Philip
City of residence: Washington DC
Age: 23
Length of time in the scene: "Seven or eight years"
Occupation: Freelance Graphic Artist, Night Club Promoter
Education: "I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Cum Laude) in illustration from Syracuse University."
Musical taste: "Harder edge goth, punk, industrial, techno, and ska. More or less, you name it, I'm into it. However my love for Siouxsie and the Banshees, Front Line Assembly, and Ethyl Meat Plow are at the top."
Distinctions in appearance: "I suppose most noticeable is my shoulder-blade length hair, and then all my ear piercings. I often have to be at corporate offices. No matter how corporate I dress, these always mark me as a person who doesn't really belong there, and does not care to belong."
Hobbies, activities, interests: "In my precious few spare moments I like to sleep, draw, paint, listen to music (I have over 500 CD's and 300 vinyl), write, and most often work on my web site."
Spiritual, philosophical, religious affiliation: "I was raised a Presbyterian, which is a Protestant form of Christianity. Unlike most goths I know, I have remained a Christian, although I do not know if I still fit the moniker of Presbyterian. The concepts of pacifism, forgiveness/understanding, and charity are foremost in my mind when I think of what being a Christian means to me."
Goals, dreams: "My short and long term goals both center around never working for someone again. In the short term I have partnered with friends to form a design and illustration studio, a gothic/industrial club night, and a promotion company to bring in bands to Washington DC. In the long term I wish to retire with someone I care for and while away the rest of my days drawing and painting."
Do you consider yourself gothic?: "I'll be completely Goth and say 'no'. Because my interests and musical tastes range so widely that I can not simply be categorized in such a manner. However, I think that this is the general mindset of most people in the scene, to the extent that anyone who says they are a Goth is most definitely not. But I must admit I am, in a way. To me gothic summons up ideas of the dark, the foreboding and the romantic. It means overdressing and primping. Reveling in more than a bit of the pleasures of the here and now: song, food, wine, words, and visions. The aesthetics of everything about gothic tend to call to me as an artist. It's generally lush nature is simply wonderful. I think the gothic attachment to death is misunderstood. Goths seem more inclined to accept death, not fear or worship it. It is not the desire for it, as the media seems to think, that brings it into everyday life for them, but the inevitability of it."
9/11/97
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