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December 2018

Continued from the first part, this post will bring us through last year’s Holiday Card before this year’s big reveal tomorrow. While 2010 had a sweet focus, the photo I used for 2011’s card was perhaps the sweetest one I’ve ever done, and was the first, and thus far only, time I’ve appeared with children. My niece and nephew – Emi and Noah – co-starred in this summer shot, as I pulled them along in their Radio Flyer. It personified family fun and was proof that they loved me in spite of my cut-off jeans.

Following a couple years of innocence and sweetness, the tiger in me was ready to unleash a more provocative card for 2012. With Janice Joplin’s classic ‘Piece of My Heart’ as inspiration, I staged this macabre holiday heart scene. I think I loved it most for the fact that I didn’t have to worry about my hair for the first time in forever. It’s the little things that matter. (This was also the first front and back photo card that I produced, and as such I wanted it to be striking.)

Making amends with those who weren’t enthralled with the bloody turn of 2012, I offered this saccharine throwback, which was the easiest card I’ve ever done because it had been created in the early 1980’s and all I had to do was scan the thing in. It’s me and my brother in our sleeper pajamas, gleefully surveying a Christmas morning from our childhood. I miss those pajamas.

From childhood innocence to adult/illegal activity, the Holiday Card from 2014 – aptly entitled ‘Let It Snow!’ – found me sniffing the white stuff (baking soda, if you must know the truth) – and was part of the rollercoaster journey of ‘The Delusional Grandeur Tour: Last Stand of a Rock Star‘, hence the rock-star antics on display. This might have been disliked even more than the torn-out holiday heart card as seen above.

Veering from illicit powder to lumberjack beefcake, the evergreen-backed card from 2015 was a simple and quick one-off shot from our backyard. Fun fact: that ax has never been used to chop wood, nor would I know where to even begin.

Easily my most-hated Holiday Card thus far (though this year may give it a run for its money), my image from 2016 was inspired by the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but nobody seemed to get the baby-in-cheek humor. Hey, child-birth isn’t all rainbows and roses, and the fact that I have to explain this to people is wonky in itself. I happen to love everything about this card, especially the misunderstood reactions and across-the-board refusal of everyone to display it. In all likelihood, it will never be topped.

Finally, we have arrived at last year’s card, which was classy and tasteful and all sorts of tired and dull adjectives. It was shot in the Boston condo, and that’s a real Negroni in the gold-rimmed cocktail glass. I took about fifty photos to get this one – and when I got back to Albany to go over the goods, my fly was down in every single photo. I was going for the profile anyway, and I can finally say that I got my cock out for a Holiday Card. Meant to be.

{Come back here tomorrow for the reveal of this year’s Holiday Card…}

Tomorrow I will unveil this year’s Holiday Card (which most of you have already seen if you bothered to look at the PVRTD Project). In anticipation of that, here’s a quick look back at all the Holiday Cards I’ve sent out since 2004. (There are many others that were made before we went digital, but for the complete collection I need to do some serious archive digging, and that’s not happening this week. Besides, all that went down from 1995-2004 is best left in the past.)

The featured ice queen pic is from 2004, which was printed in black and white – an unintentional oversight on my part, but one that worked since color wasn’t key to the experience. Here it is as originally intended.

For 2005 and 2006, we went skintastic – first with a mirrored-jock cup and nipple clamps, then with the whole crucifixion scene to go with ‘The Revelation‘ project of the time (definitely a holiday project worth revisiting at this time of the year).

From not clothed to overclothed, 2007 brought my version of Santa Claus by the dumpster. Some Jack and a smoke made this a strangely beloved card. (It’s one of my least favorites, of course.)

If I’ve done something saucy like that Bad Santa, the next year I usually go in the opposite direction with something sweet or somber. The latter was in play for 2008, when I chose this simple photo that Andy took in Ogunquit. At the Beautiful Place by the Sea, this remains a sentimental joy.

The pendulum swings back to some skin in 2009, as viewers get a glimpse of upper-ass glory and a pair of wings that would play a part in ‘A 21^stCentury Renaissance: The Resurrection Tour’.

2010 was a very special year for us, as Andy and I got married in the Boston Public Garden. We celebrated a few months later in Amsterdam, New York, when I wore this extravagant coat sewn by Marline’s Momma. I put it back on for this poolside shot with Andy, as that year marked our tenth anniversary as a couple, and our first as a pair of husbands.

{Come back in a few hours to see the Holiday Cards from 2011 through 2017…}