QHereKidSF @ Tri-Life: I TRY – UMPH!? – to triumph, even if victory means to fall flimsy forward on high-wire shaky strings. Gladly, I would step sure-footed onto a straight wrought-iron rope to delight in ecstatic acrobatics... There! Where skyward heaven-sent, my mindflux, mayhem, and moribund monstrosity ne'er do not matter more – QHEREKIDSF.COM!
Inspired by the well-wishing of a college mentor: Adjunct Theater Arts Professor & Acting Coach, David Doersch, whose warmhearted wisdom woven into a few simple words beamed bright as day in my mind, I read his "Happy SPRING to All!" message on Facebook, while sitting blinded by the light of my computer monitor in the dark of well-past dusk.
Despite the dark and dreary evening that has befallen & befogged all of San Francisco, my heart & mind were filled with the warmth of the season by these, his welcoming words. And thus, such warmth, well-wishing & wisdom from such a distant friend & role model performance artisan or craftsman inspired in me a deep desire to express creatively exactly how I gladly envision the season to blossom into rebirth such beauty as romance in spite of ridicule, and love in light of sensually dew-dampened lust & longing.
What a beautifully bespoken first few lines of lyrical rhymes & reason have I set to poetry, as my poem is presented here poised below a quite provocatively romantic photograph, which I found via a Flickr® Photostream™ Key Word Search of "buttercups." I am pleased to recognize the talents of an anonymous artist: peace&love♥, and to thank the photographer for making available their significantly sophisticated & valuable works of photographic art for blogging direct from Flickr®.
I do hope that in posting Love Is Like A Flower, I will earn a right to download this particular image by permission of the photographer, him or herself, because I'd very much like to have this photo image at my disposal for future noncommercial & unaltered, shared-alike use. But, we'll just have to wait and see on the outcome of that such request. For now, I am still ever so proud at least to present the poem I wrote in response to David Doersch's Facebook® remarks and inspired by this photograph posted above.
SPRING! SPRING! What beauty this season brings
From slothful doted days to a few love-labored flings
That be right wondrous, yet ne'er more as pleasing,
As day’s blessed birth doth savor splendid seedling:
Few to many-petalled gorgeous golden blossoms
Of four-leafed clovers and buttercups so lithesome,
That doth glimmer, glow and shimmer as none before
Upon the tender-to-touch bosom in beauty’s open door
Of a fair merry-weathered, mischief-minded maiden
For whom the goodly fruits of spring be not forbidden.
Here upon doth the season's sweetly stunning affect
Forever bold and bravely full on forthwith reflect
The delightfully bright and brilliant sun’s fine speck
That doth in gleaming traces of sparkled beauty bedeck
Such sweet-nectar dew upon her delicately dimpled neck,
To be kissed off and caressed by a truly “très beau mec,"
As the only daring, dashing young dapper son "français"
Who doth so love, adore, long for and desire with to stay
The dewdrop damsel and her dazzling buttercup breasts,
As she, with toes dipped wet in water’s tiding crests,
Doth also long for and desire love — come what may!
Thus, so flowering, a fine romance is born this day!
Two lovers dance to life, in light of unending union,
The colorful reflections of romance's ripe new reason
Wound and woven, as a festive time-tinted silk ribbon,
Round the maypole, at the hands of all towns-children.
While the joking jester doth flagrantly flout Love’s luster,
His fickle halfhearted flaunter be echoed by such laughter.
Still yet two lovers dance ‘til lips tenderly touch as one,
Thus, their longed-for love doth live from dusk 'til dawn;
And be no more foolish, frolicsome, dumb nor dafter.
Than desire be that doth last still more ‘til then thereafter.
When U.S. Navy Musician First Class Bradley Blanchard was in his adolescence, he was a typically rambunctious deviant child who liked to disobey authority at every opportunity he could find and with all the force & fervor he could ever possibly muster. As his younger brother, with a fork scar slashed down my belly to prove it, I often was on the receiving end of the blunt blows of his teenage boyhood violent rage.
Call it angst or anxiety over never having amounted to much as a child, compared to his overachieving brown nose of a brother! Or else, call it simple recognition of & rebellion against the authorities' inability to control, confound or even cajole into question the genius of his intellectual & artistic talents!! Whatever possessed my brother to give up in school, act up at home, fall into miscreant criminal behaviors, or in the very least to joist a fork into me just above my bellybutton, we may never know! But, I do have my suspicions...
