House Of Ugly

UGLY|WORDS

2008-12-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

ROLL UP, ROLL UP!!
WELCOME UGLY READERS....
todays ugly read is by the spectacularly dark Naida [of whom we mentioned in earlier "Uglies"]
so put on your specs, take a seat and relax as you let Naida show you a little bit of her world...

Saving grace

so when i was five, i used to climb up onto the sink so that i could see into the mirror properly, and whilst i was up there, i'd stretch my face with both of my hands to try and see what i'd look like when i grew up. i didn't want to grow up after that, because i looked pretty ugly.

i used to wander around the playground, sometimes talk to the dinner ladies. i don't really remember playing. but they liked me. they'd say "ooh how exotic" when i'd tell them stories about the types of food my mummy made, and what the names for things were in swahili. one day, i decided to sneak up behind a girl called joanna, and pull her pigtails really, really hard until she started to cry. her and her friends told on me to the dinner ladies, but they didn't believe her.
one day i found a feather, and ran a finger along it the opposite way to the fine joining lines, and it made me feel sick. like when vaseline gets under my fingernails.

in year six on valentines day, i brought michael tayler a heart shaped keyring with two little mice hugging. on the back i wrote;

dear michael, love naida.

he showed it to his friends, then at the end of break, when we all had to line up in our forms, he handed it back to me. in front of everyone. i kept the keyring. it's probably in the attic somewhere.

at secondary school i met a beautiful girl called katherine. for a long time, she was the most important person in the world to me. we'd talk on the phone for hours. she smelt like sugary milk and was tall and slim.

things since then are jumbled by alcohol and drugs, destruction and self-doubt. which is a shame, or maybe not. if i couldn't write things down, i wouldn't see the point in living.

i'm not a catholic, but isn't it weird how catholic and catharsis are similar sounding, and they're sort of the same? confessing, reliving, forgiveness and guilt?

i have no shame. i'm not ashamed of who i am, or anything i've done to myself, or the things i've been through. i don't believe in keeping things to myself anymore. because i'd probably be dead if i had.

i know everthing's connected, i just don't know how. i know that if i can just figure this out, everything will get so much better. .....

right now i feel shit. i've been here a million times before, and have several ways of dealing with it. today i was convinced that this was it. today was it. today felt like my time. then i thought-

and there but by the grace of god, go i.

i'm not religious. i don't know where it came from. but i think it's about angels. i don't really believe in angels. but i like the word and the name grace.
when i chose a new name for myself, I chose Lillya Grace.

I came onto the computer, of all places, and typed saving grace.

my heart is really aching. not in a stabbing way. in a slow, painful, peeling way, like someone has reached in with a vegetable peeler and is working at it, round and round, as i sit here, powerless to stop it.

ketamine and pills, i thought. ketamine and pills. if i time it right, by the time the pills start to rip apart my stomache, the ketamine will numb it and i'll drift off. perfect! i can't believe i'd never thought of it before.

so i typed saving grace, and thought, when it feels right, i'll gather all the pills i've stolen from my mother. the good stuff. and have a drink, vodka lemonade and lime, and then wait. then when the pains start, i'll take the couple of grams of ketamine.

my mum rang. it's like she knew. like how she always seems to pop up when i'm about to do something i probably shouldn't. like when she wakes for no reason in the middle of the night and starts walking around whilst i'm trying to purge a binge i've been saving til everyone's in bed.

i ignored it at first. she rang again.

at the end she said,
i love you.

i said, i love you too.

there's a quote that goes ( and i think it's part of that wonderful monologue in good will hunting, delivered by robin williams to matt damon) real love is when you love someone more than you love yourself.

i used to think that i didn't love myself, so of course, i knew how to love.

i thought, i can't die without watching that monologue. "do you think i presume to know everything about you, just because i've read oliver twist?"

no, i have to see that film again.

