My @ll3y c@+

Dearest Gentle Giants, this is my sister of 15 years, my sister of heart & thoughts, my sibling of soulful wordless wonder and troubly-troublesomeness, @ll3y c@+.

Today, FINALLY,  we watch mortalmovie, my s'elf in NY, she in Denmark. We watched it exactly the same time, 3888 miles or 6255.79 Kilometers between our seats, only were were together... while not at all knowing we were together!

Am I actually surprised this happen? nope, not at all, not with @ll3y & me. This has been our whole life, our shared existence.

Those are proud tears in her eyes. She's a happy crier though but I forgive her that, my @ll3y c@+. For serious, would you look a that magic, would you just lookit that!

 —

Remember how I mentioned it isn't the big screen that moves me about the work I do, Its The Connectivity.

 —

Last weekend, after my third big attempt to watch The Mortal Instruments; City of Bones fell through and I know, you'd really think it would be easier for me to see a film with my name somewhere in the credits (as my sister documented so blurringly with loves) but instead I did the thing, I mean THE THING I was meant to do instead.

I went to my tattoo shop. My footprints aren't on the ceiling anymore. My artwork isn't on the walls. The neighborhoods been sold, every storefront 3 times over at least. But there is something there that's certainly my home, you'd know it if you walked with me.

@shadowinked did exactly that. She came down from Canada. I found an old-school tattooist friend to work on her Angelic Rune piece. We held hands for an hour, she told me her story and how she came to find & love the Shadowhunters. I told her how the Shadowhunters came to be & where my awkward love stands. In the end even the tattooist wanted to hear more. 

Afterward, we told even more stories, hella-spoilers throughout, not just film or book or behind the scenes but just long lives, just spoiling each other rotten, walking around through hidden New York, places that only people both torn down & built up here could possibly know. 

Then parted ways, contentedly, peaceably-- for me? filled to the brim with gratitude for the connectivity, the intimacy my craft affords me.

Lucky me. Lucky, lucky, lucky me.

Once @ Tir Na Nog

Last Thursday (August 22^nd) some penultimately effed-up stuff happened in the life of a val, which culminated in this.
—

Like all "Best Laid Plans" nothing went down how it was mean to go but as to how that lead to a late-night singalong of "Lean On Me" with the cast of Once The Musical, in a pub called Tir Na Nog, captured for posterity on Arthur Darvill's vine... that particular bit of magic I feel follows the rules as I've previously begun to explain.

Have we been taking notes kids? Proper Notes? When None Of The Things Are Going Your Way Let Things Go Your Way Anyway.
How do you do that? Well, you just do.

• The Lesson Previous;  val says, for any and for all of the reasons, but most especially when shits gone to pot, and there's not even music, we should be dancing! ☆（〜^∇^)〜
• The Lesson Hereth; arthur says, carry on, moreso when you don't know the lyrics, louder even, preferably as singalong!ヽ(○´Ｏ`)ﾉ♪♫♬
• = °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° MAGIC!

paraphrasing of course, but--
—
Props to Niece!Crystal for being gracious, a bit of a bully & proud of all my-ness despite my downtroddenness.

—
Plus Lucas Papaelias, that Carlos Valdes & Paul Whitty too tho. God damn brilliant Paul Whitty! Crazy kind, talented, supportive, heartfelt, lot. Did I mention talented? And that Arthur guy, he's pretty nice too. I bet he's going places. Even though he didn't know the words to "Bye Bye Miss American Pie" (but was bold enough to explain as much, in verse & lead straight back to the chorus. d(-_^))

Yeah, just, thanks life, for kicking me in the butt.
—
(ღ˘⌣˘ღ) ♫･*:.｡. .｡.:* special thanks for the High-5's of approval for bootlegging your YouTube "Red-Headed Mary" performance
onto my iPod because for fuck sake Ugh! you guys killed me with that!
—
tldr; bad day? its okay not to force it.

1. its okay to listen to advice from someone 1/2 your age
2. its okay to go to noisy Pubs for quiet moments of contemplation
3. its okay to talk to people when they offer to listen, whomever they are [*]
4. its okay to take things when people are okay being stolen from, you know artists
5. its okay to dance & not know the moves, thats how new moves are made & comfy chairs get broken in
6. its okay to let someone take the lead who doesn't know the words, its how singalongs are sung longer, 'til we close out the bar
7. its okay, you know I love you anyway.

xx

The Mortal Instruments; City of Bones LA Premiere (How That Did NOT Go Down & Why We Should Celebrate!)

