so long for now...

I haven't really had anything to post about lately. Or, rather, I haven't really had a desire to post anything lately. After a few years of traveling around, living here and there, and always with an eye on the next step, I'm in one place, doing one thing, and trying to concentrate on just this for the time being. I've got designs on moving on in a while, naturally, but for at least the next year we'll be here in New York, with me working on school and Dustin working on music (HIS website will only get busier - don't stop checking in there!).

So for now, I'm going on blog hiatus while I take some time to focus and put my energy into doing as well as possible, hoping for the best possible outcome. If all goes according to plan, then maybe that work will pay off and result in something worth re-starting this site over!

E-mail me, call me, carrier pigeon me any time.

Brooke Edge, expert chaperone

A few months ago my brother e-mailed to let me know that a band Dustin and I really like, Gogol Bordello, was coming to Fort Lauderdale. I told him I'd check to see if it was an all-ages show, and if so I'd come down and take him to the concert - he replied that he didn't think I looked too old to go to a show. I guess Will didn't really get the concept of what ages clubs usually try to keep out, but thanks anyway for saying I don't look too old to go out on the town.

Anyway, the show was last night, and I ended up not just going with Will but also a few of his friends. It was me and four 17-year-olds, so I couldn't help feeling a little out of place and protective. Despite continually doing head counts to make sure I had all of them, it was a super fun night!

Here are a few of the more decent shots of the show I could get from my phone...

home coming

The first sight of Fort Lauderdale from above makes me smile a little every time I fly home. Then I look away when the plane's soon over the subdivisions of endless clay-colored roofs and cul-de-sacs that stand where the Everglades used to meander. But at the same time, I start looking forward to landing, calling home, and in 15 or so minutes being picked up and driven to that lovely section of town near the beach and cut through by the Intracoastal. My hometown has all the flaws of any place that changes from the idyll of one's five-year-old days, but is still the place where I can find my parents, my grandparents, my siblings (most of them anyway, for now), and some favorite pieces of my self. I love coming home.

catch-up time, then chill-out time

The past 10 or so days have been full to the brim with paper writing, spending time with Dustin's folks, and normal life activities. To be honest, D and I both got a little tired and snappy with each other for a few days there. But now I'm mostly looking forward to almost two weeks in Florida with my family, doing research by the pool instead of on our couch.
Before getting on a plane Wednesday though, I've got social overflow from what didn't get done the past week and a half. Four lunch/dinner/drinks appointments with friends in 36 hours, plus attempting to get a little time in for just me and Dustin. And packing, and 100 pages of reading... I have a feeling the reading might be what gets sacrificed.

Happy Hanksgiving!

Here's a perk of going back to school for cinema studies - making friends with other folks who love to celebrate the fun of film! One girl in the program organizes great day-long festivals in her apartment with themes like "One Hit Wonders" (The Commitments, That Thing You Do) and "Mothers We Love to Hate" (Mommy Dearest, Little Voice, Serial Mom). Two other fellow classmates, Caitlin and Deirdre, absolutely made my Friday by throwing a Hanksgiving Party, to celebrate the birth of Tom Hanks. There were three films featured (Splash, Big, and a viewer's choice), themed food, prizes, and a Hanksgiving Tree which we all got to decorate. Unfortunately, Dustin and I were only able to stay for the first part of the evening ("Early Hanks: A Zany Rise to Fame"), but did get a parting gift of Astronaut Ice Cream (get it? Apollo 13?)

