Mr Daryl Vocat, a regular reader of my iPod rants sends me this email of self-abuse and self-promotion. Seems like he’s one busy artfag! Go see!

Here’s a bit of a reminder of some upcoming art shows. I’m sure many of
you are involved in some way, so come on and hang out!

==========

Queer in the Headlights, Curated by Karen Chapelle
Runs June 7-July 7, Part of the Toronto Pride Art Walk
Reception: Friday, June 17, 7PM
9:30PM Trash & Ready, Hunter Valentine and Will Munro DJ

NOW Lounge
189 Church St.
416-364-1301

Monday-Friday- 9am-6pm
June 18/19 and June25/26 – 1-6pm
Call or visit www.nowlounge.com for more details.
Opening June 17th- 7-9pm followed by entertainment 9pm till close.

This show spotlights some of Toronto’s hottest new and established artists, providing a snapshot of the range of difference that makes Toronto’s queer community so rich and unique. Working in various mediums – from needlepoint to erotic photographs – the exhibit puts an edgy spin on queer aesthetics.

Artists include: Daryl Vocat, Lynne Fernie, Wendy Coburn, David Hawe, Andy Fabo, Andrew Harwood, Dianne Davis, Tracey Day, Fernanda Faria, Melissa Levin, Cecilia Berkovic, Ian Fraser, James Blake, GB Jones, David Findlay, Carol Camper, Will Munro

==========

Making History

125 King St. East, (King and Church)
June 16-June 30

Reception: Thurs, June 16 7-10PM

Artists include: Barbara Balfour, Luis Jacob, Andrew Harwood, Alec Butler, Will Munro, Scott Treleaven, Paige Gratland, Joel Gibb, Dana Baitz, Melissa Levin, Nancy Nicol, John Greyson, RM Vaughan, Roy Mitchell and Eugenio Salas, Johannes Zits, Ed Pien, Daryl Vocat, Allyson Mitchell,
Lise Beaudry, Andy Fabo, and Deanna Bowen

==========

Imaging A Lovers Discourse

-UPPITY QUEERS READING SERIES
Thursday June 16th 8-10pm
Suggested Donation $5

The following authors will be reading:
Sky Gilbert, Zoe Whittall, RM Vaughan, Drew Rowsome, Mariko Tamaki, Troy Yorke, Alex Rowlson

-SILENT AUCTION
Thursday, June 23 9-12pm

Artists have been asked to create works based on the book A Lover’s Discourse by Roland Barthes. All works will be sold through a silent auction with all proceeds going to Glad Day. The donated work will be on exhibition from June 9th to June 23rd. The auction will be a cash and
carry event on the 23rd. During the auction live music will be provided by DJ TK and Barbrafisch

Some of the participating artists include: Florencia Berinstein, Rob Davidovitz, Patrick de Coste, Paige Gratland, David Grenier, Lauren Hall, Luis Jacob, Stephanie Rogerson, Sholem, Lex Vaughn, Daryl Vocat, and Andrea Winkler

Toronto Free Gallery
660 Queen Street East
Toronto, On M4E 2J8
Tel. 416-913-0461
Fax 416-915-7055
www.torontofreegallery.org

==========

And don’t forget, the following show is still up! If you haven’t seen it yet, the trek is worth it. There is a tonne of stuff to do at Harbourfront and the work in the show is great.

Modern Day Myths
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 19. 7-9 PM
May 20 – July 1

A group exhibition by members of Open Studio –Open Studio artist members exhibit prints exploring myths that speak both to primitive tradition and the modern day. Toronto participating artists: Tara Cooper, Elizabeth Forrest, Doug Guildford, Libby Hague,Lisa Levitt, Liliana Rodriguez, Lotti Thomas, and Daryl Vocat. Presented in collaboration with Open
Studio.

York Quay Centre, Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West
Toronto, ON.

Sharkboy and I are going on a cruise and I’m scoping out hotels at work and decide to go to one of those “discount” hotel sites and plug in my info:

One night, two occupants, mid-November.

I get this result:

A two and a half star hotel near the airport for one night is around $1500?! I guess I better sell that kidney. Oh wait, I can’t. It’s fused together.

They may be memory hogs and they might be useless but they’re frikkin’ cute! Konfabulator is now offering free Widgets now that Yahoo has swallowed them up. Here’s a cartoon to help you understand where they came from and what they do. Currently I have the temperature for Toronto, the Simpson’s Random Quote, Werewolf monitor (no, not when Warren Zevon will be popular again… just phases of the moon and the goldfish swimming across my desktop. Of course, if you’re on Mac OSX.4 then you already have them. Point and laugh at the slow Windows drones.

Speaking of Simpsons, Sharkboy tells me that every episode of The Simpsons has a flame somewhere in it. I have the first season and can’t recall if it’s true for those shows. I have my doubts but so far all the shows we’ve watched, there has been a flame of sorts either by explosion or someone lighting up a smoooooth Laramie cigarette. Snopes can’t confirm it. Anyone know where I can prove this?

I would also like to direct your attention to that little button that appeared within the last 24 hours on your Google Customized Start Up Page. Right up there in the left: “Add Content”. That’s right! Click on it and the toolbar DHTMLs out. You can then add all your RSS feeds from your favorite sites and when you’re done, drag them around the page to create your own layout. What? You don’t have a Personalized Start Up Page? Ask nicely and I will send you a Gmail account.