Everyone did one of these pics months ago, I forgot to upload mine. This was on my way to the clinic to get injections into my spine, for reasons, with a fancy blouse, leather skirt & machine gun stockings as you do. Check how I own these bitches!! To busy-ness--

---

Hello kids, I want to tell you a story today, because today is a day where all stories about stories are made true for you. Most especially for my very-est good friend Cassie, who I have shared something magical with. Something that started nearly 10 years ago on the doorstep of my tattoo shop and tonight is comes stealthily to doorstep of unsuspecting viewerships world over. And that's more than a little cool.

This! This however is a story of how I dislike Cinderella. Tonight is "The Mortal Instruments; City of Bones" premiere in LA and I'm missing it, partly because my dress is in London mostly because mys'elf is in New York and a little bit because I am not Cinder-fucking-ella.

I think more than a few people would rally and stress and world-whine themselves up to get to Hollywood "or Bust" and I could do. I really could. But I will sit this one out to stay home and make something special instead. Whinging for "Grand Balls" is over-rated and out of fashion, when Cindy should have just stolen that carriage gotten out of dodge. For real tho, she pinned for a thing she didn't know and hadn't really earned just because everyone else pinned for it too. Maybe its me but that's real fucked-faced, what sort of hoe-y example does that set? And to have your whole future-destiny set on fancy shiney flashy clothing... (don't get me wrong, my dress was Shadowhunter-y, Rachel Freire designer made, better-in-black, bend-you-over-backward-and-smex-you-happy-awesome but still I wasn't going to summon up a demon just to wear it. But yay! Nepotism!)

So, I'm not sitting at home feeling very Cinderella-y as she is my more loathed of the fairy princess, since she is not a fairy or nor a princess at all but a poser! I mean if you're going to have access to magic for one night, really access that magic! She really should have used the pumpkin carriage to overwhelm and go all "Stand-n-Deliver". To rob everyone coming up the highway toward the Palace, use the rat-henchmen as muscle cuz once midnight hit, no one could have identified her and she'd have all teh swag and lived large, maybe even done good with her fortune, become a femme fatale robin hood/pied-piper, a legend in her own right!

THAT would have been magical! THAT is a much better story!

I'm not sure how exactly but I would like to change my story to make tonight magical, for everyone who isn't and is going. I would like to not have anyone pine for something that is ephemeral, so fleeting, like a little ass premiere, in a little ass town, in a little ass theater but instead make it a large ass DANCE!

I'm serious.

It’s the one thing I would have done on the Red Carpet. Cassie knows that for sure. Everywhere I go I do a little dance. I dance a bit if I'm happy, nervous, bored, upset, sleepy. Excited, especially excited! So, do a little dance kids, bring that mo-fo Grand Ball to you!

As far as the film, your expectation, your anticipation, your nervousness, excitements, boredom... on the line, in your seat, at home or waiting for a coffee at your local 'not' Starbucks, dance a little. Everything will be fab, I promise you. "Have a little, Faith."

Ohhhh, yeah! Did I forget to mention that? I just made a "FAITH” Glyph-Rune tonight. I'm dancing over that too! I'd very much like to dance with youヽ(´ー`)ﾉ

It's "Gratuitous Picture of Your Book Shelf Tuesday!"

The lovely curtain obscures the lovely section up-top that aught to be obscured, whilst giving the kidlings distracting tassels to play :D Everyone wins!

---

That 'Complete Works of Shakespeare' book-ended on its own, was a 134 years old when I first received it nearly ten years ago. I imagine it's a bit older now.

RE:CITIES

"Being born and raised in New York, but nowhere near Manhattan, gives a kid a skewed perspective of the term 'Hometown'. Things are still that "Larger Than Life" sort of big but never glamorous, still over-bright and siren-loud but somehow tuned to a different frequency, where the only constant is change. From that stems the weirdest sense of homesickness for a place you still live. But there is a bitter-sweetness to it. And there is an endlessness to it. Fast and fierce and furious as this town can be, you stick around long enough you learn 'keeping up' isn't the answer. Sometimes letting it overwhelm, just letting it flow is the only way to really be.

