THIRTEEN WITH DISASTER...

by Tallulah Lastname, Company Clerk:

T-Bone and Cotton are in Nashville, Tennessee. They were briefly joined by an additional hand-picked team of rag-tag Misanthropes, sent by Madame X to aid in the carrying out of yet another offshoot errand. The extra manpower was dispatched once it was learned that T-Bone's mission in the Music City coincided with the emergence of Brood XIX; a loud-buzzing swarm of cicadas that rises up by the millions out of the ground every thirteen years.

(Brood XIX in action)

Also known as the Great Southern Brood, this is the largest brood of thirteen-year cicadas, they're out in record numbers this year. The air is lousy with them. After over a decade of lying in wait as underground grubs, they have finally emerged; taking to the sky in the desperate hopes of humping and laying eggs in these last few days of their lives.

An overnight accumulation of dead bugs under T-Bone's
porch light (photo by T-Bone)

The streets are littered with big dead bugs. They're flying into people's faces, and bumping feverishly into streetlights all night. Cicadas are dropping dead, mid-flight, or raining down from the trees like autumn leaves, and the Misanthropes are collecting as many of the carcasses as they can.

Just as was the case with the Company's collection of ball moss in Austin, many of the local are thankful for Misanthropes ridding their properties of this perceived eye-sore, going so far as to make a financial contribution to the effort.

(photo by Reverend Aitor)

But all this raking up of expired insects is motivated by more than some sense of civic duty. The cicadas are being boxed up and shipped back to the Company's MVSEVM.

Already, there are five kilos of cicadas are on their way to Toronto, and the Nashville expedition is still gathering even more more.Madame X, the MVSEVM's curator, has plans for this bounty of specimens. Big plans.

* * *

WHOSE THE MOSS?

by "Madame X", Head Curator of the M.S.Co. MVSEVM
of Natural and Artificial History:

(photo by Erkuden Sakana)

Today on the Company agenda, the preparation of new exhibits for the M.S.Co. MVSEVM of Natural and Artificial History.

(photo by Heywood McGillicuddy)

One of the benefits of having a greater number of misanthropes abstain from this year's tour has been the ability to not just to keep the MVSEVM open and running through the Summer months, but also to develop and advance the MVSEVM's programming and exhibits.

* * *

(photo by Cottonwood Fields)

Also in MVSEVM news, the Austin expedition has yielded a treasure trove of indigenous epiphytic air plants. Known locally as ball moss, tillandsia recurvata is a member of the bromilliad family, and close relative of Spanish moss. Despite its moniker, it is not a moss but a flowering plant.

(photo by Reverend Aitor)

The stuff literally grows on trees in central Texas, affixing itself to the shaded interior branches and drawing all of its nutrients from the moisture in the air trough their leaves and stems, rather than from soil, or the trees themselves. Their roots serve only to anchor them in place.

Ball moss has an unfortunate reputation among many of the locals. They are erroneously thought to be parasitic, damaging the trees they grow on. Commonly regarded as an unsightly pest, nobody objected to the misanthropes coming onto their property and climbing their trees to fill shopping bag after shopping bag of ball moss. One elderly homeowner even thanked the team, going as far as to bring out a pitcher of sweet tea and offering the Company five dollars for their troubles.

(photo by T-Bone)

Headquarters eagerly anticipates the shipment of what T-Bone insists on referring to as "a mean case of ball moss."

* * * *

THIS WEEK'S PRODUCTIVITY REPORT
Number of illustration initiated: 18
Number completed: 8
Number inducted: 3
Carried over to next week: 3

* * * *

FAIR GAIN...

by Erkuden Sakana, Company Secretary:

(photo courtesy of City of Craft)

Last night the Company came together after wrapping up at another successful City of Craft. The holiday show remains one of the misanthropes' absolute favourites, and not just because it's strolling distance from the Company Bunker.

The Misanthrope Specialty Co. officially takes its hat off the organizers for an impeccably curated and tightly run ship, full of fantastic vendors, imaginative interactive installations, and interesting satellite exhibitions.

Kudos to the organizers . The Company will surely try to shove it's way into the fold again next year.

* * *

Arthur on location in Montréal (photo by Heywood)

With all foreseeable art shows and craft fairs done with until the spring thaw, members are proposing and cooking up all manner of new projects for the new year.

For starters, the question of what to do with all the left over footage from Screaming Hell Hogs Eat Shit and Die is finally being addressed. It's beginning to look asthough some new (or partially new) film projects may soon be in the works.

* * *

1965 Dymo magazine advert

It's been a very long time since the Company last held any sort of contest or giveaway. It is one of the Company's New Year's resolutions to remedy this fact very shortly. Honest.

Readers will have to wait for the specific details, but one thing is for certain: it will involve labelling tape. Labelling tape of the woodgrain variety.

* * *

photo of the museum's nepenthe ventrata by Anahí Coria

Though the Museum of Natural & Artificial History and offices at Misanthrope Specialty Co. Headquarters will remain open through the holidays, familial obligations have whisked most of the misanthropes away for the next couple of weeks. The Company's Sunday sessions have therefore been suspended until January 9, 2011.

See you next year.

* * *

THIS WEEK'S PRODUCTIVITY REPORT
Number of projects initiated: 20
Number completed: 14
Number inducted: 8
Carried over to next week: 2

* * *

BUTTON FLY TRAP...

by Erkuden Sakana, Company Secretary:

(photo by Arthur Corey)

Another instalment of the Company's subscription service is packaged up and ready to go. This month's mail-out includes a little something different: venus fly trap buttons. The Museum of Natural & Artificial History's Head Curator and Chief Botanist have been collecting and pressing the dead leaves from the carnivorous plant exhibit for some time, waiting for just the right project to come along.

