ok, so I'm a bit late with my decade overview and 2009 remembrance.
hmmmm... in 2009 I worked a lot on turning project
a year at the wheel into a film and book. it's been a trip to say the least, and I'm not talking the actual movement of the road, I'm talking a trip to the brain. not sure if anyone will get the film I've come up with, but it made me feel better... hell, I'm not sure if anyone will get the book, the film, or any of it! I know I get it, and it's made me a better/worse person. 'it' being, the working out of the trip with a book, and what looks like, not 1, but 2 films (more on 1or2 films in a future post).
2009 was also the year I fell in love with the photo and started making art again. so, for the most part, I spent 2009 walking the beach, digesting our crazy road trip and creating what some call art/sculptures.
yep, that's about it... except for, the only other immediate, and what feels like important/substantial memory is the train trip I took 'home' to dig thru the last of my material possessions, visit an old pal or three, bury a family member and return the plaster cast cock of mike diana (
for all keeping up, I sent it, the cock cast, back to cynthia plaster caster). the only part of 2009 that really matters to me is that my wife, myself, dog and turtle are together and happier than ever.
my new years resolution - to update my blog more often but seeing as it's feb 17th and I'm posting my 2009 in review, maybe I should stick to my regular resolution which is, no resolutions.
for those interested or following along - here's what I did for last 10 years.1998-1999 - chicago at night - a monthly adult entertainment paper. published/designed/photo/everything.
1999 - 2nd expo of the extreme - art/entertainment event featuring motorhead and was mentioned on the howard stern show by dana plato the day before she died. - conceptualized/produced/promoted.
2000 - dana plato's last breath - book/cd - author/publisher
2001 - bought a 10,000 sq. foot building with old printing presses and a button machine on the first floor - printed 3 comic books, a book and a magazine, designed over 10,000 1"pins and went on 'the angry white male' book tour/victory lap with mike diana and jim goad. retired the michael hunt publishing name and decided to quit publishing books because all people wanted were trinkets, doodads and 1"pins.
2002-2004 - sold the building right before loosing it and moved to the armpit of america - hammond, indiana. where we took a shack and gutted and rehabbed it... I built an audio studio into our new humble abode and went into internet broadcasting/podcasting with my radio show 'three ring radio'.
was also lucky to have helped my wife bring the actors from the film 'a christmas story' into hammond to celebrate the life of author jean shepherd, a literary genius who WAS for the most part ignored in hammond, that is until amy and myself stepped in.
a video of us accepting award from mayor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq201EBvurw2005-2006 - packed up, sold the house and had the moving truck pointed to N.Y. when amy's dad had a stroke. putting all of our plans aside, we moved to ely minnesota, a small town in the middle of the superior national forest to help dad heal... a lot different than selling sleaze in N.Y.C
with no one to sell skull shaped pins and underground/subversive comics to, I came up with the novel idea of starting a soda pop company... and poof - ely elixir blueberry soda was created and became popular thru-out the state of minnesota... we then decided to put some of the profits into creating an arts and entertainment paper as well as the first podcast from the great northwoods.
we were run out of town for our efforts - some say it was due to our underground/subversive ways, the indian tribe and local powerbrokers all seemed to agree - we stepped on too many toes too quick.
2007- shunned and run out of minnesota, we head to where any heretic would head in hopes of survival - Los Angeles! after a brief stint making porn, my head imploded and I could no longer take it - the politics of the day, what I had become, none of it... so we packed up our laurel canyon shack and hit the road... this time with a plan of never leaving the road again...
2008 - on the road realizing a crazy idea and more importantly ourselves.
2009 - digesting our road trip by making a book and film (maybe 2 flicks)
ahhh.... I'm sure I've forgotten a thing or three, but there it is for the most part - the last 10 year of my life, and/or, my contribution to the first ten years of the next 1000.
** here's one I forgot: between 1999 and 2001 I drove around with ed gein's headstone as the third seat in my van... the seattle police confiscated it on the angry white male tour.
