Tales from NYC - I was a fit-model

I didn't think my job in New York City was strange until I moved away from there. I used to get paid to try on clothes and let people pin, measure and photograph me in those clothes. I had a very nice quality of life in that position and I wanted to make a little video about it.

Fit-Model Memories from JPH on Vimeo.

The NYC Apartment - The Cherokee

Now that I don't live there anymore, I am slightly excited to reveal precisely where I lived the past three years in New York City. I think for bicycle commuters, it will be interesting to see what a fantastic bike-friendly address I had at The Cherokee. (The first two years in NYC we pretty much had shit apartments- this is the memorable, beautiful, interesting one.)

Here's an excerpt that explains more about the history and the beautiful architecture of the building:

With film, the physical city is often woven into the drama or story line. A century old act of humanitarianism left New York with a historic and architectural landmark that has been used as a modern day film setting. The former Shively Sanitary Tenements on East 77th St., sponsored by Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt in 1911, was built as low cost housing for recovering tuberculosis patients. Every room has floor to ceiling, triple sash windows, leading out to distinctive wrought iron balconies.

Flooded with light and fresh air, which at the time was the only treatment for TB, these apartments couldn’t have been more different from the typical, dark, dank, overcrowded, and airless tenements of that era. The street level entrances are open-air arcades covered by vaulted arches of intricately patterned Guastavino terra-cotta tiles (think the Oyster Bar in Grand Central). All the apartments are reached by spiral staircases from an open courtyard, with a built-in seat on each landing, so that the afflicted could rest on the way up!

This incredibly ornate Beaux-Arts landmark was used as a location for the 2005 Ewan McGregor film, titled STAY, in which he plays a psychiatrist. The architecture of the building is beautifully incorporated into a key scene in which Mr. McGregor’s character descends the dizzying spiral staircase, experiencing a different hallucination on each landing. A stunning metaphor for his own descent into mental illness.

For people who are interested in tiny NYC apartments, you may enjoy the little video tour I made on the very last day when we were extremely bored in the empty apartment waiting for the new tenants to take over.


At one point, I found this wonderful photograph of a woman standing on a balcony like ours: 


For bike stuff, it was located here at the dot below in this quiet part of the UES with quick access to the East River Path. This is why it was so easy to make little jaunts up to Target in East Harlem. This is also why we took Bonnie, the dog, to Central Park on most sunny Sundays. 


Are we sad we left? No. We paid about $1700 per month for less than 400 square feet. Are we glad we did it? Absolutely! It was a very beautiful building. Our unit was tiny and posed many organizational challenges, especially for me, working in fashion and the garment industry. Too many clothes to live here! This building also had a hum-dinger of a bicycle storage room. 

PSA - No Phone Zone

Public Service Announcement! I take No Phone Zone very seriously and you should too!



Basically, I give personal tips for running a No Phone Zone life. When I visit Arkansas and use a car, I take it very seriously. I want all my friends and loved ones and contacts to know this.

I hope texting and driving gains a negative social stigma and people stop this dangerous, scary, senseless behavior. 

My tips: Be loud and proud about your stance on the matter. I'm not ignoring you, I just don't answer my phone while I'm operating a vehicle. It's not snobbery, it's safety.

Tell your date/friend what time you will meet up. Set and keep dates so you are not reliant on your cellular phone/text. If you run late, pull over the car and park it before you pick up your phone to alert anyone that you are running late.

There's nothing so important that you should update facebook while driving. Only Beyonce is that cool, and she has a driver.

If you're in a text convo and you need to drive, text your friend: BRB Gotta Drive and they should know that they can expect to hear from you later. 

Big Bike Weekend!

It's a Big Bike Weekend! It's finally 5 Boro Bike Tour Weekend!
I made my fundraising goal and I'm ready to do the ride. I've never been on the Staten Island Ferry before, and I'm excited to get to bike on the FDR.

