For those looking for jewelry, flasks and other accessories that keep things classy while adding a bit of macabre flair, you’re likely to find just what you’re looking for at Diamond*Star*Halo. From earrings to belt buckles, the ornate creations of Jen Belgard maintain a rococo style while incorporating pop culture icons such as monsters, Muppets and circus performers. But jewelry making isn’t Belgard’s only creative endeavor as she is also involved with a baton-twirling group known as Turnin’ TriXXX and is co-owner of the Atlanta-based boutique known as Libertine. More recently, she has turned her tricks to a darker group of performers known as the Baphomettes, an alluring collection of demonic dames. Regardless of which form her creativity takes, Belgard has been a constant supporter of Monstrosity Championship Wrestling for more than a year. When MCW returns to Club Famous this Friday, there will be several DSH creations available as raffle prizes. As Belgard prepares for her own birthday celebration, she talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about her wares.
For someone just discovering Diamond*Star*Halo, how would you describe your creations? What inspires you aesthetically and how do you choose which form each piece will take on?
Diamond*Star*Halo was born from my love of haunting fairy tales, sideshows, horror/occult art and culture, vintage jewelry and rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a collection of accessories for people looking for something out of the ordinary. I like my accessories to set me apart from the crowd. I couldn’t find the things I was looking for so I willed them into being.
You’ve been a supporter of MCW since Wrestling with Pop Culture’s first anniversary last March, with your items being big prizes in the MCW raffles. Why do you think DSH and MCW complement each other so well?
I watched wrestling as a kid. It always struck me as a sideshow soap opera. What’s not to love? The storylines, the over-the-top costumes and antics of wrestlers like Andre the Giant, Ric Flair, Jake “The Snake” Roberts and “Macho Man” Randy Savage drew me in. Adding monsters to the mix makes it all the more amazing. DSH and MCW make perfect sense to me.
Aside from DSH, you also have creative outlets with Turnin’ TriXXX, the Baphomettes and Libertine. There is a thread of similarity between each of these entities, as well as your other endeavors. Which parts of your personality would you say are on display with each of these endeavors?
They really aren’t so different. The common thread is my unwillingness to give up the things I love just because I’ve grown up. I will always let my imagination run away with me. I will always twirl my baton to punk rock and metal. I will always wear costumes, too much makeup and even more hair. Be it Diamond*Star*Halo, Turnin’ TriXXX, the Baphomettes or Libertine these things hold true.
The Baphomettes recently made an appearance at MCW, escorting the mysterious Angel of Death to the ring. What is your connection to this rookie wrestler and what can we expect from him at future MCW events?
Professor Morté asked the Baphomettes to escort the Angel of Death to the ring. Unfortunately, he is not a worthy recipient of the powers bestowed upon the Baphomettes. We have no allegiance to that wrestler.
What does the future hold for DSH, Turnin’ TriXXX, the Baphomettes and any of your other projects? Any new creations or performances coming up?
I have a constant stream of ideas of Diamond*Star*Halo. Something new debuts all the time. Locally, you can find DSH at Junkman’s Daughter, the Oakland Cemetery gift shop, Cherry Blossom Salon, Mysteria Antiques & Oddities, Rutabaga Boutique & Salon and of course, Libertine. DSH is also available online at www.diamondstarhalo.com and a limited selection is available at www.sourpussclothing.com. Turnin’ TriXXX is on hiatus until Halloween. We can’t let the cat of of the bag on those plans quite yet. The Baphomettes have several collaborations and performances coming up. We recently joined the fabulous Blast-Off Burlesque on stage as they presented Taboo-La-La at the Plaza Theatre. We look forward to working with them several more times this year. (Hint, hint: look for their upcoming show in September!) We are also in talks with our fiercely talented friends, the Little Five Points Rock Star Orchestra for a show this summer. More details to come!
As the only person to ever hold the WWE Women’s Championship, WWE Divas Championship and Total Nonstop Action Knockouts Championship, Mickie James is one of the most talented women to ever step into a wrestling ring. Though she’s been out of the title picture for quite a while, and came up short against current Knockouts Champion Velvet Sky on Impact Wrestling last Thursday, James still has reason to celebrate. On this Thursday’s Impact she teams up with Taryn Terrell to take on longtime rivals Gail Kim and Tara. And next Tuesday sees the release of James‘ second album Somebody’s Gonna Pay, a rocking collection that includes her TNA entrance song “Hardcore Country”. Wrestling with Pop Culture talks to James about the upcoming TNA Slammiversary pay-per-view, her new album and her recent reunion with Trish Stratus.
You came up a little short in your Knockouts title match last Thursday, but that crowd sure was into your match against Velvet Sky.
It was insane. I could have sworn someone was starting the wave or there was a person running around going, “Hey, everybody yell” or a fight had broken out. All of a sudden it just started to rumble. It’s very rare that you get a feeling like that. I’ve had that feeling in England a few times and, obviously, at WrestleMania, but to have that crowd come alive like that is incredible. I don’t know if it was the match or if there was somebody streaking, but they were loud the whole time and it was awesome. They were really into it and it was almost a shock to both of us because we were like, “Whoa, wait. Is that for us? What’s happening?” They had been pretty hot all night, but it was a slow build and they really came alive for that match. It was awesome. As soon as the bell rang they just started to rumble.
It was clearly a great match, but it seemed like even you were a little surprised by the way it ended. Were you possibly in the ropes a little bit when Velvet rolled you up for the pin?
I think I was a bit tangled up in the ropes, but I’m blaming my loss on the fact that earlier that day I was at the airport and my flight was delayed. I was a little bit upset and in search of a plug because my cell phone was dying and I walked into my own bag and knocked my pinkie toenail completely off. I know Velvet has a knee injury, but oh, my God, it hurt so bad. So I think that threw my balance off. But I’m not really blaming it on that. I don’t know. It felt like I was a little tangled in the ropes, but ODB counted 1, 2, 3, so what can you do?
It had been a little while since you had been in the title picture. With Slammiversary coming up in about a month, do you know where last Thursday’s loss leaves you heading into that pay-per-view?
I don’t know where it leaves me. It obviously leaves me hungry and wanting more and I still want the championship. I feel like I pretty much dominated that whole match and she got lucky. I love Velvet to death and she’s my friend, but at the same time I know that I’m Mickie James, a kick-ass wrestler. I’m the champion of champions, for goodness’ sake. I can’t believe I lost! I don’t want to be a sore loser, but at the same time I do want that championship. If there’s a chance for me to get it or to go for it again, I certainly will take it. I don’t know where Slammiversary is headed, but I’m hopeful.
It was interesting to see three women in the ring (you, Velvet and ODB as referee) who all came up through the independent scene together and are now in one of the most competitive women’s divisions in wrestling. How does it feel for all of you to be at this level now?
It’s a good feeling. It’s good to see people who actually set out to make in this business, who have a true passion for this business, to all stand in the same ring with a crowd like that roaring underneath you and have that kind of emotion in the palm of your hands. It’s humbling to know how hard each of us has worked to get there. That’s the most rewarding thing is to know that your sacrifices have paid off. The indie wrestling scene, much like the indie rock scene or any type of indie scene, as you’re trying to come in and break through it’s never easy. You work for peanuts and hope for the best and hopefully catch a big break. We’ve all been fortunate enough to do so.
Speaking of indie rock, you have a new album out next week. I guess it’s more indie country, but it definitely has some rock flavor to it.
Yeah. I signed to eOne Music Nashville in September. It’s not traditional country. It’s more where Southern rock meets country. It’s got that kind of Randy Houser/Jason Aldean sound accept with a female feel to it.
Was music something you’ve always wanted to do or was that something you turned your attention to after you had success with wrestling?
Music has always been a massive part of my life. I grew up on a horse farm and trained with horses all my young life. But I also played the violin for five years and I used to record myself walking around my bedroom singing my heart out. It’s always been a passion of mine and I started writing when I was on the road. Instead of writing short stories or poetry, I would write lyrics to songs. It wasn’t to any melody or anything because I didn’t know anything about how to do that. After shows, we often have to drive 250 miles to the next town. That’s a lot of time in the car by yourself, so I started coming up with my own lyrics to songs that were playing on the radio. I took chorus in school a little bit, but I was always a little shy about being out there in front of a crowd by myself with a microphone. But being an entertainer and a performer – I took modeling and acting classes – is something I always wanted to do, but was always so fearful of. Finally after I wrote about five or six songs, I was like, “I’m just going to go to Nashville and lay down these songs just so I can say that I did it. If this demo that I make only sits on my mom’s coffee table that’s fine with me.” So I went to Nashville and played my songs for about 20 different producers – anyone and everyone who would actually take a meeting with me and listen and consider it. I met with Kent Wells, who produced Dolly Parton‘s last album, and he was like, “I totally get it. This is awesome. I think we can take two or three of these songs that you wrote, vamp them up with some killer music and make an album. You’re a great singer, you have a unique story and you’re something country music’s never had. It needs something different.”
I’m not Carrie Underwood, where I can sing these massive beautiful ballads all day long. But I do have that rock edge to me where it is a little bit rough around the edges, because I’m a little bit rough around the edges. So I released the first album on my own and learned a lot. Then I went back into the studio to do a second album. At the time is was going to be a self-released EP, so I went in the studio with Jamie Lee Thurston, who is a killer guitarist, and wrote some songs with him and Porter Howell, who used to play with Little Texas. While we were recording, my management started talking to different labels and that’s where eOne came in. They took five of the songs Jamie did and sent me back in the studio with R.S. Field, who doesn’t do a lot of country but had just done that Uncle Lucius album. So I listened to it, met with R.S. and got a feel for how he wanted to round out the album. We added one more song that I wrote and put my entrance music on there as a bonus track. We got some more killer songs from some other killer songwriters like Bridgette Tatum, who wrote “She’s Country” for Jason Aldean. She wrote “A Good Time,” which is a good party song on my album. It’s ironic because “Somebody’s Gonna Pay,” the title track and lead single, is one of those songs that R.S. kicked out and I loved it. I loved the lyrics, I loved the song, but I didn’t know if I could sing it because it was very old, traditional country. I just didn’t know if I was capable of twanging it up that much and he was like, “No, we’re going to throw seven guitars on it and it’s going to be Southern rock and soul kind of stuff.” I just trusted him with everything. That song selection process is the hardest out of everything because you want to find not just the songs that you can sing and that are right for you, but also the ones you think your fans are going to connect to and that’re going to tell a story within the album. I probably listened to 1,000 or 2,000 songs just trying to pick these ten. And the fact that two of the songs I co-wrote made it onto the album alongside songs written by people who do nothing but write songs all day was awesome.
You also recently released a video “Somebody’s Gonna Pay” that kind of takes you back to where you got your first big break in wrestling with Trish Stratus. How did that come about?
I actually called her and was like, “Trish, would you consider being in my video?” They were looking for a tie-in to wrestling without being too hokey and cheesy about it. So it was a big favor I called in and she was like, “Oh, my God. Of course! I’d be honored to come down and do that.” So she came down from Canada and Nick Aldis (Magnus from TNA) came down, and we filled up the bar with all my friends from Nashville, my managers, fellow songwriters and singers. And obviously we hired some cute little models, who were precious. That was directed by Blake Judd, who just did a full-length about Shooter Jennings that won some awards. I met him when I did a cameo in Bucky Covington and Shooter’s “Drinking Side of Country” video, so it just worked out really well. Blake is a wrestling fan, so he’d talk to me about the old-school wrestling he watched growing up.
Given the obsession you had with Trish when you made your WWE debut, how did it feel to see your idol inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year?
