In other news, I have a strong urge to rewatch Titanic. I blame the stupid trivia question printed on my morning’s oatmeal packet,”Who sang the Titanic theme?” Really, oatmeal! Challenge me! Then again….THEN AGAIN….Melodrama just might be the ticket to winning District Karaoke. Imagine Titanic complete with the dialogue. (Ironically, of course! Right, Ariel?) “I will never let go, Jack. I’ll never let go.” So, I shall leave you with the video. Not the official one, but the fan video. Those are the best. This one was chosen in particular for two reasons. 1.) The dialogue. 2.) That perfect halo light surrounding Jack and Rose. In 1997, someone spent a lot of time and earnest effort Photoshopping this poster. I applaud vanity projects of all kinds. Golf clap, user elh1992. Gold friggin’ star, dude. If you have  extra time on your hands today, might I suggest watching the Celine Dion video. Remember Lifetime: TV for Women paid homage to its green screen sunset in the awesomely bad biopic, William & Kate.

Oh hey there!

This is Shelby and Jess’ wedding I second shot for Debi Parker Photography. I spent entirely too much time trying to make a Steel Magnolias joke, which I am either not funny enough to write or it’s just not funny…full stop. Shelby and Jess happen to be hilarious. And fans of karaoke. Making them AWESOME in my book. Shelby serenaded his new wife with a rousing rendition of Baby Got Back. Afterwards, he was promptly recruited for my District Karaoke league. It’s a shame his schedule wouldn’t allow participating.

Speaking of music, yeah…let’s talk Lana Del Rey. If you follow my Facebook fan page you’ll know that I totally talked her up. I love her songs…all 3 of them…and I’m kinda obsessed with her Valley of the Dolls hair. So, you can imagine how my jaw dropped when she bombed on SNL. While I don’t pretend that had roles been reversed, I would’ve performed in front of America any better, but it brings to mind the idea of ceasing opportunities. That’s what photography is all about. A moment happens, after years of training, spending thousands on camera equipment, putting oneself in awkward networking meet ups, where everyone seems intimidatingly polished, experienced and talented. The moment happens when you tune out the self-critic and press the shutter. It’s about being vulnerable, showing your work, knowing that everyone has an opinion and shares, through social media, what they wouldn’t say to your face. It’s about treating yourself  gently, because others won’t. It’s about doing all these things…repeatedly. Practicing is the only way to mastery. Poor Lana had a very public and awkward practice. She failed to make the most of her opportunity. I added to the cacophony of criticism from the safe distance of my computer. I’ve had time to pause, collect my thoughts and reconnect to my ethos, to never be the bitchy girl. The world doesn’t need my strongly help opinion on topics which do not matter. So, Lana, I offer you my heart felt apology. Aside from your model looks, statuesque height and recording contract, we’re exactly the same. Well, except I sing on pitch. Sorry. Sorry, that was bitchy again. Our works are both evaluated in a public way, the stress of which can make one pathological. Mind you, your public is a lot bigger. Best of luck.

Some friends encouraged me to sign up for the inaugural District Karaoke. So, I did. I didn’t research it or over think it. I just drafted an impassioned email seeking team mates. Here was my appeal:

Dear everyone I know:

One of my life’s goals* is to win a karaoke competition. Thanks to Katrina, I now have my chance with District Karaoke.  Obviously, I need a team. I’m looking for previously undiscovered talents, connections with others who might be interested and a future audience. Effective team members will contribute a wide breadth of pop music ranging from Yacht Rock to Brit Pop and Classic Country or a specialty niche, like Tanya’s Beastie Boys, and a gregarious stage presence. The only team member exempt from the “stage presence” requirement is me, and that’s because when I close my eyes and gently touch the air with my palm reminiscent of early 90′s Mariah Carey…. I’m FEELING that shit.

Also, if you serenaded Baby Got Back to your wife at your wedding, you’re on my short list. If you wear really, really tight jeans while singing Led Zeppelin, you’re also on my short list.

This is an opportunity. It’s your opportunity at greatness and you’ve only got one chance. Don’t miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a February. Plus, there’s beer and tee shirts. Be a joiner. Be a performer. Be a STAR!!!

Puppies & Unicorns 4-ever,
Brandy

*other life’s goals:

• own a wig wardrobe based on the characters from Valley of the Dolls.
• have my closet fashioned into a Gap saving time in the morning
  
• only ever be seen in Barbara Walters’ lighting
  
• receive a definite answer to the question “which is cuter:  puppies or Ryan Gosling”

That mass email resulted in a team of exactly….me, myself and I. Oh sure, 12 cheerleaders, but I’m in this alone. Only after signing up as a free agent did I learn of “taping” and “interviews” for DC50/TheCW. I might throw up. Stay tuned for much hilarity is sure to ensue.

