African Wild Dogs Video (w/sound)

Wednesday, March 9, 2005

I mentioned last week about the bizarre bird-like yipping bark sounds that African wild dogs make, both to confuse their prey as they hunt and to communicate over long distances. Anyway, I thought people might be amused to hear for themselves. This is a 2.5 meg WMV video from the De Wildt-Shingwedzi Africa wild dog pack. Make sure your sound is on… right-click+save:

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Out of Africa

Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Driving back from Sun City we passed through a rural region that was a mix of what appeared to be largely subsistence farming (tiny farms well under an acre, next to houses ranging from tin shacks to concrete homes similar to what we have in Mexico) and platinum mining, with the mines immediately surrounded by the nicest homes in the area. I assume they were supplied by the corporation for management. Here's what the mines looked like:

I mentioned the turtle-dealer earlier this week… At every major intersection were a variety of umbrellaed drink and souvenir vendors — mostly beautiful wood carvings and bowls at a fraction of the cost of what they'd price at post-exportation. Occasionally a sign would warn not to patronize them, but it didn't seem to discourage them (or the tourists).

As much as nicer homes had been built inside the mining compounds and around the resorts, the vast majority of people here live in shantytowns built from tin and other found materials, with the occasional burned out car chassis in the middle, supported by bricks, apparently being given a valiant attempt to one day make it run again. But I fear this dreams will no more come true than I am to walk into a funeral home and have a Lazarus moment.

After an afternoon in Johannesburg, it was off to Zurich (left photo below) on an overnight flight, and then a short hour and a half hop north to Amsterdam (right photo).

It's really nice being back in Amsterdam. Yes, it's a little dirty, and there are a few too many twitchy fellows wandering the streets, but I always like it here. Maybe it's the drug addiction, maybe it's the sex and pornography addiction, but more likely I'm just a sucker for freedom and multi-culturalism. Rachel and I have talked on more than one occasion about getting an apartment here.

Before you say anything about the right photo, remember, when in Rome…

Anyway, I think my connection here is OK, so I'm going to try and post at least a thousand or so new images to BME later tonight. That is if I don't succumb totally to my adherence to local customs.

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Individuals? Where?

Tuesday, March 8, 2005

I've heard heard it said by many piercers and tattoo artists that people getting body modifications post-1996 are very different than those who got them earlier — that they're not individuals… that they're simply trading one “uniform” or “dress code” for another, and thus when they spy a real individual in their midst, they attack them. So the person with an eyebrow ring, a labret, and a big band of star tattoos is welcomed and protected, but the dude with the facial tattoo or the piercings that go “too far” is thrown to the wolves. Enter David Clinger.


DAVID CLINGER

People's responses to the David Clinger facial tattoo situation illustrate that shift, and quite frankly, the responses disgust me. People have come to me demanding action and articles any time someone here is suspended from school or fired from a minimum wage job for a piercing or tattoo… Yet the responses to Clinger's tattoo and subsequent forced removal have been almost universally hateful and shockingly lacking in support — most in fact going so far as to support his termination and forced tattoo removal.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, because the average person can't see past the end of their own nose and believes anything the media tells them, but I am surprised that people believe the characterizations people have made of Clinger and his motivation given how much people here have seen our own miscaricaturization in the media first-hand. This is a guy that's spent his life traveling internationally and has had Polynesian work for years, understands its meaning, and cares about it personally. Did he get it when the time felt right? Yes, of course. When you want a facial tattoo, you think about it for years, and then get it “spur of the moment” when you know you're ready. Don't think that a couple of brief, disjointed, and unprepared quotes from him shortly after having his life threatened have any real meaning.

I've seen other comments on cultural appropriation. Take a look at his tattoo. Is it Polynesian in design motif? Yes. But is it a copy of someone else's moko? Of course not. Neither is Mike Tyson's, even if he could be muddled into talking about such specifics — and the same folks making noise about Clinger's moko also made noise about Tyson's tattoo. It's ignorant and self-righteous. Others suggest that Clinger hasn't earned it… The guy has spent his life dedicated to achieving what he has as an athlete. He absolutely has earned a warrior's tattoo, with or without the permission of some indignant descendant of a tribe that once had similar tattoos.


MIKE TYSON

Others have said that he should have asked his boss's permission first. Why? Because high-end employees have some obligation to check their tattoos with their employers? Because he's sold them his face? He's a sponsored professional athlete. His job is to win races and promote the sport, and there's nothing in his tattoo that will hurt that — I'd say the opposite… if anything, Webcor's actions post-tattoo reflect poorly on them, and it should be added that the only reason he's having to have it removed is because one dirt-bag manager has a personal gripe with tattoos.

