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CultureMap

Film, Hipstercrite Life

I Used to be a Hollywood Assistant

Over at CultureMap, I wrote a story about my days in LA. Some of you who have hung in there with me might already know this story. Occasionally I get nostalgic and cry like a little bitch about ol’ Hollywood. Either way, I’m happy I left it…

True Hollywood Story: The Life and Death of a Tinsletown Assistant

12.10.11 | 01:00 pm

I used to work in Hollywood — as a personal assistant.

Sometimes it seems like a dream, my time there. A forgotten dream only triggered by a minor chord or someone else’s love letter to Los Angeles. By songs or films that I relate to but that are not my story. Sometimes I drift off in a cloud of romanticized musings of things I did not experience.

It’s much easier to recall your time in Hollywood like one would a movie, giving your story a narrative when in reality, while you were experiencing it, there was no voice guiding the way.

I meet a lot of young people in Austin who want to move to or are about to move to LA. My initial reaction (more…)

December 10, 2011 by
Austin, Hipstercrite Life

Eastside 4 Life

On my column over at Culture Map today…

Life on the East Side: Becoming a Realist and Learning to Love Where You Live

12.02.11 | 04:45 pm

The other night my boyfriend and I heard a loud boom outside of our house. Within minutes the crash was followed by sirens, one after another. Cops and fire trucks sped by and then stopped at the corner; we peeked out the window but couldn’t tell what was going on.

Concerned, we bundled up and headed outside to investigate. We stood on the corner staring into a sea of red and blue lights, trying to see what the commotion was. Finally, we asked a nearby cop, who informed us that a car had flipped over. We walked back into the house, wondering how the heck someone could flip their car in a 30 mile per hour neighborhood zone.

Fifteen minutes went by and we still heard the cops outside, working away; my curiosity got the best of me, so I went back out to inquire further. (We were told that the driver was ok and driven to the (more…)

December 3, 2011 by
Writing

I Studied in the School of Muppets

Trying a new thing today. This is the republish feature on my CultureMap article this weekend about the Muppets.
Hipstercrite Says…

Everything I Always Needed to Know, I Learned From the Muppets

By Lauren Modery

11.27.11 | 02:00 pm

There’s something special about the Muppets. Something that makes you cry within the first 60 seconds of seeing their new movie—and in 15 minute increments there on out. Something that makes you weep uncontrollably while watching them sing “The Rainbow Connection” in said new movie. Something that makes you stare vacantly at the smiling and fixated children sitting next to you in the theater and thinking, “Children, don’t let your youth slip away.”

For 56 years (!), something about these puppets have been tugging at our heartstrings generation after generation (and if they don’t do it for you—it’s possible that you have no soul). Most of us grew up with the Muppets and, whether we realize it or not, they’ve taught us some very valuable lessons. (more…)

November 28, 2011 by
Writing

Who Loves Austin?

Everyone Loves Austin!

And there is a new movement that says so.

My CultureMap story yesterday featured a cool new pride and preservation initiative called Everyone Loves Austin.

They’re doing some really cool stuff and have some super cute t-shirts. Check ’em out!

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When I first met Sophia Erian, founder of Everyone Loves Austin, I was struck by her infectious enthusiasm for the city. She talked about Austin like it was her child. Pride and ardor run deep through her veins and she knows that there are other people out there like her too- tons of us, actually. That is why she created the new movement Everyone Loves Austin.

Everyone Loves Austin is a two-fold initiative. The first part is “merely to make an assertion that we love Austin,” says Erian…

CONTINUE…

 

November 27, 2011 by
20-Something, Hipstercrite Life

I Believe in a Thing Called Love, Just Listen to the Rhythm of My Heart

Yesterday I took a big chance. I wrote an article about my boyfriend on CultureMap- which gets way more traffic than my blog does. I often find it difficult to write long posts, but I found myself able to nearly write a book about my boyfriend. The post, titled “Do You Believe in All the Cliches? A Sappy Relationship Story”, is about how I used to date douchebags and then one day I stopped. I met the most wonderful person and it made me believe that all those cheesy cliches about love might be true. I nervously watched as my boyfriend read the piece once it was posted. The more he read the more my stomach twisted in knots. He loved the piece and when he was done reading I went and gave him a tear-filled hug.

Enjoy the sap…

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I used to date douchebags, then one day I stopped.

I’m not sure what made me stop acting this way. Maybe I finally grew up. Maybe I became more confident in who I was. Maybe I met the right person.

Or maybe it was all of those things combined.