You see! It is my understanding (albeit naively biased and begrudged under boyhood battery) that my one-year older brother, Bradley, came across as an awkward, tubby, ill-tempered & tough-taught teenage trouble child by choice, as if simply to cover up his own quite coveted prodigal musical talents, as well as to scoff in the face of his younger brother's exhausting track record of academic excellence & extracurricular achievements from early elementary school through to high school graduation.
As I'd expect to hear from any critic on the matter, it would be inappropriate, pompous & self-conceited of me, that younger "better than, but best unbegotten" brother of his, to venture any conclusion which conceives to acknowledge and/or appraise (however lowly) the pantheonic pedestal upon which I was so uncomfortably perched by parents, teachers, and fellow pupils alike.
A comparison between the idolatrous accolades & aplomb that I received as an academically overachieving adolescent and the unfortunate reputation Brother Bradley earned for being a lower life do-dumb deviant denigrate who didn't know the a-squared from b-squared or c-squared of the Pythagorean Theorem, or else, who didn't care too much to make it known what he really knew for fear of risking his supposed illicit & ill-natured set of mores & morals revealed as quite the opposite, would serve a great injustice against my brother, while only reinforcing my naive bias as his battered, yet so long beloved, younger brother.
For, my big, bold, daring & now quite dapper do-good brother, was then during childhood (just as we all might witness him to be today) quite as prodigal in his musical talents, as I was in my scholastic, artistic & leadership-related achievements. Unlike his young brother, Matthew Blanchard, however, big brother Bradley didn't cringe and crave for the positive affirmations of attention & accolades as a child, adolescent or teenager. Bradley was kindly humble enough to recognize that recognition & a reputation of positively perfect accomplishment was all I lived for as a student; and, therefore, it seems to me that at an early age, Bradley relinquished any possibility of positive achievement to me, the younger of us two, out of mere kindness of heart and perhaps even in a awkwardly silent attempt to express love to his kindred spirit, his family, who forever so seemed his foe.
Nevertheless, true talent cannot (should not) forever go unnoticed or unappreciated by the masses. For my elder brother, Bradley, recognition & reputation for his prodigal musical gifts came only finally when he made what should have been a quite difficult decision between serving six-to-nine month stints underwater as a nuclear technician of a U.S. Naval submarine or traipsing around the globe on a better-than-average rock star salary as a U.S. Navy Musician First Class and lead vocals of numerous U.S. Navy Rock Ensembles throughout the World.
The decision between the substantially better pay-grade and advancement patterns of an enlisted submarine tech or the hyped up happiness and good humor incumbent upon a career in music for the Navy was instead quite simply a matter of greater-than & less-than logic for my brother, who valued his happiness (obviously) well over his pay rate or the terms of his possible rank advancement. Obviously, my very intelligent, very impassioned musical prodigy of a brother chose love over logic; such was the logic behind his decision to follow the passion which had dutifully & determinedly defined the unfathomably focused good fortune that befell him at every awkwardly successful instance of achievement during his young life, while in the arms of music.
In honor of my elder brother, Bradley D. Blanchard, I am privileged to offer this living testament to the tremendous talents possessed by this one damned terrific young man. Not only is Brad an extraordinary father and husband, much loved by his wife & son, but he is also an ungodly gifted musician, who could, should & will one day take the world by storm; what if not to the likes of America's next popular television talent search or else by the grace of one or two generous celebrity patrons of his art who might promote and make possible an on-air performance by my brother, as lead vocals of the U.S. Navy Commander, 7th Fleet Rock Band(Twitter® - @C7FBand / Facebook® 7th Fleet Band) : ORIENT EXPRESS.
It is with great pride that I post this video of my brother singing lead vocals to "I'm Yours," with the U.S. Navy Commander, Seventh Fleet Rock Band: ORIENT EXPRESS. I remember vividly the first time I heard my brother sing. It was on the occasion of my visit from Florence, Italy (where I was studying graphic design, at the time) to Naples, Italy (where my brother was stationed with the U.S. Navy Band, at the time).
