Announcing My New Club Mix Single- Shingles!

I have had the Bible read to me. I have read the Bible. In the summer of 1974, I read the King James Version, Genesis through Revelations, as if it was a Stephen King novel. So, when the Husband made mention of my life’s similitude to a certain tale from the Old Testament, I went back for another browse.

A photo of the first stages of Shingles

The Book of Job abridged: God has Satan over for tea & cookies, the subject of the prosperous, pious, popular Job, the goody-2-shoes son of Uz, great nephew of Abraham. Satan claims that Job’s honorable lifestyle is only security against anything bad happening to his home, progeny, BMW, house in the Hamptons, Asian rugs, art & collection of first editions. Thinking that his children might be sinners, Job makes offerings to God, just in case. Satan, looking hot in Dolce & Gabbana, explains that if God touches Job’s shit, Job will curse God.

God destroys the collections, the cars, the houses & has Job's children done in while they are all at a party. Job wails & thrashes about, but does not curse God. He shaves his head & makes a sign the reads: “God gives it & God takes it away. Will work for manna.”

Satan mentions to God: “Pass those macaroons & by the way, Job will curse your name if you do damage to that body, perfected by Job’s personal trainer, he will curse your name then, God. Mmm…these cookies are da bomb.”

God smites Job with a terrible, terrifying, tormenting rash. Job’s wife tells him that he is unhinged to not curse God. Job does not give in. His wife holds an intervention & invites Job’s buddies: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, & Zophar the DJ. The 3 guys goad Job into stating: “I curse the day I was born!” He does not curse God.

My more advanced case of Shingles

The Husband’s point?  In the last 14 months I have endured, in rather Old Testament fashion: Deep Vein Thrombosis (blood clot) in my leg, a Gall Stone, the death of my automobile, the decline of my canine-Larry, the coldest, wettest winter & spring in Portland history, & an injured back. I recently worked 16 days in a row, including several 12+ hour shifts. I never cursed God.

On Friday afternoon, I had the sensation of an uncomfortable knob on my back at a spot that I couldn’t touch with my hand or see in the mirror. I went to the physician to receive the diagnosis. Satan had needled God into some smite on Stephen. They call this scourge- Shingles. Not to be confused with Singles, a film that I appear & am delightful in.

Full Blown Shingles

Shingles: stinging, straining, sickening, stabbing torment. I questioned: "Oh my God, how could you make something as adorable Neil Patrick Harris on the Tony Awards & I have to suffer in agony? What did I do to deserve this?" I do not curse Her.*

* Steve, who frequently makes little sense, is on heavy duty Vicodin. I have been taking good care of him, but he slipped away & wrote a blog post. He is in the bathroom now, accepting a Tony Award to the mirror.

The Husband 

Pout... It Works For Me

Yesterday was action packed for the Husband as he prepared for an evening event to be hosted at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. The Husband & his business partner, the hip-hop artist & designer- Lil’Jake, put together an evening for the artists, designers & craftsman that will represented at Boys’ Fort, their Pop-Up store opening in downtown Portland in Fall 2011.

Late morning, the Husband set off, on foot, for Walgreen’s, 2 blocks away. Walgreen’s is a necessary evil in our daily lives, being the closest retail outlet to our home; it is dreaded for the terrible customer services & much used for the convenience & the overflowing on & off offerings. This all-purpose drugstore stocks aisles & aisles of seasonal/ holiday products that magically go away the day after when the new special stuff replacing it like magic. Today the place is filled with the things you need for Dads, Grads & July 4^th: flip flops, sunglasses, BBQs, hula hoops, beach towels & sunscreen.

The Husband returned from his outing with this appraisal of the experience:

Husband: “I had 3 things that delighted me since I have been gone.

Stephen: “Do Tell.”

Husband: “1. At the dreaded Walgreen’s, in a display of baby tees, I spotted a baby T-shirt that read- ‘Pout… It Work’s For Me’.

