Author: jymicliche

I was excited to get my 8×10 frames for the photos I’m putting in an upcoming art show. This is only half the photos, but I have to wait until next month to buy the rest of the frames and photos because I’m out of money. I’m really excited about how they’re looking though.

My T-shirts and other merch is on sale for 15% off right now if you wanna check out some cool stuff…

https://wickedcliche.threadless.com/

I’ve done a couple new pages for my children’s book…

I cooked this casserole…

Honestly, it looked better than it tasted. I wasn’t crazy about it, but it made me decide to ask my mom about one of my old favorite recipes of hers I haven’t had in a million years and I’m psyched to make it this weekend.

I listened to this record again last night. It’s Boston rappers Mr. Lif and Akrobatik. Read the reviews on the cover if you can, and check out their Tiny Desk Concert.

Watch the video if you get a chance. They put on a great show and are far more “relatable” than Eminem.

I’ve been busy since I got home from visiting my parents. I had to get groceries, take out the trash, and carry some heavy stuff upstairs after twisting my ankle and knee on the ice so my body isn’t happy. I still have a number of chores left that I need to do, but I’ve been focusing more on creative work and getting it out there. I queried more agents after getting a couple rejections which were pretty nice overall. One of them said my book sounds interesting but it isn’t the type of book they are looking for, and that’s basically what they all said….it’s not the type of book that fits with their list or they aren’t taking new clients. I gotta try to have faith that someone is going to represent me this time. I know the writing is a lot better and it’s a great story that could be important at a time like this. It’s also less controversial than The Godchild. I hope I can get a bite on it.

While I wait to hear about my novel, I’ve been working on a children’s book and I just finished drawing page 8. It is a mom giving the main character child Meg medicine.

I got five 9×12 frames in the mail and framed these pictures for an upcoming art show I’m doing of art from the psych ward and photos from around the time of my psychosis breakdowns in 2008 and 2010, which my trilogy “The Godchild” is about. I plan to read a chapter from my book about the first time I swam to the island in Spy Pond, as well as a few poems from that time period and I’m showing about 20 drawings, 20 photos, and 3 or 4 canvas paintings, all on the theme of my psychosis and the spiritual experience I went through. These ones I just framed show the island and my soul being born again and starting my life over new after breaking.

My parents got me this great steak and cheese macaroni and cheese from a place called Mr. Mac’s in NH. I took it home and put it in the oven for 20 minutes. It was delicious…

That was last night though. Tonight I tried to do something a little healthier and ordered a chicken kabob plate from Pita Cambridge, which has earned my vote for best kabobs in the area, and I have tried a lot.

I did a recording of me performing my newest song…

I got some new weed tonight. It’s called Cookie OG and it’s a perfect strain for me. Indica dominant but good for creativity, stress, pain, and mood swings. Just what I need right now as I have been a little moody and my nurse didn’t show up today and I don’t know when they will, so I could be late on my Testosterone and anti-psychotic although I’m usually fine being a few days late on those things. I just texted a note to my mental health worker to let her know just in case. The weed is perfect though. It really helps me a lot.

I’ve been practicing for the next open mic where I’m performing “Clint Eastwood” by The Gorillaz. If you don’t know it by name, you may still recognize it. I wanted to do something by a black artist for Black History Month. The majority of the hip hop I listen to, and hell, all music for that matter, is by or at least influenced by black artists. Unfortunately, most of my favorite hip hop by black artists have lyrics I wouldn’t feel quite right about rapping for one reason or another, but the lyrics to “Clint Eastwood” are not only appropriate, but it’s a kick ass song where the rap style and unique flow by rapper Del The Funky Homosapian make the song. It was incredibly difficult at first, but I am beginning to master it and should have it ready for the Jam’n Java Zoom Open Mic on the 19th, and will share a copy of it in here as well, but for now, you can see/hear the original…

Del the Funky Homosapien was also in the group Deltron 3030. This is a kick ass song and album…

He was also in Hieroglyphics and you can hear them here…

Del is highly influential and awesome. Enjoy.

