Last night I attended the Liss Gallery in swanky Yorkville for the gala opening of a show featuring the artwork of Todd White. White is from Hollywood, and has sold his work to celebrities (including Macaulay Culkin!). It was pretty cool to get an opportunity to see his work and meet him. After that we headed over to the Phoenix to see the band Islands. I know I have raved about Islands in the past, but they were so amazing, I am going to recommend them again! They have a new album out called Arm's Way and there is a little interview with one of the band members at blogTO at this link: http://www.blogto.com/music/2008/05/call_response_islands/
I just read that Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse posted a creepy video on youtube of themselves playing with newborn mice - called Winemouse, of course:
Now I'm a fan of both Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse's music, but this is kinda scary in a "those two are going to die soon" way.
Earlier this week Doherty posted several forum posts on his site French Dog Blues asking if anyone in the Wiltshire area could drive him to Glasgow. He couldn't fly because "The Scrubs still have not returned my passport" but when he realized no one could drive him he said "oh dear it's false 'tash and sunglasses and jump start the jag time again..... mums the word, and bonne chance" and another post saying "this kind of thing makes me so sad... if only you knew the true horror of the media's manipulation.I don't know who to feel more sorry for, myself or you... Don't question your instincys. Go off me, and go away, infinity or nowt my fickle , blinkered part-timer. px"
Sad but also interesting that while complaining about the horror of the media's manipulation, Doherty is fuelling the fire by making these kinds of posts, including the creepy youtube video. On the other hand I have always admired his use of the Internet, including the publication of his songs, journals, and other videos and constant contact with his fans through online forums.
As usual, I'm too lazy to write something, but here is an bit from an email I sent about the new-ish club Goodhandys:
Last night I went to the club Goodhandys for a bit, which was hilarious - both retro and progressive, if that's possible. It's a gay bar (where that weird Rocket place used to be at Church and Richmond), but in the old school gay ghetto kind of way, not the yuppie/lacoste shoes/gay-guys-getting-married kind of way. There were naked dancers on stage and lots of explicit porn playing, and cool music. I think I was in my element!
It was kind of like the Boom Boom Room (early-90s Toronto "alternative" club) meets Woody's (Toronto's Gay Sports Bar) meets Boots (early-90s Toronto gay/fetish club). Ok, maybe it was just retro, and not so progressive, but at any rate, it was fun.
I just finished reading William S. Burroughs Jr.'s two novels (published as one omnibus book) Speed/Kentucky Ham. Burroughs Jr. is the son of legendary junkie/author of Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs. Burroughs Jr. was born in the late-1940s to a heroin addict father and an amphetamine addict mother. In the early-1950s he witnessed his father shoot his mother to death in a drunken game of "William Tell". By the mid-1960s Burroughs Jr. himself was a drug addict, living with his grandmother in Palm Beach, Florida. These books recount his story as a speed addict, running away to New York City, and his rehabilitation in the Kentucky Federal Narcotics Farm, a sort of prison hospital. The books end with his journey to Alaska, part of an alternative rehab program he participated in. Burroughs Jr. died of liver failure in the early-1980s. His writing was very beautiful and poetic, in spite of the subject matter. There was also a subtext of political commentary concerning race, the prison system, drug addiction and class. I am trying to decide whether to finish up Love in the Time of Cholera (another Gabriel Garcia Marquez book I started in the fall) or to move on.
Last night I attended the Liss Gallery in swanky Yorkville for the gala opening of a show featuring the artwork of Todd White. White is from Hollywood, and has sold his work to celebrities (including Macaulay Culkin!). It was pretty cool to get an opportunity to see his work and meet him.
