Orbits of a deluded mind

This is where JJ sits down and finally plays catch up from last week and makes plans for the next few weeks ahead.

The Lancaster House
As noted very briefly, I have a new tenant in my house in Lancaster. She’s paid in the full security deposit and first month. This lady seems nice and very thoughtful. It’s nice having the income coming back in again. Now I can start catching up from the bills “Josephine” left me with. The final tally for the previous tenant was $5000 for the judgment, plus nearly $250 in unpaid utility bills, $300 for cleaning and $700+ in repairs. I’ve gotten none of it – yet. I’m going to go find the biggest, nastiest, most aggressive debt collector I can find.

The Huntsville House
Tammy and I have started seriously looking into moving. We’re looking at either getting into another rental or buying a place. I’m not entirely comfortable about buying given the instability in the contracting situation, but I know I don’t want to spend another year in our current place. The place we’re both the most interested in is a 3000 sq ft., 3 bedroom, 2 bath house a little further south of our place. We already know the bathrooms need to be enlarged (& modernized), carpet replaced in several areas, and we need to modify a room/garage into an additional bedroom. It certainly has the space plus some to spare. All told the house has 6 garage spaces (2 car detached garage, 2 car attached but remote entry, and 2 garages in the house with direct entry). The place has immense potential but will require substantial modifications and repairs.

Shows and Events
Last week was huge for the kids and I for events. Last Monday, Brenna and I drove down to Birmingham, to see, hear,.. experience Beats Antique live. About a week or two before the show, I contacted the group’s tour manager and asked if I could shoot the performance. They gave me an all access pass to photograph the show. I provided my ticket to leliel and sabre0link also joined us. Before it was over, I’d gotten over 800 images the camera. Without a doubt, it was one of the most amazing and incredible small venue acts. Zoe, David and Tommy are great people and I was very happy to work with them. If you happen to have the chance to go to one of their shows, GO!

On this past Saturday, Chris and I drove up to attend Iris Faire (SCA event) in the Nashville area. I didn’t quite know what we were driving into on many levels. The weather that had battered the region on Friday had spawned extremely high winds and more than a few funnel clouds. As we neared the event site west of Nashville, we saw damage and trees down everywhere off the sides of the road. As the very strong cold front was centered on central Tennessee, it stayed windy and very cold throughout the day. I was happy to chat with Don Njall and Lady Allesaundra at the event. I’m glad that I did, because he clued me in further on who the “former ex-” was who was spreading foul rumors – Vikki (my ex- student). More on that later in the notes.. I also learned that by some manner I’d offended or bothered someone at a previous event, so I sought out the right folks and made apologies and begged forgiveness. I still don’t entire know the what, when and how I did anything, but I felt awful that there was any misunderstanding.

Event wise, I fought in the rapier tourney for the Silver Iris. I lost my first bout because I was more than a bit distracted. After refocusing, I fought my way to the finals where I lost. After only one practice in four months, I felt slow and sloppy, but it was a great tourney none the less. I opted out of the second (“Poison Iris”) tourney and spent time with Chris so he could attend the Chainmaile class they were holding. It was a fun event.

We left the event around 3pm and drove back to Huntsville in order to attend the performance of April Smith and the Great Picture Show. The Huntsville Swing Dance Club brought April and her band into town for the first time since I had helped host her last year. The show had close to 100 in attendance and many of those folks danced during the three live sets. I was stunned when April publicly thanked me alongside the organizers of this show. She explained to me later that she really appreciated that I’d introduced her to Huntsville and the incredible art and music scene here. Sadly, don’t expect any photos from me from the show. The Swing Dance Club had already contracted a photographer and videographer, plus the show was at the Flying Monkey. Nuff said about that venue.

Photo stuff
This is going to be a very busy 30 to 45 days ahead. I have three or four model shoots coming up. Two are catalog sets, one is fetish and there’s a newcomer TF set. Sometime in May, I’m also trying to get a weekend trip to Gulfport so I can work with Doll again. Brenna graduates on the 20th of May and I expect to shoot a few frames of my daughter getting her diploma.

Perhaps the biggest photo event is coming up next week. I’ll be shooting as a staff photographer for Frolicon in Atlanta, this weekend. It looks like there’s at least 8 other photographers covering the event so this should be a bit less stressful / exhausting. As mentioned in the previous message about Frolicon, I guess I will let one other cat out of the bag. When I was originally offering my services to the staff, they asked if they could use one on my art photos for the event badge. If things have gone well, one of my photos and models will be seen and worn by all the attendees.

In March, I had the pleasure of again shooting with model “Murder Doll” (http://www.modelmayhem.com/847538). Due to a number of reasons, she’d stepped back from modeling for almost a year. Because of her trust in my skill, she came back out to work with me.



( [5 behind the cut] )

In the United States, today is the Martin Luther King Jr holiday. Several years ago the US chose to honor the slain civil right leader on his birthday to recognize his and in effect, many thousands of others contributions to be equal regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, and by extension, sexual preference (note: many civil rights laws enacted have been used to protect the LGBT community).

