Labels: dream, echo, experiment

One of my favorite moments of any week would be the moment I hear Jonathan Goldstein speak from my radio. Not only is his show entertaining, but his voice is like that of the shy friend you had in secondary 2. It is no secret that I love the CBC radio broadcasts. In fact, I will even offer up that I only listen to that station and that station only. The dial on my old Sanyo stereo (with the amazingly mysterious AMSS!) has never turned since I have settled in my Montreal flat, back in May.

I listen to Daybreak when I get up in the morning so I can hear audio clips from Maher Arar's stand and to the political play du jour, for Pierre Landry’s cultural spot and to see how many layers of clothing I should wear before stepping out. Then, at other random times, I flick on the switch to listen in on whatever is playing while I paint, cook or tidy up. But never while I write. I cannot write and listen to the CBC at the same time, it is impossible.

As I was saying, Jonathan puts out a great show called Wiretap and I want to share with you this small pleasure of listening to his hilarious improvised sketches, stories and my personal favorite, his perfectly timed tongue-in-cheek telephone conversations. Even his guests are spot on.

Click here to hear a 26 minute long broadcast of “The Gentleman's Guide to Grooming” with John Hodgman, author of “The Areas of My Expertise,” an exercise in literary parody.

Also, a little visual bonbon, click here to see an amazing animation of "Joseph's Coat" written by Jonathan Goldstein, and animated by Gregor Ehrlich. It's Paint that flies across your screen like play doh on skates.

Labels: beard, echo, hair, phone, radio

There are many ordinary objects around me that I sometimes perceive as meaningful reminders like I would a road sign. There are many songs, words, forms, behaviors that I often appropriate for no other reason but to give meaning to my life or a reason to believe that there is more to it than the mere appearance of living.

Life, I have discovered, is now for me synonym of connectedness. I admit it took me some time, but never did I presume being quick at anything but dreaming. Which is good because dreaming is what helped me get where I am today... The songs, words, forms and behaviors that could be mine are also, in my mind, a part of everyone I am in contact with. And this is true in manifestations that I cannot conjure on my own. So, it IS because either I will it to be, either because I believe it to be or because of some other relation that I am not aware of, but all in connection with another belief that is not my own. My thoughts are like radio waves. Your thoughts are like echoes and vice versa.

A few years ago, if you were to tell me anything like this I may have had trouble understanding what it all meant. But now, by the grace of those in my life, I am open to more possibilities and potentialities. Even those that by their human term are gone, they remain in my life by their intentions and actions strung in the code of my experience, my body and soul. And nothing can take that away from me because, in my mind, what I am witness to is transformed into knowledge which is transferred through thought, which must evaporate like puddles and reform as clouds and rain. Rain falls on everyone. Is it new or old? I don’t know. But it falls on all of us. My tear drops on my head.

It is hard to separate myself from what everyone goes through. It’s hard to start a revolution with an object that is doomed to be destroyed. It’s hard to believe in a love that will turn the world around the other way when what holds our love will one day disappear. So we have this moment with all that we let it offer us and what we give back.

The letters, numbers and all the objects in between ARE because someone willed them to be. Love and its family IS because someone believed in it.

You say “Trust” and although I know little about you, I trust the part of you that is symbolic. You say “Feeling” and yes, that is where they meet. So if what you see means that someone loves you, then that is what it is. Let it be a reflection of something that gives you Hope and let that hope move you to where you want to be with and within the world. Like I said, it is the soul of those around me that reflects what I need to survive the appearance of living. And if I were to break it down to smaller pieces, it would still reflect the same thing in every part: truth.

Yet, this is all in my mind. Or anywhere else I decide to put it.

Labels: artform, theory

It is another awareness day.

Another awareness year come and gone.

On Dec 31st, Stephen Lewis’s tenure as UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa comes to an end. For five and a half years, he’s criss-crossed Africa and the world at breakneck speed. His crammed schedule has included endless speeches and high level meetings with Presidents, UN officials and anyone who will listen to his impassioned plea for Africa. Possessing an intricate knowledge of the continent, he's made countless visits to grassroots projects: they give him great hope but also disturb him most deeply because the spectre of death is still everywhere. Each death haunts him. He rarely sleeps on these epic journeys – in fact it's not clear when he gets any rest at all.

The Nature of Things has already made 2 documentaries following Stephen Lewis's work in Africa (Race Against Time, 2001 & The Value of Life, 2003). Both won many awards, and The Value of Life raised $120,000 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Now we set out again with an indefatigable Stephen Lewis on one of his last missions, to assess the global response and continue his own emotional-roller coaster journey. With him we visit South Africa and Lesotho. We see his delight and pain at witnessing the strength and carnage at the grassroots level. In Lesotho, one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic, there is new optimism. Lazarus-like, the sick are rising from their deathbeds, thanks to a rollout of antiretroviral drugs.

Watch

Stephen Lewis: The man who couldn't sleep
Special Edition: Airing Wednesday December 6 at 8pm on CBC-TV
Watch an excerpt (Runs: 5:17)

Labels: header

Dear Charlie,

The weekend has been rewarding. I have had time to think and look back on some events and conversations to realize that maybe I have lost touch with reality and clarity. Friday, I came home and dressed down to full cotton solace. I remained so until Sunday evening, up to the moment when a friend called me away. If it had not been for him, I would have stayed parked at my desk until late, trying to read or write things properly. But as I said, the weekend was beneficial. I was in dire need of time… to recharge and recover from the drain of unfinished matters.

Now after a couple of steps forward, I have the energy to take some more. But not too much, and not all at the same time, you know?

Sometimes there are just too… oh never mind. I have no excuse. I am a slow poke. And while the world spins and heavy metal is thrown my way, I hum and try my best to not get trampled by businessmen and I-pod dancers. I think that is my reality.

After cleaning my brushes, folding my clothes and raising my voice, there are more images of mountaintops and ocean depths in the back of my mind that get colored in, inch by inch, with the multiplication of light bulbs that grow out of the holes in the wall.

Of course, now and then I am misunderstood. But I really don’t mind. As long as there is a pulse… there is always a chance to revisit that thought and clarify.

Labels: Dear Charlie

there is a difference between dreaming and hoping
as between dreamed and realized
and acknowledged and acted upon

peace to the departed
who now cannot reach any of this

I only have a few channels for teevee time. One of the most interesting ones is Télé-Québec which has introduced me to the great “Les Citadins du rebut global” series. As an idealist, I look to this effort for inspiration for my own dwelling evolution. For me (age x era), there is nothing more attractive than a whole made of salvaged pieces than a giant made from raw materials.

Take five committed urbanites, an abandoned Montreal building, $15,000, 75 litres of gas and all the scrap materials they can scavenge and give them 13 weeks to make themselves a home. What do you have ? Les Citadins du rebut global, a highly unusual experiment in ecological urban living !

What you see here is a sofa that was made out of an old oil tank. It is one of a kind and you will not find it in your ikea catalog.

Labels: echo, jargon, video