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Sometimes you know the answers but don't have a context to reveal them.
Like an ex-roommate of mine who was a Shakespeare buff. One sluggish
afternoon, she was listening to CBC radio, where they were giving out prizes
to people who could answer Shakespeare related questions. She immediately
started dialing and actually got on the air. Before they could ask her a
question, she promptly corrected the announcer who she claimed miss quoted
Shakespeare in an earlier question. The announcer laughed and said, "well
you certainly know a lot about Shakespeare." She agreed. Her question was
what 1960's musical was based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. She had no
idea and begged them to ask her a proper Shakespearean question. Couldn't
they give her a quote from one of his plays and she could then tell them
which one it was from. The announcer apologized, but she was stuck with the
original question. She couldn't answer it. Her boyfriend recorded the
whole thing and was kind enough to play it back several times. She was
pretty upset and to make her feel better we sang "I want to live in
Americia, lalalalal'America" periodically for the next few weeks.
instant coffee update:
We just launched our screensaver project with 40 savers made by 34 four
artists and designers in the computers labs at the Ontario College of Art
and Design. You can purchase a cdROM from Art Metropole, Toronto or
download individual designs from our website.
We've recently redesigned our web-site with new graphic designs by Stephen
Crowhurst and remastered by Kate Monro .
The January Show, is schedule from 01.02.03 to 01.15.03 at Zsa Zsa, Toronto
where we will basically move our studio and hold evening slide shows of work
by various artists: to name a few of the slide contributors-- luis jacob,
karen azuoley, scott berry, robin stanbridge, sb edwards, john marriott, jo
cook, tiff iza, jill henderson, marco bortolussi, igor santino, florentine
perro, paulette phillips, elizabeth fearon, greg hefford and the ic crew
plus...
plus a new Vancouver list is in the works. We're starting to collect
emails, so if you are interested in information on local Vancouver events
please subscribe at vancouver@instantcoffee.org.
Send letters to the editor to feedback@instantcoffee.org
TOP |
Saturday Edition Feature
1. Responses to Jin's submarine movie question
I like how questions beget more questions
last issue jin@instantcoffee.org asked a question regarding a specific genre
of submarine movies
"how many submarine movies have you seen?"
here are some random suggestions:
Morgenrot (1933)
Crash Dive (1943)
Morning Departure (1950)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)
Hell and High Water (1954)
Above Us the Waves (1955)
Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
Das Boot (1981)
Crimson Tide (1995)
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
and this is what our readers suggested that i go see; thanks for writing.
jin@instantcoffee.org
from: jonsasaki9@netscape.net
Yellow Submarine, 1968
jonsasaki
from: myluckyrabbitfoot@yahoo.ca
I have long been mocked by friends for my suspiciously phallic adoration of
sub movies. There were a few on your list I hadn't seen...thanks! I have
been planning a film fest with another friend who loves them... we have
decided that we should move the t.v. and watch them in the hallway.
You forgot The Hunt for Red October.
Karen Eull (myluckyrabbitfoot@yahoo.ca)
from: TSusheski@proorganics.com
Oh mi gawd!!!!
How could you over look the BEST, and I mean the BEST submarine movie of all
time.
Hunt for Red October!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sean Conery anyone?
and that new one was really quite good as well.... U571
Check these babies out.... yummy actually
If you ever get the chance to see U571 in an actual theatre, I swear, you
feel like you are in the twisting and turning sub with these guys.....
really.
caio for now
Tracy Susheski (TSusheski@proorganics.com)
from: info@floating.org
Gray Lady Down.
Charles
The Floating Gallery (info@floating.org)
from: ogsicot@look.ca
Red october....big submarines, bad russians, good americans, sexy Sean
Connery.
Catherine (ogsicot@look.ca)
from: pes@1cc.ca
hunt for red october
u-571
pes (pes@1cc.ca)
from: bryanreyna@yahoo.com
how about the Hunt for Red October, or the venerable
Down Periscope, there's U571, Grey Lady Down, The
Enemy Below, Torpedo Alley, The Atomic Submarine, The
Monster From the Ocean Floor, Destination Tokyo, and
then there's Up Periscope, Ice station Zebra,
Submarine Command, Submarine X-1, and Torpedo Run...