2. I spied a gay couple, early 30s, prissy, & they had a large book that was open across their cart. They were leaning over reading it as they walked the aisles. I had to discover what this was all about, so I doubled back around the aisle & walked towards the pair going the opposite way. As I passed I found that it wasn’t a book at all, but a very larger photo type album. There was at least a hundred plastic pages, each one with 16 pockets, each pocket contained a perfectly cut out coupon. As I passed by I heard on of the baby queers argue with other- ‘ No! If we wait a week we can get that item,& instead of saving 20 cents, we can get it for 50 cents off.’

3. On the way back home. I passed the grassy lot next to the Baptist church & the pastor was supervising a group of kids playing kick ball. Actually it was a group of girls & one boy. The girls were all dressed in long skirts, looking like Mennonites or Mormons. I stopped & watched as the boy child kicked the ball. He ran to the first base with his arms held at head level & his wrist as limp as an old queen on martinis. Flailing his little thin arms & limp wrists & running knock kneed, almost a skipping, he made it to the base. I watched in amazement knowing that this little Baptist boy would grow up to be big old ‘Mo & I wondered if anyone had inkling.”

Stephen: “Wow! All that in a half hour! By the way, why don’t we use coupons?  Are you sure the little boy is gay?”

The Husband: “ No doubt what so ever, &… I don’t use coupons because I have too much on my mind all the time.”

A New June Mix

June is an important month at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, & made even more so after Portland was dealt the coolest & wettest spring since records have been kept. The garden is certainly green. Yet your host is pale & petulant & peevish. The Husband & I have lived in Seattle or Portland for 30 years, but that was not enough of enlightened edification tp prepare for Spring 2001.

When I finally reach Saturday, I will have worked 16 days in a row, sometimes 15 hour days, part of the stretch I was sick. This was all because my assistant, went off & got married, wed to a young lady that I hired & they fell in love on the job. They have me to thank for their happiness. That is what I do, I spread happiness.

Saturday I will start a week long staycation. It will begin with 2 days of temperatures in the low 80s & blue skies. I am so very ready for some Vitamin D.

June warrants several of my custom playlists that are very much in demand in my circle. I allow myself to become unnecessarily gay in June, as it is Gay Pride in Seattle & Portland & the month of the Tony Awards, a high holiday at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. God in Her infinite generosity has aligned Gay Pride & the Tonys to be on the same day! Now that is Gay!

I celebrate Pride by not going to the parade or the Pride Festival at the waterfront. I have a deep disapproval for &a need to avoid large gatherings of people who are not usually positioned in a place they would normally never be, unless they are there to see me, which would be understandable. On Pride Day I stay home, smoke some pot & play show tunes rather loudly as I sing & dance along, a custom that dates back to 1969. I appreciate the continuity.

I offer up a just completed Custom Mix for my respite. If for any reason you find this mix to be amusing & alluring, simply email me with your snail mail address & I will send you one. That is how much I love you.



I give you Steve's At It Again Mix:

One For My Baby- Marlene Dietrich & Burt Bacharach

Boys Dont Cry- The Cure

When The Hangover Strikes- Squeeze

The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)- Tom Waits

Drinking Again- Dinah Washington

Something Cool- June Christy

I'm A Stranger Here Myself- Patti LuPone

I Love Men- Eartha Kitt

Calgary- Bon Iver

Crazy In Love- Antony & The Johnsons

Without You- Eddie Vedder

Rum & Coca Cola- Julio Iglesias

Sunday Morning Reflections

Mirrors are a constant reflection of our design style & Post Apocalyptic Bohemia is filled with them, even outside, plus here & there is a mirror on a mirror. The mirrors reflect & refract the light & help make a small space open up. The mirrors are from many different era is the 31+ years of being a couple, including mirrors that we brought into the relationship, including one from my great grandmother's home in smalltown Illinois.

The newest mirror was assembled by the Husband yesterday from an old red tray & a found hubcap. I really like this one. It appears to me to be rather "Vermeer At The Beach".

