LOOKING BACKWARDS

been loving the female vocals lately

INNOVATION INDIA

On population control in rural India:

“If there is electricity in every village, then people will watch TV till late at night and then fall asleep. They won’t get a chance to produce children,” Mr Azad said. “When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies.”

- India's Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad

* c/o FP and the CIA

B'EAU PAL

“The unique qualities of our water come from 25 years of slow-leaching toxins at the site of the world’s largest industrial accident.”

nice little piece picked up off PSFK



* ps the whole office is buzzing about the baby eatin' lady in TX. where have I been?

PACE YOURSELF

keeping it simple.

SIMPLE. BRILLIANT.

Elegantly simple logo animation for MTV Germany.


watch me

* via motionographer

ON TAKING THINGS JUST AS THEY ARE

Internet, I have a piece of unsolicited advice: take things as they come. No less, no more. Happy Monday!

xoxo, wee

FRANCE : A FIRST LOOK

More photos!




ma masion!




my driver


some random roadside art/commercialism




apparently the largest columns of this type - thanks hot driver!




hey toto, we're not in LA anymore

* isn't she lovely?

REASON 812 THAT I LOVE THE INTERNET

First: ATT thanks for finally getting my wireless internet situation resolved. I will pay you now.

So a while back a couple of friends of mine introduced me to the TV based guilty pleasure that is (the fact that it is still on means I am not alone in my fascination, and it is okay to blog my shame), The Bachelorette. When Gossip Girl is in reruns I randomly tune in to this train wreck. Fast forward to tonight, I had errands people - important ones, like buying clothes and toilet paper and spray on sunblock, so I missed the finale. Which is alright since I knew [redacted] would be on point - LIVE BLOGGING. I am in love with Dan and Brooke. Here's why:


8:22 Dan: Yikes. Dad asks “Are you in love with Jill?” and Kiptyn responds, “I’m getting there.” It’s not like he asked, “Are you almost done remodeling the kitchen?” Just say yes.
…
8:45 Brooke: It's pretty pitiful. He's like the representative for every guy that couldn't get it up and asked for a second chance. That's how you know it's not reality. Cause in real life, those guys are branded impotent for life. And then you tell your friends.

Seriously, Brooke is completely on target. That is a night out where over shots of tequila you share with the girls - he was too drunk, right? And they order another round and say, "Girl, have you ever been too drunk?"

IT'S LIKE PROM YO!

my date Mark Parker CEO of Nike


my other date, KAWS who's over school dances


the lovely ladies


PROM!

* from opening night

JULY 22, 2004 VS. JULY 22, 2009

5 goddamn years. 5 life changing years. 5 years filled with more experiences then I thought one person could manage.

Yes, today marks the 5 year birthday of cancer.

The first anniversary was a disaster. It spelled the true beginning of the end of the relationship I was in at the time. I was working and should have taken the day off. I thought my head would explode. I almost bought a new car. I got into a HUGE fight with a parent-in-law type person, because they were an asshole. I cried myself to sleep next to someone and felt so totally alone, I thought my sky was falling in.

Number 2 I took the day off. Let's not talk about how I spent that day, inebriated.

By the time the 3rd day rolled around I was better. I was getting ready to move jobs and planning a trip to London. I was dealing with the first major cancer recurrence scare, which strangely made the first bout's anniversary easier to handle. I realize that makes absolutely no sense, but somehow having a MRI scan that day brought me back to something familiar, and I felt in control. Leave it to me to need the hospital to make me feel better. Most people would die to be back there and here I was handing out Valiums to the older ladies getting the same thing done and scared out of their wits. I was all, this shit is a breeze. Swallow this.

Last year, I don't even remember what I did that day. I was on vacation (being between jobs), but I don't recall needing to be out or to talk a whole lot about it. I do remember that I think I nearly forgot it was the day. Which in retrospect is awesome.

