Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

The Strange Pink Cross Named Dominique

by Chris Chaos

On the corner of Myers Ave and Route 73 in Winslow Township you will come across a peculiar pink cross with the name DOMINIQUE emblazoned across it. Over the last few years I have driven past it many times and wondered who it immortalized and what circumstances occurred for it to be erected. Eventually I took to the internet to start researching what the story was behind this pink cross.

***NOTE*** Some details and names were left out to protect the parties involved.


The facts pulled from various news sources were: On April 5th, 2008 Dominique Dezii was tragically killed when an ATV, on which she was a passenger, was struck by a car in Winslow Township NJ.

The news reports are a dime a dozen, people are sadly killed in accidents everyday. So who was this Dominique? For this, you have to dig a little deeper. She was more than just another statistic and a memorial on the side of the road. Dominique was an 8th grader in Winslow Middle School and participated on the town's softball and field hockey teams. The teams that she played on were the Winslow Mayhem and South Jersey Bandits for softball and the Winslow Eagles for hockey.


Her friends and family had this to say about her:
"Even at her young age Dominique was an inspiration to all who knew her. Quick with a smile and always comforting to those she loved, she made the world a better place."


The incident happened in April of 2008 when Dominique and two of her friends (Amber Napoli, 15 and the unidentified male driver) were traveling on an ATV. At the time of the accident a 16 year old boy (identity withheld) was driving when the ATV was on Myers ave and the boy saw a police cruiser, got scared and sped away. The boy ran the red light at the intersection of Myers and Route 73 and a Nissan Altima hit the ATV as they attempted to cross traffic. None of the three passengers on the ATV were wearing helmets and Dominique was killed on impact and another female passenger was injured.

Dominique's mother did not fault the boy as it obviously was not intentional and he has been friends with her daughter for some time. Initially the boy was to receive vehicular-homicide charges, but later in court he was placed on probation, would not be able to get his license until he turned 18 and received mandatory counseling.

Additional charges brought up by the Winslow police were: Operating the ATV without the headlights on, carrying passengers on a vehicle not designed to carry passengers, operating a vehicle not meant to be operated on public roads, none of the teens were wearing a helmet, the ATV was not registered or insured, reckless driving, failure to observe a traffic signal.


Hopefully this information will shed a little light onto what many have questioned: Who was this Dominique and why is this cross on the side of 73? So the next time you see it, be sure and wave and say hello.

Here is a personal webpage that Dominique had:
 Dom's Personal Page

The Dominique Facebook Tribute Page:
Dom's Tribute Page

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

The Mystery of Elisa Lam

by Chris Chaos



ELISA LAM
Born: April 30, 1991
Disappeared: January 31, 2013
Died:February 1, 2013 (aged 21)
Body Found: February 19th, 2013

A quote that Elisa seemed to favor and placed on her various social media profiles:
“You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life.” — Chuck Palahniuk

The unexplained death of Elisa Lam has fascinated the American public and the world in general because of its bizarre circumstances. On January 31st, 2013, a 21-year-old Canadian student named Elisa Lam was reported missing. She was staying in the Los Angeles hotel, The Cecil Hotel, which is known to have a notorious past. Two weeks later hotel guests complained about the water tasting funny and coming out of the facets black (just like in the movie DARK WATER 2005 (1) ), a maintenance worker was inspecting the rooftop water tanks on top of the Cecil Hotel and discovered her body.

Dark Water the movie 2005

Elisa Lam full video 4 min (Courtesy of Dennis Romero, posted 2-13-13)
 Surveillance footage from the hotel's elevator which is the last known whereabouts of Elisa


Upon watching the video several times, Elisa does exhibit strange behavior. She enters the elevator, acts suspicious, keeps peeking out of the doors and hides in the corner as if she is hiding from someone. When the elevator door starts to shut, she presses the door open button. For a brief moment she steps out of the elevator and appears to be hesitant to get back in. When she does get back into the elevator she appears to press all the buttons. Some say she was trying to either trick someone that might be following her or she was playing the elevator game (2). There appears to be about 1 minute edited out of the video prior to being released to the police and then to the public.


Others state that she either had mental issues or was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. She did suffer from documented bipolar disorder and the results of her toxiology report are to follow.

