BETA

2012-01-22T19:47:00.002-06:00

Newtown, winter.

2012-01-18T16:47:00.003-06:00

For the first green river in the snow
turn left;
find it there--
back alleys
of fur-greasy
rats lying
dead outside the
finest restaurant in town.

The dishwasher is there too,
be-aproned and grimy, short sleeves in
mid-winter and
smoking a
cigarette.

Habs are playing tonight, he says.

Big game. Big game.
I think
we're gonna win.

Wikipedia Blackout!!!

2012-01-18T10:01:00.004-06:00

█████████████████████████
██████████████████
███████████████████████████████████████
███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
████████████████████████████████████████████
██████████████

Wikipedia is ██████████████ for 24 hours, in response to the ██████████████
making their way through the U.S. ██████████████. ██████████████, in the name of restricting Internet piracy, will actually ██████████████ our ability to access (and share) free information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

Saturated Landscape

2012-01-13T00:51:00.001-06:00

My vantage point for some time now has been Montreal, third floor apartment, on the edge of a street where all the buildings are connected. My building is set on the top of a steep incline that descends into old Montreal, the Fleuve, and is adjacent to Park Lafontaine. There are rats sometimes below my pinnacle at night and squirrels during the day. The sky is always visible from my balcony.

On Remembrance Day, 2011, it was 7 degrees and partly cloudy. I was looking out the window from my third floor apartment. I saw the dark clouds hanging low overhead, and the grey sky blended in with the cold grey concrete. A saturated landscape that left a background where only melancholia and house chores seemed to fit in. The trees whipped around in a wintry wind, and although they still wore their gold leaves, without the sun they seemed menacing and dark, reminding me of the imminent cold that would soon envelop the city.

Only a few days earlier that week it had been 15 degrees. The sun had given off a delightful warmth in the afternoon even though it traveled across the sky in a low arc, visibly closer to the horizon than it had been all year. It shone through the yellow and red leaves of the maples giving Park Lafontaine a warm ethereal glow. I had basked in the sun that day, lying flat across the green grass letting its rays penetrate me with what felt like pure heavenly greatness.

Later, four days before Christmas, that day was but a distant memory. It was still balmy but the snow was competing with an icy rain. Orion was out in the sky in its full glory, coming higher and higher in the sky each night around nine o'clock when I'd sit on my back balcony and smoke.

Orion is a marker of the cold weather to come. Crisp clear winter nights are complete with its presence, like an old reliable friend. The stars in the constellation, although light years away, form a symmetrical arc seeming to be Orion's sinewy limbs outstretched, leaping through the sky. The Hunter fighting Taurus the Bull.

Then, later on in mid January, the snow fell and then fell some more, obscuring all visions of the cosmos. The trees are now sleeping, and I am trying to keep my feet warm, outside on my balcony. Sitting here with the peace of knowing that each season will return again and again with time.

Loretta-Townes Van Zandt

2012-01-12T23:38:00.000-06:00

this morning

2012-01-11T14:33:00.001-06:00

you are a bright pink blur
as you move accross the soft white snow
trudging to school
and I sit at the window and watch you
with the cat
waiting to pounce
at any moment

a poem by Frank O'Hara ("Mayakovsky", from Meditations in an Emergency)

2012-01-11T11:01:00.001-06:00

Now I am quietly waiting for
the catastrophe of my personality
to seem beautiful again,
and interesting, and modern.

The country is grey and
brown and white in trees,
snows and skies of laughter
always diminishing, less funny
not just darker, not just grey.

It may be the coldest day of
the year, what does he think of
that? I mean, what do I? And if I do,
perhaps I am myself again.

press the tab "mosaic"

2012-01-11T00:19:00.001-06:00

2012-01-09T15:31:00.002-06:00

I try to think of the humiliation as a way to break up the monotony of the isolation.

