March 1, 2023

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

I’ve been reading what I wrote about last week on my blog. I just want to convey that my assistants made my life so much easier. I want in no way to imply that they contributed to my current condition. They were amazing actually. I wouldn’t even have to ask for something. It was as if they read my mind. For example, if I needed a certain lens, it was in my hands before I even asked for it.

One assistant in particular stands above everyone else. The guy actually saved my life. You see, on August 18, 2009, I was on a commercial shoot in NYC. That’s when I had my first brain bleed. After I called the shoot, the assistant managed to get me back to my hotel. He called his mother who was a doctor in Mexico City. She said to get me right to the ER. He managed to get me to the ER and I just made it. So, you see, the guy saved my life. The last time I spoke to him, I said, “You saved my life, I’ll buy you a beer.”

I want to tell one other assistant story. I mean, I’ve got many, but this one stands out as being kind of funny. I arrived on location on a photo shoot. I walked up to the location van and my assistant came out and he was angry. I said, “What’s wrong?” He said, “I can’t believe you’re shooting a plus size model catalog.” I said, “What’s wrong with that?” He said, “They ate all the food! There’s nothing for breakfast.” It was pretty funny. He said, “I’m going to the deli to get something. Do you want something?” I said, “No I’m good.” Well, I got in the van, and he was right, there was nothing left. The bagel basket was empty. There was a silver platter with limp lettuce and a few orange wedges half eaten. The girls ate everything. Hey, they were happy at least. And that’s what counts on a fashion shoot. You have to have happy models.

Oh man! What an epic journey. I’m not talking about my general journey I’m on right now, but I’m talking about going down to the local store to get a bottle of wine for some guests tonight. Now, if you’re normal, you would just hop in the car, go to the store to get a bottle of wine and come home. I have to make sure my power chair is charged up, make sure I have all the proper items in my backpack. I have to prep a lot of things, then I have to make the journey down to the store. The sidewalks are in really bad condition, so I have to navigate each pothole and find the path of least resistance. If I tip over, it’s a disaster. So, I go extra slow. Now, getting there is one thing, but getting back, oh man! I’m exhausted by the time I get 3/4 of the way home. Concentrating when you’re in a condition like mine is tough. It really wipes you out. It’s hard to explain. It’s kind of like trying to explain surfing to someone who doesn’t surf. It’s kind of like trying to explain an experience. Anyway, it’s exhausting by the time I get home. Any kind of thing that requires concentration seems to be very difficult. Maybe they’re right, ignorance is bliss.

Bottom line is You gotta keep at doing things, even if they’re challenging. It’s the only way you’re gonna advance yourself. Besides, getting out feels good. It’s nice to get out of the house.

That’s it for this week. Love and miss you guys. Don’t forget to check out my blog about the past.

Love, B. Nice

January 25, 2023

Hi everyone. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the present.

I’m gonna dedicate this blog to ME, because it was my birthday the other day! It made me realize that as you get older, you celebrate your birthday less and you become more self-reflective. In other words, I thought about things I’ve done, where I’ve gone, people I’ve met, etc. My birthday got me thinking about my condition. You see, I don’t consider myself handicapped. I consider myself severely injured. I’ve had many injuries as an athlete. Some you get over quick, some it takes a long time. This injury I have is a Mother ______ er of an injury. It’s just taking a long time to get over. You have to work hard to get results. You get out of it what you put into it. You can’t give up. You gotta keep at it, if you want to get better - and I want to get better. I’m tired of being in this stupid wheelchair.

On another note, I was talking to my nephew the other day. He asked me what my favorite birthday was. Now, my second wife did some pretty cool trips on my birthday, but hands down, the best birthday I had was with my first wife. We were living on North Bondi Beach in Australia, Sydney, Australia. On the afternoon of one of my birthdays, she blindfolded me, lead me down the stairs, put me in our car, drove to a bay, I could hear the sailboats. We walked down a dock. I thought we were gonna get on a boat, but we got on a seaplane. The seaplane flew half an hour north, I could feel the sun on my left shoulder. We landed and taxied to a dock where we were docked. We walked to what I thought was a house, but as I got inside, I could hear it was a restaurant. We sat down at our table and she took the blindfold off. The restaurant was cool. It was all candlelit, white linen, silverware, all the windows were open to a beautiful bay. There were no other structures. No roads, no power lines. The restaurant was in the middle of a state park. there was nothing but Eucalyptus trees straight down to the water. The setting was beautiful, like something out of a dream. Anyway, we had a great early dinner then flew back to Rose Bay at sunset. It was a cool birthday present.

Sydney is a great place. I highly recommend you go. We went there for our six week honeymoon. It turned into a 10 year stay. Then we moved to Paris, and the honeymoon was over. ha ha ha. Paris is cool too. They’re both completely different.

Love and miss you guys. Talk to you soon.

Love, B. Nice

January 18, 2023

Hi you guys. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the present. I want to dedicate this blog to my daughter who was here, and my friend who’s typing this for me.

