TV dinner... lunch

The Pork and Chicken dish at Pho88 kind of looks like the Battlestar Galactica.

While visiting the old 'hood where my parents live I stopped by a restuarant I used to frequent, Pho88. I got my, back then, usual dish. It was then when I realized I hadn't watched much TV lately.

It's been a few days since I've watched any TV or rather DVD Television as I don't have reception or cable in my basement apartment. The last series I was engulfed in was the new battlestar galactica season one, a series I bought a friend for Christmas and immediately borrowed once he finished viewing it. I was quite impressed with the show. Good writing, interesting characters and sci-fi to boot.

I supppose there's the option of just subscribing to cable. There's a lot of times I'll visit someone with cable and end up watching crappy virtual reality shows or watch channels being flipped in case there is something on more interesting somewhere else.

Note: if you are a channel flipper and you've gone through all the hundred plus channels of crap at least three times in the last ten minutes then you should tell yourself there's nothing good on tv and do something more with your life (like watching a movie on DVD).

Sometimes it's good to just be a couch potato. As sad as it is, it is part of our north american culture, it gives us something in common to talk about at lunch, around the drinking fountain, and at work. Phrases like "almost there", "You came in that thing?", "I haven't felt him since..." and "At that speed will we be able to pull out in time?" have vastly different meanings if you didn't see Star Wars (episode 4).

I remember working at an ad agency and they told me they wanted some graphics that looked like the opening titles to the X-files. At that point I had never seen the X-files and had to tape it for reference. When talking to people that have watched the same movie or television show in a room with people that haven't you can actually seen the person who didn't watch the show get a blank expression and have their eyes glaze over. Kind of like talking to people that bake for a living about networking solutions using fibre optic technology. Huh what?

So until TV becomes 100% complete crap and we as a society find something better in common to do (like fix the ozone layer, feed the poor, train hamsters to move solar panels to face the sun) so we can talk about it later I suppose I will continue to try to watch the good TV shows and be entertained.

A Hot Dog today makes everything okay

Hot dogs and sausages on Queen street cheap cheap cheap

After feeling dupped into giving up real work for work that could be non-existant, I wondered along Queen street to continue with my on going hobby of photography. My spirits picked up when I saw that the "Street Meat of Queen Street" was on sale again.

Usually a sausage on a bun (with fixins) will run you about $3.00. For some reason, at the corner of Queen and Spadina, the prices have dropped by a dollar. Perhaps this is the result of the two or three vendors on the same corner competing for customers. It's also a possiblity that they are just buying cheaper, fattier meat.

The end result of that dollar off, whatever the the reasons were, perked my interest enough to pick one up. So obviously the cheapo pricing works on some people. After loading the bun with red peppers, corn relish, mustard, and onions I continued my trek down to yonge street where eventually I hopped on the streetcar to head for home.

David Trattles: Documentary Photographer

David Trattles tells tales of his worldwide adventures... with pictures.

I was invited to a gallery opening showcasing three photographers. Out of the three one particular photographer stood out. It wasn't because the photos were published in magazines or that they were any good. They weren't good. That would be almost insulting. They were great! The texture, the lighting, the composition, people's expressions and the surroundings all made the images captivating. It was the stories that David told that really gave the photos life.

His black and white prints of german cowboys, Elvis of the Yukon, Inuits riding the bus, cursing Newfoundlanders (that loved their wives), flamboyant dancers in New York, cheese rolling, women boxers in India, tomato fights, gave us a small window into the rest of the world. The stories were entertaining and emblished with his different accents while trying to immitate the various people he had met.

At one point there were about 12 of us in a 6x6 foot room listening in. It was like being a kid again listening to your wacky, but cool, uncle tells stories of his childhood or some such thing. Wonder and fascination come to mind when thinking about the whole experience.

It's heartbreaking to know that a photographer of this calibre and devotion, who has been published in various magazines, reaps the financial benefits similar to that of someone on welfare. That said to see David's photos up close go to the following link and if you like any of them buy a print or two it'll help finance his next work trip (as publications generally do not finance the trips very well) and allow him to eat.

www.DavidTrattles.com

note: some of the web site doesn't work but his email does as well as the pictures.

Toronto Trivia

The Old Toronto City Hall (there's a newer one across the street)

It was one of those days where I could have easily hibernated in my apartment working on some indoor photography. Only by getting a call from Michelle did I find out it was sunny and relatively warm outside. It was about 3pm when I convinced myself that I should go out to pay next months bills and maybe see what was going on downtown at the same time.

