Travel and Pack

So many blogs do "packing" posts before they go on vacation.  It's pretty awesome.  These lovely people of the internet will artistically place all the stuff that they are taking with them on the floor, and take photographs, so that their readers know what it is that they have when they are on vacation.  The outfits they will wear, the cameras they will use... it just makes me happy.  Since travel, fashion, and photography are three of my loves, this makes sense.

Thus, I have decided to do one of these packing posts.  I'm in West Grove, Pennsylvania at the moment, visiting my family.  I grew up in this house and it is always pleasant to come back and visit!  My family just had an addition put on- a sunroom and a patio, and wow.  It's so gorgeous.  I'm so happy for them!  My parents had been talking about doing this since I was a little kid, and I'm thrilled that they finally took the plunge and put on the addition.  The spaces are lovely, but they are also rather wonderfully decorated.  I'll probably be sharing some photographs on the Travel and Toile Facebook Page.  Which, by the way, is pretty awesome, so you should totally check it out.  For reals.  

In any case, I'm here because my little sister, Julianna, is graduating from high school.  I'm so proud of her! She's going off to school in Boston in the fall to major in Marketing and Communications.  And so the Buck clan spawns another artsy girl.  Hooray!

So, yeah.  Here's my stuff.

Hehe that's my new martial arts uniform!  Complete with my badass muay thai shorts.  Can you tell how happy I am about this???  I'm so happy.

West Grove, Pennsylvania, USA

The Night After...

After my post about stencils and Banksy yesterday, I decided to sit down, chill out, and re-watch "Exit Through the Gift Shop".  Why?  Because Netflix loves me and is streaming it, along with most everything else I could possibly want to watch.  The artsy fartsy, hipsterrific documentary was then followed by the first episode of Afro-Samurai, and the first half of "Mary, Queen of Scots" with Vanessa Redgrave.  I'm a cultural beast, my friends.

More importantly, were my snacks.  Snacks are imperative while watching films.  First, there were the Spiderman fruit snacks.  No, I can't really top them on this list.  But, let's just say that herbal tea and banana nut muffin flavoured oatmeal with milk came along later, and they were epic, relaxing, and the reason I had to go to bed halfway through "Mary".  I loved the play version a few years ago on Broadway, and the film was fantastic, but considering that the tea I was drinking is called "tension tamer," I was full of delicious carbs, and had barely worked out today... Yeah.  I was feeling fat and lazy and ready to crash.

I generally don't spend my evenings alone like this- as I work more and more often at my super amazing job, which I love, I have less and less time to myself.  I couldn't be happier about this.  Not that I don't enjoy a quiet, obligation-free day of reading, movies and video games.  I do.  I definitely do.  Just, when that becomes every day, as it basically was when I was unemployed during the cold winter monthes, it gets really old.  

However, lately, my nights have been particularly quiet.  I live with my boyfriend, Danny, you know, that muscular bearded guy who pops up on here sometimes, and we generally hang out in the evenings.  We'll catch up on TV shows, go on walks, and sometimes, now that I've started martial arts, even spar.  He's currently going through a nocturnal period for his job, so he's not around very much at night.  Danny works in theatrical lighting, and is working the spotlight on a show that takes place outside in a park, here in the city.  For obvious reasons, it is pretty hard to do any adjustments on the lights during the daytime, so he works at night.  Often, he doesn't get home until 4 or 5am, and considering that I am always in bed by 1am, if not as early as 11pm, I get to spend the night in quiet.  

So, last night, it was movies, corny self-promotional mugs, tea, Spiderman, Scots, afros, and street art for company.  

Happy Tuesday everyone!

The Official Travel and Toile Championship Mug.

 Nom nom nom..... nom..... nom.....

Thank you, as always, for reading Travel and Toile.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate you.  I can try though- I really, really, appreciate you.  From the bottom of my heart.  Thank you for all of the support of whatever this artistic stuff is that I do!

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

PS.  The Winning NYC Neighborhood IS...

THE LOWER EAST SIDE!

