20

It's flippin' Winter!

Like, no jokes, straight up Winter. Freeze yer moustache Winter (cycling+condensation+sub-zero tempuratures=frozen 'tache). It's about time quite frankly, because after a rather disappointing (read: English) November I was slightly concerned about Canada's ability to deliver a good Winter. Well, sorry. I'm still working the Tim Burton show and all that, and in fact I was on TV as a direct result of it the other day, but I didn't see it because I don't have one with cable. My colleague received a text from her sister asking if the chap on the tv with the moustache was the one she worked with though, so that's enough of a confirmation for me.

Christmas has also landed in our flat with decorating duties being handed off to my room-mates. We've no tree yet, but a trip to Ikea won't be far away. Up top is the kitchen table set-up. A lookout onto a major intersection is an excellent thing to have breakfast with, and it's nice to see the Christmas lights from across the street as a reminder that you're not far from the superheated apartment. Unfortunately the flash on my camera's a little harsh, but we've got a little stocking set-up as well. Mine is the one missing, but I pledge to get that sorted post-haste, because Santa always finds a way in. He's like mice in that respect. I arrived home from work this evening to find this waiting for me. It's all the way from my dear old Mum back in England and is an advent calendar where you move a bear around the house whilst he hunts for Christmas. It's fucking rad and is a real part of my childhood, so I guess my Mum saw fit to make another one. I'm delighted. Below is the happy little fellow you shift around his, quite frankly, gargantuan house. I'm hyped to get this up and adorning a wall space as soon as possible.
Another point of me getting excited is getting out and having an ice skate. I'm not great (I still have to concentrate pretty hard), but I'm willing to put the practice in. I had a day off a couple of days ago and went for a little spin in front of the Town Hall with my buddy Julian. We even had a little knock about with some sticks and a puck, but got yelled at. It was good times though, and as already mentioned, I'm looking to get into this as I've heard there's two ways to deal with the Winter. Hide under your duvet and be miserable for 4 months, or embrace it and have good times. I guess the beer's always cold which is a good thing.

19

Well, obviously that embedding of the music didn't work, but you're smart folk, I'm sure you can work out a way of searching for it and thanking me later. A quick photo of the big balloon boy that's hanging out in the Lightbox atrium which is kind of a weird thing. I expect to quickly stop noticing it and every so often realise that it's there and it's pretty neat. I saw Annie Hall for the first time last night as well. I thoroughly enjoyed it, not least for Woody Allen's excellent collection of tweed jackets. Good show. If I could scrape the money together I would wear this get-up most days. Good lookin'. (Picture taken from the internet).

18

So today is an interesting day. A quick round up of all the news first off. I've moved into a new place on the corner of College and Ossington, in between Little Italy and Little Portugal. It's rad as hell, there's all sorts of cool bars n' cafes and what have you nearby, and rent is cheap. Good times. Lay on top of all this the fact that I have a job working with the T(oronto) I(international) F(ilm) F(estival) (TIFF) in their brand new gallery space, and Toronto is doing pretty well for itself.

The unfortunate issue of working in a gallery, is of course the fact that it results in a ton of down time between shows, so I've been on an enforced sabbatical of sorts over the past 6 weeks or so. I start again today, and with that, have decided to continue to regale you with my adventures. I've not many photos of things as I've been having fun, but suffice to say Canadian Thanksgiving involved hanging with my Mum and two dinners in one day, Halloween resulted in a classic old school sheet ghost costume (complete with felt moustache) and a trip to New York led me to learn of a dance move that's so fresh it's banned in Canada. I didn't actually learn how to do it, but a friend skimmed through the wikipedai page. This seem sadly indicative of a lot of things in life.

I do have some photos of New York so I'll chuck 'em up, the best of which is probably the golden death mask that once contained the skull of some dude. Pretty good stuff. The skyline seen at the top there is of Manhattan from Brooklyn, and the dog is an excitable chap who hung out for a day or so. Also, a couple of jams worth getting into, one from Delicate Steve, the other from Ancient Age.

Find more artists like Ancient Age at Myspace Music

Find more artists like DELICATE STEVE at Myspace Music

17

So it's been a bit, and there's news. New job, new place, etc. That can all wait til I get photos of it though, because for now, just get this into yer lookin' balls.



I found this on http://www.atimetoget.com/ which is a flipping great website.

Further updates incoming. Probably.

