still time to bid

See the previous post about the auction?
The

art auction is almost over, up at the Gladstone until April 5 from 12-5pm each day
(free admission). Act fast.
Bidding on my painting will not only help Japan, it will help my fragile ego. Oh, and there's plenty of other great art as well.

Toronto Loves Japan

This is my piece being auctioned off for The Toronto Loves Japan auction, happening at The Gladstone tonite (April 1st) 7-10 PM. Tell any pals with an excess of money. It's for a great cause (did you hear about Japan?), my man Shayne Ehman (Lord Falcon) asked me to be involved, no hesitation. $20 suggested admission (includes raffle ticket)

*Special one night only auction and raffle with art gifts and surprises*

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Sonja Ahlers, Paul Aloisi, Nicholas Aoki, Stephen Appleby-Barr, Andrew Remington Bailey, Ashley Barron, Marc Bell, Diego Bergia, Katie Bethune-Leamen, Shary Boyle, Mat Brown, Robin Cameron, Tyler Clark-Burke, Trudie Cheng, Mark Connery, Robert Dayton, Taku Dazai, Brett Despotovich, Yuri Didrichsons, Nicholas DiGenova, Brian Donnelly, Dave Dyment, Shayne Ehman, Matthew Feyld, Melissa Fisher, Brendan Flanagan, Theo Gallaro, James Gardner, Shannon Gerard, Dana Gils, Heather Goodchild, Adrian Hayles, Heydon Park Artists, Sachi Hirano, Derrick Hodgson, Jay Isaac, Melinda Josie, Nathan Jurevicius, Adrienne Kammerer, Kozyndan, Nobuo Kubota, Chris Kuzma, Patrick Kyle, Christy Langer, Aaron Leighton, Tessar Lo, Amy Lockhart, Jamiyla Lowe, Derek Mainella, Chris Martin, Megan McKenzie, Jason Mclean, Alex McLeod, Julie Moon, Jennifer Murphy, Alicia Nauta, Tibi Tibi Neuspiel, Noel Middleton, Luke Painter, Roula Parthenou, Sandy Plotnikoff, Brad Phillips, Katherine Piro, Andrew Pommier, Lauchie Reid, Tony Romano, Kathryn Ruppert-Dazai, Tania Sanhueza, Jennifer Rose Sciarrino, Seth Scriver, Emiko Sekiguchi, German Shible, Lisa Smolkin, Jordan Sonenberg, Jennie Suddick, Derek Sullivan, Team Macho, Jon Todd, Michael Toke, Celeste TooGood, Karen Tracanelli, Howie Tsui, Brett Tyler, Lara Vincent, Andrew Waite, Meichen Waxer, Jacob Whibley, Billy Bert Young, Hyun-Chung Yu and Balint Zsako.

The Canadian Romantic - Episode Twelve: Real Mail

The Mailman brings The Canadian Romantic a letter that sparks an urgent message to all Canadians and then some!
Episode 12 - Real Mail
Directed By Robert Dayton & Craig Irving
Written By Robert Dayton (with Chris Locke)
Shot and Edited By Craig Irving

The Canadian Romantic - Episode Eleven: Mail Ritual

BRAND NEW EPISODE! Yayyy! It's been a while...

This time around the mailman brings The Canadian Romantic a letter from Jason Mclean...
If you enjoy this please feel free to share with your loved ones, we're making it for the pleasure of people...

