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ultraphotographic

Please visit the active Ultrasparky blog to browse the for the content that has accumulated since this all began in 1996.

Hello, Dolly

Now that it's healed, it's a little easier to show off the latest addition to my collection of typographic tattoos. This little beauty is from the italic face of Dolly, available from Underware. I had mentioned to one of...

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Avant Garde

I spent the day working on a custom version of this typeface, thinking that it's one of those designs that only seems to deserve its fame when it's used just right, but the rest of the time feels a...

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Archival material: NYC edition

A decade ago, which is essentially a lifetime ago, the New York Times had a web-only site about living in New York, and featured me in a weekly column about homes/apartments in the city. While I'm impressed that the article...

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My role model

Another stop on John's book tour for Role Models. This was at the Festival of Ideas in Bristol, a spur-of-the-moment ticket booked while my pal Jeremy from Bristol was visiting me in Brooklyn. Charming as ever, and an intimate...

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Official business

April Fool's Day is probably a bad time to make a major announcement, but I swear this one is for real. As of today, I am employed full-time as a senior type designer at Monotype Imaging, based out of our...

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Hipsta-Michi

It's a terrible shame that I won't actually be in London to see it, but I was delighted to find out that the photo above is going to be part of a show of Hipstamatic images at the Orange...

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Type is only skin-deep

Ready at last! Feast your eyes on this little video clip of me getting my tattoo of the "w" from Type Mafia's Actium Black Italic this Summer. Henk Schiffmacher, the tattoo artist, was quite a character, and luckily he...

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Scooter on Sparky

pinkmince: Custom Pink Mince shirt made by the dreamy Scooter LaForge...

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The Pink Mince mood board

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The Pink Mince mood board

Custom Pink Mince shirt made by the dreamy Scooter LaForge...

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From the scrapbook

gunkme: ...ALPHA-GUNK!...

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From the scrapbook

typefacedesign: During lunch, Dan Rhatigan explaining the complexities of Bengali on mobile screens. Dan talked about the collaboration between the University and Monotype to develop new fonts for the mobile and web environments in India. NB: Not just Bengali, which...

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Mincing

I really do like an old-fashioned photo booth. And the booth that took these — at Cargo in Shoreditch — is still cheaper than the shitty passport photo booths you find everywhere. And more fun....

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May Day!

Oh, nothing to fuss about. that’s not "May day!" as in, "Help!"; it's "May Day!" as in, "It's the first of May and after a solid four months of working almost every waking hour, money has last started to...

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Oh Coney, My Coney

The start of Summer always makes me long for Coney Island, especially now that it's so far away and I'll probably never see it again before it finally gives in to all the pressure and becomes something else. But there's...

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Let me pass

New passport photos, at last all sorted. Hilariously, there's a place down the street form the studio that does them. Well, it wouldn't have helped to get them last week since I’m still waiting for a paycheck deposit so...

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Snaps

Today's passport photo, capturing 39 1/2 years or so of stress and strain. Of course, there's always some kind of TREMENDOUS HASSLE lurking in the background every time I need to take another damned one of these, and today...

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Zubby

This is Dave. He's been my best friend for slightly over 20 years now. He's awesome. (From here.)...

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It's Sodachrome Day!

Until I was reminded by the talented Rob Keller, I had completely forgotten that today is Sodachrome Day in the 2010 Typodarium calendar. Woo hoo! Although it's a shame that we weren't able to show off our efforts in...

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Pink Minx

Having grown up with a life-long concern about being perceived as a sissy, largely due to a long childhood being called a called a sissy or being told not to be one, I opted to participate in Gay Shame...

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TDi: intensive typeface design

This July — as in, soon — Reading is offering a week-long version of the MA Typeface Design course. I wrote a little more about it over at I Love Typography....

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Diesel type

Sorry for the shitty photo, but it gives a glimpse of the awesome use of wood type to jazz up the fitting rooms in the Diesel men's shop on Carnaby Street. There's also a nice border of type going...

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Magical mystery tub

Bathtub Originally uploaded by ultrasparky. I’m reading my way through a stack of old issues of Metropolis (my sister recently handed me all the back issues from my subscription that she received after I left the country in September...

