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24 Hours At The South Street Diner screening today at New Filmmakers, New York City

May 17th, 2012

We’re in New York today for a screening of 24 Hours At The South Street Diner which is part of the New Filmmakers series at Anthology Film Archives. If you happen to be in town, come down and check out our film tonight at 6 PM. It’s being screened alongside a few other shorts from up and coming indie filmmakers.

We’re using the screening as an excuse to spend a couple of days wandering around one of our favorite cities and getting some creative inspiration. We’re going to see a play that’s had rave reviews Venus in Fur, finally explore The High Line and dine at a great Italian restaurant in Soho to start getting in the mood for our next big trip (to Italy in a couple of weeks!).

Tom’s first ever visit to New York City was with me and we’ve made a lot of fun memories there. You can be sure we’ll be snapping away during our trip (time to dust off the poor lomos and we’ve got a new 70-200 lens to try out) but in the meantime, here are a few of our favorites from New York trips of yesterday…

First walk over The Brooklyn Bridge, summer 2009

 

Taking the Ikea boat from Manhattan... do they still have this?

 

Tom rocking his blue Reebox, New Year's 2010 in NYC

 

Our next trip to NYC was to interview Diego and Yulia for The Long Haul Project

 

Last time we were in New York was to catch up with the lovely Beth & Ben. It was February 2011 and FREEZING! Can' wait to see these two in London in a couple of weeks!!!

 

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Can subway ogling really lead to true love?

January 19th, 2012

There was an interesting piece in the New York Times recently about London website TubeCrush.net where users post pictures of attractive men they saw (and photographed) on the London Underground. The people behind the site have now launched a version for the NYC subway, and – crucially – are engineering a way for those photographed to contact their furtive photographer.

This is a new twist on the age-old idea of the missed connection – you lock eyes with a stranger across a crowded subway car but lack of nerve prevents you from striking up a conversation, so instead you scurry off and post a message on Craigslist.

A quick peruse of Craigslist’s Boston missed connections makes for pretty bleak reading. Half of the posts don’t seem to be genuine missed connections at all, but insipid declarations of unrequited love from people who probably secretly know that the chances of their crush ever seeing the message and being able to identify themselves in it are virtually zero. The other half of the posts are real missed connections – gentlemen exchanging flirty looks at the gym locker room, a curtailed conversation at Costco that could have led to more, etc – but you can’t help but wonder how ridiculous the odds are of these messages even leading to further contact, let alone a happily ever after.

Of course, there are success stories, like the remarkable tale of Patrick Moberg and Camille Hayton. Back in 2007 Patrick spotted Camille on the New York Subway and was so enamored by the very sight of her that he went home, drew a picture of her and posted it to a new website, NYGirlOfMyDreams.com. Within 48 hours the mystery woman was identified, the press latched onto the story, the two of them were reunited and they started to date.

Happily ever after.

Well…. not so much. They lasted a couple of months and then split up.

The truth is that when people talk about love at first sight (like Melissa did recently) what they really mean is love at first sight, and smell, and body language, and conversation. As great as my hair looked the night we first met, what really drew Melissa to me was the way we could talk like we’d known each other for years. That and the dog pheromone cologne I was wearing.

The danger with spotting someone across a crowded room and deciding that your relationship should progress to anything deeper than that of ogler and oglee is that you are inevitably going to project. You have no idea what that mystery guy or girl’s voice is like, so you assign them a sultry, seductive tone. You have no idea what their politics are, or their opinions on the films of Paul Thomas Anderson, or their religious views, so you fill in the blanks with what you would like all of those characteristics to be, and suddenly you convince yourself that this person is your soulmate, when all you really know is that you think they look hot.

So if you’re looking for the one, here is my advice: don’t decide if someone is the one until you’ve at least had a conversation.

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Analog love in New York City and Boston

May 6th, 2011

It was only a matter of time. We started off with a single lomography camera, then added four more. Eventually we had to give into the urge to buy a super 8 movie camera.

You can just about still buy film, and for processing we had to mail the reels off to Kansas City, but it was all worth it.

We shot our first two reels in NYC back in February, when we took a trip to meet up with old friends (and the first TLHP interviewees) Beth and Ben, and check out friends Julie and J’s new place in Brooklyn. The end of the second reel was finished up when we got back to Boston, with Angell and Pedro willing models.

Although this isn’t strictly marriage related, we still wanted to share our first (poorly exposed) experiments with super 8. Enjoy!

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Instead of breaking up, try Breaking Upwards

April 22nd, 2011

Tom and I love great, smart movies about relationships. We also love interesting, talented couples working together. So, it’s no surprise that we fell hard for the moving Breaking Upwards.

Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister- Jones in Breaking Upwards

The plot is quirky but simple: After four years, Brooklyn-based couple Zoe and Daryl are bored in their relationship. They decide to take three “days off” from each other each week, during which they have no contact and can date other people. The rest of the film explores the impact of this unusual decision on Zoe, Daryl and their meddling families.

What could come across as cloying is never less than compelling thanks to great acting; accomplished cinematography (far better than you’d expect from a film with a budget of only $15,000); and a well-observed, uber-modern script (while negotiating their part-time break up, Zoe and Daryl decide Tuesdays must be an “on” day so they can watch American Idol together and Zoe deliberates over whether to change her Facebook relationship status).

This movie feels like what long-term couplehood is really like: the easy, jokey familiarity; the petty fights and silly jealousies; the shared language and co-dependency. No doubt part of the reason it feels so authentic is that the movie was written, directed, produced and stars real life Brooklyn-based couple Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein. The couple actually went through this “days off” experiment themselves and officially broke up for a while, before getting back together and making this movie. They made it on a shoestring, mostly with the help of friends and volunteers. It’s a tremendous achievement and reflection of their copious and varied talents (Zoe even wrote most of the music in the film, and she and Daryl perform a duet which plays over the final credits).

Breaking Upwards is streaming on Netflix, so hurry up and go watch it! In the meantime, you can sneak a peek at the trailer:

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Diego & Yuliya, part two

January 26th, 2011

Last we we brought you part one, and now we have part two. If you missed part one, you can recap here – it inspired some interesting commentary both here and on Twitter, so we’re interested to see how part two is received.

You’ll remember that Diego & Yuliya are from Queens, New York, and they’re 21 and 23 respectively. They live with Diego’s Peruvian parents and they’ve been married for around 18 months.

Enjoy the clip and don’t forgot to post your comment below.

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Diego & Yuliya – part one

January 17th, 2011

Way back in September (we know, we know, it’s January already) we traveled to New York City, and more specifically to Queens to interview our youngest (and most recently married) couple, Diego & Yuliya.

Diego is 21, Yuliya is 23, and they live with Diego’s Peruvian-American parents. They were married in July 2009.

We’ll bring you part two very soon. Enjoy, and don’t forget to leave us your comments on Diego & Yuliya.

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Life thru a lens

November 5th, 2010

My wife is going to kill me: for scheduling a second blog post in a day, for using the title of a Robbie Williams album as said blog post’s title, and for publicly gushing about her.

But I just wanted to give her some props for the fabulous Lomo shots she’s been producing lately. Her early efforts with her Diana were…. a little underwhelming, but recently she’s been shooting some crazy cool stuff and I would like to share some of it here.

 

New York from the Hudson Hotel deck

Queens

Interviewees Diego and Yuliya

Nathan and Jenny's fall wedding

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Diego & Yuliya’s one thing

September 29th, 2010

It’s official, the “one thing” is now a bona fide TLHP tradition.

Meghan and Tony told us the key to marriage was liking one’s spouse. Paul and Stefanie… well… just watch their video… at home… alone…

Next up it’s the turn of Diego and Yuliya, our young subjects from Queens. Now that the big move is over and done with, we’re hoping to catch up on some editing so we can bring you more from Meghan and Tony, from Paul and Stefanie, and from Diego and Yuliya.


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Best of times, worst of times

September 22nd, 2010

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Dickens had it right, though he was writing about The French Revolution and I’m writing about marriage.

Yuliya and Diego

Last weekend, we interviewed Yuliya and Diego, who are 23 and 21 and have been married for one year. It’s amazing to talk to a married couple who are so early in the journey. They haven’t made any big decisions yet. They don’t have many responsibilities. They said they don’t fight, and can’t seem to imagine circumstances that might lead them to do so.

After the interview, Tom and I marveled at their new and shiny view of marriage. Tom wondered what will happen when they encounter their first big problem, then speculated that maybe they never will. Maybe as you get older and have a more cynical view of the world, you create problems where none need to exist. Maybe every marriage should be as easy as Yuliya and Diego’s.

Tom and I have not found marriage easy. We’ve been through a lot of challenges,especially since moving from London to Boston in 2008. Job insecurity, buying a house, deaths in the family, illnesses, changing and drifting apart. In many ways, you could call it the worst of times.

But strangely, going through the worst of times seemed to bring out the best in our marriage. It forced us to find better ways to communicate, re-evaluate how we make decisions, become more honest about our feelings. We examined our priorities and committed to doing more of the things that inspire us. We started The Long Haul Project, planned more trips, bought tickets to see every band we love, went on more bike rides, took up running together.  Within the toughest months of our relationship, we found ourselves having some of our best of times.

