Meet the new cat...almost the same as the old cat.....

New family member Ace is on the left, Fang on the right. We think they may have been litter mates as they're the same age and look very similar. We took in Fang about 3 years ago, and Ace just this past week after feeding him for about 6 months....

Prints, Pinheads and Poppadums

J10X & I checked out two gallery openings last night in New London: 'Blotter' at the MUSE Gallery & 'Mondo Carnie" at the Hygienic.

The 'Blotter' show is comprised of fabulous etchings, collaborative monotypes and woodcuts by Christian Dyer & Elisa Schauer. The etchings feature whimsical robots, very simple images that feel like soft-lead pencil drawings: one striking etching is a multi-plate print with the images split between subsequent plates, other etchings had light color washes. The gorgeous monotypes are collaborative pieces created by Christian and Elisha, all in black & white, and the woodcuts were simply spectacular. This is definitely one of the better shows I've seen at Muse - I just don't understand why they take up wall space with display boxes, as it forces them to display many works in odd locations on the walls, too close to the floor, or in too tight spaces.

After seeing these beautiful prints, we skipped down the road to Hygienic Art opening of the fantastical 'Mondo Carnie' show. Gorgeous, fun pieces, with 3 of the artists being 'Volonte Morceaux', of Ideat Village painting under 3 different personas. (Oh, and 'Ideat' IS pronounced as 'idiot', as you may have guessed...)

Some pieces were very carnie/sideshow/freaks -based, others, by artists such as Lipgloss Crisis and Looketha (my fave) were sumptuous and entrancing. The pieces had plenty of macabre humor and were just jaw-droppingly fantastic. There was an accordion player on Saturday lending some fantastic ambience to the show, as well as a couple of funhouse mirrors to amuse.

J10X & I then had some Indian food, and went off to see Alice in Wonderland. Yup- I saw that movie twice this weekend, once in 3-D & once just plain 'ol regular. Not much of a difference, I'm afraid.

[Filmmakers: please, oh please, stop making films 'based on' anything that is sci-fi or imaginary written in the 19th century. You always fuck it up. And someone please shoot Helena B-C - she's unbearable.]

Alice in Wonderland/ Through the Looking Glass is one of my favorite books, so I really tried to be as open-mnded as possible knowing this move was to take place years after Alice visited Wonderland. I was doing OK up to the point that she enters 'Underland'- it just went awry after that. Being a Disney movie, I was pleasantly surprised Alice had any strength of character, but there were definitely some revoltingly twee moments. The movie looked fabulous, but anyone familiar with the original text may feel cheated.

Rating: 2.5 crowns out of 5, but the crown should be mine, dammit, as I am the best Queen of them all.