Just a quick last-minute reminder for our fellow Comic-KHAAANNNgoers: Nadya, Zoetica and Meredith will be selling and signing copies of Coilhouse 05 from 11am to noon today (Saturday, July 24th) at the Weta booth (#2615). We’ll also bring along copies of 1-4 for folks to peruse, but not to buy, sorry! (Sincerely, we don’t mean to be teases– we figure folks will appreciate at least having a look at these rare, out-of-print editions.) However, everybody should stay tuned to this same bat-channel for news of an upcoming charity auction wherein a full set of Coilhouse Magazines (issues 1-5) will be sold off to the highest Ebay bidder. More on that later this week.

Meanwhile, check out Zo and Mer geeking out with LA WEEKLY columnist Liz Ohanesian about SDCC! Nadya was supposed to participate as well, but was found lying in a crumpled heap next to her laptop shortly before the deadline, unconscious, with an erratic pulse and her responses unfinished. We figure she was either asphyxiated by one of those uber-deadly roving Funyuns nerdfart doom clouds, or sustained internal injuries after being jabbed by a facehugger-on-a-stick. She’s still pretty out of it, but don’t worry– we’re sure she’ll be fine by tomorrow morning. Hope to see some of you there!

Next Saturday July 10, my husband Ales and I are paying tribute to one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. Along with our very own Begemot the demon-cat [portrayed by Nik Sinn], we’ll be posing at the original branch of Doctor Sketchy’s in New York City, hosted by its notorious madam, Molly Crabapple herself.

Begemot and Azazello by Coilhouse 05 featured artist, Chris Conn Askew

In parallel but separate ways, The Master and Margarita acutely affected mine and Ales’ lives when we each read it for the first time years before we met [Nadya and I even had to fight over who got to write about it on Coilhouse back in the day], and Molly is a huge fan of the book as well, so this is a truly unique and momentous opportunity. Also, I’ll be wearing a bejeweled flesh-tone mesh bodysuit in the end. We hope that all you New Yorkers can join us! The cast of characters below, event info here and after the photos.

MASTER
Ales Kot

MARGARITA
yours truly

BEGEMOT
Nik Sinn [the fetching young man, not the kitty]

This session marks the first at Sketchy’s new home, the Parkside Lounge. Please be sure to note the location change!

Parkside Lounge
317 East Houston St
between Clinton and Attorney Sts
$10 online, $15 at the door.

Tickets are $10 in advance, or $15 at the door, and can be purchased at www.drsketchy.com or at the door. See you there!

I’ll be covering our trip and much of the festival for Chinashop, so keep your peepers peeled for what will likely be a most hilarious adventure. For more information about the festival and its lineup, please visit darkartsfestival.com.

It’s time to pack, pedicure and iron out last-minute details. See you there!

Are you married to Ales? / Are you and Ales getting married, or what? / Are you engaged?! / Did you get married, or engaged? / You are to have the marry?

I didn’t accidentally post photos of incriminating wedding gifts by accident – have been meaning to break the news sometime this month, and this is a good place to leave off on, before my no-blog week begins. So – Yes. And Yes. Also, Yes. To tell you the truth, we got married last June, in a microscopic civil ceremony.

Pictures by Andrew Yoon, he also took these of the post-wedding mini-feast.

Marriage today is an odd thing. It will grant you joint health insurance [haay!], but does it really mean anything beyond a handful of legal benefits and playing house? I think it can. Ales and I knew we wanted to spend our lives together the moment we saw each other in Paris. To do that, we needed to get married, because he’s a Czech citizen. Would we have gotten married if circumstance was different? Mhmmm. But why? Is a partnership invalidated without some form of commitment ceremony? Of course not. I am of the opinion that people can happily spend lifetimes together without anything of the sort. It’s just that we wanted to do it. Because a ceremony is nothing less than a missive to the universe saying, “I want this, always.”

The campaign, started in early ’90s, struck out against the “she asked for it” mentality.  With a series of television commercials and stark black and white images with the campaign slogan on them, This Is Not An Invitation To Rape Me dispelled misconceptions of women “provoking” acts of sexual assault and confronted rape within family relationships.

When one of the campaign founders, Charles Hall, approached me about being part of an photography exhibit dedicated to this powerful message I was thrilled and honored. Four of my photos along with many others, including my good friend Lou O’Bedlam a.k.a Lou Noble, will be on display this coming Thursday. Please visit the official show website here.

