the movie team

over the past three days, i have been volunteering with my friend and fellow makeup artist dina for a project wherein disadvantaged children learn how to make a movie (more explanation here). honestly, when dina emailed looking for a cohort i jumped at the chance, as for the last seven years i have been trying to sort my head around how i could possibly do some MUCH needed volunteer work in this place. around every corner in new york is an opportunity for volunteerism, from neighborhood beautification projects to working with the many disadvantaged children to homeless outreach.

for the freelancer, though, it is absolutely impossible to fill in the crucial box on all volunteer application forms which reads "days/hours of availability". however, january is s-l-o-o-w....i was not booked for work, and thus i took a chance that the days would remain free as we headed up to hawthorne cedar knolls, a westchester county residential school for students in crisis.

the students had already pow-wowed and come up with the concept for the script...i'll spare you the entire synopsis, but it involved a homeless woman (really an angel in disguise), a king and a princess, a rapper, a dancer, a basketball player, a rock star....the characters of teen dreams. most of the kids had very specific ideas for their "looks" as well, which they were more than happy to convey to us: they wanted sparkles. goatees. to look like jennifer hudson in "dream girls". lashes. gloss. i was impressed when they received their costumes (which were from goodwill, as the budget was very low). they were so gracious, so excited; quite the contrast from incredibly spoiled kids i sometimes encounter on the job, who scowl and roll their eyes when asked to wear the designer samples laid out for them by a professional stylist.

there were, of course, some moments of some frustrated kids. there were some meltdowns, some incidents reminiscent to me of my job at reed junior high and central islip HS on long island... that old familiar tune of "i like you but i have no idea how to affectively express my emotions so i am going to say things that are aggressive and kind of harsh, but i don't really mean it".

more often than not, though, there were things said to us like, "thank you for coming! you are both beautiful!" and "i feel beautiful!" and "i LOVE my makeup!". there were, better yet, a couple of young ladies with hard as nails extertiors who broke into smiles (a rare sight for the true tough girls) when they finally looked in the mirror. i would venture to say that there can be no greater reward for a makeup artist than that smile (impossible to be faked), and we were so intoxicated by the girls' satisfaction that if all goes well, dina and i will be back to beautify them all again for their prom this spring.

what are you when you're on the toilet?

paris was, of course, spectacular. le dub, shoop (the bass player for the tour, whom i adore) and i went out exploring. we didn't go the louvre or le tower eiffel, but we did see some pretty incredible sights. i stocked up on embroylisse (the best face moisturizer ever) and elnett, both products which are not available in the u.s.



the club, la maroquinerie, was amazing....the room where MBD played was in the downstairs part of the building, and lined with semi-circular rows that came out of the floor and were part of the structure (hard to explain, but real cool).





my friend dina was in paris for the fashion shows, and met us at the club. it was fun to see a familiar face! dina and i schemed and schemed about the possibility of staying longer in paris and taking the train to amsterdam together, but, alas, it was not to be. after all, i am tiny dancer, seamstress for the band, and i felt like my peeps ("peeps" meaning bdub) needed me.

we had a very fun drive to amsterdam, and arrived in the city relatively early. amsterdam RULES. definitely my favorite place of the trip, which surprised me. i seriously love it. i miss it. i want for it to be my home. i love the canals, the bikes, the coffee shops, the international flair.



in fact, i have compiled a list in my head of many of the things i love about europe:

-many of the lights are on timers. they turn on when you walk in, they turn off when you leave. i mean, duh.
-your choice: big flush or little flush. sometimes you don't need a big ole' flush (sometimes you do). again i say: conservation. think about it.
-they treat their animals right. both the animals they eat and their companion animals.
-free healthcare.
-the coffee. oooooh my lord, the coffee. the worst coffee i had was at a starbucks (what can i say? i needed me some free wireless).
-the bread.
-the "little" things. little spoons, little egg cups, little cubes of sugar
-children and their parents are very affectionate. i saw little boys reach up and give their mamas kisses on several occasions.
i hardly ever see that here with children over age four.
-clean. clean clean clean.
-the public transportation. easy, clean, and punctual.
-the civility.

the only thing i did not like, really, is the prevalence of smoking. that was hard on nowlzie.

i departed from amsterdam yesterday and i am back in my apartment, missing the dub and trying to sort out my jet lag. i don't think i have given proper credence to how much i loved nuno, the tour manager, and jeff (shoop), the bass player.

nuno, my little portuguese friend, took care of everything, and kept it real (like when perhaps there wasn't ample time for us to do the thing we were considering doing...like training it from paris to amsterdam). i appreciated his candor. plus, he's vegan, he loves pandas, he's into hardcore, he's "straight edge, dude", and his favorite bands are minor threat (of course) and cut the shit (with their song, "cut the bullshit"). nuno rules.



jeff shoop (the bass player) was, simply put, a kick in the pants. a spinner of many tales, he kept the van rides most amusing with his collection of stories. he suggested that, as thirty-something as it may sound, it would have been so much fun to have a "couples tour" with his girl, rosie, along for the ride(s). those words immediately made me feel like this is someone who likes me, and dammit, when you are out with people who are somewhat still strangers to you and driving for days in a sprinter through europe with them, there's nothing better to hear than that little bit of validation. plus, he convinced bdub to rock a 'stache.

shoop with 'stache:




bdub with 'stache:





i will miss my friend shoop, and hope to see him and rosie soon. feed that moustache, son.