Saturday, February 9, 2013

Favorite Pic of the Day for February 9th

Above:
Image from zroaphotography
-See More Below-

Check out today's birthdays HERE:

Flurry


For all those living through the current nor'easter you know, it's snowing. Yes, that's the story, there is a snowstorm, a blizzard, windy, icy, slippery and cold. Not much more to say really. Except... television LOVES a drama. If you turned on the television in the last 24 hours you would think the world was ending. As much as I would love to chase down Jake Gyllenhaal and ravage him in some corner of the New York Public Library, that, like the end of the world, is not happening.


Why is it then that television stations stopped pretty much all regular programming for the last day to tell us basically that 'it's snowing.' Yes, there were the odd updates with the usual 'stay off the roads', 'parking bans' etc, but truly, regardless of the warnings, there will always be the same idiots who head out to the mall, or more likely the liquor store, when these warnings occur.


It is a bad storm I know, we get them pretty much every winter. I miss the days the weather meant either sunny or cloudy, rainy or snowy. Now snow storms are called Nemo and terms like weather bomb are spewed dramatically out of the mouths of the 'not quite good looking enough' to vocalize the actual news. By the way, if your in the North East.... it's snowing!


Returning To The Sunset Meadow:


With all that talk of snow, it felt a good time to take a visual trip back to something more summer like! Last Autumn, I featured images of Alex from Sunset Meadow. The book and images were shot Late last Summer in the Catskill Mountains of New York by Wesley from New Manhattan Studios.


Wesley recently reedited the book and I encourage you to check out a preview of Sunset Meadow HERE: Wesley also generously sent on a link to exclusive content available only to the readers of FH. Following this link you will have access to a gallery of 26 images from the series. Wesley also created a new video presentation that builds from the images in the published book. You can also view the video and request either the gallery images or the video in zipped files. You can check out both HERE:






Three's a Crowd, Six Is a Freak Show


Dawson's Creek, The Practice, Men Behaving Badly, Angel, Veronica's Closet, Charmed, Monk, NYPD Blue, CSI Miami, Veronica Marrs, Grey's Anatomy, Greek, The United States of Tara, Californication, and more recently Whitney and Happy Endings are just some of the television shows.


Role Models, Gattaca, Wet Hot American Summer and Wanderlust, (as actor and co-writer of the screenplay) are just some of the movies which at one time or another featured the talents of actor Ken Marino. Ken first caught my eye in Three's a Crowd, Six Is a Freak Show, an episode of Will & Grace from 2000. In the episode, Ken played Mark, a boyfriend of Grace's who has six toes. It repeated again this week and reminded me again of the appeal of Ken Marino.


Although the New York born Italian actor is maybe best known for his comedic roles, he studied at Lee Strasberg Institute and Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Ken's first professional work was in the early 90's on the MTV sketch comedy The State. Even after the shows cancellation in 1995, Members of The State remained close and several of the cast members, including Ken, went on to contribute to other projects together including Reno 911! and the films Wet Hot American Summer and The Ten. Along with Airbender's Aasif Mandvi, Ken recently signed on for NBC's The Gates, based on the British comedy Gates.

Ken in new Bachelor-style spoof Yahoo! web series, Burning Love.


Above: Ken from Geek World Photo's at 2012 The San Diego Comic-Con.


Below: On the Set of Children’s Hospital

Party Down

With Joe Lo Truglio in Party Down

Click here to see Ken on Conan discussing his career including Judy Blume and prosthetic penises.

The Search: zroaphotography


'My passion for art & photography drives my soul to achieve what others are afraid to tackle; the juxtaposition of various cultures & communities throughout planet earth, architectural lines and shapes amongst the human body, and the combining of graffiti/murals/cityscape within our society through fashion and fine art images.'
Z Roa


It is always dangerous to label anything, especially art. That being said, I always say great art has to do more than visually stimulate, it has to evoke something in the viewer emotionally. When spending time with the work of Z Roa from zroaphotography emotions were certainly evoked and I could not help but feel a deep sense of longing.


In many of Z's images, the men appear to be seeking, searching for something. Through his use of space and light there is something close, just outside the window, through the door, or around the corner. Z's ability to create both a distance and a closeness within his images was something that stood out strongly to me. Normally, I am not a fan of images which feature naked bodies without a face, and especially eyes, attached. It can sometimes feel as if the body is not attached to a man, a human being with feelings and emotions. Z however, manages to capture those intense emotions without a face in focus.


Although I featured mainly black and white selections in this piece, in exploring Z's portfolio, his images, often of locations surrounding his home in San Francisco, are dynamic and colorful with an eye for clean lines and architecture in his images of both human models and location. Z beautiful captures the incredible balance between the motion and fluidity of the human form with the still, solid and often square figures we seek and search through that make up much of the world that surrounds us.


Check out more of zroaphotography on ModelMayhem HERE: You can also check out a great selection of images HERE: