Henka No Nagare
Photograph by Jason Blackeye
It’s the name of a song by the Los Angeles-based Japanese fusion band Hiroshima. It translates to “winds of change” and it was shortly after listening to the song for the first time that I realized that I am able to “feel” when my life is about to change, and I believe that many others possess this sense as well. We either feel that changes we aren’t in control of are about to take us into uncharted territory, or we feel that it is time to make a decision that will set us upon a new path. But, regardless of what precipitates change, change happens and when it does, nothing is ever the same.
July 3, 2016, we published our first article, an interview with Portland, Oregon rock band, The Talking Dead. They weren’t quite the type of band I was looking to publish at the time, but I genuinely loved their music. In those early days, I only thought that I knew what kind of content I wanted to publish. It wasn’t until recently that I’ve come to realize that there is not a shared “tone” uniting the stories I’ve put out there thus far. The reason being, I’ve been (subconsciously) publishing two different kinds of magazines.
During the two years that it took for me to separate my new arts and entertainment project from the whole heavy metal thing that I had done for several years, I wanted to create an online luxury magazine without actually calling it one or even promoting it as such. If you look at the “Anatomy of Cultural Expression” logo I designed, you can tell that I had nothing but black-tie events and orchestral music in mind. Calling my new project “Kingdomz X Arts & Entertainment” was certainly pretentious, but that’s where my mind was at the time. I truly wanted to write about fine dining, travel, art, luxury cars, jewelry, and all that one would expect from a luxury mag. Miley Cyrus, however, derailed my plans.
Well, she almost did. What happened was that I made the mistake of reading an interview of her in one of my favorite magazines, despite not being a fan of hers back then. I’m not going to rehash what I’ve already written about her influence on my thinking and this magazine, but she didn’t just inspire the direction I wanted to take with my project, she also created conflict within me. Or perhaps I should say that she awakened it. Since my early childhood, I’ve always been fascinated with luxury and all the things that one word embodies. On the other hand, I was something of a rabble-rouser. Listening to rock and roll in my early teens made me feel like a god. There was a part of me who wanted to be a scientist or astronaut, and the other who wanted to be a hard-partying, cigarette-smoking rock star. To this day, I’m still trying to manage both of these sides of my personality.
One day, I came up with an idea for a separate magazine called “Deluxe”. It would cover my newfound interest in writing about luxury. When I realized the enormity of the task of maintaining two online magazines, however, I chose to integrate that with what I had already done and rebrand Kingdomz X as a luxury lifestyle mag. Since we were no longer an ”arts and entertainment” mag, we stopped publishing articles on television, cinema, and literature. We became Kingdomz X Magazine.
To be honest, I don’t know when (or why, or how) it all got boring. Sometime during the month of August is when I realized that things were looking “stiff”. The color and excitement were gone. During the summer, I had had one of the best times of my life with my friends Carrianne and Tiesha, who welcomed me into the LGBTQ+ family. The three of us being bisexual, we all attended the New York City Pride event in June. Despite being born and raised in New York, this was my first time participating in the festivities. It left me with an afterglow that lasted for some time. I reflected upon that day as I made my decision to try and get this magazine back on course. I began to remember what I wanted to accomplish in the first place. Then I looked at all of the recording artists (most of them women) whose music I had discovered during the height of the pandemic. Since that time, I have compiled a list of artists, musicians, and fashion designers I would like to write about the most. By the time October rolls around, I would like for Kingdomz X Magazine to have returned to the path set forth by my muse, the incomparable Miley Cyrus. This is going to happen, people.
In the meantime, might I suggest you check out this latest video from one of my favorite musicians, GIRLI.