TOXIOLOGY AND AUTOPSY REPORT: Elisa Lam NO 2013-01364
Click to view report

Full report

Official cause of death: accidental drowning

Lam had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. She had been prescribed four drugs—Wellbutrin, Lamictal, Seroquel and Effexor to deal with the condition. According to her family, she had no history of suicidal idealizations or attempts, although one report claims she had, in fact, briefly gone missing at some earlier time as well.


After Lam was removed from the tank, her body was taken to the county coroner's office to be autopsied. Two pathologists, Jason Tovar and Yulai Wang, spent four hours that afternoon dissecting her body and examining her internal organs. On February 21, the coroner's office reported that they had found her death to be an accidental drowning.


Four months later, in June, their full report was released after being postponed several times. They reported that her body had been found naked in the tank, about three-quarters full of water, with the clothes she appeared to have been wearing in the elevator video floating in the water alongside her, coated with a "sand-like particulate".

According to her autopsy report, the following items were found in the water tank with her:
1) red hooded sweatshirt; front zippering; American Apparel brand' size sx
2) green shirt;  a t-shirt, light green, short sleeved, with crew neck JJM brand, size l/g
3) black shorts; Saxon brand authentic game wear, men's size m/m
4) black panties; black lace trim; Calvin Klein brand, size s/p
5) pair sandals; Birkenstocks brand, with three black fabric straps having small white dot pattern overall and two buckles; labeled with numerals that may indicate code for European sizing: 39, 55, 250, l8, m6
6) watch
7) hotel room key

The elevator in question is on the left

Lam's body was moderately decomposed, bloated and mostly greenish, with some marbling evident on the abdomen and skin separation evident. Her body was not clothed when it was found and that could lead to the speculation of sexual assault. Tovar and Wang had a rape and fingernail kit done and reported that they found no evidence of physical trauma or sexual assault.They also stated that they found no evidence to suggest that Lam had committed suicide.

Toxicology tests were done on her blood where a sufficient quantity was available. Some metabolites and traces of her prescription medication were found, consistent with blister packs and loose pills of those drugs found among her belongings, along with some nonprescription drugs such as Sinutab and ibuprofen.  She had venlafaxine and metabolized buproprion in her system and both can cause halluinacions in bipolar patients.

No alcohol or recreational drugs were found in her system. Details regarding this can be found here:
Click to read autopsy report

Interestingly enough, some of the kits used bore the name ELISA KITS (3 )


Obviously with any "mysterious" murder or missing persons case there is a great amount of speculation associated with it. Some think that she may have been killed by a hotel guest or an employee. While watching the video clip it appears that Elisa was playing some sort of hide and seek game with someone not visible in the video. This could either be a willing game or maybe she was in danger and trying to hide from someone.

Others interject that she may have committed suicide based on her writings on her online blog and diaries. But skeptics state that the water tower lid may have been too heavy for a slight girl to lift, climb in and then close it behind her.


The Cecil Hotel is a well known seedy place full of bad stories and a shady past. The location was the last place the Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short, was seen before her death back in 1947. The serial killer Ricahrd "Night Stalker" Ramirez also called the hotel home for a time period. Here is a brief piece concerning the hotel:




Elizabeth Short

Of course the conspiracy theories do not stop there, they further spiral into tale of the Illuminati. A quick check of of Google Maps does show that The Invisible Light Agency does reside in the building and that Anthony V, produces weapons. Their company logo is also made up of triangles as does the Illuminati's.

The Invisible Light Agency on Google Maps
The Invisible Light Agency's logo

Julie Ann Paige had this to say, "Around the time of the Elisa Lam disappearance I lived at The Alexandria Hotel, another sketchy nefarious place. I remember seeing Elisa walking up 7th crossing Spring going up towards Main. She seemed strange and out of place and caught my eye for some reason. I wondered if she was on drugs. I was shocked to later see her on the news reported as missing. I remember hearing all the sirens that Feb morning and could tell it was around the Cecil. I had this sense of dread I just knew they found her there dead."

Revisiting the suicide theory, lets take a look at some of her writings; Elisa Lam recorded some of her depression in her blog:


"Thursday
this is a lazy post
Things are going fairly well in that I am leaving the house and got myself a part time job. My room is still a mess. I haven't actually done any school work and I berate myself for being such a lazy person. Ah yes laziness.

If I weren't so lazy I would exercise.

I believe the biggest reason why I got depressed was because I stopped running in my last year of high school. Up until that point I was on the cross country and track and field team. Mind you I wasn't very good runner, but I did it. I lacked the discipline to actually train. And now I am still lacking the discipline to run or do any sport of sort.

I make up excuses. Right now the excuse is "It's too cold outside." Fair enough, I could however go to a gym. Then the excuse is "I'm self-concious and I have no idea how to weight lift."

I am not terribly self conscious of my body. I've accepted it's simply the way I am. However I am terribly self conscious of my legs. I find them disproportional to the rest of my body making me look chunkier than I am. And no matter how much I exercised, they never became any leaner. If I am not too careful, I fall into the trap of cankles.

I'm sick of the cold weather and wish for warmer weather. Warmer weather meaning dresses. Oh wait, no I don't like dresses because that means exposing my legs.

Right.

But this cold in mid March makes me eat so horribly. I have been living off of junk food and if I weren't so lazy I would actually go try to learn how to feed myself.

And if I weren't so lazy I would go learn how to do something.....like coding or whatnot. I'm falling into a pattern of going on tumblr and it's not giving me any joy actually. It's just something to do. Idling by."

One of the Illuminati connected theories was that she was investigating an invisibility cloak, as seen on her blog post from 1-12-13, and they had her killed. Do not that The Invisible Light Agency does reside within the building.

Some say that the below post to her blog is a clear indicator of her suicide intentions:
expexto patronum (4)
Depression sucks.
I have no control over my emotions. I will be angry for two minutes and then sad again. I will be happy for half an hour and then emotional again.
So far all I've done is lay on my bed and watch episodes of Chopped.
Im just waiting for it to pass."

An excerpt from her blog with a heading from a spell in the Harry Potter film

I do find it interesting that for a person that liked to write, read and blog...that if she did commit suicide, she did not leave a note.

So still to this day there is no definitive answer as to who or what may have killed Elisa. Speculation builds and grows and no light has shined down on this girl who lost her life back on that cold January day.

Here are some links to her personal social media sites:

tumbler:
http://nouvelle-nouveau.tumblr.com/

twitter
https://twitter.com/lambetes

blog:
http://etherfields.blogspot.hk/

email
marinierefields@gmail.com

linked in
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/elisa-lam/59/3bb/230

Elisa's RIP page:
https://www.facebook.com/Elisa-Lam-RIP-215933085212486/

Elisa's Memorial

(1) DARK WATER www.imdb.com/title/tt0382628/
(2) The Elevator game explained http://sayainunderworld.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-to-go-to-another-world-by-using.html
(3) Elisa Kit Ray Biotech
and
Elisa Kit My Biosource
(4) expexto patronum: Meaning

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Tribute: Dave Brockie, David Lander, Gregory Marshall and Aleister Hobbs. RIP

by Chris Chaos

A  few years ago, back when Axis Video was working on Dynasty of Darkness and its
sequel, Dynasty of Darkness: Apocalyptic End we had the chance to meet and work with
many people in the music business. Unfortunately several have passed, they were friends
and we miss them greatly.


Here are a few:

David Lander:
On August 2, 2008
Manager and father of band members Morgan and Mercedes from Kittie
VIDEO: Kittie

While setting up the interviews and concert filming of Kittie we spoke to Dave to iron out all the details. He set up the show and outlined the songs that we could use in our film, Dynasty of Darkness. He also joked (I think) that if we released any of the songs that were not available to the public, that he would kill me.



Aleister Tennyson Hobbs:
October 11, 2011
Member of Dead Emotion, Dead Sea Surfers
VIDEO: Dead Emotion

One of the fondest memories of Al was when we were filming the Dead Emotion music video for the song Bytch. He drove down from New York and arrived there before the other band members. This was the first time that we met him so it was slightly odd when he walked into the house and opened up his suitcase like he was at a hotel. He was a joy to work with and he also appeared in some of our other videos.


