This (past) Week

This is the laziest entry ever, but I'z mad busy, yo.
Music by Lykke Li.

Phosphorescent, Fairfield Awesomeness

I can't express how excited I get to see my hometown friends doing amazing work. This video for the Phosphorescent song "A Picture of our Torn Up Praise," was recently given kudos on Pitchfork, and for all the right reasons. It's awesome. It's magical. And it was shot and produced in my hometown of Fairfield, Iowa by none other than my friends/ former classmates Andrew Runkle (that's Andrew and I below left), Zachary Slusser (that's Zach and I below right) and Jonathon Narducci. . 5000 cheers for the boys!!!
xxx.

Help Me Help You.

So I'm doing a little research and need a little help because I'm eternally, defiantly unhip. I still love all you hipsters out there and I'm hoping that you love me, too. At least enough to tell me your favorite movie, fashion, travel, social, web, music, lifestyle magazines, etc. If you don't consider yourself hip, I welcome you to chime in, chip in and do whatever it is you do. One suggestion or twenty, every one of them from every one of you is happiness to me. As for me helping you, here's what I've got: a video of my friend Evan Ferrante doing his impression of Tom Cruise, which seems to be taking the internet by storm. You looked like you needed a laugh.

Candy from the Easter Bunny

It’s the day after Easter, also known as ’Pasquetta’ or ’Little Easter’ in Italy, and therefore time to enjoy the basket of virtual goodies that our beloved and fertile bunny rabbit has left behind to remind us that spring is the time for getting down and dirty.

On that note, Down and Derby is back on at Studio B this Friday, March 28, fulfilling your every American-Apparel-On-Rollerskates dream.

On April 1st, Stranger Than Fiction kicks off its 10-week Spring Season with ’Order of Myths’, one of the most acclaimed films from Sundance ’08. That may not be saying a lot given that Sundance failed to produce much this year, but reviews have been good and when STF endorses, I’m there. I should also mention that on May 13th, Barbara Kopple, whose film ’Harlan County, USA’ still ranks among my top 10 favorite documentaries, will be showing another of her films called ’My Generation’ on STF night at the IFC theater. Mark it on your calendar.

OK, now for television....
The show I’ve been working on premiers on April 5th at 7pm on WLIW here in NY and other PBS affiliates elsewhere. I have written, produced and/or directed 5 episodes over the past year now,the premier episode among them, so it’s nice to see this little egg finally hatch. To see and/or read more about it, click here: http://www.wliw.org/momentofluxury/

Lastly, as I’ve run out of my self-allotted time to look busy at work without actually being so, The Cracked Society Revue is coming to The Box on March 26, and nothing could be sweeter than that.
Details below.

Moby, Laura Dawn, Daron Murphy, & Aaron Brooks, aka The Little Death, would like to invite you to join us for a very special night that we’ve created and curated just for you.

Along with our some-what friend, the notorious pain in the ass Rene Risque, we’ve put together a very special show entitled, The Cracked Society Revue.

Cracked like our hearts. Cracked like this crazy messed up world. Cracked like the Ecuadorian jail Rene Risque was recently sprung from by our common (and of course, anonymous) benefactor.

Also joining us will be the lovely and exciting Lady Rizzo and the Assetttes, along with a few special surprise guests.

And even better, The Cracked Society Revue will be debuting at The Box, the only club in town suitable for this particular line up of notorious bon vivants.

If you like your blues dark and hot, your ladies full of flash and fire, your aging euro-trash rockers drunk and libidinous, and your whiskey straight up and expensive, then this is quite possibly the perfect night for you.

Please join us for:

The Cracked Society Revue
featuring:

The Little Death
Rene Risque
Lady Rizzo & the Assettes
& special guests

at

THE BOX, located at 189 Chrystie Street
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
Doors open at 8pm
Show starts prompty at 9pm

To purchase tickets, click here:

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/event/EventListings?orgId=22823

The Ultimate Peep Show

Happy Easter !!!

Respect the Flip; Respect Yo Mama; Respect.

If my comparative analysis was drinking, this is what it would look like. We open with the following mix of sounds:
1. Radio static
2. Car Talk- NPR
3. Fur Elise- Beethoven
4. Deja Vu- Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs
5. Yo Mama sadly absent from the mix.

