Cote d’Azur
I miss the beach and the sea…
Brighton 2011
My mum came to visit me in London and I took her to Brighton. Now, I’m generally not a fan of English seaside towns but I do love Brighton.
LA baby
The last leg of my Californian trip took me to Los Angeles. I was only there for 4 days and I wish I could have stayed a little longer.
I loved LA. Sure, the city isn’t particularly beautiful, it is HUGE and not having a car whilst you are there is pretty much unthinkable but… well… I love driving for one and even more when it is along boulevards bordered by gigantic palm trees, and two I love the weather, the beaches (omg they are beau-ti-ful), the parks and the food. Plus, the countryside/desert isn’t so far away should you wish to escape the craziness of it all. I also had the chance to experience the Los Angeles fog/smog, which is really thick in the morning but is quickly burnt out by the sun by lunch time. It gives the city an eerie atmosphere that I found very enchanting although, well yes, it is probably not so good for your lungs!
The 4 days I spent in LA were pretty low key. I hung out with my friend, the gorgeous Kim Anh, and crew (check out Booby Trap! and Saint Le Roq). We saw The Skin I Live In at the movies, which I thoroughly recommend, went to the beach, drank coffees at Intelligentsia in Silver Lake, drove the Mulholland Dr, visited the Griffith Observatory and spent 2 days at a pool party with some really lovely people. No need to say that the trip back to cold and wet London was the last thing I wanted to do…
On the road
After spending a few days in San Francisco, I took the road along the coast, the Highway 1, and drove all the way down to Los Angeles. I stopped many many times on the way, mainly because the scenery is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. I stayed the night in a yurt at the Treebones Resort, which is about an hour’s drive south of Big Sur village. The location of Treebones couldn’t be better, nestled between the hills and the ocean. The place is so remote that there is no mobile reception, how peaceful. And having one’s breakfast perched on a stool facing the ocean is a real delight. The food was good too! However, unfortunately that night they were out of electricity and so we had to make do with candles. Romantic I suppose.
The next day I hit the road again and saw the Elephant Seals rookery at Piedras Blancas and then ate clam chowder for the first time in my life. It was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! Oh and I also had fish tacos, which were yummy too. The place is called Splash Cafe and is in Pismo Beach.
Then quickly after that came Santa Barbara and the HUGE highways getting into LA…
Gimme! coffee
Devil’s horns
Old souvenir from Paris
Paris, 2006.
San Francisco
After the few days I spent in New York City back in October I flew to San Francisco… The weather was freakishly hot and sunny for the season (no fog!), which was a very welcome bonus! After the urban jungle madness of New York City, San Francisco felt like a haven of… quietness…
San Franciscans are super friendly and lovely but what I particularly like about them is their sense of civil responsibilities and eco-gay-whatevs-friendliness.
I ate a lot again in San Francisco. Wow, the food was really amazing. But I did do other things too. I walked – a lot (Haight, The Castro, The Mission, Fisherman’s Wharf great food and market!, Nob Hill, Financial District…) – , I saw great art at the SFMOMA, cycled over the Golden Gate bridge, and partied with the lovely Dr Sleep (Dots & Loops, Dial Up) and the Honey Soundsystem crew.
Where to go? (thanks again to Kim Ann for her great tips!)
- Papalote: super delicious burritos. Go to the location on 24th street and order the “super chicken mole burrito”. The chips and salsa are amazing, you can also get a jar of that salsa to go.
- Kabuto: the best Japanese restaurant I’ve ever been to (5121 Geary Boulevard (@ 15th Ave)
- Boulange de Cole Valley: bakery and patisserie (1000 Cole St.)
- Zazie: amazing for brunch (941 Cole St.)
- Lexington has good Bloody Marys, so does Wild Side West
- Honey Soundsystem party on Sunday nights. Great music!
- Hardfrench: daytime dance party at El Rio
There is so much more but I’ll have to wait until my next trip to SF!
Blue blue sky….
Dogs…
And bikes…
Oh and of course…. hills!
Pause series
The Golden Gate
A red ball in the sky
I saw tonight one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen. This was by the artisan market at Antananarivo, Madagascar. The sun looked like a red marble hanging from the foggy sky. Breathtaking.
Candy 3
London peeps, Candy 3 has arrived and can be purchased from Claire de Rouen. You better be quick, they literally sell like hot cakes! You can also get the 388-page magazine from Luis Venegas’ website. There are only 1000 copies!
