Toronto, Canada

Designer/cyclist Simon Farla (about whose FontBike project I posted back in April here) has recently taken over design duties for Mr. Something Something—he’s given me a heads-up re: the band’s innovative new pedal powered, off-the-grid show format—all the power comes from bicycles! The format was launched in conjunction with International Car-Free Day 2008 (a week ago) in Toronto.

Winnipeg, Canada

If you’ve ever sat through one of my lectures (or read my book), you know that I frequently quote Marshall McLuhan (an ex-Winnipeger). Enjoy these quick quips of his…

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Whereas convictions depend on speed-ups, justice requires delay.

Money is the poor man’s credit card.

We look at the present through a rear-view mirror.

We march backwards into the future.

Invention is the mother of necessities.

You mean my whole fallacy’s wrong?

Mud sometimes gives the illusion of depth.

The trouble with a cheap, specialized education
is that you never stop paying for it.

People don’t actually read newspapers.
They step into them every morning like a hot bath.

Today each of us lives several hundred years in a decade.

The price of eternal vigilance is indifference.

News, far more than art, is artifact.

When you are on the phone or on the air, you have no body.

Tomorrow is our permanent address.

All advertising advertises advertising.

The answers are always inside the problem, not outside.

Politics offers yesterday’s answers to today’s questions.

The missing link created far more interest
than all the chains and explanations of being.

When a thing is current, it creates currency.

Food for the mind is like food for the body:
the inputs are never the same as the outputs.

The future of the book is the blurb.

The ignorance of how to use new knowledge stockpiles exponentially.

A road is a flattened-out wheel, rolled up in the belly of an airplane.

I may be wrong, but I’m never in doubt.

This information is top security.
When you have read it, destroy yourself.

Winnipeg Beach, Canada

During the past few weeks I’ve enjoyed collaborating with ceramist Evelin Richter (my girlfriend) in the creation of a series of pieces that combine stoneware vessels (thrown by Ev) with beach findings (bits of coral, pebbles, etc.). A selection of these works—which we’ve called “Zenish” (approaching “zen,” but perhaps more accurately “wabi-sabi”)—is now on exhibit at the Fishfly Gallery in Winnipeg Beach. I’ve always been an intensely visual person, and so am very happy to be experiencing tactility (better late than never, methinks) through the haptic art-form of ceramics.

As Ev puts it, “These pieces were an exercise in contemplation—combining natural findings with man-made form… the tactile end-results were surprisingly rewarding to mind and spirit…” You can see more of Ev’s works on her new website (designed at Circle and which launched this past weekend) here.

Images: Zenish; generous thrown stoneware basins (200mm to 250mm Ø) fused with merged beach findings; some low-fired to Cone 04 with burnished steel glaze, others wood-fired to Cone 12+ (unglazed, but flame-kissed with warm blushes and ash).

Winnipeg, Canada

I’ll be giving a 30-minute keynote presentation (on Thursday, 25 September) as part of the National Digital Media Day celebrations in Manitoba. My topic is “Do the right thing. Do the thing right,” and will allegedly “contain practical advice, and ‘pithy insights’ from around the world” along with “age-old principles applied to current media scenarios.” I’ll use Circle’s “Maxim Dictum” (a sort of in-house manifesto to work and live by) as an outline. The mixer evening starts at 19:00 and my talk is at 20:00, followed by a “stirring of the proverbial new media pot” with sounds from DJ Lil’Phil who will “mix an eclectic melange of house, disco, techno, electro, down tempo, trip/hip hop, 80s, lounge, and acid jazz” until the wee hours. (It sounds like mine is the sage and sober bit that evening… :-)

The host venue is  the Pastry Castle Café on the corner of Arthur and McDermot in Winnipeg’s Exhange District. Cost is $5 and includes two drink tickets and enough cheese to make a Swiss schoolboy blush.

Ste. Anne, Manitoba

With flights of geese honking overhead and overnight temperatures dipping into the single digits, it seems summer is rapidly drawing to a close here in Eastern Manitoba. This weekend was a (long-overdue) time of outdoor catch-up at my place in the woods… mowing the meadow (first time this year), cutting firewood, re-potting dozens of houseplants (thanks, Ev!) and harvesting what remained of several varieties of crab apples (deer have a remarkable reach when standing up on their rear legs—the ‘low-hanging fruit’ was all but gone).

Next up, apple jelly… mmmm.

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

We’ve been busy the past few days preparing for the second round of this summer’s 7th Wave Artists’ Studio Tour, which culminates on this Labour Day weekend (Saturday and Sunday) when “the public is invited to tour the studios and participating artists of the Interlake… essentially a self-guided tour enabling visitors to speak with the artists and view their work in very picturesque locations.” Ev’s one of the participating artists who will be flying a distinctive blue-and-white Wave flag outside her studio in Winnipeg Beach.

“North of Winnipeg, take the scenic route through cottage country along Lake Winnipeg’s western shore, experience the vastness of Netley Creek and Oak Hammock Marshes, leave the beaten path for charming country lanes, and take a trip inland to Stonewall. Cover the whole tour in a round trip loop, or make it a day or a weekend adventure. Great restaurants, picnic sites, sandy beaches, a refreshing dip, inspiring historic sites, first class accommodations, and of course, an art experience close up and personal!”

Images: three of the 25 “What?” greeting-card designs that will debut at Evelin Richter’s studio on the weekend (ranging from nonsensical and cheeky to puzzlingly contemplative…).