"sorry professor, i had to go see about a girl"

i'm still typing. i haven't wanted to stop. i haven't figured it out yet. . .
if i didn't love myself, i wouldn't bother to type this to a maybe audience, to try and share what's going on, to give myself the voice that i want to be heard.

i wouldn't have bothered.

but there's this need... to speak out. to speak out and stand up tall and say

"you know what. i'm kind of fucked up. and i've kind of fucked up. and i can't help it, or tame it. but i can try to understand it, and explain it."

in primary school every year, despite the fact that i rarely spoke and basically had no friends, i always won the english prize. i've always loved language, and expressing myself through the written word.

some people can't, and they haven't found the thing that makes them tick, and they die all alone because it's not socially acceptable to speak up.

because it makes people feel uncomfortable.
because it's not normal.

i'd like to think i love other people more than myself. i'd like to think that's why i'm still here, typing.
maybe i'm not done figuring it all out.
maybe i'm not done loving.

maybe i'm not done hurting, and falling, and picking myself up. (because this is what i'm doing right now)

maybe i'm an exhibitionist.
but i don't care, because i've got an almost smile on my face.

i just saved my own life, and i've got to go see about a girl.

Naida Ally -xxx-

UGLY|PEOPLE

2008-12-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

It is on a rare occasion that words blow me away, i am a visual person, i loose interest in reading quickly, so if a writer catches my attention it's because they have something, they have fire and passion and without fire and passion there would be nothing, there wouldn't be love or hate or war or sex or anything wrong or amazing with the world. I came across Naida at yet another party with all the same music and all the same people drinking all the same drink and this tiny girl, this speck of beauty glistened like a diamond in the rough and we clicked and her vocabulary erupted on me like a cum facial and her words when i read them ooze through my ears as if she is speaking to me out loud, how can someone so tiny be so utterly spectacular, i have no idea. she speaks for alot of us in what she has to say and it is my absolute pleasure to be able to give to you some of Naida's work and in turn give you a slice of her brain and her life and let you see just how amazing she is. I will follow this with a section of her work for you to read, it's very long, but as we all say... the longer the better eh? beware, it will engulf you.

she lives with this nonchalant yet absolute punk attitude of self perfection, knowing her mistakes, being her mistakes but also being her triumphs. she is kick ass, she is coming at'cha, she is.... as I like to call her... MY own private Naidaho.

[keep reading H./O./U. for a spectacular fucktastic read by Naida]

UGLY|ART

2008-12-03T05:35:00.000-08:00

John Phillipson is the topic of our UGLY ART today gargoyles and gargirls.

Personally, I really like how he uses solitude and public space in a combination with surrealism, toying with the idea of levitation and the impossible.
You can see more about John Phillipson at his website

http://johnphillipson.tripod.com

and i suggest you do!

UGLY ART OVER AND OUT!
x

UGLY|BOOM

2008-11-19T16:26:00.000-08:00

TIME FOR A BIT OF MUSIC MY KIDDIES!
We love a bit of beat in our ears here at the house of ugly don't we...
So i had a lookie browse around to see what really jumped out at me and what i wanted to show you guys... this is called punkbunny and the graphic depiction of urban american living is perfection in such songs i will show the videos for below.
Oh and...If you are easily offended, fuck off, you shouldn't be reading House of Ugly if you are.

Enjoy...

Jackee Mitchell

UGLY|WORDS

2008-11-04T20:29:00.000-08:00

Across america, and the globe for that matter, there are very high emotions on the matter of Obama being the first black president of the united states.

As the editor in cheif of The house of Ugly, I would like this, what i am about to write, to be a message of hope and looking into the future...

So this right here is History, first off. We should be extremely proud we have lived through this occasion as it is a very important notch in history.
I personally support Obama, but only because I feel it is time to have a black president and It shows change in societies views on certain matters, also because the day i support an ex army general with a dodgy past and blatant homophobic, racist views towards others rule a country is the day you can lock me up in a mental home, But it also shows societies views on other matters, whilst the race card is being pulled out and addressed, is the homosexual card being forgotten?

