Mars

So I don't want to do this just once a month. It's much easier to deal with in small chunks. I'm not ready to talk about that devastating, soul-crushing, mentally crippling thing that happened last month yet, but it still hurts and affects my, well, every downtime I have. So I'm trying to keep busy.

First of all, I want to show you this!

A video of me putting away each piece of art I've made (that's small enough to fit into a Macy's shirt box). This is a thing I want to do more often (yearly, for now, I guess - til I start really kicking my illustrations into high gear).

I finished my charm swap project (no pictures yet - I sent them off with matching ATCs to the charm-master, and will get swapped stuff back in probably a month).

Went to go see my co-worker Sean drum for his band ACK! at the German House (a place I'd never visited fully clothed, as that's where I used to perform Rocky Horror). I got very drunk in front of other very drunk co-workers, which was fun and funny, and at times, a little inappropriate, hahaha. I had to walk there, too, right when it started to really get cold. I was late due to making buttons for the band. Huzzah, I made a new button client! Their payment (actually, I haven't gotten payment yet) prompted me to buy a new cutting tool for the buttons (so now I don't have to line up the circle-cutter, I can use my new punch)!

Went to Lovin' Cup with Ron and friends and talked about how this 60-degree weather would become 20" of snow by morning! And Ron had a flight to and back from NYC (to see my dashing Sirs on stage). He's back safely, and helping me plan my own trip to NYC!

From here to the end of the month, plans include:

Friday - stocking my etsy, and probably getting a visit from Meagan to sell her some books.
Saturday - St. Patrick's Day parade, finding people who want to buy books from me, and then going to Abilene to see Sisters of Murphy perform.
Sunday - Possibly going to Java's to visit some local steampunks.
Monday - printing a lot of things (submission forms, confirmations, and tickets).
Tuesday - Lovin' Cup, my impromptu 6x6 edition (bringing 6x6 canvases/paper/cards and supplies for friends to make art for the yearly 6x6 gallery event).
wednesday, thursday, friday...


Saturday - OH MY GOD. NYC, which I'm about to post about in more detail...


And various times after that, I've got to turn in my SNICK collaboration piece, and maybe do something for MCC's comic anthology, which I'm just not feelin'.

NYC et la Mécanique du Coeur

On Saturday the 22nd, I'm going to NYC. BY MYSELF. I'm freaked out, but really excited, because I'm going to see a movie I've been waiting over 5 years to finally see!

Since I first saw the music video for Dionysos's "Tais-toi Mon Coeur" I have been in love with this band, this singer, and the entire story surrounding this album - in fact, a novel, written by the singer himself! And the fellow who made their animated music videos has teamed up with Dionysos to produce this incredible-looking film! I know the story, and I'm not sure if they'll make it appropriate for the kiddies (the book includes a little sexiness, a very tragic ending, and a hamster named Cunnilingus). Surely they've toned it down a bit.

SVA is screening a handful of children's movies, and I've bought my ticket for the North American premiere of Jack et la Mecanique du Coeur (not THE premiere, for it'll be playing this Sunday, but there are three more screenings next weekend - the second of which I'll be attending), at 3:45pm, Saturday, 22 March.

The only downside to this premiere, as you'll see from the trailer, is that the film will be in English. I'm perfectly fine with the English actors portraying Jack and Miss Acacia, but the choices for Doctor Madeleine and Joe are appalling. Madeleine, though I pictured relatively young in the book, is much older in the film, but sounds too young in English, and Joe, the dark villain with the deepest voice in French has a positively DISNEY voice in English. I wish it would be screened in its original language with subtitles. What's more interesting is that the songs have also been re-recorded in English (it's hard for me to tell by the one song I can hear in the English trailer if Mathias Malzieu, the original, sings it, or if it's the English actor Orlando Seale, but I think it's Mathias, which is promising either way).

This is my first time traveling alone in a very VERY long time. I hadn't even been using LJ for a year last time I traveled alone. So this is pretty scary.

So here's what I've done. I booked a bus ride down to NYC with MegaBus, because they're pretty cheap. Since you can only do One-Ways from MegaBus, I sat on booking my return trip til I was sure I wasn't hitching a lift back.

See, Jeff is living down that way now, and Charles thought maybe he'd like to rent a car and visit. Spend the night, too. I thought this was a splendid idea, but I'm still gonna take the damn bus because it drops me off a block from the theatre an hour before the film starts (if I'm lucky!), and I want to get a decent seat and I 100% don't want to be a second late because you couldn't figure out how to get out of NJ or down here in a timely fashion. *breathes*

So the plan continued - I bus down to the West Village. He drives down at some point and we all meet up in NYC. Stay the night, and then I don't have to rush to get the bus back up in the morning and could ride back home with Charles. The plan was pretty good because it didn't involve me trying to find a 24-hour place in NYC to wait out the night til morning, or getting up at 6am because I'm paranoid about missing the bus.

The major flaw in this plan? Jeff will be HERE next weekend. Fuck. So now my plan is definitely walking the streets or staking out a 24-hour place til the 8am bus outta there... unfortunately, when I went to book the return bus ticket, it had sold out!! Holy shit. What do I do??? There's no MegaBus at night, and I'm stranded in NYC!!

Thankfully, I had Ron to freak out at. Ron and I talk about travel a lot, and on Tuesday at the Cup, he posed the question - "What's stopping you?" That's why I hopped on this when I heard about it today. Because money was stopping me, and I have some extra money right now. So Ron said, first, try Empanada Mama's. And don't spend the night on the streets of NYC because it is far more dangerous than it is in Rochester, and if I have nowhere else to go, hop a late train or a bus back to Roc. Didn't think of that, and I've got extra money, thankfully, in case of an emergency such as this, so why not? I looked at REAL bus lines, and found a nice return price from Greyhound.

Still, I'm a little nervous. I know where I am and where I'm going, but it's still a HUGE city, so I am always afraid of getting lost or something. So main objectives: Dropped off, walk to theatre, scour the Village, and then get myself to Port Authority by 10:30.

Easy.......