whew... time to breathe

hi all,

sorry for the lack of posts... last week was one whirlwind of activity, from my trip to la la land to a show here in minneapolis. i'm home for a week and a half (and on vacation for the next 5 days starting tomorow), and have lots to talk about, but while i get back into the swing of things, here are a couple pics from my most recent show:

this headdress just fuckin' rocked... so delicate in person - it was hand made out of paper over the course of 3 days by one of the guest artists... and were applied to the model live on stage.... i'll try to find a pic or two of the finished product.

ok, while not from the show technically, this pic was taken downtown minneapolis during the course of the weekend. i just love this shot - the competing vertical and horizontal lines really intrigue me.

more later....

models and birthdays and naked french rugby players (oh my!)

thank god today is over.

as i've mentioned a time or two, we've been short handed for a few months. one aspect of our shows is a model call. the success of a show can be made or broken by the success of the model call. since we've been short staffed, i have taken over the task of organizing the model call for the biggest show we will do this year.

i'm beyond happy with the model call we had tonight - a ton of girls and guys showed up and all 5 teams in the show were happy with the selection.

i am beyond happy right now.

here are a couple of pics, the first one is just as the model call started, the second is during the chaos of it all:

on a unrelated note - tomorrow (saturday) is cb's birthday (chances are i won't have much acccess to my 'puter tomorrow, so i'm celebrating early).

(cb & his cannon, london, february 27, 2006 [oddly enough, my birthday])

so a very happy birthday wish for one of my favorite people around!!!!

so here's a lil' prezzie for cb, i know he loves rugby players, and i know he loves naked guys, so combine them and you get a home run.... so here's to cb on his 29th b-day, naked french rugby players:

view through a sanyo mm-8300, newest to oldest

just home from los angeles (ok, actually a day late), but home just the same - thank god. i can honestly say, i'm not a huge fan of l.a.. i was there for the first of 8 regional sales meetings i'm producing - the meeting was a hit (yay!).

i forgot my fuckin' camera at home - i was so mad, so all i had was my cell phone to snap these pics to share - not bad really:

we were staying at the ritz carlton marina del rey. one of my preferences when doing meetings in hotels is that i rent rooms that have windows. nothing is worse than sitting in a hotel conference room with no windows for two days straight. this is the view from our meeting room - not bad eh?

but better still is the view from my hotel room - this is dawn on wednesday. yea, i know its a crappy cell phone camera, but check out the huge yacht dead center... that thing was cool as fuck all lit up at night.
another view....

one more view from my room....

ok, everyone knows that the ritz is supposed to be one of the best hotels in the world & i will certainly say that their service is impeccable and it was the best hotel food i have ever had, but you gotta admit, this is one ugly as fuck chandelier. i prefer clean, modern lines - the ritz was a little to "chintz" and gold brocade for my tastes.

men are pigs. it's true. snapped this pig while waiting for the train on my way to la la land. in 5 minutes, he spit big gob's of backwash 5 times on the concrete of the train station. seriously, learn some fuckin' manners.

i'm a big fan of safety. oh yea. i see nothing wrong with snapping a cool shot of the sky while driving 85 miles per hour down the road... hehehe. safety first i always say.

and lastly, this little nugget from two weeks ago when i was in denver. this was taken on the tram from the terminal to baggage claime at the denver airport. i swear to you, i never get cruised or checked out, but this guy was doing both big time. he was cute too - prob. 23-25 max. very cute.

today begins all the pieces of the biggest hiar show in minneapolis we will produce this year. model call is tonight, rehearsals tomorrow & the show on sunday.... i'll snap some pics with the real camera - i promise.

best cock on the block

there are 6 people in the world i know i can count on when needed - ray, cb, wendy, scott, stacey & landry. landry is pictured here (with her friend bryce - i do not know bryce, i wouldn't mind knowing bryce):

landry and i met sometime in 1999 on the internet. at the time she was in new york and i was in minneapolis (much as it is today). we met on a yahoo group for participants for the alaska aids vaccine ride which would take place in the summer of 2000. to this day i don't know why we clicked, or for that matter, which one of us emailed/messaged first. all that mattered is that i fuckin' fell in love (platonically people - we're both good homo's) with this kick ass chick from ny.

at the time both of us were on aol and our email back and forth quickly gave way to instant messaging where a common greeting from me was "hey baby, wanna fuck?" this confused her girlfriend greatly. and entertained me to no end.

