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• Musing With A Maestro of Mellifluousness - An Interview With Jo O'Brien
  by Final Form Fallen Angel

  _Jo is the Community Manager of RedBubble, and she actively participates in discussions and with members. I wanted to spotlight those who…

  Jo is the Community Manager of RedBubble, and she actively participates in discussions and with members. I wanted to spotlight those who make RedBubble what it is, and Jo was the first to come to mind. Her official duties include managing groups, coordinating competitions, and act as liaison between the management, hosts, and community as a whole, but there is so much more to know about her. So I asked… 1. For those who don’t know you yet, what is your full name, where were you born, and where do you presently call home? My full name? I’d have to kill you. Jo O’Brien will do just fine and I was born and bred over here in Melbourne Australia. A city I am insanely proud of and love showing visitors. You should come over- I’ll take you out for coffee! 2. Jo, what would we do without you? As one of the few Administrators lucky enough to work closely with the individuals and their creations, I imagine you see some of the best and worst of the artist… not their work, but their attitudes. Simply a member myself, I know there have been times when a VERY deep breath was required to keep my cool as the more “difficult” individuals. How do you manage to find your own peace in between bouts of chaos? Lots of red wine. But seriously, I just take the perspective that deep down everyone is trying to do the right thing by themselves and by each other. Communicating online is a learned skill. In text it’s easier to exaggerate or give the wrong impression by accident. I just approach people believing that they want to do the right thing, be a great artist, and get on with life; and that perhaps they might like to find out some other ways to make the most of the situation. 3. I know that you are also an amazing artist both first hand and because it would take one to want to work with so many. Modesty aside, what do you think to be your most inborn gift of the eye, and how do you use it to change the way others see the art world as a whole? I’ve always had a fascination with shocking people, probably since I ate my own snot in primary school to disgust the other children. ‘Shock’ translates really well into art, and it’s not all bad. A small shock adds interest and tension, a larger shock forces people to think, an even bigger shock hits straight to your gut reaction. As artists and writers, we have the ability to stir people into thinking about something, or feeling something, or just being interested. Something that makes you want to change, or hide or scream. I challenge artists to play with layers of shock and prove that art can be pretty and meaningful and painful all at the same time. 4. If you could change one thing in this world before you leave it behind, what would it be? This is getting very philosophical! I guess I’d want to change our collective attitude towards the concept of “valuable.” I’d want people to appreciate what they have and be more generous of their time and thoughts. To spend quality time doing things that enrich their lives and help others. 5. Should you be one of the few lucky ones to have their names written in history for contributions to the art world, how would you (posthumously, I suppose) feel about this? Also, if this were to occur, in one or two sentences, what would you most want your own “famous quote” to be (the one children will include in their research papers)? I’d be wrapped. What better compliment than for your art to outlive you and go on to mean something to people you never knew who live in a time you never experience? As for a quote… “Anything can be art, but my art is better than yours” I’ll be dead. So it’s the perfect chance to be controversial and egotistical. And even better, it will be too late to argue with me about it! 6. What is the worst thing you’ve ever had stolen from you (concrete or abstract)? I was going to say my privacy and sanity, but then I realized I gave those away of my own free will! Silly Jo. If you had to select a favorite meal comprised of three separate foods, what would they be (liquids or solids… no gasses)? Sausages, mashed potato and baked beans. It’s my all time favourite meal. I could live off it. (apologies the the vegetarians) Finally, and be honest, is there one writer/artist in history who you simply cannot stand? Why? Shakespeare. This is the result of simple teenage rebellion. They made us study him at school year after year and my mum thinks he’s the next best thing to sliced bread… so naturally I can’t stand him :) See more work by this master of our times Here

• A Desperate Dialog: Gordon M Justice Interviews Queen Valkyrie Kathleen
  by Final Form Fallen Angel

  *Many artists pick one medium and stick to it, or move from one to the next without looking back – you, however, manage to balance almost…

