Как Строить Перспективу Форекс

Gus Fink is a commercial artist whose multidisciplinary work all falls within the umbrella of &#;Pop Art&#; &#; and like the Ur God of Pop, Andy Warhol, Gus works in every medium available: sculpting, painting, cartoons, film, clothing design, digital art, indie games and music.

Simply put, Gus is an all round pop art visionary!

Gus and his art came to our attention thanks to the recently released &#;Creeplings&#; series of designer toys, a collaborative effort between Gus and his equally talented wife Emi Boz &#; and just like all works that Gus is involved in, they are well worth checking out.

(Picture of some of the &#;Creeplings&#; series of blind box art toys, below)

With Gus constantly pushing his art and himself, working on project after project, now is the perfect time to get to know the man and his art, by reading the Art Talk interview below&#;

Basics/Getting to Know

Name + D.O.B?

Gus Fink

January 12th

(Some art by Gus below)

City, State n Country you currently call home?

Newark, Delaware, USA

City, State n Country your from?

Hazleton, PA, USA

Describe a memory from some stages of yr life ….basically trying to piece together your pivotal moments. Concerts, art, action-figures, romance, school, crime… ANYTHING man!

* age 5 – beginnings:

Started art around 2 and always felt a connection to it.

Around this time I was told to grab my medicine and I drank the whole bottle, not aware of how bad it was for me. Luckily my mom was able to take me to the ER and save my life.

(Picture below of Gus aged 2 with his Grandfather)

* age 10 – continuations:

By now I was overweight and had no friends.

Every day I lived in fear of getting beatings from my older brother and was a poor student &#; there wasn&#;t much hope, just hiding.

* age 15 – getting serious:

More overweight and being an outcast where I was only able to slightly fit in with other misfits that had similar or worst situations than myself.

These friends helped me discover comic books this was a pivital age for me where I realized I wanted more for my life.  I decided to workout every day and prove people wrong about me.

(Picture of Gus &#; on the left &#; aged 17 with a friend)

* age 20 – young adult:

By now I fully found myself and done more with my life than during childhood, My art style was fully being developed.

I started a comic book company and let it fail at 16, graduated high school at 17 took a few months off to work at a subway till I decided to get a 2 year degree in computer animation. I graduated top of my class but realized it was a joke degree and didn&#;t want to move to LA to look for work. Instead I opened up a strange punk rock shop with a good friend and little money.

At 21 I decided to fully be an artist and my shop was closed down &#; it was a small earning but I was much happier than doing the fast food and walmart type jobs my peers were doing. I was an un-credited entrepreneur making less than my friends but with the pleasure of doing what I wanted.

(Picture below of Gus aged 20 in his old shop)

* age 25 – adult mode:

Steadily growing my art business at 26 I became a father and this stepped up my work mode and goals.

I&#;ve had several comic books published and started licensing my artwork and ideas into different toy lines including the (age 27) Boogily Heads, Stitch Kittens, Puff Dogs, SkullGnome, Boogily Bunnies &#; and did the first blind bag mini comic and sticker packs.

(Picture below of Gus aged 25)

* age 30 – fully formed:

A father of 2 by now and lived during a bad economy forced me to think up new ideas to make income off my art.

Things always change and you got to change with them. I moved around a lot and wasn&#;t with the mother of my children. Persevering through tough times and many more to come.

Still I was able to grow my brands , my art and think of many more ideas.

* age 35 – adult continuations:

I now make video games, many toys, apparel and write/direct short films and am looking to do feature films.

&#; The roads path changes all the time and every day I wake up not knowing where my next dollar is or how.

But something happens , something comes of the day and like magic it always works out.

I have the greatest person in my life and finally feel free. This freedom of creativity has me motivated to quickly take any idea and execute it.

(A recent picture below of Gus Fink and his wife Emi Boz)

Personal motto?

Every moment has a purpose, you just have to give it the right one.

Favorite band(s)?

STRFKR,The Browning, Suicide Silence, Dr. Acula, Pixies, Nirvana, Chelsea Grin, DeadMau5

I don&#;t have a favorite just like a lot of different stuff that helps the mood I&#;m in.

(Picture below of Gus aged 23 and playing in his old band &#;Bleed as One&#;)

Favorite TV show(s)?

The leftovers, The office, Stranger things,Hard Knocks, Tales from the Crypt&#;

HBO does the best TV

Favorite sport(s) + teams?

American Football

Philadelphia Eagles

(Pictures below of some art by Gus)

Favorite movie(s)?

The Shining, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the Royal Tennenbaums, the First Nightmare on Elmstreet, Star Wars, Batman movies

Favorite books and comics?

Batman + Spawn

Art Questions

Favorite other artist(s)?

Kurt Cobain, Jim Hensen, whomever designed M.U.S.C.L.E. men toys

Worst aspect of the contemporary art-hustle?

The politics + the gimmicks

(Pictures below of some art by Gus)

Best aspect of the contemporary art-hustle?

Capabilities of doing anything, finding anyone and making it happen.

Do you consider what you are making to be ‘art’, ‘design’, re-hashed crap?

True art from my mind , from the universe.

When and why did you first start making ‘art’ (drawings, paintings, anything)?

It&#;s natural for children to feel the need to create and I never let that go. Most people let go of their child spirit and to me it was who I am, I didn&#;t want to grow away from it so I never did.

(Pictures below of some art by Gus)

What did you draw and make as a pre-teen child?

Average stuff for the most part but at 9 I decided to draw the things I saw when I closed my eyes. took me years to realize not everyone can see the things I see.

It&#;s something God given.

What did you draw and make as a teen?

Wanted to be a cool comic book artist for awhile and I did really bad drawings that nobody liked. When I was I started to find my own style and it was the same flow of creativity it always had.

Any pivotal artistic moment/influence?

Seeing the Basquiat movie made an impact , it showed me that you didn&#;t have to be a boring taught artist but could do it your own way and I loved knowing you could make it as an artist without rules.

I really hate rules to any art and letting go of all that helped me take off.

(Picture below showing the &#;Basquiat&#; film poster &#; Gus&#; pivotal artistic influence)

Why + when did you decide to go in on the art hustle?

I&#;m terrible at doing the normal things that most do and I really get depressed when I had to do it. Going to school , working for others it left me so biter and angry I decided to quit at a young age and had nothing to fall back on.

This forced me to stay hungry and work hard for every dollar so I could eat and pay rent.

Describe the process of producing your art&#;

I like to not know what I will create and let it happen.

It&#;s my favorite when I get to think up new things, new stories , new ideas and then make it happen exactly how I want to.

* Your sketches + comics?

I don&#;t do comics too much any more &#; they don&#;t give me the pleasure that they used to. But I will still write them and  design&#;. I&#;m always sketching and usually don&#;t plan it just let it flow with the current feeling.

* Your paintings?

Same thing, unless its a commission &#; one thing I should mention is I like to make things that I would enjoy, not for others. This helps me enjoy the process and not worry what others think &#; usually this is my best work too when I do it right.

* Your digital art?

Digital art is my pre-planned art. Digital art is for something that needs to be correct so it&#;s my only planned art for the most part.

So for packaging, or animation projects, video games I usually start off the computer and then do the digital to enhance &#;.sometimes it&#;s all digital but not often.

Toy Questions

Describe the process of producing your sculptural creations? – from original sculpt, moulding, production, to finally holding that sweet sweet finished product in your hands&#; (dot point all o.k.)

I mostly sculpt the way I paint and draw, without much pre planning &#; just feel of the moment kind of work&#; once in awhile I&#;ll do it a little pre planned and then it will certainly turn out different.

Your ‘Creeplings’ blind box series recently had a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign – getting funded and garnering a lot of praise and press&#;

* What role do you each play in ‘Creeplings’?

