Death Confetti

With savage humor, Death Confetti features performance artist Jennifer Robin's autobiographical sketches of Portland, Oregon, from the grunge-era obscurity of the '90s to its current media-darling status.As an only child raised by reclusive grandparents in upstate New York, Jennifer recalls that she felt "e;anemic for the real."e; At seventeen she broke loose and made her way to the west coast."e;Civilization is a nightmare-illusion,"e; Jennifer writes, "e;a three-dimensional spreadsheet perpetuated by machines that hypnotize meat."e;In a city that's stranger than fiction, grocery-store checkers and meth-heads loom as lost gods. We're introduced to the lady tweaker "e;Chew Toy,"e; who wears moon boots and sings hair metal songs all night as she collects recyclable bottles. Jennifer visits a bar where executives simulate doggie-style sex acts on the dance floor. Then there's all the tales of late-night life on the city's buses and light rail.Jennifer reflects on her early terror in Catholic school and phone calls with her far-out mother, who disclosed that her gynecologist was a murderer. In the all-too-true pages of Death Confetti, Robin remembers her life among noise musicians, junkies, and her escape from a boyfriend who insisted on reviving the lives of hundreds of deceased fruit flies.Death Confetti jolts the senses, and lingers like a mosquito bite to the Portland of everybody's soul.