PunkinPalooza 2011 - the High Park Stabbings

Hurray for Sugar and Sunshine!

2011-11-01T10:56:00.004-04:00

Super pleased about the wonderful turnout (people and weather) at Punkinpalooza last Saturday!

The winner this year was Rob Ford (the pumpkin, sadly not the mayor) but his carver was gracious enough to make way for and share the prizes with first-timer Punkinpaloozers, Claire & Nicole, and Liz & Darryl (& Kirby)!

Check out our first set of photos from Ravina Gardens. Thanks Alison ^_^

Stay tuned for Punkinpalooza 2011

2011-10-08T09:13:00.001-04:00

Save the date: October 29, 2011 - Evite to come!

And the winner is...

2010-10-30T23:26:00.003-04:00

The CURSED Pumpkin

SEE ALL PUNKINPALOOZA 2010 PHOTOS

A moment of attention

2010-10-29T16:15:00.002-04:00

For Voula and Ming, two co-founders of Punkinapalooza, who cannot be in attendance for this attempt at Palooza 2.0. Our knives will be thrust in their honour on this special day.

October 30 - Punkinpalooza 2010

2010-10-13T20:12:00.006-04:00

This year we have decided to bring back PUNKINPALOOZA in all of its glory and YOU’RE INVITED.

Click image to view highlights from PunkinPalooza 2007 on Facebook
We’re changing things up* and are holding the event at the Log Cabin in Maple. Don’t dismiss this fantastic event just because of the location. It’s a log cabin built in 1820** with plenty of room for carving. It's rustic, surrounded by fall leaves and quite beautiful, even from my city-dwelling perspective. We’ll be carving outdoors so dress appropriately. If it rains, we’ll move inside.

There will be LIVE music. There will be snacks and beverages. Most importantly, there will be COMPETITION.

Bring a punkin (or more) and whatever you need for carving. Stencils are prohibited.

Then, we judge.

DATE: Saturday October 30, 2010

TIME: 1:00pm to 4:00pm

DIRECTIONS: Will be emailed to you

Please RSVP to me by October 22, 2010. If we have forgotten someone, or if you’d like to bring someone, pass along the invite. Just let us know. Children are welcome.

The final countdown

2006-10-27T17:35:00.000-04:00

Rain or shine, we're slaughtering pumpkins at high noon tomorrow. If it's raining, the action will take place indoors with Vakuum unplugged. If it's sunny, we party outdoors and rock the neighbourhood.

Here at the Chateau, the knives are being sharpened and pumpkins are cowering in the corner. Tomorrow... we carve.

Punkinpalooza 2006 - The Wrath of Squash - High Noon, Sat Oct 28

2006-10-21T15:37:00.000-04:00

Event: Punkinpalooza 2006

Location: Château Nîce

When: Saturday, October 28, 12:00pm

Even on short notice, The Château delivers gourd-throttling mayhem. We would never, ever, let Hallowe'en pass without murdering a few innocent pumpkins... and wash em down with mulled cider!

Q:: What is Punkinpalooza?
A: A pumpkin carving contest. THE pumpkin carving contest. Where agriculture meets artistry, surrounded by candy and booze. An event to shock and awe the ages. An afternoon of good times and good eats -and of lustful and merciless squash-violation.

Q: Will Punkinpalooza 2006 - The Wrath of Squash - rock as hard and loud as last year?
A: Find out for youself. Come to the Chateau at 12-noon next Saturday and watch as the neighbourhood explodes in squash-bludgeoning fury. If you're bringing little kids, make sure they pack earplugs.

Q: Are there prizes?
A: Do pumpkins exist, only to be hacked into bits? Yes.

Q: What time does it really start?
A: Noon. Really. Ok, 1pm. But arrive at 3pm and we will flay you into a steaming pulp of bones and piss. If you come at 11am to help us set up we'll spare your life and favour your jack-o-lantern.

Q: What can I bring?
A: It's a BYOB. Ie, Bring Your Own Blade. And Pumpkin. Munchies and desserts will be provided, and booze - enough to get you hot and bothered to rock the gourd. Uncork the wine and unsheathe your blade. Also bring a camera - you'll want to capture the carnage. (last year's photos: http://flickr.com/photos/lactard/sets/1243418 )

Q: Do I need a costume?
A: No you do not. Dress up if you like. Dress up as a pumpkin, and you will be murdered.

