4109 (Mannequins)

I worked at Home Depot from April 2016 to April 2017. I was fired the day before my one year anniversary (Vacation Pay Denied!), just two days after receiving a raving evaluation where I asked for a dollar raise . But whatever I won’t discuss their shitty management here, we made this cool video while I was there for a nationwide Home Depot contest. I hope you like it!

VIDEO LINK

my ‘vlogs’

Vlogs are the new home videos and I’ve been making home videos since I first learned how to use my grandfather’s old VHS camera. One of my first ‘films’ then entitled ‘Four Boys and a Couch’ and ‘Snow Dayz’ now long lost but never forgotten. Thanks goodness we have the internet now, or specifically YouTube.

These are a series of home videos by me ‘These Are Not Vlogs’ a vlog series.

Do enjoy. THIS IS NOT A VLOG

Skateboarding

I started skateboarding in 2002. I bought my first skateboard from Modell’s the summer before starting high school with my Jr High graduation money. It was Spongebob Squarepants. I wasn’t even a fan of Spongebob but damn did I love the fuck out of that terribly shitty board. I learned ollies and shuv its on that board. But I quickly outgrown it’s cheap materials. Getting pieces to create a new set up from my friend (and technically the only skate crew I ever add), better known now to most people as Michael Trapson.

I’d been making short videos/home movies on my grandfather’s old cameras for years. But the 2000’s introduced digital media to me, and my grandfather bought “us” a little pocket digital camera. It didn’t have a screen. You couldn’t expand the storage. And the megapixels were for sure in the single digits, possibly under five even. But that camera became my new best friend. And I took it everywhere including school.

After I learned a couple tricks on my skateboard I of course wanted to start filming my own lines (yes, even I had dreams of going professional, don’t laugh at me I do it enough). And so I did. This is one of the few videos that remain from that era in my life, my first skateboard video. It’s awesome to see how far I’ve progressed even if it might not seem like much to others. My ollie is actually full inches instead of centimeters off the ground now. I’ve even ollied off of stuff. And that is fucking exciting.

My tag back then was dp or drunken psychopath. It’s a Gilmore Girls reference.

Menikmati is my favorite skate film.

 

FLESH

FLESH

“An avant-garde horror mash-up that follows a Black woman’s journey in destroying harmful habits. Internalized racism, misogyny and eurocentrism are topics discussed in this fast-paced ‘horror short’.”

 

This October in Philadelphia during the Eastern State Penitentiary’s Halloween fundraiser Terror Behind The Walls I met Chicago native Monika Estrella Negra; a filmmaker for Audre’s Revenge Films and founder of the Chicago Black & Brown Punk Show Collective. We immediately decided we should work together on future projects and so did. I became the editor for their short film ‘FLESH’.

Monika had wrote and directed this film; this showed through the footage they presented me with. The clips were organized by scene and corresponded greatly to the script. The script was in general an excellent blueprint in understanding the direction of the visuals, which of course made for better editing. They also had the perfect selection of music for the soundtrack to help convey the story; putting emphasis on the main character’s culture and it’s representation in this film via society.

There was a rather tight deadline of two weeks considering Monika had set up a Halloween premiere of the film. And that was actually more like five days for editing because of work at TBTW and elsewhere.; we were only able to work on the edit on the weekend, the ones before and during Halloween.

Flesh was edited on Adobe Premiere 6. We spent that last night before Halloween finishing the edit; and basically all of Halloween day exporting it. I delivered the final export not half an hour before the play button was pressed.

I may not think it’s perfect because every time I see something I made after the fact I will inherently find some mistake I missed or step skipped. However I do think this a wonderful film; relate-able on many levels, shown from a personal perspective not often seen and generally enjoyable. Essentially an all around awesome piece of work.

If you have Amazon Prime you can see the movie for free, or otherwise rent it.

AMAZON US LINK    —   AMAZON UK LINK

Also be sure to visit and support Audre’s Revenge

 

Flame Con 2

The second annual Flame Con has come and gone and it was indeed a blast. Who knew they could top last year’s introductory bash? Because they did and more! Not only was the venue much larger (the Marriott Hotel in Brooklyn), the con has expanded itself into two days. That’s two full fucking days of queer nerd love.

This year’s gaming room held a Super Sized Connect Four so I took a few moments to show off my skill.

I also got to enjoy a rather nostalgic set of songs performed by the super talented acapella group Choir Fly.

Buy Your Tickets for Next Year’s Flame Con Here!

The Unfinished Roller Coaster

These are my little cousins way back in 2012 when they were actually little.

I had my camera and they had new legos. So naturally I asked if they wanted to make a movie. And of course they absolutely did, jumping at the opportunity. They even wrote a script for it, together. And recorded their own voiceovers. Please enjoy this fruitless labor of the then 10 and 8 year olds.

WATCH: THE UNFINISHED ROLLER COASTER

Little Stories @ Flame Con

Little Stories @ FlameCon 2015

Spotlight Brooklyn (Full Playlist)

TextaQueen @ FlameCon

TextaQueen.com

Lee @ FlameCon (Spotlight Brooklyn)

Lee Lai

Lee-lai.tumblr.com