BLOG HAS UP AND MOVED

This blog has expanded a lot in the last 3 months, and has reached its limitations at wordpress.com.

It has been upgraded!

It’s now at: http://www.projectdominion.com/blog/

I saw a shark in my dream and what it meant

Last night I dreamed that I was eating a pint of ice cream and when I got half way through there was a head of a tiny shark inside the container. It looked like it had been in the container for a while, the skin was soft and greenish-white in color; it looked like it had been preserved in formaldehyde. I was in an enormous auditorium filled with high school classmates. I remember remarking to one of them about how horrible it was that the Häagen-Dazs factory would make such a terrible mistake. And I felt that no one in the auditorium cared about the complete injustice I received.

According to DreamMoods.com, seeing a shark in a dram ” indicates feelings of anger, hostility, and fierceness. You are undergoing a long and difficult emotional period and may be an emotional threat to yourself or to others. Perhaps, you are struggling with your individuality and independence, especially in some aspect of your relationship. Alternatively, a shark represents a person in your life who is greedy and unscrupulous. This person goes after what he or she wants with no regards to the well-being and sensitivity of others…”

I was bit by a dog a few days ago. It was my landlord’s 15 year old daughter’s white terrier. A very small but extremely vicious, untrained dog. It has a barking problem when anyone comes in or out of the building, I can see the dog through a glass door, flashing its white teeth. On Friday, it got out. It ran over and bit my thigh. I was wearing thick jeans so it did not break the sin. But the bruise became dark purple and huge–it became about 9 square inches on my leg. My landlord didn’t seem to care that it was her daughter that let the dog out. If I were her,  I would make her daughter apologize in person to me. It’s not cool to cause someone to have a huge bruise and not do anything about it. I could have called animal control but I didn’t; and I actually know this is not the first time the dog has bit someone.

So perhaps my dream is not about a person being hostile, it is about a dog and an owner that is unscrupulous? In real life, I didn’t do anything assertive about the dog bite because I didn’t want anything to happen to the 15 year old’s dog. But she didn’t care about what happened to me; why did I care about her?

Costumes @ NYC ComicCon

It  was super heroes galore at this past weekend’s 2011 ComicCon / Anime Festival, held in the Javits Center in midtown Manhattan.

“New York Comic Con is the East Coast’s biggest and most exciting popular culture convention. Our show floor plays host to the latest and greatest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. Our panels and autograph sessions give fans a chance to interact with their favorite creators. Our screening rooms feature sneak peeks at films and television shows months before they hit either big or small screens. And with dedicated professional hours, New York Comic Con is a market place, bringing together the major players in the entertainment industry. New York Comic Con is the second largest pop culture convention in America and the only one that takes place in the comic book, publishing, media, and licensing capital of the world — Gotham City.”

Not everyone wore a costume; a lot of comic book guys wore plain clothes but you could still spot them out. Here is one gentleman browsing merchandise from a vendor.

And this tiny pic shows the author of this blog entry:

(Above image taken by super cool blogger Extralarry)

Struggling to survive: Films on Netflix Steaming

Each of these movies are about women or men struggling to survive, where individuals often make a living by any means they can (if you catch my drift).

We haven’t seen all of them yet but we hope to view them online soon!

