Moving out, and moving on in

I will officially be movng apartments in the next 10 hours. after living for almost 3 years in Crown Heights brooklyn the time has come for new and exciting times.

I adore my new place in Williamsburg, and I'm really excited about my two new roommates. I feel it's going to be a very Three is Company type of living.

fun fun fun.

next time you see me I'll be in my fantastic new pad.


god I'm so happy I could just wet the rug.

The Music

Inside Out

Inside Out

The World, the world's gone inside out
The World, the world's gone inside out
The World, the world's gone inside out

all you can do is hold on to one more day
and all you can do is hold on for one more day

The World, the world's gone inside out
The World, the world's gone inside out
who will you run to, who will comfort you
when you look up to the sky and realize that it's over

MP3 click HERE

Rock the Frost

click HERE (make sure to enlarge to full size)


click HERE (make sure to enlarge to full size)

The talented singer songwriter and rocker Matthew Frost.

RED

Maybe the future will bring Green, Blue, or even Yellow but today we are RED.





You have been flying high on so many levels for the past several months that you cannot help but notice when your ruling planet Mars leaves your sign today for the bucolic pastures of verdant Taurus. It's hard to know whether you should feel anxious when everything slows down so quickly or if it's smarter to acknowledge your relief. Just keep in mind that nothing's wrong; it's simply time for you to move a little slower. [via AOL]

Beautiful Song!

 

We simply felt like making a video of us twirling an umbrella to a beautiful song. Why? Why not? This sweet song pulls our heart strings. Get the FREE mp3 of this song click HERE Come see The Stemms live: Date: Saturday, June 13, 2009 Time: 7:30pm - 10:30pm Location: Sullivan Hall Street: Sullivan Street bwtn W3rd and Bleeker City/Town: New York, NY We'll be there, we hope you will too.

Guys and Dogs!!

This was a fun vlog to make. to watch video click HERE

Cover Girl!

I might be done with the cover for the Shelly Bort soon to be release album "Just Wait and See..."
Will keep you updated.

Hot as Frost!

Yesterday we did our second photo shoot with the talented singer songwriter and rocker Matthew Frost. Above is one of the shots we took of Frost a few months ago. Below is a shot from yesterday. We are very pleased with the results.
We hope to have a few more shots ready in the next week or so.

hope you like them.

Potential cover idea:



or promo shot

My Opinion in Video Form?

Let's see if I can get this out.

I know what I want to say but I'm not sure how to say it.

Let's see...

I was wondering if I've made videos where I'm talking about my opinion on a certain issue...hmmm. I don't think I have.

I think all my videos relate to either my work or random silly things.

I think the closest I may have gotten to expressing my opinion on issues is through the videos I've made for GenderFun.com

Is that right?

Maybe it's because I know there is a difference between placing the focus on "me" rather than "my work."

hmmmm...I wonder if I should make a few videos where I share my views with the world in a straight forward fashion ....hmmmm

The DAY JOB!!!! And the rest. EEEEKKKK!

This is what I've been doing with a third of my life for the past 10 years (which is a third of my life):

1 1/2 years directing children ages 5-12 in full length Broadway-like musicals
3 years at a market research call center where I managed over 50 people
1/2 year costumer service representative at a luggage company
6 plus years at a credit rating agency where I helped create, implement, and maintain a data processing and file storage system -Electronic File Clerk/Admin

All this during the day, and Amnesia , Photography, and Art stuff by night. Not to mention there was a period where I was a working Esthetician for a short time while still working at the Market Research Company.
Now add work that I'm doing for GenderFun.com!!

No wonder there are days where I feel like I'm losing my mind.

Back to the Drawing Board

This might not be the first time we mention the name Shelly Bort on this here humble site, and most likely it won't be the last. She is a phenomenal singer songwriter and one we adore. Last time Shelly made a super fun video as a response to The Word Game. Now it's our turn.

As some of you know we like to put pencil to paper and get all artsy fartsy from time to time.