A mirror above the headboard reflects outdoor light. A mirror on my side of the bed allows me to see what I am doing when I am... (oops, TMI?). The drapery is new, a bolt of paprika colored, hand stitched silk with tiny mirrors, purchased for a song at a flea market last Sunday. When we got it home, the Husband remarked that he had no idea what it could ever be used for & was possibly a foolish buy. That Husband is resourceful & regardful, he found a way to use it & please me.

Leaning against a wall in the front room is the largest mirror at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. Dig the mirror on mirror action above the mantle.

Ironically, I never seek my reflection in a mirror. It is too frightening to look in the mirror & see my father staring back.

I Want Your Sex

Post Apocalyptic Bohemian favorite George Michael is set to produce a new album with a "collective" of gay musicians, aimed at a young gay audience, as an apology for the homophobia that he believes his turbulent private life has inadvertently generated.

Michael: "I'm looking to work with gay & gay-friendly artists. It will be a gay collective with some songs sung by myself & some songs by unknown gay artists. I have a serious problem with the fact that every time I made a big mistake, I definitely felt I was letting young gay people down because of the homophobia that was thrown at me & the wording of that homophobia. I am going to try & make up for some of the damage that I have inadvertently caused just by making myself so newsworthy and putting myself on the back foot... where there was no room or space to defend gay children from some of that language."


Michael has had several experiences that landed him trouble since he came out in 1998. He was jailed in September 2010 for crashing his Range Rover while under the influence of cannabis, which seems odd to me, because I drive better when I have spent time with Mary Jane.


I am rather certain that the young gay people I know, have no idea who George Michael is. I don't believe his life as an openly gay man has caused homophobia. I, of course, hold him as an inspirational figure.


Michael also announced that he is going on tour a tour with a symphony orchestra, including a charity concert in memory of Dame Elizabeth Taylor, & a show at the Paris Garnier opera house for French First Lady- Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's HIV charity.

Michael will be performing in my garden this summer, at the much in demand mid-summer night's cocktail party. Will you there? 

A Morning With The Post Apocalyptic Bohemians...

This is an aesthetic that the Husband finds to have an agreeablely austere allure:

This is the actuality..

with ample amounts of accountability on my part: 



He Is Risen!

We Love Jesus At Post Apocalyptic Bohemia!

19th Century carved ivory Cruxifix from India, found in an Indian import store In SoHo, NYC in the late 1990s.

"Our Lord- As Is" is how the tag was marked at a junk store in the Phinney Ridge of Seattle, circa late 1980s.

In a canine memorial niche in the small hallway, Jesus looks over & protects our dead dogs in their urns: Baby (1985-1999), Sister (1990- 2006), & Butch (1994- 2007). They are joined by a mason jar of the ashes of Pearl, a close canine companion without a place to be, as her Mommy travels around the world seeking answers.

Jesus chose to be born in a stable among donkeys & cows. He chose to ride into his last week of life on a donkey. He said the foxes have their lairs & the birds their nests. He said the Father watches over the birds of the air.. the sparrows. Jesus became angry in the temple when animals were butchered.

"The lion also shall dwell with the lamb, & the leopard shall lie down with the kid; & the calf & the young lion & the fatling together; & a little child shall lead them."

Isaiah 11:6-9 (King James Version)

"The Details Are Not The Details. They Make The Design." Charles Eames

I call them "watch-dogs". I believe that they were meant to be card holders. I found both them in separate junk shops on the same day in the mid-1980w... but have never seen another since. I collect bits & pieces of clocks & watches for The Husband to use in his assemblages. His work is often about the passage of time.

My balls.

Words To Live By... Post Apocalyptic Bohemia is crowded with quotes that inspire me.

A Little Spin Around Post Apocalyptic Bohemia

I had an unexpected day off today: no obligations, no husband, no agenda, no automobile... just time alone in the house on a blustry spring day to read, Facebook, blog, nap, & cuddle with Junior. Sometimes don't you just desire some alone time & a rare chance to "just be"? 

