So you’ve probably heard of Cristal. I personally have kinda middling tastes in champagne. The first time I had Dom Perignon was at my maternal grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary. When it comes to Moet & Chandon, I actually prefer White Star. I’m a Philistine, I know. Lately, I’ve developed a taste for Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Demi Sac, although I don’t like to order it in restaurants because I can’t pronounce it.

But you don’t tend to hear platinum rappers extolling the virtues of Moet and Veuve. They generally give props to Cristal. Cristal is pricey and not necessarily better tasting at a level commensurate with its cost. Nonetheless, the hip hop community tended to pick Cristal as the expensive item to conspicuously consume by either tipple or floor spillage.

According to an article called Bubbles & Bling which ran in The Economist, however, Frederic Rouzaud, who is the managing director of Louis Roederer Cristal champagne, publicly said he found raps about the beverage to be peculiar unwelcome attention and he suggested that there were some less expensive brands which might suit that community better.

Multiplatinum megastar Jay-Z once lead the pack in supporting Cristal, but, according to PR Week, he has now pulled service of it from his 40/40 Club in New York. He is also apparently going to replace the shoutouts to that particular bubbley in his lyrics in performance and reissues.

I kinda think that the country club set is composed of two demographics, when it comes to this issue. Firstly, there are people who like their hip hop, as well as their golf, and are more likely to drink Cristal if Jay-Z says it is great. Secondly, there are people who like their Cristal and don’t follow rap at all.

Way to throw out a whole lot of free endorsements, Frederic Rouzaud. Frederic Rouzaud needs to learn that cool does not mean lacking in clout. Somebody hook that boy up with some extra business school. And kudos to Jay-Z for not taking fighting words lying down.

I get a lot of inquiries about my scars. I proudly display them and flaunt the name on Scar13.com, so it is no wonder people are curious. Here is an explanation, for everyone who was wondering but thought they would offend me by asking :-)

All of my scars are self inflicted. When I was younger I was the epitome of troubled youth, very unhappy and very manic-depressive. I took any pain I had in my life out on myself. By the time I was thirteen, I was cutting myself, not to the degree of scarring but mostly for the physical sensation. It is a distraction, you see. When I was in pain or bleeding, I never thought about what I was really feeling emotionally.

Long story short, I eventually got through this stage in my life. It took a lot of self realization though, and a lot of internal struggling. It was habit to hurt myself after so many years of doing it. One day after I had hit rock bottom. I had started using drugs more than recreationally and was cutting myself deep enough that I had scars up and down my thighs and on my left arm. I noticed that children and dogs on the street would avoid me. My family was scared of me, not in the way that they didn’t still visit with me, but in the way where they didn’t know who I was anymore. My friends didn’t even bother to call.

My world had become one in which I was isolated from anything beautiful because I had surrounded myself with ugliness. Seriously, though, the animals and the children were what snapped me out of it. My whole life I had always been able to get a smile out of a child and dogs would walk right up to me to be pet. All of the sudden I was projecting such negative energy that both shunned me. It may sound trivial, but that is what made me change myself.

I sobered up with the help of my mom and my friend Sal. I stopped cutting myself. It was a decision, not a coincidence. It was hard to do but not as much of a struggle as a new state of mind. I decided that I wanted to be a more positive person, that I wanted to bring people happiness.

Now I am rarely unhappy. I get frusterated and discouraged by life, of course, but I remain positive and realize that everything is temporary, and the bad times will pass. I wake up often and think how lucky I am to have all the beautiful friends I have, a well paying job and the opportunity to travel sometimes. I honestly believe that I am luckier than most people on the planet.

So, to everyone who wants to know if I am promoting self mutilation or glamourizing pain, the answer is no. I think everyone goes through a time in their life when they struggle with depression, mine just happens to be displayed physically. My scars are a reminder that I can get through anything. I am not trying to encourage anyone to hurt themselves, quite the contrary. I got through the shitty part of my life and came out a positive, happy person in the end, and I hope anyone out there struggling with depression problems will see that and have hope that they can do the same. It may sound cheesy but I am half hippie and half goth, and the hippie side of me says a positive outlook can make a huge difference.

***

The author is the star of Scar13.com

If the industrial music scene had an ” A ” list, Rev John’s name would be somewhere near the top. He is one of the promoters of Das Bunker, Los Angeles’ premier industrial / noise dance club, and one of their resident DJ’s. He is also the man behind industrialshirts.com. You can find him on any given day at Titos Tacos, on Supulveda & Washington Place; and even sometimes on stage with the band “Combichrist” as a live member. I thought it would be pretty awesome to interview Rev John, since he is such a staple in not just the Los Angeles industrial music scene, but all over the world. So here it is, Enjoy!

