“Kill V. Maim is written from the perspective of Al Pacino in The Godfather Pt 2. Except he’s a vampire who can switch gender and travel through space.’‘
–Grimes, Q Magazine
GOTH-EMO-RAVE-SCENE
High school me would’ve eaten this music video up: Sponsored by Hot Topic, sponsored by Suicide Squad, sponsored by the TTC. Is goth really back? How else can I participate when my hair is already black? Is a cybergoth just a goth wearing goggles? High school Grimes would be pleased that her little animated scribbles reminded me of Alex Pardee’s album art for The Used—cute, colourful, obscene, excessive. The Used was the only band from my emo-screamo-whatever phase that I didn’t get to see live. I would go to shows almost once a week with my older sister. She had a mohawk that scared everyone away, giving us a safety bubble in mosh pits. Her hair was spiked up with Elmer’s glue that she kept under our bathroom sink next to nail polish (black, white, chrome), maxi pads, and unused perfume samples from the mall.
SURGICAL MASKS
LAW & ORDER THEME SONG
I think of seventies amateur porn, slinking panthers, sunglasses at night (and inside), scratched leather, stopping to gaze at sunsets while on the run in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
CONVERTIBLE
“With this trendy two-seater, girls can play out exciting stories with Barbie doll and a best friend (sold separately). Soak up some sun while driving to the beach or park — then hit the city streets after dark for a night on the town! Holofoil headlights help keep things bright, while the shiny metallic hubcaps create a "silver streak" as you race down the road.”
—Barbie Doll and Fiat Convertible Car
My Barbies never had a pink convertible, but that’s because I never had any Barbies. But I did have three Mulan dolls, each in different outfits, and with varying lengths of black hair. Sometimes when I played with them in my bed, I would notice a stray hair on my pillow, and I liked that I didn’t know whose it was.
I’ve only been in a convertible once. It was daytime. We sped well over the limit and looked at people look at us. The wind watered my eyes, forced my hair into my mouth. We weren’t fast enough to reach any beach before dark.
PINK EVERLAST BOXING GLOVES
Only $33.99
VERSACE EMBROIDERED SWEATSHIRT
Only $950.00
NEO(N) TOKYO CITYSCAPES
There is Tokyo and then there is Imagined Tokyo (Blade Runner, Lost in Translation, Enter the Void). There are collective dreams and then there are collective delusions. I remember Toshiya Ueno’s “Japanimation and Techno-Orientalism":
"If the Orient was invented by the West, then the Techno-Orient also was invented by the world of information capitalism. In "Techno-Orientalism", Japan not only is located geographically, but also is projected chronologically. Jean Baudrillard once called Japan a satellite in orbit. Now Japan has been located in the future of technology.
Morley and Rovins say, "If the future is technological, and if technology has become 'Japanised', then the syllogism would suggest that the future is now Japanese, too. The postmodern era will be the Pacific era. Japan is the future, and it is a future that seems to be transcending and displacing Western modernity.""
ELECTRICAL TAPE PASTIES
STRATEGICALLY-TORN TIGHTS
The Grimes Grrl Gang’s legwear remind me of how I always wore black tights in the summertime to cover up my thick hair. I didn’t shave until my first year of undergrad. The tights always snagged on wooden park benches, crusty TTC chairs. I was convinced that a snag at the beginning of a night out was bad luck. Still, once it started, I always let it run.
VAMPIRES
Friends who you can’t catch in person, who only need you after you’re asleep, who you can live without.
BLOOD RAVE
It reminds everyone of Blade, but I confess I thought of Fight Club first. I saw it in high school, as one should. Sarah was over for a sleepover and we waited until my parents were asleep to sneak downstairs to watch it on low volume. After, I read every Chuck Palahniuk book and scoffed at people who mispronounced his last name. This was growing up. Last week I tried watching Fight Club for the first time since, but it was too hysterically cringey to finish. I am Jack’s utter mortification. This is growing up.
DARK ANGEL WITH DETACHABLE GOLD MANICURE
VIDEO GAME HEALTH
The flickering pixel hearts near the end of the video get me anxious. I like watching people play video games more than playing them myself. Watching others make the same mistakes again. Invincibility is eerie, comforting, hopeless. Things that have more hearts than me: worms, hagfish, octopi, and frogs.
YOU DIED
A reference to Dark Souls. “Can you live through a million deaths and earn your legacy?”