  Many artists pick one medium and stick to it, or move from one to the next without looking back – you, however, manage to balance almost every area of the arts at one time. How is it that you manage to make it look so easy? Is there a trick to being a master of many modes? I am by no means a master, to be the female version of Leonardo Da Vinci I have MUCH to learn, especially as there are so many new and exciting digital ways… but it is an aim I guess… I do appreciate that you have noticed my attempted diversity. I believe it is the nature of a truly creative heart to find creativity in anything you do… I used to say when I worked in administration that I could even file creatively, ha – I’m glad I have a better outlet now. It started with drawing when I was a kid, I have only just recently developed my painting but I get very impatient now with traditional means as I tend to start them with the idea of a digital piece, so I only ever half draw anything. I have quite a few paintings yet to be finished. If I have the right idea and the right images I can knock out a digital photographic in hours, painting takes weeks and with children around it’s just messy and frustrating. I don’t even do as much vector illustration these days, I keep dreaming of pixels. I won’t ever stop writing, it’s always there and I enjoy poetry, not so much on RedBubble but I have been a serious poet since I was in high school and the RedBubble poetry scene pales in comparison to going out on Sunday and getting up in front of a microphone and spellbinding the audience with a vocal performance. I don’t use props other than myself and my voice. You speak of change, and opening people to awareness of both vision and spirit… what is it that made affecting others so important? It’s never been a secret on RedBubble that I experience what is widely referred to as psychic phenomena (a few people here have experienced some of my little ‘sights’). I pretend that I am a witch only for the performance aspect but really I am deeply religious and spiritual. When I say deeply religious though, that is my own religion made up of all the things I have experienced over the vortex and totality of what we refer to as ‘time’. Living and seeing in the way that I do is incredibly frustrating and hard to negotiate at times simply because it is the kind of gift that I can’t ‘prove’ with a given order such as ‘if you are psychic than how many fingers am I holding up?’ party tricks might work for some but I channel my energies into finding things link secrets and mysteries and live in quite the fantasy realm of mysticism and history. Ancient history actually, I find it very hard to bring my mind back from. If there is a ‘god’ than she/he gave me this gift to educate and help people, it is a very nice way to be but very lonely. I am trying to find better ways of moving this forward to being a much broader asset to the human race. / It’s not so much about affecting others for me as about education of the truth of the human mind. When the everyday person not only accepts but understands that we only use a tiny, tiny part of our brain when we operate on a day to day functional level, and open them up to the possibility that we were once using a lot more of it but now we are ‘slaved and lived’ out of this knowledge, we might actually be able to apply mind over matter and save the Universe from our own imperfections because we will have access to the biological information super highway… These things have been written about for centuries and centuries, it’s not so hard to understand if we were allowed (as a race) to break away from the oppression of consumerism and greed and find ourselves as survivors and earth people again, then we could actually study out past and open to the intelligence of the cosmos. I might add all that I find in the occult world is also discussed at great length and importance in the scientific cosmological world as well. When it meets in the middle with be a golden information era of the matter and spirit joining together. No, I am not a Jehovah’s Witness… How does your artwork express the change you’d like to see in the world and the people around you? I believe we, as a race, have been so confused about our goal in life, we have lost the right corridor to follow in the labyrinth if you like. We have been at the mercy of ‘the powerful’ throughout such a long number of days that collective humanity is now at the mercy not only of money but of the people who have more than they should. Nothing new there so much, but add mind controlling black magic{k} into the pie and you got a greed recipe for world domination AND world destruction, if you look at the symbolism of the Nazi’s and the consequences of that symbolism, ideology and propaganda, it’s not a big jump in a conspiratorial mind to think it is more widespread than anyone would ‘believe’ – cause that’s what they want you to ‘believe’, that they are good and caring, those baddies and that magic{k} is all in the imagination – but if they were nice, why are people starving in a world where a Hollywood movie can have a budget that is bigger than that of a developing nation’s average GDP… What if the Universe (space and all it contains) is a symbiotic organism? What if the Earth (as the Ancient Greeks preached) IS actually the ‘spiritual’ heart of the Universe? If the Earth Heart dies, then so does everything else… In my art, I strive to get people thinking about the truths of the ancient religions, when we needed the Earth to look after us, when we were more a part of the Environment, when the spirit (Holy Spirit if you prefer) was strong with us and we were receiving the information sent to us in a clear and certain way. When ancient mysteries were to show us our distant future not being so cheerful. In addition to that, I try to portray a sense of cultural and social awareness, I can’t create a piece of work just because it’s pretty, what story could I tell about it then, there would be no words or wonders to go along with it… that is shallow art to me, cause it limits the spectrum of my creativity. There are times when one feels that no matter what they create and give, no one wants to accept the gift – this is especially truthful of artists. Do you get discouraged, and what is it that discourages you? What is it that brings you back to life? I get discouraged every minute I am not making something new and I guess that is the motivational force of necessity (or Ananke(1) in Ancient Greek terms) that drives me to create and burn as much energy as I can to evolve. I get discouraged when I am not feeling like a successful artist – which is hard because when I wake up one day the only gauge of success I care about is the process and the motivation and the result. But other days, all I want to be is the most renowned digital artistic photographer/designer/artist that will ever live ever. I get discouraged if I don’t get on the homepage of RedBubble – no strike that out… not today anyway… haa ha… What brings me back to less than depression is that I have a home to keep safe and warm in, I have a beautiful husband who is an intelligent partner and great provider and I have 3 young children who are looking like being gifted – they need educating… so… I think – I can do it all, I can be successful at everything I do at once… I can want for my kids and the happiness of my family and know I am happy – but to be extra happy and achieve creatively as well would be the ultimate divine gift – I hope I deserve it! You have done everything from management to freelance work – been both the conductor and an instrument – which do you prefer, and why? Is it hard coming from a background of having other to do the technicalities for you and then suddenly having to do much of the grunt work yourself? I don’t know a manager on the level I have worked on that can be that free. Middle and lower management rolls work just as hard as their employees and they are the first to get their arse kicked when the proverbial poo hits the portable desk fan. Plus, I didn’t like it, prefer being the grunt, some days, I don’t like to brush my hair, can’t do that in a manager role… Unless you are a tiny percentage of really cool creative management and run your own business or something. If you work in the ‘system’ you will always be a slave to their corporate rules, even when you are the ‘token artistic one’… (1) Editor’s Note: The personification of destiny, necessity and fate. She is depicted as holding a spindle and marks the beginning of the cosmos with fellow primal being Chronos. She bore the Moirae, or fates, who use this very spindle’s thread to unwind, decide upon length, and finally cut (end) the life of each human as they see fit. She was called Necessitas for “necessity”, by the Romans.