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Dotty and Disease

The room I’ve had a couple of times in my favorite little hotel in Brighton is called "Dotty", and I basically picked it because it's fun and bright orange and filled with festive polka dots. Like it was made...

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Yeah, I’m hardcore

Hah! Imagine? I’m a pussycat, really. (Photo by the Awesome Austrian, who can make it look like I’m not aging as badly as I usually suspect I am.)...

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Oooooh, so many toys

I had to tear myself away before I got sucked in forever. Dan Rhatigan and some toys, Originally uploaded by fermello78....

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Temporary separation

People are always surprised to hear that I haven't been homesick all year. Although there are lots of things — and certainly lots of people — that I miss, I was really ready to leave the States, and in...

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I am so wasted!

It's sadly typical that I’m down here in Brighton staying in an awesome little hotel that boasts of being a rock-n-roll party spot, and I’m up in my room proofreading my dissertation about math while I nurse a raging headache...

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Busy Bee

Progress on my dissertation has been an uphill battle against two very demanding design projects I’ve been plowing through at the same time. One, thankfully, is on its way to turning out very well after a few hiccups on press...

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The Reading Mafia, West Coast Edition

20070803-DSC01007.jpg Originally uploaded by Joe Pemberton. Spotted in the photos of Typecon Seattle: future and former tenants of my flat, and members of Gerry's international shadow army. (Plus, of course, the charming Miss Tiffany, adjunct operative of the shadow...

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Introducing Gina

Another deadline finished! We turned in our typeface files last week, and I just turned in the specimen booklet this morning. Next it's an essay on the development and production of the typefaces, and after that it's on to...

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It's England Land!

Sure it's touristy, but how do you NOT take that shot when it's right there in front of you?...

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If It's Friday This Must Be Belgium

OK, so in the last week I’ve been to lots of places — Hahn, Frankfurt, Oberhausen, Essen, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Bussum, Den Haag, Antwerp, and now finally Brussels. This was supposed to be a couple of days for me to...

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Jeepers Creepers

I had pinkeye when I was a kid and got so annoyed with how my eyelids kept getting stuck together with gunk that I cut off all my eyelashes with a pair of scissors. Big scissors, if I recall....

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The Weary Traveller

This is what morning looks like after getting back in the middle of the night from an action- and inscription-packed week in Rome and Florence. All in all, that was one class trip that beat the hell out of...

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The 20th Century Was So Colorful!

I was sorting some old files and found this picture from the early glory days of the Swanktuary, as my old apartment in Brooklyn came to be known. It's actually kind of difficult to look at (and no, I’m...

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Lunar Module

Sadly, I now know that a full lunar eclipse isn't quite as cool-looking as a solar eclipse. It has its mysterious charm, but it's not quite so dramatic. Also? Much less photogenic. But maybe the lunar eclipse really does have...

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End of Day

Nice weather is too rare in these parts to let it pass unnoticed....

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Shamelessness

"Shamelessness" is a strange title for anything related to me. If anything defines my overall sense of self, it's a murky combination of shame, insecurity, self-consciousness, and regret. I may have a certain amount of confidence in my ability to...

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Snowfall

I’m still not a big fan of the snow, but I have to admit that it's much prettier and less of a slushy nightmare here than it was in the middle of Bed-Stuy....

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My Time of Night

Unlike Sky Masterson, I’m not much of a night owl. I am a big fan of cities, though, and my favorite time to see a city is the middle of the night. I like the play of shadow and artificial...

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Faces of Terror and Death

So perhaps you were deeply traumatized by the hideous visage of the scary baby mannequin featured in my last entry, and you thought to yourself: "Goodness gracious, who would think that’s a good idea?" The culprit is a shop called...

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Last Night's Sleep

I was intrigued by a mention of this software called Dream Recorder, which monitors you while you sleep, trying to identify the best possible moment to wake you up so you record yourself describing your dream before you forget. It...

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Christmas Stories

Now that my Christmas-killing cold has settled down into a manageable case of congestion, I’m lucid enough to string a few sentences together without needing a nap to recover. I was waiting for a touch of cold to hit me....

