30 May 2009, the wee hours
I bought a Mamiya C33 last week, used on Craigslist. This camera takes medium format film, setting it apart from all my 35mm film cameras. The negatives are big and square, as pictured above. This is a TLR. The top lens is a view lens, used for framing the photo. The bottom lens is what actually exposes the film. My camera has an eye-level viewfinder, but these cameras are normally used with a waist-level viewfinder. I’ll probably try and track one of those down next. The camera is massive and heavy. It’s cool, and using it should be an interesting experience. (Loading the 120 roll was strange coming from 35mm film.) I’m not sure i’m at the point where I have too many cameras or not. I certainly have a lot.
[5] Photography
28 May 2009, early afternoon
Threadless looks like it might be phasing out XS t-shirts. I’m hurt and confused, so I shoot them an email.
Hey, I was wondering if you’re phasing out XS t-shirts? Some shirts don’t have the XS option, and they don’t list XS as being sold out. If you are going to get rid of XS, then you should get rid of XXXL as well. Letting super fat dudes enjoy your t-shirts while me and my girly-ass figure don’t get to is just not fair. Please, don’t make me start some sort crazy Internet protest. I fucking love Threadless so damn much. Ramanan
Threadless replies! They are quick. Sadly, my suspicions were correct.
Hey Ramanan! Yeah we are starting to slowly phase out certain sizes. Unfortunately XS is one of them. Take care, Charlie
Son of a bitch. I’m not giving up so easily. The conversation continues.
Damn it Charlie, you’ve got to fix this. You’re my man on the inside. Start talking up XS t-shirts in casual conversation. I’m counting on you. Cheers, Ramanan.
And that’s where the story ends. For now. Actually, probably forever, since I sound like a crazy dude.
Threadless is still the best t-shirt site on the planet. They are — were? — also one of the few that offered XS t-shirts.
[11] Life
27 May 2009, mid-morning
I completely forgot to write about Invisible City, which I was the last film I saw at Hotdocs a few weeks back. The film was phenomenal, so I don’t know why I didn’t say as much here. Invisible City is a film about two kids growing up in Regent Park. The filmmaker followed their lives for 4 years, chronicling their problems along the way. We hear from their exasperated mothers, who are raising them alone, a former teacher who is trying to mentor these fatherless children, and from the kids themselves. The film touches on all sorts of issues, though the main one seems to be the challenges involved with raising a son alone. The film had all sorts of well earned hype around it. I’m sure it will be on the Passionate Eye in no time.
A real review of Invisible City by Spacing.
Movies | Hot Docs 2009
21 May 2009, early morning
Kabuki: The Alchemy is probably the most avant garde of all the Kabuki comics. Kabuki is one of the most interesting comic book series I have read. David Mack put out 6 very creative and thoughtful pieces of work prior to releasing this 7th volume. The Kabuki series is set in a dystopian not-so-distant future. The lead protagonist is an assassin called Kabuki, who works with a small group of assassins making sure the criminal underworld of Kyoto doesn’t get out of hand. Well, that’s how things start. The story gets far more interesting from there — well, until you get to volume 7.
I think every writer is entitled to write one rambling stream of consciousness book in the vein of Seymour: An Introduction. This comic is David Macks Seymour: An introduction. The book was a frustrating and pretty disappointing read. The entire premise of the book seems cheesy — a lame attempt at post-modernism. Kabuki as a character seems hollow and totally disconnected from the character one encounters is the previous 6 chapters. Mack has some very experimental books in this series, which I quite enjoyed. The second book, for example, is terse and totally different than the first, but the style and dialog all works to tell a compelling story. This comic doesn’t work. (Well, perhaps that’s not true, judging by all the fan mail he got.) Reading the comic, I constantly felt like I was watching those awkward scenes of faux-philosophy in the Matrix sequels. Seymour: An Introduction, for all its rambling narrative, does have a handful of really amazing scenes that make up for the rest of the text. This book didn’t even have that. It’s all rambling. Here’s hoping Volume 8 is more Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenters.