How long have you been DJing, and where all have you done it?

I’ve been DJing since 1999, and aside from my current gigs at Das Bunker (LA) and Infirmary (OC). I’ve also held residencies at Los Angeles clubs “The Vault”, “Algorythm”, and “Produqt”.

How long have you been running industrialshirts.com? What are the best sellers on industrial shirts, and is there anyone you dont have that you would like to?

I started Industrial shirts in 2003 just hoping to help club kids find shirts of their favorite bands. 3 years later it’s exploded into something way bigger than I ever imagined. My best sellers are Combichrist, Suicide Commando, Feindflug, & Hocico. In a perfect world, I’d carry shirts from everyone, but sometimes European import paperwork gets in the way…

What are your views on downloading music vs. buying cds?

I’m a big record buyer. my favroite media is still vinyl, and there is something special about finding the perfect record after a long day of digging in the crates. It’s been said a thousand times over, but downloading hurts bands every day, and not only leads to less musicians being able to support themselves, but also for higher prices for stuff like shirts, concerts, etc.

How did you hook up with Combichrist, and become a live member?

I guess you could just say I was in the right place at the right time. Maybe you should ask Andy why he invited me to be a live member =3D)

How long have you been a part of Bunker, who are some of the coolest people to have shown up at Bunker to party?

I’ve been a part of Das Bunker since the summer of 2002 (wow, time flies), and in that time we’ve had a ton of really cool and amazing people come through. If I had to name just one, it would probably be standing at the bar and realizing I’m standing right next to Orge (of Skinny Puppy fame). Maybe one day we can get L.L. COOL J. to come down…

Whats your fav thing to order at Titos Tacos?

The bean and cheese buritto is the “must have” item IMO (covered in Guac & salsa of course).

What is a stupid fashion trend you would love to see end in the goth/industrial scene?

Dread falls, hands down.

What industrial releases are you looking forward to in 2006?

Panzer AG, Soman, Imperative Reaction, This Morn’ Omina, Caustic, and of course Combichrist.

You are personal friends with a lot of bands, who hooks you up with shit way before its released, or with things that will never be released?

Yes indeed, it’s always nice to be able to drop a track in the club months before it’s out. By the time “Everybody Hates You” hit the street, THis Shit WIll FUck You Up was hands down the biggest dance floor track.

What is the most obscure or prize possession in your cd collection?

Ooh, this is tough. If it has to be a cd, it’s Noise Unit’s Responce Frequency – though I would gladly part with that before losing the Skinny Puppy CF&M hospital gown/mask fan club kit.

What are some industrial songs that you will never play, no matter who requests them?

Dead stars- Covenant & love never dies – Apoptygma Berzerk. No one needs to hear either these songs again. Ever.

Who would you love to book to play at Bunker?

Feindflug, Klinik.

Whos your favorite blueblood model?

Kellie Laplegua of course!

Shortly after I first moved to California, I got an account at Washington Mutual. I went with them because they had a no interest/no fees/no math/no hassle account and they gave me overdraft protection. I’ve banked with them for a long time, but it appears that one of their goals for this year is to get rid of all their long-time customers.

March 13, 2006, they launched a media blitz campaign which is theoretically about how opposed to traditional stodgy bankers they are. The television spots and billboards show paid-looking guys in pinstriped suits chomping cigars and being penned up in what is apparently WaMu’s basement. The ad campaign is designed by advertising powerhouse Leo Burnett and directed by Martin Granger, of the Moxie Pictures production company, who is also apparently responsible for the creepy Burger King ads. The main thrust of the supposedly humorous spots is, according to a Business Wire press release, intended to point out how non-traditional WaMu is in the normally stodgy banking world. This is just my opinion, but it strikes me that the message comunicated is that only losers bank at WaMu, that people with any clue how to handle their dough put it some place else.

I’d like to say that there are many areas of my life where I follow the excitement. I want to hang out with people who take risks and look for adventure. But I don’t necessarily want them handling my dough. Think about who you would most like to go on a bender with in Vegas. Now imagine that person holding all of your money. Doesn’t exactly give you the FDIC-insured warm fuzzies, does it?

Now it might be humiliating to pull out the loser-branded bank card when shopping in Los Angeles, but I’d probably get over it, if Washington Mutual hadn’t simultaneously started to do seemingly everything in their power to irritate long-standing customers.

