We Are the Fiend Club

If any of you cared about why your pal Sarah was absent Friday it was because I left to visit Caitlin in SUNY Purchase a day earlier than I expected. I stayed there for two nights gaining what is called 'my first college experience' that wasn't a tour. I saw Megan Haug and Mike Hand there too. I have come to the conclusion that everybody just wants to know your name in college. They amount of introductions I made for college strangers is many. Just an odd observation I made. They want to know your name and meet everybody even if you never see them again. Maybe I felt this as an introvert odd and unnecessary. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so introverted. I think I tend to come off as really shy or scared to be social when really I just don't talk unless I feel like I have something to add to the conversation. I don't feel like making useless ramble just for the sake of conversing. I think shyness and introversion are two different things.

The real reason I visited Purchase was because I wanted to go to a concert in the surrounding town, White Plains and Caitlin provided me with a place to stay. Misfits were playing at a tattoo convention in White Plains that Saturday, so I went and dragged Caitlin along with me. I definitely mentioned it before but the Misfits are one of my favorite punk bands. I love the theatricality of them, most likely because I was raised on Queen. They are also the progenitors of the punk subgenre Horror Punk. If you don't know this about me I am obsessed with Halloween, probably because I'm born in October (mark your calenders October 18th is coming sooner than you think). Their songs have a horror and science fiction film theme. Some examples of this are the songs: American Psycho, Astro Zombies, Die Die My Darling, Teenagers from Mars, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Night of the Living Dead, and Hollywood Babylon. Their iconic logo is taken from the film Serial The Crimson Ghost which is also used as a title for a song. They themselves are considered to be icons for punk music and culture.

When I saw the Misfits concert there was not a lot of people there. I think this could be because it was in upstate NY rather than NYC.The venue itself looked like a high school auditorium which gave the show some funny juxaposition. Somehow I was at the barricade the entire show. The sound guys for the show were kind of horrible, so bad the second band got really mad at them (I still can't hear), but they got it together for the most part when Misfits performed.Going back to the theatricality of them the stage went from:

to

and

 Something about concerts makes me feel very much alive. I was singing every word and at first I wasn't sure if it was just his eye makeup but Jerry Only was watching me for most of the show. For those who don't know, Jerry Only started the band in 1977 with Glenn Danzig and has played bass for all these years while so many band members came and went. He is the only current member that has been there from the start and now provides vocals for their shows. Right after the show Jerry Only came out and did a meet and greet. When I saw him he immediately puts his hand up for a high five saying "You were singing every song! You're awesome". Going into a hug for a picture he sang 'my girl' to me and kissed my head and then had me kiss his cheek. I felt like I met punk royalty and felt rather starstruck! The merch guy then gave me one of the signed posters for free. I feel like luck could not be more in my favor that night. I  was thinking about putting "Jerry Only thinks I'm awesome" on my resume but I decided against it.

The World's Smartest Dog

I came across this story on tumblr, but the original article is from the website Popular Science.
Raised by a former Psychology  professor, John Pilley, Chaser is a medium sized Border Collie, and can understand 1,200 words, understands syntax, and makes inferences.


The breed itself is known to be one of the most intelligent breeds of dog; they are bred to be working dogs (herding farm animals on the Anglo-Scottish border).Pilley takes this working energy and uses it to teach Chaser rather than playing an endless game of fetch. Chaser has the intelligence of a two and a half year old child. Most dogs do commands because of the sounds or tones they hear but do not truly understand the human language. I actually like to test this out on my dog Ruby often using the same tone to call her over but replacing her names with "stupid" or "poopy". Ruby still runs over to me thinking her name is poopy for the moment. Instead of using very basic commands like 'sit' or 'stay' the interviewer uses more complex phrases such as "go to the living room" or "relax". None of these were a challenge to Chaser. Understanding upward 1,200 words makes her know more of the human language than any other primate. Her inference making is tested by placing three objects on the floor, one being her toy named 'fuzzy', another toy named 'bamboozel', and a new balance sneaker that she does not know. She is told to find the sneaker causing her to analyze the objects. Coming to the conclusion that she already knows the two toys fuzzy and bamboozel she correctly chooses the sneaker. Pilley said about Chaser, "I distinctly got the sense that she was thinking not just reacting".  


you can pre-order John Pilley's book on Chaser on amazon: Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words maybe I'll get it from Santa Paws this year.

