Tony the clumsy knife thrower and Jhayne his hapless assistant
w. the fantastic mantis and the head of her ex-boyfriend
Tag: hallowe’en
Tis the season.
Song of Birth: The 3 Magi, Oil on wood, 30″ x 28″, by San Fransisco painter Isabel Samaras.
trying to get in with the deep and gritty
-::-
Juan‘s been working overtime putting together a luscious Hallowe’en countdown series for The Secret Knots entitled The Brides of Dracula, that each showcasing a tiny short story about one of the mysterious women in question. Part I: Elena the Seer and Part II: Stana the Beautiful are now up, with Part III to come soon. Working on them has been really special, as hammering the language dents out of the scripts has been one of the creative highlights of my week, and I hope people like them enough to leave some positive reviews and tell their friends. They’re really quite pretty, and as a bonus, Juan’s posted a haunting little four panel he created several years ago, simply titled Vampire. Go see!
I’ve always loved this picture
Oh My Deer, by Arizona-based illustrator Chiara Bautista aka Milk. (More images here.)
Vancouver Halloween lead-up
I’m driving down with Matthew and Sarah tonight to Seattle and plan to sew raw red sequins onto my white hallowe’en bustier all the way. We’re going to The Chapel tonight, a church converted into a night club, to dance under fire-spinners. Good times.
For those sticking around in Vancouver, there’s also fun things to do:
Friday, October 23rd: 7 – 10pm
Saturday, October 24th: 7 – 10pm
Sunday, October 25th: 2 – 5 pm
At the Russian Hall (600 Campbell Avenue), sliding scale. Cash only at the door please. The Haunted Hall can be entered at any time during the above slots. During a tour of the Haunted Russian Hall, subjects will be subjected to a variety of frightening ordeals to awaken their deepest phobias. Studies will be conducted and trepidations will be calculated on a demographic map of the city. A panel of Child Psychologists (aged 8 through 14) will counsel you through a debriefing session at the end of your journey through fear. All ages welcome. Costumes are a plus.
Friday, October 23rd:
Harm’s Road and The Creaking Planks compete for the title of Most Delightfully Ridiculous! Don’t relax your standards of ridiculousness for a moment! DEMAND that they deliver, and they SHALL!! Bonus points for COSTUMES! Come early for the Costume Contest! There will be kooky prizes and adoration for the winners!
Tickets $10 at the door at The Rickshaw Theatre: 254 E Hastings at Main.
Friday, October 23rd: midnight!
The Rio Theatre (1660 East Broadway at Commercial Drive Broadway Skytrain) & Black Dog Video present a Friday Midnight Musical Double Bill of HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH and VELVET GOLDMINE. Dress in costume and win fabulous prizes! Hosted by Burgundy Brixx! Admission is $10 ($8 in costume).
Friday, October 23rd & Saturday, October 24th: Doors 8pm – Show 9pm.
If you’re a fan of Burlesque, horror, sexploitation, b-movies or just plain fun you’ll love this feature production from Screaming Chicken Theatrical Society. The eighteen member, all star cast will make you squirm in your seats. At the WISE Hall – 1882 Adanac St. – just off Commercial Drive. Tix $25, on-line, from select retailers and at the door.
Friday, October 23rd: Doors at 7:30, show at 8pm.
Saturday, October 24th: Doors at 2:30 pm and Show at 3:00 pm. Doors at 7:30, show at 8pm. (Saturday’s showings will present all six plays in the festival. All other showings will present four.)
Spectral Theatre Society and the UBC Players are excited to announce their co-production of “Sex and Death: Six Short Plays by Don Nigro”. Creepy, thrilling and sexy shorts by one of America’s premier playwrights, co-presented by Vancouver’s premier creepy, thrilling and sexy theatre society! Subject matter may not be suitable for all ages. Seating is limited so be sure to purchase your tickets ahead of time.
