October 31, 2014

Hi everybody. Let's start by saying it's Halloween today, October 31st. I want to start by saying … Boo. I want to talk about the past because this blog is about the past. I want to talk about the past before I forget it.

I'll talk to you about meeting my first photo editor in Australia. You see, my first wife and I were gonna drive from Cairins north in Australia to Sydney. Back then it was a small country road along the coast. We had rented a car in Cairins and started driving south. Well, I thought to myself, I'm gonna need to buy a car so we kept on the lookout for a used car on the way to Sydney. Well, we found one about well, around Brisbane. We went to the local pub and called the man that had a for sale sign on his car. I decided to buy something subtle. It was Hunter Green, holden HQ, with a white roof and mag wheels. It was a total muscle head car. It had oversized tires on it. It looked like a meth smuggler's dream car. It looked like an American Trans Am. Pretty cool. Anyway, I was at the bar, called the owner who came with his father. They were nice chaps. We hung out and had a few beers and then they invited us over to have dinner. Like a young idiot, I decided to go over to their house for dinner. Now, most people in their right mind wouldn't go over to a stranger's house, but we were young and stupid. But dinner was really good and they were really nice people. I bought the car. Paid cash and the young man who sold me the car actually started crying when he handed over the car. We dropped off the rental at the closest spot and continued driving south to Sydney. Going back to the photo editor, one of my first jobs, I showed up to meet her, I rolled up in my muscle head car, stepped out all in black. I was pasty white and I looked about 15 back then. She looked at me like "Who is this guy?" Oh yeah, I had Queensland plates, which is northern Australia. I used to get stopped all the time because it looked like a total drug smuggler's car. The job went well despite the fact that I looked like a total freak. Oh,  yeah, actually, the car didn't look like a Trans Am. It looked like a 1970 Camero. I ended up selling the car to a bunch of Swedish guys. I said the car is fast, has a straight 6 in it and it can go from zero to 60 really quick. So be careful. It's very powerful. They just said, "Ya, ya, we take it." They must have had a good time.

I'm gonna include a cartoon from a random diary my friend here picked out. And we will include the link to the blog about the future and the present. Have a good Halloween. Don't take any rotten apples. Boo, B. Nice

October 24, 2014

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. I'm gonna have my friend here grab one of my cartoon books. I used to keep my diaries in cartoon form. So I had my friend here pick out one of my journals. She opened it up to a time I was seeing this one girl when I lived in Paris. Here's the cartoon, but I'm not gonna say anything. I think the photo says it all.

P.S. I looked outside to verify which floor I was on. I was on the eighth floor. Maybe I'll explain more one day when I'm much older, and living in Antartica.

You know, I used to travel all the time. I have many many cartoons of me on the plane. My friend here opened up one of my journals to a time I was on the plane on the tarmac for four hours. This seemed to be a common thing. It would drive me crazy. I'll include a cartoon of when this happened to me.

The last thing I'll talk about is windsurfing. I was obsessed with windsurfing. I would try to windsurf every day. I even brought the bloody thing with me on photoshoots. The client would often say, "What's that?" I would reply, "Oh that? That would be my reflectors." Never a dull moment, but let me give you some advice, if you're surfing or windsurfing in uncharted territory, always ask the locals if there is anything in the water you should know about. I was once chased by a shark in New Caledonia. Not a comfortable feeling.

That's about all for this week. I'll talk to you guys soon. Love, B. Nice

P.S. Here's a link to my other blog where I talk about the here and now.

October 17, 2014

Hi everybody, welcome to the blog where I talk about the past. I saw on the news there's a hurricane going to Hawaii. I used to shoot in Hawaii all the time. But the weather drove me crazy. One second it would be sunny. The next second it would be cold and cloudy. Oh, that reminds me: One time I was in a taxi in Italy. I asked the cab driver what the weather was like here in Italy. He said to me, "Oh, the weather here, she's like an Italian woman: hot one minute, the next minute, she's a freezing cold." Anyway, that's what Hawaii was like, a great place for a vacation, but not a great place to do photoshoots. Plus, where I was, it was always windy. That's a trade off says my friend and I agree.

I'm including a cartoon I did of a place called Briland. It's another name for Harbour Island in the Bahamas. I used to love shooting there. The beach is actually pink sand. It's pretty wild. Plus, it's not too developed. So it's like shooting at a small local beach. It would be great to go there on vacation, you know, just hang out for a couple of days or weeks, or months, or years. I'll include the cartoon I did when I went from New York to Briland.