We were both in our mid-twenties. I was reeling from a "GREAT DEPRESSION," brought on by my then relatively recent sero-conversion and diagnosis as HIV-positive, though I didn't muster up the courage to tell my brother this until after the trip down south. My brother on the other hand was glowing happily, unabashedly in his youth, and tried with all his might to share his happiness with me, to let it roll off his husky, well-built shoulders on to mine.
His manner of sharing was unique to me; I'll say that, in the least. Bradley invited me as a special guest to a gala performance showcase for his U.S. Navy Rock Band somewhere up the western coast of Italy, near about to Cinque Terre. The band set up amongst the lavish & luxurious decor of the sumptuous entertainment hall at a hanky-spanky swanky five-star Italian riviera hotel, and I was their surrogate helper or stagehand for the day...
Once the equipment was set up, the musicians (not the vocals, i.e., my brother & his female counterpart) began to rehearse. I settled in to a deeply intriguing discussion about my brother's soon no longer to be boyhood lifestyle contrivances with the wife of one of his military cohorts, but was to my astounding delight brashly interrupted by the sweet, melodic, perfect on pitch and in tone sounds of my brother's voice singing "Stand By Me!" That was the cover number with which he chose to open the show, and he honored me in singing it, "I dedicate this song to my only brother... God knows I love ya'Man!!" God knows, I love him, too!!
So, now that I've gone ahead and made this video available to my blogsphere of fans & followers, either via http://www.qherekidsf.com or else via my Facebook Profile Notes at http://facebook.com/mblanchard79, then I hope to receive comments & feedback from all y'all folks out there with opinions on the matter that I might maybe could share with my big Southern Puppy Brother, Bradley!! Please be courteous & kind; although, critical remarks are not uninvited!! I look forward to hearing back from some gentle, tasteful souls!! Cheers! Ciao & Namaste: I bow to the gods with you...
When my application was accepted by SINS INVALIDA.I.R. Program Director,Nomy Lamm, thus clearing way and confirming my participation in the inaugural 2010 SINS INVALID Artists In Residence (A.I.R.) Program, I found myself immediately embarking upon a long and exceedingly adventurous journey in discovery of perfection in performance-based self-portraiture through storytelling and song.
Little did I know then where it would lead me; however, I must say that truly I enjoyed every subtle step and bounding leap forward down that path I took from mere obscurity toward meager-to-maniacal celebrity, even if only within a very small, intimate community of disability activists and performance artists/aficionados, here in the Bay Area, alone.
The exact date that I happened to happen happily upon the NIEHS Sing Along Songs Children's Website and discovered their substantial collection of musical "midis" (i.e., simple, electronic instrumental versions of the vocal melody of a song recorded without audible lyrics, but rather with accompanying lyrics attached as text), I do not specifically recall.
Yet, I will not forget the tremendously joyous, spontaneous impulse of creative genius and pleasure that came to me when I fell serendipitously upon the musical midi of Alan Menken's "Part of That World," from the Disney masterpiece, LITTLE MERMAID.
Straightway, I knew just want I desired to do with this song. Thus, from that point just about a year ago today, when I did "stumbleupon" this particular melody and its lyrics, I endeavored to do meaningful justice not only to the song and songwriter himself, but also to my own audaciously bodacious and bawdy, unkempt, uncontrolled and unadulterated, quasimodo, quasi-grotesque, imperfect and ugly story of the destructive force of careless sexual device and drug abuse and my almost mythic – certainly, quite blessèd!! – rebirth as a "not hot, not well-endowed," but still quite sexual creature, deservedly so!!
With a spit-bit of pride, pomposity and yes, even perversion, I have the unique honor and privilege to premier a video recording of PHOENIX a'FIRE, a workshop rehearsal version of the song I performed as a live drag-burlesque musical number for the SINS INVALID A.I.R. Show: RESIDENT ALIEN.
Please be advised, as the title credits indicate, this video-recorded song is not intended for all audiences; the recommended minimum viewing age is 17 years. With PARENTAL ADVISORY, the video is given a Content Rating of NC-17, and all youth below that age are urged to seek parental permission before viewing this short webcam recorded musical video.
For those of my fans/followers who are of adequate age to view the film directly, I invite you now to enjoy a curiously compelling retrospective look back at my own creative process at work. And, I also encourage you, please, to share your thoughts on my original lyrics, as well as on the philosophy behind this "Musical Reconstruction," either by emailing me directly at matthew@qherekidsf.com, or simply by commenting directly on this blog post.
