Goodbyes are never easy

So I've been putting off writing this for quite some time now, simply because I didn't want to write it. Because closing chapters in our life, while common, is never easy.

As of a few weeks ago, DiPoe is no longer.

And it sucks. It just does.
For inquiring minds; there are multiple reasons as to why this had to happen. And no, I won't go off listing them. There was no one reason, and we'll leave it at that.

DiPoe began, essentially, because I have a panic disorder. Like epilepsy, there is a "wiring" problem in my brain (for lack of a better term) that sometimes brings on long bouts of anxiety and panic attacks. There is no real cure and it is something I have to live with for the rest of my life. It comes and it goes, which makes finding employment rather difficult. Further to the point, I was fed up with working hard to make other people successful.
I wanted to do something I could be proud of, my own way, reaping the benefits of my own hard work.

I was fed up.

I was fed up with resumes, applications, interviews, human resources.
Fed up with rejection from jobs I didn't even really want to do.
Fed up with companies that have a 40 page training manuel on customer service, but essentially don't give a shit about their customers beyond what is in their wallet.
Fed up with complete strangers treating me like their wetnurse; expecting me to truthfully give a shit about their trivial problems such as their latte being too hot, or their militant attitudes towards soy milk, or expecting something for free simply because they complained loudly.

It is inescapable, these days. Work environments have gotten to the point of ludicrous. We are all overworked. We are all fed up. Most of us have simply settled because a paycheck is hard to turn down (especially when we are in debt). And then we frost that cake with people who feel the absolute need to drag in highschool politics into work, simply because they are bored.

Well, it's all bullshit.

And DiPoe is over, yes. But I'm going to continue doing my thing, regardless. Because there is no room for a brazen, loudmouthed, shit-talking, creative, cheeky, artist in such a work environment.
I just have to accept that. And no, I will not change and you can keep your silly little paycheck - I have a life to live and a mold to break.

Every day, in whatever scale is comfortable enough, we should all be doing what we are passionate about. If you are convinced that you cannot do that, and make a living: then you are simply wrong and/or lazy. If you are convinced you cannot fit it into your life: then you are stupid and lazy.

It is not my place to tell anyone how to live their life, but I AM fed up with hearing of people with art history/fine art/literary arts/philosophy/psychology/etc degrees, spending their day doing data entry or other such menial shit. Talking about last night's episode of "dancing with the stars" in the break room, when you've got a glorious mind filled with lovely things that are going to waste, is the exact definition of "a shame". And I am certain you didn't work hard in school, and spend that time and money to end up as a shame.

What about you? What about your interests? Your right to be selfish? Don't you want to remain interesting?

Should I ever figure out how to change and control people, you'd all be having a lot more fun, let me tell you. Until then I've just got to accept that we all have minds of our own, and use them as we so wish.

What I'm trying to say is that an idea, some dedication, and hard work, goes a long way. Ironic as I say this as my business has been shut down, but hear me out: I'm not stopping! Oh no.

Laura will continue to do her thing at artworkbylaura.com (link is in the sidebar) and there may be plans to request DiPoe artwork through her business in the future.
"But what of you?" you might ask. I've got something new and exciting in the works as well. I will keep you all posted, do not fret.

We'll be leaving this blog up, because despite everything, I'm proud of it.


We had the best time ever and we're glad you all came along for the ride. On behalf of Laura and I, we deeply thank everyone who has supported DiPoe in any way. Our blog readers, especially! But ESPECIALLY our customers! And just think: you now all own ANTIQUES! yes!
I may even kill myself so all their values skyrocket.

Just kidding. As I said, I have a life to live. And so do you

Lots of love, luck, and kisses to all!

Farewell

-Francesco

"Those who dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes and make it possible."
~T.E. Lawrence

3000% efficiency

Laura

I really am liking this whole new management thing. I mean, our jobs are a lot easier. All I really have to do is answer to 50+ businessmen who must approve everything I intend on saying SO AS NOT TO CAUSE SHAMEFUL ATTENTIONS TO DIPOE.

I mean, today I got a 5 minute lunch break, which was very generous of them, I think.

37 hour work days aren't as bad as they sound!

...I think we made a mistake THIS IS NOT TRUTH! PERHAPS WAS BEST DECISION ONE COULD EVER MAKE!!! YOU HAVE ALREADY SIGNED MANY CONTRACTS! TOO LATE CHANGE THIS!

-Francesco

DULL HOME FURNISHED?
CHILDREN DISOBEDIENT AND UPSET OFTEN?
HUSBAND MUCH DISPLEASE WITH YOU TASTE?

CORRECT THIS!
PURCHASING OF DIPOE ART WILL BE UNDOING DISPLEASURES IN YOUR LIFE!!!

