adventures in boyhood

Adventures in Boyhood and Tramp_O_line bring you:

71 TROUTMAN
a temporary art experience

OPENING AUGUST 20

Join us Saturday, August 20th from 6pm to 11pm for an evening of song, drink, and art. Works on paper by Eli VandenBerg will be shown. There will be free food, a cash bar with amazing drink specials, and a front and back patio for smoking, drinking and general socializing. Join us for a great queer art party in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Directions:

by train: take the JMZ line to Myrtle Ave. Walk west on Myrtle across Broadway. Make a left on Troutman Street. 71 Troutman is on the second block of Troutman Street. It is the last house on the left.

by bus: take the B54 towards Ridgewood. Exit at Evergreen Street. Cross Evergreen (going south) and continue to Troutman Street. Turn Right and 71 Troutman is the first house on the left.

Call for submissions:

Queer artists in craft, video, text, and 2D.

East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Temporary gallery/event space seeks submissions from Queer artists of varying genres and mediums to show work. No space rental fee. Every weekend will see a new, creative social event. Saturdays will host a series of curated public, pay what you can events; including:

Queer Craft Fair

Writer’s Ho-down

Video screening (with popcorn!)

Generating creative social scenarios thru art.

Queer printmakers, painters and illustrators, videomakers and writers, will all be showcased in this temporary social experiment located at 71 Troutman, East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY.

Please send your submissions immediately! Send resume, 10jpgs via email, or on CD, and/or maximum 10 min. of video on DVD or VHS. In order that we can return your work to you, please include SASE with sufficient postage.

Email: eli@adventuresinboyhood.com

Or snailmail: Tramp_O_line c/o Praxis

610 Dean St. #1

Brooklyn, NY 11213

DEADLINE: AUGUST 20

i’m waiting at the bus stop in china town and this group of five teenage boys comes up to me. my teenage years were pretty traumatic so i fear teenage boys way more than i do adult men. so they walk up and ask where canal street is, “ma’am.” while i’m giving the one directions the other one is yelling in the background, “that’s a man, yo.” i give my directions and the kid turns to me and says, “i’m sorry, really i am. you are a guy right?” i just say it’s ok and not to worry about it. happens sometimes. he runs off yelling at his friends, “you guys, i told you it was a guy. you guys are such dorks.” it made me smile. when i looked like a girl i got mistaken for a guy and now i get mistaken for a woman. i still enjoy watching people argue about it after they walk away.

i’m down in philly right now where i will soon be moving in with my lady.  no job yet, but if i’m going to be unemployed i may as well do it in a less expensive city.  i’m hoping to transfer the fun and exciting art events that i bring to troutman street down to philly.  so, philly pholks, (that was lame, i know) put your thinking caps on we we can get some stuff started here.

oh, and if anyone knows where i can get a real job let me know…

instead of running away from broonlyn so soon i’ve decided to use my lovely apartment to the fullest.  soon, instead of having a living room, i will have the adventuresinboyhood gallery space and event venue.  it will be a short lived, but well used space.  check back here and the website in the future for a full and exciting list of events.  afordable art, queer craft shows, and good parties soon to come.

so it looks like i’ll be putting a book together of my art and writings. right now it’s just a dream, but it’s well on it’s way to becoming a reality. why do i tell you this now, you ask? well, it’s time to get the hype started. send your friends to my webpage, www.adventuresinboyhood.com. get the word out. if this goes well there will be a second book forthcoming. not only is this a great opportunity for me, but it is also important to get trans art and word out into the world. who better to tell our stories than ourselves.

“excuse me, ladies.”

huh? what’s that about. not only am i packing, but i’ve paid a small fortune for this very flat chest. lady? i don’t get it. i pass maybe 75% of the time so when i don’t it catches me completely off guard. i have a very love/hate relationship with passing to begin with so i never know how to respond. usually when i open my mouth people look very uncomfortable and correct themselves which is attention i don’t really want either. it would be nice to just not have to think about it but unfortunately that’s just not possible…

on the other hand i’m glad that i’ve got knowledge that someone who has never seen both sides of gender will never have. being on both sides of “ladies” and “gentlemen” changes the way you see said ladies and gentlemen. thank god.

where’s your blog, what’s your blog, blog blog blog blah. well, i finally stepped up to the plate. never knew what one was until recently but figgured it can’t hurt to add to my shameless self promotions.

so we’re in the middle of a heat wave in brooklyn and i’ve got myself a great unemployment tan. my favorite thing is sitting outside without my shirt on. it may seem like a small thing but it’s certainly exciting for me. good thing no one will hire me otherwise i’d miss out on prime tanning times. besides, my mom always said that tan fat looks better than white fat so i’ve got to work on bronzing my belly.

i’m being published, by the way. first, everyone check your local queer newstand for the next issue of 3rd floor project, a queer art magazine. you’ll see one of my lovely drawings in there. also, a literary magazine out of madison wisconson called “the cream city review” (that just sounds so dirty) will be publishing one print and one drawing. i don’t know what their distrobution is outside of the midwest but you can always look them up online.

so those are my thoughts for now…until later