Friday I'm running errands (picking up my team Planned Parenthood t-shirt race package and my tour race package) and going to the Expo. I'm going to be in the Momentum Mag Fashion Show which happens on Saturday at 11am and 3pm. I'll be tweeting @Juleskills and Instagramming it up, I'm sure.

In honor of Bike Month I made a video of some of my commute - the peaceful, pretty part in Central Park and then the wild part in Times Square. I sped it way up and the sound is yucky, so mute it. The visuals are plenty.


Super-speed bike to work from JPH on Vimeo.
This is my ride from Central Park to work (missing the part of my neighborhood, maybe another time) through Times Square to Garment Dist. into the building where I work.

I sped it way up to make it fit in under 2 minutes.


Have a wonderful weekend wherever you are! Happy Cindo de Mayo and Happy Birthday to my friend Meghan! 

5 Minutes of Nonsense

This video is me rambling about my adventures last Thursday night. The night I met Velouria.

All my cameras were broken so I made this video diary. I felt embarrassed about it, but now the embarrassment has expired and I can post it here.

There are no outrageous squeals or curse words but forgive my sniffles and nose-wiping.

Untitled from JPH on Vimeo.


At the end I talk about the dress I'm wearing to my Bike Month Picnic which matches the flyer.
I didn't do that on purpose. 

Pet Peeve - Honking in the Park

Pet peeve: Cars honking at people in Central Park. 

Central Park is a destination for New Yorkers and tourists. I cannot stand when the cars driving through honk at people who are trying to have a good time in the park. Raw nerves were touched on my commute home this evening. 

There are no curse words or squeals in this video. I say "B" instead of the actual b-word, even though some bald, silly, foolish man called me the b-word this evening.

This isn't a remarkable story, mostly a vent and a chronicle in my little bicycle commuter life.
I also just read the book Unorthodox and it's all about this girl who is raised to be quiet and not speak out and I'm feeling very social justice today. I spoke out. 

Here's the photo of MY SHADOW trying and failing to photograph his plate.

She's Trying to Kill Me

This video is safe for work - I don't curse or squeal.

The Linus Dutchie 1 may not be out to sabotage me, but her chain guard is trying to kill me.

I didn't know how to convey this in photos so I found last night's episode a good time to make a video explaining. Despite how I explain the problem in the video - this has happened to me a handful of times. It happened tonight around 10pm when I was riding home from seeing Gloria Steinem at 92Y, but that's for another post.

I was pretty pissed off that this happened to me, and I had to pull off to a desolate sidewalk to fix it anyway, so I whipped out my camera and made a video. No one will jump or rob you if you are making a video of yourself cursing out your bicycle.

-But my initial video has me saying some tangy curse words and it was pretty dark, so I went home where there was better light and made this clean edit video. 

The Linus Dutchie not only has a rust reputation online now, it's going to have a temperamental, sabotaging chain guard reputation too if this story gets out.

I don't explain it thoroughly, but I owned this bike the whole summer before I needed to wear ankle-covering or real shoes. This first happened in a pair of high-tops. The first few months I owned this bike, I just wore flats or skippies AKA keds.

I'm not giving up on this bike, yet, but I need to find a solution to this.

Cuz' she tryin' to Kill Me! 

Clear Raincoat Friday

Friday night I got pretty rained-on coming home. My waterproof eyeliner (MAC Penultimate) stayed through, though riding with raindrops pinging my face was quiet miserable. Soaking wet shoes too!  I came home to a surprise package at my doorstep. Thanks, Wynn!


I made a messy crazy little video. My hair isn't wet but the rest of outside of my raincoat got drenched.
   
Wynn is my play-brother who lives in Nashville. Inside the box was a Gloria Steinem Fan Club Care Package.

The clear plastic rain jacket debuted on the commute Friday morning. I think I look like a flight attendant today with my neck scarf and navy jacket.

The errand-man at my office warned me that he was playing hookie, so I was dressed to run errands with flat shoes.

Sidenote: I am not cut-out for all this errand-running because I end up in stores like Claire’s Boutique buying cute belts. 

