Pap Smear

Dune

This is my new furry friend Dune.

She was rescued from the streets by April a few weeks ago and I officially adopted her yestermorning. I love this little kitty! The right side of her face has white whiskers, and the left side black. How precious!?

She loves ALL kinds of food, pouncing, and Polyrock. This is her favourite video.

Perfect kitty match!

Cunt Sleep

Tomorrow I have a friendly date with Thirza. We're going to eat fried chicken, visit the site in which Joni Mitchell lost her virginity, and hunt for UFOs. I'm totally looking forward to our adventure filled journey. If we're not too spooked or tired, perhaps we can even fit the Feral Children and Women show into our agenda too. It is after all in support of CFCR's FM-phasis.

NASA's Alien Anomalies caught on film.


Before she was Joni Mitchell she was Joni Anderson.

Sonic Youth - Hey Joni (mp3)

Feral Children - My Soul is a Disco (mp3)


Women - Eyesore (mp3)

No One Cares For Me

Dennis Cooper is one of the few writers living today who is not only transgressive, but has a distinct style of writing that is completely his own. He is dichotomous - his voice is lyrical and poetic, yet stripped down and succinct, unembellished sentences cutting through to naked meaning. Cooper smears his brain across the page, giving us a glimpse inside, as he explores his fascination with the lines between sex/murder, worship/torture, obsession/indifference. He penetrates the mechanics of human desire and motivation through a drug-induced/evolved clarity via ob/subjective observation of others in relation to his personal madness.

Dennis Cooper's books about predatory males who hack up beautiful boys, or dream about it, intimidate some people. Alex James of Blur pulled out of an interview with him, and Queer Nation issued him with a death threat. Even Marilyn Manson refused to let him write a cover story on him for an American music magazine.

But Cooper's books are more than gorefests. They're also romantic. The men take the objects of their desire apart in a bid to understand the awesome power they have over them. The Guardian hit on it when they said that a desire for love infects the carnage. In Cooper's novel 'Try', the central character Ziggy says to his foster father: "If you loved me you wouldn't rim me while I'm crying." Perhaps his work unsettles some people because it unflinchingly dissects his own dark fantasies.



drawings by Math Tinder

At the age of 11 sex and violence linked themselves, quite literally, in the writer's head when a friend he had a crush on split Cooper's head open with an axe. At 12 he hiked to a place in the mountains behind his house where three boys had been raped and killed. Upon reaching the spot, Cooper found himself gripped by a feeling of eroticised fear and fascination. And in the ninth grade Cooper met his beloved friend George Miles. Miles had deep psychological problems and Cooper took him under his wing. Years later, when Cooper was 30, he had a brief love affair with the 27-year-old Miles. The cycle of books (Closer 1989, Frisk 1991, Try 1994, Guide 1997 and Period 1999) were an attempt by Cooper to get to the bottom of both his fascination with sex and violence and his feelings for Miles. This project, which took Cooper nearly twenty years to realize, would later become known as The George Miles Cycle.

Cooper was an outsider and the leader of a group of poets, punks, stoners, and writers. After high school he attended Pasadena City College, and later, Pitzer College, where he had a poetry teacher who was to inspire him to pursue his writing outside of institutions of higher learning.


Deerhunter have cited Dennis Cooper as a lyrical influence.

Deerhunter - But I'm a Boy (mp3)
Deerhunter - When I Taste Blood (mp3)
Deerhunter - Cordless (mp3)

Listen to Deerhunter's latest album 'Halcyon Digest' here.

Family Values

Watch this video. Seriously, watch this video. Seriously. The whole thing.

Wing is also pretty rad!

"Wing's unique vocal stylings are sometimes compared with American Idol's William Hung, 60's star Mrs. Miller, or opera singer Florence Foster Jenkins."

Mamma Don't Like You

For realz. Heartbroken twice in one year.

