CT Metal: Rekindling the Romance

(Ipsissimus)

As I've mentioned time and again, I was a pretty seriously committed metalhead in my youth and young adulthood, and in an effort to be down I was willing to try really hard to get into all kinds of crap if it seemed trend-evil enough. But now that I've branched out musically and I'm entering early Cougardom, it's a bit harder to get my meat up about new metal, the local scene in particular, being all too familiar with the pay-to-play tactics of some local clubs, which falsely elevates those bands with the nicest friends or most indulgent parents. I know peeps who will just get drunk and headbang to any old crap, but they probably have IQs less than 100 and I just can't get down like that. And sorry, death metal, you may be "technical," but you are are terrible at any volume. Show me the catchy riffs or go home.

(Nightbitch)

As you may have read here on CT Scenic, I've been pretty excited about CT stoner/metal band Treebeard ever since catching their first gig at then newly opened Elm Bar, and I thought they were just as great on a second viewing at the same venue. So when I saw that they were playing Cherry Street Station with scene vet and all-the-way-back-t0-high-school pal Ryan's two bands, Ipsissimus and enticingly named Nightbitch, I thought this show had promise.

And when I pulled up to the poorly marked club on a desolate industrial block by the train tracks in Wallingford, I knew I was in for a real treat. And when I observed the dirt cheap prices ($4 for Magic Hat!) and amazing back smoking yard, I mentally punished myself for never having been to this club before.

(Corrupting a garden gnome. Smoking is so cool.)

Bygones. I was probably right. Most of those shows I opted not to drive 45 minutes to probably were indeed awful. But not this one! Nightbitch got this party started right. The three piece has "the guy from Treebeard" (and like 10 other bands - Chris) on drums and vocals, which is wicked impressive just by itself, and Ryan delivered all those catchy guitar riffs I was just craving. Their music is seriously good and reminded me of Danzig, but their not-so-serious, over-the-top evil song titles and perverted between-song banter, explaining that this song is about masturbation and that song is about werewolves fucking and whatnot really hit the spot (my g-spot, duh).



Next up was De Omega, featuring the bass player from Nightbitch (the theme of this show was Nightbitch and all the guys' from Nightbitch's other bands). They were described as "tech metal." They're all instrumental, which is inherently a bit less entertaining than sex/party metal, but they had some really lovely, dark atmospheric bits (as I might have said if I were writing metal journalism) and the bassist and guitarist were like nonstop tapping, which was giving all the young dudes in the crowd hella wood.

I am automatically skeptical of new American black metal, because it sort of seems like a style that is maybe better left to a certain time and place (Norway, 80s/90s), but I'm gonna have to hand it to Ipsissimus as well. It pains me to dole out such unadulterated praise about one night, but here again we had Ryan's being awesome on guitar at the heart of things, and the vocalist had a pretty killer rasp, and he made the most complicated banter comment about Nightbitch's set: "That band just did what your genitals were..." And I was like "huh?" and then totally got that he meant "ROCK HARD!" and it was the best thing ever, and I will never make fun of American guys for having black metal alteregos again.**



I have to admit to being overcome by pumpkin syndrome and leaving around midnight, before Treebeard got around to playing. Sorry Treebeard! But I already knew I liked them, so 4/4 stars for this gig! Look out for Ipsissimus' brand new release, The Way of Descent, on Metal Blade Records. Treebeard will be playing a gig at Cafe Nine June 11, and Chris from Treebeard, who has perfected human cloning, will also be playing that same night with Garbage Barge, who list GWAR as a primary influence and thus win my immediate good will - also at Cherry Street Station with for "Garbage Barge's Birthday Masquerade." We'll keep you posted about upcoming gigs from any of these fine bands as we hear about them. Check the FB for more sexy pics.

