michaelbilotta

Wow thanks for this lovely compliment

Thanks teetree and thanks for the peer request!

You're welcome, thanks for the stars!

scared about this one! New location means out of comfort zone, new model, difficult premise...Yikes! LOL

Thanks very much for the stars as well. :)

Hi Morraha, I just got home from my day job to find your stars and messages! Thank you so much for viewing and reading! I will check out the group in a bit and for now, have added you as a peer! I love your masks! The steampunk timepiece is really great too!

Thanks very much! I really enjoy your work as well. I will definitely be back when I have time for some more exploration.

thanks for that lovely compliment! I really liked your work!

Thanks Sayala! Weird that they chose that one but glad it worked!

You are very welcome and very deserving...I guess we won't understand their motivation for choosing :-D Just enjoy!!!

Thanks! It's never the one you want to win, but who am I to question> http://www.bluecanvas.com/art-detail/410347

Thanks my friend!

haha, yes well, I employ an all or nothing strategy to finance!

Thanks! It was a nice surprise!

I am trying, but earlier, I wanted to take up boxing!

LOL thanks. Clearly I need one, as some crass shithead from Norway just ruined my day lol

Those Norwegians...... They also eat Lutefisk. Go figure.

LOL it got ugly! Mr. Photoshop Europe criticizing Mr. Photoshop North America, in this corner, brash youth with a heavy dose of Goth and Ayn Randism. In the other corner, tired, cranky middle aged guy who has been using Photoshop since this kid was 16 years old, and hates Goth. And they're off!

Ding! Ding! And they're ready for round two!

The site moderator stepped in and separated us :)

No blood? Pity, that.

just a little Hyde from my Jekyll :)

Oops. Not that I think I'm a prophet. But you know what I mean...

very welcome! roseorose is too and we had a huge fan chat about Joni the other day! I am determined to do an image based on "The Wolf that lives in Lindsey!" what a gorgeous image and title!

aww thanks my friend! Yes, definitely a little fired up. I did the session with model Ed a week ago, with very few concrete ideas, and wrestling with an unfamiliar camera. I did the one really planned shot - Jekyll and Hyde, and as soon as he posted it on FB, one of his friends ripped it a new one up and down, saying it's not my best work, no magic, no mystery, blah blah blah, and it kind of blew my confidence on the new shots. Then I did another, and bam, was one of my most favorably viewed shots on Flickr and a ton of good comments. Then 1x.com rejected it outright, and accepted Jekyll and Hyde, and it all just kind of becomes illogical and surreal, how one site passes on one that all the other sites say is my best. It's baffling. And then a local museum opening soon specializing in fine art surreal and conceptual photography passes on me, a local, and accepts people like Brooke Shaden, who lives in CA, and then of course that artist that painted naked Mr spock with 4 hands and I just lost it. So I did "the Fine Art of Rejection" as a commentary and FU to that museum, and Vogue Italia, and every place else that passed on me, got it out of my system, and then did "An Unwilling Duel" which got back to the loose theme of my shoot with Ed, which was "duality" - hence Jekyll and Hyde, for fun, and this one is more to my theme seriously, and now it is doing even BETTER than all the others. In three days it has amassed more views than any of my other ones on two sites, so naturally I expect the curated site, 1x.com, to reject it any time now LOL. It's just the plight of the thin skinned in the serrated world we live in. Thank you for the chin up, the stars, and the outreach Carl. I really appreciate it, and do love this site!

Serrated world, indeed!

I suppose...but when a local museum is opening, specializing in surreal and fine art painting and photography, passes on me in favor of naked Mr. Spock with three hands with "live free or die" inscribed backwards across his chest, I have to wonder who I have to blow around here to make some headway!

Doesn't sound like the gallery for you!

On paper it does LOL Thank you for the encouragement though, really appreciate it.

ah Rosie! I love LOVE when someone knows an obscure Joni and recites it to me! Still obsessing over that album! LOVE it!

Actually Michael- that line i quoted back is among my favorites...:)) Have you gotten to the Mingus album she did yet Michael???? I am dying to share that passion with someone :))

nope haven't gotten there yet! I will I promise! Hissing has been in my collection for 20 years and I am just NOW getting to it LOL - so much to love - yes, that line, it's a killer! I really love Boho Zone and Shades of Scarlet Conquering! I will get Mingus this weekend - and certainly will give it a chance - I have LONG commutes in the car for work, so that's a good time to give it a whirl!

His grandpa loved an empire....
His sister loved a thief.....
And lindsey loved the ways of darkness.....
Beyond belief

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDNO4SWKRgE

listening now - the title already - I LOVE - that HAS to be a title I use for an image someday! LOL

Love the Boho Zone too... Mingus is full of surprises... the cover is adorned with her own paintings, which are so cool... I think it was the first time she did that.

it is definitely from my favorite era of hers - that guitar! Reminds me a bit of Paprika Plains, and that's always a good thing!

haha.... soon as I wrote Mingus, I was thinking Paprika! lol.... well Mingus is a very off-beat album, so true to her dedication, which was during Charlie Mingus's terminal illness... very moving and historic lines... it may not be for driving to!!

