Wednesday, July 29, 2009

runaway

amazing. Click that. Now. That just made me extremely happy. "They're" making a movie about The Runaways. found out a few weeks ago randomly leafing thru 'US'. Starring dakota fanning and the girl from TWILIGHT as joan jett. The Runaways *&@#n ruled.

i'm planning Three Nites Of Party. Not really. The Degrassi girls are DJing sum 80s party this weekend. My friend Melanie is coming to Toronto. We have been friends for about 23 years. We used to have so much fun as teens. We had a fake band (tennis racket, airdrums, def lepard). We'd stay up late making each other die from laughing. How did I not die? We'd watch Jeopardy over the phone together. We'd pass notes all day in class. Elaborate notes. A fashion line for amoebas called 'AmoebaWare' - they couldn't keep their clothes on for very long. One time we saw a Flasher in the park. We ran home to call the police.

years later i made art about the flasher. melanie became an incredible drummer. o ya. forgot. i played music too. for seven years. or more. and now again. BODY DOUBLE is dusting itself off. E. Rose is mixing "Gem Stone Henge". Possibly this second.

I get to go to...THE COTTAGE next week. Yah! Two Whole Days before i get kicked off the island. (that's where the cottage is). There is a time limit for this visit. I can only get there by speedboat.
PS
Later this month, I get to art direct an album for the band SISTER. Yah! Carla and Lynette! Sisters. Can't wait.
(more on this at a later date).

Things are dope!

PPS courtney love is driving me insane on Twitter but...well...she always pulls something redeeming out last minute. It's gotten to the point where it's like: "Oh thank god. She went to sleep" (@ noon or.. was it 9am?)..Silence. and then! She's back!!...i practically ran away tonite. Hit 'close' button. She did, HOWEVER, post a decent link for Carla DeSantis - the nation's leading advocate for women in rock. The world needs more of those.

PPPS + c.love was going OFF on 'taylor momsen' on twitter. o geezus. i didnt know who that was - gossip girl/now has teenager band: 'pretty reckless' i googled that sheet and it was ...ya. i see why C.L. would be annoyed. she's a total lameass copycat but whatever..women in rock, right? i hate posers, though. they just can't seem to get it right. but she can sing. her back up band is idiotic. there is someone that i super hate and it's that idiotic idiot from fallout boy. 'Pete Wentz". every time i see his mug i just wish i could smack that smug look off his face. UGH. and ashlee simpson - his wife - she totally sucks, too. Jeremy had his picture taken with her once and i was so mad: Why would you pose with such a poser? He thought it was hilarious that i would get so mad. Very superficial.

meek/inherit earth/will do.



Food dye ‘may help cure spinal injuries but will turn patients blue’


meesoo lee directed me to this lil mouse. i love meesoo. he makes great art.
that lil mouse! look @ his lil hands!
it is pouring rain out.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

i'm so tired

pfeiffer. white oleander is a really good movie. it's about artists.


awesome looks
Elvira Hancock!
is this from ladyhawke?




World's Most Bored Woman: Scarface's Wife.


she looks like a little duck.

my penpal james in california sent me a link w/ a note: please tell me you've heard of this band.

Me: Little Girls? nope..o. they are from Toronto, ON
so i had a lil listen
they're COOL. post-punk, minimal. i like that.

i suggest you listen to 'last call' and 'ebonics':

LITTLE GIRLS

today, on very little sleep, i did these things:
an all-day market and all the b.s. & work involved in that. read: MASS.

re-met a guy i had a crush on so long ago i could barely remember him. it took us 20 minutes to figure out how we knew each other. apparently i played him a TAPED interview w/ kurt cobain..so that takes us to 1993. what a trip. plus he knows my DAD??

in my attempt to remember, i did a thing that only i would do: an overly animated, dramatic gesture which involved (my) hands covering my eyes looking
downward and saying out loud:

"Oh my god. this is what happens when you get old".