Fox Art Gallery is located at:
Lower level of Logan Hall on the Penn campus at
249 South 36th Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19104

___________________________________________________________________

P.S. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Charles in a two-hour Skype meeting to discuss the campaign and my photo selection for the show. Ever since I first saw the campaign images, I was aware of the absence of male and transgendered victims, as well as same-sex rape situations. Noticeably, all of my images chosen for the show were of women, too. So, since this Skype meeting was my “chance”, I brought it up because I felt it was the campaign’s responsibility to give these scenarios exposure.

The This is Not an Invitation to Rape Me FAQ states that they set out to tackle the most common stereotype, but I thought that without addressing the full scope of the issue they were reinforcing a few stereotypes themselves. Of course it turned out I wasn’t the only one to ever mention this, and, fortunately, Charles was open to talking about it. As a result, some of the featured photographers were asked to submit work addressing a wider scope of subjects – I’ll post mine here after the reception. I sincerely hope that this important campaign will expand its range in the coming years.

A few days ago, I dowsed myself in glitter and headed to Bardot, to scope out the Los Angeles incarnation of NYC’s infamous Mr. Black. Known for its bottomless waiters and outrageous theme nights, Mr. Black LA has been going strong since September. You can read about my night and see the gallery for this event on Chinashop.

I can’t quite believe it, but Poke stickers are sold out already! There are just 4 Cumulus Confection stickers left, so if you were thinking of picking them up this is a good time to do so. They’re $4.25 each.

Indeed Chinashop is back from winter break and just in time for me to cover the recent Doctor Sketchy Marathon, featuring the beautiful, bendy Mosh as one of the figure models. Feast your eyes on this porcelain beauty:

Go on over to Chinashop to read my micro-coverage and see my gallery of this excellent event. This was so, so much fun! Doctor Sketchy’s has got to be one of my favorite things to do in LA, period, and I’m determined to actually draw instead of snapping away at the next one.

At long last, STICKERS. Oh yes, Cumulus Confection and Poke are both available in shiny, contoured, limited edition sticker form, as of RIGHT NOW. There are only fifty [50] of each available so grab ‘em while they’re hot.

Cumulus Confection sticker – $4.25 SOLD OUT

Poke sticker – $4.25 SOLD OUT

There. Now please excuse me as I tumble into the shower while simultaneously getting dressed and starting my car. I’ll be back soon.

And this morning I woke up to this message in my inbox: “In response to popular demand, your deadline has been extended to Midnight, January 21st.”  Oh man! This means six more days of rating. And that, in theory, everyone who’s rated my portfolio so far can go back daily and rate it for the next six days. It’s literally two clicks, yo!

Once again, with feeling, my submission portfolio on the Power of Self contest website: http://www.artistswanted.org/zoetica If you like what I make, please click five stars.

The thing about self-portraiture in the age of the internet is that everyone does it. With the current popularity of 365 projects, you can almost bet that every other Flickr stream will have a self-portrait set. But, why not? In the end, ourselves is all we have. Our personas, our projections, how our hair looks when we wake up, our faces when we cry, the skin under our fingernails right after we’ve fucked someone’s brains out – all those transient memories of the meat can be crystallized forever. The temptation is too great. Raw emotion and experience, in endless supply. If photographers are already documentation addicts, then self-portraits are the ultimate poison.

In my work, I don’t go for grit, or for shock, and I certainly don’t go for the mundane. I try to pin down and preserve dream states, like the moment when you close your eyes and look at the warm sun through the red of your eyelids and drift. The ambiguous in-between minutes separating lucidity and sleep. The tricks our eyes play in dim light and then, the way we wonder if the world is quietly opening its shutters to grant us a peek at another side and then another. Often, the hours of friendly discourse over too much coffee on the subject of what might happen if every reflective surface was Lewis Caroll’s looking glass.

Without further ado, my submission portfolio on the Power of Self contest website: http://www.artistswanted.org/zoetica If you like what I make, please click five stars.

December 30, raining, happy. Just popping in to quickly mention that I am, indeed, alive but won’t be back until about a week into the next year. I’ve been tasked with a new project that’s taking up, literally, all my time. However, I do dig the new year’s eve symbolism and  plan to greet 2010 with a small group of friends, watching movies, drinking champagne, eating fondue, and being fahbulous. How about you?

