ノーこちこちマガジン

The
Music Issue
Pack the Music Exercise
Scars Exhibition
My Private Africa
Al’ Dat Jazz
The Rise of the Independents
Fashion Talk
UNSCARED.NET
anti stress lifestyle design magazine
ISSUE 01
NOVEMBER 2004
CREDITS QUOTE WHATABOUTS
Published by Like to take a cement fix Unscared.Net is an electronic magazine and is available for free
AlphaDesigner/Subrecords Be a standing cinema private download and use. Any other use, such as, but not limited to
Art Direction/Design Dress my friends up just for show duplication, redistribution, printing, as a whole or in part, must be
Yanko Tsvetkov (YGT) See them as they really are allowed by the authors of the works.
Illustrations/Photography Put a peephole in my brain ©2004 by AlphaDesigner.
Yanko Tsvetkov (YGT) Two New Pence to have a go
Victor Zahariev (VGZ) I’d like to be a gallery Unscared.Net is taking full responsibility for any of the authors’s
Text Put you all inside my show... opinions shared here. We would bear testimony to it in court.
Yanko Tsvetkov (YGT)
D. Bowie “Andy Warhol”
Website
www.unscared.net
Supporting websites
www.alphadesigner.com
www.prodigyzone.com
Contacts
editorial@unscared.net

TECH INFO
Hardware: Olympus Camedia 2500L, Nikon 995E; Sofware: Adobe Photoshop, hosted by CULT.BG
Adobe After Effects, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Acrobat Professional, Adobe Illustrator, Server for Art and Culture
Corel Draw, Macromedia Flash, Microsoft Word, iTunes; Original resolution: 300
dpi; Original size: 30x15 cm; Original color space: sRGB IEC61966-2.1; Typefaces:
Myriad, Minion, Garamond, Jenson Cover: Master and Servant; illustration/photography: YGT; model: VGZ
58 PAGES OF HIGH FEVER
do you want to see me down on my knees
or bending over backwards now would you be pleased
unlike the others i’d do anything
i’m not the same, i have no shame
i’m on fire

madonna
burning up
 Few people can make me cry. I am cynical, twist-
ed, and egocentric, just like every modern man
these days. For example, I don’t have compassion
to people shown on TV. I watch the news, they re-
port of an airplane crash and I just switch to the
next channel.
Even when I feel compassion, I prefer to hide it.
As if compassion can disappear so painlessly! But
as every ordinary cynical bastard, it just so hap-
pens that there are some things that can dig deep
in my nutshell and I become human again, tiny
as a piece of sand. Cynical bastards will never ad-
mit such masochism, but I call it meekness. There
is one thing about this feeling that the theory of
masochism cannot explain – I feel much stronger
when I am obeying something I can trust.
And then the picture clarifies – anything you do
becomes less worthy if you do it with a mask on
your face.
As an artist, I am well acquainted with my ego.
Most of the contemporary art is individual, intro-
spective, but also cynical, just like the men who
create it. If you are a part of its public, you can nev-
er identify yourself with it, because it is so person-
alized you can barely capture its message. I don’t
know if this is only a 20th century’s issue, but it’s
wrong in all cases.
Sometimes I think that long time ago art had a
task to do, but we forgot what task it was and now
art is here for the art of it.
It is not easy to be an artist. You can never get
enough sleep. You don’t have enough time to
brush your teeth either…
It’s a lot worse to be a big artist, because big art-
ists have a large audience. They seek self esteem in
the words of critics and they finally fall in the trap
of the public opinion.
Once they fall, they are expected to repeat them-
selves and that’s the point where art becomes a
deal. It becomes the impossible art of the crowds.
 The worst thing about this art is that it brings
you nothing. The mirror image gets foggy; the air
gets full of dust, sometimes it sparkles, but it is still
dust. And in a blink of an eye, we have crowds cry-
ing over something they never experienced for
real. If this makes them sensitive…I don’t know
what this world is about!
Then you have drugs of course, because every
crap looks exciting when you are on drugs. The
hole left by the absence of real art and real enter-
tainment gets filled with all this shit. It may be al-
cohol, joints, heroin, cocaine… And really, don’t
tell me most of the biggest songs were written un-
der the influence of drugs. What a shame to rely on
such things! Why should I stick something in your
ass to make you creative? I may not be the greatest
artist in the world, but as Madonna said when they
asked her about her singing, I am not interested in
that. I am interested in pushing people’s buttons.
I rely on vibes.
I got vibe, you got vibe, and they got vibe. You
don’t believe it because you haven’t been silent for
a single moment in your life. Small, not pressed by
expectations, not involved with an attitude, just
you and the world around in private, like children
do. You forgot how high the roof was when you
went to sleep, the fear of darkness, the victory of
the rising sun.
All these things are still living deep in your heart,
but the so-called society has shut the door and
all that’s left is a tiny whisper you can barely hear.
There is no other way to become a member of the
society, isn’t it? Actually there is. It is called trust. It
is a hard, thorny road. On the left there are croco-
diles, on the right – tigers and lions. Above is the
sky. In front of you – mystery.
And everybody walks alone, at least until the
next restaurant:)
CHAPTER 1
FIND (Y)OUR INSPIRATION
 Whenever I sit my ass down to work,
I always start with the music player. This is
the most important program. I don’t care how
much RAM it devours. Some people find this
disturbing, especially when they work with
larger files, but how many of them make such
Pack the Music Exercise
amazing magazines? Honestly! Good music
is like a fresh air. It gives you the emotional
foundation: it creates specific landscape,
sometimes it even makes your body move by
instinct, and I hope you know how important
is body stretching when you work on a chair!
So where the hell are my headphones!
Pack the Music is something truly intimate
and I still have doubts if I really have to include
it here, because it is about some of the music I
listened to when I made this issue.
It’s a kind of gratitude. Neither Prince, nor
Björk are obliged to inspire me, but they do.
And how they do it! Sometimes I feel I owe
them about 50% of everything I did, especially
when I worked with my instincts, not with my
thoughts. Just think about it! Usually I am not so
smart and definitely not so creative, my English
is bad, what else… Of course, I am humble!
And therefore - as an old Bulgarian proverb
says - beautiful. But enough about me.

