CLICK TO ENGLARGE, BITCHES
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Google and GNOAM
My older brother, Chris, a Google Genius, informed me that if you put quotes around "Greater New Orleans Artist Mansion" then my blog comes up as the 6th hit. BUT now it's referring to the nice blog post that I did the other day. Good. And the quotes thing? Duh.
Nico, the abused
Nico is a regular, and regularly abused patron at the Yellow Moon. On this fine night, after Andrea served Nico a dishsoap and vodka cocktail (try it, it looks like an appletini) Vicki took it upon herself to restrain him with tape (duct tape wasn't, unfortunately, available).
She even taped his beer to his hand. How appropriate.
Poor baby.
She even taped his beer to his hand. How appropriate.
Poor baby.
Breakfast of Champions
Fortunately, Topless TuesdayThursday didn't deter anyone from ever eating Yellow Moon donuts again. In fact, Robert heard them calling yesterday morning. He was inspired.Coffee Roll
plus scrambled eggs
plus bacon
plus ketchup
plus hot sauce
= best breakfast ever!
Another reason why the Yellow Moon is the best bar in NOLA...I mean, ANYWHERE
Mom and Dad, if you are reading this, please know that I am in good hands with good people. Please trust my judgment and know that I have many kind and wonderful folks looking out for me. And some of them are pictured below. That being said. Enjoy the documentation of Topless TuesdayThursday, a spontaneous event at the Yellow Moon (ya know, when that full full yellow moon is shining ever so brightly).
And try not to go blind.
Woo is going to be modeling for me in my show at the end of August. Perfect, no? Andrea (behind the bar) agreed completely.
Woo was not the only one who took the "topless" requirement at the bar that night to another level (its only fair, right? If the chicks have to be topless, they guys should be bottomless...perfectly logical). John agreed. But you really don't want to see that full length photo. And Vicki, the proprietor of this fine establishment, was most definitely willing to participate (this is the most clothed that I caught her this night).
Let's do the time warp! AGAIN.
And the Pièce de résistance:
Ya know those free donuts that the Yellow Moon's got? Yeah, they were horribly violated that night.
I'm so sorry, Mom. Please don't disown me, Dad.
And try not to go blind.
Woo is going to be modeling for me in my show at the end of August. Perfect, no? Andrea (behind the bar) agreed completely.
Woo was not the only one who took the "topless" requirement at the bar that night to another level (its only fair, right? If the chicks have to be topless, they guys should be bottomless...perfectly logical). John agreed. But you really don't want to see that full length photo. And Vicki, the proprietor of this fine establishment, was most definitely willing to participate (this is the most clothed that I caught her this night).
Let's do the time warp! AGAIN.And the Pièce de résistance:
Ya know those free donuts that the Yellow Moon's got? Yeah, they were horribly violated that night.I'm so sorry, Mom. Please don't disown me, Dad.
Worn Again, by the way!
BY THE WAY! The Worn Again runway show went absolutely fabulously! My pieces looked great on my completely stunning models and I received tons of compliments on these pieces from other designers and potential patrons, alike. I came home with a goody bag full of business cards, so I consider it a great success. I will post more pics when my photographer sends me her completed shoot.xoxo Alicia
Debauche!
This picture does not describe well enough the awesomeness of this great NOLA band. They're called Debauche, they're straight from Russia (the lead singer's name is Yagor!) and they sound like Gogol Bordello's scarier cousin. Nazdrovia!
My friend/classmate from RISD, Angie (who also happens to live here and whom I came across totally by coincidence via my model call and who modeled my cute vintage bikini soooo awesomely) happens to be seeing this fabulous Russian man. She also dances:
Look at that look on her face. How FREAKING adorable is she? She's good in my book.
Another Reason why the Yellow Moon is the best Bar in NOLA
Daily free donuts. This one's a 12 incher!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
GNOAM, Revisited
So, last week I was invited by a friend of mine (an old classmate from RISD) who was having a show at the Greater New Orleans Artist Mansion. She has these hilarious, quirky and loveable songs (about masturbation, among other things) and she looks like this:
I just went to her house, also, to see her fabulous wig hats (she's wearing one)...and I found out that she lives in the playhouse outside of the larger house where her roommates live. And that she was in the Christmas industry in NYC making tiny houses and people for the Macy's window displays. She is officially one of Santa's displaced helpers, and I love her.
So, anyway, she invited me to her show at GNOAM and, with a little bit of trepidation, I agreed to come out, be entertained and support her and whatever else GNOAM had to offer.
It started out so well! I noticed immediately, as I walked through the house to the backyard how incredibly improved the place looked. No more were there piles of crap everywhere. There was art available to the eye all around the house. And it definitely looked like a place where artists -professional artists- lived and worked. And the backyard! It was COMPLETELY transformed! No more junkyard. We were immediately shown, by another guest, to their fabulously awe-inspiring treehouse back there. It was like Peter Pan's arboreal home meets Hugh Hefners grotto. Amazing.
Robert enjoyed a new friend up there and the Loch-Ness Charlsie, fearing for her life 40 feet in the wobbly air, disappeared into the night.
The art was beginning inside, so we descended and proceeded inside to see some of the most beautiful animation I've ever seen (made by some Russian artists out of old, exquisite paintings) accompanied by appropriately eerie, shoegazey music. It was incredibly entrancing, not to mention inspiring.
When it finished, I got up to step outside for a moment while they set up for the next piece. I ran into one of the residents there who I had met and spoken with on that first fateful day (I'm going to call him Dude #1) and was told almost verbatim. "You're Alicia, right? There are alot of people here who are REEEEALLY heated by your presence, here, tonight."
I took a look around and suddenly noticed that I was being eyeballed by at least half of the people there.
"Por que, Darling? Wherefor doth this negativity sprout that cometh so fiercey towards such a Positive Lady?"
"Well," he said, "You wrote a really horrible blog post about the Artist Mansion, and everyone is really pissed about it."
Apparently, my personal blog, intended to update friends and family on my whereabouts and my daily to-do's, was more public than I had any knowledge of. According to this guy, my blog came up 3rd down on the search when Greater New Orleans Artist Mansion was Googled (although I've tested this theory by typing in both "Greater New Orleans Artist Mansion" and "GNOAM" and my blog doesn't even come up). Apparently, this negative publicity was hurting the greater cause of the Mansion (probably by discouraging new residents from moving in and just generally tarnishing their image).
This was never my intention. If the Mansion works for some artists, and it's producing and showing really cool art, then I'm all for it and I am more than willing -excited even- to come to events to support their cause. The only reason that I wrote that blog post was to humorously explain to folks back home why I wasn't living/working at the place I'd been excitedly talking about living/working for the entire month prior. And the major reason I couldn't live/work there was because -and lets be fair, now, it's true- I could never bring a serious buyer or patron into the space as it was (at the time I moved in) and have them take me seriously enough to invest in me...which is INCREDIBLY important as a professional artist: the ultimate point, really, if you want to get your stuff out there. Maybe they were going through a rough phase when I arrived. That's totally fair, but I didn't think that it was my responsibility to help them out of their rough phase (although, perhaps, inadvertantly I did motivate them to get on their game and clean up, with my supposedly "scathing" blog post). I took great effort to make clear that I was never trying to personally insult anyone who lives/works there, and most definitely not trying in any way to stifle their progress or mission. I talked all this through with Dude #1, apologized for any harm done, and with a knuckle handshake, promised to remove the blog post if it would make amends for all.
But then this thing happened....
I was approached by a guest who told me that members of the household were scrambling to put together a projection of my blog as an artistic tar-and-feathering while I was there. Which I thought was HILARIOUS and totally awesome, and which I completely encouraged. I'm a big girl and can take a bashing, if it's soundly (and not drunkenly) justified. I'm all for crazy controversial art things. But, even more, I honestly think that the blog was fair -journalistic even- and not negative for negativity's sake, and I thought that many of the people who hadn't seen it yet nor had formed an antagonistic opinion of it, might have found it fair as well, if not at least entertaining, interesting or funny. And, furthermore, maybe if those that were blindly pissed at me got the negativity out of their system, and if I humbly laughed with them at myself for being obtuse, then the issue might be resolved and we could all get on with it. And maybe even be friends again!
But....then Drunk Angry Girl came along and ruined our peace agreement by making a totally ridiculous screaming scene despite the fact that I tried to explain, between her incoherent rant, that I had resolved the issue with Dude #1 at the Mansion and that, no, I wasn't sitting there smugly and defiantly on her steps, but waiting my turn to be officially, humourously, crucified for arts sake and for her and her roommates sake. I even took a vote with those who had gathered to watch the spectacle as to whether or not they would like me to stay or leave, and got an even 50/50 result. Unfortunately the crazy negativity noises she was emitting alerted Dude #2 at the house (who I knew had serious beef with me from that first fateful day, and therefore whom I had been actively seeking out so that I could reiterate the convo/agreement I had made with Dude #1) and gave him an excuse to ask me and my friends to leave. Immediately.
Boo. I didn't get to see what GNOAM really has to offer artwise and report it on my apparently super-hot blog. I didn't get to see my friend, Kate's, show, and may have even hurt her social standing there vis-a-vis guilty-by-associationg (although she sweetly called me later to actually apologize to me for the wierdness and assure me that I did no wrong by her -what a truly awesome lady). And moreover, BOOOOOOO, I didn't get to be tarred and feathered, nor did I get to fully resolve this issue so that we can be positive artistic collaborators and not negative competitors.