fast forward to the ride - we were in fairbanks alaska on day zero (the day before the ride starts) and i was busy doing whatever was involved in my crew manager role on the ride (landry was riding) - all i remember is this wicked blur of a girl yelling my name then running across the lobby and hugging me. how she knew it was me is beyond me. without a doubt, that was one of the most physcially challenging rides any of us had been on (for both the riders and crew) and as such, we honestly only saw each other maybe 3-4 times during the whole week, but just the same - i knew i had a friend in her.

there it was the start of a life long (or at least a 7 year - hey is it time for one of us to cheat on the other?) friendship.

she's the one i choose to escape to after the debacle that was nick (new york is a lovely place to get lost for a few days while mending a broken heart), she's the one that never ceases to amaze me with her brilliance or talent. she's the one that can piss me off in one second flat, only to melt me with that shit eating grin the next.

so why you ask am i tripping down memory lane for ya'll...? well firstly, i thought i should introduce you to the girl that blew off helping me with my banner up above ., and secondly - well - tonight, as i was avoiding work talking on gtalk with wendy and landry and brian, she brought up the common topic of music (apparently bryce is scary savant like when it comes to music - i thought i was her only scary music freak friend; hey, wait-a-new-york-minute, this means she is cheating on me; hrumph).

which reminded me the bitch promised me a cd about 3.5 years ago and has yet to deliver.

yup, that's right, this trip down memory lane just got a little pot-holey.

we were sitting in my apartment one cold february day (she came to down to get me drunk for my birthday), and she hipped me to this cool act "bitch and animal" with this fuckin' great song "best cock on the block" on it. she promised to send me the song "the very minute i get back to new york". fast forward 3.5, i'm still waiting.

yea, yea, yea, i could just go buy the damn cd, and under other circumstances i would - but the principle demands that she fulfill her promise to me.

so here's what i need from all of you - i need to you to email her imploring her to make good on her 3+ year promise.

i have a killer mix cd in my head that is all based around this track - i need this track.

seriously, my eternal happiness hinges on my getting this song.

:-)

p.s., i think that picture pretty much makes her look like she thinks she is best cock on the block. :-)

introducing... the sr...sl models:

hey you... yea, you... look up there

that would be my fuckin' awesome incredible stupendous title banner. dont'cha love it? of course you do. you'd be insane not to. now sr...sl feels like home. those girls, they are my official entourage - i take them everywhere with me, always dressed to kill too. :)

so here's the story - i took that picture (it fuckin' rocks, don't it?) - and i love love love that photo. it's one of my favorites that i've ever taken. of course it's fitting for a blog called stage right stage left. i took that picture during a show (stage right to be exact).

a couple of thank you's - firstly, to my co-worker susie (who is an an amazing graphic designer), who took my raw picture and shaped it the way i wanted it. thank you!

and to brian who worked with me via gtalk to get the fucker to work. he rocks. i'm a complete idiot when it comes to html (come on, you can't be surprised - afterall i spend all my time with models, the stupidity rubs off) and he was able to walk me through it brilliantly.

thanks also to landry who began to help me with this about a month ago. i have no doubt you would have figured it out, but i couldn't wait forever babe - i still love you and your are officially my favorite new yorker ever.

:-)

mental vacation

work has been kicking my ass lately (which you all know, and i'm sure are sick of hearing about it)... but the deal is when i'm this busy, i can't see the forest for the trees and invariably end up without a life. as such, i have little to post about. however, it's 8:06am currently and i've been in the office for three hours already so i'm going to take a mental vacation for a bit and regale you with some photos i took while cb & i were in london this past feb/march.

these first pics were from st. pauls cathedral... it's important to note, that while i actually do love churches (specifically their grandiosity and architecture), i had no real interest in going to st pauls. cb made me do it, and i'm better for it.

i love framing things. i know it's a base skill, but if i can put something within something else, i dig it. this is the millennium bridge gate framing the cathedral. directly behind me was the river themes.

more framing - this from the second highest point on the dome looking out at one of the clock towers on the church. this was the highest point either cb or i could manage (between his heights issue and my claustrophobia issue - we made one sorry pair).

here's a couple from the tate modern. while i'm exceptionally lucky to live in minneapolis where we have one of the greatest modern art museums in the world (walker art center), the tate was just an amazing moment for me. the mark rothko gallery was a religious experience for me. rothko is a god. that's all i'm gonna say.

the museum as seen from st pauls.

the entrance hallway... awesome

forced perception rocks doesn't it?