At Queen and Bay street, in front of the old city hall, you could hear what sounded like mexican fiesta music coming from across the street. Before walking over there I noticed that the old city hall was lit pretty nicely by the sun and the reflection of the sun off of the Eaton Centre's mirror-like windows. I decided to pull out the camera and take a couple of snaps before investigating what was going on across the street.

As a side note, a long time ago when I took urban geography, one of those summer school courses that your parents send their kids to to keep them out of trouble, I found out that the face of the architect of the old city hall had his face among all the other faces on one of the columns (the right one when you face the building, next to the main entrance).


The face with a moustache is the architect.

It's one of those obscure, but cool, Toronto things that not really that many people seem to know. That and that the old City Hall tower looks straight down Bay street on purpose.

After examining the old city hall building and documenting it witht he D70 I went across the street. The mexican music was part of some winter festival going on at Nathan Phillips Square (the public space in front of the new city hall). It was packed with people, both skating, and just wandering around looking at what appeared to be people dressed up as fat, naked (shaved) sheep. I didn't really get a good look or any good photos of the sheep people. Kids seemed to be entertained.

Getting outside turned out to be interesting. Who would have known? It just goes to show you that nothing interesting will happen to you if you don't get your ass out of the apartment from time to time.

Room with a view

Looking out of the old factory window at another factory

The space I've been sharing and using as a studio has a washroom with a large wall filled mainly with frosted windows. Somewhere in the center there's one window pane that's clear and looking out you can clearly see the smokestack on top of another factory across the street.

Although both buildings are no longer factories, they've been converted to offices and large studio spaces, I always thought it odd that they keep the smoke stack. Are they still used? Was it too expensive to tear it down? Is it part of some historic program the city has that keeps it intact?

Activator Boot

Typewriter - the longest word you can type using only the top letters on a qwerty typewriter.

After getting my D70 back from Nikon and spending quality time with the grandmother I got home and had the urge to type up a letter using my manual typewriter. It had been collecting dust since I first got it as a payment of sorts for helping someone move. Personally I think they were just too lazy to drop it off at a donation/charity drop box. As it was in pretty good shape and folding into a nice compact case I figured I'd save it from the landfill.

I love the name. The "Activiator 800T". When first reading the label I thought it read "activator boot". Huh? When buying this product, way back when it was new, the name probably reflected high end, state of the art technology. It almost sounds like it's allowing you to do work on the go. You can be active with the "Activator"! If it was called the "Activator boot". You could be doing work on the go with this typewriter because it, like a kick in the ass (boot), would be the thing to get you going. You were inspired to write if you bought this thing. Maybe I'm reading too much into the name?

In this day and age of high tech gadgetry and electrical gizmos it's kind of bizzare that you can type anything without using power. Of course the first thing I noticed was the amount of force you have to use on the keys just to strike the paper. You'd have to press even harder if you wanted the letter to be dark enough to read. After about half a page of typing my wrists were getting sore.

Another interesting thing we take for granted using modern keyboards is that you can type pretty much as fast as you want. Using the manual typewriter if you typed too fast the keys would jam into each other. A note to all those youngsters out there, that's the reason why the keyboard letters are laid out in such an odd order. The arrangement was to slow the typist down on purpose.

Once finished typing up the so called letter, mainly due to my hands cramping up, I decided to return to the modern era and fiddle with the D70. (see picture above). The dirt that used to be on the camera sensor is now gone thanks to the cleaning staff at Nikon repair. woo woo.

Sound Off

Looking down McCaul street from the Cinematheque at the CN Tower and the top of the OCAD building.

Like a small bug flying toward that zapper on the house porch I decided today to take in some art. When it comes to attending art exhibits and things it's usually a hit or miss with me. They always seem interesting at first glance but as you get nearer, just before you get zapped, you wonder how did you get there, and more importantly, how do you get out?

My friend Emmanuel told me about this "film thing" taking place at the Art Gallery of Ontario's cinematheque. The small side theatre of the AGO featured work done by Seoungho Cho, an artist flown all the way here from New York city. The event was free, took place at a good time (6:30pm), included film, and was free. Did I say it was free?

It wasn't until I sat down in the theatre while waiting for Emmanuel to arrive that I noticed all the "artsie fartsie" people wearing black rimmed glasses and black sweaters surrounding me. Past experiences of art horror rushed into my mind. All those "experimental" films that I saw years ago that actually might have been visually pleasing all had one thing in common. Really bad sound.

