Nuit Blanche

Back this year and bigger than the last was Nuit Blanche. Grabbing way more attention from the media, this year brought on swarms of people to the tight Queen Street sidewalks. I think next year there will be a debate of cutting traffic from the art exhibit's vein through the city.

The most fun about the all night event was walking around Toronto streets, noticing the uniqueness of our city (and well, that the condo boom is taking yet another building or car wash). I found the every day shops that I never noticed before grabbed my attention as much as the art exhibits that honed swarms of people.

This phone has seen better days, located across from the Centre of Mental Health and Addiction.



We took a hike up Ossington to this small bar with 27 kinds of tequila, where we saw this fabulous woman dressed like Yoko Ono. Not because of Nuit Blanche, but because she's fabulous day to day.







































Nuit Blanche was a good time for these Barbies.

















We came across this awesome Portuguese trophy shop.

















This woman who was host to a light fixture shop. The shop had a haunted feel to it.




















A building cozied with crochet doilies, quilt, and cloth.





Key moment in the evening was while reading a car wash closure notice (which was written very biblically, with words like 'henceforth' and 'nigh') due to it being torn down for yet another condo, a very angry, tattoed, army looking fellow came by and shouted "It's just a f%$*ing sign, you pretentious art f%g f#@s". So I learned my lesson about using facial expressions and body language that can let crazy people know the difference between curiosity and deep emotional thought.













We got to see the inside of the City of Toronto's Waste Depot, where we were first frisked for any harmful weapons, garbage, or narcotics.

We then proceeded to the inside of a very cool warehouse where we listened to 10 minutes of a very long, two chord song.

After that we went to a football stadium, where we got to touch sports turf for the very first time. It felt dirty and strange!









We were there to see a giant bug, but unfortunately it was nearly fully deflated when we arrived. So we waited.....and waited.....it was on it's way to full inflation 30 minutes after we sat down, but by then it was 3:30am and I was getting sleepy.

We hopped in a cab and we arrived at our destination as our cabby's ring tone played out "Fat Bottom Girls". Overall it was a great night and I think it's an amazing little event the city has started to support.

25

I am now 25.

2 doors west is a doctor's office for my aching bones.

5 blocks south is a hospital for my heart attack and bone density tests.

I am in a good location for 25.
moh.

photo booth

A luxury of my generation, the photo booth. Every time one of our moms drove us to the Niagara Falls shopping mall (it was a little out of the way) we would squeeze into the instant photo booth. The excitement of using such a retro device came from growing up in a time when you would mail away your rolls of film for developing and get them back in 7 business days. You'd each pay $1.00 ($1.50 for the colour machines), splitting the set of four photos that slid from some mysterious place to the outside wall in just 3 minutes. The trouble with that was it would be hard to figure out who gets what photos, since back then, you found everything you did so amusing...

I realized that if I put all these photos together, they create a motion picture of mood swings; serious, rebellious, happy, flirtatious. Most of these friends I still keep with me as individuals that taught me something about myself.

ladies with well
coiffed beehive hair
afros and suits
on the 70's man
outside the Kmart
a carton to spill into
a silent photographer
machine with a personality
non judgemental and hiding in the
dark with just enough shadow
behind a reflection of
half faces
incandescent through the
green intermittent light and
blanched out masonite wood walls
collected photographs of
evolving haircuts and
brandished tonsils

trading cards of a
sport and a past time

records

This weekend I finally went through the vinyl collection to weed out any goodwill gems. The house doesn't seem to bulge as I gain more and more belongings.

But as I forfeit the stack of lost music, I have to document just a few amazing covers and artwork.

We'll start with David Crosby's Cat On Shoulder photograph. After reading the liner notes, I realized that David was too busy maybe cuddling his cat while everyone in Crosby Stills & Nash were writing the songs for this record. I'm sure David has a good soul. Just look at this photo....
























Next we have Frankie Goes to Hollywood. CLICK PHOTO to ENLARGE. You must see the details of this mail-in Frankie gear order form. Personal favourites are the hand in man's pants and the hooded incognito woman in a sack (both on bottom).


















Night Ranger is next. These guys are prowling night rangers and you never know what they'll come upon in the Brooklyn streets.

I included the back of the record. I find it creepy that you can't see through Mr. Blue Shades on the cover. Pervy.

the wind through the house

The bathroom blinds pause
when I come home
Caught in the violent act, their clothes
a mess
I know you're behind it commodore
It is whistles and marches out
in the fall sky and I'm
one wheel flat, uphill to the
grayest following

The house feels unsettled
as though all the appliances
got to talking
As though a civil war was drawn
between the plastics and fabrics

The plants are wilted and tipped to the floor
Fern suicide and the
ivy is torn
A pile of dirt under the piano
Outside trying to overthrow inside

I demangle the blinds that rise
from the sill
with the gust of the gamut
beyond the parking lot

The rise that then falls and
crashes between
glass and wood and metal

This creates a loud calm

Touched for the 2nd Time

This past weekend was the 2nd annual Virgin Fest on Toronto Island.