Expect a new post about it sometime early next week.

The runner-ups were Bushwick and Midwood.

The next contest will occur sometime soon.  

Oh... and... 

There will be prizes!

Take it to the Street

Stencil graffiti seems to be getting more respect these days.  Once upon a time, it was seen as the easy way out- the less dangerous form of tagging.  Taking your time, and spray painting a design on a wall freehand is far more labor and time intensive than placing a stencil, spraying a color in its general direction, and running at the sound of a siren. Lately, it has become a much more acceptable form of street art, and I would mostly blame Banksy for that. 

If you haven't heard of Banksy, he is a very famous street artist, who was recently further popularized by his self-directed documentary about his work,  and the work of many other street artists and "artists," "Exit Through the Gift Shop".  It's a quality film, and I would highly recommend it.  The piece sheds a lot of light on pop culture phenomena and fame, as well as helping the normal person to understand more about street art culture.  Banksy began tagging with self-designed stencils in Bristol, and now has art in cities all over, including Bristol, London, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, and New Orleans.  In addition, much of his work is now on display in museums and galleries, including The Imperial War Museum in London.  He generally paints in some kind of rebellion, and teeters on the edge of legality.  His works is occassionally invited, and sometimes loathed by the owners of the space.  For example, one of his most famous works, a stencil of a scene from Pulp Fiction, was on a wall in a London Tube Station.  Even though he was already a well known artist at the time, Transport for London had the art removed in 2008, for the purpose of not promoting graffiti.

I think that stencil street art is perfectly legitimate.  It takes just as much time, if not more, to design the stencil, and saves time during the actual tagging.  To me, that makes a lot of sense.  It's safer, and a more sure design, and it is a little bit more individualistic than a sticker.  Basically, I'm a fan of the street stencil.

The newest trend that I have seen with them, however, is to paint the stencils directly onto the sidewalk, instead of a building, a fence or a sign.  Or, whatever.  Maybe this has been going on for a long time, but I've been seeing it happen more and more recently.  The sidewalk would be faster, simpler, subtler, and not quite so much of an obvious violation of someone's personal property.  I mean... who owns the sidewalk?  The city?  It's not quite as vandal-tastic as painting on a restaurant or a subway station, I think.  It is also very obvious.  In this city, people walk around looking at the ground extremely often.  Maybe it is to avoid standing out, being seen, getting hit on, or being blinded by direct sunlight, or possibly because they are cradling their iPhone in the crook of their neck as they do work on their iPad.  I don't know.  It doesn't really matter.  People look down at the sidewalk, and they see these stencils. 

Here are a few of these sidewalk stencils I noticed, and photographed, in SoHo last weekend.  I particularly love the first one- it has a Pablo Neruda, "pen is mightier than the sword" vibe about it.  After the sidewalk art are a few other choice sights from around SoHo.

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Inspiration Fridays: Zen

Zen.  I't s a school of Buddhism that teaches meditation and relaxation to reach enlightenment, happiness, and contentment.  More importantly, it teaches the necessity of personal experience as a means of acquiring wisdom.  Theories are less important, and walking out the door and really living will lead you to happiness, according to Zen.  While I believe that theoretical study is, in fact, important as well, I do believe that without exploration and experience, it is impossible to say that you are a master of something. 

 For example, I knew a lot about London and English culture before I moved to London for five monthes last year. I wouldn't have told you that I was an expert, but I probably would have told you that I generally knew what I was talking about when it came to British Customs and such.  Of course, I arrived and realized that I was a complete idiot, and knew very little.  By being there, and experiencing it first hand, I learned.  Now, I know better than to say that I know a lot about English culture.  I know better than many Americans, but I still know that I have much to learn.

Zen also recommends discovering these experiences mentally, through meditation.  Dreaming, thinking, and creating circumstances to understand them.  I can't agree with that enough.  Stella Adler Studio of Acting, where I went to school and now work, teaches imagination as a means to understand the situation of a character while acting.  Zen also emphasizes finding the beauty in the world around you to help lead you to enlightenment, which, hilariously enough, is kind of the point of this blog.  If I was more relaxed all of the time,  I would crack a joke here about how I've been a secret Zen master all along. However, I'm not a particularly relaxed person.  I'm better than I used to be, but I can be rather tightly wound at my worst moments.  Most importantly, though, I am working on it.