Well, We've been bought by the Chinese

A Chinese corporation that wishes to remain anonymous at this point in time, has been pursuing DiPoe for quite some time now. They were very adamant about adding us to their corporate family.

Since Laura and I have been busy with our new scholarly endeavours, and the sum of money they have been offering kept increasing, and in this economic state, we could no longer refuse such a, as the CEO put it, "tempting offer of true success and intelligence!".

We have very little control over DiPoe now, except that part of our contract allows us to continue the blog. So it's basically the same thing except all blog entries must be approved, not cause our new boss "much displeasure", and contain advertisements for DiPoe that our new corporation family will provide for us, to be added to the end of every new blog entry. Also, anything that our new owners disapprove of, will be edited TO MUCH MORE SATISFYING SAYINGS so if my grammer or spelling is a tad askew, that is why.

Business still runs as normal here. Ordering from DiPoe is exactly the same. PERHAPS BETTER YOU WILL FIND. However, instead of your painting being created by us, personally, all order forms are now sent to a, what was described as, "child housings factory of efficiency" ...I do not know what that is exactly, something is getting lost in the language translations here, but I know that paintings get made quicker. And that is good news for all! Yes?

We at DiPoe feel very grateful to not only be granted this opportunity, but also to be website #17 added to the internet in China! This is big news!

Please be sure to visit our blog and check out our new layout! We hope you enjoy it. If it causes much distress, let us know!

We hope you still remain loyal to DiPoe. We are no different, we just have superiors now who KNOW FAR MORE ABOUT SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS THAN WESTERNERS COULD COMPREHEND! SIX THOUSAND LIFETIMES COULD BE ACHIEVED AND STILL THIS GOAL WOULD NOT BE REACHED! NEW OWNERS ARE VASTLY KNOWLEGEABLE!
This will hopefully bring us more success. IS NO NEED TO QUESTION WITH USE OF WORD HOPEFULLY. INSOLENCE WILL BE PASSING PHASE! WE ARE ASSURING YOU!!!!

Please comment and let us know what you think!

-Francesco

PLEASE DISCOVER OUR PORTFOLIO AND REGARD PAST SHAMEFUL CREATIONS THAT ARE VASTLY INFERIOR TO NEW IMPROVED ONES YOU MIGHT BUY! MIGHT WE SUGGEST GENERAL MAO? IS VERY TRENDY AND SUPERIOR TO BLOATED DRAGON WITCH BRITNEY SPEARS! SHE DISPLEASE ANCESTORS! GENERAL MAO INTERESTING AND EDUCATIONAL!

WHY MUST WE CONTINUE TO CONVINCE OF THIS? YOU SHOULD BE PURCHASING!!!

How to get millions of hits for your blog

We heard Heidi Montag allegedly wore uggz and leggings to the premier of her new whatever-it-is-that-she-does!

SHITEOUS!

Brangelina have adopted their 17th child today! FROM BELIZE!

FABOOSH!!

Jeremy Piven was found doing lines of cocaine in an airplane bathroom! We don't like him because he would never sleep with us!

MAMACITA!!! (we are latino, remember?)

Some guy who was once in a 90's teen afterschool drama has now put on 5 pounds! Looking doughy there guy! I recently lost 5 pounds so I am now more than allowed to rip on other people's appearances despite still being a fat, useless pile of human garbage!

ALLEGEDLY!!!!!!!

EVERY MODEL IN THE INDUSTRY DOES COCAINE!

What do U think???

I need to make up more nicknames for people I don't know personally and for myself!!!

CLICK HERE to follow me on twitter. I desperately need this kind of human interaction because no one will talk to me in person!

my god

Laura,
with all the craziness going on lately (returning home from Sweden, starting school again), I have completely forgotten about our little blog!

Unacceptable.

In all fairness, things have been kind of crazy, but DiPoe is back to running at regular capacity (even though we both have school and all kinds of other crap going on - we make it work, damn it!)

People have probably forgotten we exist! Oh lordy lordy

oh well

In my mind, we are still an enormous deal. How dare anyone even address us.

-Francesco

...

Francesco,

I can’t even…

Michael Jackson is gone.

Stuck in traffic, over the radio I hear “Michael Jackson was sent to hospital and that’s all we know right now.” I thought to myself, he’ll be ok, its Michael Jackson! A few minutes later they say: “We just received an update, Michael Jackson has passed away.” I was pretty sure that was some kind of mean joke and began frantically trying to get a hold of someone who could prove that it wasn’t true, but all I got was confirmation. My heart shattered into a million pieces.

I don’t know if you know this Frank, but Michael Jackson has been my hero since I was just a little kid. If I’m not mistaken, one of my family members actually has me on tape saying that I was probably going to marry him one day. I’m sure you can imagine how devastating this news would be to me.

