Post Forty-One

Hello all!

Like I said in the previous entry, I expected my post for the month of July to be late. That was to be expected anyways though, I just returned from a trip to the east coast at the end of July, and I've been trying to relax a bit ever since.

The trip was not for leisure purposes, it was for my Grampa's funeral, who passed away last December due to cancer. It's sad that I was able to go to the east coast because of that, but I'm glad to have visited his hometown. My Grampa was born in Canso, Nova Scotia, a small town on the tip of the province. It's absolutely beautiful there, and he's now resting in peace in a beautiful graveyard beside his mother. It's haunting that he passed away around the time that his his mother did; she also died in December. The place where my Grampa is now buried overlooks the ocean on one side, and a forest on the other. It's a really serene place, so I'm glad that he's there now.


It wasn't all sad though, my family did manage to check out the small town of Canso, as well as Halifax, Nova Scotia, Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, and some places in the provinces of New Brunswick and Québec as well. We were lucky enough to see a few places because my aunts took turns driving. Sitting in a car for long periods of time with cranky family members was no fun, but getting to explore the different places and seeing how people live was great. I found that these provinces have a lot of beautiful nature. I took several pictures, some from the car- but they were hard to capture since it's difficult to capture things in motion. Some did turn out pretty decent though, so I'm pleased about that. I'll be writing a separate entry about this trip, since there's a lot of detail to go into.

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In other news, I'm still hoping to travel to the opposite coast before summer ends. I've wanted to go to Vancouver for a few years now, so I'm hoping that this year that will finally happen. The first thing I would like to see when I arrive would have to be a totem pole, native art has always amazed me. I've been working hard creating some art to sell, so I'll be using whatever money I make from my art for the trip. With luck, hopefully some people will buy! I can safely say that this is my job for the rest of the summer, but I enjoy what I'm doing! I may have the opportunity to sell some art at the Parkdale Bazaar, so I'll be selling more than just my pins. I'll also be selling some cards, bags, t-shirts, paintings, drawings, bookmarks, and maybe some jewelry.

I'm selling my pins in another shop now! They are now being sold at a place called Café 260 in my city. The café is great because there's a ton of art in it, and there's an art gallery right next door called Gallery 260.

I think it's obvious by now that I've been working on my art pretty often, and recently I've really enjoyed creating some cards and postcards. I created some for my pen pals on tumblr, which you may see below:









(All of these pieces were created using coloured inks and/or black ink)

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Still on the topic of art, I was feeling extremely inspired when I went to the Toronto Outdoor Art Festival. I meant to apply for a table for the festival, but the deadline escaped my mind completely....oh well, there's always next year! Anyways, the festival is awesome because it's basically a giant outdoor art gallery where you get to walk around and see different works, different styles, and different subjects (basically just a lot of diversity). There are different kinds of art too, ranging from illustration, painting, printing (etching, engraving, etc.), jewelry making, sculpture, etc. I ended up buying a print there by an artist named Jacob Rolfe. The print was of a peacock, and it was only 5 bucks! Walking around, I noticed that a lot of art was very pricey. I understand that people have to make a living, and it's certainly not easy making a living as an artist, but I'd just like to know how other artists determine what is a justifiable price for their work. I've been having difficulty pricing my work, so I'd like to know where these artists are coming from.

Some of my favourite artists at the show included: Mike Parsons, Amanda McCavour, Ilichna Morasky, LA Jones Jewelry, Dani Crosby, Mafalda Silva, Miyoshi Kondo, George Raab, Jesse Lown, Denise St. Marie,Erin Hogue, Pipe and Punty Glass art by Robert Tannahill and Miia Virtasalmi, Julia Hepburn, Daniel St. Amant, Agnieszka Foltyn, Debra Tate-Sears, Lizz Aston, Shaun Downey,Jean Pierre Schoss,Pat Dumas-Hudecki, Joan McNeil, Soyeon Kim, Nahúm Flores, Sylvia Naylor, Rickson Jewellery, Beverley Hawksley, Sam Mogelonsky, Yue Heng Duan, Peter Barelkowski, Dianne Davis, Jon Muldoon, Richard Metzger, and Lucilla Bonfanti (she doesn't have a website).