Gregory Marshall:
April 23, 2012
Member of Suture Seven, 7th Layer
VIDEO: Suture Seven

Greg was our contact point when we were filming segments for the band Suture Seven for Dynasty of Darkness. He was a great guy and very funny to be around. After filming one of their concerts he saved us a 2 hour trip and let us stay at his house overnight. Nicknamed Spooney and on occasion bared a resemblance to Uncle Fester from The Addams Family and Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins.


Dave Brockie:
On Sunday March 23, 2014
Member of Gwar, Dave Brockie Experience, X-Cops, Death Piggy
VIDEO: The Dave Brockie Experience

For 2 days, a full weekend, Dave kidnapped us and we filmed two of his shows in the Philly area. This was the weekend when the show spilled so much alcohol that my hardshell camera case actually floated away. Sadly that night he speculated on who the next rock star was to overdose...his choice is actually still alive.



REST IN PIECE MY FRIENDS!!!!

To purchase DOD:
Dynasty of Darkness


#2
Dynasty of Darkness: Apocalyptic End


(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

The Passage of Time

by Chris Chaos

I had a question about an observation that I had over the last few years....

Has anyone noticed that it appears that the passage of time seems to be going faster the older you get? Does it seem like the days, weeks, months and years are rolling by incredibly quick? For me it seems as if time started to gain acceleration when I was about 22 years old. I have always kept busy with schooling, work, hobbies and other pursuits in life so my time has always been occupied.

Now I know as a kid time seems to take forever since you are constantly looking forward to things: birthdays, Holidays, trips, your 13th b-day, your 18th b-day etc.... When you have your eye on a date when something exciting happens time feels like it never moves.

Now flash forward to adulthood, you are working on college, a job, a career, paying bills, having kids and the daily grind. You are constantly busy and bogged down with life that you do not have the time to stop and smell the roses per say.

Quite a few other adults that are doing something with their life have stated similar observations. On the flip side I noticed that people that have nothing going for them in life state the opposite, they can be heard stating, "I am so bored, I cannot wait for today to end." Why so you can do the exact same life loafing that you did today?
 Passage of time
The times that I seem to notice the most (not due to ques such as alarm clocks) are 10 am, 12 noon, 3pm, 6pm and then 9pm. These blocks pop up the most and the time in between them appear to disappear without explanation.

















An excerpt from Wikipedia:

Time perception is a field of study within psychology and neuroscience that refers to the subjective experience of time, which is measured by someone's own perception of the duration of the indefinite and continuous unfolding of events. The perceived time interval between two successive events is referred to as perceived duration. Another person's perception of time cannot be directly experienced or understood, but it can be objectively studied and inferred through a number of scientific experiments. Time perception is a construction of the brain that is manipulable and distortable under certain circumstances. These temporal illusions help to expose the underlying neural mechanisms of time perception.

Pioneering work, emphasizing species-specific differences, was conducted by Karl Ernst von Baer. Experimental work began under the influence of the psycho-physical notions of Gustav Theodor Fechner with studies of the relationship between perceived and measured time.

William J. Friedman (1993) also contrasted two theories for a sense of time:

The strength model of time memory. This posits a memory trace that persists over time, by which one might judge the age of a memory (and therefore how long ago the event remembered occurred) from the strength of the trace. This conflicts with the fact that memories of recent events may fade more quickly than more distant memories.

The inference model suggests the time of an event is inferred from information about relations between the event in question and other events whose date or time is known.



(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com) 







Wednesday, October 1, 2014

The Crossroads: Robert Johnson's Deal with the Devil

 by Chris Chaos

Where is the the Real Crossroads?
 

Artists impression of Johnson meeting with the devil

Many know the story of Johnson supposedly selling his soul to the Devil to become a better Bluesman......

Johnson's wife was pregnant but her and the baby died in childbirth. Understandable Robert was distraught and did not know what to do. He decided to leave town for some time, and upon his return he was a changed man. He could play his guitar like a seasoned vet and his voice was silky smooth, a stark comparison to the terrible musician that the town locals remembered prior to his disappearance. Many attributed his marked progress to meeting the devil during his travel and Johnson sold his soul in exchange for becoming a better musician.

Some new speculation has emerged concerning Robert Johnson and the location of where he made his pact with the Devil.
Modern Crossroads marker

Many fans go to the crossroads at highway 61 and highway 49 in Clarksdale to pay their respect due to them thinking this is the legendary location where the pact with the Devil way made. Some new evidence may suggest this may not be the correct location.

