The Canadian Romantic at Jason Mclean art opening London On Sat Nov 7

Friends, after taking part in the delightful Guelph launch at eBar of Publication Studios Guelph's book  “The Ecstasy and the Void: An Introduction to the Occult of Mulagi” ( the world’s first compendium of the apocryphal lore and mystery surrounding the Serbian folk-hero, Mulagi. Sayings, fragments of stories, and unearthed poems have been brought to life in twenty-four original artworks by twenty-four original artists from across the globe ...including me) where The Canadian Romantic hosted and even ran a confessional booth (so many dark secrets), The Canadian Romantic is now jet setting to briefly perform in London, Ontario, birthplace of the concept of 'cosmic consciousness' (Richard Bucke, 1871) for my long-time friend and collaborator Jason Mclean's art opening of new drawings "Son of a Salesman." If you haven't seen Jason's work you should, colourful magickal text subconscious imagery springing forth making humourous connections....

Saturday, 8 pm, Nov 7, Michael Gibson Gallery, London, Ontario

 

 

Canadian Election Poll Results

 Timely election coverage...

Canadian Election Poll Results

By Robert Dayton

The latest election poll results project that Stephen Harper is in the lead, according to a polling firm run by The Harper Government, with the less comfortable seats going to the other parties to scramble and fight over. However, a recent, more independent (and much more independently minded) poll suggests that Gnah The Conqueror, an eight foot warrior composed of factory outlet carpet samples, is in the lead due to the public being drawn into his combination of fear and cuddliness. That was five minutes ago. Gnah The Conqueror has just fallen slightly in the polls, but don’t worry, he is not in physical pain thanks to his well insulated body. Now a shiny set of keys has quietly nudged up as the preference to run Canada, a country composed of three syllables. I am trying to grab the shiny set of keys for investigative purposes. Just when I get close, the shiny set of keys gets pulled away at the last second. And that’s what it is down to with these predictions: seconds. And even thirds for the more politically hungry.

Where does this election data come from? Many a small child has asked that question while precariously perched on their surrogate Mother’s knee. The projected data is selected from a range of sources including reading tea leaves –switching to decaf in the evening as otherwise they’d be up all night thinking about candidates- as well as select supermarket produce section bump-ins which prove that shoppers unfairly prefer the candidate with the most teeth. Random calculations are made using lots of stuff (ie. time travel scenarios). This data is then professionally analyzed as ‘deeply troubled’ and sent to Vince in Shipping who winks, says “I’m rubber stamping it!” and proceeds to ignore it. Strategic voter sites then use the data with the largest font possible declaring, “STAY INFORMED!”

Update: currently a large soft serve ice cream cone has overtaken the shiny set of keys in the polls. This could change at any moment with the ice cream melting down my arm and summer becoming but a distant memory. Oh wait. Hold that. Thanks. We are receiving conclusive data that over-rides all other data like a monster truck crushing a long row of cars. The victor will be ‘white guy.’ It’s always ‘white guy.’

The Canadian Romantic with live musical backing by Marker Starling opening for Hank LP release, plus: Pussybasket at Videofag

LIVE! In Kitchener and Waterloo. The new HANK album is a stunner (link to a track below that features me looking like I am the singer but I am not the singer ha ha, I am not in HANK)....


As well, The Canadian Romantic will be performing as part of the final Pussy Basket at the great Videofag venue in Toronto on October 13th at 7 PM. "Join Emcee Jenna Syde for the (possible) death of Videofag's bi-anal PussyBasket Spoken Word Cabaret. With Halloween on the horizon, this installment will have an undead chill to it. Children of the night include Marcy Rogers, Lizzie Violet, The Canadian romantic with Lynn Crosbie to kiss the series closed. Brock Hessel will be read from an exquisite corpse he has assembled from the words of all those poets and performers who've made PussyBasket runneth-over over the years. This event is made possible by The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies."

MFA art show!!!! Phewwww

University of Waterloo Fine Arts Presents
MFA THESIS
Robert Dayton
Outta This World

May 7–30, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 7 from 5:00–8:00 pm
Performance by New Horizzzons at 7:00 pm


Outta This World is comprised of drawing, video, music, performance and installation elements. This body of work is an outcome of my thinking about the concept of the nation-state, in this case Canada, and the way that it imposes specific identities on its’ citizens. Using strategies of humour, abject beauty, social engagement and ritual, my work proposes alternate possibilities of Canada through a difficult, yet ultimately beneficial process of de-repression. The artists would like to thank: Joy of Flowers, Princess Cinema, Bang-On, and The Yeti Cafe.

