artomatic 2008

2weeks of sleeping on my stomach and i was ready to wander back into the place that left me scarred for life; artomatic. this time, ms.mundy made the trip with me for increased companionship, entertainment and perspective - not to mention awesome art. we were both involved in shows @ the time (she's still is: doing great work as bette in the marriage of bette and boo in the black box @ montgomery college and about to rock the capitol fringe festival in rock muscial bear beach @ the warehouse) so we could only reach artomatic late 1friday night, having just enough time to get lifted and see 3 of the 12floors of art.
we grabbed a couple beers and hit 12th floor so i could take my shoulders to paul for final judgement which is when touch-ups were originally discussed (scheduled for monday coming). two other floors made their way to our makeshift agenda; 11 and another which i can't recall. while looking @ the awesome art, mundy+i found ourselves creating too; leaving our marks in crayon, in chalk, and in blacklight paint. again, i'll let the photos do the storytelling... and run commentary whenever necessary. oh yeah, and i tend to shrink the images on this block from their original size so that they a. load faster, and b. can be viewed as a whole in one browser window. enjoy.

this first exhibit is one of the first things that really stunned me. the work is basically a graphic novel spilled all over the wall. there are tons of diary entries that go with the smaller images. i didn't minimise this one so you can see all the detail (can't really read it though).

artomatic stabbing...

...millions of them actually. i went to my artist, paul roe, not too many weeks ago, anxious for another round of jet black stabbed into my skin. i took the design, originally created for sweet trini, to paul with great anticipation for what would become my second tattoo. i had a very distinct idea of where these new images would be placed on my body and @ paul's suggestion found myself awaiting an appointment three weeks later to get inked @ the dc area's largest local art exhibit, artomatic. this year, 800 artists filled a 12story building with every kind of art imaginable (even a lawn chair made entirely of aluminum can tabs+wire). britishink's tattoo parlor could be found in the 12th floor ne corner penthouse... or you could just follow the buzzing, as many seemed to upon exiting the elevator.
i arrived for my 6pm appointment, ready to feel complete again and came to realise that it was 'meet the artist night,' meaning paul and his cohort cyn would be answering questions all night long, and i would be continueously answering the same question with the same answer: 'no, it tickles.' what started as a cloudy, dreary day suddenly became a beautiful skyline on two walls of the parlor as sun seemed to kiss the low, dark clouds and the newly green treetops with an incredible orange light, before eventually giving way to the horizon and turning those walls into the faces of the crowd behind me. the needle buzzing in one ear @ a time, i was able to watch the reflections of 'oohs,' 'ahhs' and 'ouches' on each viewer's face as they watched me literally becoming my own living art exhibit.
i found myself in my head a while, the buzz+tickle drowning out the questions+comments, leaving me to think about the new images being branded onto my body. their meaning, their purpose, how somehow they make me stronger; carrying with them a strength not my own, like armor passed down from a braver generation.
upon completion, just over 4hours after the first prick, i followed paul (who carried a large mirror) toward the restroom through artomatic with an immense sense of pride, displaying my work on my body; my canvas. it turned heads. the restroom+paul, decked out in his classic victorian drab, centered me between their mirrors so i could rejoice in the inks beauty and nearly shed a tear, before losing my head with excitement and the feeling of being whole again. it really was a great night.
the next 4 shirtless days were followed by 2weeks of sleeping on my stomach to allow the tattoo to heal proper. with a few touch-ups scheduled next week, i couldn't be happier with journey and the product. the images tell the story better than i do.

in memoriam

pandora's jukebox

pandora.com. check it out on the sidebar.

ill

for the first time in years, i'm sick. perhaps i shouldn't be complaining since it's only the flu when it could be so much worse. but my head throbs when i cough, my chest burns when my head hurts, my stomach turns when my chest burns, my body aches when my stomach turns and i've never been so cold in all of my life while living in an apartment that probably doesn't get much above 60degrees farenheit at any time. i realise, only now, that i felt this coming days ago and should've immediately went for my stay healthy regimate of h20, oj, hot tea, and h20, but it's been so long since i've felt sick that i didn't recognise the symptoms. i anxiously await a broken fever.