Here are two of the snacks - shrimp cocktail (ties into both Splash's marine love and the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company... Shia LaBeouf in the background is unrelated) and Hanks in a Blanket (sorry for the poor picture quality - these are courtesy of my phone)

And the Hanksgiving Tree (D and I brought the photo of Tom with a puppy, and the dog on the tree is named after Tom)

And just for giggles, here's my favorite addition of late to the Hanks oeuvre - his appearance on the Colbert Report a few weeks ago.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Tom Hanks Care Package
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum

The Big Bucks of Being a Blogger

Remember that blogging gig I got at Creative Loafing a few months ago, which promised payment in satisfaction? Well it turns out that's only the case until you write a super popular post that gets people all a-twitter and a-clicking - a few days ago my editor informed me that this entry of mine reached such incredible heights that I earned FIVE dollars! Then later the hits kept coming, bumping my earnings up to a whopping ten bucks!

I completely credit all of the crazy tweenaged RPattz fans out there with my financial windfall. Thank you kids, and I'll be sure to write only about Tiger Beat poster boys from now on.

Full of Pride

I was warned that the day of the annual Gay Pride Parade was the loudest, craziest of the year for residents of the Village. With this year being the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riot, I was anticipating major madness. However, this past Sunday's festivities ended up being a lot more enjoyable than expected!

Here are a few shots from the parade, just a few blocks from our flat:

The contingent from the NYPD



The veterans of the 1969 uprising


Where the action happened 40 years ago, to cries of "Out of the closet and into the streets!"


I was really, really nervous about the girl who took to the roof to get her shots (look upper left)


There were some crazy outfits around, but this dog's decor was my favorite

a stand-still moment

New York City had a thunderstorm this evening, while I was out catching up over bottles of wine and appetizers with girlfriends. As I walked home along West 4th Street, I noticed people flowing out of restaurants, standing in the street with cameras and camera phones pointed skyward, a la disaster movies right before the aliens open up on us with galactic-level firepower.

Thankfully though, this was just occasioned by a gorgeous sunset and cotton ball clouds. Here's the best I could capture on my mobile:

tributes

In the 3 hours since I left class, went to a late dinner, and then walked home, I heard five musical tributes to Michael Jackson. Three were people playing "Billie Jean," including one rendering of it in drum circle jam session form in Washington Square Park. That one was pretty cool.

street love

New low to living in New York: walking by two homeless people gettin' it on on the sidewalk of Bleecker between Broadway and Mercer, middle of the day, no blanket over them or anything.

Sorry, I know that isn't an image anyone wants, but if I kept it to myself my brain might've exploded.

fun with Macs

Dustin and Owen spent some time playing with my computer while I wasn't looking.


Elliot got in on the action too!

oldies but goodies

So other than the aforementioned French Bulldog invasion, not too much in Prague seemed different or out of place. There were a lot more Starbucks (the first had just opened when we left, and now there's one right off Old Town Square and a mall with not one but two 'Bucks), and Pilsner introduced some new beer called "Master" (Dustin sipped and deemed it tasty), but we pretty much felt right at home. Well not right at home, as someone else lives in our old flat now. boo.

Some of the features that haven't changed in our absence:

- The absolutely awesome public transportation system, so much cleaner and more straightforward than the MTA. I'm totally not trying to diss New York subways here, as I love their reach and (usual) efficiency, but it was so nice to be on a metro that was quiet, tidy, and tourist-friendly. Plus, Prague has the ultimate transport mode... trams! I miss trams so much. I can't explain it. It's just something about being above ground, that ringing bell, and the cable car shape. Riding at rush hour surrounded by sweaty men is no fun, but that's true in any city.

- The weather's determination to foil the best of intentions. All those cute sundresses I packed went to waste, as the temperatures dropped to autumn-ish. As a result, I wore the same fleece and puffy vest for four days in a row. Which leads me to another Czech cultural highlight that hasn't changed... smoky, smoky bars and restaurants. THAT made the fleece and vest smell even better.

- Our awesome friends. Well, this one's a mostly-not-changed, not that they're any less awesome, just that they aren't all there. We went to church on Sunday, and it was like we'd never left! Sadly, I kept expecting the Weidermayers and Haberdongs to walk in, but they're back Stateside. But all of the time we got to spend with the Stewarts, Davises, Bakers, and Syvertsens was filled with all the laughs and liveliness that we'd missed for more than a year (and now miss again!).

