I’m a Finalist for the BME World Tour!

Filed Under Body Modification, Personal | 2010-02-26, 01:33

The short version: Holy crap, I’m one of 18 finalists in a contest to tour the world and meet/interview/photograph/video people involved in the body modification community. It’s a trip of a lifetime. Please vote for me!

The long version: So there’s this website called BMEzine (or just BME) that you’ve probably heard of if you’ve ever looked up info on body modification. It’s the site for body mod online and has been around for years. I’ve been reading it for as long as I can remember. They’re running a contest right now for a group of lucky winners to take a trip around the world to interview people involved in the body modification community. There are essentially 3 jobs on the tour that need to be filled: a writer, a photographer, and a videographer. I would love to jump into any of these roles and have essentially applied for them all. This is one of those once in a lifetime opportunities that comes along that are impossible to pass up. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I want this.

In order to apply for the tour we were asked to submit an application along with an audition video. I sat down and spent almost an entire day trying to come up with an audition video I was happy with (the end result that you see above) and then I sent in my application with a long list of the stuff I’ve done. It was tough, exponentially harder than putting together a resume due to a desire to present who I really was and my personality rather than just cold, hard skills.

Today the 18 finalists were posted to BME’s ModBlog. I’m in awesome company and there are a number of people I would really enjoy traveling with, let alone the actual trip itself. Rachel, the Editor-in-Chief of BME, is asking for everyone to vote for your top 4 favorites. If you feel I’d be suited for this job, please head over there and vote for me as well as any others that you think would be good for the tour. This opportunity really means a lot to me and I’d love to have a shot at it.

The voting doesn’t necessarily dictate who will go in the end but it can’t hurt! But hurry, voting ends on March 1st 12:01PST so there’s only a few days to vote.

A huge thank you to BME and Rachel for offering this contest and picking me as a finalist. Additionally, a big thanks to everyone for their positive comments and votes!

P.S. To all you guys out there who know that PollDaddy has vulnerabilities, please don’t exploit them for my sake. I’m serious, this is too important to me for that stuff. Thanks!

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Help Save Defenestration, A Piece of San Francisco

Filed Under Art, SF Bay Area | 2010-02-22, 17:29

When I first moved to San Francisco, it wasn’t long before I found myself in front of Defenestration, admiring the flying furniture. It was one of those things that made me go “wow, there’s some really cool stuff in San Francisco, this city is great!” It wasn’t until recently that I truly realized the size of the impact this piece had on the community of San Francisco when it was built 13 years ago. Simone Davalos has a great write up on Laughing Squid about the piece and many of the people involved. I highly recommend a read.

That said, Defenestration is in danger. Many of the pieces had to be removed due to safety issues and repairing and replacing these pieces to restore the awesomeness of Defenestration is going to cost money. There’s a drive right now to raise the necessary $75,000 in order to save the piece. Donations are tax-deductible as they are sponsored by the Black Rock Arts Foundation. I urge you to donate whatever you can to help save this piece.

There is also going to be a fundraising/exhibit opening on Friday, March 5th from 6-10pm at the 1:AM Gallery. If you miss the party, you can still catch the exhibit on Defenestration through April 2nd, 2010. Please donate to help preserve some of the art that makes San Francisco what it is.

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Check out Zivity – 30 days for free

Filed Under Art, Photography, Websites | 2010-02-22, 15:56


The internet is awash in adult content, we all know that. And there’s a lot of just plain crap out there that was made to make a buck. But occasionally the adult content mixes with art and something great comes out of it. Zivity is one of those examples.

For those not familiar, Zivity is a site where photographers and models get together and shoot some amazing photos. The site is decidedly Not Safe For Work (NSFW), so go check it out when you’re at home. Just to be clear, you’re not going to find your run of the mill porn there. Zivity encourages “photographs of women that promote their beuaty, show them respect, and meet [their] standards of tastefulness”. One of my favorite things about Zivity is the way their revenue is handled. Rather than paying a flat fee to photographers and models and then making bank off of their shoots indefinitely, they pay the photographers and models based on votes. As a user of the site, you buy votes for $1 a piece and you can then vote on your favorite models and photographers. For me personally, it’s a small way that I can help friends make a little bit of money making the art that they enjoy. The pretty pictures are an added bonus!