Comics and Books
19 May 2009, evening time
Season 5 of Lost was phenomal. I know I say that after everyone season concludes. This season in particular was something else: it was all kinds of inspired. My god. Lost continues to be one of the best shows on television — and i’m talking in the history of TV. I can’t believe people can put out a show that damn good. Holy shit. And what an ending. What are they going to do next season?
[3] Television
19 May 2009, early afternoon
Last week Christie Blatchford wrote an article about the protests against the war in Sri Lanka. The article was all sorts of bad. It was so bad I decided to complain to the Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail published several responses to Margaret Wente’s article, which was far better written, but didn’t post anything in response to Blatchford’s piece. This is disappointing. Thankfully, we live in a world where I don’t need the Globe and Mail to publish anything for me.
Read the rest of this post. (1097 words)
[2] Current Events | Toronto
17 May 2009, mid-morning
The LTTE are giving up. More shocking, or perhaps not, are reports that Prabhakaran, and several hundred men, have commited suicide. (Of course, there are other reports saying he’s alive and well, so who knows what is going on.) This is an end of an era. It will be interesting to see where things go from here.
[3] Current Events
13 May 2009, early morning
Following Final Fitting and Tinar we watched Calling Home and Cash & Marry. Calling Home was a short film about the separation immigrants are often forced to deal with. Shot entirely inside the long-distance telephone booths of a London shop, the audience gets to listen in to the boring, funny and touching conversations people have with their families abroad. All the conversations are juxtaposed together, creating a mix-mash of language and emotion. It was an interesting enough short film.
Cash & Marry was a very enjoyable film about the immigration in Austria. Two men are on the hunt for a wife so they can get proper papers to live and work in Austria. The film is an examination of how countries treat their immigrants, and some of the absurdity that surrounds setting up a two-tiered society. Much of the film is this sort of comedic frantic romp, but throughout it all there is this more serious and bleak undercurrent. The film ultimately ends on a more or less low note. (Until the credits begin, anyway.) I quite liked the film. It’s a strange adventure.
Calling Home and Cash & Marry at the Hotdocs web site.
Movies | Hot Docs 2009
12 May 2009, early afternoon
This is my gift to my fellow Torontonians: A greasemonkey script that will kill comments on articles published by the Toronto Star and the National Post. The comments sections for all the Toronto newspapers are basically giant hives of scum and villainy, a place for racists and cranks to hang out and shout out all the things society won’t let them say in public anymore. No one needs to read this stuff, unless you need high blood pressure. Placing comments inline with the news articles is obnoxious and disrespects the writers at the Star and the Post. This script fixes that. (The Globe and Mail no longer displays comments on their articles inline, praise the lord.) If you use Google Chrome, rather than Firefox, you can follow these instructions to use the script. Any problems, please leave a comment and let me know — It’s amazing how little Javascript I know.
[2] Code | Toronto
12 May 2009, early morning
Shima and I watched Final Fitting and Tinar on Saturday afternoon, with her dad and Steph. Final Fitting was a short film about a tailor who makes the religious outfits for some of Iran’s most famous mullahs, including Khomeini. I suspect the goal of the film was to contrast the piety of the tailor with that of the mullahs he makes clothes for: one mullah is clearly living the good life, sporting a giant belly; another claims he’s already paid the tailor; etc. It’s a funny little film, but on the whole not that compelling.
The second film was Tinar — which as I understand things, means lonely. Tinar was amazing. The director filmed a young boy, a cowherd, living in rural Iran. The boy’s mother has passed away, and his father has remarried. The boy lives more or less by himself, the boy’s father living with his new family. The film maker did a great job of capturing the ins and outs of this boys life. The film maker said the movie was shot over 3 years, and that it took a long time for the boy to open up to him. (He was worried the film would be silent, as the first few months they were with the boy he more or less never spoke.) It is a very touching movie. The boy speaks of his love for his step-siblings, despite the fact they clearly enjoy a much better life than him. He talks about wanting to go to school, wanting to run away from his life as a cowherd. It is bleak. The film is shot beautifully. So many scenes would work as photographs. From start to finish it’s a well done film. One hopes the director can secure distribution for the movie. It’s well worth watching.