And so I don’t leave empty-handed: pictures from wandering on Grand Avenue after a visit to MOCA‘s First Thirty Years exhibit. To me, these capture the Los Angeles winter mood fairly well.

And a bunch from a visit to mine and Ales’ friend, Matt Levin. Matt is an artist and you should check out his stuff here. He has prints for sale here – I have one and it’s pretty damn epic. One of Matt’s sculptures:

And now I go, leaving you with the photos after the jump.

A little late, so maybe we should pretend I didn’t say I’d do this every Wednesday, mm? Will you forgive my little imprudence? “Weekly” sounds better at the moment.

Every Wednesday week until 2010 I’m going to post ten of my favorite Suicidegirls photos from the sets I had featured on the site this year. Think of it as a way to celebrate the wonderful models I worked with over the past eleven months. Along with the images I’ll share two or three factoids from each shoot. We’ll start at the beginning of 2009 and, when we get to the end, we’ll stop.

So! Much of Round 2 was shot in everyone’s favorite pit of debauchery, Las Vegas, during the filming of the Suicidegirls Guide to Living DVD. This was a week-long SG venture, with something like 40 suicidegirls and a bunch of staff photographers on location, shooting scenes for either the DVD or sets, around the clock. Hot naked girls. Madness. A flu that spared almost no one. I can honestly say it was a unique experience, and some of my favorite sets to date were shot during this trip.

Vivid – Refractions

Vivid and I had talked about shooting a set for ages, and this was our chance. We found an especially reflective corner, upstairs at club Body English, and got to work. This girl is hilarious and a great model, to boot. Sadly, I’m not sure I’m at liberty to discuss the best anecdote from the shoot without Vivid killing me. Suffice to say that booth bench will never be the same. Come to think of it, neither will this mirror.

Annika & Lumi – Personal Effects

This was commissioned for a J. Hutchins‘ thriller titled, yes, Personal Effects. Shot in a vacant (and haunted) 1920′s apartment, the set was a sort of hunt for clues. Personal Effects comes with an array of materials inside that all relate to the story. We hid them around the apartment, in desk drawers, behind statues and under the rug, then “discovered” them throughout the set. We also knocked over furniture and Lumi made her own clues, including a note that shows up at the very end of the set and declares “Nice Ass!” in reference to the rest of the photo.

Radeo – Prisoner

By far, my favorite set I’ve shot so far, or at least one of my top three favorites. I love the darkness, the dreamy atmosphere, the model’s ligerie, and the location was to die for. It was part of an old furniture and home decor store, so the bars you see here are actually carpet racks. Radeo and I planned this a few months and advance and, on the day of the shoot, had to claim the racks by taping a note to them. Radeo was quite the acrobat, climbing all over those motherfuckers like nobody’s business, even with her ankles taped together. We did not plan to involve bondage but found some black gaffer’s tape and couldn’t resist.

Zoli – To Be Bound

Mhm, another bondage set. Once again, I helped myself to the film crew’s stuff and this time it was rope. It was just laying there abandoned, without purpose, so Zoli was a good sport and let me tie her up in an empty hotel suite. This bathroom was filled with opposing mirrors that created infinite reflections, and we took full advantage. I can’t show you most of those shots, however, because I’d need an infinite amount of black bars. You understand.

Opaque – Impish

Opaque, to me, looks like a Warerhouse nymph. N’est ce pas?

Chloe & Vice – Strip Tease

This, I had to shoot while filming was happening. That is to say, this scene was being filmed as I was trying to shoot a set, out of the cameras’ way. There will be footage of me doing this on the DVD. We replicated some of the poses after filming was finished, since there was only so much crawling and going fetal an can accomplish, photographically speaking. Also: rug-burn.

Annika – Gold Dust

Conceived and shot the same day as the Personal Effects set, this was all about gold. Initially, the model was wearing gold sequined hot-pants, a gold-beaded sweater, and a gold leotard. I did that to her hair.

Marianne – Designs on You

My favorite part of this set, besides Marianne who is always a pleasure to work with, was a mint green vintage dentist chair in the corner of this room and M’s shiny red Fluevogs (not pictured).

Bob – What Stays in Vegas

Shot this while covering Cinevegas ’09 with Chinashop. It’s part of these shenanigans, which I couldn’t even begin to explain.