Grass Widow

“Fried Egg” is the new video from Grass Widow’s new album 'Past Time'. The video was created by Grass Widow's Hannah Lew.

Grass Widow - Celebrate the Mundane(mp3)
Grass Widow - To Where(mp3)
Grass Widow - Shadow(mp3)

Grimes

“I wanted to make an escapist dream world,” says Claire Boucher, a.k.a. Montreal electronic artist Grimes, on the eve of her first cross-Canada tour. “During recording, I was taking a lot of science classes, and became obsessed with the book’s aesthetic.” That book, as it turns out, is Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel Dune, referenced in the title of her debut cassette, Geidi Primes. She’s re-arranged the name of one of Dune’s fictional planets, but it’s also a fitting analogy for the extraterrestrial never-never land she’s created.

Geidi Primes has a strange air of being created unconsciously while the artist herself was asleep. It is a vastly intriguing set of pop tunes highlighted by its amazing fifth and sixth songs: "avi" and "Feyd Rautha Dark Heart", which are each frighteningly reminiscent of an unaccountable psychic experience I may have never had. As an album it touches on many different tones without exploiting any. It manages to be playful without being precious, clean without being sterile, cryptic without being obscure, and operates in a deceptively complex melodic structure without calling attention to the artistry therein.
It reminds one of being a small child, listening to adult contemporary radio in the back seat of your mother's minivan when a special kind of song comes on. You are still maddeningly susceptible to the sympathetic rise and fall of a maternal voice, yet this is a different sort of mother, one more primeval and distant. Icily it falls over your entire body, begging for an escape you know you cannot give it. You are strangely moved. It seems like an album made for very tall people about what it's like to be very small. It calls to mind the glowering of a child king amidst the many vestments and decorations of his coronation. Listening to Geidi Primes is what its like to suddenly realize you are being watched while taking a cold shower...on the moon.

Emily Kai Bock's 'Human Heart' is a documentary short on GRIMES.

Halfaxa - If Grimes’ tour CDR (to be officially released via Arbutus on September 30th at Pop Montreal) is any indication, the cosmic-pop deity is transcending into a vocal-cruising eidolon of celestial proportions.

Sounds Like: Fuck You!

Here are some videos from Aunty Panty's debut show.

Patty Melt



Mal Au Coeur

XXXO

Räuberhöhle

A puppet show, dancing grrrls, and animals.

Shake yr anus!

Ice Cream Truck

R.I.P Will Munro

Jaime Sin and Will Munro

(article by Bruce LaBruce)

The night before I heard Will Munro had passed on to that great rock’n’roll fag bar in the sky, I was sitting in Trinity Bellwoods Park smoking a joint with my good friend and his, Kevin Hegge, the cute young man who used to work at Rotate This to tell you what cool music to buy.

Earlier in the evening, Kevin and I had gone to see legendary Lydia Lunch at the Royal, whose eloquent spoken-word diatribe against this increasingly fascist world was still ringing in our ears. Long story short, a young cop emerged from a cherry top to inform us snidely that it was against the law for us to be there at 2:30 a.m., and that because there was a random empty beer bottle under our bench, he had the right to search our backpacks. The fact that he failed to find my secret cache of illicit substances, from poppers on up, was the only upside to this sobering encounter, which made me realize, finally, that we are pretty much on the verge of, if not already, living in a police state. (FYI, Toronto Bylaw Section 608-9 B states: "Unless authorized by permit, no person shall use, enter or gather in a park between the hours of 12:01 a.m. and 5:30 a.m." In other words, walking through any public park in Toronto after midnight is illegal and subject to a considerable fine.)

I bring up this incident now because it represents exactly the kind of Toronto—and world—that Will Munro always fought against.

