Proud new parents ...

Here, in the land of many strollers, Dustin and I are happy to announce that we are the proud new parents of:

A 20-inch iMac and an 80G video iPod. Hehehe
(As if you could imagine us raising anything other than someone's blood pressure.)

Bravo!

Thanx to Dustin, and his student discount, we have expanded our cable TV subscription to include the full package. As a result, I was able to watch a very relevant program on Bravo TV tonight: The Art of Nude Modelling. It is a six-part documentary on homoerotic art with a heavy emphasis on photography and included substantial footage from nude sketching classes in NYC at the Leslie Lohman Gallery (where I've exhibited) and also had an interview clip with one of my favorite photographers Evergon, who I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing back in the 90's, and whose work I have hanging in our living room (the shot above & below is a detail of the polaroid transfer taken at night with reflection.)

BASH'd!

Had a wonderful opportunity to photograph the talented writing/acting duo Nathan Cuckow and Chris Craddock in their new play, BASH'd (a gay rap opera), in its closing performance at The Roost.

Not only was I very impressed with the performances but the script, music, and direction were all tight and the subject matter was powerful, moving, and funny.

I'm sure we'll be hearing more about the success of this innovative two-man musical in the future, but until then ... here's a few photos from the show. And if you want to hear some of the music, check out their page at the link above.

Little Superstar

I double-dog dare you to only watch this once!

Albertine (Charbonneau) Mortimer

My grandmother, Albertine (Bertha) was born on October 3, 1900 which would have made her 106 years old today. Born in Hull, Quebec, she was the 13th of 14 children (no need in mentioning that they were Catholic with those numbers) and outlived all her siblings. I am probably related to half the province of Quebec as one of her brothers alone had 10 sons.

My grandmother was the person I was closest to in all my childhood and teen years. I have endless, warm, loving and often funny memories of her. I think in many ways I draw my sense of humor and daring from her. She was the first person to teach me french although she disliked Quebec francophones immensely especially after the rise of the seperatists movement. As she would often say, "They can all go to hell." Once I was older, we had many existential conversations on God, religion and the possibility of an afterlife -- which she firmly did not believe in. Her philosophy was that our hereafter was that the moment we stopped breathing we created room on the planet for another to be born and consume the air and space we had once occupied. A very simple and finite belief.

It has been 25 years now since she died but my connection to her and the relationship we had is as strong today as when she was alive. I miss her and her deep baritone voice immensely. For my own selfish reasons, I sincerely hope there is a place where energies, who once knew one another, go to reunite. Albertine is someone I would definitely like to "see" again.

THE BEST ADVERTISING - money can't buy

All About Ass

Life is all about ass;
either you're covering it,
laughing it off,
kicking it,
kissing it,
busting it,
trying to get a piece of it,
or behaving like one!

This was sent to me by good friend Jennifer Katz, who truly knows what a total ass I can be. Ha ha ha.

Spent the morning having coffee at Naked with my dear friend, Poopsie Too aka Val Brandt (formerly Val Jenkins) who was briefly in town from Vancouver for a wedding. I have the great fortune of being friends with this talented lady who's company and stories are always completely enthralling. There is never a dull moment when you are in the presence of Val. She is truly one the brightest crayons in the box.

white roses

my gift from Dustin

Year One

Celebrated our first year together today.
This is so much more than I could have ever hoped for.
I love you Dustin.


photo by Rob at Buddy's

Men of Talent

Was honored to be included amongst some remarkable photographers on a website, entitled Men of Talent that features the work of erotic photographers that specialize in the male nude.

The site adminstrator, Cindy Graziano, a very sweet lady who ironically happens to be my Canadian neighbour living in Saskatchewan, made the original selection of images to showcase, I added a couple extra images of new work for a total of 10 photos.

Take a look for yourself by clicking here.

A Thousand Thank-yous

Happy to report that Dustin and I completed the AIDS Walk for Life this sunny and warm afternoon and together we raised $1,000 in donations -- all of which were collected too! So I'd personally like to thank: Jenny Ling in Calgary, my parents Frank & Mary, my friends: Ryan, Brad, Denny, Ben, Ruby Slippa, Twiggy, Joel, Charles, Andrew, Michael, Scott, Kumsorntha, Tanya, Godiva, Steven, Kelsey, Darryl, Chelsey, Nathan, my co-workers at Buddy's: Sean, Chris, Joe, Denis, Lizzie and my partners at Starbucks: Stephanie, Julia, Christi, Justine and Amanda, for all making generous pledges.

