Talking to Strangers: SXSW Edition

Nerve asks deeply personal questions to people we met at SXSW.

Justin Barco, 20; Dork Dozier, 21; Dame 55, 20; Turbo T. Double, 22

Tell us a little bit about what you all do.

Dame 55: I'm Dame 55. We're all a collective called the Dorks. We all come from different backgrounds and walks of life. I'm here at SXSW to play at Malaya, which I just played at. And we're all here to represent art and culture. My man Dork makes bow ties.

Dork: Yeah, my own bow-tie line. It's called TABB. It stands for Think a Bit Bigger. We also have our own music group called Toy, within the Dorks. I'm the lead singer, and this man right here, Turbo T. Double…

Turbo: I'm kind of like a separate entity, but we're all family at the end of the day. I make music, I play the violin, I direct and edit my own videos.

So you guys all have your own thing going on, but you come together as The Dorks.

Dork: We also have this man, Justin Barco.

Justin: I work in fashion and film and film my act, and I'm a personal stylist and a designer for high-fashion couture.

Who's getting laid the most here at SXSW?

Dork: It would definitely be me, Dork Dozier.

Turbo: Who's getting paid the most?

Dork: Laid! Laid the most!

Turbo: Oh! Me! That would be me, Turbo T. Double. My leftovers go to Dork and Justin.

Dork: C'mon! I was the only one to even hear that question. They're not on their Ps and Qs! It's definitely Dork Dozier.

What do you guys think is most sexy about you?

Dork: I can't take away from my looks, but I would definitely say the women love us because of our character and our style. We're one and only. We are the Dorks, and there's no one out here like us. We're from L.A., and that's where we get all our attention, from the way we act and the way we dress. And then when they see our faces, that's where it all pops off.

Turbo: One important thing — hygeine. A lot of people fail to brush their teeth, to clean their clothes. You've got to pay attention to your details and make sure everything is 100%.

Dork: I second that.

What do you see as the biggest difference between the ladies in L.A. and the ladies that you meet here in Austin?

Dork: Austin I guess is a little more dirty and down and ready to party.

Justin: L.A.'s the same way, but they get a little more dressed up. It's a little more fashionable out in L.A., only because of where we live and what L.A. stands for. It's L.A. fashion week, so everyone's on their Ps and Qs with what they're wearing and where they're at.

Dork: A lot of the women in Austin are comfortable right now. A lot of people that live out here are just ready to have a good time.

You mean they're loose.

Dork: I was going for the nicer term, but hey, we'll do that! A lot of them are definitely ready to have fun. Also, bigger booties in Texas.

Sometimes there's some hate between New York and L.A., but I will say that one thing New York ladies say about L.A. ladies is that they're sluttier.

[general commotion]

Dork: No no no no, you know what? You know what? I got an answer for that. New York girls just have harder shells. But once you break that shell, oh, they're all for it. New York girls are just rougher.

Turbo: Girls in these other regions outside New York just know what they want out of life, so it's easier to get down to a ground level with them.

Dame 55: Once they find out that we're from L.A. then all hell breaks loose.

Dork: It's definitely easier for an L.A. brother to get a New York girl than a New York guy to get a New York girl.

Why is that?

Dork: 'Cause our dapperness is on point! And our proper speech, they love it! It's immaculate! They drop their panties after that!

Turbo: Discrimination between the imaginary and the real can only be made through behavior, and L.A. carries a certain character that can't be found anywhere else on earth.

Dork: I have no comment after that.

 

Megan, 33

What do you do?
I work at a biotech company.

Where are you from?
San Francisco.

What's the best sex advice you could give?
The best advice I could give is never mistake the hand sanitizer for lube. They look the same in the dark in your purse. Big mistake.

A lot of burning could result?
Um, yes.

What's the worst sex advice?
I think the idea that if you sleep with a guy enough he will fall in love with you.

Have you ever done that?
Ha. I think I still do it.

You're here for SXSW Interactive. How do you think social networking changes the ways we engage romantically and sexually with people?
We live in an age where kids are going to ask how their parents met, and they're going to say mommy Tweeted daddy. There's going to be a whole generation of Craigslist Casual Encounters babies.

Have you ever used Craigslist Casual Encounters?
Yes! Twice. And it was crazy.

What happened?
Well, I was bored at work one day and I posted on Casual Encounters, and my co-worker from two cubicles down answered me and sent his picture with his real email address. At least I used a fake name and email. I'm classy! And I worked with his girlfriend.

What? Did you tell her?
No. I tried to push him. Get him to send me some more sexually explicit stuff, like nude pictures, just so I would have hard evidence, but I think I pushed him too far and he stopped replying to my emails.

So you never told?
Nope. I didn't want to get in the middle of things.

Was he your boss?
No, he wasn't at the time. But I was his supervisor at a later point. We worked at a flower company.

 

Brian, 21

What do you do?
I'm a pro-skater. My name is Brian Freeman. A lot of people call me B-Free. I'm an aggressive rollerblader.

How many times have you heard the joke…
"What's the hardest thing about rollerblading?" Every time you have skates on. People just don't understand it because they haven't seen it, so it's kind of like a lost art I guess you could say. And then when people see it, they're like, "Damn, this is tight as shit!" You see skateboards so much it's like drinking water. But when you see rollerblading, people stop, like, "Oh my God, people still do that?" [to female friend] You think rollerblading's tight? You think skating's tight? You think what I do is cool? [Friend: "I didn't recognize it til you did it, Brian. But I recognize it now."] People just got to see it, you know?

I'm seeing it a lot more in New York.
New York is one of the Meccas of rollerblading. It's such a diverse place, and there are so many crews of rollerbladers because New York is so big. You've got to check out rollernews.com.

Where are you from?
I was born in Oakland, California, but I was raised here in Texas.

How do you feel about SXSW? Do you feel like people are invading your city, or do you love it?
I love it. People come here out of passion. Music's a big deal for people here in Austin, so when people come through, they take a little piece of Texas with them when they leave. I think that's why everyone comes back.

How many years have you gone to SXSW?
The last three. I just got more heavily into the skating stuff though, so I just got back off a tour Monday. I've been gone for four weeks.

Has rollerblading gotten you laid?
Yes. But… not because of that. I think it's a personality thing. If you didn't know that I rollerbladed, you'd probably think I was a fuckin'… rapper, straight out of prison, like, tattooed, black motherfucker [laughs]. People judge shit all the time.

So, what's the best sex advice you've ever gotten in your life?
Breathe. If you breathe the same pace as your partner, that's the secret to everything. Then sex is amazing all the time. That's the secret, I swear to God. It's like making music. Learn how to breathe.

What's your craziest story from SXSW?
Well, I just got back Monday, but I hope to pull my version of The Hangover at SXSW this year. Fucked up, looking at pictures, trying to remember what the fuck's going on.