So enough of the sales pitch type talk. For the record I don’t currently receive any commission on anything from Zivity (other than an account on the site), but I recommend it to people who are into this sort of thing. Cyan, the founder of Zivity, was kind enough to offer free 30 day trial accounts to readers. All you have to do is email geeked@zivity.com and ask nicely for an invite.

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Avatar LARP

Filed Under Funny, Video | 2010-02-13, 21:01

It was only a matter of time, right? Pool Worldwide, a creative agency, takes us into the lives of some die-hard “Live Avatar Role Players” from Hometree, Wisconsin in this short documentary.

via Danger Ranger

2 Comments



Large Gauge Ear Piercings + Hearing Aid

Filed Under Body Modification, Gadgets & Hardware | 2010-02-11, 17:55

In the past, the handicaps of people were generally politely concealed and sometimes considered embarrassing. It makes me very happy that this is changing. Now there are people like Aimee Mullins in the spotlight. For those not familiar, Aimee Mullins lost her legs at birth due to fibular hemimelia. I highly recommend watching her TED talk. Rather than let this hold her back, she has gone on to become an athlete, actress, and model who speaks all over the world about her dozen legs that have been built for her. Her legs are amazing; ranging from custom designed pieces of art, like the wooden legs carved from solid ash, to high tech legs that help her run faster than your average human. Technology has advanced to the point where what was once considered a disability is now merely an opportunity for an improvement both in function and form.

The latest concept in this realm of body advancement are the deafinite conceptual hearing aids. As someone with ears that are already stretched to 1/2″, these things instantly caught my attention. The concept hearing aids basically combine the form and fashion of large gauge ear plugs with the technology of hearing aids which has gotten infinitely smaller over the years. Embedded in the plugs are several microphones that pick up sound, amplify it and deliver it to the wearer through a small earpiece. The result? a fashionable hearing aid that people (who are willing to stretch their ears) can show off.

But the idea of this as just a hearing aid is short-sighted. It’s not a far leap to take this concept and make actual headphones out of this. My 1/2″ plugs are great at ensuring I don’t misplace my pen or sharpie marker, but they would be incredible if they could also function as headphones I never leave in the pocket of… which pair of pants did I wear last Tuesday? Dear tech producers: please make these. You’ll have a small niche market, but that niche will be incredibly happy and I would be willing to pay a small premium for these.

images via designaffairs

17 Comments



A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything (in Stop Motion)

Filed Under Art, Video | 2010-02-11, 14:13

For his final piece in an art course, Jamie Bell (an art student from the UK) made a flipbook video titled “A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything”. It’s comprised of 2100 pages of pen doodles and took roughly 3 weeks to complete. It chronicles several key moments in the history of the universe, including an important one at 1:35.

via Giannii

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Call the Mayor Day – Feb 9th, 2010

Filed Under Art, Events, SF Bay Area | 2010-02-09, 14:41

I moved to San Francisco because of the art scene and the amount of all around fun you can have in this city. I now call SF my home for both me and my business. Unfortunately there is currently a “War on Fun” that is attacking the venues and events in our city. It is slowly chipping away at what makes San Francisco unique.

On Tuesday, February 8th you are invited to make your voice heard and help stop the tearing apart of the essence of San Francisco. From the Facebook event:

Before you say no, read this article.
http://sfappeal.com/culture/2010/01/whats-shaking-down-sf-venues-call-the-mayor-day-thats-what.php

Call Gavin Newsom and tell him we do not want our clubs and venues raided by the police department, and we seek better solutions to preserve SF Venues, Arts & Culture. Be sure to remind him you are a registered voter in the city of San Francisco.

Telephone: (415) 554-6141
Fax: (415) 554-6160
Email: gavin.newsom@sfgov.org

Many thanks to Debra Walker, candidate for dist 6 Supervisor for this idea, presented at Flux Summit on Jan 21, 2010 at the “What’s Shaking Down SF Venues” panel.

In addition to encouraging people to call from home, my friend Ani Niow is also a temporary phone booth being setup in front of City Hall that you can use to call Gavin from his doorstep.

If you’re not sure what to say, metaphorge has a good list of talking points.

image via SFAppeal

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