All posts by Piercing Ken

I'm a Freelance Music Photojournalist from NYC and Founder of the Heavy Metal website PiercingMetal.com; I created this blog site to showcase the other things in life that keep my interest or catch my attention. Believe me that is a lot of stuff to talk about when it comes down to it. I hope you enjoy what we are delivering because there is so much to share as a resident of this bustling metropolis.
Features, PiercingKen Says

Sharing My Swarm 2016 Year In Review

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It’s without question that I consider myself a very active Social Networker and while I have the expected Facebook profile, I am using things like Yelp, Foodspotting, Foursquare and Swarm much more when it comes to my visits to clubs, restaurants and bars. Each of these networks offers me the ability to share over to Facebook but to be brutally honest I don’t always feel like doing that. Swarm is connected to Foursquare and is the “check in” app that they created. Essentially you arrive at a place and find it on Swarm and log it in. Each check in earns you phony coins and shows you a “leader board” against those in your friends list. I get a kick out of it and recently was sent an email denoting my 2016 highlights. I downloaded the images and figured I would speak about some of them in a site post. Here we go.

swarm, year in review 2016, swarm review 2016

Swarm calculated that I checked in some “622” times but the actual number is much higher since I didn’t always remember to do it. It happens.

swarm, year in review 2016, swarm review 2016

I’m almost embarrassed by it disclosing that I like going to bars. It’s true that they are often the pre-concert pit stop to meet friends and to eat but in my defense I didn’t always have a drink of alcohol. I’m a lightweight and last year I did quick a few months without anything of the sort in my system, but that is a topic for another post – maybe 🙂

swarm, year in review 2016, swarm review 2016
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Features, PiercingKen Says

Happy Friday The 13th My Fiends

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I’ve never viewed the day as one of bad luck or that a Black Cat crossing your path will find you in some sort of distress if it happens. As a matter of fact, this black cat below crosses my path a few dozen times a day. Have an excellent “Friday The 13th” from Spooke and I.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES
Features, Food and Drink

Ellefson Coffee Co. Opens Brick and Mortar Store

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If you’ve been reading this blog for any bit of time you know from the posts that I consider myself a bit of a foodie. I check in regularly at places via the Swarm app and am a frequent Yelper to help raise awareness. I love taking photos of my dining choices as long as they can steer people towards a good place. Sure I post them to Instagram but there is a larger reasoning behind it. Since we do talk about food here a lot more than ever before, I loved the chance to be able to share the news about the opening of the Ellefson Coffee Co. official store. This is of course the brainchild of Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson. Check it out.

The Press Release:
Ellefson Coffee Co., the boutique Coffee brand of Megadeth bassist David Ellefson will open its first brick and mortar ELLEFSON COFFEE CO shop next week in David’s hometown of Jackson, MN. In addition to serving a variety of custom blends of Ellefson Coffee Co brands, including ROAST IN PEACE, SHE WOLF, KENYA THRASH, and URBAN LEGEND, ECC will also be a retail outlet for Ellefson Coffee products and memorabilia, as well as a satellite retail outlet for titles and merchandise from Ellefson’s EMP LABEL GROUP.

The store will also serve as a “Museum of Deth” featuring permanently displayed artifacts and memorabilia from Ellefson’s personal collection , as well as memorabilia from other artists. After teaming up with local Jackson Coffee shop COFFEE CHOICES (one of Ellefson’s personal Jackson haunts) and owner Susan Reiter for their URBAN LEGEND blend, David’s ECC (and EMP) partner Thom Hazaert suggested taking the partnership farther.
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Features, Technology

A Kindle Fire Joins The Metal Media Office

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Since I’ve been enjoying sharing the various technological implements that I use here at the Media Command HQ, I felt that you might be interested in knowing that I have just added an Amazon Kindle Fire tablet to the arsenal of things that I use to create and control these websites. I had owned a ASUS 7″ tablet in the not too distant past already but ending up giving it to a friend with a more immediate need for the device. My plan to replace this went by the wayside until the night I was purchasing a copy of the brand new Metallica CD and as I walked to the line in Best Buy in Union Square, I noticed that they had racks of Amazon Kindle Fire tablets for $40 apiece. How could I pass that deal up? I couldn’t and I didn’t.

kindle fire tablet, metal media office
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Holiday Hijinx, Lifestyle

Happy New Year 2017 My Friends

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On behalf of my beautiful black cat Miss Spooke and myself, I’d like to wish you all a very Happy New Year 2017. Let’s hope that its a good one for all of us 🙂 As is my common practice, I’ve lined out a couple of guidelines that are good aspects of a positive year. Try a few of them if you can.

1. Life life in the real world and not just via Facebook or one of the other Social Networks. Sure its fun to share things on the networks but don’t focus on it as the most important thing in your day. I’ve watched it damage too much to be a fan these days and outside of feeding my other social tools to the profile and official pages, I have little use for it. It’s always a good idea to go over your social networks and do a little housekeeping.

2. Keep up with your family. Parents, Uncles and Aunts, Grandparents, Cousins etc.

3. Love your pets. They only stay with us for so long so make those moments count. Sometimes they let you include them in silly photos like I’ve done with my Spooke a few times. She doesn’t seem to mind.

4. Take on some adventures. You don’t have to go far away but can do some closer to home stuff. Get away when its possible. It lets you recharge. Museums and parks are great for this or just scenic walks.

5. Take Photographs: It’s so easy to do this nowadays since we all carry phones with cameras today. Where you post them is up to you. I do that via my personal Instagram and this website. Sometimes I share that stuff was done on Facebook but its only a sneak peak.

6. Be there for your friends but not at the expense of yourself. Let’s face it – some of the people we meet and keep up with just tax the spirit. Energy and time vampires or negative and complaining about every single thing are not healthy. Less of those types in your world is a good thing so clean that list up a little bit. It’s a better thing in the end.

7. Read: Read something whether its a full on novel or just a magazine or comic book. Let your mind wander.

8. Listen: Be sure to listen to the music you love and investigate new stuff. Go see some shows because there are always a lot of them happening out there. Support the bands that are striving to entertain you and if you have someone in your circle who is constantly in the loop listen to what they are suggesting. Yeah I am the recommending guy in most of my circles so…. 🙂

That should suffice. I don’t want to get too “preachy” or soap-boxing on you but just wanted to offer some tips. I’ve a lot planned for this website in both the serious reporting and the lighthearted observations so get ready for that. A lot of the daily routine is shared on my Twitter and the visuals of the moment on the Instagram which can each be found on the main page. Thanks in advance for reading and following all of this stuff. See you soon.