...experiment....

I am trying out tumblr.... it seems to be suited for the type of blogging i do....

click the link or go to chroniccuriousity.tumblr.com to check it out

....mmmmm.....internet....

not srue I have ever posted the link to my delicious page on this blog....

here it is ...

Its not much, and I hardly ever udate it... but I found it today while trying to find something to help me waste time on the internet.... and it was surprisingly good at killing minutes.... I find the most random webpages. They are kind of fun.... maybe just for me....

But this blog's just for me too.... anywayzzzzz.....

This is the cutest thing ever....




you laugh for about a minute... then you start to feel really bad about laughing so hard.... but then you go back to just thinking its fucking hilarious... especially when they bleep the motherf*#@&er.....

if you can't see the video above... go here

....interrupting cow w... MOOOOOO!!!!!!

if you need an excuse to laugh during the work day.... and don't necessarilly want to provide it yourself then...

... GO HERE.... it's a million laughs....

... project fox....

Volkswagon has long since been the car of the new generation. the hippies, the yuppies, or the yuppy-puppies (read, today's new urban hipster), VW has been a car that is driving them to a new world, of discovery, and bringing their ideology to the world....

That is why it fits that they are behind Project Fox....It's really cool. It started out with the designing of the new Fox 21. Which took to the road a couple years ago. But as part of the launch VW sponsored the creation of Hotel Fox in Copenhagen. It has 61 rooms, and 21 artists were commissioned to create each of the spaces as an individual environment/installation. It's pretty awesome. Similar to the hotel at the Galdstone in Toronto, or the Hotel du Petit Moulin in Paris.

However, unlike these spaces, this was designed by strictly visual artists, with no prior experience in Interior Design. The result is quite amazing. They think so too, they also think so about the experience of its creation, as you can see in the video found on the hotels website....

Finally, the hotel has given new chefs reign over its kitchen, and thus the hotel resto is home to some of the most creative and unique culinary displays on the planet... it's all new, and all available to the public.

I really need to get there... and stay in as many of the rooms as possible.

...a couple things cyberfound

first off TO DO LIST is a fucking funny time wasting blog...

it scans and posts other peoples to do lists.... it's like postsecret: the next generation, what are the steps in carrying out that anonymous secret sent in to Frank in Maryland.... curious, check the blog.....

second is this:




I demand you watch it, IMMEDIATELY!!!!

It's the loudest I have ever laughed in the office.... and I didn't care, because anyone that walked in was completely mesmerized by the hilarious patheticness of it... i started it over and over again... i love it...

Its part of the MORTIFIED project of public readings of angst-ridden teenage journals.... it's fucking fantastic! they have an after-school orchestra that accompanies them (adults playing the instruments they used to play in band, playing the songs they WISHED they played in band, think Meatball and STYX) and travel the country (USA, unfortunately) looking for people to share their most embarassing teen moments.....

It's like I found the mothership

wiki-vision

so, another person who is way smarter than i has created another kick ass website that I can waste hours on.

Wikipediavision lets you watch in real time where in the world the updates to wikipedia are coming from. It shows a map of the world and up pops a google location buble, telling you the location and the title of the article on the (english version) wikipedia.

It only shows the edits done to articles by people whose IPs are not hidden, but still

I have spent the last 20 minutes mesmerized by these popping-up bubbles. people editing entries on things i have never heard of,..... it's just an illustration of how random, wide and quick changing the world imagination which is the internet can be....

the jay(bird)walker

this is too good.

have you missed me?

....take me to the midway....

.... i do not post about my personal life very often... in fact, I tend to try and steer clear of it altogether.... obviously everything i write about is something i like, something i've experienced, noticed, thought.... but i mean, i try to keep it out of my personal life... those blogs are interesting to read, but i am just not that interested in exposing myself that way....

that said, I must say that i had a profound thought yesterday that I have the overwhelming desire to share with the world....

I went to the Ex (the Canadian National exhibition... theex.com) and I was riding the Zipper, this nauseating, flip you around, spin you, upside-down ride that has been around forever and never lost its appeal... and while i was flying, spinning, totally losing my sense of direction, screaming, laughing, crying, totally exhilirated I realized.....


....Sex should be more like the zipper....


Now, I don't think that I have had an above-average share of bad sex... I just think that when we are kids we are taught not to talk about sex, and even now, when kids are encouraged to talk about it, now about it, its something that carries a significance so great, consequemces and responsibilities so major that we come to think of it as the transcendent experience that will far surpass any reaction, sensory overload we have eever experienced.... and while it can be F'n great, it is just never as good as the Zipper....

I think I am gonna print up buttons and t-shirts that say.... "You must be as good as the zipper to ride this ride" and stand at the exit of the ride selling them....

....I think I will make a killing....

...i usually hate commercials...

....having worked on them a bunch, and watching too much television I am a diligent hater of commercial breaks (sorry jon, but you know its true, they suck)....

however, this commercial for Sony Bravia is amazing... the whole campaign is great, but this one is especially genius... my favourite part's the clown......

...which of these are in your bookmarks?.....

....this is nutty....

...stormtroopers in love....

red and jonny are in love... they also happen to be warriors in the dark lords plans of inter-glactic domination.....


....don't judge k? everyone needs a little lovin', especially in the face of so much death, destruction and defeat.....


....Long live the force......

...um...hi....yeah.....

.... i need this phone!....

...but, as all cool phones, it will probably not be available in Canada, for at least 6 years, if at all.....

...but I covet it, how cool is it?

...from god's mouth to his.... lego....

... best thing of the day....

... my first ten commandments....

...art is dead....

....my grandma made me take calligraphy lessons as a kid..... and I still have awful handwriting... I cannot think of any situation where I would not print... I still even refer to it as cursive writing... and the mere sound of those words coming out of my mouth makes me sound like a kid pretending to be a grrown up....

...Grammy, on the other hand, has beautiful penmanship.... and still owns many quills, fountian pens, bottles of ink, sheets of parchment, nibs, nubs and all that crap used to make the aesthetics of words live up to the potential of their meaning...

that's why I think she would love Betsy Dunlap. A caliigraphic artist, she puts a modern age in a classic art, that both me and grammy can enjoy....

...masterstroke...

...last nite i went out for a couple of drinks with Jason Miller...


...He's in town for the opening of Ministry of the Interior (whose official site isn't up yet, so I am posting a link to a review in sweetspot.ca)... MotI is a new concept store opening this week at 80 Ossington (just north of Queen, right near where the Sparrow was til recently). The space is set up as part-store, part-gallery, and all awesome. Jason MacIsaac has been working on it since earlier this year, gutting what was once an auto-body shop to prepare the now-raw space for peculiar and intrigueing home design accesories for the urban hipster set.....