(try to remember the thousands of people you have met in your lifetime. tens of thousands. for some: hundreds).

this is the kind of revelation that most would keep to themselves. For others, not (even) realize. (e.g: CLUED DUDE). i'm no good at self-censorship. can't hide anything.

said 'happy birthday' to my grandpa. He had a fall yesterday but he is okay. He skinned his knee and that he is not happy about the fall. It is very hard for me to compare phone call to phone call because each phone call is more faded than the last. It is very hard for me to hear this fading. But. he is a super trooper. He survived a heart operation last year (pig's valve) from which he had a 50/50 chance (he proclaimed: "I don't care!" (ya grandpa. now i know where i get it)). Today he is swimming and tending to his garden. He grows SWEET PEA flowers. It's heartbreaking, those sweet peas. He used to bring them around - a little bundle he would leave at the door. He liked to bake bread and deliver it to people. He likes to make big meals and have lots of people over to eat it. He is very generous that way. He is a hundred thousand things. O grandpa.

the market sucked the life force out of me but i had some nice social interactions. I talked to an acquaintance who is suffering a difficult break-up. I'm like this: TALK TO ME. i'm the PROFESSIONAL. don't hold back.

she said, 'wow. thank you so much. no one understands what i am going thru. no one i know can comprehend'.

i said, 'i know exactly what you are going through and i will always remember how it feels'

is it exact? no one knows exact..but i understand..everything she described and what i described back to her, she said, 'yes'.

true blood is OUT OF HAND this week. even in an exhausted state, i still managed to get on my bike and ride over to the HOME THEATRE of elisa rose's buds. ya.

o. back to my boring list.

-counted cash. makes no difference.
-got a small design job which needs to be done yesterday. my favourites.
-got a new scarf (cornflower blue w/ skulls head. they are subtle) from georgie girl.Hand And Shadow. we've known each other for over 30 years. her and I.

uh..i did a bunch of other stuff but i dont remember anymore. now i am so tired i can't sleep.
more kurt.

xo

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Toppin' Proppin'



Top Props!

woah. one my favourite twitter people is: LAURA JANE FAULDS.
She is HILARIOUS.

I highly recommend following her on Twitter.

"Sexy Sadist"

sample tweet: ATTRACTIVE ATTRACTS ATTRACTIVE

i'm taking dr. skipper's advice & getting LINKS.
so i looked @ LJ's blog she writes for: NOGOODFORME

and i find this props stuff and that pic. wow. the fact that she described me as 'an immensely positive person' blows muh mind. I have also been described by others as 'an immensely negative person'. I am very concerned about these matters.

last nite i went out.
MIRACULOUSLY MANAGED to double elisa rose on my bike. for blocks. and blocks. i've never done this before. i assumed i couldn't do it. we went to different bars (i never do this!) and i kept saying: let's go. this one sucks. there's no one here' etc. As doc skipper would say: just like edie sedgwick would!

i tend to get bored in these situations..it is esp bad if i do not have my doodling materials. i end up TEXTING PEOPLE...like...my BROTHER or speshul frenz.

at one of the bars i saw my naturopath. she got to see me drinking jagermeister (it's herbal) and eating bites of elisa's pizza. ya. awesome. i am truly on track here.

saw my friend tara azzopardi's band HANK. they were really interesting (serge serge gainsbourg/weird garage rock). They wore white and it was all ladies and a showman & o & another man playing synths who was obscured by the crowd. the drummer lex vaughn was incredible. i told her so in the bathroom. i said, 'you're such an incredible drummer! so compelling to watch!' She seemed touched by my earnestness. (I love drummers. Keith Moon is my favourite. I especially love drummers who are controlling the rest of the band).

actually - Lex is a TOP-NOTCH PERFORMER.

shary said: Lex is the funniest person in Toronto.

jerri blank is the funniest person in the world.

here i sit with the garbage strike wafting in thru my window. this is very lame.
the summer sucks so far. the weather is a DRAG.

PS lex vaughn starred as PEEWEE in a live production of 'big adventure'. Lisa Smolkin played Dee Sneider. An excellent rendition of. I only got to see the youtube version. A huge heartfelt hard workin' production to fundraise funds for Toronto Cyclists Union. how cool is that?

PPS i watched PeeWee's Playhouse as a teen. Every Saturday morning. I was re-watching recently w/ some pals and we sat agape and mesmerized: 'did that really just happen?' We watched a 2-minute shot of a friendly dog eating a can of dogfood out of his dogfood dish. A super close-up shot. FOR TWO MINUTES. possibly longer! I couldn't believe it. We watched that dog eat all his dog food!!!
but yes. what a special show!
(child actor natasha lyonne plays OPAL)

Sunday, July 19, 2009

toilet paper roll


in the LATE NINETIES i went thru a spell of making Art out of toilet paper rolls. only it wasn't really art. every time i had a new 'skeleton' roll, i would make a little face on it according to my mood and then i'd tape it to My Wall. I usually have A Wall over my workspace where I pin things up randomly without thought. Like so many others. Sometimes that is where the more REAL (read: 90s) art goes down. That wall from 99-00 has v. little documentation - some poorly lit shots. I was working in the little kitchen at the time. I make most of my art in the kitchen.
I'm still vaguely 'following' C. Love on Twitter. Right now she is working on her MOODBOARD. She's really into it. It's kind of cute.
On another day, I will feel strong dislike towards her. Again. She disappoints. And, as Dr. Skipper pointed out the other day - she is, unfortunately, a sociopath.

