Round up towards down time

This is a notice, that this blog would be growing into something way more exciting in the future. Not only would it's future be way more interesting and frequently updated- not only would it not revolve around me, but will also look at some things more appreciated by the general public. And for those with time, I'll add interesting links for further reading.

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR THE ALL KNEW URL.

Thanks for the support.

xx N

Oh yes, and did not mention these coat hangers. Too much animal maybe?

Let Sleeping Cats Lie

I had the weirdest day. Ok, so I woke up early to be on set at 5:30. We're working on this short set in 2035, about this computer genius living in a house built on a old computer dumping site. mmm... So after that I rush over to Soho to meet with Walid to chat about magazine stuff and that's when I remembered the non-Nadine conversation I had with Joe, my housemate last night. Since Matthew, another flatmate left, the cats have been acting strange, and naturally everyone except me care. So Joe asked me whether I would have a minute (a minute, sure, and hour, no) to take the cats to the vet and have them checked out. Being the idiot that I am I said, yes, off course, no problem. Got it. Consider it done. So there I rush from Soho to Brooklyn to collect the slobs from my apartment and take them to the vet. 15 minutes pass and all I manage is turning a black T-shirt into a fur coat and a perfect neck into a scratch pad. So I walk over to the vet, and tell them that if they don't suggest how I could get the cats from my apartment to them, I will be doing it my way, which involves the cats not being alive. They handed me a carrier box. Back home I manage to shove Malachi (yes that's what you name your cat these days) into it, but under no circumstances would Moses oblige. So I leave him at home. As I walk to the vet I thought to myself, self, what the f. I hate cats, and I don't mean, guys wearing white shoes and buckled belts hate, I mean like unbearable hatred. And here I am feeding them, sweet talking them and taking them (or a half them) to the vet.

The cat turned out to be fine. Just stressed. Fancy that. I mean, the first picture does scream stressed right?

I ♥ Princeton

We had a half-day shoot in Princeton at Princeton University this recent Monday and I fell head over hill in love with this place. From Penn Station in Manhattan, you take the New Jersey rail train for an hour ride to Princeton Junction, where a little two-car train called a 'Dinky' takes you for a 5min ride to Princeton Uni. It is so incredibly beautiful there and in the end I couldn't leave. I kept coming up with excuses not to leave. I've never experienced this feeling of utter obsession with a place and complete love. (Naturally I worked in a quick visit to the Dean of a specific department, which I will reveal later. I have a plan. A big one.) Oh. I love Princeton. So. Much.

Gay Adventures

Became a member of the the Fight for Equal Gay & Lesbian Rights
(And can I say that they do not come cheap.) But it really is an amazing cause, I'm very proud to help the fight. In more than 20 states it's still legal for a guy to be fired from his job if he is gay. And I was thinking America is modern... But, hopefully this will change. We meet every Thursday for discussions and news and it makes me really happy to see so many people really believing in something this important.

I crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, by foot and the Williamsburg bridge, by bicycle

I'm the proud owner of a catamaran whom I called $100 Catey

My dear friend Tom told me one day out on the water that apparently every winter people stop sailing because of the cold. And, because of high docking costs to keep their boats in the harbor they simple let them loose and some drift off. Tom's dad, who loves all boats, then goes and rescue a few to Tom's irritation and with the result being a backyard filled with small to medium boats. This made me think that, seeing that there's so many, I might as well push my luck and see if I can't have him sell me one under the table. So I started nagging and after a lot of that and dinners at my apartment, I finally conned Tom into selling me the catamaran, for, yes you guessed it, $100. So this Sunday, Tom, myself and Catey will be sailing off into the sunset... [And I want to mention that I'm turning into quite the sailor with my Sunday skipper classes...]

In no specific order...

