Off we went, pirates with lost salty souls, hell bent on time travel and adventure.
"Who can tie a rope? Demanded the excitable Hatter.
"We don't need a rope if we don't intend to dock," said the sprightly Sage.
"Damn the rope," cried the salty Sea Witch. "A rope will weigh us down almost as much as children or ambition."
And with that they climbed aboard the hovering vessel and threw the anchor to the fire escape below. Only the heavens and hovering police helicopters could track their trek or cared for their gate.
After they had sailed or rather floated with a quickened trajectory for three weeks time (with nothing to eat but black currents and each others toe jam) they spied a curious effect.
There in the clouds that followed their trail appeared to be some kind of smiling cat. A UFO of feline proportion.
"Oh look at the alien pussy!" Cried the Hatter.
And look they did.
"We don't one here!" Said the slightly jealous Sea Witch, fearing hair balls and bad intention.
"Maybe she has food," said the quick think Sage.
And with that smart, ego sustaining insight, they waved the pussy to board. And board she did.. Although it wasn't a cat at all. It was in fact a cousin of the Hatter. A long lost relative, who despite numerous attempts to contact the Hatter through Facebook, he was forced to adopt the method of a floating pussy to garner his attention.
After a meal of tinned sardines and graham crackers, they docked (using the manpussy's rope) at a Paris cafe where they sipped absinthe tea well into the day and the night and the next morning.
In spite of an ecumenical effort, they inexorably bar-hopped Bedford Avenue.
Those spooky mothers just kept coming.
On Thursday May 21 Costume Jim posted on the Kostume Kult Diskuss list that Odd Costumes was going out of business. By 1pm Stefan, Jim, Peter, Susan and many more were pouring through the treasure trove of goodies. The photos that follow here are Rick Raguso, Frank Raguso, Nick Raguso, Susan McIntosh and yours truly; playing around with just a couple of our finds.
Odd Costumes is open again on Tuesday morning at 10am. Get over there and get the choice finds before they're gone!
Steve Buscemi showed up about an hour into our celebration. He had a meeting and so he needed to split after a short time.
Getting ready to be picked up by the Wondermare Blimp.
Synopsis
Wondermare is based on the notion that much of the behavioral conditioning programmed in our subconscious is the unhealthy byproduct of a world out of balance, a "house of cards" on the brink of catastrophe; the truth of which is obscured from us by our own myopic pursuits and illusions.
The exhibition uses as its setting the story of Alice in Wonderland precisely because it contains anecdotes about the rites of passage into adulthood. The tale consistently resists an easily defined linear structure and at the same time confronts the confusing and often nonsensical rituals that we must travel through in order to obtain a civilized or adult persona in the world we see through our looking glass.
Immersed in an eight-screen video landscape, gallery visitors will feel compelled to address the parts of themselves that are hidden, repressed and denied. As an interactive exhibition, the show creates the opportunity for a psychological rebooting or do over, where visitors will have another chance at addressing their own rights of cultural passage that they may or may not have gotten right the first time around.
Vignettes
On the way to Asya's I had to get a photo of Susan and Rick in front of the emergency knocking down of these 5 story buildings at 14th and 7th Aves. The middle retaining wall between the two building began to buckle out towards the street just days before. There is a man up in the yellow/orange box knocking off 50 to 200 1b chunks of brick and concrete.
I don't know who scribbled this all over Asya's mirror but it was unnerving for me. I think it was high art and isn't that what great art does, take us out of our comfort zones? I liked Norman Mailer's take on Picasso's blue period. Even though the pictures are sad and filled with despair they command the highest prices. Mailer believed that for those who could afford them, having a blind beggar on their walls gave them balance, grounded them in an earthly existence; it showed them a part of life they would never experience.
The night was very very animated. Finally we get to the party and the visuals and overall experience were mind altering.
Here is the current list of vignettes for our Wondermare show at Apex Art for July 2009.
The Beginning
The Birth of this Moment
Bullies
The Wondermare characters threaten and tease the viewer as they walk the gallery.
Meet The Terrorist - Division of Terror Control
Turn in your friends for your own safety. A ticking time bomb.
Astroheroes - Be The Hero You Were Meant To Be
When you get to the chroma key screen act out your inner hero.
My Breasts: My Rights - My Rites
A young person can shoot a gun but viewing love making in a movie is illegal?!
Feed The World
Juxtaposing the insulated rich across the gallery from the impoverished masses
The Zombie Minority
Get a real sense of what it's like to be immersed in Zombie culture.
Mad Hatters Tea Party (My Favorite Bachanal)
Tea cups filled with paint, anthropomorphic beings, beer bongs and a hedonistic orgy.
Smell The Flowers
Live in the moment with the blooming flowers blowing in the breeze.
Text Yourself To Death
The white rabbit leads us on a journey of people compulsively texting
We're At War! With Ourselves
Small children run around with toy guns imprinting evil deeds.
Body Dismorphia
Society doesn't like fat people and neither should you!
My First Time
A sexual experience
Religious Icons
Meet the cast of characters
The End
Design your own Tombstone