• Sincere, Sarcastic, David Librach Reminds Us Why His Is Bigger than Ours, the US Leaves Canada Be, and Birthmarks Are More Relevant than Base Talent
  by Final Form Fallen Angel

  This, the second of what will be a nice set of interviews with each of the Admins, had me writing oddly half-joking questions. The subjec…

  This, the second of what will be a nice set of interviews with each of the Admins, had me writing oddly half-joking questions. The subject of the interview made a point of wondering how come he was not before Jo on my list of those to question (they hold the same job title), and so I made sure to give him extra questions to make up for my not superimposing his ego upon my own free will earlier this week. Shame on me. Over looking his megalomania, to my pleasant surprise the responses were even funnier than mine were questionably insulting… No reading ahead, but the answer to question four brought from me the first true belly-breaking, I am earnestly happy and amused laugh I’ve had in years. Also, be sure to take note of his double spacing between sentences, and occasional lessons on why our RB Forums, etc, often mark words as incorrectly spelled, when they are not spelled wrong at all. On with the show… 1. Who were you again? / The real question is who are you? Me? I’m just here to spew out carbon dioxide so that our trees can live. / (Incidentally, we are both wrong, unless I think he’s dead, and he thinks emphasizing the wrong words when making a point of it helps us any) 2. Ahem, so, David, was it? I noticed when I released my last interview, you seemed a bit jealous at having not had first go… have you always needed to be center of attention, or is this something which comes with age and 48 hour shifts? Perhaps a disorder from childhood? Anyone would find it difficult to follow in the footsteps of my esteemed colleague, Jo. However, it’s more likely due to a childhood disorder and on being the youngest sibling and always being referred to as ‘the brother’ and never as my own person. Probably why I like speaking up for the little guys and always route for the underdogs. 3. Nova Scotia… it amazes me just how spread out this RB crew is… I had to get a special program for my computer which displays the time in all the places I select so as to know when each of you rascally Admins will be around… how did you first get involved with RedBubble? After all, while it’s nice and warm in Australia, you live in a cold barren tundra which only gets sunlight once a month… how do you interact with the human species so well? A am literally a two hour boat ride in the Atlantic from being on the complete geological opposite side of the world from the head office. This definitely has some disadvantages, but the internet has made the world a smaller place and the warmth that much closer. There are a lot of misconceptions about the land I live in, but the truth isn’t nearly as exciting as the perception. Now if you’ll excuse me a moment, I have to go shovel the snow off of the satellite atop my igloo as my internet connection is slowing down… As to how I got involved with the site? Well, my wife was away for 8 months doing research in the bowels of Nicaragua and RedBubble became my mistress. It was love at first sight and our relationship grew stronger everyday. Thankfully my wife has returned and has allowed me to continue with this double life. 4. Are you thick skinned or a softy when it comes to being picked on by American Southerners who pick on those they respect? / A Softy? Me? A Canadian? I should remind our southern neighbours (yes, that’s the correct spelling) that we are the only country to have successfully invaded and burned down your capital. So no, I do not fear you or your words. 5. Right, well enough about the blanket you had as a child, I’d like to move on to your work. If I’m not mistaken you’re a photographer by birthright, and not only a point-and-clicker, but an “I’ve got a high powered lenser.” You’re a little bit the geek of the camera equipment world, and I just wanted to know if you were a player or the Dungeon Master back in high-school… Birthright? I don’t know. Birthmark? Maybe. It was just over three years ago that I discovered that a camera could be used for anything other than taking pictures of drunken nights at the bar. This new discovery has enlightened me and yes, has fed my passion for all things geeky. Dungeon Master…player…does it matter? Either way, my lens is still bigger than yours. 