empire

SOUNDTRACK!

this is me... strolling downtown

(please note, panda in picture is not me)

nice view from the top of the rock

i'll take Central Park

New York was overwhelming, amazing, tiring, nerve wracking, beautiful, fun and perfect. I've been home for a while now but have been lying low due to jet lag (and I thought it didn't exist!), IRL friend catch ups and work.

I have numerous photos and numerous shopping purchases to share but in an attempt to keep it linear I'm going to list out my trip for your convenience...

BEST

1. Central Park

No competition. It was just like I thought it would be. The amazing Autumn foliage, ridiculous amounts of squirrel action and puppy love... I wish I could bottle up the crispness of the place and bring it home. It was the most romantic and awesome place I have ever been.

2. Park Slope/Brooklyn

Beautiful brownstone homes and a lovely street of shops and bars (5th Avenue!). If you go, do as I did and spend some money at Brooklyn Industries on the corner of Union St and 5th and get a drink at High Dive on 5th. Best bar ever. Free popcorn, awesome band posters and a nice drop of red.

3. DUMBO

Design store heaven, awesome industrial buildings.

4. Lower East Side

I am biased because we stayed there, but there is so much good food! Bacaro on Division provided me with the most amazing mushroom gnocchi of my life and Brown on Hester kept us breakfast happy at least thrice!

5. MOMA and Guggenheim

I die. I die.

Honorable mentions...

Giving a homeless person some M&Ms whilst drunk in font of a bar... someone else's M&Ms!

Having amazing cheese pizza and then going to the Paris Theatre near the Plaza Hotel (KEVIN!!!!) to watch the Coco Chanel movie.

Bill Maher at the Wellmont in Jersey.

Greenwich Village. Benny's Burritos knocked me over with a drink called a Black Flower, which is Sangria poured over frozen margarita. Drunk drunk.The neighborhood is a pretty one, lot's of green and beautiful homes. 

The Lion King whilst drunk. Do it.

Jon Stewart taping.

WORST

1. Times Square

Horrible. Annoying. Dumb. Smelly.

2. Williamsburgh

I don't get it. It is not what I thought it would be. Yawn city. Go there if you like insisting upon yourself.

There are so many things to tell, I'll slowly recall them over a few posts.
x

sound track

leave your problems at home.

dinosaurs + grinding + popping = panda mime heaven

dance bishes.

how much for admission?

I asked my boyfriend if there is anything he wanted to do whilst we are in New York next week (I'm in charge of guidebook molestation). 

Him: "The MOYA."

Me: "The MOYA?"

Him: "Yes, the Museum of Oranges, Yachts and Architecture."

... If only such a glorious place existed.

 

thought of the day

If you were watching your life on television would you change the channel?  
 

braaaaaiiiinnnnssss

This is what the inside of mine looks like right now. 

cloaked in bad focus

Captain Procrastination here.

oktoberfest + australians = the raping of a time honoured German tradition...

Twas quite epicurean

waiting for the sister... my porch is very malnourished. It has concrete, plant creepers and not much else

ladies dinner = super fast 60s dancing + floor pumping + backstreet boys harmonies

20 days until Gotham. I have been dreaming of getting on planes. After pressing snooze at least thrice this morn I dreamed I announced to a group of friends "I'm supposed to be awake but I'm still here!" and threw my hands to the sky. I abruptly awoke in this position... 

 

(please note: the topless part is embellished to make my story sexier)

I watched some Louis Theroux over at Kitty Stampede and cried.

Dear Westboro Baptist Church, 

Nothing but darkness awaits you. Please get away from your demented and anger ridden "Gramps" before he poisons your children's minds any further. I'm glad to live in a country where we are all too half arsed to create so many passionately ignorant groups.

Sincerely and with a lot of love, 

Panda mime  

dick-iversity

These artistic delights were found in my uni common room. This is what the bright future of Australian design has to offer...

Note the phallic banana...

You cannot even look at this picture without humming the Jurassic Park theme music...

There was also a cubist dong a few weeks ago but alas, my camera was dead...

There is a mysterious dick artist at play here. Hopefully they will continue with their endeavors so I can be slightly entertained whilst using the common room at 3am.