Before

After

(You can click on any image to enlarge)

The Husband on the other hand, can hardly stay still. On his own day off with the house to himself, he reworked the front room & edited some of the collections. In the winter we use this room for the fireplace, in the summer we move to the back of the house to enjoy the back garden & The Boys' Fort. 

Below are some details from the mantle. More than a half decade ago, the Husband removed the original tiles surrounding the fireplace with the intention of replacing them with mirror tiles. I loved the resulting look so much that I had The Husband put off finishing it. He did silver leaf a corner. The fireplace & mantle have that Post Apocalyptic Bohemian look that I have a passion for. This part of the house seems to be part New Orleans shotgun shack & part Venice Palazzo's decaying sitting room.

The framed ExVotos are early 19th century Venetian, purchased at a favorite junk shop in Venice on our anniversary in 1991.

The crucifix is early 19th century Indian carved ivory, found in a NYC shop that sold goods from India. Also in this tableau are a hand beaded sea anemone (a wedding gift), a piece of coral, & a pencil that belonged to The Husband's sister who, in the beginning of the 1970s, passed away in her early 20s from diabetes.

Mantle details

The Husband collects boxes, possibly to balance my collection of orbs.

Details from one of the Husband's in process assemblages.

The ubiquitous shots of Junior.

I hope you enjoyed the tour. I hope you will come back soon. I feel bad that you didn't have time for a cocktail!

Inspiration

The Husband & I have been doing Inspiration Walls in our seperate work areas since that late 1970s. We have also always had a joint Inspiration Wall... located, of course, on the fridge.

The Husband's Wall in his studio.

 & the current Inspiration Wall of your host.

Junior looks to the daddies for inspiration... tell me, where do you go to be inspired?

“When you go into court, you are putting your fate into the hands of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty” Groucho Marx

It was not an original idea. But when I read of NYC actor Jonathan Lovitz’s response during Voir Dire & knew I would just have to follow suit.


Along with 200 other potential Portlanders called to do our civic duty, I arrived at 7:30am, & because I am just a little bit compulsive/obsessive, I was immediately flummoxed by the seating choices. Where do the cool people sit? Do I need to have a clear view of the large TV screens? Where are the hotties in the room? Back of the room or front of the room?


My jury pool was treated to a video about why our service was so important. As an actor, I have done probably 30+ industrial films & training videos, including high budget projects for Intel, Starbucks & Microsoft. In the early 1990s I had an industrial film where I played a disembodied floating head, set in the future, where had to rattle off technical jargon for a half hour. This project involved learning my lines phonetically. It was as if I was doing the project in Hebrew. As I watched the jury duty video, I was unable to concentrate on anything other than the roles that I might have played… if I was still in the biz. I was certain that I would have been better than the unattractive stiffs they used for this damn project.


I waited in my fortunately comfortable chair, noting each half hour as it passed. I had been warned by a reader- Rico of this bloggy thing, to be prepared to wait with reading material, water & provisions. I busied myself snacking on my almonds & reading the new Michael Cunningham book- By Nightfall, which is so tasty, I don’t want it to end; I read each page several times.

Despite Mr. Cunningham’s pulchritudinous prose, I kept coming back to who in the room was hot. I decided against the 20-something with the bedhead hair & chunky arty glasses, because he was wearing leather jeans, & leather pants seemed just a bit too consciously calculated for court. I honed in on the only man in the room wearing a suit, an Anderson Cooper lookalike. I then tried to communicate with this silver fox using telepathy. After 2 ½ hours of waiting, & just as soon as I was sure that my local Anderson Cooper had received the clairvoyant communiqué to meet me in the janitors’ closet, I heard my name called as 1 of 16 picked to go to an actual courtroom.


I was quite excited to discover the James Earl Jones was the judge. I think it was Mr. Jones, but I didn’t have my glasses on. But,I know it was his voice.


I was Jury Person #3. When it came time for Voir Dire, I was asked, under oath, the same questions as the 2 gentlemen before me:


What is your name? “Stephen Rutledge”


What is your occupation? “Retired actor, now a retail buyer & manager”


What is your education? “I have a BA in Theatre from Loyola Marymount. As you can tell, I have no problem enunciating or projecting.”