natural bobaraba

everyone loves a woman with bobaraba; big bottom in one of cote d'ivoire's local languages, djoula. but now ivorian women are taking it to dangerous heights in response to dj mix+dj eloh's song/video entitled bobaraba that even had some native footballers shaking their ass on the recent cup of nations pitch. some ivorian women are now buying unknown drugs, commonly liquid injections+creams thought (hoped) to be b12, from black markets said to increase the size of their bottom. while b12 is not known to be harmful, it is impossible to know what else these women could be injecting into their bodies. no injections of b12 or silicon or anything else will ever beat the beautiful quality of a natural woman, ass+all. real hair, real face, real breasts, real bottom and a strong will are all we're looking for. so ms. fat booty, please keep it natural and i guarantee you'll be getting stuck with something more than a needle.

britishink

my tattoo artist, paul roe, was nice enough to provide me with free cover into the baltimore tattoo convention over the weekend. i couldn't pass up such a great opportunity to shoot and w/ camera in hand traveled with a couple people up 295 to the sheraton where the convention was being held.
as expected, hundreds of freaks and geeks crammed into two ballrooms filled with the endless buzzing of dozens needles, the stink of sweat, and some of the best tattoo artists on the east coast - each exhibiting their art in books and in person. bodies (some more beautiful than others) full of art paced the hotel all day and some of the pieces left me wishing i could feel as free with my own skin; but then, why would i want a slain dragon or evil pez dispenser on my forearm?
i'm not judging anyone else, but i believe tattoos to be a mark in time, engraved to remind us of who, what and where we've been. each line a different memory. paul and cynthia, the other half of britishink, understand this concept and have a true passion for their craft; paul even designs his own tattoo machines - which after yesterday's convention i realise is a pretty popular trade, though none more beautiful and intricate as paul's.
paul wasn't selling any of his custom machines but he+cynthia were busy tattooing at the britishink booth in full victorian drab proving to be the most interesting exhibit going. i'm posting a couple pictures as well as a few full back tattoos that i spotted while wandering around.
a master of his craft, you gotta check out the work paul's done on grims' shoulder. it's freehand and looks like it could be finished, but there's another sitting to come. it makes me jealous already and paul worked on me only two weeks ago.
oh, paul also turned us on to this guy @ yourmeatismine.com which inspired some of the sketches @ the bottom of this post.

marking time

i drifted off in my head as the ink bled from my chest, concentrating on the pain at times, trying to figure out which line was being drawn. other times were spent thinking about this beautiful piece of art that i was becoming, and how somehow this tattoo was completing my chest - as though it had been missing all along.
the tattoo: my design, paul roe's artwork, came from a page in my notebook from a time ago, but something i knew belonged on my body - memories branded for life. it was a time of growth, experience and change, finding me, now, a better version of myself. that kind of thing deserves to be documented. the design is, for reasons i can't even put into text, the most important thing i've ever sketched and i suppose that is why it covers my solar plexus now. it is placed at my center, my core.

feel free to laugh at my hairy-whiteness, but in my defense, i've lived in a basement for the past year while working in one for the last two. the hairiness is just a result of italian genes.

photographer: grims.

move

ultimately, i see music all over this thing, but this perspective allowed for the greatest interpretation. peace.

to the wall

i'm finally about to get back to painting the wall. i figured i'd show you where i left off.

in other news, i've begun developing my photography portfolio and hope i'll at least have something on flickr shortly. stay tuned.

the christmas show

saturday night i was lucky enough to bare witness to a most amazing piece of theatre called the christmas show, ie. hamlet. it was an invitation only, free event gifted from the cast to their friends+family, and gifted to me by my friend+family. the invitation prompted an intimate audience who, while enjoying the complimentary hot chocolate, were asked to physically follow the action as it happened - starting @ a quaint holiday party and ending with a rather bloody new year's eve. we, the guests, moved with the play around the space (the clarkstreet playhouse) from lobby to warehouse to outside and back again; we even crammed into the men's bathroom. we followed, we watched (sometimes in the most voyeuristic sense of the word) and we became a part of the play as the action literally unfolded around us. the beauty in the show was in it's simplicity.... a well placed beam of light from a flashlight or cracked door in an otherwise pitch black scene, or a piece of chalk used to draw us to the next scene. listening in on terrifying conversation from behind closed doors, or being forced a little too close to the guy with the knife by the crowd behind me; the scenes grew organically allowing each audience member to decide their own involvement. some scenes i found myself right up front, others i let the audience become a part of the scene and watched from a distance. it was so beautiful that wish i could come back and photograph the show, though i'm pretty sure i saw the last performance. furthermore, someday in the future i'm gonna produce a piece of theatre like this one. something interactive but not invasive, small and intimate and makes full use of a space in it's natural form. i felt privileged to see the christmas show and loved every minute of it... minus the two audience members who couldn't get their high school giggling under wraps. this post doesn't begin to scratch the surface of the show... thank you to everyone responsible for my seeing it.