16

As shown, a re-appropriation of the canal boat neckerchief. A hanky is an absolute boon in this weather gentlemen, suitable for wiping yourselves down at a moments notice, and looking like quite the dandy whilst doing so. I'm absolutely in the market for more. A few things this week. We played Risk which was rad as hell.Here's Robin (left) about to destroy Alex (right) and then me in order to win complete domination. It was kind of embarrassing really, but it felt good to play a board game on a table. A real re-awakening of old school vibes, even if Alex had to drink beer all the way through like some wayward uncle who you like when you're 12 but the rest of the family doesn't really want you to spend time with. Anyway, there's a board game shop near my work, so I've already checked it out and it has at least 4 (four) variations on Settlers Of Catan. Shit yeah.

So here's a photo of our kitchen table. It's new! At least new to us. I met up for dinner and a fantastic cup of tea with another of the interns from the gallery and on my way home spotted this dumped outside University of Toronto. It's in pretty good nick, and will likely come along to the next residence, if we can find a way to shift it, anyway. Not only was there a table, but also a desk and chair for me.

Result. No more do I have to sit on a spare Ikea mattress and refer to it as my study. I actually have a place to sit and draw and think. It hasn't been used for any of those purposes yet mind, it's just nice to have the option.

I also finally got a photo of this excellent piece of graffiti. Just wonderful. Other news worthy items include: I picked up a book about a journalist following the route from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance the other day, it's called Zen and Now and is written by Mark Richardson. Whilst it is very readable, it mostly made me pine for the original. A re-read of that is always in order. I got a Playstation emulator working on my laptop, so I've been preoccupied with FF VIII and Vagrant Story, both classics. Finally, it's early corn season here, so the streets are awash with fresh corn still in the husk for dirt cheap. This shit is delicious, and when you see 6 ears for $1.99 and think it's expensive, you're doing well. Here's to seasonal eating, long may it continue. As is to be expected, I'll leave you with a youtube video I first spotted on the excellent Street Etiquette Tumblr. Go to it here: http://streetetiquette.tumblr.com/

Fist Teen

I wonder how many hits I'll get from that dubious post title? It's probably about fighting, don't worry about it.

So first, some ruminations on Toronto as a city. It's flipping excellent. Really. It sprawls in any number of miles in any direction, but each part still feels distinct, like the areas just flow into one another. London is a series of small towns under one banner, whereas Toronto is a real no-foolin' city. I like this about it. I also like that there is a place no more than fifteen minutes away that sells cheesecake until two in the morning. That seems like a much more genteel experience than going out and jumping around and trying to hop into bed with someone. Actually I take that back, genteel probably isn't the word. Perhaps the term is authentic? Maybe honest? It's an interesting thing living with some young 'uns again (one of the vagaries of having little to no choice over my living situation). It's a peer through the looking-glass at a different way of living, a whole different perception on the world. It's a view I personally find quite distasteful, but I would never dream of claiming I know more about how life should be led. Who knows, if I went out there and tried it I could end up liking it, but I feel I'd probably end up hating myself.

Anyways, what I'm striking at here is Toronto is a great town, where anything you want can be had, and I'm not only speaking only in terms of debauchery. There's more than enough options for those who prefer the quiet life, which I appreciate. Now if you'd give me a damn job, you'd be the best city ever, ya bum.

Not too much notable has been going on really, just the continued search for employment and cheap groceries. My Internship finishes next Monday so I'll be cast adrift without any sort of crutch (shit) and I can only hope that instead of disappearing into Playstation emulation and blogs about shoes I'll force myself into finding some other outlet. Time to start painting again? Perhaps. Let's deal with the photos first though, eh?

This'll probably work for a little kick up the arse though:



Oh yeah, I really want my skateboard back too. I'll get my mum to bring it over, thus saving any number of dollars.

Fore! x ten

"Feel Free" (sextet version) - Live at Zebulon 5/30/10 (excerpt) by DuanePitre

First off, hit the play button there, it'll be yer soundtrack. It's done by a chap called Duane Pitre who is very definitely one of my favourites, not least because he used to skate for Alien Workshop, which is easily the best skate brand out there.

