Red Herring at the Toronto Burlesque Festival 2011!

I'm incredibly excited to announce that I will be performing this year at the 2011 Toronto Burlesque Festival!

Last year was a whirlwind rush of my first-ever Burlesque Festival, combined with opening the Rising Stars Showcase on Friday night!

Last year's fancy logo!

I met a whole cast of interesting characters at last year's festivities, and had the wonderful chance to hang out with the awe-inspiring Dirty Martini, save lovely Freya West (whom blog readers will know how I feel about*), be slapped around by Miss Sugarpuss, and learn wonders from the likes of Tigger and Miss Astrid.

I can only imagine what I'll get up to this year!

Take a look at the Facebook event page for more information, and be sure to come check out some of the amazing performers we have this year! 

Now, off to rehearse! I've got a brand new act, with a big new prop for this year's Sunday brunch! Last year I was a robot, any guesses for what's in store?

Toni Wallachy

Photo by Toni Wallachy of Orange Roads Photography

~ Red Herring

*dirty thoughts, creative thoughts, and mostly <3 type thoughts

Jeffrey Thomas - Femme Fatales

I was stumbling across the web when I came upon the work of character artist Jeffrey Thomas and found a wonderfully noir-inspired set of his, Femme Fatale.

Of course, Lady in Red was my favourite. It even has the title of one of my past productions.

Lady in Red by Jeffrey Thomas

I thought you lovely people would be interested in some of this lovely art, so take a look over at his blog or his deviant page.

Also of interest: his Twisted Princess series, of dark Disney Princesses. Pretty epic.

What other illustrators, character artists, or artists in general do you know of have great vintage/pin-up/burlesque art? Leave a comment and I'll check them out!

~Red

Poison Ivy - Bodypainting, Burlesque, and Cosplay.

In the spirit of the upcoming super nerdy burlesque show, Holy Boobies Batman, we have a special article going on here at chez blog:

Poison Ivy...naked.

Or rather, I thought I'd put together a history of my Poison Ivy incarnations to date.

The majority of the time I end up portraying the lovely green lady of Batman fame, my costume consists primarily of paint. This is the benefit of running in the bodypaint circuit, I suppose.

Here I am as a minimalist Poison Ivy from FABIAC Back in 2009.

Painted by Nick and/or Brian Wolfe (they're twins!)

From the sparse Poison Ivy (it must have been very early spring, no bush...?) we have the arguably more covered version as painted by Denny Guin. This is a play on the Arkham Asylum version of Ivy, and included what was possibly my most amusing impromptu costume piece ever: a glue on plastic-leaf merkin, made on the spot with eyelash glue.

Bodypainting by Denny Guin, photography by orangewasabi.com

Glue was staining my nether-regions spotted green for days.

Coming up on June 3rd I'll be at Nocturne nightclub on Queen St West for ELECTROPOLIS PRESENTS: Heroes & Villains Theme Bodypainting Party! Here I'll be painted as Ivy once again, this time by my boy-creature 3B Artistry. We're going to go with a more classical version of Ivy, and I'll be promoting  Holy Boobies Batman, which is the following night. Come out, dance, bring some cash and get painted!

Lastly, here's a teaser pic of the Poison Ivy costume made by sewing-machine goddess Brook.

We went with a Showgirl "Poison Ivy Goes to Vegas" sort of theme. I'm in love with the bustle, which is ridiculously large. I am also in love with rhinestones.

Come see me and other beauties at the Underground on Saturday, June 4th, and witness the costume in it's entirety...before I remove it piece by piece.

~ Red Herring

Holy Boobies Batman! - Poison Ivy Burlesque coming right up~!

Holy Boobies Batman! is an awesome title, I'm just going to say it.

I'll be performing a brand new, Poison Ivy inspired burlesque act at the Toronto Underground Cinema June 4th, with a bevy of wonderful boys and girls dressed up as Batman characters. Dressed up for a little while, anyway. 

Burlesque tends to have naked people. Naked super hero/super villain people. Yes, this is Batman burlesque.

It's kind of awesome.

Other performers will include...

Dolly Berlin (who some may remember seeing as the opening act to last year's Babes in Space as the sexy Darth Vader)

Sevvy Skellington

Lola Ebola

Leelando

Betty Quirk

Dew Lily, from Boylesque TO. Way too hot to handle. Please bring sunglasses, as this sexy man will blind you.

If you're local, or pilgrimaging to see naked nerds, pick up some  advance tickets available at Borderline Plus ( 425 Queen St. W) and The Original ( 515 Queen St. W) so grab some before they sell out!

I have on good authority that there  geeky raffle with fantastic prizes! Plus a Bat bake sale & other Bat goodies. Costumes are highly encouraged!

~Red Herring

Sucker Punch Review - G33KPRON Posts!

Remember when I went into the theatre with fangirlish glee, somewhere mid-March, and promised you all a review of Sucker Punch?

I suck. So here it is now.

The overall reaction to the movie from the critics and fanboy base was 'Meh' and frankly to them I give a glittery manicured middle finger.

What, you boys are having a hard time relating to women an action movie with no male lead characters? Who's surprised.

Yes the movie was shallow, largely centering around action and fire and explosions. It was also the only movie of its kind: Female ensemble lead with NO romance. It's basically a female version of The Expendables, minus the romance.

Here's a challenge: What other movies can you think of with strong female leads that aren't motivated by some dude?

Badass. Any questions?

Some people bring up the Angelina Jolie movie Salt when I mention a lack of female leads. FYI, it was written for Tom Cruise originally, and she's motivated by the husband's death (I think, I don't remembe.r It was a bad movie and I've already seen Bourne Identity*). Rarely has the Sucker Punch kind of movie been done before.

Not that I'm bitter or anything, but seriously? Your male action movies are so deep and meaningful. Who goes into a movie like Sucker Punch hoping for a deep and meaningful Oscar nominee? There are dragons and guns and knee socks in the trailer. This is female wish fufillment, just like superhero films for guys.**

And for the record, where are all the female pro movie critics? There's a serious lack in the field.

Jessica from G33KPRON shares my opinions on Sucker Punch, and is also a cool new site. Take a look, and comment here or there with your agreement or disagreement. She brings up the same points I've been harping on, and has a great quote from Mr. Snyder about the extended length of the director's cut. And a great quote from Jess herself:

"No damsel waiting for some jacked up, knight-in-shining-armor type to rescue her. These chicks are brutal, unflinching, and you believe every second of it."

Go. Discuss. I only hope for more female centered movies that don't end with a romance. We've got other shit to do.

EDIT: Bunnyhero on twitter linked me to this amazing in-depth review from Tor. Go, read it. Part 1 and Part 2. I love it. I love Tor, how did I miss this?!

"It amazes me how, even regarding a movie about women, straight men dominate the conversation."

~Red Herring

* The similarities are striking....except that BI was better.
** COOL female wish fufillment. If your wishes are more in the line of Twilight or Sex in the City I'm probably not your friend. Girls who want to fight dragons? Come chill.