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Holiday Festivities

Fear not, true believers, I’m still here and still kicking. We've spent the last couple of weeks at school doing workshops in greek and Indic scripts, which involved an awful lot of work with a few impromptu social events throw...

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Early Night

Now that winter is setting in, it's getting dark awfully early. I’m so used to life in big cities that it's very disconcerting to wander across an unlit campus and down pretty dark roads at 5:30 in the evening....

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The First Frost

Miraculously, we've had a short string of lovely days, although the price we're paying for the brief respite from the rains is a sudden plummeting of the thermometer at night. The afternoons are crisp and lovely and autumnal and all...

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March of the Drunken Type Designers

The flatmates and I threw the first party of the year last night, since we haven't really gotten a chance yet to socialize with the rest of the department outside of classes yet. We're a big group this year...

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Fatty Fatty Two-by-Four

This curious image of my flatmate Rob and I (ignore the random Portuguese woman) from our recent trip to Lisbon (my pictures, Rob's pictures) illustrates a few important points: I will never have hair that is not completely tragic. I...

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Goodbye, Hello

Goodbye, Brooklyn... ...and hello, Reading! (I’m here, and safe, and tired, and so far very, very happy. More to come, naturally.)...

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Pink Slips

One of my final farewells will be at this month's WYSIWYG Talent Show next Wednesday night at the Bowery Poetry Club. (Yes, they've moved to Wednesday nights — make a note!) This month the blog kids will be talking...

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This Film Has Now Premiered

This Film Is Not Yet Rated finally premiered this past weekend, here and in Los Angeles but hopefully near the rest of you soon. I can be totally objective and talk about how this is a fascinating, occasionally startling,...

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Stranger in Stranger

Well, looky-looky at the cover of this week's issue of The Stranger: The photo, taken by a pseudo-pornographer I know, is in honor of Hump! 2, The Stranger's 2nd annual amateur porn contest. I’m sure that boy-toy model Jeffy up...

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Body Type

Click here for a few more peeks of the inside of the book, put together by my pal and colleague, Ina Saltz....

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Prom Trauma!

We've been kinda pokey about getting out all the details (let's just say your favorite all-blogger reading series is run by people whose lives are generally busy and stressful), but next Tuesday night is the long-anticipated Prom Trauma edition...

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The Way Back Machine

Check out the way I’m rocking the twin SE/30s in BU's graphic design computer lab, circa 1992: Those hard drives? 80 megabytes! Those screens? Grayscale. That scanner? Bitmap only. That printer? Well, it would probably still run today if you...

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The Prettiest Picture

A good pal of mine — a fellow blogger whose identity I dare not reveal — recently hired me to photograph him for a project he's working on (and probably not the project you might expect from looking at...

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All Glamour, All the Time

It's hard to maintain my rep as a Grade-A sexy motherfucker without the photographic evidence to back it up, so let's just see what I got myself up to this past weekend......

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Happy Halloween!

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Current Views

For my own benefit as well as for the lurid curiosity of anyone who still reads this, I like to document how I look as I get older, just so there's a record of the march of time. So here's...

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Give Me a Sign

As we get closer and closer to a developer's vision of Coney Island as a "Vegas by the Sea," you really owe it yourself to haul ass down to Stillwell Avenue and check out Coney Island's treasures before they get...

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Shoot the Crack

I saw a lot of great stuff at Coney Island on Saturday, but some of it was less picturesque than the rest. For instance, check out this combination of tranquility and trash (with a little help from Photoshop to reveal...

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Home Again

I’ve been feeling the strain of doing little more than working, moving, running errands, and carrying stuff around for over a month now, but at least things are finally settling down. I think. At any rate, the new digs are...

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Bustin' Out All Over

Going into Cowgirl Hall of Fame, I could see that there was a lot of rubbernecking happening a block down, at the corner of Christopher and Hudson. It was hard to tell, though, whether there was a fire, an...

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Destination Known

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Rocking Out

Thanks to a tip from Bill Roundy, who met up with Andy and me at the Mermaid Parade, I also got myself over to CBGB's last night for the last-ever Homocorps show before the club closes down this summer. It...