- Finally, my view on Thursday nights...

Given my last post here and my newest film blog for Creative Loafing, I really seem to have doggies on the brain lately!

Frenchified

Once we moved to New York, I seemed to find a French Bulldog every time I turned a corner. When talking with friends from Prague about our new home, they totally understood when I described French Bulldogs as the Dachshunds of NYC - weiner dogs practically overrun the cobblestones there.

Well, sometime in the year since we moved away the French Bulldogs moved their expansion overseas. I'd never, ever seen one in the 18 months we used to live in Prague, but all of a sudden last week they were showing up all over the place. Notably, running around our neighborhood beer garden. (note the expeditious blur on the left of this photo)
Just look at this guy! Does he look like his breed is set to take over the dog world or what?
Also, some dogs got a lot friendlier while we were away - this just might be the most cheerful Czech canine we ever encountered. (of course, I can also attest to how good a back rub from Dustin can feel!)

I have more pictures, but no time right now

We're here in Prague, it's as fantastic as usual, and of course I have lots of pictures and stuff to post, but we're heading back out so no time to blog at the moment (must go in search of strudl)!

But for now, check out this crazy strawberry that we found in the bottom of a packet of berries while on a picnic with the Syvertsens on Saturday!

(adopted) homecoming

About the same day we decided to move from Prague, we promised to try and come back for a visit one year later. We decided to move back to the States in the summer of '07. We actually moved back in March 2008. And tomorrow, a year and two months after that, we'll get on a plane to go back for a visit!

I'll update with photos and tales once we're there, but here are a few anticipated activities:
- doing the tourist thing in Old Town, the Little Quarter, and the castle
- having a beer at the Golden Tiger (at 3:30 of course, before the regulars kick us out)
- drinks with our Bar Guys
- lots of time catching up with our American pals
- walking down our beautiful former street, and most likely crying when I see our old apartment building and it hits home that I don't live there any longer
- eating bad Czech food, just as a reminder of why we should return to New York

one year down...

For those of you with a vested (emotional, financial, whatever) interest in my graduate school career, I can officially announce that my first year is finished! Evidently maturing and developing a better work ethic in six years out of school helped - along with the absence of math and science requirements or Pike Dogs, themed frat parties, and Beast Lite - as my GPA is notably more attractive these days. There really is something to that "going back to school for something you really love" concept, I suppose.

Now for a few weeks off, including a much-anticipated visit to friends and castles in Prague, then it's back to a three-week summer course in June. Many, many thanks to all the friends who have supported me and kept me going these past 10 months!

B+A 4eva

On paper, a trip to Louisville for a long weekend of wedding revelry a few days before I had three papers for my toughest classes due looked awful. In reality, it was such a nice break to get out of the city, see some trees and yards, and of course spend time with family and friends. I ended up in my favorite Louisville workplace, Highland Coffee, most of the time, downing delicious chai tea lattes to keep my energy up, but highlights of the weekend were walks to the farmers' market and through Cherokee Park with Dustin, and a home-cooked meal at Dom's (complete with seeing his skills on an old pasta maker).

And of course, Ben and Amanda's nuptials on Friday night were a beautiful start to the weekend. We were so honored to be included in this lovely family affair - here are just a few photos from the night:

First, how beautiful is this strawberry-coffee liqeur-deliciousness cake? A friend of Ben, Dom, and Dustin's from childhood now owns an adorable bakery in Louisville, and made this fantastic confection.
I know I shouldn't have taken a picture during the blessing, but this was way too funny to pass up.




gotta give some credit to Dustin, who helped string the lights!

new gig

After getting back from the trip to Ben and Amanda's wedding in Louisville last week (I know, haven't had time to post anything about that), I had six days to write three papers. I essentially moved into the library, and lived and breathed fun things like television historiography and psychoanalytic film theory. And, because I needed something to distract me from all of that, I took on a new "job." (Job being in quotation marks because it's paid in satisfaction, not dollars)