I drew them out and let Emi (my wife) sculpt &#; then I had to tell her if there was anything I didn&#;t like on the first few &#; she learns quickly and does an amazing job. She can take my flat drawings and make them come to life.

She&#;s much better at sculpting my drawings then myself and it&#;s a perfect balance and combination.

* Why the name ‘Creeplings’?

I used to own a website called creeplings for these creepy photos I did &#; I always loved the name it started from a strange painting I did.

I never forget fun names I come up with.

* How do you see the series and concept developing – a cartoon, game, plush toys etc?

As big as any IP really I think all of my ideas can grow out and become something of all media and materials as long as the masses love it.

(Pictures below of the &#;Creeplings&#; line of blind box figures)

What release do you both get from collaborating, that you don’t get working independently?

Emi and I collaborate on every project in some aspect. We discuss most all we work on and share ideas constantly &#; everyday is full of priorities and things to get done.

What ever happened to your old plush toy series ‘Kreebils’?

They are still alive just taking a break for now.

We were supposed to do cool plastic toys of them but it didn&#;t happen.

(Pictures below of the &#;Kreebils&#; line of plush toys)

Are art-toys for the kids?

Yes, our toys are more for kids than adults but cool enough for adults to enjoy.

Kids are very important to me and I already seen how cool the new generations are that grew up with boogily heads and are adults now. It&#;s so cool to see that happen.

Is the rise of ‘art’ toys an indication of the changing nature of ‘art’? OR just a bunch of nerds with too much $$$ and time?

I never was part of the cool club of art toys or accepted in any way. I used to really want to be part of that little special group.

I think my toys are more for kids than adults and maybe that&#;s why, I don&#;t know but I really just do my own thing and not worry about those details anymore.

Thoughts on the rise of resin as an artistic medium?

I&#;m glad people can do that stuff, I&#;m not good at it but I also don&#;t have much energy for it.

What role did toys play in your childhood?

A huge roll &#; they are a big reason I do what I do, that and cool 80&#;s films.

Odds n Ends

Please describe your experiences growing up in the USA?

I grew up in a small town that I really enjoyed.  But saw it change and grow violent. Dark and crime filled

I enjoyed spending time with my grandfather and uncle, as my father left a lil bit after when I was born.

Hazleton was mostly an Italian place. Me not being Italian I was excluded from most things but overall I look back and just focus on the good. Which was growing. And learning from experiences rather then all the bad.

Who was your 1st crush and why?

Madonna.

&#;Who&#;s that Girl&#; movie came out and I was in awe.  I guess it&#;s the powerful artist and actress she was in one.

She was the 80s so it was hard not to crush on her.

(Picture below of the poster for the film &#;Who&#;s That Girl &#; featuring Gus&#; childhood crush, Madonna)

Does sex change everything?

Can&#;t say it does.

Please describe your latest dream in detail…

Don&#;t want to give good ideas out.  Lots of great ideas come from dreams.   But I&#;ll make one up and see where it goes&#;

The was a factory that used to make clocks.  It went abandoned long ago with the owner dying inside. But when a teenage cat decided to rest inside he accidently turned the owners clock heart back on.  Now all the old sold clocks are in sync with the factory&#;

Wait this sounds more like a strange movie or something &#; Sorry!

Of everything you have done what would you most like to be remembered for and why?

I don&#;t think I&#;ve done my most memorial stuff yet.

(Pictures below of some art by Gus)

Drugs – waste of time or gateway to the universe?

Huge waste of time for people like me. I never wanted to be around or get involved with them.

The body and mind should be treated with more respect and take in all the reality we perceive so we can come up with better ways to change it with good sober thought.

Please describe what you think the American Psyche/Zeitgeist is today?

The American psyche today. Hmm.  So do you mean what the masses are thinking and feeling &#;  And my take on it?!

Without being political. Respect at all times. Americans want it. And respect is really from love &#; The world wants to be loved and respected.

Americans are a diverse pool of all kinds from this planet. Probably the most diverse. Which is why it&#;s hated and also so loved and great at coming up with cool things. It&#;s the perfect center point to grow up poor. Be carved up and look to make it.

Probably didn&#;t answer this well. But I believe personal opinions only get people overly criticized in today&#;s internet mind set.

Which ’s era cartoon, would you most like to see in a tribute sex toy, and why?

&#;I guess this is why it&#;s called art whore? I don&#;t consider myself an art whore in any way. Almost didn&#;t do the article since it&#;s called that.

But I like what you&#;re doing over all and how we connected&#;

Who would win in a fight and why: a redneck on his way home from the pub Vs. A gang of teen art punks out on the town?

I&#;d say the rabbit with the baseball bat would defeat the clown bear with hammer.

Gus Fink – Stand Alone Questions

You have been involved in the indie game ‘Fright Show Fighter’ released by 3Fright

* who is involved and what role did you each play in the game making process?

I did all the character designs and background designs.

I didn&#;t do the 3D graphics.  Jeff Brown took my designs and does what he does best as well as animating everything.

Doug K is our master mind programmer and invented his own game engine.

Together the 3 of us are the perfect video game trio and love what we do.

* why the decision to venture into the world of games?

Video games are the future.  And I loved them so much growing up.  It&#;s another dream come true.

People seem to be against making dreams come reality but I&#;ve always believed in them. And not giving up on any of them.

* any other game projects in the works – either independently or with 3Firght?

I&#;ve done some others and have a few in different stages but the other people I work with don&#;t get things done in a timely manner. Which is why it&#;s so delayed.

More will happen. Mostly with 3 fright.

(Pictures below of the &#;Fright Show Fighter&#; game)

I discovered you also make films when researching your interview, which was a nice surprise!

* Who is involved in the making of your films?

I&#;ve been working with a lot of people and made new friends from my new films. I now live in a great area which I wasn&#;t used to seeing people so kind to helping me with my ideas and visions when it comes to making films.

I write and direct and executive produce them and have assorted actors, Cinematographer, and loads of others helping out. Producers. Audio. Musicians. Editors.

All great people too!

* Care to explain your recent film – ‘Hubert and the Night People’?

Hubert is my first film. I&#;ve done 2 since that are near completion.

Hubert is about a lonely middle aged man that has no friends in the real world but each night is visited by the night people after he does his daily routines. The night is what he lives for. The days he dreads.

(Pictures below of Gus&#;s film work &#;Hubert and the Night People&#; in VHS format)

What ever happened to your old project ‘Dr Kinkles’?

It&#;s not an old project but still going. It&#;s more so a brand for certain ip we do. So instead of saying by Gus fink, it will be by Dr Krinkles.

It&#;s a very long story that I&#;ll talk more about in 10 years haha!

What is the backtale – both artistic and narritive – to your art toy series ‘Boogily Heads’?

For boogily heads I&#;m in a car so I&#;ll make it a lil short&#;

Artistically I wanted to produce a line direct from my sculptures. This was a time when all the smooth slick artist vinyl were out but not many sculpted them. I also wanted to do something my way. Since making them I noticed recently the design is being copied of the body shape and such with no legs

The backstory on them is they are creatures from my head and came alive in the boogily world . From creating a magical box I was able to take my original sculptures and make them real once placed in the fink box

(Pictures below of some of the &#;Boogily Heads&#;)

How did you come to have your Antique Horror clothing designs stocked in ‘Hot Topic’?

I&#;ve met some great people that sell into hot topic and we became good friends.

At first we weren&#;t sure which line to do but they really loved the antique horror line.

So it&#;s been a fun progression and experience.

(Pictures below of some of Gus&#; &#;Antique Horror&#; t shirt line)

The Future

Any collaborations on the horizon?

Films and video games are the ultimate collaboration.

I&#;m sure I&#;ll be doing more.

Most of my projects I can&#;t announce until their release so I got to keep this more brief&#;

Any major projects you want to hype?

Let&#;s see&#;.   eunic-brussels.eu for sure.