2012-01-03T22:14:00.001-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiYASeWsBnM

2012-01-03T22:08:00.000-06:00

2012-01-03T22:06:00.001-06:00

HAPPY EFFIN NEW YEAR!!! :)

2012-01-03T04:43:00.003-06:00

HAPPY EFFIN NEW YEAR!!! :)
first sketch of two thousand twelve (dim lighting conditions)

Sketchbook #31, 5x7 inch, HB pencil (w/ a wee bit of eraser action) :P

Sweeeeet fuk'n ride

2012-01-02T18:27:00.003-06:00

Image from ---

http://blogs.off-roadweb.com/1004021/editorials/4-wheel-drive-desert-trucks-the-next-big-thing/index.html

ducks on ice in Peterborough

2012-01-02T09:43:00.000-06:00

2011-12-29T09:37:00.000-06:00

HAPPY HO HO GO! (w/ TryClops & WomenOfFewWords)

2011-12-22T15:18:00.008-06:00

***

‎Your design submission is up for scoring!

The next ((( 4 ))) days determine the fate of your design! The best thing you can do now is promote your design as hard as you can to your friends, fans & family. We've put together a set of tools you can use to do this, check it out:

((( http://www.threadless.com/submission/390248/TryClops?streetteam=Greg+Oakes )))

But don't limit yourself just to these tools... you just put a ton of effort into creating a design for Threadless. If you really want to see it printed, get out there and promote it anywhere you can!

Thank you,
Threadless.com
...

thanks in advance for your support, everyone!! :) peace,...~go

***

2nd (and final) design submission...

Your design submission is up for scoring!

The next ((( 6 ))) days determine the fate of your design! The best thing you can do now is promote your design as hard as you can to your friends, fans & family. We've put together a set of tools you can use to do this, check it out:

((( http://www.threadless.com/submission/390824/WomanOfFewWords?streetteam=Greg+Oakes )))

But don't limit yourself just to these tools... you just put a ton of effort into creating a design for Threadless. If you really want to see it printed, get out there and promote it anywhere you can!

Thank you,
Threadless.com

...

thanks in advance for your support, everyone!! :) peace,...~go

famous blue raincoat

2011-12-22T03:03:00.001-06:00

o it's four in the morning
end of december,
writing you now just to
see if you're better

My conte drawing of Ivo Saliger's Der Arzt

2011-12-11T22:01:00.001-06:00

Update 265

2011-12-01T12:20:00.001-06:00

Good news everybody! The giant floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean isn't as big as once was believed! It's only TWICE THE SIZE OF TEXAS!!! Clearly it's all working. Clearly things are fine. Carry on.

Update 666 (For those who hate Freedom)

2011-12-01T12:11:00.002-06:00

Get ready, Manitoba! Any second now, your borders are about to be overrun by lazy unemployed people looking for handouts, criminals attracted by your "hug a thug" policy, your economy is about to collapse, and all your media is about to be co-opted by the government to print extra copies of "The Communist Manifesto." And then they'll take away your guns and silence all opposition. At least, I THINK that's what happens when you elect an NDP gov't, isn't it?

p.s. I know this is true because I read it on the Internet.

Update 444

2011-12-01T12:10:00.001-06:00

Yep, it's official. Next year for Halloween I'm going as a slutty noodle. Because, I'll be, like, a noodle, y'know? Except I'll be a slutty one! It's quite brilliant, really.

Update 333

2011-12-01T12:08:00.002-06:00

I'm working on a new kind of literature called AngLOL-Saxon, where every line of heroic Old English poetry ends with an Internet-ism and some trolling. "Exiled, far from kin, the weary-faced man makes his path out upon the whale-road. / LOL! What's a whale-road?! Whales don't drive cars, dumbass! FAIL!"

Update 222

2011-12-01T12:08:00.001-06:00

I still don't know Canada has managed to dodge the whole Economic Crisis thing, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with our government putting up more pictures of the Queen. During unstable times, you simply can't have enough pictures of the Queen around.

Update 652

2011-11-29T20:43:00.001-06:00

There are about 500 million people on this here social networking site. Which seems like a lot, but if you think about it, it's only about 7% of the world's population. Which means that if you have a Facebook account, you're part of the 7%. Not the 99%, but the 7%.