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Dance, Mermaid, Dance!

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade was, once again, a blast. I would expect no less, but the looming redevelopment of the boardwalk area makes me fear that this may be the last time the Mermaid Parade is still a wonderful,...

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Weddings and WYSIWYG

In all the hubbub of last weekend, I never actually got a chance to report on all the goings on. My absurdly slow recovery was put to the test not only by a rare visit from my pal PJ, but...

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Scarbelly

You knew there'd be pictures right?...

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Brushes with Fame

OK, so I finally got sucked into Lost about halfway through the season, and I’m getting all worked up as the season finale approaches. I was feeding the frenzy by reading through this post over at my favorite TV blog,...

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See Sparky Smile

Yes, a change of scenery was just the thing to shake me out of the doldrums. I think I may have to consider taking little retreats like this once in a while. A few days without talking much, doing...

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Calling All Top Models!

Of course, you're all eagerly anticipating this week's latest WYSIWYG Talent Show because you know it's gonna be fantastic as always, right? Well, there's something else you can get excited about: being a glamorous model for next month's all-star,...

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More Identifying Marks

I decided to commemorate my latest departure from steady employment by getting an addition to my series of typographic tattoos. As always, the letters don't stand for anything, but are chosen for what I like about their abstract shapes. In...

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Vanity 6

I was roped into a photo shoot for the annual report that I’ve been working on, which was both a break from the grueling pace of actually designing the report and a chance to get a few decent pictures of...

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What the Jesuits Have Done

My favorite from the pictures I took at BlogJam last weekend....

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Brown Belt Hulabaloo

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Old Pals in the Old Town

I miss Brooklyn, a really special place I grew to love. I miss the Newtown gang, some of whom I’ve known for over 20 years now, and the really excellent wives and kids they've accumulated along the way. I miss...

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Kiki and Company

It was quite a show. Compared to the many I’ve experienced in smaller venues, a lot of the intimate feeling (which could sometimes leave you feeling gloriously trapped in a room with a raving madwoman) was lost in such...

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Rocking Out

Life, as you may have learned, is full of surprises. Last night, for example, I discovered that some old chums have secretly transformed into a really excellent band. Now, I’ve known for a while that they've been turning years of...

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The Graham Norton After Effects

There was flooding in the subway tunnels all over the place this morning, so the crowding on the few trains creeping their way through the mess was out of control. Everyone was wet, crabby, and pushy, and tempers were flaring...

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Future Rockstars

If Jessie and his friend Jeremy were to record an album of pensive, angsty alterna-pop songs, what would the album art look like?...

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West Coast Posse

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The Kamerman-Schmidts

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Bewitched, Bewildered

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Scenes from the Talent Show

OMG, we had so much fun! Everyone pulled off a dazzling performance, and the audience ate it up. I should apologize to Bob and Kythryne up front, because the pictures I got of them turned out so badly there...

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One Night Only!

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Stage Fright

As I finish up the piece I'll be reading at the next WYSIWYG Talent SHOW (it's this Tuesday at 7:00 don't miss it!) I’ve been trying to figure out of I have any stage fright waiting to burst forth and...

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Worst.Sex.Ever.

You know you want it. More importantly, you know how crappy it is when you don't get it. Wallow in the schadenfreude over at P.S. 122 before Valentine's Day comes crashing down on you. Hear some of your favorite...

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Scenes from the Exodus

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Viva Atlantic City!

Lord have mercy, I just talked to Mark and found out what happened after I parted company with the guys at midnight in front of the Taj Mahal. Wow. Let's just say that when I was arriving home five...

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Boys *heart* NYC

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Snowy Night

It's nice to already know that I’ve got a snow day tomorrow, but I have to admit I’m getting a little stir crazy. A weekend in was nice, but now I feel a little stuck. There's been a little bit...

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Overdue

With all the errands and the enormous to-do list, I haven't actually been getting out to socialize too much. Here are a few overdue shots from one of those wintry nights when I did drag myself out and have a...

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Farewell to the Swanktuary

The biggest change in my life right now is my imminent departure from the Swanktuary (formerly known as the Rumpus Room). Ah, my dear home: the only place I ever lived in longer was the house in Staten Island where...

