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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

other worlds

"If there is another world,
I think you can take a cab there."

From: ASTORIA: Poems. By Malena Mörling.
(University of Pittsburgh)

"THROWPLATE, with
a face full of stars and foresights
throw yourself
out of yourself."

From BLACK LAB By David Young.(Knopf)

happy spring!

getting dressed up...

once again we have reached a season of too many parties.

problems arise. what to wear? oh, i am a lover of clothes.

each birthday. older. hopefully wiser.

another year.

trying to decide if i should go to a highschool reunion. am i really that old? yes.

at work, the other day, a librarian friend and i (who coincidentally, went to the same highschool) were trying to decide if we should go or not... we talked about the people we knew once who might be there... if the bands that came out of that school come, E.S.A, then Metric, The Broken Social Scene and The Stars will be there. Good stuff. we had a little moment of silence for talent unspent, lives in which we once forsaw art florishing, now spent in the din and mediocrity of library work. and... sigh.

good book

"I have now reached the stage where as soon as anyone says life
moves around a single, organizing principle I stop listening to them.
I don't feel that life organizes itself around any single principle.
It's a religious impulse to only grasp at one thing, one explanation."

from a discussion between Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan.

This is from a great book I'm reading now called "Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers".

parkdale's own pimp wizard

here's some pictures of clarke for mayor. one of our neighbourhood loonballs.

he stands on this hydrant sometimes and preaches. he can stand there for a long time.

this lady, his friend, came by and he stopped his bellowing and said "give me a smoke." just like the good old trailer park boys he's got suppliers.

on this beautiful sunny spring day he yelled a lot about being a drug addict, being the mayor, being santa claus (he brought a little xmas tree, you can see it on the ground) and he said his "allah, allah, allah..." which he throws in for effect.

the lady friend seemed to like him a lot and they chatted quietly for awhile. i thought about how it must be nice for ne'er do wells to make friends.

stay tuned for a short film i made, featuring.... clarke for mayor.

the sin about her

i found this piece of glass and the ripped note underneath.

the note was actually posted on our community events board at work. it lists the qualities that the man who wrote it, would like in a girlfriend.

she has to have a "nice way about her"

and she has to be short and asian.

tiny babies

look at these tiny babies... yawning, stretching, sleeping.

playing with our friend's baby yesterday made me get the "baby feelings" again.

they come with being over 30 and a woman. my eggs are nagging me.

and, apparently, at work, it's okay to ask me when I am going to get pregnant about every ten minutes. the mother hen librarians would like to know! they say things like -"Don't wait" and "you know you have to do it soon." imperatives from co-workers. thanks.

reproduction is public property to some.

found rosedbuds, bottletop, flowertop

my boyfriend mathew is the best ever because he found this tiny rosebud cluster on the ground and brought it home to me.

he gets me. and my tiny things.

april...

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965)

The Waste Land (1922)

So finally it is spring and people are nicer and say things like "have a nice day" as they trot out of the library and into the sunshine. i feel better about working in this place now... being here everyday. sometimes it takes it's toll. But... now that Grad school is all planned and done, I feel better about my future and the growing possibilities. Sometimes it takes awhile to get settled into life and make some decisions that actually make sense... Like a sane loving relationship, and a career with a future and active creative outlets on the side, (thank god this job allows for that), and friends that are truly worth knowing. things are good.

the vacation continues....

make love to words

This painting is called "words are sweet" it is by justin simoni.
you can see more paintings here.

I love everyday that my job is about words. Reading the new york times book review yesterday i came upon this blissfull little poem Niche:

The niche narrows
Hones one thin
Until his bones
Disclose him

-Samuel Menashe

more photos...

the resort... lots of wildlife and neatly managed nature around. we saw herons, blue and white. pink flamingos, geese, an iguana, geckos, parrots, fish and turtles.


a self portrait, before the sunburn.

some vacation photos...

more tilt/shift miniatures

this is from a set of tiny tokyo pictures. you can see them here.

they are real photos made to look like models, with photoshop.

no more....

no more sunny beaches for us. we are back.

today is grey and overcast.

toronto is very concrete and smells like hardly anything at all. (except exhaust)

these are the people of our neighbourhood

...So I realized the other night, while telling our friend Paul, that there are many weirdo funny men in our neighbourhood, who we now have pet names for...

Mat spends a lot of time smoking while looking out the window, so he knows just what's going on on the street. We have developed story-lines for some of their lives.

Today I saw Fast-Smokey-Walker and thought of how I've missed him. He is short and bow-legged and bald and walks really fast, sort of with a springy up-and-down motion, like a cork screw, he smokes intently as he walks, inhaling frantically like each drag is his last. He smokes fast! fast! fast!... and walks all fast and bouncey as he does. I like 'em. We surmise he was not allowed to smoke for a long time and is making up for it now.

Then there's The Cowboy. Lots of people know him, He is a tall black man that rides around on roller blades, wearing a black leather outfit and yells, bellows actually, like a preacher, as he spins up and down Queen street. One day I saw him outside of Dollarama holding a pigeon in one hand and yelling some stuff about god and the pigeon. He had the pigeon gripped tight so it couldn't fly away and it was very disturbing. No one had Any reaction Whatsoever though, because it was in front of Dollarama... and being inside of dollarama is Crazier than anything outside of it. (Case in point, we actually saw two old men on those motorized scooters, rascals, fighting about who was going to get out of the way first to let the other pass. It was in front of the exit so their petty bickering prevented anyone from passing and hence, chaos ensued. Man it was funny. As Mat and I stood there exchanging bewildered and amused glances, the scooter fight grew bigger, Mat started to hum jingle bells (appropriate and damn funny as it was right before christmas), and old ladies started to push the scooter men and the cashier yelled at them both to move along with her caribbean accent. Chaos).

