Writing is Fighting

Odd Future - Should We Be Scared?

(UPDATE: Sorry y'all, I realized this morning that the video is no longer available via YouTube so instead of starting at a black screen, I pulled it.)

When I was at SXSW I was talking to someone who had recently seen Odd Future's showcase. "It was crazy, a mixture of Hip-Hop, but the crowd was nuts," he said. "People were stage diving, moshing...there were people puking, blood....it was one of the craziest things I've ever seen."

I was intrigued. I had heard of the LA -based Hip-Hop group by reading an article in Spin a couple of months before, and even though I don't listen to much ( well, any) Hip-Hop these days, I thought that they might be a cool group. I liked the fact that they were young, and had this crazy attitude, even thought I wasn't a fan of their music. Too Eminem-ish, which I don't like (or get) at all. I was interested in their live performance, which to me seemed pretty righteous - a mix between the Hip-Hop scene and a real punk / hardcore aesthetic - Perhaps two cultures mixing together? Cool. 

After all, these are young Black kids who were  influenced by a myriad of music and culture, I hoped, so perhaps their crazy live show was a symptom of that. Who knows? If so, kudos to them, because I really promote the idea that just because you are Black, doesn't mean that you have to ascribe to a specific culture and / or musical preference. A sign of their generation / times? I hoped so.

SXSW Day 3 Recap

I've decided not to talk about the "N-Word - Stay Classy, Texas" story.

Anyway, so the panel was on Saturday and it went pretty well. I was proud of my PowerPoint presentation, and the panelists, my homeslices Phil Freeman and Sean Palmerston, Metalsucks.net's Vince Neilstein and Noisecreep / Buzzgrinder's Sean Cannon were fantastic! Thanks again, guys for agreeing to to do this.

Later in the evening, I headed down to check out Profound Lore's showcase at the Valhalla, and it was great. My review of the SXSW Festival (I admit, very metal-ish) is up at Exclaim!, where I talk a bit  about the show.

Chris Bruni is the man. Perhaps I respect his work because as the owner of Profound Lore Records, he cannot seem to ever make a mistake: Every band on his label is so supremely talented, that even if they are musically your cup of tea or not, it is clear that Bruni has an eye for great talent. But also, he's Canadian, making a huge impact on metal worldwide, which I think is pretty cool. the above sideways pic is of this fantastic band on his label, Grayceon, who I have to check out a bit more. Amazing musicians. 

Off to SXSW!

Yippee! (I think)

Heading to Austin to moderate this panel  and to cover the festival for Exclaim! Once I get off the plane, I'll be off and running, trying to cram in as many shows as possible, seeing colleagues and getting my editor / roomie, Sean P from Hellbound to take me to at least one awesome BBQ place - funny, this will be my fourth year there and I have had some of the best Mexican food, but never BBQ........

So this afternoon, it's panels and then Trap Them and YOB and hopefully later in the evening, Fishbone and Wu Tang Clan! There is some time between those two, so I'll probably wander the streets for awhile. 

I'll be back with regular updates! 

Changes...Please Bear With Me.

Hey everyone,

I have been fooling around with the design of this blog and deciding whether to keep it on Typepad or move to Wordpress. I'm not sure if I like the layout changes I implemented yesterday.....thinking I'm going to change it, but trying to find something with a bit of flash and the ability to post more photos.

Also, I'll be moving the URL to www.writingisfighting.com. I will do this before March 15th or so, as I want it rolled out before I head to Texas to speak at SXSW. 

In other news, the last two weeks I've been recovering from more surgery, so I've been out of the game for a minute. What has been interesting over the past few months is how much pain the human body can take. It's been both physically and emotionally brutal and while I've had two weeks to chill at home, because of the nature of the surgery, I've had to spend a good portion of that time lying very still and flat on my back. Outside of the occasional FB/ Twitter ramblings, no blog posts.

However, a few days before I went off work for the surgery, I did take a post - "Being a POC in the Metal Scene" and revamp it for a re-post over at Racialicious, which was really cool. Great comments and I was able to take it from a 'rant' and shape it to a more cohesive post about the book and such. 

