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There was — some will say unsurprisingly — an autohomoerotic period in my art, in my younger, fitter years. But it was brief, including only this self-adoring self-portrait and that bebe thing, which I did for the money. I feature it here not only to exercise my electronic exhibitionism but because this happens to be the 300th post of this incarnation of yorkrules (known here at the YR command center as yorkrules3,) so it seemed appropriate. This is also the final post of this iteration before the next from-scratch redesign (yorkrules4.) I feel a retrospective coming on…
Yorkrules1, which launched in August of 2004, was a static portfolio of my art. A year later, yorkrules2 introduced a whole new design along with a blog. Yorkrules3 — where we are now — debuted the year after that, and it ditched the portfolio entirely as the blog became my art. The first post of the revamped site went up over a year and a half ago, and from then until June of this year, three new posts appeared here almost every week.
My myriad musings broke down into a murder of categories: recipes, essays, interviews, audio recordings, movie clips and more. There were eventually so many — thirty-four at last count — that I decided it was time to simplify: thus the jump to yorkrules4. Before we tear down this web house, however, why don’t we take one last stroll around?
Learn
Learn is the first of the six primary categories. Contrary to the bold title, it was really just the playground of the yorkrules cookoo test kitchen. I never expected anyone to make a Spaghedilla!, Zonkey Bomb, or Sakecranitangerini, but the The Royal York, like its namesake creator, is wicked easy — just two jiggers of bourbon and a pony of maple syrup — so give it a try, ay!
Look
Primarily a visual artist, much of my creativity found expression in Look.
Desktop Downloads were evenly split between fine art photos and cat pictures. And then there was this one, floating in the aether between.
The original yorkrules website was all about one thing: L.A. Rock Fan. Four years later, it’s stuck around like alligators through evolution. It’s just a little harder to find nowadays, in amongst all the digital bric-a-brac.
I love snapshots. I think that’s partly the instant creative potential and partly that they’re a reasonable and entertaining facsimile of the memory I don’t have.
Excellent point-and-shoot case-in-point: The Ugly Americans.
York Was Here put me in all sorts of spots, usually through the magic of Photoshop or friends.
On an even cartoonier tip, the hand-drawn Unfunnies became Yorkies when I discovered that someone had my titular inspiration long before.
These Far Side-esque drawings then somehow evolved backwards into York Was Here-like Photoshop jobs, culminating with my rebuttal to an e-mail that warned of the imminent Islamic threat posed by Barack Obama — Subject: WAKE UP AMERICA…!!!
Play
Here’s where I lay limited claim to multimedia cred. All the original audio and video content on yorkrules is collected in Play.
The Anthony Project is available here, if you have an hour to get perspective.
Twenty-two bold individuals participated in the Minute by Minute mutual interview audio series. If The Anthony Project doesn’t put you over the top, try this.
York TV was the repository for all my motion picture productions. I’m particularly fond of Skywalker: Undercover II, Mosquito Christmas, and The Falcon & the Charlieman, but one thing I’ve learned in my years as a content producer: people love cat videos.
Read
I hate writing. I find all creativity a sort of necessary evil, but writing, and my doing it, is proof enough for me that I’m a masochist. I included Read for just that reason: to compel me to put words on the screen like a shiv in the ribs.
How Not to Start a Cover Letter was an opportunity for me to share some examples from my own archive of ways not to get a job, like my haiku cover letter.
Ideal candidate
More creative than the rest
See my résumé
The best part of our Gay Suicide Death Pact was the comment it got from an appreciative stranger.
This gay suicide death pact sounds like just what I’ve been looking for. You wouldn’t believe how many people are out there talking about how one day they are going to get off their ass and finally start that suicide death pact they’ve been thinking about for all these years and never actually DOING it. Well, you guys have actually done it and I’m very proud of you. The longest journey begins with a single step. Even when the final step in the journey is jumping hand-in-hand off a cliff with your gay friend. So - is there an application process or what? Do I need to submit samples? Of something? Because I’m all over that. Please let me know.