Tinar and Final Fitting on the Hotdocs website.
[1] Movies | Hot Docs 2009
11 May 2009, early morning
Protesters managed to shut down the Gardiner last night. There is all sorts of coverage from all of Toronto’s online blogs, with Torontoist having some of the best coverage of the lot. (Remind me not to listen to Energy FM.) My guess is that recent reports of very high causalities over the weekend was the impetus for the action. The UN called Sri Lanka a civilian bloodbath and Doctors Without Borders suspects over a thousand people are likely dead from shelling over the weekend. Toronto should be proud that you can orchestrate a protest like this without having the army or the police showing up and beating everyone till they leave — or worse. We live in a truly functional democracy. Are the majority of Canadians so passive that the very idea of direct action seems abhorrent? Ignatief has said he’ll bring this issue up in caucus today. That’s something.
[1] Toronto | Current Events
8 May 2009, early morning
I arrived at the Drake early to make sure I got a seat for the lectures by Magnum photographers Peter Marlow, David Allan Harvey, and Christopher Anderson. I arrived so early — before the doors officially opened — I had time to get a drink upstairs in the lounge. I ordered a Manhattan and sat at the bar reading a comic book. Christopher Anderson was sitting near by. If only I knew what he looked like. I finished my drink and went back downstairs, only to discover the room was packed. God damn it. This talk may have been even busier than the last. Somehow I managed to get a seat, after some miscommunication between me and a lady who was apparently not saving one for a friend.
Each photographer discussed the path they’ve taken when it comes to their photography. Peter Marlow was up first, and he was hilarious. He got his start by borrowing his buddies portfolio to secure a job as a cruise ship photographer. What? He managed to get press work while the cruise ship was docked in New York, and things moved from there. He showed us his early work, and then moved on to work he is currently doing exploring a factory closure in Liverpool. His early works are full of people, while this later work is about the absence of people.
Christopher Anderson
was up next. He was actually showing us the portfolio he would present to the Magnum photographers next year when he goes up for full membership. We got to see a full retrospective of his work, and the stuff he is working on right now. He also presented his new book, Capitalio. He studied anthropology, but ended up choosing to pursue photography after working for a newspaper in their photo lab. Much of his work is about people — refugees — so his anthropology studies probably do come in handy. He has some pretty amazing photographs, though many of them seem to be the result of his not being too careful with his life.
David Allan Harvey was last. He started with some of his earliest photographs, an album he made for his grandparents when he was 14 or so, and then moved on from there to show new work he is doing on families that is in a similar vein. His plan is to create an exhibit and book that hopes to captures what he produced as a 14 year old boy — though he feels there is no real way to recapture that innocence. Harvey seems very interested in helping out aspiring photographers. A lot of his talk was advice for budding photographers and passing remarks about former students. I picture him more as a teacher than a photographer.
I was planning on mingling with the crowd after the talks, but Shima was making Persian food, and that trumped talking to strangers.
Photography | Life
7 May 2009, early morning
After Forgetting Dad Shima and I went for gelatos, and then headed back to the Royal to watch Grandmother’s Flower. The filmmaker’s grandmother was married to a partisan during the Korean war. After the war, she and her family suffer much hardship because of their ties to the communists. The choices his grandmother and grandfather made during the war haunt the family for generations. The filmmaker looks at the lives of his extended family, and through interviews and narration we learn their story. Though the film is slow, it’s very interesting and poignant. Each family member we are introduced to touches on some aspect of suffering, longing, or separation. The filmmakers story is essentially the story of Korea. (I didn’t touch on this when I spoke about Joint Security Area, but what really makes that film standout in my mind is that it also touches on these issues, caused by the North/South divide.) Grandmother’s Flower is an excellent film, well worth watching.
Grandmother’s Flower on the Hotdocs 2009 website.