Georgia & Milloux – Temptation

Hey, it’s my bedroom! At the risk of coming across as a creepy Boogie Nights-style pornographer, I offered these laydeez a plate of sliced strawberries covered in honey to use as a prop. Have you ever had strawberries like this? It’s incredible! And I really dig this shot. The angle of Milloux’s fingers, both their expressions, that red rope. Believe me when I say there was nothing artificial about this here chemistry. A soft note on which to end out excursion through Round Two of my 2009 SG sets.

Coming up for air from finalizing Coilhouse 4 content for a brief update. Despite my squinted eyes and labored breath I do have a few things to share.

URRGHH

In spare moments, instead of troubling myself with questions like, “Where the fuck did September go?” I’m focusing on the important things – Halloween! Oh god yes, finally. This year I’m manifesting destiny and dressing as Major Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell. I’m going for moderate sluttiness, mostly because, contrary to popular belief, Halloween is not an annual excuse to dress like a whore. If I’m going to dress like a whore it’s going to be on a random Tuesday or something.

My outfit is something of a casual cross between these two, all black and charcoal:

So far I’ve acquired, miraculously, a kids’ leather jacket of perfect puffiness for a ridiculous $30 at a thrift shop, very opaque dark gray tights and an excellent bodysuit. Seriously, it’s excellent. I wouldn’t just say that. I already had: blue hair, driving gloves, utility belts, thigh highs [still undecided between spandex or cotton] and I plan to wear these boots with it all.

A few weeks ago I wrote about a wonderful music blog called Headphone Commute. You can read the post here on Coilhouse. The peeps at HC got in touch with me after the fact, and now I’m the official face of the site. I’m pretty excited about this, considering how much my iTunes library expanded after finding this site. If you’re not reading Headphone Commute already, you should.

Other things coming up this month:

• LA Noir art show - tomorrow night! The Centipede will be up, along with its, so far secret, counterpart. Cant wait to dress up for this! Click here for show location and details.
• Fever Ray – concert coming up on Wednesday. I remember buying tickets for this 5 months ago. Very much looking forward to it.
• Michel Berandi - on Tuesday the 13th at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Featured in Coilhouse 3 and one of my top favorite designers. You must check him out.
• Travel – I’ll be shooting naked ladies in Phoenix from the evening of the 15th to the morning of the 19th.
• This Is It – the irony is too sticky to touch in this final Michael Jackson film‘s title, so I’ll resist. Ales and I are going the opening night. Will probably spend most of the day at Universal, photographing the circus that’s sure to ensue.

Now, I crawl back into my workhole, and leave you with this glorious promotional image for the upcoming Michel Berandi event.

Achtung, Angel City residents! On October 3 and 4 The Centipede* and its secret counterpart [glimpse below] will be on display at the location above, for those two days only. What makes this especially superb is the fact that L.A. Noir will be held in a beautiful house instead of yet another white gallery space. It’s a party, it’s an art show and there’s going to be food and entertainment. I’m not actually sure what the entertainment will consist of, so please don’t come after me if the dry cleaners can’t remove the stains. I can only promise you that I’ll be there and that it’s going to be FUN. You like fun and art, yes?

Do add L.A. Noir on Facebook for updates!

*After this show The Centipede‘s price will go up, so if you’re planning on ordering one I recommend doing it within the week.

Made it to the top 3 of Attack of the Show’s Women of the Web Special, out-webbed [and out-boobed] by Megan Fox and Jo Garcia. My positronic brain-device glows with gratitude to Jonah Ray for saying I should have been #1!

Sadly, this clips chops off my introduction, when one of the guys called me the Russian Angelina Jolie. Alas. Below, the quick Lovecraftian Kevin Pereira sketch I did for the show.

Late last year I realized it was time to make this place more interactive, consistent and dynamic. The concept of designing the whole beast from scratch was very exciting but, with the amount of work and travel on my plate at the time, I quickly understood there was simply no way. The project has been charring its behind on the back burner until now. Though I still had zero time to devote to web design I could no longer wait! I enlisted the mad design skillz of Nubby Twiglet who’d just done a bang-up job of our Coilhouse media kit and Star St Germain to transform Biorequiem with me. And now, here it is – hussied up, blushing and ready to be sent out center-stage with a brisk slap on the ass – just as I promised!

What to expect from the new Biorequiem:

Style Dispatch After I stopped writing my wardrobe inspiration column,”What’s Zo Wearing?“, for Suicidegirls I spent months searchng for its new home. A blend of style advice and outfit documentation, it occasionally appeared on Coilhouse and Haute Macabre under various names but will now have its permanent [and consistent!] residence here.

