Underground art sale & OMEN

In the mid to late nineties I remember reading the Mirror's Best of Montreal polls and seeing Omen's name over and over in the graffiti category.  When we met for the first time in the mid-00's, I remember thinking to myself that I imagined him to be much older in my teenage mind.

The other day I met Omen in the afternoon to do a little art shopping.  The pieces that I was interested in were from the 2008 show So Low back when Gallerie Yves Laroche was down in Old Montreal.  The works were a series of small black and white paintings on Canadian Tire money.  We went down to a basement where the works were being stored.
By the light of Omen's mobile telephone, I picked out two pieces and took them home.
Sweet.

Brick

Movie post!
It's been a while eh?
You may or may not recall sometime ago in this space I had mentioned that a group of friends and I held monthly movie nights to discover hidden (and not so hidden) cinematic gems?  Well we have finally completed a cycle and my time to choose has come up again.
  

Last time around I chose Lindsay Anderson's If... , Malcolm McDowell's first film, winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1969 and a movie I loved back when I watched it in my Cegep days.  Upon re-watching I kind of felt that the film, dare I say, needed an edit?!  I felt terrible having these thoughts. Didn't I love this movie?  Didn't I get a kickass grade on my term paper about the film?  Has my attention span been reduced to nothing?!
I draw no conclusions here; let's move along.

Movie choice this time around is Brick, the 2005 debut by Rian Johnson (Looper yes!), starring my school girl crush Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  I saw this neo-noir-ish film back when it had a limited release in theatres.  I struggled with the whip smart, fast talking, detective story set in a high school setting, asking myself: who talks like this?!  My movie date whispered to me: "think of it as Shakespeare."  And with that I was able to chill the fuck out and let my suspension of disbelief kick in and enjoy the show.  In a nutshell there's a guy, he's the hero, there's a girl, she's the ex-girlfriend in trouble, there is also a femme fatal/gangster moll, there's some drugs, there's some bad guys with names like the Pin and Tug.  This all takes place in a high school scenario. It is awesome.

There are great little nuggets of info on this film from its wikipedia page, including how the first-time filmmaker began developing the script in 1997, the fundraising of its shy of half a million dollar budget, and the shooting of the film in twenty days.  Geek out on the film trivia!

Of course this film is PACKED with amazing quotes, one of my faves:

THE BRAIN:  What first, tip the bulls?

BRENDAN: No, bulls would gum it. They'd flash their dusty standards at the wide-eyes and probably find some yegg to pin, probably even the right one. But they'd trample the real tracks and scare the real players back into their holes, and if we're doing this I want the whole story. No cops, not for a bit.

                        

THE BRAIN: So what first?

BRENDAN: I don't know. Your mom still have the cell?

THE BRAIN: In her car.

BRENDAN: Borrow it for a few days, get me the number. Wait for my word, and cover for me first period. I'm going to be a little late.

Vans-OTH x Taka Hayashi

Last night Vans-Off the Hook hosted an event to show off longtime Vans Vault collaborator Taka Hayashi's spring '13 offerings and personal artwork. The "Vault" is premium skate line featuring limited edition styles and collaborations that revamp Vans' classic models.

Some of the wares for spring 2013

Tooled leather detailing

Hayashi's ink and watercolor artworks

I would like to take this moment to say: other than the Isabel Marant high top wedge that has spun a million "inspirational" versions, why don't women have really cool kicks?  I do not want the thin soled, pink and silver version of the men's shoe.  Maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit, but sometimes I just want the smaller size of the guy's shoes and no sequins please.

MMM x H&M

With almost twenty designer collaborations under their belt H&M got everyone all excited back in 2004 with their first guest designer Karl Lagerfeld.  Many other mass market retailers have gone collab cray cray, increasing the interest in the luxury market and bringing forth many covetable and affordable pieces to your wardrobe or your home (Target x Neiman Marcus is coming up for those watching).  The downside of this are the hoarders who line up, clean up and sell on eBay for way more than the items' worth, thus defeating the purpose.
Ok, now that I got that out of my system...

Dropping on November 15th is the mysterious house of  Maison Martin Margiela collaboration with H&M.  The collection consists of approximately 104 items of apparel and accessories for men and women of off-kilter proportions. (And I do mean this in a good way).

While I was browsing the press site, I had an accessory surprise moment: I got a kick out of these metallic candy wrapper clutches.  I visualized them the size of a wallet or an standard issue envelope clutch and thought that that was awesome in of itself.  But wait! There's more to it...

Extra baggy pants aside-look at the size of that clutch! It's HUGE! How can you ever be cranky carrying that thing around? Sign me up!

Toqué!

One of Montreal's most celebrated restaurants Toqué! is marking it's 20th anniversary with it's first book Toqué! Les artisans d'une gastronomie Québecoise/Creators of a new Québec gastronomy (éditions du passage).  The book launch took place at the very cavernous Arsenal art complex, complete with tasty snacks and purveyors of wine. Yum!

 The massive space used to be a shipyard and now houses the works of two galleries (René Blouin, Division Gallery) and a private collection; all while acting as a host to a variety of events.

Some bites were provided by the Grumman '78 and Nouveau Palais food trucks.  Long lineups ensued.

The very lauded Chef Normand Laprise and his associate Christine Lamarche packed the mighty hardcover not only with the restaurant's unique recipes but also with tales of the journeys from the farms and rivers to the kitchen and on your table.

Photographer Dominique Malaterre shot all the accompanying images for the book; from the atmospheric to drool-worthy.
Above left: a river view at Kamouraska and right: an apple and vanilla grass cocktail.

Street, Lifestyle and Spring13

The very lovely people of streetwear/action sport oriented Agence Royal and Dela Cruz Pr hosted a preview of their SS13 collections.  With a tea in hand I perused the goods.

Why hello again to the west coast cool of Lifetime Collective.  Above their skinny ties show off two prints that will reoccur in the collection.

A newbie in town is the label minimum from Denmark.  The lifestyle brand is laid back/cool with a touch of dapper for men and a touch of cozy slickness for the ladies.  For SS13: matching bowties and pocket squares!

Hi again Generic Surplus!  Love the yellow sole!

 

While I kind of have an aversion to plastic/rubber shoes (Crocs?! *shudder*) I somehow found this teeny tiny Native waterproof boot pretty rad.  Each model is based on a classic shoe design, (Adidas Stan Smith's, Converse's Chuck Taylor's, etc; it is safe to assume this one would be a Sorel).  I also learned you can toss these in the wash and they are smellproof. How convenient.

I actually want that blue VELOUR shoe.  It's from Native's fall collection and it belongs to Audrey from Agence Royal...love it!

Also on show was Stance Socks, the street/skate/snow oriented brand full of prints, patterns, deliberately "mismatched" socks and the ever present artist collab.  As a lover of happenstance, I had to Instagram Audrey and PE who were coincidentally wearing the same pair.

ALDO40

Canadian shoe giant ALDO turns fourty years old this year and is celebrating with anniversary shoes, bags, contests, panel discussions and one giant pop-up exhibit complete with three stories worth of confetti/soon to be new flagship store in downtown Montreal.

Bringing back the Aldo logo from my childhood days

The upper level of the space greeted visitors with confetti and giant props from past campaigns

Giant bottles of Aldo

 Images from Aldo's head offices

A display case dedicated to one of their newest banners Mr.B's, for Mr. Aldo Bensadoun himself.

 A view of the opening par-tay

 Bubbles! Bonne anniversaire!