Yowzah. So it's entirely true I haven't updated in forever, but there's very good reasons for that. I've basically had two weeks solid of entertaining guests. It kicked off with Chris Williamson & co being in town, and whilst they were only here for a few days with a trip to a cottage up North in between, it was rad as hell to hang out. These folks were directly responsible for me witnessing one of the hippest things that's ever happened. There's a nice little park here called Trinity Bellwoods and they were hanging out there so they said to come along. I would have done it anyway, but my interest was piqued by the fact it was already around half 8 in the evening and that they were next to the baseball diamond. I rode myself down there at a leisurely pace (it was still inhumanly hot and humid at this point) only to come across the baseball diamond fully floodlit and playing host to a number of games. No problem thought I, a little rec league softball action, sweet. As I got closer alarm bells started ringing. A lot of fixed gear bikes around here. Quite a few tattoos. What in the hell? A full hipster as fuck softball league, where ball hats are eschewed for cycling caps and tank tops and skinny jeans are the uniform? What in the hell? Suffice to say it was pretty trippy and there was a veritable mountain of PBR cans for the strange men who collect your recycling to take home. I do have photos, but I left my camera in the car of one of my next guests, Mira.

Mira and Kristin are friends from first year of uni in London, despite them being Americans, and I hadn't seen Kristin in probably around four years. This made the whole situation super awesome, as I was pretty confident that fun times would be had. Apparently they were. One memory blank of an evening later and we were back in the groove of hanging out, talking shit and watching crap on the computer. Throw a trip to Niagara Falls into that mix and we're golden. A good time had with the ladies, just a bummer they had to go so soon, and that my camera made it's way to Detroit. Also, this was the first time I was able to surprise someone at the airport with a sign with their name on it, so that was super cool, and Kristin looked very shocked. Hyped. So, they leave Thursday, I go to work and come home to a plan to head out to Ancaster, a suburb of Toronto near Hamilton. It was one of the most entertaining lad's nights I've been on and I had the hangover to prove it. That gave me Friday to feel sorry for myself and sleep before picking up Helen on Saturday morning from the bus station.The above is a file photo from her days in Edinburgh. She came and spent five days in town that were all awesome. A lot of walking, and a lot of seeing more of the city. A trip to the island (which coincided beautifully with an Indian Festival. 'Hare Krishna, move along please'), a walking tour of downtown and a brewery tour that included a six pack in the price and you best believe a good time was had by all. It's been pretty tiring, particularly as I was straight into two days of 'work' and then another party in the suburbs last night. I got a day off today and went grocery shopping, only to get absolutely soaked in the rain, what the hell? In spite of all this, it was an absolute pleasure seeing everyone and re-kindling friendships. It's a wonderful thing to know that I'm not completely isolated out here and there's always a link or two to the past that I can take strength from, rather than be weighed down by. My sincerest thanks to everyone that made the effort to get to Hogtown, and an open invitation to anyone else that wants to take up space on the spare mattress.

As a little ta-ta, here's a video that's been getting pretty heavy play recently.

Bake 'er

So today was a little bit different. It got stinkin' hot (more than 40 degrees apparently) and that resulted in a big ol' power outage. Whilst there are a few ace things about this, going home from work early, looting possibilities, and so on, the real drawback is that traffic lights went out, leaving everyone trying to get home, including me, in a bit of a mess. Thankfully, this is Canada, so some helpful people just got stuck in and started directing traffic. This guy actually got handed a hi-vis vest by a passer by. And he was the second one I saw that day. Nice work Toronto. Way to be full of awesome people. The other side of all this heat is that it's all bought about by absolutely searing sunshine (as well as brutal humidity, but that's important right now). The amount of sun here is ridiculous, and has made Operation Get-A-Tan (thanks Madeline) simply par for the course. It'd be impossible to not get some colour in your skin out here, as evidenced by my watch band.
It's currently my favourite thing that I own, no joke. Aside from all this radness, I'm an utter idiot because I heard about this event and decided not to go. http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/july/friendswithyous-inflatable-fun

For those of you to lazy to copy and paste that link, these artist types filled Queen's Park, which is literally five minute walk from my house, with inflatable creatures and beasts and all sorts of excellence. Why I didn't check it out is completely beyond me. I guess I thought I was above all that, working in an art gallery and all. Fuck that noise, the day I'm too good for inflatables is the day I die. What a chump.
Images of Rainbow City were all nicked from Creative Review. Sorry lads!

Duzun

Just a couple of videos today. First is Gil-Scott Heron. Watch it in HD if you can. Well good.



And that was a bit moody for you, try this on for size.

Vanishing Point from Bonsajo on Vimeo.

Ta la

Legs

So it was the G20 summit in Toronto this weekend which bought along with it the usual rash of heavy-handed policing and idiotic `protesters`smashing stuff, including burning a few police cars. That is absolutely the best way to be listened to by the leaders of the world, yes. Go and smash up that Starbucks and they`ll give you a personal audience. Oh and the McDonald`s. Instant progress, ya bum. Most everyone I know was on board with this attitude, because honestly, it was just annoying. You do not need tear gas and paintball guns, police. You do not need `medics`and documentation of beatings, protesters. Everyone just needs to grow the hell up. Regardless, a friend and I headed out on Saturday afternoon to have a look and see if we can get a few photos. The atmosphere was very...tense. The police were not messing about.I didn`t get photos of any actual protesting because most of it was being done downtown, and this big blockade was at one of the major intersections stopping from more folks getting there.

