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the104
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Name: The 104
Location: United States
Birthday: 1/1/1980
Gender: Female
Interests: Being Famous, Not Being Bored, Drinking, Trying Not To Break Hearts, Being Just That Damn Cool, Music, Movies, Beer, Theatre, Bands, Concerts, Alcohol, Writing, Painting, Sleeping Late...In Our Underwear, Beverages
Expertise: Being Famous
Occupation: Artist
Industry: Media
Email: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
1/1/2006
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| So, remember how The 104 promised to start over on that "This Book Will Change Your Life" thing?
Yeah.
Anyhow, it seems that Val and Kitty have decided that with their busy
schedules, and their already awesomefullness (yes, their so cool they
can even make up words to describe it) that they don't need no steenkin' book! to make them famous. The plan now is to use it on occasion, or better yet, make their own adventures.
So that's exactly what Val did today.
The backstory is that Val decided a few weeks ago that she really
needed to find a new hobby so that she wasn't doing music and theatre
24/7. What to do, what to do. She was scouting around on
deviantArt again, thinking that photography might be kind of
interesting. But, so many options...what to specialize in?
Then it hit her. Her early love for archaeology combined with her
artistic nature with a spark of an adrenaline rush must equal:
Urban Exploration.
Yep. She's fallen in love with the idea of crawling into
abandoned buildings and taking pictures. So out on the road she
went. She spent some time down by the railroad tracks with no
luck, then finally braved out down the road to an abandoned house she
did know of, but was hesitant to hit because it was so close to a major
highway. But, low and behold, the area around the house had just
been cleared away, along with a big "Land for Sale" sign put up, so she
took that as a total invitation to 'check out the property' (which was
going to be her excuse if she got stopped by the police or a
well-meaning neighbor.) After hiding her car around back and
hastily snapping a few outside images, Val headed inside the cabin and
out of site of traffic.
Awesomeness awaited. No, it wasn't as mindboggling gorgeous as
some of the fantastic photographs she'd seen online, but for a first
time it was pretty cool (and definitely better than the few she had
crawled into as a child). There wasn't much left inside, save for
a few kitchen appliances, an ornate mirror, and what looked to be some
sort of rusted engine in the middle of the floor; but thankfully, it
had survived untouched by both taggers and squatters, so all in all it
was a good venue. She didn't stay too long since she didn't want
to risk much more, but she managed to get 4 reasonable shots out of the
30 or so she took before jetting off gleefully back home.
   
The Urbex obsession begins!
- V | | |
| (Because I've yet to meet someone who's actually kept one.)
sagittarius (Nov. 23rd-Dec. 21st)
Remember that old Bryan Adams video? (No, not Ryan Adams, Bryan with "B"
— yes, we're that old.) Anyway, we're talking about the
video with the hottest pock-face in music standing at the bottom of an
indoor pool, sans water. "Cut's Like a Knife," that's it. The video had this
woman change into her bathing suit, climb the ladder to the diving board,
and then jump off into the concrete pool. Next we see her climb out of the
pool, miraculously unscathed and soaking wet. Like magic. Still with us?
Okay, you are the chick in the video. But you don't have magical powers. So
the next time you jump head first into the pool of love before checking
whether or not there's any water in it, you might end up seriously hurt.
Your New Year's resolution: Wait at least fifteen minutes after eating
before you go swimming.
Today marks the one year anniversary that Val & Kitty moved into
their condo. So Val is going to go back to drinking now to
celibrate.
- V
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| So in proper post-Xmas feast fashion, Val is for the most part being
extremely lazy and chilling out on her parents' big fluffy couch in
front of the big screen TV. As always, she's attached at the hip
to her laptop, but this time she's having some fun instead of just
slogging through work.
Over the past couple of days she's been surfing around of art and
photography sites, looking for inspiration for future
photoshoots. So, in true Xmas cheer, she's decided to share with
you what she feels is some of the best work she's found both over the
past few days and past few years, spanning the range of photography and
digital art:
Nadya Lev has for awhile
been one of Val's favorite photographers. The work just speaks
for itself. And she gives a great big 'ditto' to both Lithium Picnic and Cynthia Rimmer
(aka Yveline). To only able to work with artists like
these! In a bit of contrast, Val also stumbled upon a
photographer by the name of Mr Motts who specializes instead on abandoned industrial and institution sites. Simply shivering and amazing.
In the realm of digital art, Val's been following the Seven Deadly Sins series by Blackeri
on deviantArt for quite awhile, and just this past week she's posted
the very last installment of that series. And in addition to her
photography, Yveline is also a digital airbrusher extraordinaire on dA with some truly remarkable paintings.
These are just a few links, but Val hopes that you, dearest readers,
can appreciate this work as much as she does. It takes a lot of
effort to follow dreams and to spend the time chasing what the world
may say is an ellusive dream.
To be honest, Val was so inspired that she took a little trip to the
local thrift store this morning (yes, she was an idiot and went
shopping the day after Xmas, oi!) to find some bits and pieces to
destroy and reassemble for something new. She actually had quite
a bit of success and is looking forward to doing some new work in her
upcoming shoots. Will you get to see these pictures, you might be
asking?
Maybe. 
Have a good and safe remainder of the holidays!
- V
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| Ok, Em & Lo, you are forgiven for your lateness when you give us a reading like this:
sagittarius (Nov. 23rd-Dec. 21st:
Oh! You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
We're telling you why:
Someone special's coming to town!
They'll spoon you when you're sleeping,
They'll screw when you're awake.
They'll spank you just because you're good,
So be good for sex's sake!
Kitty and Val are heading out in a bit to catch their friends The Monster Band
this evening. Damn amazing cover band, and let us tell you...that
girl can sing! If The Monster Band was a wine, The 104 would give them
five stars for sure.
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| Not only are Em & Lo two days behind on updating their horoscopes
for this week, but Cyanide & Happiness are on hiatus until after
the new year. What to do NOW?!?!?!
Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net
Good thing The 104 is still here, eh? Eh???
Yeah, that's what we thought. Anywho, this past month has been
pretty interesting. When Val isn't busy drinking or...or...doing
whatever else she does, she's a music promoter in real life.
She's had a bunch of shows lately, and is glad to have a break for
awhile. Music promotion kicks ass, by the way, but there are some
things lately that are really annoying her. She actually had an
interview for a possible MTV pilot yesterday, and one of the questions
was about the local scene, and how supportive bands are of each other.
From what Val has seen, local bands in general have been VERY
supportive of other artists in virtually all instances she's
noticed. She constantly watches bands work together to put on
shows,
offer to swap shows in various places, loan equipment when something
breaks, cross promote, etc. What she DOESN'T see are promoters
and DJs who do the same. She was pretty saddened, actually, to
get into the area and see how fractured the scene was, and to
essentially see a great majority of the "behind the scenes" folk
spend more time trying to
undercut other promoters and events than to promote their own clubs.
Now, she doesn't know about the rest of them, but Val didn't get into
the entertainment industry for money. She didn't get into it for
the fame. (Of course, if given the opportunity, she wouldn't turn
down either...not gonna lie about that!) But she does this first
and foremost because she loves music, and because it simply makes her
happy. And if a competing promoter gets a band in that she was
trying to get for her club or event...well, hell, that's one show she gets to go see without
having to work, right? She really wishes people would get back to
that original drive that we all had when we started this - to support
good bands. Watching another event, DJ, or promoter succeed
doesn't necessarily mean that everyone else fails.
To make a long story short, Val would just like everyone - no matter
what career or part of life you're in - to take a big step back and
appreciate the good things you do have, and not to be jealous or
worried about what everyone else has. If your success and
happiness is dependent on everyone else's failure and misery, then did
you really win?
Ok, moving on from the serious stuff (Val thinks Kitty is a lot better
at these subjects than she is); Val is having an extremely difficult
time with Xmas shopping. She's not particularly close with her
parents, and her family is in a position in life where they don't
really need anything.
Val is thinking the cop-out answer for her mother is just a few things
from Bath & Body Works, but that still leaves her dad. She is
open to suggestions, especially from you, our beloved internet watchers.
In conclusion (and in response to Kitty's last entry), Val thinks it's only fair to 'fess up and admit that she
is that goth chick that went to see Happy Feet with her parents over
Thanksgiving...and actually kinda liked it.
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