For those who missed it, here are a couple images from my recent Studio Visits art show - for a full description (ie. artist statement) visit my BIG ART SHOW post a few posts back.
For more images of the show and rather reasonably priced sales, please go to this link:
read on...i will be delving into realms of personal sadness....songs that i send to her that make us both cry over our loss....that said, it's good to be back...
SUNDAYS RESUMING OCT 11th The Ossington (61 Ossington) 9 to late With D.J. Body Beautiful and a midnight candlelight night recitation by Robert Dayton, Junior
We have been asked to return from our sojourn. We are rested. During this time of reflecting upon our time of reflection called FEELINGS, we also experienced a sad and deep loss. Come and we will share it with you. every. single. week.
For this holiday Sunday there will be no respite from our pain. I will play some of the songs that make me cry, songs of loss, as well as pre-recorded versions of a ballad or two that I , myself, wrote and sang. Indulge me. And as usual my Midnight Candlelight recitation which- with the addition of smoke machine and projections- is proving to be a hit with the people! So much so that I even do a 1 AM recitation! What are recitations? Intense spoken reflections of the soul in a romantic manner. We are here to help you get through this mortal life. Both this week's recitations deal with loss. Oh. Is it Thanksgiving? Sorry.
NO Cover. be thankful for that.
Bask in them.... FEELINGS
With DJ Body Beautiful plus guests
FEELINGS is a special night where we spin music that you probably won’t normally hear. A boutique mix of : ELUSIVE DREAMINGS/PRIVATE PRESSINGS/FREE FORMS/CAN CON CONCRETE/B SIDE EXCURSIONS/ELECTRONIC PRIMITIVA/EMOTIONS/EURO HORRORS/INTENSELY PERSONAL VISIONS/DEEP PSYCH/UN-EASY LISTENINGS AND BALLADS/PRISON SOUNDTRACKS/FANTASTIC JOURNEYS OF WONDER/ ORGAN-ISMS/NEO-BAROQUE With a midnight candlelight night recitation by Robert Dayton, Junior
This will be ...special.
To Hurting People
Since we are struggling with pain, even at this moment, we have first hand knowledge of what it is like to experience the silence of God. Sometimes the immense loneliness of pain-whether physical, mental or emotional-is completely overwhelming! As you listen to us spin, let the music wash over your brokenness as great healing waves of God’s merciful love until you hear the music once again.
I had previously mentioned Paul Butler's Billboard Project that Jason Mclean so kindly asked me to be a part of. Jason basically asked me what work of art affected me most/earliest. My response was put up on a billboard on the side of a convenience store on Queen West. The pic is tuff to read so this what it said: As a little boy my Grandmother had a box of comics for all of her grandchildren to dig through. I already loved comics but nothing really stuck out until I grabbed an old, coverless copy of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen no. 143 from the box. I still have it to this day. This comic had everything I could ever want as kid: Superman, classic movie monsters like The Wolfman and Dracula, a green, horned planet, and a flying robot dog- all mashed up into a new forward thinking form. This comic book really excited me. I didn’t even know that it was by Jack Kirby until years later. As a teen I went through a short period of growing pains where I rejected the work of Jack Kirby- I’ve talked to a few Kirby fans that went through this phase. As an adult, I would say that he is my single most influential artist for many reasons. This Jimmy Olsen comic book, like all of his 70s work, has his familiar crackle and bubbling energy. Panels burst like they were three-dimensional. It is distinctively his. Every panel is a work of art that connects to other panels on pages that connect to other pages in sequential stylized flow. And he churned out a few comic books a month while reinventing the form every ten years or so. I once had a dream that I met him.
Big art show tonite! Phew! 107 Shaw: Studio Visits.
A tad nervous about this new work.
May I delve into creative process here? Great.
Around five years ago and/or more, I felt relatively infallible. I was in a band that was teetering on success, a movie I starred in just came out, I had a weekly column, etcetera. Well, the labels never came knocking even with the heaps of press that we received, I left the column out of anger (they didn't pay anyways) and found that after years of writing this thing no other mags/papers/options came knocking cuz it was a silly lil weekly in a silly lil city, and the movie did get me an agent where I'd constantly be competing with others in a large room for a wacky part in a commercial (but when I landed one it was totally fun, I should state for the record amidst this murk that my agent is awesome and he truly believed in me). I was living in a city that grew increasingly uncaring about anyone/anything except a DJ with an iPod. I was bitter and frustrated. And nervous. Oh, and I stopped drinking which showed that my indestructibility was a farce. Introspection. I am fallible. Like everyone else, I am a mere speck. But actions do cause ripples! So I would continue to take risks. And try to be grateful.
