love(ly and weird) for sale

We just finished our 2+days studio moving sale, and it was a successful and satisfying venture.

Our efforts were greatly enhanced by Saturday's dream team of Katrocket and Monsieur French, who catered our lunch, merchandised our cast-offs into desirability and transformed passers-by into charmed and happy customers.

Lots of our lovely and weird stuff found new homes with lovely, sometimes weird people. Like the wedding-card "mailbox" my brother made for us: a deep wooden box covered with brown fun fur. Ange tried to throw it out last week, and we had a little snark about it because I wanted to put it out at the sale, even for free. She managed to give it to a crazy cat lady / feisty and resourceful independent older woman for her cats to play in, who happily fastened it to her mobility scooter, along with a 28" tv and an 80's jigsaw puzzle of the Manhattan Skyline. She had once bought a 72" bookshelf home on that scooter, she assured us, and that "the oldest cat is the only one skinny enough to fit in the box, so he'll really love it."

On both Friday and Saturday nights, we had left a set of 4 stage props outside the doors of the studio, with no takers. They were made of carved foam, painted and glittered into dark frowny clouds on one side, goofy sparkly sunshine on the other. On sticks. We made them for a Scandelles performance to back a modern dance piece to "Golden Streams" by the Hidden Cameras (a sweet song about pee), which ended with the 2 dancers joyfully spinning long-tasseled gold pasties. Finally, on Sunday afternoon a nice man took them for a downtown church's sunday school and day camp to "dress up the yard" and perhaps use in the drama program. *Squeal!* I'm pretty sure there's no residual slutty queer cooties on them.

Then there's this little guy, clutching a stuffed pug named Corndog (won at the EX, of course) and resting among the sparkly fabric remnants we found in the loft in the last hour of the sale. He came back inside seeming still a little dreamy and selected a tube of holographic pink glitter and a BBJ ring as well. And then he really perked up when he saw something brightly-coloured in his mom's arms and wanted a better look. It was an adult doodle book - that classic draw-in-the-genitals gag gift - along with a pair of dyke-produced porn videos for some friends (ahem). Lovely. Only a bit weird.

Showgirls, Unicorns, Clams - oh my!

Wow, it's been a few weeks since our last post. And a lot has happened since the end of May: we road-tripped to Woodstock, NY to celebrate love and marriage in fine dyke style, Michael Jackson died, and I got to perform onstage in one of the great roles of the modern era, Cristal Connors from Showgirls. Yes, the one that Gina Gershon embodied so fabulously in that incredible, glorious piece of cinematic trash.
That's Kitty Neptune of The Scandelles as Nomi Malone who created the number. She's brilliant, hilarious and not all angry-crazy like the character - but her dance moves convince that she'll cut ya!


We also had an in-store party at Doll Factory by Damzels, a pre-Pride shopping event in our fave Leslieville boutique. Last year at Toronto Pride, Ange & I joined the Damzels on the pavement to rent a booth, trying to capture interest and a few dollars amid the chaotic party atmosphere. It was okay..., but we felt like we were missing out on too much for too little. Cocktails, cupcakes and proper change rooms were a better fit for both companies this year, and it gave Ange an excuse to make a unicorn, and pretend to be one.


Later the same week BBJ threw in with the Toronto Roller Derby community to sponsor Clam Slam, the first bout of all-queer skaters in Canada. The Clam Diggers came from the local league's teams, and were victorious over the "away" team Vagine Regime, whose skaters hail from Victoria, Edmonton, London, Ottawa, Kitchener and Montreal. We had always wanted to check out a roller derby bout since the league started up here 3 years ago, and we were so happy we chose this event as our friday night of Pride weekend! I'm no sporty girl, but this, I could get into: characters and costumes, impressive skating and tough girls hitting each other to score for their team. We will certainly be checking out some of the regular season bouts as they move to their new home at Downsview Park. Which hopefully hasn't been turned into a temporary dump like George Bell Arena's parking lot. Garbage strikes stink, roller girls rock.

Clothing Show Post Script

Ange really knows how to make the last hours of a show fly by. Props to Kelly and Sam for the style-to-share. Shouts of WORK! filled the aisle.

(This is probably not the best layout for multiple photos. I don't seem to be able to change their position once uploaded. Think I'll try using Flickr next time. Any other suggestions? Still a newbie blogger....)