Q: Can I really bring kids?
A: Yes, but there will knives and booze. Mixed together. Yes, please bring them!

What the press says:
"Participants drink from the trough of abundance - wine flows like pumpkin juice, and pumpkins flow like water. The Palooza is a grand moment for the happy, a bewildering moment for the serious, as all gaze upon the Chateau and thank Allah that the Age is so enlightened. Gourd-throttling maniacs praise the heavens and sing hosannas, and there is wetting of floors with effusiveness of tears...."
- www.punkinpalooza.blogspot.com

Synonyms for murdering pumpkins:
Disembowel
Pulverize
Annihilate
Blast to smithereens
Stomp into pulp
Violate with extreme prejudice
Impale
Assault with knife edge
Machetify
Stab (repeatedly)
Slay
Flay
Puree (into paté)

Punkinpalooza Dilemma

2006-09-20T23:48:00.000-04:00

We need a real top-drawer hook to make PunkinPalooza 2006 (The Wrath of Squash) the most unforgettable day of the year.

In order to do that - we need a top-drawer special guest.

Now, I am one Chateauvian lucky to know a couple musicians, politicians, Olympic Athletes - some of whom are related to me; some of whom are friends.

I will pull some strings, and try my best to land Bob Rae (fat chance), or Dragonette, Vakum, or even Canadian Olympic hockey star Jayna Hefford.

But there would be one guest - and one of my proudest personal acquaintances - that would make Punkinpalooza 2006 a true Toronto-wide spectacle.

You love him as much as I do. He's always the life of the party.

His name itself is a twist on the alphabet: Starts with Z. Ends with A.
Imagine it. Punkinpalooza 2006 - now, with Zant'O'lanterns.

Should we call him over? He's already wearing orange.

Check out the pics

2005-10-30T13:30:00.000-05:00

Punkinpalooza 2005 - a greater success can scarcely be imagined. Check out our photos on flickr.
Food, gourds, music. A great day under blue skies. Many thanx to Vakum for bringing down the porch. More written reports and commentary for the big day soon to come.

Onward and upward to Punkinapalooza 2006: the Wrath of Squash. Stay tuned!

First Annual Punkinpalooza Flashback!

2005-10-26T19:03:00.000-04:00

Hey remember this? It's last year's Punkinpalooza 2004 blog entry - aka Remembrances of Things Smashed.

2005-10-26T17:07:00.000-04:00

Oh I forgot -

for all these punkins, we're gonna need a whole lotta candles. Who wants to get those?

Punkinpalooza To Do list

2005-10-16T16:38:00.000-04:00

Some Things We Need:

tables for outdoor carving
a tarp for the porch (in case of rain)
candy
booze (aka the three v's - vodka, vermouth, vino)
meats - bacon and sausages
treats - punkin-related snax (punkin pie, biscuits, muffins, waffle mix)
extra cutlery and glasses
large coffeemaker and urn (rental?)
invite the house neighbours
prizes for carving
punkins!

Event Staff Vacancies:

Bouncers (welcoming committee)
Hors D'oeuvres - snax and candy
Kitchen - incl. Head Chef
Alcohol - incl. Head Bartender
Pumpkin Goop Disposal Unit
Tables and Chairs
Sound Technician - for Vakum
Music DJ - for all other music needs
Prize committee
Punkin Judiciary committee (to lay down ground rules for carving)
Housekeeping & Dishwashing (the only paid position)
Breast Cancer donation bucket
Photographer/Photoblogger
Punshine recruitment (talk to Flavio)

Send a cover letter indicating which position(s) you seek and explain why you would be a good fit with the Punkinpalooza 2005 team. Email to Flavio, Voula or Ming, or phone the Chateau.

Vakum confirmed

2005-10-13T23:07:00.000-04:00

Meet the next Silverchair - five teenagers on a serious rock-n-roll mission. It's Vakum hitting the Château, and they promise to clean house. Yes, Vakum at Punkinpalooza... get sucked!

