Author: Bill

Brian sent an email full of funny old ads. I’d seen a lot of them but had to laugh and shake my head all over again. Gun-loving, cigarette-puffing sexists learned how to nourish infants with soda pop and tame their adoring women.
Advertising is always bullshit. Today’s stuff will look just as ridiculous with the perspective of time. My favourites are the saccharine offerings of eco-saintly oil companies and beneficent, loving governments.
BTW, in my days in the B.S. mills, the Government of Canada was far and away the biggest spender on advertising… bigger than any of the largest corporations. I don’t imagine this has changed.

Try any big airport. Unable to curb crime, officials are doing something they are good at… spying on the public. New practices include eavesdropping on your conversations with high tech microphones.
[Story link]
Nobody cares.
[Update] Vic Toews cares enough about the negative publicity to claim that he has ordered a halt to the eavesdropping. Is he to be believed, or is he merely trying to keep covert spying covert?

Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library. I raised my hand so Danica could find me. Packed house.
Luminato is a huge annual arts festival, but this remarkable city has so much going on, we have only been able to get to one of the many, many events. Danica had the foresight to book free tickets to hear TVO’s Steve Paikin interview Pullitzer Prize winning author Alan Taylor about his new book, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels & Indian Allies.

This was published in the Globe and Mail on June 8th, but I’ll take a chance and repost it here. Friend and prolific Canadian author J.R. Colombo’s remembrance is touching.

If you haven’t watched Brazil, you’ve missed an important film. It’s not too late… or is it?

Ken and Danica pose with a Yarn Bomb by Amy Barnes Click image for slides
Ken MacDougall was a great sport when only two of us showed up for his 1:00 p.m. Art Amble along the Danforth, from Greenwood to Woodbine. He gave us the full tour, unveiling a creative side of the area that I suspected was there, but couldn’t see.

I’m not sure Danica realized that I was shooting this Quicktime movie while she interacted with an art installation on the Danforth today. The piece is called Activated Window, created by Gram Schmalz at QuackQuack Animation Studio.
Instead of inviting the usual passive gawking, this store window reacts to touches and movements on the glass. A variety of sounds are produced in response to the movements. It was fun. Three of us tried it at the same time. Mini orchestra!

Lead organizer and benevolent dictator Kate Tennier promotes memberships.
“Gwinna” stands for the newly formed Gerrard Woodbine Neighbourhood Association. We need a better name, so there was a ballot box for suggestions. Mine was Beach Hill.

Many people, especially B.C. residents, might own Helen Andersen art works inspired by bent paperclips. Helen used the subject to explore a variety of pictorial possibilities. The example shown here has metallic glitter added with glue to the painted paperclips. Helen was experimenting with inclusions of all kinds in her oil paintings, too… buttons, bits of costume jewellery, that sort of thing.
She produced a lot of paperclips drawings and paintings, but even more 4-colour process printed postcards and silkscreened greeting cards. She used them for her own messages to friends and family, and she sold packages of them to the public, too. If you have one, drop me a line in the comments.

Someone dropped by, looking for Helen Andersen, Canadian artist from Saanichton. I’m glad the search turned up my site but I realized that it could have gotten better results if I put up a few more images.
Google needs a photo of Helen (my mother), so here’s one with her friend Bill Reid in his studio in Vancouver. As you can see, Bill was working on his monumental Spirit of Haida Gwaii at the time. You may recognize it from its image on the Canadian 20 dollar bill.