Nelson.

Only 182 more days until I'm nestled in the mountains.

Christmas Eve.

Ship and Anchor with Side Show Sid (do people even call him that anymore?)
Milk Tiger.
Mac's for chips.
Mad wresting session in the snow with Rod, which I then proceeded to blow chips out of my mouth into Rod's face. He tried to make me eat the bag.
Tried to take Kyle down, no dice.
8am sunrise photos from Rod's balcony.
Sun through the blinds at my dad's house after taking a cab home.
Christmas Morning.

Flavor of the Week

How To Be Alone.

Because Alone Is Good.

Happy 30th Birthday, Dan!!!

Iron Age was amazing! As was Barn Burner... I would have to say that they are the best band in Montreal, by far. This was also the first time that I've seen Nancy's new band 'Doldrum.' They did an awesome cover of Maiden. One shitty thing is that a fight broke out during Iron Age's set, apparently this guy has pulled this shit before.

I'm glad that I know you, like I said before, your probably one of the only real friends that I have in Montreal, thanks so much for being there, I love you!!!

Oh! heres a photo of your cake before I stuck it in my bag.

SPA 50/50 Sale After Party

Jp and I showed up fashionably late to the vernissage at the VAV Gallery, but we managed to round up about 15 people and go for drinks. At first I thought it would be a great idea if we all went to Hotel de la Montagne cause a friend of mine said that they have 2 for 1 drinks there. Ha! well, the place is as cheesy as it gets with red velvet everything, to the grandstand piano player, to the fat lady singing. Needless to say, even if they did have 2 for 1 drinks they wouldn't be telling "our kind." So we sauntered off to Grumpy's where we fit in just fine.

Yes, you are correct, that is a Louis Vuitton Christmas light tribute. Soooo tacky, I know.

Some people in this photo I don't know, some I know well, and some I love very deeply, and some are missing. Most of them are all from the Print Media Department.

Flavor of the Week

It really reminds me of Chad Vangaalen's video for 'Molten Light.'

WARNING: If you watch this video, just be prepared to have the lyrics " She'll find you and she'll kill you" in your head for about a month.

Expozine This Weekend!!!

Come on down to Expozine this weekend, lots of awesome zines, art books, prints, and other cool little print things and stuff! Here's a few prints that I will have for sale. Come! Come! It will be Fun! Fun!

AHHHHHH!!!!

I took my camera in to get repaired, and im moving...

Good Bye Mile End, Hello St. Henri.
It feels good to be in the hood again.
Home Sweet Home.

Sorry I'm Late.

I've softened shipwrecks right from the start...

Queen of the Castle...

At least now I know.

The Morning After...

Scream at me so i can read the signs...

You've applied the pressure
to have me crystalised
And you've got the faith
That I could bring paradise

I'll forgive and forget
Before I'm paralyzed
Do I have to keep up the pace
To keep you satisfied

Things have gotten closer to the sun
And I've done things in small doses
So don't think that I'm pushing you away
When you're the one that I've kept closest

You don't move slow
Taking steps in my direction
The sound resounds, echo
does it lessen your affection
No

You say I'm foolish
For pushing this aside
But burn down our home
I wont leave alive

Glaciers have melted to the sea
I wish the tide would take me over
I've been down on my knees
And you just keep on getting closer

Glaciers have melted to the sea (Things have gotten closer to the sun)
I wish the tide would take me over (And I've done things in small doses)
I've been down on my knees (So don't think that I'm pushing you away)
And you just keep on getting closer (When you're the one that I've kept closest)

Go slow, go slow, go slow, go slow, go slow

Feed My Pleasures.

Nostalgia-
Pronunciation: \nä-ˈstal-jə, nə- also nȯ-, nō-; nə-ˈstäl-\ Function: noun
Definition: a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time

Sentimental-
Pronunciation: \ˌsen-tə-ˈmen-t^əl\ Function: adjective
Definition: a : marked or governed by feeling, sensibility, or emotional idealism b : resulting from feeling rather than reason or thought

Down.

Up.

Moody Skies.

Mah Studio.

Manitoulin island.

We stood out on the highway for about 15 minutes, picked up by a business man with a wife, 2 daughters, and a secure job at Telus. Nice guy, thought he was completely straight until he told us that he bought his first house by selling and growing weed in collage. Huh.

He dropped us off at some intersection where there was a little store that sold milk, gas, and fireworks... or something. We stood on the highway for no more then 5 minutes, and that's when Peggy picked us up. She talked on her cellphone for about half an hour and Jp and I just sat there in silence. When she got off the phone Peggy told us that she just got back from Malaysia after meeting her online boyfriend for the first time who is a pro soccer player from South Africa. She lives just outside of Perry Sound going to school there taking business. Peggy was on her way to Manitoulin island, where shes from to visit her mother and tell her all about her trip.

