The new season of AMC’s Mad Men starts this Sunday. I will be at Vampire-Con, so I’ll be TiVoing it, but I’m looking forward to this new season of one of my favorite shows. Pre-season rumor has it that this time out, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner has in store more drinking, more gender relations of both the sexual and social issue variety, and will start off a couple more years into the 1960’s.

We’ve got a beautiful Mad Men promo photo gallery for your viewing pleasure here. The colors of past seasons were a bit different from these and I can’t say whether the new season will fully match prior seasons or evolve. I love the look here, though, and one of the most impressive things about Mad Men is the hyper real look and feel. The show’s costuming is convincingly period, but somehow makes each time it covers look more fabulous and glamorous and beautiful than it probably looked at the time. The lighting and color palette is always just gorgeous and makes this one of the few shows I always TiVo at Best Quality, so I don’t miss a bit of the look and feel.

Over on the AMC site, they also have a MadMen Yourself avatar creator. The image above is the one I did for myself. There was no option for iced latte, as it would have been an anachronism in 60’s Madison Avenue, so I opted for a hot coffee. There was no option for purple hair, but I was able to select stripes.

So I registered the domain for my name a while back, when the internet still had a bit of that new web smell. I’d been doing work more and more in the digital space for a few years then and I would end up having to pay off a cybersquatter for the BlueBlood.com domain, so it seemed sensible to register everything near and dear to me. Then nine more years went by. Some of my favorite sites have grown out of Forrest Black registering domains while drinking beer and then me feeling that, once it was registered, the domain had to have a site on it. For a long time, I just had a link to a hosted journal on AmeliaG.com, but now seemed like the time to actually put a proper site on there. Today it officially goes live.

The site has the Amelia G bio with just the broad strokes. There is a more detailed sidebar with just 2009 news about press appearances and where my writing and photography has appeared this year. I considered including a page with a gigantic lists of places I’ve been published, but, after doing thousands of pages of editorial, not to mention radio and television stuff, it just seemed like it would be a bit of a laundry list. Plus, oddly enough, when I was doing research for the site, I discovered that some of my work had been reprinted without me even knowing it. I’ve moved less as an adult than I did as a kid, but sometimes it is still possible to lose track of compatriots with moves and all on everyone’s part.

I hope people enjoy the Photography Portfolio section of Forrest Black’s and my work. People always ask to see my online portfolio and I always was reluctant to put one together before. When I say “reluctant”, I mean that the notion of editing together only forty of my favorite images, out of everything we’ve ever shot, made me effing hyperventilate. I forced my brain through its discomfort and editing a selection of images from over such a long time period turned out to be really fun, once I got into kind of the right headspace, because I got to look at all sorts of contact sheets with positive associations and beautiful unseen images. Because of the ephemeral nature of human life, there is always something intrinsically bittersweet about any good photograph, I think, but it still felt mostly good to go through everything.

Given the fiscal realities of shooting on film, there are all sorts of awesome images Forrest Black and I shot which nobody has ever seen because it cost so much to make prints, so we tended to just print whatever a magazine wanted to publish for a lot of shoots. So the photo portfolio I edited together on AmeliaG.com has quite a few exclusive images the world has never seen, along with some favorites you will probably recognize.

It was also really fun putting together the section with the Amelia G Personal Pics because I got to dig through hard drives of tons of random uncategorized galleries of digital nightlife snapshots and recall all sorts of enjoyable adventures. My mom looked at the pics and said it looked like I must go out every night. Really I’m a workaholic, so I just like to only venture out for really cool stuff and I try to make a night out count. I hope you all also enjoy my goofy snapshots of going to parties, conventions, and gallery shows, clubbing, travel, and just hanging out with pals.

The background photo is a promo shot Forrest Black was kind enough to do for me last week. I really like how it turned out. If you are interested in hairstyle matters, my haircut is by Thierry, blowout is by Youne Lee, and color is old skool punk rock style where my bathroom is purple now too.

