June 21, 2017

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

I forgot to mention one other thing about my hair dresser friend.

I was in the Bahamas. We had had a few drinks and were out late. Imagine that. Now. my friend the hair dresser, got in rather late. He collapsed on his bed. Now, I like to shoot early morning light so the model was due to show up at his room at 4:30 am. He heard a knock at the door. Got up, in his clothes from the night before. Went to the door. Opened up the door. Now, mind you, he is Greek/Japanese. He opened the door and he said, "You wook fine." And slammed the door. I'll never forget. That's my favorite story about my friend the hair dresser.

That's all for today. Don't forget to check out my other blog. Have a good week.

Love, B. Nice

June 12, 2017

Hi everybody, welcome to my blog where I talk about my past. Or, should I say, my sordid past?

Man, I got a bad haircut. I looked like Jim Carey in dumb & dumber. So, what did I do? I called up my friend who I used to work with. I hadn't seen him in ages, but he agreed to come up and rescue me. You know, fix my hair. It was great to see him and his new family. He has a new baby. Anyway, in my living room, I have my suitcase filled with my journals. There are a lot. You see, I used to keep my personal journals in cartoon form. It's fun to look back at them. The reason why I bring it up is my friend started to look through my journals and found some things we did together. We had some great trips. I think I told you this already, but oh man, this one time, I was in the Bahamas with my friend and the editor of the magazine we were working with. Well, after dinner, we all walked down on a moonlit pier. The pier was high, like 30 feet high. The editor looked over the edge and said, "That's a long way down. Kind of scary." So what did I do? I pushed her in, and then I jumped in after her. I think she managed to say, "You guys are all CRAZY," before she hit the water. Good thing she could swim. I didn't even think about that. I still have scars from that shoot. I won't go into details, but it was fun. Oh, and by the way, on the way to dinner, my assistant and I saw an asteroid hit the earth's atmosphere. It was cool. It was like a stone skipping across water, then it blew up. It all happened so fast. It was amazing. You don't see that everyday.

One other great trip we took was in the Bahamas as well. I was on a small plane with my friend and my crew. There was another group of young women. They were really pretty, really petit. I started talking to them. I said, "What's going on? What are you guys doing?" They obviously looked like they were on a photoshoot. They said they were from Playboy magazine and they were there to do a shoot. I asked a girl what her name was, and she just said her name was Miss June. I thought that was pretty fun. A few days later, she was in the talent contest at the resort. She was singing. And there was my drunken friend yelling, "June, June, June," right before he passed out.

We did lots of fun trips. I kind of miss the good old days, although I probably wouldn't have survived them if I kept going at the pace I was going.

I'll keep it short because it's super hot here. The heat plus humidity really affect me. Just another bonus for a TBI person.

Talk to you next week. Check out my other blog. Love, B. Nice

May 8, 2017

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

Let's call this blog: Things that fall out of the sky.

The first story takes place in NYC, around the early '90's. I worked for a photographer in Carnegie Hall. Right next door, there was a large skyscraper going up. Our landlord came to the door and said, "Stay away from the skylights." We were confused, so followed the elevator man to the main street. We looked up in the sky to see what looked like popsicle sticks fluttering off the new skyscraper. As they got closer, we realized they were not popsicle sticks. They were huge pieces of timber that crashed onto the street. When they hit the ground, they exploded. Some went through windows. It was pretty dramatic. And, no, none of them went through our skylights.

When I was a photographer in the '90's, I often took TWA flight 800 to Paris. The flight, one night, fell out of the sky. The main fuel tank burst into flames and fell out of the sky. Weeks later, I was in the Hamptons taking my friend's sea kayak out. A police military humvee pulled up and asked me to go out towards the horizon and collect some burnt clothing. I freaked out and thought, "I hope there's no body in that clothing." As I got closer, I realized, it was just a hat. I retrieved it, went back to shore. I gave it to these huge marines and told them there was sea lice in it. They jumped around like a bunch of ten year old girls, and threw the hat in the back of their vehicle. They drove off.

Another thing that fell out of the sky I don't talk about much. Yes, I dropped an 85 mm / 1.4 lens (very expensive lens) out of a helicopter and into the Grand Canyon. Not my finest moment.

