Winter Florals

There are a few new things that have been brightening up my apartment lately. They all have pretty flowers in common.

"Paper whites" narcissus flowers, a gift from maman.

Floral stamps and bright inks, a gift from Jordan.

"This is wild" according to the cashier at the Lens Mills store as I was purchasing this fabric. A gift to myself to make cushions.

Pretentious Canadian Ads

Not too long ago I saw this ad on TV and it really struck me how Canada is trying to impress its own people about how great it's environmental protection plans are going and how it's helping our economy.

My first thought was what's the point of this ad? Is Harper trying to cover up something? The country isn't really doing that well to protect our environment amending laws here and there, easing the way for developers and polluters. We're doing conservation by planting trees? I bet those were volunteers. Our pipelines are safe? Uhh, are you trying to convince us that the fuss about Line 9 is all nonsense now?

Harper must just be trying look good for voters with pretty pictures of places that has nothing to do with his actions. At least he recognizes that the environment is important for jobs, hopefully he'll make one about how it's essential for our health too. 

Then I came across these comments:

"[T]hey have cut environmental protections. They've cut the environmental assessment process and at the same time they are injecting millions of dollars in order to convince Canadians that this is a good thing," argues NDP Natural Resources Critic Peter Julian.

Source: Ottawa spends millions on ads promoting resource development

The Experimental Lakes Area - the critical freshwater research program that the Harper government may close next month - has a modest annual budget of about $2.1 million. And yet the Harper government has budgeted more than four times that amount - $9 million - for its ‘Responsible Resource Development’ ad campaign.

‘We’re talking about spending hundreds of millions of dollars advertising how great Stephen Harper is to Canadians at a time when he tells us we can’t afford a million a year to keep the Experimental Lakes area open,’ said Green party Leader Elizabeth May.

Source: Harper spends on spin rather than science

This is so infuriating! I do not understand at all why somebody would think that these ads were a good idea. That amount of money could do so much good in so many other ways. Anyways, if you're going to waste money at least do it right. You don't have to be a marketing major to see the flaws in the campaign. That youtube video only has 2,500 views and who are we kidding, most of those views are probably journalists and politicians. 

CAPS-ACÉAU 2013 in a nutshell

Windy stairs of Montréal, Rue de Rouen

A few weeks ago I had three days to explore Montreal while learning about its history and planning policies. I happened to make new friends and visit family too. This is what I call good study/fun balance!

Norma Rantisi talked about Montreal as a cultural metropolis. The Mile End, home of rivals St. Urban and Mont Viateur bagel shops, are particularly attractive to artists."Buildings, infrastructure, iconography and public space shape creative production."
She also spoke of an unprecedented piece of legislation protecting artists in Montreal: a new zoning ordinance that guarantees artists affordable workspaces for the next 30 years.

After the talk, we had a lunch break long enough for a drive through the Mile End. It great being able to see all the places Norma had been talking about.

David Hanna told countless entertaining stories about Montreal's past in our visit of Griffintown, a place named after a woman which is quite rare. An especially good tale consisted of a murder with an axe and prostitutes, which you can read about here.

New City Gas. A heritage factory building converted into a nightclub. 

Protests written on the entranceway that was historically used by horses. A recent condo development next to the stables disrupts the traditional route of the horses that pull carriages in the Old Port.  

Jacques Besner gave an interesting stat: only about a 3rd of CIP members included climate change measures in their work. This suggests that there is still a very long way to go before our cities become resilient and adaptive to the uncertainty of climate change.

UQUAM conference hall. Instant translations provided for anglophones in headphones.

Dinu Bumbaru amusingly stated that "walkability is good, but strollability is better. Cows walk, people stroll." Berlin includes flanâge in their transportation plans, why can't we?

Another good reminder for planners: "une société de quartier c'est une société de voisins." Good relationships with neighbours is an important aspect of communities.