First, WaMu took most of their customers in California and I believe also Washington and Oregon and turned off their Visa cards and send them Gold MasterCards in place of them. On the phone, a WaMu rep told me to just tell her what my recurring transactions on the Visa were so they would know to honor them. Needless to say, ‘cause I’d hardly be writing this article if they’d taken care of me, WaMu failed to honor any of my recurring transactions. This included nonessentials like my car insurance, warehouse space, and videos-by-mail subscription. WaMu personnel assured me that, despite the numerous inconveniences, there were many advantages to having the new MasterCard they had forced on me. The first half dozen or so WaMu people I complained to directed me to consult the literature they had sent me to discover the advantages they were sure existed, even if they couldn’t think of them. Turns out, the Gold MasterCard is, you know, sorta sparkley yellow-toned instead of blue. I like the color blue better. (Forrest Black wishes for Blue Blood readers to know that those with Platinum Visa debit cards didn’t even get a color change when forced to switch to MasterCard.) After extensive complaints research, I found a supervisor who advised me that the MC has a higher spending limit for accessing my own money for a day’s purchases. That seems like it would be a WaMu limit, rather than a Visa vs. MasterCard thing, but, okay, that is a plus. Then they tried to claim that MasterCard is accepted at more locations worldwide than Visa. Now, I won’t pretend to having been to every corner of the earth, although I have lived on three continents and in five countries, so it is possible that there is some godforsaken territory, unfamiliar to me, where MasterCard is the preferred mode of payment for machine guns and gruel. But I’m pretty sure that I know the main arena in which MasterCard would be accepted more places than Visa. You see merchants who are purveyers of adult material and gambling and similar products have to pay a hefty fee to Visa each year, so some opt to solely accept MasterCard. I’m not much of a gambler though. Supposedly, despite rising fees, there might be a few other benefits to the MC, but they are not available to longtime customers. Yes, you read that correctly. WaMu is giving preference to new customers over loyal ones. I really think WaMu needs to come up with something to offer as compensation to all their customers who had to deal with having their perfectly good debit Visas turned off.

Second, Washington Mutual stopped accepting a large percentage of deposits made at the ATM. I get a lot of little checks and it is difficult to keep track of who has paid me, both for my own records, and for tax purposes, unless I have a separate record for each deposit. Part of the original appeal of WaMu to me was, as I said, the ease of no fees. I prefer to bank this way and banks which charge for every deposit make me feel profligate for doing so. I’m willing to give up the interest on that account for this convenience. Welll, no dice any more. Washington Mutual ATMs now accept only a couple of envelopes before displaying a message saying the customer is over the $100,000 daily limit. I’m not saying I’d mind if my checks added up to that, but as these sorts of desposits don’t, the first time it happened I thought the ATM was broken or or perhaps possessed. Turns out this is WaMu’s oblique way of saying that they want to limit how many deposits any customer can make in a given day. None of their phone personnel or in-bank customers service workers appear to be briefed on this policy, so I get a different answer every time. Although their tellers are extremely irritated by the longer lines inside the bank and the grumpier customer base. The phone people suggest that it is Federal law that the first $100 of any deposit be made available right away. Others suggest that the amount is $100 total in a given day is all that Federal law requires. If the former is the case, then it looks like Washington Mutual is looking to have more float with their customers’ money. Short explanation of float is that, by forcing their customers to combine eight deposits in one envelope, then they would only have to make $100 available right away, instead of $800, but they would still get use of the money. If anyone knows the answer to the question about what the actual law is, I would muchly appreciate accurate info, and I haven’t had any luck getting it from my bank.

Oh yeah, and Washington Mutual redesigned the insides of a bunch of their banks to be very unbanklike, so that other people are all up in your business, tellers are actually out in the middle of the bank, and the money comes from these weird open kiosks. I don’t even have the words, but fortunately for me, there is an unrefurbished branch fairly close to me and I drive out of my way to make my deposits. I wouldn’t normally have to enter the bank, so normally I’d be indifferent to bad interior design and horrible traffic design, but I have to go inside to make my deposits now, which also means I have to make them during bankers’ hours.

So Washington Mutual is not a small bank. What can you do if you are one of their legion of disgruntled customers? According to their phone support, who admittedly have been wrong before, WaMu will change its policies if enough customers express their opinions.You can phone (800) 788-7000 and press zero a bunch of times and you will eventually get a human being on the line. In order to change policy, it is not sufficient to express your opinion. No record will be made of this. You must request that they fill out a complaint form and you may need to wait for a supervisor to come on the line for this. This is probably the best option if you dislike WaMu limiting your ability to make deposits or if the MasterCard thing has been a problem for you. If you are annoyed by the incredibly annoying anti-stodgy bankers campaign, its Cold War Communist charicatures, its possible racism, its possible sexism, its implications that all WaMu customers are losers, or anything else in the litany of complaints I’ve heard and read about that campaign, then you are probably better off contacting Mary Kelley at Washington Mutual. Her phone number is (206) 377-6878, but I’m probably going to personally just email her at mary.kelley@wamu.net because I am shy on the telephone.