Recently we were asked if we'd do the album cover for Shelly's new CD of original songs and we simply couldn't say NO. This is top secret stuff. We are so excited that we had to share this with you...even though we're in the middle of doing the art work.





Here is Shelly singing two of our favorite songs.

"Not Your Typical Valentine" by Shelly Bort



"This Small Room" by Shelly Bort




Make sure to check her out over at

http://www.myspace.com/shellybort
and listen to the song "Ali and Ian" it's fantastic!!!

or you can see her sparkling face over at
http://www.youtube.com/sbort

Anniversary lol

This video cracks me up. It was taken a week ago during my one year anniversary with my bf. Aw how I love the memories.

Work Out Update!

Well, another month has gone by and I think we've made some progress. What do you think?
I still have a ways to go though. Gotta keep on pushin!

Here is what I looked like at the end of February and at the end of March.



Read story behind the motivation to do this click HERE

Soilent Green is People!

If you are really fat and then you lose a lot of weight people will say "wow you look amazing, congrats!"

If you stop smoking people will say "wow, that is great, congrats!"

If you meet a stranger and they ask you "what do you do" and you tell them "I rape strangers for a living" they won't believe you.

If you fart in an elevator and there is only one other person in there with you and then you turn to that person and say "it wasn't me" they won't believe you.

If you don't have a foreign accent and speak clear English people may not believe you when you tell them you have a hard time pronouncing certain words such as Swedish and/or October.

I now understand why so many meat eaters have a problem with some vegetarians. It's because a lot of the time vegetarians have contempt for meat eaters. It's almost like they think that they are better than meat eaters. As if meat eaters are barbaric and one step away from being cannibals, and that might threatened them because vegetarians may fear that one day a meat eater might eat them. The fact of the matter is Soilent Green is PEOPLE!!

A Day in the Life

I often wonder what my friends and acquaintances think I do with my time since I rarely spend time with them.

Well, I can tell you what I did today. I took off from my 9-5 day job and I did all these exciting things.

- shower/breakfast
- DMV (exchanged FL driver's license for a NY license)
- Post Office mailed out prizes
- Shopped H&M and Old Navy (got some summer fun clothe)
- made lunch
- 3 loads of laundry
- cleaned up and backed up computer files
- Made an appointment for facial at Nickel Spa
- P90x Back + Chest + Abs work out
- shower / cooked dinner
- made tea
- now folding laundry before bed time.

I also spoke to my boyfriend and roommates briefly.

I also did a lot of farting. That is what I'm mostly proud of.

See how much fun my life really is :-)

So you see, I'm not always jumping around being silly like in the following video

30 Going on 13

Funny how time flies. Tomorrow I leave my twenties and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Especially since I'm not looking as old and decrepit as I thought I would by 30. lol



Funny how when you are a kid you think of 30 as this big number. As if you'll turn into an adult or an old man by the time you are 30.

Well, I feel like 30 is the new 21!... although, I was a lot sillier at 21. I mean, what was I thinking during the below photo shoot back at 21? lol

Yoga Time

Just doing some Yoga in my bedroom

Crazy Stupid!

I feel fantastic!!!

It's incredible what a little exercise, good diet, and just enough self motivation can do for one's attitude.

I'm the kind of person that understands that there is a lot of pain in the world, physical pain and emotional pain.
I understand that I've been the cause of some people's pain. I understand that I've cause much pain to myself.
I'm not a stranger to pain is what I'm saying.

For a long time I think I moved through life unaware that what I was doing was trying in my own creative way to let go of the pain. Sometimes it was pain I wasn't even aware I was experiencing because I would try to cover it up.

As I'm getting older I'm learning to convert the pain into motivation and energy. To know that there is an enormous amount of pain in life and wanting to still carry on is by any definition CRAZY!

I'm sure that for some people when they take a look at one of my videos such as this one they might be inclined to think that I've gone off the deep end. They might even suggest I'd be institutionalized. After listening to a recording such as this one folks would have the straight Jacket waiting for me.