Flip vs. Easyshare

Super cheap and super easy to use, low-resolution camcorders are taking up an increasing percentage of the camcorder consumer market. Here I compare the highly popular Flip Ultra camcorder to the video capabilities of my old point and shoot Kodak V530 still camera.
Links:
NYT review
CNET Flip Ultra Review
CNET Kodak V530 Review
Kodak V1233

Brooke Waggoner is So-So In for Spring

it's march 20, which means today is the first day of spring!
happy spring!
spring, spring, spring!
i thought to celebrate with a song. as i mentioned earlier, i am a fan of brooke waggoner's- lately, a big fan- so i wanted to post another song of hers called 'so-so'. watching her perform a few weeks ago made such a deep impression that i've become intent on learning to play the piano properly. it may take me 30 years but one day i swear i'll know what i'm doing on those black and ivory keys. in the meantime, i'll be enjoying the piano via this red-headed girl from tennessee.
p.s. this song is not piano heavy but it was the only song off her new album that i could find on youtube. a worse recording, but more indicative of her piano playing talent, can be found in the video for 'wonderdummied' below:

Hello from NYC- March 19, 2008

I am at this moment sitting at my computer eating Cinnamon Frosted... no, Sugar Frosted... what is it called? You know- that sugary, cinnamon swirly cereal? I just checked the box and it's called Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Anyway, I'm sitting here eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch for lunch (My roommate's cereal, I might add. I'll hit you back, Kanani). The name of the cereal did not immediately leap to mind because this is the type of thing my mother would have never let me eat when I was growing up, and I thank her for that. It is a bowl of yumminess, I admit, but I bet cardboard would taste yummy with this much sugar on it. And this is what we feed our kids? Can we really be shocked, then, at the growing appearance of ADD in our children? I'm not saying sugary cereal is the leading cause of what is a legitimate disorder but I have a hard time believing that sugary cereal helps combat the problem. I digress from the point, which is that I am posting another installment of my video journal, today's being more informative than it is artistic.
The things I discuss are linked below. Check it out:
Elephant March Press Release
Elephant March Photos on Flickr
More Elephant March Photos on Flickr
Elliot Spiter Feature in New York Magazine
Photos of the Renovated Plaza Hotel
Palm Court High Tea Menu
Beyond- At the American Museum of Natural History
How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Word of the Day- Expatriate
Garner's Modern American Usage
Vocab Vitamins

52 Projects

Thanks for listing me, 52 Projects! To anyone who hasn't checked 52 Projects out yet, you should, and can, via my links list on the right or by clicking above.

Wooden

once upon a time, i was a 20-year-old girl who had never heard of john wooden. when i became friends with someone who'd had the good fortune to have been coached by wooden during his years at ucla, i was given a quick and personal education on the extraordinary nature of this man whose name has so frequently and ubiquitously been associated with the title, "greatest coach of all time." i have followed writings, stories and interviews on, with or by wooden ever since and have always found him to be a highly inspirational, perceptive individual. today, i came across this brief clip. it doesn't begin to scrape the surface of the philosophy this man has expounded upon in books and in action, but it's a lovely muse bouche, something to titillate the palate on all that he represents.
enjoy.

David Lynch Weekend

I will be returning to my hometown with a handful of friends from NY and CA for a David Lynch weekend. If you plan to be there or want to come, drop me a line. It’s going to be transcendent, in the Fairfield vernacular.
For more information: http://www.lynchweekend.org/

Home from Lima

So here is my video recap of the last couple days. You won't likely be able to read the titles so I will transcribe them below.
The song I scored this diary to is called 'Hush If You Must' by Brooke Waggoner. I had never heard of Brooke until a few weeks ago when she performed right after Crystal and me at the Canal Room. I was so impressed that I bought her album on the spot and have since been sharing it with everyone I know. If you get the chance to see her live, do. She's a monster on the piano.

1. The Airport (3/15, 12am)
-Parris and Scott argue about the meaning of the film Eyes Wide Shut.
-They argue for an hour.
-They conclude that the movie is about the difference about men and women: For women, the truth, no matter how ugly, makes her feel closer to her man. For men, the fascade is more important than the truth. Hence the mask. "If we pretend things are okay, they will be."

