This is my second coverboy video, and the third Coverboy of the Year photo shoot Metro Weekly has taken our readers behind the scenes.
It is on of our most anticipated issues of the year and I had a lot of projects to knock out, including some in-house promotional material.
But most of my work focused on video of the Coverboy of the Year photo shoot. Julian Vankim going us as a new staff photographer this year, stepping into Jeff Code’s shoes and taking over the Coverboy photo shoots. Todd Franson was on set to lead the creative direction of the shoot. Dylan Comstock ran our second unit and helped out on all ends.
Best joke so far: ”Cain is bowing out of his election bid to spend more time with your wife.” (via FARK).
Most interesting thing I’ve read: ”Twice as dark as President Obama, Cain proved that white Americans could support one of that tribe who was not at all light-skinned. Old black Herman did not look in the least like Halle Berry, NAACP chief Benjamin Jealous, Louis Farrakhan and others whose very existence suggests race mixing. His own skin seemed directly connected to the long, hard history of resistance and advancement that had nothing to do with Obama’s pastoral Hawaii. Like a rapper, he was the real thing.” (Stanley Crouch/The Root)
And then I read this bit by George Will: “The one who dropped out — Mr. Cain, who used this as a book tour in the fundamentally disrespectful approach to the selection of presidents,” Will said. “Now we have a December 27 debate that would be moderated by Donald Trump. Surely it is time for these candidates to do something presidential: Stand-up and say, ‘We’re not going to be hijacked and participate in this.’”
And that seemed a bit rough.
I felt the need to defend Mr. Cain. So what if it was all a giant book tour? So what if he is just an empty, self-promotional machine with no actual ideas? None of that disqualifies someone from being president. He even got enough of us on board to make it look like a thing. Then we got to know him a bit more, and some of his past came back to bite him in the ass, and we all moved on.
That’s not disrespectful, George, that’s how our system works. And your criticisms would have sounded less hollow if they had come before he dropped out.
We all (well, all of us 35+ and American citizens) have a right to run. Not all of us should, and sometimes we need the national spotlight to point out that glaring obvious fact, but George Will dosen’t get to tell any of us whether our desire to run the country is respectful or not.
Of course, I also Photoshopped your face onto Thomas the Tank Engine so I’m not exactly a proper arbitrator of what is and is not respectful.
Speaking of questioning proper of decorum, here’s a blind Facebook post in response to the following video:
The post in question: “Please tell me Ron Paul didn’t actually approve that — that was in embarrassingly poor taste. This isn’t WWF, it’s the fucking presidency.”
Mind you, this is within a discussion of like Conservative minds. Personally, I think there are plenty of things actually said in the video to be outraged about, like the complete elimination of the Departments of Education, Interior, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Commerce (because who needs all that Communist shit, amirite?)…but I guess that’s just me. Either way, I thought it was effective. Batshit insane, and I am getting more then a little sick of the whiny mocking announcer guy, but effective.
On a personally note, I am feeling a bit derailed myself. I sometimes wonder if one of the definitions of being creative is “random bouts of depression.” I tend to pull away when I feel this way. Some of you probably got caught in the scattershot f that. My apologies if it has; I’m working on it. Thirty-five seems to be throwing me a bit in the end. Twenty-five did as well, so I expected this…but I was so close to getting away with it. At least January is right around the corner.
It’s just been a couple of tricky weeks. Now here are three things that have kept a smile on my face (and have sparked some ideas for a project of my own):
Second post where I actually wrote something instead of just phoning it in with an emotionally manipulative graphic. Maybe I’ll stick this out after all.
Oh, and I finally started watching Community. Here’s one of many reasons why:
As I work in gay media, I don’t often get to celebrate Halloween. This year was no different, so I shopped myself a costume this year and added a few for some friends.
This image is a combination of my good friend Julian Vankim‘s amazing photography, some face-paint I managed to stumble through myself, and a bit of Photoshopping.
The two below were heavily stylized with thick straps of leather and sever shadows. I just added some color, some background and a few extra textures here and there (and some wings / horns, of course).
I also did some actual work this week, including the design for Fuego’s Halloween Party.
My Workoleen started at the High Heel Race, as Dylan Comstock, Randy Shulman and I caught the race from various cameras and locations:
As we were waiting for the race to start, Ebone Bell and I canvased the crowd for a special Halloween edition of Outspoken:
And here is a leather and face-paint themed piece I am working on with local photo genius Julian Vankim:
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