...What results is a space that sells really cool home accessories... lamps, furniture, plates, wallpaper, bedding, etc.... but also serves as a show space for new, fresh, creative and forward-thinking designers that are making there mark on the world of interiors... He set up a "designer in residence" program that will allow him to host a rotating roster of wunderkind.... selling these higher pricetag pieces to those that can afford, and letting the rest of us simply admire and drool (although try not to stand to close to the pieces if you choose to actually salivate)


.... And in the grand tradition of Opening Soon... I got a call late monday night to come down and help assemble lamps and wipe down plates in preparation for the Tuesday soft launch... my thumb is still sore from the "easy to assemble" David Trubridge lamps....



They are simple enough... but I wouldn't advise putting together more than one without the aid of a thimble (who knew those still had a use in the modern world)... they are well worth it though, as they throw playful shadows around the room and have the appeal of appearing to be caught in their birthday suits....


When I got to the store, amidst the chaotic painting, assembling, cleaning and stress was one installed piece of work... the centre piece of the back room and the first exhibit in the residency program that MacIsaac was running was Jason Miller's Antler Chandelier...

...Wallpaper named him as one of the best breakthrough designers of 2007... but he has been around for a while now, being pointed out (by those ahead of the curve...ahem, ahem) since at least 2005... (i'm just saying...c'mon Wallpaper)

The photo at the right is actually a smaller version of what is hanging in the store, but it looked so familiar to me that (several hours, countless blisters and two lamps) later I went back through the archives of the long since deleted former blog of mine "Masterstroke" (which, by the way, means "feat of genius" and besides being completely narcissistic as a blog title, also seemed appropriate as a name of this post, both in reference to Miller's work, and the newly opened Ministry of the Interior) and found an entry that I had written in early 2005 about the Canadian design collective Motherbrand. Apparently I had been quite taken with their Cabin show, which re-analyzed the traditional canadian cottage items for a new millenium, and had gone trolling for other reconstituted Canadiana..... and found this.....


The chandelier, as he told us yesterday over beers at Sweaty Betty's, has become the staple of Miller's collection... as he put it so eloquently, "it pays the bills."

...He also assured me that only one deer has ever been harmed in the creation of these lamps....

But Miller is no oneder... (for all of you who don't immediately jump to your late 20th century film reference library and mentally scroll to That Thing You Do, that is one-der.... or, one hit wonder... had to get a pun in here)...

His body of work has only been getting better, and everything is just as quirky, imaginative and fun.


A couple of my favourites:

The tea sets are reconstituted and given new patterns... the piece is called "seconds" and the text from Miller's website actually made me laugh out loud... so I am quoting it here:

"Products that are "seconds" are products that are not quite right. They are imperfect and somehow of lesser value. But who made the rules? Who says a flower can't grow down? Who says a whole bird is any better than half a bird?


conventions are for suckers "


The Duct tape Chair was, apparently, according the Ministry of the Interior manager Julie, what drew them to Miller's work in the first place... and was, according to her, how MotI ended up with a residence programme at all..... She told me that her and MacIsaac saw this chair and "just had to have it", but it was way too expensive for the start-up to stock right away.... So Julie emailed Miller, who was just finishing up a string of shows, and ruined, his quiet, lazy summer, roping him into being the shining star of this kickass stores premiere.....

...it's a tough life for the talented.... really... my heart goes out to the talented and jet-set young Miller, who must spend his life being creative and playing with conventions.....

....He is a great guy though, and cute too (that's him staring dreamily into the mirror in the photo below). With his laid-back smile and an aura of mischief about him...

I can see how people are attracted to the objects that spill out of his head... he is returning the playfulness of the things you had in your room as a kid to the adult-lescents of today.... adding aesthetics to games....

I for one, could not be more excited to finally get a chance to gaze my way into his daydream mirrors, which I haven't gotten a chance to see yet in person....

But I will, the store is open now at 80 Ossington (at the corner of Humbert), and Miller's work will be there for a while... get there and check it out.....

...bigfuckingwordoftheday...

....leiodermia...

...infinite jest....

... have you ever read this?....

...I have a theory no one ever has... i think it's in one of my notes, somewhere a while back....

...Myself, I have tried it at least a dozen times, make that a baker's dozen... i think it's great, but i always take too long a break before coming back to the middle of it and feel the need to start again... i simply cannot accept that i am SUPPOSED to be that confused....

I did, however, collect, in my experience with this book, that THIS aspect of it was a negative thing....

...do you really want to live in a world that David Foster Wallace's sick imagination created.... especially if no one has read to the end to findd out how it all ends?

...if anyone wants to buy me a present....

... i would definitely put out for this....

...i mean, maybe just first base.... it is only a book after all... but i am a pretty good kisser.....

...if you really loved me you'd just get it for me....


Manhattan Oases: New York's 1932 Speak-Easies, with a Gentleman's Guide to Bars and Beverages by Gordon Kahn
by Al Hirschfeld; With An Introduction By Heywood Broun

By 1932, with a feeling that Prohibition was ending, Al Hirschfeld decided to use his artistic skill to document the various speakeasies around Manhattan. This is a first edition of Manhattan Oases, featuring thirty-six drawings of bartenders by Hirschfeld and a witty guide to "bars and beverages" by Gordan Kahn.

...coolest job of the day!....

... I am tempted to restart this whole"working world" thing in order to try and get on a path that would lead me to this job...

How awesome would it be to simply create libraries for people with insane amounts of money and enough interest in books (or at least an interest in looking like they are interested in books) to hire someone to find you good ones......

God, I think i am going to bed tonight dreaming about having a life in which I would pick up my morning starbucks, head into my cool office at the Strand and try and continue my search for the original Boccioni "Manifesto of Futurist Painters" for Beck.... and then start to introduce him to some new street artists that I think he would like....

Fuck, and I thought I already liked my job.... now I have career envy..... Damn you New York Magazine....

...virtual//reality....

NowNow Gallery has been created as a simple and accessible platform for the presentation of photography both Australian and International.

The online gallery, based out of Australia aims to give exposure to contemporary photographers who are committed to documenting the way they live. As these photographers' galleries evolve, it will inevitably become kaleidoscopic. At the very least, giving an alternative view of what we know. And at best, giving us a whole new way of looking.

The site is pretty incredible in general And the blog is superfun

But right now I am totally obsessed with a series of entries that they entitled desktop//desktop. The entries asked each photographer who contributes to the gallery to send a screengrab of their computer desktop, that appears on their monitor, and also to send a photo of the desk the computer is on so that we can see what the actual "desk top" is like.... I love it we are virtually ale to consume the actual reality as well as the now (twice) removed virtual reality of a human we have never even met (or heard of in most cases).... It's more intense than the Hills or Big Brother, and best not to think to hard about....

i will post mine once i remember to bring my camera to work... but here's the screen shot for now:

...if you have kids....

