September 8, 2015

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. You know, one way I used to make it through the day when I was at hospital, I would go through the alphabet and think of stories. For example:

One time I started with the letter "S." Now I know what you guys are all thinking so I will start with the word "sex."  I was on an editorial shoot in Europe. I went to dinner with a model and the assistant, my photo assistant. We were making small talk and eventually the conversation came around to relationships. Well, I said I was married. The photo assistant said he wasn't in any serious relationship and the model, who was from Eastern Europe said, "I'm in a relationship, but it's kind of open.  Whenever I want to pleasure myself and have sex with someone I want to, I go ahead and do it." She said all this in a perfect eastern European accent. She looked at me. I must have looked like a deer in the headlights. My assistant looked like he was in the starting blocks of the Men's 100 meter dash in the Olympics. He was good to go. I was ready to go and hide.

The other S word is the word "scream." It has nothing to do with the first word, you dirty bastards. It has to do with a sporting event I attended in High School. You see, I used to run  indoor track, and one of the meets brought me to NYC in the Armory. It was the worst track I've ever seen. There were basically painted lines on a wood floor. The floor was in real bad condition. Well, they had the men's 100 meter dash, and it's a very fast race. The gun went off and they started sprinting around the track. The head guy leaned at the finish, lost balance and fell to the floor. He didn't slide very far because he basically skewered himself to the floor. The floor was in real bad shape. They had to pull him off the floor backwards. He was full of splinters. It was one hell of a scream. He did win the race though.

The other word with the letter S would be "Sea Sun Sand and Surf." You see, when I was working as a fashion photographer, the months of December, January, February and March, I would spend my time in places like the Bahamas to shoot summer wear.  Life was like an endless summer for me. I would spend most of my days working at the beach and then go back and surf at night. Not bad for work, huh?

The last "S" work I'll talk about is "stay." Many of the locations I went to I wanted to stay longer. They were all great. One place in particular was in the south of France. I was at a spa where they believed in rejuvenation from grape seeds. This included red wine. Lots of red wine. Lots of very good red wine. It was great food. Great wine. A great spa. One night I was sitting in the reception area after a crew dinner. A Diva that you'd know of walked in. You'd recognize her music right away. I won't say who it was but she was wearing a black cashmere throw, black sunglasses and she demanded to see her room. A few minutes went by when she came back and slammed her key on the counter. She announced she would not be staying at this place. She whipped her shawl around her neck and stormed out. Very dramatic. I guess I'm gonna end here. with the word "Spoiled."

Have a good week. Love, B. Nice

Here's my link to my other blog.

September 4, 2015

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. I had a lot of time on my hands when I was in the hospital starring at the ceiling. Anyway, one time I was in Florida. We were there to train. It was a period in my life when I was on the cross country team in college. Well, we would train all day and then go to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Now the owner of the all you can eat buffet in Florida is used to a little old blue haired lady who might each a piece of toast and be full. Now imagine this. imagine 30 ravenously hungry teenagers descending on an all you can eat buffet. The owners freaked out. We would devour the entire all you can eat buffet. It got to a point where we would go to this one buffet and when the guy saw us show up, he would turn over a sign that said "Closed."

I'm surprised at the way like 300 pounds. All I can think about is food food food. I miss cooking so much. So I have people cook for me. I'll dictate the menu and they will cook for me. That's about it. I don't feel like blogging anymore. I'm gonna go have some Hagn Daz chocolate ice cream, or an ice cream sandwich. It's sad. Last night I had a dream about making chicken parmasean. It was good. Talk to you next week. Here's a link to my blog about the present. And here's a link about the movie I made with Adam Hall and Erin Hall.

Talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice

August 25, 2015

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past.

Man, it's hot today in New York. Unreal. The heat reminds me of a time I was shooting with an English client. It was super hot then as well. My English client, she said to me, in a heavy British accent, she said, "We British stay cool by having some hot tea in the afternoon. Brian, why don't you have some tea?" And then my assistant replied, "Oh, I thought you British stayed cool by conquering a country, wiping out half of the indigenous people and then colonizing the rest." They laughed. I laughed nervously.

It was kind of crazy. We always shot, you know, six months in advance of the season. For example, we would be shooting winter stuff in the dead summer. It was tough on the models. I would be wearing my swim suit, flip flops and a T-shirt and they would be wearing heavy merino wool sweaters, makeup dripping down their faces. It wasn't easy on them.

Sometimes we would go to South America where the seasons are in line with the season we were shooting. For example, we'd be shooting winter during their winter, or summer clothes during their summer. But all of that's changed now. It seems everyone shoots in the studio. Not good for storytelling.

