Feeling inadequate?

Here's a flyer-y thing I made for the calendar from a picture of Kylie sitting on a cannon on Cardiff Bay. Pass it on!

Real Women (and Men) vs. Intolerance and TV

Here's some recent silliness. Experimented with the timer on my camera and some Christmas lights the other night and wound up with some pretty fun shots. This one's my favourite.

It looks like I'm going to be appearing in Square Magazine this month as a poet -- I know, right? -- and I've been invited to be a feature at the magazine's launch/reading next month. Exciting stuff! Have been feeling appropriately creative lately, although not in a particularly useful way. Planning to hit the canvas sale at the Pen & Paper on pay day & busting out the acrylics this weekend. I'm having trouble communicating thought in a coherent way, so it looks like I'll be giving the non-fiction a rest and resorting to beat poetry and finger painting.

Hey, it's always worked before.

In other news, have gathered quotes for calendar, and although we could get a few printed reasonably cheaply, it would probably lose us money unless each and every one of them sold for more than £5, which I'm not willing to count on. So unless plans change within the next week, Babes With Brains will be published as a series on the website.

Keep you posted.

So I just saw on BBC News they interviewed some guy from InStyle about this German women's fashion magazine that's banned super-skinny supermodels, and he said something as to the effect of, "When women read fashion magazines they don't want to see real women, they want to see beautiful women." Excuse me? Did he say that real women aren't beautiful? And why does he care? It's not like he's seen one in recent memory. The reaction from the female anchor was priceless. I think she was going to rip him a new one before the male anchor laughed nervously and moved the conversation along, the interviewee laughing bashfully like he'd gotten away with something.

Interestingly enough, surveys have shown that average men prefer healthy women sizes 8 - 16(+) over their rail-thin counterparts. I'm not bashing skinny women here, I'm just pointing out that when women strive to be super thin, it's not for men. It's never for men; men don't like it, and any man worth his salt would prefer a healthy woman to a skeleton.

Really.

This whole "fattist" thing the western world seems to have launched upon itself makes me upset. At first it really pissed me off, and now it just makes me despair at the state of things. I hate the implication that what you look like is anybody's business but your own. I also find the "no fat chicks" mantra pretty rich coming from the kind of men brash enough to repeat it. Where are the "no redneck assholes" bumper stickers?

I just don't know where people get off interfering with other people's lives. It's not only "fat" people (and who says what's "fat" anyway? It's down to perception. ) -- it's the disabled, the desperate, the downtrodden, the mildly unattractive and the somewhat untalented. You only have to flip through the TV guide for a veritable parade of glorified freakshows. Fat Teens in Love makes me particularly angry. Of course there's also I Hate My Bald Head, Hairy Women, 3 Fat Brides, 1 Thin Dress, Octomom, More to Love, Freaky Eaters, and makeover programmes like The Swan, and it extends to watching people humiliate themselves on shows like American Idol, X-Factor, and now, Grease: The School Musical. This morbid fascination is a disease. These shows are patronising, insulting, transparent, and disposable; they do not provide entertainment and they are not human interest -- there's nothing human about them.

This weird hatred isn't limited to TV. I was walking to work today through the St David's shopping centre in Cardiff. I was walking behind this guy in a leather jacket and skinny jeans with a scarf in his gorgeous long black hair. Do I have your attention? Anyway, this random big guy (wearing rainbow from head to toe, no less) sees the guy in leather and starts barking insults at him until he ducked into a store to get away from him. What? What made that guy think he had the right to comment on this guy's appearance? Why do people think it's any of their goddamned business? How fucked up would you have to be to aggressively attack another person without provocation on the basis of something so superficial? There is clearly something wrong.

I'm not blaming the Media, Hollywood, or the Fashion Industry -- Media reflects the world, Hollywood polishes it, and the fashion industry gives it something to blow its money on -- but it's something much bigger and darker than that: it's self-hatred, jealousy, insecurity, intolerance, and all of the worst things from the darkest corners of human failure.

Thing is, it's not natural and it's not inevitable. I don't feel the need to humiliate people, and I'm sure you don't, either. If I saw somebody committing a heinous fashion crime, yeah, I'd notice, but I wouldn't dream of criticising them because a) it's cruel, b) it's subjective, and c) I don't care. Who does?

So what I'm trying to do with The Antagonist and the Babes with Brains is to provide an alternative entertainment source, to reassure you that not everybody on Earth is baying at quasi-celebrities, to embrace your inner freak, and to share our soap box with you when you feel like screaming at people.

Oh, and we also want to redefine the popular perception of beauty by taking pictures of people we think are really, really, terribly hot, regardless of size, age, gender, etc, etc, because it is not a style or a predetermined set of proportions that makes you a hottie.

It's your brain.

Magazine Gaining Momentum with Models and Mayhem

Had another photoshoot yesterday, this one with Lisa Ray. This was by far the most epic of the photoshoots so far, with three locations and costume/makeup changes, but we had a great time and got some fantastic shots. Here's another one:


Have the next several covers sorted now, with Elizabeth for this issue, Jen S for the nest, Lisa for November/December, and after that, Jen J, Emily V., Sharlene E., and all the way from Boston, Miss Mischief.

Miss Mischief found us through punkrockers.com and has sent us loads of fantastic pictures we can use in the magazine. Excellent. With interests that include writing and Chuck Palahniuk, it looks like she'll fit in with the magazine nicely. Here's a preview:


Have spent the day so far looking up prices for getting calendars printed. We'd love to get a set done for 2010, and I hope we can get the funds together to do it! There are so many things we want to do, but I guess they all take time. There's the calendar, and t-shirts, and hopefully eventually, a full colour magazine. Watch this space!

In other news, we're going to see Sonic Boom 6 at TJs in Newport next month. Their very kind press people got back to us and we're good to go! Then the week after that, it's Green Day in Birmingham. Can't wait!

The Acid Flashback Set

Today's photoshoot was great, if weird. Jen and I went down to Bute Park (which was packed at 1 pm on a Saturday), found a dark corner and got up to no good. Was convinced we'd get some cat-calls like last time with Kitty Moran, but if the kids saw us, they were too freaked out to say anything. Just in case, I told her tell any rude passers-by that she was Death. Maybe I've been reading too much Sandman lately (if indeed there is such a thing), but the whole scene was positively Burtonesque. The light kept shifting, so the butterflies - yes, butterflies - and falling leaves took on a melancholic dimension in the relative gloom. Jen looked fantastic -- she had her black hooded corset and this black and white striped bustle skirt that did crazy things to my vision, leading me to call these "The Acid Flashback Set".

It was all a little surreal, and I kept saying so. I might have been talking to myself. These things happen. Jen climbed a tree and I handed her a tea cup and we got this:



Out of 244 photos, I don't think there was a bad shot. Had a great time, Jen's happy with the photos, and all of her friends are loving them on the 'book. I'm glad! We got October's cover sorted as well as a few fake adverts and I didn't even use the spare batteries. Excellent. Everyone's in favour of the calendar idea and picking their months, but I could still do with finding a couple more models. Any volunteers?

Afterwards we went to Nero's for chai and Rebel Rebel for henna, meeting up with LJ and Erin for a tour of Cardiff's many Starbucks, took the scenic route home, where we found the found The Punk celebrating The Mighty Arsenal's victory. Jen, Erin, and LJ headed back to Swansea, needing some recovery after Girl Party Mark II, McTizzle's Magic Birthday Edition, which included four previous cover models, a balloon fight, and a roasting of P.S. I Love You. Yeah, I was surprised, too. This yielded to us three Truths:

1. "Gerard Butler is useless to us in the dark."
2. Hilary Swank turned what could have been a genuine tear-jerker into a harmless waste of time in which we feel no sympathy for the protagonist, and
3. Jeffrey Dean Morgan can make ANY mess worth watching at least once.

The best part of that movie was watching The Punk's face contort as he struggled to hold back every sarky comment he thought of, and recieving high-5s when I said what he was thinking before he did.

Well, that and Kitty's amazing brownies. Yes, that's right. Not only is she gorgeous, intelligent, and hell-bent on global domination, but she can bake, too. At some point -- and I don't remember exactly when; there was a lot of sugar involved -- we decided that I can best be described as "a Stepford Wife is somebody ripped out the hard disk and replaced it with a Ramones CD". I'm happy with that. Road to Ruin's probably my favourite, but I bet it's Rocket to Russia.

As long as I'm doing this stream-of-consciousness thing, I might as well mention that I think I heard a busker playing "Famous Blue Raincoat" today. It could have been wishful thinking, but buskers have been getting better around here lately -- last week it was Pink Floyd and Buddy Holly, but hearing Leonard Cohen played (well) in the street could be the greatest thing EVER.

May have imagined it, though. Jen didn't hear it.

Here's another photo from today for you. Enjoy.

Graphic Novels and Super Models

Had an interesting experience earlier this week. I'm going to have to paraphrase a bit, but I was told by an editor that I should freelance my way into a little pile of cash and just publish The Antagonist for the rest of my life, because it's awesome. Also that I belong in the '70s. You don't have to tell me. I know.

It was good to hear that from a completely impartial stranger. Have spent the last couple of days thinking about where I want to take the magazine from here, and I'm beginning to formulate a plan. Well, less of a plan than a list of things I think would be cool. For example, I'm about to begin work on my first graphic novel and I'm looking for artists to work with me. I can draw, but I don't think I can create images dark enough for this particular piece. Anybody out there want to give it a go?

As I've mentioned before, I'm getting a lot more interest from potential models than anybody else. This is a wonderful thing! I'm loving the photoshoots (looks like I have another one scheduled for this weekend, and the next five covers are booked), and I'm happy to keep the Babes With Brains series going as long as there are models up for it. This is fun! It's looking like the magazine is going to be heading in a more visual direction, and I find that terribly exciting. But don't worry -- more pictures doesn't mean we'll be scaling back on the text anytime soon. We'll just make it bigger.

This weekend's photoshoot will be with our lovely make up columnist Jen Sheehan. Here's a preview:



We're also going to be looking into making an Antagonist calendar for 2010. Any thoughts?

Am also thrilled to announce that we've got another online column in blog form from Courtney in Chicago. A former model of ours and constant friend, she's also a fantastic writer. I especially loved her detailed description of getting her nipple pierced this week.
Check out The Court Rose: Adventures of a Curious Mind.