IAMKIAM.COM - brand new site for the brand new year, updated with current works.
Check it out, y’all!
I’ve been working on this for the past couple days, and it’s finally ready. My old homepage was beginning to feel too cluttered and unorganized. So, ready for the new year, here is a brand-spaniking new IAMKIAM.com.
Enjoy, and comments are always appreciated.
<3 U ALL. Happy New Year!
KOKUMO on Original Plumbing!
KOKUMO is a trans artist, advocate, and all-around amazing person. She is the founder of KOKUMOMEDIA and TGIF, the Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex Festival for Youth of Color and their allies.
Photography by Kiam Marcelo Junio, 2012
From Butch Wonders:
As a butch who has great respect for trans men but no desire to be one, I have a few answers to the “why aren’t all butches trans” question.
- First, gender is culturally imposed. The idea that men should wear ties and women should wear dresses is not biologically embedded in our brains. If a woman wants to sample/use/enjoy “male” culture, why would this necessarily indicate that she would also want facial hair and a penis? To me, the two feel totally separate.
- “Genderqueer” means different things to different people. But I most often hear it defined as existing outside the gender binary—someone who sees themselves as neither male, nor female.
- “Genderqueer” is a fashionable thing to be right now. But you need not identify as genderqueer just because you are a butchy dyke, or a cross-dressing man, or a transwoman, or anything else. You can be a man in a dress who completely identifies as a man, or a woman in a tie who completely identifies as a woman. Personally, I am not genderqueer. I look rather butch/androgynous, but I completely identify as female. Just because a woman has short hair, or binds her breasts, or wears a tie, does not mean she is automatically “genderqueer.”
(more at the link)
From UC Berkeley:
“The dream stage of sleep, based on its unique neurochemical composition, provides us with a form of overnight therapy, a soothing balm that removes the sharp edges from the prior day’s emotional experiences,” said Matthew Walker, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley
Richard Serra answers: “Why make Art?”
A grand question, answered quite succinctly by a great artist.
Bodybuilding, a one year performance by Stuart Sandford. To support the project please visit www.stuartsandfordbodybuilding.com.
I’ve actually thought of doing this same project, but it felt so self-indulgent. When I was thinking of this, I was still at a different place in my life, where I felt constrained. As much as I valued myself and had high self-esteem, I didn’t think anyone would really care what I do or don’t do with my own body.
Things have changed. I’m finding how important it is for me to integrate art into my everyday life, and to live as if creating at every moment. The artist Sophie Calle has also inspired me in an opposite direction, to view the world and its inhabitants, including my self in an objective stance.
I just heard about this project today, and have that “Damn, he beat me to it” feeling. But I do have my own goals and plans.
In the next coming months, I aim to focus on my yoga practice and develop a stronger routine. I hope to find a nurturing studio where I can possibly get a job as a teacher. I am also moving to a focus on dance/movement and performance-based art in addition to my visual work. Hence, I aim to improve my body to make it more conducive to performance and dance. In addition, I’m beginning to explore issues surrounding sexuality and the commodification of the white male body, and this zeitgeist’s effect on the marginalized minority mind. I have much to say on this issue which has affected me my whole life, and am preparing to address it soon in my art. Like I said earlier, life itself, can be an artistic process, and I aim to live it as such.
Now on the point of narcissism. I was having a conversation with an instructor last week, and I wondered why it was that I feel so guilty to share my life and thoughts with others through my art. She observed that much of my previous work in the military, the healthcare industry, and volunteer work has been to serve others selflessly. Turning the focus on myself feels inherently selfish. But the types of art that touch me are those that are deeply and personally invested. Many artists will create works that question the larger scheme, or address the questions of the medium. Others will tackle the issues within and manifest it in whatever means necessary (but also addressing the language of the medium). I believe that complete honesty may be a bit abrasive, and can turn people off, but at the root of it, I think this is the way for me to go. Complete, unapologetic honesty.
From GQ.com
On a day to come very soon—September 20, 2011—a serviceman’s sexuality will no longer be grounds for dismissal from the U.S. Armed forces. These are the voices explaining what it has been like to be a gay man1 in the American military over the previous seventy or so years, from World War II veterans in their late eighties to young servicemen on active duty.
