~ Upon the Emernoir ~

While looking for something related to a currently secret project I'm working on, I stumbled into Christopher Young's art pages
This man's brains flow through his pens like mine do.  I've drawn some mismash entertaining sketches all over my school books and lined paper many times (I'll post some up at some point), so I understand where he comes from.  I think I've gone on vacation there about a million times and came back every time with a new souvenir usually in the form of a dream object materializing and ending up in my hands or vision.  Met some cool people and creatures there too.  Anyhoot, check out his electricity bill art and creature parades.  Makes me warm and fuzzy.

Through his site, I adventured into Dante Alighieri's Wood of Suicides, which made me pause and recall on that - which I hadn't in such a long time.  Indeed, just as it did to Young, the part about the twisted trees talking through their broken branches stuck in my head too.  I'd really like to draw it some day.  Reminds me of another dream that I sketched out and need to paint at some point.  One day...some day...some point...  I seriously intend on it even if I have to work on it from the next stage of life.

Today's News:

I acquired a new puppy from a nice woman named Cindy who didn't have a house big enough for it (That'll teach me to take a random, rare walk in the park on the same day as an offer like this is available and within minutes of stepping onto park grounds, getting handed a free - yes, free - husky puppy) .  I now have the responsibility of taking care of an adorable white, fluffy, white-eyelashed husky puppy.  I have mixed emotions.  Such as:  WTF did I just do?  OMG how'd I get handed my dream dog for free while during the worst financial crisis my love and I have ever been in?  NFW this is badass!  HS the new puppy might get killed by the retardedly aggressive dog I have while the other nicer dog watches!  (acronym here) Looks like they actually might get along afterall...  And I think Rick might not kill me afterall.

Later today, my friend Kristen is coming over to work on costumes with me.  I'm trying to finish a commission and get some extra shirts, pants, and cloaks made to sell.  The new serger needs to get its hands dirty...all over me.

Husky Puppy Trivia Answers:
He's male.
He's only 3 months old (pics coming soon).
His previous owner named him Bear but her accent couldn't allow her to pronounce the "R" clearly, so he doesn't respond when you say his name with an English accent.  So I decided it was meant to be "Beaa" (pronounced 'Bay-uh') - which is actually the name of a significant magicaly land in a world that I've been writing about for the past twenty years.

But what I kinda smirk at is that now I have three dogs who have names that sound suspiciously like deliberate attempts at setting up university groups.  Alya, Beaa, Pi.  Total accident.

Bachelor Cats:
A friend of mine went to a bachelor party last weekend and told me that there was one stripper who kept saying that she wanted to "bang her fat kitty" on him.  All I could think of, as I laughed my eyes out, was that woman hitting my friend in the face with my fat calico cat Sorsha.

So I got them headshots done that I said I'd get done.  More on the way too!  Finally, my first pro headshots thanks to the awesome Pixie.  Up till now, the only photos I had were of me naked in plaster.  Or just from the neck down with a loin cloth and a can of cat food in each hand.  O_O  Bout' time I tried an upper cut.

It'll be a bit before they're posted.  First I need to choose my favorites that I'll use.  We also did some really fun shots that I'll post up too.  Additionally, the whole resume is getting updated and revamped this week and a new link will be on my site. Just cuz...maybe...you were interested.

Anyhoo, as they say in the land of mountaineers, I've been meanwhile attending classes at AIA Acting Studio in Burbank and continuing with my writings.  It's really tasty.  I'm attending the Prime Time Drama classes and the Sci-Fi/Fantasy for Film & TV classes.  Had to audition before I could become a member too.  I'm hoping that they didn't make it easy on me.  Because I want to feel fierce.  Like a wild tiger on a dance floor!

I got a lucky tip from Aaron Vanek about his friend directing a new HP Lovecraft b&w 30's movie "The Whisperer in the Darkness" and ended up suddenly needing to scramble to make a 1930's coat and dress, and find a cloche (one of those cute, short brim, hats), gloves, and a pair of period-appropriate (also good for that time of the month) shoes.  I somehow managed to do it. 