Still others have said that he must not have cared about it much if he's willing to have it lasered off to keep his job. As I said before, Clinger is a professional athlete. He's spent his life working and training hard to get where he is. Throwing him off the team at the start of the season puts his life's work at risk. He wasn't getting fired from some easily replaced job at Cosco. If you have two children, and have to kill one of them, which will you kill? That is more akin to the decision he was forced to make.

But I'm not sure why I'm mentioning this. David Clinger's actions represents individualism. The average person getting pierced and tattooed these days is just looking for another uniform, one where they can pretend to be an individual without actually having to feel the occasional pain and loneliness of being one.

I, as an individual, fully support David Clinger.

Anyway, off to Zurich.

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Off again, and some funmail

Tuesday, March 8, 2005

We're off to travel some more, beginning with a drive to Joburg (about an hour and a half down a guerrilla four lane highway — that is, a two lane highway that uses the curbs as the remaining two!). I'll post again when we've arrived at the next destination, or maybe some stopover that allows me access. But in the meantime, some funmail to tide you over. These ones (each paragraph is a separate email) are from replies to rejected experiences:


Hahahahaha, what school did you graduate at, because youre telling me about my bad grammar, well, your grammar is even worse. You guys are a bunch of honkeys with no taste. If I ever find you in an alley I would stomp the living puke out of you. Hahahaha bye bye losers!

fuck you and all of your dumbshit site!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for the people that read my stuff and talked shit about if fuck you toooooooooooooooooooooo! i have tried to submit pics and a story but you shitheads are 2 goddamn picky!!!! so fuck you motherfucking cum guzzling anal lickers!! i hope you all rot in hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fuck you

THIS IS THE SECOND TIME TURNING IN ONE OF MY STORIES. AND YOU DIDN'T TAKE THAT ONE EITHER. I'M NOT CHANGING IT FOR NOTHING. AND THE COMMENT ABOUT THE SCHOOL REPORT, KISS MY a$$, MY REPORTS AT SCHOOL GET ME a-'S. GO ARGUE WITH MY ENGLISH TEACHER FOR GIVING ME AN a THIS QUARTER.

A bright and cheery "FUCK YOU" to all of you at BME, both staff and reader alike. What a stupid and absurd way to post experiences. Have you read some of the stories that were approved? I'm thinking that the real life men liked the story and the frigid women and lonley little pudwackers could not relate to real life sexual drama.

sorry but i dont have time to correct it and i liked all the !!! and the sooooooo's thank you,chloe

I'd rather read something that told about the whole day of the piercing that included smilies cuz they're cute and some capital letters, because it shows emotion, LIKE MINE, and not some stupid formal shit.

Following are some emails sent to the BME Encyclopedia:


Re: Nicole Richie
i think that she is da shit . she has a cool dress syle i think she should hook up wif jonnhy dep cause he is fine as

Re: Nicole Richie
From: Paris H.
k, well i dont c why all u people r making the biggest deal bout this. I'm nicoles best friend and i just dont get why u people r making it the biggest thing! You people must have nothing better 2 do than talk about someone elses body! I can see if your doing it 4 fun but dont stay on it move on. She dont give a fuck what you peole say just to let u all know,if u r saying it to make her made or get on her nerves or somthing,it ant going to happen so lay off, give up,shut up,and... find something better to do w/ ur lives! Because you are just wasting your time!!!! Love, Alwayz, your foreva, PARIS-thatz hott

Re: Nicole Richie
Author: Leah H.
hey, I'm Leah and I'm 14 and nicole Richies best friends cousin... you can figur it out, anywayz me ans nicole are really close and she is not snobby or anything like that, that you might think she is she is really really kool. Now I just got off the phone with her like 2mins ago and she said "paris was on line the other day and she told me that people were on there leaving comets and things bout my nipple ring" and I said " why would people do that?" she said "I dont know cuz i really dont care" i was like " I know why would you" and yeah so she dont care! but why do you wast YOUR time writing things about her when 1. she dont care and 2. why would you care about what she has on her body???!!! k well I g2g cuz I'm talking to my cuz Nikki and I said everything I had to and everything I wonted to so...PEACE! Love, Alwayz and foreva, LEAH-lovez it! Lol

Re: K3l0id p0p3d
i d0nt n0 wat it is wat i hav3 but it l00ks just lik3 th3 pictur3 in th3 k3l0id 3ntry th3 nav3l 0n3. i p0p3d it...it w3nt away th3n cam3 back

Re: Anal piercing
ooww.... thats sick and wrong....... ooww and must really hurt can some1 plz tell me why people have that done please thanks would be greatful hay

Re: Penectomy
i like to see pic of a man with no cock and pee from down there

Re: Marijuana
"Halfway through, probably 15 to 20 minutes into the experience, I broke down crying, made him stop, and ran out the front door for air. I felt like I was going to throw up and implode all of my bodily functions at once. I started hyper-ventilating, but made myself calm down."
 What the...fuck?!?! this is the worst case of "i'm a bitch" I've ever heard in my entire life.