...or know kids, or can get your hands on any kids....


GO TO THIS!!!!!!



Demolition Art House.... insanity... there is a boarded up house that is slotted for demo in the fall... well, the neighbours are letting kids (under the guidance of resident artists) create.... whatever.... and apply it to the exterior of the house, creating a huge, cooperative living piece of art..... kickass...

how fucking cool..... Any kid that does this is guaranteed to grow up cooler than if it had been missing from their lives

.... god i love the british....

Most anyone who knows me knows that I despise Michael Moore, which is especially difficult since I actually agree with his politics... but by the very nature of what he does to his audiences, how he excites them, turns them into an angry ohm, you barely get out the words "I hate him but...." before people are caling you a dirty fascist and asking you to send your dirst born off to iraq......

As someone who places the utmost importance on the importance of film, its capability of social change and, perhaps most importantly, the RESPONSIBILITY of the filmmaker to follow his representations with his own actions, I have to say, I wanted to actually walk up and knock the stupid baseball cap off the smug bastards head when i saw him, literally, hob-knobbing, at the 2006 TIFF.... He doesn't ever lie, or misrepresent the truth, but the fact is, the truth is NEVER as interesting or entertaining as Moore makes it out to be....

That's why no one goes to see documentaries.... the truth is boring.... Moore's flash-fest changes, alters, massages and selectively sees the truth in order to get the attention of rapt audiences.... it's the propaganda of the left....

Apparently a few people agree with me.

All the following are excerpts from an article about Michael Moore that was written by hiw biographer, Roger Rapaport, for the UK Daily, the Independent:



"[Michael Moore's] new dream appears to be turning out Frank-Capra-style features that deliver a high moral message along the lines of Mr Smith Goes to Washington.

"Are his films documentaries, or are they fictional comedies?" Since Moore gets the credit for making documentaries as popular as dramatic films, let's turn to the first cameraman Michael that ever hired, Kevin Rafferty, for the answer. This famed cinéma-vérité film-maker, who is also George W Bush's first cousin, gave Moore his film debut in Blood in the Face, an exposé of the "racialist right". The then Flint journalist Moore scored a major coup when he helped Rafferty's team film a Michigan Ku Klux Klan rally where two lovebirds said their marital vows in a ceremony illuminated by the glow of a burning cross.
Rafferty says that he was stunned when he arrived in Flint and Moore handed him a terrific shot-list for Roger & Me. This was simply not the way cinema verité documentaries were made: a director would create the storyline after shooting was finished. Two-and-a-half years later, Rafferty was even more astonished when he saw that the shot-list had become the movie. Instead of shooting first and editing afterwards, in the traditional manner of documentaries, Michael had scripted Roger & Me like a dramatic feature.

Even some of Moore's fans worry that he partially stages scenes, undercutting the value of his own work. I spoke about this recently with the cameraman Bruce Schermer, who was paid $5,000 for shooting about 60 per cent of Roger & Me (which was sold to Warner Brothers for $3m). He points out that, during the shooting of the film's famous Christmas Eve eviction of impoverished Flint tenants, Moore was apparently not getting what he wanted. Off camera, he discussed the problem with an unemotional mother. When Schermer turned his camera back on, this evictee amped-up the scene by screaming. Ironically, adds the cameraman, some of the auxiliary lighting power required to shoot this scene came from the evictee's electricity outlet.

Throughout his career, Moore has been the master of constructive failure"








................Michael Moore... I hate you

... RIP Honest Ed....

...The man who brought us the largest and most economical eyesore, at the corner of Bathurst and Bloor has left us today....

Ed Mirvish was an entrepreneur, a cultural enthusiast, a family man and a philanthroper....

A big Man with a big smile... a piece of toronto's history... he will be missed

... i spill a lot....

... the other night I told a friend of mine how brave she was for wearing a white dress....

...she gasped, eyes widening with bewilderment and asked me, tentatively..."why?"

It took me a minute to realize she thought I was calling her a big fat heifer.... I guess there is a certain connotation that white can make a girl look... extra jolly... but no, my natural gut always associates white with the patches of oddly-formed discolouration left behind after i spill a little bit of... whatever it is happens tyo be in my hand.... food, drink, a dropped pen... my clothes all bear the phantom badges left by my daily adventures.... and no more prominently than my white clothes...

Which is probably why THIS appealed to me straight away and so much....

a great and fashionable tool for the uber-klutz hostess... it's a wine tray that is basically two levels... the bottom flat and the top punched out... so that there is a round whole for a bottle of wine to nestle in , and a slot into which you can slide up to four wine glasses. Managing to carry everything without spilling a drop....

What a fantastic idea.... It's available exclusively online. I suggest buying it directly from the manufacturers... MuNiMulA. They are a small design firm in Michigan, and it's always good to support those indie hipster rockin designers...

...it's impossible....

....to have as much fun as a drag queen.... it just can't be done... they are living their fucking DREAM..... do your clothes make you that happy?

.... yeah, i didn't think so.....

...no harm in trying though..... always try....

...officially the best link I have ever been sent on a monday morning....

....sent to me by a friend who, arguably, has gotten me into more trouble than most anyone else.... and the only thing that could make me laugh on a swelteringly humid monday morning on a night after no sleep due to extreme heat, and a weekend where ... ahem.... outside forces... made me make probably a bit of a fool of myself in front of a boy i like....

....THIS is pure internet gold....

...bigfuckingwordoftheday....

....aberrant....




.....and yes... that is a man with legs growing from his hips, photographed with his family and a goat......

...i've never even taken psychedelics....

....i was at my mother's the other day, going through boxes of old stuff with my siblings and I came upon my fifth grade journal..... seems that i hated writing personal stuff back then... so I took to writing stories.... Either that... or I have totally blacked out the entire portion of my childhood when I was mixed up with Joplin, Hendrix, opium, acid and generally psychic messiness......

see an excerpt below:

The Way I Saved The World

This morning, as I was eating my bowl of Biskies, my favourite breakfast cereal, I noticed something strange. It was a brown object about the size of a vitamin pill,floating in my milk. at first I had missed i, because it was hidden under some of the Bisk flakes.

