ameliag

I live in the heart of Hollywood and there is tons of commercial space for rent here right now. I am surprised at how many places have been trying to get a tenant without success for as long as they have. Except that places which have been empty for literally years still have asking prices of...( Read more )

Whatever the structure of a long-term relationship, in terms of gender breakdown or number of people involved, I believe that long-term relationships are good for the larger society. People with loving families have something to lose; they are invested in their lives and being good citizens....( Read more )

Forrest Black and I have had to hit Blue Blood’s storage facility as part of working on the BLT Punk Humor Book 25 Year Black Leather Times Zine Omnibus project. We were able to find quite a few vintage issues of BLT where we had enough to be able to give some to our friends and...( Read more )

Since Forrest Black’s and my California Deathrock book came out, we’ve been talking about print projects a lot. Print is my first love.
One of the projects suggested by some of my unsavory pals would be an omnibus retrospective of BLT. BLT was a little half-sized punk rock humor...( Read more )

So, SexyFandom was kind enough to point out that there actually is a SFW pic in this deathrock Xmas series which Forrest Black and I shot with our California Deathrock coffee table book covergirl Malice McMunn. The un-postable (well, at least here) portions of the double Malice update are, of...( Read more )

I think this is probably the most chagrined I have ever looked coming out of a voting booth. I am so glad this contentious, divisive, Kang and Kodos, total bummer of an election cycle is over. Hopefully, some of the gajillion California referendums will go a good way. Mostly, I am really glad this is over. I am looking forward to my friends going back to discussing music and books and art and sex and photography and pop culture and clubbing and cool business ideas and writing and basically topics we'd all really enjoy talking about.

I posted this update about editing the film to our California Deathrock book Kickstarter pages and I wanted to share it here too. I eventually did find the needed art pencils. They were in a pencil drawer, along with an inexplicable neurological pinwheel.

Forrest and I are getting ready to start going through contact sheets today. Thanks to our awesome backers, we know we are definitely going to be able to do the book, so we want to get a head start on editing film.

It has been so long since I got to work with negatives and contact sheets that I am having trouble finding any of my grease art pencils to mark the contact sheets with. I'm still hopeful that a search will uncover my stash, but I might have to go get a couple from the camera store. Hopefully they still carry traditional tools.

We're going to try both the library and a coffeehouse with big tables and see which is more comfortable to go through contact sheets in.

Thanks so so so much to everyone who has supported this project so far. If we hit $2,200, the book is definitely going to be hardcover and it seems promising that it will.

These palm trees and city lights, under a menacing sky, are the view from my balcony in Hollywood right now. This shot only begins to show the roiling black clouds, like a powerful wizard is about to do something unusual to Los Angeles. Went hiking earlier today with Forrest Black and got totally soaked. The park was so empty and beautiful. There was one rugged soul out there with a camera on tripod trying to shoot the fog. And one woman in really nice boots, not shoes for walking in mud at all, much better suited for neon-lit and preferably not rain-soaked streets. My own personal, delightfully damp Los Angeles noir.

Blow Art - Serena Toxicat Interview

by Amelia G : April 4th, 2009

Blue Blood hottie Serena Toxicat recently mentioned that she would be showing thirty of her art pieces at the Blow Gallery in Berkely, California. If you are in that neck of the woods, you can stop by 2112 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94704 for an evening of hotties like Serena Toxicat, art, and possibly some free booze. Most gallery shows have free booze. I try not to examine why too closely. Here you can examine the conversation Serena Toxicat and I just had about art.

Amelia G: What first got you into creating? Were you always creative?

Serena Toxicat: Apparently as a 5 year-old my painting looked like pointillism. My 1st grade art teacher raved about the stuff. After my dad saw how much I liked to color and paint, his best friend bought me a set of acrylics and I never looked back, except to kick my own ass to make more. I do so many things in the world of art and performance that my productivity in any one area tends to ebb and flow.

Amelia G: What are your favorite media to create in and how to you feel writing vs. visual arts compare for expressing yourself?

Serena Toxicat: I love acrylic and just developed a system whereby I draw in marker over an acrylic base. I also like making sculpture with found objects and occasionally indulge in photography. I made . . .

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