Comment: ‎7.145827145827, actually.

Update Double-oh-log

2011-11-29T20:29:00.001-06:00

No time to plan? There's still time to whiten. Now, in only two hours, you can have noticeably whiter teeth. New WHITE STRIPS from CREST.

Don't be normal! Lose some weight! Bleach your teeth! Win on Facebook! Be part of the 7%!

What do you guys think of this?

2011-11-28T12:13:00.002-06:00

Anybody know who painted this?

2011-11-27T21:01:00.001-06:00

A friend of mine has asked me to do a reproduction of this piece, but I can't find a good reference. Any ideas? I was thinking it kind've looked like an old Dali, but can't find anything on line....anyone have a suggestion?

Grinch

2011-11-27T20:38:00.000-06:00

"Easy being Green it is Not" - Peter Deseve

2011-11-27T16:46:00.002-06:00

Yoda

2011-11-27T11:05:00.000-06:00

Update 444

2011-11-24T19:41:00.001-06:00

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.

--Sylvia Plath

Update 542

2011-11-24T19:40:00.001-06:00

I have a confession to make. I like a John Mayer song right now. I just listened to it a bunch of times on YouTube. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm part of the 1%. Or, like, the 7% anyway. Definitely the 7%.

‎

Further Updates...

2011-11-19T11:56:00.001-06:00

48 hours without coffee. First was the headaches, then the sweats. Then came The Fear. Suddenly I found myself on Mont-Royal jabbering madly at the hipsters and menacing their purebred dogs. People eyed me suspiciously, like they knew. Even the hobos outside the SAQ avoided me (in both official languages). However, two giant Cafe Rico's later and the danger has passed. Blood pressure and heart rate back to normal, artificially elevated status.

2011-11-18T23:41:00.000-06:00

"la revolution tranquille" et "lorne at work"

2011-11-14T17:55:00.000-06:00

Both pretty rudimentary collages/watercolors that I did last year. Seems a bit messy and simple for you "real artists", but I thought I would share.

PLEASE, HELP ME WIN TEN THOUSAND BUCKS!!! GET SCORING ASAP!!! THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT FOLKS!!! ENJOY MY DESIGNS!!! :)

2011-11-09T10:16:00.003-06:00

PLEASE HELP BY SCORING (VOTING FOR) TWO OF MY THREADLESS.COM T-SHIRT DESIGNS (SUGGESTED SCORING $5 *WINK*); I HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO RECEIVE TEN THOUSAND BUCKS IF ONE OF MY DESIGNS IS CHOSEN (THE MORE SCORES, THE BETTER THE CHANCE I HAVE AT THE 10K). THANKS FOR YOUR TIME, AND FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT AS OF LATE, AND OF COURSE THROUGHOUT THE PAST, PRESENT/TODAY, AND FUTURE!! ;) PEACE,... ~GO

"Your design submission is up for scoring!

The next 7 days determine the fate of your design!.....If you really want to see it printed, get out there and promote it anywhere you can!

Thank you,
Threadless.com"
http://www.threadless.com/profile/820234/Greg_Oakes/submissions

Vimy Ridge Surrender

2011-11-08T12:24:00.000-06:00

Milkweed

2011-11-02T07:25:00.000-05:00

Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere

2011-11-01T07:35:00.002-05:00

This is a hilarious video by The Onion about how silly and often uninformative and forumlaic TV news can be. I showed my composition class last night, as we're talking about sources of information, how to judge them, where our information comes from, etc.

It's a bit like that British video I posted a year or so ago (http://betablogforall.blogspot.com/search?q=how+to+report+the+news), except with a few more swears.

"BLAM!" 2

2011-10-22T12:31:00.001-05:00

2011-10-12T16:35:00.009-05:00

The King of Hearts

2011-10-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

Steve Jobs, saintly and flawed...

