Category Archives: PiercingKen Says

General Announcements and Editorial posts.

Features, PiercingKen Says

Goodbye To 2011: You Were A 50/50 Year

Leave a comment

editorial, editorial logo

Is it just me or was that a very fast year? I know I cannot be wrong in this because a lot of people felt as if they blinked and shazam, here we are a the end of another one. One of my friends said that this is the sign of getting old – the whole time moving quickly. These are people I don’t need to hear from LOL. Anyways, so this was clearly a year of good and bad. In some cases good and absolutely terrible which is unfortunate. We found births and deaths and the whole circle of life going on from the beginning of 2011 until its close. Of course I am not here to get all preachy but I will say let’s continue to strive to celebrate the moments that we have together since we can.

I am here to share some images that reflect the whole New Year’s Eve spirit in some sense and you readers might be surprised to learn that I shot these few photos back in March of 2011. I was on my way to a show (a usual occurrence to me) and as I glanced up at one of the buildings in Times Square I realized it was the one with the famous ball drop.



My guess is that they were dismantling the ball or testing it for issues even though the New Year was already three months deep. It was interesting to see being the case so out came the trusty snappy camera and some shots were snared.



As a card carrying New Yorker, I sometimes find the visitors to the city surprised about my lack of interest in being in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. and I’ve not gone once. It looks like fun, but I am in enough crowds at popular shows and the idea of several hundred thousand people right on top of me is just not appealing.



I don’t begrudge those who love it, as I know several people who will cancel everything in order to be there, but its not my deal. I realize I don’t sound like much fun by saying this but trust me I still am more often than I am not. It was cool to see “the ball” being giving the once over. It was a very quick occurrence as well, so I was lucky to get the few clear images that I did.



I would venture to guess that I was down around Grand Central Station when I shot these and that just shows how good some of the zoom lenses are on these point and shoot cameras. Barring this next shot of course as it flashed bright and I could not get the focus to be right on target. Oh well.



These next two managed to do the trick. Loved the bluish light on the ball and felt that at least by seeing this live in an approximate region to the larger festivities when they would normally take place that I was good to go. Now there is no need to really be there unless I want to take shots of millions of pieces of confetti after standing in place for 14 hours.



If you are one of those folks who heads up there I hope you have fun and I shall speak to you afterwards. Try not to mass text people because apparently their replies are also en masse to the recipients. Let those who impact your life in a positive fashion receive a text all their own. It takes only a moment to do.



That being said…..Goodbye 2011, and welcome Mr. 2012. Happy New Year Everybody. I hope that it’s an amazing one with more good memories and positivity than anything otherwise. Be the best person you can to each other while you can do so. Live life outside of Facebook and Twitter but be sure to come visit us from time to time on this little blog because we love having you drop by. I thank you all for the attention you have given my music and regular life adventuring.

Features, PiercingKen Says

PiercingKen Now Has An Official Facebook Fan Page

Leave a comment

social media logos, facebook, facebook logo

It’s with great modesty and flair that I inform the readers of the PiercingKen Blog that we are now rocking one of those sweet Official Facebook Fan Pages. I think you already know that we have been using Twitter for the blog since its launch day and if you don’t, well, please allow me to add to the mix that we have a Twitter account connected to this blog’s activity as well. Nowadays it appears that one needs a strong presence on the vital Social Networks to keep the visibility going and since I’ve found some success with them over on the PiercingMetal.com site I figured let me tend to the PiercingKen.com house in a similar fashion.

The Facebook page for the website gets the most attention right now because its been used a little longer. I was not originally going to create one but figured why not with so many other websites tossing their hats into the fire. We surely don’t want to be bypassed by stuff that doesn’t work as hard for your viewing time either and even the newest websites on the Interwebs have their own pages. WordPress posts here are shared on my personal profile once they have been showcased on the Facebook Page for a couple of days. I of course welcome you to do the same on articles that you like (or even all of them – I surely don’t mind the views being proliferated).

I do ask that comments on the blog postings be focused on the actual posting and not on the Facebook Page because that does not let your voice work within the greater context of the piece. Just my own thoughts on that and believe me we approve every topical comment that speaks to the readers interests about the subject matter. I tried to make the Facebook Page easier to “Like” as well by adding a “Like Box” to the main page of the actual site. I saw this as a plug in and love how it works.

Now back to the sorting of images and ideas. My hope is to keep delivering some really cool stuff in 2012 and even getting some older things that just merited sharing with you in this little space. Thanks for listening.

Piercing Ken on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/piercingken

Features, PiercingKen Says

A Gathering Of Creative Thinkers…..

