Re:I knew some RAB'ers were here (Score 1)

The whole story is that Erik, a friend named Darby and I were heading up to Canada to attend a picnic this summer. Erik had all his performing gear with him in the car. We got told to pull over when going past the border guard (predictably). The Canadians asked us a ton of questions, asked for ID and ran checks on us. All three of us had a clean record and were telling the truth so we passed immigration. But they still had to check the car and our bags. Upon doing so they found Erik's torches and bed of nails. They claimed those objects were possible weapons and would not let us into Canada with them. If we left the items behind, entry would be no problem. But Erik understandably couldn't leave the tools of his trade behind so we were forced to turn back to Albany. We think the real reason they turned us away was because they were afraid Erik would work in Canada without a permit.

Anyway, I've also taken a road trip with him once from NY to Oklahoma to a show he was performing at and I'll tell you that while he attracted a lot of stares, people were polite to him and there were no incidents at all. I think that's because when you speak with him, you don't hear a 'freak'; you hear a very intelligent, rational and decent guy, which is exactly what he is, he just looks different from the norm.

I'll also have you know that as far as I know, his family is very supportive of him and he's not a product of an abusive or unhappy childhood. He has the strength to be his own person and make himself happy without hurting anyone and I'm sure his life will continue to be full of success. Judge all you want but it'll be your loss since Erik is one of the nicest and most interesting guys you can meet.