Charly Tartan (bryanreyna@yahoo.com)
from: eyepopping@rogers.com
"Gray Lady Down", which scared the heck outta me when I was a kid. Don¹t
know when it was made (late 70s, possibly early 80s).
Jennifer Linton (eyepopping@rogers.com)
from: john.chung@sympatico.ca
Dude,
The Hunt for Red October
U571
Operation Petticoat
John Chung (john.chung@sympatico.ca)
from: jennifer.mcmackon@sympatico.ca
what about the made for tv batman movie from like 1969 where all the
super villains join on a submarine headquarters and conspire to take
over the world by dehydrating the members of the united nations and
holding them hostage in powder form in test-tubes... i have always liked
that one
jennifer m
from: izsa.works@rogers.com
Red October
UB-49
T
from: easyart@sympatico.ca
yet another stupid submarine movie - "till death do us part" -just
finished shooting in TO, will be released probably next year!
jaclyn shoub (easyart@sympatico.ca)
from: sharihatt@yahoo.com
-the abyss
-fantastic voyage
-enemy below
-the day will dawn
-for your eyes only
-the hunt for red october
-operation petticoat
-the spy who loved me
-up periscope
-voyage to the bottom of the sea
-you only live twice
sharihatt (sharihatt@yahoo.com)
from: zenexp@interlog.com
Regarding Submersible Movies (Von Bark 2002):
I have seen around a dozen sub flicks in my time.
As has probably been pointed out, 'Hunt for Red October' (1990) is missing
from your short list. This film is only worthy of note as one of the more
commercially successful of the genre.
Also to be considered for inclusion on the Instant Coffee list of Sub Flicks
are a few distinctive representatives of this form:
'Gray Lady Down' (1978) is a conventional technological distress/rescue
drama with an interesting cast including Charleton Heston, Stacy Keach, Ned
Beatty, & David Carradine. This movie was one of the examples featured in
Cinecyle's 'Cinemascope/La Dolce Vita' event several years ago.
'Ice Station Zebra' (1968) is a cold war thriller with Rock Hudson and
Ernest Borgnine, infamous in trivia history as the relcusive Howard Hughes'
favourite movie. In private makeshift screening rooms in his various hotel
suites he watched his personal reel hundreds if not thousands of times.
'Operation Petticoat' (1959) is a ridiculous navy comedy featuring Cary
Grant, Tony Curtis, a submersible with a bright pink paint-job and numerous
female passengers to distract the crew. Unfortunately I missed the
conclusion as my fellow reviewer, under the influence of psychotropic aids,
found the story "Too Intense".
'The Abyss' (1989) is an often disregarded work in James Cameron's career,
but in my personal opinion a favourite. The scene with the battling
mini-subs is gripping, and the outrageous twist ending is suitably
mind-blowing, although I could note that some critics found it a bit much.
Closely followed by other lesser Sci-Fi/Sub-Epics such as 'Leviathan' and
'Sphere'.
'Shadey' (1985) has virtually nothing to do with submarines, but features a
distinctive little mini-movie about the Russian Navy.
Presumably the Imax documentary about exploring the wreck of the Titanic
counts as a sub flick. I haven't actually seen it but it sounds intriguing.
Did you know that there was a sequel to '20000 Leagues Under The Sea'?
'Mysterious Island' (1961) featured unremarkable acting, Harryhausen special
effects, and Bernard Hermann music.
To my knowledge I am unaware of any movie dealing with the experimental
mini-subs tested during the American Civil War, but this fascinating little
bit of military history could make for an diverting setting.
One of the most interesting submarine movies does not actually exist on
film, but only in fiction: In chapter one of his second novel 'The Crying of
Lot 49' the writer Thomas Pynchon recounts in exquisite detail the plot of
'Cashiered', a forgetten musical/romance/war drama from the thirties
featuring a father/son/dog mini-sub team torpedoing enemy shipping in the
Dardanelles during world war one. This book is very highly recommend!
VB. zenexp@interlog.com
2. Yam Lau responds to Jon Sasaki's review
From: "yam"
To: feedback@instantcoffee.org
Subject: Respond from Yam
Date: Friday 06 December 2002 10:18 AM
Dear Jon,
Thank you for your review. It was nice to have met you and your acquaintances last Friday night at The Way Up and the Way Down are One and the Same. Unfortunately, the opportunity for discussion did not present itself there. Perhaps, the Saturday editorial would provide a chance for dialogue to take place.