This is a very interesting dog that makes me think about if we put more effort into teaching dogs like Pilley taught Chaser how different our society could be. Not some doggie revolution but maybe they won't be seen as such a stupid animals. I mean I would be pretty dumb if nobody tried to teach me anything other than sit and stay. Then again Chaser could be one of a kind. Who knows? If find this very thought provoking. I would love my dogs to know more but it is very ruff and I simply don't have the time to become a dog teacher.  

I was looking around the internet and I came across this interesting book that reminds me of STAC for some reason. I think it is because we always tend to look at successful or powerful designs and how we can apply what they did to us (ex: the simplicity of most Apple products).
The book is called: 100 Diagrams That Changed the World: From the Earliest Cave Paintings to the Innovation of the Ipod by Scott Christianson

This page says a little bit more about it 

It seems very informative of not only the past but the present. I somehow think some of this could give ideas for marketing STAC. A lot of it is mainly scientific revelations but they are still very influential to that society and even the society we live in now. It really shows the power of a drawing

Here are some of the diagrams in the book. Maybe if I come up with $17 I'll try to get it.

I feel like I can get ideas just from looking at the variety of diagrams in the book.

I really must go to sleep now. Good bye friends. Good night Moon.

Z?

You know those little lines in movies that sort of stick into the back of your heard and sometimes visit your thoughts like a cold? Well for some reason I have this one about no being able to go to sleep. The film Perrier's Bounty is an Irish crime thriller with Cillian Murphy and Bendan Gleeson. I watch a lot of Irish film now that I think about it... Anyways the main character Micheal McCrea's (Murphy) goofy old father came to him saying that whatever they do he must not sleep. He said that the grim reaper visited him and told him when he goes to sleep he will die. This thought dying the next time you go to bed seems to be haunting my brain now for some reason. Maybe it's time to go to bed...... or will I die. Find out tomorrow.

Fighting Evil by Moonlight...

and by evil I mean the tear jerking process that is putting a cosplay together that I will wear to New York Comic Con. Some of my past cosplays are:

Italy from Axis Powers Hetalia 

Terezi Pyrope from Homestuck

Marceline the Vampire Queen of Adventure Time

 and whatever the ever living hell Michelle and I will call this

(psch as if you will ever see my first cosplay)

THIS YEAR I will be cosplaying as Usagi/Serena Tsukino also known as Sailor Moon

I never approached the idea of cosplaying her because she is such an iconic character I thought it would be really expensive. Don't get me wrong cosplay no matter what is expensive, and yes mom, I know I could save a lot of money for the future instead of dressing up as characters running through New York City. But Sailor Moon cosplay wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. I bought a good basic Sailor Moon costume that was inexpensive and not made out of that cheap looking shiny satin. I got small little accessories like the hairpins and blue contacts. 

Last night I got a ton done with Michelle Li finishing my boots, starting my broach and fixing my wig. I honestly don't know what I would do with out her. She is so helpful to me for a cosplay she isn't even wearing  I can not thank her enough. I feel bad taking away some of your time to work on your Kiki's Delivery Service cosplay to help me!

My wig's ponytails (not the odango buns) were much curlier, frizzier, and knottier than they should be so Michelle, my belle, helped me straighten them my pouring boiling water over them about 3-4 times for each pony tail. 

I wish I had a before picture :(

We also made boot covers that go over my red cowboy boots. I didn't take a picture of them with the boot cover on because I still have to add crescent moons on them but have this picture of me in red cowboy boots.

as Ted Moesby would say "pulling them off."

We also watched a lot of Spongebob and listened to Biggie Smalls which causes my dreams to be haunted by Spongebob as The Notorious B.I.G.

