Get to know a Static contributor: Alex Topp

alex topp

Static’s second issue, First Times in Toronto, came out October 20th. So to celebrate, over the month, you’ll get to know the contributors of the issue through some of their first times in Toronto.

Alex Topp contributes artwork to Static Zine. In the summer she did half the storyboards for a feature movie called Advocate. She has a psychology BA from York and works at XocoCava and Sweet Mickeys.

First house was the semi-detached 62 Ravina Crescent at Jones n Danforth.

First concert was Archaos with my dad in 1990-ish. Where to my horror it lacked clowns, it made up for with fire, noise, and the smell of gasoline and sulphur. I do like all those things now.

First favourite book was The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

First record store was Vortex at Yonge n Eglinton. I bought And Out Come the Wolves.

My first kiss was in the back of a van when I was 17.

First heartbreak was when my 20-year-old cat went into the forest permanently. My mum said “I hope you cry that much when I die.” She’s good with words.

Most vividly, the first times hearing certain songs – particularly Sun Ra’s version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I was strapped into a kids’ car seat so I must have been very young but it did change my perception of art (like Archaos changed the circus). Somewhere Over the Rainbow was in many ways a standard, from one of my favorite movies but taken way out of context. Why would he push his piano down the stairs… It sounded like a meteor shower or the northern lights, or my parents fighting. It was completely unpredictable, semi-detached like me and our house, but had a firm enough hold on reality to blow a 4-year-old’s mind. It was beautiful and classy and funny as hell. I always used to shut up when it came on, and I still do.