Well this isn’t this awkward, not the Charles Hamilton Cd but like actually awkward. I haven’t said anything in a good few month since the season 2 finale. This isn’t public speaking, but damn I legit don’t know how to start this off.
Legit just heard a voice that said TAKE YA TIME PASTOR!!
For me that means I’ll just word vomit as Friday Night Plans plays in the background. OMG I love her so much.I do.
A lot has happened since the last issue. When I say a lot I mean a lot. This is my first Saturday when I have not left the house in fucking months. I will start off by saying I didn’t go speak at my homegirls daughters school like i was asked to, things got busy on my end. Maybe next time on DBZ I’ll get to inspire the youth with my JRPG level art journey. Now that will beyond awkward, for me at least. Spoiler Alert, I am not a role model ya’ll, I’m not….at least I don’t think so. But it is possible that I inspire someone the way anime and comics inspired me, and still do.
Money also inspires me, and not having to work at bullshit cotton fields.My toxic treat is that I hope the cotton field I shuck and jive at closes down and I’m not too tired to work on my comic series. And there ya have it folks the segue to what this issue is about.
Heavy Yeet.
I just finished an issue, so by Yeet Gawd logic I release an issue. It makes sense right? Side note, I legit finished this issue in 2017. Again I say I don’t know why I took so long to release it, but it prob was a good thing. One of my friends has been reviewing my grammar since I’m not smarter than 5th grader. See kids when you work bullshit jobs that don’t involve grammatical skills, you forget simple things like where do you insert a comma. I wish i was lying but NOPE.
As of right now she has reviewed issues 1-13. The next batch i send her will be issues 14-20, but that is when I’m completely done with this epic. I just finished issue 15 and as of right now I have 240 pages. Here is hoping the last 5 will feel like doing the first 5.
I hope.
My goal is to abstain from doing art shows and being a merchant as much as I can, because this past year I was really on tour. I can be satiated being out of the public eye to work on my magnum opus. Doing shows is a lot, a lot my nigga. We can talk about that next time tho. But once I finish this series in its entirety I prob will release issues in a faster method.
Did anyone go yay? Or is that feeling of ain’t no one checking for me correct.
Hey Google play Feel by Kendrick Lamar.
Sorry existential September is on the way and that wave has been washing over my ankles lately and my socks are drenched.
Shit.
At any rate issue 5 is here and thus the end of Act 1 of this JRPG level story.
Synopsis time.
Watatsumi and Kagutsuchi arrive and time to stop Abyssals rampage. But now they must face the one who is responsible for this ordeal. Secrets will finally be revealed as emotions fly high on the battlefield.
That is it for now. The next issue will be ummmm Idk. I can’t say for certain when Season 3 will start, but at least you have 2 seasons to re read to hold ya over until then.
Kinda the way DBZ took forever to get to season 3 with the fight with the remain Ginyu Force members and Freeza.
Yea y’all read that correctly this is a season finale. A 4 part season finale IN Black History Month.
But Jano what do you mean a 4 part season finale?
Excellent question. In case you forgot the point of my photo portion of my JRPG Bizarre Art Journey was to get more experience working with models since I’ve mostly done events. However as of now I reached that point i was at in January of the trying times of 2020, where I have no more shoots to talk about. Well I do but they are all events which I legit disassociate while doing.
I phase out and don’t’ get attached while being there. Like I’m the Watcher from Marvel Comics or something.
And since I feel like I will be doing filler issues for the next 4 months and literally have no patience for that. Today I give you a rare treat of 4 a part season finale, kinda like 90s cartoon. Prime example, the X-men episodes when Apocalypse was at the nexus of time and we saw Psylocke for the first time and a slew of random team ups.
This isn’t that epic, but you get the point. The only real comparison is that they came back with new episodes even thought that finale was supposed to be the final arc.
As if.
At least we will get a new X-Men series continuing from the episodes that followed the aforementioned arc.You may want to get a book mark to help you along with the entirety of this issue.
A Quinceañera….with no subtitles
This part of the issue if brought to you by Cotton field 10, the place that inadvertently gave me more than a lumped out throat. Not enough to fully live off,but ya know other things. Case in point even tho I left when the Covid lockdown occurred that accomplished nothing, but pissing off white people. My girlfriend stayed in that hellish landscape and over time made friends. Look at her making friends and shit. One of her friends knew that I was a photographer and also knew someone who was looking one. Ding Ding Ding. This Spanish family needed someone for their daughters Quinceanera and I was the first person they thought of. Have I ever worked a Quinceanera before? Absolutely not. But i was about to. I didn’t make contact with the client but my girlfriend did, and she literally coordinated the whole thing.
Side note we are in July of 2021 and my car is still very much not working. Actually at this point, it is sitting in a shop being ignored and the owners telling me shit that isn’t true.
Anyway.
So the Saturday comes and after she comes home from work and gets ready, we go to the newly appointed location since the initial location they wanted was congested with possible Covid contaminated humans.and we wait….and wait….and wait.
Side note, in case you are wondering why I linked the last sentence twice, it is because I did shoots in the areas this clients wanted, and the current shoot takes place where I shot someone before. Just in case it wasn’t obvious.
We wait for at least 2 hours, because the daughters hair stylist canceled on her or something. I don’t remember. I don’t. It don’t help that I didn’t exactly speak to them, I literally can’t speak Spanish.
At all.
So my Puerto Rican girlfriend was the primary contact with this family. We did some shots in the park, but this portion felt very rushed. They still had to be at the venue at a certain time, despite the 2 hr delay. After the rush job we left and headed to the hotel…and a yo real shit i don’t have a good recollection of events. You know how when you watch something in a foreign language and there is subtitles so you are a little more connected to the event.
Yea, there were no subtitles. No such subtitles exist. It was a fully Spanish event with me being the sole Negro in desperate need of a translator communicating with my brain.
Spoiler Alert.
She told me what was happening and what I needed to get shots that was of significance for this type of event while my photographer instinct helped guide the way. But real shit I was highly detached from this like most events i do.
I can tell you that I realized I had to raise my rate for events.
Why?
Because events are fucking exhausting. That is why. Niggas just be sitting there for elongated periods of time as nothing happens, waiting.
