journal Archive

I just meant to post this photo and I shot of Gen from The Genitorturers in a community. Only I ended up writing a lot more about the background of how the shot came to be than I’d set out to.

Just been thinking a lot lately about how the internet was supposed to make it so everybody had access to get their words out. When desktop publishing came along, it permitted all sorts of people, including yours truly, to put their views and aesthetics out there in ways previously mostly available only to the megarich. It seems like a disproporionately small number of internet sites are really publications though. It is harder to get good people to contribute to online magazines than print ones too. Sure, ten million people will see their words or photos instead of thirty-six thousand and now they could get paid for what they do, but somehow very few folks really get it together to produce magazine type content online. I think maybe I will see if I can get Forrest to drive my broken-ankle-having ass to the magazine store later today. Feeling a little nostalgic. Maybe it is the clean air and rainy overcast weather.

Oh, and here is what I wrote about the photo of Gen: We’ve worked with her a lot over the years. Although we put her on the cover of Blue Blood in print, oddly we have shot her not once, but twice, for magazine covers that ended up not happening. We shot her for the cover of Juggernaut before they sadly went out of business. We also shot her for the cover of a certain supposedly Gothic magazine which was going to take Gen’s band credit off of the cover picture because a certain supposedly Gothic mall store told them to. Needless to say, Gen was not too thrilled at the idea of not having her band credited, so we told the magazine they couldn’t use the shoot, even though we’d already spent the dough and time on doing it. I figure it is always nice to see Gen anyway and we do work well together and I wasn’t about to throw away a long positive relationship just to have one more magazine cover in my clip book portfolio. I sometimes miss the days of the zine explosion where supposedly underground publications genuinely really were trying to service their scenes. Rest of gallery on BlueBlood.net at http://www.blueblood.net/bb_97.html

Fuck but I feel like I’ve aged a bunch in the past year. I just feel so old and brittle. Who the fuck takes seven or eight months for a sprain to heal or two months and counting for a tiny little fucking broken bone? I meant to make a doctor’s appointment today, but I was in sort of a brain fog and the day just slipped away. I’m sick of being either low blood sugar or feverish. None of the stupid elimination diets work. I get new xrays in a bit over a week and please please please let them show that I can start walking again.

I’m feeling really happy about a bunch of personal stuff. Pleased with my work progress. Eager to hang out with my friends. Looking forward to travel. Super optimistic about the prospects for 2005.

How can I feel so horrible physically but pretty good emotionally and psychologically?

There are just so many little errands I need to run that I can’t. I’ve got a check in a stamped and addressed envelope I want to mail on my desk and I have to wait for someone else to do it for me. Little stuff like that is driving me nuts. I’ve only been getting groceries like once a week and I’m constantly pissed off at some little thing I can’t just go pick up. My skin is all aggravated from the stress and I know I’m putting some pounds on being so immobilized. I figure it is better to gain weight and have my ankle heal now than the avoid the nutrition I need so I don’t gain weight but not heal either. But I’m going to need new clothes soon and I won’t be able to drive myself.

I feel like I’m on such a roller-coaster. I think about my writing and my photography and my loved ones and I’m so happy. I think about my physical health and I think I should be put down like a horse with a broken . . . err . . . ankle. Neigh.

I wonder what Scar was telling me just as Forrest snapped this shot. It was a bit of an adventure clubbing on crutches, but she and Forrest took good care of me.

More pictures with less fog at http://www.blueblood.net/boards/showthread.php?t=2307

I just meant to post this photo ForrestBlack and I shot of Gen from The Genitorturers in a community. Only I ended up writing a lot more about the background of how the shot came to be than I’d set out to.