perpetual neuroses machine

Creative neuroses. A common theme.
Often perpetual.
"Oooh, Robert are you ever satisfied?", my close pals ask.
PREPARE TO BE WHINED! ...again...perhaps one day I can dine.
I am currently hustling and pitching good albums to labels, a strong book project to publishers. And it can drive me crazy. I certainly get enough validation and approval from trusted sources. Yes, I know that they are good and not just taking up space. Often people are totally surprised that I've never had a label or publisher before. I look bigger than I am, people often think that I am totally set up. I know that with a couple of the projects I've had some people say, "I can't believe that no one's released this" which just messes my mind further. With some labels that I pitch to I get "This is really great" a lot but nothing further. Sometimes they act like they just know someone else will put it out. The worst feedback that I have received (so far) was from one publisher, a publisher I respect, that is known as being notoriously picky, telling me that my work wasn't "polished" enough which made sense to me at the time as much of their books are rather technically refined and precise, but then weeks later I saw that one of their latest books looked like a bunch of crude finger paintings and I asked myself, "What's the audience for this? Who would want to buy this?"
I'm not supposed to let it get to me. It's outside of my control, right? Just move on to the next one (I did). It's eating me up inside.And I can't get bitter...again, I've taken measures to not get bitter (again), even moving to a new city.
The thing I am most sick of hearing when I tell random people that I am searching for labels/publishers of pretty much any size (but the right fit, etcetera) is, "Why don't you just do it yourself?"
From now on, I will respond by banging a table and yelling, "Do you know who I am? Do you know the things that I have done? Oh, you don't? Well! For near on twenty years now I have been self-publishing numerous little mags, even a newspaper, etc., and have even- with various acts- released half a dozen albums, numerous tours to strong response. Not to mention the numerous performances, art shows, and mags I've contributed to. Hmm. And you don't know this...perhaps it's because it's had no backing! I repeat: no backing!" Many of these projects that I do have garnered more attention than some of the stuff out there that actually has backing but, because it was DIY it lacked decent distribution (case in point: a rave review from a noted authority causes people in England to want to get an album of mine but the 'distributor' tells them it's sold out- tho it's rather not). I'm told that I am the most known unknown source. I'm not deliberately trying to be obscure. I'd like to create (communicate/express) unhindered and not lose money. Many of my peers and collaborators are garnering well deserved success so that they can develop and grow and do what they do and do it well with something to say. I sometimes have to hear a few of them complain about their lack of acclaim, yet they have labels, or complain about their Italian dealers, yet they actually have dealers, or having to tour, yet they have booking agents and huge shows...I love them but it can be hard for me to listen to sometimes.
I'll admit that some of this sounds like horn tooting, some of you readers of this blog know my history and output- that's how you found this blog- but some of you don't so I have to back up my complaining. How much do these feelings of mine stem from a sense of entitlement? Hmm. Well, is it really too much to want backing after putting so much into it? There is a sense of ego at play here that mixes in with a sense of selflessness, of considering the audience, to make sure that it is relatable yet not banal. Cynics seem drawn to my work. Another ridiculous notion is one of focus when it's obvious I raise a high bar for each project, maybe I should ask James Franco to put his name to it. Or Banksy (yuck).
By writing these thoughts am I sabotaging greater successes? Shattered illusions. I feel like I created multiple mythos long ago so does that even matter, or is the constant reinvention at stake? Nobody knows that I am actually 200 years old (as someone suggested the other day) so the youth culture chips don't need to be cashed in (bless you Debbie Harry).
I've been learning to let go, to not force things, but those feelings have been creeping up again.
I can't stop creating, it's a force working through me that keeps emanating, anti-block, it's spiritual, still it actually feels more spiritual when I feel like I am working towards something...
I'm tired and I don't know what the fuck I am doing wrong. I'd just love to know so I can improve and grow and make things happen.

YESTERDAZE

Tonite (Saturday Feb 26 at Dbl Dbl Land, 209 Augusta) I'll be the host of a bar called "YESTERDAZE" for a celebration of the release of young mother's limited edition cassette, "collected works for solo piano"

This newest (it doesn't even exist yet), hottest club in toronto, "YESTERDAZE" is opening for one night only before it closes to make way for a waste disposal plant.

preemptively pegged as "the most authentic vintage experience of 2525", by none other than cultural icon/cartoon wizard walt disney, who has been freshly revived from cryogenic stasis for this very event.

in an effort to enhance your clubbing experience, there will be free nutritional supplements available throughout the evening.

this is not an evening to be missed.

featuring performances by:

nick flanagan
http://www.myspace.com/nickflanagan

half automaat (carl didur)
http://soundcloud.com/zacht-automaat

huckleberry friends
http://www.myspace.com/huckleberryfriends

young mother
http://soundcloud.com/young_mother

environment by:

xenia benivolski
joele walinga
augustina saygnavong
jesse james laderoute

drinks by:

juliann wilding

2 LIVE Canadian Romantic appearances...

Doing two Canadian Romantic performances in Toronto Wednesday and Thursday:

The Box
The Rivoli, 334 Queen St. W (backroom)
Wednesday, February 23 · 8:00pm - 11:30pm
The Box invites you to our winter evening of short words, film, performance and music by:
Claudia Dey
Robert Dayton
Dr Ew
Lynne Heller
Kathleen Phililips
Annette Mangaard
Annie Onyi Cheung
John Southworth
+ door treats from Alert Music, Arc Poetry Magazine, Carousel, Coach House Books, Dandyhorse, DC Books, Geist, Grain Magazine, Hunter and Cook, Mercer Union, Pedlar Press, Public, The Malahat Review, Matrix, Shameless, Tightrope Books, Transit Publishing, Worn Journal and others.
The Box is a quarterly salon night of readings, performances, screenings, interventions and networking that aims to bring diverse communities and audiences into an environment of artistic and social intermingling.

