Author: foxtongue

What’s Happening This Hallowe’en.

Dear world, I would like to be able to sleep properly. Kthxbye.

Alastair‘s stunned me silly with a cream white linen medical corset for Hallowe’en. It’s just the tiniest too big for me, but easy enough to adjust. To go with it, I found a gigantic wedding skirt at Value Village that they knocked down from $65 to $19.99 for me. It’s more fabric than my bedspread and it’s even got a train. I’m absolutely tickled. Fantastically inspired by Lolly Jane Blue*, with a bit of white facepaint, flour in my hair, and some carefully applied cross-hatching lines of black eye-pencil, I’m going to be a walking illustration.

A squeeing illustration. Heh.

Tonight I’m missing out on the 48 Hour Bloodshots Horror Festival** because James, Sumi, and I are going to DJ Krush at the Commodore, Thursday I’ve got a photoshoot, and Friday and Saturday are insanely overbooked. Vancouver has a pleasant over-abundance of Hallowe’en parties this year.

Friday:

Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long. Playing at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre on Oct. 26th or 27th at 8pm, tickets are 25 well spent dollars. They’re playing with C.R. Avery on Friday and Dan Mangan on Saturday. I’m planning on attending the Friday. Duncan has two free tickets to whoever wants them for the Saturday.

Sing-Along Carmina Burana! Hosted by City Opera Vancouver, my friend Adam Abrams is producing this event, 8:00 pm at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church. This has got to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard of happening here. I’m pained to be missing it. Tickets are $20.

Plastic Acid Quartet. Mishka, her brother Bryan, Brad Pyke, and ___? will be playing pop and rock songs on classical instruments at Cafe Du Soliex, one night only. Cover is $5.

Hallowe’en Skytrain Party Vancouver Public Space, our most organized flash-mob group, is hosting another Skytrain Dance Party! Hurrah. Meet at 8:45pm at VCC Clark Station and don’t be late. If you are, this time, thankfully, the party’s going to continue at a secret venue, so make sure you have a friend with a cell phone attending to let you in on the know if you miss the crazy train.

Something Wicked This Way Comes VIII Now that Sanctuary’s moved to Friday’s, Vancouver’s longest-running goth/alternative night is holding its massive Hallowe’en party on a weekend for the first time. Aaron Mr. Dark goes utterly over the top with decorations ever year and this year’s theme is gore, so expect to walk into a club transformed into part Hellraiser, part Night of the Living Dead, part classic horror and all awesome. Tickets are $10, this year’s prize for best costume is $400.

Wings turns 22 at Organix. AKA Goaween, the Organix annual Hallowe’en Party, where all the ravers come out to play. Cover is $6 or free with a costume. Expect trance music, fairy-wings, glowsticks, glitter, GHB, and ecstacy.

VeloFusion VeloWeen. The bikers of Critical Mass and the party people of Vancouver meet in the Anza the last Friday of every month. Crazyness ensues. (A previous theme was “get naked for free beer”) This time with hallowe’en costumes. “Bands, Djs and burlesque. The unstoppable DJ Timothy Wisdom, the Dub and Rock of the Down Low, the dance madness of the Carnival Band, sexy burlesque from Your Little Pony and the foot stomping dance intensity of DJ Corrior. If you love to dance, this is definitely the event for you.” Doors at 8, tickets are $10 without costume, $5 with.

Tickle Trunk Karaoke Costumes & Candy Pre-Hallowe’en Party Apparently there is a monthly mad costumed karaoke at Hoko’s Karaoke Palace, (362 Powell Street). I’ve never been and know nothing about it past what it said in the invte, “year as well as having spookily delicious candy and better-than-usual prizes there will also be some musical interludes by the bloodthirsty karaoke inspired band Werewolves of Creston. … This is your chance to test drive this year’s Hallowe’en kit, mix and match, or dress up from the ever changing On-the-Spot Tickle Trunk.” Cover is $5.