One positive thing that fell out of the sky was pretty cool. I told you about it already, but I was location scouting out west. I looked up and there was a huge bald eagle nest above me. There were a bunch of babies in the nest. Then a single feather came spiraling down and landed right at my feet. Luckily none of the parents were around. That was a pretty cool moment.

That's all for now. Check out my other blog where I talk about the present. Have a good week. Love, B. Nice

May 1, 2017

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

I'm gonna make this blog a little short. You know, when I did fashion photography, I learned one of the most important things was to shoot in nice light. I know the client will freak out a little, but really, the only good light is about two hours in the morning and two hours at night. I used to shoot everything backlit. It made the models look good. It made the clothes look good. It was a magical moment. Mind you, you have to work your ass off for those two hours. You have to be ready, get everything all lined up to go. But the results are worth it. Believe me.

When I was at lunch today, I heard an Australian accent at the table next to me. It reminded me of Australia and what a great apartment I had. It was a good time there. Come to think of it, I've been lucky getting good places wherever I lived. Paris, New York, Montauk. You name it. I've been lucky.

I'll leave it at that. Remember, stay positive and have a laugh if you have TBI. Otherwise, everything can be too depressing. Have a laugh. I watch the comedy channel, but it reminds me of the current administration. Ta ta. Check out my other blog.

Love, B. Nice

April 17, 2017

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

Hey everybody. Happy Easter. A belated Happy Easter. I know it came and went, but I wanted to tell you a couple of stories about rabbits. I thought it would be appropriate (or inappropriate, I should say).

I think I told you this story before, but I'm gonna tell you it again, because it's about rabbits. You see, a long time ago, when I was a kid, we had a cat, a one eye'd cat. It was not affectionate by any means. It was an ornery, mean, orange cat. Well, one morning, I was sitting up in bed, and the cat jumped up on my bed. I thought, wow, how unusual, he's being affectionate. He wants me to pet him. Well, the cat was stalking towards me and hiccuping. I thought, well, is there something wrong with him? And as he moved closer and closer to me his hiccups became more and more intense. I soon realized he was not hiccuping but throwing up in his mouth. And just as he got within feet of me, he threw up a bunch of baby rabbits. As he threw up he backed away. It was a whole nest of baby rabbits he ate. Nice gift, right? I can still see them all in my minds eye. I won't go into details, but it wasn't pretty. You see? He was a mean cat.

Another story about rabbits I think I also already told you: I was in college and I thought, "I'll get a pet, a pet rabbit." So I went out and bought a red satin rabbit. It was the largest of any of the rabbits you could buy. It was the size of a small dog. His name was Andrew. Well, Andrew was quite a novelty. Apparently, you can house train a rabbit, but all Andrew did was kick cat litter all over the apartment. He chewed on everything. He pretty much destroyed our apartment. My roommates wanted to make a stew out of him. When I was leaving college, a friend said that he would like to adopt Andrew. He said to me, "Andrew might be a good chick magnet." But all Andrew did was eat all of his ELO and Kenny Loggins albums. Oh yeah, one other thing. If you ever buy a red satin rabbit, don't ever put a collar on it and put a leash on it. The thing will freak out. Have you ever heard a rabbit scream? The neighbors must have thought I was a little strange.

The last story about rabbits I have, I know I told you, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. My uncle thought it would be a good idea to go out and hunt rabbits in his pickup truck. They were everywhere and they were a menace. Well, we all got up early, loaded our shotguns, got in the back of the pick up, and set off to better the farming community and rid them of this menace. Well, we drove all morning and didn't see one rabbit for about two hours. Then, all of a sudden, this little baby bunny came out of the grass on to the road. It was the cutest smallest bunny you've ever seen. What happened next? Well my uncle slammed on the brakes and yelled "RABBIT!" We all stood up with our shot guns and blew the beast away. There was nothing left but a whole in the ground. You can imagine what three twelve gauge shotguns can do to a little bunny. I won't mention what happened to the right side of my uncle's truck.

That's all the rabbit stories I have. Happy belated Easter. Check out my other blog where I talk about the present.