Chloë Sevigny-as-Terry Richardson (and photographed by the man himself) graces the cover of this issue. Besides a great interview/photoshoot of Chloë, you will find, amongst other things, some rarely shown photographs by Cindy Sherman, JD Samson looking awesome, the great Jenny Shimizu, Lea T, Andrej Pejic, and my piece on the amazing Alice Temple.
Go get it, you know you want it!
Peter Funch
Check out Danish photographer Peter Funch‘s awesome photographs below. In his Babel Tales project he’s photographed New York’s population and reconstructed an urban tableau with people of similar characteristics for each single image. The end result is arresting. Each photograph is beautiful in composition and colour and is the work of extremely skillful digital manipulation. A thousand familiar faces in the big metropolis.
New York City
I recently spent a few days in New York City. The weather was hot and sunny for most of the time and only started to deteriorate when I left for San Francisco. It wasn’t my first time in New York and so the few days I spent there were not so much about discovering but more about experiencing… Food, a lot of food, all sorts of food, coffee, the High Line, riding on the West Side and Central Park, and Corona Park in Queens. These were my highlights. So yes, somehow my trip turned into a culinary experience. For this I have to thank Kim Ann Foxman, who sent me the best food tips ever and Irene Sunwoo, who is the best host ever! My best eats were at Momofuku Noodle Bar (great noodles), Marlow & Sons (dinner only, delish), Caracas Arepa Bar (super good, super filling) and Frank (french toast filled with chocolate in the middle… OMG!). My best coffee experience was at Ninth Street Espresso (the one on East 9th street between Ave C & D) and Everyman Espresso (for a cortado and the best chocolate cookie ever), from which I also bought some Counter Culture Coffee beans.
If you go to New York City, do go to the High Line and walk it all the way, from the Meatpacking District to West 30th street. “It features an integrated landscape, designed by landscape architects James Corner Field Operations, with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, combining meandering concrete pathways with naturalistic plantings. Fixed and movable seating, lighting, and special features are also included in the park”. I started the promenade as the sun was setting, it was peaceful and beautiful. There are plenty of benches, deck chairs, you can hang out with friends or with a good book, listen to music or just people watch. It is an incredible space. There is art everywhere too.
Cycling on the West Side and in Central Park was just… well… fun, and with no cars.
I went for the first time to Corona Park in Queens to catch a photography exhibition of Andrew Moore‘s work, Detroit Disassembled, at the Queens Museum of Art. The journey to and walk through the park is worth it on its own right. This is where the New York City World Fair was held in 1964-65 and there are still some vestiges of this past grandiose event (the Unisphere is quite a sight). I really liked Andrew Moore’s work too. Admittedly, he’s not the only one that has documented the ruins of Detroit (I previously posted about Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre‘s amazing project on Detroit) but his eye and composition is really arresting. His other projects are also very much about past grandeur and its decline, and are also visually striking (check out his Russia series, amazing).
I guess this trip wasn’t so much about having ‘fun’ per se but it was very good nonetheless. The next leg of my trip was San Franciso, of which I will post photographs very soon.
Here are below other amazing tips from my very knowledgeable NYC friends. Here is to be having some good times in the Big Apple.
FOOD/COFFEE
East Village
- Xian Famous Foods (amazing cheap homemade noodles)
- Mermaid inn (happy hour oysters are a good deal and really good fish)
- Westville (super fresh, super delicious. pies are great!)
- Peels (nouveau American restaurant. supposed to have an amazing breakfast/brunch. Also does takeaway coffees and pastries)
- Porchetta LLC (very delicious roasted pork sandwiches! also try the crispy potatoes)
- Hasaki Restaurant (sushi)
- Vandaag (so nice inside! dutch restaurant)
- Robataya (really great Japanese place. Serves small plates of really unique food)
- Sundaes & Cones (homemade ice creams….flavours like ginger, banana, black sesame, coconut…)
- Lucien (great french food!)
- Goat Town (really great nouveau American)
- Abraço (really lovely tiny tiny Portuguese coffee place)
- Cafe Mogador (middle-eastern inspired bistro/cafe)
- The Roasting Plant (they actually roast the coffee beans as you order)
Union Square
- Joe The Art of Coffee (coffee — near parsons!)
Lower East Side
- Prune (good brunch and Bloody Marys)
- Zucco: Le French Diner (little hole-in-the-wall french diner, it’s really tiny)
- Schiller’s Liquor Bar (it’s an American restaurant, not a bar. Very loud!)