NOTE: From now until Friday, Dec 16th get your Modern Toile print, matted and framed for only $85, that’s $15 off. Interested? Contact me for frame selections and details.

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Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are spending the day with family and friends eating a ton of carbs.

There are a number of people who deserve my heartfelt thanks this year. First off, Debi of Debi Parker Photography, who trusted me to second shoot weddings all season. I am very, very fortunate to have developed a professional and personal relationship with someone so generous of heart, knowledge and laughter. She might recognize the above photo from our trip to Philly. A great weekend, in which I’ll cherish the memory of the Joey Fatone look-alike with his too-long, too-close, side-hug, and very Jersey “What up, bitches?” catchphrase. Also, Kristen of The Future Mrs. Darcy, for the countless ways she supports me, even now as a brand new mom. Isn’t it amazing to watch your girlfriends become mothers? To Sarah, who deserves accolades for the incredible job of raising two awesome human beings. She also deserves credit for protecting me from bad shoe choices. My husband, who did not complain once that I missed EVERY Octoberfest beer festival this Fall. Or when I made him paint ceilings. And like…he’s actually kinda maybe starting to get into fashion. I mean, they’re baby steps, but I’ll take it. Seriously, my boy is lately rocking some hot footwear. My goodness. Shoes & hair, two of my favorite boy traits. And finally, a big congratulations to Tiffany on her engagement to Dave. Tiffany and I have known each other nearly 25 years. She remembers me as the 10-year-old audiophile in the making, who never met a power ballad she didn’t like and had an unhealthy leaning toward soft rock. I was totally Yacht Rock before Yacht Rock was so uncool it was cool to hipsters, making it both cool and uncool in equal measure. In other words, I was a total nerd. I can remember her as a boy crazy tween with NKOTB posters serving as wallpaper. And yes, she had more. And yes, it WAS a competition. She has a talent for joy and a capacity for love greater than most. She’s also a gorgeous creature. She’ll make the perfect bride.

I’m pre-writing this to publish on Thanksgiving, so it’s kinda like time travel. I’m the Brandy of the past writing for the Brandy of the future. Past Brandy, which is to say Present Brandy, is consumed with creating the perfect mix-tape for our tween Thanksgiving hostess. After her dad admitted he hadn’t bought a new song in nearly a decade, I gasped and decided his 11-year old daughter required my tutelage by way of a mix-tape. Said mix-tape has swelled to a ridiculous 200+ song count. One song that did not make the list, but I can’t get out of my head, is by ZZ Ward. Enjoy.

ZZ Ward – Better Off Dead from Burning Corners on Vimeo.

Good, right? Doesn’t she kind of remind you of a more gravelly Diana Krall? No. Maybe it’s just her looks and that hat. And the piano. Otherwise, you’re right. Nothing about her is at all like Diana Krall.

Peace the turkey out.

]]> http://www.moderntoilephotography.com/2011/11/happy-thanksgiving/feed/ 0 http://www.moderntoilephotography.com/2011/10/happy-halloween/ http://www.moderntoilephotography.com/2011/10/happy-halloween/#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:44:46 +0000 Brandy http://www.moderntoilephotography.com/?p=2416

R.I.P. Billy the Cat

Happy Halloween! I’m just quickly checking in as I have to finish some work on deadline. That means I’m going to work at my desk with a lap top next to me streaming episodes of Vampire Diaries (which I totally started watching last night.)  What? Don’t you judge me. It’s both seasonally appropriate and vapid enough to soothe me while I’m sick with a really bad chest cold and CW teen dramas have magical elixir properties.

Don’t forget the Alexandria Film Festival is this week. I’ve got to shake this cold off in time to snappy snap my camera at a bunch of the Festival parties. Are you coming?

And finally, just because this is the most awesome video featuring Dracula in recent pop music…

As a lover of all things pop culture, I like keeping tabs on the sources of my obsessions. Cataloging is a common trait for us obsessives. For example, my dad is credited with introducing me to West Side Story during a late-night telecast when neither could sleep. It was during this viewing I discovered dads had celebrity crushes too: Natalie Wood being my dad’s first. (Though Sade replaced Natalie in the mid-Eighties.) Saturdays afternoons were spent with Bob Ross and his happy little trees. Ross’ posthumous popularity with college kids proves my father was always ahead of his time. The line “What we have here is a failure to communicate” from Cool Hand Luke, in a stretched drawl, was used to diffuse every conflict of my entire childhood. To this day, I can’t look at a hard-boiled egg without conjuring up the eating contest scene. One I’d like to forget, thank you.

