Happy Birthday Linda!

On March 31, forty-one years ago, my parents brought home my baby sister, Linda, in the back of their green Rambler. I remember clearly how fascinated I was by the quiet, wiggling, little bundle and how my mother explained that she was dreaming while sound to sleep. The tiny person that was placed in a beautiful pink basinette that day would later become one of my truest confidantes and best friends. What is wonderful is that I don't only love my sister, I really like her too. Happy Birthday kiddo, may this be one of the happiest years ever for you, and may the future hold many, many more.

(The three photos are what I am giving her as a birthday present, all in one vertical frame.)

Six Months

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."
Proust

Useless Trivia

Barbie is sold in 150 countries around the world at a rate of 2 per minute. How's that for scary!

Good News from Seattle

The Seattle Erotic Arts Festival opened last night with my photograph "Wings of Desire" included in this year's exhibition. Last year I had two pieces in the show and both sold and this is year is no different. I got the following email this morning (which was a great way to wake up):

We sold Wings of Desire and would like to sell additional editions of the piece. With your permission, we'll put out a sign that says they are available. If they sell, we'll hook you up with the purchaser for shipping arrangements. The purchaser will pay for framed work (just like the work here). When the purchaser recieves the piece from you, we will pay you.

Sound ok?

Needless to say I told them to "Go for it!"

I Heart NY

Fireworks, Gay Pride 2005 -- 14 Street & 8 Avenue

OK watching CSI NY last night and all the arial skyline shots made me real homesick for NYC. It also didn't hurt that in the episode there was a scene of an art class sketching male nudes with a live model. That's my New York.

World Trade Towers, NYC 1994

Spring?!?

If yesterday was the first day of spring, why do I still see this:

$$$$$

I felt bad today. I received an email from Hebert, who I mentioned extensively in blog entries/postings when I was in Queretaro last November/December. He was John's sweet Mexican roommate, but when John relocated to San Miguel de Allende, Hebert moved to his sister's in D.F. (Mexico City). And now his dream of moving to America is about to come true. I guess he's making the jump to the US on April 1st and he doesn't have enough money. He asked me to loan him $500 but I honestly don't have any cash to spare. Having been away from NYC (and subsequently away from most of my work) I have just enough to get by -- and at some point buy my return plane ticket. I explained it all to him (in both spanish and english). I hope he understands. I know to these Mexican boys, visitors like myself from the North appear to have an endless supply of cash when we are in their country but as anyone who knows me well, I live very close to the bone. A good life but certainly not an extravagant one. It's times like this that I wish I was independently wealthy and could help out someone as deserving and as honorable as Hebert.

A Mad Hatter's Ball

The Mad Hatter's Ball (featuring members of Edmonton's Imperial Sovereign Court) -- an apropos metaphor for my weekend! 

Had a rather busy weekend working Thursday, Friday and Sunday nights at Buddy's doing Security (which will now be the shifts I regularly work at the bar until I head back to NYC) and then on Saturday I went and shot the Pride Centre's MAD HATTER'S BALL for Outlooks. I was also going to shoot two other events over the weekend but since we had major snow storms on both Friday and Saturday, the attendance at each of these was so pathetic there was virtually no one for me to photograph.

The highlights of the weekend have to go to the drunk people I encountered while working at the bar. Thursday, a guy, out of breath and grinding his teeth as if there was no tomorrow (hello can everyone say "cocaine"), came flying in the doors to announce to me that his car had just been jacked (stolen). At that point he found it quite amusing and proceeded to tell me that he met some other gay guy who was travelling with a woman out in the parking lot and since it was cold he invited them to get into his car to stay warm (he didn't say it but I could tell he was interested in the guy -- typical male letting his pants do the thinking). They then proceeded to do some drugs (why he was telling me -- Security -- this, I'll never know) and when the driver said he had to jump out to go pee, he thought it was ok to leave the car running with the keys in the ignition. Well ... needless to say, when he came back from around the building the car and his two new friends were gone. Still laughing about the unreality of it, I suggested that perhaps he call the police. This brought his mood crashing down. Then trying to be the eternal optimist he said "Well at least I have insurance" and then a second later, "Oh man, I don't know if I'm covered for theft, the insurance isn't in my name". Then to compound the matter, he realized he didn't even know his license plate number. But that wasn't the worst of it, his attitude took the ultimate dive when he realized that he was down to his last cigarette and the new pack he had just bought was in the console of his car. At this point, he finally did call the police. Over the course of the evening, I would be told this very same story about a dozen times more, sometimes not directly to me but I somehow always managed to be within earshot. As you can imagine, the police gave this guy a really hard time -- it was so completely obvious he was high -- he replied to the police officers "Judge on, judge on" but by the end of the night the cops had recovered his vehicle. Seems the gay guy's woman jumped into the driver's seat when the opportunity afforded itself and when the chick finally pulled over the guy called the cops because he didn't want anything to do with the theft. So the bad girl was charged and the oh-so-intelligent owner of the vehicle was later heard happily announcing that he and the car thief's gay friend were going on a date the next night. Isn't it lovely how things work out!

That was Thursday, Friday was St. Patrick's Day! So you can well imagine the completely drunk idiots I dealt with that night. And on top of being liquored, it was a betting crowd as well:
"I bet you get sick of some of these really stupid people."
"I bet you get tired of drunks."
"I bet you get hit on a lot."
and my personal fave, "I bet you've seen just about everything working here." to which I replied, "No, not really, you guys aren't all that interesting." (evil smirk) Do I sound jaded or what!
Also on Friday, some drunk asshole purposely tried to burn my face with a cigarette when I wouldn't let him back into the bar after kicking him out for passing out on the table. Needless to say he's now banned.