2011-10-06T06:49:00.001-05:00

Look, it's good that we want to celebrate our fellow humans in death, and see them as heroic, inspirational, etc. And probably (possibly) Steve Jobs was a good human being-- a good friend, a good husband, and so on. But he also treated Africa like a raw goods depot (at all costs, including that of human life), and treated China like a slave factory/garbage dump. He's probably responsible for creating more e-waste than any other person on earth. And while his business model was successful, it also embodies pretty much everything that's wrong with modern capitalism-- endless production and expansion, endless obsolescence and consumption, and no meaningful active concern for the long-term well-being of the planet or those who live on it. Of course, I'm writing this on my shiny new MacBook, so...

from Calligrammes, by Guillaume Apollonaire

2011-10-04T09:26:00.005-05:00

image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Guillaume_Apollinaire_Calligramme.JPG

(Transl: Hello world that I am the eloquent language that your mouth O Paris fires and will fire always at Germans)

This is one of the pieces from the book Calligrammes, which the poem below is also a part of, so you can imagine that the post below would have a visual layout that is much different than we see here. Apollonaire was one of the pioneers of this style of "Concrete" poetry.

Here's a short bio from www.poets.org/php/prmPID/737

Guillaume Apollinaire (Wilhelm Albert Vladimir Apollinaris Kostrowitzky) was born in Rome on August 26, 1880. He purposefully kept his parentage clouded in speculation but was most likely the illegitimate child of Angelica Kostrowitzky, a Polish woman living in the Vatican. Apollinaire was raised in the gambling halls of Monaco, Paris, and the French Riviera; during his education in Cannes, Nice, and Monaco, he assumed the identity of a Russian prince.

In his twenties he worked for a Parisian bank and kept company with artists such as Picasso, Braques, Chagall, Max Jacob, Eric Satie, Marcel Duchamp, and his lover, Marie Laurencin. During this time, he published a number of semi-pornographic books, proclaiming that the writing of the Marquis de Sade would gain prominence in the new century.

Apollinaire's first collection of poetry, L'enchanteur pourrissant, appeared in 1909, and his reputation was established in 1913 with Alcools, a melange of classical versification and modern imagery. Apollinaire had a reputation as a thief-—he was detained for a week in 1911 on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa—-and decided to become a French national by enlisting in the infantry during World War I.

He was stationed on the front in Champagne until 1916, when he suffered a head wound and had to be trepanned. He outlined his poetic and political beliefs in L'esprit nouveau et les poëtes in 1917. In 1918, after a series of short-lived affairs, he married Jacqueline Kolb. War-weakened, Apollinaire died shortly after of the Spanish Flu on November 9, 1918, in Paris. Calligrammes, a collection of concrete poetry, was published a few months after his death.

buttoned up and blue

2011-10-01T14:41:00.000-05:00

It's 4 in the morning
I get up fully dressed
In my hand a little bar of soap
Someone I love sent me

I go to wash up
I emerge from the hole we sleep in
I feel terrific
And happy to be able to wash up for the first time in three days
Then all clean I go get a shave
After that I blend in sky-blue with my blue uniform until night falls and it's a very sweet pleasure
To say no more about anything I do it's an invisible being doing it
All buttoned up and all blue now blended into the sky I disappear

By Guillaume Apollinaire, translated by Ron Pagett

2011-09-23T01:34:00.002-05:00

The House of Metamorphosis

2011-09-13T20:17:00.002-05:00

anon

2011-09-06T18:34:00.000-05:00

winnipeg, city of so many expatriates and war-vet child soldiers, city of so many survivors; winnipeg, you who have eaten your young, you who have spit them back out to so many other places; winnipeg, if we all lived there again there would be six million of us and you wouldn't know quite what to do. there wouldn't be enough bike lanes for us all. winnipeg, i'm serious here goddamnit. winnipeg, fiorentino is in park ex and i don't think he's coming back unless it's to die.

Douglas Coupland

2011-09-04T18:02:00.000-05:00

I think there was a trade-off somewhere along the line. I think the price we paid for our golden life was an inability to fully believe in love; instead we gained an irony that scorched everything it touched. And I wondered if this irony is the price we paid for the loss of God.