Although Will himself didn’t smoke or drink or do drugs—he was always a straight-edge queen, and a vegan to boot—he never passed judgment on anyone who did, and in fact he was all about celebrating various sorts of nonconformist, rebellious, and anti-authoritarian behaviour. The loss of Will hits so many of us so hard because he was a warrior in that regard, someone who was offended by the very idea of being boring and conventional. In his own words, he always said he wanted to see "a lot of freak flags flying in Toronto." And his, I say with the utmost admiration, was one of the freakiest.

Will was always an art fag par excellence, even in his OCAD days causing consternation with his choice of medium (found underwear, largely) and his defiant, open queerness. For many years, he volunteered at an LGBT youth crisis hotline, providing an empathetic ear for kids who found it difficult to cope in a homophobic world. Empathy, in fact, was one of the essential parts of Will’s character. He was a great listener, and he always made you feel good about yourself. He also rarely had a bad thing to say about anybody. These are exceedingly rare qualities.

Let there be no mistake, though: Sheena was a punk rocker. Will had a very distinct punk sensibility, both in musical taste and attitude, and he enjoyed walking on the wild side. He had a fondness for the macabre and the grotesque, occasionally dressing up in drag as a zombie hag from hell. His infamous guerilla birthday parties, wherein dozens of his friends and comrades would descend in costume on a particular subway car and party while literally hanging from the overhead handrails by their knees, creating general panic and a public nuisance, were just his style. No mindless vandalism, no hostility: just a fun reminder that it’s okay to act out in public, to break the rules, to challenge the status quo. It’s hard to imagine getting away with something like that in Toronto now. More's the pity.

Will was a real Renaissance man—a successful artist (collaborating with a host of Toronto’s most creative characters, including Luis Jacob and Jeremy Laing), but also a respected DJ, promoter, activist, and restaurateur. He truly hit his stride with Vazaleen, a club night that allowed him to combine all his favourite obsessions: punk and no-wave rock’n’roll music, queers, dykes, trannies, pornography, performance art, go-go dancers, wild costumes, public indecency, strap-on dildos, what have you. He was the only promoter in town who consistently brought in the international royalty of queer and underground performers, everyone from Stink Mitt to Limp Wrist to Vaginal Crème Davis to Cherie Curie to Jayne County to Carol Pope to the Toilet Boys to Kembra Pfahler. (I took a particularly memorable road trip to Niagara Falls with Kembra and Will the day after she performed at Vazaleen, a memory I will always cherish.) He also provided an early platform for now more widely known musical forces such as Peaches, The Hidden Cameras, and The Gossip. Vazaleen, which started at the El Mocambo before moving to Lee's Palace, was the first real homo club of note outside the gay ghetto, opening up queer culture to a broader audience of like-minded misfits of all genders and sexual persuasions. In Will’s own words: "When I started doing Vazaleen I was like finally there is a space where you can do fucking anything and no one is going to turn their nose up at you." In a nutshell, that was Will’s credo.

Will insisted on being inclusive, but he also never betrayed his old school gay roots. Of all his club nights, one of my favourites was Moustache, which he held upstairs at Remingtons, Toronto’s only gay male strip bar. It was so much fun to see people of all sexes and ages participating in the amateur strip competition alongside the professional male strippers and the regular clientele. Only Will could pull off that kind of bizarre cultural fusion.

After Vazaleen, Will doggedly pursued his promise of creating life outside the ghetto by turning the Beaver Café (with Lyn McNeil) into the first real hothouse of queer activity on the west side. It was only after several successful years there that he discovered he had a brain tumour. It was a particularly aggressive from of cancer (one more often found in children), and it’s a testament to his heart and determination, his unwaveringly positive attitude about everything, and his sheer love of life that he valiantly fought the disease for two years. I think we all believed that if anyone could beat it, against all conceivable odds, Will could.

The last time I had a chance to speak at length with Will was at his art opening at the Paul Petro gallery a couple of months ago. (I've reviewed the show in the latest issue of C Magazine.) The cancer had already come back with a vengeance and he was a bit fragile, but what struck me was that he maintained the same commitment to his art, the same positive energy, the same consistency of attitude, and the same generosity of spirit that he'd always had. It was beyond humbling.