I like to think of cosplay as an art form. I mean some cosplays are so amazing I am just so awestruck and inspired. That's why I liked Syfy's controversial show Heroes of Cosplay. Although it is a bit like America's Next Top Model meets comic con all of the work done on the show is really impressive and interesting to watch them make. They use machines I don't even know exist to craft and bring their cosplays to life.

Jessica Merizan as Tank Girl

This photo above was my personal favorite cosplay on the show. It really brought Tank Girl to life! She made all of this and a helmet. She did a bald Tank Girl which isn't very common. 

Riki from Heroes of Cosplay as Hell Girl

I wish my wallet was bigger so I could pull off a really great cosplay.

in the meantime here is a picture of Michelle's cat

 

Fun thing to do in the hallways. If you see somebody you know (or don't) in front of you and they don't see you go up behind them and start stroking their arm of back. They will be both horrified and relieved when the see you. Very funny 10/10 would recommend. 

Charlotte's World Wide Web

My search into crowdfunding projects started me off here:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/creating-for-my-kids
I found this guy in Mineola! Didn't expect to find somebody so close. I hope I bump into him in real life his art is pretty cool. His name is Gene DeCicco and his goal is $800 dollars so he can purchase a computer monitor that you can directly draw onto so he can pursue his dream in being an illustrator so he can provide for his family. He starts off by providing a childhood story that explains how art became so important to him. Ideas we can take from this can be in what we give to those who fund us. He is giving out sketches of anything you want, superhero drawing of you, full color drawing and comic, having the funder appear in the comic he is working on, and a pop culture painting of what you request. I think a lot of what we can give back is art commissions.

After looking at that I went back to IndieGoGo's front page and I found this interesting project
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/designing-the-world-s-first-floating-city
A floating city! How cool, I kinda want to live on one. Best part is that they have already achieved their goal of 20,000 dollars. Each dollar given will be matched by another foundation. I wish STAC had some organization that would match any funds we got. To be honest the "perks" to be amazing. I think people will donate purely because the cause itself is super interesting not so much because they would like something in return.

I then came to
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/escapist-artist-gallery-studios
I love what these guys stand for. They want to help escape the stereotype of the struggling artist. They want to give back to other artist because they see a lot of successful artist not helping out other artists. They want to teach artists how to become successful on their own. They want to build an artist training ground. They want to provide mentorship for free. They are from Houston, Texas so their accents make me laugh a little but they really have a great idea that I do hope they succeed in getting. They are offering art prints, tshirts, coozies, bracelets,an art book, name written on some sort of honorary wall. They come off as really nice people with a nice goal in mind. If I had money I would want to donate to them.

I went into "most funded" and look into the ones that need saving
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-ps-gallery
This is for saving a gallery. The PS Gallery in Missouri successfully achieved their goal of $40,000! I think what was really good about this is how well everything was shot. From their photographs in the info section to the filmography in the video. This is something I think STAC can definitely do. What they gave in return for funding was: t shirts, tote bags, photography prints, oil paintings, hand made jewelry, name recognition and gift card for an ice cream shop nearby. I think we can use fabric paint and make our own little tote bags. Interesting idea but I'm not sure if that will cost more money than it will help us profit.

Something else that gave me an idea for STAC did not come in the form of a crowdfunding project but came in the mail.
Since I am a senior my mailbox and my email is being flooded with colleges trying to tell me how I am a 'stand out student' that should apply to them (of course I'm pretty sure everybody gets these and I am not so special at all). However one thing that actually made me interested in their college was this:

I got this neat-o book from the School of Visual Arts. Very eye catching in design and had a little pink tab on the top reading "SVA is...". I think that is how we should make a crowdfunding video: with the basis of telling them what STAC is... and then why STAC needs you...
Inside was not only a synopsis of each major but also a ton of examples of work from people in that major at their school. The work in there itself gave me ideas for art I wish I could  make, which then leads me to thinking that I could make cool stuff like that if I went to SVA. I'll bring it in tomorrow if anybody wants to look at it.
SVA seems very good at branding itself which is what I would hope seeing as it is an art school.