The artist will also be available in-gallery as his alter-ego Support from 12-3 on the following dates: May14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 30
Robert Dayton is a multidisciplinary artist whose work aims to dissolve repression and create a sense of wonder. He is an MFA candidate at the University of Waterloo and received a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. As The Canadian Romantic he has performed all over North America, most recently as part of Ann Magnuson's One-Hour Bacchanal a mini-carnival in the spirit of Mike Kelley at MOCA in Los Angeles. His collaborative performance and recording projects include Canned Hamm, July Fourth Toilet, and New Horizzzons. His drawings and writings have appeared in numerous publications, including Nog A Dod: Canadian Psychedoolia and The Canadian Romantic book published by Pitt Projects, Vancouver.  He is the recipient of a Keith and Win Shantz Fellowship and has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council. www.robertdayton.comOutta This World is comprised of drawing, video, music, performance and installation elements. This body of work is an outcome of my thinking about the concept of the nation-state, in this case Canada, and the way that it imposes specific identities on its? citizens. Using strategies of humour, abject beauty, social engagement and ritual, my work proposes alternate possibilities of Canada through a difficult, yet ultimately beneficial process of de-repression. The artists would like to thank: Joy of Flowers, Princess Cinema, Bang-On, and The Yeti Cafe.
MFA Preview
Jennifer Akkermans
Marianne Burlew
Veronica Murawski
Anna Van Milligan

MFA Preview is a survey exhibition showcasing recent works in various media by first year candidates in the UW MFA program. Presented in context with MFA Thesis, this one-stop exhibition provides a public preview of recently completed projects.  

Please join us in celebrating the thesis exhibitions by these promising emerging artists.
Exhibitions are free and open to the public.

UWAG
University of Waterloo Art Gallery
East Campus Hall 1239
Gallery: 519.888.4567 ext. 33575
uwag.uwaterloo.ca
Fine Arts: 519.888.4567 ext. 36923
finearts.uwaterloo.ca

Hours
Tuesday to Saturday
12:00-5:00 pm
Or by appointment

Contact
Ivan Jurakic, Director / Curator
519.888.4567 ext. 36741
ijurakic@uwaterloo.ca

Driving
263 Phillip Street, Waterloo, ON
Located in East Campus Hall on Phillip Street off University Avenue West, behind University Plaza
Use South entrance to ECH across from Engineering 6

Parking
Limited meter parking is available behind ECH
Visitor Parking is available in Lot E6, E5 or Lot B after 3:45 pm
http://www.uwaterloo.ca/map/index.php

Mailing
University of Waterloo Art Gallery
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3G1

logos

Image: Robert Dayton, Support #1, 2014. Photo: Brian Limoyo.

MFA/Toronto home search/karaoke/NEW HORIZZZONS

Oh hi, I am in the final month of grad school right now for my MFA, my show 'OUTTA THIS WORLD' opens Thursday May 7th at UWAG...hopefully my website will be more 'proper' before then with the apropos bells whistles pomp circumstance
In the meanwhile I am looking for a home for my well behaved cat Tommy and I in Toronto on June 1st if you know of anything. This sense of search has led me to host karaoke this Sunday night at The Beaver (1192 Queen Street West, Toronto) and call it 'I NEED A PLACE TO LIVE' KARAOKE. Starts at ten Pm and it will be lots of fun! The preceding night my act NEW HORIZZZONS is playing a show at Smiling Buddha...our first show of 2015... look at this lovely poster designed by Jona...

The Canadian Romantic album needs a home

so yeah, there a The Canadian Romantic album in the can with music by Marker Starling (formerly Mantler, aka Chris Cummings) and it is sensual, comedic, melodic, synthy and we just need someone to put it out, contact me if you have any suggestions and I can send tracks….
Meantime here's some live footage:

Canned Hamm Oct 9! July Fourth Toilet 20th anniversary Oct 16 in Vancouver! New Hank video!

Canned Hamm is playing The Fox Cabaret on Oct 9, Thursday!!!! Vancouver! With Talent Time! Come!


And then on Thursday Oct 16 July fourth Toilet is playing our 20th Anniversary Show as part of Wrongwave!!!! Jason Mclean is making my costume right now! many members who haven't played with us in ages performing!!!! jody Susan Soressa my brother Frank!!!! Check the link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/293971054142554/


Oh, and here's a new Hank video that I am in:

Montreal! Kid Power Book launch! NEW HORIZZZONS!