Shakti’s Grand Opening Commercial Drive’s Tea and ‘Elixir’ House is finally having their grand opening. Expect tea, ‘aphrodisiacs, smoke-ables, raw food, massages, Dj’s, visual art, and people who spell magic with an extra “k”. There’s a “special elixir toast” at 7 pm and a dance performance at 9:30.

Saturday:

Bouffons for Public Displays of Affection. 5:00pm – 7:00pm at Victory Square Park, thier blurb says, “On the streets of the city – out in public – a group of emerging artist will delve into a world of affection. They set out to explore issues ranging from physicality, sexuality, and intimacy. The performances will trigger questions of when is it noticeable, what is acceptable and how we evaluate levels of tolerance to public displays of affection.” As far as I can figure, it’s clown not-sex in the park at the edge of the wrong side of town.

PARADE OF LOST SOULS!!! Commercial Drive is closed down from 1st to Venebles for this event as thousands of people in wild and spectacular costumes come celebrate the Day of the Dead with a festival of performance, fire, music, dancing, and wonderful delight. (Our very own Chris Murdoch will be performing.)It seems they’re keeping last year’s reversal of events, having the processions move from the shrines and performances of the gravel field through the streets to the park, but here’s hoping they’ve learned from last year and figured out how to make that not suck. Every year, this is quite truly one of the very few Vancouver events that is seriously Not To Be Missed. 6 pm – 10 pm at Grandview Park.

(Jill Binder is having a pre-parade get together at her place. There won’t be one at mine this year because I’ll be over at Alastair’s.)

The Vancouver Clubhouse Hallowe’en. This is less a public event and more of a reminder for those who already know about it. This is the Culbhouse’s final event. Because of that, their’s going to be collecting everyone’s Clubhouse memories of the past eight years to put on a DVD to hand out for later. (I won their costume contest last year, but I’m committed elsewhere already, boo.)

Mike and Alannah’s Spacy Hallowe’en Another Just-A-Reminder mention. 50 years ago this month, Sputnik 1 became the first artificial satellite of earth. We still don’t have colonies on the moon, but nevertheless, Space is the theme for this year’s Halloween party. Come in costume if you can, extra points for space-related ones. BYOB; they will provides snacks (sugary & otherwise).

Odd Ball From The Crypt. “For Queers, Breeders, Zombies and Freaks.” A wonderful burlesque circus and DJ event, the OddBall is an annual dance party held at the WISE Hall, a great compliment to The Parade of Lost Souls. This year’s theme is Tales From The Crypt. Tickets are $10.

Deadbeats 666. “OFMAS once again proudly hosts this annual Halloween event focused on design, creativity and decor.” Funky all-night tech-house is a 100% legal venus, so no worries on getting shut down. (Finally). Open Studios #200-252 East 1st Ave. $20 before midnight.

Cave of Whores Burning Man Camp Lemuria is hosting a Hallowe’en party at Cyber Club at the Plaza of Nations with a costume theme of Horror Whores. Expect raver-toys, poi, things that glow in the dark, dirty thumping techno, pogressive house, and not a lot of clothing. Tickets are $15 and $20 after midnight.

Grand Slam Night of Performance Art & Hip Hop. Gallery Gachet presents an interdisciplinary party at the cross-roads of four festivals with an evening of Filipino Performance Art, First Nations’ Hip Hop, African Spoken Word, and Chinese electronic remixes of Canada’s migration history. Bonus, my lovely co-worker, Charlene, has a piece on display. 8:00pm -1:00am at 88 East Cordova. Tickets are $10.

Dollhouse of Horros The Starlet Harlots are taking over Dollhouse Studios until dawn. Burlesque, straight up. Tix $25 at the door.

SinCity Fetish Hallowe’en Apocalypse. Vancouver’s best fetish night, full of retro & 80’s, industrial, rock, electro & dance, hosts one of Vancouver’s best Hallowe’en parties. Aaron, again, is responsible for decorating and it’s guaranteed to be insane. As to costumes, any fetish outfit will do, but there are major bonus points for matching the post-apocalypse theme. Think S&M, leather, straps & buckles, Mad Max, Sci-fi, futuristic or tribal warriors, military, mutants and zombies. (Again with the zombies, will it never end?) There’s a $300 grand prize, with another $750 in free tattoos and piercings for the best and sexiest costumes. Tickets are $15 and all but sold out. Hope to see you there!