Derek

Tonight I started watching Ricky Gervais' newest work titled, Derek. It has been in the UK for a bit now but all the episodes (of series 1) have been released in America yesterday. It is one of those "only on Netfix" shows. It is about a 49 year old man who works in a nursing home I have to say I was pretty impressed by it and did not expect to get hit by it like I did. I was really impressed with Gervais' performance in this. I think most of the characters I've seen Ricky Gervais have this asshole-ish kind of personality to some degree, mainly concerned with their own lives and how others think of them. Derek is the opposite of that, he really cares about everybody around him and has a very pure heart. He has a child's naivety about him. Many described Derek to be autistic but Gervais denies this saying that Derek is not mentally disabled. I do see where people are getting the idea that he was autistic though. Other than Derek all the characters seemed like very real ordinary people. No crazy personalities really going for a laugh. That is probably because it is a mockumentary. Not only is it funny but also very touching, unlike any shows I have watched recently. For the most part, I don't cry at too many movies or television shows unless some animal has died. This show really got me. I started crying. I was crying watching the very first episode. Normally it takes a couple hours or episodes for me to be emotionally invested enough to start crying but in 20 minutes Derek got to me. Watching this show you will laugh, and you will cry, then maybe cry again. There are only seven episodes (24 minutes each episode) so if you can somehow find a way to watch this, please do!

Watch Derek here on Netflix

The Plumb

So two days ago in Physics (which gives me 5 periods in a row with Brian Brew can I get a hell yeaH) we were talking about Plumb bobs and why it is called that. Well if you want to use something as a weight, lead was always a good choice. Have you noticed how lead's symbol is Pb? Well in Latin lead is actually plumbum. Kind of a funny word isn't it pluuuuummmmmbuuuummmmm. I then chirped into the conversation and asked if it had anything to do with plumbers. Apparently it does! Long ago before we figured out drinking lead is probably not safe, we would fix the pipes with lead! The teachers seem shocked that I made such a connection and I was shocked that is was the 5th period in a row I made myself look like a huge nerd. I just like learning. I'm not a huge fan of the whole school thing but I love obtaining knew knowledge. Does anybody else feel like that? I have so much knowledge of the strangest things that most people that talk to me for a while eventually turn around to me and say, "how the f*ck do you know that" and "how does your brain hold all of this information". I'm not sure I can recite my 7 times tables but I sure can tell you in depth how giraffes give birth.

I am an Anti Christ!

I am an anarchist!

For the talent show, the people who are doing fine arts are not so much going to be doing a group project as in 'let's paint a mural' or something but more coming up with our own little thing based around a prompt. We will use each other as a community. When coming up with ideas for a prompt, Ashley said that she was interested in culture and she wanted to paint an old Incas woman. We eventually agreed to use "culture as our prompt". As first I was a little nervous for myself, I am super white and  I don't get very cultural (at home at least) except for food, maybe. I am mostly English, Irish, and Italian. I didn't want to draw Victorian clothes, I didn't want to draw a ton of potatoes or a Celtic dancer, and old Italian. Later on in the day while I was listening to Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols and thinking about macaroni, the idea came to my mind that I can use the punk movement in England for my project. That's culture right? I love all types of punk music: old, new, pop, post, Cali, NYC, UK. My favorite older punk band is probably Misfits but they are from New Jersey. Although it is largely disputed as to where punk originated from, the Sex Pistols were the ones who initiated the punk rock movement in England. Around that time England was in a recession, unemployment had been at its worst since World War Two. It is thought that punk came as a response to that and to a certain type of society. Although they only had one studio albums and four singles they are considered one of the most influential bands.

Sex Pistols

I actually got to see The Ramones' drummer Marky Ramone last Saturday. He played two songs with Fall Out Boy and it was so awesome. I was starstruck. Especially because I was close to the front in the Barclays Center's general admission. Ahh.

Even though I now take the opportunities
I still find myself back in that room in my mind
looking at the world through a window
although I see myself clearly
I sometimes find it hard to look into your eyes

Rolling the ball, Rolling the ball...