I left NY when I was 15. Sick to shit of it. Did the wanderlust tour of 30 homes in 3 years; London, London's much preferred bastard brother LIVERPOOL, Ballintoy, Paris, Montreal, San Francisco, Seattle, Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, well,... I'll stop there cuz the list gets pretty effin' long.

But I missed New York, functioning anywhere else was work, New York just flows. I didn't mean to come back; I just stopped over from Los Angeles the morning of 9/11. It seemed the universe, the world, the city herself had grounded me.

For a year after 9/11, on my new queen-size bed in my new four-story walk up, I'd lay for hours, dangling my head back to look thru the window up at the broad hi-rise stapled sky and watch planes fly by, willing them to not fall.

Maybe we all did that, I don't know. I still travel, lots, but because the city needs me, I come home."

Day #18.ZOMBIES

Beside my tablet, I keep a vial of Zombie!Cure I picked up sometime ago. I've got escape routes, weapons, back-up escape routes, back-up weapons, etc. Zombie Apocalypse comes & I'm all about the double-tap + heads-shots-only. I get that.
But today, I realized what I don't get is "Fan-Girls". If they ever up-rose... I'd just swallow my shotgun.

Appearance @ B+N [Union Square, NYC]

Speaking on things inherently New York; how 'bout a public Appearance;

"ZOMBIES" is tomorrow theme for 30 Day Drawing Challenge, so if you're going to be in NYC, come to The Infernal Devices; Clockwork Angel book release/announcement event, where I will probably ask you to make your bestest zombie face

Actually, ~SupeRsquiTo-PouF and I will be there, hiding in plain sight, while Cassie Clare says a thing, in the after glow of Holly Black & Maureen Johnson being awesome, plus Prizes and Revelry!

Barnes & Nobles in Store Event
Wednesday August 04, 2010 7:00 PM
Union Square
33 East 17th Street, New York, NY 10003, 212-253-0810

I would say, "If you can come, that'd be swell. If you can't... I hear someone will be someone will be live-streaming it, " . . . BUT as someone on DeviantArt pointed out this is very likely to be the only thing (in the foreseeable future) where Nic, Cassie + my small s'Elf will be under the same roof!

So, if you have your copy of FCBD: City of Bones Comic I suggest you make the effort to come out. I'd promise not to bite but that option feels subjective.

---

Wednesday’s [August 4th 2010, B+N Union Square affair] was a warm and memorable event (and not just because the humidity was about a billion). Thank you to everyone who turned up and made it awesomener!

We were all very grateful. Actually, grateful doesn’t begin to sum up…

Here’s a photo from our dinner, well fed and sated, three of my all-time favorite people (Honey Coated Casshat, Shiny Happy Holls hugged on by Our Crys ), being happy, together. I ♥/∞

[The pic links to an LJ!Scrapbook full of photos. If you’ve got some too, I’d love to see/share them!]

Now, you know, back to work-stuffs…

x

Day #17.A Delicious Food

(World Famous) Lindy's Cheesecake. There is nothing better... and if there is I'd never know since I've developed a crippling intolerance to lactose. Still, make a bee-line for there whenever I get near her, at least for Good Morning Coffee or Midday Long Island Ice-Teas :D

My Dad got written up in the Daily News XD

While we were constructing and mounting a new bookcase in my apartment the other day, we got to chatting about conventions, self-promotions and all sorts of entrepreneurial pursuits. Quite proud of the old man... and my bookcase is stunning, just needs one more coat of white paint. *never content*

"Jorge Freire, Getting Game"... quite possibly that's the best caption, EVER. Well it amused me anyhow.

http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2007/09/12/2007-09-12_illegal_game_shows_life_for_immigrants_i-1.html
It's thankfully in English for those interested.

Adds: This is a News segment on the The Illegal Game. It's brief and in Spanish but there is this two second shot where they show some playing cards and you see me & my siblings, at various ages, with very dated hair. It's Awesome! I love my crappy 80's hair with the headband! And Baby!Me All in Pink! Crazy.

http://www.univision.com/content/videoplayer.jhtml?cid=1279605&clipid=501881819