Saadiq

Good Man - Amazing clip & amazing song

2010 Triple J Hottest 100

This countdown has made me SO happy, but also utterly disgusted. So much so that is has gotten me out of my 4 month blog silence.

I don't mean to burst everyone's Angus and Julia Stone bubble, but Number 1 spot?! While Julia may not be featured too much in 'Big Jet Plane,' something that always irritates me is that is definitely NOT her natural voice. I'm sure she doesn't always sound like a quivery child on the brink of tears. Also, who forgets to wear shoes when they're playing a live gig or turning up to the ARIAS? It doesn't hurt to show people you're putting in some effort! Even a pair of thongs.... that's all it takes.
Not only have they used pure cliche dressed up as sentiment, they haven't even bothered to fill in some lyrics, instead using 'hey hey' over and over.
Maybe they're perfect for the Indie kids of Australia as their lyrics are completely unchallenging and meaningless, they're musically cliched and show absolutely zero effort on stage. This makes them somewhat immune to Tall Poppy Syndrome, however maybe now after taking the #1 spot on the Hottest 100 and the ARIAS, they'll finally be cut down to size.

I'm quite disappointed with Kanye's 'Monster' being No.88 - that is a fucking phenomenal song. Long, hectic and a career starting verse from Nicki Minaj. BUT, I'm super glad that Runaway managed to make No.14. People may think he's a douche, but for me, his music surpasses his douchy-ness.

Another positive - Boy & Bear at No.5! I've read comments that people are unhappy with a cover being in the Top 10, but the way I see it - Boy & Bear were asked to do this cover and probably didn't intend it to be a single but it happened to be fucking incredible! (Better than the original...)

A friend of mine recently posted this on my wall
The muppets doing 'Monster' - ENJOY!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKIvEVkAfW4&feature=player_embedded#!

The Wilderness Downtown

On a little bit of an Arcade Fire theme... this is phenomenal.

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

The Arcade Fire

Do yourselves all a huge favour...

Watch this clip of Rococo and then go and buy the album.

Love

A few of my friends and I went to the art gallery the other day to see the Archibald Prize. We stopped by Art Express on the way out, and as it turns out, I enjoyed the year 12 major works so much more than the Archibald exhibition.

Here's my favourite sample... Loved this quote.

"I had a lot of dates but I decided to stay home and dye my eyebrows."
Andy Warhol

It's Universal...

I began my internship at Universal Music close to 2 months ago now. Working in the A&R (Artist & Repertoire) Department - and I couldn't have asked to be around nicer people.

The last few weeks have been full of film clips. Gyroscope was the first week, for their single, 'Baby, I'm Getting Better,' from their new album, Cohesion. So many fun people working on set - although the 13-hour day can get tedious, at least you're sharing it with great people. It was the first time I've properly encountered real fans of these Australian bands. There was one guy, who won a competition to be an extra in the film clip - he flew down from the Gold Coast for a 7am start, and flew back up that night. Keep in mind... he wasn't getting paid and he cancelled all his patients for the day (he is studying to be a dentist)! Now that is total dedication, and I imagine Gyro must count themselves so lucky to have fans like that.

The shoot was completed over 2 days at about 8 locations all over Sydney. Instead of being filmed, there were thousands of photos taken - I imagine looking like a bit of a flip book once they are all put together. I'm thinking similar to this White Strips clip, The Hardest Button to Button.
Stay tuned for the release! It will look awesome...

The second week was filming a couple of songs for The McClymonts - a country, sister group. It was good to see the contrast of your Aussie rock band filming these gritty scenes, compared to these glamorous women dancing and lip synching in front of a green screen.

I was never sure about working in a label, but it's fantastic working in A&R where everyone is so passionate about what they do. I used to think that these industry people were selling their souls, but it turns out, you just have to pick the right department! Fingers crossed I can stay on - I think I may have found my calling....

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

"I think that music, for him, had taken the place of image. He had no body-image, he had body-music: this is why he could move and act as fluently as he did, but came to a total confused stop if the 'inner music' stopped."

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks

yeahhh Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

I watched this clip of them on David Letterman last year, performing 'Home', and I was won over.

They're playing in Sydney at The Metro on the 30th March, and at The Factory on the 1st April. Keen.

Peter Comes From Neverland

A shameless plug...