Cool fact: Frederick Olmsted, designer of New York's Central Park, created the plan for Mount Royal Park in 1874.  Olmsted was convinced of the therapeutic value of nature on people and prioritized making parks accessible to every social class. It was his only commission outside of the US.

Mount Royal Park / Olmsted map (1877)

Panorama from Mount Royal Park

Also, Montreal has a surprisingly endearing giant milk pint of which they are very proud.

Mathieu Demers described the interesting project of greening alleyways in Montreal. Key point that I took away: "une vigne grimpante est beaucoup plus économe qu'un toît vert." With similar benefits, it's a lot easier and cheaper to grow vines on walls than it is to install green roofs.

The conference was a great experience, and I'm really looking forward to attend more. To end this post,  here's a sample of montréalais humour that entertained me on the bus ride home.

I used to have hamsters named 'Ti-nono and Gros-nono

Thierry Cohen & Gustave Le Grey

Paris 48° 50’ 55’’ N 2012-08-13 lst 22:15

39 x 60 inch pigment print

Edition of 3

This beautiful photograph appeared on one of many imgur posts that are usually reserved to pictures of cats and nerdy things. It was taken by Parisian photographer Thierry Cohen, in a project entitled Villes Enteintes (Darkened Cities). Cohen seeks out views that resonate for him and notes the time, angle, and latitude and longitude of his exposures. The Danziger Gallery website explains: 

"As the world rotates around its axis the stars that would have been visible above a particular city move to deserts, plains, and other places free of light pollution.  By noting the precise latitude and angle of his cityscape, Cohen is able to track the earth’s rotation to places of atmospheric clarity like the Mojave, the Sahara, and the Atacama desert [...]  Compositing the two images, Cohen creates a single new image full of resonance and nuance.  The work is both political and spiritual questioning not only what we are doing to the planet but drawing unexpected connections between disparate locations." 

Paris 48° 51’ 52’’ N 2021-07-14 utc 22:18

39 x 60 inch pigment print

Edition of 3

Paris 48° 51’ 03’’ N 2012-07-19 lst 19:46

26 x 40 inch pigment print

Edition of 5

Trying to reconstruct the past is fascinating. It's nearly impossible to imagine how the city you live in was before its topography and wildlife was altered. So many hills have been flattened, rivers rerouted, and forests logged.

The photos could also be described as a very artistic form of Augmented Reality, what I understand as technology that will allow us to view anything in front of us through a screen and learn about its history, uses, and more. Think of an app that would show you the world without lights so that you can always see the night sky wherever you are. Doesn't that blow your mind?!

What's super impressive about Cohen is that he manages to do that with "methodologies employed by early 19th century photographers like Gustave Le Grey" (at least according to Danzinger). Gustave Le Grey was also a Parisian photographer who was a central figure in French photography of the 1850s. At the age of forty, he fled the country to escape his creditors and sailed with Alexandre Dumas, author of The Count of Monte Cristo,  to "places famous in history and myth".

Solar Effect – Ocean, 1857, Gustave Le Gray, albumen print from a collodion-on-glass negative, 31.3 x 40.5 cm, Townshend Bequest, 1868. Museum no. 67.998

The Imperial Yacht La Reine Hortense, Le Havre, 1856, Gustave Le Gray, Albumen silver print from glass negative (2005.100.273)

Bateaux quittant le port du Havre, 1856 or 1857, Gustave Le Gray.

Palerme. 3. Palais Carini, 1860, Gustave Le Gray

The Alchemist

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself"

Photos:
1. Tangier
2. Egyptian pyramids
3. Alhambra, Spain

The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo has been on my to-read list ever since a coworker in a call centre told me it was his favourite book. That statement really made an impression on me first of all because he was an English major (hey, don't judge telemarketers!) so he should have read plenty of books and know his stuff. Secondly, I can't decide which book has impacted so much that I would consider it to be my favourite.