M.I.A & Die Antwoord gig on Govenors Island



It's been too long since my last post which makes it very hard to fill in the gaps, but to update I've compiled a top 10 which can act as missing link:

1. M.I.A. & Die Antwoord on Governors Island
I haven't seen Die Antwoord live, probably because I wasn't interested in what they're all about. But when Helette sent me the link for this gig a few weeks ago, I decided to consider going because I've always been a big M.I.A. fan and they're kind off the soundtrack of my second year at University. So, that Monday I bought my ticket and off we went to the island. People from all over came and the festival attire included everything from young free spirits (which BTW is the term for hippy), Kate Moss- lookalikes in tiny denim shorts and bikinis, glitter girls aka Kimora Lee Simmons, copies from the pages of Vogue and me and my friends. Everyone was out for fun, relaxed and happy. There were two stages separating the smaller bands from the big names. So yes, I mean the night had a great vibe like any other concert but I was pleasantly surprised with Die Antwoord who played second last before M.I.A. as final act, and they totally kicked ass, M.I.A. sounded like amateurs after Die Antwoord. Thanks Die Antwoord, I'm impressed, at last.
(Other acts I really liked was Rye Rye, Sleigh Bells and Ninjasonik.) Afterward we took the ferry back and it started raining and everyone was soaked, which was such a great ending to a hot, fantastic festival.

Day 31

Today I went sailing! All the way up in City Island, I met Tom and Yuka for a day sailing on one of Tom's catamarans floating in the harbor. Such a beautiful little town, with that typical fishing town vibe where everyone knows everything and everyone. But, before I go on, I have to mention that I, at last, found my perfect bicycle! In the middle of a little scrappy yard, I saw a collection of bicycles which happened to belong to Tom's dad. Kind as they are here, he made my day and said I can choose any bicycle I wish to take back to Manhattan with me. I felt like a little kid in a toyshop, and there, between all the other stuff, my old bicycle called out! Ah! Isn't he lovely!
Ok, so anyway, while we packed out pick nick basket, and went on the water, old scrappie went to bicycle hospital for a few repairs.
It was such a lovely day on the water, and I immediately decided to take up rowing again, I miss these long days on the water. And off course, we had no television to watch the world cup final, but no stopping us, we got batteries for a little portable radio that came in very handy for afternoon entertainment! We set up sail, and there, off we went- around hart island, high island...
Back on the island, we went for margaritas and shrimp coctails and picked up my new bicycle which was now ready for the streets of NYC!

Day 30

After dinner with Tom and New York Noodle Town (wow, best Chinese), I walked over to Living Room, where my friend Charlene had a gig. Living Room is a bar similar to Pianos, where for little to no money you get to see all the latest bands on their way to success. Anyway, her performance was great, however, the final band stole the show- The Renaldo the Ensemble. Have to check them out, they were like a mini theater production, super good!

Day 27-29

Wow! Can't believe I haven't been blogging for so long, things sometimes are just a little crazy. Lets begin with day 26, which is also known as the 6th of July, which is also known as my brother's birthday (!!!). Happy Birthday, again!! The day consisted of work and then the afternoon to myself, during which I had a few meetings set up for freelance writing work. In the area I met up with Jason for sushi and DVDs.
Day 27-28 I went to set looking like a mini monster (allergies)- however forgot all about it when I met fashion photographer, Walid Ghanem, also the editor of Quadrafoil magazine. Very cool guy. We're working on some stills for him and the launch of his new website. Day 28, I was put on as stylist, which is really good for me, phew! It's been film production boot camp the last few weeks- so getting to style a fashion shoot was very refreshing, and I get to write the fashion editorials as well, which is even better. After a successful day, we all went for dinner at Bistro les Amis in Soho and then to a little club close by- never caught the name.
Day 29, was a bit of an admin day, sorting out my phone contract again (it's a monthly) and deciding whether to stay on for longer, laundry! (that's so much fun, it's this gigantic laundromat with a million people, washing machines and tumble dryers) It's like one big laundry party- I love it! Walid also phoned and hooked me up with a very well known stylist, Giovanna, who asked to meet with me next week. Super exited about this, she's amazing, and there's a lot of respect for her in the industry. Yay!
Later the afternoon, I went to the Museum of Modern Art (for Target Free Friday nights, which obviously the entrance is free then on Friday nights) and fell in love with Piet Mondrian all over again. I also took pictures of two chairs which Michael will have to make me (you have to) and a Picasso that I'm totally going to steal one day to hang next to my mirror. Oh, this museum is SUPER. Later that night, I met up with my three musketeers (Josh, Harrison and Raffi) for bowling night at the bowling bar in Williamsburg. Ok, so bowling, not my best sport, but with my girly beer (which I mix with orange juice, yummy!) and my boys, it's top of the list entertainment for an All-American Friday night!