Gooli monsters and Stitch kittens have brand new plush toys that are launching as we speak.

Keep an eye out for my video games release and stay tuned on my films. I suppose that&#;s all!

Thanks for the opportunity.

Links

LOS ANGELES
July 19,

STRANGER: Malachi Marx
LOCATION: Los Angeles, California
THEME: An afternoon with a gay for pay porn actor/escort

Caution: This interview contains explicit sexual language

“I&#;m not gay and I don&#;t like pornography.”

Not the words you&#;d expect from someone who has made thousands of dollars from performing in gay porn videos and escorting with a mostly male clientele, often with sex involved. But it&#;s exactly how Malachi Marx (not his real name) describes his career being gay for pay.

Malachi, 25, doesn&#;t necessarily look at gay porn as a bad thing; rather, he sees it as work. Hard work that he sometimes struggles to get through, but work nonetheless. His primary focus appears to be on using his career in the sex industry as a means to providing a solid future for his female partner and children.

I knew nothing about the gay for pay industry so wanted to find out more, and Malachi agreed to an interview while I was in California. We&#;d planned on meeting at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant for dinner, but at the last minute Malachi suggested lunch at his place, where he said he could talk more freely. After a short train ride, I was at our arranged meeting spot and he picked me up from the station. Before starting the interview we swung by a delicatessen to pick up some lunch. The site is called Dining With Strangers, after all. We got panini, mine with pesto chicken and Malachi&#;s a turkey artichoke concoction. With something to sate my never-ending appetite, it was off to the interview.

When we first arrived at our place to eat and talk, I met Malachi&#;s female partner (I neglected to ask whether they were just dating or married), tending to one of their young children, so I refrained from asking any porn or escorting questions while I said my hello to the Marx family. Malachi and I had our lunch while we chatted with his partner.

The chicken pesto panino was delicious, tender cuts of meat with a heart attack-inducing amount of mozzarella cheese and an excellent pesto to finish it off. I had some fruit on the side to try and provide something healthy to counteract the massive panini. Great stuff.

Malachi similarly enjoyed his turkey artichoke panini with a pesto salad. I refrained from snatching a taste of his food. But his son got to try some of his dad&#;s panino, and seemed to enjoy it.

The words “doting father” might sound trite, but they could easily be used to describe the way Malachi interacts with his son; very playful, keeping a watchful eye on the kid as he wandered around. Similarly, he&#;s very affectionate with his partner. I&#;m not a huge fan of public displays of affection, but I can say their relationship seemed natural, full of humor, and unforced.

But Malachi&#;s partner wasn&#;t going to stick around for the interview. By design, the couple keep the world of gay porn and escorting separate from their home life. She left to take their child off to play, and I was able to start the tape recorder.

Even though the two don&#;t talk about his current career, Malachi&#;s partner and her first pregnancy is the reason he started doing adult videos for the gay porn website Randy Blue. But escorting came first, a world in which people pay for companionship with typically very attractive men or women, with sex considered by mutual consent and not included in the price of an escort &#; a legal loophole making it a quasi-legal profession. It was primarily crippling debt that pushed him into that industry.

“I was struggling to get above water while waiting tables and doing small time modeling gigs, and it was creating a lot of stress in my life,” Malachi said. He spoke with a gay friend named Carl, a guy who was a former male for male escort turned successful photographer. Carl told Malachi that the “quickest way you can get money is drugs, dancing or escorting and porn.” Malachi had already tried some low-level drug dealing before realizing the risks of jail time far outweighed the financial benefits, and so he started to consider escorting. One thing was certain &#; he didn&#;t want to enter the higher profile world of porn.

“It&#;s just a dick”

The market just wasn&#;t there to be a heterosexual escort, so if he was going to enter the profession; he&#;d have to do it with men. One big problem: Malachi&#;s not gay.

“If I was gay, I would be a lesbian,&#; he joked. I didn’t just jump into it. I was going through a lot of emotions mixed with stress and extreme motivation to make something of myself,” Malachi said. So he turned to his friend Carl for advice on what to do.

Carl said that Malachi could probably get by initially offering nude massages to clients, but that some clients would be expecting more.

“It&#;s just a dick,” Carl told Malachi to try and make him comfortable with jerking a guy off. “When you masturbate you’re touching a dick, it’s just another guy’s dick.” Adopting this mentality &#; combined with debt problems and using a substantial amount of pot &#; was enough for Malachi to get over his strong reluctance to doing anything sexual with men.

Carl “coerced me into it and taught me the ropes,” Malachi said, first with a profile on a site called Rentboy on which male escorts can advertise their, well, companionship for sale.

And the name Malachi? He chose it because “I heard it in my dreams, it&#;s different and Malachi was a prophet, I guess I feel like I&#;ve got something to say.” A quick Google search confirms the religious background of the name, but the conversation was about gay sex for money and not worship, so the questions went back to his life as an escort.

Through Rentboy, Malachi got several clients for massages, and eventually got raunchier when some of the clients offered more money to perform oral sex on him. “It gave me a weird gut feeling and I couldn&#;t believe I was doing it,” he said. But the financial benefit &#; $ a client &#; was too much to pass up. “While I was working, in my mind I had to just keep saying the amount of money I&#;d make. That got me through it.”

After what he described as a long, rough season of learning and accepting all clientele, including women and lesbian couples, Malachi developed a strategy of taking on submissive non-dominating clients that wouldn&#;t try to force him into doing anything he wasn&#;t comfortable with. “I would only go after the easy clients, that ones that just want to suck my dick or give me a hand-job or a massage. I&#;m kind of spoiled in a way because I can really use my looks and my body” to filter out the more dominant clients that might want to push him beyond his comfort level, he said.

One surprise for Malachi was the high number of straight men with families who would hire him. “I started finding out the truth about people and relationships when I started having sex for money,” he said.

For example, there was the ex-KGB Russian client, a 6 foot 3 inch tall man who would show up to Malachi&#;s place with a gun strapped to his belt. “He was a modern day gangster and I kept thinking &#;what the fuck did I get myself into?&#;” But the guy &#; who was married with two children &#; wasn&#;t threatening. He just wanted companionship of various forms.

“I had no life, no freedom, no girl”

Other clients were gay, including a male couple in New York who made Malachi their houseboy in Manhattan. That involved hanging around their place, spending time with them and once a day giving erotic massages to the duo. They even took him to the Hamptons out in Long Island for a gay tea party. That&#;s where Malachi met other potential clients, one who offered to pay him twice what the duo were providing. He politely turned the guy down that night &#; “I was with the couple and I respected them” &#; but he took the man&#;s business card and saw him the following week.

That didn&#;t sit too well with the gay duo from Manhattan, who wanted Malachi to be exclusive to them. “But how do you expect a professional sex worker to be exclusive? I&#;m here to make money and being a houseboy was percent of the time. After a month I couldn&#;t do it anymore. I had no life, no freedom, no girl, I was just bored.” So that&#;s when he switched to one-off meetings with clients.

Malachi&#;s escorting got bigger and progressed, and his comfort level with the work increased to the point where he was having full-on sex with men with money. All the time though he saw it as a means to an end, a way to make money to pay off debts.

Then his partner got pregnant and moved in with him. “I told her not to work, I wanted her to be a stay-at-home mom. After she got pregnant I realized I needed to make more money.”

He started scouting around for other ways to bring home cash. Straight porn offered relatively low wages for men, roughly $ for six hours&#; work. But Malachi saw a Craigslist advert from Randy Blue asking for performers to do solo masturbation scenes. He learned that the take-home pay for a few hours of pleasuring himself in front of a camera would be $2, “It was the only way to control my situation with an unplanned pregnancy and stressful debt, and I was already programmed to perform” from escorting.