I ask you Ugly readers, homosexual, bisexual, transgender or straight to stay vigilant. I have a glisten of hope that one day there will be this race for a homosexual leader, I believe behind every great man is an even greater gay.
Without the pink pound the economy of countries such as England and America would fizzle to nothing, Be proud of who we are, who you are, and where we are in life.
America is trying to take away the right for gay men and women across the country to have same sex marriage and also the right to have children.
I think this is disgusting, especially because when asked on the subject matter both candidates running for president spoke very little yet let it known they both would preffer to take away the right.

Ironic don't you think that just as a black leader is selected to run a country, a mile stone in the history of diversity at it's greatest, this is how other minorities and cultures are treated.

We are not street rats, we are not any different from a hetrosexual couple, we are human and should be treated as such, home of the brave, land of the free, define brave and free when it has been a struggle just to get a black president and is still a struggle just to show such basic of an emotion as love if you are of a different sexuality to hetrosexual. I think we have a case of disillusioned self image. Who in america is actually free?

Now I know we have here some readers from America and overseas, I do not mean to offend but I also hope you can agree with me to some extent just what I mean about rights and freedom.
Freedom is being allowed marriage, whatever the sexuality, and not seeing race as a negative matter at all, and freedom to have abortion, and freedom to the terminally ill to have the choice of suicide. I see no freedom. I hope that as people we can come together, globally, and stand up for what it is we want, freedom. We all deserve the right to love and the right to be who we are.

I want people to know that House of Ugly will not be taking sponsorship of any kind for a very long while through choice due to freedom, that way anyone can be who they want without sponsors telling Ugly how they want it to be, Ugly is about freedom and about expression and nothing will take that away. Only when Ugly is fully respected as a House of creativity for which ANYONE can show work, that is when I will even consider sponsorship for this. As the founder of House of Ugly I am very passionate about self expression and urge everyone to feel the same.

Thank you for reading and I hope as a world of many different diverse people we can progress and be more open minded and maybe even make history, the type of history that has happened today.

Jackee Mitchell
Editor in Cheif
House of Ugly.

UGLY|WORDS

2008-11-04T07:53:00.000-08:00

Harry KcKinley is the House of Ugly deputy editor in cheif when it comes to writing, He is a very well respected fashion journalist and studies it too, His blog "If wishes were clothes horses" reached a phenominal amount of readers in the first few weeks of starting his blog, so much so that Blogspot contacted him personally to say so... To you, my Uglies, I give you Harry McKinley and his article on the demise of the clubkids....

The Demise of the Club Kid…

Money. Success. Fame. Glamour. For anyone that has seen ‘Party Monster’, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s bleakly flamboyant tale of club-land excess these are bywords for a generation whose talents lie solely in the concoction of a fabulous outfit and the ability to throw a sensational party. As more and more ‘kids’ reach for the transient spotlight of glitter fuelled fame however, it seems the avant-garde uniqueness of the ‘club celebrity’ is becoming ever more diminished. So now that anyone can don a traffic cone in the name of originality and score guestlist to a few waning clubs have the balloons burst and the candles been extinguished on the party of the party monster?

There was a time not a million years ago when the avant-garde club scene had a feeling of vibrancy, the notion it was still a scene in which to be seen. The costumes felt fresh, the dancefloors awash with rising stars. Those same stars though, the likes of Jodie Harsh and Dan Lismore, are seemingly beginning to flicker like a candle in the winds of change. The ‘change’ being now everyone can claim the title ‘club kid’ if they’re seen under enough disco balls and adopt the apparently essential attitude of total self belief under a gauze of acerbic arrogance, but now that that’s the case does anyone care anymore?

