Thrillist.com Winner

The winner of the Thrillist.com's Anthem Winner Contest is Jean Loscalzo. Among some of the things she's done is aerial work. Here she is doing trapeze.


What epic project/goal in your life would find its completion hastened by a soaring, heroic, ball-swelling rock anthem?
In April 2010 in Costa Rica, I got bit by a sand fly that gave me a deadly parasitic disease, only found in the jungle. It's so rare only 20 people a year in the whole world get it. There is no known cure and there is no known medical treatment. The disease is not recognized in the USA so no health care provider has to assist with the medical costs, and if the Federal government doesn't approve the treatments they really dont have to pay a dime. Besides, what artist actually has health insurance anyway. Some of the meds are illegal in the US and will have to get smuggled in from Canada at a cost of $10,000 just for the drug, and it might not even work.
So, I am a test subject, there are two other guys in my case study group, they are soldiers from Iraq. The drugs they are testing on us are very dangerous, but they cant say how dangerous until they put it in your body. I'm a sexy lab rat. My friends are my sexy nurses, who have kept me alive for the last 7 months, because they absolutely totally rule!

What Herculean efforts have you already undertaken in attempt to complete said goal?
It took the specialists and the Center for Disease control 3 months to figure out what I had. In July they decided to try an IV drug. Because the US Government doesn't recognize my disease they couldn't put me in the hospital to get the drugs, instead they sent a nurse to my house with boxes of supplies to teach me how to give myself the 10 hr a day treatment, along with all the other injections and crap that goes along with it.
So my friends came to my house everyday for a week, in shifts to administer this toxic nasty drug through an IV installed in my arms, I couldn't even walk, I have no idea how they thought I could give it to myself. My friends watched over me day and night. This was meant to go on for 10 straight days. I had two really close calls, but my friend Mary saved my life, then on day 5 they had to rush me to the emergency room because the medicine gave me cardiac arrest, I should have been given the meds in the hospital but no insurance wouldn't approve the treatments. So then they put me on some other hard core nasty drugs for 8 more weeks. I lost the use of my left arm, but got it back, I lost the hearing in my right ear, but almost have that back. I couldn't walk by myself for 3 months because the vertigo was so bad, but now I can walk a few blocks on my own, I still can't drive or do much of anything because the drugs wipped out my system. I'm not allowed to ride the subway. The medicine ate away at some bones in my skull, If they didn't rush me to the hospital that day It would have ate all the way through and I would have lost my hearing forever, and would feel like I was spinning around in space on acid for the rest of my life, with no way to fix it. The meds almost killed me. But I've been kicking ass trying to get better every day since then. It's been exactly 7 months since I got my first dose of medicine.

What obstacles currently stand in your way?
Well I prefer the dudes actually. I have a mountain of hospital bills, I measured them they are 28" tall. I can't go back to work yet because I am still sick from the medicine they used on me. I used to do trapeze but since the meds, I can't go upside down so well...yet. I never know if I am actually going to get better and no one knows shit about anything that is happening to me. I gotta get strong like Rocky and show all those scientists I'm one in a million. I have to fight to get better so I can stay out of the government hospital in DC where they plan to stick an IV in me for a whole month and every day for 12 hrs a day, pump me with a toxic drug know to cause permanent damage to 4 of my vital organs. What fun will I be in bed if I can't hang from the chandeliers?

What crushing personal faults have caused you to fail again and again?
My Sicilian temper.

What do you do to make straight cash?
I'm a freelance artist, I own my own business, it's called Supercreator. I specialize in the art of making anything. I'm a whore for building things, the stranger the better. Power tools and glitter surround me. I'm out of work till I get better. I'll do whatever it takes to pay the rent.

Name your top five albums of all time.
Iron Man Black Sabbath
Rolling Stones Sweet Virginia
Blondie Parallel Lines
Wu Tang Clan
Biggie Smalls Juicy
Pat Benatar shadows of the night, heartbreaker
Heart Barracuda
Scorpions Still loving you
Styx Come sail away

Name your favorite books of all time.
Carlos Castanada the pathway to knowledge
Jitterbug perfume Tom Robbins
The art of happiness by the Dali Lama
Ham on Rye and Love is a dog from hell by Charles Bukowski

Who was your hero in junior high?
Bruce Lee

Do you have any trophies, no matter how insignificant? (Bonus points if they were once attached to the bodies of mercilessly vanquished enemies.)
I have a certificate as an inspector of asbestos, I got it when I was a janitor, like I said I'll do anything for money.
I have a cowboy hat from a Vietnam vet who taught me how to make my own bullets and bombs out of bic pens in the basement of the warehouse I used to live in brooklyn.

If you were suddenly granted the miraculous ability to travel back in time up to 200 years, what damsel/mansel would you use this priceless gift to bone?
Tarzan
Sherlock holmes
Genghis Khan
Bob Marley
Nikola Tesla