It was really incredible. I couldn’t be happier for her. I think she completely deserved it and I was just disappointed that I couldn’t be there in person. Not only is she a genuine friend, but I really admire her for her strength and her ability to break outside of the mold of coming in as a fitness competitor and really growing within the business. Lita‘s incredible and I know that one day she’s going to be in there as well. She came up the same way I did, working her way up through the indie scene to become the star that she is. But Trish came in as a fitness model that a lot of people didn’t give a lot of credibility to. But she took the time and effort to not just learn, but to become one of the best. I was really fortunate to work with her when I first came in because there was a lot of stuff that I learned from her and a lot of stuff she learned from me. I didn’t know anything about which cameras to look at, but there were little intricacies about wrestling that she didn’t know. And to see a friend get such an accolade, and to know that she was going to announce the baby at the ceremony was such an honor.
WWE recently added a Mickie James page to the alumni section of its website. Do you know why you weren’t on there already or why you were recently added?
I didn’t even realize I was missing. But it’s cool of them to still recognize the people that were there and had a bit of history there. There were certainly some moments when I was there that I think people will remember forever, at least the fans of that era. So it’s cool to be recognized and remembered for that.
The end of your stint with WWE wasn’t the most flattering part of your career. Do you think you’ll ever return to WWE if for no other reason than to redeem yourself a little?
No, it was not the most flattering part of my career. You never know, do you? That is not the way that I wanted to go. It was heartbreaking for that to be my exit because I thought something different was going to come out of that. But things happen and I’ve grown a lot since then. I’m approaching life with a whole different attitude, so it’s just one of those things. I do feel that there were some awesome lessons learned from all of that. Bullying was such a major issue then, and still is now, so I felt like Michelle McCool, Layla and myself made that into something special. I just made the most of it and tried to make it amazing and make great television. You have to take whatever you’re given, own it and make it the best you can, and I think I did that. But it was an uncomfortable awesomeness.
You often perform concerts at nearby venues after TNA house shows. Now that Impact is on the road, do you still perform after the wrestling shows?
I’ve done a few afterparties. We may do a couple more. I just have to find the right deal and the right balance of what’s going to work the best. We did a handful of afterparties as a test run to see which cities were drawing, what the best format was and how we were going to do. It seemed to work pretty well, but people are so exhausted by the time the wrestling shows are over it’s almost working uphill to try to get them to come out to another place after they’ve already spent a lot of energy at the show itself. But, yes, we do plan on doing that again sometime soon. We’re looking at trying to line up some tour dates and shows around the release of this album.
You’ve shared the stage with some heavy hitters in the country music world. Were those festival performances or have you actually toured with some of these acts?
I’ve gotten to open for Gretchen Wilson, Montgomery Gentry, Randy Houser. I feel like my music is kind of similar to Randy Houser’s, so it was really cool to watch him perform and see how he works the crowd. They were all awesome shows and it’s cool to be part of things like that and just sit back and learn how they make their sets flow and all those little things that I’m still learning. I did a big country festival in Richmond with Gretchen and Montgomery Gentry as headliners. That was with my first album, so the local country radio stations knew who I was. I had been in there several times to do interviews for WWE, so they called me about that. The Randy Houser deal was in Richmond as well, so those people had seen me perform at that country festival. I was also supposed to open for Darius Rucker from Hootie & the Blowfish, but it didn’t stop thunderstorming until 7 o’clock and the whole thing got scrapped. I really wanted to meet him and watch his show, so that bummed me out a little bit. Hopefully with this second album I’ll get more opportunities like that.
I’m not huge into horror films, so I was freaked out for at least a third of the time at Days of the Dead. When the It clown came by, I was hiding behind my chair. No, I actually took my picture with him and did the whole fangirl pics with people, walked around, met a few people and really marked out for Danny Trejo. Those things kind of come up if it works with my schedule, so I don’t know when I’ll be doing another convention like that.