A big risk was moving across the country. My girlfriend was moving, too, and I had a small part in a movie for when I arrived. The bitterness and frustration left with the change of scenery. However, I was also the new guy in the new city. They mostly knew nothing about my years of output. But they were also pretty welcoming.
On the movie set, I was seriously nervous and second guessing myself every step of the way. This has been the same with my visual art practice. I have been needing serious feedback as I have grown so doubtful. "How's my driving?" Even with maintaining a blog, I know that my ego has shrunk. A bit. I'd never misconstrue lack of ego with self-pity. Self-pity is just another side of the ego beast. I've been a critic. When I was 'super-young know-it-all' I would fire off some of the most scathing reviews about the 90s musical dregs. Positive reviews, too. I wanted the writing to crackle and leap off the pages. A coupla months back my band WET DIRT got a review in The Now, one of the three alterna-identi-papers (which to be fair has never been that kind to me and a lot of Torontonians tell me they don't take it seriously) which, to others, read positive but its' flatness got under my skin. I wish that review never happened. It spent a long time focused on my outfit, how I was from Vancouver, it boxed in the bands' sound in an off manner, and briefly stated that my voice didn't blow them away. I fixated on that quick line. I did lunchtime polls with everyone about my voice. I thought that I wasn't keeping my end up in the band. I didn't want to add to the mediocre crap heap. I was seriously considering stopping. After all the years of honing, recording, touring, voice specialists, allergy shots, and exercises I figured it was hopeless. My voice was better than it was three years ago. Still. Not. Good. Enough. Give up. I was a mess. Two days later I had to take my girlfriend to the hospital and I had to be there for her. And I was. But I felt so depressed and mentally numb. I tried to put my arm around and snap out of it! SNAP OUT OF IT! And I couldn't totally. She confronted me later and I was so upset at me for her, I told her how it was my duty to be there every step of the way-and I was physically- but my head, my friggin head just wouldn't let go! She understood. But that's just another part of ego. This self-absorbed fixation. Self-pity. I'm just a speck. She was pretty good at bringing me out of that self-absorption. It's over now, as she had to leave and I am so sad and adrift, always on the verge of tears with this loss. I don't even want to think about 'the next relationship' as I didn't even want this one to end, nor did I think about it ending but I have to be less self-absorbed in life. People are interesting. Others are interesting. Creative self-expression must be a passionate conduit of deeper things.
I decided to sing some more. I took a step back and realised that I am fine, not technically brilliant but, passionate and emotive. Sure, I can always be better but I have this need to perform for people and to make albums, to craft songs. I need to be entertained and so do a lot of people and there ain't that much musical entertainment out there. Just need to make it shine, work on it. It can be tougher, more of a vaccuum when one is completely D.I.Y. , doubts can set in more; I never asked to be D.I.Y. but occasionally flickers of validity can be seen through the trees. I have to remind myself that some of my favourite things are made with zero backing.
Jay Isaac, bless him, has been one of the people that's helped so much. He booked the band for a show the other week at the Wrong Bar as part of the Hunter and cook mag launch. This show was so unlike that show that got the review, as the room looked and sounded great and people I never met gave good feedback and we affected them. Okay, okay, it's going right, don't give up, don't give up... (and the movie premiered, someone I deeply respect said something super-nice and honest about my work... don't give up, don't give up) ...now to find the balance. Don't get the cocky walk. If people compliment I can't let it feed the ego, it can't go to the head, it has to go to the spirit. Balance.
I think it's healthy to second guess, that fallibility probably makes for better art. It actually hasn't hindered my craft at all but it has been a bit gut-wrenching at times, more time spent second guessing than making. Granted, going from the gut as pure conduit is great as well. Having both is perfect. Gut-reflection-gut-reflection.
I'm still nervous about these new drawings. That go up tonight. I took a preliminary sketch to Jay last month and he set me into a good direction, he made me think about where I was taking it. I was so scared that this work would be empty 'art about art.' He told me that art is spiritual. He's right. There is a lot that is so spiritual in the world that doesn't get recognised as such. He gave me the names of some French Symbolists as inspiration and sent me away in a hopeful mood. I saw my work in a new light. I gently coaxed and eased more meaning out of it due to the path Jay sent me on. I so want to make sure that the art has a positive force to it. I'm still worried, i mean, my anatomy is fucked, working big again and figurative, taking risks...nerrrrvousssss.
