ALWAYS RIGHT, ALONE TONIGHT.

I HAD a friend
who was
The President
of THAT Organization.

Key word: HAD
Read more…

I’ve been a member
of The Cafe Society
for 20 years now,
occasionally The President.

It started for me
as a result
of me unconsciously knowing
that I needed to
create myself
a new reality.
Read more…

Depression
can be a positive,
productive
state of being.

When I am feeling off,
down or confused,
especially when I’m missing my daughter,
I make a decision
to go under,
take a break,
carve out a day
to grieve.
Read more…

BARBARA MANDRELL !!!

BETTE MIDLER !

CHER !!!

GOLD PANTS !
GO GOLD PANTS !!!

I endured The Super Bowl.

I meant watched.

The last thing ON EARTH
I wanted to be doing
was to be sitting still
for 3 hours
participating,
in any fashion,
in a televised sports event.

I swear to God
on a Gideon Bible
from The Smith Motel
in Acworth
that I still don’t know
who lost the game,
and I watched it
to the final out.

I meant goal.

However,
I would not have missed
the opportunity
to be in the midst
of GREATNESS.

Big Mike, Shannon, Brooks,
and I
basically transformed the evening
into a challenge
to who could say
the funniest,
most fucked up,
random,
irrelevant,
yet correct observations
about anything involved
in the game.

I felt like I was in Panama City
on the exploding end
of a string of firecrackers
on the Fourth of July.

They are BRILLIANT.

Shannon and her Dames Aflame,
M.C.’ed by Brooks,
and Swooned by Big Mike,
are performing their magic
all weekend
at Paris on Ponce
for DAMES AFLAME POP Show!

You don’t have to be IN LOVE to go,
but I guarantee you
that when you leave,
you will be IN LOVE.

You are STUPID if you don’t
google it and go>>>

Sitting at THE TABLE
watching THAT GAME
was more like
birthing babies
at Baby Land General.

We might as well been
brainstorming show ideas
at Adult Swim
or The Cartoon Network.

CLAY AIKEN !!!
WE ARE PROUD OF YOU CLAY AIKEN !!!

jaj ajjajaja

We all understood,
yet it was not spoken,
that it DID NOT MATTER
what we were yelling,
as long as we were yelling.

It DID NOT MATTER
which color pants
did the right,
or wrong thing,
as long as we yelled
at the appropriate time!

MADONNA !!!
WE LOVE YOU !!!

It was my best Super Bowl EVER.

It’s how I get through Life.

If there is something
I don’t want to do,
but,
for whatever reason,
I choose to do it,
I AM going to have a good time.

I’m going to laugh.
I’m going do some high five-ing,
and I’m going to leave
a little better off
than I came.
I am selfish that way.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.
Life is too short to choose boredom.

I am going to watch more baseball though,
so that next year so I’ll know more about the game.

I meant football.

It’s not whether you steal or not,
it’s whether you admit you’re a thief.

We’re all human in this together.

I steal.
I stole.
I will probably steal again.

I love-love-love
those tacky ass religious signs
on the side of the road
between Georgia and Mississippi.

The one’s where there are obvious mis-spellings,
with horrid graphics,
yet are so genuine and sweet.

I can just imagine
this old toothless-geezer-jesus-freak Paw Paw
under his homemade lean-to
nailed up to his Trailer House
with his Walmart OOPS Paint
writing out his
TRUST JESUS NOW signs,
HELL IS HOT!!!

A friend and I
set up a trip to Mississippi
to visit his ailing Father.

To minimize the boredom of the trip,
and to maximize the laughter of the trip,
I decided to make some
Sister Louisa Plywood Evangelism
to trade up along the way!

My friend watched for cops
while I was stealing the signs.

I’d crow-bar down
TRUST JESUS NOW
and hammer up
JESUS LOVES GAYS.

I’d run with the ladder,
crawl up it and pull off
JESUS LOVES YOU!
and replace it with the ever-true
NOTHING HARDER THAN A PREACHER’S DICK!

We laughed all the way to Mississippi.

A month back in Georgia,
another friend called from the road
returning from a trip to Texas.

She screamed in the phone,
giggling like a school-girl,
laughing that she had
THE PERFECT gift for me!

She arrived at my shop a few hours later,
proud pink,
running up to me with a package.

To get her to shut her obnoxious mouth up,
I quickly opened the package.