I am obliged to respond to your text for a number of reasons. The most important one being that the project at my apartment is a collective effort- a work of generosity perhaps. Hence, I need to clarify a couple of points on behalf of all the artists who have contributed to this project. Another reason is that writing might provide the time for the works to speak, once more, since the works there reveal themselves slowly.
I do not agree with the label conceptual art, with which you designated the work in my apartment. It was too arbitrarily employed. Perhaps it is more beneficial to forego pigeonholing, especially when it is not warranted by precision. It is necessary, however, and especially in a scenario such as Way Up Way Down, to look at the way the works disclose themselves. A number of the works there, the double-hinged door by Yvonne Lammerich for example, directly implicate my practical life. I would say all the works are experiential, that they courteously transformed my perceptions and my daily life in the apartment. Somehow I feel your designation of the works as conceptual is an erroneous approximation based on the appearance of the works-- the way all the works introduce themselves with restraint, and hence respectfully into someone’s dwelling.
Also I am not certain if you are informed that I am not a collector. Perhaps your comparison with me to a Victorian collector is an attempt at humor. But you missed an important point. I do not own the works. They are entrusted to me. I have a different responsibility to these works from that of a collector: I have to transmit their spirit to an audience. So the works are not in my possession, they are animated and animating the space on their own terms, according to which I must negotiate. In most cases I worked attentively with each artist to produce a work, which is never determined in advance. Way Up Way Down is an artist’s project. It is interesting to note that you characterized me as a 'proud collector'. I do feel privileged to be involved in the process of the artists whom I admire. These are the artists who outline the contour of a community for me. I live in Toronto partly because of them. I merely hope this positive energy of trust and generosity initiated through this project can be transmitted.
yam
3. Jon Sasaki responds to Yam Lau's response
Dear Yam,
Thank you for your response, and the opportunity to clarify my previous comments regarding The Way Up and the Way Down are One and the Same. I have a great deal of admiration for, firstly, the work that I encountered at 5 Grafton Ave, and secondly, the decision-making process that went into bringing together such a harmonious group of participants. It is to this second part that my Victorian Collector comparison was intended to speak. It was a respectful analogy for the astute curatorial decisions you have made in assembling these artists. To paraphrase my original review, and hopefully put it a bit more succinctly, the comparison was along the lines of: "analogue to the way the Victorian collector assembled objects using a rigorous discipline of value judgements, Yam Lau has exercised careful consideration to assemble participants with remarkably congruent art practices." That being said, however, I understand that "conceptual" can be seen as an inadequate umbrella term to describe said art practices. I like your term "experiential," and wish I had thought to use it. Better yet, I wish I could have commented individually on every piece I experienced at The Way Up and the Way Down are One and the Same. They were, every one of them, worthy of the kind of precise and considered attention that was sadly prohibited due to space considerations. As we're all aware, in a review of two-hundred word duration, one or two of them will often, unfortunately, be inadequate shorthand, and for this I apologize. As far as my review attempting to include an element of humour, I was fully counting on the Baboon skull comment to serve that function. The Victorian Collector analogy was really an acknowledgement that you, Yam, have played a key role in shaping the entity that is The Way Up and the Way Down are One and the Same, and are deserving of commendation for it.
Jon
4. Sobey's Art Award Ceremony | John Tupper
Whenever I visit Halifax I always stay at the Waverley Inn on Barrington, not because it was where Oscar Wilde stayed when he traveled to that city in 1882 but because of the extensive use of chatchka as a decorating strategy. And because it’s cheap.
This trip was no different, I was in town to attend the Sobey Art Award Ceremony and after a quick check in at the Waverly, including a change of clothes of course, I rushed off to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia with Shauna McCabe, the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. We showed up at the AGNS door 5 minuets before the ceremony was to start and the place was already packed with what appeared to be a mixture of NSCAD students and business people.
The Sobey family has one of the best private collections of historical Canadian art that they keep in a house in historic Pictou County, NS. If you are ever in Pictou on a Wednesday in the summer you can get a tour of this wonderful collection in the Crombie House. The collection, which includes all the Group as well as Emily, Tom, and Cornelius, has a special emphasis on Atlantic Canada in the subject matter. The Sobey’s support for young contemporary artists seems to be in sharp contrast to the historic nature of this collection.