Am I crazy? I don't see how anyone can go through this absurd life and not embrace the craziness from within as well as from the outside.

My dad and I have the same philosophy, "In life you either play crazy or you play stupid."

I can say that as I'm approaching my 30th birthday, in a couple of days, I've gotten much better at playing both parts... and still have a lot to learn I'm sure.

Iron Man

Drinking irish tea.
it's wet outside. it's been a rainy April all day.
listening to James Blunt.
he's the good kind of cheese.
finished some updates on GenderFun.com.
warming up the iron.
where does the mind go when ironing?
it's my kind of down time.
been thinking a lot about life,
real life, not the virtual kind.
it's funny.
I'll be 30 yrs old in just 8 days.
real life flies by,
while we iron.

Season Finale!

And there goes the first season.
It's so weird to look back four months ago to the beginning stages of GenderFun.com

So much work in what feels like such a short time.
I still have a few more videos to edit for the site and I'll be revamping the look before a well deserved summer break.
I'll still update the sight regularly but I don't plan on filming any new episodes until the fall/winter.
I have lots planned for season two!

Here is the final episode for season one.

enjoy

The Transformation Part 2

I don't know if you ever got around to read the "ABOUT" section on www.GenderFun.com but if you have, then you know that most of the motivation to start the site was due to the overwhelming positive response to The Transformation video two years ago.

Well, since then I've let myself go a bit in the fitness department. Of course everything is relative. I'm not saying that I went all Oprah on ya but I did get pretty flabby. That on it's own isn't that bad but I was drinking LOTS OF BOOZE and SMOKING lots of cigarettes!!! We took that road all the way down to unhealthyville.

Because of my body type I could hide most of the flabbiness but inside my body was crying out. It was saying "Be good to me, PLEASE!!!! NO MORE BOOZE AND SMOKES!!!!" So being that I like a good challenge, about a month ago I challenged myself. I started making some changes.

I've changed my diet, I'm exercising several times a week, I quit smoking, and I only hit the sauce no more than once a week. The last two mentioned are the hardest!

My goal is not to look like Mario Lopez in two months but we hope to have some improvement and to stay smoke free. Besides, Mario can't be human. just look at that body!!! CRAZY!!!!!

This transformation is by far our hardest. It feels like it's more of mind over matter.

If you are going through something similar, I wish you well. We can do this. We just have to keep our eye on the prize!

Project Rooftop!

Today was a blast! I was honored to have been able to do some documentary photography/video during a fashion photo shoot for the fantastic Deryck Todd's new clothing line. Deryck is most popularly known as the creator of the fun glam NYCparty Bowie Ball.

I love working with Deryck. He's so sweet and down to earth. It was during one of Deryck's Parties that I first did the Word Game three years ago!




His fashion line looks amazing! It really pops! It's all coming together very nicely.

We met on the rooftop of a four story brownstone with a view of Manhattan in the distance. The Spring sun kissed our shoulders. We laughed, we posed, we click click clicked. We had a great team.

Fashion: Deryck Todd
Hair and Make Up : Erin Mayhugh
Model: Nicolene Schwartz
Photography: Maro
Assistant :David Kuperminc
Documentarianista: Adrian Acosta

To see full set click HERE.


Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

Hair Did

Yesterday was fun. I dusted off my camera and took some head shots for Ian M. he's a stylist with some of the sassiest hair ever!!!
I'm not sure what after effects I'll be doing to his pics yet, but here's one of my favorites from yesterday. You can just feel the sasssssitude!
I love it.

see set click HERE

Religion Made the Cut

"It's What's In Style" self-portraits Feb 07
click to enlarge click HERE

I was going through some of my old photos the other day trying to decide which ones I'd like to incorporate into the book that I'm working on and I think the above one made the cut.

I hope to explain how these photos came to be.

Get them Abs!

My leg muscles have been sore for the past two days. I guess the exercise is working.
I don't know if its because of the blood pumping extra fiercely these days because of the forced exercising, but I feel as if my mind is returning to a clearer place.