~ we all have earned a lightness ~ carry my joy on the left ~ carry my pain on the right ~
I will not waste your time preaching about Björk’s
unique talent and vision, because you already read
that before, but this album is the weirdest thing in
pop music! When I started with the making of the
cover, I already had plenty of information about
almost everything – the core idea (and what Osama
had to do with it), the collaborators (Rahzel is a beast,
man!), the visuals (Mathias Augustyniak and Michaël
Amzalag, Lynn Fox… nasty gang). The problem was
with Björk’s complexity, it was extremely hard to find
a way to express everything that went trough my
mind. There was an ever growing chaos and the only
person that could put things together was her, but I
forgot her phone number:), so I had to do it alone.
She’s a real lady now, but she still looks childish.
Like a grown teddy bear - I had the sketch in my
mind, the mature elements, the naivety, the soft fur,
the blinking eyes, the oxymoron, but when I tried to
put all that together, it sucked. So I decided I should
follow her idea. Ink, she said in an interview, like
~ he demands a closeness ~
Medúlla by Björk
ancient blood. No problem. Then I had to find an alien
element, no need to tell why… I took a flower. It was
metallic, with razorblade-like blossoms. Something
had to cut the flesh for the inky blood to come out, you
know… Then came the cutting and pinching process, I
got really mad, because I was thinking about her face
and how the cover could not be completed without it.
She’s a pop star after all.
No, she’s not actually. I should be aware of clichés
when I handle with that. At the end I left the face and
I saw the composition – my God, it looked like what
I was searching for! I had fully symmetric flowers
overlapping each other. Symmetry is boring most of
the time, but it looked cool.
The Romaji glyphs came when I tried to translate
medúlla to Japanese. The closest match I was able
to find was a word pronounced kokoronokinsen and
it meant heartstrings, innermost soul, a very poetic
approach actually. According to the dictionary, it was
written like 心の琴線, but that was (and still is) a mix
of many alphabets, therefore I had to use different
fonts in one word and it appeared really bad, so I took
the romaji transcription こころのきんせん.
I had the oxymoron – symmetry and Japanese. Nice
combination, if Björk herself wasn’t so asymmetrical –
attitude, singing, composing. I must have gone crazy.
Back to work! Why it had to be so hard? Well, that
was Björk man, what did I expect?
I had only one chance left – to shake the symmetry.
And the ink came out, God bless the liquify effect
in Photoshop! Then I made that out-of-focus lake-
like look, I didn’t want sharp borders, because it
didn’t match the feel of the album. The music was
constructed like an onion – enormous amount of
noises layered one over another, so when you hear
a track twice, you can switch to different parts in its
construction and even recompose it by giving priority
to the layer you left behind at first.

~ and killed everyone inside ~ you turn on the telly and every other story ~ is telling you somebody died ~
Sign O’ the Times by Prince
I can guess why Prince does not want to talk about
Purple Rain. It was a completion of his first, early
period and it definitely held all of his ideas together.
The point is that you can’t stop just because you made
a masterpiece, especially when you made it at the age
of 26. More wisdom was about to come. What Prince
made after his smash hit album was truly amazing
for the superstar scene. Do you remember Michael
Jackson? He was a legend too, but he calculated every
move, and he also didn’t have the bravery to leave
Quicny Jones behind. Prince didn’t have a producer to
watch all over him, but one thing he had – courage.
He left himself behind. With albums like Parade
and Around the World in a Day, he almost erased
his early achievements. Sign O’ the Times was the
completion of his second, psychedelic period and it
was so much better than Purple Rain that even die-
hard fans noticed it. I am telling you, die-hard fans
are amazingly blind people; it is desperately hard to
persuade them to make a u-turn.
~ hurricane annie ripped a ceiling of a church ~
Sign O’ the Times is about Prince getting political
much deeper than with any previous attempts (songs
like Ronnie Talk to Russia or America). He is a
preacher now, cold-blooded, sharp, detached from
the daily craze, observing. Maybe that’s why here he
is finally persuasive and his words don’t seem like
he hasn’t anything better to say. There is no Heal the
World here. Of course, we have a recipe – we can
dance all of our problems away. It seems naïve only
at first sight, because you don’t realise what dance
means according to Prince, but I don’t believe I can
explain that.
Sign O’ the Times feels like a compilation of
unfinished songs, barely sketched, just out of the
garage. Prince once admitted he makes so many songs
because he’s not satisfied with the music on the radio
when he drives his car and this is the key for this
album. All tunes are like fast-prepared sandwiches,
you don’t care about how they look like, but you put
all the important nutritious ingredients: “Starfish and
coffee, maple syrup and jam, butterscotch clouds, a
tangerine, and a side order of ham. If u set your mind
free baby, maybe you’d understand.”
And what are sandwiches for? Surviving. When you
are such good in cooking, you don’t have to worry
about it at all. This is the reason why the album does
not sound suicidal. “In France a skinny man died of a
big disease with a little name” fades in “We all have
our own problems, some are big, some are small.”
Musically, Sign O’ the Times is Prince’s most eclectic
album, but here eclectics equal power and vision. It
is under control in opposite to his next attempts to
create another epic album.
That was why I chose an almost greyscale vision
for the cover and I expressed the idea about the
variety and the eclectics through contrast, not through
colour. Don’t blame me, I know Prince has never been
greyscale. And he never will be.

