna leave the house.

All of which is techie snooze speak for 'Wow'.

Which is what this pic made me say when I saw it. The photog was looking for an appropriate title (having tried 'float' and 'star') and I thought that I'd throw it open to you guys. I'll pass on your best suggestions (and your worst) and let's see whether we can't extend our sphere of influence.

We bought a new TV

newTV
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

... in the American style - meaning that it's a massive 40" (that's 1 metre Euro fans)

Having said that the full HD mode is amazing and it fits rather well.

Another bonus blown... lol

Nude March Continues

Whatta'wazoo
Originally uploaded by SYNTAXYS.

here at FabulouslyThin and woefully predictably the number of viewers seems to be on the increase again. Yesterday was the best Friday I've had since the spectre of death floated most visibly above me - way back when.

The strange thing is that the viewers aren't coming in via search engines tagged with searches such as "Lindsay Lohan does coke off Britney's shine pate" but rather are old friends, coming back in search of emotional rawness and settling for physical vulnerability instead (or something)

It's also entire probable that the numbers bump is nothing mroe than a bump and that the yards of naked flesh no on display here have nothing to do with any increase in traffic. Let's face it statistically I'm more likely to pull in people with fetishes for typos than to pull in errant teabaggers in search of new helicoptering techniques.

All of that said I'm meeting my favorite people for brunch today, have an appointment with the gym and have the final touches to put to a presentation. Time to get this ass into gear.

Raining on my parade

Trying an upload directly from blogger today - mainly because the image wouldn't allow me to blog it and I lived the veins in the hands enough to steal it. My own hands are cut and bruised to tiny swollen pieces at the moment, primarily due to a fit of doggy excitement upon my picking up Velcro from the groomers. I look like a suicidal bar brawler. Which isn't a bad thing to look like in some of the Dive Bars near the office.

It's pouring with rain outside but I'm keen to get to work as I have a proposal to get out of the door today and it's going to take some time. More archery tonight, Jude now has her own bow (very exciting) and I have, well I have a METRO card that will mean it's a free ride there.

Off with me then... more nudity tomorrow (site stats up 45% yesterday despite M's protestations) - who knows if I get wildly popular I may even post my acne scarred arse, that ought to dampen demand

Naked Truth (Provocation)

Naked Truth (Provocation)
Originally uploaded by Yare.

I chose this picture not because it's great but because of the note that it had attached to it

"This photo has the most views of all my photos. It jumped on the first place in one day! Why?!? Beacause I'm naked... What's the conclusion? Well, I'm starting to belive mr. Willheim Reich. He claims that the existence of capitalist society depends on suppression of the sexual instincts which is systematicaly puted upon from the institutions of capitalism, like religions, schools, corporations"

I think that the reason that it grabbed my attention was that we were talking about hyper sexualization yesterday - that thing that they did tpo Britney with the pigtails, rubber suits and boob jobs - leaving her nowhere to go, The worry was that sexuality is so aggressively commercial these days that it's actually become divorced from sexiness.

The porn stars that sell us their robotic couplings are scupltures of collagen and silicon, each knowing their niche and bleaching their assholes. They're relentless rather than sexy. Stripped of dialogue by gonzo and tease by the relentless skip to the money shot trigger finger of DVD users everywhere.

And where pornstars lead America follows. So our models, actresses, young women and our commercial materials all start to mirror this aggressively one dimensional model.

Meanwhille the resistance starts to spring up. Burlesque rears its head promising glamor, curves and a sense of tease, a sense of fun. Brands jump on the 'not us' bandwagon, championiung a different beauty ideal - still selling that firming gel but stopping short of the bum bleach (for now)

So perhaps this blog should go naked. A nude image every day. A pneumatic nude - pumped up and soulless. I'm sure the view count would rise. Or at least I think it would. Let's see.