In any case, symbols of Zen are pretty well known.  Buddha statues, Zen gardens, Green Tea, lotuses, cherry blossom, lanterns, and tea houses.   That's not any kind of an official list, that's what I associate with Zen.  It's a pretty big concept, but here are some images I have found online to share with you.

May they bring you enlightenment!

All Posters

Euart on Flickr

Puerto Vallarta

Powerful Mind

The Good Life

Sharon Carr Studio

Utilitarianism

Inspire Belle

PS.  Yes... I realise that I posted this on a Saturday, and not a Friday.  It was meant to auto-post yesterday... and it didn't work.  Oops.

What's Your Hood?

New York City has so many neighborhoods.  An obscene number, really.  Which, if you think about it, makes total sense, because it is the sixth largest city in the world.  Brooklyn alone is, if I remember correctly, the fifth largest city in the United States of America.  That means we beat Philadelphia.  Woot.  

In any case, I try to show a lot of these neighborhoods here, on this blog.  However,  I generally feature only the ones I travel to on any kind of a normal basis.  For example... Upper East Side?  I never go there.  It's not that I don't like it- it's a lovely area, and I have a few friends that I've visited a few times, but in general, other than the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it doesn't strike my particular fancy.  Flushing... I have never been to.  I keep meaning to go, and I know there is a lot of rad stuff to do out there, even though they house the Mets, but I haven't made it out.  It's really far away from me, and I haven't yet had a day where I woke up and said "Hmm, today seems like the day I should familiarize myself with Flushing!".  Perhaps, I should decide to have that day.  The Bronx, I like, but, once again, it's far away.  The main reason I go to the Bronx is for Yankee Stadium (see Mets joke above).  I like the Bronx, as I've said, but it's at least an hour by train for me, so it's not convenient to just traipse on up there for an adventure unless the adventure is going to be really fantastic.  That said, if you live in the Bronx, hit me up, let's jam.  I'd love a good reason to get up there and take some photos.  As for Staten Island... yeah, well.  Yeah.  That.  I've driven through it... does that count?  It seemed to be somehow differentiated from Jersey.

Basically, I live here in NYC, and I know a lot of it like the back of my hand, especially the areas I've lived in.  The Village?  Check.  Lived there during Undergrad.  Bed-Stuy?  Lived there too.  Flatbush?  I might live there now, but I'd never tell you that online... Chelsea?  Check. Work there.  Midtown?  Check.  I have spent too much time waiting outside auditions freezing my butt off and doing nothing to occupy my time other than observing the scenery, and have also shown many visiting friends the M&M store and mega Toys R Us.  By the way... there is a ferris wheel inside of Toys R Us.  It is pretty epic.

HOWEVER!

(dun dun dunnnn)

There is a lot of the city that I have just never seen.

Here's your opportunity to change that.

Comment on this post and tell me what you think is New York's 

MOST FASCINATING NEIGHBORHOOD!

I'll then go there, take a bunch of photos, check it out, and prep a post for next weekend.

You can vote for any neighborhood.  It can be one I feature all the time, like The Village or Chinatown, or something I never show, like Riverdale or Canarsie.  

The possibilities are endless.  And, it is totally up to you!

I'm hoping to turn this into a running thing.

Thanks everyone!  

Now, enjoy some scattered photos from a variety of neighborhoods.

This is a photograph of one of the best little decor pieces in my apartment in Brooklyn- my light-up cherry blossoms!



 This photograph shoes my sister, Julianna, coming very close to hitting my mother in the face with one of the "bam bam" excitement/ noisemakers that they gave to all of the Tisch graduates at the recent NYU graduation at Yankee Stadium, in the Bronx.