The Parkdale Comedy Experiment
The Shop under Parts & Labour, 1566 Queen St. W.
Thursday, Feb. 24th 9-12.
Come laugh and funny jokes and trade weird stuff at the bodega!
Don't forget about the meat raffle!? YOU DESERVE IT!
Hosted by Conor Holler & Sara Hennessey
This months guests:
Robert Dayton
Sexy Girl Party w. Sleepover Dad
sketch by Ladystache
Improv by Falcon Powder!
And music by Jenna Rogers.
9pm, $3

sigh, I hate when I post a vid here, the sidebar covers part of it up...this appears to be a recent problem....

CATS! And other animals...

Oh hello...
Bit of a headcold.
Congestion.
Moving forward...
Working a bit more on the book and other projects.
I now have a tumblr where I mostly post random ephemera:

http://robertdayton.tumblr.com/

The Canadian Romantic is now on Twitter, follow him:
https://twitter.com/TheCanRomantic

And here is the latest Canadian Romantic vid: Episode Ten: Cats! And other animals..., if ya like, link it up, tell pals:

The Canadian Romantic: Wind Of Mail

I am told that this is the most depressing day of the year. I don't feel it. the day's not over yet. Do you feel it? Here's a video. Hope you no longer feel that but feel the video, feel me. Feel free to repost, link, love, et al, if you like like like.

FEINT

I perform as part of Feint of Hart again this Thursday, so good, it's free and it inventively mixes comedy with music and multimedia and costumes and more, yes yes. So nice to be asked to be a part. This is part four but no matter, just go enjoy the continuing story of an all male Naval academy's regular talent show...
In the Arbor Room, Hart House, University of Toronto
DOORS 9PM
SHOW 10PM SHARP
FREE


I'd blog more when I was aching and breaking open spilling guts, things go awry.
And now?
I feel fine.
I feel just fine.
Shouldn't I blog then? Or is this just a platform to complain, not praise. Oh exalted!
Someone added me as a friend. They had some sort of piercing that marked them as a self-described individual in broad brushstrokes. It kept me from blogging. The act of blogging felt so inflated and self-important. Get out of myself.

ANOTHER YEAR

This is going to be the best 2011 ever!

The last 2011 sucked.

Many people are really hoping that this year is better than last year, well, it is actually up to us to make it a better year. Us, and The Illuminati, of course.
Ta!

SASKATOON FINDINGS

Saskatoon? Yes, I was there for a few days, yes. And it was. It was. Homogeneity. Yet in the old shops there lingered items. One shop had a knit thingy like the multicoloured start of a knit afghan shawl, deep V woolly band with fringe in red, blue, yellow, and white. One dollar. Same shop had a VHS entitled Primal: an instinct for the original. It's for hairstyling, upon watching it all I got was a slightly fuzzy taping of CTV. In another charity shop was a VHS called Glitterball, if only, it's a British children's movie about aliens. Same shop: first Care Bears LP by Flo and Eddie (Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan) of The Turtles. Canned Hamm performed at the Bubblegum Achievement awards in LA a few years ago where Volman and Kaylan got an award for their work on The Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake. Somewhere there's a photo of me with Mark Volman. Wish I knew where.

What else did I get in Saskatoon? A book by one of my fave sci-fi authors, Michael Moorcock, about space-rock band Hawkwind, "Rocking on the edge of time. Rock and roll sci-fi."

A pivotal Brian Aldiss sci-fi novel entitled Cryptozoic which is a psychosexual thriller about man and time.


A hyper-stylized graphic novel from the late 70s entitled Psychorock by Macedo, sci-fi glammed out Euro fantasies with imagery that looks like it came off a fifth dimensional van.

A rare 1967 romance comic with the glossiest pages entitled Mod Love, hyper-stylized as well, like the Yellow Submarine movie, better than Peter Max. Link to pages here:
http://kathykavan.com/?tag=comic

The very 80s post-apocalytptic comic miniseries Slash Maraud with an Eastwoodian hero and a blue haired fighting female in a zebra print leotard, people on the fringes of society:

An issue of Hex, which was the series where Wild West comic book hero Jonah Hex gets zoomed into an unreadable post-apocalyptic future.
Jack Kirby taking on the kung-fu craze in issue three of Richard Dragon, it's as good as one would hope even though he didn't write it (Denny O'Neill did).
A Canadian comic book entitled Super Shamou that warns against solvent huffing in the North West Territories.
A Canadian comic book entitled Binkly and Doinkel that teaches children about harmful chemicals. This was actually also a series of televison PSAs (I wish these were up on YouTube) as well as a puppet show that I saw as a small child. Binkly and Doinkel were aliens and the comic book still looks great!