You can say whatever you want about his sanity (sure he was a little loopy but aren’t we all?), his appearance (so his skin was once much darker and he had a real nose…), his lifestyle (don’t we all wish we had a ranch with a merry go round and a chimpanzee named Bubbles as our best friend?), but you can’t deny that he was IS a legend!! Friggen’ “Billy Jean”, “Beat It”, “Thriller”, etc... are you kidding me!?

You can’t tell me that you don’t get excited when you hear one of his songs come on the radio. You can’t cause that would be a lie! You can’t tell me that despite all the crazy things he’s done (tell me your Nonna hasn’t dangled you over a railing at least once in your life), you don’t still love him. It’s not possible.

He was planning a come back!!!!

I can’t even handle this right now… I don’t even believe its true! You know why they don’t know how he died? Because he’s not dead! He’s on an island somewhere with Tupac working on his next album.

Rest In Peace Michael Jackson (even though he’s not really dead)

-Laura

P.S. You better believe I’m going to delete any negative comments. Keep it to yourself. Whatever you may think, he was a human being who accomplished a lot in his 50 years of life and to bash him in any way, in my opinion, would be distasteful.

GOOD!

Laura, I am loving Sweden so much you cannot even comprehend.

But
Did you hear?
Perez Hilton
got
punched
IN THE FACE!

My comment on this issue can be boiled down to this: it is about time!

I have issues with Perez Hilton, as you well know. And if anyone deserves to be assaulted, it is him. He picks apart celebrities if they put on some weight, or have cellulite, and he is cruel about it. Yet has also been known to shed a few tears when celebrities drop a few kilos or become anorexic.
He claims to be all for women, but has such specific ideas about what feminity is, he is worse than a chauvenist.

These are just a few examples of how this pant-load is unable to ever pick a side or say anything relevant.

And he is so goddamn pleased with himself, with what he does, when he should be goddamn embarassed.

In any case, I'm not sure I appreciate online personas to begin with. But what makes Perez Hilton's persona especially irritating, is that he is always up in arms claiming that Mario (his real name) and Perez are two different people... and yet when someone attacks his persona, he takes it personally. If he's going to use that persona as a shield, he cannot then pick and choose what gets to him personally and what doesn't. Either all of it does or none of it does. Perez, to you I say this:

No. You can stop lying and saying they're two different people. You just want to be a complete douche and take none of the responsibility. But you also want sympathy when someone wrongs you (which you couldn't do if Perez Hilton were seperate from you). If the rest of society has to be accountable for what they do and say, then so do you. I can't verbally bash a stranger and then reason with them that it wasn't really me - just my online persona. Because that just doesn't work. And no one has to accept such crap.
If we don't get a free pass to act like a cunty teenage girl all the time, then neither do you; I do not care how many nicknames you give yourself.

On the subjects of your nicknames...
Listen, I don't really need to point out how narcissistic that is, because much more eloquent bloggers have pointed that out already. I will say this about you dubbing yourself the 'Queen of all Media'.

You aren't.

In actuality, your silly little website (and it is silly, I couldn't care less about how many stories you break first. Having good connections and being interesting are NOT one in the same) has hurt various media sources rather than aid it. People flock to your website instead of getting their news fix elsewhere.

Laura, this douche needed to come back down to earth and I think that assault was just the ticket. He wasn't outraged that someone hit him, he was outraged that someone dared fight back. That is how expansive his narcissism gets.

And I wonder how he would have reacted if he were called a fag? Readers would probably see outraged entries on his blog, and whoever called him a fag would forever be labeled a homophobe in his eyes... I base this on shit he's done before. It's just another one of his double standards he sets in place and expects his readers to accept as okay. Well it's not okay, Perez. It is fucking stupid.

But then, so is Perez Hilton.

-Francesco

heja Sverige!

We don't normally do formal announcements here on the DiPoe blog, but I'm breaking the mold for a moment.

In a week's time I will be off to live and study in Sweden for about a month. Wickedness, right?
Well, not so much for DiPoe!

Starting today, until July 12th, DiPoe will be on a temporary hiatus. Meaning we will not be able to produce any orders. You are still more than welcome to create an order and contact us with inquiries, but production cannot begin until after July 12th.

If you currently have a DiPoe order in production: don't fret. It will be done.
If you are waiting for a mockup, it will be sent to you sometime this week, at which point you will be in contact with Laura, instead of myself.

I also must apologize;
Laura and I have been super busy with all kinds of stuff unrelated to this business. As a result, orders are getting out slower than we like, and this blog has been sent to the backburner. Just know that Laura and I have a strong love of what we do here, not just the business, but the blog especially. We love it, and you all, a great deal - other things have just gotten in the way. It happens.