Day 26

(More hats for the collection)

Then, in the light that I'm sick, I'm proud to announce a killer run session in Prospect Park, Brooklyn's Central Park, however, not quite...

Day 23-25 (4th of July whoohoo!)

Ah, started getting sick on Friday, which really isn't ever a good thing, but lived. Met up for dinner with my filmie buddy Jason and went all Mexican for dinner, where I had the hottest and most tequila ever- Jalapino flavor eek! Then we went Irish, to New York's oldest pub called McSorley's, where I drank beer (for like the second time in my life) which they make on the premises. -They still have saw dust on the floor and women were only really allowed inside a few years ago... After this we went Bohemian, in style while performers were walking singing and dancing all around us. This followed with a bit of American bar hopping until the sun came up, which we ended up enjoying from a rooftop in Soho sipping bloody Marys wearing over-sized sunglasses. Later the afternoon, after a screening of Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief and a musical On the Town I headed to Brooklyn for pre-drinks with Matthew and everyone for his birthday and then off to Barcade in Williamsburg for the actual celebration. Barcade- so very hipster, ghees, it's this old game arcade that transformed into a bar, with arcade games around the sides and the coolest of cool hanging around. Boys also love it, because they have very cheap beer and a drafts of almost everything's available...apparently this counts...

The next morning I was sickness herself and only got out of bed because it was the 4th OF JULY!!! Wow, how much fun! We kicked off with a pick nick in the park and our own frozen maragaritas! (I will post a picture later because I didn't take it with my camera, but I was wearing a blue red and white striped skirt, a blue and white striped top and Lady Liberty hat- one guess who's the South African...) Anyway, this was great. Then we moved to a roof top for fireworks, the rest can only be summed up as, wow!

...

Ah! But nothing that black & white film noirs can't fix. Too Late For Tears... [Woman kills husband after finding money. Meets another man who wants the money and kills him too. Meets the man whose money it is- tries to kill him, however...falls off the balcony! Eeeee!

Big dramatic endings!

DAY 22

Today sucked. Worked all day long. I'm really tired. Dinner in Brooklyn and then straight to bed.

Day 21

Work is really too much at this point... just saying. So for night time relaxing, I went to my favorite- Film Forum for the Anthony Mann Festival that's on at the moment. Tonight's double show included Devil's Doorway and Border Incident, both my first Western and best film noir. Afterward I had wine with a certain filmo which involved nothing else than film-talk and the like. This moved to Zinc Bar, (GREAT!!) a little jazz club in the West side. Fascinating. (Arrived home at 3AM, the trains are a complete disaster, schedules change everyday, as they're fixing the rails. For the last year. It's not just the roads in South Africa, it's everywhere.)

Day 20

All day studio work, and then studio hunting! Found a few potential apartments, yay! And then I worked in a little shop in Alphabet city, called Pick Me Up cafe (great!), where I picked up a photographer from Interview Magazine- ok he was gay, but great guy to know... [watch this space]. This followed into all you can eat sushi and karaoke at a place called Heather's. I HATE TEQUILA.
(However love this hat shop I found in Bleecker street!! Which is the beginning of my next blog- a blog about secondhand shops in Manhattan & Brooklyn, they're incredible!)

Day 19

Worked in Brooklyn today, at this little place called Outpost. It's basically my office when not in the office, as everyone come here with there laptops and work non-stop.
AND they have the best rainbow cake!

Day 18 ZZZZZZZZZ!

So naturally after a long weekend and for an even longer week to follow, Sunday will be spent sleeping and (much) later reading in Central Park. I really love how couples laze the summer days away in a canoe...

Day 17

I finished up a bit of work after which I decided it's time for new pumps. However, do not by any means do your shopping on a Saturday. It will end up in a fist fight. Rather watch Ghana kick some US ass in the soccer world cup! So after the game I met up with Nico and a few of his friends at a Mexican bar (can't remember the name) for a few drinks, which lead us to his roof top for more. (The picture is from his rooftop, and the picture does not do it justice.) Here we played a few rounds of Balderdash (eeee! fun) until the sun set and then we went to a friend's house party in the East Village. Yay!