My weekend ended Sunday night, with a maximum of about 30 people that braved the elements to come see the Drag Show that night. Of those 20 some odd (and I don't use the term lightly) patrons, we had to cut off 8 of them from drinking because they were too far gone. That sort of tells you what kind of night it was.

I so much prefer being a photographer. Ha ha. But then again being a bouncer does provide me with a perspective of how very, very good my personal life really is compared to these people (and it does give me the occasional humorous anecdote).

If you're having a rough day ...

click here and type your name!

self portrait for Outlooks.

I took an old self-portrait shot in Chicago in 2003 and worked it over in Photoshop and got the following:




















As the general consensus on the photo in my last post was that it wasn't an ideal shot in that it wasn't as creative or as interesting as I am capable of, I'm hoping one of these new images will work.

My personal preference is the black and grey version. (I think)

A Good NEGATIVE

Happy to report that my test results came back and I continue to be HIV negative. It doesn't seem to matter how safe I stay/play, these yearly check ups always seem to rattle my cage. I guess that's bound to always be the case.

in Focus

Roy Heale, the publisher/editor of Outlooks Magazine, asked me today if I would be the featured artist for the Focus section of the next issue. So watch for the April issue (it is distributed nationally in Canada) which will feature a full page of my photography (approximately 8 to 12 shots). Now my dilemma is whether or not to include a photo of myself with my biography which will also appear on the page. Below is the shot I was considering. Is it too candid? Not creative enough considering that I am photographer? Any feedback?

Test shoot with Dominic

After having a great lunch with one of my dearest and best friends, Debra Bachman-Smith (an incredibly talented graphic designer and artist), I went to meet a potential model who I had just recently met working at Buddy's. His name is Dominic Green, he's a hot young guy, good physique (he was waitering with no shirt on) with some nice ink and I definitely want to do a shoot with him. He drove to a park along Whitemud Drive to show me where he had done a previous photo shoot. The location is absolutely perfect (although it was a little too cold today to do nudes)-- very scenic and relatively isolated so as not to be bothered other than the ocassional cross-country skier. I'm looking forward to working with Dom - apart from being a handsome guy, he's very personable too. Here's a couple test shots from the afternoon.

What's On TV

Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada


I've had a lazy few days, what with the snow and all, and have been putting in my time in front of the "boob tube." But who said TV is useless, here's some of what I learned over the past couple days:

rapture is a term used by religious believers that when a person is so good God takes them (to heaven) before they die;

Paul & Linda McCartney only spent 11 days apart in their entire relationship;

Al Lewis (Grandpa from the Munsters) died February 3rd in NYC at the age of 95 or 72;

Darren McGavin star of Kolchak, The Nightstalker - one of my favorite TV series when I was a teenager, who also appeared in the sleeper hit, A Christmas Story, died this past Saturday, Feb. 25;

one of my new favorite TV series, The Comeback has been cancelled;

William Shatner (Captain Kirk from Star Trek) and Pamela Anderson (Baywatch and upcoming host of the 2006 Juno Awards) were born Canadians;

another Canadian, the mayor of Vancouver, Sam Sullivan, is a quadriplegic and made our country look like a very progressive nation when he accepted the Olympic Flag for the 2010 games;

Judy Garland attempted suicide more than 30 times;

and you cannot get a cold by catching "cold" or a chill, you must come in contact with a person who has the virus -- usually the most infective in the first few days.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Although I'm not really a TV junkie, (give me a movie any day -- especially a foreign/art/independent film) over the years here's what I've liked to watch:

Six Feet Under - concluded but probably one of the best series ever

Deadwood - would have never believed anyone that would have said I'd watch a western series

Carnivale - cancelled after 2 seasons but was a unique spin on the supernatural

Dead Like Me - cancelled after 2 seasons but was incredible black comedy (first season was far superior)

The Comeback - cancelled after 1 season but Lisa Kudrow like you've never seen her

Friends - concluded (favorite episode was Season 7, The One With Joey's New Brain)

Fat Actress - Kirstie Alley is hilarious ... and fat

Sex and the City - classic NYC regardless of your gender

Sopranos - Mafia reality TV

CSI, Law & Order (doon doon), Third Watch - totally hooked on these late night reruns

ER - great work from head writer/producer John Wells

Prison Break - good for network TV but can't touch OZ

Oz - the original prison series

Threshold - cancelled after 9 episodes

Monty Python's Flying Circus - one of the funniest sketch comedy series ever

Moonlighting - acerbic, clever and witty comedy TV series with Cybil Sheppard and Bruce Willis

Night Gallery - creepy, definitely gave me some sleepless nights as a youngster

American Bandstand - loved it during the whole disco era (that's where I first heard Sister Sledge's We Are Family)

Kolchak, The Night Stalker

Flipper - and ocean version of "animals are our friends TV" like

Gentle Ben or Skippy The Bush Kangaroo

I Love Lucy - the original sitcom

Roller Derby - Stampede Wrestling on wheels (Anyone else remember Skinny Minnie Miller?)

The Wonderful World of Disney - a Sunday night staple when I was a kid, great animation and all those movies of lovable critters (that in real life would bite your head off)

David Letterman - only the early years when he was twisted and funny, then he became a prick

never really a fan of soap operas (exception was Dynasty), reality TV (sure I've watched a few episodes of Survivor, Amazing Race, Manhunt, Top Model, Project Runway or American Idol, but I lose interest quickly) or game shows (exceptions; Match Game and The Gong Show)

Shows that I absolutely hate: Airline (I'll never fly Southwest), Love Boat, Little House on the Prairie, Jerry Springer (who took schlock talk TV to a whole new level), Geraldo (even though I was on one episode), and the sophomoric do-gooder Montel.