But then I must remind myself we are living creature--we have religious impulses--we must--and yet into what cracks do these impulses flow in a world without religion? It is something I think about every day. Sometimes I think it is the only thing I should be thinking about (Life After God, 274-5)

Sunday, September 11th, 6:30 to 9:30 Reception

2011-08-22T11:37:00.000-05:00

I see you hairlessness and raise you?

2011-08-15T22:17:00.000-05:00

Self: As the body changes

2011-08-11T17:44:00.003-05:00

Update 601

2011-08-09T22:54:00.001-05:00

just washed the dirty dishes of the guy from Arcade Fire. The only thing cooler than that would've been getting punched in the face by Axl Rose.

update 399

2011-07-31T19:10:00.002-05:00

Wolfboy is watching a documentary about Metis fishermen on Lake Winnipeg (it's on Radio-Canada in Montreal) and thinking that his heart will forever belong in at least two different places now.

The Piano Nobile Gallery Presents: James Culleton July 10-Sept. 11/11

2011-07-26T15:31:00.000-05:00

Father and Son picnic

2011-07-26T15:28:00.000-05:00

Picnic

2011-07-24T21:31:00.001-05:00

Update 539b

2011-07-23T13:31:00.001-05:00

‎"Winnipeg, city with double the violent crime rate of most others, alive like a blight on the mental acreage of all who ever wintered there. Where are the Kildonans of our yesteryear? Where the McClungs and the Peguis? Who will be our Riel, locked away mad, now when we need(ed) him most?" -- Anon

R.I.P. Lucian Freud

2011-07-21T22:02:00.001-05:00

We just lost a good one. Read here.

Cy Twombly, influential abstract artist, dies at 83

2011-07-05T20:59:00.001-05:00

Read story here

Winnipeg Folk Festival Sculpture

2011-07-01T08:50:00.002-05:00

The Winnipeg Folk Festival asked me to make them a piece of art to commemorate their volunteers. We came up with this tree design where the engraved leaves celebrate the diffferent groups of volunteers. The piece is made of raw, recycled steel with stainless steel leaves. Look for it back stage at the festival this year!

Aurelia Iva Thorington Robinson

2011-06-26T21:36:00.000-05:00

My baby girl. Born June 23rd.

Primavera

2011-06-26T13:10:00.000-05:00

Matrix Magazine-- the translation issue

2011-06-21T15:20:00.002-05:00

(Attn one and all-- feel free to forward/mention this to whoever might be interested-- warning, though-- i have zero control over the visuals, and the guy who does (who i've never met) is pretty hard-ass about only letting in people he knows-- still, don't let that stop ya!)

*****************************

Attention writers, artists, translators: Matrix Magazine is putting together a very special and exciting project-- a whole issue of our magazine devoted to the creative art of translation. Who does it, and why? What are they translating? Is translation simply a scribal task, a GoogleDoc function, or is it an original creative act? How might it be both?

With a focus on literature by and about people in Quebec, in all its many languages, the translation issue is looking for dynamic, thoughtful, ridiculous and careful translations of literature into or out of English. Of course we're mainly looking for French to English works, and vice versa, but we're also interested in seeing Yiddish, Czech, Swahili, Chiac, Inuktitut, and more. If people are speaking and writing it in Quebec and in Canada, we want it.

Organized by Matrix managing editor Lorne Roberts, with translation supervision and editing by celebrated franco-Ontarian novelist and Concordia University professor Patrick Leroux, with project supervision from CanLit scholar and editor Karis Shearer.

So this is it. If you're translating, being translated, working between and into or out of languages, whether on your own work or someone else's, we want to hear from you.

matrixtranslation@gmail.com

Regards,

Matrix Magazine, translation issue

Lorne Roberts, managing editor

Matrix Magazine/Snare Books

(514) 848-2424 ext. 2357

lorne.matrix@gmail.com

************************************************

Numéro Spécial Matrix : soumission de textes

Appel à tous les écrivains, artistes et traducteurs : Le magazine Matrix prépare un formidable numéro spécial entièrement consacré à l’art de la traduction. Qu’est-ce qu’un traducteur ? Quelles sont ses motivations ? Que traduit-il ? La traduction se limite-t-elle simplement à un acte d’écriture ou à une fonction GoogleDoc ? Ou est-ce une activité créatrice ? Ou encore les deux à la fois?