Now I am working, just returned from Paris and seeing where this adventure continues to take me. First stop, a party thrown at my favorite Hotel Bar, by one of my best girls. And I am just excited to catch everyone up on Paris. Screw cancer.

xoxo, wee

PS - Happy Anniversary Mom and Ed-Dad! What a difference 5 years makes. And to Peg - maybe our blue day isn't so blue? But know that I still miss Christopher too. Love you my family!

AURAL FIXATION

just because it's real, doesn't mean it's gonna work. ahem, amen.

* the blow

NIGHT ONE, DINNER

the best view of Paris?


oui!


e enjoys the view


how high we are!


the restaurant's classic french style




look at all our artists!




tom and the olives


the first of many stories


trading cameras with KAWS


he thinks his is better. pfft.


wee and Abby


a toast?


bien sur!


tom and mark join in


all together now!


Dzine and Abby really feeling the spirit


into the wee hours we go


I love the surrealism of this shot




beautiful Paris


the old reflected by the new




you can still make it




follow the lights home

* a top Le Centre Pompidou at Restaurant Georges

FAT BOX OR ART?

Can you suppose why I love these elevators so?






do your eyes deceive you?


now I have to go back, because I didn't push the buttons! what!?

* at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin

A PROPER INTRODUCTION

gifts from Nike!






for exploring


just amazed. more self portraits.

SEX AND THE C

This is posted on a plaque next to Shepard's portrait. For everyone who will not make it to Paris, I want you to have the full experience and as much of the story as I can give you. And now a dust bunny the size of my head just rolled by, so I am dragging my blogging butt off the couch to clean the house.

xoxo, wee


Sex and the C / June 2006

I don’t know your story. I don’t know if you are sick. There is no way for me to look into the future and see if you will ever have to face a diagnosis. I only have my story, the parts that I remember.

I love the hours on either side of midnight. The world is quiet, people are sleeping, the city is dreaming of being the country. It is the time old movies come on my non-cable television. Often they are B-grade romances from the eighties. There is too much Molly Ringwald, full of first love and innocence.

If you were to ask me if I have ever been in love, I would tell you yes. This is not a lie. If you were to ask me if I want to be in love again, I believe I would look at you and simply shrug. It just seems that when I look back on my past, I am watching an old home movie of another girl. I watch without feeling, very analytical. I have become very British. You know, those people across the pond who only show affection to antiques and small dogs. And as I watch that girl, some part of me feels a deep and desperate sadness, because it is impossible to feel anything else. I no longer understand love. It is a language I lost when I stopped practicing.

I listen to songs on repeat. Not whole CDs, just one song for hours. When it gets really bad, for days. This is important because the summer I was diagnosed, I played the Garden State soundtrack over and over, one song at a time.

I didn’t yet own an iPod so my whole house was subjected to my musical misery. I think by the end of that fall, the wheels had just about fallen off my copy and secretly my mother was praying the engine would seize and all would be quiet. It was not to be, and I still have that bright red CD stuffed into a sleeve in my black book that houses the past.

I rarely play that CD now. I am done with all that, I like to tell myself. It would be super nice if that were true.

Maybe my lack of interest in having a love life has less to do with the remains of a terrifying breakup and more with self-image.

To everyone else, I finally look well. Healthy. Perhaps carting around an amount of baby fat just this side of cute makes you look really young, and we all equate youth with health. I feel like someone told my body it was the ark and it had to make space for all those animals. Then it went and accounted for the unicorn, the dragon, the jackalope and all those other fantastical critters the Almighty had no intention of bringing into the next chapter of evolution. Yep, there are rooms aplenty at this inn.

Perhaps I just feel cheated out of the good half of my twenties. The years before babies and love handles, but after the previously mentioned baby fat has magically melted away and your body can still handle celebrating national cheeseburger day once a week. I guess in a nutshell that sums up the problem. I feel cheated, and I don’t have a clue how to fix it.

NIGHT ONE, PARIS

after dinner, about 2 am. contemplating sleep and this incredible journey. also taking self portraits...

ERIC WHITE: FOYER

The sheer size and level of detail of this work is nearly overwhelming. In fact I had to kind of dart up to and then away from it before I could get comfortable and really look at it. Odd.