I probably picked up too many business cards, haha. I'm a shy person, but I was able to talk to some of the artists really easily. It's easier to talk to people when you can relate to them about something, especially something that you're passionate about.
I'll definitely be returning next year! To see a list of all the artists, visit the Toronto Outdoor Art Festival Site.

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On the same day as the art festival, one of my friends was generous enough to invite me to go see a Just for Laughs comedy show at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre. From what I read at the wikipedia entry, the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres are a set of stacked theatres. We watched the show in the Winter garden Theatre, which was absolutely beautiful. The stage had this really intricate flower border,branches twisted around the room onto the different seating levels, and leaves hung down from the ceiling. I would highly recommend watching a show in the theatre just to take a look! I'm losing my train of thought though, so back to the show!

The Just for Laughs Show was called 'The Relationship Show', and had stand-up comedians talking about being married, having kids, getting into relationships, etc. Comedians included Tom Papa, John Heffron, Maryellen Hooper, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Jim Breuer. Tom made me laugh the most, but the other comedians were hilarious as well. Jim Breuer's imitations of animals were dead-on, and at one point he even managed to break the microphone stand! Let's just say I was laughing for the whole show! That was my first time going to see a stand-up comedy show, and I plan on going to another one sometime!

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This month has been very eventful for me, especially because of the fact that I finally met my half-brother after 15 years! It was honestly one of the better days of my life. Me and my sister ended up going to the Toronto Zoo with my half-brother and his family, and it was a lot of fun! I like going to the zoo, but I feel kind of bad visiting there knowing that the animals are living in captivity, and not in their natural habitats. On the other hand though, it's helping to preserve those animals that could soon become endangered, or are already endangered. I haven't been to the zoo since I was 12 or so, so it's been a long time. Strangely enough, I remembered most of what I saw there when I was younger. Thank you, photographic memory. I especially remembered the Dholes, the animals that look like a combination of a fox and a dog. I remember being afraid of them when I was younger, since the barriers between the animals and people at the zoo weren't very good, and they were looking pretty hungry. The zoo is divided up into different regions of the world, with animals from different regions in that area of the zoo. My favourites were the Red Panda, Snow Leopard, Jellyfish,Orangutans,Barbary Sheep/Aoudads, Otters, and Arctic Foxes. We didn't get to see the whole zoo (it's huge, and there's a lot of walking to do, especially with younger kids), but it was still a great day.

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This month I went to one show, and that was for Bastard Noise w/The Endless Blockade, The Rita, Disciples of Christ, and Abyss. The show was on July 3rd at the Polish Combatants Hall. I had actually been to the Polish Combatants Hall the previous year for Nuit Blanche, where they had displayed some art. So being at the place for a show was different, but it was cool being there again. It's a small venue, but not that many people showed up, maybe around 100 or so. The show took some time to get on the road, so it ended late. At one point while we were all still waiting for the bands to set up, apparently a fire broke out outside somewhere, so people were going outside to see what had happened, haha. It helped to kill some time I suppose. Luckily, nobody was hurt in the fire.

But back to the show...All the opening bands' sets were really short, lasting for about anywhere from 10 minutes-1/2 hr. First up was Disciples of Christ, who played some grindcore. The guitarist kept playing with this really weird stance, you just have to see in the photos I took. I don't know how he managed to stay like that for the set.


Abyss was next, who played grindcore. I don't remember much, other than that the lead singer kept spitting into the audience.






The Rita's set was the shortest, lasting about 10 minutes. I remember sitting down waiting for him to set up, and then just hearing this wave of noise. His set was entirely noise, with one man playing around with various switches and pedals to create noise.



The Endless Blockade were up next, with a set that lasted about 20-25 minutes. This was their final show ever, but it was my first time ever seeing them. They put on a good set, a mixture of powerviolence and noise. They managed to get a pit going, and the lead singer even joined in. He was always walking around the room during the set. At one point he even screamed in my face, ahhahaa.





