quoperative

Art installations in big box stores in France. Lots of good stuff here. C’est tout.

I’m imagining the 67 year old semi-retired guy at Home Depot encountering this… “Son of a gun! The manager’s going to kill me when he sees this!”

OK, time to come to grips.

SxSW 2009 is over. I’m back to the usual grind of NOT seeing fifty bands and drinking twelve beers a day. Or was it twelve bands and fifty beers? I wish I could remember. Fortunately I was documenting the experience by updating Facebook about every 5 minutes with a blow-by-blow account of the every mundane detail of my time in Texas.  I’m sure those of you that un-friended me for melting down your friend feed know what I’m talking about.

So here’s a quick recap in nature’s most lazy format… list form!

Bands that I had never heard of but discovered were awesome

• The Fresh & Onlys San Francisco, CA
• Blackholicus Austin, TX (listen to this band… and then think that the girl fronting the band is like 4’6″ tall and just SLAYS on bass)
• Capsula Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Thee oh Sees San Francisco, CA

Bands that I either knew or suspected were awesome and verified them as such

• Steel Panther Hollywood, CA (incidentally the best show by far… PS. here’s a video of Justin from the Darkness joining them on stage… PPS. Satchel is one of the most talented guitarists I’ve ever seen)
• Brimstone Howl Omaha, NB
• King Kahn & the Shrines Germany via Montreal
• Telepathic Butterflies Winnipeg, MB

I totally screwed the pooch and missed seeing these bands (despite 2 of them playing 4+ times during the weekend… how did I manage to do that?)

• Glasvegas Glasgow, Scotland
• Black Lips Atlanta, GA
• Priestess Montreal, QC

Some photos that I didn’t take… but I was there!

The Fresh & Onlys at Beer Land

Capsula at Agave

King Kahn & the Shrines at El Sol y La Luna

Priestess at El Sol y La Luna

This blog post marks the official start of my new part-time job as a painter.  No, not of walls and exteriors of houses.  That’s way too difficult.  I paint funny pictures on small canvases.

Yes, you can now buy three of my pieces at the wonderful La Petite Mort Gallery in my hometown of Ottawa, Ontario.  I’m officially a member of the LPM team (not on the site… yet) so you can expect to see a steady stream of new work appearing at the gallery over the next year.  Well, as steadily as inspiration strikes.  It’s an unpredictable beast.

Here’s a shot of the pieces getting packed up.  If you’re in Ottawa please go check out La Petite Mort and while pointing at one of my pieces make a remark to the owner along the lines of “This is possibly the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.” The optional next step would be to lay down a giant wad of cash and tell him you simply MUST have it.

Thanks in advance.