pom: pop-up creativity

while wandering the net one day about a month ago i got bombarded with the typically annoying pop-up ad challenging me to create a 90second television spot for pomtea; a pomegranate-tea blended beverage brought to the refrigerated section of your grocery by the people at pomwonderful. having had the tea before i almost immediately had a concept and took it directly to my talent, braintrust and bestfriend; a sweet trini whose proven brilliance has recently been seen rockin' the dc stage in wsc's production of the house of yes. i presented her with the storyboards below which we later further developed into a stronger, more simplistic idea.

the concept was simple: use stop-motion animation to tell the journey of a glass of pomtea (typically marketed toward women for its antioxidants and low calories) from purchase to resting place in an empty cabinet via sweet trini's hand. she'd be seen pulling the tea from the shelf in the grocery, buying the tea, drinking the tea, and finally putting the empty glass away. the journey would repeat a number of times through the ad, each time showing the cabinet with more saved glasses. once full, the next glass would instead go to the recycling bin and thus drive the tag line 'renew (yourself). reuse (the glass). recycle.'
the wrench came when i began looking for a grocery that would allow me to shoot in their store... none would. most had a screening process that could take a week that i couldn't afford to lose, so with some serious brainstorming the trini and i refined the concept. the grocery was abandoned and the cycle became: open it, drink it, store it in the clean empty cabinet which we realised pretty quick wasn't going to be clean+empty. the cabinet to be filled with pomtea was going to already contain some items because the cabinet's dimensions were larger than expected and i didn't have 500dollars to spend on tea. it also occurred to us that starting empty would beckon the question 'why is there an empty cabinet in this woman's house?' ... and so we staged the cabinet with a gathering of random kitchenesque items, added the tea glasses we already owned and then estimated the amount of pomtea glasses required to fill the remainder. 19.
i ran to the 'ghetto giant' and the 'not so safeway' to purchase enough tea to shoot the ad and upon placing them in the 'frigerator found that the fridge light really brought out the colors of the beverages. that night the brains of a football peong and a dc bassist were poked and prodded for further input over a nice chilled glass of pomtea while i pitched them the storyboards to the right. the bassist, an amazing musician, agreed to provide the music for the ad and the peong made me a believer that the fridge shots should definitely join the cycle (they did).
we sorted through sweet trini's infinitely colorful wardrobe, picked some outfits and spent the next 3days shooting all of the photographs needed for the ad. we shot about 2200, used about 150. on a side note, sweet trini photographs incredibly well regardless of what she might say or think.
the editing process began with me sorting through all of the photos and selecting the best 450 or so. i built the first draft. then a second. then a third before taking it to the bassist to add the score.
i got trini's company at the editing suite for the next 3nights, each taking us well into the wee hours. it was worth it. the ad, later titled she drinks pom tea for youtube's sake, came together; video+audio complimenting each other beautifully. it is colorful and fun and artistic and still seems to successfully push the product.
my frustrations and failures with the piece begin at the end. the original plotline was to fill the cabinet so much that the woman has no other choice but to recycle the glass. but the last four frames fail to read, leaving the concept lacking. maybe the cabinet needed more glasses, maybe the video needed more frames - or specifically cabinet frames. i haven't figured that part out, but i do know that if the recycle concept fails it's only because my other gripe is that the reuse concept doesn't read as i had hoped either. again, more glasses might've helped, but ideally i think i should have listened to advice to fill more of the glasses with greater variety than the existing glass of straws+glass of chopsticks. the now considered good advice was left behind because i wanted to believe that the viewer could see an empty glass and know without being shown that one can put things in it. i see now that had i listened to those smarter voices, the reuse concept would've hit harder and the ad would've been stronger. removing the flower in the glass seen in the storyboard, however, was a good decision, allowing for a tighter, cleaner shot of the cabinet.
somewhere along the way we found ourselves playing around with the pomtea lids at sweet trini's request and were suddenly shooting hundreds more images of pomtea lids (each flavor a different color) moving about a stunning green wood table. creativity spilled onto the table; the peong even got involved, creating the fucking brilliant flower in the middle of the spot. i snapped one photo for each frame which made editing the piece together simple enough and we were lucky enough to raid the bassist's music for another original score. the second ad, titled pom pop-tops, presents a completely different marketing scheme than the first commerical but still carries an artistic appeal which i know everyone involved appreciates.
we find out tomorrow if either ad becomes a top 10finalist. if they do, the voting process begins and i'll be asking everyone to go and vote. if you're interested, here are both ads. enjoy.