Things tend to always be at least a little odd in the wrestling world, but sometimes the Georgia wrestling scene gets even wackier than usual. This weekend some of the strangest local and national promotions host events outside the realm of what some wrestling fans are accustomed to seeing. Monstrosity Championship Wrestling returns to Club Famous May 3 and WrestleForce‘s “The Juggernaut” Jon Malus wants to issue a special challenge to a member of the MCW roster. Will he reveal his target to Wrestling with Pop Culture and Team All You Can Eat’s Matt Hankins on tonight’s Georgia Wrestling Now? Chikara also makes its Georgia debut May 4 with The Ghost of You Clings, so we’ll be talking to the Batiri’s Kobald about his grudge match against Amasis this Saturday. GWN regular Matt “Sex” Sells will also let us in on his recent Ring of Honor training seminar, his upcoming stand-up comedy show at the Laughing Skull Lounge and putting his career on the line against former tag team partner Ryan Michaels on May 5 at Pro Wrestling Resurrection. Listen live every Monday at 7 p.m. and call 347-324-5735 for questions or comments.
"The Juggernaut" Jon Malus makes his Monstrosity Championship Wrestling debut May 3 and wrestles for American Premiere Wrestling May 4.
Mike (Emily Blunt) and Arthur (Colin Firth) create new personas in order to feel real connections in "Arthur Newman". Photo courtesy Cinedigm.
You can’t have a midlife crisis without some extreme behavior. But when Wallace Avery (Colin Firth) grows weary of being in an unhappy relationship, looking for work and becoming progressively disconnected from his son and ex-wife, he goes to drastic lengths to leave his former life behind him and start anew. So drastic, in fact, that he creates Arthur Newman, a retired golfer ready to settle into the next phase of his fictitious career as a golf instructor at a Terre Haute country club. So he stages his own death, buys a Mercedes and begins a cross-country trek destined for a truly new life.
Not long after he sets out on this journey, Arthur meets a troubled younger woman named Michaela (Emily Blunt). Clearly having a very different kind of identity crisis of her own, Mike (as she prefers to be called) inadvertently offers just the type of adventure Arthur didn’t even realize he was looking for. While doing a good deed, Arthur and Mike find themselves breaking into the home of a newlywed couple and taking on two additional personas. This role playing becomes such a thrill for Arthur and Mike that they continue fantasizing about being other people while having sex in the homes of these anonymous couples. As their bizarre methods of finding themselves continue, the two grow emotionally closer to one another as each learns more about the other.
There is some truth to the fantasies in "Arthur Newman". Photo courtesy Cinedigm.
While Arthur’s escape from reality is based on problems that are pretty typical of men of his age, Mike is running from things that are much harder to remedy. Having taken on the persona of hew twin sister, a paranoid schizophrenic currently locked away in a mental hospital, there’s more to Mike than Arthur probably wants to know. But he finds out soon enough when he wakes up one day to find that not only is Mike gone, but so is the bag of cash he’s been using to fund his trip. After Mike turns herself in, however, Arthur bails her out and they continue on their way. Seems like a stupid move on Arthur’s part until you remember that he’s a boring middle-aged man who’d probably like to continue having sex with this beautiful younger women, no matter how twisted the scenario might be. Plus, the fact that Mike, who he now knows is a kleptomaniac, felt some sort of regret after stealing his money indicates that maybe she’s changing for the better.
Just when it seems that Arthur and Mike’s fantasies are about to become reality, all of their lies are exposed, leaving them to sort through the shortcomings they’ve been trying to cover up. But they’ve discovered a good bit about themselves, thanks largely to their paths unexpectedly crossing. Realizing what they really need to do in order to find true happiness, they’re both able to find peace despite what would otherwise have seemed like a frivolous adventure.
The Rock gets in a little cardio in "Pain & Gain". Photo by Jaimie Trueblood.
I am not a Michael Bay fan. That being said, I go into most of his movies with very low expectations and am sometimes pleasantly surprised. Though The Rock‘s track record as a Hollywood actor is not dissimilar to Bay’s directorial achievements (both are responsible for large box office draws thanks to a certain charisma, despite the fact that most of their films are amusingly terrible), somehow the idea of seeing the former WWE Champion star alongside Mark Wahlberg as two Miami bodybuilders has a certain appeal to it.
