photography that inspires me

Tina and I recently met Jeffery Sebelia – winner of the 2007 season of Project Runway — at an apparel show here in Chicago.

This is a photo I took of Jeffrey and Tina.

We talked to him about his line for a few minutes. He’s super cool, and we had a blast chatting. Too bad we were working, we would have stayed longer.

His clothing line for kids is rock-n-roll cool, and we’d dress our kids in his stuff if we had a chance.

I was turned on by his catalogs, which I have on my desk. I want to use them for inspiration to shoot kids. I love how the kids were directed to just be calm and cool. They are little Fonzies. The lighting is simple and cool. The sweep is easy.

We are inspired.

Here’s another shot (below). Go check out his site and find out where to buy Sebelia’s clothes. The line is called, La Miniatura.

Manufacturers of Toe Shoes, Barefoot Shoes discriminate against minorities.

L: a barefoot shoe that hates TTLMs like me. (image on right is not doctored in any way.)

You’ve seen these shoes, right? They form fit around every toe. They’re all the rage, and all the cool kids are wearing them … to run, to walk, to climb, to shop … and I imagine they’re in a few porn movies by now.

But if you were born as a Third-Toe-is-the-Longest Minority (also known as TTLMs), you know you’ll never be able to don a pair of these new style icons. It’s as appalling as all the companies who exclude south paws from ever using their products with any kind of efficacy.

The Burkenstock revolution was bad enough. But Toe Shoe discrimination is an egregious attempt at exposing good and honest people like me as freaks. As degenerates. As cast outs!

And I’m fucking fed up. I am standing up for myself and everyone who shares this disability everywhere.

Am I a modern day Rosa Parks? Maybe a Harvey Milk? Am I the lone voice of reason fighting for the rights of people like me, who were born with the natural tendency for the third toe to be the longest toe?

Don’t blame my parents. Don’t look in horror. I’m not toe flipping you off.

These distal phalanges cannot be discriminated against any longer!

I’m calling for a protest against all makers of toe shoes.

Here’s a list of awful, callous companies — who hate TTLMs — and must be boycotted for toe bigotry at all cost:

• REI
• Adidas
• Vibram
• Nike
• New Balance
• Komodo
• Fila
• Bikila
• Merrell
• Vivobarefoot

There are more  companies introducing Barefoot Shoes everyday. Please do your part and do not patronize these companies. They hate TTLMs, and until they accommodate their products to all foot types, they deserve a hit where it hurts … in their hand shaped wallets and pocket books.

These underpants are making me awesome!

My running life has surged over the past few months. Tina and I run about 3 to 4 times a week. I went from about 3.5 miles per exercise day to about 4 to 6 miles.

My routine is running to the gym, working out (swimming or weights) then running home. Lately I take a longer route to and from.

You may not know this, but with more running, there’s a chance your butt is going to chaff like your thighs are sandpaper and your perineum is a sensitive nerve factory.

I grew up athletic. I played soccer and basketball in school. And, despite the warnings to wear scrotum hugging active wear, I have rarely succumbed to the advice.

In high school, if I wore tighty whiteys to work out, I would get a stomach ache that felt like I was kicked in the pants a hundred times over. I played soccer in boxers.

Lately, I haven’t had that problem. I will run in a bathing suit with underwear built in, and no pain issues. Since I swim, I would wear the shorts two or more times before washing (gross, huh?).

With more running comes more stinky, sweaty clothes. So Tina and I walked over to Target, and I bought a pair of Champion underwear like the ones above. I thought surely, these things aren’t going to work for me. I thought surely I’m going to hate them.

But you know what?

You can’t get my ass out of them. I want to wear them ALL THE TIME!!!

Seriously, they make my genitals feel warm and cozy.

I mean, I’m this close to taking Anthony Weiner style photos and sexting all of you!

When I run in them, there’s no chance of chaffing … none, nada, zilch.

Remember when you were little, and you got a new pair of shoes, and suddenly you thought you were faster and could run forever?

