Are you sure you're ready for Halloween? You can't just dress up as Sarah Palin and walk out the door and expect to have a memorable holiday. That is, unless you find 6 other Palins and take a picture doing a cheerleader pyramid, or a freak train. Anyway, as a self-appointed promoter of this superior holiday, I decided to have an early Halloween party to test out a few staples. That way you won't have to waste precious time and $$$ on dumb traditions that aren't even really that scary. Here are a few that really rule...

Halloween seems to be taking its sweet time this year, which is fine if that's what it wants to do, but we can start without it! Let's talk about pets. Dead Ones! Pet cemeteries are inspiring places that provoke thoughts about mortality, the status of pets in different cultures, and self expression after loss. The coolest one I've found yet is located in the Presidio in San Francisco, practically underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. Look how ethereal the sunlight is!The range of grave markers is so varied it seems almost purposely curated. One of the cutest is a headstone for a fish named Macaroni Heart. There's a hand painted board written all in Chinese, and one that simply reads "Unknown" (you gotta wonder what that's all about). Each plot was created by hand, and the care and attention to detail are impressive. Some are encircled by fences, some tell whimsical stories, and some are truly intricate works of art.

I go back and forth on the issue of treating pets like people. Sometimes the level of attention and importance people give their animals seems downright delusional. The Errol Morris documentary Gates Of Heaven is chock full of great examples of crazed pet owners, pet cemetery proprietors, and animal embalmers. The documentary centers around the unearthing and relocation of a pet cemetery containing nearly 450 dearly departed companions. The obsessive pet owners are up in arms, the cemetery proprietors are desperate, and every one of the interviews is deeply revealing. Errol Morris has the rare ability to step back and let his interviewees disclose what drives them all on their own, whether they realize it or not. If their candidness doesn't move you, the earthy perfection of their late seventies outfits will. 

I'm a newcomer to Lipsticktracez so I thought I'd start with an intro to one of my favorite female artists Jo Jackson. If you've never heard of her the the vitals are as follows: she is affiliated with (but is not limited to) the DIY, street, graffiti, and skate world of San Francisco and New York, and she now lives in Oregon. Jo's paintings use silhouettes of skulls, birds flying, couples copulating, and the outline of United States that are bold and graphic, and yet her color choices and combinations are subtle. Her work expresses the overlapping area between softness and strength that comes up in a lot of female created art, but she does it without coming off as a cliche McFeminism. My introduction to Jo Jackson was coincidental. I used to live in San Francisco and I had a photographer friend who's studio was in an old falling down house on Shotwell (with no bathroom!). I'd drop in and we'd look at his current projects and the scraps and fragments of the house's other artists' projects. I started collecting these little bird cutouts from the floor and soon found out that they were leftover from paintings made by one of the other artists in the house, Jo. She and her now husband Chris Johanson both worked out of the same house and painted the walls, windows and doors with images that inspired me. When I finally met Jo I was excited to learn that her personality matched and multiplied the message of her work. Jo's art is featured in the book, exhibition, and now documentary Beautiful Losers, curated and edited by Aaron Rose and Christian Strike, the free magazine ANPQuarterly (issue #3), and at either of these galleries:
Jo Jackson info

About Brett:   I'm an Indiana born, California raised, singer, musician, and writer. I gained an appreciation of art through touring because it taught me that even though all punk clubs might smell the same, there's always something new to see.