Oh, I will have to dash out of the opening for an hour to catch Destroyer at the Horseshoe, what a busy night, this gives me an excuse to break up the text and post a pic I drew of a project that he, Julian, and I formed ten years ago, we were originally called AIDS and played just one show. We then changed it to the more palatable Points Gray and I hope that one day someone releases our album of acid downer folk damage on wax. Or that i get a sudden windfall to, yes, do it myself.
My friend Anna May has a tee shirt that says Jazz in a bouncy script, it may be for the airline or maybe, just maybe, the album by Queen. Either way, I feel jazzed. Not only is there the big show this Saturday nite Oct 3rd with Jean-Paul Langlois at 107 Shaw that I been working my feelings to the bone for (see previous post for more info)(most of my working energy is spent on self-doubt: I will be sure to make a future post on that) buuuut...I am part of Paul Butler's billboard project! Selected by the great Jason Mclean, I wrote about the art that first moved me (ie. Jack Kirby) to be put on a huge billboard at H & H Variety at 616 Queen Street West ! That's just West of Bathurst and mere blocks from the Studio Visits art show at 107 Shaw that I hope you will all attend!
Here is press release: For Immediate Release The Other Gallery presents ART MOVES Throughout downtown Toronto’s 24-hour convenience stores Scotiabank Nuit BlancheOctober 3rd, 2009, Sunset to SunriseToronto, ONFor Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, The Other Gallery’s Paul Butler will invite members from the art community to ask someone of their choice to describe a will be displayed in and outside 24-hour convenience store across Toronto’s Maps will be available for pick up at the ZONE A INFO CENTRE, and downloadable on The Other Gallery website, othergallery.com.The “Scotiabank People’s Choice Award” invites audiences to vote for theirfavorite project by visiting scotiabanknuitblanche.ca online. There is also an iPhone application, the “Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Night Navigator,” which provides maps, information, and voting opportunities for the event.For voting purposes, ART MOVES is found under:Zone A Independent Project # 47 Downtown Area.Participants include: AA Bronson asking Matthias Herrmann, Aganetha Dyck / Tricia Sellmer, Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir / Gudmundur Oddur Magnússon, Ashley Neese / Marie O Neese, Chen Tamir / Barbara Tamir, Dave Dyment / Paul But-ler, Derek Sullivan / Jessica Bradley, Eleanor Bond / Jason Mclean, Robert Dayton/ Courtney Burke, Erica Eyres / Garnet McCulloch, Euan Macdonald / Pat King, Guy Maddin / Dennis Randolph / Jones Miller, Jennifer Delos Reyes / Laine Gabel, Joe Friday / Monica Keller, Kirsten Stoltmann / Brad Phillips, Kitty Scott / Tom Mc-Donough, Lisa Gabrielle Mark / Channing Hansen, Micah Lexier / Tom Koken, Michael Dumontier / David Fair, Michel de Broin / May Lee, Mitzi Pederson / Lynn Lu, Ruth van Beek / Basje Boer, Paul Butler / Sam Gould, Red 76 / Zefrey Throwell, Richard Boulet / David Boulet, Robin Simpson / Maryse Larivière, Steve Loft / Erin O’Hara, Tatiana Mellema / Mark Clint-berg and Zoe Crosher / Andrew Berardini.Media space courtesy of Adapt Media Inc.Printing courtesy of Eclipse ImagingFor more information contact:Paul Butler647.867.1945othergallery@gmail.com
Tho I am still in midsts of art making for the coming Saturday niiiite , I am performing tonite and it will be up-close and personal! Interactive? I will be performing a piece that I have never performed before entitled "Your Castle" with an honest preamble about love-loss.
As well as performances by:
ALEX COLEURS BITA JOUDAKI REID JENKINS JOELE WALINGA PATTY FARIAS REBECCA FIN HANNAH HILARY FILIP ANTON and MAYLEE TODD plays the harp
*We will also be selling beer and candy apples. **The candy apples have razors inside them. September 27th Starts Sunday at 9:30pm
It's at Good Blood Bad Blood (13 Kensington), a neat spot. I think it's PWYC if that.
STUDIO VISITS by Jean-Paul Langlois and Robert Dayton
...very excited for this....been working hard for it....