Movies | Hot Docs 2009
7 May 2009, early morning
Shima and I met Suzanne and Riadh, and the four of us watched Forgetting Dad. The filmmaker’s story is a compelling one: his father was involved in a car accident that cost him his memory; 16 years later his memory hasn’t returned — or has it? Interviews with family members and old footage give us glimpses of the father after his accident. Each family member has their own take on what’s happened, some believing his account of things, while others assuming he’s lying. All sorts of strange twists make the later case more reasonable, though who would fake amnesia for 16 years? It’s an interesting story, but I don’t know if I liked the way it was put together. There seemed to be far too much narration and melodramatic music. The music doesn’t really let up for the entire film. These points aside, it’s an interesting film, well worth seeing.
The official Forgetting Dad website.
Movies | Hot Docs 2009
6 May 2009, mid-morning
After meeting a friend for drinks at the Beaconsfield I popped into the Drake. Magnum was holding a free lecture as part of the CONTACT photography festival. Last night, Mark Power, Bruno Barbey, and Chien-Chi Chang spoke about photography and the projects they were working on. I arrived late, at the tail end of Mark Power’s talk. The Underground at the Drake was packed. If you’re short like me you really need to arrive at events like this on time. I stood on my tip toes and watched and listened as each photographer went through their photos. Of the group, I enjoyed Chien-Chi Chang’s ‘talk’ the best, though mostly he made sarcastic remarks, asked for more drinks, and stood in silence. The photographs for his new project on Chinese immigrants living in New York who have been seperated from their family for years are amazing. There is another talk happening on Thursday i’ll definitely have to check out. This Friday there is an exhibit on war photography by Magnum I think everyone should go see.
[1] Life | Photography
4 May 2009, late at night
Hotdocs 2009 gets off to an interesting start. We watched one and a half films tonight, starting with the short film Colour of Blood. The movie is a short set of interviews with various North Londoners who are obsessed with blood and pain — people who cut themselves, drink blood, etc. The final interview is with a lady who thinks she is a straight up vampire. It’s interesting, a bit creepy, and a little bit funny. An enjoyable prelude to the main attraction.
The second film of the night was Aka Ana. It’s a film by Antoine d’Agata, who is a photographer at Magnum. I expected some amount of nakedness, and maybe some sex, but this film was way more explicit than I thought it would be. Way more explicit. The idea for the movie is as follows: Ladies working in Japanese brothels talk about their experiences, while we watch them; very explicit raw sexual violent footage paired with their soft intimate narration. It’s crazy. We ended up leaving early, Shima didn’t want to watch yet another Japanese woman have sex. I suppose I can’t blame her. This is the sort of film you really need ample warning about before you walk in and watch it. And this is definitely the sort of film you feel awkward watching in a crowded cinema. Some things you can’t un-see. What a movie.
Aka Ana on the Hotdocs 2009 site.
Update: And thinking back, the lady who did the introduction for the film mentioned how this film probably wouldn’t be seen on the big screen anywhere else, and made other off hand remarks that should have clued us to the fact it was going to be a whole of lot sex and va-jay-jays.
Update: This review of Aka Ana is great.
[3] Movies | Hot Docs 2009
1 May 2009, early morning
I mentioned Yathavan in passing in my last post. It’s been about two years since I saw him last, a long time. Early yesterday morning I sent him a text message to see if his number still worked. He replied later that day: good stuff.
After work I went to the Manulife Centre to buy replacement ear pads for my Grado SR60s. Ear pads in hand I rushed off, but forgot my (mom’s) umbrella at the shop. A few minutes later Bay Bloor Radio called me to let me know — this has to be one of the few times giving a store your number pays off — so I headed back. Just as I get to store I see Yathavan walking into the Manulife Centre. What!?
The universe is a crazy place.
