The New Yorker I Chose to Profile this Week: Lizzerbeth

Life is Just So Damn Fabulous (the name of this blog) is attempting to post a brief profile on a weekly basis of New Yorkers that are accessible and have something (that I think is) interesting about their lives.

THE NEW YORKER I CHOSE TO PROFILE THIS WEEK: Lizzerbeth*

WHY I CHOSE TO PROFILE THIS NEW YORKER: I am interested in the personalities of those who exhibit all or nothing behavior as it relates to being in one’s 20’s and drinking in the big city.  She was also hungover and I was hungover and it seemed like a good idea.

STATS: female, 24 years old, employed on a salary, stands 5′ 10″, resides in the East Village

Many people have addictive personalities, but there are a select few I know with all or nothing personalities.

The difference between the two is a matter of varying degrees of control.  Addictive people latch on and become somewhat obsessed with something (as in, ‘Wow, lollipops are so good, I can’t stop eating them, I must have a lollipop for lunch every day’), while all or nothing people live a life of contrasts where ‘I’m  never having a lollipop again!’ turns into “Shit, last night I ate 3 bags of Blow Pops in one sitting’.

Lizzerbeth is an all or nothing gal, I’ve found.  I know people like this totally exist, but do you know someone who doesn’t drink for weeks and then goes at it like the world’s gonna end in a few hours?  Perhaps it’s an odd behavior because I drink every day, I don’t know.

So I asked her a few questions about her blacking out this past weekend and why she woke up with scrapes and bruises:

So what the fuck happened?

After months of back breaking office work and realizing that summer has somehow come and gone without notice, I found Fun again in a Saturday night out with a mix of college, work, and Brooklyn friends. The night started out harmlessly enough, drinking wine, checking out my friend’s new apartment in Ft. Greene. Things shifted when we migrated to a party a few blocks away and I guzzled that one drink that shoves you way past the fuzzy line of any kind of sobriety. Ultimately, I somehow ended up alone and blackedout, on some endless taxi tour of Brooklyn.

What were you drinking?

White wine, tequila, more white wine, vodka and blood orange juice…

Did you lose anything?

My dignity. All personal documents and credit cards appear to have been salvaged.

Were things where they shouldn’t have been the next day?

I found Pirate Booty everywhere: laundry hamper, crushed into tiny bits on my floor and in the bathroom.

What did you eat when you got home?

I found filthy evidence of a Weight Watchers Smart Ones dessert, Soy Crisps, and vegetable Pirate Booty.

Lizzerbeth pours syrup on her breakfast during the morning after blacking out.

How much money do you think you spent that night?

Maybe $60? Mostly on transportation that I don’t remember to/from/around Ft. Greene, Williamsburg, and the East Village.

Do you remember saying anything to anyone that you later regretted?

Remember? No. However, I understand that I told someone that I loved him but could never have sex with him, flirted shamelessly with an old flame, and drunk dialed (and spoke to?!) an ex-boyfriend.

Did you learn anything from this experience that you’d like to share with others?

Do not wear 5 inch heels while drinking heavily and prancing aimlessly around Brooklyn. You will fall down. Also, some friends are better than others.

EXHIBIT A: Elbow wound

EXHIBIT B: Knee wound

Will you be drinking ever again?

Yes. My birthday is next week.

Hungover Lizzerbeth poses for a picture I forced her to take in a Toyota-sponsored Japanese garden in the East Village.

Anything else you want to say?

Thanks to my sister for talking to me 4 times that night and filling me in on what went on. Also, I think its worth noting what a good friend you are for dressing my bloody wounds, K-Unit.

No diggidy.  Happy almost birthday, Lizzerbeth, your all or nothing ways are endearing, to say the least.

*subject’s name has been redacted

Interview with MB - Branta

Interview with me from Branta, posted today. I’ll paste it below also. Mostly it’s about The Danforth Review.

*

Why did you decide to suspend TDR?

It ran its course. Ten years is a long time to be devoted to a project. It’s the longest amount of time I’ve devoted to anything: a relationship, a job, an educational program, a book. My life changed a lot in those ten years, too. I needed time for other things. Also, I had ideas about how to make it better, but they all involved more people, more money, more time, and I didn’t have the energy or time to organize all that. My life was going in a different direction. When the inner voice tells you it’s time to go, it’s time to go.

What was the impetus in starting it a decade ago?

It started as an experiment. What would an online literary magazine look like? I wanted to focus on small press Canadian stuff. There was a magazine called PARAGRAPH in the 1990s that I wrote for. It focused a lot on small press stuff, but it folded. I sort of wanted to fill that void, but online.