After the graduation ceremony at the stadium, we took a nice little walk through the East Bronx to a subway station that wouldn't be quite so much of a zoo.  Here is my dad, Bob, standing on the platform at the 149th St Grand Concourse station, waiting for the 5 train.



This super cool little statue is outside of a restaurant in Little Italy, in Manhattan.  You have to kind of shuffle past him to get into the door, but, hey!  Someone gave you a thumbs up and a wink today.  It's now a pretty awesome day.



I found this vintage Charmain Mao propaganda poster in Pearl River Mart, in Soho, in Manhattan.  The details and colors were so exciting and riveting to me.  So, I've titled this photo "Vintage Pro-Mao Poster".  (Get it?  I made a pun there.  Promo poster... pro-Mao poster..... whatever.)

New York City, New York, USA

Prince Street People

I really like wall art.  Murals, graffiti, mosaics, frescos... you name it. If it's on a wall, I probably like it.  Why is this?  Because I appreciate public art in general.  I really enjoy how adding art to a public space, like a bridge, a park, or even a subway station can brighten up everyone's day.  Suddenly that commute on the train turns into a mini museum trip every morning, and that run through the park turns into a private viewing of a statue gallery.  I love it.  And, lucky for me, New York is smothered in public art- it's just everywhere.  It doesn't hurt that I live near one of the largest and prettiest parks in the city, Prospect Park.  That kind of just fuels my adoration.

In any case, the subway art in New York City is pretty great compared to other cities I have visited.  Many stations have intricate mosaic work, some have statues, like the 14th Street 8th Ave Station in Manhattan, and some, like many stops along the J, M, and Z trains, and a few stops along the Q line, have stained glass designs in the platform or station.  Some of the stations are rather decrepit, and almost rotting, but some of the ones I would have currently put on that list are currently under renovation by the MTA, the Metropolitan Transport Authority, which is the governmental department that runs all of New York City's transportation.  As annoying as it is when they close down stations for a weekend, or even months at a time, the results can be rather impressive.  For example, the relatively new mosaic work in the Bay Ridge 86th St Station on the R line in Brooklyn is quite nice.  However, some of the station mosaic art is just simply exquisite.

One station that I would say falls into the exquisite category, is the Prince Street Station in Manhattan on the N and R lines.  There are mosaics of... silhouettes of people.  People who look like they'd be in New York City.  There are rich women with heels and fancy bags, men with construction hats and beer guts pushing carts full of who knows what, children, people with backpacks and hats, nuns, pregnant women.  Of course, not everyone is represented, but it's  a pretty nice cross section of the people you might see actually standing in the station.  I get to see this most every day- I generally ride the express train that passes through this station without stopping, and as I look out the window, I see the actual people and their shadow counterparts side by side, captured in a moment, frozen.  The people mix with the art on the wall, and it really is beautiful.  My New York.

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

NoHo

When I first moved to New York City, in order to attend NYU, I thought that NoHo was probably the coolest place in the world.  MacDougal Street, Thompson Street, Bleeker Street... I was pretty much in awe.  There were all kinds of shiny, flashing lights mixed in with beautiful brick and stone three to six story buildings, jazz clubs, hookah bars, and restaurants serving nationalistic cuisines I didn't know existed.  Ethiopian food was pretty much a new concept to me at the time, and so was Jamaican.  I mean, I know that they had food, I just had no idea what the hell it consisted of.  At this point, I was also pronouncing Houston Street like the city in Texas, rather than the proper house-ton, so basically what I'm saying is that I was totally clueless but fascinated by everything.  NoHo seemed like the center of the world.  It is the area between Washington Square Park and Houston Street, aka North of Houston, which leads to NoHo.  SoHo is named such for being South of Houston (but more about that tomorrow).  

Still, I think of NoHo as an excellent night-time hang out neighborhood, or a great place to grab a cafe lunch and sit outside.  There are so many options, all so close together.  Plus, there are some excellent murals and little niche shops crammed in between the residential buildings and restaurants.

Just remember... TASTE THE DIFFERENCE.

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA