Poppy Z. Brite's Blog, page 33
September 24, 2012
Billy Joel Explains My Life Yet Again
"Close To The Borderline"
Blackout, heatwave, .44 caliber homicide
The bums drop dead and dogs go mad
In packs on the West Side
Young girl standing on a ledge looks like another suicide
She wants to hit those bricks
'Cause the news at six gotta stick to a deadline
While the millionaires hide in Beekman Place
The bag ladies throw their bones in my face
I get attacked by a kid with stereo sound
I don't want to hear it but he won't turn it down
Life is tough but it's just enough
To hold back the tears until it's closing time
I survived, I'm still alive
But I'm getting close to the borderline
Close to the borderline
A buck three eighty
Won't buy you much lately on the street these days
And when you can get gas
You know you can't drive fast anymore on the parkways
Rich man, poor man, either way American
Shoved into the lost and found
The no-nuke yell we're gonna all go to hell
With the next big meltdown
I got remote control and a color T.V.
I don't change channels so they must change me
I got real close friends that will get me high
They don't know how to talk and they ain't gonna try
I shouldn't bitch, I shouldn't cry
I'd start a revolution but I don't have time
I don't know why I'm still a nice guy
But I'm getting close to the borderline
Close to the borderline
I thought I'd sacrifice so many things
I thought I'd throw them all away
I didn't think I needed anything
But you can't afford to squander what you're not prepared to pay
I need a doctor for my pressure pills
I need a lawyer for my medical bills
I need a banker to finance my home
I need security to back my loan
It isn't new what I'm going through
But everybody knows you got to break sometime
Another night I fought the good fight
But I'm getting closer to the borderline
Closer to the borderline.
Bobby Kork (Again)
I added this photo to the "Bobby Kork" auction. It's just another crappy iPhone shot, but I think it's a little truer to color than the first photo I posted. This painting and Grey's camera just didn't like each other. We hope to invest in a diffuser soon.
September 23, 2012
The Dead Taught Me How To Write
"The Dead Taught Me How To Write," acrylic on canvas, 16" x 20", not for sale
Grey hasn't had a chance to photograph this piece yet, so the above is just a crappy iPhone photo, but I love this painting (I'm keeping it) and wanted to show it off. The text reads:
The dead taught me how to write and how to recognise a story; the one I am about to tell is the only story that really belongs to me. My life is inside this place; it is down here, mixed with death, yet still life. - Laura Facchi
September 22, 2012
Melancholy Late-Night Roundup
Last night I finished a painting I like a lot. It's called "Long After Midnight" (after the Ray Bradbury story, from which it also incorporates some text) and I'll be putting it up soon. Tonight I'm not having such a good night. Family bullshit and strife. I've had a Klonopin and smoked hash and now I'm drinking a beer (Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale). This time last year, I'd known Grey for two months, he was out of town, and I was probably out doing filthy things at the Phoenix. Now I've slid back into my dull old home-staying ways (and so has Grey; he's asleep in the next room, having gone to bed early after an allergy attack).
I've been very remiss lately in answering e-mails and replying to comments, especially all the useful information about oil paints and the kind words on my artwork. So thank you, collectively, for all that. I've also neglected to answer a few questions, which I'll try to do now.
How long does it take you to do these paintings?
It depends. (Of course.) I like marathon all-night painting sessions -- I seem to have a lot more stamina for it than I ever had for writing -- and sometimes I'll get going and complete a piece in a single night, as with "Long After Midnight." Other pieces sit around unsealed for days or weeks because I feel I might want to add something to them, or they might want something added. They don't take on quite the independent-feeling lives that my characters used to, but they definitely direct me rather than the other way around.
Do you just come up with the ideas and colors on the spot?
Sometimes I get an idea for a particular thing I want to paint, or an urge to do another version of something I've already painted (mermaid, cemetery scene, Slenderman ... ). Sometimes I've just visited the art supply store and have a new color I particularly want to try out. A couple of times I've dreamed of colors and tried to recreate them in paintings. Sometimes I begin a canvas by spraying it with a light coat of flat black that I end up seeing shapes in, and following the shapes (the genesis of "Joseph Merrick" and "Peepshow," among others ). And I love commissions, because it's fun to start with somebody else's idea and run with it.
Do you still love cats and gardening? You don't discuss them here much anymore.
This question gave me a pang, but I wanted to address it, because people must wonder. It's been a hard year full of massive changes. I've loved cats all my life and always will, but I also feel guilty about mine, because the changes in my circumstances have caused changes in theirs too, and none of it's their fault, and they don't understand it. So they're fine, as much as I can make them so, but it's a little hard for me to talk about them at the moment. My garden, I'm afraid, has pretty much gone to hell except for a few container plants. Between other obligations and the need to scratch out a living by any means possible, I just don't have the time or energy to devote to it anymore. I miss getting my fingers in the dirt, but I think painting is ultimately a better creative outlet for me, not to mention that it brings in more of ye olde maddeningly necessary folding green.
Onward. To the last of the hash, I think, and maybe a peek at
ontdcreepy
's Saturday free-for-all post. To paraphrase Hunter Thompson, I know that not everyone agrees with the practice of turning to drugs for comfort, but it's always worked for me.
I've been very remiss lately in answering e-mails and replying to comments, especially all the useful information about oil paints and the kind words on my artwork. So thank you, collectively, for all that. I've also neglected to answer a few questions, which I'll try to do now.
How long does it take you to do these paintings?
It depends. (Of course.) I like marathon all-night painting sessions -- I seem to have a lot more stamina for it than I ever had for writing -- and sometimes I'll get going and complete a piece in a single night, as with "Long After Midnight." Other pieces sit around unsealed for days or weeks because I feel I might want to add something to them, or they might want something added. They don't take on quite the independent-feeling lives that my characters used to, but they definitely direct me rather than the other way around.
Do you just come up with the ideas and colors on the spot?
Sometimes I get an idea for a particular thing I want to paint, or an urge to do another version of something I've already painted (mermaid, cemetery scene, Slenderman ... ). Sometimes I've just visited the art supply store and have a new color I particularly want to try out. A couple of times I've dreamed of colors and tried to recreate them in paintings. Sometimes I begin a canvas by spraying it with a light coat of flat black that I end up seeing shapes in, and following the shapes (the genesis of "Joseph Merrick" and "Peepshow," among others ). And I love commissions, because it's fun to start with somebody else's idea and run with it.
Do you still love cats and gardening? You don't discuss them here much anymore.
This question gave me a pang, but I wanted to address it, because people must wonder. It's been a hard year full of massive changes. I've loved cats all my life and always will, but I also feel guilty about mine, because the changes in my circumstances have caused changes in theirs too, and none of it's their fault, and they don't understand it. So they're fine, as much as I can make them so, but it's a little hard for me to talk about them at the moment. My garden, I'm afraid, has pretty much gone to hell except for a few container plants. Between other obligations and the need to scratch out a living by any means possible, I just don't have the time or energy to devote to it anymore. I miss getting my fingers in the dirt, but I think painting is ultimately a better creative outlet for me, not to mention that it brings in more of ye olde maddeningly necessary folding green.
Onward. To the last of the hash, I think, and maybe a peek at
ontdcreepy
's Saturday free-for-all post. To paraphrase Hunter Thompson, I know that not everyone agrees with the practice of turning to drugs for comfort, but it's always worked for me.
Bobby Kork
"Bobby Kork," acrylic on canvas, 11" x 14", $100 (or make an offer)
A portrait of the famous crossdresser/possible trans woman who performed in 1940s side shows as "The Half Man/Half Woman." Something weird is going on with the lighting on this one; it looks a lot better in person.
September 21, 2012
Graveyard Fairy
"Graveyard Fairy," acrylic on canvas, 16" x 20", $125 (or make an offer)
(Friday night challenge: Find the literary joke in this one! You'll have to click the link and use eBay's "mouse over/enlarge" feature, because it's very tiny.)
September 20, 2012
ebay (Books)
Auctions ending later today:
- Wrong Things hardcover signed by me and Caitlín R. Kiernan
- Plastic Jesus hardcover with bonus Would You? chapbook
- Copy #254 of the increasingly rare Stay Awake chapbook (Steve and Ghost)
As always, all items are signed and can be personalized.
- Wrong Things hardcover signed by me and Caitlín R. Kiernan
- Plastic Jesus hardcover with bonus Would You? chapbook
- Copy #254 of the increasingly rare Stay Awake chapbook (Steve and Ghost)
As always, all items are signed and can be personalized.
September 19, 2012
Cimetière Cajun
"Cimetière Cajun," acrylic on canvas, 16" x 20", $125
[SOLD! Please contact me at funkyegret (at) yahoo (dot) com re: commissions.]
Imaginary Autumn
"Imaginary Autumn," acrylic on canvas, 16" x 20", $125 (or make an offer)
[SOLD! Please contact me at funkyegret (at) yahoo (dot) com re: commissions.]
September 18, 2012
Red Letter-T Day
Just returned from a doctor's appointment where he switched me over to injectable testosterone. Now I'll be able to afford my actual prescribed dose again. Yes!
(Grey accompanied me to the appointment for moral support, since my years of seeking effective pain treatment left me disinclined to ask doctors for anything, and made a point of using my male pronouns in front of the doctors, who always -- weirdly -- use female ones.)
(Grey accompanied me to the appointment for moral support, since my years of seeking effective pain treatment left me disinclined to ask doctors for anything, and made a point of using my male pronouns in front of the doctors, who always -- weirdly -- use female ones.)