"what the heck!" I thought, as i picked it up with my spoon and popped it into my mouth [ed. note....what the fuck? i was popping strange pills at 9? who did i think i was... drew barrymore?] nothing happened at first, but then I started to feel funny

I started to shake. I got hot, then cold, my eyes started to become unfocused.... I saw a book. Not one of my school books, but an ancient book and it looked like it had been sitting their forever. I picked it up and turned it around and around in my hands. It looked like the cover once was very pretty, it was made of pink silk and jewels were stuck on. But now it looked like a wreck. The jewels were falling off and the cover was ripped and the whole thing looked like it was going to fall apart. But before I threw it out I opened it up and started to flip through. When I got to the center pafe a strange beam of light hit the ceiling and started to burn right through it. I slammed it shut and shoved it into my bookbag.

Just in time, because my nosy big sister Lori walked into the kitchen.

"Isn't it time for school you dweeb?" she asked [ed note... yes, we actually did use the term dweeb]

"Yeah," I said, "But i got ta' show ya' something before I go." Then I pulled out the book, opened it to the center page and beamed it at her.

"Anna! You little brat, what is that thing?!" My sister shrieked.

"It's for me to know and you not to." I said (even though I didn't fully know what it was myself.) I made little circle motions with my book and thought to myself, "I am making my sister disappear! this is great!"

After my sister was gone I went into my parents' room where they were getting dressed for work.

"Isn't it time for school schnookums?" My mother said at the exact same time my father said "shouldn't the bus be here soon baby?"

Suddenly I didn't know why I was there. I didn't want my parents to know about the book!

"Um, yeah - um, my - er - bus is, bus is, bus is downstairs... that's it. I just came up ah, came up er, to...say goodbye! yeah! to say good byw... so, uh, bye!" I saud. I got up from wwhere I was seated on the floor and briskly walked out of the room (so not to be obvious).

Right then is when I heard the noise


CHAPTER TWO [ed note. there was no notification of there being a chapter one.....]

Down here, down here you giant oaf!" I heard a tiny voice say. I whirled around on my heel and nearly knockedthe little man over.

"who...who are you?" I questioned him

"I'm the story keeper. I travel with the book" he said, nodding in the direction of the book I had dropped on the floor.

"Well, what do you want of me?" I said.

"I want you to come back with me and save my kingdom." Said the little man. Well, I was a little shooken up, but I said, "Why me?" To which he replied, "Because you believe. You believe in the fantasy, you know, Cinderella, Snow White and Pinochio."

Then I asked, "What exactly is WRONG with fairy tale land?"

"You'll see when you get there." he said.

What was going on, I didn't know. I picked up the book and the man and walked outside. I needed fresh air more than anything right then

As i walked through the doorway my stomach was churning, and my head started spinning. I closed my eyes and I felt a slight wind and when I opened my eyes again I wasn't where I was before.

I saw the most wonderful things. I saw the greenest trees with golden blossoms, and a man sitting under the tree playing a silver guitar, the petals from the tree showering over im. While I listened to the beautiful music I looked up and towering over me was a castle. There were turrets and a huge iron gate guarding the wooden doors.

"It's beautiful," I said slowly as I turned to face the story keeper (who was now about two and a half times my size)

"So," I said, "What gives? What's wrong?"

"Come with me," He said with a solemn face... and he headed off towards the castle.

The inside of the castle was more beautiful than the outside. The story keeper led me into the most beautiful rooms and hallways, laiden with jewels. As I was led into one huge chamber I almost fainted.

"LORI!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

My sister was lying in a huge bed.

"What are you doing here?' I said

"You, my darling little sister, put me here" she shrilled.

"Miss" said a well-dressed man as he stood up from his seat in the corner, "miss, we are having some problems here." He coughed then started up again. "she", nodding in the direction of the bed where my sister lay, listening and watching wide-eyed, "will not move and she has the royal highnesses crown and magic staffand she is making HORRIBLE things happen here... and her majesty is mixed up with your world."

Back at home, it seemed, my mom and dad had left for work and her majesty was all alone, slowly walking around my house.

I mean come ONNN! was I genius? I think so... that story is puking imagination... and it even has some style... I used the word "blossoms"... I was NINE, for fucks sake... I don't know... I think that I coulda' been a contender... eat that JK Rowling.... and who's the kid who made a kajillion dollars with his novel by 15... what were my parents thinking... they shoulda locked me in my room til i came out with 16 more (un) chapters....

fuck...

...bigfuckingwordoftheday....

....saccharine.....

...do you ever just wanna bust shit up?....

....Martin Klimas does.... but when he does it, it's art.....

....His new exhibition, entitled "Temporary Statues" is up at the Foley Gallery in NYC. Basically. Klimas throws stuff at the ground, and photographs it at the point of impact. Creating images of statues that will only ever exist in the moment they are created.....

It got me to thinking.... art is supposed to be representative of experience, emotion, externalizing the essence of the human drama... right?

I think that's what makes these successful... like the need to throw something, create that kind of chos.. fragments splintering off, it is sort of the externalization of what's going on with you... well, with me, I guess.... the need to break something is sort of like the explosion, the fragmentation of everything... that's what frustration is... everything going a million different ways... it'll get cleaned up, sorted out... but just for a second - brain, heart, patience - they go in a kabillion different directions.

Anyway.... enough of what i think, because whether what I just said is so much bullshit, or whether you're kinda pickin' up what I'm laying down... you have to admit, these pictures are fucking cool..... On the other hand, if you're into the whole "what others think" thing you can check out the Foley Gallery Blog... it's pretty cool... no entry on Klimas yet... but I am sure one is to come forthwith....

Klimas, a German photographer, who is succesful commercially, as well as in the arts community, does a lot of capturing "moments in time". By definition, all still photography is but a fleeting frame... but his workdraws attention to this fact... it's meaning exists purely on the surface... without any message exhibit the self-awareness of it's fragility, its uniqueness....

It kinda reminds of that Pleix video Birds:Vitalic. Its so random... and defends itself from analysis by having no meaning beyond its own image...

If you try and read into it you will become so frustrated you just may need to bust shit up.

...bigfuckingwordoftheday....

...sthenic...


............................yowza....

reminder: you gotta click the hyperlink to discover the words true essence.

...oddity for the day.....

... outside, just now....

...saw a guy eating a bright orange bell pepper, like it was an apple......

...just munching and crunching his way around that pepper as he stepped down from the steps of the streetcar and headed down into the depths of the TTC.....


...odd, no?

....k, so i'm impressed....

... this weekend I attended merge.... the grad show for the crafts and design program at Sheridan .

...it was pretty fucking amazing.... the amount of talent these guys have is way beyond what I expected it to be.... I must admit, I showed up to support a friend, who was in the show, but I came away with a long shopping list.... it's definitely one of those, "one day when I am a grown up with some disposable income" fantasy lists, but those are the best kind.... no?