The lovely Pete Covington is about to embark on a US and UK tour (starting in March) but before he leaves, he is playing at the Bridge Hotel in Rozelle over the next 2 weeks... and stay tuned for an album launch!

Be sure to look on his myspace and website for the dates across America.

This Charming Man

"In my life, why do I smile, at people I'd much rather kick in the eye?"

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
The Smiths

I first noticed this line about a year ago, and it's been saved in my phone ever since. Johnny Marr and Morrisey were 2 bitter, twisted men but created some of the most amazing songs. It was the 80s in all it's glory.. I have a big soft spot for this film clip too (the clip is a guilty pleasure, but the song is just so good)

Them Crooked Vultures

Them Crooked Vultures - Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin). I'm sure I didn't need to specify what bands they come from, but for those of you who didn't know...

I absolutely love these 3 musicians, so was quick to buy the album when it came out. While the album is good, it's very samey... I wanted to be surprised, but it is exactly what I expected - a complete blend of the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age. A lot more QOTSA though, I suppose as Homme is the lead singer and driving force of both.

The concert was fun, very loud and lots of guitar - BIG sounds. John Paul Jones could strum/pluck one bass note for his solo, and still the crowd would go insane. Dave Grohl is always so good to watch, particularly on the drums, so much energy. And Josh Homme is the sexiest red head I've ever seen.

Note to the enthusiastic, afro'd fan standing next to me: I know that it is all so exciting to be at a concert, but just because the music is ridiculously loud, doesn't mean I can't hear you singing the guitar riffs when you're standing a mere few centimeters from me. I, have also paid to hear these musicians, and I do not want to hear singing straight into my ear, a human voice trying to imitate guitar sounds....

The Mars Volta can't put a foot wrong for me (besides getting rid of their incredible drummer, Thomas Pridgen), and this concert was no exception.

The Hordern was fairly empty, which always makes me feel uncomfortable - I feel so sad for the band when they can't fill out their venue. They even had to black out the seating areas to the side with curtain. But, in the end, having the hall empty made it all the more intimate. One of my friends pointed out that when he first went to the Mars Volta 2 concerts ago, it was sold out... when he went to their last concert, the crowd had shrunk and now this time, the crowd was... minimal.
Maybe as their albums have become weirder and stranger, they have thinned out their audience.

But any Volta fan would have frothed over this gig... it was a greatest hits show. It was as if they received my own playlist. What made this show all the more special, was that it was my little brother's first gig and my certain someone's first Mars Volta gig. It was so fun watching my 15-yr old brother manoeuvering his way through his first concert. His look of shock at the middle-aged men having a good dance/hug/sing/smoke in front of us. 'Why are they here?! They're pretty old.' (Apparently 50 year old men aren't allowed to be out of the house or listen to music.)

For anyone who hasn't listened to them yet... do yourself a huge favour. Just be sure to give it a bit of time to appreciate their oddness.

John Butler Trio

So much recently, I've been at gigs waiting for them to end. I get tired, restless, bothered and no-one has been very impressive. John Butler completely restored my faith. I've been to The Enmore countless times, but I realised I've never been there to see a gig, only comedy. It is such a great venue too - perfect amount of people and such a nice environment.

I wasn't particularly excited for this show, I haven't listened to him in ages, and i forgot (until he started playing) how much I actually knew of his back catalogue and how I identified with it. His songs have the perfect amount of political and social awareness, without his head being too far up his arse (like a certain frontman of U2).

Ocean is a song that I'm sure he performs at most of his gigs (and rightly so) but what I particularly love about this 10 minute-epic... is that it is a 10 minute instrumental. I don't think Sydney, or Australia has much room for indulgent guitar solos but Butler has managed to make it work for him, and people love it. It is a goosebump song, and there certainly aren't many of those around.

Even though I can go on and on about how much I adored him and the gig, it still isn't for everyone. This certain someone that came to the gig with me was all happy and joyful during the concert, however, I found out about 2 weeks later that he hated it. We were driving in the car, I put John Butler on, and I watched his mood drop. Finally it all came out - he just did not like Butler. He did point out though, that he pretended to like him because he knew how much I enjoyed it. This may not sound like much, but a year ago I dragged him along to British India, and I was reminded the entire show that he was not enjoying it. So I thank him for pretending for me. And I also tell him that he is wrong - John Butler is pretttay pretttay amazing.