Banff, Alberta

I’ve just spent the past two weeks mountaineering with friends in Canada’s fantastic Rockies. For the first week, I joined an organized outing with colleagues from the Alpine Club of Canada (11 each from the Manitoba and Thunder Bay ACC Sections) based out of the Elizabeth Parker Hut at Lake O’Hara (Yoho National Park, British Columbia) and the Abbot Hut (perched precariously on a col straddling the Alberta/B.C. border and continental divide). Highlights of my week included various alpine hikes (Mt. Yukness, Obabin Prospect, etc.), a solo ascent of Mt. Feuz, and a long and spectacular descent from Abbot Pass to the Chateau on Lake Louise via the Fuhrmann Ledges on Mt. Lefroy (first used as an alternative to the ‘Death Trap’ route by the Swiss Guides some hundred years ago, then re-established by Peter Fuhrmann several decades ago).

For the second week, I hung out in the Lake Louise and Banff area (using Bettie as a ‘base-camp’) with long-time climbing buddies Gregor Brandt, Janice Liwanag and Simon Statkewich. As the weather was hot(!) and sunny we opted for mostly R&R and took in our fair share of dips in chilly alpine lakes… though Simon and I did pull off a sweltering 8-pitch rock climb (5.7, 335 m) on Mother’s Day Buttress, Cascade Mountain. The week ended with a jaunt down to Kananaskis Country and some climbing at Wasootch Slabs. All in all a fantastic fortnight—refreshing for mind, body and spirit.

Images (from top): Lake O’Hara with the ACC’s Elizabeth Parker Hut (grassy clearing in foreground); Cathedral Mtn. in early morning light (taken from the hut); solo on Mt. Feuz; the Abbot Hut at 2925 meters elevation (on the narrow col between Mt. Victoria and Mt. Lefroy); looking down the Death Trap from the col with a forewarning of inclement weather; descending the rubble-strewn Fuhrmann Ledges of Mt. Lefroy high above the glaciated valley (photo by Simon, thanks); “Stella-time” at the Chateau Lake Louise (with Josee Lavoie, Gregor and Simon)—admittedly smelly and grubby after the 7-hour descent, we made a bit of a stir by climbing the stone wall to the lavish outdoor patio rather than traipsing through the 5-star hotel lobby with our packs and axes).

Lake Louise, Alberta

I met the famous mountaineering guide Peter Fuhrmann on the way up to Abbot Hut about a decade ago. He was busy painting blue-square route-markers on the few stable rocks that seemed to survive the annual avalanche-flushing of the nasty 670-meter scree gully that one has to scramble up from Lake Oesa (altitude 2265 m) leading to the col straddling the continental divide that the hut is balanced on. The following day, I saw a party gingerly traversing the lower glaciated slopes of Mount Lefroy, having ascended via the “Fuhrmann Ledges” (a century-old route established by the Swiss Guides that Peter F. re-established a half-century later). Ever since, I’ve wanted to suss out that ‘alternative’ route to Lake Louise, and last week finally presented the opportunity (the highlight of this year’s mountaineering holiday). Highly recommended (the crux is route-finding [getting onto the correct ledge is crucial] not technical, as the most exposed sections are protected with fixed hardware)! Total distance from Abbot Hut (at 2925 meters) to the Chateau is an estimated 13-14 km, with a vertical drop of 1215 meters—count on 5 to 8 hours for the descent… enjoy!

Photo/topo: Joe Mckay (who allegedly ‘improved the route’ with fixed ropes). From the hut, traverse the lower glaciated slopes of Mount Lefroy (leave early to avoid excessive rockfall; roped travel is recommended as there are crevasses) in a downward angle heading due North, descending more or less in the middle of the talus/scree slope (half-way between the cliff bands on the right and the drop-off to the Death Trap on the left—look for round orange paint marks as you pick your way through some delicate obstacles). At the North end of Lefroy, move to the lower outside edge of the large ‘balcony’ and look for one of numerous stone-men (cairns) and more orange paint daubs that mark the route to the correct ledge system to circumnavigate the steep cliffs. Follow these ledges right around Lefroy (towards the East, then heading directly South for nearly 1 km), exiting onto a (somewhat nasty) 300-meter-high scree cone which leads down to the large lateral moraines (the glaciers have been melting remarkably fast of late) pointing down toward Lake Louise. After crossing the exit stream below the Lower Victoria Glacier (we had to wade across this year, as the flow was considerable) head left across the valley just before you hit the trees to get up onto the established hiking trail returning from the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea-hut (2075 meters elevation) and leading back to Chateau Lake Louise (1710 meters elevation).

Gimli, Manitoba

Ev and I have spent the past two nights taking in outdoor screenings on the beach (the big screen sits out in the water, viewers spread out on the sand) at the Gimli Film Festival— remarkable fun under our huge prairie skies. On Sunday we took in Paris, je t’aime, and last night the Jane Austen Book Club. Just a ten minute drive north of Winnipeg Beach, Gimli is home to the largest Icelandic population outside of Iceland, a fact which gives the town its nickname “The Capital of New Iceland.”

Bowen Island, British Columbia

I heard from the amazing Marian today (in her disarmingly direct way) about a project no one is likely to see unless they are a subscriber to Creative Review—this issue’s accompanying “Monograph” features 14 new works of illustrated text in a series she calls “‘Love Stories,’ because each one was an illustrated text of the story of someone I love.”

Those who know and admire Marian will appreciate her quirky sense of humour and the inimitable intimacy (unapologetic, and often startling in its directness) with which her work is imbued—those who don’t will be drawn in by the originality and obsessive, painstaking nature of her exquisitely expressive typographic renderings. Thanks for sharing, Marian—as your “Love Stories” once again reveal, you continue to be a creative powerhouse, and a real Mensch! See more (and larger) works from this series on Marian’s website, here.

Image captions (from top): “Gillian Muir, my best friend (watercolour); My dentist (watercolour & ink); Rod Bantjes, my brother (acrylic paint).”