And then when I got there to become a wench for the camera, I found out my dress was a smidge too short!  Thankfully the very snazzy Laura Brody had a spare and she got me all shiny!  Glenn did awesome "eyes" for me by touching my eye rims repeatedly with a variety of utensils.  If he meant what he said (and I agreed!), then he really did a glorious job and wasn't just trying to get me to smile wider and look at him with larger pupils.

Onward ho!...

So next on the menu, we're putting the final touches on the studio and then I'm getting it prepped to get my voice demo done.  The next big project for that room is the compilation comedy album for the LARP Alliance.  And I've got a few people waiting to get in and use my...services...for some recording demos of their own.  Brilliant ol' chap! HAHA!

Oh and I planted a shrubbery in my front yard!

I don't want folks to think that I did the revamped studio on my own.  Rick has been just amazing and I'm so thankful. 

He tore the walls down, rebuilt them, re-wired them, added lighting and plugs, installed the radiant barrier, added insulation, installed the soundboard on all the walls, and then finally installed the drywall over all of that, and mudded it. 

I helped with the mudding and bits of the whole process here and there.  I stained the baseboards and trim all by myself and I did the majority of the painting.  He's been doing helping me with painting touch-ups the past couple nights after he gets home from work. 

We still have trim to do after all this, the electrical devices and ceiling fan to install, and he will be installing the baseboard. 

Lots of work and lots of awesome love. 

Lastly, I will move my equipment in and hook it all back up, assemble my shelves to elevate my media devices and make them more accessible, and do a bit of room detail to make it Home. 

I wish I was already at the recording point.

(laughing now, as my cat just fell off the couch arm like a toppled sleeping cow for no apparent reason) 

First project is to finish my voice demo.  Second, to finish the instrumental "Shadowing" which I did a rough recording of for my next album.  Third, to get back to the compilation and collaboration CD, The Gallivanter's Rhapsody.  I also have a couple of songs from two musical friends of mine that I'd like to get back to working on.

So there you have it.

Oh! and a lizard.  Rick walked into the studio room and caught a baby lizard.  I mean... super tiny.  Very cute.  Not sure how it got in the room.  For now, I have it in a small container, but I think I'll let it go tomorrow.  It's a wild thing and it would do better in its preferred environment...as much as I miss having lizards for pets (owned anoles, iguanas, bearded dragons).  And because it just costs more money to get all invested in a terrarium, heat rock, baby crickets and mealworms, fresh veggies for lizard meals, etc.  Maybe once we are short a cat, dog, chinchilla, or fish, and a few belongings, I'll consider taking in another pet. :)

The End.

Just finished revamping my adriannegrady.com website, livejournal, and myspace a bit. Have a number of other priorities to attend to now such as other companies' websites, finishing painting my music studio so I can hook the equipment up again, costume commissions and steampunk designs. script writing, event galleries to be made, dancing to practice, and anything else I can fit into my day.

My goals right now are to get all of my company sites updated, and to get the modeling / photography section updated with new work, to get my written works up, and then branch out. I need to revamp and update/add majorly to the gallery on my costume & fx site too. Lots to do.

I also have a few more plants growing outside now.  Last week I got four more mini roses planted to replacesome different flowers that weren't as hardy and had died.  I also planted three kinds of basil (sweet, cinnamon, and greek), marjoram, and got a new thyme to replace the dead one.  The heat really killed a few things, as did a bit of inexperience, but now they will be stronger, faster, and able to leap tall buildings in single bounds.  I also got a nice hanging flowering plant to...*cough*...replace the dead one.  And I revived my ground-zero strawberries.  And I got a new shrubbery to replace a dead one (That one I didn't kill though!  It was dying already when I moved into the house).

Ok! So I'm off to go paint and plant! zoom!

I'm enjoying the verbal chaos and laughter going on around me currently. I'm in a person packed 15-passenger van on my way up north to a very fun game called Realms of Conflict while trying to get some work done on my comp on the trip up. The "La la la" chorus of Elton's 'Crocodile Rock' just now hit and the van is now full of the sound of muppets singing and chortling along to it.

