up to my ears in polaroid film.

thursday: bought A LOT of polaroid film from a really nice guy in santa monica. i should not need to buy film for a long, long time. i also visited hal and looked at all of the photos from his cross-country drive/nyc trip. then hal, his gf leah, their friend and i walked to this little coffee/tea shop and then we went to the beach. it was really nice day outside. and of course hal and i took a bunch of photos.

i received a care package from my mother full of giant marshmellow candies shaped like a hamburger, a hot dog and french fries, hehe. she also sent me sun tan ltion spray and these awesome colorful bendy wires that i've already started making amazingly kewl things with. photos to come. (thanks ma!! xoxo). aldrin stopped by and during dinner we watched Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, a creative spoof of films from the 1940s starring Steve Martin. The kewl part is that Steve Martin is sometimes acting alongside clips from famous old movies. this makes for some comedic scenes since the dialogue of the clips are obviously being taken out of context.

rick and i watched Scoop the night before. it's a Woody Allen mystery/comedy. it wasn't bad once i accepted the fact that Scarlett Johansson hasn't been a believable actress since Lost in Translation. (my favorite movie of hers is still Ghost World though). and of course Woody Allen is very irritating at times, but once you become immune to them, the plot becomes more interesting and you actually want to know what happens at the end.

then and now.

i just finished watching Please Don't Eat the Daisies, first a best-seller book then a hokey Doris Day comedy in which she plays a frazzled housewife with four children - all boys. the youngest boy (who is kept in a cage) only knows two words "cokie cola" and "daddy" which are hilariously dubbed into the film. Day plays Kate, a mother who treats her sons like unwanted monsters - which they are. her husband, who wants nothing to do with his children, has just become a successful (and controversial) film critic. they live in new york city then move to the country - but hubby didn't really want to move so Kate is forced to fix up the house by herself in hope to win over hubby's approval. it's a very chauvinistic-driven movie. the most amusing aspect of the film was the way societal roles were portrayed and how vastly different society is now. for example, here's a dialogue from a scene where Kate's mother gives her son-in-law some friendly advice...

kate's mother: don't go near that girl until she calls you and apologizes.

kate's husband: but i don't want her to be unhappy, i love her.

mother: oh loving her is one thing. letting her think she's intelligent is another. and look where it's got you. into a house you don't want and a lot of ridiculous interference in your career. well she's good and scared now. and that's where you keep her... right under your thumb.

husband: (sarcastically) you think i should make her say "Hail Larry!" every morning.

mother: wouldn't do a bit of harm.

imagine your own mother telling your spouse something to that effect!! ironically, after watching this movie, i noticed one the top headlines on yahoo: "Study: Wives yield more power in marriage." the article, which was just released today, finds that "wives have more power than their husbands in making decisions and dominating discussions." (well DUH!! ;) hehe). it goes on to say research suggests 'men accepting influence from their wives' is a marker of a healthy marriage. so wife power could signal a harmonious couple. if only Doris Day knew...

trivia: in 1961, Please Don't Eat the Daisies was nominated for "Best Written American Comedy."

my mother's spoiled dog.

my mother just sent me this photo on my cell phone, thought i'd share:

the caption read: "me, spoiled?" hahahaha.

another one:

hehehe. ;)

i'm a fruit whore./another productive weekend.

saturday: woke up at 5 am to meet kerry (wedding photographer) to drive to santa clarita where the bride was getting ready in her parent's house. (the bride and her family were all SUPER friendly, by the way. and her parent's house was really nice!!) after that series of photos were shot, we were off to the church in north hollywood. naturally we missed our exit because we were too busy talking. for the first time ever, i was glad i brought along my navi. i'm not sure how old the couple was, probably post-college, but the groom looked about fifteen. after a loooong catholic ceremony, we were off to the reception at the bel-air hotel. (fancy-shmancy!!) the centerpieces were amazing and the cake was really cute - it was three layers, looked like a castle and was adorned with clovers. (they were irish). the wedding ended by 4 pm and before the main course was even served, one of the groom's brothers had to be carried out to the newlyweds hotel room because he was THAT plastered. all and all, so far it's been my favorite wedding to shoot. kerry was a fun guy to work with (a bit... confident) but he really allowed me A LOT of room to take some awesome photos. and although i was working without a flash, i think this was my best wedding work to date. and while i was working, rick did the dishes and vacuumed the entire apartment. :)

