Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Jeff Wall

Saturday, May 27, 2006

tiny sans taste


During the Riverdance Japan Tour 1999, many people got impressed by the dancers' dazzling performance. Especilally, girls took a fancy to the male principal, Breandan de Gallai.

One of such Breandan-fanatic girls made a doll like this. (As a great Japanese essayist wrote in 10th century, the Japanese love tiny things...)

where did he get those eyebrows though?

Friday, May 26, 2006

study a crack in the wall...


From the website Secret worlds.
From Stories from Space.

"When Leonardo's da Vinci's pupils were stuck for inspiration he advised them to make a study of a crack in the wall, and it's true that when you spend time engaging your imagination with such a crack, all sorts of possibilities and new worlds may begin to appear..."

ahhh... to all those others who understand the meaning of tiny.




Thursday, May 25, 2006

Charlie's tiny film


here's a great little film

charlie.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

"The world ends when you're dead, until then you got more punishment in store"




Worst News Ever.

Deadwood's R.I.P. has fans up in arms
May 24, 2006.


SCOTT COLLINS
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
HOLLYWOOD—David Milch, the creator of HBO's Deadwood, says the show couldn't have been done on any other network, and that's probably true. Few other outlets have tried Westerns recently, and none has featured a villain like Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), a profane, surreally menacing saloon keeper.


In one scene, Swearengen sweetens a prayer for a butchered pioneer family by blithely informing his patrons of a half-price special on the services of his prostitutes. McShane's portrayal makes Al Pacino's gangster in Scarface seem charming.


Of course, HBO has always taken pride in running apart from the network pack, hence its marketing slogan, "It's not TV. It's HBO.'' But as the abrupt death of Deadwood makes clear, HBO is behaving more like a regular network these days.


HBO revealed this month that, because of money considerations, Deadwood, one of the network's top four original series after The Sopranos, will most likely end its run with the third season, which starts June 11. (It's seen on TMN in Canada.) Although HBO did not cancel the show, it allowed the ensemble cast to pursue other work, effectively spelling the end of the series.


Outraged fans, who were expecting the fourth season, promptly organized a show-saving campaign, with some demanding a "cancel HBO" boycott (for details, see savedeadwood.net).
"I am deeply disappointed by the way things turned out," Milch said last week.
"Not having a fourth season is not the result anyone wanted," HBO boss Chris Albrecht said by phone last week.


But the network was excited about another Milch project, a surfing drama titled John From Cincinnati, and did not believe he would be able to return to Deadwood for some time, Albrecht added. By all accounts, the network did not wish to pay the Deadwood actors' contracts during the months spent waiting.


Milch, who seems genuinely excited about Cincinnati, said that Deadwood is a costly show and does not produce the high ratings Sopranos does.
He confirmed that Albrecht offered to approve six episodes rather than 12 for a Deadwood fourth season — in the TV industry, a "short order."


But the writer-producer rejected that because of bad experiences with short orders on series such as Hill Street Blues. And with that, Deadwood was dead.


The series' puzzling end has left militant fans seeking comfort in the words of — who else? — Swearengen:

"The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man — and give some back."


los angeles times

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

old drunks at the library

This art looks like my workplace.


“A GUEST + A HOST = A GHOST”
— Marcel Duchamp

“Je cherche en même temps l’éternel et l’éphémère.”
— Georges Perec

"For twenty years, Daniel Olson has been presenting works of ambiguous intention. An anachronistic film star peering through the wrong end of the spyglass, he reveals a world with a distinct carnival atmosphere, but where an air of death hangs over everything. At heart a poet, and a thief, Olson plays at working and works at playing in pursuit of the marvellous and the ungraspable. His works are a poetry of almost nothing, simple gestures imbued with extreme significance, small explosions where very little happens—but in an interesting way.