Matt, my friend and former editor at Creative Loafing in Charlotte, asked if I would be one of the new contributors to the publication's film blog. I said sure, but I'd have to wait a few weeks before starting due to all my end-of-semester work. Then, of course, I found myself desperate for procrastination sources, and decided to start this new assignment a little early. Basically, I'll be posting a few film-related musings per week, from what I think of industry gossip to my opinion of recent (or old) releases. Since I'll be taking a three-week course on "Scorcese's New York" in June, get ready for a lot of mob and boxing diatribes.

Here's a link to Creative Loafing Charlotte's blog, and for those who want to jump right to the good stuff, here's my contributor page.

Away We Go

Anyone want to go see this movie with me? I'm super duper excited about it...

when it rains... I get tired

I fell asleep twice today in the noisiest coffee shop in New York (Think Coffee). The past three days have been crazy, with a round-trip flight to Ft. Lauderdale, a round-trip drive in a full car of family to Tampa, and a lovely - but busy - day in between that travel celebrating our time with Grandpa. This didn't really allot much time for working on final papers, or registering for fall courses, so my mental state has been in a fairly high-stress mode.

And of course, in the midst of all this I left my mobile in my clothes when I did laundry Saturday (I was SO proud of myself that, even with all of this going on, I managed to do laundry). It suffered what I can only hope was a quick, painless death somewhere around the spin cycle. The replacement phone I got in the mail today doesn't work well, but I don't have time to deal with that now. Friday, maybe.

Grandpa

Sadly, my grandpa passed away yesterday. He lived a long, rewarding, and happy life, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to celebrate him at his memorial service next week. The St. Petersburg Times ran the following lovely article today about Grandpa, who so many were blessed to have in their lives:

Dr. Pain-free dentist Rudolph G. Weihe loved music, travel By Andrew Meacham, Times Staff Writer

TAMPA — Dentist Rudy Weihe didn't need piped-in music. He supplied his own.
While probing a patient's mouth with picks, Dr. Weihe hummed songs from the 1920s — give or take. He would offer a dollar if you could name that tune.
A St. Petersburg College biology professor named Starr Culver found Dr. Weihe in 1965, on a colleague's recommendation.
"My first impression was that he didn't hurt," said Starr Weihe, 72. The dentist packed gold into her teeth. Two years later, he put a diamond on her finger.
The singing dentist became one of the state's best. He led the Pinellas County Dental Association and held memberships in several organizations, such as the Florida Academy of Practice Management and the Royal Society of Health of Great Britain.
Dr. Weihe died Wednesday at Tampa General Hospital. He was 95. He practiced in the Chicago area and St. Petersburg, and moved to Tampa five years ago.
"He was the very finest dentist I ever saw using gold work," said Dr. Geoffrey Weihe, 65, who followed his father into dentistry.
Dr. Weihe grew up in Oak Park, Ill., the son of a tool and die maker. A man of many talents, he boxed as a lightweight and played the piano while working his way through the University of Illinois and its dentistry school.
He married and raised a family. After his first wife died of cancer at 47, he started over in St. Petersburg. Starr Weihe, whom he married in 1967, taught biology at St. Pete Junior College (now St. Petersburg College). Though she was 23 years his junior, they seemed made for each other.
They went to the symphony. He made her giggle. She taught him to appreciate art, though he couldn't stomach anything too abstract. They vacationed in England more than 40 times.
"He enjoyed following his wife around," said longtime friend Eugene Patterson, 85, a former St. Petersburg Times editor and president who twice accompanied the Weihes to London. "He concealed it as best he could, but he liked the country."
At home in Point Brittany and later in Tampa's Canterbury Tower, they could be alone, together. He watched golf while she read, and neither minded.
At 3 a.m. Wednesday, on impulse, Mrs. Weihe awoke to check on her husband. She put her hand on his brow. They talked for an hour. He died three hours later.
Dr. Weihe never stopped singing or playing the piano. At his 95th birthday party in June, with an orchestra's backing, he serenaded his wife with "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."

