Linette and I went over to Kari’s house last night to celebrate Russ Forster’s 40th birthday. Kari’s house is beautiful. She says that she decorates as if she were a crow. There’s lots of bright stuff. Lots of beads scavenged off the streets of New Orleans. Lots of shrines that she’s constructed out of dresser drawers and found materials. Lots of mosaics built of broken glass bottles and shards of pottery. (OCD note: The thing that always impresses me about Karri’s place is that the level of clutter is kept in check by an equally well-developed sense of cleanliness. She balances the two things very well. Hoarding AND cleanliness! She’s my kind of woman.)
Here’s a photo of her livingroom.
Russ, for those of you who don’t know him, is a maker of films. He’s best known for his documentary on 8-track tape enthusiasts called, “So Wrong They’re Right.” He’s just recently released a new film on tribute bands. He’s only here in Michigan for a few days before heading back to Chicago, where he’s supposed to appear on a public access children’s show. (A good part of the party was spent getting his wardrobe and props ready.)
Here’s Russ blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, and, in the process, coating the entire surface of the cake with tiny particles from the insides of his lungs.
Russ also used to publish a magazine called 8-Track Mind. It was a great, little magazine, cut to be the same shape as an 8-track tape. Russ published close to 100 issues before finally calling it quits… Russ first met Linette and me about eight or nine years ago in Atlanta. We knew of each other’s magazines and we met for dinner one time when he was passing through, showing one of his films at a downtown bar. After that, we kept in touch. And, he started contributing to Crimewave.
Another Crimewave contributor was at the party last night as well. His name is Steve Hughes and he, until recently, published a magazine called Stupor. Crimewave readers will know him as the author of the piece on the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac that’s in our new issue. Here, I believe, is the first photo ever snapped of the mysterious and reclusive Mr. Hughes:
Here is the second photo to ever be snapped of Mr. Hughes. He is flanked here by the birthday boy and yours truly:
Here, finally, is a photo I snapped in one of Kari’s hallways. It’s of a photo of a person she, Russ and Steve all know, a fellow here in the Detroit area who built his own life-sized Robbie the Robot (and not from a kit either).
The party was great. We had a good time seeing old friends. And, now, I feel inspired to go and build and/or something myself. More later.