1. La Vie Promise 2002 NR 89 minutes. While on the lam in the countryside, a prostitute and her estranged teenage daughter struggle to reconcile their differences.
2. Or, My Treasure 2005 NR 96 minutes. An Israeli girl does all she can to support her mother, a sick and aging prostitute. Her goal is that her mother never has to walk the streets again.
3. Descent 2007 NC-17 99 minutes. In the wake of a violent rape, a star college student descends into depression, drug abuse and promiscuity, then gets the chance to exact revenge.
4. This Girl’s Life 2003 R 104 minutes. A porn star enters a tentative romance as she cares for her ailing father and supplements her income by testing the monogamy of other women’s men.
5. Viva Laldjerie. Three urban Algerian women face an uncertain future in this drama set during times of increasing fundamentalism. Twenty-something Goucem (Lubna Azabal), her traditional mother, Papicha (Biyouna), and prostitute Fifi (Nadia Kaci) must steer clear of the local terrorists yet still make enough money to survive. Liberated Goucem refuses to give up her freedom by continuing to work and hitting the nightclubs, while her mom longs for happier times.
6. End of Love. In the wake of his mother’s suicide, a handsome gay man named Ming (Chi-Kin Lee) navigates the twisted road to love while secretly working as a “rent boy” in Hong Kong.
7. Lila Says. 2004. French film. Average Netflix stars: 3.2 stars (we’ve seen it and agree). Lila Says tells the story of a quiet young poet who develops a crush on the blond Lila, a girl who recently moved into his Arab ghetto with her “aunt.” Note: hot actors.
8. L.I.E. 2001 UR. IMDb says this film is about “A 15-year-old Long Island boy loses everything and everyone he knows, soon becoming involved in a relationship with a much older man.” It’s a classic independent film with a gay theme, and a must-see for gay young adults from the NYC area.  Recommended!

L.I.E. (2001) UR. According to Netflix: “In this biting and disturbing coming-of-age tale from writer-director Michael Cuesta, life is bittersweet along the L.I.E., also known as the Long Island Expressway, as suburban teen Howie Blitzer (Paul Franklin Dano) learns all too clearly. In the space of a week, he loses nearly everything and everyone he knows and is left to navigate his adolescence virtually unsupervised.”

Occupy Wall Street is….is it really just a ruse or is it for real?

A Report by Guest Correspondent Amiee Winehausenberg

After interviewing many Occupy Wall Street protesters, what  I have found was quite surprising.  Although the bones behind the operation my be to shape a good moral fiber and back bone for the United States, some believe its less about corporate greed and more about…well, hooking up.

“My friends are a bunch of hipster dudes and they all are going down there, trying to find liberal women with a cause who will take their shirt off”  says Patricia O’Dowd of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  I caught up with Patricia and her friends at the swanky Dumonts restaurant in Williamsburg and thy had plenty to say on the subject. “Guys are going down thee to meet easy women not unlike the 60’s when hippies flocked to the streets to protest the war, part of that was exciting and being part of something but part of it was taking off your clothes and getting down,” says Renee Pastriani, photographer.  She claims that there are many that believe the protest without a point or a plan is great but that it is a bunch of young kids looking to bang in the park.  In the 60’s there was a sex revolution and that might be what is happening again. People are fed up and out of work and maybe just maybe the one thing to do when you are out of work is sex. Sex is free and with a cause, well, it’s even that much more romantic.”

Sex is free and with a cause, well, it’s even that much more romantic.

“I came here to protest deez [sic] banks and stuff not having…you know…give out the monies and stuff, but sleeping in the park well there is a chance I am hooking up too and that is all right by me,” says Raul Rodgriquez.  And hooking up he did as he claims to have had sex with two women last night in Zugatti Park.

“It makes me sick though the people would say that we are out here doing this for a reason and sex has nothing do with it. We need to shut down these banks and these CEOs I think the biggest shame though is that we are actually so far away form the real  crooks Goldman Sachs office is 16 blocks away and my husband who works there says they didn’t even know there was  a protest,” says Aurilia Goldmanstein.  “Well only time will tell.”

Q: Where can I buy hentai? A: This weekend at NYC ComicCon

If you don’t already know, hentai is pornographic animation of Japanese origin (ie, anime, manga, etc). For those New Yorkers desperate to purchase, you can do so at this weekend’s ComicCon converntion at NYC’s Javits Center (the weekend of October 15th).

According to one attendee of this weekend’s ComicCon (the greatest nerd convention on the east coast),  “Many people feel that hentai is ‘cute’…you can be into hentai and not be turned on by these images. ” Tatsuya Ichihashi, who is a Japanese-American an an avid japanimation fan added, “Even though hentai is explicit, they are cartoon illustrations!” (Note: Tatsuya is an interesting guy because he is an asianphile and not caucasian.)