Finally, Bastard Noise played their set, which was about an hour. Their music is just what their name suggests; it's very experimental. I enjoyed their music thoroughly! The bassist was quite charismatic, he kept making these ridiculous faces while he was playing the bass. I wish I had got some more pictures of their set, but my camera batteries were dying by that point. The bassist ended up dedicating a song to my sister's boyfriend, who was also at the show, which was pretty cool! Watch this video to see the dedication:



Click the numbers below to watch more videos from the show:
[1]|[2]|[3]|[4]

I think you can see me in one of the videos near the front, the girl with the long wavy purplish-red hair, wearing a black jacket :P (I did not film any of these videos, credit goes to another person who was at the show)

It was a great show all in all! I'm glad I brought earplugs though, I could actually hear after the show. To see more photos from the show, visit my flickr.

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Lately, I've been thinking of starting my own doom metal/drone/sludge project. I'm pretty sure it will be just an individual project, but I might see of some other people want to join me. This means that I'll have to start investing in some pedals to create different effects and sounds, learn how to write music, and do plenty of experimentation. Writing music is something very new to me, so I really don't know where to begin, other than to look to other bands for inspiration. Bands/projects that have inspired me to give creating my own music a shot have included bands like Nadja, Corrupted, Münn, Isis, Coffins, The Angelic Process, Tim Hecker, and many more.

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Food


I've been practicing my food photography lately, and I'm beginning to see what makes a better photo. Sometimes photos have to be edited, but other times they can be left alone. When I edit my photos, I usually just tweak the lighting levels a bit, and work with cropping. On the left I have a photo of a Montr&eactute;al style bagel with almond butter, nutella, and sliced bananas on it- one of my favourite things to eat! Another sandwich I've been making a lot lately is an English muffin sandwich with vegan bologna, margarine, mustard, cheese and arugula. You could also try that combination with a croissant. I really enjoy sandwiches- they're easy to make, they taste good, and you can experiment with different combinations! I think lately I've been eating more sandwiches than usual, haha. Because I don't have any recipes to share, I'm going to post a link to a website where you can try out a bunch of different vegetarian sandwiches! Visit the following links:

vegetarian sandwiches on veg.ca
vegan yum yum 1
vegan yum yum 2
vegan yum yum 3
vegan yum yum 4
recipes on vegweb
recipes on vegan chef
recipes on veg cooking
recipes on vegetarian times

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Film

Ed Wood is a film about Edward Davis Wood who was a director/screenwriter that has been ridiculed for his work. The director is known for films like Plan 9 from Outer Space. In the film, Johnny Depp plays the director, and shows how the director went on with his life in the film industry, and his life outside the film industry. Depp manages to capture Wood as a somewhat eccentric man, but also as a man who is dedicated to his work and is passionate about it.

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Music

Bonedust.



Bonedust is a drone/doom/experimental project by two women from Providence, Rhode Island. Their music is probably some of the weirder stuff I've listened to, but it grew on me. The music is really creepy and eerie, but their self-titled album is well worth the listen.

Hooded Menace.



Hooded Menace are a doom metal/sludge group from Finland. Lately I've been listening to their album Fulfill the Curse a lot. 'Grasp of the Beastwoman' is a track that I could play over and over. They'll be at the Maryland Deathfest next year, so I definitely want to go!


Jónsi & Alex.



Jónsi & Alex is an ambient project between a couple, namely Jón Þór Birgisson from Sigur Rós, and his boyfriend named Alex Somers. Riceboy Sleeps is a beautiful album to listen to just before you go to sleep, or if you just want to chill out. The album really makes me feel like I'm in a dream state, it's beautiful. 'Happiness' and 'Atlas Song' are two songs I find myself falling asleep to often.

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Artist of the Month

Irina Vinnik.



I was drawn to her work because of all the swirls! I think the linework in her art is absolutely stunning, it's extremely precise and just has a kind of flow to it. Usually she starts off with linework, and then tweaks it using digital software, changing the colouring and background. Her work often features nature, but with a more abstracted and psychedelic twist.

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Well that concludes this entry! Summer's coming to a close, and I'm determined to make my goals for the month happen. I'll try not to have next month's entry late. Enjoy the rest of your summer! :)

Khoda hafaz. (Goodbye in Farsi)