It was cool to see my daughter. Man, she’s all grown up. Amazing. Anyway, she expressed interest in seeing van Gogh’s painting, Starry Night. I thought that was a great idea, as I’ve always wanted to show her that you can make something beautiful even though you’re all messed up (Van Gogh was mentally messed up). So I took her to MOMA, where they have the painting. Man, it was crowded, but that’s a whole other story. It was cool to see the painting. I never realized how much paint he used in each brush stroke. That painting is thick with paint. Anyway, it all worked out good, and I got to show her that you can make something beautiful even though you’re in a bad way. It’s cool to see the painting live as you get the 3 dimensional aspect of it. You could always look it up in an art book, but you won’t get the 3 dimensional feeling of it seeing it live. It has been preserved well. The thick paint hasn’t cracked at all. It looks like it was painted yesterday. Cool. Anyway, I just thought I’d share that with you.

The other thing that’s cool about having my daughter here is she got me out of the house. She got me off of my ass. We went on hikes. I mean, I rolled, but she hiked. We went to coffee houses, went ice skating (at least she ice skated, I watched). In other words, it’s cool when another person acts like a catalyst and gets you going. I’ve been so self isolated for so long. It felt great to get out of the house. I’ll tell you though, the more I get out and about, the more I realize there aren’t really a lot of spots that are accessible for the wheelchair. It’s not easy. Also, very frustrating as well. At the moment, I’m working with the current government in my town to make the sidewalks better for people like me. It would even be good to improve the sidewalks for mothers with their kids in strollers - but that’s a whole other topic as well.

The other thing I’ve been working on is trying to get decent pay for these home healthcare workers. It’s crazy. They made increase in their pay, but really nothing, and its almost an insult as its just enough increase to knock them out of contention for food stamps or decent housing. You can make more flipping burgers than looking after a human soul.

Please watch this link to my documentary about it.

I’ll continue to fight for these guys as it will get more people wanting to do this job, and as there are more and more people that need home healthcare. I hear about it all the time. I’ll tell you, being like the way I am has opened my eyes to a lot of things. Frankly, I’m tired of large companies making a profit on my misfortune. The healthcare workers help me, but I guess I’m opening up a whole can of worms.

On another note, I just finished a mini documentary I did with a filmmaker. I’ll keep you posted. It’s basically about an artist from the Hudson River Valley. I’ll include a link to the documentary when it comes out. Stay tuned.

That’s about all for this week. Love and miss you guys. Give me a call or come and visit if you have the chance. Thanks. B. Nice

December 28, 2022

Hi everybody. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the present.

I’m gonna dedicate this blog to my daughter cause she’s right here! It’s cool she’s visiting for one week. Welcome!

So I had a bizarre dream. An event I didn’t remember until I had the dream. A long time ago, I was on a photoshoot in Tunisia. I was in the middle of nowhere, in the open desert. There was one lone tree out in the middle of nowhere. It was a big tree, but it was at a 45° angle. I didn’t understand why it was growing that way until I opened the car door. The door almost got ripped out of my hand. It was so windy, it was crazy. Our driver said that the wind was always there. All year. And he said the tree bends with the wind. Now the reason why I’m telling you this is slightly philosophical. Now in my dream, I dreamt that life is like the dream. You gotta bend with the wind. How profound is that?! Does that make sense?

Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you. On another note, you know everything I went through, I use my running career to get me through the tough times. You see, my competitive running made me more patient and able to bear extreme pain and suffering. You see, I have drawn on my running to get me through everything I’m going through. It also helps with my career to have an explosive temperament. In other words, it would piss me off when someone would run past me. Now I hate it when a doctor tells me I can’t do something. In other words, be patient and having a wicked temper, helped me through the tough stuff. It’s more philosophy for ya.

I’m gonna go back to hanging out with my daughter. I’ll make it a short one for this week. Above are some pictures I did recently. I’m still taking photos. Remember, Art is Therapy.

Love, B. Nice

December 21, 2022

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about my present.

You know what’s tougher than brain bleeds or brain surgeries? It’s living with this stupid condition of a traumatic brain injury. Let me explain.

Now, I used to be really active. I used to do stuff on my own all the time. Now I rely on anybody for everything. Crazy. I can’t do one thing on my own. Maybe I can pick up a sippy cup. That’s about it. It’s frustrating. I don’t blame my friends, but I go through friends like toilet paper. My friend here said, “Nice image.” But it’s true. And I don’t blame them, but I have to call them for rides. Help me do things. Its tough, because on the one hand you need help, and on the other, you don’t want to ask for help. That lazy boy chair and a bag of weed is starting to look good. I guess things have ways of working out. Maybe this all pushes one to become more independent. You know, small things like; get an apple watch so you can talk the telephone number and stuff like that. Little things you’ll learn. But you have to learn how to become more independent.

Ive been walking more and more with a walker. It’s real tough but also real rewarding. It feels great to walk again. But it’s like any other athletic endeavor. You have to keep at it and do it over and over if you want to get good. Same thing with feeding myself. I practice every morning. A good image is of a three year old child on crack. That’s about how I operate. Food goes everywhere. It’s frustrating, but hey, my dog’s happy.

I would like to talk to you guys about something I’ve learned. You know, when we do things, we often make mistakes or there are imperfections in what we do. I found that there are often beautiful mistakes. In other words, you can learn a lot from your mistakes. You can learn to take advantage of them and recognize them as works of art. The photo above is an example of a couple of mistakes that can be seen as a work of art. The light leak on the image is something you can never recreate and what I’ve learned is to enjoy mistakes, recognize them and don’t discard them. Anyway, that’s my philosophical thought of the day.

Anyway, that’s all I really have to report on. Talk to you guys next week. Love and miss you. Love, B. Nice