I’ve asked Washinton Mutual employees over and over again where the stodgy bankers are, but they refuse to tell me. If they keep implementing structures which functionally might as well be designed to drive me away, I’m willing to go. Anyone got some suggestions? Because I want to bank where the traditional bankers are steering the ship.

This guy is the best DJ I have ever heard ever ever ever! Headlining clubs and festivals across North America and Europe under the moniker given to him by Ministry’s Al Jourgensen, DJ Rexx Arkana is one of the dark electronic music movement’s few legitimate international DJ stars.

In addition to his twenty years of experience as both a DJ and promoter — having worked with everyone from industrial stalwarts Skinny Puppy and Ministry to newer stars Covenant and VNV Nation — Rexx Arkana is also the founder of the scene supergroup Bruderschaft. A collaboration of some of the electronic music world’s top talents, Bruderschaft drew together, under Arkana’s leadership, members of VNV Nation, Covenant, Apoptygma Berzerk and Icon of Coil in a charitable effort to benefit cancer research and treatment.

Rexx Arcana has also formed FGFC820, a new tribal EBM project, who released their first album in the summer of 2005 called “The Hanging Garden”.

Now on to the interview…

You’re a Dj, dad, musician, businessman, and husband. Do you ever feel overwhelmed?

Scheduling can be difficult at times, there’s no question. I tend to do a lot of traveling, both as a DJ and with the band, as well as with my day job. I’ve always loved being on the road, but it’s nice coming back home again, especially to all the little homemade signs and placards my girls tend to put together. I’m lucky to have an incredibly supportive and understanding partner in my wife, Aga. Bottom line is that none of this would be possible without her help and support.

How is the scene different now from when you first started out?

The thing that strikes me as being the most different is the abundance of DJs and artists in the scene now; a product of affordability and availability of gear that didn’t exist when I was starting out over twenty years ago. This expansion of creative “talent” has both positive and negative affects, most of which have been rehashed a hundred times already. While I do agree that so many artists/bands/DJs makes quality control a significant issue, I’ve also always loved how new and emerging talent is resultantly given the tools to succeed. It’s what you do with those tools that make all the difference.

What direction do you predict the scene going? And what direction would you like to see it go?

I think another problem with so many people being, or envisioning themselves as being, on the “producer” side of the business, there aren’t enough people left on the “consumer.” As it stands now, many cities have more DJs than club-goers. No scene can support itself in that climate. Less people come to shows and/or clubs now than I’ve ever seen. Some of that is a result of the degradation of talent and quality output — is it just me, or do less than 10% of albums these days have more than 1-2 “listenable” tracks? — but a large part of it is just the same old apathy that’s existed in this culture for years and years. It’s a lot easier to complain about the problem than it is to solve it. I’m hoping we’re just on the downside of the cycle and that sooner or later we’ll turn back towards the zenith.

Many people ( including myself ) agree you’re one of the best industrial DJ’s in the world. Do you have any DJ gigs coming up soon?

Your kind words are much appreciated. Thank you. In the end, it’s all subjective. I have worked very hard to support the scene over the last twenty years, but always out of personal choice. No one ever held a gun to my head and, frankly, if I didn’t get something out of it, I’d have stopped a long time ago. Although I did quite a bit of DJ touring last year, even after saying I wouldn’t, I’ve got too much on my plate with band projects and remixes at the moment to really set up any gigs in the immediate future.

Whats in store for FCFG820?

FGFC820 is a new terror-EBM project between myself and my long-time Funhouse co-DJ and friend, Dräcos. We really only launched the project last year and within months we were headlining for Hocico in Mexico City on Halloween, or playing Darkrave in Toronto. We’re about 70% through our debut full-length and are trying to finish that up for the summer. In the meantime, we’ll be on Alfa-Matrix’s “Endzeit Bunkertracks 2″ and are working with Suicide Commando’s Johann Van Roy to appear on his first label compilation with NTP.

How about Bruderschaft, what are the upcoming plans?

We’ve got two of three new originals and a cover song done for the next EP, so now it’s just a matter of finishing off the last track and then polishing everything for final release. We’re also probably looking at summer sometime for release. Trying to finish two projects at the same time definitely makes things more difficult.