From all reports, Will was surrounded by an extremely loyal, loving, and supportive group of family and friends, including his boyfriend Peter, until the end. I know that many people are profoundly and painfully feeling the loss of this gentle, elegant soul, including yours truly. Toronto is already a much, much dimmer and less bearable place without him.

Moving

Today I applied for a job in Toronto. I've been fantasizing about moving east since the day I graduated high school, but the closest I've come to realizing that plan was my stint with Katimavik. I am extremely terrified and am not certain that I'm ready, but I don't think I'll ever feel ready, so perhaps it's time to pull up my socks and take the plunge. Ideally I'd settle in Montreal, but ultimately I'll go where I can find a decent job. Tiffany's planning a trip to Montreal in August to house hunt. This means that I better brush up on my french so that I can get a good job in Montreal.

GAH!!!! This past year has been a tumultuous one for me. Cross your fingers for us!

Montreal vs. Toronto

Damian Abraham of Toronto band Fucked Up with Annie-Claude of Montreal band Duchess Says.

Toronto's Diamond Rings


vs.

Montreal's Lezzies on X


Montreal's Seripop

Seripop from Chris Roberson on Vimeo.

vs.

Toronto's Team Macho

Unit 3 with Venus

I'm seeking a place where I can download their tracks! Sumbody halpz me please?!?!?!?!?!

VID eee oh zzzzzz

Dum Dum Girls


Dum Dum Girls - Brite Futures (mp3)

Fortune Feimster



Lady Gaga - Alejandro

Slattern/Lipstickface

I was in rainy Winnipeg this past weekend with Riki and Tiffany. The main event that brought us east was the release of the 12" Lipstickface/Slattern split.

You can order a copy of the vinyl by emailing:

lipstickface@hotmail.com
or
julia.ryckman@gmail.com

Slattern - Baby Love Hurts (Music Video) from Damien Ferland on Vimeo.

Lipstickface - Glory (Music Video) by Paul Clint Panko

Lipstickface - Teen Boy Squad (mp3)

Lipstickface - Dirty Shirt (Num and Dub Remix) (mp3)

Slattern - Love Hurts (mp3)

Slattern - Wicked Game (Chris Isaak cover) (mp3)

It's Me, Is It You?

Contacting Toronto is an annual photography exhibition on the Onestop network of over 270 TTC screens. It offers artists and photographers an audience of 1.3 million people a day in over 50 stations. One of the many artists featured is Holly Norris and her photographs of a model with a disability, in an politicized take on contemporary fashion advertising.

'American Able' intends to, through spoof, reveal the ways in which women with disabilities are invisibilized in advertising and mass media. I chose American Apparel not just for their notable style, but also for their claims that many of their models are just ‘every day’ women who are employees, friends and fans of the company. However, these women fit particular body types. Their campaigns are highly sexualized and feature women who are generally thin, and who appear to be able-bodied. Women with disabilities go unrepresented, not only in American Apparel advertising, but also in most of popular culture. Rarely, if ever, are women with disabilities portrayed in anything other than an asexual manner, for ‘disabled’ bodies are largely perceived as ‘undesirable.’ In a society where sexuality is created and performed over and over within popular culture, the invisibility of women with disabilities in many ways denies them the right to sexuality, particularly within a public context.

Too often, the pervasive influence of imagery in mass media goes unexamined, consumed en masse by the public. However, this imagery has real, oppressive effects on people who are continuously ‘othered’ by society. The model, Jes Sachse, and I intend to reveal these stories by placing her in a position where women with disabilities are typically excluded.

More details about the group show can be found here: http:/​/​www.​contactingtoronto.​ca

Jes Sachse has a brilliant CONTACT show on now called "The Justice League of Gawkamerica" at The Junction in Toronto.

Additional model credits go to Dana Levine.