If I Only Had Upcoming Models And Actors...I Would Blow The Blogsphere Up!

This will be a rarity.  Two blog posts in one morning.  I have some thought provoking things, fearsome things and well as some more sultry and sexy things to present issues that we experience in life.  The experiences, the choices we make and the things we give value to or lose value of - along the way.

If I only had some models and actors at my disposal to continuously capture photographic and/or video moments in time.  As a friend said to me at dinner several nights ago, we all form pictures in our head as we read things.  Sometimes what we envision may be different from what a writer is intending.  Sometimes the photographer or film director has a different vision from that writer.  Well...due to the facts of life in this and my sister blogs...I wear all the hats.  I'm the writer, director, photographer, film director, creator and executor.  That's not including the donations friends have given me to help push things along.  I cannot thank them enough.  Every little push moves me closer to my overall goals of expression and success in doing that.

So if there is anyone out there who wants to model off body parts or show off some of their acting abilities and document it on a successful and still growing blog site (close to halfway mark of 12,000 hits) to add to their own resume...write me.  NYEastside.Info@gmail.com or Kik me at NYEastsideE.

My Creative Stream...And Anything Goes

The creative thoughts inside me have began streaming again.  It is a great feeling.  Everyone who writes, paints, draws, takes pictures or films knows what that feels like.  To be able to feel the infinity of the creative resources within you.  At some point you will always encounter the internal blocks or exterior blocks that can affect you.  They can be emotional or mental blocks.  Sometimes it's simply that you just haven't absorbed enough of your topic in order to creatively regurgitate it, or you've lost the right moment in time to express it.

Well, I've been working on some side projects for my blogging fingers, and things are starting to pour out just right.  I write to send a message, show a message or simply to imply a message.  These messages are about my own or shared experiences in life.  I'll use any tool available to do it.  Initially I was screening and editing myself.  Now, I've sort of untied my hair from a bun and am going to just let it all out.  Fictional, nonfictional, I'm going to just roll it out and let my readers decide whatever they want from it.

Just as long as it helps get the message out...anything goes.

Part 5 of my most successful fictional story to date is coming soon!

Sorry...Death In My Extended Families...

To my readers:

Sorry for my delay.  Within the last ten days I lost two friends from my childhood.  One of whom I just socialized with last summer, after the death of a different friend at that time.  We spoke at the funeral parlor and then later in front of the buildings we grew up in.  I couldn't attend the services for these two recent friends due to the demands of my job.  But, I was able to reconnect with some additional friends from my childhood, via the Internet and phone calls, that I haven't spoken to in a while.

Well...if that wasn't enough...then came the tragic death of a person from my job in an accidental shooting by police officers.  It was a botched robbery that turned into a hostage situation.  It got worse when the responding police officers then accidentally shot the victim of the robbery, while also taking down the gun waving suspect.

Believe me, my head has been spinning the past 10 days.  I've tried to sit down and write and put my ideas together, but it's been very, very difficult.  Life is truly a blessing and is also truly short.  10 days...three separate deaths.  Each more tragic than the other.

We men try to act like emotional bombardments don't effect us.  But they do.  My prayers to their families, as well as to the families in Oklahoma.

I will be back in a couple more days, soon as I get ahead of these emotions.

Live An Inspired Life!

What can Life (I) offer to me (Life)?

Be inspired...everyday!

Coming this week...it will be end of the beginning...as the final chapter in The Private iTeam "Cop Killer" will be posted.  But it will not be the end of the Private iTeam.  Only the beginning...

Breaking 11,000 On Mother's Day!

11,000 Pageviews!  Thank you!

How appropriate that on the day that I celebrate a day dedicated to the most important woman for my being on this earth, you - my readers helped me break the 11,000 pageview barrier.  As I prepare to put together my final part 5 for Private iTeam and string together some new entries on my other blogs, I cannot forget the person who most influenced my humor, love, compassion and tolerance for others as well as myself.

So thank you to you my readers.  I will continue to work hard to share things with you.  Your interest is my command to do more and do even better.

Special thank you to my mother for bringing me into this world and giving me a wealth of positive nurturing during my formative years.  

Happy Mother's Day to all of you!

Origins of "Cop Killer" the Private iTeam

I know folks are waiting for part 5 of the Private iTeam.  It is on the way.  I wanted to briefly share a summary of several conversations that I've had with friends about it.  As I stated in an earlier post, the Private iTeam is story idea that has evolved in my private writings for the better part of a decade.  First a single character, then a couple extra characters.  Then it was a very large team of tech savvy members, which then turned into a single group of various life characters intermixed with the main character's family.  My first copyrighted version was in 2010, a short story which I have yet to publish.  The story is entitled, "A Murder In Long Beach".  There are two prequel stories as well as several background stories...which all mostly chronicle Gio's work when he was a lone, private detective, before he formed his team.  Those stories will be coming out of my vaults, I assure you.

So why the "Cop Killer" theme to this story?  Very simple.  For this blog, I wanted to write something from the heart about issues that effect New Yorkers everyday, right now.  Not only New Yorkers, but everyone, everywhere.  People in law enforcement who cross the line and join the criminal world.  Criminals who cross the line and try to legitimatize, or clean their money and enter the law abiding world.  Banks and businesses who work with all sides of the law, and write it all off as doing business as usual.  The links in my "Cop Killer" theme (that's the highlighted text) are not only links for sound effects and video music, but they are also links to actual events that have happened in the streets of New York.  News articles that you can read back to and see that even though this is a fictional story, it is truly factually based.