Was there much resistance to the idea of “online” writing?

There was some resistance, but I wouldn’t say there was a lot of it. Some people I approached didn’t want to submit because it didn’t seem legitimate, but after running and funding the magazine myself for three years, the Canada Council came on board and provided minimal funding for the next seven years, so that said a lot about the format going mainstream (at least as far as lit mags go). At the same time, I should note that I tried a number of times to submit to the JOURNEY PRIZE anthology, and M&S wouldn’t let me. Only print magazines were allowed to submit stories to be considered. That’s a barrier that hasn’t fallen yet, as far as I’m aware.

How do you think the quality of work, and the perception of writing on the internet changed over the ten years of TDR?

Somewhat. The younger generation is of course very familiar with the online world and it’s obviously the future. In the past year or so, there has been rapid public awareness of digital books and that format seems closer to being a broad-based reality than ever. But I’m still skeptical myself. In the first issue of TDR in 1999, I linked to a story on the CBC website about the imminent arrival of digital books. Ten years later, it still an imminent phenomenon. We’ll see. I love books. I don’t think they’ll ever disappear.

So then what are your opinions surrounding the “death of print” i.e magazines losing circulation, books being sold virtually for kindle type readers.

I think there’s two things going on here. Newspapers and magazines are under tremendous financial pressure from lost advertising revenue, because readers are going online and advertising revenues have gone off a cliff. Of course, the massive consolidation of media companies has affected the marketplace, too, making it harder for smaller publications to stay afloat. At the same time, technology is making it easier for readers/consumers to turn away from print formats. As I said above, I don’t think the paper book is going away, but in some formats/genres it might. Textbooks, for example, or reference books. The phone book. Information that can be more easily delivered in digital format will be. But I don’t think people are going to want to read poetry on their cell phone … or give up nice thick novels. Personally, I have no interest in reading anything of length online. And I like looking up at my library and its wall of books. Changes are afoot, no doubt. The future is unclear to me, but I think books will survive.

What were the best and worst parts of TDR from a personal point of view.

The best parts were getting connected with different people and “meeting” folks from all over the world. I loved reading the fiction submissions, too. Just seeing the different creative approaches that people brought to their work. It was very motivating to read all the stories and know that people all over were writing fiction and trying to do it as well as they could. And just because they could, and liked doing it. It obviously wasn’t about the money or pushing “product” or being part of a publicity machine. It was all very encouraging and liberating. What I’d always thought literature should be.

The worst parts were the bickering from disgruntled writers, the nasty emails from people who wanted to start flame wars, the name-calling and outright craziness that just burns a hole in your heart and makes you wonder why you bother to put yourself out there in the first place. It’s just energy-sucking and debilitating.

Is there one shining moment you can look back on?

It was a great feeling when one of stories from TDR got selected to be in the BEST CANADIAN STORIES anthology.

Other interesting moments included getting a story submission from Faluja, Iraq. It was sent in by a U.S. soldier, a medic. We published it. I think there were three stories in total sent in from U.S. military or ex-military personnel. We published only one of them. We had some truly awful poetry submissions, and we were sent way more poetry books that we could ever find reviewers for. That’s one of the early learnings: how many poetry books are actually published in this country. Too many. As a short story writer, I’m somewhat resentful. I asked a publisher once how there could be so many poetry books, if the reason short story books didn’t get picked up was because they didn’t sell. I was told it was because poetry books were slimmer, contained fewer pages, and it was easier to use the publisher grants to cover the actual costs (i.e., the grant didn’t double if you were publishing a 150 short story book, so easier to break even on a 75 page poetry book).

But maybe I should talk more about shining moments:
- I was very pleased to be able to interview writers I greatly admire, like Mark Anthony Jarman, Douglas Glover, Greg Hollingshead and John Lavery, among others. TDR was part of my continuing education, in this way.
- I’m pleased also that we were able to draw attenting to many books and authors and leave behind an archive (on the Library and Archives Canada website) that will be a record of this period.
- We had some really fun features, like the YouTube Guide to Canadian Literature, by my partner in crime, features editor, Nathaniel G. Moore.

Interview With Eli Reed

I had the pleasure of meeting renowned photojournalist Eli Reed while teaching at the Maui Photo Festival. Eli is a Magnum Agency photographer and Olympus Visionary and has photographed everywhere from war zones to the White House. Photofocus is proud to have Eli Reed as our October interview subject.