I was surprised to find that Pain & Gain is based on a true story, which has created a bit of controversy due to the fact that the death and dismemberment of real people in the ’90s is turned into a comical crime caper fueled by cocaine, partying and other excesses. While those close to the victims have every right to be offended by Pain & Gain (and not for the reasons that make most of Bay’s movies offensive), that doesn’t make the movie any less entertaining for the rest of us. In fact, from a completely objective point of view, Pain & Gain could be Bay’s best movie yet, with the right balance of absurdist comedy, visual flair and the T&A (and hard-bodied male leads) that have come to define Bay’s films.
Well, there has to be at least one explosion, right? Photo by Jaimie Trueblood.
One of the biggest reasons Pain & Gain seems to make an extra effort to be more than just another Michael Bay movie is the acting muscle being flexed. The Rock and Wahlberg are joined by Anthony Mackie, who has become one of Hollywood’s best supporting actors with recent roles in The Adjustment Bureau, Real Steel, Man on a Ledge and Gangster Squad. And with Ed Harris playing the detective that’s onto their hustle, and Tony Shalhoub as the rich businessman that becomes the target of their extortion tactics, it would have been hard to screw this one up. I don’t even recall very many explosions in Pain & Gain, which must mean Bay took this film pretty seriously.
In place of explosions, however, is a moderate dose of blood and gore. But even the exaggerated blood spatter comes across more as slapstick than Dexter-like gruesomeness. Pain & Gain‘s strongest point is probably the dialogue (something Bay, The Rock and Wahlberg are all good at), with almost every line being delivered as if it’s the most important one-liner in the film. Sure, it’s all a bit excessive and ridiculous. But it is a Michael Bay movie (starring The Rock) after all, so that is to be expected. But without complicated stories about alien robots fighting for control of the planet or an asteroid on a collision course with the planet (ie, things that go “boom!”), Bay manages to focus on his other flashy extravagances, which makes for a film that’s entertaining without being completely contemptible.
Aden Young stars in Ray McKinnon’s “Rectify”. Photo by James Minchin III
Whether it was his Academy Award-winning 2001 short film The Accountant, his ominous performance as Reverend Smith on HBO‘s violent Western series Deadwood or his more recent appearances on Sons of Anarchyand in the Footlooseremake, Ray McKinnon has a simple Southern charm that adds depth to anything he works on. This week sees his range of talents being utilized on screens big and small as his New Southern Gothic series Rectify premieres on the Sundance Channel April 22, followed by the theatrical release of Jeff Nichols‘ Mud on April 26. Though McKinnon plays a different role in each project (he’s the creator and writer for Rectify and plays the father of a Huckleberry Finn-like adolescent in Mud), the parallels between the two are hard to ignore.
Rectify revolves around Daniel Holden (Aden Young), a man exonerated of a rape and murder for which he has spent 19 years on death row. Like a cross between Twin Peaks and the West Memphis Three story, Rectify shows Daniel’s struggles to adjust to the modern world after spending most of his life in a cinder block cell that offers no concept of time or reality as most of us know it. (At one point, another character in Rectify even refers to Daniel as Starman, referring to the 1984 John Carpenter film about an alien who crashes to Earth and has a hard time adjusting to his new surroundings.)
“In some ways Being There is an archetypal story that appeals to me, and Daniel is a little bit like Chance the Gardener at times,” said McKinnon at last month’s Atlanta Film Festival premiere for Rectify. “But Chance never changed, that’s part of his story. I’m interested in a lot of social and psychological issues as a curious human being, so I’m interested in sociopaths, are they born or made, is Daniel one or not? I’m interested in narcissism, family dynamics and how systems can convict people who, when you look at the evidence you wonder how that happened, and the group psychology that’s involved, like how a group of people can convince each other that this is the right thing to do. So I wanted to explore that and there are a lot of elements I’m interested in in the world. Like Mad Men, this is, in some ways, an examination of private lives and sometimes we see things in our story that even the characters aren’t aware they’re showing or doing. I like stories like that.”