i'm on setanta sports

whether you're a football fan or not, if you haven't already caught jose mourinho @ his new job then you hafta check these video clips out. one football peong has already done the footwork so follow this link to his links and watch jose. he is fantastic. he is amazing. i think maybe he is incredible...

twisted

i think this one needs looked at from all angles like some of the previous. enjoy.

wireless woes, digital hoes

it was just a year ago that i was boasting about my new beautiful laptop and all of her sexiness. she came to me fashioned in the traditional 'mto-style' from dell who guaranteed her loyalty and undying devotion. they lied. that bitch has cheated on me plenty, pumping her wires full of disease that she's clearly been downloading while i'm away at work. i tried to protect her with passwords and encryptions but i still come home everyday to find her sitting right where i left her, cracked out and slow from whoring herself out all day. who knows what kinda filth has invaded her hard drive? i can't allow this disservice to go on any longer and so i am dumping her; scratching her memory and rebuilding. she'll hopefully be back in a few short hours with a reminder of where her loyalties lie.

once you go black...

the theory is that a black-screen-version of google would save 750megawatt-hours per year given the vast popularity of the search engine. the goal is to bring consciousness to the importance of doing everything you can to conserve energy. read more and use it @ http://www.blackle.com/.

two halves

plants and plants and plants

... or so said tori. whatcha think?

perceptive perspective

okay, so i didn't sketch this piece the way you're looking at it now. it wasn't sketched for me anyway. this perspective was agreed to be the most interesting but i encourage you to rotate your laptop and check out some other perspectives. i really like this piece. hope you do too.

back off

cover up

the notebook. i had to post it before it fell apart completely.
wanna see inside?

listen now, watch dem later

3canal - womex update: a new podcast w/ 3canal is available @ caribbean free radio discussing their recent ReThePublic concert in port of spain, trinidad and their upcoming venue; the world music tour (womex) in seville, spain. check out the podcast, then buy a ticket and go see. ticket info is right here.

all scrubbed out

so it's premiere week(s) on television here in the united states which means all the stations you tune in to scramble all of your favourite shows just to put you through the hassle of rescheduling your typical weeknight around the idiot box in front of you. fuck, go read a book. an example anyway. comedy central seems to believe that we aren't already getting our full dose of nbc's scrubs after making it their 'goto filler' for the last 8months so they thought it a good idea to cram more of the show down our throats by broadcasting another hour right before the one program i actually care about: the daily show. if it weren't for carla always looking so fine i could never bear to watch. thank you ms. judy reyes - i'm available. at the recommendation of sweet trini (always on top of her pop culture game), i recently picked up coupling on bbc america which helped me replace the sitcom i had become bored with (-carla) with a wonderfully witty, well-written show; the show friends wished it could have been, as it was said to me. tonight, bbc changed their nightly schedule as well so that i can no longer watch coupling @10p, not that i can complain too much since bbc america thankfully shows their best programs including torchwood and top gear on comcast's ondemand... and though i've admitted it before, it is still comcastic.