**LYING!

Return of Treebeard

Friday, March 25: Treebeard & Keelraker @ Elm Bar, New Haven

In spite of our recent intense annoyance over $6 Guinness and other factors, we aren't gonna pretend like $3 isn't a reasonable cover charge and Treebeard isn't a totally awesome band that everyone should check out. Well, maybe not everyone. But if you like metal, or Clutch (i.e. stoner rock), totes go. We caught this new New Haven band a few weeks ago (er, yikes, months!), and we just may need to catch them again this week if we have even an ounce of energy on Friday. So good! We hope they'll play in a room more suited to playing and listening to live music some day, if anyone knows of one of those? Poor music scene... : (

GWAR: fifteen years of fandom

Tuesday, December 28: GWAR @ Toad's Place, New Haven

Christmas is coming just a little late for Scenics, who are amped as anything to see GWAR play at Toad's place this Tuesday. The Scenics have all enjoyed live GWAR in recent years, but Katie Scenic is "celebrating" fifteen years of GWAR shows - that's half her wasted life. Katie pitched a story about GWAR to the Advocate recently, but they said some other guy in New Haven was already doing it. Screw him! Actually, he did a pretty nice job, asking questions about their artistic roots and intellectual side. Also in this article, frontman Dave Brockie claims that the band doesn't have any groupies, but we know better!

(Halloween 2009: DH & Katie attend GWAR, cleverly costumed

as John & Mackenzie Phillips; DH loses his daughter/date)

If you're really, really interested in GWAR's origins, the best place to turn is Brockie's column about the history of the band that he's been writing for the RVA News (the band is from Richmond, Virginia, not Antarctica, anticlimactically enough). Brockie is terribly clever, and doesn't actually need journalists to reinterpret him or make his sentences more coherent. For the record, we totally know him, but we didn't want to bother him with another stupid interview, so we decided to catch up with Katie about her personal history as a GWAR fan, which is really more in keeping with the tone of this blog (e.g. all about us).

CS: So, uh, tell us about your history as a GWAR fan.

KS: I first heard GWAR on MTV's Headbanger's Ball, and one of my early "boyfriends" was a big fan - and so were all his degenerate friends! Which was really lucky for me, because we only "went out" for like two weeks, but it was like months before GWAR was coming around to Connecticut. Mommy Scenic was a really indulgent parent in a lot of ways, but not so indulgent that she drove me to concerts or anything like that. But my "ex" had a friend that also liked me, and he was old enough to drive, and had his license, so he took me to my first GWAR show, at the Sting in New Britain. At least, I think that's how it happened. Mommy Scenic probably should have just driven me to these concerts herself. Because finding my own ride basically meant hanging out with a worse and worse crowd. Older boys with long hair, leather jackets, and some totally illegal habits. Oh well, it was only a year or so before I was able to drive myself. 

(1997: 17 year-old Katie Scenic after a GWAR show)

As a young person, I was equally impressed with GWAR's potty humor as with their more politically subversive content. Oh wait, I still am. Equally impressed or whatever. Watching current political figures and idiot celebrities of tabloid culture like Michael Jackson, Paris Hilton, and Monica Lewinsky get ripped apart onstage in explosively gory effigy just never loses its edge. Once I had my own driver's license and wheels, I was able to introduce the GWAR experience to some of my "non-metal" friends. Like Sara, who was super smart and intellectual and politically active, even as a teenager. During one show we attended together, GWAR tore up and violated the corpse of then-recently deceased Princess Diana. Rather than get offended, Sara was delighted and said the most insightful thing - "It's like how she was totally raped and violated by the media in her death" -  thereby rationalizing and excusing more or less every questionable act performed during a GWAR show from there into eternity. Thanks for that, Sara!

Sara liked GWAR so much that she went along to subsequent shows and years later, when she was a paralegal in NYC she was thrilled to host me for a weekend to go see frontman Brockie's art show at MF Gallery. This was in 2001 or 2002, but it wasn't too soon for Brockie, dressed as a giant singing rodent, to desecrate a model of the World Trade Center as a finale to his set of bad karaoke. But hey, it was OK! It was just like the media and George W. Bush raped and violated our national identity in the aftermath of 9/11. We met some guy at the art show who took us to see a two-headed turtle after. This is not a sexual euphemism. That's really what he showed us. Yay, New York!

(At age 21, Katie can legally enjoy a beer with her heroes)

In 2003 or 2004, when I was working at the Hartford Advocate, I was able to channel my love for the band into something constructive - a feature article! The record label guy gave me Brockie's phone number, and I've been drunk dialing him ever since. Usually around Valentine's Day or so, when I always get down about being an old spinster. 

 (Stalking on the streets of Brooklyn)

Earlier this year, as a Scenic, I visited the MF Gallery in its new Brooklyn location for another art show by Brockie and other GWAR members, where Brockie revisited his "Chippy" character, and put on a week-long webcasted "Crack-a-thon" of live performances. You may have read about it here!