kiss my ash

The Times came out with an article today reporting that New Yorkers in general have an elevated level of nicotine in their systems, and wondered how this could have happened with such stringent indoor smoking bans. I can tell them one reason for at least MY smoke exposure - it seems like I constantly end up walking behind human smokestacks. I get clouds of smoke in my face, ashes flying onto my clothes, and even brushes with lit cigarettes all the time. It's so frustrating. argh.

the gift budget stays the same, it's the shops that've changed

For the past few years it's been weddings that have kept us busy and in registry-searching mode. In the last few months the weddings have abated, but the baby showers and births have picked up the slack. It seems like a week doesn't go by where we don't get pictures of a new kid in the college friend fold, or an announcement of expecting a bundle in the next few months. We've become avid fans of Giggle, a baby and toddler boutique in SoHo, and have learned all kinds of new factoids about our friends' bodies and sleeping habits. All of this - particularly the constant photo album updates on Facebook - keep me in a constant supply of procrastination strategies. Major thanks to all of you procreating pals out there!

Saturday we got to see some of these friends in person, which is such a nice change from corresponding via e-mails and websites. Phil and Danielle are due to be joined by a little girl or boy this summer, and her family threw a lovely baby shower in her hometown of Montvale, N.J. Dustin and some other guy friends came out from New York to keep Phil company during the girliness, and to help carry baby gifts back to the house.


Unfortunately we won't be able to make it to their second shower, with some friends of ours in D.C. later this month. But to remind us that life cycles (and gift cycles) can overlap, we'll be at our friends Ben and Amanda's wedding in Kentucky the same weekend.

one year in/out

It really doesn't feel like it's been a little over a year since moving back to the States. The anniversary has coincided, for some reason, with me feeling especially moody, nostalgic and emotional lately.

The nostalgia can probably be equally attributed both to thinking about the one-year mark and our recent purchase of tickets back to visit Prague this May, and has led to me watching a lot of Passport to Europe on the Travel Channel despite my intense dislike of Samantha Brown. I still remember all the qualities of life in Prague that provided daily frustration (language barriers, gray skies, no Thai delivery), but I've been missing our life there a lot lately (the more laid-back routine, having an apartment with windows, and of course our friends).

That longing and the aforementioned moodiness can also be chalked up to being busy with classwork and anxiously waiting to get my mid-term grades back. This semester's courses are certainly still holding my attention and keeping me looking forward to class, but as I expected Film Theory provides a weekly mental challenge. I just don't naturally take to opining about how one understands a movie in grammatical terms, or what it might really be saying about my relationship with my father. Call me crazy, but I usually just take for granted that I get what most films are saying from scene to scene, and don't see a need to do cognitive calisthenics over how I manage to link a series of shots together.

So between the stress and missing our prior way of life, I figure that's led to my rampant emotions of late. Wednesday morning, the Today Show brought me to tears twice. I've been a little cranky and touchy, then will switch all of a sudden to sappy and feeling an intense need to snuggle.

8 weeks 'til the semester's over; 9 weeks 'til we land in Prague for a 10-day visit. If Dustin can stand me that long, I think I'll be able to call this first year of graduate school a success.

romantic man-handling

So I'm working on a paper that takes as part of my central thesis the history of leading men being rough with women, yet still being considered "romantic." Think Marlon Brando breaking out as a sex object after Streetcar Named Desire, despite how horrible he was to Stella and Blanche, or Rhett Butler forcing himself on his wife, and her shown the next day glowing and happy. Anyway, I've been trying to think of more examples in Hollywood history of this phenomenon. Anyone else out there have suggestions of movies to check out?

