Some of my cemetery photographs and mixed media art pieces turned into a little insomniatic creative project/fan video whirligig.

Diamanda Galas fan-made tribute. “Anoixe,Anoixe” (Open up, Open up) as sung by Diamanda Galas live at the Kitchen, NYC 1999. Original words and music by Giannis (“Yannis”) Papaioannou. Translated from Greek:
The window shut, bolted, dark.
Why don’t you [...]

Tagged: archetypes, art, art blogs, art photography, artists, black and white, blogs, conceptual art, conceptual photography, conceptual series, contemporary photography, creativity, dark art, death, drowning, experimental, fine art photography, floating, kalliope amorphous, life, melancholy, musecatcher, music, ocean, Ophelia, ophelia photographs, original art, photo, photo series, photography, poetry, poets, rimbaud, self portrait photography, self-portrait, Shakespeare, [...]

This is why I love Youtube, where are so many obscure gems available for the digging. Here’s Ultimate Spinach and Ballad Of The Hip Death Goddess. They encapsulate the psychedelic music of the 1960’s and remind me of what Jefferson Airplane might sound like if they bred with the essence of Alice In Wonderland. Enjoy [...]

If I had to write a list of my heroes, the members of the Animal Liberation Front would be at the top of my list. These compassionate and brave individuals constantly risk their own lives and freedom for the sake of rescuing animals from vivisection labs, slaughterhouses, fur farms and other merciless institutions. They are considered a terrorist group, though they have never harmed a living being. They destroy the weapons of murder and the tools of terrorism. Despite legitimate protest, the exploitation of animals and the environment will continue as long as there is money to be made. While many consider the destruction of property an act of violence, I do not consider the destroying of the concrete and metal killing machines whose sole purpose is the destruction of innocent life to be a violent act.
The ALF carries out direct action against animal abuse by rescuing animals from fur farms, laboratories and other houses of torture. They also cause financial loss to animal exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of property or the act of setting free their “product”—the animals. Their goal is to save as many animals as possible and to physically disrupt the process of animal exploitation and abuse. The long-term goal is to force animal abuse companies out of business.
The ALF has the following credo: If we are trespassing, so were the soldiers who broke down the gates of Hitler’s death camps. If we are thieves, so were the members of the Underground Railroad who freed the slaves of the South. And if we are vandals, so were those who destroyed forever the gas chambers of Buchenwald and Auschwitz.
I really miss being active in the animal rights movement. When I lived in New York, I was fortunate to be a part of a large network of people with similar views. I v

Cold
What power art thou
Who from below
Hast made me rise
Unwillingly and slow
From beds of everlasting snow
See’st thou not how stiff
And wondrous old
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold
I can scarcely move
Or draw my breath
I can scarcely move
Or draw my breath
Let me freeze again
Freeze again to death
Let me, let me, let me
Freeze again to death…
I haven’t been prone to blogging lately, as I have been lost in my own self-created world of art and music. These self-imposed exiles come more and more frequently lately as the misanthrope wins out over the one who wants to find a point of connection with her fellow human beings. From this comes the creation of art purely for my own emotional release. So, there are no gallery showings, no entries in juried exhibitions, no bold moves forward in career. A cycle will come again where I am propelled to have my work on gallery walls or be on stage behind a microphone, but for now I am enjoying the soft retreat away from all of the trappings that come when one takes their art and moves it under a light. So, although I am not blogging and posting anywhere very often, there are piles of new photographs and poems.
I did a series a few weeks ago inspired by one of my favorite songs, The Cold Song-in particular the last performance of Klaus Nomi. This sits at the top of my list of favorite performances. This was Klaus Nomi’s last performance, as he was suffering of Aids at the time. The decline of his health is evident in the shortness of breath and the sense of struggle as he works his way through the escalation of the song. Still, he pulls it off beautifully and with such honesty. This particular performance has so many layers in it that speak to the delicate beauty of our temporal nature. It is a stunning piece, and one that I would like to leave my friends with as we head off toward another weekend.

Tagged: art, beauty, cold, countertenor, death, gay, human beings, ice, klaus nomi, life, living, love, misan

“Unconventional: intimate, dreamlike and crackling. The haunting sounds of harps and acoustic guitars broken up by glitchy beats, the noise of Speak’n’Spell and one of those tin cans that moos like a cow when you up-end it. Bianca’s voice, reminiscent of Billie Holiday in its cracked blues vernacular, weaves in and out of Sierra’s softer, more operatic tones. But if you’re not scared by its oddity, it’s the sort of music you’ll fall in love with.” -BBC Collective