And topping my list was Leslie Webb. This chick is one talented mofo.... The show was laid out so that the three pieces of each participant were scattered, and after a while you are too lazy to seek out the little white cards with the artist and piece info on it.... I mean, it was hotter than the seventh circle of hell the first time I went (complete with satanic nymph naked performance artists).... But, upon returning on a much quieter (and cooler) sunday afternoon, I found that all my favourite pieces were hers....

First on my "when I have a million dollars list" is this"

It's pretty much the coolest piece of furniture... and one day I am putting it in my awesome refurbished actual loft space (no newly built condo lofts please... i want wood and beam, old factory grime and awful plumbing.... com[plete with historic credibility and a sense of history please)... But I digress.. this hutch... which she has whimsically called Lainie (love it) has drawers and cd pulls and is both utilitarian and aesthetic (and for a girl, who, even in her wildest monetary dreams is still gonna be pretty broke, combining functionality with looking damn cool is pretty great)

Displayed directly in front of this in the gallery space at the Gladstone, where merge was held, was this really amazing rocking chair, called Linda Lou.... (i am starting to get the pattern of naming it all after chicks... I may be slow to start, but I really appreciate the quirky loveliness in it)

And the caning in the chair is totally echoed in the armoire/hutch/shelving thingy (definitely much easier and lovelier to call it Lainie, which I'm gonna) It's this little thing that just worked so great..... here are the pics of Linda Lou, so you can see for yourselves:

......awesome, no?

...I am in love with the "merging" of the old aesthetic of woven cane and the modern lines of this chair.... I am kind of a sucker for the material though... my childhood kitchen chairs were these huge rounded cane chairs. the feel and look of them recalls mountains of kraft dinner with ketchup, cereal that came with marshmallows in the box, chocolate millk, and the expectation of dessert following every meal.... how could that not work for anyone?

(ps... this entry drove me to look up my old kitchen chairs... as my mum is a designer, it is pretty safe that all my childhood furniture was designer, or designer replica... so surprise, surprise, the chair that i grew up spilling milk and juice all over is actually based on bentwood chairs originally designed by Michael Thonet, a german designer who pioneered the process of bentwood furniture.... which, coincidentally, I think is one of Leslie's biggest strengths....)

And, upon further investigation I found that this chick (we are returning to Leslie now) is not simply a one-trick pony... she didn't simply pull out her pieces worth anything and put them in the show... I think every girl I know can look forward to getting one of her kick ass tool cabinets.... totally aesthetically pleasing, and useful again.... (again, though, you ladies are gonna have to wait til I become extremely wealthy... as a side note, I am currently looking for a sugar daddy to tide me over til I make my own fortune, any one with any interesting leads is asked to leave a comment here, or simply dial the toll free number of 1.800.PAY.FO.ME)

Here's the tool cabinet:

So, keep your eye on this chick, when she gets uber-famous (as furniture designers are wont to do..... if you are avid readers of architectural digest, wallpaper, and other high-falutian periodicals) you can say 'I told you so"......

...boys and their joy....

.....what is it with guys and the soul patch?

It's becoming more and more prominent these days..... and on guys who, three, two years ago, would ust not have had that as the facial hair of choice.....

.... I saw a guy, prada sunglasses, white and pointy runners, ex-PEN-sive jeans..... sporting that patch like it was the skinny little guido chin strap of the new millenium.....

really, the thing collects food like nobody's business.... and is really not that fun to kiss, a girl can get used to it, but i had a boyfriend with a serious SP once, and i practically had to build up a chin callous to counteract the scratchy hairs.....

.... do you think it's supposed to act like the little swatches of hair that are on display in the dye aisle at the drugstore? So that when you are talking to some dude in a bar, you have a little sample of whats 'down the road?'

....do you think i got 'em?.....

.... "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes was the # 1 hit song, according to the Billboard charts on the day I was born.

Check Josh Hosler's Database to find out yours... it dates all the way back 'til 1890... so you hundred and seventeen year olds won't be left out.......

.... design makes me horny.....

....apparently it has the same effect on Grace Bonney.

her blog, design*sponge, is one of the best i have seen in the last little while (my own excluded, of course).... she has an amazing enthusiasm for all things aesthetically pleasing, and a really friendly and accessible way of writing it all down.... click on through to the link and check it out....

her recent adventures took her through the stationary fair in New York.... that's right, there are enough people out there still writing things... ON PAPER... to merit an entire expo for the sale and exhibition of interesting products TO WRITE ON!!!

...so much for popscle sticks.....

.....Lori Nix puts your diorama's to shame.....


....so fucking cool..... check it out

.....but who will remind us to control the animal population?....

..... there are gonna be way too many kittens and puppies out there after june......

and an entire television era comes to an end

...light enough to travel....

...I just saw a chick walking around in Nike Shox. I have to say.... she looked ridiculous.... every time her foot hit the ground it seemed to bounce up again....

... I have seen people walk around normally in these shoes before... This particularily waifish girl, however, didn't seem to have the body weight to keep the shoes from having a wicked recoil....

... call me foolish... but I think your shoes really should not make it HARDER to walk around.... but then again... I wear 5-inch stillettos.... so maybe Ishould just shut the fuck up about it....

.....it's still got it.....

I went to go see HIGHWAY 61 last night on the big screen. FilmCan, was celebrating their ninth issue by doing a small tribute to Bruce McDonald, one of Canada's amazing contemporary, off-the-wall, independent, cinematic auteurs.... A better bio can be found for him on the Canadian Film Encyclopedia, but it can't be hyperlinked directly... so you are just gonna have to look it up if you are interested.... but you should... it's great (and i am not just plugging it because it is a part of TIFFG and i see the people who toil on it til midnights most days... it's actually awesome)

But back to H61..... the movie is from 1990... and I saw it somewhere in and around 2000 (when I started really going crazy for all celluloid Canadian) and its just a whacked out road film that follows a barber, a roadie and a corpse from the northern tip of the route of Rock'nRoll, in Thunder Bay, down to the roots of Jazz in New Orleans.... and, I have to mention, they are being chased by a nutty entrepreneur who believes he is Satan himself, who is trying to redeem the soul of the dead guy, who traded it to him for a bus ticket....

Going in I was a little nervous that I wouldn't love it as much as I did the first time... I have to admit, I have recently begun to be so high on Canadian film that I am wont to push for it, sight unseen, and even if I know it to be... well, "not the best". But I honestly love this film... it is one of my very favourites, Canadian or no.... and it was just like the first time all over again....

Bruce McDonald, and Don McKellar (bleh... I will explain another time my problems with this guy, in this movie, I love him) were in attendance and, as every time I see them, revealed really great stories that typify the behind-the-scenes of Canadian film, or any grassroots, no money, gootta love it production scene. They really are the reason I stay involved in film....