1. Scott Bourne: Please tell me how and when you got into Photoshop.

ELI REED: I first got involved with Photoshop relatively late. I am fortunate enough to have my agency Magnum Photos or an assistant work on my images at the appropriate time. Recently I have come to realize that I have to enter the fray because my impatience in wanting the photographs to be realized in the manner of my choosing means I have to do it myself.

2. Scott Bourne: What is your favorite photographic location or subject?

ELI REED: My favorite photographic location is where the light is interesting to me. That pretty much is everywhere. I always have a camera with me all the time because I love shooting all the time.

3. Scott Bourne: Can you recall the first photograph you made that caused you to think WOW – that’s a good shot and if so, what was it?

ELI REED: The first photograph I remember that excited me was of a hot dog vender working out of a cart in downtown Newark, New Jersey. He was smoking a cigarette and gazing into the distance with a thoughtful expression on his face. It was the first photograph that I ever made of someone’s interior world.

4. Scott Bourne: Do you have any formal training in photography, Photoshop or a related field and do you think that’s important for aspiring serious photographers?

ELI REED: I am self taught but I had a wonderful mentor, Donald Greenhaus, who pointed me in the right direction I should go in. I believe that the more formal education you can receive, the better it will be for you if you have good teachers.

5. Scott Bourne: Are you more of a technical or an artistic person?

ELI REED: I am definitely more of an artistic person and have always been that way.

6. Scott Bourne: Who has inspired or influenced your work?

ELI REED: I have been inspired by many of the great artists in history such as Leonardo DaVinci, Monet, Rembrandt, etc. I’ve also been inspired by a number of photographers such as W. Eugene Smith, Gordon Parks, Ernst Haas, William Allard, Leonard Freed, Henri Cartier Bresson, and Alex Webb. These are just a few of the photographers who have influenced me in color and black and white photography.

7. Scott Bourne: What has been the most interesting or surprising thing to you about how people react to photography?

ELI REED: Many people believe that it is so easy that anyone can do it because of the ease of making images with modern day cameras and have no understanding about how difficult it is to make meaningful images.

8. Scott Bourne: How would you describe your style of photography?

ELI REED: I search for interesting images that intrigue, surprise, or inspire me in some way or another. I try to keep myself from photographically interfering with the content of the image. I, like anyone, will often fail but it just makes me work harder to make images that are interesting to me.

9. Scott Bourne: How do you decide what to photograph?

ELI REED: I basically try and get near the photograph so that it can take me.

10. Scott Bourne: Of your many projects, which is your favorite and why?

ELI REED: My favorite project is and will always be my next project. Some projects are short in duration and others take years to complete but I am always looking toward possible ones for the future.

11. Scott Bourne: Is there any photographic discipline that you wish you knew more about?

ELI REED: More and more, I find myself looking for the time to learn and master Aperture and Photoshop in order to have more control of my images. I also wish I could have gotten some experience with an 8X10 inch camera.

12. Scott Bourne: After all these years as a photographer/teacher and author, do you ever find it hard to remain passionate about your work?

ELI REED: I will always be passionate about making interesting photographs. I live for that always.

13. Scott Bourne: Everyone will ask me why I didn’t ask this question if I don’t – so here goes – What cameras/lenses do you use and why?

ELI REED: I mostly use Olympus DSLR cameras and lenses because I prefer the color resolution of the lenses along with a number of other aspects that I like including the speed of the lenses which are often smaller then what you would expect. I have used Olympus cameras since covering Central America and Beirut in the eighties. I use the Olympus E-3, E-30, EP-1 (I always have this new camera with me at all times now because of its size and what it does) with 14-42mm, 12-60mm F2.8/4, 7-14mm F4, 14-35mm F2, 100mm F2, 35-100mm F2, 150mm F2, and 50-200mm F2.8/3.5.

14. Scott Bourne: What’s the biggest mistake you made when you first started out as a photographer?

ELI REED: I wished I had jumped into photography earlier but I would have had difficulty in getting any kind of useful camera to work with. I didn’t have any money and my father didn’t either but I believed somewhere deep inside I should have found a way. Perhaps that is why I often feel that I am still trying to catch up with myself.

15. Scott Bourne: Would you like to give any final words of advice to photographers who want to improve their photography?

ELI REED: Please stop talking about it and start shooting it until you run out of space either on your card or analog film. It is easy to try and talk a photo into existence and it won’t be very good. I have watched so many beginning photographers try and do that only to fail because they never made the commitment to fully work at the craft of making photographs that mean something. Without the commitment – there is the zero of the perfectly boring image boring the hell out you. If you start shooting for the enjoyment of exploring the light with your camera, you are already ahead.