Fucking waiting Janolytes. FUCKING WAITING.
So yeah i raised my rate and realized photo shoots and events are on different levels. On a positive notes besides my amazing ass images with a flash I’ve barely used. The amount of money I got from this helped me repair my car from the problems that were plaguing it since late March. Of course I didn’t get it fixed until October. But you know a win is a win.
Go ahead and read my subtitle less experience and we will fast forward to September.
Mad Monster Expo!
Fall was approaching and I had just started a new cotton field while being on pause from Jeff Bezos slave pit.
Jano how did you pause a slave pit?
Don’t worry about that. Just be happy for me that I found something else that had my body in less pain even though i worked longer hours. Esp since the litany of car repairs that were meaningless had tapped my wallets heart.Plus my trip to New York City wasn’t cheap. Blessed Be for seasonal slave pits that I somehow get kept at. In midst of me readjusting to a new plantation my actress homegirl hit me up asking if i could video panels at Mad Monster Expo.
Ummm videos?
Legit have never done videos, at all. Luckily Google and You tube are a thing. I watch a few and realize maybe I’m over thinking this process. I def have to buy a bigger memory card.
Side note, I’m legit glad how NOW you can get so much space for like $24, its fucking amazing bro.
I tell her I’m down and make arrangements to borrow my girlfriends car, because sadly my car is still not repaired.
Time Out.
My car literally sat at these south of the border niggas shop for 5 weeks and nothing happened. Nothing Happened. I came back from NYC getting a fucking convo full of fuckery. Luckily someone I met Jeff Bezoes slave pit told me about a place, problem was getting my car in said shop because niggas leave their cars there to die. So that was a thing until the end of September.
Legit wasn’t planning on my car repairs to be a part of my Bizarre art Journey, but here we are.
Time in.
I tell my homegirl that I will do Saturday and Sunday. The weekend comes and before I head to the Expo I have to go buy a lens that I think I lost in the woods.
UGH, the irony is I never bought that lens and now a squirrel is using it help fend off its kids from snakes. FUN.
I arrive at the Expo, and man so many white people. So many white people, enough that i play my usual game of count the ethnic folk just in case. I meet with her and then we meet with the organizer who needs a videographer. He seems chill which is good, and explains to me that the people who he had video taping the panels were so starstruck that they forget to hit record.
AYO!!
I have no clue who these niggas are bro, so don’t worry about that. Spoiler Alert, I’ve seen so little movies in life. SO LITTLE. Most of my friends are disappointed in me, and I’m ok with that.
I found out my YouTube crash course in Videography was unnecessary, as fuck. He already had equipment and had a whole methodology for it. A simple method,so fucking simple.
He tells me the process and also that i don’t have to do much other than hit record and make sure the guest stay in the frame. And that the only people I should listen to is another Expo Media member.
Pretty Simple right?
MAN. my first celebrity I was recording was Meatloaf. That nigga who sang that song I would do anything for love but i won’t do that, and if that is being a decent human being he died lonely.
OMG JANO HOW COULD YOU TALK ABOUT MEATLOAF?
Spoiler Alert, that nigga was a rude cunt to me and the media team. I legit don’t’ give a fuck who gets upset from reading that. I don’t give a fuck. Being an old white washed up celebrity does not entitle you to be rude and disregard Covid protocols in a pandemic.
Jano, you really are speaking ill of the dead?
Yes, Yes I am because that is what fucking happened.
Anyway fuck him and his carcass. Can’t do shit for love now huh? Man I ain’t said nothing assholic up here in a while. MAN I feel like a whole fuckin Yeet GAWD again.
Anyway on to the rest of the show.
The bulk of my experience there was me hitting record listening to what they had to say in the process and then hitting stop. Besides dealing with the aforementioned bloated gas bag cunt I saw Shawnee Smith who complimented my hair, legit may watch The Saw movies now. Bonnie Aarons from The Nun, Nick Castle,Will Sanden, and John Michael Graham from Halloween. The Scream Panel was huge with Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich. Matthew Lillard is a koolio dude, he took a picture of me while i was recording him.It was interesting in listening to about the life of an actor and how productions they didn’t think were going to be big become iconic pieces for a generation. There were a few other people but I don’t remember who they were and the program I had isn’t available anymore. Plus there was a Miss Mad Monster pageant which was interesting.
Eh oh well.
Anyway to see the few images I did snap when not filming go here.
Time for another time leap into the semi frigid month of November.
I visited them one weekend to catch up since I hadn’t seen them really since May. While we were chatting he told me about an impromptu skateboard competition. Even though I never skated despite peoples assumption about me, I think its pretty kool. The next day came and I went to the abandoned lot of what use to be Eastland Mall.
MAN the concept of time is terrifying. very. I use to go there when I was a kid and now its demolished. But in its ashes a group of skaters found a new home, which is pretty fucking dope. I got there first and my friend did later.
Bruh, on god. That shit was chill. Niggas were just skating with music blasting from a car with a nice system. I smelled drugs as I practiced my spider sense of knowing when to hit the shutter as I heard the skater approach. Shit was WAKA FLOCKA FIYA FLAME.
Did i fully understand the maneuvers of what they were doing?
Fuck no.
Did I enjoy it?
Fuck yea nigga.
The competition wasn’t long, but it was dope as fuck for me and my home boy. He actually got inspired to start skating again. Thats that yeet bro. It is.
I love the simplicity of life sometimes. I do. Legit the day this happened I was going to go see the new Spiderman movie (which at this point is 2 months old, but i’m late because I hadn’t seen Eternals, Shang Chi, and Black Widow yet) with home boy since high school. But he was busy dealing with internet fuckery…CHILD THE FUCKERY.
WHEWWWW!!!
But we had to reschedule which was fine. In the meantime I saw a post that caught my attention. It was a female concert series at Camp North End. I had texted my art journalist friend I met at my art show in June. He actually was well aware of it and I met him out there. Did I plan on doing photography related things ?
No.
But when your ancestors tell you to go somewhere you go. On Kami.
Eventually I found him. i say eventually because there was a slew of construction that had popped up since my last visit in October when I did my last show. Maneuvering in a newly warped space was a thing.
