Member Of The Month For November

The Member of The Month for November is ObsidianTears.

*Miss World voice over* "Jacq is a qualified archaeologist currently working in IT (WTF! Don't worry, she hates it too and wants to get back to the skulls and bones), an Australian metal chick who is obsessed with books, art, film, her dog, friends, and wants to save the world."

10 Questions

1. Age: 24, 25 in late Dec.

2. Star Sign: Capricorn

3. Origin/Story Behind Username:
I was obsessed with LKH and Obsidian Butterfly was taken on yahoo (the title of my favourite book of hers – pure horror, blood and gore). "Obsidian Butterfly" sounds a bit wussy, but in the book, she is an Aztec vampire who is so powerful she thinks she is a goddess – she has the power over life and death, and her will alone can control hundreds of vampires – she also feeds on pure power – and is on the blacklist by the Vampiric council – which Anita is unaware of when she ventures into her territory to help solve some gruesome mutilating serial killings.. This is just the simplified English translation of her name, so the actual concept is a lot deeper than the English words.. I tried a couple of variations and gave up. Then I started thinking. I wanted "obsidian" because I am an archaeologist, and I have always been fascinated with its use in ritual practices throughout prehistory – it has a very sharp blade – so sharp in fact that they still use it in modern surgery. It was used in some of my favourite cultures, and some of the most early ones, including Çatalhöyük in Turkey which is the earliest city in our knowledge. It has been used for ritual sacrifice, scarification, trephinations, early surgery, for ritual or ancestral weapons, and decorations. It is a volcanic glass, and I have just always been fascinated with it. The second half of my name I wasn't sure on what I wanted… just knew it had to be obsidian something… I tried a lot of variations, and the one that spoke true was 'tears'. You can take that as emotion, as art, as culture, as reaction, as the gothic influence… of a profound sadness at the world, at humanity.. but at the same time I don't mean sentimental and cutesy… It was inspired by one of the sketches Luis Royo made for his Avalanche picture. It is one that has always spoken to me. I love his art normally, he is my favourite artist, along with Victoria Frances, but it just stuck out for me. I stopped using that image as my avatar, I have one by Frances I use now, but it still moves me. My personal quote I use is "she opens her blue eyes and sees a world of grey: a desolate landscape of pain, hunger and greed..." says a lot about me ;-p

4. Political Stance: Left. Bring on the radical change! Stop poverty, the destruction of our earth, promote freedom of thought and religion, and above all, embrace our diversity as a species. Lets face it – if there were a few billion people running around who were all identical, had all the same convictions, the same desires, the same backgrounds – it would not only be a very scary place, but society would be static. Where there is no difference there is no innovation, no free thinking, and without that there can be no new discoveries in science, etc, no new approaches to the next ecological disaster, no resources left when we finish raping the earth.

5. Pets: Akasha – a wolfhound/deerhound. She just turned one.

6. Dark interests: Death (cultural, philosophical, theological, ethnographical, physical); burial practices and artefacts; weaponry; gothic culture; horror, supernatural and dark fantasy movies and books; metal and industrial music; clothing; archaeology (my friends call me macabre because I have such a fascination for death, burials and skeletal material, as well as the indications of violence on the bones..); art; fetish photography; Luis Royo and Victoria Frances; I also find BDSM fascinating, although I have never experimented.

7. Light/Other interests: Books; archaeology; art (photography, painting, sketching, print making, textile, metal work, digital work etc); film; music (all the random lighter stuff I like); nature, conservation and environmentalism; the internet and Thai food.

8. Favourite Language Besides First: Anglo Saxon/Old English. I studied it at university, and became completely enamoured… My favourite texts to read in the Anglo Saxon are Beowulf, the Dream of the Rood and the Battle of Maldon. The language is so dynamic and there is so much meaning in the words… translations never quite achieve the same flow. I love Anglo Saxon poetry too.. its created to be chanted – the lines are broken in two, and made up of alliteration rather than rhyming. So half lines (caesuras) such as "Blode bestemed" (blood drenched/streaming) or "winter wunade" (wandered in winter) etc. And the words! I love the words… so illustrative.. so metaphoric… things like "the swan's road" or "the whale path" mean the sea; they also stitched words together so we ended up with words like "garlic" (gar=spear, lic=blade – its about the stems of the garlic plant), "geārdagum" (yore-days – days of yore). I need to stop lecturing now! Let's just put it down to the fact that I love the way Anglo Saxon sounds, the way the words fit together, the imagery, the poetry, the content – all of it… It's a very beautiful and guttural language… where every man was a poet… and the poetry was about battle, valour, weapons, life and death ;-p definitely up my alley!!

9. Weapon and Special Talent of Choice If You Were A Badarse Of Some Sort: My weapon would be some type of wicked blade. Probably not a board sword – those things are too bloody heavy to life, let alone wield. But I have a thing for blades… maybe twin daggers, a scimitar, a short sword or even an axe. But I would want it to be pattern-welded! And to have interesting design, and entirely unique to me, it would also need a guard on the hilt, so I could unarm my opponent.. Actually. I need to start working on my collection… So far I only have twin daggars.. Perfect birthday gift, people!

10. Favourite Quote: Just one?? But I have so many favourites!! How about two.. "I really feel like civilisation's already over. It's not ending but it's already done. We're all addicted to the concept that humanity equals civilisation and that's not the case. We need a global conversation to be able to decipher how we can live from this point forward. We have to redefine our relationship with our environment." ~ Serj Tankian (SOAD) "I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." ~ Marilyn Monroe.

For the rest of the Questions & Answers check out the forum.