Donna Ruff at the BravinLee Gallery

A friend of mine has a piece at the BravinLee Gallery that’s part of their Artist’s Book program, and I was at the opening last night. Yay Donna!  This is a great piece (that I thought worked well with the paintings in the next room, come to think of it).

Here’s a better shot from the BravinLee website.

The paintings were by Bhakti Baxter, although you can’t see them in this shot.  I was just going for overall view of the room and the people there.

I Might Be Ready to Take My Head Out of the Sand

I don’t really follow what goes on in the world, and I’m not happy about that (just as I am not happy about all the holes in my education).

Part of the problem was I had no news sources that I really trusted. But that’s not true anymore. There’s Rachel Maddow. I feel like I’m the last to know, but she is a godsend. I’m going to start recording her show so that I never miss it.  I also like 3QuarksDaily, not a news site per se, but I can get a whole different look at things like what’s going on in Gaza right now. Although for a quick snapshot of what most people don’t know, take a look at this short op-ed. But in addition to pieces written by their own contributors, 3QuarksDaily links to articles I wouldn’t necessarily see and which are frequently worth reading.

I Have a Graduate Degree …

… in telecommunications and before I left to start my own company I worked in the telecommunications department of one of the biggest companies in the world.

And yet, minutes ago, I super-glued a bunch of Bounty paper towels to my fingers.

I found this picture while searching for that other picture I mentioned before. It’s graduation day at NYU. Once again, I was so proud. You can see it even in this fuzzy, old photograph. It seems like yesterday I was drawn to pictures depicting things that made proud.

When I was Poor … Hey, Wait a Minute

I came across this picture while looking for the photograph I sent my mother from my first job after college.  It’s me in my twenties.  A typewriter!  I remember that typewriter. I was so proud. Sigh.  The olden days.  I made the poor crack because apparently I couldn’t afford book shelves. But the cigarettes, oh God the cigarettes. Camel nonfilter no less.  I quit smoking when I was 33 and I’m crossing my fingers that I quit soon enough.

But I’m Not a Filmmaker!


I’ve been working on a film to promote my book on YouTube. It’s okay, but really, I’m not a filmmaker, so it’s just okay. I wish I knew more, had better tools, etc.

I’ve noticed some problems after the fact, but I just don’t have the energy to fix them.  I say “thousands” too many times, for instance.  Groan.  And I wanted to have music playing quietly in the background, but I couldn’t figure out how to get that to work.  If I lowered the sound so that it wasn’t distracting it was too quiet, but if I tried raising it at all it was annoying. How do they do that in movies and make it work??

I plan to do interviews, and movies of places.  I think those will work better.

This is a picture from that show about the paranormal at the Met.  I used it in the video.