First of all, my sister is happy with the art I made for my niece. She told me she wanted mushroom art, so I did this…

I knew it was gonna be popular, so I made it into a bunch of products from t-shirts, masks, pillows, bath mats, prints, cards, skateboards, magnets, shower curtains, towels, stickers, mugs, phone cases, etc.

Starting at some point today, February 8th until maybe the 12th, everything is on sale for 15% off for Valentines day.

https://wickedcliche.threadless.com/

That’s the link to the store. There are dozens of other designs if you don’t like mushrooms.

I had the Jam’n Java Open Mic Friday night and did pretty good with my version of “Loser” and I am thinking of trying to do “Clint Eastwood” by The Gorillaz next, but it’s tricky.

After the Open Mic, I went to find these in the mail.

The CD is Ravipops by C-Rayz Walz… more on that later, and the record is the soundtrack to “The Harder They Come” which is a Jamaican movie from the 70’s about a weed dealing reggae singer, and it is one of my all time favorite movies, and part of what makes the movie so great it the soundtrack, much of which is by Jimmy Cliff, the reggae singer in the movie. Here are a couple songs from the soundtrack. This is the kind of music and film that can change you. I know it was a big influence on me.

I hate football, so I don’t really care that much about the Superbowl, but I used to watch it with my family growing up, including one year when I was in college, taking what was my favorite college class ever, Pop Culture and Society with Peyton Paxton. He was my professor who dug my ideas and could tell that I really got what he was teaching, in a bigger way than the average student. He was talking about how we are brainwashed by society, but he never quite put it like that. The class was about what was popular and why it was popular, and what intention did the capitalistic society have when they chose these things to be the things we all collectively see, hear, eat, buy, root for, etc. It was a great class, but one of our assignments was to watch and do a paper on the Superbowl and its role in society and pop culture and stuff. I’m pretty sure the Patriots may have even been in it that year which made it a little more fun for me because I’m from Boston, and my Grampy was over that night who is no longer with us, and he was betting on the game with my dad. I also watched the year of Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” when I was married to my ex. We watched at her parents’ house and they were all in the kitchen during that exciting moment, which I personally enjoyed and was mad Justin Timberlake didn’t have to take any of the blame. I watched the year Prince did the halftime too… at least I know I watched the halftime that year anyway. I feel like I may have been alone at home, not watching the game, and then put it on when people online said Prince was starting. At any rate, that Prince halftime show was the best one I ever saw, easily, hands down, but I enjoyed The Weeknd’s performance last night. I’ve liked him for awhile now though and most of the songs he did were from his first album which I have and love. I though it was great, the way he sounded and the total package performance… but to backtrack…

I was supposed to go to my parents’ house last weekend but the weather was shitty and I wasn’t feeling great, so I made it a goal to try to visit them for the Superbowl weekend, and if that didn’t work, we were gonna do next weekend, but I planned to drive up Saturday and home on Monday and it was gonna snow Sunday, but my car would be in the garage, so I decided to go for it while I had the chance, because I haven’t seen them since Christmas, I needed to get out, and there’s no guarantee it won’t be bad weather this coming weekend. I had to stop and get gas on the way and I was a little unsure that I was gonna make it as I started driving because the sun was blinding, but it got shady and I made it up, listening to a CD I just bought called Ravipops by C-Rayz Walz. It was on El-P’s old record label and there is a song with MF DOOM on it, who just died, but C-Rayz is actually one of my favorite underground rappers, and I love the album Ravipops. I was trying to find a vinyl copy with no luck and noticed it wasn’t even easy to find a CD, so when I found one on his site and it said the money went to his bail, I had to buy it, and I enjoyed the hell out of it on my way up north and I even got a signed flyer with it that said Jymi- You are the light. C-Rayz. Of course, it also said 2020 and it’s 2021, so it wasn’t a personal message and he was probably not the one to write my name, but it IS a real signature, and still cool.

