Happy New Year lovelies! I know we’re already a week in but, I thought I’d take this moment to wish you all an AMAZING 2012! I hope everyone’s New Year has gotten off to a wonderful start, mine has.

Things in my world are starting to look brighter, better and more magical than they ever have before! There’s lots of interviews in the works with inspiring creative folk who are doing interesting and important work in the world including: Glen E Friedman, Kate Nash, Dave Catching, Ian Vanek from Japanther, the artist Sonny Kay &more! The next couple of weeks will also see in-depth interviews posted with some of my favourite people: designer Peggy Noland, Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes, Drea Smith from PYYRAMIDS/He Say, She Say, photographer Harmony Nicholas… this year is going to be a big, big year!

Also, Issue #7 of my award-winning zine series Conversations With Punx is off to the printers this week too. Featuring in-depth interviews on spirituality, creativity and life with Duane Peters, Corey Parks, Lord Ezec, Russ Rankin, Brad Warner, Franklin Rhi & Ben Weasel.

Here’s some inspiration to help start your New Year right:

• Harnessing the Power of Intention for the New Year: “Intention is the starting point of every dream. It is the creative power that fulfills all of our needs, whether for money, relationships, spiritual awakening, or love. Everything that happens in the universe begins with intention.” What are your intentions for 2012?

• Want to know what the The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People is? Get your party of one on!

• How Do You Stay Creative? Inspiration to keep your creative juices flowing.

• Warhol Philosophies: “I think everybody should like everybody.” Inspiring prints.

• 28 steps to a positive & successful life. Tips to put you on the right track.

• Oprah and Eckhart Tolle discuss The Flowering of Human Consciousness and what it means to be present in each moment. I’ve recently starting watching this series and it’s seriously had a huge, positive effect on me. In fact, it really has blown my mind! Please watch it.

• How To Make Glitter Shoes! I was so excited to find this. Growing up my favourite shoes was a pair of silver glitter shoes my big sister owned, kind of like the ones Diana Ross wears in The Wiz! I know you can buy glittery shoes from a lot of places nowadays but being a big DIY fan and enjoying rockin’ unique pieces I prefer to make things myself. Can’t wait to try this on the weekend!

• How to Style Long Hair Short. Another inspiring post from my new favourite blog A Beautiful Mess. I’ve been thinking of cutting my hair but after finding this guide it’s inspired me to keep my hair long.

• Tips For Thrifting. As readers will know I’m a huge op shop/thrift store fan. Over half of my wardrobe consists of treasures found in unlikely places. If you’re new to thrifting you may find this little guide helpful. Expand your wardrobe without blowing your budget.

• Victorian Star Wars Portraits. Star Wars characters get classy.

• One of my favourite writer’s Paulo Coelho talks on writing. My friend Beck got me hooked on his books over a decade ago by introducing me to The Alchemist. He is one of the few authors I love where I have all his works in my library that I constantly find myself revisiting.

• Need More Culture In Your Life? Read These Books.

And lastly, I recently came across the band Indian Handcrafts that I’m really diggin’:

Dream big!! Create forever!

*Image (which is on my office wall as inspiration for 2012) source.

In the midst of all of the holiday hustle and bustle I’d just like to take a moment to breathe and to express gratitude—gratitude to my family, friends, all the wonderful readers of ConversationsWithBianca.com, all the wonderful artists and Creatives I’ve crossed paths with and chatted to this year, all the folks that have helped make this humble little site a destination for tens of thousands of unique visitors monthly!! This year CWB.com has had its best year yet! And it’s only going to get better with all of the exciting things I have in the works already for 2012! Thank you for all of the beautiful, supportive, insightful, kind, encouraging messages you have sent me this year (especially while I have been ill) and thanks for sharing your stories with me and letting me into your worlds. I feel so blessed and humbled that I know so many truly AMAZING individuals scattered all over the globe. CWB.com readers are the greatest!!!

Wishing you all the happiest of holidays!

Love & light,

I know a lot of extremely talented crafty, arty ladies and I’m a lover of beautiful, unique, make-you-stand-out things. I also love decorating my home with things that make me smile and images that evoke emotion, create mood and that make my home a little Shangri-La way from the world. I decided to put together a little list of things ( featuring such bright, beautiful items as the Wheel of Life art print by Team Kitten – pictured above) that have been rocking my world this year. While ‘having stuff’ and accumulating things isn’t very high on my priority list – I’ll choose awesome experiences any day over material possessions – I do love to surround myself with lovely quality pieces that outwardly expresses my personality and loves to the world. I love decorating myself and living space! I hope you enjoy it. Support independent businesses and artists!

 Rings by Lotus Medes

Sew-Your-Own Sugar Skull cushions by Hungry Designs (Check out my interview with HD’s Amanda Whitelaw)

 Handmade Candy Apple Red Blossom Bobbypin Set by Honey + Hive (Check out my interview with H+H’s Kaelah HoneyBee)

Earrings by Snatch N Feathers

Baby Blue Flowers with Lilac Accents Soft Cup Bra by Purrfect Pineapples (cruelty-free lingerie)

Latex Bows by Abigail Greydanus (Check out my interview with Abi)

The Sayang Purse from LoKoa (Check out my interview with LoKoa’s Brie)

Glimmer & Shimmer by Foxes Cosmetics (Check out my interview with Foxes creator Tina De La Celle)

Handmade Beauty by Diva Zappa Knit Art creations (Check out my interview with Diva)

Crystal Love Necklace by chase.dakota (Check out my interview with c.d creator Sammi)

Betsey Johnson Panther Watch

Woman with White Cross 2 Art by Heather Gabel

A is For Arsenic Taxidermia Collection necklace

Klub Kid Vintage Fanny Packs (Check out my interview with KKV’s Ramdasha)

Lady Alchemy Elektra Cuffs (Check out my interview with LA’s Erin Lee)

MYOB Rest In Peace Pyramid Earrings from Patricia Field

Velvet Pins Sweet Poncho (Check out my interview with VP co-creator Catherine Maddin)

 The Art of Carolina Echeverri (Check out my interview with Carolina)

 What treasures have been rocking your world this year?

 Wishing you all Happy Holidays! 

This year has been amazing for me in terms of discovering new (to me) music! All too often I hear people complain that there is no ‘good’ music around, that music was better back in the day, that there’s so much crap on the radio and on TV etc. etc. you get the idea. I am a big believer that great music is always being made somehow, somewhere—you just have to look for it! Actively seek it out! Don’t let radio, magazines, television, even your friends tell you what’s happening or who to listen to… experience music and artists for yourself. I decided to compile a Top 12 (one for every month of the year) list of music makers whose work has blown me away this year. And how lovely, they are ALL female! The talent and creativity of female artists that I have come across (and interviewed) this year has been incredibly inspiring and motivational to so many aspects of my life. These fierce ladies have made up the soundtrack to my year. These Creatives make me want to do better & be better!

Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes

(pictured above) An interview with Teri will be posted on ConversationsWithBianca.com soon!

Jennifer Charles of Elysian Fields/Lovage

An interview with Jennifer coming soon to CWB!

Drea Smith of PYYRAMIDS/He Say, She Say

Interview with Drea to be posted on CWB soon!

Noize Bunny

Check out my interview with Noize Bunny.

Brodie-Ann Wright of Felinedown

Check out my interview with Brodie-Ann.

Youka Snell of Killbot Kindergarten

Check out my interview with Youka.

CSS

Check out my interview with CSS’Luiza Sa.

Sugg Savage & Sloane Amelia of Akoko

Check out my interview with Akoko.

Tiffany Preston of Rainbow Arabia

An interview with Tiffany will be posted on CWB soon!

Miss Pussycat of Quintron & Miss Pussycat

Check out my interview with Miss Pussycat.

Catcall

Check out my interview with Catcall for Collapse Board & for CWB.

Designer Imposter

Check out my interview with Designer Imposter for Collapse Board.

Who have been your favourite music makers of 2011??

Other wonderful finds for me this year include Chantal Claret, Catherine Maddin, Carré Callaway, Isis Queen, Jelena Goluza, Kelly Riot, Sammy G, Skyler Stonestreet and V V Brown.  Plus I can’t forget Celeste Potter of Ouch My Face, one of my favourite guitarists (I saw her play last weekend and she totally ruled it!)

Create forever!

Thought for the day: There are good people out there! (Thanks David Knox for the reminder)

The world is a mess. We all know it and talk about in our private lives. It’s depressing and overwhelming at times to look at how much potential we have and yet we’re constantly bombarded by images and information that speaks to the lowest common denominator. We can do better. We can be better. I know it’s true. ~Oprah

Don’t let things or others bring you down… do better! Be better!

Gratitude & strength… PMA all day!

*Image Source.