Many of the 80 and 90 year old southern bluesmen along with many historians and blues music researchers suggest that the location Robert was talking about is in Rosedale.
Robert Johnson

Although of course no one will TRULY know but his song does mention in the lyrics the city: "Going up to Rosedale, got my rider by my side”. But Son House states that he knows for a fact where this deal was made. According to the legendary blues musician he states it wasn't in Clarksdale. The claim is that it was where highway 8 intersects with highway 1.
 Robert johnson
The Devil marks his territory with an "X", the crossroads, According to voodoo claims and legends, the Devil has to hang close to the river, meaning the mark could never be made so far from the river as Clarksdale. Rosedale is located right by the river and this verifies the folklore.

Only the Devil and Robert will only truly know which are the correct crossroads. Truth is that Robert never went to the crossroads looking for the Devil, he was waiting for him as Johnson passed through from Beulah on his way to Helena. The Devil and his dog greeted Johnson here and the dog seized Robert and shook him violently; When he did, the strings in Johnson’s guitar shook and vibrated and the blues emerged from those sounds.

 Robert Johnson "Crossroads"

The devil told Johnson, “.....the dog is not for sale, but you can buy that sound.” Robert wanted it so bad, the deal was made. From there, he was a master.
Plaque outside cemetery where Johnson's body is located

At the age of 27, Johnson died on August 16, 1938, some say that the devil came to collect his due, but others stated that he was poisoned by the jealous husband of a woman that Johnson flirted with.

While strychnine has been suggested as the poison that killed Johnson, at least one scholar has disputed the notion. Tom Graves, in his book Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson, relies on expert testimony from toxicologists to argue that strychnine has such a distinctive odor and taste that it cannot be disguised, even in strong liquor. Graves also claims that a significant amount of strychnine would have to be consumed in one sitting to be fatal, and that death from the poison would occur within hours, not days. Contemporary David "Honeyboy" Edwards similarly noted that the poison could not have been strychnine, since Johnson would have died much more rapidly, instead of suffering for three days.


 Who knows the truth though? Science and logic says he got that good through diligent practice, and a natural ability. But the blues (and music in general) was never about Science, was it?

 Johnson's stone

NOTE:
Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early Influence in their first induction ceremony in 1986.

In 2010, David Fricke ranked Johnson fifth in Rolling Stone′s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Ghost Girl Photo, Texas (Sept 2012)

 by Chris Chaos

This is a cellphone photo snapped in someone's bedroom. At 1st glance the photo appears to have a blurred image of a girl floating in the room. The lady that sent me this photo states that her brother took this photo and it has been unaltered from the original. She also stated that her brother is not tech savvy and has no access to photoshop or other photo editing programs.

I asked her what she thinks is in the photo and this is what she stated, "I KNOW its a demon, dressing up as a little girl to seem harmless & arouse curiosity, to get it to "engage" someone to reek havoc." She also stated that there were many changes in the house (remodeling) which has stirred up activity and that the "main source of food" for this demon was her spouse, but he is no longer in this particular house.
 Ghost
The house is owned by a family member (of this fore mentioned lady) and the last time she stayed in her childhood room and slept in her own bed she heard the demon whispering to her as she slept and that apparently triggered something, because that is what kicked off all the really weird events.

The house itself is known by all the locals in town to be "possessed", some people in town refuse to drive near the house due to the bad feelings that they get.

The back story prior to when this photo was taken....The ladies brother was trying to sleep and could not, and because he also feels that the house is possessed he started sprinkling Holy Water and asking for the demon to get out and leave the family alone. He then proceeds to take several pics with his camera phone and nothing happens until this photo was taken. She also stated that this demon has appeared in the past in both a dragon and snake form.

Upon receiving this photo by email I was very skeptical of the image and it just didn't look legitimate. I loaded the photo into several photo editing programs to look for any evidence of tampering and here are the findings:

I did not immediately see any evidence of tampering once I zoomed in and added different filters. So if someone did Photoshop this image, it was just a simple copy and paste one layer on top of the backdrop. There are some free apps (for cell phones) that are readily available that you can add images to existing photos and this one of the ghost girl appears to be just that.