Just been thinking a lot lately about how the internet was supposed to make it so everybody had access to get their words out. When desktop publishing came along, it permitted all sorts of people, including yours truly, to put their views and aesthetics out there in ways previously mostly available only to the megarich. It seems like a disproporionately small number of internet sites are really publications though. It is harder to get good people to contribute to online magazines than print ones too. Sure, ten million people will see their words or photos instead of thirty-six thousand and now they could get paid for what they do, but somehow very few folks really get it together to produce magazine type content online. I think maybe I will see if I can get Forrest to drive my broken-ankle-having ass to the magazine store later today. Feeling a little nostalgic. Maybe it is the clean air and rainy overcast weather.

Oh, and here is what I wrote about the photo of Gen: We’ve worked with her a lot over the years. Although we put her on the cover of Blue Blood in print, oddly we have shot her not once, but twice, for magazine covers that ended up not happening. We shot her for the cover of Juggernaut before they sadly went out of business. We also shot her for the cover of a certain supposedly Gothic magazine which was going to take Gen’s band credit off of the cover picture because a certain supposedly Gothic mall store told them to. Needless to say, Gen was not too thrilled at the idea of not having her band credited, so we told the magazine they couldn’t use the shoot, even though we’d already spent the dough and time on doing it. I figure it is always nice to see Gen anyway and we do work well together and I wasn’t about to throw away a long positive relationship just to have one more magazine cover in my clip book portfolio. I sometimes miss the days of the zine explosion where supposedly underground publications genuinely really were trying to service their scenes. Rest of gallery on BlueBlood.net at http://www.blueblood.net/bb_97.html

Why is it that so many people behave their absolute worst around the holidays? There is some scumbag who is sending a million spams and viruses to SpookyHotties.com. I probably know pretty much which scumbag as I’ve seen this rotten behavior before and they are probably the same folks who regularly hit every single URL on SpookyHotties.com with a ping from their site. But, please, they have to feel all competitive with SpookyHotties.com??? It is just a fun site. Yes, it is a popular fun site, but it is just a place for cool people to post pictures of themselves and their pets. It is actually pretty expensive to host and provide sufficient server power for. And someone wants to send harrassing emails and viruses to what is supposed to be a pretty basic scene resource? WTF is wrong with people?

Why is it that so many people behave their absolute worst around the holidays? There is some scumbag who is sending a million spams and viruses to SpookyHotties.com. I probably know pretty much which scumbag as I’ve seen this rotten behavior before and they are probably the same folks who regularly hit every single URL on SpookyHotties.com with a ping from their site. But, please, they have to feel all competitive with SpookyHotties.com??? It is just a fun site. Yes, it is a popular fun site, but it is just a place for cool people to post pictures of themselves and their pets. It is actually pretty expensive to host and provide sufficient server power for. And someone wants to send harrassing emails and viruses to what is supposed to be a pretty basic scene resource? WTF is wrong with people?

So, a number of people have been asking about commercial photography jobs lately. I usually don’t pitch shooting catalog or band stuff to people I meet in day-to-day life. I think this is mostly because I prefer to just hang out and be sociable on a random evening and partly because I am pretty overworked as is. I’ve been getting a lot of sort of odd back door requests for commercial photography lately, so I thought I would just post rates here in case anyone is interested in hiring me and for that type of work.

Our day rate for jobs such as clothing catalogs is $X,XXX.XX [CENSORED BY FORREST WHO DOESN’T WANT ANY MORE GODDAMN WORK RIGHT NOW]

Our discount half day rate for band promo is $X,XXX.XX with the exception of album/CD art or merch which starts at $X,XXX.XX

We generally throw in some extras such as casting and sometimes some bonus press for free, but certain expenses such as extra equipment or location rentals or models can cost extra.

We are very interested in shooting interesting and original clothing lines for product placement and for press coverage on our sites and in print. If you have good photos of your line already, please submit to submit@blueblood.net and we may interview you for coverage on BlueBlood.net which is the most visited lifestyle site doing significant forward fashion coverage on the net. You may send clothing to:

Blue Blood

8033 Sunset Blvd #4500

West Hollywood, CA 90046

If your line is mostly rude T-shirts or something along those lines, clothes are not returnable. If you do couture evening wear or expensive corsets or high end latex, then we can make arrangements to return your clothing after shooting. Please email before shipping.

