Ghosts of War!
As some of you may know, I have a new band and, a new tour supporting Combichrist! For a number of reasons, time has slipped by quickly and suddenly I find myself in need of new photos to promote the tour FAST!
I’ve been lucky to work with some awesome photographers, Jeff Cohen, and Steve Prue, both of whom I have known before the invention of disposable cameras (Sad but true..) Anyfuck, one photographer whom I work with is Candace(y) aka, Candylust. We have also know each other for a long time but one night I saw a amazing 'urban decay' type photo and saw the credit given to my Candace(y)! I was thrilled! I had one of those, ‘I know her!’ moments.
So I contacted Candace and we began a search for a decrepit mental institution, run down hospital, gynecological speculum factory..you get the idea..some place cold and scary.
Candace suggested an abandoned airfield at the far end of Brooklyn. But there was a catch. To go to these type of places you really need to go during the week day and earlier the better as these places are private and patrolled by the police and park rangers (ohhhh…scary park rangers..) and it’s totally illegal to be there. It’s not easy to duck and hide with camera equipment, flashes, and 4 gangly guys in eyeliner who are normally asleep at this hour, so the less hassle the better. All joking aside, you could get arrested for trespassing on Government property.
The plan was for the 4 band members to meet up at the very end of the subway line where Candace would be waiting in a unassuming car to drop us close to the site.
As I came up out of the subway I saw a Popeyes Chicken, Pawn shop, Wholesale Mattress shops and well..more pawn shops. Yea, the classic GnR line applies here. ‘You know where you are? Your in the Jungle baby!’ Yet, me being Acey Slade I found what? Starbucks! No shit! In the middle of the ghetto I find the mermaid of the caffeine sea! So Andee and I leg it over, meet up with Chris and Per-C when we see a place that needs do description. Meat Town. Yep. Meat Town. What the Fuck!?!?
From the outside the Airline hangers looked pretty cool. But what we REALY wanted was some destruction. Not the kind that was near the Pawn Shops and Meat Town. The kind that was inside the locked up Hangers!
I found an opening that was un-secured and peered in. It was a gloriously destroyed airplane hanger. The huge glass paned ceilings had fallen in and rusted beams were everywhere with snow on the ground and piles of rust and destroyed…well..stuff!
Fact is we could be arrested just for being on the grounds, so fuck it, why not go all the way, right? We were already fucked if the cops came.
After looking around a bit we find our way in and Candace started snapping away with the camera. The more time that passed without being detected by Rangers or Cops the braver our exploration became. We kept going deeper and deeper into the recesses of the hangers until we turned a corner and saw something that made us all stop in our tracks.
We found a particularly destroyed section of the compound and I was about to hop over what was left of a half standing wall when Chris thrust his arm out stopped me. ‘Dude, stop!’
By this time the others had caught up with me but nobody spoke or made a sound as we stared in disbelief, frozen in our tracks at the horror before us.
There lying on the floor, decaying down to it’s bones was…
..a dead…
…Squirrel!
We took it as a sign that we were not supposed to go there. Our luck had been good so far. Why push it by crossing the path of a dead…. squirrel. Maybe it was a parachuting transvestite squirrel Eddie Izzard talks about. Hummm a hate crime?
It was fuckn’ insane. You really DID have to be careful as there were huge chunks of ceiling just dangling and pieces of floor completely missing. With one wrong step you could either fall to your death or have a ton of concrete fall on your head. But, no guts no glory.
As we wrapped up our shoot and made our way to the car, we saw some other photographers heading our way, only to get cut off by ‘the man!’ Hey better them than us. SUCKERS!
While this was not the most exciting story. I DID get ya with the squirrel, right (you thought it was going to be some Rivers Edge shit didn’t you!)? The band and Candace (and Chris!) had a lot of fun just exploring and the pictures are great. My imagination was running away with me thinking would find a WW II prisoner that had never been let go and still thought the war was on! Or a nuclear warhead…I didn’t even find an arrowhead. But I did find Meat Town! That’s pretty cool. See ya on tour and NOT at Meat Town..I hope.