#anyone else feel the divide between your artistic style and the Creative Vision in your head or is it just me

[krembruleed]

[rallamajoop]

...and the unironic joys of better living through chemistry

How do I love Venom: The Hunger, let me count the ways…

It’s by far the shippiest Venom/Eddie story to come out of the character’s heyday. It’s the only story of the era to treat Venom’s violent wild-animal instincts not as an immutable fact, but as something that can be managed. It pulls off an aesthetic like nothing else that was being done at the time.

And then there’s the way it says, Does the world around you seem sinister and foreboding? Do you lie awake at night contemplating metaphorical oceans of despair? Well shit, son – have you considered you may be suffering from a mundane neurochemical imbalance, and a round of the right meds could clear that right up for you?

It does all this without breaking the atmosphere, without a whiff that our story has been interrupted for a Very Special Message about mental health.

In the near-decade since I was first prescribed anti-depressants, I don’t think I’ve read another story that lands the message “Sometimes, it’s not you, it’s just your brain chemistry,” so well.

Fair warning: if you have not read The Hunger, I am about to spoil every major plot point. If you have, well, maybe I can still give you a new appreciation for a few details you might have missed.

It’s a strange book, whatever else you take from it. It’s almost the only thing either author or artist contributed to the Venom canon, and it’s so different stylistically and tonally from the 90′s Venom norm that it feels like a tale from some noir-elseworlds setting instead of 616 canon. When you take risks that big with a property, you leave yourself precious little landing space between 'unmitigated triumph’ and ‘abject failure’: if this book hadn’t absolutely nailed it, I’d be dismissing it as edgy, OOC dreck. Fortunately, if The Hunger is nothing else, it is a story that $&#@ing commits – to basically everything it does.

Now, I'm not going to tell you Venom: The Hunger is a story about overcoming depression, because I don't know whether author Len Kaminski even thought about it that way while working on it. There's always space for other readings, and this one take is not gospel. That said: holy shit is this thing unsubtle with its metaphors. And with that in mind, let’s start by talking a little about Kaminski’s take on Eddie himself.

As I may have mentioned before, I like to divide 90′s Eddie into two broad personas: the Meathead, and the Hobo.

Kaminski’s Eddie nominally belongs in the angsty, long-haired Hobo incarnation, but that’s a bit of a simplification: this version certainly has plenty of angst and plenty of hair to his name – but nowhere, not even at his lowest ebb, does he doubt that he and his Other are meant for each other, which is usually Hobo!Eddie’s primary existential quandary.

He’s also taken up narrating his own life like a hardboiled PI.

So that’s... novel.

The only other time Eddie’s sounded like this is, er, in that one other Venom one-shot Kaminski penned (Seed of Darkness, a prequel that sadly isn’t in The Hunger’s league), so I think we can safely file it under authorial ticks.

Then again, Hobo!Eddie’s always been one melodramatic SOB, so maybe this is just how he’d sound after learning to channel his angst into his poetry. You can’t argue it fits the aesthetic, anyway.

We’d also be remiss not to mention Ed Halsted’s art, which I can only describe as gothic-meets-noir-meets-H.R.-Giger. Never before or since has the alien symbiote looked this alien: twisted with Xenompoph-like ridges and veins.

But Halsted doesn’t treat Venom to all that extra detail in every panel. Instead, the distortion tends to appear when the symbiote is separated from Eddie or out of control – and I doubt you need me to walk you through the symbolic importance of that creative decision. More importantly, Halsted’s art provides exactly the class of visuals that Kaminski’s story needs.

Did I mention this is a horror story? You might be surprised how few Venom stories really fit that genre, but if all those adjectives about Halsted’s style above didn’t clue you in, this is one of them.

Anyway, with that much context covered, let’s get into the main narrative of this thing.

As our first issue opens, Eddie’s world has become a dark and foreboding place. He’s not sleeping, though he mostly brushes this off. (Fun fact: trouble sleeping is one of those under-appreciated symptoms of depression. Additional fun fact: the first doctor ever to suggest I might be suffering from depression was actually a sleep specialist. You can guess how that appointment was going.)

Just to set our scene, here’s all of page 1.

Eddie’s narration has plenty of (ha) venom for his surroundings, but the visuals are here to back him up: panels from Eddie’s POV are edged in twisted, fleshy borders and drained of colour, the people rendered as creepy, goblin-like creatures. A couple of later scenes go even further to contrast Eddie-vision with what everyone else is seeing:

As depictions of depression go this is a little on the nose, but then, you don’t read a comic about a brain-eating alien parasite looking for subtlety, do you?

Eddie  doesn’t see himself as depressed, of course. As far as he’s concerned, he’s seeing the world’s true face: it’s everyone else who’s deluding themselves. He’s still got his symbiote, so he’s happy. He’s yet to hit that all-important breaking point where something he can’t brush off goes irrevocably wrong.

But he’s also starting to experience these weird... cravings.

He just can’t put a name to exactly what he’s craving until a routine bar fight with a couple of thugs takes a turn for the horrific.

(I include this panel partly to point out even in The Hunger, the goriest of all 90′s Venom titles, you’re still not going to see brains getting eaten in any graphic detail. We don’t need to to get the horror of the moment across. The 90′s were a more innocent time.)

Eddie himself is horrified when he comes back to himself and realises what he’s done.

Or rather, what his symbiote’s just made him do.

Kaminski doesn’t keep us in suspense about why, though. Eddie may have just done something horrific, but there’s a reason, and it’s as mundane as a vitamin deficiency. He’s bonded to an alien creature, after all, and his symbiote is craving a nutrient which just happens to be found in human brains. And if Eddie can’t or won’t help it meet that need, it’ll do so alone. 

Now, giving us that explanation so quickly is an interesting creative decision: this is a horror story, and horror lives in what we don’t know. Wouldn’t it be all the more horrifying had the symbiote been unable to explain what’s going on, leaving Eddie without the first real clue as to where this monstrous new hunger had come from?

