Heat Lightening:
Yoga to the People….burg style!
Pardon the faux pas…(they were Air Jordans)
Marry Sam
Just Jillin’
CREEP: “Days”

Heat Lightening:
January 17th
Helmut Lang
Labradorite
Whaat’s up with the zodiac?!
Creators Project + Coachella
Rhett Jones: The Villans

Heat Lightening:
Capgun Coup: “Dead is God”
Sam Mickens: Sinistra Secco
Howard Thurman

Natural Disaster: Tell me a little bit about how you got started performing? Do you have any formal training or come from a musical family?
Sam Mickens: Not really a musical family exactly. My mom was a stage actress when she was younger, but by the time I was being raised, she wasn’t really anymore. I just played music a lot when I was a really young kid, and I kind of started writing my own music. And then instead of high school I went to community college in Seattle and studied jazz formally for a couple of years. And then when I was done with that, I was like 17, I started thinking about and kind of going through the process of applying to and checking out a few places to [study] jazz in college. But at the same time was already beginning to play a lot, and I started going on tour a lot. I could already start to feel the potential grift of college, and that if you don’t have the means to pay for it, it’s just going to put you in this lifetime of debt. I also just felt like I could teach myself anything I wanted to know, if I had discipline, and so I just started playing in bands and touring a lot, and over the years have continually tried to fill in more of the gaps in my theoretical knowledge. I taught myself how to read and write music.

ND: You have a chilling yet soothing falsetto voice, and a lot of journalists have compared you to David Bowie. I think you also site Prince an inspiration on an old Wikipedia page, if that’s correct?
SM: I do like Prince.

ND: Who else has inspired you as a singer?
SM: I guess some of my favorite singers are Prince and Michael Jackson, David Bowie. Really probably the biggest influence on me as a musician was this guy Jimmy Scott. He was a jazz singer with this really crazy voice. He was born with a genetic condition by which he never went through puberty, so basically he has a female voice, but he’s an old man now. I think he’s in his 70s, and he also had a really intense, crazy life. He only sings ballads, and his singing is really fantastic. If I to say my single favorite singer,  it’s probably him.

ND: When I first saw you perform, I was completely mesmerized in a variety of ways. Do you do your own choreography?
SM: Yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily say there is really any choreography at all in my show. But certainly, all my movements come naturally from within myself and my life of, whatever, a drunken dance party. I’d definitely like to take my dancing in the Showband further.

ND: So you’re backed by eight musicians, Sharon Jones is backed by nine…I heard that you challenged her to a little showdown.
SM: Yeah, but she was yellow.

ND: Are you worried that she’s going to take your title as reigning soul champion of Brooklyn?
SM: I mean if she wins in honest combat, she’s welcome to. Some folks that I know misconstrued that I was talking shit about her, or hate her or something like that, but I think she’s totally rad. What I said in the first place, was that I think that forms are only pushed toward higher and higher peaks by healthy discourse and competition. Not competition in like a sporting sense. It’s also just a spectacle. I also feel like the musicians in my band are really some of the best musicians in town.

ND: So Kayfabe: Game of Death went up last weekend. Tell me what really particularly fascinates you about professional wrestling…is it the concept of kayfabe itself?

SM: It’s a lot of things. You know, it’s not even just professional wrestling that it’s involved with and referenced in the show. I started started to really look at the piece through pro wrestling stuff, and part of it’s just like fascinating to go back and really understand more about the reality and underlying operations of the things you were into as a kid. Cause that era back then, was just like the era of lunatics, like Hulk, Macho Man, Ultimate Warrior and things like that. Their vibe in their interviews is just going as fucking buckets as possible. Just thinking about the kind of mania those guys have to work up. It’s this sport that’s completely fictional in narrative, and fake in the fact that they’re not actually trying to win against one another. But by virtue of it’s surrounding demands and all the attributes of the business, it ends up being the most destructive and fatal of all sports. All these wrestlers died in their 30s and early 40s from heart failure. They were all just taking insane amounts of different drugs, and not just in a recreational way, and not even just steroids. They were taking all sorts of crazy pain pills…they’re just so fucking juiced up and adrenalized that they’re taking all these pills to fall asleep at night and all this coke to wake up, and it’s just like a super intense lifestyle. They’d also just get physically fucked up a lot.

ND: Ok, so talk to me about this slitting of the eyelid thing you did at one point during Kayfabe. Was it real blood?
SM: In Kayfabe it’s real. That’s the kind of thing that wrestlers did back in the past. They would keep a blade either in the tape on their arm, in a kneepad, or under their tongue a lot of the time.

ND: That seems stupid.
SM: It’s apparently totally safe, somehow. Just to get the audience more hyped out they would get the blade out and cut themselves. Allen and myself in Kayfabe, we turn towards the audience and sort of explicity do it, clearly doing the thing that wrestlers would do in a secretive way. Sometimes in the Showband I use fake blood. I think I’m kind of into just real blood for now.

ND: You have this crazy presence. It obviously has to do with energy, like when I was at that show at Zebulon the guys I were sitting next to were like, “Who is that guy?” Then you disappeared backstage and came out with this beautiful, red seqined sweater. What happens when you “put on the sweater?”
SM: I don’t really feel like I wear a costume when I’m performing with the Showband or the Dead Science. It’s just like the most heated up and heightened version of just my normal self and attire.

ND: I notice you wear a lot of red and a lot of tuxedo-style cropped pants. I feel like you should be wearing cufflinks and shit like that.
SM: I like cufflinks, also, you know just like the Sex Pistols, a lot of my fashion is regrettably dictated by the fact that I’m a real broke person and I end up wearing a lot of shit for a long time.

ND: Do you have any style icons?
SM: Uh no, I think there’s a lot of people who’s style I appreciate a lot. Michael Jackson obviously…Batman villains.

ND: Do you ever wear masks?
SM: In the Showband sometimes. Generally it’s only at the end or for one song, coming back onstage or something like that. I don’t ever wear masks if I’m just going out to eat burritos or something like that.
ND: Yeah me neither, but maybe I should.

ND: What’s your favorite late night meal?
SM: Probably just macaroni and cheese. Pretty much all I eat is macaroni and cheese with tuna or ramen with an egg in it. It’s good man. I’d say over the past few months, that’s pretty much all I eat. But certainly over the course of my life macaroni and cheese would be the thing I’ve eaten the most.

ND: What are you striving for ultimately in your career?
SM: It would be great to be able to make the work that you most wanted to and dreamed of with all the money and resources to make it to it’s true potential. Those things would be great, but I’d probably just say glory. That’s probably my main answer.

Vampire Weekend meets Memorial Park chic.

“You might say that I already perpetually wear fur, but I really needed this rabbit-trimmed wool hat. (And yes, I did kill the rabbit.) It’s already snowed here in Omaha, plus I go on like four walks a day. That’s four chances to strut my (working) title as the best dressed pooch in Dundee. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some rabbit bones to gnaw on before walk #3.”

The Alife, NYC-based streetwear brand
If you’re going to be blatant, do it well.

Anna Dello Russo’s Paris Fashion Week Wardrobe
Because there’s no excuse to be underdressed…even at 9 a.m. “Gold is my new black.”

Victoria Beckham ‘FW 2009
Even though it’s last season (good fashion is always timeless), this video is amazing. Well-dressed, but a little off kilter. Plus who doesn’t love ladies swinging with their legs crossed.

Mark Ronson and the Business Int., “Bang Bang Bang”
I love everything Mark Ronson does (especially dying his hair platinum). I’m feeling the glowing Lacoste shoes (Ronson’s own design), MNDR’s jumper and crimped bangs. “One by one, buuuy one.” See my recap of the 10/13 NYC show here.

“Little Edie” Bouvier Beale’s dressing logic
“I have to think these up.” Bless her.

Florence & The Machine: “The Dog Days are Over”
Eye masks, raccoon eyes,  pale skin, warpaint, glitter, hanging out in the clouds. Definitely where I want to be.

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (JC/DC): ‘SS 3001
No explanation necessary…it’s always going to be about pop art.

Getting There

Monica landed in Doha, Qatar on December 16, 2010 to cater a royal wedding party for the daughter of the H.H. The Emir’s third wife (his second wife H.H. Sheikha Mozah is the popular well-known public figure). Since women are uncovered (and dressed to the nines) at these parties, men are not allowed to work the floor.

“I was hired as a sanitation engineer to do all the gross grunt work because I was really strong,” shrugged Monica. Her NYC-based catering company was also hired to train an additional immigrant staff. Even though she was working, she said the highlight of the party was when the “Michael Jackson” of Saudi Arabia performed in a glass, mirrored box, so the woman could have their privacy.

During the nine-day stint Monica stayed at the Ritz-Carlton Doha, which is famous for having the one of the biggest Swarovski chandeliers in their lobby. The opulence, she said, didn’t really affect her. “Wealthy people are the same everywhere,” she said knowingly. Her catering company recently catered Chelsea Clinton’s largely under-the-radar wedding.

But the party was merely the means to an end. She had arranged with her company to give her a month later a return flight because she had brought along her bike and was planning a cross-continental trip from Qatar, through Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Iran. But the complications were immediate: there was miscommunication with her company regarding her return flight. Monica said, “They screwed me over and saved me in a way.” As I had suspected, she wasn’t allowed to enter Saudi Arabia…but she didn’t board the plane home and instead flew to Egypt on Christmas Day where she had arranged to couch surf with a Russian woman. “I just had to keep going,” Monica impressed.

By her third attempt at biking through unchartered countries (she has taken trips biking through Poland and Spain previously), she had conjured up a very open, yet protected attitude: “Once I’m there, I let the journey become very loose.” She only stayed in hotels a couple of times, and she had three couch surfing dates officially set up over her month and a half ride through Jordan, Syria and Jordan, but mostly she relied on the generosity of the people she met along the way.

All the Single Ladies

Monica admitted that she received a lot of male attention, but she explained that: “Biking is like having a protective force field, that I have on my side. I trusted that I trust my gut.”

She had a couple of ‘situations’ with men whom she described as friends who kept “testing the waters.” But in their defense, meeting an American blonde woman who’s traveling alone and uncovered is not just unusual — it doesn’t happen. “[Arab] Men are afraid and confused and have seen too many Lady Gaga videos.”

But she left her leotards and fishnets at home. Monica strictly wore long baggy pants with loose, long sleeve shirts, and she covered or dressed regionally appropriately when staying with local families.

A couple of times people threw rocks or tomatoes at her, “but they do that to anyone,” she said. “I came across over sexualized because of the bike.” Biking is typically taboo for women. “In Iran they [wear] tents so no one can see their butts,” Monica explained.

Coyotes and Cops

While Monica was biking through Jordan with a spotty map, she said she got to an area that was so desolate, she described it like being in the “Old West.” There was no life in sight, the sun was down and she decided that she would have to sleep in the dunes for the night, despite the howling coyotes. Soon after she settled in, a Jeep with soldiers tracked her down, and brought her in for interrogation thinking she might be a drug smuggler. Monica said they were friendly enough through their broken/non-existent English and offered to give her a ride…but took her all the way back to Aqaba, where she had started.

The “Fear”

Once Monica came back to New York, she “felt charged” to share her experience with other people that might not otherwise be exposed to that part of the world, and especially for those who interpret it negatively. What most Americans don’t realize is that Middle Easterners are extremely generous hosts. One never goes hungry or thirsty when in an Arab’s home. Monica was especially intrigued with the poorer class in Egypt who would offer their help in exchange for tips. She was impressed by their, “quick and clever sense of humor when living under such a strict regimen.”

Her choice of expression is through theater, and she’s put together an 80-minute, one-woman show where she recounts her adventures through the eyes of dozens of different characters. Originally she was uber concerned with polish and studied the language and the Qur’an because she wanted to portray the Arab world as accurately as she could…but ultimately found it impossible.

“I can only tell my story honestly. I don’t have the capacity to translate what’s really going on there.” She’s creating dialogue and promoting understanding with her show and hopes more filmmakers will do the same — minus the stereotypical negative air.

After taking her show on a European bicycle tour early next year, Monica will bike with an organization called Follow the Women, who pilgrimage across the Middle East to promote peace, come April. Ten percent of the proceeds from Blondie of Arabia will go to Follow the Women, and anyone who wears their bike helmet to the show will receive a $5 ticket discount…because for her, biking is an essential part of the journey.

“Biking is a great way to be alert…to feel landscapes in the most direct way. It’s inconvenient. You learn more, see people and have more interactions. Convenience kills life.”

Monica’s Shortlist:
Favorite thing she ate: Koshari (really the only vegetarian thing to eat in Egypt) made from spaghetti noodles, chickpeas, lentils and spices. She also found Iraqi dates (which are drier than the gooey ones I prefer) to be particular bike friendly.
Cheat sheet: Pimsler.com where she’s teaching herself Arabic
Recommended Reading: People Like Us: by Joris Luyendijk.

Blondie of Arabia will be staged at the Living Theatre September 22-24 and the 30^th at 8 p.m., October 1-2 at 8 p.m. and October 7-9^th at 8 p.m. There will also be a matinee at 2 p.m. on the 9th. For tickets click here.

Think you know someone who should be featured in the up-and-coming creatives series? Leave me a comment or shoot me an email at kathflood@gmail.com. Thanks for reading.

Deep red/orange  lipstick and slicked back buns at the napes of the models necks complemented the geometric lines and southwestern sunset color scheme of the collection. Reminds me of a white girl visiting Puerto Rico come January (or am I just hoping that will be me.) Definitely a flowy, wearable collection.
What’s weird about fashion week now, is that anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can watch the shows stream live. In the most extreme cases, even order items right off the runway.
I think it’s great exposure for lesser known designers, but no video compares to being in there in the flesh. I think Tom Ford got it right.