Take care, my lovelies!
I will be thinking of all of you while I'm in Sweden! (not really but it sounded nice)

-Francesco

Can I JUST.........

Oooooooohhhhhh Fnark,

You are not going to believe the nerve of some people! Listen to this, I can't even handle it:

Sooo yeah, in the past 4ish weeks, I have met some new, lets say, interesting people. Yes, I do see these people everyday, and yes I do smile when they say hello because I am a generally nice person. JUST because I see you everyday and smile at you when you say hello to me, doesn't mean we're best buddies, and it certainly does not give one the right to ask the following question:

"Laura, can I have a piece of your Aero?"

.......

"You want a piece of my Aero??" I repeated the question just in case I heard incorrectly, because this almost stranger could not have just asked to have a piece of the delicious treat that I just purchased for my sole enjoyment.

"Please?" ....with a face like they were going to cry if I said no!!!!!!!!

I was dumbfounded! I'm pretty sure the vending machine I purchased MY Aero bar from is maybe 10 feet from the room we were in, and I'm pretty sure that for $1.50, you can enjoy a WHOLE Aero of your own!

I don't understand! Was I even having a conversation with you at the time of me opening the wrapper of my Aero? No! Infact, if I'm not mistaken, you were seated on the other side of the room! How you even knew that I had purchased the Aero, is beyond me! THEN, to call out my name across the room and ask for a piece?!?!? Why would you do this?! I wouldn't just ASK one of my neighbours if I could come over for dinner! What is the thought process?!?!

UGH!!!

I bet you're wondering, "did you give this person a piece??!?!" and the answer.....

Unfortunately, I did share a piece. I couldn't have some poor 18 year old kid shed tears because I wouldn't spare a piece of my delicious chocolate bar. I'm not an animal! But next time, and I'm being serious, I'm not sharing!

-Laura

A Camp, Live @ The Mod Club: an honest review

I'm a bit late getting on with this review. And I know what you are thinking, "the Mod Club... again?". Well... yeah! It's a wicked venue and I can't help it if bands I love keep playing there.

To be honest, I'm getting over the shock of everything being on time. The opening band, Gentlemen Reg, hit the stage pretty much right on time. This does not happen, usually. And while I'm talking about the opening band, let me just say this about Gentlemen Reg;

I don't like to speak ill of Toronto bands because I have much love for them. Gotta represent. So I'll shelve my unfiltered opinion for a moment and be very diplomatic (for now).

Gentlemen Reg is a good band... but so are the 30 other bands out there that are just like them. But hey, they played a good show. To be frank; I find Gentlemen Reg to be really good, musically. But the singer's voice just sort of... wrecks it all for me. Sorry to the Gentlemen Reg fans out there (and normally I do not give a flying fuck either way what you think but, again, gotta respect my T-dot homies). Check Gentlemen Reg out - they are good, but not for me.

Onto the main act, A Camp.
two words: yes, please!

I'll be frank; they were great, live. Really fun to watch. Nina, especially. Her mannerisms, her animation, were all so equally precious as they were dynamic. She truly has a great stage presence! Nathan, Niclas, and the other two (my apologies, I can't recall your names!) were a great compliment to Nina. All were dressed to the nines. All seemed to have a really good time.

I am smitten with A Camp.

Most of you know that Nina was the frontwoman of The Cardigans. One fan especially knew this when she yelled out "PLAY A CARDIGANS SONG!".
To whomever yelled that:
YOU. ARE. A. GIANT. DOUCHE.
Such rudeness - I can't even. What a fucking embarrassment you are! A camp is an entirely different band, which if it was not apparent before, should have been after Nina gave a dirty look in your direction.

It wasn't funny. And if you wanted to hear The Cardigans, you went to the wrong concert, cupcake.

Moving along.

Lucky for me, their setlist contained almost all my favourite A Camp songs! I love their blend of old-timey tapestry, paired with charming music, with modern messages and political undertones. The whole package is really clever, in the same way that you would NEVER suspect a kitten of murder, right? And they were nice enough to hang around after the show, and do a meet & greet/signing/photos with the fans! Such a nice gesture.

Nathan gets extra awesome points. Why?
Prior to the show, my friend and I saw him walking around. Long story short, he took the time to talk to us, shook our hands, etc. He liked my shirt! and apparently had the same one when he was younger, HA. I love it so much, you all don't even know.

The instances are few and far in between but I get a major inability to brain, and am stricken with a case of the dumb, when I am in the presence of musicians I respect.

So basically, I was a stumbling idiot in front of Nathan. In addition to [probably] having a stupid look on my face, I cut him off just to say "I um... I am a really big fan! you guys are great!". I hate myself so fiercely for it. My god, I am LAME LAME LAME. I'll lose sleep over it some day...

And I share this embarassment with all of you!

YAY! A CAMP!

-Francesco