Wednesday 31 March 2010

Meeting The Curse!


So I drove across the Don on Sunday to Estonian House, to plunk down my $5 for the Downtown Toronto Record Show and finally get to meet Toronto punk legends The Curse.

I must confess at the outset that I wound up more nervous and star-struck by this prospect than I have been in a decade or more. I even forgot my copy of Teenage Meat at home. It's a real shame as I had been thinking about what I might ask The Curse for a good long while, and I thought I had some decent questions prepared.


As soon as I spotted Mickey Skin (lead singer) and Anna Bourque Champion (AKA Dr. Bourque, bass player) though -- both of them looking very sexy, might I add -- everything I'd thought about flew out the window and I was stuck stammering, "uh, uh, I really like your band" or some such drivel. I was a complete mess.

Nonetheless, they were both very kind and polite. "Who am I then", Mickey challenged, and I shot right back with "Mickey Skin" - which elicited a wonderful smile from her, and a follow-up as to whether I'd actually seen The Curse play a show back in the day. Alas no, I was too young to be so lucky. Mickey's lovely daughter Zoë did me the honour of taking a few photographs of Mickey & I together, and they were both very funny ladies.


I approached Anna Bourque then and managed to let her know I was a fan not only of her band, but also of her 1991 short film "Lovely Boys" -- which really made a strong impression on me when I saw it back in the early 90s. I loved the fact that in this film sex (from a woman's POV) was presented as something fun and funny, an adventure, not steeped with drama, guilt or risk as in almost every other film I've ever seen. Anna very graciously posed for a pic or two as well.


Unfortunately for me, the last copies of Treat Me Like Dirt had sold out before I got there. Publisher Ralph Alphonso graciously offered to mail me the second-last copy of the second print (then sitting back at his house) so I paid up & I thank you greatly for that, Ralph. Local histories of this kind are all too easy for residents to advise upon after the fact -- apparently the third run will include at least one name change!

Author Liz Worth was there -- another person I'd have loved to have actually had a conversation with if only my brain hadn't left me sputtering. I thanked her for writing the book, and that was really all I could think to do. Duh. I wanted to ask her what she'd found out about The Fits. I was overwhelmed.


Folks milled about and anecdotes were shared, a rare bit of Curse concert footage handed to Mickey on DVDR, more pictures taken. I spied many familiar faces from the screening of The Last Pogo some time back. It was exhilarating but I was also feeling a bit awkward and obvious, like some third-rate hanger-on to an incredible conversation, so I decided to make my leave.


Just as I was leaving however, drummer Patsy Poison showed up, looking every bit the rock star in her peace sign boots, bright lipstick and sunglasses. I raced over and asked to shake her hand. "Why would you want to shake my hand", she asked. A mental spasm. "It held the sticks", came out of my mouth. So we shook hands and I probably beamed at her like an insane person and then I left, neglecting to even get a picture with Ms. Poison (the photo of her here, as well as the last photo of all three ladies, were taken by Margaret Catto).


I spoke to Mickey about she and Patsy's performance last month with The Existers and asked if there were likely to be more shows in her future. I don't know if she was serious about a "Punk Divas tour" (she was laughing when she said it) but the idea sounds great to me; she certainly has charisma to spare. Also, another show would give me the opportunity to maybe not come off like an idiot. Maybe.

Friday 26 March 2010

The Curse Have A Signing Session!


Well, it's not quite an onstage reunion but 3/4 of Toronto punk legends The Curse will be signing stuff at the Downtown Toronto Record Show this Sunday, making this perhaps the first time in 30 years they've have been "together in public".

The record show runs from 11am-4pm March 28th, and Mickey Skin, Patsy Poison, and Anna Bourque will be joining author Liz Worth to sign copies of Worth's local punk opus Treat Me Like Dirt and whatever else from 2-4pm.

The event is being held at the Estonian House Banquet Hall (at 958 Broadview Avenue). Cost to get in is $5 and there's free parking in the back. Thanks to the great Ralph Alphonso for the head's up.

To get you excited, here's Mickey & Patsy performing "Shoeshine Boy" last month with The Existers at The Smiling Buddha (why wasn't I at this show? grrrrrrrrrrrr) --

Monday 22 March 2010

Comic Book Culo Kings!


I have planned for some time now to highlight Manuel Lopez's ¡Historietas Perversas! - a blog dedicated to "cover scans of Mexican adult comics". In practise, this ends up largely being the work of Oscar Bazaldua (the reigning king of such comics) who has been at it since 1980. Mr. Lopez has kindly assembled his favourite covers into one link for easy perusal (these are also on flickr), and has similarly organized his ass-themed covers too.



If that's got you crying out más! más!, see Neat Stuff for more colour covers and deviantart for some B&W Bazaldua. Or, if you're curious to see what the inside of some of these comicbooks looks like, have a gander at Comic Mexican Cumshots.


Now any assfool should be well satisfied with the Mexican variety. But if there's one thing I like more than adult comics with big ass beauties, it's drawing thematic correlations. So let us venture across the Atlantic now, to a different Latin 'Master of the Ass'...



