west uptowner

easy easy etc, originally uploaded by plastictaxi.

I was wondering out loud the other day to Jacob Z about the chances of packing up our language and starting something fresh. Not for practical reasons, really, but just because ...

... well I think that one day the rest of the world might just get fed up with English. Not because it is ubiquitous, but because it is increasingly being used as the language of choice by liars.

More and more people are learning to speak English for the reach of its imperative tense : "don't miss out" - "get yours before the price goes up" - "find a Russian bride" - "stop your WMD program (or we'll use ours)"

When commerce and false diplomacy take a language hostage, how long can it really last before people tune out? I imagine that within my lifetime people around the world will (as the French do) hear a few words in English and stop listening, because they are tired of being sold something.

# posted by trev @ 5:24 p.m. 0 comments

frank on the break, originally uploaded by plastictaxi.

You'll only hurt something.

Long day, but very satisfying. Early disappointment: a friend's van got stuck in the snow, so I got moving late, and without the wheels I thought I might be borrowing. Ran to the vet for cat food, then in to the Theatre for the next bit of workshopping on Jacob Zimmer's ongoing saga about the difficulty of demonstrating anything about the scientific revolutions. Good times.

Speaking of which, above is a group of people doing something which you might think you understand. You would be wrong to think this. Theatre, like life, is much more ridiculous than one initially apprehends, and this particular moment is no exception. But I won't spoil the show by telling you anything more.

Also attended a lovely Christmas doo, and then updated a website before getting home to shovel half of the snow out of my back alley.

I am (as is my habit, it seems) missing my lover again. She sang me a message today, and as I crossed the city in a packed rush hour streetcar, I listened to her serenade me from Montreal. Cramped by the crowd, I closed my eyes and when I opened them realized that I had been smiling like a drunk for the duration.

# posted by trev @ 1:40 a.m. 0 comments

psychogeographic mapping 2, originally uploaded by plastictaxi.

This shot is from Friday night's "Block in one Spot" at the Theatre Centre. Laura Nanni and Erika Hennebury run this project where they create maps based on how people live in places. In this picture folks are drawing their routes through the city that day, and marking places that are important to them. At the end of it I turned off the projection and all we could see on the paper on the floor was the lines of people moving and stopping and having special moments (eg, put a green mark in a place where you've had sex in public, put a little heart on a place you would miss most if everything ended tomorrow...)

psychogeography.

After all the art, it turned into one of the better parties I've been to in the last year. Working all the time, it's easy to forget how many fabulous people there are in my life.

# posted by trev @ 11:22 a.m. 0 comments