Oh, I want to tell you this one story. I think I told it before, but it's pretty good. You see, I used potato flakes to imitate snow. Well, apparently cows and potato flakes don't go together well. After we left our set, you know, everything was set up for the next day, a bunch of cows moved in on our set and started eating all the potato flakes. Well, the potato flakes didn't agree with their digestion. They power farted all over the set. It looked like a big Jackson Pollack painting. There was cow poo everywhere. So, never feed a cow potato flakes, unless you want some interesting backgrounds.

Here's the link to my website: www.briannice.com

Have a good week. Brian Nice signing off.

August 11, 2015

Hi you guys. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the past. You know, when I was in ICU at the rehabilitation hospital, I laid in bed and thought about the past all the time. Once in a while, for some weird reason, I thought about things that would sort of make me squirm. For example, once I was in Hawaii windsurfing. I was windsurfing in a pro area called Camp 1. Well, there was this one German dude who was showing off. He came really close to shore really fast and jumped off the board. Well, he dismounted his board on a coral bed. He sliced his foot like a banana from toe to heal. You could see all his tendon and bone. Very impressive.

Another time, I was windsurfing with a friend. He was going along at a pretty high speed. You know, like a jet ski full on out. Well he managed to scare a hound fish. A hound fish looks like a tiny sword fish. Well, the hound fish managed to imbed itself into his knee, beak first. The head broke off. He was impaled by the fish. Nice, huh? A little surf 'n turf.

Another time I was windsurfing I did a high speed turn around my girlfriend at the time. What a stupid thing to do, cause if I hit some seaweed, I probably would have done some major damage to her.

Another thing that really makes me squirm is I was watching TV late at night. This is in college by the way. I was watching TV and cutting a matte for a photograph at the same time. I was using a box cutter and a ruler. As I was watching the news I couldn't figure out why the box cutter would move anymore. Then I realized the box cutter actually went through my index finger, through my skin and fingernail and started to cut into the bone. When the pain hit, I stopped. I still think my roommates can recall my scream.

Another time, when I was younger, I was whittling a stick with a dull knife. Not a good idea. The knife skipped off the stick and managed to cut into the flesh between the knee and the leg. I still have the scar, and I think the scream still echoes throughout the house. I have a lot more, but I'm squirming just thinking about them.

I'm gonna leave it at that cause there's a really cool lightening storm coming and I'm in a metal chair. Have a good week. Love, B. Nice

Oh yeah, here is a link to a website, you know, the film I did with Adam Hall and Erin Hall. Team Hall. They are great. http://offsetfilm.tumblr.com/

Here's the link to the blog about the present.

July 31, 2015

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

Let's call this blog - Depression 101. I say this because for most of my career as a fashion photographer I would schlepp my portfolio around to different art directors for work. The hotels I stayed in ranged from premier to rock bottom. I remember one night I was in Germany, I stayed in a real low budget hotel. It was stark. It was like a freaking prison cell. And to top it all off, there was a vending machine that dispensed ice cold beer. Man, those Germans drink a lot of beer. I didn't sleep all night. You know, talking about Germany, one night I went out for dinner. The restaurant I went to was packed. The Maitre'd said, "Oh, you're alone. One person. Come this way please." He sat me down at the world's smallest table. Then, all of a sudden, as I'm going through my menu, a very attractive woman sits down across from me. She starts going through the menu. It was all very awkward. I was like, two feet from her. I didn't know what to say. I thought I was being picked up by a cougar. Well, apparently, in Germany, if there's a single seat available, they fill it. I didn't know this. Going back to when she sat down, I didn't know what to do. I asked her if she wanted a drink and started talking to her. She totally ignored me and pulled out a book. Like I said, it was all very awkward.

One time I was in Hawaii on a job. I was checking into my hotel. It was an amazing and beautiful hotel. As I came in with my luggage a big whale in the background came out of the water. It was like a TV commercial. You couldn't have timed it better. That was cool. Great Hotel.

Depression 101 was basically about the low budget hotels I stayed in. Reflecting about it, I don't think I'm even gonna go there. Like my friend here said, I'll just choose to remember the good hotels.

That's it for this week. This is B. Nice signing off. Oh yeah! Here's the link to the trailer for the movie I did. Remember, I did a movie to call attention to brain injury. There's gonna be a lot of people coming back from the wars and a lot of people using the phone while driving, that have brain injury. Watch and see the trailer. https://vimeo.com/134879643

Heres the link to my other blog.