Daniel (Aden Young) is fascinated by the simplest things in Ray McKinnon’s “Rectify”. Photo by Blake Tyers.
In Mud, McKinnon portrays an aging Southern man whose stubbornness to accept the changes happening around him creates similar problems to the ones Daniel faces in Rectify.
“Senior is an anachronism,” McKinnon said of his character prior to the Atlanta Film Festival screening of Mud. “He’s kind of of another time, but times have changed and he’s not dealing with it very well. His son, who is changing with the times, helps bring him along. He’s a sad character in some ways, but he changes and I see a good life for him and his son in the future. I know [Jeff] as a friend and he claims he wrote this character for me, so there was a lot of pressure. I didn’t want to disappoint him. He’s a very assured director, he knows what he wants and we had a good time together. I always try to enjoy myself and he made me a better actor.”
Though his role in Mud (which stars Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland) is as a supporting cast member, he represents the mindset of many people along Mud‘s Mississippi River landscape, as well as many of the citizens of Rectify‘s Paulie, Ga.
“[Jeff] claims that he stole the idea [for Mud] from Mark Twain in a very broad way, but it’s a modern film,” says McKinnon. “It’s a story about the 21st century South and the changes that are going on along the Mississippi River and the people who can’t change with it. In some ways it has universal and ageless themes, but it’s also a 21st century story about the South.
Ray McKinnon plays Senior in Jeff Nichols’ “Mud”. Photo by James Bridges.
“We as a bigger society – and certainly the South is a more magnified hyper version sometimes of the bigger society – want order in our world,” he says of Rectify. “We want to believe that if a bad guy does something he’s going to be punished for that. Sometimes the pressure for that from society causes the wrong people to be convicted. It also causes people who believe in that conviction to have a psychological unwillingness to change their belief system, to turn around and say, ‘Maybe I was wrong’ or ‘Maybe I saw this the wrong way.’ You see that throughout both sides of the political aisle where you have a belief system and you’ll be damned if you’re going to believe anything different.”
With both of these projects being released within just a few days of one another, audiences have multiple ways to experience McKinnon’s quirky take on a South that he is very much a part of. And McKinnon couldn’t be more satisfied and proud to see these projects (particularly Rectify, his own creation) coming to fruition.
“Getting older and seeing how fortunate I am to be doing what I love to do I really appreciate things more,” he says “I live more in gratitude and a little less in fear. For some reason, these two projects that I care so much about [are coming out] at the same time, so I’m just planning on enjoying and savoring it. I was fortunate enough to be in Jeff’s movie and doing this show has been beyond my wildest imagination of things to explore. So I feel full in the best way.”
For those looking for jewelry, flasks and other accessories that keep things classy while adding a bit of macabre flair, you’re likely to find just what you’re looking for at Diamond*Star*Halo. From earrings to belt buckles, the ornate creations of Jen Belgard maintain a rococo style while incorporating pop culture icons such as monsters, Muppets and circus performers. But jewelry making isn’t Belgard’s only creative endeavor as she is also involved with a baton-twirling group known as Turnin’ TriXXX and is co-owner of the Atlanta-based boutique known as Libertine. More recently, she has turned her tricks to a darker group of performers known as the Baphomettes, an alluring collection of demonic dames. Regardless of which form her creativity takes, Belgard has been a constant supporter of Monstrosity Championship Wrestling for more than a year. When MCW returns to Club Famous this Friday, there will be several DSH creations available as raffle prizes. As Belgard prepares for her own birthday celebration, she talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about her wares.
Aside from DSH, you also have creative outlets with Turnin’ TriXXX, the Baphomettes and Libertine. There is a thread of similarity between each of these entities, as well as your other endeavors. Which parts of your personality would you say are on display with each of these endeavors?
What does the future hold for DSH, Turnin’ TriXXX, the Baphomettes and any of your other projects? Any new creations or performances coming up?
