Interview with professional track cyclist and vegan hipster, Jack Lindquist

You graduated from Penn State with an Aerospace engineering degree and went to work for the defense industry before becoming a bike messenger and later going pro. Talk about "drop bars, not bombs," when did you first develop a love of cycling?

My love of cycling started as soon as I got my first bike. one of my earliest memories is flying down the hill in front of my grandparent's house, in upstate NY telling my grandma that 'this one is for speed' and not being able to stop before I went ass over tea kettle through her raspberry bushes! I've always loved riding, but didn't understand that there was any intermediate racing, because it wasn't available where I grew up. I thought there were Pro's, and then there were dudes that rode centuries, nothing in between.

You made the decision to go vegan 6 years ago. Why?

I went vegan after Megan (now my girlfriend, interestingly enough) asked me what the difference was between the love I had for my dog, The Reverend, and any animal that was on a farm ready to be slaughtered. I didn't have an answer, so that was that. If nothing I am very driven by logic and reason, and not having a good reason to keep killing animals, whom I claimed to love, I stopped.

At 6'6" and 225 lbs, you're a pretty big dude. How do you meet your nutritional and caloric needs on a vegan diet and has it been challenging for you?

 As far as nutrition and getting my daily caloric needs while being vegan, I haven't had any problems. I feel that I recover faster, and feel better, in general. I do eat, pretty much constantly, but I've always been that way, being a big dude my whole life has made my food expenses an issue more than once. When I head to the track to train I always make sure I've got 3 or 4 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with me, and that usually takes care of my mid-morning cravings, if I'm able to eat after turning myself inside out on the bike (happens more often than you'd think, I have to force myself to eat 2 or 3 times a week, just because I'm so shattered from the workout I have no interest in food). I also have a very good friend that's a registered dietitian, and he and I go over my food intake every few months, just to make sure I'm taking care of myself, we haven't had a problem yet.

You're currently out with a cycling-related injury as the result of a pretty bad crash. What happened? Are gnarly wipe outs just a part of the business?

I did just crash at the Encino velodrome, while riding a flying 200m time trial, and this has been the worst crash of my cycling career. I was just coming through turns 1 and 2, and my front tire blew out. It's not something that happens often (tires blowing out), but it does happen. It probably let go because of a combination of things, it being well over 100 degrees out, the tire being a bit fragile to run on that velodrome (Encino is an outdoor concrete track, and it's a bit rough), and me going significantly faster than I ever have before. I'd been working a little bit with an Australian coach, and former Aussie national team rider, changing my wind up for the flying 200, and it totally worked. A little too well. Unfortunately, crashing is part of being a bike racer, things happen while racing and training that you sometimes can't avoid going down. I've come to terms with it, although I do still complain pretty heavily each time I get hurt, to which Megan replies 'you can always go get a real job'. I rarely crash on the track, but in general I make them as spectacular as possible:


As a track cyclist you've got to be explosive and fast. What's your training like?

As far as my training goes, as a track sprinter I do a lot of work in the gym, and on the track with explosive, and high intensity exercises. Lifting I focus on squats and dead lifts, and do a lot of plyometric work. On the track there is a lot of high speed motor paced efforts, standing start practice (usually twice a week for me), and speed endurance (usually 500-750 meters of all out sprint just to make your body learn to operate at a high blood lactate level) . To supplement this, and to make sure that I have general fitness I also ride on the road 2-3 times a week, for 1-4 hours, and even do some fairly high intensity intervals.

Hobbies outside of cycling?

Other than riding my bike, I really enjoy working on bikes, tinkering with my motorcycle (I have a Buell X1 from 2000 that the previous owner put a lot of $$ into to make it a drag bike, that I now ride on the street), and hanging out with my dogs and cat. I like the idea of going on hikes, but really hate walking, but the Rev has a similar view, so we go out and hike for about 20 min, then sit in the shade and relax.

Nobody seems to want to admit to being a hipster, yet ironically or not, you embrace it. What exactly is a hipster anyways, and why doesn't anyone want to own up to it?
 
The whole hipster thing, yeah. That started when I was working as a bike courier in LA, the dudes in down town didn't really like me (go figure, an educated white dude taking their work, while he 'slums it'), but I just rolled with it, and eventually every one took me for who I was. Since then, it's just been funny, working in a bike shop when the whole matchey matchey anodized track bike thing happened a few years ago, I would build myself the most absurd bikes, and just fall down laughing while the 'cool kids' drooled over them outside the shop. By owning the label it makes it a lot less exciting for people to try and mock you for being something, so this way I get everyone to look past the 'hipster' and, hopefully, see who I am.

Is it true that you work at Shimano? What's that like?

I did work at Shimano, for about a year and a half, in technical support/customer service. It was awesome, honestly. I really enjoyed helping bike shops and customers get a handle on what was going on with their components, and helping them fix the problems that they were having. It reminded me a lot of the volunteer work I've done at the Bicycle Kitchen here in LA, but without being able to see the bike, and having to really talk everyone through everything. It was a super rewarding job, and the people I worked with are great, but I felt it was time for me to focus on cycling, and see where I could go with it, and I left there a couple of years ago, and have been riding/training full time since.

Anything rad you've been listening to, reading, or watching that you want to share with us?

Since I've had a bit of time (like 3 weeks of doing NOTHING) on my hands lately, I started watching a bunch more movies than usual on the Netflix. I just watched the Avengers movie (yeah, I'm late, I know, I've been busy, ok?) and it was awesome. Joss Wheaton rules, and after seeing that, I had to rewatch Serenity and Firefly. Since I'm finally off the pain meds, I'm probably going to start reading some more, I've got a pile of books some friends dropped off for me to use to pass the time, but I've been so unable to focus (stupid drugs) that I haven't even looked at them yet! For music, I'm really into this whole punk rock music that seems to be coming out right now (sarcasm). Like most bike racers, I really do like electronic music, yes dubstep included, but I also really like hardcore (early 2000's east coast mostly), punk and metal (adventure metal is pretty awesome for warming up before races, I've been using Turisas to get fired up for my last few races).

Training and racing at the track has got to eat up a lot of your time but are there any other kinds of cycling you're into or would like to do more of in the future?

Training to race the track at the level that I'm aspiring to is a huge commitment. I workout, whether it's in the gym or on the bike, probably 50 hours a week, and have to spend at least that recovering, or else the work is for nothing. This does leave some holes in my life, I would really like to mountain bike more, but my coach, and my girlfriend, have forbade me from it, to prevent me from hurting myself. I tend to really 'go for it' when I'm riding in the dirt, mostly because it reminds me of being a kid, and not caring what happened, because I was totally invincible. I am also (oddly) interested in ultra-endurance cycling. Megan is out racing the Furnace Creek 508 right now, and there is a standing plan for the two of us to race it on a fixed gear team, at some point in the future. I'd like to some touring, but credit card style, with just enough stuff to get to the next hotel, up and down the west coast too.

What's next for you (cycling-wise) in 2013?

My plans for 2013 had included the UCI World Cup races in Glasgow Scotland, and Aguascalientes, Mexico, with the Irish UCI trade team BGN Sports Management, but my crash has cancelled that. I'm planning on getting back to it, and hopefully heading to Trinidad to race, mid-March for their Southern Games, and possibly stay for the Beacon Cycling festival. I raced in Trini a couple of years ago, and had a blast. The people there are so into cycling and absolutely love the international racers, that it is an absolute joy to race in front of them. Hopefully my recovery goes well, and I get a chance at the summer UCI World Cup dates, either with a Pro team, or even the US National squad. This is all a prelude to 2016, when I will, hopefully, be representing the US in Rio for the summer Olympic games there.

Lance: guilty or not?

I have no problem telling you that I know he cheated. Unfortunately most people in the pro tour peleton, and even on euro tour teams, were cheating at the time. It's a very shameful thing, not just for him, but for cycling in general. I recently had someone accuse me of cheating, because I was able to gain a lot of speed and strength in a very short period of time, and it's hurtful, especially when you are making a concerted effort to break away from the culture of illicit drugs in cycling.
His cheating doesn't mean he didn't work hard, and put in the time training, but it does mean that he, and hundreds of others, sacrificed their reputation and dignity for money.

Anything else you'd like to say?

Thanks for the opportunity to help you promote veganism, and highlight an athlete competing at the highest level, without being 'held back' by their diet.


You can visit Jack online at: http://pinkfixie.tumblr.com/

Interview with Registered Dietitian and vegan endurance athlete, Matt Ruscigno

When did you first get involved in ultra endurance sports and why did you make the decision to go vegan?

I got my first road bike in 2000 with the sole purpose of riding cross-country the next year after I graduated college. It was a Panasonic I bought from my friend's dad for $50! Then in 2002 I bike toured from California to Belize, so you could say my start was in bike touring. Then in 2004 I found double centuries and was hooked. It was only then that I comfortably started wearing spandex.... Like many people I know, my veganism started in the mid-90's when I was into hardcore punk. Bands like Earth Crisis and Chokehold educated me on how animals raised for food are treated and since I love animals I made the decision at 17 years old to go vegan and have been since.

What kind of reactions do you get when people find out that you don't consume animal products?

You know, most people are very curious and non-judgemental. I rarely get the protein question! I'm not sure why that is. I do get some surprise in that I'm not 130 pounds and rail thin. And while I'm very serious about my veganism, I'm also very careful when the topic comes up as to not appear judgemental. My approach has always been to be a good example and not to prosthelytize.   

It's the position of the American Dietetic Association that a well-planned vegan or vegetarian diet is both healthy and nutritionally adequate for all stages of life, yet stories of unhealthy vegans persist. Is it difficult to be vegan?

In science, and in life in general, it always take WAY more evidence to prove something that goes against mainstream thought. There is overwhelming evidence that vegetarians have lower rates for the leading causes of death- heart disease, cancer, stroke, etc- but the public fixates on stories about crazy fundamentalist families that happen to be vegan and starve their kids to death. It doesn't take much evidence for people to convince themselves they should just keep doing what they are doing. Another example isthe danger of cycling. We hear about all the tragic stories where cyclists die, yet we don't question automobile culture when people die in car crashes.

Once a bunch of us were visiting a friend who was in the hospital who had been hit by a car and was in really bad shape. We naturally rode our bikes to see him. Someone asked, 'how can you still ride here when your friend was nearly killed? Don't you see how dangerous it is?' I asked them if they drove to the hospital to see friends who were involved in car crashes. That connection had never crossed their mind.

Thoughts on genetically modified foods? Are they less nutritious and should they be avoided?

My biggest issue with GMO is that it takes power away from farmers and it puts it in to the hands of the few- primarily corporations like Monsanto. It's a power struggle and I'd like to see farmers have the self-determination they deserve and not be dependent on a corporation who makes the decisions about seeds, fertilizers and herbicides/pesticides. Like organic, it's a human rights issue.

Can you talk a little about your online documentary series, 'Day in the Life'?

Sasha Perry, the film-maker I work with on Day in the Life, is a good friend of mine and one day we were talking about how we know so many vegan athletes. Then it was obvious we should combine our professions, her as a film-maker and mine as a dietitian, to simply show people that yes, you can be vegan and a competitive athlete. She does a great job so each episode is like mini documentary movie! It's a cool project I'm thankful to be involved in.


Dutch scientists say they have recently created meat from cattle stem cells and the research even has PETA's approval, who claim it would be both more humane and environmentally friendly. Could this be the beginning of the end for the factory farm?

I'm not sure one product will have that effect, but the pieces are falling into place and the momentum is there to significantly reduce the amount of factory farming that happens. Even people who want to continue to eat animals see how harmful it is to treat a living, breathing, feeling being like a commodity.

Name one food item you couldn't live without?

Is a burrito one food? I love burritos so much and I'm not even sure why. Maybe it's because you get to eat the container?

Tofu, tempeh, or seitan?

Yes! Tofu for breakfast, tempeh in sandwiches and seitan in burritos and on pizza!

What are some of your favorite foods for fueling something like a 24 hour race? Do you have a favorite post-ride meal?

The most important part of nutrition for ultra-endurance events is consistency. You need to train with the same foods you race with and also eat consistently while racing. It's one of the biggest mistakes I see- people don't eat enough, then overeat, then get nauseous then quit. I eat a little bit every hour and then eat a 'meal' every 8 hours or so. On the bike I do bananas, dates and whatever is available- I never do drop bags with my own stuff because if I'm paying for a race, I want to eat their food! I once ran the marathon leg of a triathlon on just Clif shots and pretzels. Re post-race, how many times have I said burrito so far? Ha. And I love pizza. I often make my own and the vegan options these days are just unbelievable.

What has been the most physically demanding event you've competed in and what's next for Matt Ruscigno?

Oh man! The Furnace Creek 508 is one of my favorite events- I've done it solo 3 times now. But the last time I was way under-trained. I rode less than someone preparing for a 50-mile fun ride. That was an unfun 40 hours. Usually my suffering is somewhat fun because I've mentally and physically prepared for it. But that last 508 did me in and I didn't think I was ever going to finish. I've been running more and right now I'm signed up for two before the end of this year. I haven't quite figured out ultra-running. I DNF'd at mile 63 on my first attempt, the Zion 100, but I was getting over an injury and only ran a few times in the weeks leading up to it. I love the simplicity of running. And it doesn't come as naturally as cycling does so I definitely have to work harder at it. I like that.

Matt suffering through miles 325-381 of the Furnace Creek 508

Can you describe what your training consists of?

I'm not the best at training. If it's too structured it feels like a job and my punk nature rebels against it. I don't keep a log or wear a heart rate monitor, but I used to, so I have some idea of what I should be doing. I half-heartedly follow base-build-peak, but since I compete in so many different disciplines it's still a schedule that would make Joe Friel cringe. I'm on the very low-end of hours spent training compared to those I race with for sure. I also do yoga and pilates and I'm not scared to admit it!

Is suggesting the bicycle as an alternative form of transportation really a feasible reality or just smug idealism?

Like veganism, we have to do something because depending on personal automobiles and factory farmed animals just isn't sustainable. In Southern California we have freeways that are 14 lanes wide. The wider they get the more people drive- and those cars have to go somewhere when they exit. There just isn't enough space to maintain our current growth. I understand that not everyone can ride a bike, but what if 10% of people did 10% of their trips by bike? That's beneficial to everyone regardless of their own transportation choice. Just look at what Manhattan is doing! They know how valuable space is and are working to reduce automobile dependence. The rest of the country will follow suit, it's just a matter of how soon and how many billions of dollars are wasted in expanding highways meanwhile

It's another election year in which the two major parties and their candidates, both funded by Wall Street and big corporate money, will each offer their own solutions on how to fix the economy. Are any fundamental changes really possible within this context?

Every year it is becoming more clear that the ultra-rich are robbing the rest of us. The sooner we all realize this, the sooner we can make some real changes and improve the lives of the most number of people. Meanwhile we need to create alternative ways to live and exist as examples.

Imagine you're going to be dropped off on a desert island somewhere and you can only take one album, one book, and one movie. What are they?

Let's Get Free by Dead Prez and Siddhartha, that's easy. Not sure my favorite movie. Maybe Shawshank Redemption so I can dream about getting off of the island?


Visit Matt online at: http://truelovehealth.com/

Interview with Chris Colohan

 

New label, new album, and new producer. What was the reason for working with Kurt Ballou this time around and not Ian Blurton, and what can we expect from the new LP, Rotten Thing To Say?

We just wanted to try something new, and wanted something that sounded sharper than Songs For Burning Lovers came out, but still dirty and low. I've known Kurt and all those guys since the early to mid 90s, we spent some time this past summer on the road with Converge, and decided on God City for Rotten Thing To Say. It was a great call and we got exactly what we were after out of it. Kurt's got his shit together.  

Burning Love is an appropriate name, given the band's playful, yet dark and abrasive rock and roll aesthetic. Or are you just a really big Elvis fan?

Both. It was a song written by an old Jewish guy, sung by a great but under-acknowledged black soul singer, and then popularized by a bloated rich white guy, which is the one part of the story that history records. And that's largely the case for rock and roll and music overall. So it's also about that - the bullshit and idolatry on top and the secret true histories of popular culture underneath it all, that you have to dig for. But it also conjures up images of a diseased crotch. So shit, whichever one works for you.

You guys are doing a split 7” with The Laughing Hyenas on High Anxiety this Spring. Is the split 7” with Fight Amp still going to see a winter release?

No no, I wish! Laughing Hyenas are a non-entity for a long time, and their guitarist passed away in 2006. We're doing a 7" single of one of the LP songs with a Laughing Hyenas cover (Love's My Only Crime) as a b-side. Yes, the Fight Amp split is still on its way out. It's part of a whole split 7" series on an Irish label (Hell Comes Home) with tons of great bands involved (Thou, Great Falls and tons more). Look that shit up.

Musically and vocally, Burning Love is somewhat of a departure for you. Songs like Alien vs. Creditor display a catchy sense of melody not previously heard in your work. Was this a conscious decision and do you see Burning Love ever intentionally writing material aimed at appealing to a wider audience?

Yeah, I wanted to try something out of my comfort zone, trying to approach writing, singing and playing from another perspective, regardless of the audience or who takes to it. It's only a coincidence if it's more accessible to anybody.

Cursed was highly praised throughout the metal, hardcore, and punk scenes and continues to have a loyal fan base. The name Chris Colohan is also pretty much synonymous with Cursed. Have you found this to be an obstacle in the pursuit of new musical endeavors?

I definitely hate seeing or hearing the words "Chris Colohan" together. I'm currently writing some things I want to publish as books and I feel cheesy putting my own name on the cover. I've been trying to find some way around that. I don't mind being associated with Cursed, or anything I've done. It varies stylistically from band to band but there isn't anything idealistically or politically that I don't still identify with. Cursed was a big part of my life for a long time, I don't ever mind the association as long as people listen to every different band and allow them all their own context, in fairness to the fact that every band is a collaboration between a different group of people who have all paid their own dues too.

A lot of your artwork is heavily influenced by old, cult horror films. Did you have a hand in creating the new album art and do you think the rise of digital music has diminished its relevance?

I love records, and record covers. So far, I've done all the BL art. Just like with the writing, I wanted to take the opportunity to try something new with the aesthetic of it. The new LP is going to be a photograph too (as with SFBL and Don't Ever Change). It's gross, what I have planned for it. I don't like it but I have an idea in my head and I have to do it. It's gonna smell bad in my house.

And in terms of digital music and art, I don't think a tiny square image in your Itunes window could ever compare to holding something in your hands, reading it, owning it and taking it in 3-dimensionally. Beyond just art, I think the digital age has us all just barely skimming across the top of any one thing, reducing it to one of 1,000 other options that you only absorb anecdotally and in between all the others.

The Cursed “he goat” is easily one of the most distinct and iconic images to be associated with a band in recent years. Where the hell did it come from?

A British horror movie called The Devil Rides Out, from a novel by occultist Dennis Wheatley. It's the incarnation of Satan, obviously, but way creepier for the fact that it's just a straight up dude with a crude goat head, and it only appears in the movie for maybe 5 seconds.

I grew up in a dogmatic Catholic home. The imagery and lyrics of songs like Magic Fingers and Curse Breaker really resonate with my disaffected and skeptical adult self. Do you come from a religious background as well, and if not, where do these sentiments come from?

Yeah, I also grew up in a Catholic home, but with some other bizarre shit thrown in there too. It's funny, the only thing separating what we embrace from what we demonize is familiarity. I grew up in rooms full of people led by men in robes, lighting incense, performing rituals, drinking "blood", chanting memorized incantations to keep in the good graces of a hidden power - that's pretty much the textbook definition of occult as described by Christianity. All religions inherently expect to monopolize context (reality) itself, but in the end they are all just so many cults competing for business. Their degree of success or obscurity never changes that. It takes a long time to pull your head away from a whole socialization's worth of that kind of systematic brainwashing, and even more so when the bulk of your world still enables it as if it's normal and healthy.

You have a reputation for your energy and charisma as a front man, constantly engaging the audience and often times leaving the stage to sing right in the middle of the crowd. I saw a live video of a show you played last year that must have taken place at some big festival, given the diverse crowd, in which you, shirtless and roaming the stage as usual, squat down next to a couple of little girls nearby, shouting lyrics and even offering them the mic at one point. Is playing outside of the band's usual setting and comfort zone something you guys enjoy doing?

Hah! Yeah, there is a story to that. We were asked to play the final year of this outdoor festival outside of Toronto by our friend Bushra who organizes it. But it was going on at the same time as this Indian/Pakistani cultural festival, which made for a really funny mix of people wandering towards the noise of the show (cops and little kids included). I don't know if it's in the video, I lost my shirt when I went in the fountain. I was getting mad shocks. There were some little kids hanging out, so I took it to the people as they say. I think kids react pretty naturally to the energy of music, I always dig that. I did get to scream at some cops and old folks, who weren't as into it.

Did you ever end up filming that music video in an old porn theater for the song Money Shots?

Goddamn, no. We submitted it with a proper storyboard and everything and couldn't get the funding for it. It's a bummer, that theatre The Metro is just hanging on, it's one of the last vestiges of the real Toronto.

What are your thoughts on music piracy? Can it help promote or does it hurt a band like Burning Love? Some people say it doesn't really matter if you steal a band's music because they only really make money off their merch anyways. Is stealing music justifiable if that person attends a show?

As someone that puts out records and as a musician who's records go around online 10 times more than they do in print, it doesn't bother me at all from the money angle, only the impersonal nature of digital music bothers me. If it were drastic enough that you couldn't afford to make the record because of downloading, maybe then, but it's still a far cry from that. There's enough of a base of real record nerds around it who still want to hold it, read it and take it in to at least cover that. And in our world, people do interact with their culture, they go to shows and support it firsthand, and most of them make music themselves. So it's actually give and take. The people that make the biggest stink over the lost money are either the Lars Ulriches who have made their millions already, or the industry middle men that grew fat off other peoples' passion by inserting themselves between artists, their ideas and their audience, which has been happening for almost a century since the advent of phonograph records, and never should have happened anyway. Like a lot of people, I do both - I download lots of things to have them on the go, but I also have over 2000 LPs in my living room, which I prefer in every way. Take any one of those whining SOPA assholes and show me their actual record collection.

You don't drink or smoke and you've talked about how polarizing and narrow the mindset of SXE can be. As a vegan, do you find some of the the same criticisms to hold true for some of the preachier, militant vegans? Do you feel like both of those subcultures, specifically within the punk/hardcore scene, tend to be more about homogeny and mass identity than individual choice?

I saw a gnarly slaughterhouse video I didn't like when I was 15 or 16. Immediately the ultimatum was "if you don't like that, don't make it happen". I went vegetarian and then vegan and stayed that way, because the industry stayed that way, end of story. I never liked militant types, they turn more people off good causes than bring them to it. And in hardcore, those cartoonish extremists - you can set your watch to not seeing them around much longer than the month when all their peers fall off. Sadly that's always been the way, and I think preachy SXE/vegan culture sets them up for that. I'm SXE but half my life is spent playing in bars, which is fine by me, I just don't like smoke. Obviously I think both SXE and veganism are great things, but they're both about something you don't do for a good reason, so you don't have to be a martyr about it. It's only about supply and demand, you remove yourself from that chain of events once and that's it - just mean it and do it.

You have a new tattoo of Leonard Cohen's face to your arm. Is there a story behind that?

Wow, good eye! Yeah, I just love and respect the man a lot and didn't want to wait till he dies to get a stick & poke portrait of him. My friend Alexandra Snelgrove (an incredible illustrator and now tattooist) did it by hand. Cohen is one of the few things my mother imparted on me musically and literarily that I grew up to love for real. You're a huge record collector and you're also losing your hearing, doesn't that pose some problems? Yeah dude, I've been thinking about that! One time I had this car, a 1986 Toyota Tercel. I was driving down the highway at night to a girlfriends' house and the music started getting dimmer. The alternator had ate it but I didn't know that. I kept turning the music up and up until it was cranked on full blast but had died out when I realized my lights had gone out too. So because the engine was still running, I could haul ass (in the total dark) but only until I stopped the car, at which point it died. That's pretty much my approach to music, hearing, and the rest of my life. I just have to keep turning it up and not ever stop.


The older I get, an increasing number of my peers are having children, though I couldn't personally be less interested in the idea of procreation... You're married without children and have a vasectomy. Didn't everyone tell you you'd change your mind?

Yeah, they did. But it's been 10 years, I'm 37 and it has never occurred to me that it was a bad choice.

Were there any records from last year that blew your mind, or for that, any major disappointments? Is there anything in particular that you're looking forward to in 2012?
  I know it's from 2010 but Watain's "Lawless Darkness" killed it. More recently I've been loving The Men "Leave Home", the new Mark Lanegan, Rotten Sound's new LP "Cursed", and for 2012 I'm looking forward to The Pallbearer LP "Sorrow and Extinction" and whatever Swans LP is gonna follow up their last new one, which floored me live and as an LP. And letdowns? I hate to say it because I love them dearly but that new Boris that sounds like real-deal Asian radio pop really bummed me out.

Thanks for your time. Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Thanks a lot, Trevor.

It's okay to be an atheist

Remaining a closet atheist out of shame or the fear of offending others only perpetuates the stereotype of atheists as being immoral people. Own up to it, because there's nothing wrong with not believing in things there aren't enough reason to believe in.

Interview with the Punk Patriot

I recently interviewed political activist and video blogger Asher Platts (known to the internets as the Punk Patriot) about the election year, voting Green, and Occupy Wall Street for my zine, but you can check it out at his blog here.