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Time Keeps on Slipping, Slipping, Slipping

I need to find a way to stop sleeping altogether. I need those eight hours to be much more productive, or I’m never going to get a damn thing done. With an extra eight hours of usefulness during the day...

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Satisfied Customer

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Jessie's summary of his visit a couple of weeks ago. He's finally posted the first part of a few, as well as a beautiful photo gallery of his time here. I don't think I’ve ever babbled...

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Qwe're Boys

I turned 32 yesterday, but instead of spending the day celebrating my birthday, I spent it celebrating New York City's expanded Human Rights Law at the Qwe're Music Fest with a couple hundred festive liberals from all over the gender...

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JJD in NYC

For two photo buffs, Jessie and I didn't actually spend much time using our cameras. I blame the bleak, rainy weather. Here are a few to give you a taste of some quiet moments when we weren't having wild, madcap...

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Bloody Brothers

Jessie and I topped off his visit by getting matching tattoos that pair up to make the old Krispy Kreme logo....

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Where's Carmen Miranda? Part III

More later: I’m pooped and I have an iBook with a cracked screen to grumble about today. But here's the latest batch of travel photos:...

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Where's Carmen Miranda? Part II

I’ve been getting quite a kick out of all your theories, so I think it's finally time to reveal the photographic evidence......

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A Visit Up Your Alley

I made a last-minute decision to fly out to San Francisco this past weekend to visit some very good friends and check out the Dore Alley Fair. Fun time, nice things to see, nothing earth-shattering to report. On the whole,...

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Where's Carmen Miranda? Part I

Stop #1 on the UltraSparky World Tour: This one's a giveaway, easy as pie. So I'll pose a bonus question: who was I visiting? Leave your answers and feedbacks in the comments, please....

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Where in the World Is Carmen Miranda?

Where in the World Is Carmen Miranda? (Yeah, it's a stupid name, but it came about in a stupid way and it stuck. Sue me.) Okay, so I'll be coming and going hither and yon for the next few weeks,...

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Hideous Mutant Freak?

I’m becoming better friends with my body. (This isn't about masturbation, so there's no need to get grossed out and stop reading.) What I mean is that I’ve been getting over this bad attitude I’ve always had about my...

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Polkatharsis

Yesterday morning I was largely a basket case, due to the unearthing of some mounting frustrations that I had been trying to articulate in a very overwrought e-mail, but the worst of it had passed by the time I forced...

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New Feature: The Alpha Room

One of my plans for this latest reboot of UltraSparky was to use the "Other" page as a place to dump random interesting bits, including old gems from the previous incarnations of the site. I finally got off my lazy...

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Mermaids A-Poppin'

And finally, an assortment of pictures from Saturday's Coney Island Mermaid Parade, by far one of my favorite events of the year. It's a real honest mix of the city — young, old, gay, straight, hipster, square. No splashy corporate...

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Snapshots

bj's gay porno-crazed ramblings">...

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Kiwi in the House

No need to fret, kids: the globe-trotting Mr. Pannett has arrived safe and sound in New York Fucking City, and we've brought him back to his luxurious accomodations here at The Swanktuary in Brooklyn. Ever the considerate guest, he even...

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Recent Portraits

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Up Again

It's getting the point where waking up in the middle of the night pretty much means there'll be no getting back to sleep. No matter how tired I may be, no matter how groggy I feel, the sleep just doesn't...

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Hot Naked Boys

This morning's drawing class was a total scene. I don't know why there were suddenly three times as many people there as usual, but I suspect that somehow word got out that we were gonna be having a hot, flirty...

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Magazine Whore

Finally, an explanation for the cryptic, snarky e-mails I’ve been getting from random people I know the last couple of days. I discovered that a personal ad of mine that’s been floating around Nerve for a while was inexplicably picked...

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Hi-Fashion Model

The realy cold weather will be here soon, which means that the gas bills for the large, drafty money pit that is the Rumpus Room will go up by about 200 clams a month. Hoping to set aside a little...