Malachi performed for a solo video. After it aired, Randy Blue liked what they saw, and offered Malachi $3, for a guy to perform oral sex on him for a video on their site the following month. “They saw lots of money in me and I saw lots of money in them.” So this mutually financially beneficial relationship blossomed, leading into gay porn magazine covers and photo shoots and pushing his earnings into a previously unachievable category.

“I&#;ve never done anything gay if I haven&#;t been paid for it”

Being a Randy Blue actor gave him “leverage” as an escort. Now clients weren&#;t just going after his looks, they were also paying to enjoy the apparent fantasy of being with a gay porn star. From a few hundred dollars per session, Malachi was now able to charge much higher prices including $2, for an overnight stay or $1, for an out-visit.

The money was good and he certainly hustled. But there was one thought that returned. “There were times where I asked myself, am I gay? Is this just something that I&#;m using as an excuse? And I spent a lot of time exploring that in my mind,” he said.

This was in the thick of his career when he was making close to $25, a month, filming scenes for Randy Blue and hitting five major cities in a week to see clients all over the country (and sometimes the world). That&#;s a lot of sex. “So I explored if I could actually get turned on by a guy. I tried. But I couldn&#;t. The curiosity was answered and I knew I was heterosexual,” he said.

“I appreciate guys, I appreciate male camaraderie. I know what to appreciate out of males but I have no desire to have sex with them for pleasure. I&#;ve never done anything gay if I haven’t been paid for it. I put on a game face, a facade, a character, and I make money” being gay for pay, he added.

I asked Malachi how much longer he intends to stay in the gay for pay world, especially with the money being so bountiful. “It&#;s great money and a fast lifestyle if your mind and body can handle it. But I&#;ll be so glad to get out of it,” he said.

Malachi wants to make enough money to start some non-porn businesses, and when he hits that fiscal goal he&#;s gone. In the meantime, he&#;s writing a book telling stories about the highs and lows and twists and turns of being a sex worker. And there are stories.

For example, there was a Middle East oil prince who offered Malachi $50, to be a personal assistant for a three month period. He&#;d have a paid car and be completely taken care of. Good deal, right? Well, Malachi thought there was something a little off about it. From escorting, he&#;d developed a wide range of contacts so he asked one of his clients for a second opinion. The client read over the prince&#;s e-mails and warned him that it was an attempt to trap Malachi in a sex slavery ring, in which royalty from another country ensnares someone for a year or two &#; or potentially forever.

“Money turns me on”

Malachi suspected what might happen if he went with the prince, so he devised a plan. The prince&#;s assistant picked him up one day in Los Angeles and they went out to Beverly Hills for suit shopping on Rodeo Drive. The assistant even gave Malachi $8, in cash, stuffed inside an envelope. He was meant to meet the prince after that for dinner, but the assistant said there had been a last-minute change of plan and that they&#;d have to drive straight to the airport and fly out to the Middle East.

This is where Malachi&#;s plan kicked in. The car doors were locked, so he asked the driver to wind down the window so he could have a cigarette. The driver complied and the car rolled along toward the airport. Then it stopped at a red light. Not wasting a second, Malachi stuffed the envelope of cash in his pants, threw the burning cigarette on the assistant&#;s lap, jumped out the window, and ran.

He kept on running. He could hear tires screeching on the pavement as the driver frantically tried to turn around and catch the runaway sex worker. Malachi rushed to find a hiding spot, climbing a hotel stairwell and staying out of sight on the building&#;s rooftop for three hours, shaking with adrenaline and fear. Eventually he thought it would be safe to take a peek to see if the prince&#;s men were gone. They were. After deleting his email account and changing phone numbers Malachi gratefully realized he got away from what he said was one of the most dangerous escort situations he faced.

That story might make it into his book, which is still in the works &#; although he originally intended to have the book out by December last year after announcing his retirement from the gay porn and escorting world one month earlier. But problems ensued. Writing the book was much harder than he anticipated, and money woes meant he had to step back in front of the camera in January. After that, he once again announced his retirement and was focused on finishing off the book.

That&#;s when he found out his partner was pregnant again. So money and other needs pulled him back into the escorting and gay porn industry, just as they first got him into it.

Malachi has apparently received some criticism for claiming he “retired” from Randy Blue and the escorting life once or twice before in the past few months. And he notes there is frustration from people who had pre-paid for his book expecting to have read it by now. Malachi is fine with giving refunds to anyone who asks him for one &#; and there have been two such requests &#; but he said most of the people who have paid are willing to wait a little longer, and he wants to deliver.

“I should have waited to announce it later on, I shouldn&#;t have got so excited about it. But I know there&#;s a fun story to write, and it is coming.” He&#;s fixated on finishing the book by September for two reasons; one, it&#;s a contractual deadline to have it out by then, and two &#; more importantly for Malachi &#; “it&#;ll be a healing process for myself to get it all out there.”

Given his general dislike for the work that he does and his declarations of quitting, he acknowledged that it looks odd to retire and return, retire and return. But he said each time he finds himself back in front of the camera it&#;s because of bills to pay and the need for a quick and easy funding source. It&#;s never because of boredom or a desire to be adored by gay men, he said.

Instead, it&#;s just a job for Malachi, who never treated his life in the gay porn world as that of an artistic statement or creative endeavor, and instead looked on it strictly as work.

“Money turns me on, and life without it is off,” he said.

To his critics, Malachi has a simple response. “Fuck yourself.” His more elaborate response, “Everyone has a background, everyone has had problems and everyone has bills to pay.

“You have an expiration date”

“For every one that has some debate or that dislikes me there are that like me. People ask me, &#;How can you be straight&#;? You can. It&#;s just like anybody who worked a job they didn’t enjoy. It&#;s like being a laborer. I was not a laborer in my mind when I was working construction jobs. I didn’t enjoy it. Who enjoys 10 hours of construction in the blistering heat and you’re burned out? I did gay for pay for money. It pays a heck of a lot more and it’s a job. I can program myself to do a j-o-b, especially in these hard economic times.”

Malachi filmed his most recent scene for Randy Blue earlier in July, and he says this one will really be his last for them &#; barring the need for more funds.

He said it was stressful getting back in front of the camera, surrounded by blinding fluorescent lights while getting it on with another man. “It was difficult. There&#;s this intense heat from the lights shining on you, and four crew people are watching you, and it&#;s stop-go, stop-go. I had the biggest headache and I came home and I threw up. It fucked me up.”

For Malachi, the experience brought back the lowest points about being gay for pay. “There were times when I&#;d come home sick, I didn’t know who I was.” He said he managed to clear his thoughts up and stay focused by concentrating on the money he&#;d make from a client or video. During those sessions, he&#;d mentally fixate on the various girlfriends he had (which his partner allowed and had often participated with) and earnings in order to get through it.

Still, he had some positive experiences from his career, meeting people from all walks of life and professions and learning a lot about being a businessman because many of his clients were self-made millionaires. “It was so beneficial to listen to their successes and mistakes,” he said.

“Sex sells”

Now he&#;s focused on getting the book out the way and putting the gay for pay world behind him for good &#; and not as another temporary retirement.

He&#;s been offered thousands of dollars from a well-known porn producer (not Randy Blue) to do a scene, and an even more substantial sum to do a video that would involve urinating on guys. Apparently that pays well. But not well enough to keep him doing it forever. He&#;s ready to get out, ready to finish his book and be done with the world of gay for pay. From the start, he made a conscious decision to make an “extreme separation” between his home life and his work life. He also devoted a lot of his time to his family whenever he was off-camera or not with a client.

“A lot of guys that get into gay for pay don&#;t have an outlet like a family, and they get off on people really liking them and/or they have a vice or addiction they need to fund, but you need to have a plan of action,” he said. “You&#;re going to hit 40 and your sexy looks won’t sell. You have an expiration date.”