- Il Labratorio (amazing homemade ice cream. The black sesame one is real nice and they have earl grey ice cream too)
Bowery
- Gemma Restaurant (really beautiful Italian restaurant. For romantic setting, excellent service, and great food. Part of The Bowery Hotel)
Nolita
- Ceci-Cela (french patisserie. very nice cookies, pastries, cakes)
- Balthazar Restaurant (a very well known restaurant and with a bakery next door. nice selection of breads and pastries)
- Epistrophy Cafe
- Cafe Gitane (nice french-moroccan cafe/restaurant)
SoHo
- The Smile (very nice little American cafe/restaurant. Very cozy inside. You have to descend down a few steps to get to it. Just next door to the boutique Oak)
- Pepe Rosso To Go (Italian restaurant)
- Saturdays Surf NYC (coffee shop/surf shop! excellent coffee)
- Cafe Select (Swiss restaurant)
West Village
- Corner Bistro (amazing juicy american burgers)
- Third Rail Coffee
Chelsea
- Chelsea Market (indoor food market. so many stalls. so much food)
Midtown
- Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien Hotel (the secret burger place in the back of a hotel lobby)
Upper East Side
- Cafe Sabarsky (beautiful viennese cafe/restaurant done up in e20c style decor. Part of the Neue Galerie Museum (early 20th century Austrian and German art)
Brooklyn
- Mary’s fish camp (it’s a little more pricey but it’s real good)
- DuMont Burger (best burger)
- The Meatball Shop (great variety of meatballs)
- Katz’s Delicatessen (really amazing bagels, corned beef/pastrami/reubens sandwiches, potato blintzes)
- Driggs pizza (great pizza!)
SHOPPING
- St. Mark’s Bookshop (East Village)
- Pas De Deux (very nice little boutique, East Village)
- Strand Books (overwhelmingly stocked used bookstore, Union Square)
- Assembly New York (also a great boutique. expensive, but great selection, with some vintage mixed in, Lower East Side)
- Maryam Nassir Zadeh (really really great boutique. quite expensive, but they have a great selection, Lower East Side)
- Top Hat (very very cute store with an eclectic range of products…from bird calls to pens to lamps to stationery…, Lower East Side)
- Creatures of Comfort (great great great boutique, Nolita)
- Oak (great boutique, Nolita)
- EVA New York (great boutique, Nolita)
- A.P.C. (french fashion, awesome shirts, SoHo)
- Opening Ceremony (boutique, SoHo)
- Seven (boutique, SoHo)
- Kiosk (design stuff, SoHo)
- Storefront for Art and Architecture (SoHo)
- Project No. 8 (a really great store, but i think the women’s branch may have closed. in any case, try the men’s shop, project no. 6, which is just down the street, Chinatown)
- Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (the museum is obviously nice, but the gift shop is AMAZING, Upper East Side)
- Beacon’s Closet (amazing second hand clothes for so cheap, Williamsburg)
BARS/CLUBS
- Trophy Bar (good drinks, good DJs, and also now serves some food. The burger is real good, Williamsburg)
- Please Don’t Tell (weird awesome speakeasy place to get good cocktails in East Village. It’s in a hot dog restaurant, you go inside the phone booth, pick up the payphone, and a guy opens a secret door and lets you in. It’s located through the phone booth of Crif Dogs restaurant)
- Bassment NYC at The Monster on Thursdays (West Village)
- Clubberdown Disco on Fridays at Chelsea Hotel w/ Lady Fag, real gay and fun, Chelsea)
- Vandam Sundays at Greenhouse (go directly to the basement, preferably no earlier than 1am, SoHo)
- Heather’s Bar (really cool bar, East Village)
- Veronica People’s Club (really cool bar/cafe low key/mostly gay, it’s the sister bar of Heather’s, Williamsburg)
- Turkey’s Nest Tavern (get a margarita to go, a large, then sit in McCarren Park, Brooklyn)
View New York places in a larger map
The photos below were taken with my HTC Desire, Panasonic Lumix DCM-FX37 or Nikon D7000.
Peque Varela 1977
1977 is a short animation film by Peque Varela, which rightly so got critical acclaim and won a flurry of awards. The film is a poignant story about a child growing up feeling different. What 1977 tells us is that this feeling shouldn’t be the source of despair and unhappiness as it often is but should instead be embraced and celebrated.
