Colin's Comment

Saturday, July 22, 2006

I handed the painting in in time! I delivered it to Nicole with a half hour to spare, gripping onto the painting to make sure it didn’t slip off the piece of wood I’d glued it too, again! Just as well, the heat hit us hard on Saturday and I was good for nothing, spent the afternoon having a siesta. I’m switching to living at night!

Friday was the annual Pirate Show #3 opening at the World Famous Marine Club, a bar oddly enough normally patronised mostly by postal workers and aging punks. It was sweltering, I drank water all night long from a keg thoughtfully provided by the bar and I never had to pee, I just sweated it out. It was a fun time, my painting didn’t sell but I never sell anything so I didn’t mind. Many a jolly seadog was there, Forg, Janice & Ken (who’s Pirate costume, a t-shirt byghod, was so pathetic he got 2nd prize in the costume contest as a joke), James & Susan (who won the 2nd prize for her pirate flag design), Owen & Terry, Steve Richards, Jason Ainsworth, Rot (dressed as a policeman, I guess he read the invite wrong) & Heather, Jim, Holly, 12, David Boswell sweating it out in a wool suit and many others including some very, umm, attractive pirate wenches! (It does astound me somewhat as someone who grew up in the seventies when the old school feminists branded every heterosexual man as a pig and a rapist to see these young ladies not afraid to tart things up a little. I still feel pangs of guilt and shame leftover from that bra-burning era that I am indeed, a straight male and singular the cause of all evil on the planet. The confidence of these young women speaks not to a step backwards but to a sense of ease with themselves. Some of the women involved in the organising of the Pirate show seemed to be part of the burlesque revival, which may look like the old fashion bump and grind but now the women are firmly in charge.) The Creaking Planks, a band that I was a posed-member of (although they never actually called me to attend a single practice I was twice enticed to join them onstage) played some rousing sea shanties on accordion and ukulele. Very piratical!

And the tattoos! Dear Lord, I nearly felt naked without one! People there were covered in tattoos, their arms so heavily tatted I think some of them may be running out of room! I’ve never been able to get a tattoo, I have hyper-allergic skin so virtually anything that’s not cotton or leather against my skin will give me raw, bleeding rashes. I’ve had rashes from band-aids, shirts, wristbands, and the one time I got my ear pierced at Lollapalooza (Theresa Henry forced me into it) I had to take out the stud before my earlobe exploded. So I’ve missed out on two of the great cultural signifiers of my generation, tattoos and piercings, but who knows, that might be a good thing!

Oh yes, there was art on the walls, some of it quite good, but nobody goes to a art opening to look at art! Pshaw! I stayed until midnight, I got a ride home with David Boswell in his cab. The party is on again tonight and Sunday but I’m too fried to attend, I stayed home tonight to watch “Ghidra the three headed monster” on CBC - joy!

PS My pirate name is Joshia Bunnybottoms.

PS My painting is titled “Pirate tea lady with cat and carronade”
Hmmmm… “Cat and carronade”, a good name for a pub, or a title for a sea shanty…

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