Main Tabs

29.11.11

Polytechnique

Above is a still from the 2009 film Polytechnique; a dramatized reenactment of the December 6, 1989 murders in which 14 women were killed.  While I was only a kid when the event occurred, it was during my years in high school when I began to learn more of the significance of the Polytechnique murders.  In Canada, December 6th became a commemoration day of the violence against women and gun control laws were tightened; but in the fall of this year the long gun registry had almost been abolished.

28.11.11

Camera+

Today was a lay low kind of day.  The "never stop having fun" mantra I have recently adopted has given me a bit of the sniffles.  Above is an image taken by the Camera+ app that I finally got on my mobile, as my old iPhone 3G didn't want anything to do with it.

This is Stella, she's a crazy cat who digs her claws and drools on you to show her affection.  In case any movie nerds were wondering, yes her name does comes from A Streetcar Named Desire.  Stella is much more dramatic to yell into the street than "Kitty" or "Princess."
Stella then proceed to dig her claws into my Travis Taddeo drop crotch jogging pants, because she loves me that much.

27.11.11

Tiger and Fox

Ah, I love these two! I met them in the bathroom lineup at a party hosted by Nans & Nat.  There was no thematic or dress code to the evening, so an extra high five goes to the tiger for putting in the sartorial effort and making my camera happy.  As we chatted the tiger told me he was "mille fois beaucoup plus serieux" (a thousand times way more serious) in his energy sector related job.  Indeed! The foxy lady was kind enough to let me skip ahead in the bathroom line.  Thank you, you guys made my night.

26.11.11

Circling Birds








On Saint-Viateur and Parc avenue, a large group of pigeons were circling around the cross street until they settled on a rooftop.  It was fascinating to watch as I didn't know they did any kind flying formation.

Here is a composite of all the images.

25.11.11

A New Suit

Some of my favorite words are: "Mel, can you come shopping with me?"

To this, I am most happy to oblige, especially for the male contingent.  Don't get me wrong, women's apparel is varied, exciting and made up of infinite combinations, but most menswear for the non-fashion risk-taking set has more conservative parameters and conventions that I think are fun to work within.  Did I mention that I love menswear?  Enter Mark: a multi-talented artist, makeup/special effects guru, and a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen.  The time had come for Mark to replace the dormant and ill-fitting suit in his closet.  This was our mission and I'm a sucker for men in suits.

While we had planned on multiple stops for our shopping spree, our first destination proved to be a winner.  We went to Michel Brisson and quickly honed in on Tiger of Sweden for their slim cuts and budget friendliness.  Mark went from skinny jeans, converse, black jacket and tuque combo (one of my personal favorite day uniforms) to navy/black suit with a subtle plaid pattern, grey Filippa K shirt and black Tiger tie.  Shazam!  Oh and of course we tried the suit jacket with Mark's checkered shirt and black jeans-and as we say in Quebec: C'est winner!

24.11.11

Knit Graffiti



I might be a little late to this party but I have taken note of knit graffiti or yarnbombing lately which seems to have surfaced in the US around 2005 with the group Knitta Please.  As my sources are wikipedia, I am learning as I search around the internet.

The top image is what sparked my "what is this?" curiosity. It is of a lamp post on Wellington street in Verdun, around June of this year.  The second image-also from this summer-is a knit bicycle outside of the Acne Studio in Soho in New York.  If you check out the google map, you can see the bicycle outside their door! A couple of internet searches led me to make the assumption that this bicycle is by the knit artist Olek.  There is some intricate and awesome work; can I have a knit one-piece please?
The last image is of a bicycle rack on St-Viateur in the mile end.  If anyone knows who the Montreal knitters are, I'd love to learn who they are!

23.11.11

Snow Day

Oh snow...
Why did you decide to come down
To our fair and fall-like town
Before I got my snow tires on?
Oh snow...
That's all the poetry I can give today's snow. Which will probably melt before the weekend.  I did a scary 180degree spin on a one-way hill. Nothing/no one was hit. A bus driver bailed me out of my stuck-on-ice-facing-the-wrong-way predicament.  Then a car slid into the bus. Oh dear.

When I got myself and my car back from the garage in one piece I decided I needed a drink to soothe my really-wish-I-was-still-riding-my-bike-nerves.  A couple of vodka gimlets from Sparrow did the trick.  And with the mojito-ish cocktails sitting in my belly-I walked home.

22.11.11

What Type Are You?





