Entries from October 2009 ↓

71 years ago today Orson Welles scared the bejeezus out of his listeners by adapting H.G. Well’s book War of the Worlds on radio.

Orson Welles and his company The Mercury Theatre on the Air took a lot of flack for simulating live news bulletins of an alien invasion in his radio drama.

but the genius of it!

I think today’s radio drama kingpin is Jonathan Goldstein, just replace the scary with funny and you’ve got wiretap.

photo by Tyrel Featherstone found at, http://www.rogercollier.com/feature.31.wiretap.html

Jonathan Goldstein = magnificent.

But back to the idea of the  War of the Worlds broadcast and things really really scary seeing that it’s Halloween~

image from: www.officially-dead.com

What if Orson Welles was alive today to do a death-by-death account of H1N1 sweeping through North America with not enough flu shots to go around?

Cut 1: Being locked in an elevator when a stranger starts to lick him…

Cut 2: On exiting the elevator,  he has to shake hands with his new boss who says upon grasping his hand, “the future of trust is all

in washing our hands. Thank you for washing yours.”

Cut 3: (Moans, gasp, sounds of his horrified face) as he thinks frantically out loud to himself,  ”but the stranger just licked me and

then I couldn’t help  but touch all of elevator the buttons and then the boss’s hand and… oh, god, no,

I’m…now…putting…the…corner….of…my…finger….in…my…eye!

(He is speaking with great restraint but the urge to touch his eye overpowers him).

Scary stuff.

da da duuumm.

copied from: myparentswereawesome.tumblr.com/page/5

I LOVE this website: http://myparentswereawesome.tumblr.com

My Parents were Awesome is simliar to The Satorialist in that I think it was started to show how fashion-forward and hip our parents were/are

but like The Satorialist, what comes through most is this human moment of time; a slight curtain pull into a person’s personality; and a perfect short story within a single frame.

What’s different is that not only can you send in your own pictures of your parents but you’re also encouraged to.

Copied from: http://myparentswereawesome.tumblr.com/

What an interesting way to share pieces of our history, like tweeting our present into the past, it’s something that can bring the past right back to the present or… maybe into the future- think Superman, Fortress of Solitude – your parents are like Brando and instead of telling you how to use your powers, they’re letting you know what pair of pants to wear, which, let’s face it can be just as powerful as infra-red eye lasers…

copied from: http://blog.newsok.com/nerdage

Another thing I love about My parents were Awesome is that how humbling it is to not only see that it has all be done before, but looking at these pics, it has been done better.

copied from: http://myparentswereawesome.tumblr.com/page/4

Oh and Vancouver has its own fashion/human/story/moment/those-boots-are-fantastic-and-green site that’s cutting through the city’s fleece like a Ginsu knife.

Vancouver’s most stylish personalities: Style Quotient.

God bless the photograph.

Think what you will about the piano tie-

you can get this tie from swaggerandswoon.com

but you can’t deny that it’s fun.

I’ve been thinking about the piano tie lately, who wears them?

My guess is a personality composite of tom hanks and danny devito,

Danny Devito for Red Herring

exactly the type of person you want to be laughing buddy’s with- you go to their place and they don’t know where you live.

(because they would find out you do not, in fact, own a piano tie).

But I digress,

back to FUN.

and change.

I stumbled across a video on YouTube that got me thinking about fun AND piano ties.

(The people at thefuntheory.com turned a public set of stairs (located next to an escalator) into piano keys, much like at F.A.O. Schwarz in the movie Big). That way people choose the stairs.

From what I can tell thefuntheory.com is owned by Volkswagen.

Now think what you will about the bug,

but it seems fun.

Their mission is simple: if they make change fun, people will change.

and they want you in on the action.

You have until November 15th to submit your idea

but until then, check out this piano tie:  amazing.

My life’s an open book/ you read it on the radio – Neil Young, “Wrecking Ball”

Tanisha Salomons' photo for the event STAND for housing

You may not have read as much on the imminent demolition of the Little Mountain Housing Co op as say the coverage of the wrecking ball swing through arts & culture funding.

photo: Bill Horne from website: www.stopbcartscuts.ca

Both deserve not only our attention but some hearty, strong action.

(And sometimes that action can be as simple as standing up)

(and paying attention).

photo: Tommy Thomson

You can STAND on the corner of Main & 33rd, each Saturday from 1-2pm.

(Even if Little Mountain is being torn down, it still counts to stand up).

(oh, and wear something blue).

photo from: Richmond's Poverty Response Committee website

On October 17th I stood next to Tommy Thomson, (activist, grad student and once a resident at Little Mountain) to find out how the fight is going.

interview STAND tommy

amazing artist, Alex Ross's supergrover

The fine folk at SaveOurNet.ca have been busy.

With exactly 54 days remaining to give critical responses to the CRTC’s December 11th (2008) ruling,

(whether or  not to allow two major conglomerates to control Canada’s internet like bully pirates in tank-submarines in a backyard swimming pool)-

ahem

(or something way less dramatic but with similar consequences…)

They have formed: OpenMedia.ca

(a sort of supergrover of cyberspace: keeping the vitality, community and openness of the internet free as a…blue muppet).

and you can get in on the action by attending the first ever  FreshMedia event!

and you can also write to your MP and Mr. Stephen Harper about how you want your internet governed (or not).

Up, up and away!

Jordan and I have been training for the 42 km Joints-in-Motion marathon to be run in Athens, Greece, October 2010, for a little over 2 months now and we are going s-l-o-w-l-y.

I said I’d post an update a week, and although I’m not happy to report this, we’ve come across what we are calling a plateau.

diagram of a plateau

Let’s just say that we’ve  been running 4 minutes, walking 2 minutes, 7x’s-in-a-row for the past two weeks. We need to be able to do it 9x’s-in-a-row before we move onto bigger strides: 5 minutes running, 1 minute walking.