In this exhibition, two new video projects continue Olson’s private investigations of ghosts and doubles. In Beside Myself, two ghost-like versions of the artist at work and at play on a typewriter and a toy piano—or is it the other way around?— come together in an office. In Olson-Welles, he attempts the impossible feat of inhabiting the past, something he has successfully failed at twice before by positioning himself within projected images of his father and of himself as a child. This time he has chosen Orson Welles, the director of one of the greatest films of all time, and arguably the biggest failure of the twentieth century.
It’s not that Olson believes in the supernatural—he is an obstinate non-believer in almost everything—nor that he considers himself the equal of Welles or the other great figures with whom he “collaborates.” But if you’re bound to fail—and we’re all going down eventually—you might as well do it in an interesting way.
— Leo Danielson

From www.optica.ca

art i like...


artwork by michael caines and drue langlois from the katharine mulherin gallery.

Friday, May 19, 2006

chikinramen will move you


welcome to the slightly cute but confusing, psychedelic world of chikinramen.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

And Even More Creepy...


Okay - the award for best scary tiny thing sent to me goes to John.

You have to see this to believe it.

Conodonts. The teeth you never knew.

Creepy


Thank you to one of my many sicko friends for sending me this utterly disturbing image.

I Like it.

Blue Moon Issue Cont'd

I was happy to see these two letters below in NOW in response to sheila gostick's pathetic lamenting of the closing of the Blue Moon. I know from working at Parkdale Library, and living in Parkdale, what a great City Councillor Sylvia Watson is, and she wouldn't be against the place if it weren't for good reason.

Bark at the Moon

sheila gostick's recent article on the revocation of the Blue Moon Restaurant's liquor licence (NOW, May 11-17) has done a great disservice to the people of Parkdale. To characterize public harassment, crime and extreme public drunkenness as "indigenous street and social life in Parkdale" is an insult to the residents who know how to have a good time without resorting to disorderly, offensive and illegal conduct.

My office received constant complaints about the Blue Moon. These came from local business owners and residents forced to pass by it as they travelled to and from the Parkdale Public Library or the Masaryk-Cowan Community Recreation Centre. Public urination, vomiting, fighting and abuse were commonplace.

The Blue Moon had the opportunity to join the many other Parkdale businesses who are making a positive contribution to the neighbourhood. Instead, the proprietors chose to flaunt liquor laws. The Blue Moon is not a loss for the poor, but a victory for all Parkdale.

Councillor Sylvia Watson
Parkdale-HighPark


Moon's lunatic fringe did everyone at now smoke crack ?

Just read the extremely touching article about the shutting down of the Blue Moon and am wondering how anyone in love with that shithole could actually be published in your magazine. I've been living two doors down from the Blue Moon for a year and a half, and the scene outside my window was the same every night (and day sometimes) – very drunk people fighting over absolutely nothing, screaming, breaking glasses and rendering the whole strip of the sidewalk utterly disgusting. My friends stopped visiting for fear of getting harassed.

Toronto is changing.

So stop your propaganda against the natural development of the metropolis and keep writing about movies and music. You're good at that.

Fabrizio Divari
Toronto

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

urban poem.


you can see more of the artist's paintings here.


Urban poem.
-------------

Parked Car croaks -
Signaling its defenses are working,

Man crossing the street
Walks 'Grand Theft Auto' style,
Heavy lifts and falls of digital feet
There is something slightly defeated in his gait.

Woman on the corner
Wells up with tears,
a small silver box

connected by white cords
to each ear.

Monday, May 15, 2006

toronto award for the best old theatre



the award goes the the Mt. Pleasant rep. theatre.

a lovely old place.
go there!

Party pics



Thank you to all my wonderful friends and family for an amazing party.

I am so lucky to have so many great people in my life!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

The Vines





Check out this great video. it reminds me of my most happy childhood days watching "Davey and Goliath" .
I learned all about God and virtues and morals and really just doing the "right thing" in any given situation from those little animated cuties. And I am happy to say they are available again on dvd. Last I checked, an old dvd was going for more than 200 dollars on Ebay. See... other people liked them too.

I know just the three year old that's getting those as presents. Every child needs a set of those to grow up with.