You know, I traveled all the time. I was on an airplane like once a week. It was crazy, but I was always happy to come home. I could surf right in front of my house. Plus, I built my dream home in Montauk. I'll show you some pictures of the kitchen. It was pretty cool and it had great light.

I used to shoot there as well. It was a great location like this black and white story. That was in my front yard. That's why I built the house. It was basically a live/work situation. It was rather large, but, you know, I built it so people could come and stay. I would shoot from home. It was pretty cool.

I'll leave it at that. Here's a link to my blog where I talk about the present. I'll talk to you guys next week. Love, B. Nice

October 10, 2014

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. You know, I mentioned before that I had agents all over. You know, like New York, London, Paris, Milan, etc. I had agents all over. But I had this one agent. All this agent wanted to do was make money. I felt like a bloody ATM machine. You know, it's good to make money, but oh man, this was out of control. You gotta keep your creative side going.  You know, I guess it's a constant battle between art and commerce. You get hired for your artistic side, but next thing you know, you're doing stuff for them like, I won't go into it, but you're doing commerce. Am I making any sense to you? Anyway, keep doing your own thing. Remember that. My friend here said, I could have just said no, but let me tell you, after you do that starving young artist thing for a while, you know, no heat in Paris, you get kind of tired of that.

You know, you guys, I'm starting to run out of stories. I know I said it before, but the well is starting to dry up. I don't want to repeat myself, you know, tell the same old story. Maybe someone out there that knows me can tickle my memory and send me an email.  But then again, I might not want to remember some stuff. But I'd still love to hear from you. Hey, why don't I include a cartoon from the past. I'll have my friend here take photo of a cartoon. Hope you have a good week. I'm gonna sign off. Remember my blog about the future is the other one on briannice.com/mypointofviewproject.

See you next week. Love, B. Nice

October 3, 2014

Hi everybody. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the past. Stuff I used to think of when I was on my back for so long.

You know when I lived in Australia I learned very quickly the sun is strong. I mean really strong. One day I was sitting at the beach and there was a film crew at the other end of the beach. I didn't pay much mind to them. I went for a swim and went home. After I was at home for a while, I had a beer, started cooking dinner. I turned on the tele and there was the same film crew at the same beach I was at. They were talking about sun damage. They were doing shots, you know, people in the water, people playing badminton on the beach. Then all of a sudden there was a picture of me! I'm watching the 6 o'clock news and there's a picture of my back. They were talking about sun damage and skin. My back is a disaster 'cause I used to surf in midday sun. I look like a freaking leopard. Actually, one night, in college, this is a little side note here, in college, I got really drunk. Imagine that. And my girlfriend thought it would be funny to number all the moles on my back. She and her friends played connect the dots. I woke up to some very abstract drawing on my back. I don't remember anything because I passed out.

You know, when I first got to Australia I started shooting and I brought my film into a lab to get processed. After I ran the first roll I said to the guy who runs the lab, "What's with your developing? It's so contrasty." He just laughed. He said, "All people from out of town say the same thing." The light in Australia is very white. Very contrasty. The light isn't like the light on Long Island or Europe. It's very hard. It's actually really difficult to shoot there. At the end of the day you can almost use tungsten film which is film balanced for the household light. It's crazy. That's film speak.

One last story I have about the sun there goes like this: I went to a dermatologist about every six months. My usual doctor was away. His assistant took over. The guy looked like he was about 14. Anyway, he checked out my skin and stopped for a moment. He looked at me and pointed at my nose and said, "Oy mate, that's got to come off." I was like, "My nose?! You're going to cut off my nose?" He said, "No mate, but the little bump on the side of your nose, it's pre-cancerous and has to come off." The guy pulled out a scalpel that looked like an ice-cream scooper. He said, "Lie down." I said, "Now wait a minute, it's gonna leave a big mark." He said, "Oy mate, stop your complaining. You're a bloke. What do you care if you have a little mark on your face. It's not like you're a girl." He said, "Hold still." And before I could say "No," he scooped out the cancer. I still have a mark on my nose. I tell everybody I had a nose piercing. It makes me seem less like an old fart.

That's about it for my sun stories. I just stay covered up all the time now. Hell, even when I surf with my long board I wear a big hat. I go every six months to get checked now. Anyway, I'll leave you with a few photos. Oh, and if you want to go back to my homepage it's www.briannice.com

Talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice