January 17, 2015

Hi everybody. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the past. Remember. I've lain on my back for years and to get through all this I think about the past.

You know, I have two degrees: a BFA in photography and an associates degree in science, specializing in psychology (go figure). In my psychology class they once had a hypnotist come. Apparently anyone can be hypnotized. It's just a matter of trust and time. So imagine this, I'm sitting there and the professor brings up the hypnotist. He hypnotizes the entire audience. I felt myself going into a hypnotic state, but I refused. All of a sudden, the guy next to me who is a 275 pound football player goes up to the stage like a zombie. The hypnotist manages to convince this big guy to be a ballerina. The guy does his best imitation of a ballet dancer, a prima ballerina doing the nutcracker. The guy was amazing. You should have seen his leaps. Very impressive. It was very entertaining but what impressed me the most was the hypnotist brought a woman on stage that did age regression. The guy had her write her name on a chalk board at her current age, then 15 years old, then 10 years old, then 5 years old, and then he brought her to the stage of being an infant. He then said to her, "Now I'm going to bring you back to a previous life that you had." The woman stands up and the hypnotist says, "Now I want you to describe what's around you." And she describes what would be a market in ancient Egypt. The hypnotist now says, "I want you to go to a moment in this previous life that influences how you live today." The woman described herself walking down the street with her father. All of a sudden some chariots showed up coming around the corner. The chariots run over her dad and kill him instantly. The hypnotist says, "How does this affect how you live today?" And the woman replied, "Well, I never got the chance to tell my father I loved him." So she does now, every day. She tells people she loves, that she loves them. Pretty freaky huh? I found out later the whole thing was a set up. Just kidding. No, I knew the woman who got hypnotized. Pretty wild. The professor said, "There's one of two options. Either previous life experiences do exist, or we have an incredible imagination." You know, everything we see, we record. The brain is amazing. When you're hypnotized, you go back and review a specific moment, you know, like reading a license plate on a car. Something like that.

Like I said before, even when I was ready to check out, you know, catch the bus, live in the next life, exit stage left, I wasn't so freaked out because I've had some amazing experiences. If you where to make a movie, it would be a combination of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Big Fish, Forest Gump, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Then sprinkle in a little Indiana Jones and voila! you would have my movie.  Anyway, I'm halfway through. Who knows what's next. Here's my link to the blog where I talk about the present. I'll talk to you guys soon. Love, B. Nice

January 10, 2015

Hi you guys. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. It's actually good for me. Good for my memory. I think about things I've done, places I've gone, people I've met. It's good for me. Anyway, one thing I'd like to share with you is the fact that when I was at my recovery hospital there was a real interesting guy across from me. I think I talked about him before. He was real cool. He used to be a Black Panther and now he's a Muslim cleric. I used to talk to him all the time. He was interesting. His whole family was interesting. I asked him what the most powerful moment was of his life so far. He told me he was in a shootout when he was a Black Panther. He was in a shootout with the police. Anyway, he remembers going from door to door shooting his gun. The next thing he remembered, some policeman was on top of him like beating the hell out of him. Then he realized the police officer was actually doing CPR on him. He was trying to save his life and he did. The story ended there. The hospital was cool because you would meet people you would never meet otherwise. Another time I remember talking to this guy, he said he and another cleric warned the US government about radical Islamists, you know, terrorists. I guess he was right. I mean, look at Paris right now. Crazy. Anyway, let's talk about something else.

You know, there's been of couple people who've been very influential on me as an artist. One of them is my father. He reminded me how important it is to really look at things. I mean, Art is all about looking.  So now, I paint and I sit back and I look at what I've done. You know, for like an hour. I just sit and look. When I know I've done a good painting, I notice there's lots to look at.

Another influential person was a photographer I worked for in the '80's. He always told me to take a step back and look at the model. Look at the light. You know, take it all in before you start. and he was right. I even still do that now when everything seems to be in post production. People would often say to me, "Oh, we'll take care of the color of the light later." You know, stuff like that. Just an observation.

I guess the bottom line is, you really have to pay attention to what you're doing. You have to adapt to what you're doing. For example, I used to shoot in Australia a lot. The light there is very harsh, very contrasty. Therefore, I would adapt and shoot in open shade. Or if I was in Europe. The direct sunlight was warm and soft. I would shoot direct light there. The whole thing is you just really have to look at what you're doing. That's my moment of observation I'll share with you. That's my profound thought of the week.

My friend here said, "How does that relate to where you are now?" And I guess I'll answer by saying I guess I've got some time on my hands now to really look so I do. I mean, I must look like a ground squirrel. I'll stare at an object for half an hour. Anyway, here's my link where I talk about more stuff at the present. Have a good week. Love, B. Nice

January 3, 2015

Hi everybody. January 3rd, Elizabeth, if you're out there, happy birthday. Remember me? It's Brian Nice. Anyway, welcome to the blog where I talk about the past. I'm gonna make this one a quick one because it's snowing out and my friend has to go. You know, my friend who's typing this for me.