evening

couldn't resist takin' a quick snapshot of my city's skyline last night.... great evening. minneapolis 8.15.06

may i introduce you to srxxxsl?

hmmmmm (warning, don't click if easily offended or if you dislike tasteful images of the male nude) hehehe

tugboat's a greedy bitch

for tugboat's benefit, here is phase one of my "sleeve".

first a bit of background... i have 6 tattoos & throughout the years a subtle theme has progressed - all of the art on the right side of my body (stage right) is black work is tribal and/or east indian in origin. the ink my left side (stage left) is asian in design and quite colorful.

in the first picture (cell phone pic) you see the outline phase of the first bit of my sleeve. due to the level of detail in the symbol, this took just shy of 3 hours to complete:

the next pic is a perspective shot & was taken in a hotel room. normally i never drink coke or eat pringles (honestly, they are kinda disgusting), but at 2 in the morning, while on a show, beggers can't be choosers. i just love the forced perspective of this shot. the ink still isn't complete, but the colors have started to been added.

i had another amazing pic of the actual ink in process, but for the life of me, i can not find it. ugg. ms. bees knees can attest to the brilliance of the shot i'm missing.

and now the completed 'phase 1' tattoo. the symbol is the 8 auspicious symbols of buddhism (in their combined form). the whole thing took about 10 hours to complete (mainly due to the level of detail). i'm beyond thrilled with how it turned out.

phase two will continue the buddhist theme and will consist of a tara, tibetan prayer flags and some other asian symbolism.

i'll keep you posted. :-)

meme of the day

got this over on planet voenix& thought it might be an interesteing excersie to get my creative juices flowing again...

1. Would you get back with your last ex if you could?no.
one time was more than enough in the dysfunctional world of nick.

2. What color shirt are you wearing?
yello

3. Would you kiss anyone on your blogroll?
ummmm - yes. but i'm not gonna name names.

4. Do you have a ‘thing’ for someone on your blogroll?
ditto to number 3

5. How many people on your blogroll do you know in real life?
two; cb and landry

6. How many kids do you want to have?
undetermined. i'm still a kid....

7. Do you have a good relationship with your parents?
it's getting better

8. What name would you want besides the one you have?
i think i pretty much have the name i want, considering i chose it. tho i am gonna change my last name later this year...

10. What did you do for your last birthday?
landed in london. rode the london eye. saw the crowned jewels. had dinner with cb.

11. What’s your main ringtone on your phone?
just a normal ringtone that came with the phone, however, for cb's ringtone it's tie-fighters from star wars. and landry's is a secret.

12. What time did you wake up today?
9:00am

13. What were you doing two nights ago?
working

14. How many times have you been tattooed and did it hurt?
times as in sessions or times as in individual tat's? sessions - i've lost count. tats - 6. depended on the location.

15. Name something you can’t wait to do.
slightly altering planets response: i’d like to live long enough to see george bush and everyone in his administration impeached and/or put up for a war crimes in the hauge (and found guilty of course).

16. Last time you saw your Mom?
2 weeks ago when i bought "3"

17. What is one thing you wish you could change about yourself?
i'd like to have a body like jason statham. or at least have his body in my bed.

18. If you had $250,000, what would you do with it?
buy a loft.

19. How long have you worked at your current job?
6.5 years with the company - 1.5 years in this job

20. Are you messy or organized?
messy :(

21.Describe the underwear you have on?
commando baby.

22. Last thing you ate?
m&m's

23. What’s your favorite month?
october

24. Your least favorite month?
january.

25. What’s the last piece of clothing someone borrowed from you?
track jacket (my boss is terminally cold)

26. Who is getting on your nerves right now?
pretty much anyone who still thinks king george is a good thing for this country.

27. Most visited webpage?
imdb.com

28. Last person you text messaged?
cb

29. Last person to make you sad?
erik

30. Would you take a bullet for your best friend?
yes

31. Favorite kind of drink?
hawai'ian screw

32. Favorite food?
pizza

33. Favorite dessert?
vanilla ice cream

34. Have you been to Europe?
yes

35. If someone you hated died, what would you do?
dance on their grave baby

what a fuckin' week

to my faithful 4 readers.

my apologies for being remiss in posting to sr...sl lately. i've officially entered into my busy season and things are nuts at work right now.

case in point, i've spent the last three days in back to back to back interviews for a show administrator job - a posistion we've been without for a few months.

nothing is more soul sucking than interviewing job canidates.