I was asked once by a Canadian director, who shall remain nameless, what makes a Canadian film Canadian. The man was cynical and disappointed by a distribution system for films in this country that just does not work. He had made a GREAT film, another one of my favourites, and it had flopped at the box office, when it didn't deserve to. He was tired and drained and angry and just didn't want to be a representative of a Country that the industry he was trying to gain respect from just had no time for. I couldn't answer him at the time.....

....but now (in the classic fashion of coming up with a witty retort waaaaaaaaay too late) I have to say..... Canadian film is a noble tradition of guerilla warfare.... monkey warfare.... It is a collective that has in common, at its heart, not a theme, or subject or nationality, but a love to succeed in a place where no one is pulling for you... to make your way out into the world to say "look at me, I am weird, and funny, self-deprecating, important, and I have got something to fucking say......" and doing that despite given the obstacles and bureaucrativ hoops that are thrown at you every which way..... it is going to New Orleans, needing a biker gang for a scene and putting the call out on the radio, so that you have actual hell's angels show up on their hogs... its getting beat up by those same Angels, after giving them $100 each and all the beer they can drink, letting them ride drunk around your government-paid for equipnment and having a raucous good time doing it.... it's geting the shot and cutting it together... its, almost two-decades later, talking about it like it was the best time of your life.... It's a love of the doing and not the respect of having done that makes you a Canadian filmmaker.....

....It's still around.... and I FUCKING love it!

.... thats insane!!!!!!......

.... is what i exclaimed when i found this.... but i think its cuz i was boppin' away to MJ singing 'Rock With You' in his gol;den king of pop years while i perused it..... the perfect tune for polishing my pearly whites!!!!!

...musical interlude...

...so, i know it seems strange, as I was in a choir for...oh, perhaps a cumulative decade.... with many kiwanis, Maytime Melodies, concerts at Massey Hall and other Recital-type performances.... but there have only been two, count 'em... one... two... times that I have felt good singing in public.

The first one I was on a huge gorgeous deck, late at night, with all my friends... and my friends all happen to be musically inclined. The range of guitarists, bassists, drummers and singers is astonishing.... as is their collected talent.... and we were rocking out after a few too many.... and I had, we'll say, some 'inspiration'.... but i have to say, in that moment, my voice really melded with everyone elses... the harmonies were amazing and we created a symphonic cacophony that I can recall with crystal clarity to this day....

...The second, I am not gonna lie, I was loaded.... I was 20 and waiting in line at LeSwimming, a bar that I have been mourning the closing of for a year now. The thing about the line at Swimming was that, since the bar was on the third floor there was this long narrow stairwell and a hallway out into the street for people to stand in, outside of the frigid Montreal winter.... well, at the bottom of the stairwell, I was swaying in place, keeping my head out of the spins by listening to the resident homeless guitarist do his thang.... playing all the classics by bon jovi, acdc, aerosmith et al.... and when he turned to me (chuckling at two decades of drunken giggles poured into heels) and asked me what I wanted to hear I was overcome by my request.... and I not only asked for, but sang along to "Black Water' by the Doobie Brothers.... I have no illusions about this one... I must have been AWFUL.... karaoke without the benefit of crackling speakers and echoing backup music.... just me, hobo and his guitar... But it was AWESOME!!!! I was so into it, and the line got into it too, and by the end I had all the Montreal hipsters rockin' out southern style..... that kicked ass.....

I thought about that as I had to fight with myself not to sing along to Black Water this morning on the streetcar, when it cam on my ipod..... Somehow I thought..... the 8am work crowd just wouldn't get riled up the same way....

..... My musical failures.... that's fodder for ten other posts. I recal several bad renditions of Bacch's minuet in G on the piano.... and an echoing 'CHAW" yelled for emphasis at the wrong moment, into total silence, during a high school choir performance... and that's just off the top of my head.

... a picture worth millions and millions of words.....

.... Everyone.... stop reading this entry RIGHT NOW and go to Chris Jordan's website.... look at the Running the Numbers: American Self Portrait series... come back to me once you have seen it.....

....Was your mind blown.....?

Those of you who didn't fo when I first told you to, here is your second chance to not be a huge dumb ass...... go see the coolest thing i have encountered in a LOOOOOONG while...

If you still haven't done it there is nothing I can do for you.... It's such an amazing idea.... to create images from exactly the thing you are criticizing, or even simply contemplating on, without judgement....

although, anyone that can look at these and not think of the States as a place of hyberbolic caricature boggles my mind.... almost as much as the waste.....

... i am using you....

.... just in case you were wondering... i am only friends with people i think are AWESOME... and this is because they lead me to more awesome people....

....this process has been sped up exponentially by the advent of facebook (and I am not commenting on it as a social phenomenon, i leave that to EVERYONE else.... like they weren't expecting it, after myspace, youtube, google... shocker people like the internet to find things... bigger shock, we like to find ourselves on it)

.... anyway I found this guy on this guys's page....

His name is Izik Levy and he is an amazing glass artist.... I love glass art...

seriously this will be a topic for a future post... but lets just say. Glass speaks to me... and Izik Levy's is saying "I AM SOOOOO COOL"...

....then i went to his website... it kicks ASS!...

...go there... immediately... or else

.... a matter of brine....

.... the politics of food can lead to many a debate.... sharing, ordering, preparing, savouring..... all these can lead to many hours-long discussions (i have had more than one turn into shouting matches).... People are serious about food, and when it comes to matters of taste nothing can be taken lightly.....

.... that said..... one should know the deep-seated (or is it deep-seeded) love I have for pickles.... it's nearly fanatical.... The following is a quote from a fellow pickle enthusiast, which I found on a page dedicated to such discussions. It is highly informative, intelligent and logical....

(and for those of you who don't speak hebrew, or it's english transliteration, tzedakah means charity):


"At a deli, the venerable pickle is cut length-wise either into quarters or eighths. That notwithstanding, the entire pickle should be served as a matter of good graces. The reason for it is known to any proper yiddishkite proprietor- when sitting at a table with other, the pickle is necessarily public property and parts of said pickle shall be eaten by all and sundry. By providing the full pickle, you allow the person who ordered the pickle to perform tzedakah by giving some away while keeping some for his own consumption." -Matt Consky

..... a great link.....

.... for all my designer friends and enthusiasts out there.....

(meaning... I love this website... and am actually a little obsessed with it)

...big fuckin' word of the day...

...... superfluous......

....goy... if you don't know, you are one....