Pour ce numéro, on recherche des textes en particulier sur la littérature du Québec, de ses gens et de ses écrivains, dans les diverses langues qui la compose; des traductions audacieuses, réfléchies, farfelues ou méticuleuses. De la langue de Molière à celle de Shakespeare ou vice versa, mais aussi du yiddish, du tchèque, du Swahili, du chiac, de l’inuktitut et autres, du moment qu’une langue est écrite et parlée au Canada et au Québec, nous sommes preneurs.

Le projet est organisé par Lorne Roberts, directeur de rédaction de Matrix. La supervision et la révision des traductions seront assurées par l’écrivain franco-ontarien Patrick Leroux, également professeur à l’Université Concordia, et le projet sera chapeauté par les experts de CanLit et par la rédactrice Karis Shearer.

Voilà donc ! Que vous soyez traducteur ou auteur traduit, que votre activité se situe à la frontière de deux langues, à l’intérieur ou à l’extérieur de celles-ci, que vous traduisiez votre propre œuvre ou celle de quelqu’un d’autre, votre travail nous intéresse.

Sincères salutations

Magazine Matrix, numéro spécial traduction

matrixtranslation@gmail.com

Lorne Roberts, directeur de rédaction

Matrix Magazine/Snare Books

(514)848-2424 poste 2357

Lorne.matrix@gmail.com

MAXIMO REVIEWS

2011-06-17T22:39:00.000-05:00

Shameless promotion of my film review blog: http://maximoreviews.wordpress.com/

Update:

2011-06-14T09:50:00.001-05:00

Rebecca Black's video "Friday" has 165 milion views on YouTube. I think this is as least as important, if not MORE IMPORTANT, than the story about the congressman who's been sending around pictures of his rod/wang/johnson.

2011-06-09T22:25:00.000-05:00

BetaBlogForAll Post #601

2011-06-02T21:11:00.002-05:00

you hadn't had much of freedom or of its opposites you
belonged somewhere else other than sleeping on places and
spaces that you'd borrowed and forgotten you
were trying but it was never quite enough you were
hoping then and hopeful you were knowing at least half the
battle and bringing it back out and on back to
wards you at the start and the fin
ish your alpha (fe)male and o
mega of plan and your great unreaching grasp it was the
anthem we could never have forgotten how could we we
were so young then and it was all so much new
er than knowing and
known half the time and a few hours of
sleep before work in a stranger's bed you'd
wanted the madness and you'd found it you'd
pursued pleasure so long you finally
caught up to it and now it was all
over but you-- you--
you lived on
not letting it destroy you as it might you, you'd
clawed against the grain for
so long now that you had beauty there
under your
fingernails

osoyoos lake

2011-05-31T23:28:00.000-05:00

When You're A JET! (West Side Story, Jet Song)

2011-05-31T13:49:00.000-05:00

2011-05-30T23:43:00.000-05:00

four thousand kilometers in four and a half hours

2011-05-30T21:48:00.001-05:00

I spent a week in Vancouver with my mother and sisters with record cold and rainy temperatures for the month of May. We stayed in the veritable bowels of the downtown city, and with such unseasonable conditions, it seemed to make sense that we take a trip to the mall which, after a week of very similar escapades, had me feeling perfectly claustrophobic and depressed. Downtown Vancouver is much like the downtown of any major Canadian city. Big gritty buildings, hoards of traffic and noise, a Starbucks on what seemed like every two blocks and the usual suspects of Holt Renfrew, Pottery Barn, Club Monaco, topped with a visit to the makeup counter of Chanel at the Bay. In my defense for initially taking pleasure from these activities, giving in to consumerism can be gratifying in a sickly way, sortof like binging on cookie dough ice cream and cheezies.