Malachi is keenly aware that the sex industry is superficial and that once his book is done and he&#;s permanently retired, people will soon forget him. “In a few years nobody is going to know who I am. There will be a fresh face, a new great looking guy, a new kid in town. Yeah, there will still be Malachi videos, but that will be in the past. Nobody will know where I am or what I&#;m doing.”

What about his family? Suppose one day the Marx children are browsing the Internet and stumble upon information that leads them to discover what they dad did for work?

He sought advice from other escorts and porn actors on how to prevent his children from finding out, and one of those tips was to make a clear separation between his home and work. Even so, most of Malachi&#;s family knows what he does even if they&#;re not too comfortable with it. And if his children find out, he said it&#;s kismet and he will explain that he did it as a way to make money for them. “If it happens, it&#;s supposed to happen, I love them so much and that&#;s why I do everything I do” he said.

It was time to wrap things up. I thanked Malachi for the interview and said goodbye to his partner, who had since returned. As I was leaving Malachi told me one of his favorite phrases, “Money comes easily and frequently.” It seems like being gay for pay brings money frequently, but not necessarily easily. Still, it appears that the lucrative side wins out.

“Sex sells, that&#;s the truth,” Malachi said.

Lee Burbridge of &#;Big Man Toys&#; outta the United Kingdom produces sculptural works that are technically brilliant, backed up by great concepts and importantly incorporate Lee&#;s love of theatricality, learnt from his many years spent in the wrestling game &#; both in Japan and the UK.

Giant tree-monsters, female warriors, imposing sentient buildings, mutant warriors, robots and wrestlers all making up the &#;Big Man Toys&#; universe so far.

(Picture below of the Wo-Man figure by &#;Big Man Toys&#;)

With lots of praise generated by his Wo-Man and TreeGarr pieces, as well as recent contributions to the &#;Mystical Warriors of the Ring&#; series, now is the perfect time to get schooled on Lee Burbridge and &#;Big Man Toys&#;.

So get to know Lee Burbridge and &#;Big Man Toys&#; in the Art Talk below&#;

Basics/Getting to Know

City, State n Country you’re Repping?

Brighton, East Sussex, UK.

Although if I were to &#;rep&#; a city, it&#;d be hometown,  Portsmouth.

(Picture of Mr. &#;Big Man Toys&#;, below)

Describe a memory from three stages of yr life ….basically trying to piece together Mr. Big Man Toys’ pivotal moments. Concerts, art, action-figures, women, school, college, Halloween… ANYTHING man.

* age 10 – pre pubes:

He-man was the first influence. I thought I was him.

I was blonde, had a similar hairstyle, and frequently fought a skinny bully with a skeletal face from the age of 4 –   I threw him down a set of stairs and knocked him out with a big rock and  he attacked me with a carpet knife and set a pack of Jack Russells on me.

After that, skateboarding, MUSCLE figure swapping with friends in the sun, Garbage Pail Kids the movie, Jackie Chan movies, Flesh Gordon 2, Action Force/ GI Joes,  Pro-wrestling on the Sega Master System, the Puppet Master movies, and TMNT.

I bought my first Eastman and Laird comic from Mondo Comics in at the age of 11 from Dan, the guy who now runs Unbox Industries! My first taste of violent comics and artwork I could really get into. That led to me collecting AD and Punisher.

I found Akira and that changed my life for the worse as I spent a few years where I should have been enjoying myself with girls being a smelly anime nerd.

* age 15 – pube rage:

 I got picked on in school due to looking like a fat girl with a nasty pony-tail.

It built character, and I spent ages skating by myself, playing video games, reading Robert Crumb comics, going to anime conventions just for the toys, and as soon as I left school, I started lifting weights and getting more and more into music and wrestling.

* age 20 – acceptance of pubes:

I had a good time at university. I studied Japanese, and focused completely on my studies during that time.

I&#;ve never been officially &#;straight edge&#; but saw a lot of people I knew getting their momentum killed with drugs so I just never felt tempted to try them.

I spent a year in Japan with my studies and that was the best.

I lived really near Akihabara and Korakuen hall, the toy and wrestling capitals of the world, and collected all the beautiful Chara-pro wrestling figures on the cheap as pro-wrestling was losing in popularity in Japan to MMA.

(Pictures below of the Nuclearman figure by &#;Big Man Toys&#;)

Personal motto/quote?

“Proof&#;s in the pudding!”

Favorite band(s)?

Danzig, Moistboyz, GG Allin, Type O-Negative, Rollins, Deathstars, Therion, Mortiis, Einsturzende Neubauten, Strawberry Switchblade, Manowar.

Favorite TV show(s)?

Storage Hunters, Walking Dead, Archer, Blakes 7, STNG, Twin Peaks, Sharpe, LEXX, ROME.

Favorite sport(s) + teams?

No sports for me!

Favorite movie(s)?

Flesh Gordon 2 – really is all you need.

Favorite books and comics?

John Wyndham and Alfred Bester novels, and lots of autobiographies. I&#;m on the 5^th Chopper book right now.

On comics, the Hernandez bros, old TMNT, Geoff Darrow, Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku (like South Park but Japanese), and most stuff on Fantagraphics.

I&#;ve also been very inspired by my friends Ralph Niese and Pablo Perra and am really trying to have a crack at comics myself.

Favorite monsters?

The ones from the Guyver movies, Flesh Gordon 2, GWAR, and Baltan from Ultraman.

Specifics on Art

Do you consider what you are making to be ‘art’, ‘design’, re-hashed crap?

I suppose anything you do that someone else thinks is interesting to look at is art of some kind.

If it&#;s good enough to be instantly impressive, as in something you definitely would not have seen elsewhere, then you&#;ve done a good job.

I live in a city where &#;artist&#; means &#;attention seeking and lazy&#; so I don&#;t use the term for myself much.

(Picture below of the header art for the Wo-Man figure by &#;Big Man Toys&#;, drawn by Lee Burbridge)

When and why did you first start making ‘art’ (toys, drawings, paintings, anything)?

I&#;m not a master of anything but I suppose I started making toys worth a light about two years ago when I bought my pressure pot.

Why + when did you decide to go in on the art hustle?

Two years ago, as I quit wrestling and wanted to justify my existence.

Any formal art training? Or pivotal moment/influence?

A guy who goes by the name Gold-Dober (eunic-brussels.eu), who is a master craftsman and toymaker answered literally hundreds of my mails on casting and moldmaking, as well as inspired me with his own work.

The first piece of resin I saw was a Dungeons and Dragons figure by Marty Hansen and I was determined to have a crack.

Company motto?

Please buy it. I&#;m not proud.

Favorite ‘other’ artist(s)?

They are mostly my mates, as it&#;s a scene where you can make mates with people you admire easily.

You are about to see a list of people that make things that are like MOTU, MUSCLE, or Micronauts.

These are not the only people I respect but are the ones I follow for my own collecting purposes: The God Beast, Ben Spencer, Luke and Pablo at &#;Goodlegtoys&#;, &#;ManOrMonster&#;, Gold Dober, TruTek, Zectron,  John Santagada, Ben Mininberg, Eric Nilla, Luke Harris, Zoomoth, Jimmy Rommel, &#; customs&#;, Meadowknight, &#;Rampage Industries&#; and Ralph Niese perpetually blows my brain – he&#;s far too modest.

Worst aspect of the contemporary art-hustle?

I don&#;t make enough money to give a hoot about any politics by people who have a hard-on for themselves.

Luckily they are few and far between, and an opposite end of the spectrum to me in terms of their style and &#;scene&#;.

Best aspect of the contemporary art-hustle?

It reminds me of when I first got into Biohazard (the band) or Suicidal Tendancies. We&#;re all sick of the same old poseurish crap and want to bring back the flavor to toys and comics, and make something physical and real.

I&#;ve been helped out by people and try to do the same. It&#;s very positive and it&#;s ours!

