Morrigan, by Stuntkid

I love this incredible new drawing by Jason Levesque, aka Stuntkid. It’s a portrait of my friend Scar, and the shape of the crows is based on a dress by Mother of London (this drawing was based on a shoot that Jason did with Scar, which can be seen here). The colors and mood in this image take me back to the weirdest tales I grew up with; the somber atmosphere reminds me of the quiet creepiness of Ivan Bilibin, whose take on fairy tales is the most melancholy I’ve ever seen.

Pictures of last Valentine’s Skate Massacre, from the Wumpskate site.

You’ve not truly experienced the goth/industrial scene until you’ve experienced it on roller skates. The lights, the music, the fashion… at five times the speed, with bone-crunching pain! It sounds like the beginning of that surreal dream that always ends with you driving an ice cream truck in a sexy panda outfit, but here in LA, it’s real. And it’s called… WUMPSKATE (by the way, I’d pay about a million dollars to see Wumpscut’s Rudy Ratzinger on skates). Wumpskate happens once a month, and leaves you energized for weeks to come. The event is held at the ghetto-nouveau World on Wheels, where, for 6 bucks, you get admission and a pair of skates. There are two basic rules: dress up but don’t wear sharp spikes (duh), and don’t get so drunk before showing up that you can’t skate. For pussies who are afeared to step on the rink, there are old-skool arcade games, air hockey and rows upon rows of candy machines.

The best thing about this event is the could-not-give-a-shit attitude. Goth clubs are known for drama, but there’s no time for drama when you’re crashing your ass into the wall at what feels like the speed of light! Everyone is just there to have a blast. Every month, Wumpskate puts on a different theme. We’ve seen Pirateskate, Ninjaskate, Cyberskate, Steampunk Skate, Antigoth Skate, Road Warrior Skate… even SARS Skate (!!!). This upcoming Monday, get ready for… Valentine’s Skate Massacre.

Coilhouse readers in LA, break out your LOLLERSKATES and join us for an evening of excitement and adventure this coming Monday night. The current list of attendees is shaping up to be quite the Issue 01 reunion. The event is all ages, from 9 PM – 1 PM. We’d better see you there!

• Wumpskate’s Site
• Wumpskate FAQ
• Map & Driving Directions

If you’re in San Jose, tonight you have the opportunity to see some of comics genius and Coilhouse contributor Andy Ristaino’s hyper-detailed masterpieces in person. His new comic book, The Babysitter,  is out now – you can get it here, courtesy of SLG. You can also find some artwork and an interview with Andy in Coilhouse Issue 02. A brief description of The Babysitter from the SLG site:

By night Setsuko Kagaku is the world’s leading babysitter. Equipped with her trusty rocket pack, she jetsets all around the globe keeping the world’s greatest resource (the children, silly) safe. But by day she is just another teenager dealing with the same problems that any other Japanese schoolgirl faces: giant robots, big angry kaiju bakumono (monsters), crazy science experiments gone awry, weird tentacled beasties, global conspiracies, alien invaders, not to mention good grades, plenty of teen angst, and boys! Join Setsuko as she tries to deal with the panic and claustrophobia of living in a depiction of modern Japan that only a completely uninformed and rather stupid American could make.

Ristaino’s images truly send you on a trip unlike any other. Everyone sees something different in them. For example, when I showed Issue 02 to the nice Korean lady I buy lunch from, she looked at the picture below and said, completely unexpectedly (in, imagine, the thickest “Margaret Cho’s mom” accent ever): “some people may look at this picture and see GROUP SEX, but I see a revolution. Yes. Revolution.”

Don’t miss your chance to see this intricate spazzfest in the flesh! If you’re not lucky enough to be in San Jose tonight, definitely pick up a copy of The Babysitter when you get the chance! Here are the details, taken from Andy’s blog:

When – Friday February 6th
Time – 7:00 PM until Late
Where: SLG Art Boutiki & Gallery
577 S. Market Street
San Jose, CA 95113

My parents tried so hard to protect me from the Internet. In my early years online, my dad installed CyberPatrol, a program that changed all my curse words to “****”.  Fortunately, the program wasn’t too ASCII-savvy, and my exclamations of “shít!” and “fück!” echoed loud and clear across IRC. Then there was the time limit: after 2 hours online, a little dialog box would pop up and say to me, “Your Time is Up! Click OK to Sign Off” or something to that effect. Upon clicking OK, the net connection would shut down until the next day. But I found my way around that, too: I just never clicked OK, so the internet stayed on. And thank God, because otherwise I might’ve actually developed an interest in sunlight and fresh air in my teens. Fück that!

