A Room with a View

Here You Go, Brenda...

10 years ago I was:

Learning to drive
Watching You've Got Mail for the first time
Maybe listening to Sublime?
Living in Minnesota
Striking out with the ladies (times have really changed)

5 things on today's to-do list:

Trim my beard
Interview downtown for a part-time job
Have lunch with Seth if he's around
Maybe go running
Pack for our trip to Europe
(today is not a normal day)

5 snacks I enjoy:

Oh boy...
Most Hostess products
Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi
Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Thin Cheese Pizzas
Good chocolate bars

5 places I have lived:

Here's the complete rundown, not counting my mission:
Fredericksburg, VA
Naperville, IL
Yardley, PA
Annandale, NJ
Ramsey, MN
Provo, UT
The Freaking Barrio, NYC

5 jobs I have had:

Floor Cleaner, Cub Foods
Cashier, K-Mart
Golf Cart Attendant
CD Salesman
Body Double for Bill Paxton

5 pet peeves:

Honestly I would probably have a hard time thinking of 5 things that don't drive me nuts.

5 things that bring me joy:

Candy of most sorts
Interesting books
Mint or near-mint records
Jacque-Henri Lartigue photographs
pancakes

5 people I tag:

I'm not sure 5 people will even read this.

The ZackMonster Will Return Shortly

Pennsylvania/ New Jersey Trip

Here are some pictures from a trip that Brenda and I took, along with my sister Melissa, to our old stomping grounds of PA and NJ the other week. Enjoy.

On 9/11

I like September 11 because I like to be sad. I went down to Ground Zero today to see what was going on.

It was cloudy in Manhattan today and the cigarette smoke from the financial district blew all around me. I thought of the buildings that were once there, and how I saw them as a kid from across the Hudson River when my mom and I would pick my dad up from work in Newark. I thought of the lives that were lost there some seven years ago and I felt sad. 

But more than that I thought about myself on that day years ago. I was 19 years old. I was eight weeks away from going to Europe on my mission. I was scared for the change, and on that day everyone else was scared too. 

That's all for now.

Word Verification

Since when did 'word' verifications start looking like this?

Let's think of another name. 'Gobbeldy-Guuk Verification?'

Jesse James

Still loving Nick Cave's soundtrack to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It is so simple and uncluttered, but it's amazing how much sound sprawls out of the minimalism. 

COCKROACHES

Cockroaches come both big and small, and most of them come through our apartment. So far we've found them: on the wall, on the floor, by the front door waiting for us when we come home, in the sink, and in the stove. I kill them all with little remorse. How much pity can you take on a creature that can live for several weeks without its head?

Z

081808

Brenda and I now live in New York. More on that later. First, here are some pictures from my trip to Poland last month.














More to come,

Zack

Yard Sale!

The Mrs. and I are discarding many beloved or once-beloved items as a prelude to our upcoming move to New York. Please come and show your love for all things second-hand. For sale will be a great deal of miscellany, including but not limited to:

records
old camera stuff
clothes
cassettes
CDs
a box of hair bleach (unused)
a tripod
a chair or two

Hope to see you there. Hugs and kisses, Zack

Here Are the Young Men

OK, I know it's been a while. I lost my faith in blogging and I apologize. But in my defense I've been busy. I've spent the last few weeks working as a janitor in the middle of the night in the Wilkinson Student Center on campus. It was rough. My supervisor was a guy in his 30's who had worked there for 12 years, and he was really defensive about the job itself. He stressed upon his employees the fact that cleaning bathrooms at 2 in the morning was, in fact, a 'real job,' and demanded that we take it seriously and work our tails off.

So I quit. I baked a cake, which, if you attended NIGHTMUSIC, you've already seen.





Other than that, I've been watching movies like crazy because of a one month trial membership to Netflix. A while ago I watched Anton Corbijn's CONTROL, which is an Ian Curtis biopic. Since watching it I've been OBSESSED with Joy Division. Just today I watched the new self-titled documentary, which is full of great interviews by the remaining band members. The record label they were on, Factory, which housed New Order as well, is my favorite label of all time (next to Folkways). Everything they produced, whether it was a poster, a dance club, or a record, was assigned a Factory number. Even a bet between founder Tony Wilson and JD manager Rob Gretten was numbered (FAC 253). The last number ever assigned was Tony Wilson's coffin (FAC 501).



That's about it, except for a wonderful moment at the 4th of July parade here in Provo when a 15-foot monkey balloon came by and a little boy next to Bren and me explained that "Jesus is bigger than that- he's probably huge."

Anyways, I'll try to keep the posts coming.

N O O N E

ever reads my blog. Consequently, no one ever sees awesome music videos like this:

Smart Cars

I want a smart car. It is the only car I can think of that makes me sad to be living in big cities with public transit for the foreseeable future. Here in Utah, check them out at smartcenterlindon.com



When I was in Europe on my mission I saw them everywhere. They are three feet shorter than the modern mini coopers. They are like little puppies from hell.

The Return

Sorry gang, it's been a while since I've updated. Let's catch up, shall we...?

After I graduated last month I went to Richmond, Virginia to shoot the widespread abandonment of the city's slums. I went because I got an ORCA grant to photograph the city and then hopefully get it published. Here are some photos. I forgot to turn them into sRGBs so they might be more desaturated than I'd like:






These are just digital shots. I shot about half digital and half film. I took a 4x5 (thanks Nicole) and my Brownie box panoramic camera which is currently my favorite camera in the world.

Here's some more:





It was a great time. I spent the days walking around the seedy areas of the city, and at night my sister-in-law Anne and I watched Scrubs and many, many delightfully bad movies.

I've been home from VA for a week now and I've been looking for a job and it's totally lame. I started working with a temp agency and I've worked one job thus far. That job, which entailed moving back-breaking boxes from one room to another all day, was in a place where telemarketers call people at home and try to get them to buy stuff they have absolutely no need for. The whole placed was soaked in caffeine and testosterone and I will never be a salesman for as long as I live.