Read More http://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/201109/dont-ask-dont-tell-gay-soldiers-military#ixzz1YT6BK04k
This just warms my heart.
To all my gay brethren, and my friends who wonder why I’m so obsessed about my own looks, this article goes to explain a few key points.
Here’s my own 2 cents, as I posted on a friend’s Facebook wall earlier:
If a “hot” body is not a currency, it’s at least a first glimpse make-or-breaker. This has been the one thing about gay culture that has upset me the most, that not just looks, but specifically media-constructed ideals of looks are front-and-center when trying to meet someone. It’s the only thing you know for certain at a distance, that they look good (according not to you, really, but the TV, movies, and internet porn). You don’t know for sure if they are nice, if they like to travel, if they are doing something productive or interesting with their lives. Instead, you see if they look good half-naked or not. To many gay men, this is enough.
The minority (of which I am a part), who look for more than simple eye-and-bed candy still have a difficult time meeting someone because the “look” factor always plays a part, at least initially. You may seek out to look for a “good” guy with good whole-person qualities, but at the end, they should still be “at least cute,” or fall in your personal “range of cuteness.” It’s ridiculous, but I find myself doing this all the time. It doesn’t matter how confident I am about my own place in life; in social matters of the gay culture, I still feel insecure.
This article, by writing down and making my own thoughts and doubts visible, is a a first step to moving away from the zeit-Gayst. It also signals that maybe dance clubs and bars aren’t the best place to meet decent gay men.
“S I L E N C E Malta 2007 | Original Polaroid photographs by Lia Sáile Exhibted 2008 at National Museum of Fine Arts, Malta”
Photo: Mike in his barracks room, taken with a vintage Polaroid SX-70 camera with Impossible PX-70 Color Shade film.
The bottom line: After buying Polaroid’s last film factory, the Impossible Project is making a profit where the instant-photo pioneer saw little future.
Whenever people see me with any of my 5 Polaroid cameras, I often get asked the same thing: Where do you get the film? I thought they stopped making them.
It’s true. Polaroid, the company, shut down production of all their instant films a couple of years ago. But in its wake rose another, The Impossible Project.
Please read the linked article and learn about the future of Polaroid-format films, and the wonderful founders of the Impossible Project. Thanks to them, Polaroid-lovers do not have to worry about throwing away their beloved cameras for lack of film materials.
I’ve been following the company’s efforts before their products launced. Since then, I have become a frequent buyer of these (quite-pricey) packs of film. I’ve used them all on my in-progress project, Placer Instantaneo. Impossible’s current sepia-toned offerings are wonderful (but difficult to store), and their color materials still need a lot of work. But this is just the beginning, and I have faith that they’ll continue to improve their films.
Macaco y La Mari (de Chambao) - Somos Luz
Happy Valentines Day! I give you you all one of my favorite songs, a wonderful duet by two amazing voices.
If today you cannot celebrate a union between yourself and another person, at least celebrate your union with the rest of humanity, with the world, because we are all made of light. This Valentines Day, as on any other day, don’t be afraid to shine.
</end corny sappy note>
It’s almost Valentines Day, one of the most repulsive holidays in the US of A. It’s a good thing that last year, I was deployed in Haiti. The year before that, I had a date who tried to steer me to someone else I had just met that night! WTF?
Anyway, this article is about online dating and how to do it right. If you have found online dating to be a bit daunting, confusing, etc. perhaps abiding by these guidelines will help you in the future. And maybe next Valentine’s Day, we won’t all be sad sacks of self-loathing, drinking a bottle of wine by ourselves and watching re-runs of Glee.
Happy Valentines Day, you mothermunchers!
Ooooh, I hope art school is going to be like this.
The article quotes students who described the school’s rampant “seven days a week” dinner party culture and the widespread popularity of on-campus herb gardening.
“People go crazy here with the dinner parties,” said freshman Michael Lee, who claimed he knew about the school’s reputation for all-evening-long dinner parties when he applied for admission, but found it even more pervasive than he’d expected. “I’ve been to dinner parties where guys show up with baguettes under both arms and just go for hours talking about Joanna Newsom or whatever. It’s nuts.”