When I got up to my parents’ my dad took a look at my computer that he wanted me to bring because it had recently died and he fixed it and that was part of the reason for my recent blog move and why I’m starting over on this page with no followers and I don’t even know how to get any because I sign on here through another site… it’s no really like a regular WordPress account, or at least I haven’t figured that part out yet.

After my dad looked at my computer and we hung out talking, dinner was ready. We had a meat pie with mashed potatoes and a salad. It was all delicious and then we watched Ma Rainy’s Black Bottom on Netflix. It was my second time watching and I liked it even more than the first time… a powerful film.

I hung out all night by myself after they went to bed and I took a selfie to mark that I went out because this was the first time I’ve left home since Christmas.

It snowed Sunday and we ate Italian takeout. I had chicken, broccoli and ziti and a Caprese salad. After we ate, I did art while the Superbowl was on.

Those 2 drawings are new and for sale, and this last one is another page for my children’s book.

That’s all for now. I’m hungry and gonna eat something. Peace!

I’ve been busy lately with all kinds of things… my own projects as well as a lot more people have been approaching me lately, whether it’s with ideas, art, or music they want me to look at or they are asking for help with life problems or whatever. I’ve given back when I’m able, but I’m also keeping good boundaries and only get involved when I feel up for it.

My sister sent me a message today telling me that my 15 year old niece is suddenly obsessed with mushrooms and wants mushroom art for her wall and she asked me if I would do some for her. I said I would and I am glad to try, plus if I make a copy of it, I can use the design for shirts which will probably interest a lot of people, most likely for the same reason my niece is interested. I wanted to say to my sister, “You do realize what a sudden interest in mushrooms is about, at fifteen years old, right? Especially since she is the one who also recently got into vinyl. I thought I might name the drawing I do “I Know Why You Like Mushroom Art” and write that on the back, but I don’t wanna make her paranoid. First of all, she has a good head on her shoulders, and doesn’t appear to be fucking up her life in major ways like I was at 15 when I was also obsessed with shrooms, but I actually never even did them as a teenager, even with my obsession, so she may just like the idea of it, and if she does try them, they aren’t addictive or particularly dangerous, although I don’t do them or any Psychedelics other than weed. I’ve already seen and understand the kind of things people take shrooms for. My brain lives there all the time, so I try not to add to it, but I’m gonna draw her some shrooms, cuz I am that uncle who can do that.

My boyfriend’s cousin texted me the other day saying she’s reading my first book and that it’s well written, fascinating, and that I am brave. She also said she told her 7 year old son that she was talking to a famous person.

It’s been an interesting week. I’ve made a few new friends too. Technically, I have gained like 350 friends in the last few months on Facebook, doubling my amount of friends, which is now around 700. Some of them have added me and I have added some of them. They are friend suggestions and are mostly either trans men or artists/musicians. Sometimes I get requests that seem to be fake people and I try to make sure everyone I’m adding is real, and if I request them, it’s after looking at their profile and public page to see if they sound like people i wanna know, and that I’m not just using them. So far, I have met all kinds of new people who are opening my eyes to all kinds of new stuff and ideas, especially since many of the trans men are in their twenties, and I am 42 and most of my friends for years have been around my age or older, so I see a lot of new things with these new people including a lot of face tattoos, excessive piercings (no judgement, I have a nose ring and earrings and had my eyebrow and tongue in my 20’s, I’m just saying, almost all these kids have tons of piercings), there are more of them openly battling addiction and mental illness, and there are a lot more poly people and openly kinky people and their pop culture references generally go over my head, as mine probably do theirs, but it’s been cool to meet these new people and a few of them right away feel like soulmate types, as I have soulmates around the world.