Lee Burbridge Art Questions

Describe the method of making a ‘Big Man Toys piece? (dot point all o.k.)

&#; your resin sculptural work?

Wire armature (or built onto an existing figure), then Sculpey, Milliput, and nowadays Castelline, in layers, until i&#;m happy.

Then I sand and file bits to tidy it, and spray with primer to spot any areas that need more sanding, and protect in the molding process.

(Pictures below of the original sculpt, mold and finished D-Structure resin)

&#; your drawings and illustrations?

A piece of A4 on a clipboard with pencil, then a standard set of pens.

Sometimes I&#;ll do something good in ball-pen on a notepad and trace it.

Then it all gets scanned and gimmicked up in GIMP.

What was it like collaborating with John Santagada – Mr. Radioactive Uppercut &#; on the header art for your TreeGarr creation?

(Picture below of John Santagada&#;s header art for the TreeGarr figure from &#;Big Man Toys&#;)

It was great as I really didn&#;t think I was doing anything that good. I thought Treegarr was selling well because Ben Spencer pimped it, so having John like it enough to do the header art was a huge boost for my confidence.

I now realise Treegarr is the bollocks.

Does your self-directed work all exist in its own ‘universe’? (Yes; I am basically asking if you see your characters all interacting in your head.) …IF so, what do they get up to?

Only with the MWOTR comic. Otherwise, the toys are toys for toys&#; sake.

What happened to your old artistic collaborator, Riverside Rambo? Was he consumed by ‘Big Man Toys’ or has he gone rogue in the wild toy factories of China?

Haha! I can&#;t believe you dug that out! That was before I had any intention of doing toys and selling them. That&#;s my best mate, who&#;s done a bit of standup and strongly encouraged me to make &#;Battle Gaze&#;.

Lee Burbridge Wrestling Questions

What has it been like being a part of the ‘Mystical Warriors of the Ring’ series of toys and comics along with ‘Fantastic Plastic’?

So cool. Literally all my childhood dreams come true. Minifigs and wrestling comics. Kinnikuman brought to my ECW-loving brain and splatted out.

Having Treegarr in there is the cherry on the cake.

Mark Vasquez is a great guy to work with and totally not up himself, despite how well the series is doing.

(Picture of some of Lee&#;s art for the Mystical Warriors of the Ring series by &#;Fantastic Plastic&#;)

Please explain to those at home the appeal of we-all-know-it’s-fake-Wrestling such as ECW, WWF etc.

It is true art, even if wrestlers don&#;t think so themselves.

You tell a story with your body and make crowds of people get totally invested in what you are doing for 20 minutes. Just two of you, and the ref, in a ring.

I respect the intellect and heart of a good wrestler over 70% of people who dub themselves &#;artists&#; any day.

I know you have wrestled as well your-self – in Japan as well as the UK. What were the best and worst gimmicks you encountered during your time as a wrestler?

 Hmmm, best gimmick might be &#;Senpai&#; – a masked Yakuza who fights without taking his hands out of his pockets, and the worst would be a guy I met who wore a shonky Kane mask and had a hardcore match with light chair shots with his mate during the interval in front of 5 confused children.

(Picture below of Mr. Lee Burbridge getting his wrestle on)

Why did you decide to leave the wrestling world?

I was constantly frustrated with myself every time I trained or wrestled, and was losing money all the time on days off work and travel. I think I was alright for how long I did it but I needed to get my life sorted instead of chasing dreams when I quit.

Toys I can do after dinner, before bed&#;

What are your thoughts on the current state of wrestling?

It&#;s a shame the money&#;s not so good, but in terms of the matches etc, I think it gets better all the time.

We&#;ve got the internet to make it truly international and people are really honing beautiful craft with their mix of styles from all over the world.

WWE&#;s still ok sometimes. People don&#;t need to get jacked up on drugs to make a living if they are good.

A lot of the Diva&#;s are shit but I&#;m sure there&#;ve always been eye-candy semi-wrestlers for people to look at.

Toy Questions

What are your thoughts on the current status of the art-toy ‘scene’, and why?

I&#;m quite optimistic. I don&#;t think it&#;ll ever be something that MTV gives it&#;s own reality show to but I really like it.

I mean there are many people, most really, that I have nothing in common with creatively apart from the fact that we make 3D objects.

I hope it develops a real culture though, as a recognised creative medium.

I hope more people see it the way I do “I like comics by this guy, movies by this guy, and toys by this guy”.

Why the decision to make a whole line of toys – your Battle Gaze series &#; that are not only anatomically correct, but also… Shall we say… ready for action?

(Pictures below of some of the BattleGaze series by &#;Big Man Toys&#;)

I had re-bought Flesh Gordon II on DVD and if it didn&#;t have a hard cock stiff dick in it, it didn&#;t cut the cock-mustard at that time.

No one&#;s &#;cool&#;! If you deem yourself &#;cool&#;, you&#;re trying to be cool which makes you a dork. We&#;re all dorks – human and flawed. We&#;re all just trying to make life more interesting before we run out of decades and pay bills.

Bright colors, vulgar dicks, missing the 80s, all that stuff was Battle-Gaze DNA.

Anyone who thinks less of you for making erect penis action figures isn&#;t worth knowing.

You D-Structure resin is a great sculpted piece. What is the pieces backstory? – both the sculpt itself, and D-Structure’s origin tale…

Thanks mate! Geof Darrow&#;s &#;Big Guy&#; comic totally articulated what I like about Japanese buildings.

D-Structure is a manifestation of all the horrible stress you get in an office building with recycled air, passive aggressive colleagues, etc, turned into a monster.

Is the rise of ‘art’ toys an indication of the changing nature of ‘art’? OR just a bunch of nerds with too much $$$ and time?

Like I said – I totally feel it&#;s like a new manifestation of the original hard-core movement, but with the internet, and people who are a little older.

If you look at how VERY mainstream the world is going. We&#;ve never had it so good in terms of perceived freedom, but at the same time, people can be so judgemental and boring.

It&#;s a pocket where we can do whatever we want without anyone knowing enough about it to mess with it.

Goodleg Toys share the same punk rock philosophy as me on this.

(Picture below of the Abo Boid resin by &#;Big Man Toys&#;)

Favorite toy/figure? (I’ll allow self promotion)

Mine? I&#;m pretty happy with them all.

My fave toy of any line ever is most probably the Micronauts Mobile Exploration Lab, or a box of MUSCLEs.

(Pictures below of the &#;Micronauts&#; Mobile Exploration Lab from , Lee&#;s favorite toy)

What does your wife/girl/woman/family/man make of the whole perpetual adolescence/Peter-Pan/man-child aspect of toy art + toy collecting?

She respects it&#;s by choice and not because i&#;m scared of life. Plus we live in a city where people are immature in much more life affecting ways.

She gets tired of hearing about it and it&#;s always in her face but she&#;s supportive.

The Future

Any collaborations on the horizon?

Always! Got 3 happening right now!

(Picture below of the TreeGarr sculpt &#; both normal and mini versions)

Any major projects you want to hype man?

Yep! Got 2 minifig sculpts involved in 2 different all-star minifig collab series, got an amazing sculpt by the guys at Monster Slayer Project (upcoming movie) that i&#;m producing, and I&#;ve designed a that will have people doing a piss that a good friend near me is going to produce, who you probably already know for his fine body of work.

Cheers!

Links

• &#;Big Man Toys&#; &#; site
• &#;Big Man Toys&#; &#; webstore
• &#;Big Man Toys&#; &#; Facebook

Hi friends! Hope your week is off to a great start! We have some lovely inspiration for you today from design team member, Jessy. She is using the new and exclusive project pads from Joann Stores for her bible journaling! Read on for all the details & find links to the products at the end of the post!