JEAN-PAUL LANGLOIS’ STUDIO VISITS
In the winter of 2007, Jean-Paul Langlois bought the cheapest love seat he could find at Ikea for his bachelor apartment in Little Italy. It was tiny and covered with the same unprimed canvas he uses for his paintings. As a lover of food and drink, Langlois knew that sooner or later his love seat would get some kind of stain -- within about a week he discovered he'd spilled about a half a bottle of red wine across it. Annoyed with his recklessness, Langlois started to treat it with absolutely no respect. One of the ways was to start using it as an easel -- he would let paint drip on it and splatter, if he needed to clean paint off a brush he'd wipe it on there -- after a while the accumulation started to look like something. At this point he started deliberately choosing colors for his paintings that would look good on the loveseat. The next logical step was to start using it as the canvas and furniture painting became his chosen medium for Studio Visits.
ROBERT DAYTON’S STUDIO VISITS
Initially confused with the term "Studio Visit", Robert Dayton's thoughts veered to sexual connotations. The whole idea of an art dealer/curator/gallery owner/etcetera as a person of power entering the artist’s space to check out their work seemed to have sexual dimensions to him. And with the possibility of a financial transaction, it seemed like whoring. Dayton proceeded to imagine the artist in the studio without any work up whatsoever. Just the artist stripped completely naked. These large pen and ink and watercolor drawings show various examples of these artists in their respective studios as the looming shadow of the visitor lurks in the foreground. When making the work Dayton detected a less sinister, more metaphysical aspect of these visages entering the artist’s space and began to wonder if the work is the artists themselves preparing to have spirits enter them to better become part of the greater tapestry.
INTERACTIVITY
Both Langlois and Dayton are planning to have their work naturally interact with each other. Sit and immerse. Depictions of artists naked with no work adorn the walls as one sits on actual work. One of Dayton’s text-based works directly comments on one of Jean-Paul’s sofas and the show as a whole.
Then using their DJ personae it's a Studio PARTY! Langlois is DJ P.L.A.N. and Dayton is DJ Body Beautiful who will rock the studio into the wee hours for the show's one night opening which perfectly coincides with Nuite Blanche - October 3rd. When you’re too popped to move, sit on or at the art.
WHERE"S MY MIND BLOWING ECSTATIC RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE ??????!?????
(damned iconoclasm getting in the way again)
Is this stemming from a sense of entitlement? Am I entitled to have great powers/dieties come shoot the shit with me be it through locust storms, et al?
I read "The Varieties Of Religious Experience" by William James. The metaphysical world is unmapped. He talks of gaining a deeper experience through meditation. Yeah, maybe I need to meditate. Look at what it's done for people like Mike Love of The Beach Boys.
Okay, I have a lot -A LOT- of art to make, noooo time, but I am tired of printing glorified press releases on here, I have stuff to say! It's funny, I was wondering lately exactly why I blogged, haven't I been trying to shun Narcissus since my old zining days (and zines really are not that different from blogs in a quaint way)...but I like writing, I like conveying, I like expressing, I like thinking, I like interacting with people. It's also a good way to keep folks in the loop. That said, I want to build my listening skills because people are interesting. Annnnd (total aside: oh man, I am listening to Max Webster now and it is giving me a total rush cuz I am listening to "Battle Scars" which is the song that they did with Rush) this blog helped to land me an office day job! Yes, they googled my name knowing that I must have a blog, they then read the blog and noticed that I am a real human being with a sense of humour. This job does not relate directly to creative expression or blogging at all, except in terms of getting along with and relating to others. As well, I found this out today: I never check the stats on here but someone from a blog that is listed in my sidebar says that a lot of people visit their blog through mine! NEAT! Well, all those blogs are worth checking out in their own ways so that's great! Keep engaged! I gotta get on this stats thing.
This month has been intense. It will take up a few blog posts to be sure. As well as landing a job and other surprises to be revealed forthcomingly, my brother Perry got married in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. Ever been? No? Don't go. Okay, I am so glad I went to this wedding. I am so proud of him, he's a paramedic, she's a nurse, they save and help lives.
So before we get to the meaningful, let's start with the bad. Nipawin. If you have any ideals about small town living, Saskatchewan in particular, I would like to destroy them. My Mother has lived in many Saskatchewan small towns and she has always felt like the outsider. These towns are insular and xenophobic. Open mouths and closed minds. Nipawin was slightly different in that the mouths were closed as well, yet it truly embodied the worst qualities of small town Saskatchewan (Saskatoon and Regina are cities and are exempted as they are really great places in a lot of ways). I had many conversations with the people of Nipawin, the conversations mostly went just like this:
US (ie. ME): Hi. How are you?