2. The Airplane (3/15, 2am)
-I'm sandwiched in the middle of two people.
-The person on my right sings out loud to his headphones.
-I get busted for filming him.

3. Chanson (3/15, 11:30am)
-After landing in NY, I go directly to a recording session, ass tired.

4. Birthday Brunch (11/16, 1:30pm)
-Celebrating my roommate Kanani's birthday.
-She's in the green coat.

5. The Pogues (5/16, 8pm)
-St. Patrick's Day concert at Roseland.

6. The Job Offer (5/16)
-To make beautiful films of my choice.
-The only catch: I'd have to move, far, far away.

To be continued....

Hello from Lima-The Photos

so after getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night for the past week, and then getting on a red eye flight from lima to nyc at 12am last night and suffering the sleeplessness that comes from being sandwiched between two people for 7 hours, and then going straight from the airport to the office to drop off the tapes we shot, and then directly to the recording studio to lay down the vocals on the first track of the stember/newell album, and then having an early dinner with a friend, and then saying hi to my roommates, and then talking to my parents for hours, and then pacing around my room in amazement over some huge potential changes that may be taking place in my life over the next few months, i have been left without the energy to make a video diary tonight. i am posting pictures from peru instead and will make and post my final lima video diary tomorrow.

Hello from Lima. Day 6.

We wrapped our shoot tonight and tomorrow night we go home. This is my last entry from Lima. I will do one final entry from New York to give my last and lasting impression of filming in Peru.
Gracias to Signor J. Caldwell for turning me on to ’You! Me! Dancing!’, the tune that opens this diary.

Hello from Lima. Day 5.

This is as straight forward a video diary as video diaries get. I'll put together a niftier one tomorrow.

Hello from Lima. Day 4.

This is actually from day 4 but I'm mildly delusional so I thought it was day 3, and last I checked, I wasn't shooting a remake of Groundhog's Day. Though delusional, I'm still loving it here- the people more than the city. And who doesn't love the food?

Hello from Lima. Day 3.

I don't have time for a video diary now but of course, I made one.
Out of principle. I promised to do one everyday.

Hello from Lima. Day 2.

Hello from Lima. Hotel. Foxtrot. Day 1.

Working. Must take break.
To do something mindless.
Like make a video diary.
In my room.
In Lima.
Hotel. Foxtrot.
Wil. Co.
For.
Beer.

testing testing 123

i have work pouring out of my eyes right now. i get on a plane tomorrow, which is about a whole lot of days too soon. at the same time, i can't wait. i'm super excited about peru now, and i promise to take as many pictures as i can.
in my necessary moments of diversion in the process of finishing this script, i thought i'd try posting a little widgety thing i just discovered that's supposed to allow me to put music directly into my blog. now given that i haven't had time to actually write any music lately, i'm putting up a really old song that's not actually a song, but more of a thought put to some notes. it was called delicate when i scratch tracked it, so i guess it still is. oh, and on that note, i will actually be making music again- yay!- starting march 15th, when i step into the studio for the first time in ages to record a full stember/newell album. crazy, yo.

partsandlaborgallery

as some of you know, i am from a small town in iowa. somehow that small town managed to spit many of its babies out to the east coast, where the babies are doing interesting, traditional, odd, wonderful, excellent things. a few of those babies just launched the Parts and Labor Gallery, a "mobile gallery and events space housed in an eighteen-foot commercial box truck." if you're in new york, keep your eyes open for it. if you're not, take a virtual look. it is just another reason to love this city.
http://www.main.partsandlaborgallery.com/
http://www.myspace.com/partsandlaborgallery

Scott Family on Obama- Update

Here are the Scott Family Interviews, as promised.

Lawrence Scott (60): http://ia341043.us.archive.org/3/items/AlexisStemberLawrenceonObama_0/LawrenceObamaInterview1.m4a
Kirsten (21) and Chris Scott (35) with Friend: http://ia341010.us.archive.org/2/items/AlexisStemberKirstenandChristopherScottandFriendonObama/KirstenandChrisScott.m4a

Honest Abe on Obama

I went to the Official Generation Obama Primary Returns Party tonight, where I chatted with the Scott Family (Kirsten, in her 20's, Christopher, in his 30's and Lawrence, in his 60's) and Abe, a 25-year-old stranger who was kind enough to answer my questions on the night of the March 4 primaries.
I had no time to edit any of this and did scream a bit into the mic, which unfortunately happens when I have a couple drinks.
Note to self: Don't drink and interview.