Peque Varela was born in Ferrol, Spain, in 1977, and is based in London (UK). She graduated from the National Film and Television School in Animation Direction in 2007. In 2009 Peque and the Argentinean producer Silvina Cornillón founded Argallando. This production company is devoted to create independent projects, Gato encerrado is their first film.
Peque recently launched her new website and it gave me the opportunity to watch 1977 again. Have a look below, you won’t be disappointed. This triggered my wanting to know more about this project and others and so I asked Peque a few questions. Read her answers below the video.
1977 from Peque Varela on Vimeo.
Sandra: What inspired you to do this film as your final project and how long did it take you to make it?
Peque: I wanted to do something that would keep me motivated throughout the whole year that took the making. It was the first time I was faced with being involved in the same project for such a long time. I was worried I would get bored if the project was done following the industry methods, where a finalized script comes first, then the storyboard, animatic and finally months and months of animating something already thought through. I felt that if I did not know everything about the story and allow myself to discover through the making where the piece was heading, I would make sure my enthusiasm wouldn’t drop with the passing time. I found it exciting not to know if it would work or not and also have the freedom to re-adjust my ideas to the piece as it was being developed. In the same way exploring something close to my heart would keep me motivated to work really long hours. It was a pleasure to be able to re-build my own memories and revisit my old diaries as I explored the feelings and contradictory moments when growing up.
S: What decided you to talk about such a personal matter?
P: I never saw it as being such a personal matter…million other people had, have, and will experience the same way at some point in their lives. In a way I never ever thought about audiences, about it being seen by many people I will never meet. I was in a small room in the middle of nowhere just thinking I want to do the short film I would like to have seen when I was young…and that was mainly it, I was attracted by the idea of understanding moments that were unable to be understood when as a young child.
S: How was it to work on such a big production as Sweeney Todd? How did you get the job? How was the process in making the credits? Did you get directions and feedback from Tim Burton himself or did you create and complete the full project under your own artistic direction and then delivered the finished product to the production company?
P: At the time, I was doing some commercial work for the studio that happened to win the job, so it was pretty straight forward to be honest…A friend from school (Shay Hamias) was in charge of the art direction after winning the pitch within the directors of the company. He knew my work as well as having worked together before so I was asked if I was interested and I obviously was. It was a good experience, a small group of talented digital artists made it happen. I was in charge of compositing the shots. Putting together the live action footage, 3D generated animation and 2D artwork, as well as animating cameras and creating a fake 3D space. Tim Burton…no where to be seen around my desk : ) Richard Morrison is the director of the title sequence and the one getting his feedback. Then Shay was the one giving me directions. It was a fun experience and possibly the work I’ve done that has been seen the most.
S: What are you working on at the moment? Own films? Commercial?
P: In order to be able to have free time to do the things I like to do I work as an animator freelancer mainly for commercials (needless to say that’s where the money is). I have been doing this for over five years. It is a good way of keeping yourself updated technically since often the software changes and new tools appear. I am also represented as commercial director at HanRaHan and occasionally take some jobs as director. Aside from this I am now working on a couple of music promos. One involves a time lapse of London from my window where the landscape reacts to the beat of Cavi’s music. And the other one is for Those Three band, where they go to play to a house that takes them for a ride. Also finishing a collaborative work for The Real Social Network documentary.
S: What can you say about Argallando?
P: Argallando is an independent production team that was created to produce Gato Encerrado (Cat In a Box). Silvina Cornillón is the producer. We got together to apply for funding in order to be able to make Gato Encerrado happen since we had little time to do it and were in need to pay the small team of talented filmmakers that worked with us.
S: How do you cope in these hard times of budget and funding cuts?
P: We were lucky to be successful in our application to the Galician funding body AGADIC, back in 2009, for Gato Encerrado. We did apply here in the UK for funding with the same project but were not successful. The previous short (1977) was part of an MA so did not need to worry about budget, had an excellent team available and happy to be involved.I always try not to rely on funding in order to do my short pieces, but it is true that sometimes one needs to be able to pay for the work of others. I will tell you next time I need funding how am I coping…so far working budget less makes me happy.
S: When and where will we be able to see your next project?
P: The music promos I will most likely upload them to my webpage pequevarela.com whenever they are ready. Since I am using my free time to make them I have no idea when that will be, but hopefully in the following couple of months.
Stay tuned!