Leave a comment

When I posted my lengthy photo presentation about the Highline Elevated Park, I neglected to mention that this was not the only adventure that I undertook that day with Skeleton Pete. You see, it was a superb day and while it was Fall, it had more of a late Spring feel to it so we wandered down to see a mutual friend Shukmei and grab some late lunch. We settled on Karavas which is a Greek Restaurant. Shukmei is an independent publicist who runs her We Roqq company while Skeleton Pete has a blog that bears that same name. I don’t think I have to tell you about PiercingMetal at this point right? So once we settled into some food and got to brainstorming about our respective enterprises a few beers were ordered and the shot below is the perfect representation of our gathering.



I couldn’t find my own shot of this, so I used Shukmei’s. She knows I would never fail to mention it her visual. So the beverages of choice in yon pictured pints glasses were a Bud Lite, a Bass and a Guinness. Can you guess who had what? No? Okay, well, Shuky had the Bud, I had the Bass and Pete the Guinness. The food was pretty good in terms of what we had. Pete and I had some kind of Souvlaki plate while Shuky had the hamburger. I recommend trying Karavas if you’re down near West Sixth street off Sixth Avenue. Alright, its now time to get back to the normal tasks at hand.

Our Blogs:
PiercingMetal Musings: http://www.piercingmetal.com/
Skeleton Pete: http://www.skeletonpete.com
WeRoqq The Blog: http://www.weroqq.com/

Features, PiercingKen Says

Heading Off To NY Comic Con 2011 Today :)

As you read this post you should know that I am preparing myself with a couple of more things that I will need before I head over to the Javits Center to get my Geek on. Yes today begins the NY Comic Con and for the second year in a row I shall be attending the event as a member of the accredited press. Now I’ll be covering this as the Master and Commander of PiercingMetal of course but since this is my lifestyle blog I figured why not let you know where we are and how you can keep up with the adventures that I will be involved in. Last year I loaded the whole enchilada onto the Official Blog for PiercingMetal because the flow of the narrative seemed to work out much better in that particular medium of the site. Now away I go…see you in a couple of days.

Logo - NY Comic Con - 2011

UPDATE: 10/16/2011: Hello again, I have returned from the NY Comic Con and boy am I exhausted. Now that this event is four days it is a lot more taxing on a person. I decided that it was better for me to come back and lightly edit this posting once I had returned to let you know that by clicking the logo right above us that you will be taken over to the leader page of the full story that lives on the blog. I posted a LOT of photographs and I hope you will enjoy this article. Thanks so much for your interest in this side site of mine as well, its a lot of fun sharing different stuff with you. I’ll be getting back on that stuff as soon as I get a little more in gear with the music reporting site.

Please note that comments have been “disabled” on this notice as they are better served on the myriad of posts on the PiercingMetal.com site. Thanks for understanding.

Official Website: http://www.nycomiccon.com

Features, PiercingKen Says

Stop, Hey, What’s That Sound? It’s East Village Radio Dude…

1 Comment

Check this out. Several days ago I was wandering the Lower East Side of NYC with Skeleton Pete as we were looking to kill some time before hitting a gig at Piano’s NYC.   The band we were going to see was not coming on until late so that left us some time to walk around and grab some food and drink before indulging in the always amazing music scene of the Big Apple.   As we walked down East Houston street and turned onto 1st Avenue, Pete said “hey aren’t we near where they broadcast East Village Radio from?” and I had to admit that I did not have a clue what he was talking about.

As we walked across the avenue at around 2nd Street it would seem he was correct and we were near this space and since I did not really know what it was I inquired.  It is apparently a 24-7 radio station that streams online and has a number of different deejays who spin different genres of music on their shows.  The deejays are all volunteer so I am assuming this is more of ones musical passion than about a daily paycheck.  I snapped a couple of photos of the relatively nondescript storefront for good measure to give you a little bit of a visual sense of what kind of space you are dealing with.  It did not seem large to my eyes but since we needed to keep moving and with the show currently being “On Air” I did not poke my head in to mention I was a wandering journalist who wanted a few more pics.  There is always another time and I can append new images to the end of this posting if need be.

The idea and existence of this appealed to me immediately because this is a powerful means for new music to get heard and for those who might have a skill at delivering it to make a name for themselves.  To me, this is being more of a chance to establish oneself as radio deejay than we find you being able to become on mediums like Blog Talk Radio do based on its direct focus to genres and how you are able to deliver the music.  I love some of the programming and personality found on BTR but I have to admit that sometimes it is a task and a half finding what I like.  There is a Metal program on EVR and its currently run by a pair of brothers and one of these dudes is in the band Natur (which I learned after doing a little digging around).  Clearly everyone is doing a number of things with their day to keep busy and this encourages me to keep sharing thoughts, photos and ideas with the larger public.

Skeleton Pete mentioned this seemed like something fun to do if there was ever the opportunity and I think working musicians should be looking into the shows that apply to their genre in order to reach even more people with their sound.  The link to East  Village Radio is below and I hope that you check them out and give them a little attention.  It’s really incredible and true that something awesome is around every corner of New York City.

Official Website: http://www.eastvillageradio.com/