Re: Anal stretching
fk me saddos

Re: Aerosmith
Okay. Anyone who thinks that Britney Spears started the whole navel piercing phenonmenon, should be slapped across the face immediatly. I believe that the Aerosmith video for "Cryin'" was the actual ice breaker. Though it was before my time and I was only 4 years old when it came out, I have seen it and am intelligent enough to know that this WAS indeed, one of(if not the first) navel piercings to hit the music industry. I only wanted to get my navel done after seeing the Cryin' video a million times, NOT watching Britney Spears rip off her clothes. Britney Spears' wanna-be's can take all the credit they want for her supposidly "starting" the trend, but everyone knows this; The older the wiser. Therefore, Aerosmith has the real talent, and has every right to take full credit for the navel piercing.

Re: Broken Dick
HOW THE HELL DO YOU BREAK YOUR DICK?????

Re: Heart Attack
i think the web site is sick and fucked up and for you to let little kids and whoever else to look at this youll got sick ass minds ... and you need to change it to where their are no male genitals...
nore female
thamk you
nun yah....

Re: Numb nipples
i think u are really fucking stupid and if you didnt want that to happen then why the fuck did u have it done in the first place. You fuck ass!!!U make me sick!!

Re: Subincision
While performing this body modification there is a 50/50 chance of full penis splitation occuring. The negative effects of this are obvious. Almost as obvious as the stupidity of performing the operation in the first place.

Re: Janet Jackson
all i remember was screaming COOOOOOOLLL at the top of my lungs. if you don't want kids to see it then turn the channel.i myself love my 8g blackline nipple rings and love all piercings in general. hence why i got close to 40! i myself looove nip/ tuck which cam be pretty risque but nuthin compares to queer as folk.i saw the first season when i had a free 6 month showtime thing.....oh full frontal men jacking off. it was great!!!!! i say bring it on!!!!!sex and violence!!

Re: God
The most important bullshit in our life which makes body modification possible.

Anyway, I'm off. I'll post some pictures of rural South Africa on my next stop and try and get another update posted before my return as well…

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David Clinger, Africa, and the shaft

Monday, March 7, 2005

First of all, thanks to Kara for updating me with this great photo of cyclist David Clinger (who I've mentioned before). He's being forced by Webcor to remove his facial tattoo to keep his job as a pro-cyclist… He's a good looking guy and this tattoo really accents his face nicely (although I'm not sold that it's top quality work), and it's wrong for them to strong-arm him like this. Anyway, this clipping is from The Province out in British Columbia, Canada.

As a result of Webcor's forcing him to remove the tattoo — they're basically saying “either quit your career or remove the tattoo” because of the unique nature of his job — he's going to end up with an enormous amount of pain and quite possibly a face with bad scarring… Maybe one day he'll be able to cash in by suing Webcor into the stone age, but I doubt it.

I'm doing some work here at the hotel, so I thought some people might be interested to see a pretty heavy-duty new piercing a friend of mine just did… it's a shaft ampallang right through the base. Here's some (adults only nsfw) pictures of it:

There are more high-res photos of it and his other modifications in the next update, which I'll probably upload within the next few days (it's ready, I just have to find the time and place to transfer it). I think I could write a good article at this point about updating a high traffic online project while traveling!

Here are a few photos of the extravagant hotel we're at right now. Like I said, it really is over-the-top… The left photo is the view from our room, and the rest are assorted pictures from around the grounds of the hotel. Everything is very well done, although the all-black “yes massa” service really is somewhat disturbing and I don't like it. Maybe I'm not adapting culturally as well as I should, but it feels wrong.

We're here for another night and then we're off either to Capetown, or up to spend our last few days of vacation in chilly, chilly Amsterdam… of course, I'll be so high I won't know the difference (I don't partake in that in Mexico at all). On my way out of this region though I'll take lots of pictures as it's a poor and abused rural zone that's very different than most of what I've posted on this trip. It appears to be a mix of subsistence farming, ranching, platinum mining, and apparently also selling turtles (for soup I imagine, although Rachel thought it might just be an advertising gimmick) to passing cars at intersections.
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