If you are in a cool band, you can go ahead and have your label send a package to the same address listed above. We might give your band some press coverage on BlueBlood.net or in one of the magazines we contribute to and we might not, but that is pretty much how press works. Let us know when you are playing shows in Los Angeles and if you have some cool promo photos available we could use to cover your music. If Forrest and/or I like your look, we might photograph you ourselves.

If we give your band or fashions coverage which includes our original photography, please do not thank us for doing you the favor of good press coverage by coming back to us with requests for a million more favors. If we do press on you and exposed what you do to thousands of people in a magazine or millions of people online, if anybody owes anybody a favor, you owe us a favor, not vice-versa.

If you want to talk about trading free shows or custom clothes or something along those lines, we are often up for punk rock barter.

For the record, I generally avoid commercial photography jobs, even though I’d make more money doing them, because I don’t really enjoy them as an artist and I don’t really have the time. For those of you reading the numbers and deciding to hit me up for rent next time you need it, I’ve paid enough people’s rent this year. I’m not motivated by money, so I mostly do work which feels artistically good and which I think is good for my community. If I put a gallery of burlesque photos Forrest and I shot for free up on BlueBlood.net and 120 million people look at them this year, that is a lot of expensive bandwidth, but I feel things like that are good for my community because they give exposure to a lot of people. That is journalistic.

If the object is just so one person or business can get paid off of my sweat, then that is commercial work and I need to be compensated so that I can continue doing the journalistic and artistic work without charging anyone.

So, a number of people have been asking about commercial photography jobs lately. I usually don’t pitch shooting catalog or band stuff to people I meet in day-to-day life. I think this is mostly because I prefer to just hang out and be sociable on a random evening and partly because I am pretty overworked as is. I’ve been getting a lot of sort of odd back door requests for commercial photography lately, so I thought I would just post rates here in case anyone is interested in hiring me and ForrestBlack for that type of work.

Our day rate for jobs such as clothing catalogs is $X,XXX.XX [CENSORED BY FORREST WHO DOESN’T WANT ANY MORE GODDAMN WORK RIGHT NOW]
Our discount half day rate for band promo is $X,XXX.XX with the exception of album/CD art or merch which starts at $X,XXX.XX

We generally throw in some extras such as casting and sometimes some bonus press for free, but certain expenses such as extra equipment or location rentals or models can cost extra.

We are very interested in shooting interesting and original clothing lines for product placement and for press coverage on our sites and in print. If you have good photos of your line already, please submit to submit@blueblood.net and we may interview you for coverage on BlueBlood.net which is the most visited lifestyle site doing significant forward fashion coverage on the net. You may send clothing to:

Blue Blood
8033 Sunset Blvd #4500
West Hollywood, CA 90046

If your line is mostly rude T-shirts or something along those lines, clothes are not returnable. If you do couture evening wear or expensive corsets or high end latex, then we can make arrangements to return your clothing after shooting. Please email before shipping.

If you are in a cool band, you can go ahead and have your label send a package to the same address listed above. We might give your band some press coverage on BlueBlood.net or in one of the magazines we contribute to and we might not, but that is pretty much how press works. Let us know when you are playing shows in Los Angeles and if you have some cool promo photos available we could use to cover your music. If Forrest and/or I like your look, we might photograph you ourselves.

If we give your band or fashions coverage which includes our original photography, please do not thank us for doing you the favor of good press coverage by coming back to us with requests for a million more favors. If we do press on you and exposed what you do to thousands of people in a magazine or millions of people online, if anybody owes anybody a favor, you owe us a favor, not vice-versa.

If you want to talk about trading free shows or custom clothes or something along those lines, we are often up for punk rock barter.

