What does it take to make me get up and drive six hours to NYC? On August 28th, 2001 my motivation was a presentation by Keith Alexander on the philosophy of body modification. I first heard of Keith via the usenet newsgroup rec.arts.bodyart around 1997 when I began reading and posting there. It wasn't long before I decided that I wanted to go see Keith in action in person and so I ventured down to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and into Modern American Bodyarts to have my septum pierced. Not long after this I found myself back at M.A.B. for the first RABcon. After my brief fire show at RABcon, Keith contacted me about performing for a special event: The Night of 1000 Scars. It continues on from there but the important thing is that along the way I rapidly found myself with a good friend in Keith. In fact, I credit his bringing me in on The Night of 1000 Scars as a major factor in my decision to leave my PhD program and focus on performing.

My drive was typical - I've done it many times, but traffic did make me a bit late, along with some hard to follow directions courtesy of Microsoft Streets & Trips. Fortunately, there was parking across the street and I was able to quickly make my way inside 24 Bond Street. Once inside, I soon found my bonus for the trip - Shawn Porter And Leeloo. Shawn is known to many for the SPC and Leeloo is just one more wonderful reason to catch up with him - or perhaps he is just a another pleasant element of being in her presence? Either way, we all said hello to Keith as he prepared and then took some seats together.

I have no previous experience to base this against but it did seem that the event was well attended, and even if the number wasn't a record for an Eulenspiegel Society meeting, everyone made a contribution.

  Keith delivered an excellent presentation and by group consent took comments and questions throughout instead of at the end. The result was a well structured discussion which was hampered only by the constraints of time. As is the norm for such discussions, nothing was so much resolved as it was explored and I think that everyone there got to examine their own ideas on body modification as well as be exposed to other possibilities.

Of course, after the show it was picture time...

Shawn & Keith 

Me & Shawn 

After some all too fast goodbyes, I retrieved my car and drove back north.

Links

Keith Alexander:

• www.modernamerican.com
• www.nootrope.net

The Eulenspiegel Society

The Shawn Porter Collection (SPC)

• spc.bodymodification.com