From my northern location I am surprised to discover that I cannot access my usual crack dose of web version TV episodes. Lost, for one, blocks those of us attempting to peek from non-American soil.

Speaking of Lost and obsession - if I wasn’t speaking about it I was certainly thinking about it - check out Lostpedia (spoiler warning).

While surfing to the tune of other distractions, I happily came across CBC radio’s archived Q podcasts, hosted by the smooth-voiced Jian Ghomeshi. Billed as “your daily dose of arts and culture”, Q is a boisterous programme. Contemporary art, music, sports, food, tv, pop-culture, science, books, design, sex - it’s chock full of all the good stuff. I dare you to listen to just one.

Through June 4, I’m at La Chambre Blanche in the beautiful and rainy Québec City working on a website to provide info about and invite participation in my upcoming horror-themed smart mob performances. For example, Zombies in Condoland, a night long performance at La Nuit Blanche in Toronto. The masthead is the work-in-progress fruit of tonight’s labour.

I was at La Chambre Blanche in January 2002 for a similar residency. I fell in love with the city then and it remains my favourite Canadian city for simply walking around. Today I watched a thin sliver of orange sunset between the grey clouds and the horizon below my feet from the vantage point of the haute ville. Wandering the crooked little streets I found the windows as I remembered them - with open blinds showing every room filled with warm light, books, and gardens of potted plants. Maybe I’m romanticizing but either Canada really is amazing or there’s no place like home.

My solo show in Vancouver opened at Third Avenue Gallery on May 1, and will run through May 31. Minutes by foot from Granville Island, Third Avenue was awash in pink from blossoming trees all last week.

Including work from the past five years which can best be described as culture-jamming, the exhibition also features 2 new videos, Superfan and Staring Contest with Brad Pitt. I finished editing the latter a couple of hours before the show opened, the video equivalent of hanging a wet painting. The sweat was dripping from my brow.

From the press release:
“Superfan stars Jillian Mcdonald riding in vehicles with costars Billy Bob Thornton, Vincent Gallo, and Donald Sutherland. Despite their attempts at conversation, the trio of male leads cannot shake her concentration on the Superbowl game. Staring Contest with Brad Pitt finds Mcdonald and Hollywood’s leading heartthrob locked in an endless gaze of a familiar childhood game. In To Vincent with Love“Mcdonald inserts herself digitally into scenes from Vincent Gallo’s film Buffalo 66” playing the ingénue opposite his socially awkward male lead. In Me and Billy Bob, she digitally manipulates romantic scenes from Hollywood films starring actor Billy Bob Thornton, creating a soft critique of celebrity obsession.”

Thank you to Michael Bjornson and Camille Graham for all their support and hard work on the installation!

I left the west coast 2 days ago, and I already have separation anxiety. Although it’s great to be home, Vancouver is a hard place to leave. Who wouldn’t fall in love with the dreamy mist and the moist rain forest? I watched these motionless ships for hours, with my father. They seemed to multiply while I slept nearby in English Bay.

Stanley Park’s old growth - some of the trees are 800 years old. Strangely, herons roost above the park atop more spindly trees, a mere 30 feet overhead. Parts of the city are bursting with blooming, twisting vegetation. Although we do have a weird overgrown weed-tree in our backyard, Brooklyn’s vegetation is depressingly sparse and neglected.

The Tribeca Film Festival’s screening 2 nights ago of Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg was delightful - particularly enhanced by his own live narration in Winnipeg twang, and paired with Isabella Rosellini’s hilariously funny Green Porno micro-shorts describing the bizarre sexual practices of common bugs. She plays the costumed male of each species as well as various hermaphrodites, and is subjected to all manner of physical trauma. The low tech effects are enchanting. Beckley and I agreed that these should be shown to kids, and also would work well in a gallery installation. Rick Gilbert, Green Porno’s producer who I recognized from somewhere (Winnipeg, it turns out), told me they have been trying various configurations as they tour the work. Stay tuned for her second series featuring sea creatures!

Maddin’s signature blurry style of a bygone era in endless snow grace this documentary/travelogue of our shared prairie home town. Its highlights include a hockey match between historical hockey greats amidst the wrecking ball demolition of their beloved arena; a reenactment of Maddin’s childhood living room complete with dead father exhumed like a mound of dirt beneath the carpet; a steamy coming-of age in arena locker rooms and the subterranean levels of a public pool; and Golden Boy pageantry in the otherwise dull and fading Paddlewheel family restaurant.

My favourite line references the newly erected MTS building looking “like a zombie in a cheap new suit” where Canada’s iconic Eaton’s department store once proudly stood. I’ve been away from home for a long long time - thanks for the memories, however self-deprecating.

Here’s some geeky info reblogged from Beckleyworks. Hopefully it will prevent someone’s afternoon headache. I tried to launch Adobe After Effects 6.5 Pro recently and was greeted with the message “KCHR Resource not found. Keyboard shortcuts will be disabled.” When they say keyboard shortcuts, they mean everything - you can’t even use the space bar or delete key. The short answer to a long search is that After Effects needs a U.S. keyboard and if like mine, yours switches occasionally to Canadian keys, the software simply will not understand you. Like when you ask where the Americans put your “runners”, they have no idea what you are talking about.

I heart my Apple default weather widget, and although I try others, I come back to it every time. For example, who wouldn’t love the melting sun icon that lasts all summer in Brooklyn, the fat happy snowflakes, or the disintegrating particles of sparkling white atmosphere? Today I looked up Winnipeg’s weather because my whole family is there right now, except for me. It’s a good thing I couldn’t make it…as best I can tell from the visual iconography, in two days Winnipeg will be obliterated.

In Miami last month, I ran into fellow Winnipeger Diana Thorneycroft. I missed her work at Photo Miami, because a day of beach laziness, iguana tracking, and stone crab was a far more attractive offer than another marathon session at the art fairs. Later I visited her website and came across her 2006 photographic series featuring Canadian Martyrs.

My favourite is Martyrdom of the Great One, where Gretzky is torn asunder amidst a flock of terribly calm Canadian Geese. Yesterday I watched a few documentaries about Gretzky while researching a new video, and learned that number 99 was the only number ever retired from the NHL. I also found that the great one doesn’t have a lot to say, and barely blinks. The lions and tigers are priceless, not everyone is aware that Canada is home to these beasts.

Pictured above, Martyrdom of the Great One.

curated by Gordon Hatt

Luke Moloney, Canadian new media artist and engineer, sent me this photo he took at a Zombie Walk in Toronto, of kissing zombies. Ah, young love!