*seriously, click on that.

**which includes: THE VESSEL, directed & edited by Mike Jackson, written & produced by Sam Dulmage & Mike Jackson, cinematography by Michael Sider & Sam Dulmage, music by Jeff Tymoschuk, starring Leanne Jijian Hume, Sam Dulmage, Mickey Brazeau, Corina Akeson & Duncan Shields. 8 min, Lovecraftian Horror.

I wonder if it will be a surprise

My apartment is getting a lift. The kitchen has been painted two mellow shades of pumpkin and highlighted with a russet metal gold, the bathroom is going classic with a coffee & cigarettes black and white, and Nicole and I are going to french stripe my living-room in something warm as soon as we find appropriate paint. (Got any?) A scour of Craigslist provided a nice pewter light fixture to replace the brassy nicotine-coloured hanging lamp that’s currently haunting the main room, (Brett will be over to install it tomorrow), and the silk sari that hangs above my bed is getting yanked out and put up in the hallway with white LEDs running behind it, with the blue ones moving to frame Gavin’s self-Portrait of The Artist that hangs across from the couch. I’m really looking forward to the change. And by ‘really’, I mean ‘it’s beyond about damned time’.

Which reminds me: Does anyone want to come along with Nick Eddy and me to Calgary for the first week of December?

It would be nice if he had someone to drive back with. We’re planning on leaving November 30th and arriving December 2st with a stop-over visit at his grandparent’s orchard in Osoyoos. He would be returning Dec 7th while I, (hopefully), continue down to dreaded Edmonton to visit with Ian and Christy.

“all the sad boys come home to you”

I walked in, haunted by ghosts, trying to look for what was left of Duncan‘s birthday party among echoes of years ago.

Again, the Railway Club.

The first time I’d ever been in, the golden drummer from WOW invited me to their next gig. Underage, but he didn’t know. His one little hello became a fulcrum for a turning point. I spent an entire weekend with the band, afterward, in a strange little house on the North Shore. Silk plastic flowers lining the driveway, stairs that circled around a defunct water fountain twisted with white lights and topped with a cherub. Meals were hedonistic; rare cheeses, lobsters, artichoke hearts, clever lessons for the tongue and teeth. We danced like pure transmissions from a desert radio tower late at night, stabbing the air with clever inspiration, and kept the hot tub perpetually thick with sweet, foaming bubbles. I was young, Moby’s breakthrough album, Play, had just come out that week, (we played it on permanent repeat), but less so the next day, and even less the day after that. We sang whale songs, described how to frame their next music video with our hands, picnicked on cliffs edging the ocean. They introduced me to wonder, to love between friends. I still carry a man’s ring on my key-chain from that weekend, given to me by the woman who’s house it was – her father had given it to her before he died, but it had never fit, and now it is mine. A fitting memento for a band that passed on, for beautiful days strung like proverbial pearls on a string of kindness I never again matched in Vancouver. I still don’t remember how I ever got home.

I wonder that I’ve come a long way since then, when it feels like I’ve lost so much.

and I’m not sleeping well

Another afternoon breakfast of mysterious Vietnamese insta-noodle. It’s bland, uninteresting, and the only english on the entire bright packet is the word “chicken”, but I’m following the principle of It’s Good Because It’s Food, (ostensibly), similar to the late-night restaurant rule of It’s Good Because It’s Open. When I was little, I ate them dry as a treat, enjoying the novel way they crunched and then dissolved between my teeth. Now, every time I open one, slitting the brittle white plastic package with a fingernail, fishing out the spice pouches, I remember apocryphal stories about poor college students afflicted with scurvy or perishing of malnutrition after relying on them too long.