as an example the following topics/actions all occured with one canidate:

date rape drug
stolen money
major avoidance of eye contact coupled with a
server nervous verbal tick
home made scrapbooking gifts for my boss and i
a childrens book with an inscription (written to me)
other gifts including: two towels, lightbulbs, pantyhose & a travel sleep sack and neck support

in all my years of interviewing people for jobs i've never been givin gifts. it's a little oft-putting. espicially home-made ones. the nerves, that i can understand - discussing inapprorpriate things in an interview is never a good thing tho'. here's the challenge - i really do like this canidate as a person, it's just that there are so many things that went wrong - i really wanted it to go right. ::sigh::

however, we finally hired a show administrator yesterday! yay us. we thought we had a great canidate right out of the block, but the 3rd to last interview shifted herself into poll position and hit the ball right out of the (interview) park. so in two weeks, some of the slack will lesson as we get her up and running - nothing like stepping right into the fire (her 2nd day on the job will be stage managing our second largest hair show with me).

some random thoughts:

- ok, i know the entire blogosphere has recapped the whole terror plot ad nausium but i just have one question.... if we are safe, then why has the threat level been made higher than ever?

- while in denver, i got a killer head cold that's hanging on for dear life. fuckin' bugs. if anyone has any tips on how to handle a head cold while in a pressurized petrie dish (aka plane), feel free to pass 'em along - i spend way too much time in pressurized petrie dishes.

- work on the phase 2 of the sleeve tattoo is going to start soon - i'm super fucking psyched to go under the needle again.

- oh, and as promised, here are some random pictures from the most recent show... enjoy:

ray

happppppppppppppppppppppppppppppy
biiiirrrrrrttttttthhhhhhdddddaaaay
ray!

(ray - in the red, and his partner jeremy in chicago - july 2005)

back from the mile high city

hi all,

miss me? :-) i'm back from denver where we had an awesome hair show & will blog more about that later...

but first, i got an email today about an interesting sounding never give up that i thought i'd share with all of you - the author, kevin winge, is the head of an amazing organization in minneapolis called open arms of minnesota. open arms is one of the beneficiaries of the red ribbon ride, which you've all heard me talk about in the past. open arms is a meals-on-wheels type of program founded originally to serve the hiv/aids community & has recently begun to also serve the breast cancer, ms & als communities. i also had the huge honor of having kevin speak at the opening ceremonies of the ride. i will be forever be humbled by his words and actions... he's an amazing man.

"A few days into the new year of 2004, I was walking down a hospital corridor toward the room of a friend who was dying, when I had a flashback. Just for a moment, it felt like it was 1995 and I was in a hospital in upstate New York, approaching the room of another friend who was also dying. Of course it wasn't 1995. I wasn't in New York, and I wasn't visiting my gay white friend who was dying of AIDS. It was a new year in a new century. I was in Cape Town, South Africa, and this time the friend dying of AIDS was a black mother of three children.

"Two friends: a wealthy, white, gay man in America and a poor, black mother in South Africa. The only thing they had in common was that they died of AIDS. Yet, when I think of Nombulelo, John creeps into my memory. And when I think of HIV/AIDS in South Africa today, IÂ’m transported back to the start of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. in the 1980s. I keep asking the question: don't we have a responsibility to help people living with HIV/AIDS wherever in the world they live?"

~ Kevin Winge

i urge you to check out the book - it looks like an interesting and timely read. i'll be picking up a copy tonight.

we dance underneath the radar

i am an exceedingly happy boy right now.

earlier tonight, i was making the walk in music (music the attendees of a show hear as they walk in and find their seats) for my show this weekend and i decided i needed something new - i wasn't feeling any of the 22gigs of music loaded on catch (my ipod - what..? your ipod doesn't have a name? how tragic).

so down to cheapo i went. cheapo is a massive new & used cd shop here in minneapolis. i was hip to find a a couple of things, but low and behold - i found something i gave up hope of ever finding:

the rare 1988; pre-hard electronica underworld release 'underneath the radar'.

this piece of 1980's new-wave pop trash is a delightful reminder of what it felt like to be a kid with no cares in the 80's. life really was just a wash of synthesizers back then. now, of course, given underworld's direction in the 90's, i'm sure they'd rather forget this ever existed & truth be told the rest of the album is terrible - but i fuckin' love the title track. it's dark and it's sexy.

indeed, in the official bio for underworld you rarely ever hear about this piece of fluff. too bad - i hate when bands don't acknowledge they have a past.