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The Rogue's Gallery

This was primarily a social trip for me, even though I did manage to squeeze in a little sightseeing and museum-hopping, with Terry in London and with Paul up north. Most of my time, though, was spent seeing old friends,...

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Piss Off, Snobby London!

All week in London, I had to defend the North. Londoners act like the entire northern part of the country is one giant inbred cousin, inexplicable and dull, and slightly embarrassing. You know what, though? I loved my trip up...

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BigGayTransatlanticBlogMeet II

The call was put out, and at least a few of the UK Bloggers heeded it. Details are sketchy, but apparently a good time was had by all. Davo, Jonathan, me getting carried and groped by Scally, Marcus, David, Michael,...

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Alpha Male

If you know me, than you probably know that I’m a big fan of science fiction. Why hide my spots, right? I make an effort, though, not to impose my enthusiasm on those who don't share it. It just invites...

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Boy Story

One of my social calls in London was Alex, an awfully sexy, sweet Brazilian guy I met when he was in New York this past summer. That time, we zeroed in on each other at the Lure and wound up...

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Quick Notes

A few quick items before I forget: I’ve had my fill of squeezing into single beds for the time being. For the rest of the trip, I’m going to remind myself that I’m on vacation and my comfort and convenience...

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Less Pudding, More Proof

Just in case you think that I’ve abandoned the controversial GutWatch initiative, I offer some proof of what can happen after a month of more regular exercise and significantly less snacking. Nothing earth-shattering, but I'll use my two weeks of...

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Hollywood Copycat

I may not be 100% punk, but I have proof that Seth Green is copying my look. See for yourselves. Obviously, he knows that he's my Buffy Dream Date and he's trying to score brownie points....

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Breaking Bread with Brad

Behold! A very sick Sparky, Mike, and special out-of-town guest star, The Brad. I wish I could relate amusing stories, but I was too close to death to remember much more than one story from Brad's public TV days...

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Guest Perspective: Jessie Deisher

Once again, I'll turn the spotlight over to a guest. This time, our esteemed contributor is Jessie from contrasts.net (yeah, that’s him on the right), who's got a much sharper eye for the interesting details of everyday things than...

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Wood Dolls

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Ghetto Sunset

Taken around the corner from the Rumpus Room on October 5, 2001:...

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SF Wrap-Up

San Franciso, yeah. All in all, it's been a pretty swell trip. I didn't get to do that much except do nerdy conference stuff and have food and drink with an assortment of old and new pals, but that’s not...

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Days Gone By in NYC

Back in the summer of 1989, my dad gave me his old Pentax K-1000 and a few pointers, and I set out to try and capture a bit of my New York City. I took hundreds of pictures, and there...

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Views from Brooklyn Heights

I had to get out of the house today, get away from the TV and see something with my own eyes again. I took my bike down to Brooklyn Heights so I could see the view from the Promenade that...

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Birthday Wrap-Up

OK, so the birthday shindig was pretty great. We took over the outside patio of this nifty place in Williamsburg, and lots of the gang showed up, and I had a lot of fun and basked in a lot of...

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Radiohead Wrap-Up

Well, those kids sure do love their Radiohead. Overall I might have thought it was an incredible show since they did put on an amazing performance, but I have to admit that I was a little out of it. For...

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Parisian Photologue

And for those of you who are understandably sick of seeing my mug, here's an assortment of other photos I took this week in Paris. I used the digital camera for all the self-portraits and the color snapshots. I also...

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Le Sparc en Paris!

Le sparc en Paris! Or, a totally narcissitic exercise in proving that I went to France for a bit. A set of photos without the same annoying amount of Sparky content will follow soon.              ...

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Vere Are Your Paperz?

In honor of my upcoming trip, and because I’ve been getting a kick out of the latest meme, I'll also contribute this little goodie. Note, I am not the young German student of philosophy shown in the photograph. And I...

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They Went and Done It

In the midst of my incessant committee meetings about this aggravating eviction issue — which is becoming an endless, tedious pain in the butt — I’ve still managed to maintain some semblance of the whirlwind pace of my normal life....