What were you doing 1 year ago? 5 years ago? 10 years ago? And dare I ask…15 years ago?

A year ago: just starting to get FGFC820 off the ground with Dräcos
5 years ago: shutting down my full-time promotions company, because I just didn’t have the strength or time to keep it going any longer.
10 years ago: getting married and having my first daughter, Emmilee (well, I got out of actually having to “have” her, Aga did all the hard work.)
15 years ago: I had just officially launched RazorBurn Productions, my promotions company, bringing some semblance of order to all the things I was doing at the time.

What do you listen to at home?

Honestly, mostly children’s music. If it’s not my youngest, Kaia, and “We Are The Dinosaurs…Marching, Marching…” then it’s my 10-year-old and her obsession with Radio Disney and all things Hillary Duff. It’s cool, though, Hillary Duff is kind of hot, in a vanilla sort of way.

Is there an artist out there that would put you in “awe” if you met them?

I’ve been very lucky to meet most of my musical idols over the years as a result of my various journalistic associations. I’d still really like to meet Philip Oakey from Human League, though, and talk him into singing on the next Bruderschaft EP.

And lastly, whos your favorite “Gothic Slut”?

I dont think I have seen enough of the girls to properly answer this question. Kellie, you’re amazingly beautiful, but if Amelia and Forrest want to give me a password I wont complain. ;)

www.razorburn.net
www.fgfc820.com

Cookie Monster was the first bad boy I ever loved. I adored his unfettered capacity for pleasure. He was deeply into consuming cookies and he didn’t care who knew it. If there were no cookies available, he would eat a cardboard circle if he had to. He would eat that cardboard circle with no shame. He was so ready for anything, he would eat the moon, if he could get to it. The scope of his desire was infinite and proud. He could see no 12 steps coming. He was Cookie Monster and he was prepared to shout his joyous desire aloud. If you baked him a flat crisp cake of sweetened dough, he would let you know how much he enjoyed it. You wouldn’t have to wonder whether he was experiencing pleasure because he would let you know about it and he didn’t care who was watching. Cookie was the kind of Monster where you had to understand he might take just as much joy from someone else’s baking. He wanted cookies and he wanted them from everyone he met. But, if you didn’t require monogamy of him, there was no one else with such contagious happy hedonism. CM’s turn as Alistair Cookie on the intellectual Monsterpiece Theater showed his smart side, but it was still his intense googley-eyed passion which inspired us all. Cookie just knew how to make people feel good. He embodied unrestrained id in its most beautiful and fulfilling form.

Sure I enjoyed the curmudgeonly insight and willingness to speak his mind exhibited by Oscar the Grouch, but it was Cookie Monster I dreamed about. It didn’t matter if he was a little heavy around the waistline. His charisma overrode all that. He made everyone around him share his sense of satiation as they marveled at the magnitude of his consumption. This was why all the girls and, let’s face it, the boys loved Cookie Monster. As time went on, he was even idolized by a new generation of entertainers such as Bart Simpson whose cowabunga catchphrase is an homage to his blue predecessor. Despite his lifestyle, or perhaps because of it, Cookie has been beloved enough to be welcome everywhere from celeb galas to the White House. He campaigned for milk, but only as something to wash cookies down with.

Somewhere there is a photo of my father in a hallway at our home in Scarsdale, New York posing like Cookie Monster to entertain me. His musician’s ear gave him the ability to do the Cookie Monster voice so well, although he wasn’t down with pigging out or the whole making crumbs thing. I have so many happy memories associated with Cookie Monster. I don’t see him as much as I used to, but TiVo lets me slip off to visit him at Sesame Street from time to time, no matter what is going on in my regular day-to-day life. He is always the same and he always makes me smile. If it is his fault that I overeat as an adult, I love him too much to care.

Some time ago, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ran a special report about whether Cookie Monster was a bad role model for children. The show suggested that maybe children were overeating sweets because they saw their fuzzy blue hero do it. They interviewed a child chomping a large cookie. They showed one of the show’s reporters, Steven Colbert or Ed Helms I think, chasing after a Lincoln Town Car trying to get a comment from a blue figure in the back who never makes eye contact. I laughed out loud. I might have moved on to more mature relationships myself, but Cookie Monster was still a rock star, still doing it his way. No one was going to tame my Cookie or tell him what to do.