I owe many thank yous to friends, coworkers and family for helping me with information and pictures.  I owe a big thank you to the artist Antonella Mason for allowing me to help share and spread her beautiful work to the world.  Many hours have been spent putting this all together for my readers.  I hope you've all enjoyed this one story with the Private iTeam, but there are many more to follow.  I will keep you posted as I continue to debate within myself on the best medium to present them.  I am stuck between posting the short ones here, or my own website - or just self publishing the longer ones as books.  I've had these characters in my head for so long, who like us, are trying to do the right thing everyday within the scope of their work and their lives.  Email at nyeastside.info@gmail.com

The Art Of Getting Inked

When I was a little boy, I remember my father having a tattoo on his forearm.  He was a musician.  His tattoo was something along the lines of an eagle holding an arrow.  I remember it having a tough guy feel to it like something that you would see on a military person.  Even one of my favorite cartoons at the time, Popeye the Sailor, had his famous anchor tattoos on his forearms.

For a while there, I always wanted to get a tattoo.  Then as I started getting older through my childhood, the guys I associated with getting tattoos were fast becoming the guys who did time in jail and/or lived a shady life.  Suddenly, getting a tattoo didn't seem like such a priority for me anymore.  In fact, I felt that getting one might associate me with a certain faction of negative people, that I didn't want to be confused with.

Much of my personal regard to tattoos has remained the same throughout the years...with me wanting to get just a simple tattoo and then backing out of it because of the negative viewpoint I was imbued with during my formative years.  Then as an adult, after witnessing what I perceived as a "fad" explosion, I lost all motivation to get a tattoo.  But, I will say this...after conversing with and interacting with the people who have volunteered their body art for my blog...as well as doing some online research - I stand completely and humbly corrected.

The art of tattooing has been around for thousands of years and present on just about every continent on the planet.  It can even be found on the Polynesian Islands across the Pacific.  How can something that's been around for thousands of years and on just about every continent, across various cultures be a fad?  It can be just that if you don't understand it, or if you get caught up with someone else's meaning of it?  Just because prisoners and gang members get tattoos, it doesn't mean that someone is imitating those values.  The practice of body art via tattoos just simply goes back way too far.

However, this should not be confused with the modern primitive movement growing in America and other developed nations from the late 1980's to the present.  In this movement people living in developed nations have began turning to "body modifications" - including tattooing, piercings, as well as lip and ear plates.  This is a practice that is done in more primitive and ancient cultures for spiritual and ritualistic reasons, yet are being adopted by people in modern societies.  Some people are for this and some are against it.  I am not an advocate for myself, but to each his/her own.  There is beauty in all things.

Instead, I have been enlightened by those who specifically view tattooing from the body art and personal message stand point.  I am an definitely more of a spiritual advocate of those who view tattooing as simple symbolic testimonies or celebrations of important people, places, experiences or beliefs in their lives.

Could this tattoo be about ambition, you think?  Might it be about music too?  With a microphone...perhaps it sums up this singer's ambition on singing?

This tattoo is on the wearer's back.  It's a knife stab.  The serpent represents people who have lied to her.  Thus, this symbolizes people who lied to her and stabbed her in the back in her lifetime.

Not all works have to be some super message that's obvious to the world.  Some can be meaningful to only the wearer.  Some can simply be "art" and require no further interpretation outside of such.

Then again...if you want to send a very direct and simple message of what means the most to you...you can never go wrong with a direct message.

This is just a sample of what has been sent to me.  I have to give a million "thank yous" to my friends, their friends and family members for reaching out and helping me get this message through to readers in the Internet world.  Whatever your reasons for getting a tattoo - that reason belongs to you and you alone.  Whatever motivated you should be thought out because you are wearing something fairly permanent (the tattoo removal process can be costly).  You're getting a tattoo needs only to be justified by your understanding that the image is something that you will be wearing everyday.  So getting the name of your first girlfriend or boyfriend might not be a great idea 5 to 10 years down the road.

Using your body as a canvass to show off the spirit inside your mind and your heart is really at the heart of all tattooing.  

Let me conclude this post - but not this topic - by saying that this journey of mine, into the tattoo world was really positive and enlightening.  My thoughts are no longer down or negative when I think about tattoos.  Nor is it a childlike wanting to be like dad.  Instead, I am now fully appreciative of not only the person wearing the tattoos symbolism  but I'm also extremely appreciative of the actual tattoo artist themselves.  Some of these artist really do great work.

Therefore, after researching for this topic, I sit here a changed man.  So changed that earlier today I ran into a young man at work, whom I shall just call "Chaz" and observed numerous beautiful tattoos on his body.  Instead of looking away or foolishly scoffing him, I actually stopped him and ask if I could see the tattoos on his arms.  He gave a beautiful story of the meaning behind each one of them.  It was fascinating and insightful all at the same time.  The tattoos represented affectionate memories between him and his mother, dedications to his family history and positive messages of his views on life.

I explained to him that I was writing this article in my blog and of how it had changed me and my thinking.  And with that our conversation became one of mutual admiration and respect.  Two completely different generations of men - more than 28 years apart - connecting on a plateau of mutual understanding and love for our parents, the history of our lives and our value system...all from a tattoo.

He promised to send me one of his tattoos.  If/when he does...I will post it right here along with anyone else who wants theirs posted.  Email me at NYEastside.Info@gmail.com

So this is not the end of my journey.  This is only the beginning.