My mom, on the other hand, taught me the virtues of Jimmy Buffet on vinyl. She never committed to her obsession like a true “Parrothead,” thank goodness. My preteen self would have been mortified. She did commit fully to night-time soaps as a not-so-guilty pleasure – Dallas, Knots Landing, and Dynasty being the penultimate. My mother was a hairstylist and her hair could rival that of Alexis Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan.  Our bathroom door opposite the mirror felt rough from a constant coating of hairspray. (And yes, I am THAT much of a trivia buff, I memorized the order of husbands.) My obsession with Nancy Sinatra, well that’s all Tarantino.

“These Boots are Made for Walking” is a staple in my karaoke performance, but it wasn’t until Quentin Tarantino included “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” in Kill Bill Volume 1, that I became an obsessed Sinatra completist. The credit sequence of black screen and simple white text layered with that eerie hollow guitar punctuated the intimately violent opening scene of a bloody Uma Thurman. It was both repellent and arresting. It burned the rods of my minds eye leaving a ghostly image long after. I took a scholarly approach to Sinatra discovering her more ethereal work with Lee Hazelwood. I am obsessed with the lyrics, her voice and definitely her 1960′s Valley Of The Dolls hair.

Similarly, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette included Adam Ant’s “King of the Wild Frontier.” It’s driving beat, sinewy guitar chords, and unintelligible lyrics had me rewinding the DVD to listen again. Okay, so it might have had more to do the eye candy lover, but whatever, the scene works better for having that song. As much as it pains this buff to admit this, I didn’t know it was Adam Ant. It sounded so modern I thought it was Franz Ferdinand.  S. Coppola’s song choices have the appropriate amount of nostalgia without being sentimental toward her generation. Whether it was “Just Like Honey” from The Jesus and the Mary Chain in Lost in Translation or “I’m Not In Love” from 10cc in The Virgin Suicides, Coppola proves, I was born 11 years too late.

If I had been born 11 years earlier, when dreams of owing a record shop was still a viable business model, this next song would loudly greet my customers. It’s called “Impazzivo Per Te” by Adriano Celentano. I spent (I hate to admit this) two hours searching the internet for the title of this unknown rock song. It’s from the 1961 Italian film Girl With A Suitcase directed by Valerio Zurlini. I’ll set the scene: a sexy earth goddess Claudia Cardinale and and cherub faced Jacques Perrin, stare across the expanse of their forbidden attraction and then the music obscenely interrupts their intimacy. At the time, rock was in it’s adolescence and just like Perrin’s character, Lorenzo,  it was finding itself through borrowed influences. Italy’s music scene was emulating American culture, while Lorenzo began seeing women through the eyes of his shiftless older brother.

Now, one could argue these aren’t the best soundtracks or that this list isn’t comprehensive. Wes Anderson has had some gems on his Rushmore soundtrack. Certainly The Big Chill serves as a comprehensive catalog of music from that generation. Pulp Fiction was a better overall soundtrack than Kill Bill, replacing the role of smokey chanteuse Nancy Sinatra for Dusty Springfield. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE Dusty, she’s also a karaoke staple. Dusty in Memphis – get out of town – that’s amazing, but I’ll stop myself from running on a Nancy vs. Dusty tangent. The fact that I can dedicate so many sentences to the songs in Tarantino’s films speaks toward his genius. Tarantino, Coppola, and Zurlini are in good company, along with my parents, for feeding my pop culture obsessions.

Here’s a link to the 100 best movie soundtracks according to Entertainment Weekly. Do you agree? Tell us your favorites in the comments section.

Brandy volunteers as the social media maven for the Alexandria Film Festival. She is the principal photographer of Modern Toile Photography, a sometimes chanteuse, an unabashed novel reader, a lover of Felini & french press, dance music & dahlias. She loves films for the cinematography citing Bruno Delbonnel’s work on A Very Long Engagement as some of her favorite.

And i can see you
you brown skin shining in the sun
you got your hair combed back
sunglasses on baby

and i can tell you
my love for you will still be strong
after the boy of summer have gone.

Boys of Summer, Don Henley

I think those lyrics must of have rose to the surface of my consciousness right before I snapped this image of Central Park at sunset. Ahhh. Boys playing baseball. Le swoon. Am I right?

