TWITCH: FLEMISH EYE BALL - MAY 16 @ RCL

TWITCH TWITCH TWITCH
YOU DONT WANNA MISS THIS GIG AT THE #1 ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION, DOWNTOWN CALGARY - MAY 16!
CHAD VANGAALEN, WOMEN, PALE AIR SINGERS, GHOSTKEEPER, AND A SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE BY THE ONE AND ONLY JULIE DOIRON!

FAB: Yes, Lisa Brawn is FAB

VOTE FOR LISA BRAWN
The fabulous Lisa Brawn, an amazing woodcut artist hailing from this sweet little town called Calgary is currently in a car competition! Yes, she is a NASCAR racer too! No, not really. She is in the running to win a Nissan Hypercube. Its a competition between the top 500 most creative people in Canada, juried by Nissan. Only 50 are chosen to win their own Hypercube and here is your chance to vote for Lisa Brawn! She is currently #30 and you can help her get to the top! I heard rumours she is taking all supporters for a joy ride in the Hypercube to Peter's Drive In for shakes and onion rings. Vote now and vote everyday!
xoxo Kait

--> http://tinyurl.com/c6zjmg

HEP: DRINK STEAMWHISTLE!

It is tasty and fresh, and maybe even HEALTHY! And it comes in a green bottle, so go GREEN! Steamwhistle is an amazing supporter of arts and music across Canada, so support them! Steamwhistle is available at all Kitschykoo! Magazine events! DRINK STEAMWHISTLE!

FAB: JON PETERS

FAB: JON PETERS
PHOTOGRAPHY

My work deals with topics I want to examine, and I have a background in political science, so they're usually politically motivated. My last series dealt with urban decay, and it's relationship with creativity. The work published in this book is more esthetic than anything else, but I've always got something to say. This work is a mini-series called "Familiar Places" and I wanted to photograph familiar places in a way that makes them seem unfamiliar or alien. The common thread in all of this is that I'm always saying something. I always want to challenge people looking at my work to view things in a different way. I really value the relationship between artist and viewer. (Interview by Kait Kucy for Offbeat art book, release date TBA).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeters-photography/

TWITCH: JACK HARLAN

LOVE COME AROUND
BY A.R. Howerton

Jack Harlan is a Canadian folk-rocker who has made his way from coast to coast, starting in Calgary, dominating the Vancouver scene and slowly moving east until landing in Niagara Falls, where he now steadily works both sides of the falls and has become invested in US culture as much as in his native Canadiana.

On LOVE COME AROUND, Harlan’s fifth album and third indie release, his down-home folk sensibilities are focused primarily on protest songs, a subset of folk that has long been associated primarily with the revolutionary 60’s. The truth is that protest songs have been a part of folk music since the dawn of time and Jack Harlan reminds us of this by creating throwbacks to the songs of the Great Depression, especially the dusty rambles of Haywire Mac, the social laments of Woody Guthrie and the political awareness of Lead Belly.

Jack Harlan wears all of those influences, and more, on his sleeves. He’s been compared to Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Loudon Wainwright and has been labeled some variation of ‘the new Dylan’ time and time again. Thankfully, homage never degrades into imitation. Harlan adheres to the raw acoustic guitar/vocal techniques of his forebears and uses the style to great effect. Soul-searching songs of salvation, workin’ man’s laments, and good, ol’ fashioned love ballads flow together to create a dark velvet sea of emotion that is not only good for what ails ye, but is also endlessly listenable.

There are several tracks dealing with the American situation in the New Century. Economy Of Love, the lead-off track, is a ballsy plea for community and social sensibility to overtake the interests of a corrupt government. Secret Behind The Sun is a hard look at the poverty, hopelessness and ‘ashes of American dreams’ that have steadily risen to choke out the US in the wake of the Bush administration. Those songs of revolution flow in and out of heartfelt urgings to ‘start your revolution’, the original title and the main message of LOVE COME AROUND. The haunting This Time Around takes shades of recent pop culture and spins them into a quietly stated message of personal rebellion. Down From The Mountain and Be Not Your Failures are decidedly more uptempo numbers, but no less inspiring. The message is clear and true and good. Jack Harlan is urging us all to step up, be counted and make our mark for ourselves, our community and our world. Be good and you will be free. It is a powerful message that, while by no means new to folk music, has never been more urgently needed.



