Month: April 2014

A lot of us had the same idea this morning and the lakeside population swelled quite nicely. As I looked out across the hazy water, thinking how pleasant it was to enjoy one of nature’s sweeter days, I picked up a snippet dialogue from a boardwalker passing with her friend. “… and they were giving no thought to cashflow and the really important stuff.”

As the CBC announces that it will stop broadcasting pro sports, we can all cheer. There was never a need to have pro sports paid for by taxpayers. There are plenty of businesses able and eager to do the job.
Some of us (ahem) will cheer a little more loudly than others. Hockey season used to mean that CBC was effectively “down” much of the time. Olympic extravagances had a similar effect.
As CBC shrinks away from popular programming that it cannot afford to carry, will its survival be threatened? I hope not. Audience numbers will decline, and advertising revenues with them, but there is still a useful role to play, covering public affairs that are important to the nation, but not entertaining.

Those who steal our trust are exceptional villains. Look at what happens to us, after we’ve suffered such loss. We must bear the expenses of bigger, stronger locks, live under surveillance cameras and submit to scrutiny like prison inmates at airports and borders.
We add layers and layers of security personnel, watchers watching the watchers, until the cost of doing anything becomes staggering. Budgets once sufficient to achieve results must balloon, to pay for more police, more guards, more lawyers. Auditors must count these costs, to catch cheaters and the auditors themselves must be investigated when fraud is suspected.
How expensive all this is! Resources we need to do productive things are syphoned off to pay for protections we didn’t need when we had trust.
Perhaps our ability to trust has become too weak, for lack of exercise. Perhaps, too, society’s severest penalties should apply to those who breach public trust. It is a very costly crime.

Does it worry you, knowing that Condoleeza Rice has just joined the board of the giant online storage company?
No? You’re waiting for Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld to get on board before you move your stuff?
George Dubya won’t be joining. His paint-by-numbers work requires his full attention.

Toronto Public Library card holders may take out 5 streaming loans per month … movies and music. Movies are available for three days, albums for seven. Content is automatically “returned” when the time is up. You get a fresh 5 loans each month but you can’t carry over unused loans from previous months.
Why try to list what’s available when you can go see for yourself?

Would you pass up a chance to make a rhyming headline? Neither would I.
Two announcements:
I have maxxed the RAM in my iMac to 6 gigs, using a kit I imported from Other World Computing.
I have also begun work on another Colombo book cover. The man never rests. His latest is about Sax Rohmer, inventor of the evil Dr. Fu Manchu.
The RAM increase was in anticipation of installing the latest, free OS X operating system from Apple, called Mavericks. Although I am pleased to have more RAM, I have decided not to let Mavericks onto my iMac yet. It has a bad reputation for slowing down computers and I don’t think more RAM will be enough to solve the problem. I shall wait for a later version.

Danica and I were among the first to see this important show, which opened today at the Art Gallery of Ontario and runs until July 20th. Of course, Torontonians are privileged to own a large collection of works by Henry Moore, but this was my first viewing of Francis Bacon‘s work, other than in reproduction.
So Bacon first. The AGO has had to display the huge, framed canvases behind shiny glass and has been unable to light them satisfactorily. Reflections of the surrounding gallery, patrons and lights make viewing difficult. It’s bad enough to be serious problem, especially for Bacon’s darkest pictures, which act as mirrors. Too bad.

True story:
Our friend Kathy Bertrand tipped a neighbour to the fact that kitty litter is as good as sand on slippery, icy sidewalks.
When she saw that her advice had been taken, she went to the neighbour again.
“NOT USED KITTY LITTER!” she said.

Never a dull moment at the Flying Pony Café and art emporium. This month’s artist is Anthony Marrelli and he has filled Andrew Horne’s walls with foodie, sexy surrealism.

Overacting girlies and guys have had their lusty faces clipped and pasted onto colourful freehand drawings of stylized bodies, not doing what they were doing in the skin mags they came from, but eating, drinking, smoking and talking on cellphones. The effect is very funny, but critical at the same time.
Bodies with human porno faces look especially ridiculous in the company of bodies with animal heads. Goats, rams, bears and wildcats often look intelligent, reserved and dignified, compared with silly, hedonistic humans.
The digs at self-absorbed, gratification-obsessed society are clear, but they are lighthearted, too. That owes partly to the loose, carefree rendering style. Marrelli has a lot of skill at drawing, but his work doesn’t look in the least laboured.
Andrew Horne figured people would either love or hate the show. Personally, I don’t see what’s to hate, unless people think the human figures are wearing religious garb. At at glance, many of the figures could seem to be wearing nuns’ habits or hijabs, I guess.

As Helen advanced in years, female figures in her pictures aged, too. Not surprising, really, that she should have seen elder women as worthy subjects. Her pictures of old aboriginal women are striking. I think she identified with them.
More curious though, is a recurring image of the mythical Kwakiutl figure, Tsonoqua, Wild Woman of the Woods. What was Helen’s relationship with this strange character? Tsonoqua is an old woman monster figure who steals children and eats them. Not the sort of character you’d expect someone to identify with.

Here, Tsonoqua is a flying figure, draped in a Northwest Coast button blanket (see video below).Painting on canvas by Helen Andersen. Present location unknown.

What’s more, old Tsonoqua was slow, rather stupid and nearly blind. She also possessed great wealth. Not like Helen in any way and not much to admire.