Whenever I get to journal in my bible, it is something that I love to invest my time on! And I&#;m so glad that I could use these new beautiful project pads from the Flourish & Sunny Days collection. With the verse Romans in mind, I took my journaling bible out and started to create a page out of the verse. Choosing a verse first certainly helps to speed things up and also keeps me focused on what I want to create.

How to Create This Simple Bible Journaling Idea:

1. This cute page is relatively simple to create. To begin, I picked a tag and added the stickers to form the words &#;love genuinely&#;.
2. Next, I positioned the tag somewhat in the middle and added more stickers all around to enhance the page. I added the beautiful lady sticker to remind myself to love people around me genuinely!
3. Lastly, to complete the page, I splattered on some gold mist.

Ideas and Tips for How to Journal in your Bible:

• Choose flat embellishments like stickers. This enables my bible to close well and keeps the pages flat too.
• Add extra details. To make the stickers pop out a little, I lightly traced them with pencil. This gives them an outline and then they stand out more off the page.
• Use layers. Layering and overlapping the elements a little makes a pretty collage in your bible journal. Just remember to use flat things like stickers, tags and ephemera so it doesn&#;t get too bulky.

Thank you for letting me share this page from my bible journal! Hope you have a wonderful crafting time journaling in your bible too! xoxo Jessy

Check out More Creative Bible Journaling Ideas:

Bible Journaling Supplies:

This post is sponsored by KIWI®, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

The end of brought about a big change for me, my husband and our pup.  Days before heading off for the holidays with our families, we moved into our new home, the first that we own together.  I’ve lived in Los Angeles since I was 18 and chose to hop from rental to rental because I never truly accepted Los Angeles as my long-term home. I think in a way, knowing my living situation was temporary and continuing to think of Canada as my home for all the years away gave me a sense of comfort.  If the big, bad world of LA ever got to be too much, I could always flee to the safety and comforts of “home” to accept me, cuddle me up and tell me it was all going to be okay.  Since getting married and sharing a life with my person out in LA, my feelings towards the big, bad city have changed.  Thanks to my husband and now, the dog we adopted almost two years ago, my home in LA gives me a sense of belonging, purpose and security that I never knew I could have in this land of crushed hopes and unattainable dreams.

The family I have out here makes all of those hopes and dreams seem possible and exciting and less significant to my identity any which way because I am a wife, dog-mom and now a homeowner not just one of a million lone-wolf actors trying to make it in Hollywood.

Of course, being a new homeowner means my domestication has been taken to the next level and my priorities have instantly changed.  I now want to earn and save money to plant trees in the backyard or get a new rug for the bedroom instead of spending it on that pair of designer boots or loafers I’ve had my eye on for months.  Shoes have always been my sweet spot for spending so my collection of boots and shoes is plentiful to say the least, but I have always been pretty careless about taking care of my things.  Now, with this new major financial responsibility on my hands, I’m going to have to take much better care of that collection to keep them looking good and lasting long!  My husband has always been very precious about his things and the shoes he’s had for years look nearly new thanks to KIWI Protect-All.  He has always encouraged me to do the same and I’ll admit, I turned a blind eye until now, but as the new owner of a beautiful home (and major responsibility!), I figure I better keep the shoes I do have looking the part!  With KIWI’s easy-to-use Protect-All spray, I can guard my shoe collection from the elements and extend their life in any weather.  This is a resolution that can be made a reality super simply with KIWI and thank goodness for that!

My house is beautiful.  It is truly more than I would’ve ever expected my first house to be and I love every inch of its style and construction but what gives me the most pride about it is everything it represents.  To me, this house represents the milestones I’ve surpassed in this city, the woman that’s evolved from that lonely and scared year-old-girl, the sense of self I was able to maintain against all obstacles and influences, the hours of tireless work I’ve put into my job to be able to afford to do this at an age at which some of my icons lost their lives to fast living.  These bricks and mortar represent the love that gave me new life just when I was starting to feel depleted and the odds my husband and I have overcome to turn our love at first sight story into a strong and lasting one.  Each support beam of this house represents the support of my husband and my family back home who let me leave on my own at a young age to pursue my dreams and encouraged me to stay and fight for them every time I got scared and wanted to run away.  This house is so much more than a house.  This house is my home and while I may not have put the manual labor into its construction or architectural flair into its design, I created it.  I created this home with perseverance, resilience, humility, love, gratitude,  self-awareness and drive and I now live in it and walk through it with pride.

I wanted to share this story with you to inspire you to keep striving towards your personal goals in   I hope that this year, you continue to fight hard for those personal goals and keep your chin held as high as you can muster while you do.  The universe pays it forward with personal and material rewards, I promise so just do you the best way you know how, learn and grow constantly and have faith that the rest will happen exactly how it’s meant to.  You are special and unique and you should #WalkWithPride every day for being who you are!

SHENAE GRIMES-BEECH

Shenae Grimes-Beech is an actor and YouTuber with a highly engaged community of like-minded women who are here to stand up for what they believe in and lean into discomfort, especially when it means doing the right thing.

If you guys follow me on social media, you’ve probably seen me post some of my workout videos from time to time. You’ve likely heard me mention the Sweat App (and no I do not have any affiliation with the Sweat App whatsoever), which I love and do recommend but I want to back up a bit to walk you through what my wellness/workout journey has looked like over the years and how I got to where I am now (mentally and physically).

Since my high school days, I&#;ve tried almost every workout you can imagine. From boot camps (like Barry’s Bootcamp), to spin classes, yoga, pilates, sculpt, rowing, HIIT, running classes, kickboxing—you name it, I’ve tried it. However, was it always in the name of health? Not necessarily.

Unfortunately I recall always trying to lose weight fast, whether it be for an upcoming event or season. I would go on a crazy exercising binge for a few weeks, months, whatever it was, to try to drop as many LBs as possible. Only to stop exercising afterward because I felt like I needed a break. This, of course, was very unhealthy. I was doing this for aesthetic purposes because I didn’t feel “good enough”, and not thinking of exercise in terms of my mental health. And because of the inconsistency of my workout routine, I would always find my weight fluctuating vastly, and my mental health and body image along with it. 

I think we are all much more well-versed in health and wellness these days and know a bit more of the incredible benefits that exercise has for our bodies and minds, regardless of the number on the scale. I know this is a probably an exhausted topic that we’re all tired of reading about because we know, we GET IT. However, it’s still an important one and has personally affected my life in many ways. 

My workout routine these days is VERY different from what it once was. I think back to the days when I would sometimes run on the treadmill for minutes per day, hoping to burn off as many calories as possible. Only later to wonder why I wasn’t noticing much of a change in my body and always feeling terrible about myself. This sounds super cliche, but once I read all of the stories out there about working out without no particular “body goal” in mind, and purely to release endorphins and to support my mental health, I noticed the biggest shifts both physically and mentally. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.

Personally, I try to do one hour of low-impact strength training days per week, and then minutes of cardio 3 days per week (treadmill, bike, or walking uphill outdoors). Sometimes I will supplement this with a weekly hot yoga class as well for an extra boost to my mental and spiritual health. 

My workout routine currently is the following:

Consistent

I try to be as consistent as possible because I’m no longer working out to “get in shape” for any upcoming event or season—it’s truly become a lifestyle. For me that means exercising usually days per week. Sometimes I’m unable to do more and that’s ok. Even if it’s just one time per week, that’s better than nothing at all.

Easy to Access

If I have time to go to the gym or take a class, that’s awesome, but usually I don’t (shocker!). So I’ve bought some workout equipment to keep at home and that takes a lot of the excuses out of it for me. This is where the Sweat App comes in. It really does feel like a trainer is with you, telling you exactly what to do, and it can be tailored to the equipment that you DO have available to you, whether that’s just some weights or resistance bands. I personally use KELSEY WELLS PWR Program on the Sweat App (approx 4 times per week) and it’s been a game changer. I even like working out with an app better than having a personal trainer because I just blast my music in my ears, and feel I have a more powerful workout than working out with a trainer where you inevitably end up talking a lot, and pausing between workouts.