THEM: Good.
(then silence)
They also put meat in their potato salad- and probably everything else! Foraging for food when one don't eat much in the world of meat was difficult. Oh, and they all drink booze, lots of it. So I was double weird to them. But I don't feel weird. They feel weird. And that makes me feel weird. And they stared- alot! They'd sit together but not welcome others. This was one seriously creepy town.
While there I hit a thrift store and purchased a pristine Jimmy Smith Blue Note jazz Lp and an odd seven inch Joey by The Macklin Allouettes for a dime. Putting it on my turntable I noticed this Made In Saskatchewan single was from the perspective of a baby to its' mother. Nice. Then we get to the third verse:
Someday when we meet On the far off shore You will see this child That you could have bore And your earthly pleasures will all have passed by And to God up in heaven You cannot lie When he says why you didn't Let me tell you Mother oh mother, how I love you
Yup. Xtian anti-Choice spiritual blackmail threats, a ballad that uses Jack T. Chick methods of guilt. Never before has such a soft song induced extreme waves of nausea. I will be spinning this at an inappropriate DJ night. One day I may even get an MP3 converter to post on here! (note: please send me an MP3 converter. Thank you.)
So going to the wedding was a touch difficult. And not just because of drunken uncles with rather Draconian immigration beliefs. Two weeks before, my girlfriend left to go to Vancouver for good, for reasons completely outside of my control. Before she left I brought up marriage. A measure for the women I love most? Marriage never seemed an option for me but it represents-when not used to keep someone in the country or as trade for cattle and property-a furthering of commitment and unity. She still had to go...for good. I've been around. And I can honestly say that I have never been in such honest and compatible love before. I struck gold with this one. And people say that it gets easier as one gets older, that one's heart hardens, and love mellows with age. (though I don't feel old- I feel younger than I did five years ago- but I have lived a little) This past month proves all of those maxims wrong. That's kind of a plus in a way, to know that one can fully love and be joyous at any age and, when things end, can feel things strongly as well (but who knows what the future holds anyways right? Is anything truly over? Especially when neither party wants it to end). I am so sad and feel so helpless. Single life, adrift....
But I was happy for my brother. He seems so in love. And I think that this is a good thing. I wasn't worried about him in the slightest. They get along very well. It was a celebration. He threatened a Shrek-themed wedding. I envisioned him painted green. Alas, this was not so but there was Shrek cake with the Shrek couple on it! I am not a Pixar person so have never seen Shrek but the cake made me smile. And it meant so much to be there for him.
This trip really deepened things for me in terms of family and friends. As well as the fragility of life. The important things. I was able to express to friends of the family, who have been there time and time again for us, just how important they are. The friends who sent fun packages to my dying father to cheer him up. The former youth minister who I found out had met us first as, to quote the min Minister at the time, a family in trauma, a sort-of project for him. Soon he became close to us and vice-versa. When my Dad (my real Dad not my birth dad) came into the picture, he conducted the wedding (my Dad gained a wife and four sons all at once). When my Dad died he conducted the funeral and helped us to remember the man our Dad was. And he was there to conduct my brother's wedding. He also gave me a sketchbook of drawings that I gave him when I was twelve. This was such a meaningful gesture. To see these drawings again years later, to see where I've been and how little I have changed core-wise. I still have trouble drawing feet. I will be posting those drawings soon, by the way!!! I kept close to my mother, I worry about her. I danced with my aunt. I got a better understanding of one of my brothers which was needed. After the wedding festivities ended, we drove to our father's grave together. A cat was lingering around the tombstone. I felt like my Dad was drawing the cat to him. I didn't voice things aloud. A few mutterings. My mother's place was set. "I'll hold the door open for you." That is what my Dad told my Mom and that is what was on the tombstone. He was a good man. When I think of terms of positive impact, of affecting others, of making people less lonely, it is in terms of creative expression but my Dad was not creative or even that talkative. But he immediately transformed five lives (my Mother and brothers and me). I was fucking lucky, man! Reading Michael Moorcock's books on The Multiverse -besides teaching me about the spiritual elements of the vast, nearly unknowable cosmic fabric- helps me to see how things can go very differently at the drop of a hat. If my Mother had never divorced my birth father when I was three, I probably would have put a gun in my mouth when I got older. That man was not good. I was the youngest son, I had the least scars. So lucky that a great man stepped in to raise us, dinner conversations full of snot jokes and laughter.
My mother and I stopped into All Citizens, half an hour from my father's grave, an hour from Saskatoon, which is the neatest shop, a mecca in small town Saskatchewan with an espresso machine, Saskatchewan and international art and crafts, really pleasing decor and live shows. And, yes, they are up for touring acts and consignment. Check it here: http://www.allcitizens.org/
It made me think again of community, reaching others in a way that does not necessarily relate to the fame game, an honesty.
Nipawin made me think about the open interaction I have on a daily basis in the big city. The city doesn't even feel big, there's enough meaningful interaction to make it seem intimate and to combat the bullshit factor. Cities are said to be cold, any place can be, people are naturally lonely all over but if there are ways to make people feel less lonely it's a good thing.
Folks, I'll blog something non-promotional soon but I got a new job, busy and tirrrred. The "Leslie" premiere went super-well tho! It gave me a real boost! Anyways, I got the new ish of Roctober in the mail! Packed as usual! Super-proud of the Doug Randle interview that I did, he's a very inspiring man with a lot of perspective that made an interesting Can Con soft pop record of pertinent themes. I also reviewed tonnes of awesome comix (a regular thing for me now). This issue has loads of stuff on Sky Saxon, Chicago underground, Nardwuar meets NERD, lots and lots of comix! Order here: www.dustygroove.com
Hear a Doug Randle track here: http://www.lightintheattic.net/releases/dougrandle/
I plan to blog something meaty soon, lots to say, but here's some self- promo: "Leslie My Name Is Evil" premieres Monday September 14th at TIFF, 6:30 PM at Varsity 8. I have a small part as a slimy ponytailed juror...Wheee!
Hunter and Cook Issue 04 is being launched at Wrong Bar with performances by
Horsey Craze (the Neil Young cover band by Will Kidman & Dallas Wehrle of the Constantines) ,
Josh Reichmann Oracle
and
Wet Dirt
Thursday, September 10th doors open at 9 Wrong Bar 1279 Queen st west Toronto
$10 cover ( includes new issue of Hunter and Cook)
Issue 04 features Alex Morrison, Liz Magor, Mark Lewis, Life of a Craphead,Jessica Eaton, Jennifer Murphy, Micah Lexier, Luis Jacob, Claire Greenshaw, Jimmy Limit, Aaron Carpenter, Emma Gendron, and El H
Zine Dream is a small press art fair with over 50 vendors of hand made arts and crafts, zines, prints, and more!
It will also feature:
Toronto Zine Library Open House/Collaborative Zine Making Workshop!
A Bake Sale!!
performances by
Nick Flanagan (www.toromagazine.com/popculture) Anna May Henry Zeesy Powers (http://www.zeesypowers.com/)
Music by
Carl Didur (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfh0eQxa4mM) Andre Charles Theriault (http://www.myspace.com/andretheriault) James Anderson Braintrust (electronic duo of Peter Thompson and James Kirkpatrick!!)
&
Wes Allen (http://doingittodeath.wordpress.com/) Boner Dragon (http://offwhiteto.blogspot.com/) and DJ Body Beautiful (http://robertdayton.blogspot.com/) will be DJing in the main hall all day!
My band WET DIRT is playing this. I really love this Roky Erickson song from the 80s, hard to believe that it is from the 80s, so timeless. Something about this song, so direct yet with an opening line "Lightning never strikes anymore..." Pure emotion. Anyways, it's free, it's this Saturday at 3 PM at Mercer union (1286 Bloor Street west) and it's the last day to catch Sarah Gregg Millman's art show as well. Info: Toronto-based musicians and artists will perform an evening of Johanna Billing’s ongoing project, You Don’t Love Me Yet. Fascinated by the ritualized potential inherent in performing cover versions of pop songs, Billing conceived a concert format based on one song only, to be interpreted by lo cal artists, bands, and groups. Taking its cue from Texas psychedelic rock legend Roky Erickson’s original 1984 version of the song, Billing has reinterpreted the logic of longing and longevity and decentralized the ideal of a single performance or solo performer, creating instead a rolling series of performances based on localized aesthetic sensibilities.
