Imagination is More Important

So lately a lot has happened
I swear to you a detailed post about NOLA is in the works - it's just been slow-going cause of my job as Larrys photo assistant
I literally had work for three days in a row this week and it was insanity just keeping a good face on for some of it
Don't get me wrong - it was all amazing and I am getting a LOT of experience
I would like to show you the photo sessions but until he gets his website up (which I am helping with) then theres no way
Anyway!
So the payment for helping him with his site and basically doing what he calls "slave labor" for free means two things
1) I don't get paid in money
2) but I do get paid in equipment instead
Like this Nikon D200 dslr with some new batteries!
Color me super de duper excited - it will be my very first camera that is completely my own and that I worked for, ya know?
Excited about that - but he also said he will sell me the set of strobes that I have been borrowing from him for super cheap
Not sure what the price tag is on that, but whatever, I will cross that bridge when I get there
As of right now I got a few actual people in the commercial industry interested in actually letting me shoot them
Nothing as daunting as fashion like Larry shoots - but the idea of shooting for people that do professional hair and makeup
Well that DOES make me happy ^-^

And in addition to learning stuff, getting equipment, and just generally getting to participate in shoots something else happened!
We did an all day shoot for Justine magazine here in Memphis not too long ago
One of the shots entailed a girl sitting on a large pile of books and being cute
They were props and because the magazine was geared for teenage girls all of the books were young adult
As I was talking to the person that brought them in for the shoot, the girl that orchestrated everything, she said after the shot:
"Well if you want to pack these back in the box for me that would be great.
And while you do that, if you see anything you like then just take it home with you."
I was floored.
Was she serious?
Free.
Books!
So I very modestly grabbed three that I knew I really wanted, but she saw me being timid and said:
"Honestly the more you take with you then the less I have to carry back."
So I grabbed about three more!

"Timeless" by Alexandra Monir


"The Pledge" by Kimberly Derting


"A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness


"Wonderstruck" by Brian Selznick


"The Apothecary" by Maile Meloy

and the final book:

"Blood Red Road" by Moira Young

They vary in theme from sweeping romance to dystopian futures to magic all around - and some with a bit of everything I bet
So we shall see how I like em - other books I got for Christmas I haven't even posted on here!
But that shall be another entry if I feel the need
"Daughter of Smoke and Bone" is one that I am reading now and its pretty lovely
I guess I am forever drawn to young adult novels (that aren't like Twilight or something dumb) because they are so magical
Love books, love em all ^-^
As for now, goodnight world!

So I just got back from two trips
One was a short trip to Mississippi to see Jenny for a short spell
We met halfway in Tupelo and spent the afternoon at the mall there
I arrived first and waited for her by the carousel,
I have always loved carousels, they are so completely lovely to look at - and riding them is dizzying and enchanting
Anyway - she arrived and we walked around and bought just a few things
The most fun was simply being there and enjoying each others company for the most of the day
I had intended to go much earlier since I had another trip (much longer) to come, but we ended up making more and more excuses for me to stay and it was a lovely night of searching for warm leggings and a perfect pair of boots for Jenny
First detour from schedule was ice cream and Jenny got her favorite: bubble gum in a waffle cone which she heartily enjoyed
I got some kind of off-putting sherbet which I cannot remember the name of and did not finish
Either way we drove around and upon my request for sushi we stopped at a place that seemed to cater just that
It looked so-so from the front, just a regular establishment on a little strip
But on the inside we were completely taken aback by the quality of the environment
It was gorgeous
The first thing you see when you open the door is a little wooden bridge that leads you to the dining area, and water runs down the walls as large golden and pearl-colored fish swim underneath your feet
The host that seated us was a very handsome Japanese gentleman, and we looked around at the elaborate decor
Above the bar the ceiling was a giant wave of metal with little holes punched through and light shining from each one
It looked like gorgeous man-made constellations above a textured paper-looking wall in a nice tan color all around us
On the other side of the bar there was a wall of lit rectangular pieces all stacked in a fun abstract way
The result reminded both Jenny and I of something out of Disney's Tangled where all of the paper lanterns are being released into the sky - if you have yet to see it then you need it, its a gorgeous scene
But the best part was another sudo-wall that blocked the dining room from the hallway to the restrooms
It had a metal abstract front and behind that was a rust colored patchwork fabric
Jenny and I joked it was the door to the goblin market, and ate our delicious sushi (mine deep fried, since I have just recently discovered how very good it is)
The one thing that I did buy on the trip that I loved was a little acorn necklace that is a tribute to Peter Pan, and the 'kiss' that Peter gave Wendy that was later in the book to save her life
I tried to put a picture of it on here - but alas the internet does not want to co-operate with me