I tell you people, the web is becoming fun again.

While racing to a meeting with a freelance client, the streetcar I was on stopped to let someone off. A car screeches in front of the front doors and the driver jumps out. He yells at the driver: “I want to talk to the fuck that threw his drink at my car!”

The driver lets this guy and his girlfriend on and they stand at the front, straining to see over the few of us that are standing in the semi-busy car. I look back past the crowd to see who’s got the scaredy face. He starts to yell into the streetcar: “Who did it!?”

The guy advances towards the back, ignoring me since I am nowhere near a window. “Who did it? Who threw their fuckin’ drink out the window onto my car?” He’s a pissed pasty guy in a tank top, his face a vision of red fury. He’s going to pop if anyone says anything.

After a few repeats of “Who did it?!” no one comes forward. “So that’s how it is? You fucks!” and angry driver turns and leaves the streetcar dragging his girlfriend with him.

At this point I wonder: Has the driver used proper conflict diffusement in this situation? Does the driver have conflict diffusement training? Do TTC drivers get this kind of training? He’s allowed a visibly upset (murderous!) guy onto his car to kick the crap out of someone. His only comment being “Find him and I will kick him off so you can talk to him.”

Maybe regular reader “The Busdriver” can comment on this?

With all the shootings within the last few weeks here in Toronto I admit that I have been wary about large crowds. But in this situation I didn’t recognize that I was standing in the middle of an incident that could have been hazardous. Sadly I feel that I have to be concious of things like this these days.

He’s hot. She’s past it. What gives? It’s like a Bizzaro World version of Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, only he’s hot and she’s not.

Check out those pants!

And while you’re at it, Colin Farrel looks like a Church Street hustler looking for his next john.

(From Hollywood Rag, trashier than E Talk Daily with 100% less fluff)

Today at my office’s pot luck lunch, someone was giving out luggage tags from one of our suppliers. The weird part was that they had the logo for the movie “FLIGHTPLAN” on them, the movie about losing your daughter right out from under your sleeping arm.

A tag for your luggage for a movie about losing your daughter.

Am I reaching here? I thought it was pretty funny.

At 5:45am this morning I had a revelation:

I have never, ever, seen Veronica Lodge’s mother in print.

And there she was, while I sat on the toilet doing my morning purge, in all her white haired glory, looking like a matronly Sharon Stone, smiling like Veronica could do no damage to the world. I thought how weird that I have never seen her before in all my 40 years on the planet. It was a big deal.

And then 20 pages later, there she was again. But this time, typical to the style of Archie comics, Veronica’s mom looked like a fat European opera singer.

I started to wonder about the rest of the missing parents in Archie’s world: Betty’s dad – vapor; Dilton’s parents – glasss; Reggie’s mom ‘n pop – ghosts. But the most worrysome missing parental guidance of all that I never recalled seeing was Jughead’s. Here’s a kid who hates girls, eats waaay too much and seemingly has difficulty dressing himself, wandering in and out of the pages of Archie comics without a hint of Children’s Aid on his tail. I always identified with him because he was such an oddball yet accepted. When I started to wear freaky stuff in high school just like Juggie, I was immediately classified as Art Fag or Theatre fag.

I’m putting too much into this, I am sure.

Click the post title to see the album.

I have to say that Monday was the best Halloween I have ever had in a long time. The street was festive, the good costumes were abundant and there was a definite drop in the WTF category of outfits. You know the ones I mean. Guys and gals in kabuki wigs… and that’s it. Their entire prep time from conceputalizing their idea to out the door: 2 minutes, which makes people ask them “What the fuck are you suppose to be?” Sharkboy and I usually just point and laugh at these people and I admit that they do provide a certain degree of street-fodder, making the people who spent time, money or both, look good in comparison, but a boa over your regular street clothes does not make you all mysterious and halloweenie. It makes you look lazy.

Which brings me to Sharkboy’s and my costume. Like them? Sharkboy went as the Littlest Hobo Dog. I was your basic Cat. We found these cute adorable masks in Vermont that when you press on the nose, they either barked or meowed loudly in a tinny, corrupt digital sound file way. Now, I realize my tail wasn’t big and bushy like a cat’s but I did have the ears. All day and all night, I was called other animals other than a cat: A rat! A dog! A mouse! A Playboy Bunny! (I swear to god) I bet if I had a large billboard sign that said CAT on it, I would have been called an aardvark or something. I was going to go out and grab that board game “Mousetrap” and carry that around with me all day and hope that drunk people caught on, but that would have confused things, I am sure. However, Sharkboy and I managed to get ourselves photographed a lot. It was the first time I have ever been asked for a picture so I was having a ham-it-up-n-cheese blast!

My fave costume? Halo’s Master Chief. The guy could barely move with all the Japanese and Geek cameras going off. Second runner up was the 5th Element Opera Star in the bubble. Great costume, but bizzare execution for a busy street.

Enjoy the pics!

Bored at work? Go vote! I did. Godspeed to all contestants!

Good. Freaking. Lord.

When does this guy/gal have time for …like… hygene?