For the record, I generally avoid commercial photography jobs, even though I’d make more money doing them, because I don’t really enjoy them as an artist and I don’t really have the time. For those of you reading the numbers and deciding to hit me up for rent next time you need it, I’ve paid enough people’s rent this year. I’m not motivated by money, so I mostly do work which feels artistically good and which I think is good for my community. If I put a gallery of burlesque photos Forrest and I shot for free up on BlueBlood.net and 120 million people look at them this year, that is a lot of expensive bandwidth, but I feel things like that are good for my community because they give exposure to a lot of people. That is journalistic.

If the object is just so one person or business can get paid off of my sweat, then that is commercial work and I need to be compensated so that I can continue doing the journalistic and artistic work without charging anyone.

Someone tried to transfer my domain gothicsluts.com away from me today. With the new ICANN rules, apparently some registrars can make a transfer go through if someone requests it and the owner does not happen to respond to the transfer request for five days. Used to be, you had to actively do something to transfer your domain. Clearly, this is going to be used by domain thieves. I sure do not understand the reason they put this new rule in place. Does anybody else understand it?

Monday, I am going to attempt to pursue finding out who was behind the transfer attempt, although the registrar does not want to give me that information. Any suggestions on how to compell them to do so? I mean, that is a pretty big deal that someone tried to steal that domain. That site is important to me. For now, I have added domain lock service to all of my domains.

Someone tried to transfer my domain gothicsluts.com away from me today. With the new ICANN rules, apparently some registrars can make a transfer go through if someone requests it and the owner does not happen to respond to the transfer request for five days. Used to be, you had to actively do something to transfer your domain. Clearly, this is going to be used by domain thieves. I sure do not understand the reason they put this new rule in place. Does anybody else understand it?

Monday, I am going to attempt to pursue finding out who was behind the transfer attempt, although the registrar does not want to give me that information. Any suggestions on how to compell them to do so? I mean, that is a pretty big deal that someone tried to steal that domain. That site is important to me. For now, I have added domain lock service to all of my domains.

Wow. I just messaged someone I’ve done business with before and enjoyed many long conversations with and asked her about doing some more biz end of January and when she wanted to paint the town red with me in Vegas. She seemed kind of short with me and told me to contact another person at her company. This was odd behavior as she is usually a sweet, warm, intelligent, interesting, friendly person. She had posted on a forum I haven’t really been reading lately that her husband died last night. Fuck. She didn’t deserve that and I’m so mortified to have dropped her a line about hanging out and business when she has only been back from the hospital for like 12 hours or something. And she is in fucking London now, far from home, far from where I could do anything to help. I don’t know whether I am going to cry or be sick. I was going to get some more work done tonight, but I think I’m done now.

Wow. I just messaged someone I’ve done business with before and enjoyed many long conversations with and asked her about doing some more biz end of January and when she wanted to paint the town red with me in Vegas. She seemed kind of short with me and told me to contact another person at her company. This was odd behavior as she is usually a sweet, warm, intelligent, interesting, friendly person. She had posted on a forum I haven’t really been reading lately that her husband died last night. Fuck. She didn’t deserve that and I’m so mortified to have dropped her a line about hanging out and business when she has only been back from the hospital for like 12 hours or something. And she is in fucking London now, far from home, far from where I could do anything to help. I don’t know whether I am going to cry or be sick. I was going to get some more work done tonight, but I think I’m done now.

I just posted this in a community and thought I would get opinions here too. I think Nina is very beautiful and I hope you all agree. This is a sort of new lighting setup for us. What do you all think of the beauty of this look? Feel free to post your opinions on BlueBlood.net where all parties are more likely to see your comments.

Whole series on Blue Blood’s GothicSluts.com of course.

I just posted this in a community and thought I would get opinions here too. I think Nina is very beautiful and I hope you all agree. This is a sort of new lighting setup for us. What do you all think of the beauty of this look? Feel free to post your opinions on BlueBlood.net where all parties are more likely to see your comments.

Whole series on Blue Blood’s GothicSluts.com of course.

I had fun today and now it is worky time for Amelia. I had fun and got a lot of work done yesterday too. Actually, this has just been a really excellent week overall.