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Paul Soup

I had the pleasure of another perfectly lovely visit from my idol Paul Baker today, as always a big, charming, pile of fun and a reminder that all the good ones are taken. since the dreaded snow was at it...

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Old Models

Even in these modern times, some things haven't necessarily changed that much. Jessie (who's way too cute for his own good, even when grumpy) neatly sums up a pet peeve that I also have with my family. Even though they...

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Hemmin', Hawin', and Hair

So not only did last night make it painfully obvious that the current boy just wants to be friends (and I’m net even sure of that much), but I also lost my cell phone during one of the cab rides....

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Bella Italia

I’ve started sorting through my pictures from Italy, but I’m undecided about whether a lot of the pictures are interesting because of the images themselves, or because they're making me fondly recall interesting experiences. I don't want to put up...

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Tattoo U

The new tattoo. Another in my ongoing series of tattoos based on letterforms I think are beautiful. From a visual standpoint, I’ve been wanting something big, black, and smooth-edged that would peek outside of most clothing, but that I could...

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Balms

Relaxing my months-long spending freeze, I went on a minor shopping spree at H & M (where one must forcibly ignore mental images of all the slave labor that must be required to produce such super-cool but dirt-cheap clothing) yesterday...

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Showing Skin

Earlier in the week, I posed for a photographer I met who wanted to shoot my tattoos. I haven't seen all the shots, but here are the previews he sent me afterward:...

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Interior Decorating Triumphs

In happier news, I finally have pictures to show what the Rumpus Room looks like furnished. Loyal readers have probably seen the unfurnished version, but you can now see what I’ve done with the place during the last year. (Just...

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Pictures, Not Words

I’m so damn lazy that I’ve only just processed all the film I’ve shot since the beginning of the year. Expect a slow trickle of scans to be posted here. For starters, here's a nice shot of me with my...

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The Great Escape

Sweet Canadian Steve, who's just revealed that he's actually kinda foxy, led me to the Big Fun site, for which I felt a strange affinity, even though I’m not an underage southern punk rocker living in a huge old house...

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Peepshow II

Here's your humble host. I figured if you've come this far, your innate voyeurism must be chomping at the bit. Here's some stuff to peek at. Or you can just go back to the beginning. I’m not just into leather...

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See Sparky Shoot

The result of too much time and film. All self-portraits, all taken in haste in order to finish rolls of film....

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I have HAD It!

One of the recurring themes of my sad, sorry life is my inability to find that ideal sidekick who's just the right combination of brainiac, goofball, sidekick, hipster, nerd, sexual dynamo, little kid, and muse. Granted, I’m pretty fussy,...

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Shocking Personal Facts About Sparky

Hi boys and girls, I’m Sparky, known to my parents, relatives, co-workers, and many of my pals as Dan Rhatigan. (To my dismay, many of the kinfolk still refer to me as "Danny," the diminutive of my name that...

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Figures on a Beach

Venice Beach is a smorgasbord of friends and family. A few quick snaps......

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Where All Men Are United in the Love of Chicken-N-Waffle

Roscoe's the name and they call me the king, grandmaster of the chicken and the waffle thing. I said read my lips and, friends, don't miss a word 'Cause the grandmaster's gonna give you the bird! When I first saw...

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An Entertainment Bonanza

I don't know if it's possible to really explain Marty and Elayne. At least, I don't think anyone could express exactly what it's like to see them, to hear them. Marty and Elayne are a husband-and-wife lounge act who perform...

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Boogie Nights at the Moonlight Rollerway

When was the last time you went roller skating? I don't mean sleek rollerblades, I mean four thick wheels, big orange stopper in the front, disco blaring all around you. that’s what happened to me and my friends at the...

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Gawking in L.A.

Dan Rhatigan, your resident megalomaniacal self-publisher, wrote, lived, and photographed this shocking tale of disaster and wonderment. Accommodations provided by Northwest Airlines and the sinister Dr. Lau. This was my first time Wow. I mean it — wow. Wow. Wow!...

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alt.youth.media

Ooze bites the hand that feeds it! Ooze came one step closer to its formidable goal of total media domination this past fall when it was included in an exhibit called alt.youth.media at New York's New Museum of Contemporary...

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