neither horace nor ulysses s.

yesterday i was bored at work and decided to click through various sites looking for grant money for various projects. nothing too in depth just the basics nyfa, lmcc, bac, asia american arts alliance, stuff like that.

on the lmcc site i found an interesting residency to work as an artist in paris from sept 2008 - feb 2009. and i was wow, i've got to imagine myself a project for to apply for that even if it was for s & g. so maybe the influences of french hip hop on immigrant societies and immigrant societies influences on french hip hop. (watch the 1996 movie la haine, it will become clearer what i am imagining). i probably have no chance to getting it but want to keep random ideas like that in my head just in case.

so i get home last night and i get a thin envelope from lmcc. i thought this is one of two things a) "please help us out with a donation" or b) "the mcaf grant which you applied for in sept 2007 has been declined." it was neither.

it was what i feared most.

i was awarded the grant

it's not enough to quit my job (wait i did that already). it's not enough to sustain the project, even without paying myself. but is enough to give me a new charge of energy and pay for film. the only catch is i have to produce a gallery show by the end of the year.

so i continue documenting eldridge street, everyday.

a huge thanks to the lower manhattan cultural council for offering the manhattan cultural arts fund and for expressing interest in my project.