In other news, England stink at football, water is wet and the sky is blue. I was gonna give every player a review and a mark out of 10, but that seems redundant as I could just write `dissapointing, 5/10`for everybody. Miserable. I`m still looking for a place to get 120 film printed as well. I`ve found a place that`ll develop it ok, but no printers as of yet. You`ll no doubt be thrilled to be kept updated. I got a new pair of kicks today too. Real fresh, from a great shop that was having a beaut of a sale. I got a sweet old briefcase for $10 from a yard sale as well, so that was killer.
Laters

Zen

Oh yeah! In other news, Canada absolutely loves the Maple Leaf as a symbol of it's nation. Like, Really. It's everywhere, and everyone digs on it, it's the coolest thing. Peep that doughnut as evidence of that. Consider it Number 1 in a series. Also, not sure what happened to the text colour on the last post, and you ever noticed how good Missy Elliot is?




Boom. Legit.

Nein

Oh word. Mondo Apologies for being so slack I've been busy, y'know, living life and crap. Usually that's pretty good blog stuff, and certainly has been so far, it's just that I stacked it hard with regards to taking my camera anywhere, so no photos. What follows is an apologetic text-based account of the past weekend.

So my good friend Charl came up from New York on Thursday and that was bumpin'. I'm down like a clown for hanging out with that guy and he always smacks the perspective and motivation back into me, so it was all good news. No photos of him though. Sorry.
Friday night bought about the opening of the new show at the gallery I've been working at. It's super cool to see it all come together after I've worked so hard on it (sort of). But really, I feel like I helped put it together in some tiny little way and it's ace. It's a pretty freaking good show too, all kinds of good stuff, in particular the Javier Tellez piece is utterly beautiful. Really, really good. I've got to give a guided tour of it on the 11th of July, so I'm working on getting a thread together for the tour, but I'm still crapping my pants about it. Again, no photos of the opening. Sorry.

Saturday I waved goodbye to Charl before going to see Iggy Pop and the Stooges. For free. Outside. It was rad, I'm not gonna lie. I was a mile back and I could still tell Iggy was as mad as he ever was and I have to say, his voice sounds better to me now than it did when he was younger. I'm not sure why, just something about the old, raspy edge to it seems to fit with the music. Search And Destroy killed it, for reals. It was completely ballistic. The one thing I will say is that the crowd was full of jerks. It was either punks who were around the first time, or a bunch of pushy hipsters who thought they invented rebellion and pushing past people in crowds. Jerks. Also, an excellent piece of scheduling having punk rock iconoclast Iggy Pop in town the week before the G20 summit. Nice work. Once again, no pictures of this one. Sorry.Sunday was spent recuperating and going to the gallery for a tour with one of the artists in the show. They do it every Sunday and, as mentioned, I'll have to do one myself. The artist was Robyn Cumming and I can put one of her pictures in here instead of a sad animal so that's good. She was real good and smart and you could tell she was a teacher. It was pretty intimidating as I'm not sure the observations I'll have will be as astute, but I'll probably tell more jokes so that's a win in my book.Sunday night was then spent watching De La Soul. Gosh what a great show. Straight up, this was a better experience for me than Iggy. It was less crowded, I was closer, the crowd was more focused on having a good time and dancing around instead of being pushy and being seen in the right place. Good stuff all around from everyone. They were great as well, telling jokes and stories and being excellent hosts, even if they did seem a bit disappointed in the reaction they were getting from the crowd. But it was a free show on a Sunday evening, it's not exactly going to be a barnstormer is it? Still great fun though, and I'm completely pleased about the whole experience, so there. Again, no photos, but you've already had enough cute for today.

That brings us up to Monday and is pretty much all. I will do my very best to update more often, even if it's more smaller posts and videos and what have you, rather than mammoth updates like this one. If it becomes a habit, I'll do it more often and better. FACT.

(h)eight

Just a few videos that I saw that were ace.
First:

And if that's too amateurish and silly, try this on for size:


That's all for now. Gotta get a job and clean my room as my buddy Charl is coming up from New york to stay. Hyped. The new show opens at the gallery on Friday, so expect some photos of that.

