Room. Stuff. Street. House.
Yesterday, I moved out of my place in Minneapolis.
New task: Narrow down all my stuff so that it fits into two suitcases and a backpack.
I keep a box of granola bars in my car, so that when I’m waiting at a stoplight and there is a homeless person or someone with some sort of help sign on the curb, I can offer them a granola bar. Not only is the gesture helpful to these people, it’ll make you feel like a good person.
The Lace Dress
On our way to this photo shoot, we stopped a small salon and boutique store on Raymond Avenue. It was past closing hours, but the man working there let us come in and browse through clothes anyway. We found this lace dress without a price tag on it and Arielle made an attempt to negotiate the lowest price possible.
“Could we get this for four or five dollars?”
“You can have it for four!” he replied.
I pulled out a twenty to pay for he and he made a joke about me buying her clothes.
“…I don’t have any change either, so you guys can just take it and bring me money some other time.”
I was most definitely surprised by his trust in strangers, but we thanked him and left to do the shoot.
I wish more people had trust in others like this, but I can’t help but be scared that he might get screwed over with this kind of generosity. Hopefully, his kind actions will inspire others as they inspired me.
Until this past week, I hadn’t taken any photos that weren’t for paid jobs like the senior photos and family reunion photos I’ve been taking. My friend Arielle and I went to lake Nokomis in Minneapolis and did a series of shots. Here’s a taste. It felt great to do a creative shoot again.
Things that happened to in the past two weeks and what I learned from them:
1. I attended Pride in Minneapolis. I think it’s a little overrated, but now understand how the festival creates an environment where people of the GLBTA community can be totally comfortable expressing themselves, free of judgement. The atmosphere was amazing.
2. I saw Alegria Cirque du Soleil at the Target Center. I realized the each individual in this show has more talent than any singers/performers I’d ever seen before, yet these people all remain anonymous under costumes, make-up and masks.
3. Right after that, I scalped tickets to Kathy Griffin’s 10:00pm show at The Orpheum. I saw her there two years ago. This one was much longer. She is amazing, although I learned that since I haven’t been watching any television in a while, I don’t get a lot of the references in her jokes.
4. I traveled to Ohio to do a photo job for a friend’s family reunion. (I made $300!) I got to know and spend time with people from a wide range of ages and backgrounds, further developing my perspective on life. With no cell phone service and no internet, I remembered how to enjoy the outdoors by swimming, horseback-riding, collecting firewood and watch millions of fireflies light up the fields.
5. I am currently spending a few days helping shoot a short film being shot in the Kenwood neighborhood of Minneapolis. Working with a professional crew, I’m learning how to work on a real film set. I’m picking up on a lot of filmmaking’s technical/slang terms. It’s a great experience.
*Photo is a still from Cirque du Soleil. I’ve never appreciated what clowns are capable of until this show.
Nothing too exciting, but this is my bedroom for the summer. Staying in Minneapolis was the best decision I could’ve made this summer.
Well, I think this is a version of my 15 minutes of fame. Almost two weeks ago, MinnPost wrote an article about the animation-short I made a year and half ago and how it’s appearing in film festivals. This prompted the attention of the Twin Cities newspaper The StarTribune and the Fargo/Moorhead newspaper Fargo Forum to contact me for articles. While I very much appreciate the attention given to something I created, I couldn’t help but stress how my animation is very much unlike the rest of my ‘art’. I admit that I don’t get as excited about the attention given to my animation, ‘By My Side’. While I put a lot of work into the piece, it lacks the consistant theme of my work and doesn’t encourage the audience to think much deeper into the piece. I feel like I have developed my work much more than this over the past year and a half. It has been interesting to recognize the angle from which the papers reveal my work. Some are a single film and some are more about me. After reading all three articles, I am most appreciative of the Fargo Forum, who found a good balance of these two and captured what is most important. They stressed the rural vs. urban themes in my work and compared that to my experiences moving from Nevis to Minneapolis and soon to New York. I am so grateful to any paper that would interview me for a story, but I think I have gained an experience that has helped me understand our culture. People are drawn to positive feel good films- My animation is cute and makes people feel good. My other work is much more serious and often darker and negative to bring attention to problems in our environments. People don’t like to watch stuff like that. This is why it is being accepted at festivals over the other pieces I’ve made and this is why it is the focus of attention now. It’s not a good or bad thing about people, it’s just an observation and it makes sense. I don’t know if this will affect the type of work I continue making, but its been a great experience from which to learn. It’s been exciting, but it’ll probably take another 20 years now before I make it in the news for a film again.
Here are links to the news articles:
StarTribune: http://bit.ly/9GGLor
Fargo Forum: http://bit.ly/9Reir5
This Friday, I graduated from high school. The last few days were amazing and quite emotional. I’m fairly sure that I go (went) to the most amazing school in the world, so it was definitely sad to leave. I realized that I am fully an adult because of three reasons. I’m 18. I’m no longer in high school. I’m living on my own. I was “homeless” for a few days as I no longer have my bedroom at home; my sister is taking over for the summer. I no longer have a dorm room, and I didn’t have a place until I moved into a house today where I am subleasing a room for the summer. It’s a large house in Minneapolis, with college students living it, but much of it is empty and I have my own bathroom, so I think it’s going to work out. Life is changing, but other than becoming financially independent for the first time, everything is good.
I was featured in a news article on Minnpost’s website today. Check it out.
This is the last week that I am living in the Delta Dorms. We are good at coming up with fun things to do. This one’s called the Blanket Game. I will miss this crowd of people.