As if.
It was the first time seeing each other since June, we caught up as I told him journeys are weird and turbulent at times but don’t give up. Artist performed in the background and he went to shoot as I went to appease my stomach.
Yay for dumplings. Yay for fucking dumplings.
He asked would I help interview the musical artist,I was down. Literally all i did was have to hit record on his phone. His first guest was Natalie Carr.
Next was Reecee Raps, her soud was dope too. I was bopping to her in the cotton field today. In the midst of us waiting for her to come to his station for an interview, he ran into another friend he knows who is an artist, named BlackSmith Sundays. He introduced us and told me he did the Toonami Beats albums he told me about when we met last June. I legit fan girled out and was like oh shit. I just listened to him the other day. So fucking shway bro. So shway.
I didn’t say shway,but it is tho.
He interviewed them both in aforementioned order i discussed them, not at that exact moment but maybe an hour later.
Shout out to these local artist that make shit i can listen to while on my art journey.
YEET TO THE GAWDZ.
At any rate to see this yeetful images all you have to do is click this word.
And that is it guys. I don’t know why I thought this would be a short blurb of storied, i really forgot how i talk, my random tangents and me talking shit about dead celebrities.
OOPS.
I literally have been typing for damn near 3 hours and my fingers hurt. I don’t know exactly when my next issue will be, I really don’t. I may be back next month with something, I may let things pile up like I usually do and come back for another season, or I may release issues as I do shoots. I have no clue. I will be releasing issues of my book tho, so there is that at least.
In an ideal world I would have clients and the shoots I’ve been trying to do for the past few years would have happened by now. But nope my JRPG Bizarre Art Adventure is forever full of complication.
But I know I need to step back to focus on my book.
And non profit things, like finding a staff, and getting us funded so that I can stop working these bullshit cotton fields. FUCK THEM ALL!!!
In the meantime if you want to get your monthly fill of Jano, The Azure Prince. Feel free to buy my books, somemerchandise,or follow me on my social media channels listed in the side menu.
Until next time Janolytes, whenever that will be.
*Rolls credits on Season 2 of Jano’s Bizarre Art Adventure
This week feels so very chaotic, and I’m not sure why. Wait, yes I do. Besides Office Depot fucking up my god damn order. Is there another printing service that can get my images done within a day, but in a correct manner? Please let me know, please let me know. Niggas fucking up when there are no planets in retrograde.
None, no such retrograde exists.
*Deep breathe
My ability to type and have stuff flow out is being damned up by some force that is rather bothersome at the moment. I think its the week, yeah we are blaming it on the week. Wait we are in Mercury Retrograde Shadow period, maybe that is what it is. FUCK IT!!
That is what we will blaming this blah on.
True to my word, I said I would be releasing issues at a faster rate. At least for now.
OMG Jano why?
Well I’m waiting for issues 6-13 to be proof read by one of my homegirls. And since she has real life grad school responsibilities and I am not a cunt, I have no plans to rush her. But lets hope by the time i release issue 5 the other issues will be done and i can have a consistent release schedule.
Lets hope. Hell lets hope I can color the last 295 pages of my JRPG anime level epic.
I really just want to be a regular boy without a million things to do.
NO REALLY!!! OMG, i just wanna chill yo. I did a web diagram of my life and projects.
NIGGAAAASS!!! It is so much shit, so much shit on my plate.
Enough of that though…for now. Its time for the release of Level 4 of my series.
*Prepares to read script.
Abyssal returns to the battlefield with a new source of power no one expected. An alliance forged from the desperate need for survival is formed among those who started off as enemies. The Empress and newly revealed masked ally race to the battlefield, but will they make it in time.
Spoiler Alert, Souls will be crushed…nothing compared to what happens in Level 5
And head on to the publications page to order your copy of Level 4…and the other levels if you haven’t already.
And just like that this is issue over. Now to work on my task list like getting ready to show my work at the high school of my homegirls daughter for Black history month.
Yep, that is a thing I never thought i would say. Any of you ever watch Insecure? When Issa was speaking at school then somehow her broken pussy rap was discovered by tech savvy children?
Yea that may be me by the end of the week.I don’t have a broken pussy video but my mouth is pretty rancid….HA. Legit hoping I piss off the PTA the same way Eminem pissed off parents in the early 2000s but that nigga flourished despite that. Lets hope Janolytes.
Ya’ll its cold. Like fucking cold. Winter in January and the various parts of February is so damn disrespectful for no real fucking reason.
On Kami.
UGH, i’m ready for the warm days of not frigid fuckery and not walking fast to find solace in shelter.
At any rate its Adventure time come on tell your friends. Spoiler Alert this is actually a pretty benign issue with no major anime level conflict.
Side Note, I just gave in and started watching Demon Slayer. 2 episodes in and I like it. To be fair i did see an episode in December of the tentacle rape train saga that made me say i will check it out. Tentacle rape is so delicious to my meats sense of joy.
Oops I shouldn’t have said that,eh as if.
We are now in May of the trying times of 2021, and at this point my car is grounded. In the sense of driving didn’t seem smart considering that at the time no one could accurately pinpoint what is wrong with it.
SO FUCKING ANNOYING.
I legit had plans of doing hoodrat shit with my friends last summer, but instead I spent it with mass amount of Lyft drivers instead. UGh.
Ok i was wrong, there was a major anime level conflict, transportation. Besides that its a pretty straight forward simplistic tale. Spoiler Alert.
Following the events of last issue, my UNCG friend turned non profit boss asked me for my help. There was an Instagram account that spotlight Black Business owners and she wanted to use this as a chance to promote her business. Sure friend, sure. But you have to pick me up, because well see the paragraphs above. We picked a day and she came to pick me up. We went to Reedy Creek Park, her with her candles and me with my camera equipment.
And that is it.
Wait really?
Yea, this is honestly the most simplistic flashback I’ve had up here. I gave you the spoiler alert.
The only notable things that happened was I had to tell her to relax, because her discomfort was still showing on her face inadvertently. It was short lived and eventually she felt comfortable for the short amount of time I shot her. I saw a snake hole which was, a holy fuck moment, and yea that is about it.
