my boyfriend's name is alex, which wouldn't be a problem, if everyone on planet earth wasn't also named alex. this may be a minor exaggeration, but there are enough of them in my life to make it seem this way. for example, it is alex's birthday this weekend, and i bought his gift from my mother's friend, who's husband is also named alex. her husband is our family's realtor, which means he is in frequent contact with our household. this makes for numerous awkward situations in which my mom begins a sentence with, "i was texting alex earlier..." and i am compelled to cut her off with, "no you weren't!"
also named alex: my best friend zach's little brother, my (non-biological) sister's boyfriend, my other best friend rachel's semi-boyfriend. anyways.
for his gift, i got my alex a circular box embellished with a picture of the pagan star pointed upside-down, and a glaring horned skull prominently featured in the star's center. i felt this was appropriate considering one thing my boyfriend loves is black metal, and one thing black metal involves is paganism, or at least ideology based on it.
i honestly don't know very much about black metal, only that it is basically this:
but with more fog and tall dark trees and upside-down crosses and chains and blood and you know, music.
alex is constantly telling me that i am more black metal than i think i am, but i believe this may only be because my mom is a pagan and i live in the forest and there is a lot of fog here in the mornings. the black metal music genre is not one i am a huge fan of, but the sub-culture fascinates me, because it is one full of paradoxes, as i see it. like how alex says that black metal is all about celebrating nature, but in a lot of pictures of guys with corpse paint there are also what i can only assume are animal sacrifices. or how the upside-down star is usually associated with satanism, but alex has explained to me that what he calls "real black metal dudes" understand that to believe in satan means one must also believe in god, which they do not - hence the upside-down crosses.
however, this does not stop my boyfriend from yelling "HAIL SATAN!" in an ironic way at any opportune time. such as out of my car window while i am driving past innocent hipsters on bikes, or religious protesters outside of planned parenthood.
he has also taken me to two black metal shows, which i thoroughly enjoyed, however terrified and self-conscious i was being there. both were at a house owned by three of alex's friends, dubbed "The Witch House", a dwelling plastered with posters of people like Malcolm X, as well as with charming handmade signs like the one over the kitchen sink, which reads, "Anarchy means always washing your own dishes, no matter how stoned you are."
when alex yells "HAIL SATAN!" at the witch house, a dozen other "HAIL SATAN!"s immediately answer him.
i haven't been dating him very long, but i am learning a whole lot being his girlfriend. he is an anarcho-syndicalist, which is sort of complex and maybe scary, but secretly he likes baking lemon bars and watching 16 and pregnant with me on weekends. he is also very happy to answer my endless obnoxious questions about black metal, for which i am thankful.
anyways, if you maybe enjoyed any of this, you should start following my blog. unless your name is alex. i already have enough of those in my life.
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