Tonight, I post Abe's interview.
Tomorrow, the Scott Family.
http://ia341025.us.archive.org/3/items/AlexisStemberAbeonObama/AbeObamaInterview.m4a

Site Update

As you can see, this site has undergone a bit of a redesign. I've changed the look and, more importantly, have added a number of new links to sites I love. If you have more sites that I should add, please send them my way.

While I have the stage here, I want to mention that it is Monday, which means tomorrow is the big March 4th Primary. Clinton is showing a slight lead in Ohio, while Texas is neck and neck. If you're an Obama supporter and can manage to find a little time in your day today, please pick up the phone and make some calls to rally support: http://my.barackobama.com/call.

If you've been at all swayed by Clinton's repeated comment that Barack, while wonderful, can't offer much more than inspiring talk while she offers skill, action and management, let me just remind you that a quick glance at her campaign would negate that claim before she's even won the nomination. Obama's campaign, however, has been so masterfully run that, as Saturday Night Live parodied in "Democratic Debate #2' this past weekend (very funny, btw. WATCH IT HERE), Obama may decide to opt out of public financing and instead rely on private financing for his general election campaign, should he win the nomination. In the words of SNL's fake Tim Russert (aka the brilliant Darrell Hamond):

"Let me make sure I understand this. You're saying that after promising the American people you would take nearly $100 million of their hard earned tax money, you're now going to give it back to them to use as they see fit, and you think they'll still vote for you?"

Cue laughter.

Confessions of a Writer: The Ugly Truth About Being a Writer

The upcoming publication of my story (which is also being turned into an animated short film, thanks to the help of a wonderfully generous group of artists and friends) has inspired me to start thinking about writing for myself again, and not just my job. I joined a couple of writing forums online to reengage myself with the community and found this article, which I really enjoyed. Hopefully you will, too.

Confessions of a Writer: The Ugly Truth About Being a Writer
By Michelle L Devon (Michy)

"I am a writer."
When I say this, people stop in their tracks and say, "Oh, how cool..." and then the questions start. "What have you written? Do you have any books? Have you ever done a book signing?" Writing seems to be considered a glamorous job, and many are envious of my ability to write, my career working from home, my published books, you name it.Writing is not a glamorous job at all. I'm not up in the ranks of Grisham or Brown or King, and I've never had anything hit a bestseller's list (yet), and perhaps the fame that comes with writing bestselling novels does appear a bit glamorous, but when it comes right down to it, writing is just a job, like any other job, and you do have to work at it.Don't get me wrong, I love to write, to create, build characters, build worlds, build fantasies and nightmares. I wouldn't trade what I do for anything. However, if you've never been up against a deadline, 3am, when the passion has burned out of you, and your editor has flat out said it MUST be on his desk in the morning and you are 60 pages short... well, let's just say, writing doesn't seem quite so glamorous in those moments.So let's dispel some of the mystique and glamour many associate with a writing career:

Rejection Stings
When I first started writing as a hobby, everyone told me I was good. My friends, my family, strangers, blog readers... all of them said the same thing - you've got talent! They loved to read my writing, and I loved the feedback and the ego boost that came from it. So I finally sat down and wrote my first novel, pouring my heart and soul into it, bleeding my emotions on the page, building characters that became my best friends and my worst enemies while I wrote. I believed I was good, and I believed my manuscript was good too.Then the torture began. I submitted it to agents and publishers alike. The rejections rolled in. Some didn't even bother to read it, just sent me back a generic, "Thanks, but no thanks." Others read part of it and basically sent me a letter telling me that the novel I'd put more than a year of my life into was 'trite', 'boring', 'not unique', 'not compelling'. Every rejection was like a knife wound to the soul, diminishing my ego, deflating my pride, and destroying my self esteem. Why did everyone say I was good?