Lyrics Born - Check out thaaaaaa MyyyyySppppaace

To say this Summer uni break has stretched... well, that's an understatement. Being unemployed and nowhere to go is a bit of a misery, BUT had some gigs lined up for all of January.

Lyrics Born was the first show in early January- my friends and I have happened upon him at quite a few different festivals over the past few years, Parklife, Splendour etc. Some of the only hip-hop I can say that I'm into, and he has the hottest band supporting him. I was interested to see him in a non-festival environment, at Oxford Art.

Little bit of a let down. He was good, but I don't think he read the crowd very well. It was clear that him and his band have a fairly set routine that they do at every show, and the audience just wasn't buying it tonight. He kept trying to rile the audience up to scream and shout but everyone seemed to just want them to stop talking and play the music. There were choreographed freezes - a' la Justin Timberlake. Then there was booing. Although, I think that is unfair - judging from the people in the audience, I can't see them getting up on a stage in front of a few hundred people and putting on a show.

It was a shame that he wasn't as good as I remembered, but maybe he is just suited more to the big crowd/big festival.

Will the real Chris Kirby please speak up? (cont...)

Living in America gave Chris opportunities he felt he would never have had in Australia. “As far as America was concerned, it’s always been the idol – the god. I wanted to go and work in America because it was just supreme. I’d be sitting there with Milton Berle, having a conversation about comedy, being asked my opinion. It was just too good. That never happened to me in Australia… I was living up in Beverly Hills, staying in the best hotels, and being driven around in a Cadillac. It was great, fantastic.”

Throughout his time living in America, Chris came back to Australia for 3 months every 18 months or so. Channel 9 asked him to host his own Saturday Night Show during the mid-70s, and he was doing club gigs too. In 1984, after touring with Frank Sinatra Jnr, his manager suggested he went back to Australia to have a rest from working. His second marriage with an American girl, Judy, had split, and there didn’t seem to be any reasons he shouldn’t come back to Australia for 3 or 4 months. “Then I met Christine… so I lost my green card, and because you can’t keep it if you’re not living there.”

While he was back in Australia, he wrote the play he is trying to perform again now, Lips, and was writing for television dramas, Neighbours and E-Street. However, he was slowly becoming tired of the business here, and believed there would have been many more opportunities if he stayed in L.A, or London. “One of my trips to London, Mickey Dolan of the Monkeys wanted to meet and talk about doing my play in London... He didn’t have an exact plan, but he had access to money. But this was when I was married to Christine, and I had Pete and the whole thing. Well. I won’t get into the story, but I was getting a bit of hard time about my show business – and umm, I just felt if I was going to save my marriage, I’d better go back to Australia. But, it was a bit late, I think. But well, you know, it’s been hard, but I’m OK now.”

Terry has been Chris’s partner through the earlier part of his career, but it is clear now that his pride and joy is his play Lips. When I ask about his ‘tragicomedy,’ play, Lips, he quickly shows me the trailer he and his colleagues have been working on. “I want to continue this line a bit about changing the perception about ventriloquism, so it becomes my act and not the doll’s act. It was about me being real and the doll not. And that’s what Lips is about – me finding it necessary to explain that to the doll.” After he and Christine split, and he was ready to talk seriously about the play, the interest from Mickey was lost. It has been performed in London, and Edinburgh and received rave reviews by critics. Chris is currently filming the play, and has a bit of interest in London. “The people in London keep saying, ‘if you get your arse over here, we can do something, but if you’re not here, all we can say, is that we’re interested.’ The business is too small here. That’s why I don’t want to do it in Sydney.”

Even though Chris isn’t married, it seems like it is this move to London that is troubling him the most. His son, Pete is 22 and hasn’t lived with him for a few years, however, it is clear that his relationship with him is very important. “I don’t want to lose what he and I have, because it’s so good. And he’s very special to me, of course, I’m his Dad, but you know – he was an opportunity for me. With my other two kids who I don’t know, well, I’ve met them now, but I don’t know them. And I imagine I never will. But ahh.. Pete’s got a very special talent, he’s a very talented boy.”