If you are in Montreal on Sunday, July 20th I will be there for this^ as I have a chapter in it on Stinky and am excited to be a part of it....
"KID POWER Book Launch, Screening and Cereal Buffet!
Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal Canada
Sunday, July 20 – 1:30pm
J.A. DeSeve Cinema (at Maisonneuve & MacKay on the Concordia campus)
Fantasia is proud to host the world premiere launch of Spectacular Optical’s first anthology book, Kid Power! – all about cool, tuff and inspiring kids in cult film and television.  Co-edited by Kier-La Janisse and Canuxploitation’s Paul Corupe and featuring writing by a diverse array of genre film criticism’s most unique voices, Kid Power! covers the gamut from The Peanut Butter Solution to The ABC Afterschool Special and the dark side of Disney. And tons more! The launch will be accompanied by a rare 35mm screening of Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) and a FREE cereal buffet!
Buying in person will save you both on shipping and on the cover price, as we’ll be selling the books on-site for a special price of $25.00 CAD! We’ll have T-shirts for sale too, and maybe even some KENNY skateboard decks!"

As well,  my band NEW HORIZZZONS ***MTL release for our "Trial By Fire" EP/incense***
Playing with Tang Soleil and Babysitter at l'Escogriffe Bar Spectacle.
 Sat, July 25, 10 pm!
4467 Saint-Denis, Montreal, Quebec H2J 2L2
Morrrre on this soon...

A Letter (The Canadian Romantic)

I've been negligent. Done so much yet posted so little. It's called getting older (or instagram...or twitter). New video by The Canadian Romantic. Enjoy.

Canadian Distribution: Wyrd Distro

At last ! Canadian distro for the July Fourth Toilet and Points Gray LP's...! 
July Fourth Toilet:
This wild album -THE MOST AMAZING DISAPPOINTING SECOND ALBUM EVER-Roctober compared it to Jack Kirby's 4th world...it is a journey of thrills: with art booklet and download code now has Canadian distro through Weird Canada and you can order it HERE! (and even listen)

 http://distro.weirdcanada.com/collections/experimental/products/july-fourth-toilet-july-fourth-toilet-presents-balls-boogie-featuring-me-and-bobby-mcgee-plus-kentucky-whore-and-many-others

This album is close to out of print, ltd. edition 500 copies with download code. Full colour gloss cover, high quality vinyl manufactured in the Czech Republic, mastering by Josh Stevenson at Cast Exotic, an art booklet with art by July Fourth Toilet members and collaborators as Jason Mclean, Owen Plummer, Mark Delong, Julian Lawrence, Ben Jacques,  jody franklin, Robert Dayton, more...   From July Fourth Toilet, Canada's wildest and most unpredictable band ever, Vancouver based, established 1994 with a mandate to never do the same show twice, always changing, always shifting, numerous members that have ranged in age from 8 to 80. Veering from the cosmic to the personal, from heavy boogie to visions in sound, the album goes all over the map due to obstacles being set up prior to recording.

"What do I say of a reprobate eight man/one woman ensemble (one man/woman, four longhairs, two ska dudes & a Mexican!) that just delivered 13 songs of extreme diversity, ranging from Death C&W to Soviet-powered Detroit Space Rock, via wonderfully excruciating mush-mouthed male-female Vow Renewals and Sober’d Up confessionals. For fans of Destroy All Monsters (all periods, kiddies), Armand Schaubroeuk Steals, the Afrika Corps, BALLS BOOGIE rescues several Long Dead musical genres from the Straights and slams them out eins, zwei, and drei, without so much as a soundcheck..... Search out this hot slab pronto, Tonto, and check out those front men while yooz at it! Ooer, missus!" 
- Julian Cope, Head Heritage, 2009 ...:


Points Gray! POINTS GRAY- OFFSHORE LP
Melodramatic hallucinatory downer damage recorded in the late ’90s by Robert Dayton (July Fourth Toilet, Canned Hamm, The Canadian Romantic), Dan Bejar (Destroyer, the New Pornographers) and Julian Lawrence (July Fourth Toilet). Melodic and troubled with a playful fear of death. Freaky despair. With liner notes by Kevin “Sipreano” Howes (From Jamaica To Toronto), and free download coupon. As well as an art and lyric booklet. Edition of 500.

Terrascope review: "...although they played live as AIDS, has an undeniable power in its lo-fi Folk Noire ramblings. A voice all its own that will either enthral you or grate with you, I can't imagine much in between. Personally, it has a taken a couple of plays before my ear tuned in, but I am glad it did, as songs such “Echo Power” and “People  Hate You In This Town” contain the same sardonic lyricism as The Velvets whilst being oddly constructed in a Syd Barrett, Skip Spence kinda way. Featuring future members of Wet Dirt, July 4th Toilet, and The New pornographers, the music is acoustic, reasonably free-form and is more uneasy than easy listening, although there are hidden depths to be discovered, pockets of beauty and a strange sense of stillness at its core. "

Both albums also available via Tedium House:
http://www.tediumhouse.com/artists/points-gray



Spectacular Optical Book One: KID POWER!

