Posted: March 16th, 2009 | Author: Ashley | Filed under: Embed, Event, Photos, Uncategorized, Website | Tags: 21, Abingdon, adopted, adoption, Amsterdam, bbc, Bebo, britain, brothel, controversy, disabilities, disability, down syndrome, england, facebook, father, Fearne Cotton, Las Vegas, learning disability, Lucy Baxter, Macbeth, Mencap, Natalie Cassidy, Otto, Oxfordshire, pregnancy, prostitute, Real Britain, sex, snog, society, The Canterbury Tales, virginity | No Comments »
Found this article posted in a friend’s facebook status. I’m sure everyone will have some sort of opinion on this one, but it definitely makes you wonder how much right society really has to play on those with disabilities. I’ll be honest, I didn’t really find anything wrong with this. Maybe because I see sex as a beautiful part of my life, and would want that for anyone! But I’m sure there are people out there who have some major issues with this mother and her adopted sons. Eh, to each their own.
Like most mothers Lucy Baxter wants her child to live a fully rounded life – including the experience of a physical relationship and even finding love.
But her 21-year-old son Otto has Down’s syndrome and has had trouble finding a partner.
So she is appealing for women to come forward so Otto can ‘enjoy the same experiences as other men his age’.
Lucy Baxter is doing all she can to find a girlfriend for her son Otto, 21, so he can lose his virginity
‘Then there was Sarah. We had a crazy snog together. It was a few months ago. I’m still waiting for her to call me back.’
She says she is even prepared to go so far as to pay for a prostitute for her adopted son.
Miss Baxter, 50, also hopes he may one day become a father – despite the controversy this may attract.
‘Society has a learning disability when it comes to Down’s syndrome,’ she said.
‘Why should these people be kept separate and pigeon-holed when they have the same emotions, desires and feelings as so-called normal people?
‘If he doesn’t get a girlfriend, I will feel really bad, because I have sold him this thing that he is like everybody else. That’s why I’m working overtime to get this sorted for him.’
Otto enjoys a day at the park with friends
She has already helped James to set up a page on a social networking website to invite potential partners to come forward for him.
Miss Baxter from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, works for the mental health charity Mencap and campaigns for the rights of those with Down’s syndrome.
She is single and has never married but has three other adopted sons – James, 27, Titus, 14, and Raphael, seven. They all have Down’s syndrome.
‘I’d like all my boys to find love and enjoy sex,’ she said.
‘I would have no problem paying for Otto to go to Amsterdam to visit a brothel if that’s what he wanted.
‘A few of his friends suggested it a few months ago and since then I’ve talked to Otto about it in an adult way. Why shouldn’t he enjoy the same experiences as other men?’
Otto is an aspiring actor who has appeared in local stage versions of Macbeth and The Canterbury Tales.
He persuaded his mother to help him find a partner after three years without success.
He says his ideal woman is television and radio presenter Fearne Cotton.
He added: ‘I’m on a mission to find a girlfriend. My reason is I want to have sex. I’m looking for girlfriends everywhere.’
Recalling previous encounters, he added: ‘There was Jackie – she was a sexy bird, she was gorgeous. She gave me four kisses.
Otto Baxter’s Bebo page, which his mother helped set up
‘I have brought Otto up to relate to everybody so he has always been to mainstream school and mixed with everybody. I would like to see him with a girlfriend. I would prefer to see him with a girlfriend who doesn’t have Down’s.’
Miss Baxter would be ‘delighted’ if Otto brought a woman back to their house for sex.
‘I don’t have a problem with any of it,’ she said. ‘He’s going to Las Vegas for a few days to promote himself as an actor so who knows, he might get lucky over there. When he gets back home I’ve lined up a few dating agencies for him to join. I always encourage him to go to nightclubs and other places where people pick up women.
She said she would love to be a grandmother. ‘I would also love it if Otto got a girlfriend pregnant. It’s another experience everyone else goes through so why not him?’
She acknowledged that this was certain to cause controversy and said: ‘I know if he did get someone pregnant everyone would have an opinion on it.’
Miss Baxter also hopes that her eldest adopted son will eventually lose his virginity but is not taking such drastic action as with Otto because James is a little less outgoing.
Carol Boys of the Down’s Syndrome Association said: ‘People with Down’s syndrome have the same feelings and desires as everyone else and there is no reason why they shouldn’t have relationships.
‘There are many with Down’s syndrome who have found a partner and some that have gone on to get married. Otto’s experience highlights that there are different challenges that they have to face because they have a visible disability.’