Before (more…)

November 19, 2011 by
Writing

YOU DON’T OWN ME BLOG!

Wrapping up my work trip home this week. I’ve had a great time but looking forward to getting back to not writing overly sentimental posts about where my childhood went.

In the meantime, check out my post over at CultureMap about how to become a successful blogger without taking off your clothing.

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I love reading internet self-help lists. Lists that tell you how to balance your life, lists that tell you how to follow your dreams, lists that tell you how to be better at your job/art/money management/McRib tolerance, lists that tell you the best way to prevent yourself from becoming Howard Hughes and developing atrophy due to sitting inside and reading internet lists all day long. Lists are easy, short and to the point. They work easily with my newly developed squirrel-like attention span caused by social media.

Occasionally I like writing lists. I really don’t know what I’m talking about most of the time, but once you’ve been doing something long enough your brain liquefies (more…)

November 4, 2011 by
Austin, Fashion/Design, Hipstercrite Life

Guess That This Must Be the Place

I have a new article up on Culture Map today that I wanted to share with you guys. Last week was my three year anniversary in Austin. I can’t believe how much time has gone by. It seems like decades ago that I moved here. I barely remember the time I lived in LA 🙁

Above are the first two pictures I took in Austin. The out-of-focus one was my Hipstercrite header photo for a long time.

Austin has become my home and I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

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Last week I celebrated my third year in Austin.

Well, actually, it kind of came and went without me even noticing. You see, Austin has become home. I no longer view it as this animate object that swept me up into it’s arms and saved me—I just simply live in it now. I’m an Austinite. I have a 512 phone number and I wear pearl snap shirts.

I used to romanticize a lot about Austin. Hell, I even drunk dialed her frequently. She was this near-mythical (more…)

October 7, 2011 by
Music

This Post IS About ACL, but NOT About ACL Afterparties. Sorry.

Well, it appears that I am going to ACL! A photographer friend was nice enough to hook me up with a

writing gig. I will be writing a recap of the festival forConsequence of Sound– a New York and Chicago-based music blog. I’m pretty stoked, but running late, so I have to go!

Check out this post I wrote over at CultureMap. It is a dialogue between my mother and I on the line-up for this year’s ACL fest. Who does she think sucks ass? Who does she thinks rocks? That woman is full of surprises.

Gosh, I love her…

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My mother and I have dramatically different music tastes. When I was a young girl, I’d listen to her record collection from the 60s and 70s while she bought the latest Top 40 CDs. As she bounced around the house singing songs from Will Smith’s “Gettin’ Jiggy With It” or Right Said Fred’s “I Have No Idea What the Album is Called Nor Do I Care—two albums she still proudly listens to—I was mimicking David Byrne’s dance moves in front (more…)

September 16, 2011 by
Austin, Film

Slacker 2011

Austin, Texas is a film city. It is not always easy to find film work in, but it’s an excellent place to write your script or make your movie (see why here).

Moviemaker Magazine named Austin, Texas the #5 place to Live, Work, and Make Movies In.
We host arguably the #3 film festival in the U.S. (SXSW) and a respectable up-and-coming festival that features big Hollywood movies and players (Austin Film Festival). We have studio directors who got their start in Austin and continue to shoot their productions in here (Richard Linklater, Mike Judge, and Robert Rodriguez) and we have a plethora of indie filmmakers whose work has been seen at every festival on the planet, literally.

So needless to say, some pretty interesting and creative stuff comes out of Austin.

A perfect example of this is the “reimagining” of Richard Linklater’s perennial indie classic Slacker, which will be premiering tonight at the historic Paramount Theater on Congress Avenue. If you went to film school, you (more…)

August 31, 2011 by
Austin

Culture Map Austin

Culture Map Austin launched today!

What is Culture Map you ask?

Well, it’s going to be THE source for news, entertainment, culture, food, sports, style and events in Austin, Texas.

After the success of Culture Map Houston, the gang decided to take the site on the road to the capital city. What better fit than real-time news and opinion in the #8 most socially networked city in America?

I’m very excited about today’s launch because I am also a contributor! I hope you will take the time to puruse the site today. I think you will like what you see. In the meantime, here is a snippet of my first post. You can click on the link below to read more…

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“I have a N.Y. driver’s license, L.A. mailing address and Austin physical address.

Please don’t hold the N.Y. and L.A. parts against me. I roll my eyes just as much as you do when somebody in Austin tells me they moved here from either place.

And if you’re a cop, please don’t arrest me. I don’t want (more…)

July 18, 2011 by