I don't enjoy GWAR shows in exactly the same wild-eyed way I did as a kid. I used to memorize every lyric to their songs to scream along at concerts, and go fearlessly into the mosh pit in order to get close to the stage and soaked by the maximum amount of their fake bodily fluids, all the while on a natural high. But I'm old and delicate and self-conscious now. I don't want to lose my teeth or glasses! I want to stand in the back of the room, sipping a drink, hoping to catch a buzz, rolling my eyes at ugly young people and their easy fun. Actually, that's just what I'm better at now, and I do try to stick with my natural talents. Those were, in fact, the days! But I still get off on the audacity and originality of GWAR's live production and the immense artistic and physical effort that goes into such a touring show.

What can you expect from GWAR live? A professional blogger from Gawker recently expressed her disapproval of the band's onstage slaughter of one Sarah Palin. She obviously lacks the rich history with the band and multifaceted appreciation of their cultural relevance and secretly sophisticated humor that we Scenics have. Her loss!

Halloween: Heavy, Hilarity

Sunday, October 31: Devin Townsend, TesseracT @ The Webster, Hartford


My must-see event for the weekend is Devin Townsend at the Webster on Sunday, which is Halloween, but I think I'm a little old for trick or treats. For those who don't know, Devy (we're on an affectionate nicknames basis) is a Canadian musician who got his start at a very young age singing and playing with Steve Vai, but proved to be his own damn freak time and again over the course of a musically schizoid, ADHD career as a bandleader/solo artist in the years since. He's beloved by both the prog and metal scenes for his wildly different projects, and also for his outrageous between-song banter (sheesh, I wish I could remember any of it, but I'm sure our commenter Toast? can help me out here with some best of Devy). He's extra beloved by me personally for always being a really nice, indulgent guy to me and my stalk-y friends. So we were extra sad when he quit touring for a while, and are extra happy now that he's spewing out new music faster than the Duggars spawn out kids and has been hitting the road again on the regs. "Vampira" is an oldie but goodie, but it's all you need to know about why Devin Townsend is wonderful:



I'm also excited about opening band TesseracT, who are not as openly hilarious as Devin sometimes is, but have also won me over with their stealthy humor, which is snuck in around the edges of their otherwise straightforward proggy metal music. (A straight gloom-and-doom image on a heavy band is kind of a dealbreaker for me. I mean, if you're so serious, go kill people or something, quit having so much fun.) While "researching" TesseracT (to find out if they're sexy) I was amused by the subtitle on the photo section of their website, which says "perve over us" Exactly! And this video for alarmingly pretentiously titled "Deception, Concealing Fate Part 2" on the band's channel is tagged "Vanilla Ice" and "Linkin Park" - only! Hilarious! TesseracT don't know it yet, but they are actually my soon-to-be, out-of-town, international boyfriends.

Tuesdays with Metal: Jucifer @ Daniel Street

Tuesday, June 29: Jucifer @ Daniel Street, Milford

Do you like heavy metal and sexy guy/girl lo-fi duo bands? Well, here's something for you: Jucifer. They're a Relapse band from the south (Georgia), so you know they get sludgy with it. They bring together elements of metal, grunge, stoner rock and weird screamy alternative chick music. Vocalist/guitarist Amber Valentine is a fierce and scary and talented, and a big hottie to boot. Also performing are Gloominous Doom, who have been described as a "thrash/ska fusion" (how unfortunate!) and some CT bands Old Man Lady Luck and Electric Bucket. These latter bands are too lazy to have websites besides MySpace, where you can check them out if you have a lot of patience for slow loading pages. This show, like most cool CT shows, is brought to us by the almost-always-awesome Manic Productions - check their calendar for other great stuff.