Nirve Mixte Review Diary

I took the Nirve Wilshire Mixte on probably the biggest single ride we will go on before my review is due to Momentum. I've been doing my daily work commute, which is about 8mi. round-trip.

Today was 29º and very windy and I took it around the big loop in Central Park - about 6miles, plus getting over there and coming back. 


Doing the big loop was a lot more work than I expected on this bike. I'm just not sure about the gears on this bike. I feel like 1 and 2 are really high gears and 3 is quite low.



I don't want to be all, like, "On my single-speed, blah, blah, blah-" So I won't.

I made a video immediately, to collect my thoughts and because I was exhausted for some reason, but there was a lot of wind so watch it if you like, but I'll re-cap below.


Riding this over to Central Park and doing The Big Loop felt like a lot of work.
This bike has 3 gears. 1 and 2 feel higher than I would like, and 3rd gear seems really low.

It is fun to put the bike down in the 3rd gear on flat, straights and get crazy speed.

However, I am not a fan of speed because I envision however fast I'm going correlates to how fast my delicate, precious skin could be skidding on asphalt, so I do prefer to keep it slow.

I have a geometry issue with this bike. I'm going to have to make a diagram to explain it.
I've struggled to get the seat-height right and I need to show you a diagram to justify my conclusion.

I think these fancy tubes are why it handles bumps so gracefully. This also shows you the glittering green paint.


A portrait.


I got a bell added. I feel less-lawless and this is the most polite-sounding bell ever. I need to find out exactly what it is. It's not as blaring as you sometimes need among the noise in the city, but it's a really pleasant sound. If you're shy about being rude ringing your bell, this is your bell.


I put my basil brand wire basket-pannier on the rear rack and secured it with a bungee.


That's it for today. Please let me know if you have any questions because I've never reviewed a bicycle before. My first draft is due in about a week and I should have a few more commuter-rides on it 'til then.

Bonnie Dog Wildin' Out in her Boots

Whew! I've been real busy the past couple days but this is my pride and joy. My baby girl Bonnie running wild in her snow boots.


Wildin' out on her afternoon snow day dog walk in boots.

She's very agreeable about us putting these on her too!

PS - This snow happened overnight and I did take a really ambitious little bicycle ride this afternoon. I'm crazy! 

Garbage Bag Raincoat Going Strong

Tonight's conditions entertained me with several pedestrians umbrellas being blown inside out. This evening was extremely dark, rainy and windy and I maybe shouldn't have done it, but of course an older male who is unaware of my experience level or particular route advised I not ride... so...

I pulled out the old garbage bag raincoat and things went just fine. 

I mean, my shoes and pants got soaked... but they will dry out.
My turquoise jeans' dye turned my socks and feet blue, but that's no big deal.

Luckily, my panniers are waterproof and protected my goods. My coats forearms and my gloves got quite wet. They'll dry. I have more coats and gloves.

Matt came out and filmed me talking about my ride. Nothing fantastic here other than showing good spirits despite being soaked on a late December bike ride in New York City. This time last year we had like, 2 feet of snow or some crazy nightmare. I'll take rain.

Started Out Sunny

My day started out sunny.

Here's a video of me when I got home from getting majorly rained out this evening.

Rained Out Bicycle Commuter from JPH on Vimeo.

That's how I tell stories. Arms flailing! 


I swear I'm getting some cute, but serious rain gear asap. 

Very Busy

I'm very busy being a tour guide for my Dad and his wife this weekend. I've lived here 4 years and this is their first visit. This boat tour is the best tourist-y thing that costs money in my opinion.

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge late at night so you get the amazing view of Manhattan's skyline is the best free tourist thing.

I was putting some little videos of their reactions to things on YouTube for other family members and I found this old video of my demonstration/application for Martha Stewart. This is shot in our little house we had in Durham, NC.


Yes- I had long, blonde hair and black nail polish. This was in October 2006.

When I was in the process of applying to Martha and the producers asked me to send in a video, I rushed out and bought a camera and am just now really using it again. Matt is very proud that he shot this in one take (and I got on the show!)