Thursday, July 18, 2013

Dinner In Toronto

 As I have said earlier...I've been working on not procrasting. Some stress for me has not feeling like I could relax and do some of the things I like to do and then always feeling like I'm behind and not accomplishing stuff.Not finishing things I want. I haven't blogged a much as I wanted to and I enjoy the process so much. It is such a different head space to blog here than to blog and post on facebook or twitter although those are fun too. I've just plain forgot to go to post on twitter or link these posts to twitter and Facebook...something I'm working on. Anyways in an effort to catch up...here are some photos from a recent rip up to Canada to see family and friends and relax and get some paperwork done (that I had procrastinated, of course!)





 Superfun watching hockey playoffs in Canada!
Part of one of my paintings hanging in the tv room...

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

First Uploaded Video 2006



This is the first video I ever uploaded on Youtube. It's had 34,818 views.

Work Pals

 These are some of the people I enjoy working with at one of my jobs. The above picture is going to this co-workers first Gay Pride! He walked in the parade with his church. I met him afterwards to go to Berlin
...where the club was decorated with a Keith Harring theme. We danced fo about 3 hours.

 These are three really funny and silly co-workers.

 Can't hide from me in the office!
 Stagg and these two...and I went to Simones
to celebrate a 21st birthday.
This lady is one of my buddies...she is so funny and sassy! We had some dinner at Simones and got our young legal friend properly liquored up!

Monday, July 15, 2013

Around The House

 Yes, that is a bed in the middle of the living room. We have ac in this room so I've kind of hauled everything into the same area to work or watch tv. Yes, that is the most wonderful and brilliant DEXTER on tv while I am painting.
 More busking stuff. I've been working on building up some art work for New Orleans. I'd like to drive Stagg and I down to New Orleans in the winter for a week or two of busking and eating cajun...so stashing art to take and courrier down there. Also knocking out some art to busk here in Chicago. Raccoons and flying saucers and cakes.

 We moved around our apartment this past week so here is our new actual bedroom as opposed to sleeping in the living room.

 We found a shelf in the garbage and painted it for the kitchen...


 Here it is finished...note the photo albums on the shelf...and note below one of my projects this spring and summer has been to stop procrastinating and start completing projects or things. So I've been doing photo albums. I was in photo album hell for a few days but got a lot sorted out as you can see in photo below. Have three more albums on that shelf now....

 Painted a table silver. This is the best metallic paint I've ever used. We call this table "The Tinman"

At midnight after work I managed to park in a very tight spot, inch by inch. I was hoping one of the cars would have moved by the morning when I had to go back out to work...but no. So I was able to document this achievement lol..and somehow I inched my way back out...

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Posters At Work

 We have all these incredible posters and photographs lining the halls of the concert venues and classrooms at The Old Town School Of Folk Music. These pictures here I pass by or stand next to every shift I work on the weekends. I love to look at the art work and design and to imagine the shows they promoted or featured.












Saturday, July 13, 2013

First July 4th

 I have been here for a couple Fourth of Julys...but I have never actually done the whole shebang. This year a friend and co-worker from Old Town School of Folk Music kindly invited me to her brothers cook out and party. "Cook out" is a term in Chicago for Barbeque. We drove across the border to Indianna where her brother lives early in the morning with our bikes tied to the fender bike rack.
 As soon as we got to her brothers house around 9 a.m. we poured lemonade vodkas and set up our bikes for later and looked at the street where the parade was building a crowd. Her brother had already set up a cabana on the sidewalk intersection so we would have some shade. Chairs coolers of beer were under that cabana. Relatives and friends started arriving. The parade began around 10. It was a very good parade rivally my favourite parades... The Metro Toronto Labour Day Parade and Toronto Gay Pride Parades. Otherwise I actually am not a parade person at all.
 After the parade we had all kinds of food. the small town her brother lives in provides families with picnic tables! They drop them off for any family that requests a picnic table and they pick them up after the weekend. Isn't that amazing? Her brother had requested 3 picnic tables. We had fried chicken, baked Hungarian chicken, meat balls, taco salad, regular salad, and broken glass jello. And coolers of beer were scattered around the yard.

After a huge lunch my friend and I got on our bikes and toured the small town eventually riding to the lake and it was a boiling hot day so we walked into the lake to cool down. Tons of people enjoying picnics along the beach.
 Krazy Kaplans is a big fireworks company in Indianna. Fireworks are illegal in Chicago...so everyone drives to these outlets right on the border about half an hour from downtown Chicago on July 4th. The line ups are insane. We went to the store about 5 and the line up took over all the aisles of the store winding around and around. You basically shopped while in the line up.
 Look closely above at the photo...isn't that a funny name for a firework? The packaging and names of fireworks is amazing. Thousands of styles from Dr. Suess to Porny kinds of titles. They are really quite beautiful and I loved the store. A little known fact...the owner of this fireworks company "Krazy Kaplas" went to an art show Stagg was in in Indiana and bought one of his paintings a few years ago.
 We spent the day visiting and riding bikes and eating and we also went to the Casino for an hour. I love the look of the Dean Martin Slot Machine game...Stagg and I have played it a few times in Vegas and in Indiana, but we always strike out. It has the best art work and crazy music...but we just don't have luck with it.
We also went to another family cook out that day...and met some fun family. One of which organized all the fireworks which were presented at the fire department grounds in a parking lot. They are in competitipn with the neighbouring town. It was a crazy show both frightening and hilarious as the fireworks would sometimes tip over and shoot straight at us the audience...straming along the floor of the parking lot. Hundreds of fireworks. We asked..."How many peopel are setting these things of?" the answer? "Go to the grocery store tomorrow and count all the stock guys"

I've never published video I had posted and dragged from Facebook before...lets see if they worrk...otherwise I'll have to upload them later and replace these one...

Videos of the parade...





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