Check out this cool Jucifer video for "Pontius of Palia"



Bonus feature: check out similarly named band, Gluecifer (a now-defunct glammy punk band from Norway that I happen to enjoy - sure wish they were playing!):

Delicious metal sludge

Monday, June 14: Eyehategod @ Daniel Street, Milford

Wow, I can't believe I'm having so much scenic envy for Milford this week, but they've got that pirate thingie, and this Monday they've got Eyehategod. Actually, Daniel Street has a pretty hot lineup in general thanks to Manic Productions. It's just hard for the Scenics to make it down there. Eyehategod are NOLA based sludge legends, and if that doesn't mean anything to you it's probably not worth explaining. I tried to get into Eyehategod as far back as high school, because that one sexy antisocial guy (who ended up being totes gay) had their t-shirt and I wanted to like whatever he liked, so I picked up a cassette at Music Outlet in Enfield. But I have to admit, this shit was a little too brutal for me, and it took experiencing the power of their live performance several years ago at the Webster Underground for me to really "get it," but I was really blown away at the time. The Daniel Street show will also feature some CT metal - Ipsissimus (we totally know them) and Iron Hand, along with Nachtmystium and Howl.

I feel like I could take these bands more seriously if they had something other than Myspace pages to link to. : ( Whatevs.

Got a real job? Can't make it out Monday? Check out Eyehategod tonight in Brooklyn at Europa, or Sunday in Providence at Hell.

Silent Civilian Get Scenic'd

Saturday evening I was faced with my usual dilemma of having all kinds of great invitations and plans, and having triple-booked myself or so - c'est la vie when you're being scenic. And so it was that I found myself really wanting to go this BBQ party, make it to my dinner plans, but also having said I would do some "press" with Silent Civilian, who are on a US tour with Fear Factory and Prong that stopped by the Webster last night. Additionally, I was trying to figure out how I could make an interview with an LA metal band relevant to my CT blog.

I touched base with Silent Civilian vocalist (and new friend-of-the-blog) Jonny Santos and asked him if he wouldn't mind sampling some of our favorite CT beer and stopping by a party, which was totally in the neighborhood anyway, instead of chatting in some dressing room at the Webster. He wouldn't mind at all, in fact, could he bring a bandmate? I stopped by CT Beverage Mart to pick up some Hookers (variety pack), swung by the Webster to pick up some metal guys, and we were on our way.

At the party I immediately enlisted Jonny's help with my cooler. What a gentleman! Here he is pretending he's gonna run off with the beer, but really, where's he gonna go? The beer is for him anyway...

We got right into it. Jonny prefered the Blonde (ale). Typical! Drummer Ryan and I ultimately liked the Irish Red best. Nobody liked the IPA best. That must be the one for people who like the actual flavor of beer. The fellas got right into making all the obvious hooker jokes, so they'd fit right in at the brewery (where it's all double entendre all the time).

They also got right into pointing at shit, so they'd fit right in at CT Scenic - they just did this on their own, no prompting!

I thought I recognized Ryan from somewhere, maybe some other band? But Jonny was like, "No, you've probably just seen him in those Geico commercials." WHOA - SNAP!

Call it groupie-dom, make fun of my romanticizing of touring musicians if you must, but let's face it, these people have more fun than us and their stories are just better. They live life as a continuous road trip/summer camp, and if you been on a road trip or camping, you know that the funny shit is nonstop. I've seen Almost Famous, OK, I know they're not really my new best friends. But still, I want to hear about how bands on the road are always looking for that next Walmart so they can use the toilet and buy socks and whatnot. Jonny was telling us about how he accidentally walked into the empty women's room to take a crap, but by the time he finished, it was full up with women, so he tried to hide his face (and beard) with his hair and escape undetected. And I want to hear about what a trip it was getting nominated and going to the Grammy awards (with his previous band, Spineshank) and drinking martinis with Dolly Parton and Lemmy. Jonny was so sweet, saying how his bandmates brought "trophy dates" but he brought his daughter! He also reminisced about being on Ozzfest 2001, where Crazytown got booed off the stage nightly, and Sharon Osbourne awarded his band "Most Intoxicated" at the end of the run. Silly awards - just like summer camp!

I had to ask about that name - Spineshank?! Jonny was like "Listen, I don't normally tell people the truth about this" and how he usually goes into some profound explanation about how it's about backstabbing and shit, but really - REALLY - he was watching Home Improvement and misheard the term "spline shank" and thought it sounded really cool. HA!

Damn, I didn't even ask him about his new band's name, Silent Civilian... We ran into a little trouble with the grill. The guys tried to help.

We were having a blast, and I think we all would have been down to just party with the Hookers all night. But I had dinner to get to, and Jonny and Ryan had to play a gig or something.

PS: Ultimately, I was proved not wrong in that joke I made in a previous post about the Webster being kind of like "your ass" - there was no AC last night, and we were sweating our balls off, had to make frequent escapes to the cigarette corral to get some cooler air, and left before the end fantasizing about pool hopping and showers. Good thing the pregame action was so much fun!

Saturday: Metal Up Your Ass

Well, at the Webster, actually, if you want to be exact, but hygienically speaking, same diff-o, amiright?

Satuday, June 5: Prong, Fear Factory @ The Webster, Hartford

(Prong's Tommy Victor is dressed
and ready for the Zen Bar)

This gig will bring together generations of industrial flavored metal fans. Proving that I'm getting old(er), I remember Fear Factory as a hot new band doing some hot "new" thing of mixing electronic and industrial elements with moderately brutal metal, and now they're like old school, which makes Prong like really really old school.

Prong you'll of course remember from their big hit, "Snap your fingers, snap your neck" which got plenty of play on the original Headbangers Ball and was even featured on Beavis and Butthead (love those video segments!). It's really a classic. Here, enjoy:

What Not To Hear: Carbon 9 cover Danzig's Mother

Yeah, I just covered Danzig's mother too. Get it? Cuz she's easy?

(JK, Danzig - love you - xoxo)

But seriously, earlier today I heard a godawful cover version of Danzig's classic "Mother" and, well, I just threw up in my ears a little bit. Now, not everyone needs to love Danzig, or even like metal, but sometimes a great song is a great song. And "Mother" is a great song, thanks to three great power chords that go great together, Glenn Danzig's sexy baritone an charmingly predatory antisocial message. Internet research suggests that what I heard was this:

Though it's certainly possible that many, many crappy covers of this song are floating around out there.

Personally I have a deep affection for Danzig, regardless of their extremely hit or miss track record (of tracks - ha!), so I take this half-assed remake as a personal insult. Danzig the first band I got to see live in a club (The Sting in New Britain, with then-unknowns Korn and Marilyn Manson) and "Mother" (the live '93 version to be exact) was a ubiquitous radio staple in my formative years as a music-head. And like I said it's just great. Here, relive it:

Carbon 9's (whoever they are) abomination is overproduced nu-metal nightmare which mistakes style for substance and makes the hideous errors of reducing the song's tempo, forgoing the powerful opening riff, and diminishing the song's melodic qualities due to vocal limitations which no doubt define the rest of their repertoire.

Now taking the tempo down on a great song isn't always a bad thing. It can bring out emotional dimensions or make room for instrumental and melodic exploration, as when Lady Gaga covers herself, or some random fans cover her. But Carbon 9 have nothing to contribute except for random electronic whooshing and weak, tortured post-grunge vocals. They come across as a pathos-deficient watered down Marilyn Manson - too little, a decade and a half too late.

In point of fact, when doing a cover, a band ought to try and make it their own - otherwise it's just karaoke. Unfortunately, Carbon 9's own just happens to suck.

I haven't seen Danzig live in probably 10 years, so I can't vouch for his current line-up, body or vocal condition, but you can catch him live in NYC June 18 at the Nokia Theatre.

Also Conflicted about Black Metal

Saturday, April 24: Until the Light Takes Us @ Real Art Ways, Hartford

Gosh, RAW just has it in for me this week. Saturday night there will be a final screening of the documentary Until the Light Takes Us, a look inside the violent black metal underground of Norway in the early 90s. This is rather old news and dredges up a rather embarrassing chapter for metal. The film itself has been criticized for being too soft on its subjects and by default endorsing the ignorant views and motives (racism, nationalism, homophobia) of some of the musicians from that scene, who were involved in church burnings, suicides and murder. Murder. That's serious business.

But hey, we can have fun with it. Saturday night's event will also feature a chat with peeps from Redscroll records and a performance by a band called Darkwor. They are true, kult Worcestorian black metal. They fellows in the band all have silly nicknames, as the genre convention dictates, but I wonder if I "totally know them."

Extra: MTV's Kurt Loder weighs in.

Conflicted about Steve Almond

Friday, April 23: Steve Almond @ Real Art Ways, Hartford


First a little bit about this event: Steve Almond will read from and discuss his new book, Rock and Roll will Save Your Life: A Book by and for the Fanatics Among Us (With Bitchin' Soundtrack). According to Almond, the book is about coming to grips with and celebrating being a Drooling Fanatic. The event will incorporate music, embarrassing pictures of folks with their bad rock n roll hair, and seems to be Almond's attempt to be the rock star sans musical talent. In a recent interview with the Courant (which is interesting stuff, read it), Almond speaks of finally having to admit to himself, at 42, that he wasn't going to be an actual musical rock star or musician.