Day 16

When Helette and I finally managed to wake up, I 'worked' my way through a bunch of emails, and Helette checked in at FIT. Then we decided to work in a movie to get over last night an it worked, putting us on a new roll for Piano's- another great famous-making bar in the lower East side. Here we met up with Helette's friend Kate and hopped to another place, where our bar man happened to be Lady Gaga's ex-boyfriend. (I had to sorry).

During the day, the framed picture wall led me into this shop. I think it's beautiful. And the train later that day, I played a bit Sartorialist and grabbed a snap shop of this man who looked oh so stylish.

Day 15

(After work today, I fell in love. With sunglasses. It was love at first sight passing the shop where they looked all sexy in the window. And for the first time I felt as thought I had no chance. However, I couldn't resist and introduced myself: "Hi, I am Nadine and I'm here to try on the sunglasses in the window, but, and hear me right, under no circumstances am I allowed to buy them." The sunglasses did not say anything, however was spoken for and replied " Holy fuck, these sunglasses are $15." Needles to say, this baby spoke my language. We're currently still much in love.)


Then I went to the New Museum on Bowery street with Helette (it's free on a Thursday after 7PM) and saw an exhibition titled A Day Like Any Other, by a Brazilian artist called Rivane Neuenschwander. She plays with a lot of themes like time, life and love. The hanging buckets are filled with water and drips a few drops every now and then- this represents the idea of time in early day life where it took roughly 4 hours for a bucket to run out water. The colorful ribbons, in the other picture all have a wish printed on them. You're encouraged to pick one and tie it around your wrist and it falls off, legend has it that your wish will come true. There's also a man who, through numerous questions about your first love, sit and draws him or her for you- he seems to be right every time.
Little Italy was the location of choice for dinner and wine to relax. Yolandi met up with us later and lead us to a few cool & highly recommended bars.

Day 14 One word: Goldfrapp!

Goldfrapp was fabulous. Besides her great singing, her outfits are fantastical. Very, very impressive!

And this was only the beginning. Afterward Helette and I moved over to the lower East side, (obviously as you can tell by now my favorite place in the world), for some music at the Cake Shop- cake shop by day, rock-band live-performance room by night. All the bands that play here are bands well on their way to stardom and generally very good.

At 3AM, the night as we knew it was over when two guys introduced us to an even later-night club (the name of which I obviously can't remember, oops!) where we danced and many undisclosed other things the night away. Oh, what a night.

Day 13

The mission today was to explore Chelsey Village and more particularly its art galleries (Matthew Marks, Paula Cooper, Barbara Gladstone and the likes)- can't say I was impressed. I wrote this absolute despair off on my novice-status in the art's history and its genres. However, there were a few things that tipped the excitement barometer. At Gagosian gallery (supporting artists such as Damian Hurst and Anselm Kiefer) Roy Lichtenstein has a two-week exhibit (ends 30 June) of his 70s era Still Lifes, where I found Still Life with Lobster hilariously thrilling. Close by was an exhibition titled Cowboys and Indians by Yoram Wolberger, an artist who often studies and challenges obvious everyday objects to point out its cultural and unconscious meanings. With this mini exhibition (mini exhibition with grand objects), Wolberger made giant size sculptures (double my size) of these little toys, with their original flaws and all. Grabbed the kid right out of me! Two other paintings stood out, but I never wrote down the name, would have to go back.

After too much of Chelsey's arty business, I made it my business to find this special bookshop (Gotham Books) in Manhattan, which turned out to have gone out of business. So, two hours later, I walked out of old faithful Barnes & Nobles, to find 5th Avenue pouring with rain and black umbrellas with legs running scurrying up and down. Fantastic, the thousand umbrellas in New York vibe, so first things first, I bought my very own umbrella, hurried down to Starbucks next to the Empire State building and fell head over heals for Martin Amis' London Fields. I'm on page 107 now.

Day 12

Nice window! And the park still the most refreshing early morning activity ever...


Breakfast, lovely place

Work, work, work together with the city really catching up to me now. The energy is great, which makes it really difficult for me to sleep, because there's so much happening outside at all hours of the day and night. Plus, the intense heat. Got up early for a run (seeing that sleeping wasn't going to happen) then had breakfast in the East village, and then never ending work.