Chris doesn’t mention too much about his personal life and relationships, however, when he does touch on them, it is very revealing. He seems as if he has had a rough time, and he is a person who internalises his problems and easily slips into bouts of depression. Chris’s current relationship with Terry sounds bitter-sweet. Terry gave Chris a platform for being one of the most well-known ventriloquists, however, when it came time for Chris to move on and do his own work, people couldn’t understand him without Terry. “People knew Terry, and every time I do an interview, they always ask about Terry. One of the problems I had was… everyone wants me to do something with Terry. When I wrote the play, and when I did the first run of the play with Terry as the doll, when I revealed him on stage, people were going ‘oh it’s Terry, it’s Terry,’ you could hear them in the audience. It was awful, they’re not taking it seriously as a play… The ventriloquist thing is interesting. Part of me hates it, because it’s limiting” Throughout his life, Chris always seemed to be pushing again some kind of barrier; his name, his doll, his marriages, his career. His son, Pete, is one of the only things he really cherishes, yet even their relationship can be seen as a limit, as it is the reason he is apprehensive to go to London. It seems as though Chris Kirby is still waiting to be set free.

Will the real Chris Kirby please speak up?

From the age of 5, Chris Covington knew he was going to be a ventriloquist. “I went to a birthday party and the woman had hired a ventriloquist. None of us knew what one was. This guy walks on stage with a chair and suitcase. He opens the suitcase and pulls out this humanoid thing. The kids were quite disturbed by it. And then suddenly it spoke, it was bizarre. It scared the hell out of me. He (the doll) looked straight at me and asked in this horrible voice; “What’s your name?” I burst into tears and wet my pants. I just got up and ran away.” It seems odd that he continued to follow this profession, considering his first experience with the doll wasn’t a happy one. Once Chris’s mum explained to him what ventriloquism was, he thought it was just fantastic.

Fewer people would know Chris Covington by his real name. He decided to change his name when he was first starting to do nightclub gigs in Sydney, somewhere in the early 60s. “For some strange reason, agents and club managers and people couldn’t handle the name Covington. They couldn’t get it right. They used to put up the act on a chalkboard outside the hotel, and once it had, ‘Appearing tonight… Chris.’ And that was it. I could have been a stripper. God save us from that. So I went through the phone book and I always liked alliteration. I went to K and saw Kirby, and I thought, I like that – Chris Kirby.”

Ventriloquism wasn’t as rare as it is now when Chris was training himself during the 50s and 60s. He doesn’t think that there were that many ventriloquists in Australia, but the ones who were performing, were quite well-known. However, it was very popular in America and was known as a ‘Big Act,’ because there were so many people in it, and sometimes even an orchestra. It didn’t have to just be a man with his doll.

While Chris was interested in ventriloquism from a young age, he says was “[v]ery much into music. I wanted to learn to play guitar. My dad wouldn’t let me play guitar. I guess he figured it would cost more money, and he reckoned guitar playing was too easy. It was in the 50s when Rock n’ Roll first broke out and he said ‘if those idiots can play guitar, it can’t be too bloody hard.’” Strangely enough, his father seemed to be happier with Chris experimenting with ventriloquism rather than music, and it was because of his father that he got his first doll. A dentist owed his family some money so he offered Chris’s dad an old ventriloquist doll in lieu of the 10 quid. “So I got that doll, and had to get a name for him. And I came up with Gregory… Gregory the doll. Chris Covington and Gregory the Doll. It was doomed from the start.” But, it was this duo of Gregory the Doll and Chris Covington that got Chris his first television gig for a kid’s show in Adelaide.

The TV station that hired Chris were pleased with how he was doing, but they started getting phone calls that the children didn’t like the doll, because it was so ugly. During this time on the kid’s show, Chris got a call from Eric Sykes, who was a ventriloquist too. “He was a member of the Brotherhood of Ventriloquism… and he said, ‘I’m just calling to tell you how much I love your work, and I think you’ve got a lot of talent. I do have one criticism. I don’t like your doll. I’ll make you a doll. And I’m not going to charge you because I think you’re that good. I’d be honoured to make you a doll for when you go on, but if you don’t go on, I’ll charge you.’ I’d always had in mind a Dennis the Menace type bloke. So he drew up some pictures, and in that time we came up with the drawing. One came up and I was like ‘that’s it, that’s the one.’ And I had a name for him, it just came to me. Terry. And I experienced that moment where everything is right.”