If anyone wants further details, let me know.
Otherwise, here's a video:

TIDINGS

New vid, every week, if you feel lonely, sad, et al this X Mas, you are not alone...maybe this vid will help.
Feel free as well to drop me a line if you do feel that way, I understand:
moustachedpainless@yahoo.com

TONETTA WROTE A SONG ABOUT ME, PLUS: LONER SHOW

Well, actually my character The Canadian Romantic:


As well my interview with the talented Brian Barlow of The Loner Show is up at Hunter and Cook. It's all about the many characters that he has created and how the last Loner Show is this Sunday nite at The Rivoli. 5 bux. I will be performing , along with over 60 other people for a minute each, as The Canadian Romantic:
http://www.hunterandcook.com/archives/449#more-449

That show will be wild!

This Tonetta vid was posted after trying to call him at 5 PM all week as he was going to come on my The Canadian Romantic show, he became elusive then this vid just appeared. Weird day today. Before that vid appeared I found out about Captain Beefheart dying, I knew it was coming as he'd had advanced MS for quite a while but it still hit. Just can't stop listening to Beefheart, the sonic tones of "Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)" (my fave) are just so overpowering. I took him for granted for so long but just so pivotal, so pivotal. I remember as a teeny bopper in Northern BC (pre-internet) reading weird allusions to him and wondering what the deal was, ole but needed it, had it on cassette, went with my Mom, ROCKING POETIC INTENSITY, I was looking for wilder and wilder sounds and there they were, showing possibilities, so many, he even dressed well, a personal style God: his moustache, tortoise shell specs, I once found a scarf just like on the cover of Bongo Fury, so bummed when that went missing, even his paintings helped show me viscerality.
Please share your personal thoughts on Beefheart, love to hear them....

CHRISTMAS FEELINGS/LONELINESS/NEW CANADIAN ROMANTIC

I almost forgot to post this...The Ossington (61 Ossington) asked me back and it was organised last minute so that I could play my X Mas records, yayyyyyyy!I just bought two new ones: The Rotary Connection (psych-soul) and Spinal Tap!
Tuesday, Dec 13th, 9 PM. My fave vid store Eyesore Cinema is donating prizes: if you bring some non-perishables for the food bank you increase your likelihood of winning...


As well The Canadian Romantic will be appearing for his Midnite Candlelight recitation. Oh, and here's his new video:

Just as I was about to go on meds, I feel like I have turned a page recently. May it continue. Strange these feelings when even confidence is being restored. Oh, those pendulum swings of ego manifestations from self-grandeur to self-pity. Numerous baseball bat hits to its' kneecaps the last couple of months, some of which have been detailed, some of which I won't...In terms of female relations, I've often feel like saying lately, "I deserve far better than this. I do not deserve to be treated this way. In fact, no one should be treated this way." I made rules the previous week of no asking girls out, keeping away, they have to come to me for I do not want to be hurt anymore. I have too much to offer for that kind of run-around. Rules break, eye contact is made, I have an amourous character, is this wise?
However, I may just be crazy, deluded. With hopeful growth. My name is Jesus Christ and I will fuck you, skip the martyrdom.
Part of my pain is that I have had mountains and lost them. When an ex (who looks like a red-headed Caroline Munro but better: by the way, people have all this celeb lust and there are people just walking down the street who look far better, dress better and are probably way more interesting than most celebs) that deep love and laughs were shared with, bringing out each other's good qualities, well, of course I will feel deep loss. Mind you, with the previous ex I wondered if I'd date again and it got better (with a former child actress rebound on E thrown in-between of course). So deep pain from what I've had (gone to never return), more gratitude of what I've had, the life I've lived, what I have, the gifts I've been given.
I'm doing okay. My current vibe: fuck it.
I don't care about my needs! I'm simply more into delivering the goods to others right now. And if they reject it then, well, it just wasn't right or it is their loss, not mine.
Who knows what is to come?
I'd been pretty depressed, sad, and lonely, so encountering other folks who are in a bit of that same boat who say, "Those new vids made me less depressed, etcetera" makes me realise what I have to do and why I have to do it. If I can get it to more folks, even better. Of course, if I can also make people less lonely and depressed by using my other gift (my large penis) then even better.
I don't really need to exist in my own head all the time, thank you very much.
Sure hope this feeling lasts.
Hey, here's something, I went to a party yesterday for a charity. It was filled with people that went through unimaginable horrors and had to escape to Canada. They were laughing and had dignity.
Cherish your day.