Hatchmatik & news…
2nd edition of my new party/photo residency. Took a bit longer than normal to turn these around and there are fewer photos but hope people dig em.
Been a bit sick these days and gave myself a bit of a wack haircut today but otherwise, things are looking better than they have in a while. I’ll be living with a dog soon and I’m pretty pumped about that.
A lot of good things are happening to people around me too so I want to share some of it with you…
The main piece of news is that Ottawa’s Drastik recently won the RedBull Thre3Style Canadian championships in Toronto. He’ll compete for the world title in Paris later this year. Check out his winning set (it has a great ending)…
Red Bull Thre3Style Drastik Winning Set Canadian Finals from Red Bull Thre3Style on Vimeo.
Next up, one of Ottawa’s best clothing stores recently relaunched their website at normlclothing.com. So far, they’re focusing their webstore on sneakers (which I never got hugely into since a lot of leather and suede is involved) but I’ve got my eyes on these Marshall Artists jeans in the store… Congrats to Yann, Robbie, Josh and everyone else for keeping things going!
A while ago, my pal Peter Joynt released a mixtape that needs to be heard. This week, he released a video for his song Bless It Like a Baptist. Watch Watch Watch!
Over the last few days, I was posting to the blog I run for the News Photographers Association of Canada in behalf of photographer Ed Ou, who I spoke to over Skype last week, a few hours after he got arrested and put in a Djiboutian prison. Even for Skype, it was an expensive call but I think it made for an interesting week of blogging that hopefully Ed will be able to add to at some point in the future.
On another NPAC tip, from April 23-25, there will be a photojournalism conference in Toronto. There’ll be a lot happening such as presentations given by Andrea Bruce, David Burnett and a few more. A lot of the most important information is on the NPAC message board.
Finally, one of my favourite podcasts, Bande à Part, put together a whole microsite dedicated to hardcore music in Québec. It’s informative for veteran music people as well as the uninitiated. If you’re at all curious about what was going on in the Québec punk scene over the last 30 years, you need to visit Bande à part! They even mention some Ottawa bands. En français seulement, par exemple…
That’s it. It’s the weekend. I’m going to clean out my closet.
Point and click
This is a post for people who don’t take photos in that sort of obsessive compulsive way some of us do.
JE ME SOUVIENS MAINTENANT… Last year, I went to a small yet spirited party at one of my fave Ottawa restaurants, Oz Kafe (huuuge respect to my pals holding down the fort over there), and I had no camera. Others did, however, and I saw at least one mostly sitting on a table, left unused. “Blasphemy!”, I thought, so I picked up the tiny CoolPowerPixShot-whatever-it-was and got to work, thinking I’d never see any of these photos again.
Like a baby, which many people I know seem to be having these days, nine months later, the photos surfaced – apparently as much a surprise to the camera’s owner to me.
Looking at the photos, I actually feel kind of pleased with what I managed to capture with a small camera that had been so neglected.
I’m stoked about these photos because I kind of see them as the potential EVERYONE has to take interesting photos in regular environments if only they cared enough to try.
And you do need to try. You need to take photos every day and become familiar with your camera – whatever it may be. Make mistakes and learn from them. Share your photos and be open to feedback. Don’t be scared to take risk and don’t be bummed when something you like isn’t the same as what your neighbour likes. Be prepared to kill your idols too.
Then again, maybe people are wise to leave their cameras on tables for people like me to pick up and maybe they should do it more often.
Or, maybe “anyone can take these photos”!
Yes? No? Discuss…
PS: Shout outs to Victoire & Danny Deleto, members of which are seen in the above photos and help make this city a bit more interesting for me every day. Sincerely.
Goth Candy Bang Bang
Here’s some goth candy I cooked up for the weekend. Now, when talking photos, don’t forget to breathe. Steady breathing = more oxygen = clearer mind = better ideas?
Whenever I post music on here, I really try to make it songs that are actually hard to find. Sometimes, I even feel like the only way to make it available is to rip it off a 12″ record (as is the case today) or a DVD (as I have done in the past). So here, we have a song originally performed by Cher and covered by countless people in many languages. Petula Clark’s version, to my ears, is probably the most unique and proves that it’s possible for a song that’s meant to be moody and a bit dark to actually put a bit of a smile on your face.
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On darker, more Nick Drake, tip, check out O. Children.
RIP Alexander McQueen.
Midweek Halloween @ Mercury Lounge
Having Halloween on Saturday is awesome because life kind of turns into HalloWEEK! Party #1 was last night. Click the banner for the gallery if you dare…
Today’s a day off (kind of?) and then I start doing Mustaches for Kids(!) stuff tomorrow night and then Halloween will be spent in a little death on Cumberland.
Baggy Bottom Boys & Pride Parade
After several months of production and post production, Jokers of the Scene’s video for Baggy Bottom Boys finally dropped a week ago. Bummer. I’m not in it a single time…
Jokers Of The Scene “Baggy Bottom Boys” from Mr Goldbar on Vimeo.
OK, I made it into the video… the spirally thing was a blue balloon that I inflated for ten minutes to a size of over a metre in diametre. I then threw it into the crowd where it didn’t even last five seconds.
To brighten things up, here’s a photo (also involving balloons) from this Sunday’s Pride Parade in Ottawa. Somehow, this pyramid of balloons and colourful parasols completely eclipsed the National War Memorial looking north on Elgin Street. A few more photos on xtra.ca but you’d already know that if you followed me on Twitter.
