Things are definitely different now. Looks like I'll have a little more time on my hands to keep up my blogs, at least for a while. I lost my job today. It was a damn good one too. But I was released today into a city with an already surging 13.1% unemployment rate. Damn. Oddly enough, I gotta tell ya, in some ways I am relieved, though I know this feeling will be short-lived really quick. I was spending many a weekends working. Long days and nights in an office. I had never wanted a job in the first place that was going to be so time-consuming of my days and take away from my photography. Granted, I had no idea it was going to be this consumptive of my time. I knew I'd voluntarily put in the hours in the beginning just to learn the system. I hate being ignorant of anything. But in July things when into overdrive and weekends became routine. Well, now I've been spat out. I said my good-byes to my crew and bid them well. I think I was far too gracious about it. I asked for no reasons or tried to argue/defend my case. I said thank you for the opportunity with a dry mouth. It sucks that it had to come 12 days after I just moved into a new apartment though.
One of the coolest things in the updating of all this is that its been a while since I've checked out the stats on my sites. Despite not blogging on the same 2wice a week schedule I was adhering to last year, my numbers are still way up. My state-side numbers now far supersede my European counts (mainly the UK, France, and Germany). It wasn't that significant of a difference before, but now, its about 10 times my European count combined. I hadn't really looked into whether or not I'm losing my Euro-readers, or if my US readership has simply taken notice. More than likely its the latter. Most of my visits come from search engines, which brings me to some of the most surprising stats of all. Now you'd expect, searches for words and phrases like "best nudes on the planet", artistic nudes, art models, model poses, etc, would bring traffic to me. But I was somewhat gagged to see some of the stuff that drew traffic. Granted, they were pretty much one time visits, per keyword, (instead of 100 people searching model poses), but there were bunches of them and I am hesitant to repeat them. Some people are just weird like that.
These photos were taken of Melissa during a recent figure drawing session.
On another matter of locations, I was reading about Morocco a few days ago. My first encounter on anything Moroccan, besides the leathers, was two girls I picked up out of the rain while in Grad school in Kentucky. They were carrying grocery bags from Wal-Mart which was right across from campus. One of the girls was holding a bag that I thought was a baby which is what prompted me to stop in the first place. It was raining. What man wouldn't stop? But in my car is now seated the most beautiful slash gorgeous woman, I think I've ever been that close to. Forget celebrity beauty. This girl was just plain fascinating. She was like museum beautiful....not to be touched...just gazed upon. I'm talking Mona Lisa, here. I got to know her over the next few months, since we had classes together and were both in the MBA program. 
At different times, I was introduced to other friends of hers. ALL of them were gorgeous. None as beautiful as she was, granted, but all these women were Moroccan and they were all gorgeous. Well, this girl got to see some of my work at one point and we discussed my artwork. I never made a pass at her and never even asked her to model, but she did bring up the possibilities herself and we both considered it. Alas, it never came to fruition. She went on to graduate a semester before I did I think.
I want to revisit some places, I have already been such as the Netherlands and Spain. But Morocco is one place I don't think I would mind living in. Aside from the beautiful women, its another place for me to explore for a few years. I like learning about new cultures and being in different surroundings. I understand from my friend, that the place is much more progressive than what I might think of a Muslim country. However, I am not sure how well my nudes would go over there. I think for that time in country, I'd resign myself to landscape and portraiture. It would make another interesting chapter in my life. I don't know when I would be able to visit. There is much in my own country I am still exploring. But if the opportunity presents itself, who could pass that up. Yes, I think I'd move there.André Elbaz (born April 26, 1934, El Jadida, Morocco) is a famous Moroccan painter and filmmaker.
Elbaz studied art and theatre in Rabat and Paris from 1950 to 1961. He started painting only at the age of 21, until which age he had been interested mainly in theatre. A few years later, he managed to combine his two passions into a new approach in art-therapy, inventing together with his wife, a psychiatrist, the Pictodrame, which brought him world recognition.