Lenny Bruce (1925-1966) is something of a patron saint--make that rebbe-- a hero and martyr to the cause. Born Leonard Alfred Schneider, he was imprisoned on obscenity charges, but refused to censor his act. He died at 40 of a drug overdose. In the following piece, he takes humorous aim at the Jewish propensity to see the world as starkly divided, often absurdly, between things that are "Jewish" and those that are not--for the latter, self-consciously using the term goyish, considered today a slur, though it's still used by some to describe such culturally foreign things as bologna on white bread with mayonnaise.



Dig:

I'm Jewish. Count Basie's Jewish. Ray Charles is Jewish. Eddie Cantor's goyish.

B'nai Brith is goyish; Hadassah, Jewish.
Marine corps--heavy goyim, dangerous.


Kool-Aid is goyish. All Drake's cakes are goyish.
Pumpernickel is Jewish,
and,
as you know, white bread is very goyish.
Instant potatoes...
...goyish.

Black cherry soda's...
...very Jewish.

Macaroons are very Jewish...very Jewish cake.
Fruit salad is Jewish.
Lime jello is goyish...

...Lime soda is very goyish.

Trailer parks are so goyish that Jews won't go near them.
Jack Paar Show is very goyish.

Underwear is definitely goyish. Balls are goyish.
Titties are Jewish. Mouths are Jewish.

All Italians are Jewish..


...Greeks are goyish... bad sauce.

...so it goes....

... these were the words uttered by author/narrator Kurt Vonnegut in slaughterhouse five, every time a character would die....

... and now, it is time to use the words for the prolific man himself....

Kurt Vonnegut passed yesterday, after falling almost two weeks ago in his home in
NYC, which caused irreversible brain injuries. A legend, a genius, a writer and 'just a guy'.

...he will be missed by all who knew him, if only through his words (which may be deeper than you most people you actually know)

... I unearthed this quote from an interview done with Vonnegut a while back, it perfectly sums up the man, his sombre nature, his twisted humour, and his light approach to the worlds heaviest issues. I will close my post with it:

"I'm embarrassed to have lived this long. It's in terrible taste (laughs). You know I had a fire several years ago, and it would have been so shapely if I'd died in the fire. But here I am, and of course I'm suing the cigarette company because on the package they promised to kill me, and here I am."

-Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

... i fall down a lot....

... and perhaps that was why i was so drawn to the work of Kerry Skarbakka.....

It's kinda fucking awesome..... any image that you see in this post is from his website.... I claim credit for nothing, except the complete awe that strikes the viewer..... I am all over the sense of wonder......

He bases the works on Heidigger who described human existence as a process of perpetual falling. On his site Skarbakka claims that, "it is the responsibility of each individual to "catch ourselves" from our own uncertainty. [His] work is in response to this delicate state. It questions what it means to resist the struggle, to simply let go, and the consequences of holding on. The images stand as reminders that we are all vulnerable to losing our footing and grasp, symbolizing the precarious balancing act between the struggle against our desire to survive and our fantasy to transcend our humanness."

Fuck.... and I just thought I was clumsy... turns out i am being philosophical and shit..... cool

.....hahahahahahaha.......

....................you snooze, you lose..........

...there's something about chewie....

..... My cousin Bailey is almost 2years old..... and she is just about the cutest thing ever.... Well, at least as cute as every other really girly cute kid out there in a green tweed jumper and matching bloomers... and last night we was chillin'.... at my passover seder.... at my aunt and uncles house....

.... and this place is surreal... it has the EXACT same furnishings, workout machines, televisions, and toys that have been there since I was Bailey's age... and thus I can assure you guys that Bay was having the exact same experience that I did over twenty years ago.... and it is because of this that I can extol the universal appeal of Chewbacca for girls.....

.... My cousin is not familiar with Star Wars... the original or the new craptastic films of George Lucas' creation.... however, when she stumbles upon the Chewbacca action figure (original, 1979, movin arms and legs, vintage.... suh-weet, let me just mention) she was INSTANTLY in love with his hairy self......

.....GIRLS LOVE CHEWIE..... I think it is because he resembles a teddy bear wearing a fur coat.... and the love only grows after they hear the snorting, groaning lowing noises of Shyriiwook that accompany his soft demeanor..... and experience the non-stop, faithfulness that is his love for Hans Solo ..... and the lengths which he will go to defend his honour, the Millenium Falcon and the Force.... and the physical prowess that is his 7 foot self.....

I want to marry Chewbacca, Bailey girl, you picked a winner

...have you heard? eggs are good for your newmindspace.....

Have you guys heard about newmindspace yet? These are the folks behind the streetcar parties, the pillow figts, urban capture the flag, the night lights on UofT campus and so many rad other events that have only once had marketing involvement (it was for charity) and are always, always, ALWAYS free!!!!!! They take great ideas out of the air (or off the internet, from their staunchly loyal followers) and create events that they call "interactive public art". And it is.... It brings way cool, diverse, dispersed people together into a common space and sets them free for the dual purposes of fun and imagination (my two favourite causes.)









Well, it's time for yet-another-sure-to-be-fabulous event!!!!! for all of you out there who aren't celebrating easter by attending this or this(eek!).... you most definitely should be coming out to the Freaking Easter Egg Hunt!!!!

Last year's took place in Kensington Market... and was a shit-ass buttload of super-fantastical fun..... This year they are hitting up Bloor St..... the full event details will be at the bottom of this post...... But may I just say that this is one of the things I love about the newmindspace cats... they are not shitdisturbers just for the sake of it... I think they most definitely take pleasure in the ruckus that can be cause by a large group of creative, original funlovers taking part in communal activities in venues not used to hosting them... but they aren't vengeful, they try and spread the chaos around, so that they are not abusing any one group of people. Disturbance can be amazing, continued disturbance can be down right annoying (seriously, someone, needs to tell this to my downstairs neighbour.... one high-hat speed-fuelled kickass drum solo is fine, once nightly....... Ijust may kill the guy..... and he has the NERVE to complain about my moving the coffee table.... but I digress..... this is fodder for another post)

So come out! The event is family friendly.... so bring the kiddlies (Yeah Court, I am talking to you.... take Daryn out of the pot and put that chicken little to work)...... and run, walk, bike, skip, amble, hop, crawl, shuffle, strut........ where was i going?.... right.... come hunt for easter eggs..... and anyone up for a little competition...

...............................I bet I can find more eggs than you can!!!!!!

EVENT INFO - Sunday April 8
This year's urban Easter Egg Hunt will take place on Bloor St. W between Yonge and Bathurst! :)

The hunt starts at 11:00 AM and ends when the eggs are all gone :)

.... funny cuz it's true.....

.......Why women have two hands

Why men have two hands.........

.... jews are funny......