sunday: rick and i went to his parent's house. i did laundry while rick, tim and his father fixed (and by "fixed" i mean hammered, torched and repaired) our broken patio chair. i mindlessly watched part of a marathon of Sweet Sixteen, a reality show about how spoiled brats blow $200,000-350,000+ on a birthday party. it's so bad it's entertaining. then rick washed my car because he's the best boyfriend ever. after the last load of laundry was in the dryer, we went out to eat thai food (are you surprised?!) in a restaurant we've never tried before. the food was pretty good and it's local, so we want to take rick's mother there when his parents get back from mexico. rick and i have probably eaten thai food together in 15-20 different restaurants. after dinner, then we picked up aldrin, went to target and then went to my favorite spanish food store. :) here's what we purchased... try to guess how much it cost. (without cheating!!)

8 or 9 nectarines (3.94 lbs)
9 mangoes
4 cantaloupes
4 large green apples
2 cucumbers
2 bags of red grapes (4.24 lbs)
1 bag of fresh mint
1 seedless watermelon

my fruit rolling down the check out belt:


guess how much our bill was... and then check the tags/labels for this post to see if you were right!!!!

monday: miss gray woke up me twice nudging me in the face. that's her new favorite thing to do in the mornings. she's starting to sleep on our bed a lot. it's so cute how much she loves me. i just wish she liked rick as much as she likes me. i called more ad agencies for dave, scanned some photos and caught up on emailing people back. when rick gets home we're going to the PO and then going swimming (after we deal with our patio and rick kills some resident evil zombies). usually our goal is to eat dinner before 9 pm, but i doubt that will happen tonight. i don't think we're even going to try.

some plans:
*calling back friends i've neglected to call recently :(
*meeting up with hal to discuss our brilliant plans
*buying polaroid film
*creating albums this week for michael brannigan
*working a promo this weekend

*****don't forget to guess how much alllll of my fruit cost!!!! (and then check below).

LOTS of polaroid nerd out portraits on my flickr!!

chek em out!! :D

polaroid jesus
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

hangin out with lou
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

swing!
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

miss cool bluecitrus
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

ice cream sandwich
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

more photos can be seen here.

it's saturday AGAIN???

because the 4th was a wednesday... i have been totally unaware as to what day of the week it is. in fact, today felt more like a wednesday than july 4th did. the 4th flet like a saturday and now today is saturday. ahhhh!!!! the confusion. anyway... so here's the scoop.

thursday: MAJORLY productive day. i called a lot of ad agencies for dave. both lindsay AND andrea called me (my two best friends). i did the dishes, made the bed and cleaned every inch of the guest bathroom. then when rick got home we went to the bank; i ran into a foodstore to buy snyders pretzels; we went to costco; i dropped off film; we went to the library; we went back to costco and shopped; i picked up my film; we went to albertsons; then came home and made dinner and watched The Break-Up which certainly doesn't deserve the 5.9 rating it received on IMDB.com.

friday: worked for michael doing layouts and making templates. went to post office. aldrin came over. rick and i cut his hair. (his hair was getting LONG!! it grows so fast. the last time we cut it was in may!!) then we all went swimming. aldrin stayed for dinner and we watched Lucky Number Slevin which was actually really good. i didn't know ANYTHING about the movie before i watched it... and that's the best way to watch that particular movie. it's pretty violent, but not excessively gruesomely violent. but four or five characters die within the first 30 seconds of the movie, even before the opening credits are finished.

saturday: meeting up with kerry (guy who works for michael/dm photography) at *drumroll* 6:50 AM to drive to santa clarita to shoot a wedding. ohhhh my. and i am NOT a morning person. the good news is the wedding ends at 5 PM.

fourth of july. lucy in the sky. i remember palm trees and the coat of many colors. ~311

hope everyone had a happy 4th of july!!

rick and i went over his parent's house for a BBQ. we picked up aldrin, went over tim's house and browsed through their high school yearbooks. we also ran a few errands then went to see the fireworks from the harbor. there was a little street fair with a live band and a highly amusing old guy who danced like nobody was watching (although he was kind of hard to miss). we wound up sitting on a bridge watching the fireworks from accross the water (and have now been inspired to rent a little boat one of these weekends).

this week: i am finishing up work for dave until the 11th.
this weekend: i am working as 2nd shooter for michael.
next weekend: i am doing promotional work.

i'm also working on albums during the weekdays. i'm trying to get as many gigs as i can right now because i am going home in august for two weeks to see family and friends and i could really use the money. hopefully a lot of jobs will come my way.