The Curse of the Red Pen
Alas, I was finally accepted for publishing - one kind hearted editor appreciated my novel, liked my work, and then offered me a publishing contract - whoo hoo! All the pain and rejection was worth it. I was about to join the ranks of the elite - a PUBLISHED author. Maybe I really AM good!That's when my novel moved into the editing stage of the publishing process. The publisher I was working with, which shall remain nameless at this point, still worked with hand editing - in other words, I received my manuscript back through a courier service with red and green pen marks hand edited, with comments in the margins and scribbles all over the document.There were more red and green pen marks on my manuscript than there were typed words. I flipped through the pages and promptly sat in my desk chair and cried. I'm serious, I literally cried. They had torn my novel apart. They had torn my characters apart. They wanted me to make changes to 'my baby' that when finished, the novel would barely resemble the original story. Maybe I wasn't so good after all.

Ego Versus Desire
I suppose I could have argued the changes the editor wanted to make to my manuscript, but I also wanted desperately to be published, so I sucked it up, and I went through my manuscript, page by page, line by line, word by word, and made the changes they suggested.When the manuscript was rewritten and edited per their specifications, I held a new manuscript in my hands, one that resembled what I had written, but somehow, even though I had done the work on the edits myself, I did not feel as though *I* had written the novel!

Patience is a Virtue
While your editor or publisher or agent will tell you, "I need this revision on my desk no later than Monday!" and expect you to jump for them, they do not jump for you. You may stay up for three days straight working on your masterpiece, turn it over to them, and not hear a word for days, weeks, even months.The industry doesn't move fast. It took me a year to write my first novel, another six months to properly edit the manuscript, and six more months of queries, submissions, rejections and the like until I finally landed that contract - and that is FAST in the literary industry.Once the manuscript was accepted, it took three more months just to receive my contracts, two more months before I was even assigned an editor, and eight more months before they finally sent me the edits.After this, the publication date was set for my manuscript - 18 months from the day I returned the revisions to the publisher-18 months!

All Work and No Pay
While I was offered an advance on my first book, it was not a large one. Additionally, the advance would not be sent to me until the revised manuscript was received. So I worked on this novel for almost three years before I ever received any type of compensation for the work I had poured into the manuscript. Trust me, the advance, while not a tiny one, was not in the hundreds of thousand dollar range and surely didn't cover three years worth of income for me. Plus, I wouldn't receive any royalties from the book until that advance had been made up in sales, if it ever did, and believe me, in this industry, it is not uncommon for a book to not sell enough to cover an advance.I'm not saying there's not money to be had in writing; there surely is, but being a novelist, you will be expected to put a lot of work into something up front, and whether or not you'll ever receive compensation is a gamble with odds of winning the lottery or scoring big in Vegas being better than the odds of making a fortune on your novel.Eventually, if you make it to the ranks of the big boys, novels can indeed provide a nice chunk of change and manuscripts that command good advances, but that isn't going to happen overnight, if it ever happens at all. If you can't write for the love of writing and are only writing in order to make a ton of money, you might as well hang up your pen now.

You Mean, I Don't Have a Say?J
ust when you think the worst is over, the manuscript is perfected, the editor has signed off on it, and you are getting ready to go to print, even more fun begins. There's proof copies, galley copies, choosing artwork, approving fonts, and on and on and on. Guess what? For the most part, your opinion means very little. Why they send you 'approval copies' on your book, I will never know, since the things I thought would be best are not what the final version used.You would think that since it is your book, you would get a say in how the final product looks, wouldn't you? Perhaps with a small publisher, you might. If you self publish or use a vanity press, you probably do have a say. But when you play with the big boys, they pretty much control every aspect of your book, and about the only thing you have left is the fact your name will be on the cover as the author - and did you know, if you have a common name or a name they don't like, they may even suggest a pen name for you too?

Kill It - A Kill Fee?
Okay, so the sleepless nights are over, the manuscript is perfected, all the cover design and other decisions have been made, a publication date has been set, and now you are in queue to wait for the manuscript to go to print.Then one day, you come home, and you listen to your answering machine messages, and an editor from the publishing company has left you a message to call back. You call back as requested only to be told your book is not going to print after all. The publisher has decided that the book is no longer inline with what is hot in the industry, so they are shelving it in the storage of their dead manuscripts, and perhaps they will bring it back out later. The good news: "You can keep the advance as a kill fee on your contract."Wow. All that work, all those adjustments, the changes I made to 'my baby', all my integrity down the drain because I wanted to be published, and now, the book will not be published after all.This happened to me on my second contract. Fortunately, my first contract did go to print, but my second contract was killed. It's devastating. Additionally, the publisher actually held the print rights on that book for the duration of the contract, even though they were not going to print it. When the contract expires, I can shop the manuscript around again, but until then, it sits, unpublished.