Not only did we finish in under an hour, we were also total media whores while we were walking (we were right behind the HIV Edmonton banner carriers) so we were photographed by magazines and a couple TV stations. If I find anything online I'll post it.

Beating around "The Bush"

As anyone who knows me, or reads this blog, knows I absolutely, positively, detest GEORGE W. BUSH (read: I hate the fucker) and will happily find time to pass on any condemnations of what history will show as the United States of America's all-time worst President. So for today, here's a little Bush-bashing for you to enjoy:

George W. Bush goes to a primary school to talk to the children in order to drum up some much-needed positive PR. After his talk he asks, "Do you kiddies have any questions?" One little boy puts up his hand and George asks him his name.

"Stanley," responds the little boy.

"And what is your question, Stanley?"

"I have 4 questions: First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? Third, whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden? Fourth, why are we so worried about gay-marriage when 1/2 of all Americans don't have health insurance?"

Just then, the bell rings for recess. George Bush informs the kiddies that they will continue after recess.

When they resume George says, "OK, where were we? Oh, that's right, question time. Who has a question?" Another little boy puts up his hand. George points him out and asks him his name.

"Steve," he responds.

"And what is your question, Steve?"

"Actually, I have 6 questions. First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? Third, whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden? Fourth, why are we so worried about gay marriage when 1/2 of all Americans don't have health insurance? Fifth, why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early? And sixth, what the heck happened to Stanley?"

And on that note, how can you not like a guy like Hugo Chavez!

UNITED NATIONS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took his verbal battle with the United States to the floor of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, calling President Bush "the devil."

LIFE is good

First and foremost, I am looking for pledges for the AIDS Walk for Life here in Edmonton that I will be participating in on Sunday, September 24th. And there's no excuse for not making a donation/pledge, I can accept cheques, credit cards and I can also have HIV Edmonton bill you regardless of where you live. So dig down in those pockets and make me feel like I'm walking for you too!

On a secondary note, I got promoted at Starbucks yesterday to Shift Supervisor (well, once I complete my interview and training) which is quite funny because I haven't even been there my initial trial 3 months yet. Oh well, it'll mean more dollars, and I work with a great group of people, which is all good. The promotion means a 4 hour per week increase (for a total of 24 hours/week) so that'll work out ok too.

I'm enrolling in a Photoshop (specifically for photographers) class at NAIT starting next Wednesday for 5 weeks - it'll be the first classes I've taken since finishing college many years ago, so I'm quite excited. Plus it's all software stuff I've learned myself so it'll be good for me to hear how a professional does it and what tricks they have up their collective sleeves.

Speaking of school, I went to Grant MacEwan College (which is just at the end of the street from our apartment) with Dustin yesterday and we joined their Sports and Wellness Centre. Since I'm alumni it was very reasonable, and now I can get back to the gym and into better shape, since I haven't really been since I left Sherwood Park in May.

I figure I might as well start doing some things for myself instead of just feeling stranded here in Edmonton like I'm missing out on everything (read: life back in NYC).

Five Years Ago Today - 9/11

Five years ago today, I awoke to a phone call from my parents, back home in Edmonton, checking that I was somehow safe from planes and falling buildings in NYC. The ensuing 48 hours, sitting glued to my television set, were the most emotional, helpless, and traumatic moments of my life. I was able to tear myself away briefly to go up on my apartment rooftop in Harlem, some 8 - 10 miles away, and shoot off this one photo. That was all I could bring myself to take.



I will never go see movies like United 93 or World Trade Center, the experience to this day is still too raw. Tears, sorrow and grief remain just below the surface.

The only footage I have been able to watch to date, was the extremely provocative "The Falling Man" which will have an encore broadcast tonight on CBC Newsworld. This show perhaps best encapsulates the profound human tragedy that occured during that most photographed day in history.

