Goodbye, Hope

I've been busy around here lately and even though there is much to share on the blog, I simply haven't had the time to sit down and write it all down. Knowing me, that means it might never happen, but I digress. Something stopped me in my tracks tonight, literally. I was walking between rooms when my wife looked up from her phone and said "Hope died." I stopped mid-step and my head spun around as I asked "What?!"

If you've been following the blog and my projects for a while, you know that I had started work on a documentary about the farm animal rescue For The Animals Sanctuary in NJ. I had met the owners by chance through mutual friends, and immediately wanted to know more about the place and went out to visit. I got to know some of the animals and people there, and learned their incredible stories. I decided I wanted to help get the word out by producing a documentary around them. We had started filming and realized it was going to be a bigger undertaking than I could afford on my own, and so we started asking for donations. Some good people helped us out and we continued. About a year ago, filming was put on hold because of the weather, and some time later there were some changes in personnel, so as of right now we are still waiting for word on when the dust is settled enough to resume work on the project.

One of the most amazing animals there was Hope. Hope was a spent dairy cow, which basically means that she had been artificially inseminated and impregnated (That's how the dairy industry gets milk. Cows are mammals, they need to be pregnant to produce milk) so many times that her body was no longer physically able to perform the way the industry needed her to. She was rescued from slaughter by a good samaritan who would visit the farm she belonged to and had grown attached to her. This woman called around until she found a home for her, and that's how Hope wound up with my friends at For The Animals Sanctuary.

Her life of constantly being raped, having her days-old babies kidnapped for veal, and her baby's milk pumped out of her while she herself was pumped full of hormones and antibiotics left her, like many other milk production cows, with calcium deficiencies that lead to bone density loss, making her prone to fractures. I know for a long time they were very worried that if during a harsh winter she accidentally fell, it could break her hips beyond repair and she'd no longer be able to get up and walk, and be in constant excruciating pain. At this time, I still don't know exactly what happened, as is the norm for finding out something like this through a Facebook update. I want to allow my friends the time they need to deal with the situation, as it just happened today, before calling, but I do hope to hear from them so I can get the whole story.

When I first met Hope, the first thing I noticed was her size. She was huge. Not fat, just large. Hope was very tall, and very powerful, and yet was as gentle as could be. If you walked up to her and said hello, she would let you rub her face, and if you touched her nose she would lick your hand - her own way of saying "Hello".

Hope was going to be a major part of the documentary we were making, as she was the first production cow that they had rescued and her story, while typical of the industry, would stand out to viewers who didn't know what happened. Hope's life started with constant misery, torture, enslavement, and exploitation, but at least I know that for the last few years she finally knew love, compassion, and admiration. It won't be the same visiting the sanctuary without her there, but she died amongst friends, rather than in a slaughterhouse, being prodded to follow the fencing and gates that would lead her and hundreds like her to their death, all the while listening to the screams and cries of their bovine friends and siblings. All cows should be so lucky to go the way I'm sure Hope did, but instead she's a perfect example of why this cruel and disgusting industry needs to stop. Every day, humans abuse and murder thousands of nameless "Hopes" because they're told that it does a body good. Whose body? Our body? The cow's body? How about nobody.

One of my favorite pieces of footage of Hope will live on forever in a music video I created for Monica Richards' "Like Animals" cover. I used footage from the sanctuary in that video and there's a shot of the camera zooming into her eye. You can watch the video below to see it. There is also another scene where she is laying in her barn and she rests her head down.




If anyone is interested in making a donation to For The Animals Sanctuary, they can always use the help. Just follow this link to pitch in. It costs a fortune to house and feed these animals, so every little bit helps.

R.I.P. Hope

More soon,
-Rob

All Hope is Not Gone

So since my last blog post about Peter Steele I haven't been able to whip up any new writing. I wanted to stay on a more frequent blogging schedule this year, but it's hard. I'm trying some new things now and hopefully I can deliver more content, quality content, more frequently.

But, it would be very wrong of me to continue on from this point and not acknowledge 2 more great losses felt by the Metal world. Since Peter Steele's death we also lost the great Ronnie James Dio, and Paul Gray of Slipknot.

I do have to admit, I wasn't always a big Dio fan. As far as Black Sabbath was concerned it was always Ozzy and that's it, to me. It's not that I didn't appreciate what Dio and the other intermittent vocalists contributed, but the Ozzy lineup was always my favorite and there couldn't be another. But about a year ago I got to witness what nobody could have expected to be the last concert Heaven and Hell would ever play in New York City. It was at that show that I truly felt the power and talent behind Dio's voice and stage presence. I was a changed fan as of that night. I got some good photos of the band and was able to check Tony Iommi off the list of guitar greats that I want to photograph. I wasn't given a ticket, so I only got to witness about 3 and a half songs. The last one, "Bible Black" is the one that really changed my opinion of Dio, since then I listen to it constantly. Just a few days before his death there had been rumors that he already died, to which his wife and family responded to as being false. Unfortunately merely a few days later it became truth. The Metal world will miss you Dio, I only wish I had grown to appreciate your voice and style sooner.

I have been a fan of Slipknot since I first heard them back in 1999 at Ozzfest. I really enjoyed hearing the band's sound evolve over the years. They'd come a long way from the arguably sloppy first major label album (there was an album before that, but I think they only had about 5 guys at the time). Being a bass player myself, I always liked Paul's style. Slipknot changed the scene, whether you liked them or not, and that's a powerful feat for any genre of music. At this point it's unclear what will happen to Slipknot. Some bands slink away after a member's death, and others continue on with the "He would have wanted it this way" attitude. As a fan, I support any decision the band makes, as I understand how hard it is to replace somebody when your band's image as a whole is just as important as your sound.

I was lucky enough to have shot Slipknot when Subliminal Verses came out, but unfortunately it was on my old Olympus point and shoot camera (I shot in manual mode, but it just wasn't a great camera) - I have to dig and see if I have any decent shots of Paul, if I find any suitable for posting I will add them here.

I tip my hat to all the great musicians we've lost this year. It's a sad year for music, and actually, it's a sad year in general. So much loss this year all around, it seems people are dropping off left and right all around me and everyone I know. I hope it stops soon, for everyone's sake.

Well, that's all for now, I should be back with more frequent posts, until then, enjoy the photos, and don't forget to come on over to Twitter and follow me there for daily updates and general stupidity.

More soon,
Rob