Damn this is a short issue. Yay I guess.
The turnaround for the images were faster than usual, only because she needed to have the images messaged to the account by a certain time.
YEP as of this moment I now I run a non profit organization, this issue just got interesting didn’t it. But I’m loosing interest in typing so I will be ending this issue here, as i go do some lazy task today.
Happy Black History Month. Go forth in be black, blackity, black as fuck, BLACK, BLACK SO BLACK, JUST BLACK!!!.
And donate to a 501 c3 that is all for the above levels of blackness, which I am now in charge of.
Well here we are in 2022. I won’t be foolish enough to say that this will be my year and neither should you. Let us just hope for the best and brace for the worse. As Spike Spiegel said
“Whatever happens, happens.”
But i’m hoping i don’t loose my shit like I did in the extra trying times of 2021.
Holy fucking fuck of fuckdom, and we lost Betty White. SHIT!!!
Kinda wanna watch Golden Girls now. I’ve seen a few episodes but not enough to say I was a fan. But it was enjoyable. At some point I’ll watch it, some point.
I just jumped down The Witcher 3 hole. I saw my homeboy play it back in 2016, that and Dragon Age Inquisition but i chose the Dragon Age Path. Whenever I finish my book, i’m going to play through all the Dragon Age games thus far. I’m somewhere in 1 right now. At this point I’m hoping I finish my series before Dragon Age 4 comes out.Legit looking forward to playing games with no guilt again. So many games….to beat…so many….
Anyway time for Adventure time C’mon tell a friend.
The chaotic spring of 2021, shortly after me having Covid and in the midst of my car randomly shutting off on me….yea.
My non profit boss, who helped me do the groundwork for my store, decided that she was going to create a new shop.
YEEET.
Crystals, Candles, and all those other witchy related things that make your soul go
YAAAAAAAAS….or maybe that just me. Is it just me? Can’t be. This is a safe witch zone.
Omg Jano are you a witch?
Spoiler Alert.
I’ve been interested since i was fledgling, but I didn’t have money for a witch life style until cotton field 10.
Blessed be. But also fuck that job.
Anyway I told her if she helped me buy a photo light wand, I would help her do her product photography. Surprisingly she bought me a wand and here we are 7 months later. When I held the wand I felt like i was holding a light saber.
Use the Force Jano.
MAN It was so cool, so fucking kool. I yeeted as my meat leaked. I ordered myself another light saber because balance is a thing. When my Covid quarantine was over her and I agreed on the nearest Saturday. I packed my car with my newly acquired light sabers, light studio set, and all my witchy things.
“Ma I’ve been Hussling rocks” as Cam’ron said.
Ya know crystals, incense, sage cauldron, charcoal, and herbs. The basices.I drove to her house and we stopped by Dollar Tree to get a few other things.
And food, niggas need food to properly function in all aspects in life.
I like how my art interest and witchy interest intersected here. In this moment my life was a Venn diagram.
She had a piece of fabric that I used as a backdrop which helped with the mystic mood. I placed the products and props on the table and the light sabers on the adjacent side of the table. I shifted the colors to match the corresponding of each candle.As smoke flowed through each image as the water flows down a stream.
ISSA VIBE!!!
Ain’t that what the kids say?
I used my newly acquired tripod since I didn’t want a repeat of the headshots from last issue. Literally the only thing that moved in these images were the smoke, that it. No such other movement existed.
It was a fun 1-2 hrs for me. Product photography is interesting, at least this was since I am interested in this subject matter.
And that was the end of that. My metaphysical image buzz ended unfortunately as my car shut off on me while on the way home.
UGH.
Side note, I like how my photo journey in my car problems are synonymous for the early part of last year. Not really tho.
Anyway to see the images from this mystic day click here. And if you want things to help you with your occult journey and want to support black owned business, yonder over here.
I’m going to do my hair now, because that is what you do when your love your curls.
I think I reached the point in my bizarre adventure where I am going to start calling ya’ll Jano’s Acolytes or JanoLytes for short.
Yea,I think i like the sound of that…I think.Give me until the next issue and I will know for sure.
This is it, this is the last issue of 202 fucking 1. This year has been arduous for no real reason at all. Just so abusive, almost as abusive as Big Mom on One piece. On kami, she still terrifies me. That bitch was killing her own children because she was hungry, countries wrecked because she had a sweet tooth…NIIGGAAAAAA!! But I finished the Big Mom Arc and just finished JuJutsu Kaisen less than an hour ago. Definitly late to the party on that, but i liked it.
Side Note, I legit don’t want to see anymore animes with the 3 man team format like Naruto. *side eye.
All anime tangents aside I blame all the retrogrades for the this year, I do. That is my ninja way…well ninja witch way.
Despite the turbulence I somehow got my book in a store, created my online boutique (I got earrings now bitches), and finally got to the final level of my comic series. YAAAAAAASSS Final arc time.
*Geek masturbation time.
Nice to know came out of the fire and flames with new Stands forged.
Oh Jano, was that a Jojo reference?
Why yes, yes it was.
Legit hoping next year I will make more progress in terms of completion of my book, and reaching those level 2 products i wan to make.
Jano,Wait what?
Huh? Time for Adventure time come on tell a friend.
This story started back in 2013 on Tate Street near UNCG.
Really? Like really fucking really? You have to start at the beginning, way back, back in time.
Yes, actually no. This story started back in 2008 when I was poking random girls on Facebook for no real reason. No there was a reason, i was socially awkward and had time between class. I poked someone and her and I became friends. At some point I met another dude through her and him and I became friends.
Actually this dude is how the Luke Cage saga occurred. Damn its wild what friendship were born because I poked someone on Facebook. Simple Times. Simple fucking times.
See Janolytes this is why history is important, especially for the sake how these shoots occured. Context Motha Fucka’s, Context.
Back to this saga.
So aforementioned homeboy had a Bday party and her and I met. Fast Foward to December 2020, yep last year. She asked me how much I charge for photo shoots and i told her. She told me about an idea she had for a birthday shoot she wanted to do and of course i’m down, esp if I’m getting paid.
Y’all getting paid for a skill you have is a great thing. You can do things like eat, buy stuff to make your heart happy, or use it to fix your car….something that happened allot this year….so fucking much.