Paulo Coelho writes on Personal Legends:

"It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to hem in their lives." 

"[T]here is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth."

Its a beautiful story that proposes early on a theory for our purpose here on Earth. The protagonists travels to very exotic and at once familiar places. He goes through Andalusia and crosses over to Tangier by boat, a similar trip to the one I took a few summers ago.

I wouldn't say it's my favourite, not even near, but it's a nice story with lots to think about. A lot like Le Petit Prince.

Belize instagram style

Analog photographic film - 1980's-1990's

My mom has kept her analog camera since it was the latest technology available up to... well I guess until the thing stops working. I often find myself thinking about how things made back in the day - things like shoes and coats and bags - were made to last which is great because you don't have to spend your life spending money on new things. For some reason it's fun to be nostalgic by not only sharing old stories with your oldest friends, but also by wearing leather riding boots (even though you have no idea what 'tack' means) and decorating your living space with bright oranges and nearly khaki greens that you saw on That 70's Show.

Though it would be embarrassing for me to pull out an old camera that is ridiculously special feature-less, mom knew all along the pointlessness of replacing something if it ain't broke. You could also argue that pictures caught on film are more real and capture truly candid moments because there's no such thing as instantly looking at the picture you just took and deciding to delete it to take a better one. There's something special about the off-colours and the grainy look, something Instagram recognized and was able to capitalized on. Here are a few photos my mom captured that I think could have been taken over 20 years ago.

Tourists in Toronto II

Toronto through the lens of a Holga

Heather, Jen, and I have an assignment for our bioregional planning workshop that involves visiting a traditional neighbourhood and comparing it with a more modern one. We chose St. Lawrence as one of our study sites and spent a nice Sunday morning strolling along Front St., visiting the antiques market, and sipping a cappuccino with a Grand Marnier soufflé at Le Papillon. 

The Flatiron is one of Toronto's most famous heritage buildings and we were curious to see if its doors would be unlocked on a Sunday. Plus, there was a sign about a Friday Harbour exhibit, which we had heard about before as a major development proposal on Lake Simcoe. Kind of weird that real estate agencies occupy the building but, whatever, at least we got in!

A friendly concierge operated the old Titanic style elevator for us to get to the third floor. We toured the "exhibit" pretty quickly, and pretended one of us lived up there and the other two were visiting. There's a picture of us posing at a long table with benches as if we were happily entertaining our friends. If only. 

1830s

1890s

2006

2011

CAPS-ACÉAU 2013

Some fun moments at UQÀM, Mont Royal, and the St Bock microbrewery. More details to come!

https://twitter.com/CAPSACEAU
https://twitter.com/PLANitYork

"New Year" "Resolutions"

All right, so today is not exactly the start of 2013 but February 1st is when I will undertake my "resolutions" because that is when my Goodlife membership begins.  And by "resolutions" I want to give it a twist and make them more like something I would put on a bucket list, but with a yearly deadline. I got that idea from my favourite blogger Emily from Cupcakes and Cashmere, a girl I am irrationally obsessed with and absolutely envy her good taste and expensive lifestyle. The idea is to look forward to accomplishing the things on the list rather than force myself to do things that I know are good for me but I don't think they're worth doing anyways, or else I would already be doing them.

For instance, instead of "go to the gym more often", I want to give myself cool goals that I can check off rather than say "hmmmm... well I went to the gym once, which is one time more often than last year, therefore I succeeded in abiding by my resolution." I also want to stay positive, so none of that   "don't do this" or "eat less of those."

Here's to an exciting year!

• Attend at least 5 festivals, exhibits, and concerts
• Attend at least 5 conferences, seminars, free lectures
• Critique and compare Toronto latte art
• Write my 100th blog post
• Be able to do the splits
• Be able to do a pushup
• Grow an herb garden
• Try a new recipe each week
• Add more of a personal touch and colour to my apartment
• Cushions!
• Picture frames!
• Flowers!