Two images by photographer Janieta Eyre, featured at [FAT]

If you’re in Toronto, check out [FAT], or Toronto Alternative Arts & Fashion Week. The annual festival, which takes place from April 8 to April 11 this year, combines art, fashion, photography and performance. From their website:

Toronto Alternative Arts & Fashion Week is a multi-arts festival with a mandate of showcasing artistic disciplines rooted in fashion, and their exploration of the human body in today’s time. The festival aims to emphasize this mandate through the artistic disciplines of fashion design, photography, installation, video, performance, music and dance, in an effort to push forward and redefine our perception of the fashion phenomenon. When presented jointly, the underestimated social force of fashion is showcased, redefining its role in contemporary Canadian society as not only an economic colossus, but also as an engineer of social practices and vehicle for personal expression. The Toronto Alternative Arts & Fashion Week intends to introduce a broader audience to these related creative fields, building public interest while simultaneously creating a forum where artists can learn from and collaborated with each other.

Photographer Anna Ross and fashion label Plastik Wrap.

[FAT] Official Website

Nils Frykdahl, ask Dawn McCarthy, viagra Kirana Peyton and Meredith Yayanos.

Our dear Mer is a bit of a nomad, view which causes her to sometimes disappear and come back with new stories to tell. Last time she got swept away to tour Europe, she brought back bone-chilling photos of the Tyrolean Towel Rack of Imminent Doom. This time, we may see some weird relics of Americana, for Mer is headed North to bring the music of Faun Fables to Oregon, Washington and Utah. If you’re in Albany, Seattle, Portland, Olympia, Spokane (hometown concert!) or Salt Lake City, mark the dates on your calendar and come see a spectacle of songtelling unfold.

In a brief conversation before taking off, Mer told me that Faun Fables has just finished up a new record as well as an EP, and that a video is in the works.

• Faun Fables Upcoming Tour Dates
• Faun Fables MySpace Page
• Official Faun Fables Site

We had a few requests recently for a favorite spots in LA post, prompted by the sad departure of cafe Nova Express. Here’s one for your Monday nights, especially good for those who simply refuse to believe the weekend has to end somehow.

Held downstairs at Catch One – the same place as LA’s top industrial club Das Bunker, Ground Control‘s song books list music by your favorite alternative artists, including Kraftwerk as you can see above. Industrial, goth, metal, indie, 80s and more are all here in a friendly boozy atmosphere.

It doesn’t get crowded, people are genuinely nice and no one is afraid to make a complete arse of themselves, as I personally proved last night at the pajama party. And for those curious about what one wears to a pajama party held at a bar there are two options – sexy or hilarious, as modeled by me and my lovely roommate. So yes – check out Ground Control – it’s fun, even if you don’t sing.

If you see this snowy picture hanging on your new friend’s wall, watch out: you’re hanging out with an art thief! Someone had the gall to swipe this drawing, part Lori Earley’s Fade to Gray Exhibition, right off the wall at her solo show at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in NYC last Wednesday.

If you do happen to see it, feel free to swipe it back and make a daring escape. There’s a reward being offered for its return, but I know that any Coilhouse reader would return it simply out of the goodness of their heart. The painting wants to be reunited with its sister creations on walls of the gallery space:

Even if you don’t find the painting, you should stop by the gallery, which has been completely transformed to provide the right atmosphere for Earley’s work, on display until March 22. The ghostly paintings, in their intricate china-white frames, hang on walls which have been covered by white damask-motif flocked wallpaper designed by Lori herself. You can see the transformed interior, along with all of the images in the exhibition, on the gallery site.

• Further Info on Stolen Painting
• Exhibition Info with Photos
• Lori Earley’s Portfolio
• Lori Earley on MySpace

Blurry scan of the cover of an anti-VD mix CD I made back in 2003.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all. And to those who hate the day, I say this: Valentine’s Day is a Christian corruption of a pagan festival involving werewolves, blood and fucking. So wish people a happy Horny Werewolf Day and see what happens. –Warren Ellis

T-minus 45 minutes and counting to San Francisco’s third annual Valentine’s Day Pillow Fight! Play nice, kids. Attendees are highly encouraged to post links to their photos and bloggings of the event here.

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Helicopter hair!

