Teh One Who Knocks
03-09-2021, 12:28 PM
Karen Pilarski, Patch Staff
https://i.imgur.com/sYXIBjr.jpg
MILWAUKEE COUNTY, WI— Most people cringe when they have to take their driver's license photo. For every picture-perfect shot, there are sleepy expressions, sweaty faces or unintentional murderous glares.
One Milwaukee man decided to make the experience unique in the name of humor.
Peter Woods, 34, sported a half-beard and half-mustache when he went into the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew his license in late February.
Woods told Patch he wasn't trying to make a political or religious statement as a Massachusetts woman did in 2015. A woman from Lowell, Massachusetts, won the right to wear a pasta strainer on her head in her driver's license photo by arguing that she belonged to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, an atheist group whose followers say they wear the strainers as a religious symbol.
Rather, Woods said, "this was an opportunity for me to make a joke. If I'm going to look at my license for the next eight years, I might as well get a laugh out of it."
Woods grew his facial hair out in time for the renewal, then shaved half of it off. "I wouldn't normally walk around looking like that," he said.
No one at the DMV batted an eye after he took off his face mask for the photo. "No one mentioned it," Woods said. "The person taking the photo didn't say anything at all."
It wasn't the first time Woods attempted the joke. Eight years ago, he got the same photo, but there was a clerical error with the Social Security office, and the DMV said it would take more than a week to process. He couldn't keep the look as he had to work the next day.
He described himself as being committed, and once an idea is in his head, he will make it happen. "I've been waiting eight years to make this joke and very excited to have it happen," Woods said. Will he do it again? Woods said he will see if the mood strikes him in another eight years.
Scholar And Artist
Woods has a master's degree in education from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after finishing his dissertation. As an education researcher, he said he explores what and how people learn through creative production in both formal and informal learning settings.
He is also an experimental music producer and longtime musician and runs FTAM Productions, a record label and concert promotion firm that hosted the Milwaukee Noise Fest, the Experimental Education Series and the Noise Knowledge Consortium.
What is noise music? Woods pointed to the "Friends" episode in which Ross plays the keyboard at the Central Perk coffee house. "It's the music people make fun of on sitcoms," he said.
https://i.imgur.com/sYXIBjr.jpg
MILWAUKEE COUNTY, WI— Most people cringe when they have to take their driver's license photo. For every picture-perfect shot, there are sleepy expressions, sweaty faces or unintentional murderous glares.
One Milwaukee man decided to make the experience unique in the name of humor.
Peter Woods, 34, sported a half-beard and half-mustache when he went into the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew his license in late February.
Woods told Patch he wasn't trying to make a political or religious statement as a Massachusetts woman did in 2015. A woman from Lowell, Massachusetts, won the right to wear a pasta strainer on her head in her driver's license photo by arguing that she belonged to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, an atheist group whose followers say they wear the strainers as a religious symbol.
Rather, Woods said, "this was an opportunity for me to make a joke. If I'm going to look at my license for the next eight years, I might as well get a laugh out of it."
Woods grew his facial hair out in time for the renewal, then shaved half of it off. "I wouldn't normally walk around looking like that," he said.
No one at the DMV batted an eye after he took off his face mask for the photo. "No one mentioned it," Woods said. "The person taking the photo didn't say anything at all."
It wasn't the first time Woods attempted the joke. Eight years ago, he got the same photo, but there was a clerical error with the Social Security office, and the DMV said it would take more than a week to process. He couldn't keep the look as he had to work the next day.
He described himself as being committed, and once an idea is in his head, he will make it happen. "I've been waiting eight years to make this joke and very excited to have it happen," Woods said. Will he do it again? Woods said he will see if the mood strikes him in another eight years.
Scholar And Artist
Woods has a master's degree in education from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after finishing his dissertation. As an education researcher, he said he explores what and how people learn through creative production in both formal and informal learning settings.
He is also an experimental music producer and longtime musician and runs FTAM Productions, a record label and concert promotion firm that hosted the Milwaukee Noise Fest, the Experimental Education Series and the Noise Knowledge Consortium.
What is noise music? Woods pointed to the "Friends" episode in which Ross plays the keyboard at the Central Perk coffee house. "It's the music people make fun of on sitcoms," he said.