I’ve been working on my children’s book, framing art for my upcoming art show, watching His Dark Materials, and listening to records. Here is some photo evidence…

I showed some of my illustrations in a Facebook group for Children’s Writers and Illustrators and said I was an intersex transman with bipolar and PTSD and that I’m writing a children’s book that lightly touches on the subjects of gender identity and mental illness in childhood. I asked for advice and what people thought of the illustrations. Most people who responded loved the illustrations except one person said they could be brighter, but honestly, a lot of the art in there made me wanna gag. I’m not entirely anti-digital art. I do some digital art I’m proud of, but when everything is digital and cutesy looking, it’s a real eye sore. Children are not getting the same kind of spirit in their cartoons and books anymore. One of my favorite books growing up was “The Paper Crane” by Molly Bang who illustrated with cut outs, kind of like early South Park, but with much more artistic skill. I like my illustrations as they are, but I did ask. The other feedback I got actually triggered me and had me upset all day because of the tone and wording, whether she meant it to be rude or not, she responded with “Please get it vetted by a mental health professional.” It felt like she was saying “Please see a mental health professional because this is inappropriate and crazy, and you shouldn’t be trusted to write kids books.” Then, several people liked her comment, and neither her or them liked my pictures or gave a compliment, not that they have, to, but I felt ganged up on and triggered by it even though it’s legit advice and I have actually shown it to 2 mental health professionals already, asking for advice and they think it’s great. My friends have all given positive feedback too, so if that woman and the people who liked my post were hating, fuck em, it doesn’t really matter. I’m actually really proud of how it’s come out so far.

Another thing I’ve been doing is framing art for my upcoming show of art and photography I did in the hospital and during my psychosis.

Here are some of my 8.5 x 11 frames. these are on computer paper done with broken hospital art supplies…

And these 2 were done on bigger and better paper in the hospital in 2006.

I’ve been listening to some new albums.

Double K of The People Under the Stairs died the other day and I had their record on my wishlist and was able to grab it before they sold out and prices were hiked like what happened with MF DOOM. This OST is an amazing album from start to finish.

Here’s a couple to try by them…

What a sad loss. They were perfection.

I got a friend request from this dude Kevin who made a song with Skyzoo. He sent me the song and it’s pretty dope…

And then I got these 2 albums today. The Rebelution one was supposed to be Royce Da 5’9 and I thought I’d try it anyway. I’m not especially impressed. It’s okay, but kind of weak reggae. The other album I ordered on purpose even though I hadn’t heard it yet. It’s by Jean Grae and she is one of the best rappers out there.

Here is a good one off this banger of an album…

I’m not gonna share any Rebelution. they were mids.

That’s all for now. I have the Jam’n Java Open Mic tonight at 7 and I’ll be performing Loser by Beck, my first time doing a cover.

First, let me get this out of the way. It’s page 5 of my children’s book. I still have a ways to go, but it’s coming along and it’s been fun.

Moving on, I saw a meme on Facebook yesterday that really triggered me. I don’t know the person who posted it very well and I didn’t think that arguing the meme was a good idea since the person who posted it probably intended it differently than it sounded to me and it may have been about something personal to them and I just didn’t feel like me arguing about it on their page would have made them change their point of view in any important way and would likely just make them feel shitty that I chose to argue, so I have moved the argument here to my own space.

The meme said something like “When you say the phrase ‘after all I did for you’ it reveals that you never did it with good intentions; it was all about you and shows you were expecting a reward for what you did.”

I found it very triggering after what I went through with my old friends who used and abused me. Take “Brett” for instance (that is his name in my book). When things were good between us, I let him live with me while he was homeless, which was risking my own housing situation because I’m not allowed to have people live here. I spent all my extra money on food and weed for us both, I drove him all over the place, picked him up at all kinds of random sketchy locations, gave him my art and a bass guitar I decoupaged that I could have sold for a hugely high price because it was a work of art, etc. I DID all of this knowing full well he could never pay me back for any of it. I wasn’t expecting anything in return, but when he robbed me and lied to me over and over, broke into my house, sexually assaulted me, trashed my house, called me a spoiled bitch, broke my computer, camera and record player on purpose, put holes in my car tires, and smashed the bass I gave him, I think I more than earned the right to say “After all I did for you” without being guilt tripped by a meme trying to make me sound like the bad guy for saying it.. not that it was him who put up the meme. All of my abusive friends have been out of my life for a long time, thank goodness for that, but I just had to say my piece on that. I never would have held any of what I did for him over his head if he hadn’t done something fucked up in response to every good thing I did for him. After all I did for him, to be treated like that. No wonder I am so wounded still, after spending a decade with abusive people AFTER having two full blown breakdowns. At least I’m getting my life together.