This Little Extra That Says A Lot that I’ve decided was just too great not to share with you, was sent to me by the super-lovely Jelena Goluza from Australian hardcore band Outright who I recently interviewed (Outright’s Jelena Goluza: DIY, Confronting Sexist Behaviour & Baking Down The Walls). Attached was the little message ‘Because I know you will appreciate this as much as I did’ – I sure do! Thanks Jelena. I hope y’all appreciate this too.

Have a beautiful, thoughtful day!

Anthony Bozza is one of my favourite music writers. He started his career as an intern at Rolling Stone magazine. Remember how good Rolling Stone was in the ’90s? Remember the in-depth, revealing, insightful artist interviews? More than likely what you were reading was Bozza—he wrote many cover stories for them including a defining portrait on rapper Eminem for his debut release, as well as many other features and countless articles for the magazine. He went on to be a contributing editor affording him the freedom to work out of the office. The time away from office politics giving him the space to pursue writing his first book, Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem which became an international bestseller. Since, Bozza hasn’t looked back going on to co-write books with Motley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee (Tommyland), Guns N Roses guitarist Slash (Slash), comedian Artie Lange (Too Fat Too Fish)—all bestsellers! He has also written books, Why AC/DC Matters, a book on INXS, I Am the New Black, the autobiography of 30 Rock and SNL star Tracy Morgan and has a book with Wyclef Jean of The Fugees fame set for release. Bozza has written for Spin, The New York Times, Maxim, The Guardian/Observer, Q, Mojo, Paper, Nylon, Blender and Radar and is co-founder of Igniter Literary Group with best-selling author Neil Strauss. If all that wasn’t enough Anthony is about to sit down with notorious rocker and celebrity Courtney Love next month to start interviews for her memoir!

It was so amazing to be able to chat to Anthony about all he does. It meant so much to me to be able to speak to another writer that loves interviewing as much as I do and someone who is an incredible success making it on their own terms, following their own path and creating some of the raddest work out there on entertainment icons of our time. Anthony Bozza I salute you. Thank you for being so darn awesome!

ANTHONY BOZZA: I went and saw [The Who's] Roger Daltery do ‘Tommy’ [a rock opera] last night. I have a friend that’s working on the tour. That was pretty fun, except I have to say – I’m going to put this on my Facebook page too – whoever got paid to do the animation during Tommy needs to realise that animation has progressed since 1990. It was really bad. It was like pathetic bad. It was weird, it looked like some student project. Maybe it was. I’m going to find out. It was excessively simple and bad. They should have just shown stills from the film [laughs]. Other than that it was an excellent show.

Thank you for speaking with me, I have a huge respect for your work. It’s so nice to be able to finally talk to someone who cares about interviewing as much as I do.

AB: Thank you. I really like interviewing, it’s definitely always a challenge, each one is definitely different. It’s great. It’s really cool to talk to people and try to figure things out about them and to figure out how to get them to talk about stuff [laughs]—that’s the challenge that I like.

How do you go about interviewing? Do you do a lot of research? How do you go about trying to get people to talk about things?

AB: I don’t have any regular thing I do. Every single person is different. The one thing that I always do is tons of research that’s for sure! I try to ask things that might be a little different. If you can think of something that you haven’t seen discussed in an interview I would go for that. Know your subject inside and out and that’s really about it. I don’t have the one question that always works. People ask me ‘what’s your secret question?’ or ‘what is the one thing you always ask that works?’ and I don’t have one. It depends on the scenario, it depends on where the subject is at in their career or in their mind – you have to be very present when you interview. You have to pay attention to all the cues.

I find for me it is a very intuitive thing as well. I find, as you were saying, you have to be really present. So many times I’ve read, watched or heard interviews where the artist touches on something and then the interviewer doesn’t pick up on it and goes straight on to the next question. They totally miss some amazing opportunities because they’re not present, they don’t recognise something when it’s handed to them.

AB: Oh, I totally agree. A lot of times I find that people talk too much. That’s one thing I’ve found when I see other transcripts and people don’t realise that they’ve talked over what could have been something that was great. Like you were saying there’s windows of opportunity people miss.

I also find with a lot of artists they tend to repeat themselves when answering questions. They’ll say the same thing in multiple ways.

AB: So in other words they’re not just moving on to another topic [laughs]; they’re just giving you the same stuff and you’ve got to find a way to keep them for doing that.

Ah ha, that’s it!  What first interested you in interviewing?

AB: I didn’t really set out with that particularly in mind. I got an internship at Rolling Stone when Kurt Cobain killed himself. I’d missed the deadline to work at the magazine as an intern but after his suicide the book division obviously needed to get a memorial book out quickly so they pretty much took the people that would have got selected. They grabbed the resumes of the people that had just missed the deadline and I was one of those. I worked on that tribute book and I worked in the Rolling Stone book department as an unpaid intern for a whole summer. A few months after that once or twice a week I was working in a bar. I was a history major so I really got into research, it’s in my nature and I really enjoy it. I started working on the Encyclopaedia of Rock N Roll – it was the updated edition 10 years later. For a lot of those entries they didn’t know how to find some of the people, they needed help updating some of the entries – this was before Wikipedia [laughs]. It was 1994 so there was a lot of phone calls and stuff. They just let me do a lot of them. They asked me ‘Do you want to try and track down Giorgio Moroder?’ He was the famous disco producer who produced Call Me by Blondie and all of these amazing songs. I was like, hell yeah! I found his office in Italy and was talking to him in broken English. I got on the phone to some really legendary people and when I did that I really, really dug that – I thought this is really cool!

I pretty much had my eye on getting into the magazine. I started working in the Rolling Stone research library. I started doing record reviews for other magazines for free and then Rolling Stone started letting me interview people. I was into the Smashing Pumpkins, I went to school in Chicago and they were my local band, they were just starting when I was there. I got to interview James Iha! It was really funny because the dude barely speaks. It was a hilarious interview because he was just like ‘Yeah. No. Yeah.’ one of those kinds of interviews!  I just started to do the interview thing whenever I possibly could because it was really fun, that’s kind of it. There was an opening for an assistant in the music department so I pretty much jumped on it and never left… well I mean obviously I did leave but you know I stuck in there until I got to do what I want which is write cover stories [laughs].

 When was it that you decided to leave?

AB: I wanted to write my book about Eminem. I pretty much had set out to do everything I wanted to do there. I was there for eight years and I had written seven cover stories. I was at the point where I didn’t want to become a higher up editor because I didn’t want to deal with the politics of the magazine and all the other stuff an editor has to deal with, I wanted to write. I asked to be a contributing editor which would basically be a contact where I’d owe them a certain amount of stories, a certain amount of assignments per year but in return I’m not in the office anymore and I can work on outside things but I can’t write for Spin or something. That’s the way I went, I didn’t want to have to deal with going to a million staff meetings [laughs].

In the year that I was a contributing editor I came up with my proposal for my Eminem book and sold that and never looked back!

That gives me so much hope, it really does. I get so frustrated with some of the publications that I write for because I feel limited in what they want me to do, I feel like it’s always about selling something. I love nothing more than being able to do the in-depth interview and really show different sides of my subject and that they’re so much more than whatever they’re promoting.

AB: Yeah definitely. That’s so good.

Do you ever get nervous interviewing?

AB: Not really, not at all. A lot of what I do now is co-writing with people so it’s a different relationship altogether. It’s like jumping the fence to the artist’s side in a way. If I’m co-writing with someone I’m kind of already on their team, I have to make them look good so it is a different relationship. I don’t really get nervous anymore, I guess there is people that would get me nervous. The actual act of doing it doesn’t fluster me at all.

It was just announced a couple of weeks ago that you’re writing a book with Courtney Love?

(continues over page)

Source.

It really is a choice. You can choose how you react to situations, people and circumstance. You have a choice to choose happiness. I still feel the same way about it as when I wrote this.

Have a beautiful day!

I love the work of Australian artist Dominique Falla. For this piece she explains: “For too long, people have viewed themselves as separate and I wanted to represent a multitude of individuals using the nails, and then coloured string to show how we are all interconnected, and that together, we can make something beautiful.”

For more of Dominique’s work.

Have a rad day friends!

I spent this morning watching a live stream of a conversation with Def Jam Recordings founders Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin presented by the New York Public Library and facilitated by Paul Holdengraber the library’s Director of Public Programs. They were there to chat about 25 years of Def Jam and to support the release of book, Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label. Holdengraber praised the impressive tome – a comprehensive history of the label – as “utterly magnificent” and “absolutely outstanding” before adding that he believed the book to be “produced in the most exquisite way… the level of passion… the power of the writers.”

Rick and Russell were introduced to the sold out audience using seven words of their own choosing. Russell offered a haiku: Def Jam showed me power of faith. Rick chose: Rick Rubin is a fan of music—both introductions simple and humble, yet powerful; an apt reflection of both men who have “led the way in transforming hip hop culture from a projects-based art form to a popular phenomenon.”

Proceedings kicked off with (a shoeless) Rick Rubin requesting that they begin in a certain way – he asked that everyone in attendance, including himself and Russell, close their eyes for 3 minutes and focus on breathing – inhaling and exhaling, to focus on the breath – a meditation of sorts. He said that the goal of this exercise was to bring everyone together and to give thanks, to create a space in the room for something new. After the 3 minutes silence was up, there was a big collective breath and stretching, Russell asking the audience “isn’t that much better than angel dust?” continuing by explaining how Rick was the first person he ever meditated with adding, “20 minutes twice a day makes you high as hell.” Rick enlightened that, “there’s a power when a big group meditate together.” They have both been meditation practitioners for well over a decade. You can read Russell’s thoughts on meditation here: Why I Meditate.

“Music is one of the most transformative things in terms of happiness… it awakens,” Russell commented, “…it’s powerful, it brings you to the present – like music…meditation is to see the world unfolding in miracles.” Holdengraber admitted he struggled with the exercise and even “peeked” a few times opening his eyes. “The more difficult it is for you, the more you need it,” Rick advised. Russell adding, “Creative people need to be awake.”

Holdengraber ushered the conversation into gear referencing Rick’s high school yearbook quote which read: I want to be loud. I want to be heard. I don’t want to be one of the herd. From there Rick and Russell describe their first experiences of hip hop. Rick recalling his first ever experience was at a reggae club called Negril the “first place I found that you could find hip hop live anywhere… [it was] a whole different world I hadn’t seen before… it moved to The Roxy when it got bigger… there the first night 50 of us were in The Roxy… slowly each week more people came and more people came, it happened organically… the whole scene rooted in word of mouth – I got swept up in it.” Rick noted that Russell was already “in it” with his first experience of hip hop around 1976 at 125^th Street – Charles’ Gallery – on Tuesday nights via DJ Eddie Cheeba—“he was playing music that wasn’t on the radio” says Russell, “The Hip hop explosion was people that didn’t want to join the mainstream…that weren’t accepted.”

To Rick hip hop is and was “about street culture…the closest parallel is punk rock… not being educated in music but really, really just loving the music… to me Def Jam was an outgrowth of punk rock expressed through black music.” Rick himself played in a punk rock band called Hose that went on to record Def Jam’s release #1, 45rpm 7 inch vinyl single that came in a brown paper bag.

Both are surprised that music ended up being their job. “It didn’t matter if I slept on the floor in Rick’s dorm for the rest of my life,” Russell pointed out – Rick’s dormitory at NYU where he studied philosophy and later switched to film and television because “all my friends were in it and it felt more fun” became Def Jam’s first home. Rick describing it as a “9 foot by 12 foot cinder block room… with a full p.a. system.”  Eventually boxes of 1,000 of records would be shipped in and out of the dorm as Def Jam grew.

The chat continued winding its way through Def Jams colourful history punctuated with audio snippets of important jams – LL Cool J’s I Need A Beat, Public Enemy’s Fight The Power and more – in the Def music back catalog and Rick and Russell’s insight and thoughts about each. Russell described Rick – who produced the early Def Jam recordings – as a “musical genius.”  “Def Jam was about purity in intention… our inexperience and innocence let us make music that went beyond the norm,” Rick said.

Also covered in the hour and a half long conversation was their decade’s long friendship – the two met according to Russell through mutual friend DJ Jazzy Jay; according to Rubin after a show Graffiti Rock at a loft party – which Rick cited as playing a big part for them going their own (business) ways in 1988 when Rick left Def Jam. “Our friendship was so strong… our business grew very big very fast and I don’t think that either of us knew how to handle this… to protect our friendship… because of our love for each other it would be better for us to do things separately.” They both went on to have highly successful careers – Rubin went on to produce albums for heavier rock acts such as Slayer, Danzig, Masters of Reality and more as well as artists that run the gamut of the entire musical spectrum from Johnny Cash to Neil Diamond to Green Day. And, Russell went on to become one of hip hop’s most influential entrepreneurs with clothing lines, television shows, magazines etc.

As the conversation winded down with talk of how the music industry is currently going? Rick explained “I just focus on music and help artists make the best possible music …our job is to make great art… the focus has always been purely on the art and luckily everything has worked itself out.” Russell concluding that he just feels blessed and lucky to be surrounded by talented people, “I’m lucky enough to get on the ride.”

All in all it was a wonderful insight into the Def Jam story and of two friends that had a big dream that through hard work, determination, creative hearts and the best of intentions realised that dream.

You can preview parts of the book and purchase it here. For more info try here. You may also be interested in an in-depth conversation (also facilitated by New York Public Library) with Jay-Z about his book Decoded.

CREATE FOREVER!