May 272012
 


It’s been a wild week! Our Kickstarter ended up raising $20,000 (quadruple what we asked for!) and we got the Best Feature award from the awesome Sci-Fi-London fest. The Grid also just posted a great article on the movie with a bunch of tips from me on low budget filmmaking — the writer really got the spirit of the thing, with phrases like “happiness is the only real currency exchanged on an all-volunteer set.”

Next week of course we have our North American premiere in Toronto. (We’re 2/3s full at this point, so you might want to pre-order tickets.) But the day before that is the party for the new issue of Spacing — the Disaster issue. Spacing is one of my favourite magazines both to read and to write for, and I’m delighted to reveal that I wrote a Ghosts With Shit Jobs-inspired spread in this issue — it’s a tour given by Anton Karrento of Toronto in 2040. Plus, the Karrento Brothers are going to be at the magazine launch party, combing the area for spider silk caches in the nooks and crannies of the Evergreen Brick Works. Spacing parties are always fun and the location’s amazing — come on out!

The little article below was a sidebar that didn’t end up in the spread, but I thought I’d post it here as an early taste.

“Haven’t seen one of these in years!” says Anton Karrento, hoisting the warning sign and setting it back on its post. The arachnoid warning sign is a relic of the infestation years, and Karrento has mixed feelings about the early ‘30s.

“Sure it was a bit dangerous, but man, back then we were pulling bags of spizz.” The gregarious man speaks enthusiastically about the time when the rare spider silk was easier to collect than it is now, ten years on. While the silk is still very much in demand as a lightweight building material for the ecoskyscrapers in Asia, silk gatherers like Karrento have to scour every nook and cranny of the city to find enough to live off of — and sometimes it’s not enough.

But Anton’s extensive knowledge of the city has opened up another opportunity: tour guide. “Lots of folks are coming over from Asia to see how we live here, and they need locals to show ‘em around.” Anton’s friendly energy puts the wealthy tourists at ease, and he’s happy to carry backpacks and gear if needed. “And I like kids too, especially if they wanna hear about the giant mutant spiders.” He wiggles his fingers.

For the most part, they’re interested in seeing ruins like the Tower, but Anton encourages them to check out the Scarborough Bluffs too. “It’s pretty out there,” he says, his face dreamy. “The Pickering Power Plant stopped leaking ages ago, and the grass and the wildlife came back real nice.”

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