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    I cocooned exhausted into bed last night without taking out the rugged froth of fancy curls the hair-dresser on set perched on top of my head and didn’t notice until this morning when I tried to run my fingers through them. Yesterday was a tiring day. My first prom and it was twelve hours long. The whole production looked amazing, though. Two hundred actors as teenagers, some pretending, some not, dolled to the tens in a gymnasium decorated by Disney into an incredibly expensive high school prom. The lighting really made it, like a favourite movie seen on repeat, I couldn’t get tired of the clever colours. The whole thing was fantastic. I loved the shifting star-like spangles that warmly painted our strange, sequined velvet party people who sat down in silk, taffeta, and tuxedo clumps every chance they got. It had the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream.

    • they make me uncomfortable

    A-a-are you gonna take me home tonight?

    Methodically exploring aisles in Canadian Tire, I’m smiling at the Classic Rock station playing over the sound system, warmed by my kissing connection with the bass line, looking for a shallow storage box, and beginning to doubt if they have what I came for. Everything looks cheap under the halogens. Even me, I suppose. The drab stacks of unpacked christmas lights in the last aisle are intimidating and smell like packing plastic.

    Ah-h down beside that red firelight.

    The shop girl I find, no make-up, earrings like the claws of an animal, says she likes my pin-stripe pants, but she doesn’t know if she can help me. The next person, an improbably tall young man whose staff vest is too bright, says he likes my hoodie, but they don’t have what I need. As I leave, the cashier comments on my shoes. I say thank you and hang my head against the rain and the fashion conscious staff. They were not what I’d hoped for.

    Are you gonna let it all hang out?

    Fat bottomed girls
    You make the rockin world go round.

    keep you on your toes


    THAT1GUY
    Originally uploaded by anialodz.

    That 1 Guy‘s October tour dates:

    October 15, 2007 – Columbia, MO – Mojo’s
    October 16, 2007 – St. Louis, MO – Billiken Club
    October 17, 2007 – Iowa City, IA – The Mill
    October 18, 2007 – Madison, WI – The Annex
    October 20, 2007 – Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Center
    October 21, 2007 – Chicago, IL – The Beat Kitchen
    October 22, 2007 – Peoria, IL – Sop’s on Main
    October 24, 2007 – Hamilton, ON – The Pepper Jack Cafe
    October 25, 2007 – Toronto, ON – El Mocambo
    October 26, 2007 – Guelph, ON – Club Shadow
    October 27, 2007 – Syracuse, NY – Mezzanotte Lounge
    October 28, 2007 – S. Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
    October 30, 2007 – Montreal, QB – Le Savoy(Metropolis)

    Chelsea and Scott are attending the Chicago gig, and Katie will be at the one in Toronto.

    UPDATE: Karen will be attending the Madison show, Ben will be at the Vienna, VA, show, and I’m hoping to convince Gunn to drop by in Minneapolis. (Maybe, hypothetically, it could be a chance to hug her long-distance). Michel, Dee, Victoria, and skinny video-game Mike and Mike’s office will be at the Oct 30th Montreal show.

    Also, I ran out of things to do at work yesterday, so now there’s a Flickrpool.

    I just need you to tell me it’s okay

    help with what you can

    My cats turned one year old Oct. 11th. I missed it, I was on set from 6 a.m. until 10:30, then had to be back at 6 again the next day, so stayed at a friend’s house. This month, for the wonder that is TV-land, I have played a high-school student, a college student, an art teacher, a senator’s daughter, (wayward, of course, complete with musician boyfriend, hah), and someone waiting in line at the DMV. Next week I’m to mock-attend an upscale banquet at an international embassy, a prom, and an Irish pub.

    It’s lovely-strange, the background work I’ve been doing. Like a low level hum, I’ve been reconnecting with friends, making new ones, and generally being paid to be social. Other things have been neglected, though, and I hope to rectify that soon. Chores littered with hyphens, mostly, (house-work, copy-editing, e-mail…), but there are legitimately important things too. I need to write copy for Foxtongue that I don’t immediately delete with a sense of despair. Every time I read a finished newsletter out loud, I feel as if it should be crumpled into fish-wrap, and I promptly scrap it. I’m beginning to think I should have someone else over to write it, someone who could translate my nihilistic ranting on the project into something cohesive and actually useful.

    As Vonnegut said so succinctly, “There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”