It rounds out my top 5 from the show, (which feels weird to say, like I should love all of the show equally as some fist pump of cancer solidarity) and I am changed by being introduced to his work first hand. Eric White.








wee and e at the show

KAWS: THE END

The thing about this piece, is the color. Which no where on the web is done any justice. The pink is so alive and healthy and practically vibrating. The chartreusey color is flat out gorgeous. KAWS.

DZINE: THE TIPPING POINT

This low rider bicycle needs to be witnessed in person. Every last inch is covered in rhinestones, suede, chrome or gilded in some manner. It's sick - just like all the rest of his work. Dzine.













\


that's an ipod under the seat. your ass + music = LOVE




the man himself

IN ORDER

what you need after a night with the bike.

TOM SACHS: LANCE'S TEQUILA BIKE FOR GIRLS PART II

So playful. Aside from an amazing body of work, Tom was just about the coolest guy - ever. I now understand where all the work comes from (that brain is a force). I had the pleasure of sitting across form him at dinner the first night, and I fell a little bit in love. After the shots at the show I was ready to hit Vegas! Tom Sachs.

where can I get one Tom?






everything you need!




pick your poison


for charlie




is it wrong that this just might be my favorite part?




reinforcements!!


the cost list

TOM SACHS: LANCE'S TEQUILA BIKE FOR GIRLS PART I

God I loved this piece. It's so true that if I can play with it, I am just enamored by it. Thanks Tom!


hey guys. shots?






that badger spits tequila. I love him.


the ceremonial passing of the shots








look at us go!


the aftermath

THE GREEN ROOM

where we got to chill while doing press, in the 90 degree heat

ON THE STREET: PARIS

JESSICA, 2009

classic Shepard


good morning sunshine. you have cancer.





* a million thank yous Shepard

THE INTERVIEW

* this was why Nike was in town a few weeks back

STAGES 09 PART II

* read all about stages 09

CRAZY/COOL/PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM PARIS

I just paid 10 Euros for an hour's internet access. WTF? Thanks CDG!

In no particular order:

1. Being hoisted up into the arms of a 6'4" man when we are both falling down drunk, and then carried out of a Parisian night club like Scarlett O'Hara. We proceeded to do yoga in the back of the Mercedes van that carted us back to the hotel. That is what kind of trip this was.

2. Smuggling a 3" totally illegal switch blade in and out of Paris. Even after the CDG random super special bag check, done by 3 different people. They also missed a bunch of pharmaceuticals, that while legal, are all mixed together like a nifty little grab bag of fun. The knife was not on purpose.

3. Finally passing out around NYC and waking up in Paris. My seat mate could not believe I slept through some pretty hairy turbulence, see the handy aforementioned pharms.

4. Walking to the press event and while still in the hotel (thank god), having the buttons on my jumpsuit get into a fight with the button holes and letting me flash anyone around. While kind of black humor appropriate for the event, I opted for a safety pin during all filming.

5. Dancing my feet off the last night and arriving back to the hotel after 6 am. I had to leave for my flight at 10 am. Some sweet planning on my part, and yet sitting here so tired I might fall asleep posting this - I absolutely would not have it any other way.

* I purposely have not mentioned anything related to the party, gallerie opening or portrait as those all deserve individual attention and photos. Good god especially the photos.

STAGES 09

click to pause

*thank you Nike!

LATE NIGHT, PARIS

I can see La Tour Eiffel from my balcony. Yes, Paris rocks. More tomorrow or the next day!

xoxo, wee

BESTOWED #2

* from the wee studio!

29

JULY 15, 5 YEARS AFTER

My favorite email in some time:

Yo,

Just wanted you to know that there will be a car waiting to pick you
up at the airport in Paris, just look for the dude holding yer name
up!