Anyway. That’s about it. I just had to get that out. I also wanted to share this record I got recently that I was pretty psyched about…

It’s called Gizmodgery by Self and other than one song, it is made entirely with kids toy instruments. Here are a couple worth checking out…

That’s all. Peace.

My taste in music is always growing and changing, but a few years ago, I gave a lot of thought as to who my top 5 favorite music artists were. I came up with a strange, but telling list. They are all hugely iconic, they all have great lyrics that are often politically motivated, and they are all a little bit narcissistic, but we forgive it because their stuff is so good, it is only natural that they might know that too.

Here we go…. These are in no order… they basically all tie in the top 5.

Bob Dylan

My dad got me into Bob Dylan. I actually hated him as a kid. My dad and his brothers would get drunk and sing along to what has to be Dylan’s most irritating song, “All I Really Wanna Do”. I can just hear them singing it now… but in 1992, the summer before high school, I watched the movie “Dog Fight” with my parents. It was River Phoenix’s last movie before he died and the amazing Lili Taylor was in it as his love interest. It took place in the 60’s during the Vietnam war. She was a hippie and he was a soldier, and she played him “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” by Bob Dylan on a record player and something about it really moved me and triggered me to go down to my basement and bring all my parents’ old records and record player up to my room and I have never been the same since. They had The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Donovan, Simon and Garfunkel, Moody Blues, Bob Dyan, and more. I fell deeply in love with classic rock around that time as well… Classic rock, classic 70’s folk, and the newly forming grunge genre of the 90’s were what I was all about from then on.

Bob Dylan became a favorite because I love poetry and his is among the best out there. His sound grew on me as well and I love it. Folk music is one of my biggest influences. He wasn’t very impressive at the live concert I saw, but no one is perfect. He’s brilliant though. Here are a few favorites…

Ani DiFranco

Another folk singer, a little more modern. She got her start around 1990 when she was still a teenager, starting her own record label and she is one of the biggest players in the music world to this day. She never sold out to corporate radio, which is why you may not know any of her songs even though she still sells out shows to this day. She is also a political activist and a big player in that too, but what I love most about her is her lyrics and guitar playing. I think she will go down in history as one of the best guitarists of all time, especially on the acoustic. What she does is mind blowing and her lyrics have always spoken to me for emotional and political reasons. I got into her around 1995 and first saw her in concert in 1996. I’ve seen her at least fifteen times now and she always puts on an amazing show and going to see her and hear her talk between songs is like visiting an old friend. Here are a few favorites…

Kanye West

If Bob Dylan and Ani DiFranco aren’t controversial enough, yes, I have Kanye on my list. Let me be clear that the last few years since he married Kim Kardashian and became a MAGA guy, I have become a little less enthusiastic about defending him, although I still do and I won’t get into it all right now, but most people who hate Kanye have never listened to his albums and whether they remember it or not, the reason they started hating him was because he was too vocal about thinking black people were mistreated in America. The very first thing that everyone hated on him for was back when George W Bush was president and Kanye took the mic to say “George W Bush doesn’t care about black people.” and people hated him starting then. They hated him even more when he took the mic from Taylor Swift saying Beyonce deserved the award because her song was better and a much bigger hit. It was true, but no one wanted to hear it. Now that “Black Lives Matter” is trendy people say they hate Kanye cuz of the crazy racist stuff he’s been saying lately, but they’ve always hated him for being a powerful black man who was able to reach people with his music that educated a lot of people about systematic racism. He is bipolar and after his mother died of an “accident” during a routine plastic surgery that he payed for, he hasn’t been the same. He married Kim and now Caitlyn Jenner is like his mother figure and I think she fucked with his head bad. Here are a few songs worth trying… He is a hip hop artist and producer.

