This town...

Some select Detroit pictures and others from the vault up

Freaky Friday

This Wednesday-Sunday Toronto Underground Cinema is having a feast of glorious gore, from Zombies humping zombies to the original freak guy on earth, Nosferatu.  Check out their Friday showing, the golden age grindhouse spectacular Pieces.  Bloor Cinema has some good ones also, but I'd only recommend going if you're into hyped-up half-naked pre teens testing their wavering vocals out on Rocky Horror.  Also fun for Halloween dates is Screamers theme park, with five different houses to explore and games and arcades, AND a bar. What could be better?

A PERFECT (FOUR) DAYS

Thank you everyone, for such a lovely long weekend of birthdays. Two brilliant brunches, the best party of all time, great music, a wonderful studio/rooftop space, and three sneaky girls who bought me dinner and drinks last night. Thanks to you all, and my family who never forgets me despite the distance.  And with me on the celebration of this double-deuce birthday is the song my high school music teacher would sing, which went something like this:

Happy birthday (whooooooooo)

Happy Birthday (whooooooooo)

Pain and misery and despair,

People dying everywhere,

Happy birthday (whooooooooo)

ONE YEAR CLOSER TO DEATH....

I still find this macabre chant to be thrilling. I found this little story on my all-time favourite art blog, Who Killed Bambi? and thought it is too pure to not be shared:

The Twin Fawns, by Peregrine Honig, have a sweet story:

“I came upon twin fawns in the display case of a mom and pop toy and science store in Kansas City, Missouri. It took me two years to win the trust of the shop owner and save the money to buy them. A taxidermist spotted a dead deer by the side of the road. He stopped to properly dispose of the body and realized she was pregnant. He opened her and found near full-term twin fawns, he removed and preserved them.  Deer rarely have twins and the taxidermist retained the uterine gesture of their bodies. I built them a vitrine with a light blue base. Their prematurity exaggerates the delicacy of an incredibly sweet thing. The points of their hooves, the length of their lashes, the spots of their hides, nose to small in an ur-cartoonish realism … Viewers’ eyes trick them into believing the fawns are breathing. The tragedy of beauty is its transience.  The twins live forever in their own demise... They have been muses since I first saw them. We dress death in lilies and bronze the names of our dead sons on walls. We erect altars of toys and hold candlelight vigils to express hope. My twin fawns sleep endlessly on their baby blue block in my studio. The twins never opened their eyes yet their wondrous fatality evokes an acceptable alternative to death.”

DISCO BLOODBATH

I watched both Party Monster movies with Beth today and it was super surreal.  It almost feels like the characters in reality were more contrived than in the film, they were so unbelievably disassociated from the entirety of the situation but I suppose that's the lifesyle in a nutshell of the amply dubbed philosophy of "profound superficiality".  It also made me completely re-think New York.  I guess too many family visits and constant observance of a strict diet of grizzly Law and Order SVU episodes when I was a kid ruined the big apple fantasy for me for a period. I won't say I feel compelled to New York now either (often referred to as Never York) but it did make my skin prickle a little, and make me want to partake in costumed tomfoolery more often.  Also, I'm super duper jealous of Chloe Sevigny's crazy acting resume.  There will definitely be a replicated costume of her green PVC nurse outfit in my life very soon, so I can saunter by with a tray full of candy-coloured ketamine cocktails, amply doling them out to whoever is willing.

HARDERHARDERDARKERDARKER

HALLOWEEN CHRONICLES

It is unseasonably warm this year going flying through autumn as my favourite week of the year approaches- my birthday, followed by Halloween.  There may be a thematic deluge of Halloween related stuff on here for the next little while, and for that, I do not apologize.  Breaking from tradition, I bought my costume some time ago, to avoid the mishaps of years previous, such as shanking my leg with an xact-o knife whilst carving a pair of conical tits for my man-eating cyborg costume last year. Here's some inspiration from Los Angeles based everything artist Marnie Weber, if you haven't already thought of what you spooky or sexy thing you need to be yet.

Ticking al the right boxes, as far as I'm concerned... And here are some dedicated Australians, who don't even celebrate the commodified deluge which is Halloween in any official sense, just laying down the gore.  Check out Champagne Hangover, a blog by this guy Byron from my home town down under. I like to look at it as a pleasing testament to the bigger and better things we've both moved on to.