Jesjit Gill!

Last Sunday I went to TCAF for the first time -- that's the Toronto Comic Arts Festival -- and it was a whole mess of comic artists taking over the Toronto Reference Library, a weird & wonderful gathering of talent, including such legends as Chester Brown, Adrian Tomine, Seth, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi.

Seated at a table with long time friends Davis Weir & Fiona Smyth was a guy I had not met previously, whose art made the greatest impression on me of the festival - Jesjit Gill.


Mr. Gill has been screen-printing for about five years now and, not only does he make fantastic screen-printed band posters and artwork (as well as the free Free Drawings newspaper), he teaches other people how to do it as well. Very punk rock & I am happy to say he was a really nice guy too.

Catch his work at the Public Address show on now through June 11th!

Below is some of his work I've nicked from these various sites.

Nina Hartley Speaks!

Here is a pretty great interview with porn star Nina Hartley on the subject of -- you guessed it -- sex.

Speaking with Brad Warner at the Suicide Girls blog last April, subjects tackled include: Buddhism & Zen, getting to know your own needs, sexuality, objectification, feminism(s), the porn industry, and why they'll never be a porn actors' union.

A sample:

NH: ...I realize in my life that kindness is a choice you make.

BW: What do you mean by that?

NH: I take compassionate awareness and acceptance as far as I can take it without being an actual temple living, Zazen-sitting, observant Buddhist. But it is a primary philosophy that I grew up with. Zen, in terms of my daily life, in terms of compassion, infuses all of my work especially my interaction with my fans because a lot of people look at people who consume pornography as losers, wankers, just completely pathetic.

BW: We are!

NH: [Laughs] I don’t see it that way. There are certainly many people in that world who could be considered pathetic losers but liking porn does not make you such a person. As a stripper I realized that men and women are equally fucked over about sex, but in such different areas we’re blind to the other’s pain. For certain kinds of guys, women are heartless bitches and cock teases and will bleed you dry before giving you a kiss. And for some women, men are asshole jerks and want one thing. Really, it’s the culture keeping them equally ignorant and then saying, “Go off and get married!” Watching the men, just showing them my vulva, I realized how sad it was. No woman in their life had ever said, “Here it is, here’s what I like, here’s what you can do with it, try it this way.” Poor guys are supposed to know what to do.

Reel Streets: The Offence!

Here's a remarkable post on British film location site Reel Streets, focusing on one of my fave flicks, Sidney Lumet's The Offence (1972).


Lumet made much of the deeply weird spaces of Bracknell, Berkshire's post-war 'new town', and the effect of the photographs is to make the place seem both more and less real.


Not least because there's no people in them, nor even any cars on the roads.

Deutsche Banks! Ugly Stick! Live!

So tonight I ventured out for what is, sadly for me these days, a rather rare event: a live music concert, at Rancho Relaxo on College St. in Toronto. What was so important? What did I need so desperately to see and hear?


I could not miss the return of Ugly Stick, one of my favourite local bands; their last show, back in March of 2008, was covered here. Nor did I want to miss No No Zero guitar player Zak's debut performance with baby-fresh Bush League stepchild Deutsche Banks.

Deutsche Banks had the unenviable task of starting a four-band bill to a remote Toronto crowd, but they were busting it out like it was New Years Eve or something and I was instantly hooked on this sound - a potent blur of short songs with great choruses and hooks, and even fancy double-vocal parts. Very impressive set & I hope to catch another show soon.

After Deutsche Banks was a touring trio from Regina called Hot Blood Bombers. They had nice gear and kind of reminded me of Grand Funk Railroad, but weren't really my cup of tea.

Third up was Ugly Stick who, unbeknownst to me, no longer have Mark on drums (sorry, I don't know the new guy's name). ***Note: It's Brendan of The Midways!*** The set started with "Geek U" and ended with a raging "Betray Me", and I was a very happy concert attendee. Ugly Stick have got the knack & are able to rock both fast and slow & that's no small accomplishment. I certainly hope that we won't have to wait 13 months for their next show.



I left after Ugly Stick because, well, I like to go out on a high. And I was getting tired. So I missed Endangered Ape.

Georges Pichard!

Georges Pichard (1920-2003) was not just an amazing erotic artist, but an amazing artist full stop - whose work ran the gamut from family-friendly comics to advertising illustration (including at least one album cover), superhero parody to classical adaptations, and - most famously - Pichard's erotic works, themselves ranging from whimsical, funny and fantastic to extreme S&M imagery that is still shocking all these years later.









Apparently, none other than Mr. Marvin Gaye was a fan.










From the Lambiek Comiclopedia --

"Pichard's style is immediately recognizable: he draws tall, well-endowed women, whose starry eyes with excessive make-up give them a teutonian and gothic look."

With the advent of high-speed internet, the diligent may be rewarded with volumes of Pichard's work in a single torrent; whether related or not, his art is certainly undergoing something of a resurgence of interest.

There is an "official site" up, but no content is currently available there.

Elvis Fire Hydrant!

Consider this a late addition to my Fire Hydrants of Tweed post. Our friend D_W_ of Everything Elevator sends us a pic of one hydrant we missed - the King of Hydrants, in fact.

Just the thing for a case of Burning Love?