sekrit dinner tonight is at 6:45

Would anyone like a pair of incredibly cute long haired ferrets? I would take them myself, but I’m already well on my way to being a crazy cat-lady. (I’ve even started leash-training mine.)

Over the knee stripy socks and stockings arrived in the mail yesterday. They are just as fun as I’ve always suspected such things would be. Part of my I-missed-out-on-being-a-girl stopped clamouring as soon as I put them on. Now, evidently, those particular brain cells want me to get a skirt that doesn’t go down to my ankles. I am dubious. Confirmation of one suspected good idea does not guarantee another.

THREADLESS is having another ten dollar sale.

To further my angry-at-the-world, various brilliant things are happening simultaneously tonight:

7 PM: Sex Pheromone in Tears: An unusual aspect of courtship in mice. University of Tokyo biochemist Kazushige Touhara gives the 21st annual Linville-Wright lecture on advances in olfactory sciences. SFU Harbour Center. 515 W. Hastings. Free admission. Info 604-291-5100

7 PM: Hope And Fear In Black Rock City. Kryshan Randel screens his short film about one of the most spectacular, creative and inspiring and places on earth. There will be a small donation ($3-5) at the door to help pay for the licensing of music used in the film (enabling them to enter film festivals etc). The Jupiter Lounge, 1216 Davie. Reservations not required.

Later this week:

Cory Doctorow is making an appearance with his talk, The Totalitarian Urge: total information awareness and the cosmic billiards. The lecture is presented by the Faculty of Applied Sciences’ Leonardo Institute, a non-credit graduate program that examines the risks, uncertainties, ethics, and art of applied science.

It will be presented twice:

Thursday March 8 at 6:00pm in the Fletcher Challenge theatre at SFU Vancouver (515 West Hastings St.) Free. Seating has all been reserved.

Friday March 9 at 3:30pm at SFU Burnaby in Academic Quadrangle, C9001. Free. Arrive early to ensure a seat.

out the door to work any minute

Heart of the World:


Originally uploaded by Foxtongue.

I’m still writing, (and re-writing and re-writing), both the pitch and the business plan, trying to make them as absolutely perfect as I can before I release them into the cruel wilds of the world. When I’m done, I’ll be putting the pitch up both here and on the website and asking people to spread it around more than I can alone. (With thanks to Katie for already putting up my messy rough-draft). The business plan will be up there too and very likely sent out to whomever asks for it. The more people know about this, the more likely it is we’ll be a success.

The realtor called back, has told me there’s no violations on the building, the plumbing and electrical are up to spec. Hydro is approximately $500/month and taxes are $14,849 a year. He doesn’t know about the insurance. On Oliver’s advice, I’m going to be making a legal offer on the place this week, possibly tomorrow, giving us a deadline of December 1st, with a completion date of January 15th.

People who would like to buy shares, the details on that are being finessed as quickly as I can in the hours around my day-job. I’ve got a lawyer looking at it for me and hopefully he’ll have definitive information for me to give you on that by the end of the week.

On a more socially accessible level:

Pacific Cinematheque is running a Russian Sci-Fi exhibition, and I’m planning on attending the Thursday night screening of Ruslan and Ludmila at 8:45 pm. It’s being billed as “A mad, enchanted combination of The Wizard of Oz, Die Niebelungen and The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T,” which sounds practically compulsory. It promises a lush, fantastical pre-cursor to Jan Svankmajer, Terry Gilliam, and Tim Burton. Tickets are $8.50 with memberhip, (double bills are $10.5)0, and membership, if you don’t already have it, is another $3.

Friday night I’m going to HIVE. Billed as a multi-faceted performance installation, it’s really a giant funky warehouse party with a bar/cafe in the middle, put on by eleven of BC’s best-known independent theatre companies, many of whom I’ve worked for or am delighted to be friends with. (Boca del Lupo, Electric Company, Felix Culpa, Leaky Heaven Circus, neworldtheatre, The Only Animal, Radix, Rumble Productions, Theatre Replacement, Theatre SKAM, Western Theatre Conspiracy). How it works is that the space is divided into 11 performances areas, intimate little toy theatres, each under the complete control of a company. David Bloom, (Felix Culpa), for example, has told me that he’s going up with our friend Alex and performing The Trojan War in Approximately Ten Minutes.

Sam’s in a silent Italiana nunsploitation film this year.

The CELLULOID SOCIAL CLUB presents OH, THE HORROR
on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25th, just in time for Hallowe’en.

