Some News, and also, the best spam EvER LOLZ

Hello non-existant reader! Hello future generation!

As you may or may not know, I'm working on a big project: I'm producing a TV show on PUBLIC ACCESS! It's cooler than it sounds.


It's called Share.tv, an hour-long program modeled off of the Share collective in NYC (and in several other locations around the globe). The point is, people get together with stuff that makes noise and/or video, and they improvise off of one another. Sometimes the results are mesmerizing, and sometimes they're deplorable, but it's one experience where the process that matters as much (if not even more) than the product, and it's a good time. If that doesn't make for good TV in-and-of-itself, picture that stuff going on with pre-taped segments featuring really prolific new media artist where they're showing off their material. Then, also, I'm going to try to get some animations and music videos interspersed between segments. That's good TV! Writers strike be damned! If you're interested, and would like to help out, cheer, or give me some tips, have a look at the project's website! Or join my Google Group!

On a completely different note, OMG did I get the best spam in the world today! (Now, before you ask me why I felt like going through the spam folder, I'll tell you: I was waiting for one of those confirmation emails you get when you join some service, but it wasn't popping up, so I figured it didn't get past my spam block. I was right.) I can't believe I almost deleted the whole contents of the folder! I would have missed out on such gems as these 5 emails, which I actually rescued from the spam folder, they were so good:



And yes, I couldn't resist the compulsion to open them. I know, I know, it's bad, and I shouldn't be doing those things (bad Harlo! Didn't they teach you ANYTHING at the UNIVERSITY?) but it was SOOOOOO WORTH IT:




Can i borrow someone else's computer to actually pay www . trarnies . com a visit? What's a trarnie? (A cross between a tranny and a carnie, natch.)

Silkscreening is rad.

Silkscreening is rad.
Originally uploaded by lovers v haters

Over the weekend, Noah and I silkscreened some t-shirts. The gold bombers on royal blue are, of course, all his doing.

No, I wasn't making fun of you, Andrew Boch

Saturday night, Noah and I went to go see Ernie and the Automatics, this ca-razy blues cover band who I can picture playing at someone's wedding (not mine), and whose line-up consists of two members emeritus of the band Boston (Barry Goudreau and Sib Hashian), an event photographer who actually hands out her business card at the gig, and Ernie Boch, Jr., the Northeastern automobile industry giant. (Come on Down!)

I actually never heard anything by the Automatics, and the only song I know from Boston ("know" being used in the loosest of senses) is Forplay/Longest Time because it's the Imposible Song on Rock Band, which is a game we like to play in the living room at Park Street. Really, I just like the idea of Ernie Boch, Jr. He's a guy who has the balls to create his own aura of superstardom and foist it upon us. I can respect that. (Also, one of my friends is his nephew, a fact I did not know until after my little Ernie-crush was kindled.)

The concert was at the Middle East, with the Automatics playing the downstairs venue, and White Williams playing upstairs. When I went to go get our tickets, the girl behind the counter could not find my name on the will-call list. Turns out, she assumed I was on the will-call list for White's show (since according to some sources, I am a "hipster"). I corrected her, and she actually apologized, saying "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stereotype". In all fairness, I did want to see White Williams, so I responded "It's okay, we're trying to be ironic." I was kind of pressing to go upstairs after the Automatics played to see White Williams, too. But that didn't pan out.

Anyways, we got to meet Ernie later that night; he was a really chill guy. We thought that talking about knowing his nephews could be a great ice-breaker, but turns out, Ernie was so nice and kind of jazzed to talk to fans that we didn't need the way-in. Also, we had the impression that he only vaguely recalled who Andrew is. Somehow, the night ended with me, Noah, my roommate Emily, and some guy she met on the Something Awful forums piling into Ernie's limo to listen to a hot new unreleased single by the Automatics. This was monumental because (1) it was the first Automatics song that isn't a cover, and (2) we noticed that where most rock stars' limos would be filled to the hilt with liquor of all kinds, Ernie's limo held ONLY CANDY, leading us to realize that Andrew's extraordinary dependency on sugar is indeed hereditary. And a good time was had by all.

Mr. No-show

Mr. No-show
Originally uploaded by lovers v haters

Chinese DNS error

(thx eli!)

Sunbathing for Christmas: I could get used to that...