You can find out more about Eli here. Thanks Eli for agreeing to be part of the Photofocus interview.

Alex Meraz: From Wolf To Vamp

In an awesome new photoshoot, Alex Meraz gets to show his vampire side! LA Confidential has all the info.

 THIS FALL MTV debuts the new reality series Styl’d, in which young, aspiring stylists work for famed celebrity stylists—Jen Rade, Eric Archibald and Julie Weiss—as they vie for a contract with Los Angeles’ renowned Margaret Maldonado Agency. As is par for the reality- show course, there will be backstabbing, hookups and plenty of daunting challenges in which each cast member tries to prove his or her innate styling abilities. During the months of filming, one of the challenges was an editorial fashion shoot with Los Angeles Confidential, featuring The Twilight Saga: New Moon actor Alex Meraz. On the following pages, see the hauntingly beautiful shoot that took place at the Grand View Cemetery in Glendale as part of the show. Make sure to tune into Los Angeles Confidential’s episode when it premieres and catch the much-anticipated second film in the Twilight series when it hits big screens next month. We think you’ll agree when you look at the stunning photos that it’s truly “scary” how much talent these young stylists have.       

See all the cool pics HERE!

Gisela Hoyle

Poet and novelist Gisela Hoyle was born in Barkly-West, in the Northern Cape of South Africa.

She attended Kimberley Girls High School and graduated with an M.A in English from Rhodes University.

She taught at Rhodes University and then at various schools in South Africa.

Currently, she lives and works in the UK .

The White Kudu (Picnic Publishing, 2010) is her first novel.

Related resources:
Interview
[Interview] Gisela Hoyle, author of ‘The White Kudu’ Conversations with Writers, October 3, 2009

[Interview] ‘I don’t know how music can be Christian music. If someone covers our music, won’t it still be a Christian song?’

At the back of a dark room filled with 19 musicians we find Josh Scogin checking his mails. Far from home, yet he doesn’t miss anything but his toothbrush. ‘We’re now a few days in our tour and I still haven’t been able to buy myself a new one. ’ Brushing his teeth with his fingers, he starts about his albums and music, and his odd way of pulling everything in contradictions.

‘I don’t strife for long titles. I do make sure that every single title has purpose and meaning.’ You apparently said this not that long after the release of your first album.
Josh Scogin: The first album’s title is pretty much just breaking away from all the dying and bleeding. I had basically reached a sort of time in my life when I thought that every music put out in the heavy genre was so negative. So almost in some satirical way I wanted to do the complete opposite. Everything is alive, everything is breathing. Nothing is dead, and nothing is bleeding is the perfect example of that.

Your first album had pretty long song titles. Your second displayed a poem when reading the first eight tracks through. How do you come up with such things?
Josh: Well. I don’t know. They sort of make themselves. The Fiancée started as simple as a little remark by our bassist. It’s some folklore thing which was about to be just one title. But at the time I didn’t want to do that all over again. So I made it a change for myself to not do the same and we broke it up in different titles. We put the songs under the titles and not the other way around.

You therefore matched the lyrics to the titles so it would fit. The lyrics made whatever the title should be.
Josh: every song title just sort of stands apart. It’s not something you plan in advance to call this song like this and another one like that. The Fiancée was the cornerstone of the whole album. When we came with these titles, the whole album just built itself up. One line after another contradicts itself. It’s everywhere, even in the lyrics. One line contradicts the next, or there might be a twist in the plot. It all sort of builds on each other. And we could just watch the pieces fall in place.

It also made the cover as well.
Josh: I told the guy who’d do the artwork about the whole contradiction thing and he had the great idea of putting in old pictures, so old that they couldn’t have had technology in there. Yet at our version of the pictures, we put in little technological things, having contradictions all over.

‘Creating something out of nothing is a basic concept of art.’
Josh: where did you hear that one? But it’s true. You always take something that doesn’t exist. It can be literally nothing or a pile of junk when you first see it. But then you go and create something with it. We take songs that don’t exist and we write them and make them. If it doesn’t match the eventual record, we drop them. Imagining and putting a piece of yourself together with whatever other things you’ve found is what art is.