The majestic snow-capped mountains in the rainy ghostly glow of the atmosphere taunted me as I plodded through the noisy dusty street. It left me with a feeling of longing and malaise. I wanted to be on those big mountains in the middle of all that pure wildness. I wanted to smell the fresh air that I knew was there on those mountains. I felt caught in a cage.

I tried to buy things to get rid of that feeling, thought that maybe the real reason for my grumpy mood was that I needed new shoes or a new hat, or maybe a haircut. I despondently bought a frumpy t-shirt dress and leopard print socks at H&M. Started to think that vomiting would be the only way to get what at that point felt like a growing "thing" inside of me out.

I developed a seemingly permanent sick feeling in my gut, a dullness in my brain, a palpable heaviness. Tried to kill it with another cappuccino, I found that alcohol worked much better.

On the way to the airport on the Skytrain, a girl sat a few rows over in a dirty hoodie and jeans. She had sores on her face and she alternated between talking to herself and sleeping, muttering to beg some change. She had blue eyes and blond hair and she couldn't have been more than 20. Her deflated worn figure was a stark contrast to the shiny spaceship-like quality of the train's interior.

On the way home in the plane, I bought an Adbusters magazine which helped ease the existential crisis a bit. I read a speech by a vegan activist given just before he was sentenced to prison after his arson attacks on the Tandy Leather Factory and a foie gras restaurant.

The jet traveled four thousand kilometers in four and a half hours, almost all the way almost across the continent. I squished my nose against the airplane's window on the descent, examining the frost on the glass from the low temperatures of high altitude. I kept looking as we descended beneath the cloud cover until I could see St Joseph's Oratory reliably perched on Mont-Royal.

I came home to a lonely Montreal apartment, the cats had puked on the floor in my absence which I dutifully cleaned up, knowing that a sprinkle of water would help soften up the hardened splats.

I opened a beer and swept the floor, thinking about ways to stop that "thing" from getting inside me for once and for all.

untitled like a cure song

2011-05-21T22:06:00.006-05:00

writing on the old com
puter it's actually your
com
puter you
gave it a
way but we
could've stayed there for
ever in that
place where we were there was
mice in the
base
ment there was music and
bourbon there
was so much of
beauty there
was a quick burst of
energy flame
in
to forevers of
wholedarkness star constell
ations of
matterless beyond but
in the end there is all
this is not lost there is
all this in the end there is
love or
else
nothing

2 Days 'till Rapture, Just Sayin, You Might Want to Consider...

2011-05-19T15:23:00.002-05:00

Sobey Art Award Short List

2011-05-19T12:43:00.001-05:00

The 2011 Short List  

Atlantic Zeke Moores

Québec Manon De Pauw

Ontario Christian Giroux and Daniel Young

Prairies and the North Sarah Anne Johnson (woohoo! yeah Sarah!)

West Coast Charles Stankievech

Doppleganger

2011-05-15T23:21:00.001-05:00

Musilogue book cover

2011-05-13T12:48:00.002-05:00

I've been working on a book of music drawings for the past little while, hope to make it to print by the fall...just tweaking some of the design work, here's the cover/title I'm going with! Yippee!

Winnipeg Beach

2011-05-11T15:49:00.000-05:00

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

2011-05-08T20:04:00.000-05:00

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! If you know a mom, or have a mom, or know someone who is or was loved by a mom, and if you ever have or did or currently do love your mom, then you're probably all right with me.

2011-05-07T19:53:00.001-05:00

Dear Stephen Harper (#2): So, I'm like that lefty, artsy, media type that Conservative bloggers seem to not like. I write about art, I work at a magazine that gets funding, and I once got AN ARTS GRANT for a novel I've worked on for 8 years. Yep, taxpayer money. But I work hard for it, and I'm not a bad guy for all that. Really I'm not. Maybe you're not either. Guess we'll see. Your pal, Lorne.

