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Pride Is Time To Be Grateful

I have a lot to be grateful for, despite the last few days which have been kind of awful. I won’t get into it all right now but my anxiety and stress are through the roof and the shit that’s been happening is not fair to me and it’s my life story and I’m tired of it. It’s a constant fight that gets me seemingly nowhere. BUT this entry is going to concentrate on some of what I’m grateful for, because although I said I’d throw these last couple days away, there was actually some good too.

June is Pride month and I found a few of these old photos from Boston Pride in the 90’s. Fun times with old friends, most of whom are still in my life.

I got some pride soap from my favorite soap maker WickedSoftOrganics

That’s it below. It smells delicious.

I got this mask in the mail the other day. I bought a set of 2 Bob Dylan masks for my dad for Father’s Day, but I know he wouldn’t wear this one. I dunno if he’ll even wear the one I’m giving him, but I kept this one and took a selfie in the heat…

I made some new stickers for my press kits and sold 2 packs of 6.

And I got my pack of 250 stickers of my logo in the mail and they came out better than expected…

I texted about 50 people for addresses to send press kits to and got to talk to all kinds of people I hadn’t really talked to much, some of whom are interested in the book, so that is good news!

I started editing “I Write the System” by reading it aloud because that’s something highly recommended to people who edit their own books, and it’s been great, because for one thing, I can tell how it’s far better writing than The Godchild and everything flows naturally and sounds great, but there were a few very minor things that I definitely wouldn’t have even noticed were wrong if I hadn’t read it aloud, so I think it’s gonna be worth doing. I’ve also been trying to figure out what chapters I might be able to read from it if I were gonna do a book reading, and I found a couple so far that I think might work. It’s been good to get that done.

This gift to myself also came yesterday, which cheered me up. I can’t afford to buy myself much other than a couple little things under ten bucks, but I put most of my money towards stuff I hope will turn into money coming back to me at some point, like the stickers, envelopes, printer ink, and stamps for my press kit and I’m thinking of buying my own ISBN numbers for my future books rather than using the free one on Amazon that keeps you limited to them for life. Unfortunately it’s $200 for one ISBN or $300 for ten, so it makes sense to go for ten since I already have plans for three book releases in the next year and I especially don’t wanna get stuck with Amazon for the children’s book because I heard the quality of their children’s picture books aren’t great….but, I can’t afford $300 for anything right now so I’m hoping to ask for the money as an early birthday present. But yeah, this Funko Pop of Hitchcock was too cool. I still wanna direct a film some day and he was one of my earliest influences.

What else? It’s hot as fuck, for one thing. I need a vacation from the stress.

BUT I’m grateful to be alive. I got my medicine and took a cold bath with my pride soap, I have the AC in the bedroom, music playing, food to eat, a bed to sleep in, friends, family, etc. Speaking of family, my sister helped me learn how to do something new with my web site. I’m using it on this page. I’ve been reading from an incredibly helpful list I got on LinkedIn about how to make a web site that actually gets seen. Obviously that’s the goal of making a site, but of course it isn’t easy… at all, but I’ve already learned a few things and redid the front page if you wanna check it out here.

That’s all folks.

Here’s a random song I’m in love with for the road…

Get Well Soon Cards Available NOW and Wicked Cliche’ Stickers On the Way

An old friend told me today that an old comic I drew in the ER 16 years ago would make a great get well card, so….

Here it is as a card…

https://wickedcliche.threadless.com/designs/get-well-soon-card

It is FUCKING FREEZING! Can’t believe this was me just a couple days ago in 90 degree weather…

Today I am in layered shirts and sweat-pant shorts and I took like 12 hot baths cuz I am so damn cold and my body aches!

I saw my parents early in my day, got my printer working with my dad’s help, but need new ink, filled out 20 pages of paperwork to prove I’m still disabled, got Panera for dinner, and started working on re-writing the first 1/3 of “The Godchild”. Everyone who read past the first 1/3 agreed that most of the book was exciting, easy to read, and hard to put down, but a lot of people put it down a lot or completely before they got that far and that needs fixing. It’s not just other’s opinions either. While it is not entirely boring, it goes on a little too long with no direction. I am going to fix it up and make it better and am hoping for a re-release next Easter if I can get it done in time. Obviously I have a lot of other projects right now, the other of which I got to being that I got some professional stickers designed and ordered. I’m really praying they come out good because stickers are expensive but what would normally cost $500 on the majority of the sticker sites I found, I was able to find a deal for $70 on because I’d be buying them in bulk. It was a lot to spend, but I probably spent that much or more on the random fun sticker packs I bought last year alone. Last year I put 5 or 6 fun random stickers, one original sticker, one of my old business cards, and 2 or 3 prints, plus 8 pages of writing in each press release for The Godchild which meant it took 2 stamps per person and I think the prints were a couple bucks each. I will NOT be spending that much this time. I got 250 new business cards with my new web site made for $20 and 250 professional logo stickers for $70, I have to buy new ink for the printer, and then I gotta buy a couple books of stamps since I have several already, and that’ll be that. I’m pretty sure I have plenty of blank stickers so that I won’t have to buy more of those, but I’m gonna give everyone one professional logo sticker, one original one of a kind hand drawn sticker, a new business card, and 1 page about the new book. It will get the job done for far less but I really loved sending out all those stickers and prints to friends last year. Maybe it helped make up for the fact that I haven’t sent holiday cards out since I was like 21.