Monday, May 08, 2006

an ode to old diners






old diners make me miss being a kid.

going out for dinner seemed so fancy back then... the elegant lighting, the blissful soft tunes of the 70s, the rounded juice glasses. i used to love everything about it. it felt like a kind of escape. even the sight of an overflowing chocolate milkshake made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. everything was going to be okay. perhaps those diners were only second only to hotels, on my little lists of "places i would most like to go".

salisbury steak, fries and gravy, western sandwich, fried eggs, chocolate ice cream... cherry on top.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Analysis of Infinitely Small Things


Okay! These are my kind of people! Expeditions and reports on small things found around different cities. Have a look at their website here.

This specimen is a ticker tape found after a football parade. Good find.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

The Books


Went to see The Books last night. Wow it was super. thank you to matt h. for the ticket for my birthday. yeah! what a great present!

He bought a tiny cd which has their compositions for elevator sounds as commissioned by the french government. very cool. ding dong.



i haven't been to many shows lately but i certainly enjoyed the books. the visuals they had to accompany each song were excellent. they used found images to accompany the found sounds they incorporate into their songs. some of the image collages were very funny - such as people going to see an evangelist dancing and falling, the tape was sped up and replayed and looped. the editing of the images together was really well done. there were moments that were completely mesmerizing. i only regret giving up my good spot near the front to go get a drink. i seem to have forgotten the rules of going to shows. number one being - never give up your spot. when i thought i might go back i was met by an impenetrable wall of wide male shoulders. i slinked to the back and watched from there.

okay - i do have some questions for todays youth. (yes i felt very old there). 1. Since when have men started wearing patchouli oil??? seemingly straight looking, hippy men doused in Perfume. and it's so strong... when they walk by one is assaulted by the smell. actually many of those young things were exceptionally smelly. i mean they were wearing loads of products and cologne or perfume. i just don't remember everyone smelling so much when i used to go out a lot. and some of the colognes they were wearing were weird, like fahrenheit. okay is fahrenheit still in ? it can't be, it's like wearing drakkar noir. it smells so dated.

2. why do people go to quiet art rocky concerts and then Talk through the entire thing??? when i got in my second position at the back, there was this super annoying gay guy blabbing through the whole concert and what a jackass he was. ..." she is such a bitch...any man would be like okay to a one night stand with her but because of her butt but the second date NOWAY... she is such a MILF but then it's help! like run away..." Okay - if you need to talk shit for more than an hour don't do it in a small room inwhich people are watching and trying to listen to a concert! so terrible. anyone can talk shit at any bar for free and Not ruin everyone else's time. several people looked over at him - as if to say "shut up" but he paid no head and right on gossiping loudly.

That's one thing that is so much better about seeing shows in New York. There's no such behaviour allowed. and if you try to pull that shit... someone will, guaranteed, tell you to "shut the fuck up". and you will.... and if you do not you will be punched.

Frankly, the last show I saw at the Bowery Ballroom was way funner than any show I've ever seen in Toronto. They were fights and yelling the musicians, and they yelled back and it wasn't even punk, it was, on the completely other end of the spectrum, Love, with renowned gun-toting landowner Arthur Lee. newly out of prison.

Toronto is soooo polite. when one tiny opening came up in the crowd, when i was near the back, no one would move into it because the shorter people staid put behind it so it would be rude to move in front of someone shorter than you. instead we all just cautiously surveyed the opening, wishing one of us had the courage to make the move into it. i really wanted that spot but you just can't break toronto code like that.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

dangers of listening to podcasts while walking


so catching up on my ricky gervais podcasts has been dangerous lately. one should be cautious listening to these while walking. may result in laughing loudly in the street - after which, people think you are crazy.

...also has resulted in me trying to get a photo of a chinese homeless person - only to be yelled at. they claim there are none, i know several. in fact there are several that come to the library everyday. there are two we call santa 1 and santa 2 because they both carry bright red sacks slung over their shoulder like santa. they do not know eachother, nor are they friends. and there's one with a giant head who whispers in another one's ear all day. all day, even when i see them outside one is attached to the other's ear chattering away like a little devil. i often wonder what he's saying but then, i have a feeling it's not very nice.

no more podcasts though. the show is over. too sad.