Sometime later, Bell picked up on the fears that compelled my dad to install that poorly-programmed piece of shít, and ran the ad above to promote its own version of a web-based parental control tool. You’ll note that the page that looks like the game board from Operation is actually an anatomical textbook, with the breasts, the ovaries, and – inexplicably – the stomach removed. What exactly is this ad saying – about women’s bodies, sex education, the intelligence of the parents they’re marketing to, and/or quality of the software?

Via the venerable SocImages, where commenter pcwhite notes: “I remember the controversy over this ad from several years ago. Bell trotted out the predictable non-apology stating that what they were really doing was *satirizing* the over-protective parents who would censor their kids’ anatomy illustrations. I think that’s a weasely batch of bullshit, but there you are. I also love how this ad is unintentionally truthful: filters routinely deny access to websites about sex education as well as porn.”

“Flowers” – an image from the Edwardian Ball by Eric Gillet

Last weekend, I decided – at the last minute, on a whim – to drive to San Francisco from LA to see my beautiful co-editor Mer play violin and theremin at the Edwardian Ball. The Ball itself was a dream come true; I witnessed Gorey-inspired circus routines, swishing crinolines, and epic handlebar ‘staches. No one was taking themselves seriously at all, and the goofball atmosphere had a rare romance about it.  Well, due to some unfortunate traffic, I missed the chance to see Mer play that night. But I’m in luck, for – again, it seems, at the last minute – it was decided that Mer would be coming down here for the second week of the Edwardian Ball, to LA! Here is the description from the Edwardian Ball site:

The Edwardian Ball Los Angeles – a splendid San Francisco tradition flies south for the winter, presenting an elegant, turn of the century celebration of music, theatre, dance, circus arts, DJs, ballroom dance, fashion, technology, and of course, the art and stories of Edward Gorey.  Held in the historic Tower Theater, and hosted by LA’s own big top phenomenon Cirque Berzerk in partnership with Edwardian Ball co-creators Rosin Coven and Vau de Vire Society, the night promises an unforgettable blend of audience and performance with humor, darkness, and style.  Also featuring Helios Jive, DJ Xian, Jill Tracy, Miz Margo, Dark Garden Corsetry, and many special guests.

One of the first portraits I ever took: Edwardian Ball DJ Miz Margo.

LA readers, you’d better not miss this. It’s the first time that the Edwardian Ball is happening here in LA, and it’s literally a circus blowing through town – one that we should welcome warmly, and in style (read Mer’s article California Carnival Spirit for more on what to expect). It’s also the first time that Zo, Mer and I will be in the same place at the same time since our launch party, and we’ll have Issue 02’s on hand for anyone who wants to check it out. See you there!

Saturday January 31st, 2009
Tower Theater
Doors and show 8:00pm, all ages welcome
$30 general, $75 VIP (includes reserved balcony seating & hosted absinthe bar)

I’ve recently found myself drawn to art that simply, honestly makes me happy. After years of looking at and blogging about all manner of darque art, all I crave right now are images that make me feel like a child – not in the helpless sense, but in terms of wonderment and the belief that the world is a magical place that opens up to me. Earlier this week, I mentioned that Hirotoshi Ito’s sculptures that had that effect on me, and now I’ve uncovered someone else whose work makes me feel this: Amy Ross.

On her blog, NatureMorph, Ross imagines herself as a mad scientist. As she writes in her artist’s statement:

My drawings offer visual hypotheses to the question: what would happen if the DNA sequence of a plant or mushroom were spliced with that of an animal? Using graphite, watercolor, and walnut ink on paper as well as directly on gallery walls in site-specific installations, I portray animals morphed with branches, mushrooms, berries, and blossoms, thus forming implausible hybrid creatures. These images subvert the traditional genre of botanical illustration by approaching the close study of the natural world through the lens of genetic engineering and mutation gone awry.

I’ve seen similar ideas before – in paintings, in fiction, in taxidermy – but Ross’s gentle treatment feels somehow different, familiar. Perhaps the explanation for that sense is as simple as these pictures reminding me of illustrations from a long-forgotten storybook, or flashbacks to picking mushrooms as a child (a common family activity in Russia). Could I have stumbled on one of these, at an age too early to remember, before it scampered out of sight? One can hope.

Sketch of a tenrec

If you’ve always wanted to recreate this creepy deleted scene from Alien, here comes your chance! Latex blog 3XL reports that London-based company d.vote has created an inflatable bondage ball shaped like the terrifying eggs from the seminal space horror film. At a price of £950.00, the Alien Egg promises to deliver “the ultimate sensory deprivation experience.” Check out the jazzy animated gif and description from the manufacturer’s site:

The Alien Egg is made from two ‘skins’ of rubber. The outer layer is made of thick 0.8 mm rubber whilst the inner layer is made of medium 0.5 mm rubber. Each skin can be made in different colour to give the Egg the maximum visual effect. It has a British Respiratory Gas Mask inside which has a double length corrugated tube going to the outside for breathing

You enter the Alien Egg and put on the respiratory mask which connects to the exterior through a tube. The four full length zips quickly close the Alien Egg holding your entire body inside its rubber walls. When inflated, the Alien Egg restricts all movements from within and isolate you perfectly inside its shell.

