Sunday, July 4, 2010

Monster Party!

I want to take a moment to talk about one of the coolest things I've seen in Victoria since I've lived here. When I took over the Talk's Cheap space from Regalia, there was a poster on the poster board for something called Monster Party...the photocopied, hand colored poster with a drawing of a monster head advertising Toys, Animation and Oddities caught my attention, so I folded the poster up and stuck it in my pocket. The poster ended up sitting in the office at home, where I looked at it every day for a week or so, vowing every day to go check this place out. Did I check it out? Nope. I kept meaning to, but never made it the three or 4 blocks from my store to the Monster Party gallery at 1322 Broad St. So a few days after opening the doors at the store, this guy comes in asking if he can leave some flyers and poster for his gallery...Monster Party. We get talking...he tells me about the stuff he's got over there, and how people just aren't coming up to see his stuff. I tell him that if he wants, he can bring some stuff by thestore for people to check out and that I'll try to send people over. He asks if he can bring some over..right now. A few minutes later he's back with some of his stuff. A plant pot in the shape of a Monster Head, a severed finger fridge magnet, a Mummy magnet, rubber monster face puppets...all with hand painted packaging. This shit is Amazing...and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I spent the following week telling customers to check out the Monster Party gallery...while still having never actually been over there myself. Well, finally made it over there yesterday after closing up the shop. Holy shit. Just go check it out for yourself. The gallery itself is like Pee Wee's playhouse meets a carnival house of horrors. Sculptures, paintings, puppets, animations, masks, a fiji mermaid...seriously cool stuff. I dunno if I just grew up with the right stuff...but having my young mind warped by stuff like the Hillarious House of Frightenstein, cheap used 70's Horror mags, Rankin/Bass animation, Pee Wee's Playhouse, etc...has me completely wired for exactly the kinda stuff found at Monster Party.

Don't be scared off by the fact that you've gotta ring the buzzer and climb a maze of stairs to the third floor of an old building to a musty studio space above a nightclub...I don't think anybody will be dissapointed by what they find at Monster Party. Bring your friends...bring your kids! Just check out Monster Party...and tell Phil that Talk's Cheap sent you...
Monster Party
1322 Broad St
Studio D (Buzzer #23)
Open 1Pm till 6PM every day...look for the Sandwich board.



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