charming innovation

as it turns out, i'm not the only person who likes the lucky charms cereal more than the lucky charms marshmallow enough to pick around the charms to eat the grain. ultimately the marshmallows get eaten slowly over the duration of the process with the majority of them awaiting me at the bottom of the box.
it occurred to me that the good people at general mills should package their product in a new way: separate bags of cereal and marshmallows packaged in the same box, allowing every lucky charms enthusiast to personalise each bowl of cereal. eat a bowl full of cereal, then a bowl full of marshmallows, then mix the two to your hearts desired proportions.
for general mills the advantages are obvious. eating the two ingredients in different proportions means one could often run out of one ingredient before another, sending the consumer back to the grocery for another box so they can mix some marshmallows with that leftover cereal.
... and i'm sure their marketing department could come up with an advertising campaign for the newly bagged cereal. perhaps something about lucky (the leprechaun) trying to hide his charms from a band of pirates who of course find them and separate the riches from the worthless (in their opinion) dubbing the new cereal lucky charrrms, or maybe lucky booty, though parents may not wanna buy lucky booty for their children.
i sent general mills this comment:

as someone who loves a large variety of your cereals i often find myself enjoying them piece by piece, straight out of the box. this is particularly true with "lucky charms." i so often will eat just the cereal leaving marshmallows behind only devour them later. i’d like to suggest you could market "lucky charms" in a new way. you could keep the product in the current size boxes but package the cereal and the marshmallows in two separate, half-size bags; the idea being that one could eat only the marshmallows, the cereal and/or a mix them in any proportions. imagine, you could have a different bowl of "lucky charms" every time. after discussion with others i realised i wasn't the only "lucky charms" fan with this desire, and it suddenly seemed like a worthy idea. i also fell in love with your "nature's valley" oat and honey cereal. as an avid outdoorsman and health nut, i've always counted on "nature's valley" granola bars for energy. if the options aren't already in the works, i hope to see additional granola versions of the cereal, and would suggest peanut butter (for the kids) and banana-nut.

old school lucky looked so much cooler, don'tcha think?
ps. when general mills decides to use my idea and you find yourself thanking the cereal gods (snap, crackle and pop) for reinventing an old favourite, remember where you heard about lucky charrrms. you're welcome.

come and play

which sesame street character are you?

You are Big Bird. You are something of an eccentric, and not everyone always gives you credit for your inventiveness and intelligence. You may not always know everything, but people turn to you for your sound, unique logic. Plus, you have a big heart. Really big.

i suppose it's better than being labelled elmo.

3canal @ womex

i wouldn't be a good friend if i didn't take a second to congratulate 3canal for being one of 36 amazing musical acts selected from a pool of 600+ to perform @ womex 07 (the world music expo) in seville, spain, 24-28 october 2007. if you have the means and aren't already planning wonderful vacations to barbados. go. it will be amazing and i will be insanely jealous. while in spain, you should travel to the province of valencia to visit ciutat de les arts i de les ciencies home of the world's largest open-air aquarium, an opera house, imax, planetarium, garden, and science museum, amongst others - not to mention that it is a marvel of modern architecture. benol in valencia also plays host to tomatina, the world's largest food fight (tomatoes only) which takes place on the last wednesday of august each year - part of a week long celebration including music, dance, parades and food. originating from a friendly food fight that broke out during a carnival parade in 1944, tomatina begins and the hundred metric tons of tomatoes make to the air when a ham is pulled from the top of a large, erect, greased pole (sexy). don't wanna dye your skin marinara red for days? watch from the rooftop.

a lifting haziness

i apologise for my absence. this blog was very nearly nothing. but i've been told that nothing comes from nothing and if i am anything at all, i am a proprietor of something good, +vibes and the belief that one person can invoke change. so welcome back this crazyfool. this new leaf. better. stronger. changed. back. there is so much that could be said about the last two months - most of which lies beneath the smoke, not to be recovered. we'll progress... i was introduced to the japanese tape, which now sits on my sidebar with the others, by sweet trini who then partnered me into a project that is now commonly referred to as, i think... the japanese dub project. operations are handled by a group of good people (mostly penn state alumni) with me on the back end of it, using the copy copier borrowed from the depths of the dungeon full of dungeons, all to serve our own greedy desires to obtain amazing art. since then i have been exposed to several japanese game shows which typically involves some absurd obstacle(s) and a pool(s) of water (or mud); none more ridiculous than human tetris. it would seem that the greatest technological minds in the world prefer to run and play and slip and slide rather than answer in the form of a question. the japanese have a lighter, more youthful sense of 'game show' where fun and laughter is as much a reward as the monetary winnings. the japanese are able to laugh at themselves as they play in the mud, perhaps because they've already proven their intelligence and thus need not test it. the states, by comparison, embrace the stupid american stereotype with their game shows (excluding jeopardy), asking questions of their citizens like 'are you smarter than your 10year old?' or 'deal or no deal?' - game shows developed to push american consumerism; easy money, no brain required. what's so wrong with using your brain anyway? wrap your brain around this: a new impossible quiz. avoid it at all costs.

who are you?

how addicted to blogging are you?