Blush Response A feature dedicated to beauty and health tips, with a name that references my favorite film, Blade Runner. You’ll find instructions for caring for cartoon-colored hair and for cleaning up the mess it makes, cosmetics tutorials [I used to be a pro-make up artist and should have done this ages ago] and other useful advice on how to be a durable and aesthetically-pleasing replicant.

Photo Flurry Being a professional photographer hasn’t made me any less obsessive about documenting the secret side of everything I come in contact with, and with Photo Flurry I’m going to offer updates with photos I’ve taken throughout the week. From cracks in the concrete to sushi to friends’ clavicles – it’s all going to be properly chronicled here.

Inkdrops and Oilslicks will keep track of my new artwork – same as always but with fancy names and new haircuts.

Store You can once again order prints and artwork , this time directly from me, in a civilized and seemly manner.

Sidebar Features

I’m now offering premium ad space, right on my tender and inviting left sidebar! Finally. Don’t hesitate to email me for rates, before I email YOU.

For instant access, Latest Outfit and Latest Art in the right sidebar showcase the most recent additions to Style Dispatch and Inkdrops/Oilslicks.

Featured Shop Item highlights goodies up for grabs in my store.

You can also contact me, right from the front page. I’m considering an occasional interactive advice column but want to wait and see the questions I get, first. If you have a question, this is the best way to ask!

Let us join our electric antennae and together forge forth in this shiny new vessel.

Coilhouse is going international! The three of us have been operating out of California for the past two years, but as of August, we’ll be releasing our spores across three different continents. Nadya’s job is moving her to London, and Mer is traveling to New Zealand to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a professional hobbit-fluffer. Meanwhile, Zo shall continue to oversee our sinister stateside operations from her sooper seekrit LA lair.

Coilhouse readers attending Nerd Prom (aka the San Diego Comic-Con) have one last chance see us all in one place at the same time at the Avatar Press booth before we scatter to the winds. It’s actually quite fitting that our final meeting is at Comic-Con, seeing as that’s where the three of us met face-to-face for the first time two years ago. We’ll be signing and selling copies of Issue 03. Below are the specifics:

Where: San Diego Comic-Con, booth #2701 (front of the 2700 isle, by the front doors).
When: Saturday, July 25
What time: 12 to 1 PM

Also, Mer is going to be performing some tunes with her old friend Amanda Palmer at the big CBLDF fundraising concert on Friday night in San Diego. Click here for details. Hope to see you there!

Here’s my monstrous contribution to the show. Her name is “Mommy-Four-Legs” and I wouldn’t leave her alone with my hosiery.

[click to see it bigger]

Naked on a Las Vegas morning, last week.

New workroom – not finished just yet, but it’s getting close.

One of three new illustrations for Coilhouse #4 I’m working on.

Between hair colors – red’s next. Also, the other side of the work room. Found this wheelchair on the side of the road, going home from the pig zone at 6am some years ago.

And that’s all, for now. More Vegas adventure pics sometime soon!

In other news, I’m still not mentally prepared to talk about Vegas and likely never will be. However, I’m happy to let you know that I’ll be in Austin, TX very soon – blogging the music portion of SXSW this year. And now it’s time for my subdermal ink injection. ZOOM!

Side note: re-watching Polanski’s Macbeth last night over pastries and tequila caused serious intoxication and impressively incoherent conversations thereafter.  Sweet flaming christ that was fun. And on a rare personal note, I am reminded that I have wonderful friends, no matter how busy we all get. Friends who offer hot chocolate, couches, pastries and ears when I need them most. I’m a lucky, lucky spacegirl.

P.S. Just got an amazing haircut by Chris at Fur salon in Silver Lake. Go see Chris, he’s new there and needs clients.

There may be manic updates from Vegas next week, but until then I leave you with this panel from Uzumaki [The Spiral] And Kino‘s Blood Type lyrics. I feel that, together, they accurately capture my present state.

Last night at the Edwardian Ball [which was the best time I've had at an event in eons] to my awe, a woman with blue light spilling out from behind her performed this piece a capella to the full-to-capacity Tower theater. I didn’t catch her name and can’t seem to find anything online. Anyone?

Edit: I’m being told by one source that it was actually Rebekah Del Rio herself. Confirmation needed.

Under the jump the original version of the song, by Roy Orbison.