Dreampepper

Part of this week was spent collecting the last documents required for Irish citizenship, my grandfather's death certificate and a notarized affidavit of estrangement. Terrific, excepting that only two dollars and two cents remained in my bank account when I was done, an oddly symmetrical notation of poverty. I am very grateful to my friend Myke, who, upon discovering the details of my anemic finances, spontaneously sent me a spot of money, enough for the packet of eggs, bottle of milk, and bag of past-the-date oranges which should get me through most of next week. I'm not sure how I would have managed without him. In thankful return, I ask that you take a peek at his store and consider purchasing his lovely steampunk-y Airships & Tentacles Colouring Book, because seriously folks, that rules. Pass it on!

I came up with a new movement yesterday while over at Duncan's, Woodcut exploitation. Line-art tramps in skirts like tiered bandages and hands full of guns. Seventies trash with Edwardian aesthetics. Wondermark meets Grindhouse. Lowbrow graphic poster art as intricately executed as comics from the turn-of-the-century Strand Magazine.

I'm wondering if I'm really the first to think of it. Currently, the hip uchronia is Steampunk, (Jules Verne punk-tech, the appealing, ironic union of Industrial Revolution and Victorian-era engineering re-mixed with post-internet technology), with the occasional dash of Raygun Gothic, (think Metropolis meets Buck Rogers, meals as pills, flying cars), or Space Cowboy, (Farscape, Firefly) - I haven't been seeing much else making the rounds.

Is there already a Woodcut Exploitation movement out there? Have I just been spending time in all the wrong places?

Actually - while I'm at it, I desperately want to know the name of the current design movement that's all wickedly baroque curlique in elaborately juxtoposed layers with vines, text, skulls, and absurd machinery. It's been all over clothing for almost a year and a half and yet I still haven't found anyone able to tell me what it's called.

Here's a good example - The music video Jonas Odell created for The Hours, (download here):

Alastair's footage of inside the Raja theatre has been put up on YouTube.

I can't tell if enthusiasm about Heart of the World is flagging because of the holidays or from the misconception that we've managed to get the down-payment together already. To clarify, we've raised the $48,000 deposit, not the $500,000 down-payment. Until we get it together, we're dead in the water. I recommend writing anyone you think might be interested in financing the project. Every little bit helps.