The Hunger doesn’t take that route though, and I love it. Eddie isn’t a monster, this isn’t his fault: he has a fucking condition, and wallowing in his own moral failings is going to get him nowhere. You might as well try to cure scurvy or rickets with positive thinking. Just like depression can make you feel like an utter failure at the most basic parts of being human, and all the affirmations in the world won’t fix it when it’s fundamentally your brain chemistry that’s the problem. Or like addicts aren’t weak-willed for struggling not to relapse, they’re dealing with genuine chemical dependency – or even like how someone who’s trans isn’t at fault for being unable to reconcile themselves to the bodies and the hormones they were born with by pure force of trying. Free will is more than an illusion, but we’re all messy, biological organisms underneath, and your own brain and biochemistry can and will fuck you over in a hundred wildly different ways for as many wildly different reasons and it’s not your fault.

We aren’t monsters. But if we do, sometimes, find ourselves identifying with the monster, there might be a reason for that.

(Ahem)

I’m just saying, that’s fucking powerful, and we need more stories that say it.

Anyway, in case you missed it during that tangent, issue #1 closes with the symbiote having torn Eddie’s heart in two itself free to go hunting brains without him.

I’m trying not to get too sidetracked at this point talking about Kaminski’s take on the symbiote itself. Suffice to say there are broadly two schools of thought on how it ought to function while separated from its host: the traditional ambulatory-slime-puddle version, and the more recently popular alternative where anything-you-can-do-with-a-host-you-can-also-do-without-one. I’m not much of a fan of the latter, personally: if your symbiote doesn’t actually need a host, I feel you’ve sort of missed the point. (The movie takes the route of saying symbiotes can’t even process Earth’s atmosphere without a host, which is a great new idea that appears nowhere in the comics, and I love it. Hosts or GTFO, baby!)

Kaminski has his own take, and I can only wish it had caught on. Without Eddie, the symbiote becomes an ever-shifting insectoid-tentacle-snake-monstrosity, driven by an animalistic hunger. It’s many things, but it’s never humanoid.

If you absolutely must have your symbiote operating minus a host, I feel this is the way to do it: semi-feral, shapeless and completely alien (uncontrollable violence and cravings for brains to be added to taste).

Issue #2 comes to us primarily through the perspective of the mild-mannered Dr. Thaddeus Paine of the Innsmouth Hills Sanitarium (yes, really).

Yeah, he’s not fooling anyone. Meet our official villain! He joins our story after Eddie is picked up by the police and handed off to the nearest available institution, on account of how completely sane and rational he’s been acting.

Naturally, Dr. Paine soon has copious notes on Eddie’s ‘crazy’ story about his psychic link to a brain-eating alien monster. Fortunately for Eddie, Paine also runs some tests and makes an interesting discovery. 

Congratulations, Venom: the ‘vitamin’ you were missing officially has a name!

Finding the right meds isn’t always this easy. I got lucky – the first ones my psych put me on worked pretty well – but I have plenty of friends who weren't so lucky. In fact, the treatment for Eddie's problems is so straightforward it arguably has more in common with, say, endocrine disorders like thyroid conditions or Addison’s disease, which differ from clinical depression but present many similar symptoms (but can sadly be just as much of a bitch to get correctly diagnosed – please do read author Maggie Stiefvater’s account of the latter when you get the chance, because forget Venom, that is a horror story).

‘True’ depression remains much less well understood by medicine, either in its causes or how to effectively treat it. But simply having a name for what was wrong with me made so much difference, and that’s an experience I imagine anyone who’s dealt with any long undiagnosed medical condition could relate to. It put my life in context in a way nothing else had in years.

(I can’t speak to the accuracy of the way phenethylamine is portrayed in this comic – a quick google suggests there may be some real debate that phenethylamine deficiencies have been overlooked as a contributor to clinical depression, but having no medical background, that one’s well beyond me. Either way, scientific accuracy really doesn’t matter in this context – it’s how it works in-universe for story purposes that we should pay attention to.)

Since this issue is mostly from Paine’s POV, we don’t get Eddie’s reaction to having a healthy amount of phenethylamine sloshing around in his brain again, just the assurance that treatment appears to be ‘completely successful’.

He’s still a paranoid, hostile bastard though. Meds can turn your life around, but they won’t make you not you.

But even if Eddie’s feeling better, he’s still psychically linked to someone who isn’t. Symbiote-vision still comes through drained of colour and edged in viscera.

That’s the thing about meds: they won’t solve all your problems overnight. If you’ve been depressed for a while, there are good odds you have problems stacking up. But working meds can be a godsend when it comes to getting you into a space where you can deal with your problems again, whether said problems are doing-your-laundry or all the way into not-giving-up-completely-and-just-accepting-you’ll-die-alone-on-the-street.

For Eddie, ‘dealing with his problems’ begins with stealing a keycard and busting out of the asylum.

Of course, that’s the easy part. How do you solve a problem like a feral symbiote? Like any good 90′s comic book protagonist, Eddie tackles it by putting on his big-boy camouflage pants and kitting himself out with weapons and pouches while quoting “If you live something, set it free. If it doesn’t come back, hunt it down.”

We can add this to the list of things I love about this comic. Even if The Hunger is a weirdly-stylistic tract about depression at heart, it’s also still a goddamn 90′s Venom comic, and not ashamed to be.

We’re into issue #3 now, and back to hearing the story from Eddie’s POV.

Eddie is very much aware that his symbiote has murdered innocent people while they’ve been separated. Even if this is the result of extreme circumstances, there’s a good case to be made that the symbiote is too dangerous to be allowed to live. Plenty of heroes would treat it like a rabid dog at this point.

But Eddie isn’t a hero, he’s a mess of a character and an anti-hero at best, so we don’t have to hold him to the same standard. He’s well aware his symbiote may be too far gone to save, that he may have to put it down – but that’s only his backup plan. He wants to help it. He wants it back. He’s down in that sewer with screamers and a flamethrower because he knows all his symbiote’s weaknesses, but he’s also carrying a large jar of black-market synthesised phenethylamine, because if he can just get close enough...

Depression can’t make you a literal monster, but it can make you an asshole. Miserable to be around, lacking even the energy to care who else you’re hurting. The depression doesn’t excuse that, but it makes everything harder, and it’s that much easier to sink back into your spiral when everyone around you has given up. It can make you think everyone around has given up even if that isn’t true.

So to have Eddie here say, in effect, I don’t care how many people you’ve eaten, I know it wasn’t your fault. I still love you. You’re still worth fighting for – god, does that get me right in the id.

There’s still a whole issue left at this point – we’ve still got to deal with our real villain, Dr. Paine, who we’ve just learned is into eating brains himself and torturing his patients recreationally, and who wants to capture the symbiote for his own purposes. There’s the scene where Eddie and his symbiote finally bond again, and Venom beats up all Paine’s goons while singing David Bowie because like I said, this is still a 90′s superhero comic and this is what Venom does.

But for our purposes, I'm going to skip to the penultimate page of the story, because the way it mirrors our opening page is really lovely.

Remember that shot of Eddie dealing with a beggar back at the beginning of the story, thinking about how these people would 'get their despair all over you'? Here he is again, cheerfully forking over the last dollar in his pocket to the next man to ask him for change. For all the gothic atmosphere and gore, it’s moments like this that make The Hunger easily one of the most positive, uplifting Venom stories ever written. Funny, that. (I could probably write a whole other essay on sympathy for the homeless as a recurring motif in Venom stories, but that... well, whole other essay and all that.)

What’s Eddie learned from this experience? Don’t take your symbiote for granted. Is ‘symbiote’ a metaphor for mental health here, is paying attention to its needs an allegory for paying attention to your own? I still don’t know how literally Kaminski meant us to take this, but it’s a lovely note to end on no matter how you parse it.

At the end of the day, The Hunger isn’t flawless. The conflict with Paine ends on a thematic but slightly unsatisfying note. Eddie makes much of his symbiote's loneliness and desire for union, but when the two of them are finally reunited, the only reaction comes from Eddie's side. In fact, the symbiote seems to have no response to being able to return to Eddie at all, and that’s an omission that bugs me.

But Kaminski is more interested than any other writer of the era in the truly alien nature of the symbiote, in its relationship with Eddie from Eddie’s side, and though plenty of others talk about the symbiote's love/hate relationship with Spider-man, no-one else had the guts to portray their relationship this much like a romance.

And Venom: The Hunger is no less interesting in the context of Len Kaminski’s other work. You don't have to look far into his Marvel and DC credits to pick up that the guy has a real thing for monsters. (“All of my favourite characters are outlaws, misfits, anti-heroes,” he says, in one of the very few interviews I could find with him, “I wouldn't know what to do with Superman.”) He's written for vampires, werewolves, victims of mad science, and all of three at once, littering his work with biochemistry-themed technobabble, melodramatic monologues, gratuitous pop-culture references, and protagonists who must learn to embrace their inner demons. So The Hunger represents more than a few of his favourite running themes.

For our context, his more notable other work includes Children of the Beast, in which a werewolf must make peace between his human and animalistic sides, and The Creeper, in which a journalist must make peace with the crazy super-powered alter-ego sharing his body. In fact, The Creeper and The Hunger share so much DNA (including an evil doctor posing as a respected psychiatrist who uses hypnosis on our hero while he's trapped in a mental institution) that it’s quite the achievement that they still feel like such very distinct entities beyond that point.

The human alter-egos of both werewolf and Creeper even use prescription meds while wrestling with their respective dark sides. The difference, in both cases, is that these are stories where meds play their traditional fictional role – and that's a role that could be as easily filled by illegal drugs or alcohol without making any substantive difference. You see, if a protagonist is using them, it's a sign of unwillingness to tackle their 'real' problems. Even among work by the same author in the same genre, The Hunger represents an outlier. And that's just a little disappointing – at least to me.

In real life, of course, prescription meds are no magical cure-all elixir. Depression meds that work for one person may not work for another, or may not keep working in the longer term. Everyone has heard stories about quack doctors who prescribe them to the wrong patients for the wrong reasons, about lives ruined by addictions to prescription painkillers, or the supposedly-damning statistics about how poorly SSRI's perform in rigorous clinical trials. The proper way to treat depression is obviously with lifestyle and therapy. People will still airily dismiss medications that we all know previous generations got along just fine without, or suggest that figures like Van Gogh would never have created great art if they hadn't been mad enough to slice off an ear. I mean, the fact you think you need those bogus mediations is probably the best possible sign of just how broken you are, right? Who do you think you’re kidding?

Our popular fiction loves stories about manly men who bury their trauma under a gruff, anti-social exterior and come back swinging at the world that broke them, bravely refusing even painkillers that might dull their manly reflexes. Other genres make space for broken people confronting their demons in grand moments of catharsis, finally breaking down into tears when someone gets through to make them face their problems. "I could barely make it out of bed in the mornings until I found a doctor who started me on this new prescription" is not only wildly counter to the accepted social narrative, it's a hard thing to know how to dramatise.

 Even other Venom comics have been guilty of this.

Believe me, I recognise all of this, and just how much progress we've made in the last few decades. But I haven't the slightest doubt that for so many vulnerable people, the stigma against prescription medications does infinitely more harm than those same meds could ever do. And just having the right to externalise my problems into it's not you, it's your brain chemistry, may have helped me more than the meds themselves.

(And again, no, being prescribed SSRI's didn't fix me overnight, but I honestly don't know if all the talk therapy and tearful conversations with family members in the world could've got me as far as I've come without them.)

I love Venom: The Hunger. It's no-one's idea of high art, but it doesn’t need to be. There is a whole other post’s worth of things I love about it that I’ve already cut out this one as pointless tangents, and that may actually be it’s biggest drawback as a go-to example: I fully recognise that I would not be making this post if The Hunger hadn't also also grabbed me as a great bit of Venom canon, being the massive fan and shipper that I am. Other people who are just as desperate as me for more stories with the same core theme, but not into weird 90's comics about needy goo aliens, probably won't get nearly as much out of it as I have.

But if it sounds anything like your jam, maybe you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

If nothing else, it proves that you can make a viscerally satisfying story out of a message that shockingly unconventional. And you may even have people still discovering it and falling in love with it 25 years after the fact.

[tomasorban]

THE ZODIAC: GEMINI THE TWINS

Date of Rulership: 21st May-22nd June; Polarity: Positive, male; Quality: Mutable; Ruling planet: Mercury; Element: Air; Body part: Arms, hands, shoulders, collarbone and lungs; Colour: Yellow; Gemstone: Agate; Metal: Mercury.

In the first two zodiacal signs, we saw raw formative powers associated with the beginnings of complex life. Like all rudimentary organisms, Aries set the wheel of heaven into motion with a Big Bang of pure spontaneity and creative activity. Taurus then neutralized these fiery irruptions of vital life force by stitching together an earthenware blanket that funnelled them away from the rest of the cosmic banter, enough to stubbornly work up a sense of self-discipline so that Life could achieve some multiple and visionary aims. Whatever else they may be, Ares and Taurus are intensely self-focused, self-styled, self-serving, and self-motivated. For General Aries and Commander-in-chief Taurus, it’s all about self and satisfaction of self. This all changes with Gemini, a sign which forces a binocular split of life’s hitherto monocular vision; pure instinct has now relegated its position to a rudimentary intelligence acquired through observation and past experience.

Facilitated by a split into two distinct entities than inhabit the space of one conscious being, this formative power is all about mental dialogue and communication. It orientates itself in the world by observing the actions and reactions of others around it, pocketing them into airtight pigeonholes as past memories, and then calculating the direction and angle of its own movement accordingly. Gemini is uninhibited, brave, experimental and multidimensional in its habits. Why race along a straight line at the speed of a bullet train like Aries or dawdle along a perpendicular one to that like Taurus when there are innumerable other options available. Gemini won’t follow a tribal leader or top dog or father figure when it comes to paving out its own life path. Instead it might take a few vigorous little steps forward, take a lunge to the side, trace out a zigzag course diagonally and then proceed to trace out circles on the spot. It needs to experience things from different angles and vantage points; Gemini might start off swimming across an uncharted ocean one minute before deciding that’s its best to grow wings and fly over it instead. Minutes into the flight it might decide that sailing, an endeavour that didn’t quite appeal at first, is indeed a superior option. In the end it decides it doesn’t really want to embark on a lengthy journey to a foreign land and so transmutes itself into a feather which floats about for some time before settling on the surface of an oscillating sea. At any rate, the courses of action it chooses never quite last for extended periods as such, for consistency and method bore the mercurially-natured Gemini. This zodiacal sign exudes mutable energy and derives from ethereal air, and so people born beneath the stars of its constellation are likely resemble breezes and tempests, scattering bits of themselves everywhere but never quite committing or infusing themselves wholly into one specific avenue of inquiry, goal or task. Like air, the “souls” born under Gemini can be wistful, light-hearted and frivolous or tumultuous, dangerous, blind and irrational, depending on which way the daily current blows. And like all lovers of brain noise, they love talking to themselves, to one another, and to everyone else, irrespective of whether their listeners are attentive or not.

“Why would you want to be an Arian or Taurean when you can be me,” says Gemini. “I’m quite the bargain you see. I’m double trouble, two twins that think they’re the same person. With me, you get two pairs of hands, legs, brains, and anything else that tickles your fancy. You’ll never be bored, not even at Sunday Christenings or conventional weddings. Sometimes, you might even feel like you’re an honoured guest at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Of course, I’m the one who gets to pick the roles and tell everyone how it’s going to work; I get to play the Mat Hatter who entertains everyone with my nonsensical riddles, entangles myself in a verbal labyrinth of speaking out aloud, and laughs at my own jokes. You, my friend, can be the passive observer who doesn’t utter a word yet pretends to be interested. Okay? A little bit of this and a little bit of that will keep things interesting and our bodies looking youthful, so let’s get stuck into it.  When I want answers about why things are the way they are make certain that what comes out of your mouth is short and sweet; I don’t have the patience for verbosity, longwinded soliloquys or esoteric philosophies for that matter. I find academics, intellectuals and anyone with depth to them intimidating and sometimes excruciatingly boring.  I’m a bit like a dogmatic religion sometimes; anything that stands outside my sphere of knowledge frightens me so. Hihi… I know I can be an annoying pain in the neck but I’ll make up for it by acting as your third eyes and ears. You’ll be the first to know the latest gossip on what your enemies are all up to, and that way you can remain that one step ahead of them and look twice, if not four times as bright. When I’m feeling blue, you’ll start getting all the “why” and “what” questions, one after the other. But don’t worry, seldom do I have downers and you’ll love my blasé attitude to the human condition. What of the human condition could ever be of any importance anyway…?’  

Gemini is all about the law of twos–dual states of consciousness and mind, a propensity for double vision. One is inwardly turned, tuned into an internal world of thought, memory and imagination, and the other is outwardly turned, thriving in the exterior realm of verbal communication and physical contact. Geminis have an innate talent for living in both at the same time, and can flit between the subjective and objective planes as effortlessly and mindlessly as a circus clown juggling a quartet of coloured balls. This indicates a profound talent for mimicry and deception; they can counterfeit the emotions, feelings and images projected by others to perfection and wear them with such authentic conviction as to attract an Academy Award nomination. Hence Geminis usually make good actors and actresses, and can be quite successful in the denomination of visual arts.

The eternal unrest of their dual vision confers a supernal power seldom realised by any of the other zodiacal archetypes; the ability to chance upon reality through sheer intuition, or to encounter it with the aid of scientific instruments and measurements. A young Gemini is just as likely to become a shy and unobtrusive female artist as it is a dominant and poised male scientist. Sometimes, he or she might turn out to be a bit of both. In fact, the duality of being can be such a dominant characteristic in their psychic makeup that one can easily be fooled into thinking that there’s two individual and well-developed personalities trapped inside the same body. In encompassing polygonal and multilayered views of reality, they come equipped with a valuable philosophy that is easily transposed to a more practical level. Gemini understands that rationality offers the best lens through which life should be viewed. Rationality bestows upon its viewer a sense of providence, the feeling that life is a previous gift not to be wasted. Physical or emotional ideals distort it and imprison one within their own worries and troubles, so much in fact that one might begins to feel that life isn’t quite worth the struggle or effort anymore. Gemini’s inclination to avoid this way of thinking makes its existence a happy and harmonious one.      

If Gemini were to be represented by a different totem, it would no doubt have been the butterfly. The latter is a symbol of transformation; it begins life as larva, grows into a caterpillar, and eventually undertakes a major transformation to become a butterfly. The soul of Gemini is like a butterfly, a light-hearted and transient winged entity that flits about here, there, and everywhere, never quite knowing what to do or where to stop. Wings imply breadth of experience and freedom, a quality quite dear to Gemini; freedom abhors law, especially laws of censorship that restrict its self-expression and development. The way of Gemini is not compatible with conservative views, or moral ones even. Like the ephemeral butterfly, people born under this sign can display flashes of ingenuity but rarely does it last. This is probably a by-product of its ruling planet, Mercury, which renders it restless, somewhat unstable, volatile, and most importantly, protean.

Like Aries and Taurus, there are also two symbols associated with the zodiacal sign of Gemini. The first, a pictorial representation of two figures holding hands, has been a subject of some controversy. Astrologers can’t seem to get their heads around whether the pair are two males, two females, a male and a female, androgynous beings, and what the nature of the relationship between the two actually is; are they fraternal twins, identical twins, or unrelated lovers? The ancient cultures were just as divided on this issue as we are today: the ancient Babylonians and Greeks perceived the respective constellation as an image of male twins; the ancient Egyptians, on the other hand, were convinced it was a male-female pair; the primordial Indians saw star-crossed lovers; and the Imperial Romans saw their gods, the Delphic twins Apollo and Diana. The renowned Tarot identifies them as two lovers. Irrespective of gender or relationship status these figures were always depicted with their arms interlinked, illuminating the concept of harmony, internal and external cohesion, and requited love. The second symbol is a shorthand version utilized by astrologers in the creation of horoscopes and is comprised of two upright columns conjoined along the top and bottom. This sign, as the exposition has thus far revealed, has everything to do with duality of being and with the conunctionis or marriage of opposites. Esoterically, one might choose to view this glyph as a conjunction of the Chinese yin and yang or the alchemical mercury and sulphur.  It is also a fine representation of an inexplicable link between an upper, heavenly realm of spirits, ideas, and telepathic communication and a lower, earthly plane of concrete and clearly demarcated physical forms.

Both signs draw attention to the fundamental nature of complex life. The one becomes two and the two become one again. Everything that exists in the cosmos seeks contact, union, and co-existence with an immediate likeness without having to forfeit its own identity or personality in the process. Both signs represent opposition and conjunction, and both draw attention to a mortal state of division whose primary purpose is to reconcile all opposites within itself and unite with God. Of course the condition of being alienated from one’s source also has the adverse effect of inciting restlessness and mental agility.

[thebandcampdiaries]

DS Westwood - Good Vibes Only

A catchy single combining hip-hop with electronic music, pop, and other interesting musical influences.

DS Westwood is an artist and songwriter whose music combines the energy of hip-hop with the timeless melodies of pop music. Recently, he released a brand new single titled “Good Vibes Only.” As the title of this release might imply, this is actually a very positive song with a unique twist and a stunning atmosphere. The electronic backdrop is modern and fresh and DS has got a really special lyrical flow. In fact, The brand new project marks a significant step forward for the artist, a true milestone that showcases growth and creative vision. there are so many interesting ideas here, and DS Westwood knows how to seamlessly bridge the divide between different musical styles, giving his audience a truly special experience. On top of that, DS has a killer vocal tone,  displaying a very dynamic vocal style that brings energy and vibrancy to the table, seamlessly blurring the lines between different styles and ideas.

What’s special about “Good Vibes Only” is that it comes from a  relatively simple idea, yet the arrangement ended up being sophisticated and intelligent, without compromising in terms of its immediacy and passion.

The song was also released in tandem with a matching music video, which was incredibly well-filmed, giving the song a really perfect visual companion. If you are a fan of artists as diverse as Pitbull, Kendrick Lamar, Logic, or Drake, you are definitely going to enjoy “Good Vibes Only,” and DS Westwood’s work in general.

Find out more about DS Westwood, and listen to “Good Vibes Only,” which is now available on the web:

https://youtu.be/aQzTOnrsKPc

We also had the chance to catch up with the artist: keep reading for our full interview!

I love how you manage to render your tracks so personal and organic. Does the melody come first, or do you focus on the beat the most?

Answer: When I am composing: the beat always comes first and when I’m really inspired by the beat I am making then the melody and the flow both follow

Do you perform live? If so, do you feel more comfortable on a stage or within the walls of the recording studio?

Answer: At the moment I am not performing live - I’ve done quite a few shows in the past but being a bit of an introvert I really love to be in the studio.

If you could only pick one song to make a “first impression” on a new listener, which song would you pick and why?

Answer:  If I were to pick one song it would be the one I just released called: “Good vibes Only” because I find it’s a good introduction of who I am as a person and I just like good vibes. The other reason is that I find that the song is very catchy and I’m quite sure most people at a certain point in their life can relate to this track and I simply want to share happiness and good vibes with the rest of the world.

What does it take to be “innovative” in music?

Answer: To me, I believe that to be innovative first of all you need to be different from the rest by creating a new sound and an authentic sound that others may have not experimented before and by doing that, I think it’s important to let go of any fear and to go with the flow and try out new sounds, flows, vibrations which will lead to creating something brand new and that to me is innovating because as an artist you are not copy-pasting someone else’s work, style or voice and you are only being yourself at the end.

Any upcoming release or tour your way?

Answer: Currently I do not have any planned tour dates so that will be something I will definitely look at in the future. My main focus at the moment is to continue working on branding myself as an artist and to also build a solid fan base. I do have a full album ready and my plan is to release a single on a monthly basis so that also I am able to reach out to the maximum amount of people and fans as possible so that they can appreciate my music for what it really is.

Anywhere online where curious fans can listen to your music and find out more about you?

Answer: Of course! My team and I are ensuring that my website is updated with all the related news, upcoming projects, and new blog content, videos, photoshoots and everything related to my music. Anyone is welcome to visit my social media contacts and links through the portal: www.dswestwood.com

[promomagazine]

Quick Q&A with Irina Dzhus | Fashion Designer & Brand Owner

By Michael Suber | CEO & Founder of Promo Magazine

 -What & Who is DZHUS?

DZHUS is a Ukraine-based conceptual womenswear brand, run by me, designer Irina Dzhus. 

-What is your typical day when running a brand like yours?

Every my day is different from another one. Besides multitasking for the brand (I do design, patternmaking, art direction, branding, graphic design, styling, sales, pr and some other directions), I also work as a fashion stylist and makeup artist for local and international projects.

My timetable is very tight, but, at the same time, very changeable, because great opportunities always occur very spontaneously, as well as unexpected concerns.

I almost never have weekends, but my everyday life is diverse and exciting, so I don't regret having no time for hobbies.

-In a brief description, how do you approach the business side of fashion when you first started?

Finding balance between creativity and business has never been easy, but for me it's very interesting to combine the unique concepts DZHUS is recognised by and absolute wearability of the garments. When I'd just released my first collections, there was quite a dilemma in which direction to move in the brand's development, as DZHUS had many followers, but this popularity didn't influence the sales - our audience tended to admire the designs but not buy those for themselves.

When, eventually, I got an order from The Hunger Games' stylists team, I have clearly realised that, although the level of this collaboration was very flattering to me and I was happy to make some pieces for them, costume design wasn't my ambition. What I wanted to create was intellectually designed ready-to-wear, which independently thinking and spiritual personalities would use in their everyday reality. Since then, I've changed the course of DZHUS' identity and presentation so that our products became completely utilitarian although featuring unique cut concepts and our followers don't feel any concerns to wear them.

 -As the owner, do you see yourself more on the design side or more on the business side? Or is it pretty much balanced?

Fashion design has been my dream since I was 5, so, naturally, I see myself much more on the design side. However, the brand cannot exist without the business side, so I had to learn how to manage that aspect as well. Eventually, now design as such takes probably about 10% of my time, whereas the rest has been spent on different kinds of management as well as other creative processes, such as graphic design, styling etc.

-Were there any setbacks to getting your label off the ground? How did you overcome that?

So far, the financial aspect has been our biggest issue. Although we have good sales, DZHUS is a niche brand, so our audience is initially very limited, yet still, the brand's development requires very big investment, to eventually maximise recognition and demand among these potential customers. It's such a challenge for an emerging brand to survive this period.

To me, creating innovative designs is a piece of cake in comparison to that business aspect.

-Who are your target consumers & how do you get them to look at your products?

A DZHUS woman is an independently-thinking intellectual who treats clothes as embodiment for their unique inner world.

Besides international concept stores where our collections are stocked, our customers often discover us for themselves on fashion press and social media. Many of our clients come from leading architectural and design platforms' audience, as our styles often get featured there as well, because of their architectural aesthetics.

-Obviously you created a unique brand, we would like to know if you collaborated with anyone to help you produce such a phenomenal collection?

I always do all of the design part by myself. The seasonal DZHUS collections are created by our team only, but from time to time we release capsule lines, designed by me in collaboration with other brands or within projects that I find interesting and familiar to DZHUS aesthetics and philosophy.

-How would you describe yourself as a person & artist?

I am a desperate perfectionist and a radical nonconformist. Whatever I do will refer to certain principles of my individual worldview, which is very different from the nowadays archetypes. 

I don't divide my personality and my professional activity - moreover, my design has always been the only means of self-positioning for me.

-What made you so interested in becoming a fashion designer?

My enormous interest in apparel design has appeared in early childhood, so now it's hard to define a particular reason. To me as a child and a teenager, it felt very natural to spend every spare minute sketching outfits, so I just don't know what it's like to live without this need.

-Do you have a favourite designer who inspires you? Why is that?

I adore early Margiela and Yamamoto, because of their ingenuous and revolutionary approach to cut and fashion as such. Something as different from anything else can hardly be found in the nowadays fashion.

-What story are you trying to convey through your designs?

Spirituality and technologies are the main sources of inspiration for me and this mix forms the identity of DZHUS. All things I get inspired with, be it ancient iconography or industrial uniform, have another, deeper meaning besides of their obvious visual peculiarity. These objects embody certain social, psychological aspects that balance on the edge of mental and spiritual perception. Their controversial ethos helps push the boundaries of conscience.

I deeply analyse an object that inspires me, extract the crucial details, interpret them and, using these modules, construct a utilitarian product with an artistic soul.

I concentrate on the very essence of the garment I create, play up the characteristic features and the emotional content of my source of inspiration in the structure, texture and fabric finishes of my design.

As a result, an independent artistic existence lies in the core of every garment, a pure avant-garde cosmos with its own principles and structures.

-Did you ever see yourself to be so successful in establishing a known brand?

I knew I would launch a fashion brand since I was 5. At 15, I've made up my mind on what its aesthetics would be like. So, frankly speaking, for me this has always been the only acceptable life scenario.

-Tell me about your latest collection. What was your vision when you created it?

DZHUS Spring/Summer 2017 line, “Carbon”, is dedicated to the phenomenal element that forms the key component for all known life on Earth. Carbon is a quintessence of black, the fundamental colour of DZHUS’ identity. Carbon is coal, traditionally mined in Ukraine, my homeland. The workers’ rigid routine, uniform and stern industrial constructions have inspired the surly, utilitarian leitmotif of the designs. Carbon is graphite, used to draw harsh lines and delicate shadings, which have embodied in contoured edges and sheer textures of DZHUS monochrome garments. Carbon is ashes, which will remain when we are gone, as a symbol of life’s fragility and the eternal cycle of nature.

 -To be a designer, you had to undergo a lot of struggles. What was the most difficult obstacle for you when putting together your collection?

With my early collections, I used to convey very edgy industrial aesthetics. My work often got featured on blogs and social media, however, DZHUS had much more admirers than real customers. Moreover, I've gained a reputation of a futuristic costume designer, which had never been my aim, even despite my collaboration with The Hunger Games and some celebrities. What I always wanted to create was a conceptual fashion product worn by intelligent and independent individuals in their everyday life.

Having realised that I had to move further in my approach to design. I started to develop my technological skills, as well as my aesthetical taste and ethical worldview, and have reconsidered my vision of a modern fashion product. I found it even more exciting to adapt my innovative cut concepts to the ready-to-wear reality, in terms of customers' comfort and quality requirements. Now I mostly use natural fabrics, yet accompany those with my signature industrial-inspired finishes and accessories (I impregnate denim with rubber, bleach linen, pipe DZHUS’ signature exposed seams with elastic etc.) - and I see how people's impression of DZHUS has changed, along with increase of demand.

-If you could showcase your designs anywhere in the world, where would you start and why?

There are several concept stores I'd love to get stocked at most of all: Dover Street Market, 4, Antonioli, Daad Dantone, Ink Clothing, 24 of August and a few more. Their atmosphere and vision of fashion goes very much in line with DZHUS identity.

-Who excites you the most (Celebrity) & why?

I am very rarely inspired with people who I don’t know in person, neither I have celebrity idols.

What I’m always excited about are objects: their shape, surface, properties, origin and symbolical meaning.

-How is your brand different from any other designer brands?

The most important thing about my designs is their innovative and alternative cut. I perceive the world through the prism of its complex structure. In my constructions, I interpret shapes and silhouettes of various objects or phenomenons. These might be elements of architecture or human anatomy, but mostly, I'm into exploring metaphysical geometry: forms and voids around them, their contours, coordination and interaction, transformation and projections on to space.

The main ethical principle of my work is to fulfil only unique concepts that are worth production in our era of oversupply. Naturally, all of DZHUS products are cruelty-free and vegetarian-friendly.

-What are your world-dominating goals for DZHUS?

I always feel like there's an objective need for me to bring my innovative concepts to life, - a mission, if you want, - otherwise they would remain just a fantasy, whereas they deserve to be introduced to the world and to have their own independent existence and relations with people who understand and value them.

The other and probably even more important message I want to deliver with my designs is the necessity of being humane and future-oriented in the modern reality. By producing sustainable and cruelty-free fashion products and communicating them to intelligent and open-minded audience, I aspire to prove that it is possible to look edgy and avant-garde, yet remain in peace and harmony with the universe.

[dannick99]