~ what have I done ~ ooh this uncertainty ~ is taking me over ~
Roseland NYC Live by Portishead
I must admit I didn’t know much about Portishead.
I heard Glory Box of course, but it was long time ago
and that song didn’t catch my attention for too long.
I found it too depressive. I like joyous tunes usually,
and sometimes, British music can really piss me off.
The most vulnerable parts of my body are my ears,
therefore I am not a listener, but a membrane. Give
me a soul shaking groovy rhythm and I am ready to
jump off the roof. Sing me Das Lied vom einsamen
Mädchen and I burst into tears.
But they caught me, those bastards! I found that
album because of Victor. He was listening to it one
day and he said it was a blast! Then Substatic recorded
it on a blank CD, and voila! Hasta la Piracy siempre!
I was listening to it as a background for a day or
two, mostly because of the beats and the scratches.
It didn’t seem bad, and I usually had a habit to fall
in love with every live album, where I could feel the
band really connected to the public. You know what
~ to tread this fantasy, openly ~
I mean... Then one night the moment came - I was
exporting a file and it wasn’t much to do but to wait
and… listen.
Shouting crowd. A keyboard, then silence. A tiny
voice appeared: “Ooh, can anybody see…” The public
began to clap. “We’ve got a war to fight, never found
our way.” Stop it! “Regardless of what they say.” Bitch!
“How can it feel this wrong, from this moment, how
can it feel this wrong.” How?
For this album, I had to find a woman’s face. I
didn’t want to let my mind wander too much and it
wasn’t necessary. In there was a story, from the first to
the last song. A story of a woman – sometimes angry
and compulsive, sometimes scared and paralyzed.
I took a picture of a friend, what are friends for, if
you can’t shoot them and then pinch their faces in
Photoshop! Honestly! I was concerned about my own
safety if she could somehow see what I was doing, but
who cared! I wanted to reach the end. The mood is
suicidal, okay? That woman should have experienced
at least seven suicidal attempts in her life.
The first one - very young, daddy leaves and
never returns home, she is crashed, and her mother
begins to drink. The second – a boy from school takes
her virginity, she falls in love, then discovers she is
pregnant. The boy leaves her, her mother gets her to
see a doctor, the baby is gone…
The third attempt – she becomes a rock star, she
has unique talent to write songs, she gets a manager,
and he turns her into Britney Spears. She feels
misunderstood and confused. The fourth – a man
saves her from her third suicide attempt and she falls
in love with him. They get married. She thinks she’s
finally got it all right. They live happily. But she wants
a baby. He wants her money. Sixth – she’s very poor
and her daughter doesn’t want to see her…
I told you life is a bitch. And so am I.
CHAPTER 2
SPEND (Y)OUR INSPIRATION
La Belle Damme Sans Regrets
model: K alina Jerkova / photogr aphy by Kr asimir Stoichkov / pixel engineering by YGT
the accidentally compulsive body art exhibition

S c a model: Victor Zahariev / photogr aphy: Yanko Tsvetkov

r S
 Approach less
ordinary

Today the visual exploration of the

nude body in art photography seems to be
a prerogative of the fashion photographers
and the advertisers. It is widely used for
selling almost everything - from washing
machines to chocolate. This is a perfect
example that nude is still a problem, and
if we have to mention size - a big problem.
The solution seems far away. It is not
only about overcoming prejudices. It has
nothing to do with sex either.
The nude body is what it is - skin. It
may seem as a biological point of view,
detached from any idea of art. If this is your
starting point, just think about something
natural... like the sunset. Many people
apply filters when they shoot it, but there
is a special feeling when you catch a really
fascinating sunset that is so beautiful and
does not need any intervention. I try the
same approach here, to see a body the way
it is, with all the clouds, all the mountains,
all the rocks. It is extremely fascinating
even if you don’t think of shagging.
 Exclusive rules
that apply

Above all - no filters. Allow me this

heresy for a moment! It is something that
exists and it’s not disappointing. After all, I
am not trying to sell you anything. I won’t
promise you the impossible, the dream.
Mostly because dreams are made as dreams
and they are not meant to be real.
I am honest. Honesty was a value once,
remember? I am also old fashioned and I
hate hypocrites. Ogilvy said the customer
is not a moron, I believe you are not a
moron even if you’re not my customer. Sit
back, relax, take a deep breath, and free
your mind. There is something intimate
here, but it’s not about getting laid. Nudity
has nothing to do with sex. What connects
nudity with sex is your own mind, and
cultural prejudices.
 What you get is
what you see

And there is nothing more to it. I give

you suggestions. You should write the
meaning. Oh, I forgot the advertisers made
you lazy and you prefer to swallow without
chewing. But this is your fault, not mine. I
am not like that.
Skin Exhibition
E X P R E S S Y O U R S E L F

a l p h a d e s i g n e r . c o m
CHAPTER 3
SYNCHRONIZE (Y)OUR INSPIRATION
My Pr ivate Afr ica
photogr aphy b y G e or gi Ts v e tk ov, Stefan Yan e v, YGT
 My Private Africa
Common illusions and
personal realities

Have you ever dreamed of Africa? Have you ever im-

agined huge deserts, big rivers, and crocodiles? How
should Africa look like after all? Would it be hot and
dry like Sahara or wet and dark like a jungle? Would
it belong to the Arabs or to the Zulu?
It is a vast continent with a rich history of events,
and some of them are really important, like the rise of
the Egyptian civilization. According to the anthropol-
ogists, Africa is the cradle of the human beings. The
same human beings that made the car, discovered the
electricity, invented the aeroplane.
A trip to Africa is like going back to your roots, no
matter if you’re black, white, or yellow. It is not about
culture, race, or religion. It is about understanding
how far humans can go and about appreciating what
western civilizations call existential minimum, which
under most of the local circumstances can be under-
stood as unreasonable maximum.
Africa can be controversial and frightening, espe-
cially when you go there not as a tourist, but as a
regular visitor, who can follow his own route. Once
visited, the black continent leaves a scar forever - in
your mind, in your heart, and in your soul.
My Private Africa The bridge, the crossing

I will never forget my first visit here. I was overex-

cited when I took the plane, I spent 16 hours in flying,
I saw Sahara, Kilimanjaro, the Mozambique Channel
and when I finally landed I was so emotionally ex-
hausted I couldn’t feel anything but apathy. They had
roads, bridges, and houses. They walked on their feet
and wrote their notes with Latin letters. The cars and
the sidewalks were almost the same as in my home-
land. Of course, it was a little bit warmer, but I didn’t
come here just to warm up. I came to live in a fairy
tale.
That fairy tale is well known by all kids. I wanted
to cross the jungle, to live in a tent, and to kill a lion.
OK, the killing was a metaphor, honestly, but that was
how Africa looked like in my mind.
Year 1999 AD. The city of Antananarivo. 1600 m al-
titude. 27 degrees Celsius. No shit! Same as Paris. And
there I was - so bored with Europeans! They were all
around. They drove their Jeeps and threw some coins
to the beggars on the sidewalks.
But there was more to come, because I was neither
visiting Europe, nor the same Africa that existed in
my head. I was visiting Madagascar.
 My Private Africa
Je suis prête. Vous
étés prêtes aussi?

I loved the French language. Melodic, romantic, dra-

matic, and pretentious. Same as me. The only thing I
didn’t like about it was that I could not speak it. In
Madagascar I felt completely isolated for the first time
in my life. I had to rely on Europeans telling me what
was going on.
It didn’t take a plenty of time to stop relying on that.
It was my second year in the university. I was study-
ing cinematography and I concentrated myself on the
images. Remember what I told you about the roots? I
felt like a baby who had to rediscover its place in the
world. Don’t touch that! Eat this! Now you can come
out, now you must stay in the car! I was doing what
I was expected to do, the perfect kid, grown enough,
but still innocent. But those big eyes of mine kept
on staring - wide, wet and thirsty they sought logic,
order, and rules.
The differences appeared one by one, day by day.
When you overcome the weird idea to remind your-
self every five minutes that you’re on the other side
of the Equator, and how unusual it is, your mind is
finally free to devour the reality. Thus a new fairy tale
was born.
My Private Africa Soaked and amazed:
Houston we have a problem

Day Four, Explorer Base

Shit! I’ve gone red! The soil is so sandy and our
wheels are stuck with it. My clothes too. We have no
problems with the cleaning, we just have to let it dry,
and then we beat it out very easy. But it feels weird.
This is me from planet Mars. Apart from the red soil
and the muddy ground, there is something important
and I have to report immediately!
We have life here! It is a monstrous discovery! These
creatures seem friendly, but we should not tolerate
gullibility in our crew. We are watching them closely.
They look like us. Obviously, the local conditions re-
flect their culture and traditions. This is the moment
the whole human race expected so long - we are not
alone in the Universe.
Everywhere you look, life is emerging fast - colour-
ful, diverse, creeping, walking, flying, curious, sus-
picious, conscious, and unconscious. Insects, plants,
animals - predatory and herbivorous, humanoids.
Poetry!
They should have sent a poet here!
 My Private Africa
A collection of
exaggerated emotions?

Maybe if you have a chance to visit a country like

Madagascar one day, you won’t notice the things I
talk about. No doubt, many people already did it and
I am quite sure, they didn’t feel the same. We have a
habit to focus our thoughts only on our own comfort.
It is easy to look at all these people in a perfunctory
manner. They are less civilized, therefore they are
poor, and they die at 40. Easy!
Hell knows why we assume that if we begin to think
about that seriously and thoroughly, we will add more
troubles to the ones we already have. I do not agree.
For the first time in my life, I was not complaining
about my own country. I began to appreciate what I
had - my town, my family, my house, my music player,
and the dirty dishes in my kitchen sink.
They say Internet can brighten your horizons, but
that’s partially true. Your “browsing through many
cultures” can only enhance your theoretical knowl-
edge. To embrace someone’s culture is not just to read
about it. Every single culture is a manifestation de-
fined by history, landscape, climate, and human abili-
ties. And spirit. You have to feel it, to sweat it out, and
to accept it. I am still trying.
CHAPTER 4
REINVENT (Y)OUR INSPIRATION
 ALL ABOUTM
Y MUSIC
One could not count the problems in today’s
music industry without getting a headache.
Disastrous sales and unwillingness by almost all
major companies to adapt their systems to the
new conditions are eating out artists’ efforts like
a giant Godzilla. The variety from the early 90’s is
gone; more and more artists seek refuge in selling
toothpaste and jeans. Pop music has always been
a good soil for making money, and that’s fucking
normal, the main difference is that moneymakers
today are not willing to take a chance in pursuing
new territories. They blame the Internet, and the
unscrupulous peer-to-peer users for their misery.
But are we - the unscrupulous - guilty? I think the
case is not so simple.
When Internet became a new media in the late
90’s, the people from the majors knew what it
was all about – faster transfers of data, low-cost
publishing medium and groundbreaking possi-
bilities for innovations. These people may com-
plain nobody warned him, but I think they’re not
so stupid – they knew it all back in that day. The
first problem for them was to find a solution how
to get rid of the packages, the CD’s, the paper
inside, and the extra-stuff like lyrics booklet and
photos. They just didn’t want to. As any big and
already developed industry, the show business
relied on routine methods. Not so long ago, they
invested their money in the Audio CDs and they
didn’t want to imagine that something else could
substitute them so soon. But overall progress
does not wait for anyone to pack his baggage.
It was easier, back in the day, to handle with
standards. For example, look at video industry
– when Sony launched its Video 8 standard, the
other one, VHS, was on its way to get popular.
Video 8 had many advantages compared to VHS,
including stereo sound, but it wasn’t capable to
break through, just because a consortium didn’t
agree with that. Nobody asked the customers. Of
course, you could find Video 8 equipment, but
majors used VHS and its awful quality for publish-
ing music concerts and Hollywood movies.
Today the choice is in customer’s hands. We can
 We already did the work they had to do – we turned
our own audio collections to mp3s, we found the way
to share them with each other without worrying about
any copyrights, because even the ripping of a CD was
considered an illegal action.
choose the standards, or the lack of standards,
for our media products. Microsoft may be willing
to uglify MP3 with its “amazing” WMA standard,
so may Apple Inc. with their “ground breaking”
AAC, but all these are only suggestions to us.
Apple and Microsoft know that if they remove the
support to MP3 in their players nobody will install
their software.
When the majors realized they lost the battle
over the new media, it was too late. We already
did the work they had to do – we turned our own
audio collections to mp3s, we found the way to
share them with each other without worrying
about any copyrights, because even the ripping
of a CD was considered an illegal action. They
kept on saying mp3 had awful sound quality, re-
lated to the brilliant Audio CD, as if we didn’t have
the ears to hear the difference. Bullshit!
Then, things went even worse. When majors
finally adopted the new formats, they tried in-
stinctively to hinder the usage of their “legal”
files. Have you ever heard about an Audio CD
that could be played only on one sound system?
For example, you play a song on your home CD
system, without being able to play it in your car.
That’s what they did with their media files. The
same media files, created to be flexible and easy
to use. What followed? We fucked them again.
In the end, it became something like a disastrous
love story with a smell of dirty sheets and rusty
dreams. We lost our belief in majors completely
and the majors acted like dirty old homemakers,
which they thought we still had to find sexually
attractive. And it is a shame, because together
we almost killed the industry that brought us so
much joy all over the years.
When Steve Jobs introduced iTunes, he proved
one thing that the majors could not: the cus-
tomers were still willing to buy music legally.
Otherwise, how can you explain the 100 million
song sales? You can’t deny the solution was so
gracefully simple and easy to find. What Apple
brought to the marketing policy was finesse and
respect to the customer.
Suite for life, pleasure, rhythm, vibes, and what
Milcho Leviev has to do with it
 I work in a university. Nothing special. As many young people
I am required to be a specialist in multitasking. Sometimes I am
angry about that. It’s distracting. One day you have to count the
students, the other day you have to be creative, and at the end
someone will ask you why the floor is not clean. I swear a lot. I
have the feeling I am losing everything – my real profession, my
enthusiasm, my comfort, in short – myself.
What is keeping me there, you may ask.
People. Yes, it is a hell of a place for meeting different people,
and I still don’t have the feeling I know everybody. Most of these
people are undistinguished and mediocre. But there are some
monsters, too. Some weird old motherfuckers who can wipe away
all your self esteem in a blink of their eyes. I like that feeling. It
reminds me that I have so much to catch upon, so much to learn,
and so much to understand.

IT IS NOT ALLOWED TO SMOKE HERE, SIR!

My first impression about Milcho Leviev was quite… surprising. He
appeared in the class room smoking a cigarette. It was forbidden.
He could allow himself that caprice of course, but I was staring at
the others. They didn’t even want to notice it. Something like…
hum, excuse me, I will pretend I don’t know you are smoking,
because if I do, I’ll have to tell you it is forbidden, and you will
get angry.
Well, if I have one dream left – it certainly is to be in a situation
like this. Because I smoke even now as I write this pasquinade.
You may think it is arrogant, but you can’t be more wrong. It is
how he deals with fussiness. Yeah, right, he might get lung cancer,
and (what a surprise!) he might die. But he has chosen to live like
that, and all the people, smokers or non-smokers (my respect to
you!), are dying to be in his class. They can die too, you know,
from lung cancer.
 But before they do, they’ll get a chance to take part in something
extraordinary. And this is what life is about.
They are going to learn how to express themselves, and how to be
quiet when someone else is speaking (or playing an instrument).
This is the oldest knowledge of all, but is the hardest to acquire.
Because jazz today is not as popular as it used to be 30 years ago,
it is full with teachers who teach it like they teach classical music.
Which means Puritan sophistication and donnish succession. They
turn the music into pack of rules. Fortunately, there are other ones,
who still think that freedom is the foundation of art.
In fact, art is not about all these paintings and all this music. It is
about self expression, it is about that single spark, about emotions,
about God, and about You.
I didn’t ask him about that, but I guess this is the point where he
starts his journey. He is most concerned about keeping you alive,
vital, fearless… free. Some say jazz is about freedom. Replace
“jazz” with any other word like art, poetry, sport, sex… it is the
essence of existence.
Don’t follow rules that you can’t understand, don’t mess with
formalism, open yourself, because the only way to play an
instrument is to transform yourself into an instrument. And when
you reach that point, nothing else matters. There is only joy.
Joy doesn’t last forever, so you have to do it again, and again, and
again! Because this classroom is larger than life.

Tell us about your way of teaching, is it more individual
or more complex?
In a class like this, it’s always hard to have individual
approach, but I try to do my best. The methods are
different, and they depend on the students and on the
moment, on what music is like at the moment. I don’t
think I can guide them to a particular fashionable trend,
because jazz has nothing to do with fashion in opposite
to pop music, where fashionable trends are the leading
factor. Jazz has more constant styles, although there are
renovations, new things, but they should be careful and
choose only the valuable ones.
Is talent the main factor?
Talent is of big importance, but there are other
requirements as well, like acute hearing, sense of rhythm,
their attitude to jazz music and to music in general.
Talent is important, but it is only a background.
Milcho Leviev interviewed by YGT
translation from Bulgarian
How do young people look like today?
I can say, as time passes by, that new generations come
more prepared, they know more. When I was at their
age, I didn’t know so much, or maybe the music itself
wasn’t so developed as art. The variety today seems to
have a deep impact, they are well informed, but this is
a natural process.
Can they really assimilate all the things you want to
teach them?
They are young, we should not expect that they can
absorb everything in a blink of an eye, moreover -
people are students for life. When a musician says he
knows everything, he is already dead as an artist. He
should be always open for the new things that come,
because music changes all the time, just like human
language. Actually there are no constants in art.
 “You know, a hundred years ago, if you wanted to do
music you would probably be playing on street corners... Now,
with the internet, people are going to have to ask themselves
whether they want to go into music even if they may not become
multimillionaires.”
Björk, interviewed by Valur Gunnarsson

I know that guy since 2000. Let us put
some nostalgia here: It was a wonderful
time, full of music, dial-up internet
connections and MPEG-1 videos.
We were a small regional broadcast
television with many die-hard fans, which
baked cookies and cakes and came to
visit us. There were no locked doors, and
no busy schedules. We had small digital
cameras, dirty blue boxes, and lots of fun.
These things are history now, but I still have
the need to call him late at night and share
my latest ideas as if I won’t survive until the
morning. It’s another question if I really do
it, because you know… When you consider
someone a friend, you are more worried if
he gets enough sleep. And he doesn’t.
He’s a DJ. DJs always looked weird to me.
They work at night, and most of them smoke
like power station’s chimneys. At daylight,
 they look tired and lazy. If they’re not sleeping, they have
headaches, stomachaches, or heartaches.
That is why I don’t consider djing a real profession. Sooner
or later, you have to quit, because you want a family, a home,
or just to talk to your friends with your eyes wide open. And
see them more often... But there are different types of DJs,
and with the rise of electronic music, things changed. When
you make music at home, and when you don’t have a label
behind you, the most convenient way to test your work is to
spin it on the table.
As a DJ, you can have the privilege that many artists don’t,
especially those working mostly in the studio. You can see
the crowd moving, and in the nightclubs, the crowd can be
outrageously straightforward, because in most cases your
name remains unknown. If people somehow manage to
remember it, it will last two or three days.
If people don’t like your track, they usually leave the dance
floor, grab their drinks, and begin to talk with each other.
This is the nightmare of every single DJ in the Universe - the
social intercourse, when a group of people is communicating
verbally. So your duty is to tell a better story, pump up some
bass, lay down a rhythm, and form a catching melody, if any.
You see, it’s a real pain in the ass. That is why they think
of music as something serious. You won’t meet a real DJ who
determines himself as a fan of a particular group or musician.
That is why they are in the front line of the new media
revolution. The old super star system died when it entered the
electronic clubs, because DJs disassembled pop music to its
core – the music itself. It is not like “I have to play Spice Girls
once again!” it is like “This beat would tear the roof off!”
 It is a total depersonalisation! But this, on the other hand,
is partially good.
Substatic is a special mix. There is one thing about him that
cannot be easily omitted. You guessed it folks - he’s one of the
dreamers! With the depersonalisation of contemporary music,
we got full of depersonalized people as well. He knows that
difference, and he knows how to deal with the fake ones. That
is the first reason why his name is on the posters for more
than two days. The second one is that I make the posters.
It is still showbiz, kid! But we didn’t run out of ideas.
People ask me many times why did we quit making videos.
The answer is simple – we didn’t. Because we didn’t actually
make videos back then, we made our dreams come true, this
is something different from a business strategy. We just moved
to the next level. You should follow us, too.
 interview by Digital Nightmarez

Dj Hoodlum
1) When did you start djing? And what about producing?
I’ve started djing in 1992, practising with 2 copies of Soul II Soul’s Back to Life.
I loved the music. It took me a year to make contacts. When I select, I watch the
crowd, how it’s reacting. Some of the tracks I play are different and that’s why they
like it. I started playing with equipment in 1997, I made a few tracks, but I never
released them until 2002. When you say you’re a DJ, it’s more than the style and
what you play and if the people don’t like the track, you have to make it again.
2) What do you use for producing? Do you use any hardware or just software?
I use Protools made by Digidesign on the Mac and for the PC sound modules.
All software, no hardware. I’ve learnt from listening and watching Wickaman, he’s
taught me a lot of information on how to sequencing, the Eqing and getting the
right sound.
 3) Do you like scratching?

Dj Hoodlum
I like listening to scratching, but I can’t do it.
4) What kind of DNB is popular in the UK at the moment?
Jump up and a bit of LFO, but in “Fabric” and “The end” you can hear some tech
step too.
5) Are the foreign DJs popular in the UK?
There are some label parties. In the UK the British DJs are more popular, the
American are slowly coming through - DJs like Clipz - clown step, he records for
“Full cycle”. Some new producers are coming through. I find interesting the fact
that they are playing their own stuff more and the crowd enjoys it too. Some of the
stuff I play is by those new producers and the people like it.
6) What about the British djs?
Overpriced. Djs charge too much money and don’t give a chance to the upper
coming DJs, who are also talented. Abroad it’s much better, because people are
more interested into who you are and what you’re doing.
I’ve been listening to the DJs for years, some of them are listening to the crowd
and they feel the vibe. It’s the same with “Fabric” and “The end” and the music is
more underground than in the big raves, where DJs play just popular music and in
“Fabric” they play their own stuff.
7) Which is the best party, that you have ever played at and which is the worst?
The best is when I play abroad and the worst- when I come back to the UK.
8) How do you like Bulgaria?
I love it. I find the people more interesting to talk to and I can talk to them.
Bulgarian people have more interesting stuff to talk about. I can’t say, it’s my
second time here, I meet lots of people. Everybody has to say something about
the music and the environment and I get treated very well.
Playing to a different kind of crowd is more interesting, because people are
more interested into music. When I play abroad people are dancing, in the UK
they are just arrogant.
CHAPTER 5
FOLLOW (Y)OUR INSPIRATION
Fashion Talk
assembled from the posts by Boby, Plamenski, AlphaDesigner, Jazz, and Sasho
source: PodigyZone Forum; web address: www.prodigyzone.com
adaptation by YGT

Boby ~ I hope introductions are over, how about an issue theme?

Plamenski ~ Let’s start it with a bang, then. The swastika symbol - cool or cruel?
Discuss!
AD ~ It’s a shell and it depends on what you’ll put in. I don’t believe symbols can be
detached from what they stand for... So where is the problem? India vs. Hitler?
Jazz ~ Plamenski is good in the MTV question format. I never liked the swastika.
Even in its light forms - i.e. Bulgarian folk traditions. It looks cool only on the back of
Manji’s kimono (Blade of the Immortal)… and yet, cruel equals cool in the modern
daze.
AD ~ Look ma, a starting point! I think it is not only modern, but it is the milestone
of Christianity. Sorry, Jesus, you damned little sucker!
Boby ~ You are both right, cruel is cool and cool is cruel, but this is older that Jesus. It’s
even older than the man himself is. Look at the creatures of nature, the coolest creatures
are the biggest danger. The more colourful and appealing a fish is,the more dangerous it is.
The man even managed to suppress and divert the process because in nature the male
is more colourful and appealing than the female in order to attract the enemy attention
to himself and not to the mother of his successors. Most likely the man diverted this
process (at least the modern non Muslim man) making the female more colourful and
glamorous because there is no enemy that would attack his wom
 an and he is confident whoever does it would get what he deserved or because
the man lost his masculinity and the female gained power enough to defend herself.
So to be cool as a man today is the same as to be a cool as tiger once. Cool is power,
might, blood dripping from the mouth. Cool is “I don’t give a shit!” Cool is “I’m the best
and all you are nothing!” Cool is cruel indeed but beautiful... is innocent.
AD ~ Yes, the natural selection has played a big part... Anyway, I was watching Shrek
2 yesterday. I love the way they open the story, the fairy tale. I was thinking I could
write something like that about fashion, how it took over the world.
Sasho ~ I don’t think fashion took over the world. There are no more than 10 000
regular customers of haut couture around the globe, according to Karl Lagerfeld (and
he should know). These are the snobs that have the means and the desire to possess
whatever is newest, coolest, and ugliest. Now, the rest of us either don’t care what to
wear, or like to buy not expensive cool stuff. But it’s nothing more than the primal need
to be desirable for the opposite sex. By fashion, we have enhanced nature’s means of
making us desirable. So there is no difference between a male peacock, spreading his
coloured feathers in the air, and me buying cool Calvin Klein pants. Through fashion,
we overcome one of the many limitations that nature put into us - namely, making most
of us with ugly bodies. It’s the same principle as inventing the airplane. Will you say,
airplanes took over the world? Maybe in a way of convenience, but certainly not in a
philosophical one.
AD ~ Airplanes developed me philosophically pretty much. There is one song by
Björk called Aeroplane. Take an ear at it.
Sasho ~ I know what you mean. For me, it was elevators - you know, the Aerosmith
song, Love in an elevator.
AD ~ OK, you nailed me. But we have two different starting points, you and I. I
don’t think nature created us ugly.
Sasho ~ Well, you haven’t been to the beach recently…
AD ~ Yes. Anyway, it is not the same thing when you compare a peacock and a man
wearing Calvin’s super duper undies. Peacocks are beautiful for everyone and Calvin’s
 precious white undies are nothing without the CK logo. And the CK logo is just a
CK logo. It could be AD logo, but I am not planning to make a fashion brand soon.
Sahso ~ What a shame! OK, let’s say - imperfect, in our own eyes. We always try to
look better, and fashion gave us the means.
AD ~ We... the 10 000 customers? Didn’t you just expand that number? I’m talk-
ing about the madness fashion creates, the ill spirit that rules almost everything today.
Naomi wouldn’t be so famous if only 10 000 people appreciate the way she looks.
Sasho ~ I see your point. It really seems that modern society is obsessed with image
and looking in a certain way. But my point is - it’s all about impressing women/men,
and it’s very natural - only the means are unnatural, because we’ve invented sophisti-
cated means to do it. As for Naomi - she’s only famous because she’s a click away. I can
always click on a website and lay my eyes on a pretty woman. Don’t you think a peacock
would also like that power, instead of being stuck with the lame ducks around him?
Boby ~ Hey, you completely lost me - farm terminology and beauty... Let me get
things back on track. First - we are talking about humans, second - beauty is in the eye
of the beholder (usually not farm animal), and third - fashion is not only fabric. Now
what makes a certain thing fashionable? I believe it’s very simple. Take a good looking
woman (because men got the money), put her in whatever you designed (anything
would do that’s not ‘so-last-september’), invent an event to show it, make sure all cool
fashionable people are there applauding your ‘work’, and there you go - the next morn-
ing you and your ‘design’ are all over the web/press/TV. But is your ‘work’ any good? Is
it cool? Beautiful? Someone who has an eye for it wouldn’t have such a problem. The
public does. That’s why it relies on web/press/TV to tell her – that’s the cool thing of
today.
Sasho ~ So, only humans understand beauty? Next thing you’ll say, only Americans
understand freedom.
Boby ~ Well aesthetics is something that is taught. Hence, it is not an instinct. If
it’s not an instinct, you can’t find it in a wild animal… As for freedom - the Americans
proved they have a twisted understanding of freedom in the sense of those who are
 freed by us are against us…
Sasho ~ As this line of conversation started from fashion - I think mainstream fash-
ion is a proof that most humans know nothing about aesthetics.
AD ~ It started with the swastika, but what you just said is quite correct. Then, what
makes you think animals appreciate beauty?
Plamenski ~ Back to the swastika. Is it doomed to stay contaminated by the Nazis
or it can be redeemed as an ever present symbol? Hope you guys are not just fashion
victims. Look through it!
Jazz ~ OK, Mr. Quiz! But you forgot to say what you thought on the previous sub-
ject. And I forgot to say I don’t like peacocks.
AD ~ OK, back to the swastika. It will remain as a sign of evil for at least 50 more
years. The bruises caused by fascism cannot fade so fast. I think it brought too much
horror. And you can still feel it today.
Sasho ~ The swastika will remain a despised symbol, but only because Nazism
failed totally. Another symbol - the five pointed star - associated with an ideology,
which caused much more sorrow than Nazism, and for a much longer time, remains
relatively unobjectionable, because it’s still present in several national flags - like in
the flag of the new Soviet Union - China. It’s all politics. Should symbols be pun-
ished for the ideologies they were attached to - hell no. Will they always be - oh, yes.
I have a counter-question: Hitler-style moustache - sexy or menacing?
AD ~ Of course, symbols should be punished! They are the face of any ideol-
ogy. You can’t do anything without a symbol. However, about the star, you omit
one very important thing - the flag with the many stars. Should I mention it?
Sounds funny, but Hitler was sexy. At least that was the way he was presented to the
masses. Of course, he’s not sexy anymore but these things have so much to do with
power. The other funny thing is that when I look at Hitler today I don’t see any menace
at all. At least by instinct. I get more frightened by a regular Nazi soldier than by him.
I think it is one of the reasons German people embraced his ideology. He looks so the-
atrical. I guess they all were living in a movie. And
 when the end credits came, they tried to demonize him. But it’s not an easy task.
I think you can see the same thing now with Osama. They say he lacks logic. I say
the people who think so lack logic, not the man himself. The democratic societies are
extremely stupid sometimes. They measure everything at their point of view and that’s
why this Texan sucker keeps on screaming: “Fight the evil!” To fight your enemy is one
thing. To demonize it is silly.
Sasho ~ You opened a whole new front here with Bin Laden... Maybe the question
should be: Turban - sexy or menacing… You’re right. Probably symbols get forever
corrupted - even if they existed long before the force that took on them and corrupted
them - the swastika, for instance, is considered “native” in at least a dozen places in the
world. And the contrary can also be done - the picture of the snake, an animal with
negative both religious and everyday connotations - has been turned by the Pharmacy
industry into a symbol of cure and healing.
Boby ~ Yeah, I think it’s pretty boring theme indeed. A symbol becomes one after
it’s filled with content. Before that, it’s just some puzzling graphical composition. 100
years ago very few knew anything about the swastika and its original meaning of sun,
purity and goodness with its two sides of rotation (ironically the Nazis adopted the
female sign...) until Hitler came over and overexposed it to the crowds, making it a
registered trademark of violence. No one would be able to empty it from this, not to
mention filling it again with some other meaning. Moreover symbols today are much
more used and exploited than ever and if one symbol had a strong meaning most likely
it will be used over and over again with that exact meaning until it’s overexposed to a
stage of senseless ridicule (Che, hammer and sickle, red flag, crescent, cross and so on).
The sad thing is the regular Joe would never distinguish whether the sign is clockwise
or counter clockwise, hence you can forget about using it with any other connotation.
AD ~ Hey, it’s not so tragic! You forget the ability of people to forget... Sasho, turban
is very sexy if you ask me. Islam is sexy too. All these women you know...
Sasho ~ Man! You’re totally on my brain-length! I’ve always been sure that under the
long clothes, they are all naked, the hot chicks.
 Product Level Brand Identity Vol.1
Product Core Benefit: Nonconformity and freedom in lifestyle. Core identity: Lifestyle.
Generic Product: Open mind, clear look, emancipation of style. User profile: Everybody.
Expected Product: Resistance to common delusions. Brand personality: Fearless mind, discovering beauty by observation,
Augmented Product: Lack of interest in spending money for lots of bullshits. not by creation of surrogates.
Destroying the fake face of today’s fashion industry. Being yourself. Subbrands: Not available.
Potential Product: To love yourself. To respect variety. Logo: “Monster” symbol - designed by YGT in 2003.
 Brand Identity Vol.2
Slogan/Tagline: “Give!”
Organizational associations: Open for everybody.
Heritage: A heart.
Value Proposition
Functional benefits: High-end print design.
Emotional benefits: Defeating emotional diseases like depression,
alienation, conformity.
Self-expressive benefits: Generated by using the product for your own
good and the good of others, understanding other people and respecting
their way of life.
 Core Ideas
Annotation: Eclectic combination of ideas related to
fashion advertising. Their basic element is the human
body - as it is, and the human mind - as it can be.
Fuel: Personal bravery. Bad things, such as being a
fashion victim, a purist, a religious swine, a tin soldier.
Face: Ernesto Che Guevara.
...and more
Tasks: To initiate emancipation of mind, to grant the ability to think of
yourself as you are, not as other people want you to be. To provoke the
strenght to oppose influences from the outside world, which serve to enslave
the mind and to turn somebody into a fashion or morality victim with all
consequences that follow. To entertain without boundaries, for example
aesthetic or moral boundaries, and to prevent self-humiliation.
ノーこちこちマガジン

承認
Special thanks to you for downloading and reading this magazine!
Thanks to Cult.bg for the excellent web hosting, to ProdigyZone.com for the support in their
forum, to the sites that made us popular around the globe: VisuellerOrgasmus.de, NewWebPick.com,
DesignLinks.org, FishBucket.net, Isolate.cz, GrooveManifesto.net, HowBizarre.Cult.bg, Gouw.nu and
all forgotten, because it is already midnight and I am tired. Immense inspiration came from sites like
NetDiver.net, Rasterized.org, SceyeLines.net, HeadMagazine.co.uk