6. Here’s a tough one I get from people about you all the time: I quote, “David is one of the greatest guys I know, but his sense of humor is horrible. It rivals Peter’s, and that’s more than any woman can handle!” / Peter just had his first child, and is happily married… you have a wife, and a dog… my question is, where did so many others go wrong, and how would you help them lead normal lives? As a good friend likes to remind me, a happy wife is a happy life! Do as you’re told and remember you can never be right. Oh, and don’t eat yellow snow. 7.Indoor plants, or outdoor rock gardens? The / Rock Garden of course. 8. Left hand or right hand? Left eyed and right handed. I’ll let you figure out how that works. 9. You do wedding photography, and while I’ve been to a wedding I don’t remember it very well because of the pre-pre-wedding festivities. I hear though that they tend to be a mixture of crazy and clean… now, this won’t effect business because you’re good at what you do regardless, but doesn’t the overkill of joy you have to focus on make you a bit ill at times? Wouldn’t you rather just be photographing the bridesmaid puking in the guest bathroom, or the best man making out with the father of the groom? To quote Charles Dickens’ words about weddings… ‘Twas the best of times and the worst of times…’ (at least that is as far as I got in the book before I fell asleep and just assumed it was about weddings). Seriously though, there is something about a wedding day that brings out all the emotions that humans have to offer. My camera is simply an excuse to get me in ‘behind the ropes’ (and maybe even get a few images to use for extortion purposes and financial gain later on in life) . Given the choice though, I would put it all down and be a fly on the wall instead and just observe and study the chaos within. We are an interesting species to say the least and weddings are the perfect environment to study us in. 10. Ok, so I’ve been having some fun with you so far, but I do want to ask a couple serious questions. For instance, the end of your description on RedBubble quotes “The best way to find out about me though is not through my words, but rather through my images.” This is surely true, but the words preempting these nearly final ones would beg to differ. You are a deep conversationalist, at least on paper, and with how easily photography and literature cross translate, I’d imagine you’ve done some writing. Have you? If not, why? Ah…more childhood skeletons. English and Literature were my least favourite (again the correct spelling) subjects and I literally flunked out of them in school. Was always much more of a math and logic kinda guy. Hence the need for order symmetry within my art. However I’ve tried to bury the demons of my formal years of education and have rediscovered the world of art including that of the written word. Alas, I ain’t no writer and I do not play one on TV…I am simply a photographer. 11. Your final words are, “This is how I see the world and this is who I am.” I find these words very well put, and the soul behind them brilliant, but I WANT TO SEE YOUR FACE. What’s with the white manikin avatar picture from your work “Silenced”? Significance, or whim? RedBubble was the first community I met that accepted me solely based off of my art. Not because of what I looked liked, or where I went to school, or who my friends and family are or even because of my third eye on my right elbow. I simply wanted my art to speak for itself. In due time I imagine all will be revealed. 12. Finally, I’ve noticed you have a number of little galleries across the internet, but many of them are empty. No follow through, or no time? Perhaps you simply forget they exist like I do all my former networking sites? I was a lost soul, a nomad searching for an adventure in a new land, leaving a trail of sweets to find my way back home if I became too afraid to continue on. Last August I discovered my destination…RedBubble. I have no need to go back and pick up the candies anymore. 13. Oh, right, I lied, I have to bring back a classic: Your favorite meal is sitting before you… it is comprised of three things. What are they (and remember, no gasses… or ether, or the theoretical plasma either)? The sophisticated gent in me would want a nice spinach salad sprinkled with warm goat cheese and a raspberry vinaigrette followed by a medium-rare rack of lamb with a dijon mustard demi-glaze accompanied by an old world Syrah…but only if someone else is paying. On my dime nothing can beat a plate of nachos, a bucket of suicide chicken wings and a pint of Keiths. ____ Next Up: Pilgrim. I must say I am extremely excited to see what he has to say. After all, out of all of us Jesters and Fools, he keeps King Bubble’s head firmly planted in sage reason… Oh, right, Pilgrim, if you read this, I’m interviewing you next. :) Gordon

• Serendipity, or Simply a Siren Stead to Syncopate Syllables, Sights, and Sounds, Soothingly? - An Interview with Bridget a'Beckett
  by Final Form Fallen Angel