Now, with the help of super-star buttoneer Sweetie Pie Press, the Company has begun production on a series of 1" buttons for the Museum's gift shop; many still contain the remains of the insects that met their untimely demise in the leafy jaws of the voracious dionea muscipula.

Audrey 3, the Company's pet fly trap (photo by Anahí Coria)

Naturally, these buttons are available in only limited supply. The traps are harvested only after the leaf dies, so as not to cause the plant harm.

* * *

dionea vs. caterpillar

Incidentally, many of the plans in the Company's carnivorous collection, including the fly traps, pitcher plants, and some of the sundews are soon to enter their winter dormancy. Visitors to the museum have two weeks to see the current botanical exhibit before the the hibernating plants are hidden away until the springtime. Plant feedings can be seen Saturdays at 3pm.

* * * *

THIS WEEK'S PRODUCTIVITY REPORT
Number of projects initiated: 29
Number completed: 19
Number inducted: 5
Carried over to next week: 0

* * * *

INTERIM JOB...

by Erkuden Sakana, Company Secretary:

The misanthropes are all finally back in Toronto; just in time to watch the season change from summer to fall.

Back in the safety of Headquarters (photo by Reverend Aitor)

Tonight's meeting was held in the familiar comforts of Headquarters for first time in moths. After so many Sunday meetings held in parking lots, noisy restaurants, illegal squats, other people's homes and an array of sleazy motels, the Company members can once again appreciate the comforts this designated haven of leisurely toil. There a plenty of chairs for everyone, full kitchen and bar, and smoking is permitted.

(nametag and photo by Tallulah Lastname)

Ofcourse, today also marked the last Misanthrope Specialty Co. meeting before a belated, but much needed hiatus. After months of touring together, it is safe to say the Company members all in need of a genuine break, and some distance from eachother.

* * *

(poster by the Misanthrope Specialty Co.)

Among the loose bits of business to tie up before closing shop for the month was the completion of a few commissioned works, including a poster for Levi Macdougall's upcoming intimate evening. Those of you who both live in Calgary and enjoy awkward, understated comedy would be well advised to attend.

(Unflattering Portrait of Levi by Reverend Aitor)

This isn't the first time the Company has been hired to do Mr.Macdougall's bidding. A chance encounter at a party promptly grew into a budding business relationship, which is presently blossoming into something resembling friendship. Now the Company is invited to sleep on his many sofas whenever in the Los Angeles area.

* * *

NOTICE
* * * The Misanthrope Specialty Co. is hereby on hiatus * * *
* * * the Company reconvenes Sunday October 10, 2010 * * *

Please be advised that calls, letters and electronic mail to the M.S.Co. and it's members
are likely to go unanswered until such time
AND
The Museum of Natural & Artificial History will remain closed in the interim

* * *

(See you in October)

* * *

WALL TO SCRAWL MARKETING...

by Heywood McGillicuddy, Chairman:

"Yukon Honeymoon No.2" by the men and women of the M.S.Co.

Yes, the Company is back in Chicago; now only days away from home. The anticipation is almost unbearably palpable.

As much as the members enjoy spending half their year living like carnies, they are also eager to sleep in their own lumpy beds, with their own lumpy lovers. There is also only so much time the misanthropes can spend cooped up in cars and motels together, breathing in eachother's b.o. day in and day out.

* * *

(photo by Rufus Spaulding)

It has been the Company's unofficial custom in previous years to open up the Clubhouse present a homecoming party and exhibition promptly after a lengthy tour. This year, however, the decision to push the usual summer hiatus back to September will keep the Company Clubhouse doors closed until October. Same goes for the Museum of Natural & Artificial History.

The M.S.Co. assures it's loyal friends and eager followers that it will make it up to them just a little further down the line. Yesterday's motion to host a Hallowe'en / Dia De Los Muertos party and event was passed unanimously.

More details will be forthcoming, pending further deliberation at next week's meeting. There are many a detail to iron out.

* * *

Paperboy's interim exhibition. A work in constant flux.
(photo courtesy of Paperboy Chicago)

Though Toronto audiences are going to have to wait, citizens of the windy city are invited to stand in awe at the Company's contribution to the impromptu group show at Paper Boy.

The misanthropes dropped by the boutique-slash-gallery's yesterday to the staff taping hurried doodles and half-finished sketches up in the gallery space. The scheduled exhibition had fallen through at the last minute, so the intrepid women of Paper Boy were mounting their own eleventh-hour show in its place.

Selected highlights from the art wall thus far (photos courtesy of Paperboy)

The doodles were only there to get the ball rolling. A basket of magic markers and a stack of virgin paper were place conveniently nearby, along with an invitation for one and all to complete the drawings, and/or start their own. It was too much to resist.

The Company spent the rest of the day gleefully scribbling in the gallery, embellishing on or otherwise defiling the groundwork the fine folks at Paper Boy had laid. This fast and loose collaboration was a refreshing departure from the more rigid and protocol-laden work the misanthropes had become accustomed to in their regular Sunday sessions.

The Misanthropes get in on the action (photo courtesy of Paper Boy)

Why not drop by and make your mark? The wall will only continue to evolve and expand over the course of the show's run.

PAPER BOY COMMUNAL WALL
September 1 to September 30, 2010
1351 West Belmont Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

* * *

Limited edition message card by the Misanthrope Specialty Co.

And while you're at it, why not check out the latest in M.S.Co. ephemera? The Company has restocked the store's inventory with all manner of freshly made goods, including a few limited edition cards made using some ultra-rare vintage embossing tapes.

* * *