*Deep sigh.
We both decided that we will do it in 2021 because 1.I had a super slave amazon holiday schedule and 2. her schedule and she wanted to drop the Covid Lockdown 15. Which i fully get. I think i gained more than 15 last year, but I’m pretty sure i sweated it out in Jeff Bezos Slave pit.
Spoiler Alert, this is a pretty non dramatic issue. It may seem like its a Game of Thrones Saga, but nope. Not at all.
Spring came along and we started to plan possible dates. We decided on the last weekend of April. I had scouted the area where i could shoot her downtown. Initially she had said Raleigh or Greensboro, but in the end we chose here in Charlotte. Which was probably for the best considering at this point my car was acting so erratic.
Terrifyingly Erratic.
I found a location, emailed her a picture collage of the area I was going to shoot her and she was excited about the potential. The weekend came and she let me know when she left Greensboro. I started to get ready and eventually headed to the location. The most dramatic part of this arc was the parking situation. Her Gps sent her to a different location. At some point her and I found each other and we walked to the location, which wasn’t far. This was our first time seeing each other since…..Summer 2015.
Man being an adult sucks, you go years without seeing your friends because of Sponsibilites. I feel your pain Angelica Pickles, I feel it.
Anyway, my home girl had a spectacular scarlet ensemble. YAAAAAAS. Spectators complimented her as we walked around.We covered a good amount of the area in an hour. When it was all said and done I walked her to her car, and she drove me back to my car. We talked about possibly doing other shoots, art journeys, college experiences and natural hair products.
And that’s all folks.
I told ya it was a pretty chill saga….well minus when I tried to upload the pictures to dropbox when i was done with the edits. Why was dropbox being a cunt? i don’t know.
Anyway to see the images from this literal Walk in a downtown park (or uptown park, whatever) click here.
With that being said this wraps up the issues for 2021 of Jano’s Bizarre Art Adventures. I still have a few more stories from this year, but they will have to wait until next year.
Because monthly tradition is important.
AYO, these essential oils are starting to take affect. I’ll see you Janolytes next year. Safe to say I have decided on dubbing you all Janolytes. I feel like i need to make a shirt of that now. I do.
In the deep bowels of my spirit I think November went by entirely too fucking fast. It did. There is no reason for it to be 1 week before thanksgiving when this month just fraggin started.
As if.
At least the academic rape like sessions akin to my UNCG undergrad years of October are over. Sadly so is Fairy Tail, I just finished it last night. Kinda sad…BUT apparently a new season is coming next year. YEET.
And Bleach is coming back. BIG FUCKING YEET.
Enough of my usual pre flashback tangent. Time for another Tale of Jano’s Bizarre Art Adventure *cue music.
This issue begins back in 1998 on Planet Namek.
Nigga what the fuck??
Don’t worry there are time leaps. Anyway as I was saying it was Spring 1998. Goku just landed on Namek, defeated Recoome, and Vegeta dropped the term for the first time in an English dub. The world waited for what seems like an eternity (especially when you are 14) for the next episode of DBZ when Goku fought Burter and Jeice of the Ginyu Force. In summer 1999, VHS tapes of the last part of the Freeza saga started to be released. And my geek ass def start buying them as soon as they dropped. $24.00 per fucking tape with 3-4 episodes.
Man those purchases aged badly when said out loud.
Fall 1999 came. I was a sophomore in high school and i was approached by someone walking to the bus I legit never knew in life. He asked if i was ______, and i was like yea. He had heard I had the new season of DBZ tapes and i said yea.
Side note, life was so fucking simple then. Holy fucking fuck.
Anyway we formed a friendship founded in anime, and have still been friends since the tender age of 14.
AWWWWW tender moments.
Fast forward to Spring 2021.
He had hit me up one day as I was leaving the slave pit Jeff Bezos slave pit. He asked me could I do headshots of his girlfriend. I told him yea I actually have a light set which I have never used.
Wait what?
Yep, I got Christmas money for it in 2016 but I never had an opportunity to use it at all. I practiced on one of my friends kinda in 2017, but it wasn’t that deep.
We made a plans for the following Sunday, so that weekend i decided this may be a good time to practice since it is actually going to be used for an actual client.
Blessed be youtube. On Kami.
Sunday came, and i went to his place after I left the slave pit, changed and got my equipment.
Him and I chatted as I prepared everything. Practice makes perfect kids. Legit didn’t struggle as much this time settling up as the first time I did. I took test shots with my lights in various ways to minimize the harshness of the shadow being casted. Eventually his girlfriend came out and we started.
She was nervous at first. I told her to relax as best she can because it will show on her face and its not flattering.
It didn’t take long for her to relax and get comfortable. I encouraged to play some music and envision yourself as someone you admire. Sometimes I actually am inspirational when I’m not talking shit.
Spoiler Alert.
And that was it. The shoot lasted for an hour, despite that i took a plethora of photos as usual. When I was editing I realized I need to buy a damn tripod because there was no reason for some of those images to be blurry.
None, no such fuckin reason existed.
Hey Google, Play Joe Public live and learn.
As i said the issues that are drama free are the ones when its a client. The one’s where i am chasing an artistic vision my ancestors inserted in my head, MaAAAAAAN its like an anime arc or a final battle rpg fight.
Sephirtoth level shit…which I still need to beat.
FUCK….FUCK.
The rest of the time i was there we all hung out, he showed me the Snyder cut of Justice league. Which …i just remembered I need to finish that. I meant to but, yea life said fuck your summer plans nigga. fuck your plans nigga. *Dave Chappele Rick James fuck your couch voice.
At any rate to see my LinkedIn level images i snapped click here.
Next month is another client so it isn’t complicated. Avril Lavinge would be proud.
Anyone catch that? no? ok fuck yall.
I’m going try to relax without passing out…if that is a thing.
Moral of story, friendships formed in anime lead to opportunities that help your dreams…or some shit.
Here we are. You and I gazing into an abyss of the internet as I post a new page in my Bizarre Art Journey.
Nigga What???
I don’t know, i didn’t really have an actual opening plan so I just started spouting words.
As if.