Almond has made a career as a memoirist/humorist His first LP book was Candyfreak (which also has a long subtitle), which chronicled his exploration of candy bar manufactures around the country. He's got another one called (Not that You Asked) Rants, Exploits and Obsessions, presumably about just that. I have read none of these.

I have also avoided reading anything by one Chuck Klosterman, a guy with similar credentials. This is, of course, because I am jealous. I too have been a pop culture fan and journalist, with no other particular talents or qualifications. I also have no claim to expertise, other than that I am amused by the sound of my written voice, believe that I am the last word on everything, and that my deeply subjective takes on cultural artifacts are fascinating. But I haven't figured out how to rocket to rock star rock journalist status. I really don't even get paid anymore.

Of course this is my fault, for not really trying. I haven't written a book. End of story. But does it really end there? Is it possible that neurotic culture nerd memoir-ism a boys club? Guys have such a script of awkwardness to fall back on - the "can't get a date" perpetual adolescent who drowns himself in geeky obsessions like heavy metal and comic books. Will you believe in femi-nerdiness too? And will I have to look and sound like Sarah Vowell (or Klosterman), forgo such things as sunlight, exercise, and good nutrition to convince you? OK, that's potshots and speculation, and I haven't earned it, but look at these people:




Almond himself looks healthy enough (he should stop fronting about being a geek):


Maybe I have what it takes. I spent hours as a teenager (and a little beyond) practicing guitar - learning songs by Pink Floyd and Metallica, going over scales and modes, desperately hoping the latter would start to stick and some alchemy would transform memorization and mechanics into originality or talent.

It didnt.

Will you believe in my unfashionability? I had an epic collection of black t-shirts advertising my favorite bands: Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Type O Negative. I wore men's suit pants and military boots and jackets. But I swear, I was an outcast even among the metalheads. Probably on account of being problematically female.

Other geeky things: I went rollerblading. Read all the Dune books. Was accused of devil worship, lesbianism.

In spite of endless ridicule for my outlandish taste in music and everything else by my uninhibited peers, I came through it all with a certainty that my taste was superior. Some teachers may have given me the impression that my writing was good. I got it into my head to be a music journalist, recreationally at first. A small taste of freebies and exciting celebrity encounters (Ronnie James Dio!) at the college paper only whetted my appetite. Pretty soon I was a published student intern at the Hartford Advocate. Months later I turned pro. Would you believe the current economy for music/nonsense journalism is terrible though? Boo.

I have some interesting stories about all this. Maybe I will write that book. Or JS and I have discussed pitching our hot blog as the next great HBO dramedy series (remember Six Feet Under?) about the gritty realities of underemployed sadulthood in CT. Stay tuned.

And go see Steve Almond.

Remembering Peter Steele

Peter Steele 1962-2010

This week Peter Steele, best known as the voice and frontman of Type O Negative died, reportedly of heart failure. When I was in high school, I was quite the obsessed Type O fan, and I have great memories of seeing them at many of my first live concert experiences. They used to tour pretty relentlessly around here, so 16 year-old me would drive to New London or Northampton or wherever to see them - even on a school night! I was heavily into the music, and Steele's self-deprecating banter and doomy stage voice won me over again and again. I even attempted, ever so briefly, to play guitar in a Type O Negative cover band - like I'm sure the late 90s world was missing one of those. I actually was not quite musically up to playing with a band at all, but hey, that was a fun experiment...

Many years later I met all the guys from Type O, and the other three are quite the conventional, genial dudes who have pretty normal lives and families. I only met Mr. Steele briefly, and he was really quite the Stranger. While Type O definitely did a lot of things tongue-in-cheek, this man was not faking his eccentricity at the core. But in the midst of a rowdy, late era release party he was very polite and gracious and seemed willing to indulge whatever fan compulsions (by then I really didn't have any, beyond a howdy and handshake).

My condolences go out the Type O family who are personally affected by this, including my friend D.

Here is a piece of "fan art" I made in high school. I put a Type O spin on a completely unrelated collage assignment.