One of my all-time favorite songs from the 80′s, Boys of Summer, served as inspiration for the novel, Namedropper by Emma Forest It’s a great summer read, especially if you’re a pop music lover. If you have any summer reading suggestions, I’ll take them. I’m nearly finished with the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris that prompted the True Blood series. Before you click your tongue at me in a snit to remind me of your far superior taste level, let me just stop you right there with a big ‘ol PUH-LEASE. Summer, my friends, is for vampires and Dynasty reruns. Winter is for depth and gripping cerebral narratives with a strong female lead.

Oh, so new things: I’m volunteering for the Alexandria Film Festival. I’m the self-appointed social media maven, so check out the blog and friend us on Facebook.

This week will be fun. I got invited to a private Thievery Corporation concert at the 9:30 Club. Oh. That’s right!!! Lil’ mama’s gonna wear her dancing shoes. By dancing shoes, I, of course, mean 4-inch heels that actually inhibits all but the most necessary movement, but damn! Do your legs look long!!!  The following morning we close on our new house. I’ve been a Pinterest fool lately planning its new decor. Check out my boards for my living room and my bedroom. Pinterest is to girls’ decorating like Fantasy Football is to boys. I’m addicted to the idea of painting a wall of chevrons. It’s a ton of work. My husband must really love me. Hey, our marriage survived a bathroom of painted vertical stripes and once the removal of 5 layers of wallpaper. We’re good.

They grow up so fast. Just a year ago I photographed Mark for his birth announcement and now it’s cupcakes at his first birthday party. Where does the time go? Mark is the son of our friends, Rachel & Jason. Rachel, an architect, has been staying at home this past year to care for Mark. She still maintains her blog, Architecture Babble. I have nothing more taxing than an air plant to look after. Most of the time, I forget it exists. Reason #32 you might not ask me to watch your child: see that photo of Mark in the grass? Is he putting something in his mouth? It didn’t occur to me to prevent that. I promise when I do become pregnant, I’ll read a few books that tell me things like: don’t let toddlers graze on lawn clippings. Sorry, Rache. Contrary to my complete incompetence, I love babies. I fell in love with Mark’s friends. They are sooo friggin’ cute! Babies are the best to photograph because their skin is so luminous, it requires no special Photoshop magic to make it sing.

Speaking of singing, I want to share this video. Remember videos?

Okay, I love this video for so many reasons. 1.) That candy colored pinky-yellow rich tone that I love so much. 2.) Urkel can dance. 3.) Cee Lo Green has been chipping away at his career for….well, forever. I was a freshman in college when I first saw an early video of his at a Blockbuster Music. Remember those? See what I just did there. I did that hipster thing where I tell you that I’ve been listening to something like 5 years before you. Well. Can I help it if it’s true? I’m sorry. I’ll stop being a hipster now.

You know, MTV just turned 30. To celebrate they reran the first hour of broadcast. How quaint. Want to take a mocking walk down memory lane? Okay. Check out Flavorwire’s Much-Loved Music Videos That Are Actually Terrible list. I agreed with most of these, except George Michael’s Freedom. Under what criteria is that video terrible? It starred a young Linda Evangelista who wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000. We used to have models. MODELS spelled with capital letters. Now we have it-girls who breathe too much when they act. We get it, girls. You FEEL. You’re emoting. Linda Evangelista didn’t have to breathe to emote. In fact, Linda Evangelista didn’t have to breathe (full stop). Kids today.

Take a look at the Lomography site. It will inspire you to go play with the Plastic Fantastic. I encourage you enter this contest, but if you want to cheat and not submit an image you can circumvent the Lomo site and head over to Stereogum, an indie music blog. They’re giving away their own Tori Amos Diana+ and to enter you need only name your favorite Tori song. Oh I accept that challenge.

I don’t have a Lomo. I’ve used my friend’s. I keep meaning to buy one. At the moment, however, I’m still working the kinks out of my Polaroid. There’s been a bit of a learning curve, but after 12 (expensive) exposures I finally got an image that I’m happy about. I think that opened the creative floodgate. The confidence from that first proper image helped me stop treating the film as precious. Treating your materials as too valuable to use will ALWAYS prevent you from producing, practicing, sketching out your ideas, working through what works, and what doesn’t. If I have a creative block, I can almost always tie it back to an unwillingness to “mess” things up. In creativity it is imperative to ignore your self-imposed obstacles. Even as a child, I never ever wanted to mar that perfect 64-box of crayons. And I always kept them in their original place. I preferred an orderly rule-oriented world. I’ve learned to balance the rigid, but those two sides of my personality, the ordered and disordered, rub and strife and it’s the resulting friction that is the source of my creativity.