When I was around 16, I went with my friend over to Europe. We went there to go on a bike trip around Northern Europe. We went with the American Youth Hostel group. It was pretty cool. We had a chaperone who biked about 7 of us through Europe. We ended up in Amsterdam. Now, this is where things got kind of interesting. One of the guys in our group went out to score some hash. He met a drug dealer and bought a bar of hash. He brought it back to the room at the youth hostel and said he was gonna smuggle it home in his bike frame. I said, you know, I don't think it's a good idea. I'm sure someone has thought of something like this before. I'm sure you'll get caught. Not a good idea. but the guy said he was gonna do it anyway. He broke out the bar of hash. I said, let me see that. I looked at it, smelled it. I said, congratulations, you just scored a bunch of old licorice. That's my story for the day. Have a good week. I'll talk to you guys next week. Happy New Year and here's the link to my blog about the present.

December 27, 2014

Hi you guys. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. I used to lie on my back for years and think about what I did. My friend here said, "Fortunately you did a lot of stuff." And I agree.

One time I was on a photoshoot in Guadeloup. You know, in the caribbean. It was for a french magazine. Anyway, the model I was shooting with was real nice. She was perfect for the shoot. She had good skin. I was doing a beauty shoot. The editor from the magazine wanted to do a story about skin. She wanted to do a double page spread of a nude girl on a rock by the sea. I explained this to the model and she said, "No problem, but I have a scar on my thigh from a motorcycle accident." I said, "All right, we'll cover it up with a scarf or your arm or something like that." I turned my back and she sat down and she said, "OK, I'm ready to shoot." I turned around and her whole leg was a huge scar. I thought, My God. She looked like an alien. It was all rather awkward. I did a few films and said OK, let's move on. This was all before photoshop of course.

Another awkward moment I had was with another model. I had to shoot swimwear on her. I think I told you this story, but anyway, I was in Hawaii and I had to shoot swimwear on this one model. Before I would shoot I would try the clothes on the girls. Anyway, this model tried on a swim suit and came out (she was a girlfriend to a famous rock star). She was covered in black and blue punch marks. She also had an infected belly button ring. She looked pretty rough. Not only that, but she was a bit puffy, if you know what I mean. It was the first time I had to send a model home. I felt pretty bad, but she looked terrible. You gotta take care of yourself.

Another awkward moment I'll talk about, I had to shoot with a South Korean client. It was a big campaign. The art director showed up. I think he was 3 feet tall, but his ego was 7 feet tall. He came in and started bossing people around. Anyway, I had to do a photoshoot with a guy and a girl. It was to be a black and white. We were in a studio in New York. The female model happened to be my girlfriend and the guy was someone I picked out. Anyway, the art director, in his broken English, said to the guy and the girl, "Take off all your clothes." I said, "Come on, at least let them wear their underwear, I mean, give me a break." So the models were unhappy. So I said, all right and calmed everyone down. I called their agents. We all worked it out. They were gonna do the campaign topless. It was pretty funny because in the photo, the guy and the girl had to be shouting at each other topless. The art director kept mimicking what he wanted. It was all rather strange. You have this 3 foot art director imitating the emotion he wanted and you had the topless models who were extremely pissed off, and then you had my girlfriend who was really really extremely pissed off at me. And to top it off the male model was trying to pick up my girlfriend. What a weird day. Oh yeah, and on top of it all, in the middle of the day, my assistant screams at the art director, "You, I'm sick of you!" What a day.

OK, I'll tell you one more awkward story. I wanted to get my pilot's license so in order to do that you first have to do what they call "ground" school. So I was almost finished with ground school and something was really bothering me. I recognized the teacher from somewhere. I kept looking at her going, "I know I know her from somewhere." It was really bothering me. Then after about the third week I remembered -  she walked past me and I got a whiff of her perfume. She was a stripper. I'd gone with my track team to a stripper bar. It was all rather awkward.

I have some other stories, but I'll leave them for later. This is B. Nice signing off. Have a good week and check my blog where I talk about the present. Love, B. Nice

December 19, 2014

Hi you guys. Welcome to the blog where I talk about my past. You know, I used to lie in bed for years totally not being able to move. I'm exaggerating. I could move my index finger and my toes. Anyway, one thing I used to do was think about the pets I used to have. I would make up some really cheesy poem. Would you like to hear one? I'll take that silence as an "OK." I know you're probably rolling your eyes, but here we go.

This poem is inspired by a blog I did previously. OK, ready, here's my cheesy poem. This takes place at my parent's house.

After a long day's work, I set out for a run. There was my old one eye'd cat laying in the driveway under the sun. I leaned down to pet him. He was warm. I pet his fur. He stretched and gave me a purr. I carried on my way. It was a great day. I returned from my run. My one eye'd old cat was still in the sun. I reached my eight mile goal. I reached down to pet the cat. I pet him. His body was there but he had no soul. I pet his fur, but he was cold and stiff.  There was no purr. I called out to my mom. But there was nothing to say. We covered him up and there he lay. It turned out to be a sad day.

See, there's my poem. Want to hear another one. I've got one about my old dog. I'll spare ya.

On another note, you know, I was thinking about all of the different agents I had. I remember I had one agent that kept trying to get me to shoot in a more commercial way, a way that would get new clients. It was like putting a round peg in a square hole. It fit but it wasn't right. I tried it, but it just wasn't me. What I'm saying is, you gotta stay true to yourself and do what makes you happy. Life is too short. Anyway, I'm gonna leave it at that. Let's say a prayer for my one eye'd cat. I couldn't resist. Talk to you guys next week. Love, B. Nice

Here's a link to my blog where I talk about the present. I'll include some cartoons I used to do.