Because, really, do they think it's fair or in the spirit of true expression that I censor my blog, especially after I was maltreated despite my sincere efforts to be amicable?
But despite this, I AM more than glad to be amicable if the opportunity is granted to me.
This is a resolution that I would like to offer to the artists at GNOAM:
If any one of the residents of GNOAM, especially Dude #1 or Dude #2 (you know who you are), would like to invite me back into their space with kindness in their hearts and an absence of scary screaming angry drunk girls in their holsters, I would love to bring with me a professional photographer to take pictures of their beautifully improved and renovated live/work space and write a new post extolling the virtues of this casual, but professional residential artist compound. If they would be so further generous as to invite me to their events, I would be more than happy to report on the awesomeness of the art that they are showing and the progress that they are fiercely spearheading in the unbelieveably creative mecca that is New Orleans.
What do you say, ladies and gents? Wanna lay down our arms and give peace a chance? You know where to contact me (email me from here if ya don't).
Love,
Alicia Zenobia
I just went to her house, also, to see her fabulous wig hats (she's wearing one)...and I found out that she lives in the playhouse outside of the larger house where her roommates live. And that she was in the Christmas industry in NYC making tiny houses and people for the Macy's window displays. She is officially one of Santa's displaced helpers, and I love her.So, anyway, she invited me to her show at GNOAM and, with a little bit of trepidation, I agreed to come out, be entertained and support her and whatever else GNOAM had to offer.
It started out so well! I noticed immediately, as I walked through the house to the backyard how incredibly improved the place looked. No more were there piles of crap everywhere. There was art available to the eye all around the house. And it definitely looked like a place where artists -professional artists- lived and worked. And the backyard! It was COMPLETELY transformed! No more junkyard. We were immediately shown, by another guest, to their fabulously awe-inspiring treehouse back there. It was like Peter Pan's arboreal home meets Hugh Hefners grotto. Amazing.
Robert enjoyed a new friend up there and the Loch-Ness Charlsie, fearing for her life 40 feet in the wobbly air, disappeared into the night.The art was beginning inside, so we descended and proceeded inside to see some of the most beautiful animation I've ever seen (made by some Russian artists out of old, exquisite paintings) accompanied by appropriately eerie, shoegazey music. It was incredibly entrancing, not to mention inspiring.
When it finished, I got up to step outside for a moment while they set up for the next piece. I ran into one of the residents there who I had met and spoken with on that first fateful day (I'm going to call him Dude #1) and was told almost verbatim. "You're Alicia, right? There are alot of people here who are REEEEALLY heated by your presence, here, tonight."
I took a look around and suddenly noticed that I was being eyeballed by at least half of the people there.
"Por que, Darling? Wherefor doth this negativity sprout that cometh so fiercey towards such a Positive Lady?"
"Well," he said, "You wrote a really horrible blog post about the Artist Mansion, and everyone is really pissed about it."
Apparently, my personal blog, intended to update friends and family on my whereabouts and my daily to-do's, was more public than I had any knowledge of. According to this guy, my blog came up 3rd down on the search when Greater New Orleans Artist Mansion was Googled (although I've tested this theory by typing in both "Greater New Orleans Artist Mansion" and "GNOAM" and my blog doesn't even come up). Apparently, this negative publicity was hurting the greater cause of the Mansion (probably by discouraging new residents from moving in and just generally tarnishing their image).
This was never my intention. If the Mansion works for some artists, and it's producing and showing really cool art, then I'm all for it and I am more than willing -excited even- to come to events to support their cause. The only reason that I wrote that blog post was to humorously explain to folks back home why I wasn't living/working at the place I'd been excitedly talking about living/working for the entire month prior. And the major reason I couldn't live/work there was because -and lets be fair, now, it's true- I could never bring a serious buyer or patron into the space as it was (at the time I moved in) and have them take me seriously enough to invest in me...which is INCREDIBLY important as a professional artist: the ultimate point, really, if you want to get your stuff out there. Maybe they were going through a rough phase when I arrived. That's totally fair, but I didn't think that it was my responsibility to help them out of their rough phase (although, perhaps, inadvertantly I did motivate them to get on their game and clean up, with my supposedly "scathing" blog post). I took great effort to make clear that I was never trying to personally insult anyone who lives/works there, and most definitely not trying in any way to stifle their progress or mission. I talked all this through with Dude #1, apologized for any harm done, and with a knuckle handshake, promised to remove the blog post if it would make amends for all.
But then this thing happened....