Flexible

Whether it’s a minute workout or a full hour, it’s always worth it and I always feel better during and after knowing that I got my movement in for the day. And since I work out by myself with an app, I can work it into my own schedule. Not missing a workout because I don’t think I have enough time to do a full routine allows me to be more consistent and makes it easier and less daunting to do. So even a short one counts!  

Overall, moving my body consistently and implementing weights into my routine (vs. just doing cardio) has been the best thing I’ve ever done. I never understood before when people talked about how incredible it is to feel STRONG. But damn, I do now. There is no better feeling than feeling strong both mentally and physically, and discovering a little muscle definition here and there is just the cherry on top.

I feel more physically fit when I go skiing, and even just running around in my day-to-day life. I don’t know if it was my rising cortisol levels before, but working out with the goal of moving my body, gaining muscle mass, and not just to “get ready” for something, I think has helped to balance my hormones a bit, which in turn helped shed some unnecessary weight that my body was stubbornly holding on to in its frantic state of desperately trying to lose weight. It’s counter-intuitive but there’s a reason that it’s now widely accepted that when you start to treat your body well, it starts to function more properly and in a healthier way that can sometimes lead you to where you were trying to get to in the first place.

xx Farrah

„Dej tam víc třísek. Ty noviny víc zmuchlej. My tam občas foukáme, to pomáhá.“ Poprvé zatápím v kamnech a asistuje mi hned několik lidí. Každý má trochu jiný postup a ten jeho je nejlepší. Do toho mě za rukáv tahají děti. Chaos! Jsem z nich nervózní a posílám je pryč. V kamnech hoří. Hurá! Prvotní úspěch.

Mám z kamen respekt. Trnu, abych včas přiložila, aby se děti nespálily, abych se nespálila já a aby ti moji žrouti měli vůbec co jíst, protože kamna jsou jediným sporákem v chalupě. Tohle bylo měsíc zpět. Teď už mi nikdo neradí.

Studánka v chalupě

„Až půjdeš do studánky, skloň hlavu. Jak pršelo, vylezli slimáci a budeš je mít přímo nad hlavou,“ upozorňuje mě manžel. Brrr! Jestli něco nesnáším, tak slimáky! Studánka je zvláštní místo v chalupě. Kamenná klenba zasazená do svahu, pod kterou je studánka. V dobách stavby chalupy mělo toto místo dvě funkce &#; regulace vlhkosti a zdroj vody. Pro nás funguje jako sklad potravin a lednice, která v chalupě zatím není.

Slimáků mi nad hlavou visí několik, díky světlu v temné místnosti je i zřetelně vidím. Přeju si jen, aby mi nespadl některý z těch slizounů za krk. Prší několik dní v kuse, a tak slimáky máme i všude kolem.

Pivo na slimáka

„Mamka je utopí v pivu,“ radí Martin. „V pivu?“ divím se. Odpoledne sousedka rozvíjí pivní fintu na slimáky: „To vezmete petku, uřežete půlku a zahrabete na úrovni země. Nalijete pivo a do rána jich tam máte utopených tak “ Uf! Vidím to hned v obraze a ten obraz se mi hnusí. Sousedka vyhodnotila můj zkřivený obličej a k mé drobné radosti pokračuje jinou alternativou: „Ale já ho nejčastěji přeříznu vejpůl a on do rána zmizí. Taky si na ně nehodlám zvyknout. Žerou mi kytky!&#; Nejsem si úplně jistá, jak se tvářím teď, ale o nic lepší to nebude. V té chvíli přichází soused a rázně sděluje: „Já je propíchnu a je klid. Jsou přemnožený. Vyhodit je pryč ničemu nepomůže.“ Děkuju všem za rady. Odcházím s myšlenkou, že operace slimák bude moje achillova pata.

Kolega pavouk

„Káji,“ běžím za manželem a sotva popadám dech, „skočil mi obrovskej pavouk &#; tlustej jako prase- přímo na čelo!&#; Vymetala jsem stodolu a jeden křivák mi opravdu skočil témeř do tváře. Od manžela jsem čekala minimálně medaily, protože jsem ani nepípla. Pavouků se nebojím, ale ráda je nemám. Pokud se nějaký větší zatoulal do našeho bytu, volala jsem manžela. V chalupě je jich jasná převaha. Pavučiny &#; vymetené týdny dozadu &#; jsou zpět. Rozhodla jsem se na tyto 8nohé tvory dívat trochu jinak.

Tom a Jerry

„A když najdu myš v ložnici, tak co mám dělat? Honit ji s koštětem? Majznout ji po hlavě?&#; chrlím dotazy na manžela. &#;Nic. Stejně ji nechytneš,&#; odpovídá s klidem. V mé hlavě zní magické slovo &#; kočka. Sousedovic Mikeška mi ukázala, že si s myší výborně poradí. Jednu bez hlavy už přinesla před dveře chalupy. Tak na ni budu spoléhat dál.

Premiéra motorové pily

„Slib mi, že mi zůstanou obě ruce celé,“ říkám úzkostně manželovi. Ten bere novou motorovou pilu opět do rukou. „Věřím ti! Ale mám z toho respekt,“ dodávám. Manžel mi následně pevným hlasem slibuje, že mi nic neuřízne. A jedeme dál. Když jsme začali řezat, sepnul adrenalin a mě ani nanepadlo bát se o prsty. Pak se pila párkrát sekla a manžel mi posunul ruce dál. Adrenalin vystřídal pud sebezáchovy. Od pily jde teplo. Všude létají piliny. I do očí.

Vystoupit ze své komfortní zóny je pro mě adrenalinem a jistou formou sebepoznávání. I tak vím, že některé věci pro mě budou tvrdším oříškem jak jiné.

I vårt köksskåp har vi en rejäl bunt med sparade recept från olika tidningar och broschyrer. Oftast verkar recepten väldigt lockande första gången jag läser dom, men sedan när jag väl tar fram högen är jag inte sugen på någonting längre. Känner ni igen er?
Den här gången hittade jag i alla fall ett riktigt guldkorn från Jamie Oliver. Visst att det var många ingredienser som man vanligtvis inte har hemma, men av en tillfällighet hade vi både mango, koriander, och avokado, så jag kände mig tvungen att prova detta fräscha recept. Och jag blev verkligen inte besviken. Kändes som en ny version av tabbouleh. Originalreceptet använde quinoa, men vi bytte ut det till bulgur. Och vill man ha rätten vegansk är det bara att ta bort fetaosten och eventuellt ersätta den med tofu eller liknande. Salladen funkar utmärkt som ensamrätt, men skulle också passa som tillbehör till eunic-brussels.eu grillat. Smaklig måltid!

4 portioner
4 dl bulgur
1 röd chili
4 salladslökar
g spenat
1 kruka koriander
1 kruka mynta
1 stor mango
Saft från 2 limefrukter
1 avokado
50 g fetaost eller tofu
1 ask smörgåskrasse
2 msk olivolja
1½ tsk salt
1 krm svartpeppar

1. Koka bulgur i 8 dl vatten i ca 15 minuter eller tills allt vatten har kokat in. Skölj sedan bulguren i kallt vatten och låt rinna av väl.
2. Strimla chili och salladslök och mixa dom sedan tillsammans med spenat, koriander och mynta med en stavmixer.
3. Blanda bulguren med spenatblandningen och tillsätt limesaft, olivolja, salt och peppar. Rör om väl.
4. Kärna ur och skär mangon och avokadon i bitar, klipp smörgåskrassen, samt smula fetaosten.
5. Lägg upp bulgursalladen på en tallrik och strö över avokado, mango, smörgåskrasse och fetaost.