SF POLAROID NERD OUT 2007.

this past weekend was a blast!! rebecca and i attended the san francisco Polaroid Nerd Out (a large gathering of polaroid photographers from flickr). it was my first time ever having been in san francisco. (pretty city, but too cold for me). 41 people from all over California/Oregon/Seattle joined forces at Delores park on Sunday. every one who showed up was extremely nice. a man from the east coast, who couldn't attend the Nerd Out, even made and sent polaroid buttons for all of the attendees.

so picture this: a large gang of prehistoric camera-wielding, creative people scattered about playground equipment, taking photos of each other for at least two or three hours. everybody havd an arsenal of cameras (rebecca and i packed five cameras a piece) and came fully stocked with film. (i believe lou shot NINE packs!!) definitely my kind of afternoon. i compared it to a high school reunion for only the kewl kids. i love the feeling (and comfort) of connecting with a group of strangers over a shared interest. it was like meeting up with a bunch of friends you've always wished you had. the whole experience was very reminiscent of how i felt attending 3-11 day in 2004 and 2006. just a bunch of people who are very different, yet very similar- traveling, meeting and reveling in their favorite hobby. it fills you with a lovely sense of belonging and warmth. here's how it went...

saturday:

drove to SF with rebecca. (loooong car ride... took about 6.5-7 hours). drove over the golden gate bridge. took photos. was in awe of the view of the city from the Headlands. crashed at Rebecca's friend laura's apartment. ate thai food with laura and company. rebecca went on a hot date. i went to bed early (shocking, i know) since i had gotten three hours of sleep the previous night.

sunday:

we got my nerd on at the polaroid nerd out!! as i mentioned, 41 polaroid photographers (98% of them from flickr) met up for two hours of photography fun, swinging, chatting and random shenanigans. rebecca and i befriended an awesome girl named arielle. after hundreds of photos were snapped, the crowd dispersed and rebecca and i left the park with a dozen or so flickrites. we walked a decent distance to catch the bus. lou and tod brilliant shot LOTS of random portraits while we were riding on the bus. everybody grabbed some food or jamba juice, then we all chilled outside the japanese gardens (waiting for more flickrites who chose to drive there). then we went up the observation tower in the bay bridge park. amazing view. we all took plenty of photos. eric (a nice guy who built his own holgaroid with a fisheye lens!!) let me use his fisheye lens on my digital camera to take some hilariously unflattering photos of everyone. (will post them on flickr soon).

after that, rebecca and i literally dragged ourselves back to laura's apartment. at which point we were sunburnt, sweaty, EXHAUSTED and in pain from our shoes. everyone had such a blast at the meet-up that some people had already uploaded photos from the event onto flickr!! rebecca and i ate a lot of pretzels and then went to alamo square with laura to see the painted ladies (aka: the full house houses). we took even more photos and ate at a vegetarian restaurant. the BRISK walks to and from bus stops solidified my decision that san francisco is too cold for me.

later we met back up with the remaining polaroid crew around 9:30 at greg's (polaroid jesus's) awesome warehouse apartment. where we saw greg's awesome bedroom ceiling that he painted, ate pizza, took EVEN MORE photos, experimented with light painting, partied, chatted, gossiped, ate pizza, took EVEN MOOOOORE photos. lou took lots of shots of me and rebecca. and watching drew in action as he light painted this photo was mesmerizing. around 3:30 am, we hitched a ride back to laura's apartment with drew and lou. (unfortunately drew's car had gotten broken into the night before so it was a breezy, music-less driving experience. poor drew).

monday:

six-or-so hour long ride back into LA from SF. few pit stops/photo stops along the way. ate lots of pretzels. stopped at a fruit stand and a cattle feed lot. (very sad!!) took some photos. saw pyramid lake. got back to the apartment around 6:00 pm. watched Valley Girl with rick while eating dinner. (awful movie but a REALLY bitchin soundtrack, fer sure!!)

and there you have it!! plans are already in the works for a Polaroid Nerd Out in NYC this october and the Seattle crew is itching to host a Nerd Out as well. rebecca and i plan on hanging out with the LA crew more often.

my photos from this extravaganza can be seen here.
other nerds' photos can be seen here.

AND THERE ARE WAAAAAY MORE PHOTOS TO COME.