I speak of course of Paolo Serpieri, who has been working in comics five years longer than Bazaldua (that's 1975), and created nothing less than a worldwide ass sensation with his Druuna character - who first appeared in 1985's Morbus Gravis.



Bastantes, you cry, bastantes culo! But no, I have yet one last link in store for you: that of Erotrash, purveyor of full editions of nasty European adult comics of yesteryear. Yes, you can snap up sleazy scans of such titillating titles as Hembras Peligrosas, Historia Blue, Bionika, Sukia, and Sadosex!!



The only bummer here is that Erotrash seems to stop updating about three months ago - so it may be a dead blog, who knows? Get while the getting is good, as always. And enjoy some sex and violence in a second language!

Sunday 21 March 2010

The Gore Gore Girl!


As most anyone online can attest, the internet is full-to-bursting with porn. Anyone and everyone seeking visual depiction of what turns them on are probably just a few clicks away from slackened satisfaction. What's precious and rare online however is any real insight into that porn*, any sense of signifiers, themes or meaning.

This is where The Gore-Gore Girl comes in.


A self-described "porn nerd", TGGG, if I may call her that, is taking a Ph.D and blogging about the films she sees in her studies. Her emphasis in analysis started out as subversive exploitation and 70/80s genre films (all the better if they're gory) but quickly shifted to a focus on porn movies, from classics like Behind The Green Door to the latest Wicked Pictures release.

Make no mistake: the Gore-Gore Girl is no shrinking violet. She examines roughies like Hard Gore, Forced Entry, or Waterpower with gusto, and her blog goes a long way toward deriding the myth that hard porn is a 'men's genre'.


Prostitution pictures from a feminist perspective, the gender issues brought up by Long Jeane Silver and her unique 'permanent phallus', the low-brow hi-jinks of 'The Gillies', and a profile on director Mason AKA Sam No -- The Gore-Gore Girl brings an unusual assortment of interests to the blogosphere, and we are the richer for it.

If only she'd post more...


*Other blogs I might recommend along the same lines would be Pornonomy, XXX Marks The Plot, and Sock Hop Gang Bang.

Friday 19 March 2010

The Cramps - Lonesome Town


Watching the (sadly silent) early 8mm footage of The Cramps below this afternoon had me thinking about the late great Lux Interior again, and how bizarre it still seems that he's not around anymore.



I had a yen to hear The Cramps' slower tunes all in a row, and, after I gathered them together, I figured what the heck - I may as well post them to the blog in case anyone else has the same inclination.

You may be happy to hear I have finally learned how to compress MP3s into a single file, and thus you will not need to download each track here anymore.

The Cramps - Lonesome Town

The songs included are:

1. Lonesome Town
2. Fever
3. Primitive
4. Green Fuzz
5. Don't Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk
6. Under The Wires
7. Kizmiaz
8. It's Just That Song
9. The Strangeness In Me
10. Sinners
11. Strange Love
12. Taboo
13. Lonesome Town (Live)

LUX INTERIOR 1946-2009

Monday 15 March 2010

Jamie Gillis Memoirs!


Included almost as an afterthought in this interesting New York piece on last Sunday's Jamie Gillis memorial at Zarela is the news that he did in fact finish his memoirs before succumbing to cancer. That's a silver lining on this dark cloud, to be sure.

Also included is Gillis' own rather remarkable tribute to his alter ego/nom de cine:

“Jamie Gillis will always be the bad boy of porn, the lover of life — eager to taste everything, in a way, even immortally so. I salute him because I honestly feel he represents something wonderfully outrageous and exuberant. Hats off to you, sir.”

Saturday 13 March 2010

The Thickness!


There's ample bounty of plus-size goddess-hood on display at The Thickness. See also fuckyeahchubbygirls!

Wednesday 3 March 2010

The Starkweather Fix - Majestic Burning Bush!


Here's a song The Starkweather Fix recorded sometime after What The Swedish Butler Heard came out that has until now never been released in any way, shape or form. We played it live though, so it may ring a bell if you saw us playing shows.

The Starkweather Fix - Majestic Burning Bush

Band-wise, this is Fucker Bob on guitar, Neeler Peeler on bass, Jay Matuschka on the drums, and me yowling away. What am I yowling?

Queen Pussy's on the prowl
burning for a man
blow a napalm kiss
sizzle in the pan

crushing under heel
their dead sex deal
crushing under heel

all this empty air
is gonna fry in fire
and your majestic burning bush
made childhood a liar

the tables turn
the very air will burn
the tables turn

blazing breasts
hot hips
suck on sexy sauna scent
between her steamy lips

every day this old world
burns away a little girl
every day this old world

humidity
stifling
hard to breathe
but you'll never leave

cauterizing flames
are the heat you feel
and this majestic burning bush
has the power to heal



Tuesday 2 March 2010

Catfight With An Axe!



greatcatfights3050 brings us this Italian scorcher of unknown origin. There's your violence.

And here's your sex, courtesy of psvids at Shufuni.