Where do you live, who do you live with & what do they do for a living? "I live in NoPo, with my husband. We were married on our 25th anniversary of being a couple, in Vancouver BC. He is an artist/designer & ne'er-do-well. We share our home with 2 canines”


What are your hobbies? “Reading, blogging, gardening, movies, TV, music & judging other people by their clothing.”


Have you ever been the victim of a crime? “Yes indeed, I have been mugged, shot at, shot & fagbashed. I believe I have used up my quota of violent crimes.”


Do you have any relationships with someone in law enforcement. “No, but what have you heard?”


Have you ever served on jury or been part of a civil or criminal trial? “I played Mr. Serath, the defendant in a trial, on an episode of Simon & Simon. I was very convincing.”


Where do you get your news & information? “I read the Oregonian & the NY Times on line, & from the very yummy Anderson Cooper on CNN. (& because the 2 people before me had answered- Fox News) I do not get my news from Fox News, because Fox News provides inane entertainment & misinformed editorial content for stupid people… not actual news.”


When all 16 had answered the questions, I was satisfied that I was the most interesting person on the panel, except possibly for the woman who was a ER Physician & Psychiatrist, who bicycled to work & had been the victim of a hit & run… but had she ever attended the Academy Awards or slept with a celebrity? The defense attorney asked me to clarify my experiences as a crime victim, which I regaled with my readiness as a smart, skilled, savvy storyteller.


The attorney then asked what I was praying she would ask: “Do you have reason to think that you could be unbiased in deciding another person’s guilt?”


Stephen: “With great respect counselor, & your honor, because my marriage is not recognized by the federal or state governments, & because I am held as a second-class citizen by this country & this state, in fact in many regards I am not considered fully human, I am certain I do not have the ability to remain unbiased about anything. I really want to stick it to The Man.”


Judge James Earl Jones broke the electric silence by giving me a stern talking to: “Do you understand Stephen, that just less than 100 years ago, most people in this room would not have been eligible for jury duty because they were not white male property owners? Change can be made, but you must participate to make that change.”


“Your Honor, I am just to pissed to participate in being impartial.”


I was not one of the 12 chosen to serve on the jury. I will never know for sure why. The guy in the camouflage jacket seated next to me, who answered his question – “What are your hobbies” with: I don’t know... fishin’, huntin’ & ya know…”, glared at me when he was chosen & I was dismissed. I winked at him.


In the hallway, the ER Doc/Psychiatrist came up to me & stated: “I want read the story of your life!” I smiled at her & wrote down the URL for Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, & answered: “You can… & it has been quite a life, so far.”

Fine Dining

When we moved into Post Apocalyptic Bohemia 9+ years ago, we dismissed what had been described as the "formal dining room" as a nook of little importance. The Husband announced that this space would never be a dining room & that we would be treating the space as a "nook" off the front room.

In 2004, the Husband took this space down to the bare studs. We lived with it this way for 6 years. I loved it! It was very Post Apocalyptic Bohemian, the style that I go for. I was always inspired by spaces in Venice that were elegance layered with decay. I always thought I could love in a reclaimed ruin.

We seem to be getting all grown up. Darn! The Husband, with some help from T, has been finishing this space (or at least until he gets his next big idea). What I enjoy the most is the gradual transformation from the least desirable part of the house to my favorite spot to sit & just be. Larry & Junior find it to be inviting also.

Two of the walls are boards that the Husband cut, bleached & stained to look the color of Oregon driftwood. In late February, he plastered the other wall, repeating the stripe made from the joining of the boards of the other wall. It took the Husband 5 tries to create an effect he was pleased with. At one point the Husband had buffed the plaster, without the stripes, so that it looked like animal hide. We both hated the result. Tears were shed, with the Husband doubting his own talent. I never doubted him.


The Husband & I met 34 years ago in the Theatre World. He was an extraordinary set designer & his talent is what first drew me to him. The telling is in the details. Here are a few details from a space truly transformed through talent & tenacity: