RuPaul says we're born naked and the rest is drag, but drag doesn't have to be a dress and high heels. Drag can be re-creating a costume from a comic book, or go-go dancing in a jockstrap, or letting someone turn you into something not entirely human.
You might know this week's guest as artist and performer Tyler Rush; or Pup Amp, as he's known in the fetish community. As grown-up identities go, Tyler and Amp are both a long way from the quiet Catholic school kid who hid from constant teasing by playing videogames in his basement. When it was time to move to a new school, he decided to re-invent himself, and found a nerdy tribe where he not only belonged, but could become a star by dressing up as someone else.
Costumes don't have to be a way to hide -- sometimes, they're extensions of who we are, a way to amplify our assets and flaunt our hidden talents. Rather than masking his true identity, Tyler found that costumes could draw him out of his shell. But when he started dressing up for anime conventions, he probably didn't expect that within a few years, he'd be undressing at conventions of a somewhat different nature.
In this episode, we talked a bit about Death Note, which started out as a printed manga, but became an anime series:
And then we also marveled at the phenomenon that is filk -- science fiction folk music. I could not be more delighted that such a thing exists.
Another topic of conversation: Batman bondage. Here's one of my favorite of such clips, from the episode featuring Liberace. Because of course.
How many bondage fantasies were formed by this image, which we briefly address in this episode?
Oh and of course check out Amp's new show with the delightful Bolt:
And here's a clip from Final Fantasy X2, the game that's all about using different outfits to do battle:
It's been my distinct pleasure to photograph Amp on many occasions. Here's a few of my favorite shots.
Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/