The Ampersand, part 1

while i'm at the International Short Film Fest, i'm doing some journal entries for The National Post's blog, The Ampersand (scroll down for day one, otherwise you begin at day two).

Cattle Call

just before the outdoor screening, i ran into calligrapher Owen Williams, who recently finished a gallery performance in Whitehorse, where he drew 10,000 variations on the letter S.

i'm looking forward to checking back with Owen, to talk about Matthew Randin & Mike Maryniuk's film, Cattle Call--a wild animation inspired by an auctioneer at the Winnipeg stockyards, which include all kinds of text fonts & numbers. i had a chance to preview the film at Deco Dawson's afternoon talk. it's so fast-moving that a couple of viewings are handy...so i had a chance to see it again at the late night Friday screening. so far, it's one of my favourites of the festival.

below...getting the outdoor screening underway, in the window of the ODD gallery. even at 10pm, it's very bright outside...though by the last film of the outdoor series, night was definitely coming on.

fire for breakfast

another thing i love about Dawson: i wandered a few blocks over to filmmaker Lulu Keating's house this morning. a slew of people were sitting over breakfast, and within minutes i found myself with a cup of cloudberry tea, a toasted bagel, and a dog beside me, wanting to be petted (or maybe wanting my bagel, but she's a well-behaved mutt). conversation was fascinating--one of the women at breakfast used to work as a fire tower observer. made me think of Kerouac's Desolation Angels (which always incongruously reminds me of an apartment i had in Paris, next-door to where Picasso painted Guernica. art, around and around...)

(image from Flikr by Leesh)

Bolex & banjo

i drove to Dawson City with five film-makers, twelve cameras, and a banjo. in the process, i learned a lot about the 16mm Bolex film cameras...because both Scott Amos & Deco Dawson broke out their cameras as we hit the road.

the opening screening for the Dawson City International Short Film Festival starts in 15 minutes, i better get going...

i got it bad...

i'm en route to Dawson for the International Short Film Festival. how can i resist a film fest that features an outdoor screening in the snow?

but for tonight, i'm in the 'Horse & while it's not cold, the city still looks wintery (as the view from my hotel room proves!) so i was amazed, walking along by the still-frozen river, to hear the jazzy notes of a saxophone drifting down. nice accompaniment to all the melting snow.

a street musician has to be the sweetest urban sign of spring. and the Baked Cafe has its chairs & tables set up in the sun on Main Street...

Thinking with other people

went to see an amazing performance by Rabih Mroue this past Friday night, as part of the Images Fest in Toronto. i wrote about it here for BlogTO

in the Q & A after the show, Lebanese director/playwright/performer Mroue said that this kind of performance "is a way of thinking with other people". which also, sometimes, describes blogs rather beautifully.

Tiki vs Slush

it's raining slush in Toronto today. so i decided to share some Tiki wonderfulness, to fight against the questionable spring weather.

this is the old Montreal Kon-Tiki restaurant at the Sheraton Hotel. i blame my parents for starting my Tiki obsession by taking me here at a young & impressionable age. Tiki sculptures, dry-ice volcano drinks, poo-poo platters...the works! tragically, this Kon-Tiki is no more...i wish i knew what happened to those Easter-Island type sculptures guarding the entrance.

i love Tiki. i've worked a few Tiki references into my novel (scenes set in the early Flamingo Casino.) there used to be a Trader Vic's in Vancouver within walking distance from my apartment...i was heartbroken when it closed (the only consolation is that some fellow-Tiki lover bought the pseudo-Polynesian building & had it towed out to Vancouver Island. long may its kick-ass gardenia-garnished drinks linger in memory.)

fortunately, i still know of one fantastic place to get a Mai Tai...unfortunately for me, it's in Sarasota, Florida. but if you're in the neighborhood, hit the Bahi Hut on Tamiami Trail. doesn't look like much from the outside...but the interior is all grass-roof 1954 Tiki authenticity. if there is such a thing. just plan on walking home.

Ministry of Edges

Glen Downie's Loyalty Management is this year's "Keep Toronto Reading One Book" choice. the title might be the worst ever for a book of poems, but maybe the idea is that the word management will snag people who otherwise avoid poetry like bubonic plague.

i picked up the book at the library & it opened to "Ministry of Edges"...which kicks off with:

Why a Ministry of the Interior? There is no Interior. There ought to be a Ministry of Edges.

- Canadian ex-patriot

so i brought the book home. Loyalty Management isn't as overtly Toronto-centric as last year's immensely popular "One Book" selection, Michael Redhill's novel, Consolation. i'm curious to see if Downie's book will get as much recognition. the opening pages of the book are accessible online, here.

(the photo above of the glorious urban edge of Highway 401 is by J. V. Salmon, taken in 1954.)