The Sobey Art Award is for Canadian visual artists under the age of 40, in value it ranks with major international visual arts awards like the well publicized Turner Prize in the UK. The top prize is $50,000. and there is also a runner up prize if $15,000. The Sobey Art Award has a distinctly Canadian regional focus in the selection process. Five curators, one each from different part of Canada are chosen to select 5 artists from their region. The list of 25 names is then narrowed down to a short list of 5 and from that the winners are chosen.
After we got past the crack AGNS security we muscled our way through the crowd, Jessica Bradley, Curator of Contemporary Art at the AGO was the first familiar face we spotted, representing Ontario on the selection committee. She was wearing a stunning purple dress which looked great with her signature hair style. While trading kisses with Jessica I spotted Bruce Grenville, the VAG Senior Curator and BC rep on the team. Bruce always looks great because he follows the “good shoes and good haircut” style rule. He has to be the hands down most honest curator I ever met in Canada. Next I caught sight of David Hoffos, the selected artist from the Prairies (chosen by James Patton the former curator of contemporary art at the WAG). David shops for his clothes at the Catholic Charities in Lethbridge and pulls off that disheveled retro look incredibly well.
Before I could spot anyone else my attention was distracted by the ceremony which were starting on the stage where AGNS board chair Don MacVicar was setting the event up by introducing the MC for the night - Ray Cronin the curator of contemporary art at the AGNS. Ray was also the Atlantic representative on the curatorial selection committee. He's young but has a great curatorial eye and quickly introduced Pierre Théberge, the Director of the National Gallery of Canada, who gave a great talk about the importance of the Sobey Art Award and philanthropy in Canada in general.
I was thinking that this is about as close as I’ll ever get to the Academy Awards and tried to compare. Of course it is different but I can see why the Turner Prize had Madonna as give the award in 2001, it’s the celebrity thing that adds a little sparkle. Just as Donald Sobey was about to announce the prize I noticed I was standing right beside Mark Holton. Mark is a member of the Sobey Art Foundation and, like Shauna and I, was representing Charlletown at the event.
Donald said a few brief words before Ray handed him an envelope! Great there is an envelope I thought, just like the Academy Awards. Apparently the final decision on the winners was just made a few hours before the event. The room got very quiet in anticipation, it was like everyone had their favourites, just like me, and were anxious to see if they were right or not. Donald Sobey leisurely opened the envelope and adjusted his glasses to read the names of the winners.
The first to be announced was the runner up which turned out to be David Hoffos. David came up to the stage holding a white rose. After he thanked his mom and dad he gave props to a long list of curators and other artists who he has worked with over the years. Most of the people on his list weren’t in the room but it didn’t matter to David, he is such a sweet guy. And a great artist. Next up was the announcement of the winner and it was Brian Jungen, to almost nobody’s surprise except apparently him. Brian went on stage and looked genuinely astonished that he had won. Like most artists from Vancouver he has incredible taste in clothes and looked great on stage.
With the announcement of the awards the rest was going to be anticlimactic, we applauded the artist and curators and then I noticed for the first time that all the curators were together on one side of the room and all the artists on the other, given what seemed to be a close relationship between them that seemed strange. After the applause an old school jazz band started playing and it was time to schmooze. Bernie Riordon, the previous director of the AGNS had come down from Fredericton to attend the event, and I heard that somebody saw Jeffery Spalding, the incoming AGNS director there as well, though I didn’t see him so can’t confirm. I saw a brief glimpse of Ingrid Jenkner, the director of the Mount Saint Vincent Art Gallery, but she must have left early because I didn’t get a chance to talk to her. I did get a chance to talk to James Patton though and we traded stories about working at the WAG, he has just left there to work as a curator at the Art Gallery of Windsor. Gordon Laurin, the director of the Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery showed up wearing this great lime green shirt and with his trademark sense of humour. I hear that he may leave St. Mary’s at the end of the academic year. I spent some time talking to Peter Dykhuis of the Anna Leonowens Gallery at NSCAD. Peter just got back from two weeks in Holland and is planning a big North Atlantic Rim exhibition. The AGNS eventually started to thin out and it was becoming clear that the bartender wanted to go home. After finishing of a final glass of free wine we headed off to the Economy Shoe Shop for some seafood.