Tonight we have a special occasion. I am releasing a new issue of comic series.
YEEEEEEET.
Small confession, I have literally been done with Issues 1-5 since Summer 2017.
But Jano why haven’t you been releasing them at a faster rate?
Legitly there is no real reason. Although I am glad I didn’t because just recently a friend went through the aforementioned issues and pointed out my grammatical errors. So much gringe. This is what happens when you work bullshit slave jobs after graduating, your sense of grammar and proper sentence structure dies.
So just in case you ever wondered why these issues have so many run on sentences and what not that is why.
As I was saying I don’t have an exact reason why I haven’t been releasing them, I don’t. Part of me wanted to have the whole series done, another part wanted to have a certain gap between issues. Now I literally have a ten issue gap seeing that i just finished coloring issue 13. As of right now I have only seven issues left with a total of 319 pages.
Spoiler Alert, this is only going to be a 20 issue series. If you wanted a new Naruto, DBZ, Sailormoon, Bleach or One piece this def isn’t it.
But i’m legit looking forward to finally coloring the next 7 issues, especially considering I did issues 11-20 in the summer of 2018.
Yea…So in case you haven’t figured it out coloring has been a journey. I blame cotton field fatigue for it all. What I hoped to finish in 4 years from the fall of 2016 has not manifested.
Issues 1-5 were done by spring 2017, issue 6 June 2019, Issue 7-10 summer 2020 (thanks lockdown), Issues 11-13 Fall 2020-Fall 2021.
Ugh. So much fucking ugh.
But since I actually have my book in a local bookstore and I just did the QC Zine fest, where people actually expressed interest in my book. I may actually try to release these in a faster rate. Maybe 1 every 2 months? Maybe, no promises. Hopefully I’ll be done with this JRPG saga before the releases catch up.
*does math…2025, that is if i drop an issue every 2 months from this point on. On kami if i’m not done with this saga by then I’m trash, legit trash.
Hey Google, play Charles Hamilton Loser.
Side note, if you are wondering what the final villain is gonna look like. Head towards my boutique and look at the current tshirt and prints I have for sale.
Super Final Battle JRPG Vibes bro.
With all that out of the way I present Level 3 of my comic book series Azure Ascendance.
*starts narrator voice
A battle royal begins. Coco, Boumei, Raiken, Coral and Kuchihige battle fiercely as Princess Yosei is still passed out from her recent ordeal. Meanwhile Watatsumi finds out the true identity of her masked savior. Truths are revealed as a battle rages on in another part of Azure while a new foe waits to ravage bodies indiscriminately.
*ends narrator voice
The intensity continues to build in this story my ancestors told me to write in a medium I was fond of growing up. At usual I have a preview page so that you can view.
And as usual you can find this issue on my publications page along with the back issues. I have the full witches intent to put an issue out every 2 months, especially since now this little hermit has people who are interested in this saga I’ve created. I need to do another show to keep this momentum growing.
As Namie Amuro…This is for all my fans.
Maaaan if I get people cosplaying my characters and get this animated I will yeet so hard I may cum.
Fuck, I don’t even know how to start this issue. Although technically I did just start it with a nice medium size fuck.
Fun.
You know what else is fun? The fact that I’ve been checking my website stats and people are actually coming to my website on a more frequent basis. I’m impressed because no one was coming here for a while when this first started. Are people actually reading the lengthy thesis level issues I present on a monthly basis? I have no idea, but you’ve been logged in the record book either way niggaaaaaa.
Anyway.
So Spoiler Alert, this isn’t going to be your standard issue of me recalling a photoshoot. Honestly at this point in my life I am too exhausted for it right now.
Despite the fact that the next few issues are pretty straight forward and simple. Probably because they aren’t my ideas and don’t involve the chaos of me trying to find a model, a location, etc, etc, et fuckin cera.
Yay, I guess.
But right now I am legit not in the mood for a flashback of Jano Bizarre JRPG Adventure….and I may not be for a month, or two…or more…..
I type this as I listen to Minthaze latest album which matches my somber mood as of late.
OMG Jano are you ok?
Eh, its a litany of things honestly.
Hey Google play H.E.R. I’m not ok. If this was Myspace i would totally have that song embedded on this issue. Simpler times…kinda.
I’m not sure why September sucks for me, but it does. Every year for no apparent reason, maybe it is some form of seasonal affective disorder. You may think I say this in jest, but I’m not. Like clockwork when September arrives my spirit withers for the bulk of the month, even if there is no type of dramatic saga occuring.
However this year it is coupled with a few things.
My Car still isn’t working sadly. I finally took it to the shop and I’m hoping next week ends me having to depend on lyft drivers and using my girlfriends car. At this point in my life I just wanna do hoodrat shit with my friends while surviving a pandemic and racism. That feels like a facebook status, but right now I think I am about to be in recluse mode and disappear off the internet for a while. But this saga has persisted for the last 6 months and I just want it to end.
Essentially I have been grounded and as such I’ve tried to make the best of my time. And with that I have been doing entirely too fucking much in hopes to get my art in these streets. Particularly in the streets of Atlanta, New York City and California via bookstores.
Thats the goal at least. I already have it in one here in Charlotte, but that isn’t good enough for me. I think going to New York City really changed my perspective on somethings. At some point I want to have a book signing event, but I’m still currently making merchandise to ideally sell.
Thats right, lil ol Jano is crafting up in these streets. Ideally before October ends there will at least be a store front. I say ideally because I wanted all this shit done over the fucking summer. But when you combine a Jeff Bezos cottonfield that doesn’t provide many hours nor chances to pick up extra shifts and a car problem that isn’t properly diagnosed, and other things that i can’t put in quick quip phrases. It makes any plans that involve cash rather difficult to fulfill.
So there is that as well.
On top of that I found out I have another art show in a month, which i need to make 2 new pieces for which isn’t so bad. However, I really want to finish coloring issue 13 and do the final touches on act 3 of my comic series. Sadly that may be the last full issue I finish this year.Maybe i can get through issue 14, maybe. The current cottonfield I’m in is busy until Halloween and after that everything tapers off. The real question is will I get kept afterwards and then how long. If i could be unemployed for a few months to work on my book that would be great, but things cost fucking money and its upsetting. Here’s hoping things work out on the art front of life and everything else follows suit.
