Read the Signs (2)

... some signs say important things...

... not that i'd really think much

about going down there anyway.

some signs say things in
unforgettable ways...

... some signs expand my understanding...

for instance...

 

... 'blood and fire' to me was a record label
selling dub and reggae til last week...

other signs confuse me.

like...

 

... are you talking to me?

 

 

or to the bear?

some signs seem futile...

 

... some make me wonder
what sign will go up next?

... and some signs are so sad

i can feel it across the years.

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Read the Signs...

...sometimes simple things
can seem very strange to me...

 

 what's the difference?
are we talking about the same thing?

...this has been a problem
in the past, i take it?

 

...i watched people walk past this everyday,

like "well, sure...."

 

 

...is it strange

to think this is strange?

-30-

 

Things I Wish Were Never Invented...

 an evolving collection...

the weed whacker

the leaf blower

the Sea Doo

the Hummer

to be continued....

-30-

skin

... from "Skin", a series of photographs 

i'm working on now....

 

 

-30-

the Steve movie 1

the first in what will no doubt be a series of ventilations as we get ready for another writ to fall....

-30-

A Walk Is...

... an intimate journey...

before you are even past the end of the driveway,
there's something crawling rustling around

over by the garden.

heading down the street,

past signs of linearity

trying to impose itself.

another street.

another message.

an order?

message from god?

zen dancing lesson?

a forest from a satellite?

moss on stone.

fractals.

geometry.

even a face of stone fades.

his mum must have been so sad.

was the sun shining like this 

when laid him in that grave?

that tree must have been very small.

we are all going to die.

i will die.

but not today, i think.

today i'm walking down these tracks.

the stone these tracks are laid on

was a red river once.

decay is as interesting as growth.

they are inseperable...

interchangeable.

i remember those signs from when i was a kid.

i guess people either need ice or they don't.

i will die one day.

you will die one day.

it seems strange that we share something

so inimate and profound

and never speak of it.

a strange Youth Park.

i've never seen one before with no graffiti on it.

none.

it looks naked to me.

it looks like an abandoned Futurist installation.

it looks like something Stalin might have approved.

 things only ever almost seem to fit together.

i'm not sure if that's a bipolar thing or what.

-30-

Mother Nature's calling in sick...

What happens when planet Earth gets H1N1?

Stay tuned...

-30-

Election Fever is back!

well OK....
maybe more like
election flu...

Stephen Harper?

he scares me 
more than Freddie 
anyday...

-30- 

All Hail Chairman Harper!

... as the threat from falling writs rises, 

and the autumn breeze turns grey and sour 

with the scent a potential Conservative (sic) 

majority, what could be more timely 

than a quick look back at some 

of the inspiring ideas 

of Our Great Leader!

 

America, and particularly your conservative
movement, is a light and an inspiration to people
in this country and across the world...
- to a conservative American think-tank, 2000.


There's unfortunately a view of too many people
in Atlantic Canada that it's only through government favours that there's going to be economic progress,
or that's what you look to …
That kind of can't-do attitude is a problem
in this country but it's obviously more serious
in regions that have had have-not status
for a long time.
- The Toronto Sun, May, 2002


I don't know all the facts on Iraq,
but I think we should work closely
with the Americans.
- March, 2003.

It is inherently dangerous to allow a country such as Iraq
to retain weapons
of mass destruction,
particularly in light of
its past aggressive behaviour.

If the world community fails to disarm Iraq,
we fear that other rogue states will be encouraged
to believe that they too can have these most deadly
of weapons to systematically defy international
resolutions and that the world will do nothing
to stop them.
- House of Commons, March 2003.

On the justification for the war,
it wasn't related to finding any
particular weapon of mass destruction. 

- Maclean’s, August 2003

 

I believe that 

all taxes are bad.
- CTV.ca news,
December, 2005 

 Canada is a vast and empty country.
2006 Leaders' Debate, December, 2005


I think people should elect a cat person.
If you elect a dog person, you elect someone
who wants to be loved. If you elect a cat person,
you elect someone who wants to serve.
- Global National, 2006


Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme
to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.
- The Toronto Star, January, 2007

... stay tuned to this channel for more celebrations

of the life of Chairman Harper in the days to come!

- 30 -

The 2010 Olympics in Vancouver

 ... I used to live in Canada's Olympic City,
but I don't anymore.
I made this graphic and wrote the guide
while construction fever was at its zenith...