Friday, October 23rd – November 14th: 8 pm
Blood, guts, gore, and laughter! Evil Dead: The Musical, the smash hit show from Toronto, New York and Calgary has all the makings to be this decade’s Rocky Horror Show. Based on the wildly popular cult movie series (Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, Army of Darkness) five vacationing college students looking for fun break into a secluded cabin in the woods. There they discover instead The Necronomicon, an ancient flesh-bound book containing blood-inked spells with the power to summon the demons of Candar. It’s up to Ash, the meek S-mart Housewares employee, to fight off the demons any way he can. Or…he’ll be dead by dawn. (All to song and dance!) But dear audiences, BEWARE! If you sit too close to the stage, in the area we like to call: “The SPLATTER ZONE,” you are bound to leave the theatre covered in blood. Ask for the Splatter Zone by name when you book your tickets!
Tickets, (including Splatter Zone Tickets), start at $25, available at all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.ca or call 604.280.4444.
SHOOTING: Friday October 23 – 7:00pm – Sunday October 25 – 7:00pm
SCREENING: Wednesday October 28 – 8:00pm at the Anza Club (3 W. 8th, Vancouver)
The people who brought you Vancouver’s CINEMUERTE FILM FESTIVAL (1999-2005) are getting set to bring you the 6th annual BloodShots 48-Hour Horror Filmmaking Contest – 25 Teams of filmmakers all fighting against the clock to make the best horror film they possibly can. There will be celebrity judges, fabulous prizes and several tons of fake blood! At 7:00pm on Friday October 23, registered participants are given envelopes containing a horror subgenre (in past years this has included haunted house, giallo, backwoods horror, necrophilia film and more!), a weapon, a prop and a line of dialogue. They then have 48 hours to return their finished 2-7 minute film on DVD! Prize for Best Hallowe’en Costume at Screening.
Saturday, October 24th: 9 pm
Due to overwhelming demand, Sin City presents the kinkiest PRE-HALLOWEEN party in the city, warming up for the main event : SIN CITY FETISH HALLOWEEN on Nov 1 at Celebrities! We’ll be presenting a special Halloween-themed photo booth at this party, so make sure and get some saucy photos to mark the occasion! Absolutely no streetwear or regular daywear! As always, we’re always on the lookout for people to showcase their awesome outfits and ideas, and any fetish outfit as per the dress code outlined in the main group listing will do – and will be absolutely appreciated! Special pass for 3 off cover. Otherwise, it’s $12.
Saturday, October 24th: 7:00 – 10:30 pm
The Public Dreams Society, that has historically put on The Parade of Lost Souls annually, on the Saturday prior to Halloween, is not hosting it this year. instead, it’s up the community as a group of free citizens to make it happen! Dress in costume! Make music! There will be fire performances at the tennis court. Grandview Park, Commercial Drive.
bring out your dead
This video features Machine With Wishbone, a kinetic sculpture created by American artist Arthur Ganson. (His TED Talk).
aw, my costume arrived and it does not fit, not even a little bit
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I was finding over the weekend that my reflexology socks have begun falling down. Not to the point of continual adjustment, but enough that I decided it’s time to invest in another quaint pair of sock garters, (my last ones having gone to the great fuzzy sock drawer in the sky several years ago). Foolishly, I decided my best course of action would be to hit up SockDreams, the most thorough stockings site on the planet. Did I get in and get out, immediately leaving with what I went in for? No, frankly, I did not. High caliber words like angora, silk, lace, chenille, and shimmer, small fantasies, such words, every one, dismantled my conviction and made me stay.
Charcoal, dirty olive, raspberry and trembling dark plum…
I barely escaped alive.