In midst of all this I found out a friend from college passed away from cancer, adding fuel to the existential fire. Contemplation of how at some points we will either be mourning the lost of friends over the years or we will be the one who is being mourned.
Shit.
The concept of time is absolutely terrifying. As is how eventually we drift apart from each other after we leave a space, and eventually get caught up in the space of our new lives to the point where we rarely reach out to those we no longer share a space with. That sentence was probably a run on but you. caught what I was pitching.
It hurts….at least for me. I miss my friends as I navigate this trail of trials.
I realized in the 4 years I’ve had this site this is the most vulnerable I’ve been.
Sometimes vulnerability is needed tho. Especially when it comes to breaking a pattern I have established over the bulk of the past four years. Right now I’m not in the space to recall a saga with all the plates I need to prepare for consumption as well. Maybe I’ll be gone til November…maybe by then I’ll be back to just working on my book and an issue a month.
Hopefully.
In non somber news, I just finished Dear White People today. I legit loved that show. I was hoping to be finished with my comic before it was over, that and Insecure. However it does not appear to be the case. Ugh I just got somber and existential again.
FUCK.
As long as I finish before One Piece ends. That is still doable…I think.
Side note, if you want to help me get out of these bullshit seasonal cottonfields, while wanting to help have a meaningful job that helps the community and care about the black community. You should donate to Back to Black, the organization I help out with when not wandering through the art fields.
Was that a shameless promotion to help me the non profit work with to get funded faster so that I can have real job?
Yes.
Do I give a shit how tactless that was?
Nope.
At least it wasn’t as tasteless as a youtube ad.
FUCK, i just remember another Mercury Retrograde is on the way.
Man I actually worked a full summer, that hasn’t happened in years. Def not a fan, even though I did get to do fun things this summer. The price of freedom yields monetary gain for joy. Yay Capitalism…. I suppose.
Anyway.
This another entry in the existential Infinity stone saga that started in the wee early days of 2017. For those keeping up this would be the fourth stone of the arc, 2 more and I’ll have a full set.
Side note, As I type this I am still in search of those two stones. As long as it has taken to get to this point I hope that they are worth it.
MAN, on god nigga, on GOD my nigga this concept was pretty simplistic, it was. But for some reason it took a year and four months to achieve it.
Spoiler Alert.
Who remembers that one part of the mermaid saga when I said I went to go scout Midtown Park for a possible shoot location? Well I am piggy backing off that for this issue. When 2018 started I remembered that location on that aggravating as fuck day. Couple that and the random images I see on the internet from Instagram and Pintrest, an idea gestated in my mind. I decide to do a 90’s era photoshoot.
But Jano that sounds like it would be simple to pull off. Why did it take so long?
Have ya’ll not been paying attention to my life? How often are any of my ideas simple? Exactly. I promise this art journey comes with more side quest than most modern video games. I should have hella trophies unlocked now. Fuck I should have bonus points for cussing anyone out. Wait would I get a trophy for actually loosing my cool? I might go for a trophy next time I get hit with some 1080 HD 4k fuckery.
I was scrolling through my IG timeline and thought to ask this girl I follow and models, who I thought would do it. I had asked her to model for me in 2017, but I didn’t really have an idea in mind unlike this time. I approached her with the idea and the time frame I wanted to do it, Ie when it wasn’t cold as fuck. She was down for it.
YEET.
I wasn’t saying Yeet last year, but I am now, So fuck it. Time travels is a fluid concept.
Eventually I bought an Old school 90’s boombox, ya know the type you would see on TV. The type you can carry on your shoulder and disturb all the peace, but be harmonious to yourself and those who appreciate the genre of music you like. I found some old blank cassette tapes I had in my room from when I use to actually listen to the radio, and record music off.
MAN the nostalgia of simple times, take a nigga back. Not gonna lie tho Spotify is def the best, especially since I can’t stand what is on the radio nowadays.
At this point we are in Mid March. I emailed her asking what songs would she want on the mixtape. I like going for a full effect of what the fuck I am trying to shoot if I can.
Ya’ll bitches be the worse. They do, the absolute fucking worse.
I would email her, and assuming that not everyone checks their mail all the time (even though our initial conversation about what I was trying to achieve with this shoot was via email and she replied, but whatever) I would message her asking if she got my email as a prompt for her to check it. Bitch would leave me left on read, but on god would like all my memes. All of em.
Bitch Whet???
At some point when I attempted to communicate with her, she did reply saying that she hadn’t checked her email. I took a screenshot of the msg and sent it to her via IG DM’s….and still no reply.
FUCK IT.
Just absolute fuck it.
Ya’ll think this is bad, wait til we get the last 2 stones. Oh boy those are true anime arcs, long as fuck. Filled with Daunting moments of existentialism.
Timeline wise we are near the nigger heat summer of 2018. I got laid off from my job, so I was free as fuck. Figured I’d make the best of my time the best I can. It was upsetting because on the photography part of the art journey, you can’t do a photoshoot without a model. And unlike the mermaid saga and the candy queen arc, this wasn’t a difficult concept.
AT ALL.
Summer came and I would fill my days of being laid off of going to restaurants, of stuffing my face, working on acts 3 and 4 of my book, while using their wifi to play hours of music on Spotify. At various points I would have random text conversations with friends.
One friend in particular, I was telling her about the aforementioned events. And she said she would do it. Awe struck I was, especially since she told me can’t be out in the sun for too long. Truthfully I had thought about asking her, but there was reasons I didn’t. Mainly because us hanging out is always difficult, typically the days we have attempted to hang out something always happened. At this point in time, we had only seen each other 2 times….
…and we had known each other for a few years. I know adult friendships are hard but this was final level boss hard.
I knew better, but hoped for the best.
Unfortunately the same patterns repeated themselves. The days when we had made plans to meet up to pick the songs for the mixtape, something drastic came up on her end. And at some point I stopped hearing from her for a while, found out who later on why which has no bearing on the rest of this issue.
Again this project was dead in the water. I kept searching, and eyeballing people of who I would want to do this. Eventually I started working a new job in October and 2018 ended and 2019 arrived.