Also, I've had a couple of interesting things that have happened in the past few weeks. From commenting over at some other sites, a conversation I recently had with one of my brothers and the realization that I have a hard time towing the 'party line': i.e: I have strong opinions - not a big mouth, per se, but a point of view that tends to differ from the vast majority of others - I'm wondering if this is the time to re-focus my blog content. I don't want to stop being 'me' as I like 'me' - at least 60% of the time, that is - but there is already so much negativity in the world, I wonder if I want to continue to add to it. Just a thought. 

But life isn't that positive right now.....well it is, as I'm looking forward to putting the finishing touches on my book, looking forward to Texas, seeing some friends and checking out some great bands, and later in the year, heading back to Maryland Death Fest (the above pic is from 2010 MDF - Gazelle Amber Valentine from Jucifer) with my homies. But in my 'real,' non-metallish, journalist, photography life, things have been difficult. But is it still appropriate to vomit my issues on a blog? Anyway, over the next few weeks, I have to think about it.

Stay tuned!!!!!! 

 

Being a POC in the Metal Scene

Did I wish you a Happy New Year yet?

If not, I hope you are having a good one. I'm not. And I'm pissed.

Between work woes, someone copying my bank card and cleaning me out and then the bank accusing me of lying ( and then criticizing my finances, to boot) and then the following story, this month has truly sucked. Did I tell you that I have to have surgery in a few weeks and just went through a major cancer scare in which I had to have TWO biopsies? 

It's been great, I tell ya.

Interesting (and disturbing) Trends in 2010 - Thank Goodness This Year is Ovah!

About a month ago, one of my 'Facebook Friends' wrote, "it seems as though people are only using Facebook to bitch and moan. Enough already!" And he was right - and I was complicit in his reasoning to post such a statement.

2010 was tough. Not entirely horrific, as there were some pretty good things I experienced, but overall it was difficult. I have been an Internet freak since the mid-90's but this year, I found myself not seeking out and reading a ton of new blogs, as it seemed like not only were people focusing on negativity, usually on some serious fuckery brought on by humankind, the same issues that have been discussed to death arose from their ashes, once again. I have said to a number of friends that 2010 seemed like the year we reverted back into the social dysfunctions that we had worked so hard to overcome. 

Top Concerts and Photos of 2010

 (Okay I popped in a few pics from late 2009, too). The above pics are representative of some of the best shows I attended this year. The first pic is Gus G from Ozzy Osbourne's band, and I took it while reviewing the show for Exclaim in late November. Great show and what was cool about shooting this show was the huge back screen for the thousands of fans who were sitting up in the 'cheap seats' - the ACC is huge. Ozzy played the 'greats' from his solo career and from Black Sabbath, so even if you were not a huge fan, most likely you would be familiar with the majority of the set list. 

SXSW, Baby!

Soo.....sorry for the almost month in not posting. Life has been busy trying to finish the book. However, if you are in Austin Texas, please come see me speak about the book at SXSW! Here is the panel:

Women Write Women's Experiences in Music (Friday, March 19th, 3:30pm)

Rock living and loving women writers discuss chronicling the experience of women as artists, music lovers, and scholars. Why are there still so few books about the experience of women as participants in rock 'n roll, and what challenges have these writers faced? Female authors who have written about music as critics, musicians, fans, historians, and witnesses testify.

PRESENTERS

Holly George-Warren

Laina Dawes

Jessica Hopper

Amanda Petrusich

Jaan Uhelszki

 

I also have a schedule up of what I'll be attending, which most likely will change, but fo'sho I'll be at the front of the stage checking out High on Fire Wednesday night. You can check it out here!

Mini Review -Devildriver, Suffocation, Goatwhore - Toronto's Opera House

So the past couple of weeks have been hell.

I moved on the weekend, which went okay - I realized....actually I already new that I have nomadic tendencies and a obsession with not owning many material items which compels me to obsessively throw things out - so when I moved into my new place, I realized I have very little furniture. I don't own a table or any chairs outside of my computer chair. I do not own much that isn't second-hand...and falling apart. I threw out some furniture, remnants from asshole ex-boyfriends that had been given stereo equipment, etc, to me when they left town, so that left me with moving about 25-30 boxes of stuff, in which if there was ever a fire, I'd be in serious trouble.