-josh
Not Gay Either but Equally Ambivalent
Share
Oxymoronically enough, yorkrules isn’t all about me. I’m almost as fascinated by others as I am with myself, and Share is where I indulge such interests.
My Required Listening list featured the music I was discovering and the musicians who made it. My favourite featured track?
Artist: Beat the Devil
Track: Shine In Exile
This track is available on 
My favourite interview? Probably gotta be The Bird and the Bee.
Show Us Yours presented the work and words of a wide range of visual artists. One question I always asked: Why do you create? Here are a few of the artists and their answers.
We like the process and we like the results. It’s as simple as that. Once we started to figure out that there is more light in the dark than we thought, we wanted to see more of it. So we continued to take pictures at night.
Is the world becoming a better place through culture and fine arts? Yes, we believe so very strongly. But we can’t claim honestly that that’s why we do what we do.
— Cenci Goepel & Jens Warnecke
I create to keep myself entertained, otherwise I may melt into a puddle.
— Tao Nyeu
I’ve always liked to do stuff with my hands. If I wasn’t painting I’d be sewing, or building, or cooking, or fixing something.
— John Lytle White
Because if someone else was doing it i couldn’t sue them for plagiarism.
— Travis Millard
I think I’ve got something to say. Of course, I might be wrong.
— Scott Listfield
it’s my way of talking.
— Jen Corace
I’m a geek. It’s what I do instead of going to bars.
— Wednesday Kirwan
You might as well ask: Why do you breathe? The answer would be pretty much the same. I tried to give up art once. I didn’t work.
— Heiko Müller
I create because my heroes are creators, and i want to be a part of a long thread of creativity. I tend to create works in series, and to create works about things i want to explore and articulate. If i do a good job, i am a gateway drug, opening people up to new ideas, and compelling them to look further than my own work. That way, people might be compelled to create work that i enjoy, that drives me to discover something.
— Andrew Brandou
Every one starts out in the world drawing & creating as kids.
It’s an essential way of working and acting out our imaginations.
But, many people just stop doing those things as they grow up.
As you get a little older…i think it’s harder to relax and feel confident through
personal expression because we grow overly self-conscience. Or, people don’t see the purpose
in it as the “real world” starts to infiltrate our lives. I think that challenge is one reason why i kept drawing,
and also the challenge of continually starting with a blank piece of paper over and over again.
— Mel Kadel
I think it is human nature to find a purpose… someplace we’re comfortable within ourselves. I feel incredibly lucky that art found me and ceased my search at a young age. I can’t remember the first time I drew a picture. It seems like it is something I have always done.
— Evan B Harris
I create because I like doing it. I believe we are here to do things we like.
— Eric Joyner
Your Voice Here offered everyone the opportunity to share their own creativity. Most recently, I enjoyed A Very Charlie Christmas.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, except for Charlie’s mouse,His keyboard went “click”, his hands in his hair,
The thought of a year-end letter drove him to a scare,“What should I write, what should I say,
Should I come out of the closet? Should I tell them I’m gay?”
Shop
In theory, you really can make a living through blogging. In reality, if you’re not covering celebrities, technology, or how to make money blogging, don’t quit your day job (if you’re unfortunate enough to need one.)
Of course, such an assessment is based on my own online economic experience, which, like most of the merchandise I made, had almost no purchasable appeal.
But the Adult Video Jesus Christmas card? I should’ve been a Hallmarkian millionaire by now!
Moving Forward
Yorkrules3 covered a great deal of ground in less than two years. Now it’s time for an update. What will yorkrules4 be? When will it go live? Such answers don’t yet exist, but if you’d like to subscribe to the yorkrules RSS feed, you’ll be notified by your newsreader or email application as soon as it goes live.
My thanks to all those artists, musicians, writers, and readers who have been a part of yorkrules (any or all versions of it.) The adventure now continues!
Cheers,
York