Now we are getting to the climax of this story.
At some point in the cotton field I became cool with one of the fellow slaves. Due to the weekend shift being dissolved, her and a few others were now part of my shift. As time went on I noticed she had a 90s aesthetic. I figured maybe I should ask and see would she model for me.
So one February day in the cotton field I asked.
She seemed squeamish to the idea, but gave me her email anyway so I could give her all the details of what I am trying to do for the project. She told me she would give it some thought, I was like Koolio beanzo.
However, *deep sigh*
Her started to get complicated for various reasons which I don’t feel like typing. But emotionally she was starting to go through it. The tiny part of me that is humane thought it would be in bad taste to ask her about it.
I promise this could have been so simple, but was like Nah Nigga.
Anyway, One week I saw an art event on Facebook about Art, Beer and Chicken. And this nigga likes chicken and art.
Spoiler Alert.
Friday came, and I made an effort to stay awake post cotton field. If I passed out like I usually do I would have not made there at all. I got there and legit didn’t plan on seeing anyone I know at all. I didn’t. Social skills was not a thing I was planning on using that night.
Ironically enough I did.
At some point I went to the restroom, came back and while I was waiting in line there was a girl ahead of me in line. I recognized the green hair and the pointy cat ear frames, internally I was like I think thats a person I follow online. And it was.
You know how you what if scenarios play in your head? Well sometimes I have ones where I’m out and someone who follows me online sees me and they go OMG you are so kool, nice to meet you, you are hilarious as fuck. Well thats what happened.
We catch eyes and she starts talking to me, and me being the awkward, tired person I am finds myself in a scenario I legit never thought was gonna happen especially since I didn’t think I would run into anyone that night. Oh irony. We talk for a few mins, goes off to grab some food and thats it for our interaction for the night. I see her with 2 other people, but don’t go over to them because I legit didn’t wanna be a odd as fuck spare wheel who is socially awkward. At some point I leave to go home and pass out, but before I do send her a message sorry if I came off awkward as fuck. She said it was kool, she thought she was awkward and I was like nah you were ok.
Awww tender moments.
Ironically enough, I ran into her the next day at Abari’s block party and it was like we were friends from 10 years ago. It was me, her, the two guys I saw her with last night and my homegirl. It was a pretty chill day. At some point I started to think maybe she would model for me.
The following week I asked my aforementioned coworker when did she want to work on her mixtape. Man the apprehension and nervous on her face was all the answer I needed, and after a discourse she told me my least favorite words when it comes to a photoshoot.
I’ll let you know.
Essentially those words are nails in a coffin for me, because no one ever lets me know shit. Spoiler Alert, its several months later and I still have not been let known anything. I decide to message my recent internet friend to real life friend, and she said would totally be down.
YEEEEEET!!!!
HOLY FUCK, THE YEEET I FELT DEEP IN MY HEART. The ball started rolling finally. Something that should have happened last fucking spring finally was happening.
We started an email correspondence, of what songs she would want on the mixtapes, when each of us would be free, and what not. Her playlist was crack on a stick. I somehow downloaded all the songs from Spotify using some program, and the transferred them to a cassette tape.
Kinda.
The transfer didn’t go as smooth as I had planned. First I had to order a new flash drive because my kool Transformer Ravage one fragged out on me. Even after that I didn’t get the order of the songs arranged like I thought. And for some reason the last 30 secs to minute of the song would abruptly cut off, which was really fucking odd considering the songs were downloaded in full.
Odd, but not odd enough for me to sweat it. We chose Easter Sunday to do the shoot. As excited as I was, I was also nervous as fuck. To be honest I was nervous that it would be a repeat event of Incandescent Spirits, where I had acted like I never held a camera before Plus this was the first photoshoot Ive done since August 2018.That was humiliating for me and I didn’t want that to occur again. At any costs. As usual I spent the day mentally preparing how I wanted this to go down. I had recently scouted the area again, since the last time I was there was August 2017.
She and her boyfriend arrived, which was kool because he helped carry some of the things that were brought. Oh I forgot to mention, she had never modeled before which really didn’t matter because she did a great job. She had made a comment how she hated how she looks in photos, and then I showed her and she was like well damn.
Not to be cocky, but thats usually the reaction when I show people photos of them. Nice how I make people believe in themselves….even though I am a legit asshole.
As the shoot went on we laughed each time a song ended abruptly, not gonna lie it was hilarious and annoying when it was a song we all really liked. At some point we called it quits for various reasons. She was exhausted from her job which I totally understood, and there was a still a good amount of the park to shoot. Plus there were other areas we had to skip over because people were shooting there already. And she wanted to do her make up better than she had for today. We ended it for the day, and did the 2nd half a week later.
MAAAAN Listen. She came out her car looking like Rachel True from The Craft and I won’t mad at it. At all. We did the rest of the park with no problems.
Wait, no there was a problem. So at some point this random old white man, who we presumed was homeless and drunk. Decided to piss in the area where we are shooting.
NIGGA!, There is a whole park for you to piss in and you chose the area where we are. Smells like racism and expired Budweiser. Cunt.
And after that I fulfilled my promise of feeding her when it was over. She originally wanted to go this sushi restaurant, but at some point we were talking about how I went to this Ecuadorian restaurant that my friend took me to while I was in Raleigh J.Cole’s Dreamville festival which led us to Viva Chicken. OMG blessed be Viva Chicken and the purple and yellow sauce.
YEET NIGGA YEET.
Also Dreamville Festival is where I heard the word Yeet. It was during J.Cole’s performance, and at some point after he performed Middle Child this white girl yelled it and it has been part of lexicon ever since. Damn White girls.
Anyway to see the images from this shoot that honestly should have taken this damn long go here.
With this the 4th stone was collected. Green did infect beat gold after all.
Don’t ask.
Anyway I legit just spent a good while typing this, and I’m all typed out plus hungry for some chicken.
Until next time.
2 stones left.
UGH.
On another note, my goal is to finish Final Fantasy 7 this month and finish Grave Destiny by Kalayna Price. Since ya know they should have been done along time ago.
Dear Janolytes,