I am afraid of accumulating "stuff" because I like the idea of if needed, I can quickly pack and move wherever I want. The problem is, is that I do own several, several books and CD's. Too many. So while I am officially young anymore I feel like my apartment always looks like a guys college dorm room.

Enough about that. I'm now trying to convince myself to replace some of the stuff I tossed, but why do I really need it? I'd rather spend my money on travel and camera equipment.

DevilDriver, Suffocation Show

I covered the show for Exclaim! and the review is up now. It was a lot of fun, and I was pleased that the show seemed to be sold-out. I was able to get between the stage and the barrier and it was a trip to be so close to the guys from Suffocation, whom I love and DevilDriver, whom admittedly, I was not really a big fan of as I hadn't really checked out their music. But Dez Farfara? Smokin' hot! I dunno, that guy was mad cute and they played a fantastic set. The above picture is of Terrance Hobbs who is the rhythm guitarist for Suffocation and man, could those guys play. It was fun to watch the bassist, as the dude was throwing down.....pretty impressive (and quite raunchy) for a white guy, as he really threw his back into it. Yes, I know that is somewhat wrong to point out but this is my blog, dammit. And you know what? It was great to see brothers Hobbs and drummer Mike Smith ( who cut off all his beautiful dreads! WHY???) represent.

Goatwhore, another band who I'm pretty fond of also played a fantastic set, as well as openers Thy Will Be Done.  My photos completely sucked, which almost caused me to cry as I sat downloading blackened shots at 1:00 in the morning, but a big hat tip goes out to fellow Hellbound contributor, Albert Mansour who took the above photo and hung out with me at the show.

Girls, Girls, Girls

I must say that once again I was surprised at the amount of groupies, and that there were even any groupies. I think it is because if I go alone and I'm working, I'm up at the front - also because I'm 5'5 and I want to see, so I'm usually hovering around either at the side of the stage or right at the barrier so I get to see the 'ladies' either going backstage or at this show, one of the roadies for DevilDriver came out and picked a young chick wearing a corset out of the crowd and escorted her backstage. There was an older woman from the States who was following Suffocation around on their tour and a handful of pretty crusty young, young girls hanging around who I assume could be local.

The whole thing kinda puzzles me. Maybe it's because I'm old, but it is really tragic, especially watching guys grope the inappropriately dressed girls who were crowd surfing through the pit. The girls I witnessed didn't seem to mind, so I don't even know what to say. But for those of us who work in the industry as roadies, management or writers / reviewers like myself who are not using our sexuality to get a leg up, I have a bit of a problem with it. But I also believe in personal responsibility, which is why I am not that worried....or would go out of my way to ensure that the jail-bait I saw was not getting into trouble backstage. Personal responsibility. But I have seen young scantily-clad girls, especially at the Down show, that caused me some concern, but part of me says, just mind your own business.Hell, I've always preferred metal dudes, but even when I was in my twenties, trying to get backstage to give some random guy a blow-job didn't cross my mind. The 80's are over, folks.

Happy Holidaze......

So this is my new tattoo on my (admittedly flabby) back. I still have to add the colour, which will be done in two parts.

It hurt like fucking hell.

My best friend, Homegirl, is pretty much covered and is currently getting this huge peacock on her back coloured in. I think it's been about a year since she and tattoo artist extrordinare Daniel Innes started working on it. She insists on going alone to her 'sessions' as she says she doesn't feel like talking and needs to zone out when Daniel works on her.

Now I know why. I have had my hands tattooed and the sun (in the picture) done but this pain was unbeleivable. I was thinking of getting the sun covered up because it is old ( I got it about 16 years ago give or take a few) but because it represents a lot to me, Daniel just decided to incorporate it into the larger piece.

So while everyone was spending money on their loved ones for Christmas, I spent my money on myself. Sweet!

Anyhoo, I'm heading to Chicago for New Years to hang out with the lovely Keidra Chaney, plan to hit up some metal bars / clubs / et.al so I'll keep y'all posted. Have a good one!