As much as I feel I should hate these types of spectacles I really think they can function to make more people aware of contemporary visual arts in Canada. Though the actual exhibition that accompanied the Sobey Art Award was modest - this is an award for the artist and not the artwork- I felt the work looked remarkably fresh. I would gladly take the work of the three artists in the short list for the Sobey Art Award that didn’t win a prize: Colleen Wolstenholme (the artist representing Atlantic Canada); Marla Hlady (from Ontario); or Jean Pierre Gauthier (the artist from Quebec as selected by Pierre Landry, Curator of Contemporary Art at Le Musee d'Art Contemporain) over any of the recent Turner Prize winners. I think I can live with the clichéd Canadian regional selection process and the spectacle of the event because in the end it’s good for artists and it’s good for contemporary art.
TOP |
International Coffees
From RTMark.com, December 13, 2002
DOW, BURSON-MARSTELLER CLAMP DOWN ON FAKE WEBSITES
But companies find it harder to stifle criticism
Two giant companies are struggling to shut down parody websites that
portray them unfavorably, interrupting internet use for thousands in
the process, and filing a lawsuit that pits the formidable legal
department of PR giant Burson-Marsteller against a freshman at
Hampshire College.
The activists behind the fake corporate websites have fought back, and
obtained substantial publicity in the process.
Fake websites have been used by activists before, but Dow-Chemical.com
and BursonMarsteller.com represent the first time that such websites
have successfully been used to publicize abuses by specific
corporations.
A December 3 press release originating from one of the fake sites,
Dow-Chemical.com, explained the "real" reasons that Dow could not take
responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe, which has resulted in an
estimated 20,000 deaths over the years . "Our prime responsibilities
are to the people who own Dow shares, and to the industry as a whole,"
the release stated. "We cannot do anything for the people of Bhopal."
The fake site immediately received thousands of outraged e-mails.
Within hours, the real Dow sent a legal threat to Dow-Chemical.com's
upstream provider, Verio, prompting Verio to shut down the fake Dow's
ISP for nearly a day, closing down hundreds of unrelated websites and
bulletin boards in the process.
The fake Dow website quickly resurfaced at an ISP in Australia.
In a comical anticlimax, Dow then used a little-known domain-name rule
to take possession of Dow-Chemical.com
(http://theyesmen.org/dow/#story), another move which backfired when
amused journalists wrote articles in newspapers from The New York
Times to The Hindu in India ( http://theyesmen.org/dow/#links), and
sympathetic activists responded by cloning and mirroring the site at
many locations, including http://www.dowethics.com,
http://www.dowindia.com and, with a twist,
http://www.mad-dow-disease.com. Dow continues to play whack-a-mole
with these sites (at least one ISP has received veiled threats).
Burson-Marsteller, the public relations company that helped to "spin"
Bhopal, has meanwhile sued college student Paul Hardwin
for putting up a fake Burson-Marsteller
site, which recounted how the PR
giant helped to downplay the Bhopal disaster. Burson-Marsteller's suit
against Hardwin will be heard next week by the World Intellectual
Property Organization .
Hardwin, unable to afford a lawyer, has composed a dryly humorous
57-page rebuttal to the PR giant's lawsuit. On page 7,
for instance, the student notes that Burson-Marsteller's
"stated goal
is 'to ensure that the perceptions which surround our clients and
influence their stakeholders are consistent with reality.'" Hardwin
goes on to assert that his satirical domain is doing precisely that,
by publicizing "academic and journalistic materials about
Burson-Marsteller's involvement with and relationship to, for example,
Philip Morris and the National Smoker's Alliance, a consumer front
group designed to create the appearance of public support for
big-tobacco policies; Union Carbide and the deaths of 20,000 people
following the 1984 disaster in Bhopal; and political regimes such as
that of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and more recently Saudi
Arabia following the events of September 11; and to properly associate
them with the relevant Trademark so that they may be understood
accordingly by Internet users."
In response to the suit's claim that "a substantial degree of goodwill
is associated with [the Burson-Marstellar Trademark]" Hardwin offers
much "evidence to the contrary" including "a newspaper headline in
which the Complainant is characterized as 'the Devil.'"
