Brown Eyed Girl

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Filed in Arts
November 19, 2005

Brown. Such a wonderful and underestimated colour. Often associated with decay, it gets a bum rap. People love to smear and poo-poo the colour brown. It just gets shit on. I don't know why. (What's brown and sounds like a bell?)

Well, dwell in obscurity no longer my earth-toned friend. Brown, you WILL have your day. You will be the new black. Or pink. Or whatever the new NEW is. But whooooo? Whooo will dooooo this. And why am I hoooting?

Because The Parliament of Owls have arrived, that's why. I will no longer mingle in clandestine caves and in the branches of midnight elms. It is truuuuuue. I am the Speaker of the House. I have submitted a proposal to the auditor general to determine whether or not there is any conflict of interest between Beyond Robson and Thee Right Honourable Parliament of Owls. After lengthy public review and significant consultation it was determined that I don't actually care. That's not true. I care. I just don't think it's a problem. Is that a problem?

Anyways, moving on.

The Parliament of Owls is an art collective me and my palsy walsy Merida of Paper Bird began a couple of years back. We had our first show at (old) Blim last year to a rousing packed house. PR1M3S played their first show and Secret Mommy released his wonderful EP Hawaii, all to the theme of Pirates.

Basically what I understand the collective to be about, in a nutshell, a brown chestnut shell at that, is open source. I was feeling a little intimidated by the seemingly exclusive art cliques that were/are so prevalent. I wanted to make it really inviting, so much so that it included everything that wanted it to include it. Anyone could say they were in the Parliament of Owls. Merida had originally wanted it to be a relaxed vehicle for artists who either weren't sure if they were or wanted to be artists, or were having difficulty starting out. We included photographers, painters, crafters, musicians, fashion designers, and jokers. The idea was probably too grandiose, but the resulting skeleton of the group remained. And thusly ergo hence this is why I am thusly introducing you to us now. Thusly.

So, on behalf of the Parliament of Owls may I be so bold as to humbly invite you to BROWN; (see I told you it was bold) an art show wherein the theme is... yup, you guessed it, brown. All sorts of different interpretations of the wonderfully misunderstood colour. There will be brown food and brown beverages and brown people. Sean Wesley Wood and super cutesterT-T-Tracey and more will be providing the tuuuuuuunes. Woooooo! Sean Wesley Woooooood!

Owls include Andy Dixon, Merida Anderson, Sean Maxey and Sarah Jane Truman of The Doers; Joel Tong, Jeremy Riley of Funhouse Tattoo and Allei Riley, Chris Williams, Doug Phillips of Sound Document Recordings, Stefanie Ostler of Devil May Wear clothing, Cheylene Tattersall, Sarah and Willy King, Landon Metz of Bad-Ass Magic, Eleanor McCaughy and Cian from Ireland, Jenny Smyth from The Organ, Matt Barber, Sarah Kenny of Jejune Cleaver, Sasha Barry, Heather Emery, Rie and Derrek Long, Hannah MacMillan, April Leino, Andrew Dennison, Stephanie Puelo, and myself.