The second trip was much longer and so much happened that I fear I will not have time to simply put it all down this very moment - however I will try my hardest to do that as soon as possible while everything is still fresh in my mind
So just keep an open eye out
Because the trip was wonderful, magical, and amazing - New Orleans post coming soon I swear

So I spent all night hunting on etsy for this little treasure and I asked for the seller to reserve it for me until Friday when I get paid
The thing is, my dad owes me some money anyway for picking up a 33 dollar gift for someone - and I figured this would be an even trade if ever I get around to mentioning it to him (because he WILL conveniently forget)
Anyway - here is the listing, its called "Quench" which is just a wonderful title I think
[[here]]

Its aqua blue chalcedony, and it reacts kind of like opal or white moonstone in the light
The metal is oxidized which may turn my neck green but I will just have to deal I suppose unless I can find a way to counteract it
There are pearls and apatite accents on the end of the necklace which is lovely
And I adore the color of the blue - it reminds me of the ocean which is why I am getting it
The ocean is the place that I need to be beside wherever I decide to make my home - its where my mother is and its incredibly healing just breathing in around ocean air, almost therapy for my soul
So yeah - its expensive but I want it and with all the last minute vacation days that my boss is throwing my way because I forgot to take them coupled with the bonus of working on christmas I feel like on friday I will have enough to grab this lovely gem
And if my dad wants to throw me more money for getting books then it will surely not go to waste

Anyway - I was just excited about it and wanted to journal about it since I am trying to mend my horrible "no-posting" ways ^-^

Well hello livejournal that I have been sorely neglecting
It's been seriously a couple of months and just now I am finally able to sit down to right an entry
I honestly don't know where to start
I know I stopped around the time of my BFA craziness and haven't told you much of anything else
So let me try to go from there and get back to where I am now

Alright!
So if you have ever been to art school then you know that instead of a giant final or anything like that - you are required to make a piece of artwork that culminates everything that you have learned and is a kind of giant final all on its own
And if you didn't know all of that then you know now
So I had to do one of those for my major, photography, and it turned out pretty nice
The only headache that took up most of my time was the printing of the four images that I wanted to put up
I did it one time and made my own shoddy frames and stuff - tried to stain them black and everything
This didn't turn out well and I had to redo it by a fast approaching deadline
And this resulted in turning in my shoddy job and having to get an extension on turning in the other ones
Basically I went in after everyone else had hung their stuff - and I put my real ones up
So yeah
That was a massive headache

But after all of that I got to have Thanksgiving with my family because I missed it last year
It was great I got to hang out with the whole family at one of our relatives house basically all day and night
I had fun with cousins and received footie pajamas and ate deliciousness and my family loved my BFA stuff
So that was completely worth it

The last bit of school was kind of a blur of everyone talking about money I owe, finals and studying, and final critiques where we show all of the work in our class and get told how it is good, how it could be better, and overall impression
This is all well and good but the money was aggravating, the studying was a mess but I passed, and the final critique thing was kind of useless to me seeing how I am probably never going to take printmaking ever again in my life

All in all I loved my time at MCA and completely adore photo still (but its nice to have a break) and its fucking amazing to think that I am never going to have to go to class anytime ever again in my life
Grad school is not an option, and now I just need to make my way in the world doing whatever it is that I wish to do
I have half-heartedly applied to some jobs and know I wont get them
I just need to stay here for a just a little while as I apply to jobs other places and figure out what my exact plan of action is