... i still have the vinyl AND Video..... of Shadows and Light with Metheny Live... singing Edith... if you don't know this one.... it's a getter, since you love this phase:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHJh1LecHOM&feature=related

well I really liked that track! I love her background vocals during this period - on "Don't Interrupt The Sorrow, Song For Sharon, and this one, she's using them as the "wolf" - genius! I will have to buy it now - you've sold me :)

oh I've seen Shadows and Light many times! My roommates were both Joni fans in college - we discovered her at the same time - we were all in music college together - and one of them was a guitarist - loved Metheny!

hey!! It;s not to everyone's taste, but it is probably my all-time of hers in some ways, though the melody and rhythm of other albums are more readily accessible and "driveable"! lol...I am so happy you dug that... youtube didn't have a decent clip of Lyndsay for ages...

So, since I know the video, I knew of Porkpie Hat - so that's two now from Mingus I know.

Saw Metheny. And saw Joni.... but not together... but Metheny is like... a religion for me... close as i get:)

i am predisposed to love Joni! I just cannot do "Dog Eat Dog" though. Egads I hate it.

i tried the Gardot "edith" - nope - could not stand her! She was too affected and insincere!

... I can see what you are saying... I like some of what she does, and this is among them now...as I try to ignore the bling she is wearing.. i have to say, i wondered who advised that wardrobe... just ditching some of the bathwater, and not the whole baby:)

oh... we lost my reply about the Dog Eat Dog album... I agree it is hard to listen too... there is some sharp forced edge to the rhythm and her vocals... i checked every song then and also couldn't make it through even one...

yes it seems like some replies were lost! It's just, on Edith, the magic note of the melody - when she sings "what DOES that hand desire..." it's beautiful, its the holy moment of the melody, and you HONOR it - not dust by it with your fake blue notes and your posturing! now if you want to hear someone do it well, find Tina Turner singing it! Joni claims it is her favorite cover of one of her songs!

and yeah, Dog Eat Dog...ouch - those early 80s sounds - the lyrics are ok, but the sounds are such a bad fit for her.

ohhhhh!!!!! GREAT! I heard Tina do it a while back.... yup!! Thumbs up across the oceans :)))

there were some funky rythms and sounds in the 80's... but maybe the old shoulder pads were just too sharply tuned the day she did Dog....

off to get my gay on now - Project Runway LOL Good night or rather, good morning to you!

oh don't get me wrong - I love 80s! my first concert was Duran Duran! But now for Joni, she is transcendent, and lives in the rarified air!

Cheers Michael- great talkin' Joni awhile with you:))

always a pleasure chatting with you, and Joni is always a good topic! We still have to do the "family talk" hang sometime!

Let me know in advance when you can make a Lounge.... but from the look of it... weekends, you are in the kitchen creating!!!

sadly, it seems they happen when I am at work in the horrible office cubicle :(

And thank you! Really love yours as well - there will be many more when I get home from work and review more!

that's so cool! Yay! Thanks for letting me know Ramon! Made the work day more pleasant!

with the metaphor being of course duality, or split personality, or whatever you like to call it. I thought the inner id metaphor of the story to be pretty good material to think about! Guess that's why the book did rather well :)

Thanks Carl! Missed you too - I needed a re-charge, an unambitious weekend of nothing. I sure got it - rest is totally overrated :)

As are death, chocolate and alcohol....

yay! lol thanks Carl - have no idea what the brownie reference is, but I will definitely be shedding with it this weekend.

You youngsters... Get to work!

young?? LOL not really - but still - u mean an "augmented" brownie??

Lol. I meant a Kodak Brownie. But an augmented one works similarly.

what on earth is a Kodak Brownie??

Uncle! Uncle! I surrender to hopelessness! But I love ya anyway.

sigh - forced me to google it. It is an ancient camera LOL prehistoric. You must understand I had Zero interest in photography until digital came along LOL - the idea of not being able to see or manipulate it immediately sounds ghastly and frustrating LOL - I got my first camera in 2000 LOL

hmmmm... I know what you mean about dog eat dog... was there a redeeming track? let's see....

wow... just stumbled onto Gardot singing Edith with Herbie.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=vyx_mGPTY78

thanks rosie, me too! LOL

I will be back for a thorough 'browse'!

Oh no problem! I had breakfast outside and did a catch up on peer galleries this morning, because it's easy to miss the notifications that a peer has uploaded new work!

Well, I have been wanting to go full sensor for awhile now, so I went canon 5d mk ll :)

Swoon...

it is so BIG! I am looking at it side by side with my now retired Rebel T2i and the size difference is amazing!