So you can well imagine my horror when I saw the recent press info. They make no mention of the Daily Show segment, but they make it clear that Cookie Monster is now being forced to promote vegetables and sing a new song called “A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food” to teach healthier living to a new set of fans. Maybe he is bowing to media scrutiny. Did he sell out because of Sesame Street’s new business partnership with Earth’s Best health foods? I like to think he wouldn’t do that, but maybe he blew all his early paychecks on baked goods and really needs the money. Maybe he got busted boosting something tasty fresh out of the oven and this is part of his community service. I just can’t see my beloved Cookie doing this willingly. McDonald’s is one of the underwriters of Sesame Street, so I feel like there is something truly insidious about curtailing Cookie Monster’s one true pleasure. How much do they really care about health if they are taking money from Mickey D’s? Something just does not add up. The Sesame Street site now showcases a game, sponsored by the letter G, which is called “Toss a Salad with Cookie Monster.”

Maybe Cookie Monster is just getting old. I guess we all age faster than we want to. As the years go by, the cookies take a greater toll. The big CM is turning 36 now. DJ Larry Levan of New York’s legendary Paradise Garage, who mixed the smash hit Cookie Monster and the Girls LP, died when he was only 38. Rock stars usually have to die at 27 if they want to be remembered at their best, but Elvis still gets painted as he was young and beautiful, snarling and full of life, ready to take on the world. I will choose to remember Cookie Monster at the height of his fame and success, as my blue hero who belted out “C is for Cookie” for the whole world to hear.

Snaspshots from Erotica LA 2006:
- Friday Snapshots
- Saturday Snapshots
- Sunday Snapshots

I now have clean laundry, but I may not be able to wear it too many places. Allow me to explain.

This past weekend was Blue Blood’s and my first year exhibiting at Erotica LA. Back when Forrest Black and I were doing a lot of writing and photography for AVN’s various print publications, we sort of meant to go to their Erotica LA show, but we never quite got around to it. I always had the impression that it was probably more Porno with a capital P than I’d really be into.

I decided to try out getting a booth this year because, for 2006, the Erotica LA crew really went after both women and the couples market, spending a reported $300,000 on promo for the event. This made me feel like this could be a good event to promote the imminent official Independence Day launch of BlueBlood.com Apparently 40,000 people attended Erotica LA in 2005 and this year a whopping 50,000 people were expected to attend. That sounds pretty accurate to me. The event was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center which is HUGE and foot traffic to our booth was constant throughout the three days of the show.

The sordid reason I now have clean laundry is because, over the past few days, in addition to trading SpookyCash shirts for swag from Bang Bus, Phukit, and Sex Search, I also got T-shirts from Porn on a Stick and Rodney Moore. Unfortunately, I went to get a professional (legit/no happy ending) massage the day after Erotica LA and they were kinda nonplussed that my shirt said “I heart sex.” I have to go to the dentist tomorrow, so maybe I should be doing laundry now, instead of writing this. Oh well. It’s punk rock to vaguely perturb people who are about to put sharp implements in your mouth, right?

I was really happy about the Blue Blood booth placement. We were facing down a whole long aisle, which made us visible clear across the convention center, so that people had an easy time finding us. Our next door neighbor was the charming John Stavros of PMP Studios, Vision Girls and the Armed Forces of Love. His ass has been photographed by Andy Warhol and may even have its own fan club. Actually, I think the fan club is for his entirety, but he was giving us a booty shake while explaining it, so I might have missed some details. John and I took turns complaining about stuff at the beginning of the show. He took weird smells and smoke and I took noise. (If you are the folks who were blasting the possibly unlicensed Genitorturers sample, followed by a repeating brief loop of horrible-sounding sex, and you are wondering who among the legion of annoyed people complained, it was me. I was very impressed that AVN had a sound meter, so they didn’t have to rely on a judgement call.) Anyway, John had the spooky Lady Pandora and Maxine in his booth, so we were kinda Gothic central in our area. Admittedly, we did have a hardcore DVD booth across the way from us and I just kept re-reading the slogan on one of their posters which said, “Why can’t these girls get enough butt love?” Try saying it aloud with different inflections after three days of convention center food and it’s pretty funny. Trust me on this.

My Blue Blood booth was always convenient to both stages and the seminars area, so we got to keep track of the action and when good stuff was about to start. I also got to see a long restrospective presentation by the wonderfully prolific Justice Howard. If every photographer who worked on Blue Blood in print had been as fabulously fun to hang out with and as fabulously creative as Justice, then I don’t know that I ever would have bother to pick up a camera, because it would have been unnecessary. Nonetheless, I like shooting now and Justice was definitely a personal inspiration. It was really great to see a mix of new and old work in Justice Howard’s presentation. I think some of her Q&A answers to some of the audience members frightened them, but, hey, sometimes art does that. It was great to see her.