--

That felt like one complete idea so I am leaving a little divider in there for good measure
I guess the next thing to talk about is Christmas
But it was pretty uneventful cause I had to work the whole flipping time
So I guess the natural course of action is to talk about gifts!
I ended up buying a lot people perfume and cologne (my dad got his cologne, stepmom got hers, and Jessy got a bottle too!)
For my parents I ended up getting them stuff that they wanted and wore all time
But for Jessy I knew she had an empty bottle of something that she really wanted so I went out in search for it
However, it has been so long since she bought that perfume and no stores carry it anymore
And so the Sephora database told me things that were similar and low and behold the new Taylor Swift stuff was on there
So I got a bottle for her and that was done!
Then I went shopping with Jessy to get the rest of the stuff and since only one person has gotten theirs I can tell you about that
My lovely friend Nicole loves anything Alice in Wonderland, anything with mushrooms on it, or anything dealing with sharks
So when I found a little toy shark that chomps and talks in a New Jersey accent and is modeled after a prehistoric great white...
I knew she had to have it
And she loved it!
My sister and her baby, my niece, got the most gifts of all
There is this little stuffed baby Simba that when you squeeze his tummy he purrs - that was a must
Movies I got her went in a non-descript box and included: A Muppet Christmas Carol, Fern Gully, Fievel Goes West, and Milo+Otis
She loved hers too, because the beauty was that they were completely meant for her but also I know Maddie can enjoy then once she gets old enough. However I did get Maddie a few things that were to be just hers.
Those include a set of Disney block books that tell the classic Disney stories, a Hello Kitty ballerina, and a few light up baby toys
I was pretty nice to them yea!
But the most time consuming present was to Jenny cause of the need to hand-write everything from a magical mystic into a gorgeous leather-bound journal and include it in a box of magical items that she will use during her trip to Ireland
I was worried that she wouldn't like it but I was of course wrong, she loved it as well
So everyone enjoyed their stuff and I was happy girl cause giving is the best part of Christmas

As far as receiving this Christmas, I asked for only books and actually got a lot of them
Four really lovely ones and I bought myself a few (only after that did I find out one of them was one someone else got me, lol)
And my stepmom got me a brand new bookshelf cause I was definitely low on shelf space for my rapidly growing library
Now I have two tall black shelves identical to each other and they are filled with books
I have eight different sections!
Poetry/Drama
Classics
Fairy-tales/Literature
Favorites
Fantasy
Horror
Realistic Fiction
and Science Fiction
I just put the books on there and have yet to organize them by size or alphabet or however I want to
I also have a figurine on each shelf that relates to the genre of that shelf
I know its odd - but if odd isn't my middle name then I dunno what is, lol
One book that is new and has taken me and Jenny by storm is called Anna Dressed in Blood

The second book Girl of Nightmares comes out in August, ugh! Make me wait!
But seriously this book is lovely and both Jenny and I read it in one day staying up until all hours of the night
Its just so great and if you wanna know more Amazon pretty much tells you all you need to know, check it out!

So other than books and bookshelves I have gotten a new pair of boots, a few candles, and Jenny made me some snow globes!
The snow globes all have a part of me and Jenny's friendship in them and they are full of glitter and made from jars and its just so great to have a free shelf to put them all on there side by side and somehow I am going to find a way to light them well

--

I am seriously lacking any kind of cohesive thought at the moment so I will let this little shard of an entry be it for now and I will try my damnedest to try and update on a more regular basis like I was before
I love you all and I hope your holidays were great
Much love

So I just got done watching the australian 2011 film "Sleeping Beauty" with Emily Browning
And I am still not so sure what to think about it
Its stunningly gorgeous,
it is very very quiet like a Coppola film so the viewer is left without everything explained to them (which isn't always a bad thing),
and the story itself just rattles you after it is over, so you are left blinking as the credits roll by

Overall the choppiness of the story doesn't really link all the way back together and I was left wondering why a few scenes were placed in there in the first place
Again, its gorgeous, so I didn't mind watching them - but I was just left wondering why, that's all
The character Browning plays - Lucy/Sarah - is such an odd bird, and I guess that plays very well against her persona in her new world where she is played off as this kind of innocent and untouchable thing, a sleeping beauty indeed

I definitely need to watch it again just so my palette can get used to the new flavor this movie is presenting it
The slowness and moodiness makes me think I really need to try and give it another try possibly in another state of mind
But yeah, if you are all for odd movies and don't mind the juxtaposition of really beautiful cinematography with the harshness of a feral sexual nature then this movie is right up your alley

Here is a pretty solid review that I found because most other reviews simply don't want to give it a fighting chance because of it's content:
http://www.incontention.com/2011/0…

I collect so many images of so many things and keeping all of them themed and in one place of beauty might be interesting, and the idea of only posting quotes and not explaining everything away might be nice
So I am going to try my hand at a tumblr
It will be called Honey Moths, and be an ode to my Moth Princess alter ego, my ward girls, my artwork, everything I love, and just be what it is
Wish me luck and since I know little to nothing about it and you have any pointers / want me to follow you then just lemme know!

http://megallyse.tumblr.com/

I have been reading "Dark Places" and it is just getting good - but the writing is so descriptive and wonderful.
There is one part that has already found a place to nestle in my mind that I probably won't soon forget:

"I headed down my weedy front slope, the neighbor's red dog launching into it's busybody barking. On the pavement near my car are the smashed skeletons of two baby birds, their flattened beaks and wings make them look reptilian. They've been there for a year. I can't resist looking at them each time I get in my car. We need a good flood, wash them away."