Flavio's delirious PunkinPalooza vision...

2005-10-13T13:16:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wanted to carve a pumpkin so badly that the desire was oozing out of you like saltwater from a gasping fish, flopping mortally on the dock? No, perhaps not. But have you ever wanted to carve a pumpkin, just for the sheer love of the gourd and the treat-and-trickery?

Then come to Punkinpalooza 2005, a celebration of all that's weird and wonderful in the universe, and a recognition that pumpkins exists only to be hacked to pieces by the endearing band of gourd-throttling lunatics I call my housemates and compatriots. Pumpkins do exist, my dear friends, and after Sat Oct 29 they will exist in a completely different state: one of near-total annihilation, pulpy and stringy, reincarnated as art. For a wise man once came up to me, fingered my jack o lantern and offered twelve bucks to tell him a story about Hallowe’en. That man’s name was Ira Cronenburg and he is my best friend in the whole world.

Come to Punkinpalooza 2005 and I will offer you waffles, I will give you much tasty burger and so many pieces of bacon until you fill the entire room with the stupendous girth of your waddling tonnage. The world will snap in half when you look at it and many people will offer to truck you down to the harpoon yards thinking that you are in fact a great blue whale, and such will be your bliss that you will accept. Yours will be the ocean to languish in and many tourists will pay money to snap digital photos of you safe at a distance from their saltwater barges.

Come to Punkinpalooze 2005 and listen to the dulcet sugary music of a band called Vakum, which in fact is a pun of some sort, and a good one. Vakum will delight your ears and water your eyes. Vakum will come to the fore in your life-weltz and in fact be pre-eminent which is not something I can guaranteee to the rest of civilization. Vakum will play Punkinpalooza 2005 and it will be triumph of such legendary calibrations that fish will jump out of the water at the appointed hour and flop willingly into the fisherman's net in hope of being grilled and roasted along with so many pumpkin seeds. And when the Punkins are done they will be beautiful. Indeed punkins will scream forth from the rafters, vibrating with their well-carved visages, and prizes shall be distributed to him or her whose jacko has outshone all others, for prizes exist to reward the brilliant and guarantee success to the diligent. For when a man has carved a pumpkin he is doing the work of shepherds, smiths and sages, and there is much smiling upon Olympus. A great thing it is to witness a pumpkin hacked to bits, a mighty thing indeed to behold the lighting of that candle within its smiling grinning gourdlike superficie. As a wise man once came to me and said, 'Tis the time of harvest, when men must smash their pumpkins - so gather those patches that are ripe and fertile and inaugurate a ballroom of Amazement.' That man's name was O'Cyrus P Doggles, and he is my pet fish Charlie's veterinarian. I will refer to him often because he is the emcee for the upcoming festivities.

Come to Punkinpalooza 2005 and drink from the trough of abundance - wine will flow like pumpkin juice, and pumpkins will flow like water, and that water will be as smooth as ice. It will be a grand moment for the happy, and a bewildering moment for the serious, and all men and women shall gaze upon the living room of the Chateau and thank Allah that the Age was so enlightened. We shall praise the heavens and sing hosannas, and there will be much wetting of floors with the effusiveness of tears.

Thank you and see you at the brunch.

~Bonhomme

Martha Stewart no longer paddling in the Pumpkin Regatta

2005-10-05T13:19:00.000-04:00

First was she was. Now she isn't. Apparently she's not allowed into this country.

Sure it sucks for the organizers of Windsor, Nova Scotia's annual Pumpkin Festival. But PunkinPalooza 2005 won't need no stinkin' celebrity appearance to pack the house. We've got the power of brunch on our side...

Ok let's get this party started

2005-09-25T15:09:00.000-04:00

By the time i get back from Europe, I want to hear some plans. We need a brunch menu and a pumpkin wholesaler. And prizes! Kate and Dani suggest splitting groups into teams (as I think we did last year)... other stuff? Brainstorm here.

2005-09-17T17:58:00.000-04:00

October 29, 2005

Château Nîce

brunch

punkins

madness

are you MÂN enough?