Aaron Edwards properly distinguishes his Joneses

Name: Aaron "Guncle" Edwards 

Age: 45
Hometown: Lodi, NJ
Current town: Brooklyn, NY
Job description: Blogger; photographer; bouncer; MC; former bartender
Bio: Founder of Guncle.org, a blog and events listing from; doorman currently for Vitamin B at The House of Yes and formerly for other New York parties since the ‘80s, including Rubulad
Upcoming projects: Narrating a film; styling a photography project; developing the Guncle brand (“I don't know what that’s going to be but ever since I became Guncle, it's been a wonderful experience.”) 
Select links: flickr


Describe your current state of mind.


I feel that stupid-ness that I have when I wake up in the morning. And I think that's very reflective of what I'm going through, right now. I'm just waking up and trying to figure out what time it is, where I'm at and where I'm going.


What jobs have you had in New York?


I am very fortunate that I'm a third-generation homosexual. So my grandfather's brother [and] my dad's brother were gay. When I came to New York, I spent summers with my uncle. When I was 17, we moved to New York. I got a job at a gay bar called Uncle Charlie's, as a bar-backing cocktail waiter. And this was the first big gay bar in New York; it was very popular. Then I started working at Limelight. I worked at the Palladium when it first opened. I never slept. I had this amazing social life in the evening and during the daytime I had this like very corporate safe life. It was very schizophrenic 'cause I didn't know which direction I wanted to go in: Do I want to have a house and a mortgage or do I want to be a crazy artist?

Monica Hunken is a post-consumerist evangelical (armed with a bicycle and quadrisyllabic chants)

Name: Monica Hunken
Age: (“Feel like I've lived 100 years.”)
Hometown: California
Current town: New York, NY (Lower East Side)
Job description: Performer; playwright; builder
Bio: The Wild Finish, a solo show performed in an old LES punk squat, ABC No Rio, right before it’s destroyed (“Based on my journey bicycling Poland to research the story of my wild experimental theater grandfather.”); Blondie of Arabia, a performance inspired by Hunken’s solo journey peddling through the Middle East; member of Reverend Billy & The Church of Earthalujah!; Cassandra in Jeff Stark’s The Sweet Cheat, a play based on Rick Moody’s novella, The Albertine Notes
Upcoming projects: Dog sledding to melting glaciers in Greenland; a new play about revolution, with lights and sound, powered by bicycles.
Select links: "Monica Hunken" (YouTube); monicahunken.com

Describe your current state of mind.
 

A little clogged from a bad cold, small headache from teeth slamming into my forehead at a Living Theatre performance last night but otherwise, excited and raring to go.
 

How did you become a performer?

I never stopped playing imaginary games from childhood. I would perform puppet shows and put on wigs and costumes. But I was terribly shy and only performed for other people when I was forced to in school when one day the lead girl in Oliver, who tortured me every day in school, was kicked out for stealing and I had to take her part.  Eventually, I felt the tremendous freedom it gave me to escape.  Of course, now the theater I am interested in is so far from escapism. It's more and more about connecting and revealing.

Callie Watts and Dana Dane perpetuate loyalty among interns

Dana Dane and Callie Watts (left to right)

Name: Callie Watts (a.k.a. Calisha Jenkins) and Dana Dane

Age: 28; 29
Hometown: Woodbridge, VA
Current town: Brooklyn, NY
Job description: Pornographers; editors; mathematician
Bio: Founders of Candy Rain Magazine, a porn zine for women; co-hosts of Candy Rain’s new weekly radio show (Tuesdays 8-10p.)
Upcoming projects: An art show; raise money for the next issue; Issue 3 due in the spring
Select links: "Hens in the Cockhouse" (NY Press); "Shopping: Callie Watts" (Time Out NY);  Candy Rain's blog


Describe your current state of mind.


DD: I’m just trying to hold it together every day.


What’s tearing you apart?


DD: Life, man. Life is hard. Every day I just try to wake up and keep it together. That’s all I can do.


CW: I’m trying to get back out of vacation mode, trying to get back in the grind. Because I was really lounging, catching up from life, and now I have to catch up from my lounging.  

Jana Weaver knows something about silent dreams

Name: Jana K. Weaver (a.k.a. “Whiskey Deer Wolf”)

Age: 39

Hometown: Austin, TX

Current town: Brooklyn, NY

Job description: Illustrator; painter; sculptor; performer; maker; healer; equine caretaker; former farmer
Bio: Appeared in An Educational Film for Zoetrope and Ode; created the stop animation, Le Cadeau

Upcoming projects: Applying to graduate programs for drawing; leaving New York City; learning stock animation

Describe your current state of mind.

I'm feeling overwhelmed, but in a good way...

You injured your leg.

I'm five months post surgery. I haven’t exercised in a month because of the holidays, and I just ended physical therapy because of I don't have health insurance and they only give it to you for three months. But I guess it takes like a year or two to get all the way back. I can run on a treadmill but not on the ground.  I have to be very careful, and the reason why I opted for the surgery [was] so that I could fully express myself again. I cannot ride a bike, but I can ride [horses].