Tuesday August 30th 2011, 9:55 pm
Filed under: news
Hyperreality by Kim Tsui
It’s been exactly a year since I left the “comforts” of my job at Cossette to give this freelance thing a try, and I’m very happy to announce that LOKi design now consists of a team of two. The talented Kim Tsui joins the studio as our first ever design intern!
Kim graduated with honours from the York/Sheridan design program in Toronto, and has cut her teeth here in Montreal working with Drawn and Quarterly, Palimpsest Magazine and Pop Montreal. I feel very lucky to have her on board to help out with our current and future projects and believe that she’ll contribute greatly to the quality of the studio’s output.
I’m a little late posting this one, but I finally got my hands on a copy of Kaie Kellough‘s latest album, Vox: Versus, which I designed back in May. Kaie is an amazing Montreal-based poet, whose work deconstructs and reconstructs language, blending word-games with sound poetry, dub and jazz. The collected works on this latest offering present a series of collaborations with a group of talented local musicians, exploring the roots of rhythm, language and the inherent politics within them (ArtThreat interview with Kaie here).
Though it’s been a while since I’ve been a fervent NDPer, I was deeply saddened by the news today. I tend to think of politics with a small “p”, grassroots activism, on the ground and in the day to day direct actions we take. But as my friend Yan mentioned, Mr. Layton was “our” closest ally in this government, the official opposition to Canada’s Conservatives and their increasingly scary policies. It’s a tragic day for all Canadians, as an important voice for change, for dialogue, has been silenced. His last letter to Canadians is a touching and inspiring note to leave on, emblematic of his strength of character, will and hope.
Rest in peace Mr. Layton, you were an inspiring and stand-up figure in a world often bereft of them.
Let’s also remember that a movement is not a man, not a leader, but consists of everyone who works their ass off fighting for social justice every day. It’s a sentiment I think Mr. Layton would support. Mourn the man, build the movement. So, thank you for everything you’ve done Jack, thank you for providing so much hope and speaking bravely of love in politics, we’ll keep up the fight for you…
PS. If you are in Montréal, John, Louis and a few others are organising a candlelight vigil tonight at 20h at Mont Royal parc. Details on facebook here.
Sunday August 14th 2011, 5:38 pm
Filed under: music
Super rough/raw footage here, but I think it still manages to showcase how much Erika M Anderson rocks!!!
Her previous project Gowns produced my soundtrack to early 2010 with Red State (thanks to Vince for the tip back then), especially the song Cherylee, a portion of which’s lyrics went into the last Fugue.
I was lucky enough to see EMA perform a couple of weeks back when they passed through Montreal at Quai des Brumes. It was, without a doubt, the second best show I’ve seen all year (the Godspeed shows still win out). Powerful, heart-wrenching stuff. Much to my delight, she even performed a solo version of Cherylee as an encore.
We went through hundreds of zines today from the Expozine archives in preparation for the next issue of Four Minutes to Midnight (details coming soon). Amongst many things, I was struck by the beautiful illustrations of Shawn Kuruneru and wanted to give him a little shout out.