Here’s a couple random pictures from my bed as I go to bed in the early morning…That Bob Dylan poster is an OG copy from the 70’s and the Prince is an OG 80’s poster.

I guess it’s time I head to bed myself…

Here is a video… it’s not a song, but a Jim Henson video from his early collection pre-Sesame Street and Muppets I think, that helped me understand music better…

My First Art Show In Over A Year & Trying To Save the Gallery

If you are from Boston, you know that gentrification has closed down most of the art and music spaces in Boston even before the pandemic and almost nothing remains here for us now except for a few places including Out Of the Blue Gallery/ Parma Chai Gallery, which moved into The Armory in Somerville right around the beginning of the pandemic, and they’ve spent the year fixing up an ancient building that is an actual armory and small castle from the Revolutionary war. It’d been run down for decades and wasn’t until Out Of the Blue Gallery moved in there last year that it turned into such a remarkable, gorgeous gallery that is sure to add hugely to the Boston art culture once people get back into going out again. Out Of the Blue Gallery is accessible to real artists who may not have had the privilege of being born rich or going to art school, or even knowing the right people. The gallery took in starving artists for decades in its previous locations, and that is where I, a transgender, non-binary artist with Complex PTSD and Bipolar Disorder who spent 20 years in and out of psych wards and then ten more years in abusive relationships, managed to turn my life around. The gallery is extremely diverse, from the owner to every one of the artists, yet the fancy, rich, and mostly straight and white Somerville art people seem to be attempting to buy it out under us for themselves, in the name of “saving art”. I am not an expert on the subject, so you may wanna read about it in The Herald or follow the gallery on Facebook…

https://www.facebook.com/ParmaChaiGallery

Please sign this petition to help save the gallery…

https://www.change.org/p/city-council-help-protect-ootb-gallery-and-other-arts-businesses-in-the-armory?recruiter=622598&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_abi&utm_term=petition_dashboard&recruited_by_id=2bc642c0-54a5-11e7-bf6d-0f936dc062c6&utm_content=fht-28916467-en-us%3A0&fbclid=IwAR0DBAals8Nr726BqPw6x3WBGHNn3nwE-UmMhVbWaaXpSCcs2PJQhMg7CBU

In other, related news, Out Of the Blue held a small, private showing of my May photography exhibit on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. A few close friends came and hung out in the new performance space they are in the middle of fixing up and preparing to hold events with live music again. Here are some of the pictures I took…

Here is some info on my show, which is going on through June. It’s called “Falling Apart, Breaking, And Putting Myself Back Together Through Art”. The Armory is open to the public Monday-Saturday 9-6 and they even have a cafe in the building.

http://wickedclicheart.com/wicked-cliche-psychosis-art-show-at-out-of-the-blue-gallery-with-art-photos-a-poem-by-jymi-cliche/

For music this time, I’ll put up a video that was taken at the Armory this past year, inside Out Of the Blue Gallery, of me rapping over Parma Chai. It was completely improvised and I’m still sort of a beginner, so there were parts that sound better than others, but it was pretty awesome and I’m hoping there will be more to come.

New Book Cover & Business Cards

My last post was about haters on the internet and whether it even makes sense to ask strangers their opinions on art or writing. It was stemmed from some hate I got about my book cover the other day. A bunch of people said they wouldn’t even pick up my book because the cover was “too busy”, “unprofessional”, and one person said they wouldn’t know what the book is about by looking at it (as if any book cover can really do that)… but it was eating at me because so many people emphasize that the cover is the first thing people see. If I get a professional publisher, I may not even be able to use it, but it’s looking more and more like self publishing is the most likely thing to happen, and I can live with that, but I don’t wanna scare people away with an unprofessional cover, yet I also felt my cover was nearly perfect for my book… maybe not perfect graphic design, but it felt right to me. It was what I envisioned… So… with the help of the basic Paint program, I added a few lines here and there and I think it’s better. Here is what I plan to go with…

Here is what it looked like before.

So, I just made a few adjustments, but I think it’s better.

I’m heading to bed because I already took my night meds, so I can’t do a full post about my show at The Armory yesterday, but I will when I wake up.

Here’s my new business cards though….

And here’s a song I wanted to share that I fell in love with…