Halloween 2013: God Save the Queen!

virginia jones as Queen Victoria costume goth

This year I decided to find a new “sexy” costume, so I went with the dowager Queen Victoria. She wore mourning black for forty years after the death of her beloved consort Prince Albert.  She was the first Royal to be photographed, and believed that cosmetics were for prostitutes and actresses. Is there really a difference?

The high point of my Halloweek was visiting Emo Philips, and he seemed very pleased to meet Sexy Queen Victoria.

virginia jones as queen victoria photographed by evan ballinger

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Being A Vampire Sucks

being a vampire sucks vampire image

When I was young, full of hormones and Anne Rice novels, I wanted to be a vampire, because living forever would be GREAT. I would get multiple opportunities to make out with David Bowie, for one. I had watched the Hunger so many times that I wore out the rental tape from the Blockbuster in Plano, Texas.   (As you know, all the most sinister people rent from Blockbuster). 

If I were a wampyr,  I would feel powerful and important and I would save a lot of money on food, and I would outlive all of my enemies- except for the very small percentage of them that also became vampires.  When life feels like it’s full of infinite possibilities and people and combinations, this is an attractive concept.  There will never be enough time to read all you want to read and see all you want to see.

 Twenty years later, you couldn’t pay me to be a dirty stinking vampire!  If I’m this sick of humanity and media right now, how bad would it be at 500?  There’s only fifteen different kinds of people in the world, and I’m sick to death of fourteen of them-  Also, if I lived forever, how many Spiderman remakes would I have to endure?  Who am I going to talk to?  Already, my interests and music references are met with blank looks of incomprehension by young people in bars.  What about the little girl vampire in Let The Right One In?  Two hundred years old, and all she gives a shit about is sucking blood and working a Rubik’s cube!  Who’s gonna talk to me about Robyn Hitchcock and Twin Peaks and Heathers in a hundred years?  Huh?  Answer me, goddammit!

Ground Control Karaoke

Dear Los Angeles Karaoke Nerds;

I hope you know that the finest karaoke in LA is to be found in the Ground Control book curated by the awesome Andrew Paul Holguin, appearing Tuesdays at Offbeat in Highland Park- are you aware that this is a tight, super-weird, nerd-friendly book?  That there’s a Smiths list as long as your arm?   That the crowd is patient and endlessly supportive?  It starts around nine and ends when the fun stops, which is never!  Here’s a short list of a few of my favorite songs.  Ground Control, thanks for letting me sing G.G. Allin’s I Kill Everything I Fuck, which was my prom theme.  Weird songs!  Weird people!  Good Times!

Arctic Monkeys-R U Mine

Black Keys-Gold On The Ceiling

Cramps- Goo Goo Muck

Current 93-Crowleymass

Daft Punk-Get Lucky

David Bowie- Moonage Daydream

Deniece Williams-Let’s Hear It for the Boy

Duffy- Mercy

Editors- Munich

GG Allin-I Kill Everything I Fuck

Gorillaz-Dare

Hole- Violet

INXS-Listen Like Thieves

La’s-There She Goes

Leonard Cohen-Future

Mark Ronson Feat Amy Winehouse-Valerie

Nick Cave-Jubilee Street

Nick Cave-Mercy Seat

Patti Smith-Because The Night

Pixies- Hey (Baby Ketten Version)

Psychic TV- Godstar

Pulp- This is Hardcore

Radiohead-Exit Song (From A Film)

Robert Palmer- I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On

Sam And Dave-Soul Man

Scandal-Warrior

Sly Foxx-Let’s Go All The Way

Soft Cell- Bedsitter

Smiths-Headmaster Ritual

Smiths- What Difference Does It Make?

Space-Female of the Species

Sparks-This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us

Suede-Beautiful Ones

Television-Torn Curtain

Tom Waits-I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You

Velvet Underground-Heroin

White Stripes- My Doorbell

Will Smith-Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It

Wombats-Let’s Dance To Joy Division

Yazoo-Bad Connection

Happy Anniversary to My Gaggia Titanium

My Boyfriend, The Automatic Espresso Maker

This Friday is a very special anniversary for me.  I had a furious one-sided battle with Starbucks last year, who at first lured me in with the promise of free soymilk in exchange for unquestioning fealty and then took it away, so I bought a Gaggia Titanium espresso machine and started making lattes at home, despite not really knowing how.