Peggy was a sweet lady, probably only 4-6 years older then me and seemed quite in touch with her roots, and heritage. She told us stories and tales about the history of Manitoulin island, and asked us if we wanted to go there. We both agreed that it sounds like a nice idea, and that we had no definite plans for our trip anyway, so why not. Peggy took us to her mothers house on the reserve where we were welcome to stay the night. Her mother was known as nothing else but 'Sweetie Pie', so we called her Sweetie for short. He brothers and sisters were there, and they were all really sweet people. They told us stories about there lives on Manitoulin island, their culture, pow wows, traditional dresses, and dances, the materials used as well as folklore that went along. I learned a lot about the Ojibwe that night, I found their beliefs to be similar to the Nakoda first nations group that I'm familiar with. Peggy was planning on taking us for a drive around the island the next morning to show us where all the stories that she told us that night had actually taken place. Everything seems fine and swell, until about 2 am when I got tired and Peggy got drunk. Jp and I went to bed and all we could hear was Peggy yelling and screaming, getting totally wasted all by her self. At about noon Peggy came storming down the stairs yelling "get up get up!" and came and sat beside us on the couch. She didn't make much sense, mumbling and talking about being a two face, until she leaned forward into the light we understood. She fell off her bike riding to her grandmothers house, at about 9 am totally wasted, and smashed the shit out of her face. Does anyone remember when I fucked my face? It wasn't quite as bad as that, cause she didn't break anything, but it was close. We felt so sad for her, but we couldn't say anything to her cause she was in a totally different world. We decided that it was probably a good idea for us to get out of there cause Peggy wanted Jp to drive her car to go and pick up her son ( I know right, where the hell did that come from?) so we could go on a nice pic nik. Hummm, no...

Sweetie felt bad for us, so she took us out for breakfast, and took us to see the church (that was originally built by the Christians until it burnt down and took the priest with its fiery blaze) that was built in a circle underground, she also took us to a basket weaving party at the cultural centre, then bought us some nice cards and a little turtle with another turtle carved inside of it out of stone. She walked us to the highway, gave us a blessing with tobacco, and pointed at a car and said, "theres your ride." Sweetie was right, the car pulled over and picked us up. We said our thank yous and left that magical, but bizarre place... Manitoulin Island.

Id like to go back and visit Sweetie one day, maybe the next time I do the cross Canada trip.

Sunset on Parc.

Scrap yard.

Jp and I went to the scrap yard to find lil blackie a new bumper. Strange place, though I did spend a chunk of my childhood here pickin away with my dad, so in some why it was comforting.

Parry Sound.

Things I learned in Parry Sound:
- I learned how long a mile is and how long it takes to walk one, and then some.
-I got really good at watching trains, and figuring out that the train that we wanted doesn't stop where its suppose to...
-CP Rail and CN Rail share tracks.
-Parry Sounds doesn't use its yard anymore.

Well, we spent 3 days longer is Parry Sound then we wanted to. The yard was so fucking far out of town that when we were walking towards it we doubted it... twice. The first night it rained on us. We drank hot chocolate at Tim Horton's till wee hours. I woke up in the morning to discover that a bear had shit right on the tarp, which my legs were under. Lea says it was bear medicine. Second night we found a really cute peninsula with a really nice rock ledge looking over the yard. We had to camp out there cause our hop out spot was inhabited by bears. Yes, that's right... lying on the train tracks, mama and two cubs, eating, sun bathing, doing whatever it is that bears do ( we later found out, from a kid in Winnipeg, that the new hop out spot is even further then where we were). We had a camp fire that night. Woke up in the morning to discover that we had been eaten alive by bugs and that a bear had batted our food out of a tree and ate all of it... even licked the peanut butter cup wrapper clean. Walked into town more times then desired. Called it quits and hitched outta there only to be picked up and carried off to our other crazy adventure. Manitoulin Island... wasn't part of the plan, or at least that's what we thought.

Career Suicide

I went to the Career Suicide show at Friendship Cove last weekend. Good times. I really like those guys, its nice to hear some of that old school 80s hardcore punk. Luey was suppose to come, but couldn't make it. I miss you.

Dan was fuckin outta control, which is nice to see once in a while. I love you too, Dan... Oh! and by the way, if you don't protest in one week I'm going to post "American Ninja: Part 4"!

Toronto.