About the Artist

The name is Sarah Robinson, don't wear it out. Sarah is currently a senior at Herricks High School. She draws, she paints, she acts, she sometimes sings, she is an artist. Sarah tries not to let a day go by without making some sort of art. Sarah has also been in the gifted arts program at Herricks High School, the Student Television Arts Company since my freshman year. Over those years she has done quite a few workshops with STAC dealing with figure drawing, paper mache, and working with oil paints. Sarah also attended the Fashion Institute of Technology's precollege program and had her art featured on their website. Last year Sarah won an art award for advanced painting at our school's art show. Sarah has also played roles in the fall 2011 play Metamorphoses (such as Baucis, Erysichthon's mother, and other small roles) and in the fall 2012 play Our Town as the Stage Manager character. She does intend on participating in this year's plays as well. Some of her artistic issues include: supernatural beings, spirituality, faces, eyes, the zodiac, comic books, films, and music. Some artists than influence her work are Gerard Way, Jhonen Vasquez, Gabriel Ba, and Egon Schiele. Sarah really enjoys expressionism. Although she doesn't have a clue what she wants to do for a living, she knows that no matter what she does, she will keep art in her life as much as possible.

School jitters and the death of summer.

My last first day of school is tomorrow. I'm almost positive I'll have to take a 'first day of school' picture with my sister who will be a freshman. Mentally I'll appear stoic by I can feel my body shaking. But I think the shakes are just the side effects of the anti-depressants. ANYWHO- I'm really looking forward for STAC tomorrow. I can't believe it is my fourth year! I still remember walking in as a little (not much littler) freshie entering a room of excitement and newbie nervousness. [I also remember spilling water on my crotch but I think I got away with that one]. I don't want to be nostalgic I want to be so happy and have so much fun this year! I think sometimes we get to caught up in STAC nostalgia and don't enjoy the present. I'm mostly looking forward to observing the newbies and how they adjust to this special little program of ours. The first day is always funny to me because it has these clashing feelings of 'oh shit what did I get myself into, what am I doing oh god oh god what's happening' and 'heyyyyy gurl how was your summer I missed you! nice haircut look at the newbies' in the air. I'm a pessimist with a lot of hope. I expect everything to go wrong but I hope with my whole heart that it will go swimmingly.

I'm pretty sure I got paler this summer rather than tan. I'm cool with looking dead.

Made with Love and Stabbing

Hello to anybody that keeps up with this blog. I have been meaning to make this post for a few weeks now but I had to wait a few weeks for Micro Center to give me a call about my computer they were 'diagnosing'. It is really dumb actually. I come in and tell them exactly what is wrong with my computer and they make me pay for them to look at my computer for two weeks only for them to tell me the exact thing I told them to begin with. They didn't even fix it. I just took it back because school is starting and I'm not gonna get it fixed for half the price I payed for the whole computer. It isn't that bad. But enough of my ranting.

A few weeks ago I looked up needle felting. If you don't know what needle felting is, it is a kind of craft where you are pretty much sculpting and shaping wool to look like what you want it to. This is done by using a special needle that tangles the wool with it self while you stab the piece into the shape you please.

You can make something like this without any thread

What I wanted to make out of wool was Puppycat from Bee and Puppycat which is really funny and cute. It is made by Rebecca Sugar who created Fiona and Cake for Adventure time and does storyboarding for Adventure Time.
You can watch both parts here:

Puppy cat looks like 

Here is my progress on my project

took some wool and made it into a ball

this picture should have came first but that's life sometimes 

viola! made the shape of the body

 because you are stabbing wool with a needle very close to your fingers things may get a little bloody

 Made the shape of the head and attached it to the body by jabbing around where I want the two pieces to connect

made the leg and brown paw and connected it the same way as the head

hooray now all the legs are done

look I got myself a band aid

made a tail but I didn't like it so the current tail is different than the one depicted

got some ears and eyebrows or whatever those brown spots are! Now I just have to decide how I'm going to go about the face and the collar. I think I want to sew the eyes in with thread (I know I said you don't need thread but you can if you want some details) use wool for the nose, maybe thread for the mouth. I don't have pink wool so I might have to either get some or maybe coloring some white wool myself. As for the bell on the collar I think a real bell would be a nice touch.

I'll keep you update with this... and not stab my fingers too much.