That’s what these underpants do for me.

When I pull them up, and head out the door, I’m faster.

I can run longer.

I am awesomer!

I put on Runkeeper, blast a little Metallica or Foo Fighters, and I’m zooming down the road. Hell, I even run to Mute Math. I hear they’re a Christian band … and yet I’ve not turned away from non-belief yet. How about that?

When I’m running in my new underpants, people may not know that I’m awesome, but that’s the look I try to have on my face.

“I am awesome in these underpants. Watch me run!”

From now on, these are my underpants of choice … and I recommend them to you and yours … so you can be awesome, too.

 

 

That’s it. I’m wearing a skirt, too.

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The little boy above protested the girls can wear skirts in summer time and boys can’t policy at his school recently. No word if it was an effective protest, but I totally back that kind of intelligent protest. Read the full story here.

Here’s a clip:

Chris Whitehead wore a girls’ knee-length skirt to classes at Impington Village College, near Cambridge, Cambs.

He is protesting against a school uniform policy which bans boys from wearing shorts during the summer months.

He also addressed 1,368 pupils at morning assembly wearing the black skirt, which boys are permitted to wear due to a loophole in the policy.

One the the largest reasons I wanted to escape the corporate world was dress code. I worked in an office that forced the creative types to wear shirts and ties.

I know! It was the closest the corporate world gets to blasphemy outside of the war on Christmas.

Meanwhile, women pranced into this corporate stuffy atmosphere wearing mini-skirts and flipflops. If I ever have to go back to work in that bullshit, I’m going to start wearing dresses, and let HR sort it out.

I don’t mind wearing slacks on a warm day, but ties? Ties? The practically archaic reminder for everyone else where your penis is.

Ties never are and never were a good idea.

Especially on days like today when the sun is shining and women are lounging by Lake Michigan in bikinis.

Operation Love: Swing by Target before Destination Bedroom

Yesterday Tina, Michael and I shopped at Target and the grocery store before picking up Jason for dinner.

There was an event yester evening that rendered stores virtual ghost towns. I’m not sure what that event was, but it made shopping on a Sunday seem like shopping on a Monday morning at 3 a.m.

Among the people who were at Target, there were an inordinate amount of young women shopping the lingerie section. Then you would see these women walking around the food aisles with arms full of red lacy bras and silky, scanty nighties. Many of these women were a little heavy. It didn’t matter. I was proud to watch these women traipsing by loaded down with sexy clothes for their bedroom sexy times.

I’m not a fan of corporate holidays. One of my friends once wrote an update on facebook that once you understand holidays from a marketing standpoint, Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s day, et al. diminish in value.

But I am a fan of seeing perfectly regular women splurging on not one or two slinky items, but armloads of them. This one women walked by with three, different-colored bras and two (maybe three) voluptuous nighty thing-a-ma-bobs. If she were closer to me, she would have heard me utter the words, “Oh yeah … she’s goina’ go get some.”

The cups of the bras were fitted into each other and it looked like she was going to grab a cardboard box, go out on a street corner and play that, “Which cup is the ball under betting game” that you see in 80s movies set in New York City.

Either that or go get dolled up for her man after he’s had a long day slurping beers watching that event yesterday.

I may not be a fan of holidays, but I’m a huge advocate of sex … in great, greedy, Costco-sized portions. So go grab your partner and get busy. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and you’ll need lots of practice for the big game.

 

 

Seriously?

I bought a couple things from Patagonia before coming here. And, man, I am so glad I did. The pants I bought are light, quick to dry, and they have nice pockets. It’s especially nice when I want to keep my passport nice and zipped up down by one of my knees.

Of course, now I’m on Patagonia’s mailing list and I got this email today with this image:

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I almost shit my pants looking at the image. I got a little vertigo. Could you imagine? “Hey, honey, you didn’t want to snuggle tonight did you? It’d be too much work.”

If you’re that hardcore with your travels, you deserve a big trophy on your mantel that says, “I’m a bad mother fucker and I know it.”