And if that kind of visual and visceral portion is only on page 4, then I know there are good things to come.

Speaking of cars and death, last night one of the most scary things happened to me.
Typically after a red light turns green, I am the first one to hit the pedal and leave everyone behind me as I quickly pace up to forty.
However, last night after going to see a movie with a friend, I was stopped at a red light and just sitting there waiting for the thing to turn green.
Once it did I was, like always, the first to speed up and go. But something caught my eye - two headlights quickly approaching from the right.
I stopped my car before I got to the middle of the intersection. The car fast approaching sped past all of us that were being told to go by the light, and I just watched it whiz by at what could be around 100 miles an hour.
After it sped past and I let my car lurch forward, cautiously this time, I kept driving to my house and just couldn't help but think.
If I got the timing right then it wouldn't be a far stretch to say that if I hadn't stopped and I hadn't seen that car then there is no debate...it would have hit me and I would have been flying through the empty nighttime roads as a car hit me at 100 miles an hour.
Lord Death must not want to usher me in yet, or he is tipping his hat to me because I make so much artwork about him, and I am oddly comfortable with the idea of decay and macabre things more and more lately.
I have no idea really, and I thanked my car for protecting me like I always do if there is every a near-death experience.
For some reason after I parked in my safe suburb quiet street I rushed inside because even the visual of the road scared me and the little girl that lives in my heart wanted my father to be sitting up so that I could give him a big hug.
There is something about when that kind of fear and moment and possibility of horror has just happened, that potency, it made me want so badly to have my daddy - not my father, my daddy.
I told him about it today calmly in the garage, but because the moment had passed that same kind of urge to hug him had left and it was more just a story of what could have happened and gets thrown into a memory bin of other stories from other people of what could have happened and close calls and near death.
But that moment - that tightness in the chest, the nerves throughout your body like lines on a violin, the feeling of your scalp running cold and that frozen feeling creeping down the nape of your neck to your spine.
It's dangerous and alive and terrifying.

Last night I dreamed of the Sears building, the decaying inside had grown and attacked the outside and it was just ruins.
And the dream me was driving past it, staring at it.
No other cars were on the road and I was staring into the remains of the windows - there is an artist that has an installation up right now inside.
She has put gels of colors on the windows and lit them from the inside and it is supposed to be a sign of hope, that the building will live again. There is supposed to be a light in the tower soon, I don't remember when the paper said it will happen.
But my dream self was looking through the dark of the empty road as I drove on, the building becoming bigger and bigger in my eyes - and I was peering through it onto the moonlit building and hoping for the light to be on inside the building. Glancing at the tower as if the light itself were alive and had gone to higher ground. I wanted so badly for those lights and in a typical way that only dreams can make come true I went through the ruins of the building. It didn't seem to resemble anything I knew of the building as I went through it, they were like ruins of an older time and the whole time I was drifting through them like a ghost no longer led by the confines of a car at all.

Dreams and death are both odd and unpredictable. And I find myself somber and quiet today because of the effect that both have had on me.

In addition: my nails are Russian Roulette red today

Jenny and I watched Picnic at Hanging Rock yesterday and it was a movie that left me deliciously unsatisfied
That meaning that it simply didn't answer all of my questions...but honestly I am fine with it
I think there would be something so magical lost if all of the questions were answered
Leave me in the dark
Allow my mind to enjoy the hollow feeling in the area where logic would fill it
Love it
And in honor of it we are going to have a mini pic-spam with a lovely song I can't stop listening to by little known artist Phildel














and a scene that reminds me of PicnicAHR:

I am currently watching Chloe, with Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried. I might have already posted how much I love this movie, but honestly I do and I am not sure why I do so much.