A Superhero at NYC ComicCon 2011

NYC’s ComicCon has diverse anime to purchase — it’s any anime-lover’s paradise. Below are pictures of one vendor, taken today on the exhibition floor. More photographs of ComicCon will be posted soon to this site–stay tuned!!!

Is it easier in Photoshop to make images that have dark overtones (versus cheerful overtones)?

Photoshop images can have multiple layers, and when merged together, the effects can be ghostly (or ghastly).

Thus, the question arises: is it easier for a photographer (or a graphic designer, etc.) to make their images “dark” in theme like the one above?

(Confused? To phrase it in another way: Is it easier to make an image “dark” rather than “cheerful” using Photoshop?)

In a telephone interview with a random digital artist, it was revealed that “it’s NOT easier to create happy images or depressing images because of the technology, it’s about the person who creates the images.”

But what if it is a collaboration?

The photograph above was taken by a stand-up comedian. I edited it. It was a perfectly toned image to begin with. I used Photoshop so that it became pretty dark in color. I then added a layer of flowers over the face. Thus, I, not the photographer, made the image “less cheerful.”

Like in most forms of media, it’s usually up to the editor when determining the tone of the story and how the story comes out.

How to Get Back at Corporations for Sending Junk Mail

Everyday I return home to be swamped with junk mail offers, mostly form credit card companies. My father even gets credit card offers at my address but he doesn’t live with me and never has in NYC. This paper wasting is more than just bad for the environment, it’s also personally annoying. When the banks are raking in profits, these credit card offers serve to remind me that banks want to make non-wealthy citizens indentured servants.

But there is good news, a small grass-roots movement in response:

Take the junk mail they send you and mail it back to them using their prepaid envelopes. While you are at it, shove other junk mail in the envelope too. Banks have to pay for each envelope they receive, and they have to pay to open the letters, so it costs them a few cents every time they receive their own junk mail back.

Do you want to hurt banks in little ways since you can’t hurt them on a larger scale? If yes: RETURN JUNK MAIL TO SENDER

 

Top, new, profitable graduate degree programs

On the lookout for a graduate diploma? These two are from the college catalog (a few liberties have been taken with the wording):

MPS – Master of Postal Service

“Are you tired of having to shut off all of the house lights to avoid needless chitchat by pretending you aren’t home when your toothless mail man comes to your door? If so, you will be happy to learn the government is now requiring all postal workers to have a MPS degree. Several  private and for-profit universities will be enrolling students in the fall 2012 school year. These 16-month graduate degree programs will offer mandatory  courses with titles such as “efficient line management” and “English for native English speakers (also known as ENE).” Estimated tuition costs per semester will be around $20k. The target audience for the degree will be social workers seeking career transitions, as the economic return on the degree will be substantially higher than their current degrees…”

Combined MFA / CSS Certificate

“Because a Master’s in fine arts will cost you an average of 100K bucks and you will end up working at Starbucks, our university now offers a postgraduate certificate in CSS. No, it’s not a certificate in Cascading Style Sheets– it’s a degree in Customer Service Science (CSS)! For an add-on of only 12 credits, you can fine tune your skills on the cash register and addressing customer complaints as to why there is oil paint in coffee cups.”

Blog Submission Not Accepted?: What I Did When Rejected

This past year I proposed two articles to two different blogs and both ideas were shot down. One blogger said she was too busy doing editorial work and I would have to modify the content of my article because it was basically not of interest to a mass audience. It was about obscure Netflix movies to watch on a lonesome Valentine’s Day. The second blog I inquired about simply took no submissions from other people. Since I now have a blog, it is great that I can post my own content online without fear of rejection. Not that I was really afraid of rejection, because I LIKE my writing, even though it is at times random.

If they don’t want my stuff, I really don’t care, there will be an audience elsewhere….like my own blog!

In response to my rejections: I posted an article about obscure movies under Film Art on my blog. I also published my odd comedy writing that I wanted to post on the second blog mentioned.

Side Note: Although I never did mention the names of these blogs, I will do a shout out when the latter blog is up and running, it should be good. To my friends with blogs I am not being pissy, I love you!