CHRISTMAS: an acronym of fun
December 22, 2007Boy it’s been a while since I blogged! Hello G23 readers! Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Ho, Ho, Ho. I want to give an update of life, my thoughts in life, and just random whatevers now, and what better what to do it than by using the letters of C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S. to guide me?
A shot of the holiday benefit party decor in my studio.
Here we go!
C: Chocolate! I’ve been drinking chocolate milk non-stop for the past few days. My mom got me this amazing product months ago that I just found in my cabinet: Williams-Sonoma’s Rich & Creamy Hot Chocolate: Luscious Bittersweet Chocolate Shavings. It’s a tin container of the finest shavings of chocolate that you sprinkle into a cup of hot milk, or straight into your mouth. It’s awesome—go get it now, if it’s still out there. I could sit here eating it like it was the crumbs at the bottom of a potato chip bag…and I am.
H: Haute Couture! So anyone who knows my blog knows that I talk about the theatre and how it inspires me all the time. Something that I talk about less frequently but is just as important to me is Fashion. The other night on PBS, at like two in the morning, I caught a special called The Secret World of Haute Couture. It’s a 2002 British documentary that followed a journalist named Margy Kinmonth uncovering the world of those massively expensive, one-of-a-kind dresses, that are created in Paris. I love watching haute couture runway shows and seeing crazy pieces of wearable art. John Galliano is one of my heroes. The documentary inspired me to kick into gear a new body of work. I’m beginning to create really beautiful pieces of art out of fabric on canvases, and adding embellishments that take not only a long time to adhere, but also the kind of patience and detail that comes from experience. I’m going back to my roots as a crafty guy with an eye for detail.
I used fabric paint and dotted the fabric. It took about five hours to dot 2 square feet.
R: Resolutions! Ugh, don’t get me started. I’ve always been a big believer that new goals, endeavors, resolutions, etc. should start when you want it to start and not on the stroke of midnight of the New Year. But I like to join in the fun of making resolutions with my buddies and the rest of society. While I have the usuals like “make tons of artwork,” “find a boyfriend,” and “get into shape,” a new one has been to stop musterbating (read M below). I’m also growing up and finally telling myself to watch where my money goes. I’ll be thinking of more resolutions in the next few days.
I: Internet Viral Videos of 2007! I’m a sucker for amazing videos on the web. I pretty much favorite everything I see on YouTube. Well, Neatorama had a poll for the best videos of 2007 and ABC World News picked it up—so here are the top five videos of the year! I still can’t watch Miss Teen South Carolina without turning my body inside out, but boy did I love me some Chocolate Rain.
S: Spring Awakening! I caught the shoulda been last performance the other night for Johnny as Moritz, but the Broadway Strike of 2007 helped to push his contract an extra week. My family and all of our buddies got to come out and support him—it was really great. It was also the year anniversary of the show, so there were a ton of Spring Awakening fans aka The Guilty Ones who were sitting upstairs with us. The director, Michael Mayer, hopped on stage for the curtain call. In a weird, yet fitting parallel, isn’t it strange (and de-lovely) that the story opens with a mother having difficulties telling her young daughter where babies come from, and today, a hundred and some years after Spring Awakening was written, I see on Nightline, an interview of mommies having difficulties explaining to their kids what is going on with Jamie Lynn Spears. Curious…
T: Toys for Tots Benefit Party! I threw a gathering at my studio the other weekend and boy was it great. All my buddies brought an unwrapped gift as a donation to the Toys for Tots foundation. There were toy cars, art supplies, a black Barbie, a crazy robotic dinosaur, some board games and tons more. Thank you to everyone for coming and donating a toy. There’s a kid out there with a big smile on his/her face this holiday season! As for the party, I don’t remember anything that happened after 11 PM! But everyone has been saying that they had a blast, so hurray! Here are some fun pics before everyone arrived. Imagine my studio bumper to bumper with people—it was Sweet!
I had the movie Go looping on mute on my monitor while playing a holiday mix.
Kara and Taryn thought they’d be fashionably late by showing up a half hour late at 8:30. Too bad the party started at 9!
The Tree. The lens exposure flooded the tree’s light, but the tree is lit with rainbow lights. Some of my photographs from years gone by are hanging around the room.
The fun hanging centerpiece.
Great party tip: have the beverage table in the center of the room so people can access stuff from all sides. Not as much traffic, and everyone is…fluid. Notice the garbage can under the table for easy puking access!
M: Musterbating is bad! I just subscribed to a blog called LifeClever 
Tips for design and life. It’s a really neat blog dedicated to making the best of life a.k.a. self-help. Back on December 4th, David Moldawer blogged a post titled, Forge Ten Great Habits for the New Year (But Start Today, and Stop Calling Them Habits!). The first great habit he listed was about musterbation, and how we need to stop doing it. What is it? You’ve got to check it out—it has to do with psychology! It would be great, not to musterbate, in 2008…
A: A Christmas Carol! I need to confess that I never saw A Christmas Carol in its entirety, and if I ever have when I was a wee tot, I don’t remember it at all. But the other week, I caught it at TBG Arts Center starring the one and only Caitlin Thurnauer as Martha Cratchit. I had no idea that the performance space was going to be so intimate but I should have guessed from the production company name (Personal Space Theatrics). It was a grand ole time of beautiful (and technically difficult) holiday harmonies that made my heart warm. “God bless us, everyone,” has been my quote for the holidays ever since.
S: Swiss Cheese! I can’t think of anything of note for the last S, but the other day, I made the greatest grilled Swiss cheese sandwich, evar. I used the instructions here, from wikihow. Amazing! Happy Holidays!
Links Cited:
BBC Programs listing, The Secret World of Haute Couture.
Wikipedia listing, John Galliano.
Neatorama post, Top Viral Videos 2007, by Miss Cellania.
LifeClever Tips for design and life post, Forge Ten Great Habits for the New Year (But Start Today, and Stop Calling Them Habits!), by David Moldawer.
Wikihow listing, How to Make a Grilled Cheese Sandwich.
Glad you liked the post, Jeff. You might also like my wife’s blog, Maquette: http://www.samanthahahn.com/blog. She’s an artist and illustrator who will soon be based in Brooklyn–we’re moving from Manhattan in the spring.