With every passing month we are seeing monumental shifts in our interpretation of, excuse the cliché, fabulousness. The acid brights and stretch-a-rific fabrics of Nu Rave are dead and buried and slowly being replaced with an altogether more stoic aesthetic in the form of uber formal wear and country chic. Hardly the perfect get-up for that warehouse party in Dalston. Likewise people are increasingly tired of what feels like a very familiar routine in oh-so-familiar venues, so it’s all very good arriving on the London scene and proclaiming, Michael Alig like, oneself a club kid but more and more these two-a-penny individuals, attempting to shoehorn themselves into an already crowded forum, are seen as less aspirational and more ‘he/she-looks-familiar-where-DID- I-see-them-before.’

Naturally the notion of proclaiming oneself a club kid is entirely narcissistic and perhaps it’s in this regard for most reasonably minded, well adjusted individuals the whole charade is becoming somewhat taxing. The feigned looks of ‘how great to see you’, the undertones of ‘what are they wearing’ and the all too apparent expression of ‘if I was a Mars Bar I’d eat myself’ are sucking all the fun out of the social experience of adorning oneself in something suitable extrovert, sipping an Ab-Fab and, outfit permitting, busting a few shapes on the dancefloor. As such, for the modern club kid, looking around involves less a sea of adoring smiles and more backs-turned and the occasional grimace.

Perhaps club land is calling time on the club kid. Of course if you still want to be an aspirational figure to the resident ‘fashionistas’ of, say, a Rotherham or a Rhyll, who one day dream of moving to the Big Smoke and assuming your lifestyle then by all means adopt the title and wait for your fan mail to come flooding in. Just don’t wait too long or, before you know it, you could just be a 40 year old sitting by the letterbox wearing a traffic cone.

Harry McKinley.

[Harry McKinley / Ba Hons Fashion Journalism / Feature Piece]

UGLY|ART

2008-10-30T06:18:00.000-07:00

This certain UGLY|ART is dedicated to Ryan Parry, noted graphic genious/photographer / illustrator...

His work is crazy cool, some with a dark morbidity to his work, which we LOVE at the house of Ugly.

check some of his pieces out!

you can find more of his work at....

http://0-riano-0.deviantart.com

UGLY|CLOTHES

2008-10-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

JACKEE MITCHELL GIVES THE LOWDOWN ON HOT DESIGNER EMMA BELL!

Emma's bags and clothes are avaliable in the Irregular Choice shop on Carnaby Street, HURRY selling like nice warm toasted hot cakes with a tiny bit of lo carb butter on them... feast your ugly eyes on this...

UGLY|TV

2008-10-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

Performance art group BOOGALOO SESSIONS music video for their first song "IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?!"

more work at:
www.myspace.com/boogaloonights

is that what you want?!

UGLY|ART

2008-10-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

MY LOVELY UGLIES WE HAVE HERE A VERY VERY VERY SNEEK PEEK FOR YOU...

David Lachapelles "Auguries of Innocence" @ Tony Shafrazi Gallery by daniel lismore!!!

THERE WILL BE A FEAST OF FUCKABLE IMAGES IN THE HOUSE OF UGLY FANZINE FOR YOU TO LOOK AT SOON BUT UNTIL THEN, FEAST YOUR EYES ON THIS....

UGLY|CLOTHES

2008-10-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

Jackee Mitchell v House of Ugly

Welcome to the House of Ugly

2008-10-29T10:46:00.001-07:00

Welcome my uglies to the house of ugly, keep watching and reading for your Ugly updates on what is going on in the world.

If you would like more information on how to send work, have more information or would like to contact the House of Ugly for any other reason email:
Houseofugly@hotmail.com
Or alternatively hit us up on the myspace
www.myspace.com/houseofugly

This space is for UGLY|TV , UGLY|TONGUE, UGLY|CLOTHES ,
UGLY|ART, UGLY|EATING are just some of the thing this site offers.

[screening ofcourse will be taken and only certain material that suits House of Ugly's artistic direction will be shown, the more offensive and out there the better.]

Thank you for reading HOUSE OF UGLY.

Jackee Mitchell
UGLY Editor in Cheif