JESUS LOVES ATHEISTS!!!

That Thief-Ass-Bitch
had unknowingly stolen MY sign
and brought it to me
because she knew I’d love it!!!

jaj aja aj jaja

I felt like such a Victim.
Violated.

That was MY sign!
MINE!!!

jaja jaj

As faithful friends gathered
after the opening night
of The Show in New York,
the one where
SISTER LOUISA
was censored;
a ridiculous,
yet SOUL-BALANCING idea
flashed before my eyes!

I furiously flew back to Atlanta,
bought THAT white van
from a generous art patron
for $200.00,
then in a similar flash,
it became SISTER LOUISA’S ROLLING GODBOX.

“Just drive this van
to Home Depot down the street,
don’t put it on the interstate,
I don’t trust it on the road”,
he said.

jajaj a jaja

The sayings I feverishly wrote
on the side of the van
were the sayings that were banned
from The Show.

The Balance Needed Further Tipping.

“I found 33 identical pieces
of shitty old boards.

I wrote a censored-saying
on each of the boards,
loaded them in
SISTER LOUISA’S ROLLING GODBOX,
along with an 8′ ladder,
and just damn DID IT.

Adrenaline MADE me DO IT,
That I was choosing to honor my creation
MADE me DO IT.

I left Atlanta,
my faith in the cause
greater than the
condition and appearance
of the van.

With a friend,
we stopped every 33 miles
and nailed a board
with one of these sayings
to a tree
all the way back to
New York Damn-Tittie-Ass City.

Atlanta to Augusta,
up the coast to New York,
without a blink.”

I’m recounting THIS
as if confessing to a crime
in the Admissions Office
of a Psych Ward,
or Holding Cell
of a Country Jail.

I admit it.
I did it,
I don’t remember doing it.
I plead Sanity,
by Reason of Insanity.

I would do it again,
in a New York Minute,
if i HAD TO.

$200 van made it from Atlanta to New York without as much as a flat tire.

…Back in New York,
when I found out
that ~33.3 of my paintings
weren’t “appropriate”
for the kind Gallery’s Clientele,
my Right-Brain Response was
to be Miss Pissy Pants
and Cancel the show altogether.

I had to go in the bathroom,
be like Michael Jackson,
and look DEEP In The Mirror.

As painful,
and un-natural as it was,
My Left-Brain
Mustered The Courage
to work out a solution
with the seriously gracious
Gallery Owner.

The Gallery had two floors,
The “HELL” Show
was held downstairs
with a silly
((( WARNING )))
before voluntary Descension.

NOTHING HARDER THAN A PREACHER’S DICK
was burning down there,
next to the Cute Little Kitty Picture meowing:
JESUS LOVES PUSSY.
plus many others
(what’s so HELLISH about JESUS LOVES A CRACKWHORE?).

HELL IS HOT!

Upstairs,
The “HEAVEN” Show
presented more pious pieces
of
SISTER LOUISA ART
that were easier to SWALLOW.
So to speak.

Up THERE were
SINCE I GAVE UP HOPE, I FEEL MUCH BETTER,
GOD BLESS OUR CRACKHOUSE, PLEASE!,
and
JESUS KNOWS ME, THIS I LOVE.

33.3 + 33.3 = 66.6

I am eternally THANKFUL,
seriously,
for the opportunity
for my “PLAY”
to be well-hung
in any Gallery
in
New York Damn-Tittie-Ass City,
or anywhere,
actually.

SISTER LOUISA
prefers “her” shows
to have a natural balance.

However,
This is 2010,
the World as we knew it
is crumbling before our eyes.

If you are naturally Left-Brained,
intentionally employ your Right-Brain,
just for SHITS.

If you are naturally Right=Brained,
intentionally employ your Left-Brain,
just for GIGGLES.

Go in the bathroom,
(alone)
be like Michael Jackson,
and look DEEP in the mirror.

TAKE A LOOK AT YOURSELF.
AND MAKE THAT CHANGE.

A few years back
I spent a month
in New York City.

I had a SISTER LOUISA ART SHOW in SOHO,
and I had a goal to Write a Book.

I Left a Fucking Failure.

The Art Show was Censored
and I was embarrassed by THAT.
SISTER LOUISA’S ROLLING GODBOX
was even X’ed out in front
of a Brooklyn Baptist Church.

I did NOT write a Book.
I only named and outlined
eight books I wanted to write.