I do not exist without education

The month has been filled with university (which is coming along nicely) punctuated by delightful sparks of friend time, epiphanies concerning certain people and certain politics and a lovely new couch that doesn't feel like a case of DVT waiting to happen.

waiting for ferry

waiting for boyfriend

waiting for annihilation

this is where important Queensland decisions are made
it also where our premier works when she is not doing celebrity cooking shows (WTF?)

waiting for death

waiting for sundown

waiting for bus
the trees outside city hall drop large seeds on unsuspecting victims... way to landscape

Getting ridiculously excited for NY. To the point of having dreams about getting on planes. So far we have Jon Stewart and Bill Maher tickets. Wondering how I am going to make it around Manhattan without having to don a pair of these babies...



They are a lovely blue though...



A sweet dude by the name of C. Andres Alderete has awarded me with this piece of honest scrap. He's a pretty rad Austin-ite (well, this is the internet so who really knows? He could be from Turks and Cacaos) and he had a bodacious haircut for 16 years of his life (all hail the "bowl with a flip").
Dealio is that I have to spill 10 things about myself that nobody knows. This will be quite the old stretch as my shit is pretty much on show all the time. I am no mystery wrapped in an enigma. I am pretty much the psycho hose beast you encountered that one time we met and I regaled you with tales of boring shit and said the word balls 10,000 times.

To the ten... (say it like Tracy Morgan)

ONE //
I am hardly ever at ease. I feel nervous even talking to my closest friends sometimes. This is usually alleviated by some form of alcohol. Therefore I blame this nervous condition for my tendency to inhale gin from 10 metres. I also attribute my slim figure to my nervous disposition. If I ever relax I'll probably blow up to the 100kg mark. Oh well, more cushion for the pushin'.

TWO //
I have this weird thing where I don't really know what I look like. I'll have a night out and I'll think I look a certain way then I'll see photos and I look weird or totally different. It's hard to explain. I'm especially surprised by videos of myself as I think my mouth looks strange when I talk, but it doesn't feel that way when I talk. Yeah...

THREE //
I always thought I could do anything if I wasn't so lazy. Then I actually tried some stuff and, it turns out, you can't just do anything. Some people are just shit at stuff, and that is OK.

FOUR //
Sometimes I think about moving to another city and reinventing myself fashion wise. There is some crazy shit I would like to wear but I feel weird when people comment on my clothing.

FIVE //
I like cracking jokes and would secretly like to do some stand up. IF I could be guaranteed laughs. Perhaps I should perform to a room full of dolls with a laugh track playing in the back ground for practice? A la George Bluth and his tea parties.

SIX //
I feel like crying everyday. Not because I'm manic depressive, but because well, I'm just a fucking sook. Crying just happens for stupid reasons. Like watching Idol/Ellen/thinking about Bruce Springsteen songs/thinking about happy stuff.

SEVEN //
I am extremely lazy. Yes, people probably know this already, but I will lie about my intensity of laziness. Like, I'll get up at midday, not shower, sit on the couch and watch TV for 6 hours and not move AT ALL (not even to eat). Then, when someone asks me what I've done all day, I'll say that I did some study or cleaning to make myself seem less shit. The only thing that motivates me to step out the door on my days off is if I'm running low on Marlboros. Then I'll hightail it to the corner shop... Ok, sometimes I catch the bus... 5 stops.

EIGHT //
I look at myself in windows and mirrors every day. This isn't vanity. It's the whole not understanding what I look like thing. It weirds me out.

NINE //
I feel strange around babies and animals. Like I'm going to break them or something (or they are going to hurt me). Even cats and toy dogs have this effect.

TEN //
I was born as a man.

I think I'm supposed to tag 10 people but I'm lazy and I choose no-one. So tag yourself senseless if it's your bag.

x PM

oh what a feeling

some classes really bore me

beautiful

Barbara Horiuchi uses sumi ink to create these amazing rivers of orange and black in water.

stills from 'sumi ink in water' 2008 Barbara Horiuchi
go here to watch it in motion...

Found at the ever fruitful Designboom

x PM