  _Now, though it is true that RedBubble focuses most of it’s attention on that which grabs the eye, be it the actual eyeball, or the mind…

  Now, though it is true that RedBubble focuses most of it’s attention on that which grabs the eye, be it the actual eyeball, or the mind’s eye through a beautiful work of prose, one must never forget that these are just pleasures of one sense, while the human is gifted with five. There are plenty of those among us who not only exercise muscles of sight, but of sound as well. There are a great many indeed, who would have to attribute sole dedication to that which perks the ear, should it come down to the misery of choosing one sense or the other. I was amazed and enamored by one of the RB crew I scarcely knew existed, when upon asking her for an interview, I took the time to listen to her musical gift. The following is my interview with Bridget a’Beckett, and though this siren can hardly come through on paper as enchantingly as she does on sound-wave, I can only pray that what you read here will give you initiative to seek out her talent – musically divine – for yourself. 1. Ahh, I know this interview will be a nice change of pace from the usual. Not that I haven’t enjoyed every moment of the interviews I did with the RB Admins so far, but you’re a bit different. Before we get to that difference though, why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you do at the bubble. Feel free to exaggerate your importance, none of us standard Joes and Janes will know any better. I am accounting queen. I work up in a tower with my accounting computer and make sure all the payments side of things run smoothly – which is a difficult task when your dealing in 4 currencies… 2. Where were you born? Where do you now call home? Where would you most love to live if anywhere? I was born on a farm in a NSW town called Tumbarumba – at the foor of the snowy mountains. A beautiful place to grow up. I call Melbourne home though because I went to school here, and lived here most of my ‘adult’ life (if you can ever call yourself an adult..) I love it for the people, the coffee, the culture and the buzz of the place. I think I’d like to eventually end up in a beautiful small Australian town somewhere – no idea actually where but the country is calling… 3. Right, now that the technical details are out of the way, we can focus on you as a person. I happen to know that you practice the only primary art form which RedBubble does not cater to – music. I highly doubt any artist here however doesn’t cherish music as an inspirational tool, but what made music your primary focus to this point? Is it your primary focus? It is my absolute primary focus. If I could I would live breathe and eat music all day and all night. What made it that way? I think from my days in the womb my mother listened to classical music, and then having quite a solitary childhood I spent a lot of time making things and listening to music. I was a happy kid, and so I think music is always able to take me to my happy place!~ 4. I’m pulling heavy guns early here: if you could choose only two other musicians to listen to for the rest of your life, who would they be and why? Woah, rest of my life is a big ask! I’d have to say Mozart for one, because his music is so brilliant and layered that you can always find something new in it, and it’s soothing and exhilarating at the same time. And right now, if I was stuck on a desert island with Damien Rice I wouldn’t be complaining. Even though he does, he does it with such feeling and creativity that it’s the most likeable whinge ever. 5. I very much stumbled upon your musical work, but in mere moments I was hooked. You have one album out already, The Wishing, available, among other places, on iTunes. It’s truly an amazing work of lyrical stitching and tints, worthy in my opinion of any praise that could be given a “popular” artist (if not more, since to be popular, often you have to be a bit paler than passionate). So, are you working on a second album? I’d love to be, but at the moment I am performing as much as I can to promote this one. I’ve been writing a lot of songs recently – my favourite thing to do, and am bursting at the seams to put them down but for now, I’m just enjoying being on the stage and playing. 6. What is the coolest word or phrase you have ever worked into a song? You know, like one of those Fiona Apple or Tori Amos ones… (like, “Your presence dominates the judgements made on you…” or “I got big-bird on a fishing line, and a bit of shout… etc.) Nice choice of examples – I love Fiona Apple – she was a big inspiration for me. I’d have to say some of my favourite lyrics are from a song ‘Sure of You’ – it was written to reassure the boy that had fallen for me that even though I am indecisive, I was sure of him. ‘You have fallen for a fickle child who chooses the apple and only thinks once she decides.’ 7. I guess, as much as I would enjoy it, I can’t only talk about your music… so moving on a bit. You must have a great appreciation for the visual and literary arts or you would have never taken a position here. Tell us a little about what draws you to these art forms as well. Do you practice any of them? I love any kind of artistic expression. I find it the essence of life and I seek it out everywhere. I love the endless ways people can express themselves, the ideas, the passion. I could seek, find, stare, talk about art forever. If oly I could draw as well.! My mother is an artist. She fascinates me because she came from quite a conservative background and her art has always been still life, but now she is taking risks and her personality is coming out in more abstract pieces – it is exciting to watch. 8. A recent buzz around the Bubble has been all things collaboration – members who work in different mediums coming together to combine their talents into something greater. Music may never be a mainstay in the RB world, but it can certainly have its place. Any ideas you’d like to offer the community at large regarding ways to add music into the mix to joint projects? Absolutely. So many! Actually, my album cover is the result of a collaboration between ARPhotography and Narelle Craven – both RB members. One day If I have a neverending budget to play with, I would love to put out a challenge for RB members to collaborate images to put together for a film clip for one of my songs. 9. Over the last centuries, the ear seems to have eclipsed the eye as the propelling force behind humanity. As you experience first-hand both senses intensely, would you agree? Why or why not? I always ask myself this question – would I prefer to be deaf or blind…I think I’d have to say deaf, as I can hear music in my head whether it’s playing or not – but to not be able to see people and the world we live in would probably kill me slowly. 10. I have to assume you appreciate the iPod (at least) as it is a thriving vehicle to spread you music… but how do you feel about cell phones? I hate the phone in general. I find it distracting, and you can never compensate for talking to someone face to face. Plus the whole tumour in the head thing – I’m not really ok with that – still feel like my generation are the mobile phone guinea pigs and we’re yet to discover how nasty they actually are. Having said that, I get a little edgy without it. Ha! 11. Overall, would you say you were a good student? What was your favorite subject? I only ask this to prepare for the next question (testing your history knowledge quotient), but still… Yes I love to learn things I’m interested in and I work hard. If I’m not interested, I’m the most terrible cheeky distracted student in the class. 12. Of any period in history you know of, which would you most like to live in if you weren’t able to live in this one? Maybe the Renaissance era, or the 20s because I love the fashion then – although I’d hate to be a woman in the early 1900s. It would have driven me crazy and I would have been labeled a witch for sureAnd maybe I ‘d like to be in Berlin during the Weimar Republic before WWII because everyone went wild with experimentation and creativity – and the parties were out of this world. Then I’d like to skip from 1939 onwards thanks… 13. Are you the kind of girl/lady/woman (and please don’t think me a misogynist for this one) who has one article of clothing they simply cannot live without? OK, OK, you’re right, I’m being sexist… to even the playing field, I can’t live without wife-beater t-shirts and my pendant necklace with a “G” on it. There… now, back to you… haha. No, being a musician I have learnt not to be materialistic. Not saying you are – but you learn to live without! Except my thongs – quick easy and practical. And they’re easy to slip off under the table (bare feet are my favourite clothing…) 14. If you went to see a movie about the scariest thing you can think of, what would it be about. (For instance, anything with Asian undead, say, “The Grudge” will send me on a two-week insomnia fest)? Well I have a funny story to tell you about this. I was on the phone to a friend late one night,and we were both watching Rage – we started talking about our scariest image – mine was the idea of seeing a child running silently through a pine forest at night, for no reason, and with no sound. Then, 5 minutes after saying it – a Rage filmclip came on with exactly this image. Spooked me. 15.Is there any sound you simply cannot stand, perhaps a pitch, high or low, or a particular device, like a wa-wa pedal or bassoon? No, but I have a friend that can’t stand the sound of ice. Do you think that’s strange, because I do. Actually yes, neck bones cracking. Urgh. 16. Cat or dog? Dog 17. Up or down? Up 18. Left or right? Left 19. Digital or Analog? Analog 20. Ok, and finally, the old standard: If you could have any meal comprised of three kinds of food or drink (it could be all foods, or all drinks, or a mix, but only three) what would it be (and tell us why in a way which makes us hungry!) Ok, I love my gourmet food, so it would have to be gourmet pizza. Thin crusty base with prosciutto layered on the bottom, fresh tomato, thin slivers of parmesan cheese, and dollops of goats cheese that’s been browned in the oven…..YUM Then gelati – 2 flavours, one is chocolate and cinnamon flavour, and the other is lychee and coconut. Greatest combination in the world I tell you. And a coffee. Soy latte. Love my soy lattes. Not in a pretentious way. But definitely in an obsessive can’t get through the day without it way. /

• Heralding All Divine and Dedicated Souls - An Interview With Hop Dac and His More Devious and Delightful Demons
  by Final Form Fallen Angel

  *I recently had the privilege of “interviewing” Hop Dac, to most of us here just Hop, about the …

  I recently had the privilege of “interviewing” Hop Dac, to most of us here just Hop, about the ups, downs, and round-abouts of life. Not having known his as well as some of the other RB Administrators I have interviewed so far, I had to do a little background first. None of it, however, could have prepared me for just how thoughtful, deep, and well educated the person I was approaching was. Later, repeatedly while going over his answers I found myself writing down things to go out and discover more about for myself. I hope as you read this interview, all of you will do the same, and remember that in this world, unassuming and unfamiliar often hides the simply unbelievable. / / Hop, though on your profile page here at RB you briefly mentions some things you excel in, you almost make it sound as though you are a receptionist – yogurt and permanent markers indeed! Why when you sent me an e-mail shortly after I arrived here kindly asking I remove my pornography collection from the galleries, I certainly thought as much. I have come to see, read, and overall learn, however, that you are quite the amazing… well, most everything. What, though, is your most driving passion in the artistic, literary life? Construction. It’s the simple enjoyment of putting something together from an initial idea. With painting and writing, that’s all done on my lonesome, but I also have some experience with theatre, film and publishing, and working with a group of people on a project is very satisfying. I’m pretty much the office bitch at RedBubble, though. I’m the dude who answers the phone. Recently (well, I’m always a bit behind… it was the end of last year), you got the honor of reading one of your short stories to an audience of slightly lubricated fans at the Collected Works Bookshop, what was the short titled? How did the entire experience go? I read out a story that I had been writing over the course of seven years called ‘The Solar Eclipse’. It started with one image. There’s a New Zealand musician, electro-folky sound, named Alistair Galbraith who had a song ‘Flickering Birds’ that I liked and the song rattled around my head and knocked something out. The story basically unfurled from those two words. The book launch was great. I’ve always enjoyed reading out loud, as opposed to spoken word performance, which for the most part I find detestable. But there’s something about the human voice wrangling with a well written sentence that gives me a lot of pleasure. Anyone who’s heard the wonderful BBC recording of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milkwood, narrated by Richard Burton, will know what I’m talking about. It was in the middle of the day and we got the crowd to sit at our feet like school children, then Shane and I each read out a story to them and they clapped and bought our book and then later we all got incredibly drunk. Good times. Now, you don’t have, well, let’s just say the “calmest” literary style around… indeed, your book of shorts (co-authored by Shane Christmass) entitled “Croak&Grist” included a cautionary statement. What, no pastures and butterflies? But I thought everyone here at RB was so normal and straight-laced… So, what is it that draws you to that which “may cause a contamination of the mind?” When I first met Shane, it was at a studio in Perth, Western Australia, that I was a co-founder of called 6A Non Institutional Contemporary Art Studios. It was a gallery/studio/performance space. Shane was the writer in residence at 6A. Each month or so, we’d have a performance night and Shane would read these epic, sprawling 20 page poems in the vein of the Beats that I found very impressive. That’s when I began to take writing seriously. This time was probably my most fertile period. Everyone at the studio grew very close, we were all damaged in one way or another, mentally, spiritually, and creativity was the salve that joined our broken parts and mended us. The contamination started then, and the virus has grown ever since. Croak&Grist was in the pipelines for three years. Each of my stories in the book was an exercise in form as much as content, so each one is quite different in the way they’re written. Lately I’ve felt that I’m finally writing in a way that I want to, but without these exercises, I don’t think I’d have gotten here. Who were some of your earlier influences? Or did you have any? I know many a fine artist/writer who delved into no one but themselves to find their artistic way (despite what my mother would love to tell us all)… I thinking delving only into yourself is limiting. You can’t think what you don’t know, I like to say, and ideas come from the orgiastic union of two accepted things that overlap to create something entirely different. So the more aware you are, the more you want to learn, the more likely you are to stumble upon an idea. You need to have an interest in the world, not only in art, to be an artist. My early writing influences were the beat poets, Baudilaire and Rimbaud, Jean Genet, Jorge Luis Borges, John Steinbeck, William Blake, the Chinese poet Li Po, and the great Indian mystical poet Rabindranath Tagore. I started off writing poetry before prose. Artistically, I started with the impressionists. My high school art teacher was mad for them. Then I got into German Expressionism: Kathe Kollwitz, mostly, and then the Symbolists, Redon and Moreau took over, and from them the Surrealists. There’s a new wave of German painting that I’m getting into at the moment, extolled by the painter from Liepzig, Neo Rauch. You also do some painting, and some darn good painting too (if I may express a bit of my own personal taste here). Does your visual art come from that brilliant literary talent inside you, or from some other place entirely? Both forms diverge from the same creative source and I don’t favour one over the other as they are like two dialects of the same language. David Lynch talks about ‘Diving within’ when he meditates and the world of ideas is opened to him, and in this way, I think