Three of us went and started our day at the Labatt lounge where they had free Budweiser (yuck). But free!


I had been last year and was fully prepared for the boisterous displays of corporate freebies and spectacles. And the non-stop texting machine on all the jumbo-trons. The most notable text message someone had this year was "Strip me, cover me in honey and throw me to the lesbians". Who knows.

Highlights for me were Bjork, M.I.A., Killers, and Blonde Redhead.

Bjork is by far one of the most mesmerizing performers I've ever seen. Her show is a mix of amazing sound, elaborate instrumentation and arrangement, lights, and fireworks. She came out on stage in some foil mess of beauty that made her look like a crumpled up piece of paper with flailing arms and legs. There's no getting around the word 'cute' with Bjork. But at the same time she is a force of artistry that everyone takes seriously and respects, whether or not they love her music.

M.I.A. made me want to have a complete performer's wardrobe of rubber shorts, the Killers have now inspired me to build a crazy fortress of lights and animal horns around my piano, and Blonde Redhead made me want to sit on a pony while playing the keys.

The Smashing Pumpkins played Hummer and that was the definite moment for me during their set. Grade eight pop and chip parties in the basement, my walkman mixed tapes, radio show projects with Heidi and my grade eight teacher telling me they were satanic all came flooding back.


Overall it was a good weekend. But now I'm exhausted.

helmet returns!

This morning while leaving my house, I was greeted by my landlords. They were waiting for a tradesman to show up and we got to talking. I made a comment about my helmet going missing at which point they both excitedly told me that they found one in the garden. We walk over there and sitting in behind the compost bin is one dirty red helmet.

To my delight, whomever was stupid enough to steal my helmet didn't actually steal it but rather launched it off from it's place near the road, where it touched down in the tomatoes.

"We thought it was garbage. It's been there a while", they said in their Italian accents.

weeeeee! It just needs a good washing and we're back to safety.

keith jarrett and me

Keith Jarrett wanted to be my friend on myspace. I couldn't believe it! But then I realized it was an unofficial KJ page, where KJ is completely unassociated with it.
moh.

So in honour of Keith, here is a funky clip...

late night jukebox

Here are a few songs I like this evening, while silently exhausted:

A track from the new Joe Henry record Civilians "Our Song" mp3
Jolie Holland "Springtime Can Kill You" mp3
Bat For Lashes "Prescilla" mp3
St. Vincent "Now Now" mp3
Tori Amos "Desperado" mp3

more bass in my earphones please mam

The rest of the drums were tracked on the long weekend. Lyle, Dan and I ended our day with a couple tall boys from the same beer store where it took the cashier 20 minutes to find me Traditional Ale on the first recording date. We stuck to the self-serve fridge this time.

Dan came in with a lot of gusto and we blew through all five or six tracks in 3 hours. I used to feel like I had to redo everything until the point of exhaustion, but this record has shown me a new nicely paved road, like those special highways where you have to pay more money but it gets you there faster. Only this doesn't cost me more money.

I'm rambling.

Tonight we recorded the rest of the bass and so now it's mix mix mix and then onto gadgets gizmos and gargantuan pianos. I am pumped. The tracks are sounding clean like kids on their first day back to school.




MUSIC I LIKE
Have you heard of Map of Africa? Holy geez, I enjoy it:

Map of Africa - "Bone" mp3

Map of Africa - "Map of Africa" mp3

Or there's this snazzy player, if you click on one of the 'listen' links on this page

AGF France

Here is a really ridiculous commercial I worked 2nd AD on. The one man asks the other "Do you have life insurance?"

The man who's fingers fall off was sure to explain to me during makeup and wardrobe that he was stinking rich, he was on his like, fifth marriage, and that he bought his tiny wife a giant SUV so that if she got hit, she wouldn't be damaged.

He was a funny guy. The other actor was actually French and didn't talk much. This was even funny after the 20th take.

Guitare13s.mpeg2
Uploaded by sophie-gellet

the road to your house

I love the field of farms running along the roadside that leads to my old house. When the sun is going down and your windows are down and the wind is high, it creates one of those moments where you remember to breathe deep. I really enjoy coming back to that wide open space.

Here is a really really bad video I made out of still photos to try to give you a rough idea.


Okay, did I mention it's really bad? ha!