We haven’t been hitting 9x’s not only because we are lazy and afraid to move on…(well, maybe a little because we are lazy and afraid to move on).

But the thing is, you can run a fair distance in 30 minutes and with all the walking in between you need to get up early to fit it all in.

Sleeping in our running clothes is one solution-

laurie asleep in sneakers

but ignoring the alarm clock can still be a problem…

W2 is going to knock the dust off yr eyes faster than a speeding b-line bus making a right turn.

sketch of building from W2's website, opening winter 2010

The World-Class-Community-Media-Art-Centre will be making its home within the home of  the DTES.

The line-up of events and hybrid possibilities will get ya more excited than cbc3’s bucky awards

(well, just as excited).

And remember that line from the Tragically Hip song Poets?

-Don’t tell me what the poets are doing-

(I sure do: It’s catchy).

But even catchier: have the poets tell you themselves.

W2’s Influency West is sure to be the most interactive poetry reading you’ve ever ate cheese through.

Starting tomorrow night  -October 14th- at W2’s Perel Gallery.

You have to sign up to go but then you become a part of your favourite writers’ readings. I guarantee this to be better than watching cats self-consciously trip on YouTube.

(well, guaranteed to be just as good).

Vancouver writer Miguel Burr's book, Humanoid

Cuddlefish, bladder sacks, monkey kings are some of the few images I drew while local author Miguel Burr hypnotically read from his book, Humanoid.

The latest installment of Draw-by-Night was the most interactive yet.

There was Dj Noble making music happen;

a dozen people with heads bent over a long slab of paper, drawing cool stuff like this:

And when Burr took the stage he brought the  night straight into a world under the bleachers where words and pictures make out with each other. He spoke/read/performed nonstop for 30 minutes

and when the mic was turned off, we looked around and saw some pretty startling things:

After his reading, I sat down with him to talk shop: what exactly is Humanoid?

excerpt from humanoid interview with miguel burr

Carlito Pablo photo appearing in Georgia Straight 09/9/09

The Alliance for Arts & Culture may soon be asking: why does culture matter to you?

And you could answer in a video post.

(Even scream it up or hash it out like those reactive videos on YouTube).

Then they’d collect a whole library of these video posts and perhaps send the liveliest petition to Ottawa since Nellie McClung made women people in 1929.

Video posts are one of the  many initiatives the Alliance for Arts & Culture are co-planning to get back some of the arts & culture funding cuts announced last month.

And not just the arts have been hit: community groups, libraries, and local sports teams.

Another target close to the heart is all the funding cuts to the CBC, and the loss of 10% of its work force.

(I really miss the show Outfront, not to mention the others)

But don’t despair!

Pick up that pen or keyboard or “iPad” and get clacking, your voice counts and so do the arts.

Premier Gordon Campbell

Honorable Kevin Krueger

Honorable Rich Coleman

Find your MLA here

Find your MP here

And Vancouver East MP, Libby Davies, is petitioning for increased government funding for the CBC.

You can print off and sign the petition, then mail it in free-of-charge.

So, why does culture matter to  me?

It makes sense of the world, gives life meaning, can be playful and patriotic, powerful and perverse, always gives me something to talk about and how else would I be able to form a Dolly Parton tribute choir?

CEE, plywood, mirrors, and a sculptural intervention by Daniel Laskarin (brass, beeswax and hair) 2009

Toronto artist Jen Hutton will give you a double take at the Access Gallery.

(Her work, along with pieces by celebrated artist Daniel Laskarin, is on display until November 7th).

Jen Hutton’s art makes you think about the way you think and see what you usually don’t see.  

I love it.

Not only does this letter “C” remind me of sesame street and a muppet with a trenchcoat hawking a piece of the alphabet, but it gets me to cee how I see the “C”.

Uh huh + 3 earnest head nods.

And because the ends are open I get a new perspective on other things I don’t realize that I’m seeing (such as someone’s feet or their neck) I usually don’t notice these things, but they are just as important, just like the letter “C”.

They are all a part of something.

Something way bigger than me.

I remember when fearless poet Christian Bök’s book Eunoia first came out in 2001.

I was gobsmacked by pure delight at the strangeness, towering intelligence and playfulness of the idea of using only one vowel per chapter, and a chapter for each vowel. The book really gets you thinking about vowels (and other things), but back to vowels -something I haven’t spend much time contemplating since I first learned how to read.

I see Jen Hutton’s work much the same. It’s playful and insightful and magical and ordinary and accessible and gets you connected to the world around you in a way you didn’t realize that was possible. And I’m so thankful for it.  I mean, look at this “S”:

"Ess" plywood, mirrors, support material culled from site 2009 installed at Truck, Calgary, AB

Super, swift, strange, sturdy, stained and “so” all come to mind and that’s without looking into the end and getting a glimpse of what’s on the other side (or the everyday objects used to hold it up: my favs: the beer bottle and roll of toilet paper).

Amen to beer bottles and toilet paper and hell yeah to the letter “S”. It has saved me so many times.

(Toronto artist Jen Hutton by her work at the Access Gallery, Vancouver)

I interviewed Jen Hutton by this particular piece after marveling at the fact I couldn’t easily get a sheet of paper out from underneath what looked to be a rock/paperweight.  I became hellbent at getting a green sheet of paper and the more I tried the more I was surprised by how challenging it was.

Then an “ah-ha” happened and I realized that is usually  how I take a flyer/piece of paper/bulletin/notice/poster in real life, without thinking about what I’m doing.

ah ha.

Here’s an interview with Jen during my moment of realization:

interview with jen hutton at access gallery during SWARM