Is It Worth It?
You've poured your blood, sweat and tears into your novel, worked and reworked it, and given all you had to give to the writing process, and dealt with all the things I just described above. Was it worth it?Let me tell you something - the day I finally held the completed, bound, perfected copy of my first novel in my hands, shipped to me at my front door before the books went out for distribution, with MY NAME in big letters as the author on the cover of the book... well, that day ranks right up there with the days my children were born as one of the best moments in my life.

No One Loves Me
However, the pain and rejection doesn't end with the book actually being published. Now the book has to sell. You go to Amazon.com daily to check your rankings. You check the bookstores every week to see if you've received shelf placement yet. You ask the publisher until they are tired of answering you about how many books sold that day, that week. Every day that passes with no sales or very few and you wonder if anyone will ever buy your book.Then there is the book signing, when the bookstore orders in fifty copies of your book, sets up a table for you, and you dress up in your best, with your fancy pen and a nervous smile, and sit and wait for people to show up to buy a copy of your book and get it signed.And then only ten people besides your friends and family show up and out of those, only six buy your book.Yes, this is what happened to me at my first book signing ever. Granted, it was a poetry reading and signing, and my second book signing went a lot smoother, but still, there's nothing quite so demoralizing than to sit there for two hours with a fake smile plastered on your face and nothing to do, your books stacked neatly around you.

Was It Worth It?
Hell yeah!In fact, it was so worth it that I began the process all over again with another novel, and then another. Right now, I have three completed manuscripts out for queries and submissions and seven more manuscripts in various stages of completion, and a concept that one publisher has said they want first crack at when it's finished.Call me a glutton for punishment, but this torturous process of writing, submitting, waiting, changing, editing, groveling, and waiting some more, rejection, approval, acceptance, and finally PUBLISHED will be a process I repeat time and time again. I live for the thrill, the rejection, the pain, the sleepless nights, the characters that haunt my dreams and follow me around, taunting me in my head.I am a writer! It's not what I do; it is who I am.

But is it glamorous?
Well, perhaps it can be, but if you were to see me at three in the morning after two days with little sleep, hair piled on top of my head, a cup of cold coffee sitting on my desk, the pizza crust and box on the floor beside me, the cigarette burning untouched in the ashtray while I stare at the computer screen with wide, glazed eyes, looking like a mad woman - well, you wouldn't find it quite so glamorous then.There is a myth running around that you have to have talent and skill to be a writer. I disagree with this. Skill can be learned, and while talent makes writing easier, it isn't necessary for someone who is dedicated and determined to write a novel. However, I do believe there is one element every successful writer shares, one common thread you must have in order to be a successful writer, and if you don't have it, you will never succeed as a writer, no matter how good your writing is:In order to be a writer, you must be insane, certifiably, completely insane.Without that element, you may write, but only insanity causes a person to keep submitting over and over after rejection, after rejection, after rejection. Any sane person would give up and move on to other things, but only a true writer will continue torturing themselves in the face of all opposition. Only a writer, when ego is destroyed, pride is non existent, and hope is all but lost, continues subjecting themselves to the harsh criticism of the literary industry.If you are a writer, and not just someone who writes, keep this in mind:Jack Canfield, the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, was quoted in an interview with by Charles Creekmoore as saying, "We were rejected by at least 220 publishers before Health Communications accepted Chicken Soup for the Soul. Most people don't know that this book, which is now a kind of icon in publishing, was rejected by every major publisher in New York. The obvious lesson is perseverance. Don't give up if you really feel your dream and have a passion for it. That book was a calling. I was driven. It was truly a divine obsession." (retrieved January 22, 2007 from: http://umassmag.com/2006/Fall06/Features/Soul_Man.html)Can you imagine what would have happened, after 100 rejections, after 200 rejections or more, if Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen had said, "Maybe we aren't that good after all." Never give up, never surrender, and keep writing!