The partnership of Chris Kirby and Terry worked well. They were working every night of the week, and were on television frequently. He spent 2 years away while his international career was being launched when he performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1967 and Sunday Night at the London Palladium. On the strength of what he’d done overseas for 2 years, he got even more work in Australia and more publicity. When Chris was 30, his agent received a phone call from Donald O’ Connor’s representatives. “Donald O’Connor was coming to Australia to do some corporate stuff, so I – it was very exciting. So I met with them and we worked it all out… and we did the show together and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

It was after performing with Donald O’ Connor in Sydney at the Silver Spades Room, that O’Connor convinced Chris to move to America. Chris had written a half hour sitcom that O’Connor was going to invest money into and they would try and sell it in America. The decision to move wasn’t too difficult, “In the meantime, my first marriage was crumbling, with Judy. And it had been for a year or so. So I said ‘Look, I’m going to go to the states for a while and find out about this.’
‘Oh yes, I know where you’re going. All those girls in Las Vegas.’
‘Well, yes. Let’s hope.’
I’m very flippant about it now, but it was anything but. So off I went and one thing led to another, and they fixed up my green card, and O’Connor’s manager said he’d handle my work.”

To be continued....

awards and such

I found out last week that I won an award at Uni - 2nd year award in print media for creativity. I'm going to post my most recent article for this subject. My interview subject was fantastic and it was because of him that I got the marks that I did....

Suspension of Disbelief (continued...)

The cultural significance of suspension is under debate, Valenti cites about 50% of his audience see resonances of the crucifixion, or something similar, however, he states the motivations vary and a lot of the time it’s just achieving something that seem humanly impossible. He has suspended people in the past, and it has been a spiritual and ritualistic thing for them, his clients being students of suspension that dates back hundreds of years to India and Sri Lanka. He believes that there are rituals, which share similar reasons and outcomes to suspension, that are linked to religions and spiritual experiences; such as in different types of Muslim sects, where they would beat themselves to the point of passing out, and even in Christian cultures, there were and are monks that carry out blood rituals.

When piercings started to re-surface again in the 1970s and 1980s, it was targeted to the gay and fetish community, which is an idea that has permeated people’s minds until today. That is one of the assumptions that Valenti encounters a lot; people assume the things he does to his body is because of the pain and to fulfil a fetish. He is quick to acknowledge how individual these experiences are, and for many people, it probably is a fetish thing. He says that he does suspension for the adrenaline and endorphin rush, as well as the nervous energy of building up to a performance. Valenti and his colleague, Ben, created a performance group of about 16 people, where they do suspension as performance art. While they get booked for shows through fetish nightclubs like Hellfire, which supports the idea that suspension and piercings probably is fetishised for many people, they are also booked for more conservative gigs like the Opera Bar. Last year, they did a total of 8 shows and in the last month and a half, they did 2 shows, which Valenti says is very uncomfortable, as they didn’t have enough time to heal between shows, because of the amount of movement required by the performers.

Polymorph may offer seemingly intimidating practices to people who aren’t part of this subculture or lifestyle, but Valenti says one of the most important things to him is bedside manner. “The reason we operate the way we do in the studio is because I think the hardest thing for someone to do is walk through the door and ask you a question… I don’t see the point in making someone feel uncomfortable when they are getting something done, which makes them feel so vulnerable.” By just walking into the studio, you can see the difference between this clean, privately owned space with friendly workers compared to walking into a seedier, biker-type tattoo/piercing studio. All the piercers are dealing with and accommodating to customers, and in the corner, there is a group of people who appear to be just hanging out in the studio.

Valenti does deal with people projecting clichéd stereotypes onto him, particularly when he visits his mum in the Western suburbs. However, as he pointed out, that his body and every individual’s body are immune to censorship politics, while other cultural practices, such as art and literature may be more susceptible. His balance of viewing the body as clinical, while also an artistic site takes on its own political implications. “Well, hell, if it’s the only way I can really express myself without anybody giving me the big ‘fuck off,’ then I’m going to do it.”