Every category silently tore at me, promising comfort, confidence, femininity, warmth, cleverness, flirtatiousness or sex, laying out possibilities like tarot cards, a future with the top of my naked thigh slyly being touched under a table, a moment of enjoying someone watch me as I slowly roll them on, or perhaps only random conversation at some unknown bus-stop, “I’ve always liked teal.”, meeting, then, my future best friend. Tabs were being opened, spreading across the screen like bleeding, unrestricted stanzas of flashy curiosity equaling, I’m certain, a similarly outrageous price-tag. I had to take action. Judiciously picking my way through the impossible, I first discarded the duplicates and most banal, anything that could be bought later, that never goes out of stock, then shaving at the edges more carefully, manipulating facts, rationalizing bits and pieces away until I was left with only the most unique, red in tooth and talon, and fun.
In the end, however, I couldn’t manage to cut it down past a final batch of twelve. Some colourful tights for the upcoming winter, a pair of expensive, breathy thigh highs, some knee highs, a set of microfiber arm warmers, a pair of slate gray socks printed with birds on a wire, and a pair of criss-cross button fingerless gloves. I think, though I’m not precisely sure, they should arrive at my home in Seattle tomorrow.
So, as it’s about to be a bit more imperative: Anywhere know an equally good place to get skirts?
purveyor of the prettah
Bethalynne, lucky partner to my clever internet cousin Myke, has updated her website, “All freshened up pretty for Halloween” with a new collection of artwork. Go check it out! Not only is she brave and beautiful, she’s wicked talented too:
Bonus! Her chock-a-block full of wonder Etsy shop where you can admire her art then take it home. Unbelievable, right? Right. Go get some here: Etta Diem
the magic of modern tracking technology tells me my costume is currently in des moines
One of the many, (you’d think unexpected), things we accomplished during Sunday’s epic bed-sit stay in was to finally nail down what we’re going as for Hallowe’en. After hours of hare brained ideas and methodically poring through costume sites, we finally decided that Tony will go as a blindfolded knife-thrower with terrible aim and I’ll be his lovely knife studded assistant! Tah-dah! Fun without slut, a pinch of the circus, (which, if we had a Thing, would likely be our Thing), and due to last year’s costume mix-up, I’ve already got the boots.
STOP PLATE TECTONICS
Japanese Man Petitions to Legally Marry Manga Character
We’ve decided to paint the guest room library the colours of a Hypselodoris nudibranch bullock, but darker and a bit richer, leaving us with aubergine, pumpkin, sunflower mustard, and crimson red. Well, really, I decided and David took a look at what I was talking about and said, “No, you’re not too geeky. That’ll be awesome.”
Which means, as Nicole pointed out, my apartment is beginning to unintentionally match my hair.
She stayed over on Saturday night and watched Ghostbusters with us, after we helped her emergency move this weekend, instead of going out for Hallowe’en. (Ray was going to help her, but he accidentally bailed, leaving her in a bit of a panic, her car shaky from a Friday accident and too small for her things, so I called up my mother and asked to steal her and her van for the evening.) The whole thing was a giant ball of sticky, fidgeting stress, all wrapped up in her raw and recent post-accident break-up that left her spending Friday night in her car, but my impromptu rescue thankfully worked out. David and I were enough to help haul things out of Nicole’s a day overdue storage container, my mother’s van was a perfect fit to tetris cram in absolutely everything, and her room was just the right size to set up her bed and neatly avalanche pile her things on it without breaking anything or making a mess.
Seattle-kilt Tony came by for a Saturday visit too, which was also a treat, though a less fraught one. We went for breakfast at the Pannekok House with him and a batch of equally fun-clever Seattle folk, (and David and Dominique, though obliquely, as they were one table over), then dervished our way from there to tea at my place, where Nicole had holed up to take a shower and decompress from her awful Friday of Stress and Doom. (You did catch the theme there, I hope.) It was nice. The four of us sat in the living room and played with Emerson the Emo Bunny, drank honey lemon ginger tea, and shockingly didn’t talk about anything terrible. Next time I’m in Seattle, I’m going to try to make sure to see him. Next time, too, I hope to bring David. It’s about time those southerners met mah man.