Check this! I wrote on Stinky from the Abbott and Costello show for this book: "Spectacular Optical Book One: KID POWER! The 1st edition of Kier-La Janisse's book series of themed film writing anthologies, this time covering cult kid's TV & film, has a brand-new Kickstarter Campaign with perks including tix to Fantasia (Montreal), tix to CineFamily (LA), badges to Fantastic Fest (Austin), Kier-La and Canuxploitation's Paul Corupe programming a festival IN YOUR HOUSE (Toronto), Jacob Two-Two "Child Power!" T-shirts, and a frickin' KENNY skateboard designed by Jay Shaw (Death Waltz album covers). Only $15 to get the KID POWER book with our Indiegogo campaign! We have 30 DAYS starting today! Essays and interviews by me, Paul Corupe, Zack Carlson, Cheryl Singleton, Bret Berg, Owen Williams, Chris Alexander, Robin Bougie, Robert Dayton, Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, Briony Kidd, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Craig Martin! Topics from Canada, the US, Australia, the UK and beyond! Everything from ABC Afterschool Specials to horror-kid Nicoletta Elmi!"

VALLOWEEN

Oh hi. Grrrreat news …for me and those who have to be around me. I am 99 percent free of allergies, thanks to being on allergy shots the past few years! It worked and I am a much more bearable person to be around - I think. I still have bad sinus problems when there is rain (sorry Vancouver) and barometric pressure changes but it worked! IT WORKED!

 I will be in Toronto performing as The Canadian Romantic on Saturday, February 15th at Double Double Land (209 Augusta, alleyway then up the stairs).

Info here:
We have decided to throw a different kind of Valentines party. One that combines:
-Romance (which with everything said above, we are very into)
-Satanic and darknessvibes
-General horror themed spookiness
-Prom night (Like that Jamie Lee Curtis one)

The night's itinerary includes:
-A very special performance by Toronto’s own man about town The Canadian Romantic
-Eerie & sulty projections by Brandon Dalmer

-Ultra fun dance party, with all vinyl vallo-wave-weirdness provided by Omega Cat & Co. (June Records dudes)
-HEARTBREAKER Pinata’s filled with candy and condoms (cuz yeah) created by B.L.O.T.
-COSTUME CONTEST trophies made by Vanessa Rieger.
(prizes also include t-shirts & vinyl courtesy June & Pleasence Records)
-Magical decorations & photo booth dripping in romantical oozyness by Simon Schlesinger & Sarah Kilpack with photos by Sarah Bodri

‡ ‡ ‡ ♥ ♥ ♥ Adv Tix ♥ ♥ ♥ ‡ ‡ ‡
Advance tickets available from Monday Feb 3rd at June Records cash only, guaranteed entry + first refreshment $8.

 Check this great poster, I think Julia Dickens made it:

up to dayton

I should really get a website going. No really. so all my music, performance, pen and ink, writing projects are easily findable, hell, even a CV so I look 'legit' or whatever that word is.
I just got an Instagram. therobertdayton
Go find me. same as my Twitter
https://twitter.com/therobertdayton
Mostly jokes and things that spur me, move me, fascinate.
Oh, and The Canadian Romantic winking pics are back in stock at Magic Pony, Likely general, if you are a store and want to carry them, drop me a line. They are on my etsy as well.
Just made some more vids, hopefully up in coming months.
Julian cope compared to a band to July fourth Toilet...after 20 years we made it, ha ha!
Check:
http://www.headheritage.co.uk/addressdrudion/170/

Wow, this year is our 20th anniversary! Since we played the  artschool ball hockey tournament. And now I am back in art school ! whoah!
Hainey said some kind words here as well about me, love that sweety:
http://weirdcanada.com/2014/01/featurette-retrospective-weird-canada-2013/

No images today, tired eyes.

Juul Haalmeyer: THE MOVIE campaign

My talented pal Erin is making a doc on Juul Haalmeyer , the incredible costume designer for SCTV, Codco, The Alice Cooper "Welcome To my Nightmare" special and much more! He also was the leader of SCTV"s Juul Haalmeyer dancers who deeply inspired Canned Hamm. She has started an indie-go-go campaign, feel free to spread the link below, check out the vid (music by Big Hamm of Canned Hamm):
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/juul-haalmeyer-the-movie