I was approached by a guest who told me that members of the household were scrambling to put together a projection of my blog as an artistic tar-and-feathering while I was there. Which I thought was HILARIOUS and totally awesome, and which I completely encouraged. I'm a big girl and can take a bashing, if it's soundly (and not drunkenly) justified. I'm all for crazy controversial art things. But, even more, I honestly think that the blog was fair -journalistic even- and not negative for negativity's sake, and I thought that many of the people who hadn't seen it yet nor had formed an antagonistic opinion of it, might have found it fair as well, if not at least entertaining, interesting or funny. And, furthermore, maybe if those that were blindly pissed at me got the negativity out of their system, and if I humbly laughed with them at myself for being obtuse, then the issue might be resolved and we could all get on with it. And maybe even be friends again!
But....then Drunk Angry Girl came along and ruined our peace agreement by making a totally ridiculous screaming scene despite the fact that I tried to explain, between her incoherent rant, that I had resolved the issue with Dude #1 at the Mansion and that, no, I wasn't sitting there smugly and defiantly on her steps, but waiting my turn to be officially, humourously, crucified for arts sake and for her and her roommates sake. I even took a vote with those who had gathered to watch the spectacle as to whether or not they would like me to stay or leave, and got an even 50/50 result. Unfortunately the crazy negativity noises she was emitting alerted Dude #2 at the house (who I knew had serious beef with me from that first fateful day, and therefore whom I had been actively seeking out so that I could reiterate the convo/agreement I had made with Dude #1) and gave him an excuse to ask me and my friends to leave. Immediately.
Boo. I didn't get to see what GNOAM really has to offer artwise and report it on my apparently super-hot blog. I didn't get to see my friend, Kate's, show, and may have even hurt her social standing there vis-a-vis guilty-by-associationg (although she sweetly called me later to actually apologize to me for the wierdness and assure me that I did no wrong by her -what a truly awesome lady). And moreover, BOOOOOOO, I didn't get to be tarred and feathered, nor did I get to fully resolve this issue so that we can be positive artistic collaborators and not negative competitors.
Because, really, do they think it's fair or in the spirit of true expression that I censor my blog, especially after I was maltreated despite my sincere efforts to be amicable?
But despite this, I AM more than glad to be amicable if the opportunity is granted to me.
This is a resolution that I would like to offer to the artists at GNOAM:
If any one of the residents of GNOAM, especially Dude #1 or Dude #2 (you know who you are), would like to invite me back into their space with kindness in their hearts and an absence of scary screaming angry drunk girls in their holsters, I would love to bring with me a professional photographer to take pictures of their beautifully improved and renovated live/work space and write a new post extolling the virtues of this casual, but professional residential artist compound. If they would be so further generous as to invite me to their events, I would be more than happy to report on the awesomeness of the art that they are showing and the progress that they are fiercely spearheading in the unbelieveably creative mecca that is New Orleans.
What do you say, ladies and gents? Wanna lay down our arms and give peace a chance? You know where to contact me (email me from here if ya don't).
Love,
Alicia Zenobia
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Success!
I got into the top ten designers (out of 65 who applied) in the Worn Again competition! I'll be showing 2 out of my five designs. Pics of the jury day and runway day will come soon. Wish me luck for the show on Saturday!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Lock-ness Charlsie
yet another backside photo of the elusive Charlsie Shaver, my roommate extroardinaire. We were at an equestrian farm in search of some boot conditioner for my beloved cowboy boots.
Dumb, but effective
This is how a kind man makes me laugh after a week of stressing in a horrifying manner about The Worn Again collection that I'd been working on for Jury presentation (last saturday). Apparently all it takes to help me unwind is a strange human being sticking thread spools to their eyeballs and making alien noises.
Little Brother in the Big Easy
Nick, my slightly younger brother, came by for a week last week, and experienced as much of the fabulous city of NOLA as he could at once. He came, he drank, he conquered.
He ate some free red beans and rice (yummy NOLA food-staple foreign to us underprivileged Yanks).
He watched Loren and Micah and Luke play their fabulously overachieving and often underappreciated music at the infamous Yellow Moon down the block.
He saw some weird but awesome bands play at One Eyed Jacks in the Quarter. Dude looked like Christian Bale letting out some excess anger on the slide flute (phenomenal).
He grew a Jew-fro. I'm thinking it might have been one of the scary molds that grow around here.
He metaphorically and literally watched his life blow open via the aid of some 3-D glasses.
While I met this guy. Just so you are aware, every one of you have a New Orleans doppleganger. This is Chad's doppleganger. The beard, the tattoos, the style, the scrappy physique. He was only missing the glorious mustache. 
Except, no, he wasn't. This guy came through for me.
And I chuckled while I put Charlsie in a chokehold in an attempt to get a pic with her. I chuckled because life is so awesomely good here, and I knew my brother would be back for more!
Napoleon Est Mort!
R.I.P. little monster.He didn't quite make it through last week. But he had a hilarious run of it. You will be remembered fondly and freakishly. And we've decided not to press charges against Robert (he paid his dues by digging the grave in 100 degree heat...we are cruel but just in these here places).
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