For now, I'm just trying to get ahead using this time to study, write, and update website images. I'm looking forward to playing a few random villagers, barbarians, critters, and a musical gypsy role at the least this weekend and get some good battlin' in too. Hoping to make it back alive so I can get a bunch of "awesome" done once I get back. :)

As the tears ran down my cheeks, I had realized that I'd eaten too many flaming hot cheetos at once.

I tell myself, over and over, that these cause ulcers and acid indigestion, and a stinging, red-stained tongue.  But it doesn't matter.  I like the red-stain on my tongue.  It has an uncanny way of making me smile when I've licked my lips and had forgotten that my tongue was a red-stained one - and on the outskirts of my vision, I catch a blurry, strange, red object darting back into my mouth. Heh.  That's right.  I forgot.  I ate flaming hot cheetos.

I'm working on my addiction.  It doesn't help that I have a huge bag of them sitting next to me, with their arm around my shoulders, looking deep into my eyes and telling me that I should take them out dancing once a week to a goth club.

I'm distracting myself by writing this post and working on a new song, while singing along to another song by Throwing Toasters called "Bad Influence".  It's a peaceful scene.

To get back to the post's title, I have to keep turning my eyes away from my projects to re-adjust them to natural light and the sky outside is beautiful indeed.  Just looking at the sun and the blue revives me near to full energy - like a refill in my HP tank I can get playing Dead Space on PS3.  In about 10 minutes, I have my workout - which consists of doing DDR (DanceDanceRevolution) in conjunction with kickboxing, weight lifting, bellydancing, and ballet.  It's a slice of heaven pie.  I wonder what heaven pie would look like after it was thrown into a clown's face.

I just finished drawing up a load of new steampunk/apocalypse/tribal/dance wear concepts.  I'm starting on the first one presently.  I have a lot to do.  In addition to these, I have to finish a main steampunk/victorian dress for the upcoming Darius.  And that's just the start.  We have so many costumes to make for it and so little time.  But that's what's wonderful about life.  When I get the chance, I will be posting my designs up on my costume website - http://www.threadsofatlantis.com  I actually have a lot to catch up with, as many photos, costumes, and designs (the majority of what I've done and even the most recent) are not up.  Bit by bit.

I am currently remedying one frustration that follows me.  I am so busy running my own business and performing that I then find myself without pictures and videos of any of it.  And when I really need them, of course, they're not there.  It's not that I don't have access to brilliant photographers, but that's the easy part once you find yourself regularly in the company of creative people.  Not as hard is coming up with the money.  Harder is finding a photographer that is available or even available when you need them. 

I can schedule a photo shoot... but what of?  I have a myriad of ideas.  I need a few good headshots definitely.  I need photos and video of me singing, acting, dancing, and so forth.  Then I go back to how much money is needed to get all of these, which I don't have.  I'm a professional photographer myself, though I lack a studio and a high quality camera.  Despite that, I have done many photoshoots for people and products and very natural field photos of sports events and private events.  I've done quite a bit of character and natural-emotion modeling (very opposites - in that one is very clear of what it wants to show you, and the other doesn't know it's being shown).  Never did a photoshoot for myself though.

I need to start somewhere though.  So I decided to set my camera on my table and video myself dancing.  And then I stopped.  Because what I don't want that to get on youtube and it be mistaken for an uninteresting visual of a self-deluded, amature with a webcam - because that's what it will probably look like.  I did it anyway though.  For myself.  Just out of curiosity.

I need more full body shots though.  It's as if all I have is a face that smiles and a middrift.  Which makes me laugh. Cuz little do they know...that's all I have and the rest doesn't exist.  The rest is just a projection I make out of my neck and out of my hips.  I traveled into the future and saw how they do that and then came back and made it happen.  Cuz why do I need all that extra weight.  And when I can consume atoms for my meat through my smile and middrift and never be hungry again.  Oh man.  The future is awesome.

If you are a photographer or videographer who's interested in working with a very dynamic and open-minded person, please shoot me.  with your camera gun. i need it.  Meanwhile, I will contact a photo-friend of mine to see when she's available.

I'm off to eat my blueberries and atoms.