The 7th Door

Last Thursday was a fundraising ball at the gallery I work at. Called the Power Ball, it's a pretty big deal and the cheapest ticket is $160. Blam. The VIP ones were even more, flipping ridiculous, and what you got was fancy finger food and a free bar stocked with everything you'd ever need, Real Talk. I spent much of the day helping out getting the place set up, hanging fabric, Christmas lights and putting helium into red balloons. About 1000 in all, but not on my own. The results are pictured above, but I can safely say that it looked better in real life. Standard. It looks like this from above. Apparently they did the math(s) and worked out how many balloons they can hold. Did you know a fully blown up balloon can hold 14 grams? True story.

There was a bamboo bar that was staffed by folks in panda costumes, one of which got incredibly drunk and belligerent, which was pretty funny as long as you weren't involved. One man got very irate and slapped him so he was pulled off and made to stand in a corner, no joke. He looked a bit like Lewis Baker for anyone who knows what that means.
There was this Drag Hole thing too, where if you stuck your hand in you'd get a drag queen makeover. It's an interesting idea, but witness the dreadful planning with regards to the material choice on the letters. Illegible. Disappointing.
They also had hot tubs. Indoors. Yeah, all bets were pretty much off.
As a side note, the parties main sponsor was Hugo Boss. They had a stand involving stuffed animals, steamer trunks and clothes that only the people at the party could afford. Not for the likes of me. Apparently in the past they've had problems with people stealing the clothes, just straight grabbing the mannequin and running for it. No such excitement this evening though. They had a few of these cut-outs outside. This one was probably the best. I saw a few folks using them, but mostly they went ignored the whole evening, with the planned silent auction for them completely abandoned in the end, so I reckon I could have had a cheap table if I'd got in there. Would been pretty interesting too, although you would have had to watch where you put the potatoes. This is Paul, the chap in charge of putting the gallery in order and getting everything built. Crew Chief I guess you could call him. Or Project Manager, whatever. Here he is throwing balls at...The Dunk Tank. Yup, that's John McEnroe. More or less anyway. He was the only one who got in all night, and was suitably hammered and abusive the entire time, so that was a bit of a giggle. Final photo (I didn't take too many because I was either working or, y'know, partying) of the evening is an attempt to capture the nature of the chaos. Drag queens, over styled haircuts, too much money. Good times if you know how to circumvent it all, or just double fist free beers for two hours, which is the option I went with. Anyways, good times had and friends made. Nice work Power Ball.

6th inning blast

We went to a ball game! Well good, cheap as hell to get in ($11), pricey as shit once they trap you inside ($9.75 for a beer, all prices exclude tax). I swerved some of this by bringing my own peanuts, $1.50 for more peanuts that I could possibly hope to finish on my own from the Mexican store. Better than $6 in the park. On to the photos:The CN Tower is right next to the Skydome, and the roof was open cause it was a nice day. Ace.Playin' Ball! Here you can see that the Blue Jays (in white) have a man on second and a fella about to bat. The Orioles (in black, because they're the baddies) are going to fail horribly and the batter will score on an inside the park home run on a fielding error at third. Two run shot, Jays were up three at the end of the first (Yes this does mean something. Just about)Glory years. The Jays won back to back World Series in 92 and 93. They've pretty much sucked ever since. Hence the $11 admission fee.My companions on this trip, David and Alex. David lives with me and is closest to the camera, Alex is a smirking buffoon (in this photo) and lives across the hall with...Travis, who is everyone's token ginger friend. Thanks Travis!Excited. Possibly about the tie-dye in the background, I'm not sure.Alex bought an $8 hot dog that was biblical in proportion. He heroically battled through and came out a man. I tell you though, this thing was ridiculous. And he had bbq sauce on it so it smelt amazing. Sitting here writing about it is making me hungry. Genuinely.The aforementioned peanuts which, thanks to my Mum, are an integral part of the ball game to me. Thanks Mum!Everyone is pretty pleased that the Jays won. Alex is just gonna go die in a corner though. That hot dog was a brute. But the Jays won 5-0 following a couple of homers in the 6th and a strong pitching performance from the Jays. Good stuff.The CN Tower is a trippier proposition at night time. What a fun day though! I heartily recommend going with some buddies to a ball game and eating well. You might want to turn up drunk though. Or smuggle in booze. Your call, you'll be on holiday so you can do what you want.

Another house party this evening. I swear to God, Canadians are just trying to bleed me dry. I did get a cheap grocery shop today though, so I think that makes up for it?
Bye!