Bottom Line.

i'm behind on blogging. can't we find a better name for that? dash snow, elvira hancock (Scarface's Wife), um..um...things like that.

oh. my pal lucas soi suggested a different title for that last installation. He felt that SKID wasn't appropriate. That is awfully nice of him to point this out. I like constructive criticism. I am officially open to it. C.C. So I changed it to "Landscape".

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

SKID






















if you are in the GTA, you can see SKID for real @ magic pony till august 2, 2009. Walk on by!
"Ghetto" is no longer an appropriate word to use. apparently. (even though I live half a block away from a 'ghetto'). I am now using "SKID" instead.
For example, one of the windows at my house is missing a screen. To prevent annoying flies from coming in to bug me, i put up a SKID screen made out of tutu tulle. It is held by green painter's tape. Now that's SKID!

materials:

pennies

pinnipeds cut out from rescued National Geographics. Pinnipeds are seals. Pinnies and pennies
(accident!)
a rusted can found on road. I rode by it for a few weeks before picking it up. I thought about it alot when I wasn't riding past it. I might need to frame this Self-Portrait.

BOOKS: Sweet Valley Highs (not worth reading), feminist theory texts: The Female Eunuch w/ most horrifying cover art - almost as brutal as the cover of SYBIL, Backlash by Susan Faludi...uh...women and confidence, self-confidence and women. Look. I tried to read these tomes and i AM a feminist but i dont have time to read 300-pages of academia. I'm too busy writing my own book (on these matters). It will be far more accessible. Rest assured.
Black Stallion (obsessed with movie as child. 'In Love' with Kelly Reno who played The Boy), Watership Down (never felt inclined to read this book. saw movie. disturbing and dark) et cetera

I've never been much for sacred cows. I rarely do things i should. Even though there are a hundred shoulds i put on myself daily. & that's plenty enough.

books became small mountains become circus tents with red flags/warning signals.

A Lake: flaxen-haired arian-looking girl/dutch-ess creating protective gate for a hamster (sonic youth album reference). stevie - a real lady! - grows from her head.

a pile of broken toe shoes.

toilet paper rolls

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

'Oh, that Kind Of Artist'















$30,000 for a day's work.

ya that kind.

Subversive artist Dash Snow dies

Dash Snow, the elusive New York artist who embodied a low-brow, downtown vibe fuelled equally by gleeful acts of social subversion and a hedonistic hunger for illegal drugs and high jinks of the flesh, has died from a heroin overdose, aged 27.

Snow, with unruly hair and beard, became the mythical hero of an artistic underworld in lower Manhattan after a profile published in New York magazine in 2007, "Chasing Dash Snow", by Ariel Levy. Celebrated almost as much for his on-the-edge lifestyle in a city of growing conformity as for his art, Snow was best known for his photographs, sculptures and collages.

"It's funny to me that Dash has become like a rock star, but he's so paranoid," Ryan McGinley, the photographer and a close friend, told New York. "That comes from graffiti culture – like, you want everybody to know who you are and you're going to write your name all over the city, but you can't let anyone know who you really are. It's, like, this idea of being notorious."

(the above quote is idiotic).

He is survived by his wife, Agathe Snow, and a daughter, Secret Magic Nico Snow, who he had with the fashion model Jade Berreau.


Wednesday, July 8, 2009

LOVE SAVES THE DAY


complete sh*t knock-offs. Sequins! They're s'posed to be rhinestones. I want those 'bakers-leeds' so bad(ly)see below)). I'd just put them on a shelf & stare at them. For the rest of my life. And then I'd be buried in them.
Only $49.99! Damn. Too bad i was a teenager stuck in Canada. If I was American, you know I would've had those boots. My whole life would be different.

i've been re-obsessing over th0se boots for several years now. Yah inner-net! if it wasn't for you, i'd have to leaf through old SEVENTEEN magazines from 1985 just to find the ad - just to prove to myself that these existed! But first I'd have to find the SEVENTEEN magazines!
sometimes i think i dream these things.
Desperately Seeking Susan is in my top 5 all-time favourite movies. I even have the soundtrack. It's hard to find. It's mostly synth music. And, of course, Madonna. Listening to it makes me feel like i'm getting off a Greyhound in New! York! City!

