(hearts) Montreal Boys!!
Stumpled upon, literally - last night: an awesome electronic-rock band from Montreal, whose name I had to look up only once I got home: DJ Champion + ses G-Strings!! See above an amazing picture from my phone!! La-la-la! You know how after a great show the excitement is running SO HIGH and strong? I am in fact still so excited to be writing a review!! Aaaaaah!! Discovering a new band, is some sort of *extreme* joy!! It's like ________. This gig being part of TIFF -- gov't sponsored and all -- you have no expectations, right? -- but what an awesome performance this was!! So glad I stuck around!! The best thing that ever happened to the Yonge-Dundas square!! The crowd was -- whatever Billy Bob said. I tried to help. Then Measha Brueggergosman came; ruined everything. Did she-did she have to? Whoever gave her the mic. She can blow away the whole YDS with no mic at all... Some things do not mix, imho, and that's surely Measha's over-the-top dramatic jamming with electronics. Yet another shocker was to find out how much dichotomy there can be b/w a recording I am hearing now and a live performance. So much so that I hardly can say I even like the recorded sound of this band! This is probably the most extreme case I've ever come across. I suppose it had to do with the type of music this is, and the performance is somehow much more interactive; How does the DJ send the energy to his Strings and further how it flows to the audience - beats me. So unfortunately you can't hear this very charismatic band's awesomeness through any of the recordings, not even You Tube, these babies are good only live.
blog poem
What the newspaper said
What the movie
The sitcom
And the press release said
What the magazine said
What the pop song said
What opera
What Paris' t-shirt
What Shakespeare said
What the president
The Queen, the Paris Review
And yo mama said
Hitachi Fujitsu Infiniti
Jimmy Choo Intel Core Trio
What Kandinsky & Freud said
Do not quote me what Tolstoy said
I'll consume 'em on my own
In my fortune cookie
Bacio bite
Or Grande Decaf sip
At least
But you amigo,
Tell me something
You know
Make this, Gwyneth
plus chocolate, vanilla, sugar, spices and eggs - of course.
measurements available upon request.
I like this poem
Brain Litany: Or, Overlooking the Existential Factor"Can it be that any man has the skill to fabricate himself?" -- St. Augustine
02 It is not a connection of cells
03 It is a connection of information
04 It is a connection of blue vases
05 with red flowers in them
06 It is not a connection of vases
07 It is a connection of living memories
" ... and when we think of coconuts and pigs, there are no coconuts or pigs in the brain." -- Gregory Bateson
08 Where are they
09 Where are the coconuts
10 Where are the pigs
11 The brain is a network of behavioral potentialities
12 The Brain is the mind
13 The brain is the central integrative role in human performance
14 Where are the pigs
15 Where are the coconuts
16 The brain is a compendium of holographic mechanisms
17 Help me find the coconuts Help me find the pigs
18 The brain is a neuro-physiological metaphor
19 The brain is an illusionist's exercise in Euclidean geometry
20 The brain is a vibrational amplifier for ambient field quanta
21 Find me the goddamned coconuts the pigs
22 The brain is a cybernetic miracle with a three-ring
23 triune brain circus at its centre
24 The brain is an enchanted loom where millions of flashing
25 shuttles weave a dissolving pattern
26 I know I saw the coconuts
27 I know I saw the pigs
28 The brain is an evolutionary archaeological site
29 Show me those pigs one more time
30 The brain is a dance among three interconnected biological computers
31 I saw the pigs
32 I saw the coconuts
33 The brain is a bicameral structure for playing
34 epistemological handball.
35 I know you have the coconuts
36 The brain is a reality structurer with lacrimal glands
37 The brain is an international casino for quantum indeterminacy
38 The pigs
39 The pigs
40 The pigs
41 When we think of brains, there are no brains in the brain.
42 The coconuts
43 The pigs
44 The brain is a psycho-biological tar pit Give me
45 the bloody coconuts in an emotional jungle you bastard
46 or the brain is a macro-evolutional myth for the maintenance of
47 I'll bash the brain is an omnidirectional time machine
48 clogged with death consciousness
49 I could cry
50 Show me those pigs
51 Show me those coconuts
52 THE ABRIDGED CARTESIAN VERSION
53 I think, therefore I am.
54 When we think of the "I," there is no one in the brain.
55 Where am I?
56 Where am I? etc.
by Pier Giorgio di Cocco
Protest, but where?
This past weekend at Queen's Park and the City Hall, citizens rallied!
With pickets! And they yelled and they moaned with their arms high up in the air! sending their 'YES', or their 'NO' message.
And it was cold! Freezing Toronto-December-cold.
What's the big deal, you may ask -- it's Canada, and her democracy.
Well, actually; Turns out Canadians aren't so keen to take their voices to their streets and protest: it takes as extreme a situation - as the crisis of confidence in the House of Commons - for les Canadians to react to their government. I've otherwise only two or three times ran into 'real activists' on the street, protesting about *Canadian Issues.* (And here I take it that the mere visibility of protests, on the public space, the not so rational aspect of the democratic process, is one prime example showing the health of a democracy).
This may mean either that Canadian governments are generally in good order, and hence there's no need to protest much, or you can read it as an indicator that Canadian democracy isn't as vigorous as it might appear. Either way, two things strike me : 1. in Toronto, there's nowhere to go to protest.
Don't want to go to Queen's Park or City Hall: Both areas are isolated, one- an island, the other- a skating place.
Anywhere else that I'd go - I think I may cause traffic problems or run into property issues of sort. (Okay - if it was only me & my picket, we'd be al' right). But you get the point -- people need places to rally. The public needs its squares.