For brief moments my past actions are starting to make sense.
I'm sure this is what in therapy they call a breakthrough, if I'm so lucky.
I know I'm being extra vague but that's the thing about breakthroughs, they make more sense to the person having them.
The important thing is to feel the breakthrough, that "Ah-ha" moment and ride with it for as long as you can before you forget about it and you start making all sorts of other stupid mistakes.

The beauty, I hope, is that you'll have another "ah-ha" moment in the future and all those stupid actions that you did leading up to that moment will have made sense as well.
After all, isn't that how a healthy mind works?

Going through my computer today, as I work on the book that I've been working on for the past twelve years, I found this picture from Feb 4th, 2007 of myself.



I entitled it "MySpace Nation." I did it to spoof the MySpace picture style that everyone seemed to be doing at the time, hence why I added "lens flare" when the flash didn't go off.
Looking back at it I care less for the artistic intention as I do to get them abs back :-)

Jump Jump Jump

I'm back on my exercise kick.
this time it seems a bit harder.
maybe because I'll be 30 yrs old in a little over a month
the body ain't what it used to be.
are hips and knees supposed to crack simply when standing up?
boy this is going to be quite the ride.
hopefully in a couple of months I'll look like I did three years ago

(picture taken March 2006)

why not. just got to do some 10,000 crunches and I'm there.
wish me luck.
do a crunch or two in my honor.
don't let me be the only one exercising.

Almost Perfect Stay

what day is it?
I've been in Florida since Wed.
The weather is perfect.
This is the best time of year for Florida.
My mom's birthday is in a few days.
Then she will be leaving the country in June for a long time.
She gave us a funny story to remember her by this time around.
Another one for the book.
Family is a funny thing.
They are simply happy having me under the same roof.
It's weird having to take it all in one last time before saying goodbye.
I return back home to New York on Tuesday.
I'm not sure if I'll miss my family much
I've always been the independent son,
but I will most certainly miss the mid 70s sunny weather.

What a Day!

Lots have been happening inside.
Wrote another chapter in the book and I feel great.
today I'm grateful...
yet I know there is still a lot of work to do.
especially making sure people understand that I do a lot of what I do to make this world a better place.
which is hard to see at a glance I'm sure.
especially when at a glance all you see is a guy in a dress.
I'm not trying to save the world.
I'm just trying to spread some joy
that's all.
why?
because spreading joy makes me happy...
I think that's the good kind of selfish...
I hope.

Pooping, The Next Generation

The new site I'm working on www.GenderFun.com is turning out to be a lot of work and my health has been acting up put I "have to keep on movin."

The drive inside of me is stronger than ever this year. I think it's because this time my motivation is to help others in the best way that I know how.

I was telling one of my roommates the other day that it's all about the circle of life. We eat. We process the food and then we poop it. That's what life is all about. We gain some information regarding life, our experience. We process it and then we pass it on to the next generation. I guess GenderFun.com, my art, my photography, and all my creative endeavours are my way of pooping information in hopes that there will be something the next generation can use. After all, poop is fertilizer.
You know, I think I can help the next generation tremendously. After all, I've been told I'm full of shit!

FAT on Oprah

Did you see the FAT Teens on Oprah yesterday? WOW!
It was pretty intense.
I'm not sure that softness cures all.
I know war is not the answer but why do we go to the opposite extreme?
Have extremes ever worked?

Hero vs Villain

How do you convince people that you are not the villain, but instead you are the hero?
Why must a person fall in either category?
Are we not all villains and heros in our lifetime?
I guess it all comes down to intention.
If your intentions are good then you must be the hero right?
But intentions can be hard to read.
And do villains not trick the good to believe that they too are good?
Well, then how do you tell the difference between good and evil?
You must have faith that a person's intentions are good and then he will become he hero in your eyes.
Faith, yes. Blind Faith, NO!
Judge a person not by his words alone, but by their actions.
Its been said many times, actions speak louder than words.