I just found out the vintage clothing shop in it LOVE SAVES THE DAY is still OPEN! That's where Susan finds the damn boots! How could I not know this till NOW? It's on 2nd Avenue in New York's East Village. I'm so going there. Wait. Hold the phone! - it just closed! I just did a quick search. It looks quite tacky and their rent was increased $10,000 so they're moving. It's been around since the 60s: an anacronym for LSD. (insert sound of deflating tire).

(note: i even drew a LOVE SAVES THE DAY shopping bag and put it on the last page of Temper, Temper. Yah. My love is real).

i'm going to 'install' the art in the window tomorrow @ Magic Pony. 'Install'. It sounds like I'm going to put in a light fixture. Art words. Favourite art word: PLINTH.
I just made some miniature red flags. I guess I am progressing with my work. Just mere weeks ago those red flags were sitting flat on a piece of paper - now they're 3D!! Thank heaven for seven eleven TOOTHPICKS!
I drew/painted the red flags in my sketchbook to forever remind myself of...red flags. I was having too many crushes back-to-back overlap and then promptly forgetting all about said crush object (i hate that expresh/word)...but must always pay attention to those flags. i'll put it on a shirt and wear it. every day. i think back to the red flags of days long gone. if only i'd paid attention. it can cost you years of your life! Sometimes love does NOT save the day.

i have lots of materials for the window - i'm still into 'depression-era-esque' materials (another art word). My rubberband ball, my aluminum foil ball, my white bread clip collection (not for white bread - that yeast/wheat/sugar free business)etc. (The 'balls' aren't ready - i just like talking about them). Plus i carefully cut out many, many pinnipeds which are SEALS from around the globe from Katia's (sublet lady) 20 year old National Geographic map collection...my penny collection..you get the drift...and of course my collection of book sculptures which include: the black stallion, watership down (sorry wont read it), feminist theory books: backslash, the female eunuch (ugh! that sick cover), women/self-confidence, fear of flying by erica jong, 2 sweet valley highs, felicia the critic by ellen conford, etc.

Plenty of materials. Will need to edit radically. Radical Edits.

(Hot Glue Guns 'n' Roses)


Broke Ass Mountain

working on this window this week...elements of/parts thereof/components...FOR WEEKS...putting it up tomorrow. when i commit to a project, i can only go for it...weeks of mulling and prepping and thinking and working..and everything else falls by the wayside..everything. which is why i have a hard time committing. i long to hear the voice inside that says: DO IT! without a doubt in my mind. that only happens sometimes. mostly the voice says: well, here are the pros and cons...weight it out yourself.

spending HOURS on the rosebud piece and it's final. i understand that i do not work like this anymore. i'm having flashbacks of a project i did in high school. CLAYMATION. From scratch, i taught myself how to do stop animation. My auntie diane's groovy boyfriend lent me his superfancy VIDEO CAMERA...set it up for me and gave me a 2 second lesson. I spent the next...48 hours? i dont'know..a long time making my VID. And check out this ill-thought out project - was very into GUMBY at the time..i thought a story of Gumby...going to the beach! I built a diorama and created a whole gang of 'people' that were going to harass gumby at the beach...sort of square-shaped perhaps "Mr. Men" inspired shapes with only legs...they come along and disrupt the idyllic afternoon..now let's do some math...PLASTERSCENE AND SAND. High intelligence going on here. Very well thought out. It was...very frustrating..These are the times when a girl needs peeps to bounce ideas off of. I'm full of them ideas...some of which are half-baked, some good, some very, very dumb.

so yes...working for hours and hours with a hot glue gun and tiny rosebuds and trying to figure out how to archive this thing...giving me those flashbacks...was very discouraging and i'm paying the price right now.

oh..in the end the gumby beach sand piece and and square-shaped-legged gang CLAYMATION turned out neat. It looked old-fashioned - like a silent film but in colour.


PS corey feldman showed up at the Michael Jackson memorial dressed up in Michael gear.

basement studio with monster hiding in the corner

basement studio with monster hiding in the corner

Ahlers

going on about Random Avenue, friends, art (maybe), rock (sometimes), movies, current events, childhood memories & other things like bunnies