Life
29 April 2009, late at night
I took this photo a week or so after I met Shima. We’re at my friend Mike’s house for a Konichiwa Japan event — it was cooking day. It’s the very first picture I have of her. It’s not particularly good, since I had to take it secretly. Shima didn’t like it when I took her picture then. (I suppose she doesn’t now, either, though she gets much less angry about it.) In the background is Toshi, who is now back in Japan. On the right is my friend Mike, who passed away from cancer a few years ago. (I know too many people who have died of cancer.) The night I met Shima properly I had come to V2 to meet Mike, who was visiting one of Shima’s friends. He disappeared — more or less — when I arrived with my friend Yathavan, so I ended up hanging out with Shima and her friends. And the rest is history.
[3] Life | Photography
29 April 2009, early morning
I started watching Degrassi Jr. High with Shima yesterday. For each episode, I’d write a little twitter message about what we were watching and send it off. For the series premier:
Damn it Steph the boys are only voting for you because you skanked out. They don’t respect you. You sold out Voula for Joey!? #degrassi
The second episode is about Voula wanting to go to the school dance:
Oh Voula and your stereotypical vaguely ethnic immigrant father. He’s only strict because he loves you. You’re to young to do the dancing.
I’ve seen most if not all of Degrassi Jr. High several times now. Still, if you asked me about the specifics of this episode I’d be at a loss. The show was on so long ago, it’s hard to remember the details. Sometimes the Internet pisses me off. Stuff like this makes me happy:
@funkaoshi but it’s for the foster child
And it was!
Degrassi Jr. High is amazing. I had forgotten how well put together it was. Despite some bad acting and 80s cheesiness, it’s still very compelling and smart. Also, I love Catlin. (Who, surprisingly, has no lines 3 episodes in.)
[1] Television | Life
28 April 2009, evening time
A resident in our building managed to wrangle enough people together to make BeBloor (well, her unit) a drop off spot for Foodshare. Shima and I were one of the initial people to buy a Good Food Box. We opted for the $22 organic small box, being the ritzy-ass people that we are. (For $12 we could have got the small non-organic box.) What does $22 get you? Well, conveniently they gave us a list along with the vegetables and fruit. This is good, because I had no idea what swiss chard looks like. This week:
- 1 organic lettuce-romaine
- 1 organic tomato (hot house?)
- 1 bunch of organic bananas
- 4 organic oranges
- 1 lbs of organic apples
- 1 organic swiss chard
- 2 lbs of organic mini potatoes
- 1 bag of organic carrots
- 1 bunch of organic chives
- 2 lbs of organic rutabaga
I have no idea what you do with a rutabaga. It was the mystery local produce of the week. Exciting. The apples, potatoes and chives were also locally sourced. Bonus. Now we need to figure out if this is actually cost-effective, though I think we’ll keep buying the boxes: It’s very convenient.
[7] Life
28 April 2009, late morning
The Internet gives a lot of people a venue to spout off about stuff they can no longer say in public without getting disapproving looks from those around them. Canada’s old media hasn’t figured out how the Internet works, and so the comments on their news posts are almost always a cesspool of racism, bigotry, and ignorance. Today I thought i’d look at comments in the Toronto Star’s article on the Tamil Protests.
These protesters, whose allegiance is stronger with India than with Canada, who wish to make a real difference, should return back to their native homeland and lobby their own Indian government about this. — Jiga Nina at 9:21 AM Tuesday, April 28 2009
I think Jiga Nina needs a better fact checker. Or he should open up an atlas.
Tamils are a terrorist organization as per the Canadian government. — The_Rocket at 9:19 AM
Damn, I had no idea. Someone needs to write to immigration minister and figure out what went wrong here.
Use mounted police, water cannon, tear gas, pepper spray, whatever. Those not yet Canadian citizens should be deported as soon as possible for reason of supporting a terrorist organization. Those who are already citizens should be tried for supporting a terrorist organization. If found guilty, revoke their citizenships and kick them the Hell out of this country. Clean this trash off our streets please. — Galoca at 9:09 AM
Because you know those old Tamil ladies aren’t going to go down without a fight. (Also, i’d hate to be the person who has to sit Galoca down and explain that some of the protesters were born here, and you’d have to kick them out to… Winnipeg?)