The primary goal of RTMark is to publicize
corporate subversion of the democratic process. Just like other
corporations, it achieves its aims by any and all means at its
disposal. RTMark has previously helped to publicize websites against
political parties,
political figures, and entities like the
World Trade Organization
and the World Economic Forum.
Contact:
Paul Hardwin: phardwin@yurt.org
DowEthics.com: info@dowethics.com
TOP |
Mr Brown
instant coffee link
www.fischerspooner.com
nice design. great illustrations.
selected links
www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
Google's Year End report on the top searches of the year, illustrated with charts.
www.genevievegauckler.com
a design, art site. see for yourself
www.xs4all.nl/~boewoe
Boekie Woekie makes postcards in Amsterdam.
drivedrive.com alerted us to these guys:
Boekie Woekie is an artist-run bookstore in Amsterdam. Its members include German Fluxus artist Jan Voss and Icelandic artists Runa Thorkelsdóttir and Henriëtte van Egten. As well as a wide selection of books by artists, Boekie Woekie carries multiples (such as T-shirts by drivedrive com) and artworks of their own production, such as this series of Postcards by Boekie Woekie.
All postcards will ship directly from Boekie Woekie, Berenstraat 16, 1016 GH Amsterdam, Netherlands.
submitted links
www.2blowhards.com
"In which two graying eternal amateurs discuss their passions, interests and obsessions, among them: movies, art, politics, evolutionary biology, taxes, writing, computers, these kids these days, and lousy Ivy educations".
http://99-bottles-of-beer.ls-la.net
One program in 487 computer languages.
ic supporter links
http://www.steamwhistle.ca/
http://www.thinoffice.com
http://www.easydns.com
http://www.techno.ca
TOP |
Tasters Choice
Vietnamese Coffee (hot)
submitted by Kate who is "sorry to be out of touch lately... i'm in 56 k modem land in vietnam".
1/2 c boiling water
2 to 3 tablespoons of ground coffee
Drip or pour coffee into a glass containing 2 tablespoons of
sweetened condensed milk. For iced coffee add ice.
* Vietnamese aluminum coffee drip filter can be found in china town.
TOP |
Ten Ten
1. Cheek | JP
Instant Coffee first heard from Lisa Schwartzman in the spring. She was
producing a television show, CHEEK, for Fashion TV, a new digital channel
backed by CityTV, Toronto. She heard about our T-shirt Show and wanted to
do a segment on it. We staged another event at the Urban Disco Trailer,
artists came donning their T-shirt designs, we drank beer, listened to
cassette tapes of Mexican radio, ate hotdogs and performed for the camera.
Later we all (Lisa and camera crew included) went to the Power Plant,
Toronto for the opening of their summer exhibitions. We wanted to co-opt
their audience to promote the T-shirt Show. We wore our T-shirts, handed out
catalogues and again hammed it up for Lisa.
Lisa promised us some of the raw footage and of course a copy of the edited
segment. We hadn't heard from her in almost six months, expect for a heads
up email that mentioned some problems with the avid system, until a couple
of weeks ago. She wanted to invite the I.C. crew over to her apartment to
watch the first episode of CHEEK. Our segment didn't make the first cut
(but is scheduled for the second episode), so we wouldn't get to see it that
night. Regardless, some of us went over to get a sense of the show and what
Lisa was up to.
After some cheese and wine and a bit of urging from an eclectic audience of
other TV folk and some of the artists who made the cut, the show began. Opening with
a close up shot of a hand slapping and grabbing his or her butt, it then faded
into a graphic spiral with Lisa in the middle. The first segment was on
Fischerspooner, leaders in new new wave. We got shots of live performances,
some behind the scenes antics and a bit of funny banter with the King
Spooner, Casey, and his stylist, who revealed that Casey didn't want too
look faggy, but was after something more macho. Bollywood macho was the
conclusion.
Another segment included some images and sound bites from one of Joel Gibb
and Karen Azouley's dress up parties. They gathered a group of friends,
threw a pile of clothes, wigs and other accessories (brought potluck style)
into the middle of the room and then it was a free for all. The result was
a collage of glamorously kooky outfits from futuristic aristocrat to
hodgepodge temptress. Lisa also got some great footage of Will Monro and
group of models (Will's friends) racing through traffic in downtown Toronto
wearing only Will's stylized briefs. She also interviewed a celebrity
obsessed artist (can't remember his name) from New York, who would roll out
the red carpet for anyone willing to pay $99.00.