There's bad sound like dubbing the characters swearing in the breakfast club to saying "well, DAMN you" where the sound doesn't really match the lips then there's the really bad sound. The sound where you want to do violent things, throw up, pass out or maybe just get irritable.

It's almost like the artists went out of their way to find the crappiest pieces of recording equipment this planet has to offer then use them improperly on purpose. It's been proven that classical music does something soothing to people by affecting their brain waves. On the opposite end of the scale listening to most newby artsie films makes me irritable and annoyed.

Still this particular artist was flown in from New York. Obviously someone thinks his work is interesting enough. He did, after all, get a grant to do his first film to be shown at the theatre that night. Eventually Emannuel showed up and I told him my concerns about the impending doom, the audio track.

Emmanuel has this very positive way about him. I'm not really sure how to put it in words but he has a very optimistic aura that surrounds him like a bubble. Should you be lucky enough to have him as a friend the bubble engulfs you without you really realizing this. Next thing you know all is fine, your pessimistic attitude gone, and things don't really seem that impossible as before.

This put me at ease just before the cineamatheque guy got up on stage to introduce Seoungho. The introduction told us that Seoungho went to New York a few years ago (was it ten?) as a graphic artist and then somewhere down the line he switched to experimenting with film. After seeing his first film I thought maybe he should have experimented a little more with sound too.

Yes the movie had the most annoying sound track I have heard since those days long ago seeing those OCA film student movies. Although I do have to give him credit the sound samples were clearly recorded. I didn't hear any static unless it was intentional. From the TV tone generator sound (when you're watching color bars) to a dot matrix printer printing, the sounds he used made me annoyed and even angry.

As for visuals, let me start off by saying that we watched three movies before we left the theatre. The movies were only about 10 minutes each. It sounds short but if the footage only contains a thumb and index finger pulling on tape from a VHS cartridge making a tugging sound like nails on a chalk board, then throw in a butterfly loop that just happens to sync with the tugging sound, well it seemed way too long. When the credits rolled I actually noticed my hands clutching the edge of the seat and letting go.

The next film was a bit more interesting visually as it was from the point of view of a bar code reader. There were more things to look at than the VHS tape movie. That alone seemed a bit entertaining. The sound was a bit more irritating as it was the movie that featured the TV tone.

The third film had something to do with watching a water faucet with water coming out of it. The picture was edited to look like the vertical scroll on your TV wasn't adjusted. Being a playback operator this effect irritated me. I'm not sure how long the movie was cause I nodded off about two or three minutes in.

Before, I mentioned I had only seen three movies. It's because I fell asleep through the third so that one doesn't really count. The forth movie was something metallic spinning. It took me a while to figure out that it was a drill bit we were looking at close up. This was the movie that featured the on going dot matrix printing noise which was in sync to the rotating bit. When the credits rolled on this one we noticed some people wander out of the theatre. This was our big chance. We decided to make a break for the exit in the dark before the next film started.

Once out in the well lit hall I noticed that we were followed by a rather large crowd also escaping the next film's wrath. I kind of felt sorry for the artist but then I thought "Someone paid for him to come here." and there's people still in the theatre who probably love the stuff. The horrible feeling of guilt I had melted away. Being out of the theatre was like taking off a really small uncomfortable shoe. It really felt good to be outside.

How the West was won

Home made shooting gallery in the basement

Neil Hollands, a friend of mine, back in the days of multimedia and speaker support seemed to always come up with kooky ideas that I don't think anyone else, or a very select few, would dream up let alone go through with undertaking the task of actually bringing said ideas to fruition. Years later (ie. today) I have found that he's still active and creating these masterpieces.

For the western themed party, Westuvus, he put together a black light shooting gallery down in his basement. It was coin (loonie) operated even. When you fired the light gun at a target a shirt would puff up, a dish would spin, eyes would light up, and so on. It was pretty amazing.

Seeing work like this is, for me, is pretty inspirational as it's a movtivates me to get off my ass and work on something just for the fun of it.

I want to believe

Apartment, vacuummed even

Much like the sighting of a UFO, the sasquatch, or Nessie it seems that if I tell someone I'm going to clean my living space I get responses like "Yeah right", "Sure you go on and keep believing that.", "o-kaaay" (said the person as he/she slides across the wall and out of the room).