Laurier Lapierre & tearsheets & Victoire
J’ai passé une matinée super agréable et enrichissante avec le sénateur-retraité Laurier Lapierre il y a quelques semaines. Unes des photos de la session a été publiée sur la couverture de la revue Xtra West à Vancouver.
Voici une photo de lui que Xtra n’a pas publiée.
En voici quelques d’autres photos publiées ici et là ces jours-ci:
Gauche supérieure: Publicité pour la 3e anniversaire de la boutique Victoire (le 11 juillet! Allez-y!)
Gauche inférieure: Photo de Luna Allison sur une publicité pour Westfest
Droite: Photo du dramaturge, Richard Hemphill, qui présente une pièce au festival Fringe
Voici deux chutes du shoot Victoire. Régine à droite bloque le soleil avec autant de style que jamais.
Cette fin de semaine, on m’a placé sur divers toits d’Ottawa parmi un groupe d’artistes provenant de plusieurs disciplines. Cependant, il faudra attendre jusqu’au mois d’août pour ces photos.
Notre Victoire
Victoire, this dope (mostly women’s) clothing store on Dalhousie at St. Patrick in Ottawa, launched a web store a few months ago and they asked if I would shoot some photos for it. The bosses of this boutique are hardly ordinary and despite my suggestion that product photos shot in studio against solid backgrounds might help sales, the only thing coming back to me was “No. We’re taking you to the country and buying you sorbet on the way home.”
OK fine… The customer is always right. Check out the location…
Also, Victoire will soon be celebrating their troisième anniversaire which is young but when shops like this open and close more often than I get haircuts, major pats on the back go to les filles continuously making their business baby grow. Obviously something is working.
There will be a flyer advertising the anniversary soon (I think there will be a party and a mix CD?) but in the mean time, here are some photos I from the webstore. Don’t forget to check it out and also their blog.
Oh PS: One brand they carry is Species by the Thousands, makers of some fine clothing and interesting jewelry pieces. Out of Brooklyn, they’re one of the only non-Canadian lines at Victoire but the spot is well deserved. I’ve talked about bearded faces on shirts before but thanks to Victoire, I now own one. Behold, la pièce de résistance. Comfy shirt too. I think it’s made by Alternative Apparel using some organic cotton mystery blend.
It might be from Brooklyn but I find there is something oddly centennial-era Canada about the illustration. Farley Mowat meets the Ookpik or something… Non?
Mustaches for Kids!
New portraits. What a hilarious night this was. Thanks to everyone who participated. Click the cowboy for more images!
I think most participants have probably shaved their mustaches off by now. Mine is still in tact for the moment.
For more info on the project, visit m4kottawa.org.
Guns n Bombs fashion party
Suits and dresses.
Art and Fashion happenings in Ottawa
October was indeed Rocktober with a slew of musical happenings I couldn’t even keep up with. November changes channels but not the tempo. Two items of business here.
First…November 13 – 23 is the Electric Fields festival which describes itself as “a biennial festival dedicated to the presentation of new and significant performance and installation works created at the crossroads of art, science and technology.”
The program is pretty packed over the 10 days and you can check out the whole schedule at electricfields.ca. Hats off to Ryan Stec at artengine for pulling this together.
I’m most excited about the Electric Evangelicals night on Friday, November 14 at St. Brigid’s (ex-church, now cultural centre). Some cool musicians and performers will be present on this night. If yr into DIY electronics and circuit-bending and generally bizarre things, this might be for you! Anyway, I’ll be covering this event so if you see me, come say hello!
Also, on Saturday, November 22, the closing party has a pretty solid line up of DJs and performers including Radio Radio, this sort of funny acadien/francophone electro/hiphop outfit from Moncton/Montréal and some other places perhaps…
Good festival. Oh…most of this festival is FREE too. Unbelievable.
Second item on the agenda…Capital Fashion Week!
I’m happy that people are getting together in Ottawa to work on this. It’ll be very exciting to see where things progress from here. There are a lot of pretty interesting lines being shown on November 21 & 22. None from Ottawa but all Canadian nonetheless.
Also, Ottawa Fashion Week is happening November 13-15! This is their second time doing this and while I’m not sure if there is a friendly rivalry between CFW and OFW, I say, the more the merrier! Does lead to a bit of confusion though. There seems to be at least two designers being shown as part of OFW that use fur in their creations. Maybe people think this is OK since we’re in Canada and it gets cold but in my view, unless you’re camping on the outskirts of Iqaluit in March, no this is not OK.
Overall, it’s also too bad that very little seems geared towards men but I can’t blame them…there isn’t really much going on here in that department. I am actually quite interested in jewelry, however. Victoire, represent! Magpie too!
Competing with the Electric Fields closing party and also the Redbull Shoot To Thrill/Top of the World video premiere on November 22 is Capital Fashion Week’s own closing party. Basically, it’s going to be a rave like it’s 1997 again. Except, it’s in a legit venue and we already know where it is and you don’t have to take a 40-minute shuttle bus to a remote location to get there. OK…not really like a rave. Long story short, Guns n Bombs from Los Angeles are going to be performing with Ottawa’s Jokers of the Scene and some others. It’s going to be bananas.
PS: Images from my Active Absence series will be up at Wurm Gallery this December. Some stuff people have already seen. Other things that haven’t been shown yet. More news later about this. Stay tuned…
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