The ultimate, of course, is Bond... James Bond. So hot, yet so slap-happy. Whoever put together this montage really helped my research!

Variety

For my TV History class midterm, my assignment was to read through every issue of Variety from September through December of 1956 and write about it's value for historians of the medium. Hours of staring at the microfiche machine led to killer headaches, and my eyesight may never recover from all the squinting over tiny, horribly scanned type, but it was actually a pretty neat task. I'll get the paper back Wednesday (I hope), so I won't know 'til then how I did, but until my hopes are dashed I can say I tried my best and I think it turned out fine.

Beyond the actual graded work though, there were some pretty amusing news finds within the old papers. For instance, the music business was really concerned with some Calypso craze sweeping the nation, and "experts" were predicting this new thing called rock 'n' roll would soon be over and we'd all be jumping on Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat. And evidently a German cinema owner had perfected "Smell-o-vision" and was marketing it to theaters in the States, so they could match scents to what you saw on screen (I'd see Babette's Feast or Chocolat like that, but not many other good smelling films come to mind). Presumably, the incredibly popular calypso movies would have been accompanied by the smell of bananas and suntan oil.

time for a make-over

We went to an engagement party for our friends Joey and Logan last weekend, which I'd been looking forward to both to celebrate these sweet pals of ours, and as an excuse to dress up for the first time in months. This student schedule of mine makes it WAY too easy to get into a jeans-and-sneakers rut (which I love, and find incredibly comfy). Unfortunately, though, it turns out that one reason I never get dressed up is because I don't have any winter-time clothes that look good. Seriously, I'm not whining here about "oh, I have NOTHING to wear." I tried on five outfits and all got a tepid at best response from D. Dressing up for our friends' Ben and Amanda's wedding in April is going to be a major challenge.

But more importantly, Logan and Joey's engagement party was lots of fun and a great way to see some Davidson buddies and raise a glass to two friends of ours we've known as a great couple for years and years. Logan was a roommate of my sister (Kate), and getting to catch up with these girls was such a nice treat. I forgot my camera, of course, but thankfully Kristen remembered hers!

my first Spring Break in 7 years

Here's my plan for kicking off Spring Break today. I'm a little out of practice on the Girls Gone Wild front, and can't really afford to do the usual trip to the Keys like I did ages ago in undergrad, but I'm pretty excited about my Friday plans:

go turn in my final mid-term paper

hit the gym

late lunch with girlfriends at The New French

a much, much needed manicure and pedicure

plopping on the couch to take a nap in front of Lifetime's Wife Swap marathon

There isn't any tropical vacation planned for this week off of school, but at least there are a few sunny, mid-50s days in the forecast, and a fair amount of time for me to catch up on tv, reading, cooking, and movies. I can't wait!

mini-spring

It's 67 degrees outside! People are outside strolling, drinking iced coffees, and getting their fair share of Vitamin D. It's a lovely little burst of spring, conveniently coming on a Saturday.

Unfortunately, after enjoying a bit of the warmth while walking to and from the gym, I'm back in our underground lair of an apartment, working on mid-term papers. I keep reminding myself that there will be plenty of warm days in the next few months though, on weekends with less homework.

and then, the wrap party...

Scenes from the bar just down the street from Sesame Street, after a long few months of shooting season 40!

Me and my fellow interns (I'm a full decade older than some of them, ugh)
Some cast members get in the mix - those of you with tykes might recognize Chris from Hooper's store, and the lovely lady to his right, Leslie, is the sparkly Abby Cadabby, making fairy hands for the photo
Me and Luis!

proof

Finally, a few photos to prove I intern at Sesame Street! (this was the last week of production, so next week my internship will become far more "regular office"-ish - i.e. no Muppets hanging around. alas!)

Me and Bob
Even with some random bench thing in it, Big Bird's nest is still awesome.
Outside Ernie and Bert's brownstone!
Oscar was always my favorite.
The magic happening.