The family’s story is featured in TV show Natalie Cassidy’s Real Britain, on BBC3, at 8pm on Thursday
‘Will anyone sleep with my Down’s syndrome son?’ Mother makes appeal for a lover for 21-year-old Otto | Mail Online.
Posted: March 11th, 2009 | Author: Jacob | Filed under: Photos, Website | Tags: Cactacea, cactus, California, Cholla Cactus, internet, Joshua Tree, list, National Park, nature, Opuntia, photo, photography, Teddy Bear Cactus, world travel | No Comments »
Snappy Life: Cholla Cactus Garden..
Photo by Victor at 5:51 PM 
Victor Zhang is a fascinating guy that I worked with at TeleNav. He is a great photographer.
When I was young, my aunt would take me camping all over the west coast. Once we stayed in Joshua Tree National Park, CA where the land in covered in these cactus. They go by several names:
- Cholla Cactus
- Teddy Bear Cactus
- Jumping Cactus
- Jumping Cholla
- Yellow-Flowered Cane Cactus
- Desert Christmas Cactus
- Club Cholla
- Pencil Cactus
Posted: February 27th, 2009 | Author: Ashley | Filed under: Business, Event, Media, Photos, Review, Website | 1 Comment »
Jacqui and I in one of our first promo shoots for the show.
That ’60s Show
City Lights goes tribal with revival of ‘Hair’
By Marianne Messina
THE ETHNIC diversity of the “tribe” (a.k.a. cast) performing in City Lights Theater Company’s Hair would probably have been the envy of the 1968 Broadway musical production, itself considered a musical capstone on civil rights, sexual liberation, antiwar sentiments and other upheavals of the ’60s. Directed by Lisa Mallette (who has smartly parsed her introductory speech into shorthand to be carried on placards), City Lights’ tribal chemistry is less cult-tight and more 21st-century fun, from the moment cast members greet you proffering flowers and offering to paint your face. Designer Ron Gasparinetti accents the flower power by bordering the set with hot-pink mushrooms, brightly colored flowers, clouds, sworls, yellow ink blots (or is that our brains on acid?) and a yellow-orange sun staring out from dead center like a third eye.
Short on plot, long on ambience, Hair is a love-in with an incidental story line about a young man named Claude (Joseph Banks), who is still trying to “find himself” when he gets his draft notice. With a little help from his draft-card-burning, free-loving friends, Claude must decide, “Where do I go from here?” The show spends a good deal of the first act in song (music by Galt MacDermot), mostly murky introductions of the tribe’s ethos and members, anti-stereotypes all.
Writers James Rado and Gerome Ragni render the tribe’s iconoclasm in impressionistic word lists like “Sodomy, Fellatio, Cunnilingus, Pederasty … ,” so I’ll dedicate my summation of the show’s highlights to them: coital simulations, silken nudity, strobing gunshots, hot hirsute Margaret Mead (RB Embleton), audience invasion, black light, Day-Glo body paint, candle vigils, dance-groove finale. These lyrical lists have their charm. As Hud (Phillip C. Pettiford) sings “Colored Spade,” Woof (high-energy Jacob Vega Canote) sings “Sodomy,” Berger (an exuberant Noel Carey) sings “Donna,” and Claude sings “Manchester, England,” their juvenile rebelliousness reminds us that these life-wild kids are such stuff as war fodder is made off.
People who know the music or have seen the show may be harder to please than neophytes. This enjoyable, nevertheless generic, production captures the mood but doesn’t freshen or flesh it out. The wonderfully live music occasionally drags, wallows in muddy tones and wants some riffing—or at least juice. But the cast, er, tribe, is chock-full of great singers, from Banks and Michelle Ianiro (Ronny), who sings “Aquarius,” to singers with smaller parts that jump out as pleasant surprises, like Ashley Bawdon and Nicole C. Julien (as Dionne). The City Lights tribe capture both the innocence—Raime Gerardy is a blonde doll of a virginally 16-year-old Crissy—and sensuality, of which thin, thrusting Pettiford and flag-bikinied Tenaya Hurst provide eye-catching examples.
Though this Hair is more fest than invocation, it has a strong finish. “What a piece of Work Is Man,” staged with the duo singing on high from the catwalks, packs punch. And in the production’s finale, the carefully folded flag traveling from hand to hand toward the fallen soldier-hero makes it impossible not to think of our daily Iraq War “honor rolls.” The immediacy of the tribe’s howling, “Let the Sunshine In,” drummer Gabby Horlick building a wall of cymbal crashes in the air, makes one wonder if the tribe might not have personal connections to this honor ritual.