Screening of the Completed 5 min. Short Horror Films in 2006 BLOODSHOTS 48 HOUR HORROR FILMMAKING CHALLENGE

Other Films to Be Screened Time Permitting

Doors – 7:30pm Show – 8:00pm Admission – $5.00 at the door
The ANZA Club, #3 West 8th Ave. at Ontario St., Vancouver, B.C.

ZOMBIEWALK, written, directed and produced by Kryshan Randel, co-written by David Lewis, music by Goblin, starring David Lewis (Lake Placid, The Bully Solution) and hundreds of zombies. 5 min., documentary / news segment, 2006. Produced for Novus TV’s news program “City Lights” – On August 19 2006, hundreds of zombies marched the streets and beaches of downtown Vancouver; stopping traffic, climbing into moving vehicles, terrorizing beachgoers, and eating a whole lot of brains. And all of this was caught on tape, as exclusive media coverage of Vancouver’s second annual ZombieWalk.
WARNING: What you are about to see is 100% real, and is not for the faint of heart.

Time permitting, these will also screen:

VICTIM, directed by Kryshan Randel, written by Kathryn Cottam, produced by Tammy Bannister and Kryshan Randel, DOP Jason Pope, music by Julie Blue, edited by Tony Dean Smith, starring Victoria Bidewell (What Lies Beneath), James Lafazanos (Stargate: Atlantis) and Katrin Bowen (Bang!). 5 min., horror, 2004 – In the early ’70s, Jessie frantically searched for her missing boyfriend deep within the woods, and discovered a terrifying secret. VICTIM was made for the 2004 Bloodshots Film Festival, and had to incorporate backwoods horror, a crab, a chainsaw and the line “I gave blood last month”.

THE CRITIC, written & directed by Jaman Lloyd, produced by Chris Ferguson, staring Matthew Walker & Paul Anthony, 11 min., Crazy 8’s, 2006 – a gothic horror set in 1840s Philadelphia exploring the last moments of a literary critic confronted by a spurned poet. James Wilmot narrates his final night alive when confronted by an obscured and bedimmed figure. The figure is Edgar Allen Poe who has come to kill Wilmot for the degradation of his early writings.

THE VEIL Directed by Mike Jackson, Written by Sam Dulmage and Mike Jackson, Cinematography by Sam Dulmage, Music by Jeff Tymoschuk, Edited by Jean-Denis Rouette, starring Corina Akeson, MacKenzie Gray & Charles Zuckermann with Toren Atkinson and Robyn Forsyth. 11 min., Horror, Short, 2006 – A young married woman is haunted by dark visions. Is it her medication, or something more sinister? A lovecraftian period piece. 2005 Bloodshots horror short competition. This 11-minute version has been re-edited and re-mixed, with additional scoring and visual effects. Official Selection of the Chicago Horror Film Festival, H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Chicago International REEL Shorts Festival, and plays Oct. 22 at the Toronto After Dark Horror Festival.

PIRATE DAY IS TODAY

Don’t be the last kid on your block to know about the International Talk Like A Pirate Day Flashmob!

Arrr Sea Battle will be at Grandview Park on Commercial Drive! The time of attack will be 4:30!

Avast ye hearties, ’tis the day of piratanical reckoning TODAY, Tuesday, September 19th! In celebration of the scourge of the bonny ocean, ye scurvy curs are expected to stand proudly as pirates and brandish yer grimy cardboard swords for a battle of grate proportion.

Make yer own ship, parrot or wench to kidnap!

Bring booty and swag!

Remember, you are rogues! Privateers!

Don’t dance the hempen jig, but plunder in the park, hornswaggle the landlubbers and win the day!

Pirate after-party confirmed at El Cocal! Grog and shanties at six p.m.

ship building at my place this week

Don’t be the last kid on your block to know about the International Talk Like A Pirate Day Flashmob!

Arrr Sea Battle will be at Grandview Park on Commercial Drive! The time of attack will be 4:30!

Avast ye hearties, ’tis the day of piratanical reckoning this upcoming Tuesday, September 19th! In celebration of the scourge of the bonny ocean, ye scurvy curs are expected to stand proudly as pirates and brandish yer grimy cardboard swords for a battle of grate proportion.

Make yer own ship, parrot or wench to kidnap!

Bring booty and swag!

Remember, you are rogues! Privateers!

Don’t dance the hempen jig, but plunder in the park, hornswaggle the landlubbers and win the day!

GROG AND SHANTIES AFTER AT EL COCAL, SIX PEE EM.

please cross-post

I really want custard and I don’t know why.

Last night I climbed onto the outside railing of a balcony and found on stage an attractively costumed man with painted eyes playing a banjo and crooning into a strange contraption that looked like a sci-fi prop black box had been caught molesting a trumpet.

Sometimes life is alright.

After him a girl in a black dress sang about the moon in New Orleans, holding her black curly head and complaining that she could hear people making love, then was a projector based shadow play with happy-face gelati spoons and a masked clown. The audience is entirely artists, strange clothes, odd conversations, a lot of raw talent. Beautiful Joanna stood in front of the velvet next and enchanted us while she played the guitar and sang everyone in love with her, and after her were women who started with thier feet on fire above thier heads, who became throaty chess-pieces in black and white hooped dresses who played matching clarinets.

Just another party at The Big Yellow House. I never feel as inadequate as I do when I visit.

How to remove Logos from your PDA / cell phone with sugar. found by lynchwalker.

Once again, I wanted to remind everyone that the fine establishment that is Sunday Tea tm is being held at my apartment this week.

Sunday Tea is a roving Vancouver tradition, an open-invite social event held weekly at different venues, generally from 11am-ish to 2pm-ish, depending on the hosts. Basically, if you’re reading this, you’re invited and so are all your muffins and your most fun friends. If you want to come but don’t know where I live, drop me a line and I’ll give you directions.

This time, it will also be a culture-jamming preparation day.

Here’s a quote from my roommate Graham: “This Monday will mark the five-year anniversary of September 11th; the day where a tragedy marked the beginning of the erosion of civil liberties throughout the Western world. I am organizing some humorous culture-jamming for the night of the 10th and the morning of the 11th to remind the world that not all demands for security are reasonable.

If you would like to participate, or are just curious, you should come to my house between 11 am and 2pm on the 10th. There, all will be explained.”

“You are welcome to invite other people if you think they’re reliable, interested and discreet (i.e. Zombie Militia, Rhino Party).”

He urges people to bring not only the usual trappings of Sunday Tea, which are tasty snacks and good people, but also tape.

good news is on the way

Graham‘s got a friend, Christie McRae, who has an Art Show Opening called ALTERNATE REALITIES tomorrow night at the Bump ‘N Grind Cafe at 916 Commercial Drive. He says be certain to be there, because there’s going to be a DJ and free shots of espresso. He really leaned on mentioning the espresso, so it must be tasty.

Also, Graham and I are hosting Sunday Tea tm this Sunday, so come visit, bitches. I have been cocooned, I need to see your scrubbed faces to remember you exist.

This week’s been full of music and strange adventure. Jon Bartlett lent me Mervyn Peake’s first book, for one, Lung and I went to a porn theater, (which was a far more unpleasant experience than we’d supposed), my mother sang with the Now Orchestra for the improv Metropolis soundtrack for Eye of Newt’s Silent In The Park series, I’ve installed an angel in my house, and begun a drawer of personal goods at Oliver’s. There’s more, but trying to remember everything is like trying to read text in a photograph damaged by salt.

So last we heard, our girl Friday is sitting outside a backpackers hostel, waiting for Esme to come rescue her from the appalling chance that one of her exes, who is now filthy homeless junkie upon the streets of Victoria, may come upon her and attempt to molest her person. American Brand Fear. She’s sitting with her book, appalled at how much she’s read already, and beginning to worry about her phonecall. She only had a moment, did she convey everything needed?

Olbermann’s Special Commentary Towards Bush.

Esme was only late because parking was hard to find. The cafe was nice, (though it’s the only place anyone’s tried to pick me up by telling me that they’re an astrologer), the music not terrible, (Nicholas was playing in a corner that was pretending to be a stage with two friendly middle-aged men), and the drink Esme bought me was delicious, a mixture of hot chocolate and chai I rather liked. It was a fund-raiser of some sort, likely for a cat. A good welcome easy to slide away from.

After we went to a velvety restaurant that floated Goldfrapp softly over a crowd of beautiful people, but it was too late in pretty little Victoria for food, all they had left was small plates of unsatisfying tapas, so we ended up in a second-rate late night chinese restaurant with comfortingly unidentifiable lumps of strange coloured food, the same you’d find in any Canadian town with a population over 1000. I don’t think we got home until two in the morning, full of grease and weak yellow tea.

OK GO doing the impressive treadmill dance live at the VMAS.