2011-05-07T19:52:00.000-05:00

Dear Stephen Harper: I saw two amazing musicians practicing in the park today-- a big crowd gathered around them to listen. But then I thought: "Wait a second! As an ordinary Canadian, can I relate to their music? Are they the kind of artists who go to taxpayer-funded galas?" Still confused, Stephen. Please advise. Your pal, Lorne.

2011-05-06T21:26:00.000-05:00

I went to buy some flowers today, but I suspected the man behind the counter of having recently voted differently than me, so I threw those flowers at him and left.

Aleem Khan: Major Works Reception

2011-05-02T23:11:00.001-05:00

World's Greatest Song

2011-05-02T23:01:00.001-05:00

http://www.wired.com/listening_post/2008/05/survey-produced/
I know I posted this before, but it seems extra cheeky right now. For me, it seems like the existing templates for government all have glaring, inherent flaws. Just like selecting music qualities through survey results. With our technological interconnectivity modern gov't seems way out of date. This archaic system is unrealistic. With individuals symbolically representing masses (entire nations on one scale), it becomes a game of propoganda and corruption,protecting the interests of the wealthy. Please excuse me if this seems cynical, but the things I see in the news, the way people act and make decisions baffles the hell out of me. The world seems farcical, like a big episode of {place reality tv show here}. That's not a coincedence. We program ourselves that way. Imagine for a second if we were able to recognize there is a better way of doing things, and acted to change it collectively. Imagine if we re-programmed ourselves with values that were aimed at our collective outcome (as opposed to selling toxic candy)! I know it would be nearly impossible to convince a fat cat, but the truth is: the better things are for the group, the better things are for the individual. It might even help us overcome all the looming global catastrophes (oil spills and nulear meltdowns). Ok, end rant. Sorry about that.

2011-05-02T21:48:00.001-05:00

John Bock - "Palms"

2011-05-01T10:10:00.002-05:00

Three More

2011-05-01T09:57:00.002-05:00

pics

2011-04-27T06:58:00.002-05:00

Musilogue

2011-04-21T07:40:00.000-05:00

click here to see a new blog I'm working on called Musilogue.

The Sobey Art Award 2011 Long List:

2011-04-21T07:17:00.002-05:00

Atlantic:

Zeke Moores
Kym Greeley
John Haney
Michael Flaherty
Becka Viau

Quebec:
Jérôme Havre
Chris Kline
Emmanuel Licha
Nadia Myre
Manon De Pauw

Ontario:
Aleesa Cohene
Christian Giroux and Daniel Young
Derek Sullivan
Gareth Long
Josh Thorpe

Prairies and the North:
Denton Fredrickson
Sarah Anne Johnson
Dave and Jenn
Wally Dion
Dominique Rey

West Coast:
Sonja Ahlers
James Nizam
Helen Reed
Charles Stankievech
Joseph Tisiga

Sneak Preview (page #2)

2011-04-19T03:29:00.000-05:00

How Do You Feel (About Art)?

2011-04-17T15:34:00.000-05:00

How Do You Feel (About Art)? Extended Version from svanes on Vimeo.

Guitars for Kids

2011-04-16T21:02:00.001-05:00

Community

2011-04-09T14:51:00.000-05:00

Video 2-- Sandra's wedding

2011-04-06T11:37:00.004-05:00

Here's another short video, from my cousin Sandra's wedding in May '08, at Lake Winnipeg. This one's only about 250 photos.

West Broadway (west), July-December '07

2011-04-06T10:57:00.003-05:00

Here's the first video I've been able to put together (finally), using our work computer in the off-hours. Somewhere around 1000-1100 photos, I think. It's not quite finished (my friend Sean will add some sound, and help me edit a bit, such as getting rid of the duplication at the end and a few rando images that don't quite fit, as well as eliminating the pixelly look-- I'm still figuring out how to use iMovie, so...), but this is sort of the first draft.

2011-04-05T00:56:00.001-05:00

"The Suit...or..."

2011-04-04T00:58:00.001-05:00

"WE ARE ALL A WORK IN PROGRESS,... LUCK HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT."

2011-04-02T02:36:00.012-05:00

(11"x14" Acrylic on Canvas)