Otherwise, you also have the option of visiting my YouTube® Channel, where the video has also been posted for mass audiences and the world public at-large: http://youtube.com/qherekidsf. Please ENJOY!! Comments and feedback are duly encouraged! Thanks...
I once had good looks & was handsome.
But, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I was a barebackin’ tweaker whore.
I often begged for big cocks,
“Cum inside me!”
Truth be told! Shame on me!
I want MORE!! I wanna fuck raunchy, nasty and wild!
I wanna cock raw, wet, deep inside me!
My ugly face would be frightful for
Licking. Sucking. Bareback Fucking! Wearing a mask I don’t get too far;
Lips are required for kissing, sucking.
Can’t fit my mouth
‘round a cum-dripping cock!!
Me sucked! Bare fucked!
Tweaked high! Me DIED!! I smoked Tina first for the thrill;
I smoked her ‘til AIDS came for the kill.
Death had its aim; Meth was to blame!
Still I SURVIVED!! As the myth goes, from ashes I rose
Like a great big fiery bird.
Nothing may spoil my heart unfurled
I’m a Phoenix a’FIRE!! No I’m not hot! Not well endowed!!
But next to you, I can laugh & be proud.
Love me dearly! Do not fear me!
Dare just one glance at my pretty ass! Just tell me… (spoken) What is desire, and how does it
What’s the word? – BURN?
Please hold me dear! Kiss me right here!!
My heart’s a Phoenix of DESIRE!!
In an effort both to record for posterity the remnants of my once-was, former social media profile presence and to update said presence with a spark of pizazz and pomposity, sycophantism and sophistry (as I might once have said before!), I am posting here my most recent yet previous profile as it has appeared on Facebook®, Google®, StumbleUpon®, and elsewhere.
As stated in closing, I do ever so much hope that my weblog visitors, fans, and followers do quite enjoy my writing. Recently, I have been receiving countless compliments – only out of common courtesy, of course! – with regards to the creativity and skill exhibited in my writing. I would just like those of you, who enjoy my poetry and prose, essays and extemporaneous elaborations upon the "thus, then, and therefore" of life, to know that really ... truly, I only write for you!
NO! I must say, I also write merely for the sheer peace of mind and cleansing of spirit I gain from this creative act of sharing. Thank you for your time and attention! Please view my updated Web2.0/Social Media presence profiles across the Web for an updated version of my poetically poised and personal biographical statement(s).
QHereKidSF @ 1/3-LIFE TRY!UMPH!! :
Mindflux | Matt(e)o | Mayhem! I am Man masked madly in mind's eye misgivings... The ubiquity of my ugliness is uncannily ulterior to my beauty beguiled, BeGODS!! Follow me for flagrantly unfettered, frenetic Fog City faggotry: garrulously salacious, in-your-face sycophantism and sophistry... You'll see!
If by chance you get some crazed, cracked-out, masochistic satisfaction from strangely spiritual and surreal stories of misery, mayhem, and mutant monstrosity, then maybe I'm you're man!