18th Birthday - Landmark for Mom

Just do it. Just pick one and run with it, like the wind. No looking back. Pick your *1 *out of 20 to 25 viable creative ideas that have been stirring in your head for years and fleshing themselves out as you age and grow and learn. Take it and run with it -is what I keep hearing… From God and from good understanders of me and my ideas and  how I tick.   Run with it, WW! Like the wind. No looking back and questioning whether it was the right one to start with......or not. The others aren't going anywhere any time soon, hopefully(?). Just do it, I hear Nike reverberate between my ears.  Just take the first steps and God will bless it. God and  other "importants" in my life are well aware of my ADD 'stuck'  struggle for years.  Too much creativity flow at times can be a problem when life is already slam- jam packed, full of necessary responsibilities and life's  necessities beaming at you.   That rare gift can be a gift(ADD), a blessing to be thankful for, which I am, but it can be a curse in other ways. So they say, and I believe them more every new year, indecisiveness is for sissies.....so here I go… Out into the wild blue yonder of this "reveal yourself" blog world. With my music, writing, photography, painting, appreciation of all things beautiful and creative/artistic, all based in love and positivity, it's time to Flow🌬🌬🌈☀️ And to start on the night after my son's 18th birthday (appropriately sentimental, as it should be), i'm tending towards introspection.   First of all, I feel enormously blessed and gifted as a mom in the parenting department of my three. They're the only three I can speak for. Parenting is NOT for sissies, especially single parenting(🙃), or lazy or settled or self-centered or too-busy-to-get down-to-it parenting. Ha, or all of the above, for that matter.. Judge not that you be not judged :-&! I'm the last to throw stones, at anyone, for anything, especially parents. I have had my share of plenty well-deserved stones thrown and plenty not-so- deserved stones. Something my parents didn't tell me enough… Life isn't fair!  Don't expect it to be. Even when you make mistakes and you fess up. Or even when others who have left you come back and beg your forgiveness and fess up themselves, (although, admittedly, that part Does feel more fair;)!) If nothing else, being the target/the focus of the gossip tree, will humble you and teach you to look outside of the box when it comes to what I may hear about others. I don't succeed 100% of the time, but I try to hear it from all sources before I speak.  I'll make my own decisions based on proper, well gathered facts, thank you very much ;) So, BY THE WAY, welcome to my free-falling (Tom Petty style🎵) - mostly - unapologetic  first blog entry of 2017!! 🎬🏹🔛🥂🆓🈂🔓✒️📆📬🎉🔮💡⌛️🌠🛤🎡🗽🚥🚀🎤🍻🌛🌙🌒🌝🌻🐶👢💃💁🗣👉🏼👻🤔🙀👣🇺🇸☮️ On THAT note, I'm already apologizing…😑- lol. I'm not one to go on an emoticon binge like this, but I have to say it's a pretty good description....one by one by one.....of where this, my new stream of conscious blogging very well may lead! 9 and 17 are my lucky numbers, I was born on July 17 and my son was born on January 17. J and A seem to be my letters. Numbers are always coming into play in my life in the wildest of ways. And lately #1 has been pretty damn cool (but more on that later). Craziness with that number and I've got photographic proof! For months now… Weirdville, I'm telling you! But more coming...soooo much more later. On so many subjects! Flatlining has not been my norm. I was born and taught by all the right folks in my life along the way, definitely including my parents and family, a very strong message of "Love is the most motivating factor, think for yourself, make things better for everyone, be authentic at all costs, keep God first and then, truly, in all manner of things, all shall be well😇. I am no angel but a very gratefully content 53-year-old mother of an awesome grown daughter (28) and two sons I adore as well - 18 and 15. I've been divorced a time or two, which yes deductibly means I've been married a time or two. More to come on that subject. Ive never been afraid to take chances and speak my mind when strong opinions and convicted convictions submerge. That may just set the stage for the up and coming Blogtone (shouldn't that be the name of a band?!) as its gonna pour outta me a couple nights a week. I'll try to choose a theme each time (So many to choose from, and yes, I'm sorry - and happy- to tell you, if you don't know this about me, that I have significant ADD! ).  You'll see… If you look for it. Its that freefalling thing I was talking about earlier :-& Anyway, this blog (I hate that word!? Come on… What else can we call it??) will always be supported with photographs, quotes, lyrics, songs, videos, and hopefully good writing along the way. Its part of a vision/dream in the making and something I feel led to get a move on with right now! January 18, 2017. Without long intro, the subject of the night is my oldest son turning 18 yesterday. It's a definite thing to take note of as a parent and as an 18-year-old. We did last night. I have two sons and a daughter I adore equally. Really, for all their different reasons and beings. But tonight I want to honor my son who's become man. Because he deserves it. Here's my letter to Brade: You've been through a lot son, and I only see that you come out stronger. Yes, I am a proud mom and a pleased one with who I can see you are today. God knows I've been learning as I go with boys, but you have paved the way, Brady, and while I couldn't adore or respect your sister any more than I do, you have paved your own way and I have done my part and been able to sit back and be mightily impressed with who this little boy has turned into and applaud the decisions YOU've  made to be your own person. You are kind, loving, empathetic, stubborn, demanding at times, messy as hell, but somehow stay on top of it all just enough to pull off a darn good balance in being a good well-rounded human being. Your 18th birthday was and felt significant. You're my son, a friend, one of the greatest companions ever, and still learning, until the day you leave for college! And this last semester of your senior year seems to have freed you from all the burdens and responsibilities that have  fallen on your shoulders. Yay!!🎉. As you know, I'm already crying....just with your 18th birthday, graduation tears on the way (it's OK, you know your mama ;)). Anyway, the birthday night looked like it might not go super smoothly, but God had his hand in it and all went just perfectly👍🏼. Brady got to eat his favorite cake and eat it too. And more cake coming his way. The beauty of a divided family… Many many celebrations for someone we/they all love.  What can be better than to be loved that much that there are too many celebrations to plan in a birthday week?!❤😘. Now he's looking for the perfect present to give his best friend Cameron, whose birthday is around the corner and who has life-threatening melanoma. Cameron is my early-on dubbed "third son". Brady and Cot (my youngest and a true soul) and all of Cameron's closest friends are keeping him strong along with his incredible fighting spirit. He's going to beat the odds💥🎯#cameronstrong! All this in the middle of my daughter's long life BFF almost dying through childbirth a week ago. Very scary situation, Campbell took off work and went to Birmingham for a week to help, as any bestie would do ;)  through a gazillion prayers and a lot of true faith, and miracles no doubt, she is not only surviving but thriving and more and has been able more every day. Her baby Max is too!  Looked mighty mighty dicey there for a while. We are all Thanking God, literally. I am a single mother, with a good supportive father, who has my kids half the time, who tries hard to make a difference when I do have them (and every day I don't) in the ways I feel matter as far as raising the best absolute human beings to go into the world and contribute in all the right ways and feel good about themselves in the meantime - that's my style of kid raising. And I hope that they will always know that they can ask God for the answers and he will provide. Because he does and as, hopefully, they will I've seen enough of that after a while to really know they can believe in him and his goodness and his ways. Anyway, to sum up Blog No. 1, from my Deck of Declarations, i'll say that my views good. Life is hard at times. My children inspire me to be a better person, so I can keep teaching them about all the things that matter the most and being a good human being on this planet... whether they become a sports star, a corporate magnate, a starving artist of some sort, a sitcom writer, a Brooklyn bridge salesman, a waiter, a rapper or a baker, or anything else (other than a drug doer/dealer or a criminal