Maybe because Chloe is so deliciously unhinged and yet so beautiful - the epitome of both allure and repulsion, a weird object of tension
Another movie I watched tonight:
Cracks
I actually bought the book because I loved the movie so so much and I just know the book will whet my appetite

Its perfectly escapist and gorgeous while also riding a blurry line of darkness and the strange effect of adolescence and growing up
I wish I could find more images to tempt you into watching this, but there is so little on the web at the moment
Anyway, just see it
I don't really want to give anything away ^-^
But yea! Ill tell you how good the book is once I read it



Other books I got:

My mother she killed me, my father he ate me: forty new fairy tales - edited by kate bernheimer


Dark Places by Gillian Flynn


The Hanged Man - Francesca Lia Block


The rose and the beast: fairy tales retold - Francesca Lia Block

And at the moment this week has been full of shooting for the BFA final - and I will show you more of those and talk more about it later
Promise ^-^

"i don't remember the sun. i don't remember the sun or how my sister, monk, says it warms you up-." So begins Lila's unusual, gentle, almost ethereal narration. She has lived in a reverse world for all of her almost nine years, unable to go out in daylight because of a condition called xeroderma pigmentosum, a "defect that made me sensitive to light. the sun. uv rays. some streetlights."

This is a review of a little treasure of a book that I found at the goodwill here in bartlett for 99 cents
I finished it in a little less than an hour, it was short and easy to read - but oh so poetic and surreal and lovely
I split it in the middle like this because the rest of the review gives away major plot points
And if you want to read it ever then finishing the review will spoil it - so just skip past it I say and read it for yourself ^0^

Lila goes to a coffee shop called the Fallen Angel with Monk, 18, in her jalopy and has a nighttime friendship with two girls only she sees. The mysterious, perhaps otherworldly Alyssa and Elizabeth recede as Lila celebrates her ninth birthday in a poignant scene in her backyard. Fireflies gently envelop her, a moment shared and enjoyed by her family and neighbors. Lila gradually accepts that being a "moon girl" is just as good as being a "sun goddess." Recognizing that she is different, that her light is softer than the sun, bolsters Lila's inner strength and ultimate self-acceptance. The writing is lyrical and fluid, and uses no capitalization, but captures a child's feelings. "i feel like i've been eight for practically a hundred years-. if i stay eight any longer, I will have gray hair when I turn nine-." This small, poetic book requires a special reader, but those who meet Lila are likely to remember her.

I got a couple more books but they are on their way in the mail
This next one is a book that Jenny let me read a while back and I just haven't been able to stop thinking about it
So I needed to buy it ^-^

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

The romance is intense, the writing is startling, and the story is spellbinding--and it is as difficult to turn away from as the tales beautiful Keturah tells to the people of her village, Tide-by-Rood. But one day Keturah must use her storytelling skills with quite a different audience. Lost and hungry after following a stately hart through the forest, Keturah encounters Lord Death, who is ready to take her. Like Scheherazade, Keturah spins a story that she leaves unfinished and extracts from Lord Death a promise that if she finds her true love in a day, she can go free. But Lord Death is falling in love with her, and as the villagers begin to sense her alliance with this horrifying figure, her life twists and turns on itself. This novel gets so many things just right. Leavitt brings together a large cast of characters, but she personalizes them and weaves their stories into Keturah's, making it richer, denser, and more intricate. The plotting moves in and out of the everyday and the supernatural, but it's so finely tuned that the worlds seem one. Readers will be carried away on the wind of Leavitt's words, and few will be able to guess how she finally ends her story.

- review from amazon



Beauty and the Beast by Nancy Willard
read the review here:http://talesoffaerie.blogspot.com/…
And  there you will see some of the gorgeous wood engravings that Barry Moser couples with the story, I am really excited about this!

Last one is Sounds and Furies by Tanith Lee which has gotten lovely reviews but I am still not all too sure what this book is going to have
Which is kind of fun really because it will be my first time being introduced to Tanith Lee and apparently she is all kinds of dark delicious
^-^Next on the book buying list is some Francesca Lia Block (Rose and the Beast, Psyche in a Dress, and others perhaps)
And if possible I want to try to collect the other 11 Andrew Lang Fairy books, I have the Olive one but there are so many other colors!

In addition:
Disney Princess Designer Collection!

And also while at the mall, after freaking out about the Disney stuff, I bought some cute stuff from Forever 21
A cute little Alice-esque teapot necklace

And a cute plastic black bow headband!
Which I cant seem to find a picture of for some odd reason, but its hella cute and sticks with my Alice vibe methinks
So that's about all I can think of for now
Except that I got two random Teefury tees the other day with my buddy Jenny and can't wait to see what those look like!
Since it was a grab bag we both have no idea which shirts we are going to get x.x
The excitement of it all!!!