If there is such a thing as heaven and hell, to which I can not verify as I feel this reality is questionable at best, then this must purgatory. A tricky bend in the universe where debts are settled, retribution is paid, lovers are reunited, and both angels and demons walk with us. I think for sure I have seen both and have had the misfortune of befriending the latter more often then most do.
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I have this old red suitcase filled with vintage vinyl <3
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“The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day:
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts
And took them quite away!”
new Alice in Wonderland designs
The White Rabbit
This is an art project I did for The Sketchbook Project. Secret Codes was my awesomely fabulous theme. These are a few of the pages from my sketchbook. I waited until the very last minute to start this so I didn’t get to put as much time as I wanted into it. Most of the pages are unfinished to me at least. I wish I could have done more with them. These are my most favorite pages.
This sketchbook, as well as many others, will be going on tour around the country. It will be visiting the following place during spring 2011
Austin, TX ~ San Francisco, CA ~ Portland, ME ~ Atlanta, GA
Chicago, IL ~ Washington, DC ~ Winter Park FL ~ Brooklyn, NY
Visit The Sketchbook Project for more information
Secret Codes
Zazzle now has iPhone cases! I just designed a bunch and plan on adding more soon. The new iPhone case feature all of my best selling designs in including Alice in Wonderland, skull & crossbones designs and more. I’ve also started adding iPad case this past week. More of those to come as well. Check out all my iPhone cases here!
Winter is four. Her world is magic. These are the stories I tell her. They are weaved from my strange imagination, folklore and the things we encounter on our almost daily walks around town. This is the magical world we created for ourselves. These are the tales I tell. She believes every word of it. Of course it is mostly true because magic is everywhere.
I walk winter to school everyday. We walk by an abandoned stretch of land. In that place there is a hearth. It is very old and built of stone. Like many things it has it own story. A story crafted from my imagination.
There once was a married couple who loved to read books. They read them during breakfast and all though the day. At night they would fall asleep with books wide open and glasses still sitting on top their noses. They had so many books they knew not what to do with them. They took every inch of their house. So they decided to build a house with all their books. The walls, the bed, the table, all of it made from books. The only thing that was not made of books was the hearth made of stone that stood in the center of the house. They read so many books they had no time for children. When they died there was no one to inherit the house of books. So the house stood abandoned for many years. People would pass the house and sometimes take a book with them. They figured it’s just one book. No one will notice. No one will care. Soon every last book was taken and the house of books was no more. The only thing that was left was the hearth. The house still exists only in a different form. It can be found on many book shelves, used book stores and also in the local public library.
When we go out for coffee and slushie and to visit the spooky graveyard we must cross the troll bridge. We have to be very quiet as not to wake the trolls. If they wake, they will demand a toll from us. The toll is $65 or so Winter says. Just in case though I make sure to have enough cash to cross the bride. Mama is cranky when she can’t get to the store to buy her 99 cent ice coffee. Of course if they catch us that coffee will cost $65.99.
An old feud that dates back many many years. Cannibal ghost really have it out for the pirates. They fight often and lose often. The pirates win because the Cannibal ghosts eat each other. They say it is best to fight them in the early evening once they have awoke and at their most hungry. The cannibal ghost most often take up their residence in the spooky graveyard amongst the 19th century tombstones.
We have many gnomes that stop by the house. They like to play tricks on us. They take things and hide them. They also can fix the many things Winter breaks. They fix them with their special tools. She puts them on the Windowsill and they come back fixed. Sometimes. She also like to put food on the windowsill for them to take and eat. They don’t always take it though. Gnomes can be picky eaters.
The fairies also come to visit. They brings us special gifts like my shinny purple combat boots and little trinkets for Winter that she likes to break and lose. Both the gnomes and fairies offer us advice to guide us though our day.
Well there it is…The magical world according to me and my cute little monkey. We haven’t got a lot of money for entertainment. We have only our feet for walking and the our endless imagination.
I had just taking a few really nice bong hits when I received a text message from Kenny saying he had just arrived in Baltimore. I started to feel as though we were a bit behind times. I had left my house at around 630AM and jumped on a train to Boston. Then I hung out in South Station for about an hour and a half, clutching my big giant bag for dear life as cops were walking everywhere with dogs sniffing around for bombs and God knows what else. It was the God knows what else that I was worried about. As I was traveling around with copious amounts of herb stuffed into the center of my bag. One and half hours of this went on, as I sat and wondered when did Boston become such a police state? I mean really. I used to work in South Station. It was never like this. Never.
At about 1130AM I arrived in Providence, met up with Sly and then Mike came by and picked us up. We hit the road at about 1PM. We drove straight though with very few stops. We got trapped in New Jersey or Mordor, as Mike so aptly put it, for about two hours. We arrived at the club at around 8PM, Just in time to catch Watain!
The past two years that I went I always traveled down with about seven or eight of my friends. This year nearly all of them backed out. All of them except Sly. Sadly, Snake didn’t go this year either. He backed out at the very last minute, disappointing all of us Snakenetters. Shame on you Snake! Shame on you!
I had hoped to be at the Venue much earlier. Still I was happy just to be there. After all I waited a whole year for this. After I caught the end of Watain’s set, I wandered around looking for the folks from Snakenet that I was sharing a room with. I finally ran into Kenny and he gave me the biggest, bestest hug ever. I stayed at the club for bit drinking beers then headed over to the Sheraton. We were in room 1412. It was really on the 13th floor, not the 14th though. I hung out at the room with my hotel mates for the rest of the night, trying my best not to fall out the big open window. Kenny gave me these really awesome Alice in Wonderland books. The books were most fabulous. It was a great day!
Saturday Afternoon I went with Jill, Dennis and Kenny to Little Italy to get a bite to eat. After stopping off at a few different restaurants it didn’t take long for us to realize we really couldn’t afford to eat at any of these places. So we found some crab and pasta place. I got French fries and veggies. The only vegetarian thing on the menu.
Then it was off to the club. I arrived at the venue to find they closed off my most very favorite room. It had very comfortable sofas. That is why it is my most favorite. Saturday and Sunday no one except bands where allowed in my most very favorite room with the comfortable sofas. This perplexed me to no end.
That afternoon I was able to catch some bands play. Incantation and Asphyx were a couple of the ones I saw. I really enjoyed Asphyx’s set. It left me wondering why I don’t listen to this band more often. I of course, could say this about many of the bands I’ve had the privilege of seeing at MDF this year and the two years before as well.
Towards the end of the night everything began to have a warm fuzzy glow, much like these photographs I took before we left Sonar. Only it wasn’t really the end of the night. There were much more adventures ahead.
Wandering around Baltimore we stumbled across this fountain. Apparently there was much going on over at the fountain. I kinda missed it all though cause I was distracted by the pretty lights on the trees. There were some who thought I took pictures of what was going on but really I just took about two dozen pictures of the trees.
We ended up in Jeff’s room at the Tremont. It’s nice that someone always has a room there. Out of all the hotels I’ve been to in the Baltimore area I found that the Tremont has the nicest rooms to party in.
One of my most favorite MDF activities is hiding in the shade from the blinding sun and watching the people stumble by and whirl around me. On Sunday I did a lot of that. Every year I go I run into so many people, folks I know from home, random people I met online, and of course all the the people I saw at this thing last year and the year before. I sit down on the grass, I sit down on the pavement or sometimes I just like to stand around. I like to observe. I look around at all the geeks, the misfits and kindred spirits and in my sloshy unsober mind I think These are my people and I love them all so much.
Out of all the bands that played I was looking forward to seeing Obituary the most. I haven’t seen them play in so many years. It was nice seeing them play again. I took a lot of pictures and I think they came out the best out of all the ones I took.
…And then it was over. They stated tearing down the one of the stages before we even left the venue. Walking out the gate for the very last time on the very last night is always so sad.
The very last picture of Jill below I took just for Snake. Even in a non-smoking world you can still find a place to sit back and enjoy a smoke.
+ New section with 40 new products +
All new customizable holiday cards, fabulous cups of various sizes and colors, cool stickers, t-shirts, buttons & more. Lots of snowflakes,
Santa and nifty vintage holiday things.
+ Visit my Zazzle shop +
Kelly and I walked slowly to the club so we could enjoy a smoke. When we had finally arrived we had already missed the first few bands. The first band we saw was Alestorm. Their set was most fabulous, of course anything involving beer and pirates I’m sure to love, so of course I loved their set. Their music was a great start to a good evening, they really encouraged me to drink up, which I did.
The next band was Belphegor, I was distracted by a bunch of other things, like talking on the phone and Dan being kicked out for smoking. I didn’t give this band much attention and the sound at the club sucked anyways so I wasn’t much into them, but I do listen to them on last.fm, maybe another time at another place I could enjoy their set a bit more.
The last band that played was Eluveitie, before they went on I spoke to Ari who tutored me in the proper pronunciation of their name. He even called over a french women who offered up the correct pronunciation. However hard I tried I could not get the proper pronunciation down. Maybe it was all the beer I drank or just the fact that I suck at that sort of thing. Anyways their set rocked. I loved it.
All and all I had a fabulous time. I am most grateful to Kelly who has driven long distances many times to pick me up and drive me to shows. She is most awesome. I hope we have many more fabulous metal adventures to come.
Every act of creation is first
of all an act of destruction.
-Pablo Picasso
