(131) Random POWage

Great religions falter and are abandoned, or are embraced with fanatical desperation, because they all fail to provide much of an answer for the randomness of life. Modernity is a font of randomness, hence it has a tendency to conflict with religion and the attempt by religions to offer themselves as the antidote. Today, we enjoyed the goddamn randomness, every last second of it.

(96) Celebrity

Today the Toryonto Sun had a headline slamming the Toronto International Film Festival as "elitist." While waiting around the laundromat on our only day off from our CTFAJ (Current Totally Fucking Awesome Job) wearing old clothes and unshaven in order to blend in with the Poorkdale locals we gave some thought to the matter of celebrity. A continued meltdown of the North American economy, elections in the US and Canada and war in southwest Asia does little to trim the mindlessness or quantity of the celebrity infotainment that takes up so much of the image environment. It’s easy enough to ignore and yet the complementary industry of analysing and decrying celebrity infotainment is almost as large an undertaking. Simply own no television and you will be largely free of both. Nobody can be entirely free of the effects of obsession with celebrity of course, that would perhaps be extreme anyway. People like Amy and Lindsay seem to register in the collective psyche the way minor royalty once did so there isn’t much point in fighting it head on. We didn’t mind coming across these images near Queen & Jameson on the weathered hoardings nailed over a bakery destroyed by fire two years ago. Amy's music is catchy enough, the other one indicates that we aren't really a serious society any more.

(61) Poster: Queen W

We think this poster is attempting to capture something of a spirit of Victorian, Edwardian, even Weimar decadence. We've seen better and worse in posters. We feel that the nineteenth century, and the past in general, should be viewed with greater depth than a simple insistance on its inferiority or superiority based on modern day notions of what constitutes repression or liberalism in society. For crying out loud, what would Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud say about our own mad world?

editor's note: cameo appearance by president Bush!

(45) Madonna Marathon?

When it comes to demented rock moms Courtney Love was preferred over Madonna by 73.9% of POWcityblog readers in a recent survey.

editor's note: we should take a holiday

(12) Ay Carumba!

The continental revival of Burlesque that started in the 1990s has certainly brought joy to my heart. It shows no signs of abating and why the hell should it? (Women, take note, it's all about presentation.) This delightful poster promoted a show in 2003 at the Gladstone Hotel. So nicely done I just had to help myself. God helps those who help themselves. It was on a telephone pole on Queen W in, you guessed it, Parkdale! Love the gloves, honeybunny.

nb: The POWcityblog bunker is decorated in a combined worn-out-IKEA/garbage-day-eclectic boho style.