Design firm Pentagram created the What Type Are You quiz to match up your personality with a typeface. I like fonts! I loved the doc Helvetica, I still own one issue of Ray Gun magazine (actually Ray Gun deserves a whole post, look it up!)  and I used to calligraphy as a kid! Sign me up! After four questions I was matched up with the Dot Matrix font.  Although not exactly a font I find aesthetically pleasing-I suppose I can relate to it in terms of the obsession of dots and the four-colour print process use in some of my artwork.
Here is what I learned about myself according to this quiz:
" If you live in and live for the now, now, now, and are not bothered about the why, why, why and not concerned about the how, how, how; then dot matrix is your type."
If only I was that laissez-faire!
Now it's your turn: what type are you?

21.11.11

A Corner Of My Flat

Welcome to a corner of my flat!  This is one of my favorite vignettes that happened pretty much by itself.  We moved into a tiny apartment, therefore no furniture buying was really necessary-actually major purging took place instead.  When the unpacking began the pieces we did decide to keep had very little place to go-magique! The chest of drawers and black basket were pieces that belonged to my uncle.  Growing up I was in love with this hand-made multi-purpose piece and always called it the chinese drawers-for reasons that are beyond me. The black basket is a multi-layer picnic basket that now houses my jewelry and is an awesome conversation piece.  The drawing is an old sketch by the wonderful Gabriel Dawe and the print is a sexy girl by MTAF.  The number "2" is a box that holds the remains of my Bernhard Willhelm perfume. Deeelish!

20.11.11

Tri Express

I haven't had sushi in a while and had an urge for some Tri Express.  Above is a picture I took of Mr. Tri a couple of years ago-as I was more focused on eating instead of taking a decent picture this evening.  Mr. Tri  was preparing the new style salmon sashimi which I devoured today and was as delicious as always.

19.11.11

Super8 On My Bicycle

This Saturday started off with a Super8 early morning light mission to shoot a roll of relatively interesting footage for a loop making project.  I biked around with an old camera mounted onto the handlebars with the amazing GorillaPod, a pliable, mold-able tripod that looks more like a three-legged octopus. It was graciously donated to this project by the talented Martin Reisch-thanks!


18.11.11

Balmain x Villages des Valeurs

Not that long ago I was on the search for some cheap second hand finds for a film in the racks of Villages des Valeurs (which is not owned by Wal-Mart but is still definately not a charity.)  I found this simple blue cotton men's shirt that claims it is the famously expensive Balmain.  Really!? I said all alone to myself. Balmain?! Was this shirt for real? Some knock off or the real deal? Unfortunately I didn't think the shirt itself was awesome enough to buy even at six dollars.  But I thought the moment was great enough to document.

17.11.11

Inside Job

A view of the tents of Occupy Montreal from a luxury condo while working on a photo shoot. Oh the irony does not escape me.  To stay with the thematic I rented Inside Job (2010), the Oscar winning documentary about the economic crisis of 2008.  With frustrating facts and outrageous greed, it is needless to say that there was no happy ending to this film.

15.11.11

Origami Mobiles



I've loved origami since I was a kid and in the last year or so rediscovered my paper folding skills.  I've decided to put it to good use and make some origami mobiles for some friends who have become parents.  Hence my new semi-artistic series: Origami Mobile For Pregnant Pause.  The hipstamatic images above are mobiles number 2 and 3.  The original mobile was a collaborative work with a mom and dad to be.  My favorite creature to fold is the pointy and graphic angel fish from the 1985 book Animal Origami for the Enthusiast- I have yet to successfully fold more than three animals from this publication...

14.11.11

Fireworks Sunday

Last night was fireworks Sunday. Strolled along the train tracks and lit up an array of noisy and colourful tubes and boxes full of gunpowder.  We documented this on Super8 and we are hoping it will yield some interesting footage. More to come!

13.11.11

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Snap Magazine's 15th issue was launched over the weekend at the Eastern Bloc.  Here is the photograph by Sandrine Castellan in which I dressed the young Eliott in shepherd style.

11.11.11

Pont Mercier Bridge


A view of the Mercier Bridge from JoJo's Pawnshop parking lot in Kahnawake. We were buying fireworks and cheap(er) gas.  There will be a super8 film that will benefit from our purchases soon enough.

10.11.11

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Another movie post on this grey day.  I saw the unsettling Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) last night and was so thrilled.  A film that relies on great writing, storytelling, directing and acting with no bells and whistles, is one of my favourite styles of filmmaking. Ahhhh....

9.11.11

Blue Valentine

i'm going to stay with the predominant sky motif with a promotional still from Blue Valentine (2010), a heartbreaking film and if you're sensitive like me, kleenex is required.  The film was shot using 16mm for the past/flashback sequences, then a one month break ensued. In this time the cast was living in a home together to create a day to day relationship (what a luxury!) The remainder of the film was shot on the RED in which everything falls apart. Cue kleenex. I haven't given anything away. I promise.

8.11.11

The Horse Latitudes


I was doing wardrobe on a film directed by Duncan McDowall, here is a photo with the awesome Robert Naylor.