Putting the Amelia G site together made me nervous as anything, but I’m really happy it is complete and I think it turned out good. I hope you all like it too.

This video features Forrest Black’s interview with the beautiful muse April Flores and my interview with art show curator and contributing artist Carlos Batts and contributing artist Misha (who enjoyed one of the tickets won by MorningStar in our Sisters of Mercy giveaway). Forrest Black and April Flores discuss what it is like to be immortalized in a very unique way and Carlos Batts and Misha and I discuss their inspirations for their respective pieces and Carlos Batts’ vision for the show. The gallery was kind enough to let us shoot while they were closing up, after the huge crowd had dispersed, so it would be quiet enough to hear the interviews, although I think you can see them flicking the lights on and off once or twice to remind folks to exit the building and head out to Good Luck Bar. The video is directed by Forrest Black. Blue Blood theme music is by Tim Skold. The gallery show party portion of the video features many luminaries in attendance, including yours truly, photographer Steve Diet Goedde, memorabilia historian Matt Kennedy, director Ramzi Abed, writer Gram Ponante, photographer Michael Prior (all the way from Australia!), and many more.

So, basically, sex toy novelty art supply manufacturer Topco Sales wanted to try out making a BBW vulva mold and gorgeous April Flores seemed like the obvious choice. Thus was born the April Flores’ Voluptuous CyberSkin Love Toy in the Wildfire Celebrity Series. Desiree Duffie, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Topco Sales, says that “When Topco Sales molded April to make her toy, we knew we were breaking new ground.” I think they are pleasantly surprised at just how much new ground April Flores and Carlos Batts brought to the table.

Curating this show, which featured eight celebrated artists working with plaster molds of April Flores’ nether regions, Carlos Batts says, “Creative interpretations of the female anatomy are fundamental to art. Specifically, this project was inspired by the irony of Jeff Koons’ work and the playfulness of the Dunny movement, as well as by April herself. In this exhibit, April provides the blank canvas on which each artist has the opportunity to express his or her vision.” Topco’s rep adds, “This show provides an inspired arena in which to play with such provocative issues as beauty, sexuality, intimacy, pleasure toys and more. I can’t wait to see each artist’s work.”

Artists whose work appeared in tonight’s gallery show include Axis, COOP, Jim Mahfood, Kime Buzzelli, Kozy & Dan, Misha, Small Paul, and of course Carlos Batts himself.

The La Luz de Jesus Gallery on Hollywood Boulevard played host to this unique and fun art show. You can contact the gallery to acquire a one-of-a-kind plaster art piece featuring April Flores’ parts or you can purchase a waterproof, phthalate free, and more multipurpose version in CyberSkin. April Flores says, “Celebrating my phenomenal new Voluptuous CyberSkin Toy with all these amazing artists in the flourishing LA art scene is a dream come true”

Blue Blood will be showing some of the counterculture erotica works of Forrest Black and Amelia G at The Black Heart Masque Valentine’s Day event in Los Angeles, Wednesday, February 14th. It looks to be an enchanted evening of the deadly and divine with a macabre fantasy arrangement of red roses, chocolates, sugar kisses, and delicate sin, with DJs Xian and The Baron spinning a decadent blend of gothic, etherial, darkwave, and dark synthpop melodies to hasten your pulse.

There will also be fortune tellers to scry future conquests, a very special dance performance by Hot Hips Bellydance performers Sherri & Medina, cello and harp music with Carol Tatum, of Angels of Venice, fun fire play with Ted Shredd from Vamphear Circus and Sockemonke, as well as the infamous night gallery, showcasing dark artistic creations.

Guests are expected to don their most seductive and exotic BLACK and RED finery for this heart’s filthy lesson. Neovictorian and fairytale costumes or formal evening wear (bowties and top hats) of circian themes are desired. Dark club wear shall be considered the minimum to enter. And masks are thoroughly encouraged.

The The Black Heart Masque Valentine’s Event will be held at The Monte Cristo, located at 3100 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010 (View Map)

For more details you can also see the event website: LaDead.com