Then there's the local bicycling crack dealer who rides around on his bike and has a special whistle to tell all the crack heaqds to "come out and get it!" like a little dinner bell. I've seen them come stumbling out... "Hey Ricky - Whaddaya Got today?" Like an old fashioned knife sharpener he delivers door to door.

Oh and there's one of our favourotes - Harmonica Gang. He has a little harmonica and plays "Born Free" all the time. His talk is high-pitched, squeaky... muttery and dismissive and hard to understand. Mat does a wicked impression of him, one that reduces me to hysterical laughter every time.

There's more but I lack time. Perhaps, I will do a part two....

a.m. radio waves

a.m. radio
--------------

she liked best
the radio show
about what people saw

every night they'd call in
telling their stories
of what they'd seen...
the hairy man 9 feet tall

the men with dog's heads
smoking cigarettes,
the little boy on a red tricycle
riding alongside the highway,
with no home in sight.

the shadow people and the mutant animals,
the grey aliens and the knights of the templar
performing gruesome sacrifices on an altar,

best though were the ordinary things...

a red ball appeared, rolled by and then disappeared,
a hand scratches your back when no one is there...
breath in the car window, a voice chatters in your ear,
a beacon car that warns of an impending crash ahead...

ghosts and flashes,
explained, sometimes
as cross overs in dimensions,

all night long
these denizens of the night
with their active imaginations

talking to one another
in code,
while the rest of the hemisphere sleeps.

Cat Power!

Thank you to Cat Power - Chan Marshall for my most favouritest music right now.

Wow it is sooo lovely. It's been awhile since i've been so in love with an album.

sway shyly.

like she does.

Feelings

work by miltos manetas

here's the exhibit feelings.

i like stencil graffiti a great deal. this show kind of reminds me of stencil graffiti but in paintings.

Lamar Peterson Rocks

Tree,2005

Modern Americans, 2005.

I am really digging this artist Lamar Peterson. Go here to see his paintings at the Richard Heller Gallery. And here is an interview with him.

I kind of thought this was going to happen, modern artists painting somewhat like folk art. Trying to get that naivete. I like it a lot. And I like how it's kind of psychedelic, magical... colourful.

Go Heart man! Put on that potato sack and just go for it! And who's that king purple walrus in the tree? What's he doin? Skeleton loves them all.

Tilt Shift Miniatures

Tilt shift Miniatures

this is a group on flickr blog that inserts miniatures into real photos. the effect is great. it gets my tiny things approval.

in this photo the yellow car is fake.

yeah!

thank god for flickr

this photo is by my friend matt in japan, you can see his photos on flickr as freebeats. i have to thank the high heavens for sites like flickr. there are so many boring, useless blogs out there. mostly i just love spending time at flickr. wandering the world through beautiful images. it makes me silly happy.

me.

weekend pictures

this orb on mathew's shoulder was around him all night. until his loving sister stef swept it away with her love. he found a friend in my sweet mathew.
me.
still life at mike and andrea's loft.
happy birthday andrea!

Jelly Fun!

Yippeeee! Our trip is all booked and soon we'll be playing with little pink buddies like these in the turquoise sea. Much more fun than the piss-soaked rummies I hang with at work. shout out to y'all. bathe more. please.

I have a mighty tall pile of books that are most pressing to read and I can't wait to just lie in the sun and read read read. Mixed with intermittent bouts of snorkeling, ofcourse.

The book I'm reading now is called Paradise by A.L. Kennedy. It is excellent. (Sarah get it , you'll love it) . Here's some from a review below. All I do at work is read reviews... which leads to really good books piling up on my desk. Finally some time to read them.

Scotland on Sunday says, "In many ways this is a heartbreaking book, but if the end is not as happy as some readers might wish, there is nevertheless a redemptive quality throughout the novel, in its unflagging humour, and in the sympathy it arouses for its heroine, who is depicted honestly and touchingly with all her flaws and contradictions. Kennedy has long been acknowledged as a leading voice in British fiction, but Paradise takes her on to a new level of achievement. It is simply brilliant."


Here's the glass art site where jelly fish are from.

dunes

here's a photo my friend marshall took at white sands national park. i think it is just perfect.

a poem by raymond carver

Late Fragment
......


And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.


by Raymond Carver

Incredible Petri Worlds

Petri dish Florish. Beautiful Tiny Gardens!

To see more go to Pruned.

things i like like me

this is a shadow box i made after breaking into an old, desserted, props warehouse.(it's not there any more, they made it into some tiny, overpriced, unliveable homes instead). i found some lovely things there. this twenties style hair pin was from there, and the strand of lonely beads as well. the spark pluggy like thing was found somewhere else.

i like finding things and when i find them, i find they like me too.

green on green

...this is the centre of a shadow box i made for my friend natasha. it is my favourite colour green. and she has been a wonderful friend to me. thanks tashy.

creme extrordinaire

an old cream bottle i found.