Patti Smith

Patti Smith is the Godmother of Punk. She’s different and has her own style of music and poetry. She took awhile to grow on me and I just fall more and more in love with her music every time I hear it. I don’t know what genre to call it,,, a mix between classic rock and punk, kind of…

Roger Waters

Roger Waters was one of the original and long time members of Pink Floyd. He was a bassist, lyricist, vocalist, and maybe guitar and other things too. I’m not even sure. The Wall by Pink Floyd is my favorite album of all time even though I don’t listen as much anymore because it can sometimes be very triggering since my life ended up looking a lot like the story of the wall and I always knew it would. The best concert I ever went to was Roger Waters performing The Wall at Fenway Park. I love his stuff with Pink Floyd as well as some of his solo stuff especially “The Pro’s and Cons on Hitchhiking” and “Amused to Death”.

Here are a few favorites… He is considered a psychedelic rock/classic rock artist and is known for concept albums.

And there you have it, the top 5 favorite musicians of Jymi Cliche’

I’ve been busy with a number of projects lately. The most recent is that I have begun illustrating the children’s book I wrote about a year ago, and got the idea for 2 years ago when my boyfriend gave me a pin with a rainbow bee on it saying “Bee You”. Something sparked in my mind in that moment, but it took a year before I wrote it and another year to start drawing it. I’m gonna share the drawings along the way, but you’ll have to buy the interactive book to read the words. I’m thinking it won’t be available digitally at first because I’d have to know all sorts of programming skills to do it. There’s a part of the book where I want the kids to include a drawing or photo of themselves and like, glue it or tape it to the book or something… or maybe they can draw it right on the book. The story is a poem broken up into about 30 parts to make for about 30 illustrated pages. I’ve drawn 4 so far.

Another project I’ve been busy working on is my web site directory of my artist friends. You can find that here…

Another thing I’ve been working on is drawings of some of my favorite musicians and famous people. Tonight I did Kanye West..

And I officially finished my Podcast of “The Godchild”, my first book, written in 2013. I don’t know why it starts at the end, but you can change your setup to put them in order on Spotify I think. It’s also available on Google Podcast and Apple Podcast, plus Anchor FM and some others. It is about ten hours in total, made up of 50 episodes between 5-25 minutes each. There are ads for the first few episodes in a row, but I was able to space them out later so there is only an ad before every 5 or 6 episodes rather than each one. The ads are how I make money off it but I didn’t wanna spam people with them constantly. So far I’ve only made 10 cents and I don’t get a payment until it’s up to $15 but it’s a brand new podcast. I hope you will enjoy. If you don’t know already, The Godchild is a memoir/psychological thriller about me, an intersex trans man artist with mental illness. It’s meant to inspire. I hope it will.

Tonight I’ve been listening to a couple of my favorite rappers, Little Simz and Rapsody because a friend was looking for female rappers more like Lauryn Hill and less like Cardi B. That’s them.. They are brilliant…. That’s it for now.

I’ve been working on a number of projects lately, and that has included some new art. I have mixed feelings about some of it, and that includes my drawings as well as my new Podcast and even my books. I’ve been in a kind of negative space about my Godchild trilogy as I read it aloud. It could’ve been better. I wanted it to be better… and I guess it still can be. I’m gonna make it a goal to redo the many major issues with the first book and re-release it somewhere between the second anniversary of the release date to the fifth anniversary. I don’t know how long it will take or what other projects might come first. The good news is that a lot of people still genuinely liked it, and I know it’s not 100% terrible by any means, but as I grow, so do my expectations of myself. If you would like to buy any of these drawings, they are all 8×10 which is easy and inexpensive to frame. I’m selling them all for $75 until March 15th and then the price may go up or down.