Each performance is videotaped and subsequently becomes the backbone to an archival instal lation of a “neverending tour” of You Don’t Love Me Yet. Beginning as a concert tour in multiple Scandinavian art institutes around 2002, Billing’s reformatting of the song has since been per formed over a hundred times in locations worldwide ranging from museums, galleries, music clubs and art fairs.
...say the signs all over town and I cry because I am tooo old....tooo old...too pudgy....too bald.
But I really do need only two more male artists for the project that I have posted details of in a recent post. I have found more than enough female artists but I guess the boys are shy. And, no, one doesn't have to be nude for the shots, this work is not trying to do empty NYC skater-infused photo art circa 2001, that ain't the crux. The photos are for research purposes only. I am still trying to determine if I should render these large drawings in pencil as a more 'fine art' thing to go with the theme of the show or in my usual pen-and-ink with possibility of watercolor. Feedback? thoughts? Since I am blogging i may as well get more intimate and interactive and ask you guys... And if you know of any male artists let me know ASAP!
FINAL SUNDAY AUGUST 2nd THE OSSINGTON (61 OSSINGTON STREET) NO COVER! 9 PM-Late With D.J. Body Beautiful and a midnight candlelight night recitation by Robert Dayton, Junior
We have been given a mild reprieve of one week before the Ossington shuts its’ doors on Sundays entirely for the rest of the month of August. Yes, this is the last Sunday. Will we be back? It’s not up to us. Allow us to put it thusly, we believe in The Multiverse so, even if we don’t come back in this universe, we will return in other universes. In another universe we are a multi-coloured Princess indulging in bon bons while whistling- no mean feat. Speaking of segues, for this final Sunday we are going to get rather self-indulgent by playing a plethora of whistle music! That’s right, platters of music with whistling. We don’t know how to whistle ourselves so we have records that do it for us. Those who can’t, deejay. We implore you to come! We will also be selling the latest edition of our self-help booklet Y2K Compatible for just 2 dollars. It is the bleakest edition yet: to suit the times. Many people who have not previously attended have wondered what a Recitation is? It is a classic form that we have torn asunder with a fervor most Biblical, and all the subtlety of a cascading butterfly, to render spontaneous, going against its’ very name. It is a unique mix of eleven herbs and spices that remain a pathetic secret through unlabeled flavour packets. It is your Mother’s beckoning teat. Powerful.
Bask in them.... FEELINGS is a special night where we spin music that you probably won’t normally hear. A boutique mix of : ELUSIVE DREAMINGS/PRIVATE PRESSINGS/BALD HEADED BALLADEERS/FREE FORMS/CAN CON CONCRETE/B SIDE EXCURSIONS/ELECTRONIC PRIMITIVA/EMOTIONS/EURO HORRORS/INTENSELY PERSONAL VISIONS/DEEP PSYCH/UN-EASY LISTENINGS AND BALLADS/PRISON SOUNDTRACKS/FANTASTIC JOURNEYS OF WONDER/ACTOR AS SINGER/ ORGAN-ISMS/NEO-BAROQUE With a midnight candlelight night recitation by Robert Dayton, Junior This will be ...special.
Needed: male and female artists with relatively conventional studio spaces in the GTA to volunteer for photo documentation to be used as source material for 6 large pen and ink works on paper entitled "STUDIO VISITS." Yes, this is art about art. These drawings will depict the artist naked but the artist will not need to pose naked for the photo source material if they don't want to. Yes, clothing can be worn so long as it's not in the ultra-baggy skater/hippy/pigeonholing etc style. I prefer to depict 3 males and 3 females. Whether the artists themselves will be exactly represented is, as yet, to be determined. Their works will NOT be depicted. In fact, any materials will be rendered completely blank as this series will be more about the give-and-take relationship between artist and dealer/gallery owner/curator/intruder/patron. Note: by conventional, I mean that the completed pieces have to convey to the viewer that it is definitely a studio space without any of the artists' work represented. Feel free to forward this note. E mail: Robert Dayton at moustachedpainless@yahoo.com if you are interested and have any questions.
