I really dig David LaChapelle�s (not to be confused with Dave Chapelle) photographs. He mixes real photography and computer generated images, amazing color and lighting. He�s done some of the most amazing portraits of celebrities. His work is very distinctive, like Itzhak Perlman�s violin playing. You see it and know it�s him. I want to take photos like this.

Of course there was a huge controversy over his photographs of Mike Myers in the April 1999 Vanity Fair. Mikey, sporting a freshly shaved head, was photographed as a Hindu deity to the hilt, only with palm pilots and such. The point of the pictures was to make fun of the flippant adoption of religion as a fashion statement, according to LaChapelle and Mike Myers, which makes sense to me. (There was actually a really funny caricature of Madonna in Rolling Stone a few years ago when she got all I-am-Buddha-come-sit-in-my-lap-and-feel-my-Kundalini-touch-my-Dharma-bum that had her �praying to the gods of the phony English accent.� I loved it.) Anyway, LaChapelle did apologize. So a lot of Hindus were �up in arms� and a lot of Hindus were not. Some people said Vanity Fair would never do this with a rabbi or a priest. Well, if a rabbi or priest inspired celebrities to wear side curls or to the Academy Awards or give out the Eucharist at the Golden Globes, I think they might. Hinduism is such a beautiful religion, rich with color and mystery and sexuality. It could be easily (and annoyingly) adopted as a fashion statement. And has! Anyway, blah blah blah. We all have those normally fashionable friends who throw on a bindi because they�re �feeling it� one summer day. People are right to be cautious about the exploitation and mockery of their spirituality and religion. In this case, though, I think the people to blame are not Mike Myers and David LaChapelle�rather those celebrities who are they are mocking.

People are into the weirdest stuff. This is Kerry; straight male married cross dresser with a mask fetish. But he�s not only into it, he makes and sells masks. The web site is a trip. The people who are into masks tend to get off on the power of being mysterious and I assume, the anonymity. The fashion side of it is of course a factor.