That’s it for the new art right now. The other project I’ve been working on is the podcast of my first book, “The Godchild”

See my Facebook author page above to start listening to my trilogy. It will be about 50 episodes, all between 5 and 25 minutes each. It’s imperfect, but still a pretty mind blowing story and you can hear it in my voice.

What else can I say? I’ve been kind of up and down. I’ve had a lot of stress, but a lot to be grateful for. Life is not so bad. Things have been far worse. I’ve made a bunch of new friends recently and I’m alive and well with many stories to tell…

Oh, speaking of hip hop… one more thing… One of my “recipes” for a delicious but not too unhealthy snack is to take a low fat pudding cup and put a handful of Reese’s Cereal on top. I got groceries today and they brought me this. I’m not a Lil Yachty fan, but it’s still kind of cool.

How about I share some real hip hop with you that’s much better than Lil Yachty?…

And that’s that folks…

I had two separate WordPress accounts. One was a free blog, and one was this paid web site I made through WordPress and BlueHost. My computer froze and died on me a couple weeks ago and at first I thought I lost EVERYTHING which would include recent edits of my books, my poetry, my query letter and pitch for my upcoming book, my beats to all my songs which cost between $5 to $30 each, some of my art and photography, and I thought I lost access to this web site, but my dad was able to save all of my files. Still, I was without my computer for over a week, unable to work on a number of projects I was working on when the computer died. I thought at least I’d be able to update my blog through my phone, but it said I reached my limit and would have to pay. I knew I had a paid account on here, although I wasn’t sure I’d be able to access this one again… but as you can see, I am, so I’m moving my blog here, which makes more sense anyway. I was accidentally using my blog on here as a site page for my graffiti stickers, so I’m gonna have to re-make a page for those, but here I am!

Right now I’m listening to the French DJ Wax Tailor, who I highly recommend. I met him a couple years ago and got a signed record. He just came out with a new album and it’s great.

My shitty record player died on me right around the time my computer died and it forced me into finally buying a quality record player for my collection. I got it all put together and saw they sent me a European cord, so I had to buy an American cord and wait for that, but once I finally got I running, it’s been great! My friend Dan offered me his old speakers too, so I should be able to move the turntable to a less cat accessible location than it is in right now, but I need it to be on my desk top because it shares speakers with my computer at the moment.

Now that I have my computer back with all my files thanks to my dad, I’m getting back to work on projects, like this page I am working on for my artist friends…

I also started a podcast this week of me reading my book. Unfortunately I have problems with my voice straining so I couldn’t practice reading the book aloud several times before doing the podcast like I usually have to do with my poetry in order to not mess up reading aloud. I’m slightly dyslexic, and reading aloud is a struggle, but it’s the best I can do right now and I wanted to offer it read in my voice. It hurts to talk though, and I should really see a doctor.

Here is the podcast. So far it’s a little over half my book… probably almost 3 hours of listening… I’m not sure exactly. The theme song is by an old 90’s underground Boston band I can never find any info on called Liggy Wog.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about my newest covers until I saw them, and I love them so I think it was the right move.

I saw someone was doing a then and now photo thing the other day, and right around now has been sixteen years since I began my transition. It’s a trip to look back on that lil punk I once was and see how much I’ve grown!

Here’s some recent art I did of Moo and an old friend. I’m gonna try to start a new charcoal series of famous people I am a fan of instead of friends though, at least for now.

That was my first attempt at a Garbage Plate… It’s a famous dish from Rochester, NY. A cheeseburger patty over roasted potatoes and macaroni salad with onions, mustard, and chili powder. It was yum.

I finally got the new Nas record I pre-ordered in August! It’s great though.

All in all, I can’t really complain. There have been ups and downs but I am moving along one day at a time and a lot of the little disasters and down sides have turned into ups and life is not too bad. We got Trump out of the White House and that’s huge in itself. Thank the Lords.

Is this my blog? Testing.