Nicholas’ house is a wonder. His “Mad Uncle” renovated it something like six times. Camouflaged to look like any other pebble and glass fronted house, it pretends to be middle-class and rather unassuming. Inside is another story entirely. Nicholas lives in the basement, a 1960’s style wood-paneled German porno bunker complete with secret passages. The walls glows with a shiny oppressive veneer that inspires me to start collecting vintage Playboy covers for us to varnish onto his ceiling and the only way to get upstairs without leaving the house is to go into the washroom and climb inside what, from the side, looks like a medicine cabinet. It actually opens into a tiny carpeted passageway lined with moldering vintage board games that lets out into the floor of the upstairs front hall closet. Upstairs looks fairly normal again, until you take into account the stripper pole in the bathroom and the occasional mad scientist electrical box. (Apparently they make scary ticking noises and, in the past, have genuinely blown up in proper mad scientist style even.)

spellcheck doesn’t think “motherfucker” is a word

“London, London” a video by Cibelle featuring Devendra Banhart.

I went to Vancouver Island alone for the first time in my life on Friday. All I knew was that somewhere in front of me was Oliver, whose name creates the feel of kisses on my tongue. He is an older man, as mine are, and sweet as I always wanted them to be. He won’t tell me he loves me yet, but says instead that it’s close, as if the words are a race he hopes to win.

I like the way he looks at me, mildly stunned, as if I am some ultimate unexpected good fortune. Silva likes it too. He is a nervous man, but his worries are only an outward mark of his extreme consideration, like a gold birthmark that stutters in the sun. He wraps his body around mine when we sleep, so always I wake with his arms curled around me, warm ribbons tying me comfortably to him.

I wonder if I will like his parents.

My inclination is for description, for setting down my appreciation for his hair and the length of his body, but no matter how charmed I am with his colours, his skin darker than mine, the streaks of tarnished blond silver that paint the frame of his friendly Brian Froud smile, it is other things that want to drop here. Moments of personality, of detached devotion. Thanks you’s for finally bringing me to somewhere safe. Today he gave me a key to his house. On my way home, I had the men at the hardware store cut him copies of mine.

Mexican court rejects full ballot recount, leftist candidate blasts partial tally.

Coming back was not as difficult as going. In spite of a messenger glitch, meaning I didn’t get one damned message all weekend, there was plenty of news waiting. I didn’t get the job I’d hoped for and there’s nothing I can think to do about it. I have a little design portfolio made-up now that was in case of a second interview, perhaps it will come in handy later. At any rate, there was good news too. This week looks to be intensely and awesomely busy.
Tonight (or tomorrow night, her and the websites have different opinions on when), April and I are going to the Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra & Tra-la-la Band concert at Richards on Richards. (A group led by founding Godspeed You! Black Emperor guitarist Efrim).

Thursday and Friday I have extra work on a film named Hot Rod, out at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds. (I have to figure out how to bus there first thing in the morning, augh).

Friday is the Robot Skytrain Party plus Sam‘s big party at the Treehouse. (“Come to the party that will send a shiver down your back years from now as you suddenly think “Oh, God… I remember that party.””).

Saturday is Vancouver’s first Flugtag, our Second Annual Zombiewalk, and Bob‘s party.

Wolf Parade plays the Commodore on Sunday, (not that I have a ticket, I’m just lusting after one), and Andrew says there’s something else but he forgets, so if you remember, I’d love a heads up.

Oh! And Snakes On a Motherfucking Plane is this Thursday at the Rio, (Broadway & Commercial), at 10pm.

If you comment here saying you can’t come, Andrew will have Samuel L. Jackson call and persuade you.

Also, he checked with the box office, you can buy your tickets at the Rio anytime it’s open now.

Oh, and CROSSPOST this mofo! We want to own the theatre.

to keep you damned kids busy and off my lawn


the kiss
Originally uploaded by Agata….

Icelandic nitro-jeep hydroplaning.

The click of teeth. I kissed his mouth and felt like Salome.

Being held, it’s that feeling, being held. A stone beneath my feet, the desire to both crawl inside and all consume.

Part of my recent news is that I’ve agreed to go to the SCA Clinton Wars this year, the west coast’s biggest medieval nerd-prom. I have resisting invitation for approximately half a decade, but I’ve finally been given an offer I can’t refuse. Terrifying, but lovely and enchanting all at once. I am both honoured and respected.

Duncan has epitomized my Clinton warnings all at once:

“Clinton’s a hoot. I hope you have fun. I got married there to five women when I went. and then their head concubine killed me the next day. and one night I was a woman. and I got burnt to a crisp. The battle’s frickin’ awesome to watch though.”

For those not stupid and or insane, this weekend can still be an exciting slew of events.

Friday is the very last day of Boca Del Lupo‘s astonishingly delightful The Shoes That Were Danced To Pieces, their yearly “Free, Outdoors, All-ages, Roving Spectacular” performed in Stanley Park. (At Picnic Place, just past Prospect Point, because you know how much we all love alliteration). I went today and, hours later, my face still aches from smiling so much. Their exceedingly clever fairy-tale, full of self referentials and witty tongue-in-cheek, pulls you through the forest, following the often prettily singing actors as they dance from aerial wires or hang in nets from high up in the trees. Tom Jones does an excellent job aiming humour at the children, but the over-all charm is barely limited by the format. It’s free admission, but you have to call ahead and put your name down, because spaces fill up. 604-684-2622.

Later on Friday, Tiffany is in town with her Taiko Drumming show: JODAIKO, presented by Pride in Art, Friday, August 4, 8:00pm, at the Roundhouse Community Centre, (181 Roundhouse Mews). Tickets: $10 -$18 sliding scale, available at the door and at Little Sister’s Books, (1238 Davie St, 1-800-567-1662), and Rhizome Café, (317 East Broadway, 604-872-3166).

Saturday is the DykeMarch from McSpadden Park, (fourth and Victoria), to Grandview Park. It starts at noon and ends by dissolving into a party, the Dykemarch Festival, at one o’clock.

Either that, or the Powell St. Festival, themed this year as Memory Streams: 30 years of Japanese Canadian Arts on Powell Street. It’s fairly standard culture-fest fare – taiko drumming, sumo wrestling, martial arts demos, folk and modern dance, Kokoro, alternative pop/rock/urban music, visual arts, film/video, etcetera, as well as the expected array of Japanese food, crafts and displays.

Sunday, of course, is the Pride Parade from 12 – 2. The route along Beach Avenue is the same every year, starting from Denman and Robson and ending at Pacific and Thurlow, by the Aquatic Center. This year there’s over 130 floats scheduled and approximately 185,000 spectators expected. I recommend heading down early to get good seats, the earlier in the parade, the better, before the performers use up all their energy with booty waving. (Wave at the cow-girls for me, will you?). When the parade ends, it turns into the Sunset Beach Festival, which goes until 6pm.

why it’s important to leave the house #45908

A patient’s self-rewired brain revives him after 19 years in a vegatative coma.

Minus Kyle, Duncan, & Grant, you people missed a fantastic show. Tigers crept off the stage, dreams of lights, lakes of visionary stormy weather. The Roman Empire shuddered and fell under the waves of Atlantis. Shane brought his mother back to life as the audience cried and his grandmother told us all to rise and shine, all to a really good steel string slide. I managed to film clips of most of the first act, but not all of it, only enough to give you the barest skeleton of what actually happened. In the end, I have shaky teasers, but no real trailers. Next time, you, be there. Get out your silver kitchen knife and go culture hunting when I tell you to.

So with only about a full day’s warning, we managed to get almost thirty people to Pirates of the Caribbean. An affable man sitting behind me noticed that our group took up two full rows and asked how much organization went into it. When I told him we hadn’t bothered with very much this time around, how it was entirely arranged through our on-line journals, he mentioned oh-so-fortuitously that he has an event coming up at the Planetarium. He handed me a cleanly designed flyer, the sort of thing I would notice on a table, and smiled when I said I would give him a plug. After a bit more conversation, he asked, “Will you really mention us?” Then handed me a free ticket.

UK scientists have developed technology that enables artificial limbs to be directly attached to a human skeleton.

I’ve been listening to the music The Beige have on their website for hours now and I’m going to leave one on when I finally go to bed. The flyer design made me ask if it was ambient, but though their songs powerfully insinuate Brian Eno leanings, they seem to play something else, a translucent mellow jazz with a delicate twist of quiet pop. I really like it. Stylistically, they remind me charmingly of Múm. The musicians, Andrew Arida, Geoff Gilliard, Mark Haney, Rick Maddocks, and Jon Wood, manage to dance the line between chill, softly effervescent, and catchy without being fluffy, bland or relying on hooks. I’ll have to remember to bring extra money when I go, because I want to buy the album.

The show is only an hour long because they have to vacate in time for the stoned kids to watch the resident Doors/Zeppelin/Hendrix/Pink Floyd laser show, but they’ll have drinks and mingling downstairs afterward and their own visuals projected on the ceiling during their set. I’m curious to see what they’re going to do with the space. It can be awkward to set up anything meaningful around a giant robot projector ant that rises from the floor, but already I can imagine how their melodies could transform awkwardness into underwater gracefulness, sort of how a good director cuts out the sound in moments of tension.

University of Alberta researchers have created an ultra-sound technology to regrow teeth, the first time scientists have been able to reform human dental tissue.

About half my books have been spoken for and some already bought.
a list of what’s left