Suspension of Disbelief

Censorship and controversy concerning art, literature and culture dates back as far as 3rd Century, and as recently as the 20th and 21st Century. From the 3rd Century in China, the Qin Dynasty burnt books that represented a threat to the dominant or prevailing order. The Nazi book burnings in the 1930s and 1940s destroyed books by Jewish, or perceived degenerate authors. Picasso delivered Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in 1907, which represented a group of prostitutes as opposed to the traditional passive woman, which challenged the contemporary art community. Even in May, 2008, Bill Henson’s exhibition opened to a private viewing, and was cancelled soon after due to complaints and anxiety that it was too close to child pornography. Robert Valenti, who is the director and owner of Polymorph Body Piercing Studio in Newtown, believes that at the end of the day, “[t]he human body is the only thing that… basically you can do whatever you like to, and society, the government can’t actually stop you from doing that; it’s the only thing that politics and the government has no actual control over you. And for them to actually say, ‘no, you can’t put a hole in your body or modify your body in a way you see fit,’ it goes against anyone’s basic human rights.” While using the human body as a statement or protest may cause controversy, it can arguably never be censored. When we consider the Buddhist Monk’s self-immolation during the Vietnam War, or even of suicide as a form of self-representation, Valenti’s use of body modification can also be seen as a challenge to what is socially acceptable.

Valenti has two eyebrow piercings, one in his left and one in his right. He has a large labret piercing/plug, about 20mm in diameter, and two conch piercings, which is the inner ear cartilage, and they are 8mm in diameter. He has stretched earlobes that are 33mm, which took about two and half to three years to stretch. He has 3 small implants around his left eye, 2 transdermal implants as horns on his forehead, and a transdermal Mohawk. He has faint scarification on his forehead, as well as some lines on his chin. His nipples are pierced at 8-gage, which is about 3mm thick, as well as his 3mm thick naval piercing. On the shaft of his penis, he has 3 bead implants, and a 6-gage, Prince Albert piercing, about 4mm thick at the end. Valenti also has tattoos, one design of a cartoon-esque rooster chasing a duck, a half angel and half devil, the Mother Mary, his family tree in contemporary Maori art and another tribal design.

So how does Valenti do it? How does he cope with inflicting pain upon his own body and the body of others? Renaissance art and literature viewed the body as sacred, and Modern day science sees the body as a site of empiricism, a clinical exploration ground. Valenti has created a balance between viewing the body as clinical, as well as a type of text, or artwork, which is evident when you look at Valenti himself. He says that, “[d]ealing with other people’s blood, skin, really doesn’t phase me… I’ve always had an interest in the human body. Before I wanted to be a piercer, which I told mum I wanted to do when I was about 6 or 7, before that, it was brain surgery.” Polymorph offers anything from basic piercings and stretching through to heavier modification, branding and scarification as well as ritual suspension, where hooks are placed in the skin and the person is suspended. Their website, highlights anthropological concerns in different cultures to stretch piercing and scarification which dates back as far as the Aztecs, and Valenti thinks that probably further than that. In tribal cultures, it was to mark a certain event in a person’s life, such as birth, marriage or death. However, in today’s society, where there is no tribal structure, he says that we do body modification for different and usually aesthetic reasons, whether it is for fashion, or changing their own body in a way more acceptable to the individual.


(to be cont...)

Polymorph and Valenti

A couple of years ago I saw Robert Valenti, an owner of a piercing studio, being interviewed by Andrew Denton, and I have been keen to meet him since then. He seemed so personable, interesting and intelligent. I wasn’t too worried about going and asking him to do the interview, as I thought it would probably be a little stroke to his ego that someone saw him on television and wanted to find out more about him.

Before I spoke to him, and then even more when we were doing the interview, I recognised how many assumptions and stereotypes I adhered to. One of the first things I said was how I was surprised at how lovely he was on Andrew Denton. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I thought to myself; ‘Why should I be surprised that he was nice?’ I like to think that I don’t often judge people, and I try to steer clear of stereotypes and clichés, so the interview was really beneficial for me, because I can see how I am always forming opinions in my head. I spoke openly to him about this, that I was surprised at myself for believing the stereotype that piercing and tattoo artists are scary bikers– and he was so understanding, and part of his reason for modifying his body the way he sees fit is to shock people and prove when they do talk to him, that he is not that much of a ‘freak show.’

I’m going to put up the article I wrote in two bits… because I think it may be a bit long for one read

p.s be sure to look at the website of the piercing studio when I put up the link. Hectic photos.