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The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
~George Bernard Shaw

The “freak flag” concept is one I support whole-heartedly.  The idea that everyone has a side to them that is probably socially embarrassing, totally outside the status quo, and potentially brilliant keeps me looking for the strange and unusual in everyone and definitely helps me embrace the strange and unusual in myself.  In the spirit of strange, I have compiled my top five freaks, but before I get on with it…

Did you know, the archaic definition of “freak” is “a sudden, arbitrary change of mind; a whim”.  An example sentence, “Follow this way or that, whereever the freak takes you.”  That is now a permanent fixture in my lexicon.  Moving right along…

Pina Bausch - "I loved to dance because I was scared to speak. When I was moving, I could feel.''

I must admit, I only recently became familiar with Pina Bausch through my roommate, Adam.  I would love to be able to say that I instantly fell in love with her work, but it’s just not so.  My first reaction was, “it’s ugly, it’s strange, it’s without grace.”  I kept watching and watching, though, transfixed on the movement.  Something in it was so raw, so unpolished, and yet so perfectly composed.  It was a slow-building love-affair, but one that has truly inspired me to look for the possibility of incorporating raw and truthful movement in my own dancing.  I was very sad to learn of her passing last week just a week after being diagnosed with cancer.  To quote Coilhouse “Go with grace, Pina.”

Tim Burton - "One person's craziness is another person's reality."

What can I say that hasn’t been said about Tim Burton about a million times over? His artistic vision is damn near close to infallible, his imagination is pure magic, and he is a very classic example of everything I love about freaks.  I remember being sucked into his world at a very young age with Batman Returns and Edward Scissorhands and my addiction has only grown since then.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to see the new live-action Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  I am certain that he will keep it as dark as it was intended to be and the character and set designs look absolutely amazing. The thing I love most about Tim Burton’s work is that, so often, he portrays normalcy as a farce, something to be shunned, something that breeds ugliness.

Hunter S. Thompson - "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

The thing I love most about this man’s writing is that you hear his voice in your head while you read it.  Say what you will about Gonzo journalism, but it definitely grabs you by the balls and takes you along for a ride whether you want to journey that far out or not.  In my very humble opinion, there is no place in journalism for pussy-footing around any point.  The Good Doctor had a knack for combining pure weirdness, humor, tenderness, poetry, and horror in the most straight-forward way.  Although his work straddled the line between fiction and fact, you always got the impression that he was giving you exactly what you needed to know, despite the embellishments.  He was a visionary, a one-man freak-show, and a prophet.

In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upward mobile — and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: Not necessarily to Win, but mainly to keep from Losing Completely…

Andy Kaufman - "What's real? What's not? That's what I do in my act, test how other people deal with reality. "

Anyone that knows me understands my love of awkward and uncomfortable humor.  At an early age, my viewpoints on comedy were highly influenced by comedians like Andy Kaufman.  His off-beat brand of situational humor evoked a reaction, and it was clear that the reaction didn’t have to be positive for Andy to have met his goal.  Insane, silly, violent, innocent, and ugly were all aspects of his personality that he played with, at times even seeming like a prime candidate for a split-personality diagnosis.  You can definitely see the impact he has had on comedians today.

Björk - "I am a grateful... grapefruit."

Björk is, above all things, a fucking ODD bird.  You could definitely see the makings of a phenomenal performer in her early career as the lead singer of The Sugarcubes, but you’d never imagine the peculiar beauty she would unleash in her solo career.  Her voice reminds me of a (sometimes demonic) child and her vision is unparalleled.  Her music style is erratic, perfectly composed, and indicates a level of risk-taking not usually seen in popular musicians.

Now, I’ve shown you mine…you show me yours.  Who are your top five freaks?