i had given up on ever finding a digital version of this track. it doesn't exist on itunes. it doesn't exist show up on 80's compilations. fuck, i was even looking for it on cassette that i could then burn onto disk - to no avail.

but low-and-behold, there it was for a paltry $5.95. can't beat that. also picked up a used copy of the joint cd/dvd of madonna's latest i'm going to tell you a secret and a used copy of the lastest duran duran.

a good musical night to be sure.

off to denver in the morning with limited access/time for the internet. hopefully i'll get some great pictures of the show to share with the 4 of you that read this... lol

peace.

giddy as a school boy

ok, i have about a million things i need to accomplish before i fly to denver tomorrow morning, but the only thing i really wanna do is rush home and pop in this:

thats right boys and girls, v for vendetta came out on dvd this week. i absolutely loved this film - on every level. the acting was sublime (yes, cb, i said sublime), the action incredible, the story was a beautiful allegory on life in america these days. hugo weaving & natalie portmen were amazing. love this movie!!

in other random entertainment news:

yippee-kai-yay-mother fucker, they're making another die hard - while not a huge fan of bombastic action flicks, i was actually a huge fan of episode 1 & 3 of this series. i found them to be amazingly warm for an action flick.

stephen king & john irving implore jk rowling to not kill harry potter

ignoring episodes 3-5, the 6th installment of original underdog story, rocky is coming soon - remember sylvester before he sucked? - check out the trailer for rocky balboa (and it doesn't look like it will suck)

eat a fuckin' burger already would ya?

so tonight was the 3rd of 6 model calls that i'm doing for my upcoming hair show at the end of the month.

firstly, i gotta say craigslist rocks for recruiting models. we've never advertised on craigslist before, but it's awesome - some great girls and guys are showing up.

the pre-calls (the first 5 model calls) are really just more meet and greets, and excuses to collect information on the models (and judge them; hey it's a tough job to make your living off of your looks) - the final call (the last one) is the really interesting one. it's like a model free-for-all while they all push and shove to get the spot they want.

it's funny watching skinny girls and guys fight to get what they want. i mean, god, the girls are so skinny i'm amazed they have the muscle control to stand on stilletto's while maintaining that detached "i could care less" look.

i do really wanna just ram a burger down their throats. my god their skinny.

music heard....

the chemical brothers / left right

god bless tight board shorts

yum.... laird hamilton in tight board shorts (with eddie vedder from pear jam). (for a....ahem.... larger view, double click the image)

heath ledger in the batman sequel

an interesting bit of casting news. i'm not sure what to think of it, but i'm game for anything christopher nolan does to batman considering the brilliance of batman begins. this was taken from aint it cool news.

BURBANK, CA, 31 July 2006 – As a follow up to last year’s blockbuster Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan is set to direct Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Dark Knight, written by Jonathan Nolan, based on a story by Christopher Nolan and David Goyer. The film will be produced by Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan. Additionally, Christian Bale will resume his role as Bruce Wayne and Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger has been cast as The Joker. The announcements were made today by Jeff Robinov, President of Production, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Christopher Nolan revamped the Batman franchise in 2005 with the immensely successful Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale in the title role, which chronicled the early years of the superhero. Nolan first garnered attention from critics and fans in 2000 with the groundbreaking drama Memento, which he wrote and directed. He went on to direct the thriller Insomnia, starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams, and recently wrapped production on The Prestige, with Hugh Jackman and Bale.

Bale was most recently seen in the ensemble cast of Terrence Malick’s The New World. His other credits include Little Women, Portrait of a Lady, Metroland, American Psycho, Laurel Canyon and Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun, which was his first starring role.

Ledger most recently earned Oscar Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG Award nominations and won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in the award-winning drama Brokeback Mountain. His other credits include Casanova, Monster’s Ball, Lords of Dogtown, The Brothers Grimm and The Patriot.

“Chris’ unique vision is what made Batman Begins such an outstanding film and we could not imagine anyone else at the helm of The Dark Knight,” said Robinov. “We also can’t wait to see two such formidable actors as Christian and Heath face off with each other as Batman and The Joker.”

“I'm excited to continue the story we started with Batman Begins,” added Nolan. “Our challenge in casting The Joker was to find an actor who is not just extraordinarily talented but fearless. Watching Heath Ledger's interpretation of this iconic character taking on Christian Bale’s Batman is going to be incredible.”

Production is set to begin on The Dark Knight in early 2007.
Nolan and Ledger are represented by CAA.