Guide to 2010 graphique

The Blue Dollar

“Them that’s got shall get, them that’s not shall lose,
So the Bible said, and it still is news”
Billie Holiday - God Bless The Child

This is the Blue Money. They are always first at the table.
It’s their table. Way out in front on this since pre-get-go.
Before you knew there might be a bid, they had revenue
projections to 2012.

Is that a problem?


The Golden Dollar
The new tigers. A Rainbow Coalition of finance.
Gen X inheristinas,  who golf with DVBIA up-and-comers
and other pick of the peak achievers from hoods to hell
and gone all over the GVRD.
They’ve already made whatever Real Money was
actually around outside the Blue zone.

What debt?

Nice logo. Nice box. Great view from here.


The Black Dollar
The Bureaucracy, private and public.
Media.
Civic workers.
Local business people.
That which was here before The Games,
which will be at the Games and which
will remain when the Games are gone.


The Green Dollar
The Green Dollar is a hard dollar, to make
or to keep. Green Dollar people believe that
they can, with some extra work, develop a
substantial one-time revenue score
that will secure their current assets
and/or fast-track their departure from
the workforce and into their Golden Years.
This, unfortunately will prove to be
the exception, rather than the rule.


The Red Dollar
The Red Dollar is the Canadian dollar,
because these are not the Vancouver Olympics
(much), these are the Canadian Olympics.

The contracts make this very clear.

The Red Dollar is everyone who is none of the
above, regardless of latitude or longitude. It's
anyone who thinks about what else could have
happened in the True North with all that money.

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BC government says Hey Culture- Go Die!

The Taser Institute
Helping right-thinking people to do the right thing since 1978"

21 September 2009

From: Vince Smith / VP Operations Western Canada

to: Gordon Campbell / Premier/British Columbia



Gordo!
Further to our recent blah, blah, blah, here's some talking points to help invoke closure vis-a-vis the 'concerns' of some of the cabinet. Let's get this show on- or should I say off ? - the road. We have bigger fish to fry before the clock runs out, amigo...


Benefits of the Recent Adjustments to Arts Funding in BC

1) Removing these subsidies will allow private corporations presenting music, theatre and other entertainments to finally compete with community groups and non-profit organizations on a level playing field.

2) Store windows, construction sites, hydro poles and streetlights will no longer be littered with garish, unsightly posters and flyers. Civic staff formerly concerned with this problem can be reassigned to helping kittens, puppies, widows and orphans.

3) Volunteers for cultural groups can now play more meaningful roles in these organizations, including senior management and performing on stage.

click me for 8 more upsides!

Car People

When I was a kid, I was really into cars, which was good because "not being into cars" was not an option for young men. It was one of several subjects - hockey, airplanes, football, war - where one was expected to be literate and where one social status could be very "positively impacted" by having the model numbers, performance statistics and other such arcane knowledge at one fingertips.

Car Art played an important role in creating interest and even enthusiasm for cars as something to know about for me. The artists who created the images in the ads were very good. The draftsmanship, lighting and colours seem even more amazing to me now, when so much visual art is clearly created by people whose drawing skills are more modest.

There's a tendency to think of the late 40s to early 60s as very conservative times, with an emphasis on conformity...but these cars look like they were factory pimped- strong lines and curves, two tones and chrome for days. The level of detailing seems almost baroque by todays' standards.

Even cars that may have been relatively uncool still could and often did look good. They would also have unique features, depending on the model, the year and manufacturer which made them more substantial as a brand.

 Do your seats
turn out?







 

Can they change colour
to suit the occasion?

Looking at these images now, one of
the things I notice more consciously is how happy everyone seems to be. It's not surprising that the owners would be portrayed that way, I suppose, but the people observing the owners don't show a trace of resentment or envy. Happy days indeed.


And yet at the same time in America, Hollywood films were being made that would later be called cinema noir. They were dark (duh) in both lighting and world view, a perspective that reflected a healthy emotional response to seeing the sleaze beneath this veneer of nice and happy. 
Which is probably why one of the other things I wonder about about these images now is the stories they might be telling... 

 

Like why does
the kid in the
middle get a whole seat to himself while the ones in the back have to share?

Why does one woman have a white bathing suit on and the other has a black one? What's with this parking the car right beside the swimming pool? Where are the kids? Who is married to who here?

Who is the bartender looking at while he's pouring? Is the guy driving the car a mutant? It looks like his arms would go down to his knees? Why does the barbecue look like a nuclear reactor? Is that kid polishing off somebody's cocktail? How many has he had?



Sometimes happiness is an illusion. 
Sometimes it's a moment. 
Sometimes it's a dream...

-30-