Granted one of the biggest sceptics would be Zee, my electrocuted lab partner, and room mate of years past. If anyone, he would be the one to not believe or comprehend my saying "I'm going to clean my apartment" as "I'm going to go to sleep" or "I'm going to optimize my hard drive". These are actions I have taken in the past and for Zee are things totally within my grasp of activities.

To pick up a vacuum, mop, broom, wear gloves to scrub tiles, or take a tooth brush (not current) to get guk out from around the sink faucet is rare. Very rare indeed. Zee has seen, first hand, the results of generations of pack rat activites or "saving", as some people like to call it. It's no wonder that his head fills with negativity and nay saying. Cheetahs don't change their spots after all.


bathroom - could be a set for Kubrick's 2001.

Much like the UFO there are times that I will clean (YES CLEAN) but usually it takes place when no one is watching or is present. I must be really bored, I am procrastinating from doing something else, or there's a female involved. The later is a great motivator and as sad as it sounds if it weren't for the opposite sex I'd probably be living my dream as a couch potato.

When your dream is to buy a TV projector to beam on the ceiling to watch movies without getting out of bed, and without leaning at odd angles you know you're taking couch potatoing to new levels. As an aside I haven't figured out the eating thing as I can't eat while lying down. Perhaps if you were in a hospital bed and the ceiling curved so that the image from the LCD projector bolted to your bed was always at a perpendicular axis to your eye line.... obviously you would need a conveyor belt to bring the food from a refridgerated or microwavable area so you wouldn't have to get up.... except to go to the bathroom. There's always the jar option (for doing number 1 at least)... but I digress.

Back to the cleaning entry...
I figured I should really have included a newspaper so you'd know the images were current but if big foot wasn't carrying the paper than why should I pay the dollar to try to convince you the reader.


Shelf organization at it's best.

In case you're wondering why the images are in black and white, the answer is two fold...
a) I wanted to capture the feel of the big foot photos (I suppose I could have shook the camera a bit to give it that blurry feel).
b) my D70, as of today, is in the shop (Nikon) getting it's sensor cleaned so I had to shoot this with the 990. The D70 doesn't take black and white images anyway.

I found out today that normal cleaning of the D70 costs $80. However Nikon (at least Nikon Canada) allows you to get your first cleaning for FREE. Woo Hoo! It's still a trek to get out there but it couldn't have better timing. The turn around time for a cleaning, for a non-NPS owner is 48 hours.

NPS stands for Nikon Professional Services. In order to take part in the NPS program you are required to own two PRO camera bodies and at least two PRO lenses. You also have to have a bunch of tear sheets to be considered for the title. Right now the only PRO digital body is the D2X. yikes.

Back to cleaning the apartment... Just so people don't think I've been possessed by some Molly Maid, my computer desk is still in it's current state of stuff heap-ness. I said I would clean I didn't say it would last more than a day.

It is possible that while visiting Cupcake for christmas she played some christmas music with brain washing encryption giving me urges to neatify my apartment. We'll never know.


Jingle Bells, Apartment Smells,
Make it nice and clean,
Use a scrubber and some soap
vacuum dust that's seen.

repeat first verse

Scrubbing all the surfaces,
making your face seen,
it's not in a mirror,
it's the toilet clean.

Dirt continued

The Toronto Skyline

I'm not really sure what it is but I've become obsessed with the cleaning of things. First the camera, then the bathroom, and now my apartment in general. Cleanliness is a subjective thing. For some, a messy room is a sock on the bed, for others it's the cockroaches complaining there's no room to walk around. My apartment is some where inbetween. Lots of socks, no vermin. I do have a stack of dirty laundry that seems to be growing an an exponential rate. I wonder if they make laundry baskets with wheels?

It's amazing how much junk accumulates on ones desk. CDs, business cards, pens, papers, tiny receipts, elastic bands, dry markers, compact flash containers, compressed air can, batteries, maps (antwerp and Toronto), printer manuals, music CDs, calendar, gum, space invaders peg board, charlie the tuna bobble head, envelopes, post-its, and a Manatee Protection Tip pamphlet. This is just from a precursory look next to my keyboard. Who knows what lurks under the layers of stuff? Oh hey, a waterproof battery container. I was looking for that a while ago. It seems the next thing to organize and clean will be my desk.

So is there a full moon out? What's with this obsession to clean all of the sudden? Your guess is as good as mine.