I had a virtual reality encounter with Taylor Wane at CES in Vegas around 1994ish and then wrote it up in Blue Blood in print, but Erotica LA was the first time I met her. She just did a movie with Mary Jane and so both hotties were signing in the Taylor Wane booth and anything featuring Mary Jane has got to be cool. The three of us discussed what sorts of massages we would likely get after the long weekend. I wonder if either of them wore T-shirts which bothered the personnel at their preferred providers. (Taylor did skip out the last day to do a shoot with Billy Idol, but that seemed like a quality excuse for her absence.)

Erotica LA was very cool for meeting a variety of people I generally only know from the interweb. It was awesome getting to chat with so many of the people we mailed from the Blue Blood MySpace profile. I sure like that site better since FOX took it over. Avant garde director Ramzi Abed and I have been aware of each other via various media for some time, but it was a pleasure to meet him in the flesh. I’m looking forward to the premiere of his Black Dahlia movie. I was aware of Dick Delicious of Dick Delicious and the Tasty Testicles fame partly because he has been nice enough to link to some of my naughty membership sites, but he was super charming and interesting in person. I got to meet the gent behind the Ferguson Fine Arts Gallery where Blue Blood photog Lori Mann and many other cool artists have shown. Mario Sabljak of Flavour Furniture is best known for his sexy and whimsical furniture designs, but, in our booth, he was known for taking his shirt of and showing off his nice ink.

One of the highlights of the weekend for me was meeting Sugar and Tatdude from Healing Art. Some of the wonderful work they and the other artists in their extended family do for breast cancer survivers includes using tattoo artistry to cover scars and create areola repigmentation i.e. make nipple areas look more like nipples. This might seem like something minor in the face of possible death, but how you feel about yourself and your world makes a huge difference. Someone very close to me underwent breast cancer surgery last month, so this was an especially nice group for me to come across.

Another highlight of the show was the polework competition. This was exactly what it sounds like. Some of the most accomplished dancers in Los Angeles showed off their moves (nonnude) on stage in an audience-judged competition. I didn’t totally follow why there were judges on stage if it was all about the crowd response, but some of the lap dances the judges got were entertaining to watch. The winner was the gorgeous and flexible mohawked Sin. I’ve thought she was amazing for ages. She and I have exchanged cell phone numbers and email addresses at 4am at the Dead Girls Corp studio over and over again, but somehow such scraps of paper never quite end up filed right. And I’m sorta shy on the telephone. I swear we are going to get around to shooting for real soon, but you all can at least see some examples of her flying around the pole and in our booth in the gallery which accompanies this article.

The other abortive shoot hottie there was Ms Genevieve who is broadcasting with KSEX. I went to her place to photograph her because she has a cool dungeon setup. Only my car got vandalized while I was looking for parking and we all decided that the creative energy was going to be nonideal after filling out police reports. Plans are in the works to make that happen soon too though.

It was very nice at Erotica LA to run into pals of mine as varied as Joey Strange and Kayla Quinn and best of all David Aaron Clark. When Dave wrote up Blue Blood issue #1 for Screw in late 1992 or early 1993, it was the first full feature on the mag. I’d gotten press mentions a lot of places, but they tended to be stuff like a capsule reviews in a deathrock zine like Ghastly saying Blue Blood was cool or a blurb in Hustler’s Chic saying contributing writer Amelia G (that’s me!) had created a publication they found most bizarre. But David Aaron Clark did a full-on feature-length deconstruction of the mag which included a sentence that caused us to call one of my friends a “hair farmer” for years afterwards. Dave also welcomed me and Forrest into his home in New York City and gave us the grand BDSM tour of the town years ago, and we thank him for that experience.

Forrest got to snap a few shots of Dave in the Blue Blood booth this weekend at Erotica LA with Superna. And can I just say Superna rocked the Blue Blood booth like she rocks the mic, high energy and full throttle. Even at the end of the looooooooong day on Saturday, she kept all our energy levels up with her own enthusiasm. Eva Klench was awesome too, even battling rush hour traffic in a corset to be with us on Friday and still looking gorgeous and good-to-go upon arrival. Vima spent the day with us on Saturday before heading off to check out Margaret Cho’s performance that night, as she will be collaborating with Margaret Cho on a new burlesque act. Even with something that important to do that evening, Vima hung out with us for as long as possible to fill in as Dahlia Dark was a little stressed by the large crowds and Voltaire had the flu. Representing for the boys, we had in attendance new Blue Blood hottie Omen and OG Blue Blood boi Astrovamp Daniel Ian who rumor has it is about to marry the girl he posed for Blue Blood with in 1996. Big love to all my crew on this one. You all made the show so much fun!