I am loving CocoRosie lately. I discovered them after hearing Antony sing with them on the song Beautiful Boys. Cocorosie is comprised of two sisters, one who is a classicaly trained opera singer. Their music is rather eccentric and filled with everything from meowing cats to soaring operatic magic–hiphop beats to ethereal vocal stylings. On some pieces they use the sounds of children’s toys, animals, and random vocals. It feels like Billie Holiday meets the footsteps of the Goddess Kali meets Jessye Norman meets Bjork. How could I not fall in love?
It’s rare for me to find new musical artists that I like. Other than Antony and a handful of other more obscure artists, I have a hard time finding new music. This is probably because my tastes in music are rather left-of-center, and I really have to dig like an archeologist to find the things that resonate with me. Thanks to Myspaces showcasing of independent, obscure, and unsigned artists I have been unearthing some gorgeous gems lately.
CocoRosie may not be for everyone, but I am in love with their sound. I am always overjoyed to find people keeping the art in music. It is unfortunate that some of the best music makers in the world will never make it into mainstream culture. The world might be a better place if we weren’t all subjected to such a homogonized, commercially oriented, specific brand of art, culture, and media.
Tagged: antony and the johnsons, art, artists, avant garde music, cocorosie, dada, experimental music, music,

“Hatred paralyses life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

Hate reared it’s often-seen head on a Brooklyn street this week and took the life of a man named Jose Sucuzhanay. He and his brother were walking arm and arm when an SUV pulled up shouting anti-gay and racist slurs at them.
In the merciless attack that soon followed, the two brothers were viciously beaten and bloodied with a beer bottle and baseball bat. Jose suffered severe head trauma and died on Friday evening.
The news of this incident ripped open the gaping wound in my heart that is consistently being ripped open by the hatred in this world. When will it stop? When we be free to be who we are without the threat of death looming over our shoulders? How can this disease of hate and ignorance be cured before it reaches plague level? I fear it is reaching plague level as I write this, and I am begining to understand why.
As long as we continue to sanction the denial of civil rights to ANY group of people, we unwittingly sanction hatred and violence toward ALL minorities because we collectively brand diversity of any kind as wrong. The blood of all victims of hate crimes is on the hands of religious zealots, because they are the harbingers of the fruit of hate, which as it rots, stinks of violence and death. All of those who turned up to vote in favor of proposition 8, yes, the blood is on your hands.  By denying civil rights to an entire community of human beings, you gave the OK to hate, to divide, to extinguish freedom, and to render an entire population of people as “less than worthy” or somehow tainted. Unworthy of living free. And the hatemongers? You fed them. You fed their vehement hate and you are responsible. You are just as responsible as the people waving their hate-filled signs in front of abortion clinics are responsible for every abortion clinic bombing and doctors murder. There is no such

Tori Amos - Bliss

"Toward the end of the show, the lights dimmed and t...

De arrepiar...

Diamanda Galas - Cris D'Aveugle.Recorded live in con...

Grant Park Obama Rally November 4, 20008
“Internal peace is an essential first step to achieving peace in the world. How do you cultivate it? It’s very simple. In the first place by realizing clearly that all mankind is one, that human beings in every country are members of one and the same family.”
- The Dalai Lama
Tonight,  for the first time in my life, I witnessed a shift in consciousness play itself out in front of me. Something in my soul quaked, something in my heart melted and cried. Wher

The Crying Light-Antony & The Johnsons
Below is the new video from the new recording The Crying Light, by Antony & The Johnsons–my absolute favorite musician. The second video is of the goddess himself singing Her Eyes Are Underneath The Ground, which is probably my favorite track from the new recording. Words cannot express how utterly in love I am with Antony Hegarty. HUGE soul crush. Which leaves me jumping for joy that I will be seeing him LIVE IN CONCERT for the first time on February 22–AND–I have fourth row seats!
Considering the pure poetry that is the heart of this new recording, it is not surprising to me that he chose the above stunning portrait of butoh performer Kazuo Ohno to grace the cover of the new CD. I was amused to learn that Antony is also a big fan of Ohno.
Based on how utterly moved I am by his work, poetry, spirit, and voice, I may suffer Stendhal Syndrome while seeing Antony perform live. His music is the only music that makes me feel at home in the world and in my own skin.

Tagged: antony and the johnsons, antony hegarty, art, art direction, beauty, butoh, choreography, concerts, dance, emotion, epilepsy is dancing, gender, her eyes are underneath the ground, kazuo ohno, love, music, musical, piano, poetry, soul, spirit, the crying light, transgender, visual art, wachowski brothers

Dear History,
For too long have I pondered your meaning, memorized dates of battles, years of servitude, decades of injustice, named eras after movements, mourned the extinction of species, cursed founding fathers, worn vintage suits and cloaked myself with references of your hold on me.
I have walked through museums wondering how it is that greatness had lived and died all before my time. Parts of me feared becoming great because it seemed to include a price of death and a postmortem glory that my memory

Diamanda performs Gloomy Sunday, last song on the co...

devendra banhart - sight to behold

Ariadone website: http://www.ariadone.fr Ikeda Carlo...

A tribute to Kazuo Ohno in the year of his hundredth...

A short clip of butoh's co-founder Kazuo Ono dancing...

white people are so scared of black people
they bulldoze out to the country
and put up houses on little loop-dee-loop streets
and while america gets its heart cut right out of its chest
the berlin wall still runs down main street
separating east side from west
and nothing is stirring, not even a mouse
in the boarded-up stores and the broken-down houses
so they hang colorful banners off all the street lamps
just to prove they got no manners
no mercy and no sense

and i'm wondering what it will take
for my ci