MOVIN' ON UP 7-28-03
The past 10 days have been pretty chaotic. Moving my studio, while trying to keep up with the deadlines. When doing commercial art work you realize something early on-Deadlines don't move just because you do.
The lease on JEN and my apartment in Lake Ronkonkoma ran out, we decided that the place wasn't worth another year, and we should find a new place. I like the idea of moving, being that it welcomes change, and anything new and interesting is good, and I like living in a new place, but the physical act of moving itself sucks ass. I usually end up moving once a year, experimenting with new environments, and trying to not get "too comfortable." You get too comfortable, and things begin to become automatic and relaxed, hence my natural aversion to signing leases for more then one year.
Casualties of moving: I always end up with battle damage from a move. I have this big screen Sony TV that must weigh 300 lbs. which has nicks and scratches all over it. It was new in 99, and everytime I move it gets a little more damaged. Another byproduct of moving seems to be open wounds. I always seem to wind up with some new and unwelcomed scar tissue to my body after a move, thus is the nature of the move, and comes with the territory (this time I damaged my left thumb nail-tearing it almost completely off, and my right heel).
The week prior to the actual move I was shuffling around the apartment doing photoshoots, story pitches, lining up my Miami trip, all the while packing up my amassed worldly possessions. My models had to strike poses from behind stacks of cardboard boxes and mounds of bubble wrap. Though it was nice to see the apartment get sorted down from big hanging junk into little boxed up junk, I prefer the hanging junk.
I went against my ingrained pack rat instinct and threw away a lot of things I had been hoarding and haven't used in years. You find these things when you move. Things that you realize you haven't unboxed from the last move, or the last two moves, and have basically been carting from apartment to apartment but never using. Just hoping one day it will find a purpose. So, yeah I pretty much filled a dumpster with hefty bags of useless crap.
R.I.P. Little Zenith- and almost me! (News break- Bob Hope dies- Internet Dead Pool players cheer in unison -R.I.P. sort of funny guy)
Last time I moved (one year ago) I lifted Jen's little TV. It's the TV we keep in the bedroom and watch mostly VHS movies on. ( It's the TV Jen brought into the relationship so she watches it more, while I'm more grounded with the Sony Monster) Last year, the cable jack that goes into the back of the little TV, ripped out of the set while I was moving it. The only way to fix this would be to get it soddered back on by a professional. I don't remember if I talked about this in my update back then, if so here's refresher. I took the TV to this rat hole TV repair store called "A TV MAN." The TV man himself had literally 2 teeth. He had owned this little repair shop in town so long, it used to be called "A RADIO MAN" (sounds like a joke, but this is true) After haggling with the old curmudgeon he agreed to fix it for 80 bucks.
The 80 bucks wouldn't have been such a big deal, it was the stupidity on my part for breaking Jen's TV that got to me. This TV was the only thing Jen has left over from her last relationship (her old boytoy got it for her as a gift), so now I was paying to fix this guy's present to my girlfriend, so there was that.
Well, almost a year to the day I am packing up, and shooting a reference model in the bedroom for this Maxim strip, and need to use the TV as a prop. The second I lift it, the cable jack rips out of the set...again. I called Jen at her office and gave her the news. She told me to throw it out before she gets home, my thinking exactly. The model leaves in a crack of thunder, and it begins raining cats and dogs. Thunder and lighting like crazy and the storm is getting off the hook. So now I find myself standing at the doorway to my apartment in a pair of flip flops, holding a TV set and eyeing a metal dumpster a hundred feet away.
I start darting towards the dumpster (as fast as a person can dart with slippery flip flops and a TV set), lightning is blasting less then a mile away, I can see it in the park right next to us. Some guy runs past me with a broken umbrella trying to duck for cover and not get struck by a bolt, "NICE WEATHER WE'RE HAVING!" I yell to him. By the time I'm halfway to the dumpster it dawns on me that this wasn't the smartest idea I've ever had. If this TV ends up getting me killed by lightening, I WILL BE FRICKEN PISSED!!
Well, I lived to be pissed another day, and the TV is in a landfill somewhere, bye bye you bastard TV.
Add to the tv the other malfunctions I've run into this week, and it hasn't been a good week electronically at all. My computer started acting funny again. I'll have to remind myself to upgrade the operating system when I get back from Miami. Also, while I was getting my new cable modem hooked up I bumped a bottle of Dannon spring water onto my G4 keyboard. I quickly threw a towel on it. It seemed to work OK. I went to shoot some hoops and when I came back it was all kinds of fu#ked up. The command key was registering as pressed, which basically made any mouse click or key touch a short cut calamity. I pried some of the keys off with a screwdriver and cleaned and dried underneath them (Looks like a blizzard of dust and hair under there). But no luck. With deadlines looming I shot over to the nearest Staples. Found a cool new keyboard, one with no cords, works with a Mac, OK cool.
Bought it, and hit the road towards home...half way there I decided to get gas and read the fine print. Lo and behold it only works with Mac OSX-which Idon't have. I drive back to Staples and exchange it for another cordless with the same functions, and works for my OS. This is the kind of hassle that you don't mind too much when you aren't under deadline pressure. But when you have deadlines, it kills ya.
Regardless I got everything that had to be done on time, done on time, after pulling two allnighters this weekend. Did I mention that moving sucks?
2 =# of rented trucks involved in move.
2 =# of Uhauls we damaged in the move.
625 = # of feet of bubblewrap bought for packing.
100 =# of feet of bubblewrap actually used in packing.
10 =# of people who pitched in for the move
THE MOVING CREW-thanks everyone
INK (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!), BRETT etc. . etc. . .
Just another day in the life of an Art Juggernaut.
-Cojo