skaboi-j is a ska-bivore, a sentient being who ingests ska music along with fruits, vegetables, grains and juice for sustenance.

skaboi-j is an ef-to-em (there is no room, nor is it the setting to discuss this, check out http://class.csueastbay.edu/philosophy/reflections/2007/mcmillon.html ),  and also a painter and writer.

s/he just graduated (b.f.a. with an emphasis in painting), loves inventing sci-fi characters and writing sci-fi short stories that eventually grow into sci-fi novels that eventually end up being chucked in file thirteen (check out 'my images' to see a few of the illustrations,  they're not the best but hey, who the hell cares?!).

skaboi-j has written several chapbooks ('sunrise ... eventide','punctuation marks', 's/he') and is currently working on compiling the transgender pieces into a collection of short fiction for publication; and s/he also has a transgender sci-fi trilogy in the works tentatively titled 'just beyond the gateway' (it's got danger, intrigue, mysterious alien characters, and of course there's a rebellion, corporate-military espionage - your basic run of the mill sci-fi adventure!). 

s/he enjoys figurative paintings and portraiture (see blog for a few images from skaboi-j's sr. show) and still-lifes. some favorite themes in this category include rotten fruit (better opportunity to study color and texture!), old tubes of paint, and discarded boots, socks - everything.

s/he has been influenced by:

the honorable james baldwin( www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/jamesbaldwin/about-the-authors/59/

octavia butler, robert johnson, peter tosh (www.thetalkingdrum.com/tosh.html) or you can try (www.last.fm/music/peter+tosh.html)

 king solomon, issa (www.haikuguy.com/issa ), shikki, rainer maria rilke (www.en.wikiquote.org/wiki/rainer-maria-rilke)

jesus of nazereth (no web sites necesarry, go into your heart ...)

 tracy chapman (she has a beautiful spiritual presence that you can even hear in her voice, i would love to hear her sing 'sweet jane' - it would be priceless!)

  vincent van gogh, caravaggio, cezanne, desmond dekker, hepcat (where can i start ...),

the specials, u2, patti smith, tuck & patti, jimi hendrix, eonard cohen, kurt cobain, suzanne vega, ben harper, carlos santana

 frank herbert, c.j. cherryh

joan baez (s/he discovered her while in sr. high school and never looked back, no matter who clowned or added first and last name to their lists), bob marley, ridley scott, david lynch, auguste rodin, wayne thiebaud

rage against the machine (" ... the land of the free?! whoever told you that is your enemy!" and every verse zack ever spit 'pon the microphone!) 

j.m. basquiat, federico garcia lorca ( and his 'duende' but more specifically for that one particular night when 'la noche se puso intima como una plaza pequena ...'), m.c. escher, odd nerdrum, skankin' pickle, slapstick, neil young ('everybody knows this is nowhere', an album for any serious poet/artist!), john mayall (s/he can't help but agree and relate when he wails: 'i've been tryin' to tell you people, that the blues have hit me in my life, and it's a hard road 'til the day i die ...'), eric clapton, muddy waters ( give a serious listen to 'electric mud' just once and you will understand how and why the blues gave birth to rock -n-roll)

''event horizon', 'brother from another planet', 'lost highway, 'blade runner' , nearly all film noir of the late 50s & 60s, 

'the dune chronicles', the riddle-master of hed', 'the morgan cycle', 'the faded sun trilogy', wild seed', 'kindred', 'lilith's brood', 'jesus' son' (the book) , 'resusication of a dying man', 'horses make the landscape look more beautiful'

'southern comfort' ( the kate davis documentary)

 drake's estero,mt. tam, armstrong woods, the stretch of petaluma hill road from rhonert park to santa rosa (before the yuppies ruined it with condos and killed all of the yellow flowers), bodega bay and the drive up to jenner

sor juana inez de la cruz (www.astr.ua.edu/4000ws/cruz.html), robert frost , art & fear', basho, camus, descartes, salvador dali

fishbone (for telling the truth and waking up the ghetto youth with their unmitigated, fanatical singing and playing of instruments), sublime

ellen ripley (she will always be there to step up and destroy the monsters, even after everyone else has been lured to their side for profit and war)

'rodin on art', 'the thinker', 'the potatoe eaters', 'letters to a young poet' ( all of them but most definitely letters 1,3,4, and 6), 'stories on god', 'the notebooks of malte laurids brigge', 'the undressed art - why we draw' (though s/he prefers pigments and bristles) 

the first epistle of john the beloved  ...

there are many, many more ... maybe these few will give you an idea of what s/he harbors a few inches beneath the epidermal layers that no one else can see when they walk by ...