So, I went to Haiti over the holiday. Vacation? Well, I guess a little bit. Otherwise, I was shooting pics and vids for Longchamp Charities, an amazing little 501(c)(3) founded by a great friend of mine, Marjorie Longchamp, and her best friend, Béatrice Brice. They operate on a very simple principle: Haitian children would have a much better chance at success if there was a way to eliminate the basic barriers to their advancement. It's hard for children to be children, and to grow into functional adults, if they are encumbered from the start by lack of food, shelter, and security. Longchamp Charities, or L'école de Mme. Bébé, as they say there, grants children with these very simple things, and all they ask for in return is that they go to school.

Some 70-odd kids live with Bébé on her sprawling property in Thomassin, Haiti, in what looks like, to me, some post-civilization Carthaginian neverland. It's beautiful. And although it recalled the most exciting of my Lord of the Flies fantasies, there was very rigid structure to the kids' days and nights. Schooling plays a central role there; kids will stay up till past midnight studying if they have not learned their lessons fully, even on Christmas. They drill eachother when they're bored on multiplication tables and French grammar, in preparation for any of Bébé's feared drills.

Of course, I had my reservations about going to Haiti in the first place. I heard many horror stories about what happens to people in Haiti, both from the "media", and from my hosts themselves. Bébé herself, was kidnapped 2 years ago, and shot in the liver. She was stuck in a traffic jam, at a somewhat reasonable hour in the day, in a very busy intersection. They pointed a machine gun at her head, and forced her out of her car. Three hours later, she was found lying in the street three blocks from the site of her abduction, and people just stepped over her body as she lie bleeding. Her life was saved, but she still bears a nasty scar, and is incredibly prone to infection. I asked her if she'd ever buy a gun to protect herself, and her children. She said no, because she doesn't want God to ever question her faith in Him. As you can probably surmise, Bébé is a force to be reckoned with.

My trip was, above all, eye-opening. I could write pages and pages about my time there, but I don't believe that would do it justice, and nor do I want to cast any sort of mystery over the land, its people, or my time there. I'm just lucky I got to see it. I took about a gazillion pics and vids while there, and it's all up on my flickr account. Here's a guide to the photo sets I made:

L'école de Mme. Bébé

This set contains lots of pics of the grounds. We're trying to drum up about $10,000 for repairs to the grounds, which will include finishing up the top two stories of the house, and turning the bottom floors into a mess hall and dormitory for the kids. Bébé's longterm goal for the organization is to hire more in-house teachers who can supplement the kid's learning in school, teach them practical trades like sewing, cooking, auto maintenance and such, and who can mentor the kids. We'd like to be able to accommodate these new hires on the top floors of the house, and move the kids into the lower floors. Also, they'd serve as private rooms for any volunteers we have on the property.

School

Here are some pics demonstrating what schooling is like for some of the Longchamp Charities kids. Although the kids were on holiday when I arrived, they were still studying ahead: getting a head start of next trimester's lessons. The girls featured in this set are all at the top of their class, and were rewarded with a special overnight trip to Cavaillon right before Christmas.

Cavaillon!

On December 22, we took a trip to a beautiful town called Cavaillon, 4 hours north-east of Port-au-Prince. OMG we were 15 in an SUV for 4 hours, it was ridiculous. Seven of the girls were packed in the back of the car, one girl was sitting on my lap in the front passenger's seat. Halfway through the trip, she vomited all over me, totally squashing any urges to procreate that I might have previously harbored. We stayed at the town judge's house, who also owns the town radio station and rec center. This trip was special, because two of the girls, Arnilde and Christhilde, are from there, and they got to see their family for the first time in three years. The girls' family, who were so proud of their daughters, and happy to know they have been taken care of under Bébé's supervision, gave us loads of peanut butter, sugar cane, chickens, and a turkey to take home with us. This was a very warm gesture. However, spending 4 hours in a cramped SUV with 2 live chickens, a screaming turkey, and 11 sugar cane sucking kids was kind of the last thing I wanted to do.

Bébé's Kids!

Finally, here are some great shots of the kids. Believe me, they're an amazing bunch of little people: fun-loving, happy, and inquisitive. Just like any kids. It was a lot of fun to spend my holiday with them, and I felt honored by their welcome.

BTW, if any of these pics have stirred the philanthropic bone in your body, feel free to support us by donating via PayPal here. What's beautiful about this organization, is that it's not one that hinges on your pity: these kids are being given a chance to make it, and also, equally importantly, they're given a chance to just be kids. They're doing such great work out there: let's hope they can continue it!