-Gino's dropped us off at about 1 am, just a few blocks from our hop out spot. Got to the diamond to discover that someone had made a cross that said there's no crew change there anymore.
-snooping around the yard, watching trains go by, trying to figure out if they stop anywhere around the diamond.
-One minute watching a train roll in, next hiding behind a trees in the tall grass, as there's spotlights being swept across the area we were hiding in. They stood no less then 10 feet away from us. No luck, so they drove back to their shack. Close call.
-Decide this place is heated out, and go and set up camp (when I refer to camp, I mean putting a tarp down on the ground and lying on it) under some trees, in a ditch, at the back of someones fence. Stay awake until about 5 am watching trains. All too fast to get on.
- Up at about 12 pm, to the sound of a dog barking behind us on the other side of the fence. We decide to get going, when all off a sudden two older worker men come out of a door in the fence that we didn't even know existed, and we both looked at each other and paused. "Morning, you kids hungry... for rabbits!?" Then he proceeded to dump a burlap bag full of dead bunnies onto the ground.
- Okay, Perry Sound here we come. Took a series of buses out to the hi way to be picked up from two young boys from Sudbury who also drove a nice fast truck, liked pounding house and lots of weed.

Point A.

Montreal, July 5th. Mission: get of the island.

-Went to the train yard at 12:30 am to wait for the 2am train heading to Toronto. Watched hella activity until 7am, passed out until 2pm, said "fuck it!" then walked up the hill to catch the commuter train.

Mission: Accomplished.

- Larry. Strange man, but sweet. We thought we were going to die on our first ride. Why? cause he picked us up, then asked us to go for a drink with him, we said no, so he dropped us off, then came back less than 5 mins. later and told us to get back in. While driving down the hiway, he says " I just wanna show you guys something" and veers off the hiway onto a dirt road. Turns out Larry just wanted to show us the beautiful view of the lake in Cornwall. Dropped us off right out side of the city limits and gave me a full pack of smokes and 40 bucks. Larry was all about the quality of life. Women trying to steal all his money, and all he wants to do is have a nice bottle of wine and some shrimp.
-Second ride from Dennis and Fred. Ones from Afghanistan, the other from Turkey. Both work for IBM, and are going to university in Toronto. They like fast sports cars, loud progressive house, and lots of weed. Before we could say anything, the first thing they asked us was " what do you two think about religion?" I would have to say that was one of the best rides we got. Speeding 130 in a jetta all the way to Toronto, listening to pounding bass, and having amazing conversations. Intellectual Gino's. Who knew?

" Muthafuuucksheeet" -Persian dude who sells hot dogs in down town Toronto.

Some Things Never Change.

I'm still the same girl you've always known.


Only better.

I'm Back!

After a mad hiatus from traveling across the country, I'm home, safe, and have some of the craziest stories to tell. Unfortunately I wont have any of the photos from my train hoppin/hitch hiking adventure out west cause they are all on a disposable camera, and I haven't developed the film yet, but be sure to stay tuned for those gems. I sent my digital camera out to Calgary so I was able to take a lot of photos on my way back.

Not too sure how I feel about sitting in front of the tuter again, its actually kinda boring, but I just uploaded over 600 photos from my trip so it will be fun to go threw them all and post the sweet ones.

I cant even begin to tell you how much I learned this summer, and how much I want to get the hell out of this place... yeah, yeah, Montreal has it's charm, its just not for me. So I'm here till May, gonna do a crazy installation then bust out back to the forest. Until then my friends, I'll try my hardest to keep you entertained with the few lovely people that I some times encounter, good music, amazing art, and insane ventures that I partake in.

(This photo was taken after the WoodPile Collective show in Victoria, I ended up at some random house party in Chinatown and left with a broom and Chinese rice picking hat screaming "imawitch, imawitch, imawitch" all the way home, but still being polite enough to conversate with the interesting folks that wonder the streets at 3am... proper Danielle style.)

white.

OMG I love white!

Douchebag.

I love the rising popularity of this term.

Pretty Things.

I Jumped Into A Lake And Held My Breath For 2 Minutes and 22 Seconds and Woke Up In The Ocean from Karen Abad ♥s Dinosaurs. on Vimeo.

Bikey Ridey Spinny Spinny

nb - Nohanded Spin 1080 from nb on Vimeo.

Ok, you all know that I don't usually post this kinda stuff up here unless I find it exceptional...

which this is, it's beautiful!

Mountains Made Of Clouds.

Swoon.

I know that I have posted a lil sumptin about her before, and I was so happy to find a new video interview solely based on her and her work. She does do a presentation of her work at the MoMA that you can watch here, and the second part here.

Swoon is definitely one of my favorite artist of all time, will always remain in the top five. Truly inspiring!

District 101.

Sorry Jp, we drank your last bottle of wine and didn't come home until 6am.

"Chair Off! Chair Off! Chair Off!"

Midnight Mountain Hike.

Scaling rocks at a 90 degree angle in the dark is kinda sketchy.