Although fashion was the link that brought all of these artists and
performers together, CHEEK didn't feel like a show about fashion. Instead
it located fashion as just a small part of larger cultural activities. It
seemed to be interested in the way a group of individuals got together to
make something happen, emphasizing the process rather than any finished
product. If only Zed TV had a little more cheek. Rating:9/10
2. The New Sobey's in Ajax | by Sobeys Club Member 8549376081
As part of Andrew Patterson's timeline running through the YYZ Publication of Money Value Art, we find on page 220 the following:
"1994-An anonymous Halifax artist place homemade cookies in a local Sobey's grocery store. The cookies were shaped like letters, spelling out "WORDS". The packages included Sobey's style bar code stickers. Sobey's engaged the RCMP, but no avail".
A new oppurtunity for such interventions (and a chance to get onto their Art Award radar) has opened in the sleepy little car heaven of Ajax Ontario. Ajax is like the battle ground of a Japanese Anime or Godzilla movie. Two giants go head to head in lumbering combat - in this case, it's big box retail outlets engaged in capitalistic competition. Sobey's opens up a new 24 hour store, at the corner of Westney and Hwy 2 - while up the street, there's a 24hr Dominion, and down the street, a Lobelaws. It'll be a good christmas for the plastic bag manufacturers.
The colour scheme is a bit depressing, a coca-and-cream motif with beige and Sobey's green. Gastrointestinal propaganda is everywhere, "This way to great meal ideas" "Great meal ideas await you" "May your next meal be a great one" etc etc, although, those are paraphrases since I don't want to remember such sillyness verbatim. The ceiling reveals the girders and ventilation pipes covered with clumpy foam insulation , painted that terrible brown, which I find distasteful.
The layout is awkward. My first impression, with low fruit stalls and bakery at the entrance, is that it resembled the Dominion up the street. I wanted to buy bath supplies and looked all over nearest the entrance, where such things usually are grocery stores, but it was way in the back where one would expect to find frozen food. I had a hard time finding everything I was looking for. This happens whenever I go into any new g-store, so that's not really a surprise, but it is still annoying. Why is it they flirt with standardization (putting fruit at the entrance) and then do something unique (like putting the bath supplies in the far corner)?
Just as we know that the foam monster with flailing arms in a Tokyo studio is just some guy in a suit making some easy money, we also know that Sobey's doesn't give a shit about it's customers as long as they keep choosing their store over the kilometre away competition, so they too can make some easy bucks to give away at cheesy award ceremonies. Everyone is complaining about the staff - they're undertrained and are making mistakes. At checkout, the girl had to cancel one input three times before she got it right. The other day, my mother was charged 21.95 instead of 12.95, which she was lucky to catch a couple of days later and get corrected. The staff all look young, the majority seem to be under 25, and "in store procedure" takes precedence over "customer service".
I think I'm going to stick to buying my food at Loblaws.
Rating: 5/10
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Sanka
1. Yeah Yeah Christmas | Winnie Tennesse
From: Winnie Tennesse
To: Timothy Comeau
Subject: more prattle than dialogue
Date: Wednesday 11 December 2002 1:49 PM
I think that it is time that we broach the subject of the Christmas
list; what are you giving to the family? And how much money is this all
going to cost?
Yes, yes, I know that the thought of pressing those keys is getting
harder and harder to manage when you think about all the obligation of gift
giving. I'm certainly not going to be the one to ruin it... In the middle
of the night during Vancouver's rains, I found myself bolt upright awake
really considering asking my doctor for some Valium pills for Christmas day.
That way I could drift right thought the approaching anxiety. There wasn't
much debate going on, simply picking through the words that would let him
know that I had thought about the pros and cons of taking the medication, so
that he wouldn't have to, so as it stands, "I really think that I will not be
able to deal with the stress of that day, and for my sake...for every
bodies sake, I think that it is important that you give me something to make
it all o.k. ...". I don't like drinking, ever since I had an episode of
blood alcohol poisoning, however it's not so bad - I used to puke after half
a beer, now I can drink almost two before I start to feel sick. Everybody
else will be drunk.