A tribute to Willi Ninja

I didn't know Willi Ninja all that well but our paths crossed on numerous occasions and I had the opportunity to photograph him (the above photo was taken in June 2006 at the club Love just before he was hospitalized) frequently in his natural habitat -- the nightclubs of NYC. Sadly, he died a few days ago on September 2nd, and I wanted to pay tribute to one of the true legends of vogueing who I first saw on Malcolm McClaren's video "Deep in Vogue" a song that I loved dearly. I will miss the snap of Willi's fan and the fierceness of his presence.

Deep in Vogue
This has got to be a special tribute to the houses of New York
Le Beija, Extravaganza, Magnifique, St. Laurent, Omni, Ebony, Dupree.
In my black tights just throwing shade
Doing this dance that some queen made
I remember the first time I saw it,
Told my brother to put me up on it,
It wasn't easy no 1, 2, 3
It takes a long time to learn to be free
But here I am Vogueing pretty
In some club deep in this city
Deep in Vogue, Deep in Vogue
Imagine runway modeling, in freeze frame
At the ball that's what they call Vogueing
Vogueing is a challenge dance
Instead of fighting you take it out on the dance floor
10!, 10!, 10!, 10!, 10!, 10!, are there anymore!
Sometimes on a legendary night
Like the closing of the Garage
When the crowd is calling down the spirits
Listen, and you will hear all the houses that walked there before
Deep in Vogue, Deep in Vogue
The House of Extravaganza the House of Dupree
Who the hell are they?
They're nobody, except when they're in that little ballroom

Malcolm Mclaren - Deep in Vogue

featuring the legendary Willi Ninja

Poisoned

After battling months of what felt like chronic fatigue, both Dustin and I woke up Monday morning beyond groggy (which lasted a good hour) and decided, after continued urging by my friends: Jennifer; Deb; and our recent houseguest from NYC, Marcos; to call the gas company and find out whether we did, in fact, have a gas leak.

Arriving almost immediately, the inspector confirmed what everyone had suspected. Our gas stove was so carbonized that it was producing carbon monoxide gas. So since we had moved in we have been being slowly poisoned. Thank god we sleep with a window open, or it could have been one big long sleep.

He seemed a little shocked that we couldn't smell the leak (but we honestly didn't) and shut off our gas. So now we wait, without a stove, for our landlord to remedy this situation.

Ironically, when our neighbour, Sarah, came over, we related the story to her and she said; "Thank god you looked into it, I used to tell the guy that lived in the apartment before you that I could smell gas all the time and he should get it checked." He obviously never did.

On a positive note, my energy level was almost immediately restored. It feels quite refreshing to wake up and feel like I've actually slept.

Hi ho, hi ho ...

I feel like I've been neglecting my blog, but lately all I seem to do is work -- running from one job to another and not leaving any time in my life to do actual photo shoots (or anything else for that matter). Don't get me wrong, I like what it's doing for my bank account but I feel like something integral is missing in my life -- obviously, my art. I will have to work on adjusting my time or maybe I just need to get hypermotivated to squeeze in the odd shoot between jobs. On a happier note, it looks like I will be licensing a series of photos to Adavanced Communications out of NYC. I'll post those as negotiations are finalized.

A personal photo

This photo is perhaps one of my most personal photos of recent. The stairs outside my very door seemed to be a perfect metaphor for my life.

Are they going up or down?

Are they leading to somewhere or from somewhere?

Isolated. Alone. Motionless.

Sombre, colorless, yet with light and brightness from above.

Hell, maybe it's just a photo of a location where I'll shoot some nudes in the future. Hehe.

Book 'em

Happy to report that it looks like Cleis Press will be using another one of my photos featuring model Eric Martinez for an upcoming book entitled Hot Cops - Gay Erotic Stories.

Marcos and camping

My good pal, Marcos(in the photo above), arrived from NYC on Friday and joined Dustin and I for a the Western Canadian Pride Campout at Pine Trails campsite near Pidgeon Lake.

I was hired by one of the organizers, Leon, a good friend of Dustin's, to shoot the entire weekend so that they would have good images to post on their website. So addition to getting some great shots of the campers, in costume, playing games, mudwrestling, dancing by campfires, and the Northern Lights, I had a really fun (and relaxing) weekend.