How fast a year flies by, especially when your heart is palpitating!  I am at 1700 espressos pulled (double shots) and have cleared $5,000 in savings.  I have put fancy beans (David Lynch, my favorite local Groundworks, Lord Windsor from Long Beach) and cheap/normal beans (bulk from Costco, no-name sale beans at Fresh & Easy) and I’m sorry to say, every single pull has been fucking delicious.   The  beans create a variety of flavors but I’ve never pulled a shot I didn’t care for.

When I’m away from home, I have been using an Aeropress rig that I’ve used to pull shots in the Catskills, in my sister’s place in New York, on set in Van Nuys and Simi Valley, and in the adorable hipster paradise that is Hicksville trailer park in Joshua Tree.  Pulling hot espresso shots on the fly makes you very popular with musicians, comedians, writers, actors, and directors.  This is also very fun to use and makes a delicious shot, but it’ll never replace my main man.

I mean, what does love mean if it’s not slowly killing you?

Very Gothixxx Halloween

Gothixxx were glad to welcome the lovely Dave and Jenn Bats of Release the Bats fame to the program, as well as guest cameraman Derrick Lemos.

California Costumes Stole Me!

I have been immortalized, in cheap wig form, as a blind pop star of some sort.

It has come to my attention that I have been immortalized, in cheap wig form, by the good people at California Costumes.  Now, I don’t know when I became a blind pop star, but evidently that’s my overall look.  These people owe me royalties and I’m going to sit right here on my couch until I get them.

Kissing Girls

I am friends with some young adults who are constantly hounding me about what kind of tips I can offer for kissing girls.

In my generation, we learned about kissing on the streets, where we would spend hours furiously smooching a piece of tarmac until our mouths were rubbed raw and smeared with creosote.  These days, I guess we can learn how to kiss on the Internet.

Tip 1:  Always Something There To Remind Me

Make sure to cover the whole bottom half of the girl’s face with an even layer of your spit.  Imagine a dotted line from ear to ear, across her nose, then reaching down to her chin, and try to cover that whole area.  Hormones are tricky things, and you don’t want to walk away from this adventure without her being able to smell your lunch on her upper lip.  That’s a lovemaker’s calling card.
Tip 2: Don’t forget the tongue!

If you were to kiss a girl that you liked, like *really* liked, and you just thrust your tongue rhythmically down her throat, that would probably subliminally implant an idea about something else in her head…wouldn’t it?  Try to do it in time with the Bee Gee’s “Staying Alive,” just for fun.

Tip 3:  Research and Development

Nobody wants to think about the worst case scenario, but a real modern lothario is going to have to accept the possibility that some of his conquests may die.  How can you help?  Well, think of every kissing session as an opportunity to take in information.   If you’ve spent some time getting hot and heavy and you could not assist the police in making a detailed plaster cast of the inside of  “the victim’s” mouth, you’ve wasted everyone’s time.  Touch every tooth with your tongue.  Now, do it again.  Make notes.

If you find you have time on your hands without an actual kiss recipient, practice on your hand or on the crook of your elbow (The Frustrated School-Boy).  Melons are no good, they emit a telltale smell when they’ve been kissed for too long.

Tip 4: Using Your Hands

It’s well known that there’s nothing that makes a girl feel safer and more cared for than when someone, preferably James Franco, softly caresses her cheek, then gently cradles her face in his hands to kiss her.  Now, imagine how much better she’d feel if imaginary James Franco had his hands loosely but solidly around her throat!  That’s a move that really lets a girl know she “rates.”

Tip 5: Hickeys

Giving hickeys, the practice of making a suck mark on a girl with your mouth, has fallen out of fashion.  Hickeys serve a lot of purposes.  For one, they are marking your territory, like a dog pissing on a tree.  For second, if you are judicious about the size and location of your hickeys, they can protect your property because you’ve marked a pretty girl in a hideous manner.  Thirdly, it can be a good indicator to parents that it’s time to get this little trollop on a birth control method if they don’t want to raise a surprise grandchild!  Also, if you are dating a particularly simple girl, she may form the impression that you are a sexy vampire, a la “Edward.”  How exciting for everyone!

  I once saw a Dunkin’ Donuts employee in Plano, TX who was wearing a temporary turtleneck of hickeys, covering him from his jawline down into his uniform, and although it was nauseating, I thought, “Well, at least somebody loves him.”  It may have been a series of unfortunate birthmarks.  What am I, a scientist?