One of the things that bothers me about the pic is the photo is taken looking up at an angle, as if the photographer is sitting down, but the figure is just about perfectly facing the camera but with the head slightly turned, look at the shoulders. Kind of odd that the figure is just TOO perfectly facing the camera. So that would mean that the ghost girl in the photo would be up higher than the photographer and angled looking down. You can also see that the ghost girl is transparent.

While inspecting the photo in detail using the photo editing programs: when you zoom into the fan blade and edge of the mirror they are pretty sharp in resolution and contrast, but the object that appears to be a girl is very soft and blurred. Now I know that many conceptions pertaining to ghosts are that they are misty and transparent. I do not believe this to be the case since in theory a ghost would never be able to take on the physical form of a human, scientifically speaking a ghost would be unused matter and take on the form and have the traits of wind, electricity or some other naturally occurring form of energy. Many people that enjoy the paranormal but are not scientifically minded seem to forget the laws of science and try to give spirits human traits. They also have a tendency to explain something that is unknown with something else that might be unknown when in most circumstances with a little experimentation and determination, the answer can logically be explained. If you are looking for a ghost, you will find a ghost, if you are looking for an alien, then you will find an alien, you usually find what you are looking for, or so your mind will tell you so.

So with all the information provided and research conducted I would have to say that logically the ghost girl in the photo was added by someone and is not an apparition.

9-25-2014 UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE:
I received an update from the person that originally supplied me with the photo and the story…After this article went live and she read it, she contacted me with the following update:


“So months AFTER the fact, maybe even like a year? My brother in law admitted it was an app he used. He used the app to take the pic and scare his wife from ever going to my in-laws house….btw, at the time he was a strung out meth-head; if that helps at all. SMH Sorry I wasted your time with this photo. However the house IS over-run with demons & that bedroom as well as the one next to it are still the hotspot of activity. Also, my inlaws confirmed that shortly AFTER this “fake” photo…they (my in laws) were seeing “ghosts” roaming thru the house, mostly in the dining room/kitchen/spare room areas & that they would flick the lights and other such “ghostly” things. Johnny (my BIL) is a flake &either a current or recovering meth head. When they sent this to me – I thought he had been clean for quite some time; but I later found out (around the same time I found out the photo was fake) that the reason he moved back home instead of living with his wife, was because he was strung out. NOW, being strung out on meth & seeing ACTUAL demons is a whole other story – because THAT SHIT HAPPENS.”

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey.  He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com) 

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Dave Brockie's Passing

by Chris Chaos

I woke up this morning to the news that Dave Brockie (Gwar, X-Cops, The Dave Brockie Experience, Death Piggy) passed away yesterday. I had numerous texts from friends and associates that knew that I worked with Dave and included one of his videos on Dynasty of Darkness: Apocalyptic End.
  
As of late there have been many faked and spoofed celebrity deaths listed on the internet, but all sources checked out that Dave really did pass. As of this writing there is not a known cause of death but the authorities suspect no foul play and drugs were NOT present. In the past when Flattus Maximus (Cory Smoot) passed the members of Gwar were at least relieved that drugs were not the cause of his death. Cory's official death was listed as coronary artery thrombosis (Heart attack) brought about by his pre-existing coronary artery disease. Cory died at age 35. Dave then  Dave Brockiestated that he was taking steps in his own life to be a little more healthy and he also planned on quitting smoking. While working with him I never observed him doing any sort of drugs, just a lot of drinking. He even speculated that another popular lead singer (who I will not identify) from a metal band would most likely be the next person to die from over dosing of heroin. He gained this insight from when Dave toured with this band and the person in questions was beyond messed up from doing drugs prior to completing their set.

I had the fortune of working with Dave a few years back when we filmed 2 of his The Dave Brockie Experience shows in the Philly area. While interviewing him I saw a side to him that I never experienced before. He is on every level a true rocker and loved doing what he did creating music and performing up on stage. The passion burned fiercely within him. Hopefully in the coming months I can finally edit up the massive amount of footage that I filmed at his shows and make a fitting tribute for Dave and all the contributions that he made to the music world over his long enduring career.

The video we did for Dave Brockie "Damn that Money" is on this DVD:

Dynasty of Darkness: Apocalyptic End

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey.  He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)