J

I am off to Paris tomorrow, (finally, already! yipes!) and I cannot wait to bum around the city for a few days and eat, eat, eat! The hotel is booked and my girl Charlie is hauling my ass to dinner and the airport in just over 24 hours. I have no idea what I am walking into, but that is exactly how cancer was 5 years ago. Indeed I happen to be flying on the exact 5 year anniversary of having that nifty little tumor cut out and pickled in a jar. Seems like this year all those days you think you will never forget or recover from, are having their memories replaced by things like interviews and trips on airplanes to romantic destinations.

5 years out and my legs feel strong, my head is clear and I am ready to embrace the path I cannot see. I beat cancer, I know I will be taken good care of from here on out. I guess I just needed to find a little faith.

xoxo, wee

WEE STUDIO

...is open for business!

LIFE IS BRIGHT AND SHINY

SERIES: THINGS I LOVE

Did you know that I love old firehouses? Well, I do. Like a whole lot. In fact I have always thought it would be ridiculously cool to live in a converted one. And wouldn't you know I moved around the corner from the former Engine no. 23 building? I just might have to look into if it is for sale.



* there is another old timey firehouse on my way to work. it makes me smile every morning.

LOOK OUT FOR BELOW

I love, love, love this ampersand!!

* on the way to Sunday morning breakfast

SAD OLD LADY

Every year we take Mom to the horses for her birthday. And every year there are less people in the stands, less races on the track. We all kind of collectively determined that this was our 10th year in coming to the races. Naturally we retold our memories of that first year when it was hot, hot, hot and full of people, kids and horses. There was a carnival for the kids and more bbq and bacon wrapped hot dogs then you could shake a stick at. Firework stands flanked every exit from the parking lot. We bought a few boxes on the way out, and rode home most likely a bit pink, smelling of dirt and hay, still clutching racing forms and a couple extra dollars. I couldn't order a beer or bet that year.

What a difference a decade makes. Recently the last legal roadblock to development of the land was removed. Sadly it will only be a matter of time until Hollywood Park shutters her doors and the big machines move in to tear her down and cart her away. I will not be surprised, but I will be haunted. I learned to ride a horse early in life. I love the big, skittish creatures. I love the romance of the track. In second grade I discovered and read the novel Man O'War. I fell in love with a country so obsessed by horses that it spilled over into places like Tijuiana where men could gamble and ladies were rarely seen. Horse fever gripped the nation and gave us something to believe in as the Great Depression washed across every acre and stole fortunes and futures and splintered families.

This year there were so few people, it was quiet. I could have ordered a beer, but without summer's carefree communal attitude, what was the point? And the fireworks? One lone stand with 3 customers, on the 4th of July.

Everything changes.



* Hollywood Park Race Track

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND COUNTRY!!!

laughed so hard we cried. and I spit water, in public.

*July 4, 2009

MY BOYS

thanks A and C!

DRESS CHECK!

Which dress is going with me to the super secret event? Have I mentioned that it is in Paris?


we all know I love the grey


bang trim anyone?


one shoulder with modern draping - yes please




a summertime take on the LBD


urban cool


the naked dress has no back




a crepe classic


this would be appropriate...


wee got it!

IT'S TOTALLY JACKSON BROWNE DAY!!

*1978

UNDERGROUND HIGH

* this is the perfect listening quality

898

This is post 898 according to the backend of blogger. Interesting. 3:16 am, also interesting.

I have a rabid mosquito. No, seriously. The kid is on drugs. Serious bug drugs. I first woke up tonight to scratching matching handcuff bites. My elbow itched. What the hell? 3 bites. Red puffy bites. That is f*cked up. I lie in stealth and read, waiting for his return. No dice. Seen but unsquished.

I give up. Phone rings.

Disturbing crank call that I listened to for far too long. Now I am super awake and cruising the internet in frustration. And you know what? The f*cker bit me AGAIN. On the toe. I looked down and there he be, sucking away and waving. Then he buzzed off. I was too stunned to swat.

I didn't even feel it. That is not right. How the hell else are you supposed to kill them if they can bite you unannounced at 3 am?

I cry foul! And something has got to be done about these guys. How do you mosquito proof a house with industrial push windows and no screens?

signed, West Nile Anyone?