If you're reading this and you're not a Torontonian/have never visited, you may not believe me and will be astonished to hear this. Understandably. And I am rather sorry to report, Toronto-- otherwise a well-functioning, a parkful, however gridlocked place -- is a metropolis without public squares for its citizens to protest.
My second thought inspired by this week's civic restlessness, was trying to imagine what would it look like, this democracy, if a momentum like this -- people's intense interest and pressure, in and on their government/s -- could be sustained.
Now. Now! Hold on to -
Whilst I'm not so interested in the saturnine ways actual public policies could be? non? hurry! influenced by these public outcries, I am very inspired and moved to see citizens taking notice. Aside from the panicky vibe THE CONFIDENCE IN CRISIS brings, ughhhh, there's something energizing about protests, as well.
A study published a few days ago confirmed the saddest truth: majority of Canadians, in fact do not understand how their parliament works. The public ignorance and apathy are high as ever; even though this is a simple and small study, it is telling, and I'm afraid such news shatters my second thought of this moment lingering. Still though, hopelessly, as democracy's the most fragile yet the most precious thing we've got, I find the mere news stories about these protests, if not your participation, feeding the print, the telly and the internet, surely raise the public consciousness somewhat, and provide for the watercooler chatter.
As someone wise once said - only solution to democracy is more democracy.
Now let's give space - for more.
At least.
Sigh
La Torontonienne
La Torontonienne went, saw Joseph Arthur
and the Lonely Astronauts, for "Temporary People" (+ three other albums)
Nuite Blanche III
So; enjoying myself at crowded public events, now second weekend in a row, is highly unlikely for me. But what do I know!?!
By 'crowded public events' here I mean not something like possibly marching on the street, protesting something with a picket - no way, not me! - but something as simple as looking at art. That's the blast that was the third annual Nuit Blanche this Saturday and Sunday!
I gave in to peer pressure initially: "I really think we should go, everyone else is going and this is our city -
we should show support for the arts."Ugh; Fiiine. Saying something like that to a person with a guilty conscience is not nice. But - a regular night out - I thunk of it as a way of consolation. The case is, much of contemporary art isn't really my cup of tea; I don't know, I feel stuck in premodern times. Unless the artist is right there to give you some clue what is/might be going on, much of it doesn't come through otherwise, no matter how long I stare at it. But I'll offer no critiques and only praises.
Whaaa?? Yes, yes - I thought I'd arrange us a nice bottle of sparkling wine so when folks 'oooh' and 'aaah' over some "&^%$#" - my eyes will be rolling; but only you now know why....
The night went so well, though.What did I know -
we were quickly sobered by some deeply moving pieces at our first stop. By end of the night I surely felt I am slowly begin to grow an appreciation for -- what-would-you-call-it kind-of public installation art. This is were we went, with no plan: 401 Richmond, Gladstone (drinks), and the City Hall (Blinkenlights project) as a finale. It was soo.much.fun. even with f. traffic, overcrowding, et al. 3 stops. It's great to see so many zombies walking the streets at night. I hope to visit more installations next year, and it looks like I might do some peer/civic pressure myself - watch out public-phobia-ppl, you know who you are..
Hi everyone
Blog, I find is such an awesome tool; I feel that whatever happens to me - I've a tune, a film scene or a literary reference to complement/contrast or simply just highlight my experience/idea of the moment. And my moments, as yours - when so keyboard-defined - are explicably digital. Is it in fact, not surprising that everyone hasn't a blog?! Yes - why doesn't everyone have a blog - is a good question. I'm not in any way, btw, overwhelmed, fear not, by all the cultural/media/marketing outputs. I rather like it! and am often impressed with things Others would dream up for me. But, I surely need to arrange all the seeming fuzz, in my own little bloggy-order, here.
The first things I wanted to do was to set a tone for this 3rd Blog of Mine. My previous blog was somewhat of an anxious blog: it was a tormenting time for me personally so I whined and I complained and I overshared. It was juicy but I'm pretty much done with that experiment. Now I feel like a new blog, with a new feeling. New rhythm. New art. New audience too. What kind of blog will this be, eh? We shall only see...
One of my favourite artistic forms is in fact collage; (my fav Picassos: collages!). I like the idea of piling unlikely things atop each other and creating novel compositions. On such an early postmodern theme, I find blogging is very comparable to collage and I very much think it such; both work by means of the following: Juxtaposing
>> Appropriation
>> Concatenation, linking, pasting, cutting
>> Assemblege
>> Blurring limits, edges, borders
>> Blurring distinctions between border and ground.
I appreciate the degrammatizing blogging allows. Does language not exists outside the text anyway? It's great coming across blogs where ppl are inventing their own blog languages even. So poetic.. C'est ici un blog qui n'existe pas >> un ecriture qui n'exist pas aussi? Finalement, le blog, je pense, est une écriture féminine, par excellance; n'est-il pas? Btw, c'est tout que je ecrisais en fraincais. Je ne reconnetrais...
Always, my blog's very personal - no matter what I'm writing about. For a while I tried fighting that in an effort to get it off the focus until I realized that was indeed the best part about My Blog; and now I've come to write completely All About Me; everything else moved to the sidelines and the background. Now it's just me Me Against The Hypertext :-) I hope this blog sticks... My goal's two posts per month.
So welcome, dear reader. I hope you'll get some food for thought here. Je t'ecris.
All rights are reserved. Copyright: creative commons.
xo
La Torontonienne