There are tons of cool people I’m leaving out right now, I know it, but the best thing I can say about Erotica LA is that the whole Blue Blood crew had fun,and I came home with a list of people I want to do something cool or fun with, who I either met or was reminded about at the show. And those are the two most important things to be able to say after any convention. Really, we all had a blast and I came home with a porcelain box decorated with kanji on the outside and stuffed with business cards on the inside, but the concept is the same.

I guess I better go do laundry now.

Andy Laplegua is a busy man. In the past year alone he has released three full length albums. Icon of Coil, his most popular band in the US, did Machines Are Us, Combichrist, a noisier EBM project, did The Joy of Guns, and Panzer AG did This Is My Battlefield, a darker, more goth/industrial album. Andy Laplegua is the frontman of Icon of Coil, but Combichrist, and Panzer AG are his solo projects.

He has produced a track for Apoptygma Berzerk, and done numerous remixes for bands such as VNV nation, Funker Vogt, Apoptygma Berzerk, Hocico, De/Vision, Mesh, and just about any other electro project you can think of.

I caught up with him after a Combichrist show at Das Bunker in Los Angeles. He was still covered in blood from a photo shoot with Amelia and Forrest earlier in the day. Heres how it went.

Kellie: Great show. Nice fake blood by the way.

Andy: [laughs] Thanks.

You usually wear latex on stage. Are you into the fetish scene, or just the fashion?

I’m not so much into the fashion itself, I love the look and feel of it. I am very much into the fetish scene. I love rubber.

What other fashion do you like to wear?

House of Harlot, Skintwo, Marquis, Cyberdog, DSL, Lipservice. And anything else I see that I like.

What are you drinking?

Jack Daniels.

Straight?

On ice.

I see you have a Johnny Cash tattoo.

I got this tattoo by a great artist named Deacon at Holy Mother Tattoo in Atlanta, Georgia. He actually did this whole half sleeve. It’s a tribute to Johnny Cash, when he died. He is one of the most important artists to me, the whole reason to do music. The way he was a story teller, a great inspiration to all artists. Always the man for the little man. Always true to what he did.

What other music do you listen to at home?

I listen to a lot of cock rock, and real industrial. Not the shit that’s mostly played in this scene. Everybody seems to copy each other in this scene. I go out of this scene to find inspiration. Turbonegro, Manowar, Nitzer Ebb, Klinic, Backyard Babies. You know, they play Backyard Babies at the Kentucky Fried Chicken here in Germany.

KFC huh? You live in Germany now, right?

Yes. Everyone I am working with and everyone I want to work with is in Germany. I’m closer here than anywhere else in Europe. It’s a music metro. And Hamburg has got a great red-light district. You can do what the fuck you want, and no one will bother you.

You’re from Norway though. Do you know the guys from Zeromancer, or Apoptygma Berzerk?

Sure, they are all good friends of mine. We all started making music at the same time, going in total different directions. But ironically enough, we all ended up in the same scene. Being quite successful.

So, all you rock stars hang out together regularly?

We hang out as often as we can, we have an unbelievable time together. I hang out with Ronan from VNV Nation, Eric from Catastrophe Ballet, and Bjoern from Fortification 55, mostly, since we all live near each other. But when we go out, it’s everyone together. Suicide Commando, Dimmu Borgier, Mayhem, Hocico. Good times.

What are your immediate plans for the future?

A new Icon of Coil single is coming out. A new Combichrist EP is coming out in October, the same time I’ll be doing my Icon Of Coil US tour. The new Combichrist album should be out by January. I will be playing a lot of festivals this summer. WGT, Mera Luna, Industrial for the Masses, Infest, Summer Darkness.

You’ve got a very sexy accent. What languages do you speak?

Norwegian, Swedish, English. My German is Okay.

Say something hot to me in Norwegian.

Noe Varmt paa norsk.

What does that mean?

[laughs] I could show you.

And last, besides anyone here, who is your favorite Gothic Slut?

Hmmm…what’s the girls name with the blonde dreads and the tattoos from her arms to her legs?

Voltaire.

Yes, yes. Shes hot. They’re all hot. You want to introduce me to some? Then maybe I can give you a better answer. [laughs] I’d love to see more of the
Rubber Dollies site. I’ve only gotten to see what comes out in Marquis every month.

Thank you for the interview, the show was great. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I look forward to seeing you live again.

No problem, thanks to you too.