It happens every year like clockwork.... for some reason something about passover makes every jew in my family (and that's everyone) want to send awful forwards.... I think because the passover seder, the first of which is tonight, commemorates something awful, we feel the need to make jokes... I think humour has become a defense mechanism for a lot of people, me incluided..... but the Jews, as a people, moved past defense, into just plain funny, that's why we are so famed as comedians..... Self-deprecation was the way to get ourselves first...

...These forwards however, have moved past plain funny and straight on into "hahanotsomuch.com" .....

last year's zinger was this one.... This year... I got seder pick up lines..... from my grandma..... I think she is really hoping that I will not be single for next year's seder...... forget 'next year in Jerusalem'.... next year under the chuppah is her hope.....

Seder pickup lines:
Let's make this night really different from all others nights
What will you do to me for two zuzim?
What's a girl like you doing at a seder like this?
If 600,000 people can get taken out, one more couldn't hurt
We've only got 18 minutes....
I like my matzah thin, like my women.
Maybe when Elijah comes, we can make it a threesome
I hear that horseradish is an aphrodisiac
Nice Hagadah
After four cups of wine, you look like Cindy Crawford
Honey, on this night we are supposed to recline, so let's get to it.
Seder? I hardly know her.
I bet I could make you sing Dayenu!
I've got four of my own terms for redemption
Did that just say we were in bondage?
I could never Pass you Over...
Don't call it a bitter herb until you taste it.
We were strangers....emphisis on "were"
You're a 10 in my haggadah
Frogs.....ever kiss a frog?
I'm going to have to search you for chometz
How's about we go re-live the "Darkness" plague up in my room.
I'm like one of the four sons; let me show you how wicked I can be.
Let's make this night really different from all others nights.
Want to wander through my desert?
I've got a Ramses in my pockets, and I'm glad to see you
Wanna look for MY afikomen?

.... the volume of time......

....literally.... I was thinking about that this morning as my alarm clock shocked me into reality at 6:30am..... like every weekday.... well.... I sorta thought about it... as much as you can really ponder something semi-consciously as you fumble to silence Kim Mitchell in the dark.... "Patio Lanterns" may be a feel good beer-on-a-dock tune, but on a cloudy monday in the city I could strangle the guy.,....

Weekday mornings my days must start with a thunderous roar.... otherwise, I will ignoer them completely.... It must annoy my roommates to no end, but I need at least 6 or 7 sound blasts before i am able to draw myself out of bed..... I am seriously considering hiring a dude with an air horn.... to accomplish the same goal (but he would be a naked adonis, oiled up and ready with a bunch of grapes after the seventh honk)

On the weekends any little sound will wake me, and I can rise feeling refreshed and ready to meet the day, or roll over and go back to bed, but the clicking of the radiator will drive me downstairs to brew some coffee or grab the paper from the corner.....

None of this means anything..... its just noise

....big fucking word of the day.....

I often get razzed for using words that people don't get.... long words..... or obscure words..... it's just something that I love.... words are awesome! I love that descriptors can be so specific that there really is only ONE perfect word for any given situation, even though there are 20 other words that mean the same thing.....

So a new portion of this blog is gonna take the big-ass words i love and link them to an image I think fully explains its use.... cuz a picture is so much closer to an emotion, the link between letters and meanings.... if you are to believe Pierce or de Saussure


so, today's BIG FUCKING WORD OF THE DAY is:

Gephyrophobia

.....this is most righteous....

..... my mind is blown.... lasers are friggin cool.....and fuckin scary.....

......Defense contractors say that within the next 10 years they’ll have a solid state laser mounted on a Hummer that can put a hole in sheet of metal from several miles away...... Well Dutch graffiti writers can pretty much do that now with this Hymermobil rocking a GRL L.A.S.E.R. Tagging System........

just watch the video

....i've decided.....

....that I am in love with all things McGillicuddy.....

....the political party has my vote (unfortunately it counts for nothing in New Zealand)

....and henceforth I will constantly carry a small flask of dr.mcgillicuddy's new orleans style fireball whiskey in my purse..... it makes for some fun adventures on Saturday nights.... even if you do not learn about them until sunday afternoon, at brunch

.... the verdict's in....

....i started this post yesterday, so forgive me for being a bit behind, but contrary to popular opinion I actually have to WORK sometimes.... really cuts in to my pointless rambling time....

So, the federal government handed down the new Budget Monday.... and, like everything else in this country.... it really did not cause a stir.... What can I say, politics in this country are just not that big a deal.... we are fairly middle of the road, whether under a Conservative or Liberal Government we do our very best to be pleasant.... I am definitely not complaining...
The Budget does its bestest to cut a break to the individual in this country, like most Canadian policy does.... I am more than happy to live in a nation of social welfare... I wuold like to point out, though, that this calm water allows a lot of stuff to slip through, or, rather, a lot of nothing.....

This is an excerpt from an email circulated at my office yesterday:


"....Here's a quick overview of what the new budget means for culture.....



........Diddly squat.



The budget speech was silent on the sector, save a reference that the arts have benefited from $20 million raised through last year’s improved incentives for donations of securities to public charities. The 2007 budget expands this incentive to private foundations.

In the budget plan, there is a section on ‘celebrating culture’. The budget provides for a few programmes, with an emphasis on heritage and museums, worth about $40 million. Oh, and Quebec gets $82 million for several programmes including a Francophonie Summit in Quebec City. Gotta secure those Bloc votes.

Reaction from the sector can be described as guarded and disappointed."


Truth is, as private citizens, we are wary of rocking the boat.... We know we have it good in Canada, and its definitely not worth sacrificing what is Fan-fucking-tastic about this country for "Arts Funding" (read with a la-di-da tone please)....

.... Cuz the best art, to be honest, is created in wartorn, dictatorial, fucked up countries by angry, passionate, fucked over people..... Tolstoy, Swift, Buena Vista Social Club.... The Clash... These were all seen as artists born out of confliict and turmoil.... None of them received Grants....

There is, however, a program, at the moment, that I think would divert funds, without requiring more from individuals, and leave the money in the hands of people that are in the best position to seek out the level of conflict that does remain in Canada. The One Cent Now campaign is being spearheaded by David Miller, and other municipal leaders around the country, and asks that one of the six cents on every dollar that people currently pay in GST to the Federal government be given to the Munipalities to redistribute through their programmings and services. The Feds have already said that this one cent is almost unnecessary and I beg to differ.... The National level of Government is just too far away to see it.... Give the money to people who are face to face with problems, underfunded youth programs, shelters, arts grants, soup kitchens, afterschool programs, outreach.... all of these could profit from Harper's extra pennies.

Its worth taking a look at... It's worth supporting.... Just think what a second and a penny could do. (Like pay the salary of this poor not-for-profit employee)