My favorite selling point: “In d.vote’s Alien Egg… No one can hear you scream!” Well, if you’re going to get yourself one of these happy places, why not go all the way and transform yourself into a complete rubber monster? For another €1037.50, you can get the heat-sensitive, color-changing Jelly Fish Corset with “inflatable hip lips” that’s pictured above right, and then the alien experience (and possibly, your whole life) will be complete. Disclosure: for all my poking fun at latex price tags in this post, I should note that a few years ago I had the pleasure of photographing the exact corset pictured above, and I can say that to the discerning collector/fetishist, it’s worth every penny. I see it more as a sculpture than a garment, and hope to see Pressure creator Siba Kladic produce more pieces, though she’s been quiet on the web for years. Like Kariwanz, Siba’s work transcends the raunch of run-of-the-mill rubberwear and enters a far more sublime, uncharted sex/fashion landscape. For more tentacular creations, visit her site, Pressure Corsets.

Musically, I have two main guilty pleasures: ABBA and And One. Like most bands producing evil dance music, And One is best enjoyed when the lyrics are sung in German, for it provides fodder for interpretations such as the one above. If you like your Boyd Rice like this, and your Bollywood films like that, then hit play, get up, and be ready to punch the floor to this EBM classic like you’ve never heard it before.

[via Milly]

Photo by TruShu on Flickr: “With smiles like that they must be … stoned. Bada-bum!

Aww, look at those toofs. I kinda wish these three guys would start bobbing up and down and singing me a happy tune. I wish I could have these three on my bedside, ready to talk when I really need some guidance. They look like they’d give really, really good advice, don’t they? These were crafted by 51-year-old Hirotoshi Ito. Here’s an excerpt from Mr. Ito’s bio at the the Keiko Gallery site:

After graduating from the distinguished Tokyo National University of Fine Arts, Mr. Ito was destined to take over his father’s masonry business in his hometown of Matsumoto City in Nagano Prefecture. He works out of his studio at home, creating his sculptures, while attending his family business.

Hirotoshi Ito continues to find new and original ways to create sculptures that people would touch and feel the unexpected softness and the warmth of them. He would be honored if his work would add laughs and smiles to people who come in contact with them.

What I love about these sculptures is the idea of a secret life. Since I was old enough to understand adventure stories (shout-out to Mio, my Mio), I was enchanted with the idea that the right string of words could make a door appear when there wasn’t one before, that every object (the more mundane, the better) had an alternate purpose, revealed only to those who could see the world in a different way. It’s rare to find something on the net that reaches me on such a tactile level, but I can almost smell the roasted coffee beans, mixed in with the scent of cold moss and stones. It makes me wish, as I believed with all my heart was possible as a child, that my hands could know the secret to unlocking any object they touched.

• Hirotoshi Ito’s Official Site
• Hirotoshi Ito’s Blog (in Japanese)
• Hirotoshi Ito on Flickr
• Hirotoshi Page at Keiko Gallery (read this lovely writeup of Ito’s work by William Thrasher)

Book cover found by Lelio (original post here). Pure horror!

I thought I’d ease you guys into this post with a picture of a fluffy kitten, because I’m about to post the wrongest shit ever. Think of this intro image as a reverse unicorn chaser, because I’m sadistic like that.

So the image above and the images below come from a cozy little LiveJournal community called thrifthorror. The concept behind this community is simple:

Some things you can’t even give away … except to the church’s thrift store. Saw an abomination unto taste at the Salvation Army? Encountered pure terror – or Junior’s faintly suggestive third grade clay pot marked at $7.99- at Goodwill? Send a picture, tell the story. Maybe through our combined efforts, that pot can find a home.

Most of the images posted speak for themselves, but they get ten times better with contributors’ colorful commentary. Some select favorites, with comments from the journal, below:

Top Row

1. Leave the Wright brothers alone!! [source]
2. This is what happens when you scramble duck eggs that were nearly ready to hatch. Imagine standing over the stove, compulsively poking at your eggs with a spatula, when a little yellow head pops up from the congealing mass of rapidly denaturing proteins. Then another little head. Then another. [source]
3. Santa wants you to bend over now. [source]

Middle Row

1. Choking the Chicken? (I know, it’s a goose) [source]
2. I think, think, it’s supposed to be a humorous cover for a tissue box. [source]
3. No trip to the thrift store is complete without a pig orgy. [source]

Bottom Row

1. Take a picture, it lasts longer. [source]
2. Actually, I know where all those scuffs are from. I mean, it’s pretty obvious. This kid got beaten up. A lot. [source]
3. Everyone needs some thrift shop douche! [source]