Check it out at http://www.jackharlan.com/music.htm

And order LOVE COME AROUND on
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Come-Around-Jack-Harlan/dp/B001EGFWH0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1234378025&sr=1-1

Or at http://cdbaby.com/cd/jackharlan2

ACEFACE: Jennea Frischke

ACEFACE: JENNEA FRISCHKE
Story & Photos By Harvey Hinton

Once upon a time, when one wanted to purchase a copy of the long-out-of-production Mad Magazine Game (Parker Brothers, 1979), one had to trudge though innumerable yard sales run by shady families who treated every overpriced, chipped novelty mug and piece of tarnished costume jewellery as if it were their firstborn child’s bronzed baby shoes. Now, one can find such a rare and hilarious item located near the bottom of a small stack of similarly strange board games in local kitsch merchant Jennea Frischke’s room in the Curious Cat Antiques Mall.

“I’ve always had an interest in vintage,” said Frischke, 25, “My mom, I was really lucky (that she) saved all her vintage clothing, so when I moved into junior high that‘s when I started to be able to fit into her old clothes.

“I started wearing it when I was quite a bit younger and we would go to thrift stores a lot. That‘s just kind of what my mom and I did.”

Those mother-daughter excursions to local thrift stores, which combined with her mother’s experience and taste with Frischke’s own developing sense of esthetics and self-education in the study of fashion, eventually led to the founding of their shared Antiques Mall room, named “Necessarys” by the Frischke matriarch.

“The last five years is when I‘ve actually been selling stuff” said Frischke, the topic of her store rendering her eyes almost effulgent with excitement behind a pair of glasses with black metal frames styled to resemble a kind of amalgam of wrought iron and lacework. “It started out as just a little, tiny display case at the Antiques Mall with my mom, and now we’ve had a room for a year.

“My mom and I used to go (into the Antiques Mall), and then one day we just asked how much it would be for a space and that we’d like to start small,” she added. “There’s always a little bit of space in the Mall.”

Frischke has also been participating in Calgary’s community-building Market Collectives as a vendor since last January.

The search for the perfect items with which to fill her shelves (and garage, which doubles as a makeshift storage space), such as a particularly eye-popping enamelled copper brooch featuring a brightly coloured pheasant, lead Frischke on pre-Kingdom of the Crystal Skull era George Lucas-worthy treasure hunts all across the city. “I go to flea markets, auctions, garage sales, thrift stores,” said Frischke, “Also, sometimes people will let me know if they want to get rid of some stuff, and I’ll go over.”


Frischke hunts for all manner of antique items, some produced as recently as the 1980s, though most from the 1940s-50s. Among her favourite items are Bakelite purses and house wares, avian jewellery and statuettes, and “big-eyed” art popularized by Margaret Keane.

“There’s one doll that I kinda want to get sometime, called “Little Miss No Name,” said Frischke of the object of her morbid longing. “I don’t think I’ll get it because it’s so creepy, but it was made in the 60s and she actually came in a box and she had this paper bag on her, and she had a tear on her face, and her had was outreached for money.

“You can’t find them in mint condition because kids were so upset by the doll that they would rip the tear off or cut her hair or put her in real clothes. They’re so expensive, and really creepy, but I really like them and think that there’s something really endearing about them.”

In light of her concern about the rarity of unaltered dolls, it is important to note that Frischke often modifies items to make them more saleable, though such items are always marked as having being changed from their original condition.