FEELINGS FINAL TRIAL SUNDAY JULY 26th THE OSSINGTON (61 OSSINGTON STREET) NO COVER! 9 PM-Late With D.J. Body Beautiful and a midnight candlelight night recitation by Robert Dayton, Junior
Yes, this is the last Sunday. For our trial basis or for good? YOU decide! If it ends, it ends but use the money you save on cover for that bottle of scotch that is on the top shelf of The Ossington this Sunday. It all comes down to sales. For love. And honour. For this possibly final night I will be spinning a special set of songs about France! Love letters from afar! Ever been? Never but why go when you can get the sensation here for cheaper than rare cheese. I will also be selling the latest edition of my self-help booklet Y2K Compatible for just 2 dollars. What happens at FEELINGS? See minutes for July 19th from our Facebook group and printed below... Bask in them.... FEELINGS is a special night where we spin music that you probably won’t normally hear. A boutique mix of : ELUSIVE DREAMINGS/PRIVATE PRESSINGS/BALD HEADED BALLADEERS/FREE FORMS/CAN CON CONCRETE/B SIDE EXCURSIONS/ELECTRONIC PRIMITIVA/EMOTIONS/EURO HORRORS/INTENSELY PERSONAL VISIONS/DEEP PSYCH/UN-EASY LISTENINGS AND BALLADS/PRISON SOUNDTRACKS/FANTASTIC JOURNEYS OF WONDER/ACTOR AS SINGER/ ORGAN-ISMS/NEO-BAROQUE With a midnight candlelight night recitation by Robert Dayton, Junior This will be ...special. July 19th MINUTES: Smoke machine had fresh juice and long stem roses abounded thanks to Jubal, Anna Mae set up the Jesus lamp, "Leave Her To Heaven" and "Shock Corridor" were projected thanks to my special guest DJ Dorleac whose fine mix of music included Heino, Petula Clark's version of Rain, my fave Bobby Darin song, a great Honeycombs B side, some intense Bollywood, and the soundtrack to the Cook, His Thief, Her wife, Her Lover- a movie that Dorleac does not like but is warm towards the music. A special lamp was set up by Jubal for heightening effect during my Recitation. Lorenz turned it on. I thanked all for coming then took requests for topics. Gwen quickly suggested self-esteem , probably knowing full well that it was my battle that week due to my posting my insecurities on Facebook. I suggested means to raise self-esteem such as putting self-esteem in one's Day planner everyday at 6 Pm so that after sleeping for 16 hours one could feel better, hop in the shower, and scrub using the personally monogrammed loofa with the word "Smile." A small table of -er, i hate to judge- jockish looking people got strangely scared by my low-key Recitation and fled looking like their masculinity was threatened. For shame, as the recitation ended shortly after, maybe they'll be back. For Gwen's suggestion she received a long-stemmed rose. It truly was her night as last week she requested some Laura Nyro and The Poppy Family. I had found some Nyro on the street this very day for 50 cents! I brought my autographed Poppy Family in as well, such a perfect album, I could have played the entire thing! For music, I kicked off with "To you with love", a Canadian Rod mcKuen-like album of recitations with dandy synths, LP given to me by Kevin Howes- and , yes, a single rose is on the beige cover. Then into selections from "Never Talk To Strangers" described as "A MUST FOR EVERY PARENT AND CHILD" , comes with colouring book, I played some scenarios and the song "Being a kid isn't always easy" sung by a mournful child. Then into The Beach boys' Still I Dream Of It, their most intensely touching ballad from their unreleased Adult Child album. "Don't Forget me" by Nilsson makes me feel the same way, it makes me cry. Ebo Solmaz- Vancouver by Night. Pretty much half of The Sweet- Level Headed album including a very synthy instro and "Love Is Like Oxygen."Metro- Criminal World, Francois Hardy- Chanson Noire (from her early 70s one night stand themed album), Lou Reed- the Bed, Les Baxter- Hate (from "The Passions"), Porter wagoner- Comes and goes, the Geraldine Fibbers-Get Thee Gone, Moby Grape- Horse Out In The rain, Terence Trent D'arby- To love Someone deeply, The Kinks- Morning Song, Suzanne- Shendah, Scott Walker- Dealer, Boudewijn de Groot- De reiziger, The Mauriora Maoris- A Million Stars, Milan Kymlicka- If I Let you Go, The wandering Stars- I'm Posion, Lucien hetu- Steppin Stone, The monkees- it's Not too late (from their 90s album JUST US), The Soule Setters- Cecil, the unwanted French fry, Think- Once you understand,Rosemary collins- Nevernding Love For You, Willie wilson- Before the next teardrop fall, Bobby Brown- Lonely boy No More, Jim Copp and ed brown- The duck, the tiger, the shrimp and the owl, Louis nye- heigh ho Steveo...and we had a special guest crazee rap by that guy people see all the time....