Meet ME, Matt(e)o: an evocative enunciation of sacred self. A "Gift from God" transposed as metaphysical motif by friend of the freak show, Fellini. This genius artist of Italian film-making struggled the length of his successfully storied career to expose, with astonishing exactitude, just how the very real possibility of perfection in Man is both fomented and fouled by the assertion and empowerment of an intimately equal mutualism between the divinely spiritual self and the meaningfully rational mind. This symbiotic melding of mind and spirit is represented by Fellini, in his film: La Strada, as the hopefully heaven-sent, high-wired equipoise of the fervently surefooted funambule: IL MATTO, who, when faced with danger, still dares to dance across a wire: ... ses doubles deboulés et son demi detourné, son seul somptueux soubresaut et ses battements développés. Puis jusqu'alors un ronde de jambe en dedans à la seconde fut souvent suivé d'un grand jeté en arrière; le Danseur Noble s'avance d'ici alors sur son fil, sans fierté blessé, avec d'une Arabesque en avant profondement penchée. Ces mouvements jusqu'ici ensuite se terminèrent d'un tremblement tout d'un coup des tours en l'air tombés ... Thus by tiptoeing so far from safety, toward the still bent, sunken, shaky, and unstable center of a wrought-iron, steel-corded risen rope, Fellini's funambule: IL MATTO, arouses such admiration, adulation, and affection from adoring fans, so as to inspire both the impassioned blossoming – in life! – and confounded crippling – in death! – of the purely innocent and naive, child-like mind. Consequently, I recognize symbolically resolute similarities and viscerally physical, real world differences between Fellini's representation of the metaphysical circus sideshow motif and my own efforts toward a more life-affirming reappropriation and realization of its meaning. As an Existential Nihilist (circa, La Strada), Fellini's obviously Freudian depiction of the psycho-spiritually multifaceted nature of Man culminated, not in possible fulfillment of his perfection, but instead in necessary realization of his corrosively calamitous demise. Contrarily, I aim to imbue the motif with an sense of urgently redemptive realism, through my own true-to-life, plain-as-day pursuits of a real-world psycho-social and spiritual sublimation of self. In this way, I see myself as one "Fagged-Out Ferocious Fog City Funambule Freak Show!" "IL MATTO" Matt(e)o, I like to call myself (cf., La Strada), as I conspicuously struggle to disempower and negate – through hope! – the nihilistic severity with which the existentialist cinematic artist ultimately confounds and curtails all possibility of perfection for Man.
Gladly here, you will find one who can mesmerize the mind through his miraculous high-wire balance of benevolence & beatitude with damned near dastardly destruction, disfigurement, devotion & betrayal.
Be touched tenderly here by the thoughtful “thus, then and therefores” that define the tumultuous, telling themes of my leftover, last chance life: Sanity, Sacrifice, Supplication & Serenity which spark our smiles!
Sadly here, I reveal myself disfigured like a disgruntled, dirty dog. I'm doomed to die dismally destitute & destroyed! Despite that, I am devoutly determined to do deeds of damned near divine good.
Remember my resounding recompense & reward for the very real ruination & ripping apart of my former, fabled beauty. No mockery, please! This mindflux needs no more mayhem!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It just so happens... that this happy, home-bodied, head-spun homo aches for adventure outside of his squarely sparse and sterile, single-room studio. So much for the serenity of solitary!
I seek sure-fire ways to share in smiles! Feel-good, friendly encounters with compassionate, courageous young people who prefer spontaneity over structure, giggles to groans, wild, raucous, truly treasured adventures over lay-low, stay-at-home, humdrum, twiddle-your-thumb tragedies of time ill-spent and spoiled.
Oh to the brave, emboldened high-wire hopefuls who dare a single step onto my sky-high shaky string: Strength in Numbers! Hold the net for he who fumbles and fear not for this Fagged-out, Fog City Funambule Freak Show! as he falls a few steps forward.
In faith of friendships, past, present & so surely set to come...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
AIDS IS A PERVASIVE PANDEMIC THAT BLEEDS THRU
THE LINES OF COLOR, CREED & CAPITULATES TO NO
ONE, BUT THE POSITIVELY AWARE AND
PREVENTION-MINDED SURVIVORS. — Matt(e)o | QHereKidSF (a.k.a. Matthew D. Blanchard, b. 1979)
The personal profile text above is a corpus/compendium – of sorts!! – of the long labor of love of mine in which I have endeavor to capture through creative expressions that are uniquely my own the essence of my personality, my being, my self, while devoting great conscious energy and focus to my own artistic – albeit, sometimes quite clumsy! – use of particularly pleasing poetic/literary devices.
The text of my most current Web2.0/Social Media presence profile(s) has been recorded already via a post to this blog, dot429 | BUSINESSON&OFFLINE™ : a biographical statement & personal introduction taken from my dot429.com LGBTQA professional networking profile page (accessible only to registered dot429.com members): http://dot429.com/member/matthewblanchard.
If one of my own personal blog site visitors to this particular post (or to the other preceding post referenced above) would like to view my most current profile in the context of an LGBTQA professional networking site, then I would suggest that they should register as a member of dot429.com, or else simply view the INFO Section of my Facebook profile: http://facebook.com/mblanchard79.
I hope that you all have and do continue to enjoy the quality of my inspiration, my introspection and of my writing, as I've made it quite readily available on and transmissible via the Web. Enjoy!! Peace Out! Cheers, Ciao & Namaste: I bow to the gods within you...