Arguably more challenging than actually finding antique clothing, furniture, knickknacks, gimcracks, baubles, and gewgaws is the task of putting a price on items which are often exceedingly rare, or rich with historical significance. The difficult nature of this business requirement is compounded by the fact that customers cannot haggle over set prices as in a flea market, as store owners are not actually present in the Antiques Mall, which is staffed by two cashiers at the entrance. “I use a lot of collector’s books as references, and sometimes I’ll go and spend a day looking around the Antiques Mall just to get comparisons for prices.

“Sometimes something could sell for more somewhere else, and you can’t get that price in Calgary.” As of press time the most expensive item sold by Frischke at Necessarys was a set of three attached orange plastic seats for approximately $500, though the store also stocks items at nearly all price points.

Customers come in all age groups as well, with young adults and hip baby boomers mingling in direct opposition to the antiquated (and unfashionable) idea of the packrat bag lady. “I’m not really sure what kind of crowd we draw at the Mall, because I don’t really work there, (but the Market) varies,” said Frischke. “I get a lot of younger girls, to people in their forties and fifties who are looking for something that they saw that reminds them of when they were kids.”

In addition to Necessarys, which requires an estimated average of two hours per week in stocking and maintenance time, Frischke also works part time at Diner Deluxe, as a clothes picker of nearly two years experience working in for Denmark vintage clothing store “Wasteland,” and as a summer instructor of bead-making and clothing modification courses for teenagers at ACAD during the summer.

In the coming months, Frischke plans to set up her own online store, to be called Piccala Vintage, on Etsy.com, as well as set off on a month-long road trip/supply run to Portland and Seattle with her boyfriend (a VHS collector) in the beginning of June.

Jennea Frischke’s website address is www.jennea-frischke.digital-arts.ca The Curious Cat Antiques Mall, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. all week, is located at 510 77th Ave. S.E.

TWITCH: DAVID BYRNE

ONCE IN A LIFETIME PRETTY MUCH SUMS IT UP
By Bad Tempered Zombie

David Byrne
Jack Singer Concert Hall
February 23/09

David Byrne is still inventive, still relevant, still has incredible pipes, and I would hazard to guess that he is still the man whom many heterosexual men crush on.

We had seats up in the nosebleeds of the second balcony for the David Byrne concert last night, but they turned out to provide a rather fabulous overview of the spectacle that ultimately unfolded on the stage. Dressed from head to toe in stark white, including Mr Byrne's fabulous shock of hair, the eleven band members, including three dancers, put on a gloriously avant-garde extravaganza, which was joyously received by the packed house.

The show kicked off with a funky rendition of the latest David Byrne/Brian Eno single Strange Overtones, and the menu for the night featured selections from the current Byrne/Eno collaboration, as well as drawing from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, and of course from those incredible Talking Heads albums.

Given David Byrne's senior statesman of music status, I have to admit I was rather expecting a singer-songwriter evening, but nothing could have been further from reality. This was a SHOW, a highly choreographed mélange of music and theatre and experimental ballet, strange and beautiful. For a musical concert, especially one in monochrome, it was an intensely visual experience. There was always something intriguing happening on stage, whether it was the dance during Life is Long which had the three dancers and Byrne rolling about on office chairs, a finale with everyone on stage donning a white tutu, or that incredible moment during Once in a Lifetime when the boy dancer leap-frogged over David Byrne's head, and all the while Byrne paused not his singing and guitar playing.

Although visually David Byrne could easily have passed as a cult leader, dressed all in white as he was and with that commanding presence of his, he was anything but autocratic during the performance. Often, he would blend in with the dancers or the singers and mimic their movements, or fade to the background of the stage while the dancers took over centre stage.

The audience was dancing gleefully in the aisles during the entire second half of the performance and joyfully clapping along with all their favourite Talking Heads numbers. I'm pretty certain that if David Byrne had offered up kool-aid and a chance to ascend to the mother ship, at least 75% of the audience would have taken a drink. Never before have I seen three encores at a concert. I expect it will be a long while before I do again.

http://www.badtemperedzombie.blogspot.com