In Huntsville, there is a relic of that era. A former segregated high school building still stands in silent testimony of the days when black children and white children did not attend the same schools. Welcome to William Councill High School.



( School’s Out For-ever )

Here's a little preview of things to come


Luna Lilly - 2010

Here's a preview of a beautiful young woman Tammy and I got to work with last month.



Aden Lee (MM #648207)

Yes, I’m still alive and haven’t fallen off the world. Work and lack of time has kept me from posting and writing versus shooting.

Last fall, I wandered several of the back roads around Huntsville. This particular place had attracted my attention several times, but when I finally got around to stopping to explore it, vandals had managed to burn the place badly. Since taking these, the county has torn it down the rest of the way.



( Down on the farm [12 behind the cut] )

Alright folks, much as I hate to say it, we need to find a permanent home for the 5 month old puppy we took in. "Harrison" is a very loving, very energetic bull terrier. We took him in with the intention to keep him at best or foster/care for him at the least. We've run into several problems in keeping him that aren't his fault.

1. Our husky isn't getting along with Harrison. How not getting along? Panda is normally very loving and friendly to everyone and surprisingly everything - except Harrison.

2. Harrison is just too big and rough with our youngest child. He's knocked the little boy down several times and tried to play rough. He doesn't realize the boy isn't a puppy.

3. Tammy just started a new job which means now niether of us are home enough to play with/train him.

4. We broached the idea of another pet in the property and the landlord won't allow it.

We need to get him into a new home ASAP. Anyone game or have suggestions for rescues that might help? We took him on as a foster animal and had the highest hopes of providing him a good home. Our best intentions aren't enough.

I got in last night after numerous delays and misadventures. My bag is still in route from where-ever it went.

Everyone in Huntsville can panic. It's snowing here heavily.

Last Saturday was interesting and a challenge to the system. I drove down to Birmingham to meet with tayrune there, and then headed to Atlanta for The Mechanical Masquerade. The event was being sponsored by the Syrens of the South burlesque company and was much more than beautiful ladies in lace and ruffles. The event was being billed as a steampunk/Neo-Victorian event with merchants and musicians in the genre displaying or performing. It was a fun evening and I made more than a few contacts for my behalf and for ImagiCon. Oh and yes, there will be photos.

After show in Atlanta, tayrune and I drove back to Birmingham that evening through the rain, water, fog and wind, where I crashed on her couch. After a nap and good conversation the next morning, I headed back home to Huntsville. About halfway home, I got a text message from another B’ham friend, Kaley. Kaley’s a regular at SWYD, a former model and photographer. She was planning to do a horror shoot with her cousins the next day at Sloss Furnaces and invited me down to chat. Chuckles.. if it weren’t for work in Huntsville, I have the feeling I’d be in Birmingham almost constantly.

Monday being a US Federal holiday, my kids & I were off so I piled everyone into the car and we drove back to Birmingham. Halfway down, Kaley texted me that Sloss was closed. Every time I’ve tried to get my kids there to see the haunted former steel mill, I find it closed. Anyhow, we continued down and meet them in front of Sloss. I pointed out a nearby set of abandoned buildings which worked for the photos they wanted. While they shot, I led Brenna around the former power sub-station and shot a few reference pictures.

After finishing at Sloss, we contacted Glaus and the entire group got together for dinner at the Golden Rule BBQ (29th and Clairmont - http://www.goldenrulebbq.com/). Overall it was a good day.

For the last few days it’s rained here. No not the biblical downpours that are falling in Southern California, but the steady rains that fill the nearby ditches, creeks, swamps and rivers. Swamps? In the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains?.. Yup. The Huntsville area is graced / cursed by weird geological arrangements. The hills and low mountains here, are limestone & sandstone, so they are porous and riddled with caverns, underground streams and are effectively reservoirs. In the city limits there are no less than four major springs which are “mostly” channeled towards the Tennessee River just south of town. Byrd Springs, just east of Redstone Arsenal empties into a vast swamp. There are several other swamps, bogs and sloughs all along the north band of the Tennessee and nestled between the hills and ridges.

While thinking about this, my heart (and wallet) goes out to my many friends back in southern California. Below the San Gabriel and Ventura Mountains, they’ve gotten between 2 to 4 inches of rain. It’s come with high winds and even spawned a few coastal tornados. Higher up in the Coastal’s, Ventura’s and San Gabriel’s, heavy rain and snow has been falling for four days. These are the same areas that burned last summer so there’s nothing to draw in the moisture. Further over the mountains in the Antelope Valley, an inch and a half rain has fallen; and snow has also dropped on a few nights. This leads to my wallet comment. The roof is leaking – again. I’m not entirely surprised. I wanted to get a layer of sealant on the roof there in October, but the lack of a full deposit shot that down. The summer heat in Lancaster dries out and cracks the seals so when the winter rains come, the water finds a way into the low roof sections. Bleah..

SNOW! I got up this morning to find 1/2 inch of snow on the ground. We had a flurries last night that weren't expected to accummulate. It did :D.