I was too busy
being ashamed and embarrassed
of what SISTER LOUISA
set out to do,
but didn’t do.

Jump to Yesterday.
I had an Intentional Lunch
with my Friend Kyle,
and we were talking about
Success and Failure,
about making a difference.

Kyle ran for Mayor
of Atlanta in 2009.

I teared up as we were talking
because in hindsight,
it is SO clear to me
that Kyle’s Presence
in the Mayoral Race
was a HUGE Success.
He DID it.

The central theme
of the entire race
was Public Safety
BECAUSE OF Kyle
and HIS heartfelt Passion
for the Protection
of the People.

Kyle did not win the Mayoral Race,
but he made a HUGE difference,
while staying true to who he was.

TODAY I’m laying here crying.

I am rethinking
my “failed” month
in New York.

People Grappled with THEIR Beliefs
and The Baptist were Passionate
about what THEY Believed
because of SISTER LOUISA ART.

TODAY I have
Eight Book Ideas,
named and outlined
that I would not have had.

You know,
I have always said
that I’m an Artist
who doesn’t Paint,
and a Writer
who doesn’t Write.

I awoke to the reality
that I AM writing,
that the only difference
between a writer,
and someone who doesn’t write,
is writing.

This point in time
is not the end of the story.

Kyle’s influence has changed history,
the Universe is using him today.

If you feel passionately
that you must do something,
the only difference
between doing it
and not doing it
is doing it.

It could make a HUGE difference.

SISTER LOUISA’S ROLLING GODBOX. While sitting in front of a Brooklyn Baptist Church someone X’ed out the words “Jesus” and “God”. I love THAT.

Hollis and I
were walking through
Little Five Points
soon after we met,
back, in like, 1996.

I was Coming Out of a Marriage,
or a Closet,
I don’t remember.
Whichever,
it was Dark & Dank
IN THERE.

I looked over
and saw
a Piercing Parlor
and casually commented
that I would like
to have my Ear Pierced.

The Bitch said:
“COME ON, LET’S DO IT!”

I, not yet
on the YES SIDE of Free,
said:
“I can’t BECAUSE
I have a job,
and THEY May Fire My Ass
if I come into work
with a pierced ear”.

She snapped & snarled & said:

“THAT’S NOT WHY
YOU DON’T GET THE PIERCING,
THAT’S WHY
YOU DO GET THE PIERCING!!!
WHY WOULD YOU WANT
TO WORK AT A JOB
WITH PEOPLE
WHO DON’T ACCEPT YOU
FOR WHO YOU ARE?”

“FUCK THEM!!!” said The Bitch.

(Hollis speaks in all CAPS)

THAT Courageous,
In Your Face,
This Is Me,
Love me or Leave me
Kind of Tough Love Attitude
was OPPOSED to everything
I ever learned
in PLEASING 101,
and I got an A+
in THAT course.

I got The Piercing
THAT DAY,
which is TRITE and STUPID in itself,
but THE DECISION
to get The Piercing
opened a window
to a Fresh & Fancy,
New Way
of Living My Life.

It taught me to
Flip shit around,
Turn it upside down,
Think inside out,
Dig deep to find my authentic voice
To Be Grant Henry,
To Be Sister Louisa,
To Be The Happiest Man Alive!

Whatever YOU do,
Don’t Go Changing
to Please ME!

PLEASING 101.
FAIL THAT FUCKER.

*Sign up to get a little piece o’ her
on her website:
www.hollisgillespie.com

Get your complete place setting for $69.00 at Sister Louisa’s Church Of The Living Room! (NOT REALLY)

I am in AWE of Life
and how things
magically fall into place!

The secret to this “magic”
is me deciding
what “falling into place” means.

We are all figuring out
how to negotiate
our place at
The Table.

The meltdown of the economy
has got us
having to let go of things
that one day defined us.

Why not decide to
Choose to Let Go?

I give away my Power
by being a Victim!

THAT is stressful.

I have to keep ahead of the curve,
decide my place
within this new reality.

I have Choice.

There is no time
like the present
to Free Myself.

Life is NOT going to be
The Same,
but I will survive,
and thrive,
because I choose
to embrace the changes.

No matter what
we are going through,
what happens with us,
what we gain,
or what we lose,
we can find our balance
amidst all the changes.

It’s just how Life works.

Choose to get in the Picture.
Choose to get on THIS SIDE of The Table.