So that’s not to say we wish hard times for our young TLHP subjects. But if they do encounter the worst of times, we hope they’re as lucky as we are and manage to find the best within it.

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What we did in New York City

September 20th, 2010

Ah, New York.  No matter how many times I visit, I always discover something new. This time, one of the “something new’s” was a trip out of Manhattan to Queens where me met our next subjects, Yuliya and Diego. Definitely a side of the city we hadn’t experienced before. What else did we enjoy during our whirlwind long weekend?

Tom enjoys the view from the roof of The Hudson Hotel

We stayed at The Hudson Hotel which is part of the Morgan’s Hotel Group (owners of The St. Martin’s Lane in London and The Ames in Boston, both of which are high on our list of favorite places). The Hudson mixes Morocco with minimalism to stunning effect. Our room was small but perfectly formed. The real gems of the hotel were the bars, including a rooftop terrace with breathtaking views over the city and a secret garden-style courtyard that felt like a peaceful oasis in the midst of the city.

We did not go thirsty or hungry in New York. We had our first beer at a sweetly decadent bar in Greenwich Village called The Dove Parlour (best bar wallpaper we’ve encountered) and then moved uptown for dinner at Guantanamera, a Cuban restaurant with live music, lethal mojitos and a man outside hand-rolling cigars.  High marks for authenticity, though after an early start and a busy day all it took was a couple of  mojitos and a heaping serving of paella to make one half of TLHP ready for an early bedtime.

Breakfast by Bouchon Bakery

We enjoyed a memorable meal at Bouchon in Yountville, Napa Valley last year and I still dream about the moules frites (oh, those frites). Bouchon’s New York outpost in Columbus Circle is only a bakery, but I still wanted to check it out.  We stopped in for a latte and pastries before heading to Queens and we weren’t disappointed.  They didn’t just serve jelly doughnuts…. oh no, instead we got a peanut butter and jelly doughnut. The person who came up with this idea deserves some sort of Nobel Prize for Yummyness.

It turned out that there was a big Autumn Fair taking place in Queens and we passed through on the way back from interviewing Yuliya and Diego. One particular vendor caught my eye, the “Mozzarepas” stand. Apparently, a mozzarepa is a grilled corn bread and mozzarella cheese sandwich which is commonly served at street fairs in New York. As Tom said: Cheese? Good. Corn bread? Good.  And it was indeed a good, gooey snack to enjoy as we jumped on the subway and headed back to Manhattan.

Mozzarepas? Good!

And who can spend a weekend in New York without having breakfast at a diner?  Not us. I’d passed it on my way to Penn Station many times before, so it was nice to finally eat at The Starlight Diner. French toast for Tom and an omelette for me ensured we were well fortified for our train journey home on Sunday morning.

We managed to squeeze in a bit of exercise between meals! This trip marked Tom’s first foray into Central Park, which we explored via a Saturday morning run. Even though we had been warned, we were taken aback by the sheer number of other runners on the path; not to mention bikers, roller bladers, rickshaw drivers and dog walkers. It was good motivation to keep running, because stopping seemed likely to end up in merciless trampling.

Later that evening, we returned to Central Park for the Broken Social Scene show on the SummerStage. Because this was New York, we were prepared for a huge crowd and figured we’d end up 5 or 6 miles back from the stage. So we were pleasantly surprised to discover it was a relatively small venue and we had a great view of BSS rocking out for two impressive hours that spanned all of our favorite songs, some stage diving and top-notch audience banter from lead singer Kevin Drew. These guys deserve to be way more famous than they are, but we’re sort of glad they lurk just outside of the mainstream.

A little slice of lomographic heaven

Catholics have Rome, Muslims have Mecca… that should help you understand the way I felt after entering the Lomography Store. An amazing range of cameras and accessories were on display and the walls were lined with examples of lomography from all over the world.  As soon as we stepped inside, my ears pricked up as I realized they were playing Phoenix’s ‘Too Young’. Yup, this could be my definition of heaven. I shuffled around the store in a semi-daze, overwhelmed by the special-issue Helgas, fish eye lenses and color-filter film. I treated myself to a flash for my Diana (looking forward to seeing how the shots come out) and noted a number of other items for my Christmas-wish list. Santa, take note.

And since we’re moving this week, we might be a little bit slow getting any footage of our New York subjects on the website. So here’s a picture of the lovely young Yuliya and Diego for you to enjoy in the meantime:

Yuliya and Diego prepare to give us a private concert

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