InvestiGATA: The Ask-Me Video Series

I have a good friend, Ericka, who was listening to me hem and haw over content choices for my channel on YouTube. "Why not do a question/answer/advice thing?" she suggested.

"Why not," indeed...

Frankly, I didn't think it would matter if I did or didn't-- I mean, was anyone really willing to ask ME anything? It just so happened that she was actually right. Much to my surprise (and in some cases, my chagrin), I did manage to get a few questions, and some of of them are tough, so you know I wouldn't ask myself these things, for those of you who might think I cheated or something. I've compiled the best and will be posting these in the first of a new video series called "InvestiGATA".

Know what that means?

That means you can ask me some questions!

Though hopefully not as intense as the ones asked by THIS woman.

What kinds of questions? Ask advice, my opinion, stuff you wanna know! AS LONG AS THEY'RE RESPECTFUL QUESTIONS, I will answer all I can and post it in a video to my YouTube and Vimeo channels. Deal?
You can ask via my tumblr or shoot me an email. Please keep them respectful. Ask yourself, "Is this something I would want to be asked?" If not, then, maybe think of something you'd want to be asked.
Let's keep it fun and interesting...can't wait to see what you ask!

New Video...

Well, finally it's out! Already has dislikes so I guess I'm doing something right to piss yawl off, LOL
Anyhoo: here 'tis:

Filmed a Video; Show Juggling; Upcoming Birthday

Well, we FINALLY did the video, and I must say, everything up until that day was so fxcking stressful. I could not believe our bad fortune. But, here at Tha Cat Lair, one thing we do and do well is make a dollar out of fifteen cents. So, we took what we had and made the best of it. I'm not expecting my exact vision, but some semblance of it. Money is a powerful tool...I probably would have had exactly what I wanted if I had a decent budget.
In spite of that, we got to meet some really awesome people, folx I hope to work with again. The director was sort of a geek, like we are, so he knew what I was going for...I trust that he will make it look fun and lighthearted like I wanted it to. I would like to do another version that's all dance, but it's hard to get people together for that.

Above are some of those great people I was talking about. We filmed it it two parts; one for the intro and one for the big shoot. Here's me below lounging and dancing and stuff like that there:

3 Miles was super supportive of the shoot and I was soooooooo grateful for that!

I have two shows in one day, within an hour and some change of each other. I'm nervous, because one is pretty big, and the promoter's rep is on the line (he fought for me and one other artist, AAEHH's Orikl), so I CANNOT SUCK.  I'm trying to not take the fact that they misspelled my name on the site as a bad sign, LOL...MercRetro just hasn't been letting go, has it? Go away! You're supposed to be turning direct!!

 The other is less formal and more of a block party, so it should be fun. Last year, the block party was NOT trying to cancel in spite of the fact that Hurricane Irene was bearing down on us. So, that was pretty interesting!

And yes...my freakin' birthday is coming up...AGAIN.....I'm hoping for sushi and dancing and debauchery. Pirate stuff. I'm sure something interesting might happen this year. It can't be boring every year!

Also....I got some messages I really needed to hear...I will heed and keep moving forward...and continue to give two middle fingers to the haters.

Meow-ho-ho!

Slacking Off....

Not really. I've actually been kinda busy.
Between trying to save my brand, stay afloat, help run a small label, do a gig here and there, fight off haters, raise cubs, nurture b/f, and find a new dancer...plus write new material and cast for a video, it's been pretty hectic.
I'm sure there's folx out there that were really REALLY hoping I would just fall off the face of the earth, or had actually fallen off the face of the earth. But, frankly--and in the case of a few particular people, I mean this--where, then, would they be? I'm sure they don't know. Besides, people are starting to see the pattern...
Anyway...

GATA City is being re-released next month. Funny how it's a year later and we're still trying to break this to the masses. Hopefully, our deal with Brainmuscle Media will be successful. I have heard anything from "Why isn't this on the radio?" to "This deserves to be heard!" Well, let's hope.
I'm in the process of casting for my first video. I can't wait to start shooting. It should be fun.

We have finally found a new dancer. His name's 3D. He reminds us a tonne of the last guy, but he's got waaayyyy more humility and respect going on in his favour so far.

I was working on a manga I really wanted to release along with the CD last year, but got distracted by life, as per usual. I've begun working on it again in earnest, so hopefully I'll have something going there soon.

I also have been working on The Alliance a lot, too, trying to get that up and going, still looking for crazy folx. We have more musical artists than visual or dancers, but I'm hoping that will indeed change and we can become a bit more structured. Right now it's a loose alliance than anything else. But everyone is game. There's nothing else out there like it as far as I know, w/the exceptions of maybe the Afro-punk movement and the Black Rock Coalition. Of course, they're more regimented and structured. We're not big enough to worry about that just yet.

I had quite a few gigs, nothing like, gargantuan (I so rarely get to use that word in a sentence, LOL), but nonetheless fun! I loved performing at the BareNaked Bake Sale event. They are such a fun crowd. They accepted me in all my Cheshire Cat glory.

Photo Cred: Andrew Levengood Photography

So...that's it...

Music's Heart/Soulprint...

It is really amazing how much music can affect how you feel, how you perceive the world, how much your life can be echoed by another person's lyrics. It's no small feat that hearing a song, whether you liked it or not, can take you right back to where you were, what you were doing, and who you were with when you heard it...when you lived it. Especially if you are an artist who either makes or uses music on a regular basis-- I don't mean just listening to it; I mean IMMERSING yourself in that shxt like it's a bath...wearing it like your favourite shirt. Breathing it. Carrying it.
We all have at least one song that, to put it mildly, eviscerates you, rips you from asshole to scalp and makes no apologies for it. It feels like swords sliding through your heart all at once....right up to the hilt, and you are dead in the water, with no-one to put it in a box for you so it beats forever...sorry. Too many viewings of POtC: Dead Man's Chest.
In my "past life", I had SEVERAL such songs. I couldn't listen to any of them w/o nausea, dizziness, and my heart beating a mile a minute. My gut felt like it had been kissed passionately by a steel-toe boot. I ached soooo much. I felt like I was bleeding out. You know the feeling. I even had a whole album like that. So for years, I avoided such songs like the proverbial plague.


The song here was one of those songs.
I associated this and many other songs with a time in that life that should've been happy, but which really was an out-and-out lie. I carried that burden with me, couldn't even hear the first two notes of the song without diving for the radio or the tv to kill it DEAD before it could get going. It hurt too much.
At some point, in the new life, I decided that I would do an exercise that I learned called "blowing pictures". The pictures the practise is referring to are embedded in your auric field, and can affect your life heavily. You may not even know why. You basically destroy that picture, and heal that spot in your aura. Some pictures are stubborn and you have to do the task over and over to make it stick.
I combined this technique with a cord-cutting visualisation and another technique involving connecting your timeline to change things in your past. It is S T R O N G work, lemme tell ya. And it WORX.
I am happy to say that this beautiful song (and that aforementioned album, for that matter) does NOT NOT NOT have the effect it had before. I can listen to it with no ill effects. It's so freeing to be able to listen to WTH I want w/o feeling imprisoned in pain.
It's wonderful.
How cule is that? I'm freakin' ecstatic about it!
The song has a different energy; a different heart/soulprint for me now. I'll say it again: it's. WONDERFUL.
I can breathe...