A BJ and More

My roommate hails from good old G.I. Nebraska and his name is Jared Hansen.  

I told him that he's already one of my favorite people because the first night he lived here he did the dishes and lulled me to sleep with his amazing piano playing.

Since I spoke with you last, I have been livin' it up with celebrities.  Last week I met up with my dear, dear friend Andrea and her lovely fiance (Congratulations!) for dinner.  

They had come into the city for the True Colors Tour and we met up for some sushi.  I walked them up to Radio City Music Hall and while we were waiting outside I saw Christian from Project Runway.  So there you have it people, it ain't Tim Gunn but it's something.  The scene went something like this:

Mitch:  "Isn't that that thing from that tv show?" (pointing)

Quinn:  (looking towards where Mitch pointed) "OH MY GOD IT'S CHRISTIAN FROM PROJECT RUNWAY!" 

This was said in an unacceptable loud screech.  It is possible that Christian even heard it and thought What's up with that crazy thirty year old?  By the way, he is approximatley the size of Mr. Ping Ping.  I'm actually not quite sure why I got so excited.  I think I felt I was fulfilling the desires of Kelly and Steve.  Needless to say, my behavior was not fierce.

My next celebrity encounter was intentional.  I went to a free David Sedaris reading making it the fourth time I have seen him live.  A highlight of the night was when the event coordinator (an employee at Barnes and Noble) introduced this great humorist writer.  I had noticed her pacing on the side of the stage well before her intro mouthing the words and fussing with her hair.  I love being able to see those kind of things so I was already intrigued.  She was a plump middle aged asian woman who was nicely dressed and had high, thin painted on eyebrows (making her look perpetually surprised).  She took the stage and listed David's accomplishments.  She seemed confident and collected and then to conclude she announced:

"And now for our guest, straight from Sedarisland Diaries!!!" 

There was complete silence in the crowd that filled an entire floor of the Union Square Barnes and Noble.  Then she continued "...but seriously folks, all joking aside, here's David Sedaris."  At this point everyone in the crowd realized she was trying to make a joke and busted out laughing for all the wrong reasons.  It was awesome.  The reading lasted about 45 minutes and he spent at least four hours signing books for his fans.  I was wearing my famous charm necklace and also mentioned to him that I was not a boy, despite my name.  Here was my inscription:

He consulted with a woman standing behind him on the spelling of decolletage and said to me: "That's my editor, that's why I keep her around".  Last time I saw him do a reading/signing was in Omaha.  Mitch and I went together and  Sedaris wrote Mitch- Stay Asian.

The third celebrity interaction was also planned.  On Friday night my friend Sebastian and I went to see B.J. Novak perform at Caroline's Comedy Club.  It was a very fun evening and I thoroughly enjoyed his stand up.  There were girls wearing homemade t-shirts about loving bjs and a man at the front of the crowd who threw out ill timed "That's what she saids" but it only added to the night.  One of my favorite moments was when Novak took out a puppet that he calls shy puppet.  He does a bit where the ridiculous puppet does not talk and then he stopped and says "Okay here is where I will make an exception for photography.  I would like as many people as possible to take a picture of me and shy puppet and post them on myspace and facebook so that when people hear about my act, this is what they see and say 'The guy from The Office, really?'".  At this point he posed making ridiculously animated faces for the next thirty seconds.  Clearly people did not do their job well as I only found one image and it looks older.  I couldn't get a good shot from my angle, so I guess I can't be too critical.  Afterwards he hung out in the lobby and Sebastian and I got a photo.  I should also mention that naturally, I saw another high school acquaintance at the show.

In none celebrity news (I'm clearly the new Perez Hilton), class has been going very well.  We are now working with digital as well and have turned in two assignments and had two critiques.  The first assignment was an interpretation of the theme interior/exterior.  I chose to photograph window figurines.  I was happy that my subject matter was unique, but my technique could use an extraordinary amount of help.

My latest assignment was two portraits of a partner in class as well as two self portraits.  We took the photos in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

Here are the photos that Jan took of me:

And here are the photos that I submitted:

Sorry for the glare and small sizes.

That's what she said.