Then even your music is a piece of unique art. Do you plan on making a certain kind of music? Or do you make whatever you want and see at the end what it eventually became?
Josh: People have a need to classify everything. They even tell us we’re metal, but we’re not. We’ve toured with metal bands, but that’s something completely different and doesn’t make us the same. It’s more like the punk rock genre. They also do what they want to do. There’s no set pattern and we can expand our boundaries. Making sure everyone knows we do what we want to do.

As a perfect example: you used a guitar riff from Nirvana, had a song with harmonicas on it and invited Hayley (Williams from Paramore) to be featured on your album. Those are three completely different things.
Josh: The Nirvana riff was more of an homage than anything. We could have used any riff but we figured that short riff would be enough. Then one day, Aaron Weiss from Mewithoutyou appeared to be around when we were recording and I thought it was pretty hilarious to have such a lyrical genius featured on our record in a way nobody would expect. So he grabbed his harmonica and played. I can tell you he’s actually not even an amazing player.

The Nirvana riff is hard to notice and the harmonica thing is just hilarious. But with the rising popularity of Hayley and her band Paramore, it could even be seen as a promotional stunt to have her featured.
Josh: Absolutely not. Hayley is just a friend of ours who we invited to the studio. There was a part on the album we wanted to do something different with. To let the listeners hear something else than just my voice. I bet that after about eight songs you’ve heard the best of me and you want something else for a change. To contradict my voice we wanted something pretty with notes and an actual melody. Raspy screaming contradicts Hayley’s singing voice. In the beginning we never thought lets have this, this and this. Just ride the train and go with it.

You’re a Christian band, Paramore’s not. Do your beliefs influence your music a lot?
Josh: As with any great art you take what’s inside of you and you put it out into the world. It’ll be part of you and represent who you are. Come out as yours. I don’t try to make others feel uncomfortable. I just talk about my experiences and my life and I’m not forcing anything upon others.

To the Europeans the Christiancore label is something typically American. We don’t have many religious bands out here.
Josh: Well, I don’t know if it’s American, I don’t know the genre either. (smiles) I think the media spins it like that. I don’t know how music can be Christian music. If someone covers our music, won’t it still be a Christian song? I don’t know. I never understood that. But it seems people have to have their titles. It’s not hardcore, it is post-hardcore-metal. Whatever man, it’s just music. To me it’s heavy or not heavy and I think we fit in the heavy part.

Labeling is common. Everyday people invent new names distinguish them from the others.
Josh: I’m a Christian but it’s not that we hear other people’s beliefs through their music. There’s not something like Buddhist pop. (laughs) The media just noticed we shared our beliefs. But it doesn’t affect me personally. If people want to label me like that, they can. Although I’ll never understand how a set of notes and chords can be anti-or pro-Christ.

The Chariot on MySpace

Layoffs Denied in Omaha, Nebraska?

  

The 50 Over 50 Project is a “community of career coaching” for 50 people over the age of 50 over a 50-week period.

 

Yesterday in Omaha, Nebraska a hi-tech company did a round of layoffs. While people getting the axe is far from new news these days, this firm had a history of fast growth, steady employment, and long tenure.  So this event is a shock to our community and an even bigger shock to those who were cut. Some of those layoff victims fit the demographical focus of this blog–they were over 50. Many had been with their firm for a long, long time. 

Their pressing question then is:  

What does a long-term employee, who is on the older side, who may have a narrow skill set for their local market, who maybe hasn’t kept up with newer technology, and who has above average earnings, DO NOW? 

The answers are many so we’ll address things over the next several posts. 

The first thing which might help these laid off Omaha folks is to realize their situation has some similarities to cancer. I have been very close to cancer’s worst impact so I am not trivializing it. And, I admit few people DIE from being laid off. So what is the similarity? It is this: How victims react.     

Here are the “Stages of Grief,” from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ book, “On Death and Dying:”

• Denial (this isn’t happening to me!)
• Anger (why is this happening to me?)
• Bargaining (I promise I’ll be a better person if…)
• Depression (I don’t care anymore)
• Acceptance (I’m ready for whatever comes)

Do you see how these grief-related steps have heavy overlap for a person who has just been laid off and is nearly frightened to death? 

If you do, tell others who might benefit about these steps so they can start their process of “vocational healing.”

I’ve been laid off many times and have interviewed or led seminars with hundreds of others who have also been cut. So, our next few posts will explore this “teachable moment” we have right here in River City. Circle the wagons with your laid off neighbors or friends and we’ll work through these phases together…

As always, PLEASE offer your thoughts to keep this a ”community of career advice.”

Paul David Madsen
Author: Laid Off & Loving It For 2010