Just part of the design process...

Here's the final version of the poster for Investiture. For those who do not know what Investiture is, it's a show that we have with ISCANS in which we celebrate the membership and give out the titles for the year.
Always a good time with some of the best performers we have in the city.
Hope to see some of you out!

Dream #19

I was standing outside of a Hydrostone building in the mid spring.....half the grass was green and some flowers were peaking out. Then, my current room mate came walking up the sidewalk towards me. Inside I knew it was 5 years since I had seen him.
We started talking, somewhat awkwardly, trying to catch up on what we've been doing. He had recently been promoted to a higher position and was working between 2 cities, and I had just celebrated my 2 year anniversary of working from my home studio.
About this point he asked me why I was in this neighborhood. The door to the building burst open and a boy, 4 years old, came bursting out yelling "Daddy!!!" and running towards me. I bent down to pick him up and spun him around saying "Hi Bradley!!" and held him on my right arm where he nestled into my shoulder.
"This is daddy's friend, Richard.... say hi to him" which he shyfully did and then hid his face smiling into my shoulder.
"So....you're a dad now......uhm....alright"
"Yeah," I responded. "Me and Michel adopted Bradley here a year ago, didn't we Bradley?"
He giggled and shuffled around his green backpack as I tickled his sides......"Yeaaaaaaaah.....where's Papa at?"
" He's coming soon....but we have to say goodbye to Richard....say Bye now"
"Bye..." he half heartedly said looking at a passing butterfly, then to a passing propane truck
"Good to see you Richard! talk to ya soon!"

For Matt to see

Rise to power...kinda

So in my last post I mentioned a little thing about being an Emperor. I suppose I should elaborate on that.

I'm a member of ISCANS: The Imperial and Sovereign Court of Atlantic Nova Society. It's a fundraising society for charities that is part of a vast number of chapters across Mexico, USA and Canada (the exact number eludes me at the moment). It' comprised mostly of people from the gay community who are performers, read:Drag Queens.

I myself am not a drag queen in this Reign, though I have been known to throw on a wig and heels from time to time to keep the social order. And I'm quite fabulous...but I digress.

Each year a new Emperor and Empress are elected from the membership body to fulfill the roles of figureheads of the society and to represent them in a very positive light. The job requires a year's commitment of work and planning to make it a success, and though utterly exhausting, it more than worth it.

The sense of community, spirit and comradely is what thrills me about it. Working shoulder to shoulder with every person in the community for a common good cause is almost what makes me get up in the mornings sometimes, I swear.

To make it official, I'll let you know my title and let you imagine a bit more before I post more/ edit this post.

You may now refer to me as:

His Most Imperial Sovereign Majesty The Gemmed Phoenix Risen from the Ashes For Another Round Make It a Double Cause “You’re Pretty”Emperor VI and Regent Emperor IX OH MY GOD – THAT’S 69!
Big Daddy Diamond Lee Bent Dover

or Your Majesty, for short....

we now interupt your irregularly scheduled blog

Here's a poster for the mockjail we're holding at Menz Bar on Friday, the 20th of Feb. Come lock up friends and such for the night, with all proceeds going to local charities of ISCANS.

Oh yeah, by the way...I'm Emperor of Halifax and all of Nova Scotia...again....more on that later..

I want one of these....anyone else?

Ok, this showed up in one of my feeds in Google Reader.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUVR2vjRJRo

If you know anything about me, you know that I absolutely hate doing laundry...hate it....like the hate I have for Nazi's and women who impose self entitlement to all seats on the bus because they are mothers........*grumble*.
This little thing is a no power, hand cranked, table top laundry machine. It's pretty simple, few moving parts and works on pressure. It's about the size of a propane canister and does about 1/3-1/2 load of laundry in like 2 minutes.
Now I hate laundry for a few simple reasons. The first being that I live in a building with 24 apartments in it and there are 2 washers and 2 dryers for us to share. At any given time, one of each works, and costs $1.75/load. The next closest laundry facility is up the street about a block. They have the little enviro-machines that use less water.....and hold half a load of a regular machine...and take longer...and cost just the same.
Anyways, I think I'm gonna pick one of these bad boys up and get my laundry on. I've found that when I can stay on top of my laundry, it's not so bad and I can deal with the concept of it much better.

Happy New Year

Well, the New Year came and for the first time in 10 years, I was on the right side of the bar. The side that drinks and dances and has fun instead of the one sweaty from stress and work and having to start the New Year ankle deep in "Vomited-Festivities".

And what are my plans for the New Year? Too many to mention, but I did decided to keep it simple and set some easy to focus in on "tasks/guidelines" instead of the usual "resolutions".

What are they?

1. Spend more time at the gym.

Since I already spend some time there, this is really more of a focus and something to put a bit more drive into. I've recently been on happier terms with my physique and can see a small, but marked difference in it for the better. A little bit more effort and I know I'll be ready for Speedo's come summer.....in my house of course.....cause Public Speedo's should be illegal.

2. Be more clear about my intentions.

This is more of a tweak of a philosophic bent. I've realized that I've worried more for the feelings of others in what I say more than the goal of getting a point across. This has left me more often than not in a spot of being misunderstood and having to repeat myself constantly. I used to mumble a lot, but overcame that. Now I've simply got to make my intentions more clear. In order to do this though, I'll have to have more confidence in what my intentions really are....ahhhhh.......not really that deep.....was hoping for more.

3. Live as an artist instead of living around being an artist.

I've really been pushing my art and my creativity off to the side these last few months from any combination of work stress, lack of sleep, under-inspiration, procrastination and lack of confidence. Yeah, that's all over with. My goal is to work on/design/plan/improve/finish any existing ideas each and every day and log them/catalogue them daily.

4. Be part of a Show/Exhibition in the next 6 months

Quite simply, produce enough work of a satisfactory level that I am comfortable putting it in a show and allowing my work to be criticized and/or sold. This is an important thing for me to do, probably the most important. This requires a lot of factors to come together and work in conjunction with one another, requiring the previous 3 Guidelines to have to fulfill themselves.

Not quite the Laws of Robotics, but it's what I think will work for me.