it’s important in creative work to find a way to get to this world of ideas that you can rely upon. Meditation is good for this, guys like David Lynch and Leonard Cohen have been practicing transcendental meditation for decades. Some people use drugs, but this is a hapless exercise that squeezes the creativity out of you until you’re spent and mad. Instead, you want to find a way that will ‘open up the valves’, as William Burroughs says. Others will exercise, or perform their own little rituals that get them into the headspace. For me the world of ideas is omnipresent, I just have to tune into it by forgetting about myself. It’s a watchfulness that allows me to see the world outside and in as one movement that has the potential for anything. Ideas emerge from that and I just write them down when I get them. It’s a method that has no room for cynicism. The writing dominated a bit for a while as I had stopped painting for a couple of years to concentrate on it. I was spreading myself too thinly to be getting anywhere with either disciplines, as I was also working full time, so I opted to write, even though painting was my first love. Now the writing is rolling along, I can get back to the paint. You were not one of the originals to RB, coming on later to supplement a short-handed staff (isn’t it always). What drew you to the open position? I was already a member before I was a staff person, but hadn’t been active on RedBubble at all. What drew me to RedBubble was that it was a creative space. After kicking shit in office jobs for too long, the idea of being surrounded by creative activity was very appealing. Then, when I had the interviews with some of the staff, I finally caught the excitement and saw a great deal of potential in what RedBubble was doing, and thankfully, still see that potential. It’s growing exponentially by the day, it seems. AND you edit? Anything of note, or do you simply work for one of those online “We’ll write your research-paper for you!” Sites? After all, for most writers, editing is not their favorite part of the process, somewhat akin to the disposing-of-raw-matter-after-intense-liposuction” part for surgical cosmologists… What drew you to the technical/mechanics side of the literary process? English is my second language, although it’s superseded the mother tongue (Vietnamese). All my life, without realizing it, I had tense problems with my writing, stemming from the differences between the languages. I studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT and although it was dry and incredibly difficult, what I enjoyed most was the class in punctuation and grammar. That straightened me out pretty good. I got hooked on the structure of language. Since then I’ve edited a music magazine for a community radio station (3PBS), some stuff on the net (Gangway), helped edit a couple of anthologies and started up a small press with my special lady friend that we called Sunday Drivers Press. We launched a book last year that did quite well. Last month, the publisher of Croak&Grist, Paroxysm Press, asked me to join their editorial board and we’ll be putting out the 10 year anniversary anthology later this year. And fortunately, I get to use some of these skills at RedBubble too. I’m a believer in knowing the rules before you break them. All great, successful writers will know their punctuation and grammar. Even those flakes who did the automatic writing, like Kerouac, they knew the structure, and then they used it to purge their consciousnesses for musical serendipity. Who (or what) are you when you are not a writer/artist? Is your life outside the viewfinder and ink like the life through them, or are they split worlds entirely? Everything in my life comes from the creative source I mentioned before. It describes everything. My relationships, my life choices, the activities I do. A creative life is a life lived deliberately, that at no time identifies with anything, and at all times is aware that the moment moves inexorably regardless of whether you’re in it or are still waiting at the station. I’m pretty wary of people who say, ‘I am this, or I am that’, because as soon as they do, they’ve just told me that the part of them that likes to inquire and learn has gone into hibernation. If you could be any classical figure in literature, model in a visual work, or artist behind a camera, who would you choose to be and why? I would be Albrecht Durer while he was painting that great watercolour of the rabbit. In that moment, in the 16th century, dealing with unwashed Germans who styled their hair with rancid pig fat, or the teenage Arthur Rimbaud, writing Une Saison en Enfer (A Season In Hell), in a farmhouse, smoking opium and recovering from the shotgun wound inflicted upon me by my lover Verlaine. The bastard. Ok, how about some personality test questions. Give me short answers to the following: Glass half full, or half empty? / Neither (I’d rather watch the meniscus bulge before it bursts) Friends close and enemies closer? / I don’t really have enemies, but there are a couple of people I would cross to the other side of the room if I saw them walk into the pub (sorry, these aren’t one word answers). Right handed or left? / Right, although I can throw with both and am working on kicking with both feet. Pen and ink or word processor? / Bit of both. I touch-type, so it’s easy enough sitting in front of a computer, but I carry a notebook around too, and a few stories, poems or paintings have been started sitting on public transport. Finally, (and as tired as I grow of asking this, the answer never fails to make me hungry), if you could have a meal of any three things, food or drink, what would the three things be? It would be some kind of seafood feast. I would have a large table covered in white linen, on the shore where the water meets the land, a platter of crabs, a platter of prawns and some crayfish. I’d have a bowl of lemon juice, salt and pepper to dip it all into. I would eat it standing up and I would throw the shells back into the ocean. And if permitted, I’d have a sixer of Peroni beers in an esky under the table.

• Veni, Vidi, Vici: A Valued Vegetarian (One Eighth) Viking's Views On Various Vexing Vices and Other Stuff
  by Final Form Fallen Angel

  NSFW