Today was …

I have a four day weekend going on now. But, today I put in a few hours for a work event that went amazing. I’ll get into more details later, but here’s a pic.

Animal Instinct

Last night, I attended an art exhibition opening at Unit B (Gallery). New York-based artists Emily Landon and Chris Wildrick presented their animal-centric show. The description of the exhibition is as follows:

Animalities showcases the work of two artists that explore and consider what it is like to be an animal. Through performance and playful anecdotes their work addresses the relationship between human beings and animals from a “human nature” perspective.

If you’ve never been to Unit B (Gallery), I’d advise you to check the space out. Kimberly Aubuchon runs the gallery when she’s working full-time as Artpace’s Archivist. But, I digress. You’ll hopefully be hearing more about Aubuchon (I conducted a short audio interview with her, Landon and Wildrick last night) in the coming weeks on NOWCast San Antonio’s website. (A little aside about NOWCast SA, I’m interning with the organization. On Monday, their brand-spanking new website will be live so I strongly urge you to bookmark the site and read it daily. I promise lots of really cool content will be posted!)

In an effort not to spoil the interview and photo slideshow I did yesterday, here’s a brief sampling of what the show was all about.

Here’s a little of what Wildrick had to offer with his work:

Animalities @ Unit B (Gallery) from Jennifer Herrera on Vimeo.

I’ll explain later …

San Anto street art

Back in the day, I wrote a few blog entries for the San Antonio Current about my growing interest in local street art. Mostly, stencil graffiti-type works. Many argue whether the form should be classified as art, but I think it’s a form that really

While the majority of the art I noticed was within the downtown, Southtown, and SAC area a few months ago I saw some graffiti stencil work down on the Southside.

If you squint you can see Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. It’s a totally random spot to be located (on a concrete block in the parking lot of a Family Dollar), but, it’s just awesome.

Sleek, sexy … sophisticated

I have a sick obsession with iPod’s and Apple. I have three iPod’s: Coolius (the original iPod), Coolio (the original iPod shuffle), King Coolius (iPod with Video) and Sir Coolius I (my iPhone). A few of ‘em were hand-me down kind of gifts, but it doesn’t devalue the gift at hand. So, when my father’s birthday rolled around the first thing I thought of getting him was an iPod. He dropped a few hints and I quickly alerted my brother that my father, at the tender age of 55, should now own an iPod.

Photo Projects

I really only wanted one thing for Christmas. Sadly, I dropped hints too late into the season for people to actually pay attention and purchase said gift. Today I went to Urban Outfitters and bought myself the Christmas gift no one bought me: Photo Jojo! Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas.

Professional Pitfalls

I’ve been at my current job for about a year. I did consultation work for 10 months and was hired in November as a full-time staffer. Within those few months, I’ve had to teach myself how to be a public relations person. It wasn’t completely foreign for me. As a writer, I’ve dealt with public relations people for the few years I’ve been a writer (whether it was at college or within city government). It wasn’t so much about crossing over to the other side, it was more about knowing what I was getting myself into. I know what goes into constructing a story and tactfully interviewing someone. But when it came to the publicity push and media blitz of public relations I must it admit it was a challenge. Public relations was always something that intrigued me so I jumped at the opportunity to switch gears.

The rom-com formula

Please forgive me as I backdate this blog entry. You see, I meant to write this on Thursday night (hence the Jan. 7 date) but it’s a Sunday night and I’m trying to catch up on my daily blog entries. I had a somewhat busy week last week, so don’t judge.

Last week, I saw Nine and Up in the Air at the movie house. Both movies were very good. My friend, Jenina, and myself had wanted to check out Nine once it came out but had trouble finding others who were as excited about the flick as much as we were. Since it’s a musical it gets a bad wrap and isn’t as appreciated by many audiences. The same way people are hesitant about checking out a musical, I’ve recently noticed people are avoiding (or at the very least, disregarding) the formulaic rom-coms. People are becoming increasingly critical (and, rightfully so!) of the genre. I have no qualms in admitting my love of romantic comedies. However, I’ve been viewing romantic comedies with a much more critical eye. Recently, I saw the trailer for the movie, Valentine’s Day.

This is how I do it

I’ve taken an idea posed by Luis Sandoval:

62. What’s your process for writing a blog?

I know a clear, concise process for blog posting is recommended. I’ve written blogs for work and I knew that I needed to have my stuff together before I upload it to the web. It simply makes sense. One doesn’t have to scramble to gather ideas, resources, multimedia functions and all that. However, when it comes to my own blog it’s more of a stream of consciousness kind of method. Recently, what’s been happening is I think of an idea while I’m in the shower. Once out I jump to the web, draft something up, find a few links, insert a witticism or two and … BAM instant blog post. I’m trying to break out of that habit. I intend to use a lot of my experiences in work and life to provide content to the blog. So in essence, I’m learning how to mold my very own blog writing process.

For the love of Lomography

I feel like these first few blog posts are like the awkward banter of a first date. What do you like to do? Enjoy any sport? Hobbies? Etc …? I suppose this is still very much the getting-to-know-you phase of the development of this blog. Rest assured within a few weeks things will flow naturally. You’ll be visiting regularly. You’ll check on your cell to see if I update. If I’m lucky in a few days you might even dream about this blog. My goal is to have captured your heart within these 100 days of daily blogging.

Moving on … as for hobbies, I enjoy photography. I have a few cameras but sadly I don’t get to use them often. One of my New Years resolutions is to take more pictures, study the form, gain some skills and improve my photography. Ideally, I’d like to bust out my Lomography skills, which delve more into a casual, snapshot-esque photography “technique.” According to Lomography.com, Lomographers “are a global community whose strong passion is creative and experimental analogue film photography.”