Don’t call them stylists – the term is “hair entertainers.” Today a hair show with a circuit of about 10 major American cities, Hair Wars began in 1991, and originates from nightclub events put on by one DJ Hump the Grinder. Today the event features some of the most multi-layered, hyper-detailed hairstyles I’ve ever seen. From haute-couture hair architecture to silly, surreal takes on everyday objects, images from this event convey artistry, humor and kitsch, all of which constantly flow into one another.

Photographer David Yellen has created a series of portraits of the hair show participants, which he published this past fall. Perhaps equally as fascinating as the hairstyles are the people wearing them. There are no fashion models here, just ordinary people having fun. They are young and old, male and female; many project the air of having been through a lot in their lifetime. There are little mysteries in each picture, such as in the image above, where the model has a visible scar on her neck. How did that happen? She could’ve hidden it with a scarf or a neckpiece (or with hair!) – but she didn’t, and the image is more powerful for it.

A good selection of images form this series can be seen on his site, and a further selection can be seen on Radar Online.

• David Yellen Photography – includes large section of Hair Wars
• Selection of Hair Wars images by Yellen on Radar
• Hair Wars on Amazon.com

Shien Lee wearing Vecona

Powerful women – what a dull world we’d have without them! Comrade Shien Lee is a striking cocktail of brains, ambition and grace. A musician, student and sometimes model, she moved to New York last summer and has not wasted a speck of time, launching Dances of Vice on August 18 – within just weeks of her arrival. Named after an expressionist Rosa von Praunheim film, DoV is a self-described dance and cabaret club, held at the Pussycat Lounge. Since its recent opening Shien’s project has gained significant momentum and popularity despite her being a newcomer in the notoriously soul-hungry city.

Shien Lee and Lucas Lanthier

Co-hosting the monthly event with Lucas Lanthier [Cinema Strange, Deadfly Ensemble] she’s welcomed a lofty roster of guest performers, among them Jill Tracy, Tempest Storm and Oryx Incruentus, and held a fashion show by Coilhouse favorite Vecona. There are art exhibits, live cello and jazz bands, vintage-style photos of the club’s patrons on a paper moon. She’s created a genuine modern-day salon – an inherently wonderful concept.

DoV festivities

In today’s revivalist boom it’s refreshing to see a place that not only brings light to the very best of vintage aesthetics, but also encourages the attendees to be creative and original. The proof is in the event photos – happy patrons making the kind of effort I thought was long lost; actually having fun with costumes instead of slapping on another vinyl cincher over a fishnet top. It’s no wonder Dances of Vice got such a positive write up in the New York Post, describing patrons who “flounced around the room in an Edwardian powdered wig, others marched in WWI uniforms, and still others posed in 1940s pinup wear”. So nice to see credit given where it’s due – Dances of Vice earned it, and with some inspiring speed.

Rasputina, one of the acts performing at the Dances of Vice Festival

Shien’s showing no signs of slowing down, either. Next on the agenda is the first Dances of Vice festival – a two-day event in February featuring an impressive bouquet of talent. Rasputina, The Deadfly Ensemble, Desert Sin, Nicki Jaine, Victorian fencing, and that’s just half of it. There will be an art exhibit, which I’m thrilled to be part of alongside talented artists like Lisa Mei and my pal Molly Crabapple. And! There will be a costume ball. If you’re in New York this February 8 and 9, you know what to do. See you there!

(From the priceless Sun-Sentinel “Scared of Santa” photo gallery.)

It’s that time again. Can’t go anywhere without getting a shot of rancid Santa splooge in the eye. Can’t escape the mewling, reindeer shit-besmirched legions of consumer whores clamoring to buy perfunctory fad gifts for their relatives and co-workers. Can’t order a freakin’ espresso without someone trying to pour their special brand of putrescent nutmeg-flavored pus down one’s throat. Black Friday has ushered in what is arguably the darkest, bleakest period of the calendar year. Even if it’s a myth that suicide rates are highest during the holidays, some of the frailer agnostics among us will surely be reduced to gibbering husks by December 25th.

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But take heart, all ye heathens, Scrooges and secular humanists. There are so many delightful reasons to rejoice in the season besides the miraculous birth of Baby Jesus or being given a luxury SUV wrapped in a giant @#$!*& bow. Explore the wonderment beyond the cut.