Last night the thought of being asked, "Hey Winnie, you seem kind of
out of it today. Are you ok ?", wasn't really addressed. And I think that
you and I both know that this letter is really kind of a joke. That in the
middle of the night, the things that we think aren't that reliable. As
much as I would love to take two tabs of Valium and drift right past
Christmas day, I sort of know that would ruin it for everybody.
My brother is coming. Gianni will be with us for the few day leading
up to Christmas, only to go to his mother's. Mother and Father. We have no
relatives except for an extended family of ex-patriots from South Africa that I
suppose are the closest to family that we now have. In memory, after the
gifts are given the long slog of winter begins, and I think that is where
most of the anxiety comes from. While on the 21st we will all observer the
shortest day of the year, that pails in comparison of January and February's
bleakness. I remember in a past letter you had mentioned that you felt a
little depressed by the weather, so suppose that I can count on you to
understand just exactly what I mean when I say that seasonal depression
begins in earnest after the Christmas presents are opened - what little
light the spirit of Christmas has afforded, powered by the bustle of
commerce trying to make it in the last quarter, goes out like a light.
So there is the question, that to give? I think that I'll get my
mom a coffee cup. My dad a flash light, and yes my brother a flask of
silent Sam.
2. Movies Timothy saw in 2002
Dr Strangelove - 10 Feb (dvd)
Imax/Blue Planet (dvd) - 11 Feb
Amelie - 12 Feb
Brotherhood of the Wolf - 13 Feb
Queen of the Damned - 23 Feb
AI- 5 Mar (video)
The Time Machine - 8 Mar
Cremaster 1 & 4 - 19 Apr
Metropolis - 27 Apr (video)
AI [dvd] - 2 May
Citizen Kane [dvd]-4 May
Spiderman - 7 May
Full Metal Jacket[dvd]-11 May
Dancer in the Dark- 11 May
Star Wars II - 16 May
Atanajurat - 23 May
Minority Report - 27 June
Star Trek Nemisis - 13 December
The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers - 19 December
still on the "to see" list:
Gangs of New York
Bowling for Columbine
Adaptation
Frida
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Feedback
1. From: "Campbell, Myron"
To: everyone@instantcoffee.org
Subject: thank you
Date: Sunday 15 December 2002 5:56 PM
i don't know who this is going to go to but i have been subscribed to one of
your events lists for halifax for about a year and i love it. not very much
went unmentioned. very informative. also i would just like to thank you all
for your hard work in keeping those lists consistent. because of your lists
i'm now working at the banff arts centre in banff alberta all because i
contacted shannon mcdonnell from one of your lists.
i wouldn't be here if it werent' for you guys so and i would also like to
add that i love your site. very edgey. stepen crowhurst is quite amazing. i
would like the opportunity to give back to instant coffee somehow. maybe
just let me know if you would like me to contribute artwork or anything
really just let me know how i can help you since you helped me.
http://www.notsosimpleton.com
thank you so very much you beautiful souls!
myron
2. From: "Barlows.oversion9"
To: feedback@instantcoffee.org
Subject: (ic-events) Instant Coffee Saturday Edition, Issue 11, November 30 2002
Date: Sunday 01 December 2002 6:02 PM
Funniest issue yet. Unexpected jump up humour.
Gus, you should get the whole thing.
Instant Coffee goes great with a one a day tablet.
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Dustyn Vallejo, EXTRA ESPECIAL No.16 Babel Fish translation: dustyn hatred, wishes that passes best Christmas you of all your kitchen maid life.
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Instant Coffee Saturday Edition is our (sort of) monthly email/online zine. Saturday Edition compliments to Instant Coffee's email list service, which has been promoting local, national and international events to a targeted audience since 2000.
Instant Coffee Saturday Edition takes submissions. We're interested in graphics, articles reviews and links about music, video/film, art exhibitions, architecture and design for the sections as above ... and self indulgences for the Sanka section. Send submissions to saturday@instantcoffee.org
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Saturday Edition content submissions can be emailed to saturday@instantcoffee.org. Email IC to ADD or REMOVE yourself to IC EVENTS LIST: local toronto/ontario and inter/national posts. IC HALIFAX LIST: local halifax/maritime and inter/national posts. IC VANCOUVER: local vancouver and inter/national posts. IC NATIONAL LIST: inter/national posts only. Art related only. Post for FREE, but no Guarantees. |
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