Did I hear CBC Toronto news correctly this morning? 200,000 Tamils have shut down University Ave for a second day to protest events in Sri Lanka. — veeh at 8:12 AM
200,000? No, you heard incorrectly.
Why won’t the police round up these people. check their immigration papers and then deport the illegal ones (90% of them)! — eighty-eight-fingers at 8:07 AM
90 percent? Damn that’s a lot. I can see why this fellow is up in arms. I’m guessing he gets his numbers from “Immigration Watch”: /blog/immigration-watch-saying-nothing-247.
I’m just ashamed our government, that was elected by 12 million Ontario voters to represent all of us…is again doing nothing “see Caledonia”, because they’re afraid to speak out against non whites. Tell you who the minority really are doesn’t it? — JackR at 7:45 AM
Won’t someone think of the White people? If only they had it as good as those Natives in Caledonia.
I understand that everyone has a right to protest, but this is getting ridiculous. Obviously no one cares about what’s going, which is good, because why should we? We don’t live there. — Evert at 7:53 AM
And this is really why protesting in Canada is a waste of time. I’m pretty sure this is a very common sentiment nowadays. Lucky for Europe and many other parts of the world, there was a time when Canadian’s gave a fuck about what was happening in the world around them.
My thoughts on the protests, for those who missed them.
[11] Current Events | Toronto
27 April 2009, early morning
If you’ve been playing along at home, you should know that the LTTE are pinned down in a small corner of Sri Lanka with a ton of starving shell shocked civilians. The army rejected the LTTE’s unilateral ceasefire (whatever that means) and will probably ‘win’ the war some time very soon. Toronto Tamils are now protesting in front of the US embassy. There was a small (by Tamil protest standards) group of people in front of the US embassy Saturday night. Maybe a few 100 people, tops. Carvill and I drove past them on the way to dinner. Apparently as of this morning, that number has swollen to 4000 or so people. I suspect it will only get larger as the week goes on. The last big protest had well over 25,000 people, and took place when there was a chance civilian casualties could have been minimized and the LTTE could have been saved. We’re well past that point now.
Update: The Star reports the numbers are back down to a few 100 people. My guess is that it will be busy again after work. As with the last protest, there is all sorts of White Whine to read if you search on Twitter. The worse thing in the world is traffic, apparently.
Update: Why I don’t go to these protests.
[6] Current Events
23 April 2009, early morning
I watched Toronto Stories on the flight to London. The film was playing at TIFF last year, though it didn’t look compelling enough to watch at the time. The film is split into four parts, each very loosely connected by a mysterious boy who has arrived in Canada illegally and escaped from the airport. Each story is directed by a different director, and touches on a different aspect of Toronto. The best story is the last, about a homeless man who stumbles on the boy at Union stations, realizes he is being held captive by a shady dude, and then tries to get him saved — though no one believes his crazy-homeless-ass. This portion is the best because Gil Bellows does a great job playing this homeless fellow. The rest of the film is good, but pretty unexceptional. I enjoyed seeing Toronto featured prominently in a film, but I’m not sure that’s enough of a reason to watch the movie.
Reviews of Toronto Stories at Rotten Tomatoes.
Movies
21 April 2009, early morning
Today will probably end up being an important day in the history of the war in Sri Lanka: unless the LTTE surrenders, the Sri Lankan government will commence a final push into Tiger territory at noon today. Soldiers who are known to kill themselves with cyanide to avoid capture are unlikely to surrender. An aggressive army on the verge of victory is unlikely to backdown. Chances are there will be much fighting today. This is tragic in and of itself, a pointless loss of life, but to make matters worse there are upwards of 100,000 civilians also trapped in the war zone. The LTTE shoots those trying to flee, and the government shells those who stay. Assuming everything plays out as bleakly as I imagine it will, today will probably live on in infamy in the minds of Sri Lankans. Depending on how bloody things end up, perhaps around the world.
[1] Current Events