64%just another form of self medication if you ask me. the image links you to the quiz. enjoy.

nutrisystem is a joke

i always seem to see catch more than my fair share those damn nutrisystem commercials when my insomnia is in full swing. for those who don't know, nutrisystem is diet, proven successful by ex-american-footballer dan marino+co. ('i lost 32lbs. in 28days. if i can do it so can you.' kinda thing) in which the nutrisystem organisation sends you their food and you magically watch the pounds fall off. so my obvious conclusion on the food is that no one should ever eat anything altered enough to force your body into burning fat without exercise, but that isn't why i write tonight. sweet trini pointed out to me some time ago a particular part of the female version of the commercial (women's before/after pictures combined with a catchy one-liner quote from each woman) where one of the spokeswomen says something along the lines of 'my husband loves the weight i've lost so much he calls me his trophy wife.' the negative implications of female image were immediately evident. so tonight's edition was a huge surprise when i took notice as the word 'jokingly' was added to the comment to be 'my husband loves the weight i've lost so much he jokingly calls me his trophy wife.' now i wonder how many people had to complain before appropriate action was taken. probably too many, but i guess the point is that the issue was acknowledged and dealt with, right?

sketches

the plan is to post items from the notebook more often - sketches first. fiction sooncome.

hand in the air

earlier this month i saw the deftones at the 930club. the best thing about the show was watching this rasta be the one to start the moshing on the main floor from up on the balcony. the rest of the show was loud enough that you couldn't understand the lyrics (courtesy 930's shitty sound system) unless you happened to already know the words which, of course, i didn't. the spit from the guy next to me told me he knew every word and probably would've continued singing each lyric if i hadn't stopped him to give warning that his spit would be his demise if it touched me again (the second near fight in as many visits).
spit, shit sound, and a cramped space contributed poor vibes and once again i was reminded why i don't like the 930club and why i will always prefer an outdoor venue.
refuge: i luckily spent last night racing around maryland venues, catching first, the long awaited manu chao at the merriweather amphitheatre, followed by machel mantano at the boardwater estate (thank you dc carnival). both outdoor venues, both great shows, both carrying crazy positive vibes. i was wining and jumping and dancing with the best of dem, all the while throwing an eye to the stage to watch two artists that i have grown to love and appreciate; regardless of my ability to comprehend every lyric.
the only downfall of either show was simply that neither act brought a full cast of characters; missing at the very least the horns from both shows. such a big part of latin and soca music, i feel the horns section is not to be missed/left behind - even when it means flying the musicians and their brass to dc from trinidad or spain. hell, explain to me that my ticket price hasta jump $10 so they can afford a show with horns and i'd tell you to make it twenty and don't forget to include manu's second vocalist with all the hot lyrics and machel's wining girls proven previously to direct ones focus to the stage.
the evening air was warm and crisp and swirled a consistent hint of herb across both crowds (another benefit of the outdoor venue). the music, the weather, the vibes, a little grass, a drink, a brownie, and some corn soup all contributed nicely to a beautiful night - one simply not possible indoors.
i'll hafta plan to see both acts again in the future; hopefully with horns, probably with grass, but definitely outdoors - as the rest of my live music endeavors will have to be.
ps. while we're on the topic... you wish you had one of these.

beautiful freedom

f@*king swear jar

this trini girl wishes it wasn't an ad for bud lite. i agree. enjoy anyway.

retraction

a while back i mentioned a good deed from a startling location. i believe it came across as a surprise in human quality. i would like to retract those comments from the record. that person is definitely an asshole and the good deed musta simply been an accident. and i musta been high. really high. sorry to mislead you.