Recording Studio

watch HIGH QUALITY click HERE

Saturday I spent the day in the recording studio with Rio and Sabra. I LOVE the studio!!! I could spend the whole day there. We made some great progress on a dance track. I'm really excited!!! Rio and I have been working on songs for the past six months or so and I couldn't be happier. Rio's got a way with mixing. Talented mo fo he is.

that's the update for today.

super excited!

Now I'm off to film the next four episodes of the GenderFun.com Amnesia show.
Episode #3 is up today. It's a must see.
-A

Crying Over Milk

All my friends are raving about actor Sean Penn's portrayal of Harvey Milk in the movie "Milk." I love movies, but maybe it's the fact that I like to document life whether through video or through photography which attracted me more to the documentary film made of the man Mr Penn played in "Milk." I don't know how I found myself on hulu.com today watching the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to office in San Francisco but I do know how my eyes filled up with tears numerous times while watching it.

"The Times Of Harvey Milk" is a must see film. For anyone who simply doesn't "get" what being gay is all about, for those out there that have a gay friend, brother, sister, mother, father, etc... you must watch this movie and share it with friends. And if you don't personally know of any gay people then maybe you should watch it so that you can finally understand why "we" feel the need to parade ourselves down your main street holding flags and throwing streamers everywhere each year.

Help the world understand "our" world. A world not much different in desires and dreams as those of any citizen of this planet who simply want to live in peace with his fellow man, and who simply dream of the day where we can love freely under the law without fearing someone coming along taking away our rights like they did with Prop 8 in late 2008 or having life taken away from us like they did to Harvey back in 1978.

click HERE while link is working.

if link doesn't work I strongly suggest buying the DVD. I know I will be adding it to my collection.

They Call Me!!!

Last month I did some still photography during the retirement home scene for the new Soce music video shoot for his lead single "They Call Me" off his new album "Master of Fine Arts".
This month I found out that one of the photos I took of comedian Leslie Goshko was featured on TheApiary.org.
What do ya know? Thanks The Apiary.

Soce's video for "They Call Me" features Leslie Goshko, Abbi Crutchfield, and Rob Gordon just to name a few of the lovely peeps.
The video is directed by the very talented, and very cute, Liam Ahern who did Soce's outrageous video "I Am (So Gay)"

To see a selected photos taken during the filming of "They Call Me" click HERE

Music video coming soon.

Celestial Nap

I'm working on a little cold right now so I'm all stuffy and stuff. Maybe that's why I be feeling like playing some soothing music.
So I took out the midi keyboard I got from my roommate and played around with it.
thus, I made the following diddy.
listen with headphones of course for better effect.

(left click link to play. right click to save)
CELESTIAL NAP

I've not made this kind of music since my "Experimental" phase back in 1999



enjoy,

A New Day Has Come!

Ep#1: Potty Time (Public Restrooms) (watch high quality)


watch in High Quality click HERE


The day is here!!! Today we launched our new hang out site www.GenderFun.com.
This is a labor of love.
We do these shows straight out of our bedroom in Brooklyn, New York, and we do it all for you.
Feel free to leave comments on YouTube.
Please let us know how we can make the show more enjoyable as well.
If you like the show feel free to subscribe to our youtube channel, rate the video, and click on favorite. This will help spread the word.

Every week we will have a fun new video. Next week we will talk about make-up!
Everyday there will be something fun and informative over at www.GenderFun.com so feel free to swing by and say hi.
And most importantly chime in on the topic of the day. Amnesia and I don't really know it all so we are very interested in getting your opinion on the topics discussed.
GenderFun is YOUR site, and we can't do it without you.

thanks for your support!

much love
-A

My Love

Taking my baby out on the town to buy him his Christmas gift. 2008 was a great year mostly because of him. I am truly lucky.

ps - I know some people might be grossed out by watching two individuals in love but if you've ever been in love you know that sometimes you feel like shouting your lover's name from the top of a mountain. the internet is the modern mountain.


watch in high quality HERE

hugs
-A