HAIR, A City Lights Theater Company production, plays Wednesday–Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm (July 27 and Aug. 3) and 2pm (Aug. 10, 17 and 24) through Aug. 24 at City Lights, 529 S. Second St., San Jose. Tickets are $25–$40. (408.295.4200)
via Theater & Performance in Palo Alto, CA | ‘Hair’ at City Lights.
This review is from about 7 months ago, but I never posted it anywhere. Jacob and I had a crazy summer being a part of this production. There are a few people in the cast we’re both still incredibly in love with, I would go back to this summer again and again… well, maybe with a few changes… to the summer, not the show.
I especially like the Metro review because it makes me look good. ; )
Thanks Marianne! Now to find a stage to sing on again…
Sad you missed it? There are some pictures to help you feel like you were there… frolicking naked with us at our be-in… okay, I only have a couple lying around. I’m sure JACOB will SEE THIS and post the large collection that HE HAS. If I know my boyfriend, he’ll get that hint. ; )
Jacqui, Dani, Danelle and Myself.
Posted: February 22nd, 2009 | Author: Ashley | Filed under: Business, Event, Website | Tags: antique, antique furniture, area rug, bargain, best, best antique furniture, best of, CEO, chandelier, craigslist, furniture, list, Manhattan, mirror, New York, NYC, office furniture, sale, shredded documents, silver, table, velvet, velvet curtains | 1 Comment »
Antique furniture from former CEO’s office- $1.22 M
Date: 2009-01-23, 12:25PM EST
It has come to our attention that there is a great deal of value in the furniture that is no longer needed from the office of a former CEO. We have decided to put it up for sale. There are quite a few items and we would be willing to sell as a set or separately. Price is not negotiable. The buyer must be willing to come in the middle of the night for haul away as we do not want any additional people to see it than necessary. If needed a driver can be provided for an extra charge. The buyer must also sign a non-disclosure agreement saying they will not sell pictures to the press or speak to anyone about where the furniture was acquired or how much was paid.
The items are as follows:
- Antique area rug, has some spots that are worn down from pacing but easily covered with other furniture $87 K
- Sofa, has been slept in a few times but is very comfortable $15 K
- Velvet curtains, very similar to the curtains from Gone With the Wind $28 K
- George IV Desk, rarely used $18 K
- Chandelier, still sparkles despite the current economic environment $37 K
- Mirror with silver frame, has a few kiss marks we are trying to get off $5 K
- Mahogany pedestal table, might have been stood upon but still in great shape $25 K
- Off-white parchment waste can, perfect for shredded documents $1,400
- There are other items as well. Please contact for more information.
via best of craigslist : Antique furniture from former CEO’s office- $1.22 M.
Jacob recently introduced me to the wonder that is “Best-of-Craigslist.” Nothing need be said apart from; you can expect to see more gems like this one. Oh yes.
Posted: February 21st, 2009 | Author: Jacob | Filed under: Uncategorized, Website | Tags: bars, booze, clubs, college humor, drinking, hang-over cure, list, lounge, mixed-drinks, nature, online, pubs, travel, world culture, world travel | No Comments »
Hangover cure for the birds
Part of being young is being stupid, and anyone who tells you that he or she has never gotten drunk is either lying, boring, a Mormon, or some combination thereof. But just because so many people get drunk doesn’t make it OK. A recent surveycollege students have engaged in binge drinking. Binge drinking completely thrashes your liver and kidneys, not to mention puts you at risk of death via alcohol overdose. But you don’t need us lecturing at you… you know that massive drinking is bad. How do you know? Because your mother tells you – no, not Mother Goose… Mother Nature. found that 3 out of every 5
A nasty hangover is Mother Nature’s way of telling you, “Fool, I thought I told you not to drink so much. Now you gonna pay.” (Don’t ask us why Mother Nature sounds like Mr. T.) Hangovers can completely incapacitate you, giving you an upset stomach, a huge headache, a gross-tasting mouth, and a guilty conscience. So what we’ve constructed for you are some tips for easing the pain and curing that hangover. We only expect you to use this article once. If you find that you need our help to cure your hangovers every weekend (no matter how happy all those page views will make us), we insist that you contact Alcoholics Anonymous right away. People (especially those in their 20s) usually revel in binge drinking, but it really can be life-threatening.
Cast your vote tonight! This is your last chance to help decide where Hubble will aim it’s mirror and probe deep into the wild black yonder.
