Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Things I wish I could show you...

1. The drunk man throwing a carton of milk at the streetcar yesterday.

2. Me making the chocolate/peanut butter sauce on the fly last night as we scrambled to assemble a dessert that I had never seen or made before.

3. Hopey passed out under my co-workers' desk... it's really hot!

4. The rat running across the road and getting smooshed by a car - witnessed by me at 2am last Friday on the way home from the ROM.

5. Raccoon life - seriously, the other day I was thinking that I would love to do a discovery channel show about raccoons and follow particular ones around.

6. The program I'm curating for mich - I want to see how people who don't watch a lot of experimental film react to the line up.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Checkin


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Just keeping you posted.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Haircuts By Children - In Parkdale


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This past weekend the art/life project by the Mammalian Diving Reflex folks (www.mammalian.ca) was in my neighbourhood.  The kids involved are also from the neighbourhood and my hairdresser was one of the trainers.

I love this kind of community stuff.

 

Check out this article for an interview about the project:

http://www.torontolife.com/features/running-scissors/

 

Music:  Bahiminy Kite by Caribou

Image credit: John Lauener

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Playful Painter



Playful Painter

This is where things start to get interesting...

Also I am very curious about the new MacBook, my lady friend wants one and I'm a bit skeptical. Does anyone have any knowledge of what existing software works on the Intel macs and what doesn't?

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Jumping Off Point


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Meet my friend missintensity - she's the first flesh and blood, real life friend I have who is starting a videoblog. I'm so fuckin' excited!You are too, you know it. More queer, canadian, feminist, arts and crafty fun coming your way.

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by missintensity with a No license (All rights reserved) license.

Friday, May 12, 2006

So you want to talk about sexism?

Last night when I heard of a friend's partner getting a Chalmers grant I was curious to see who the other recipients for this year were. The Chalmers grants are distributed through the Ontario Arts Council. "Chalmers Professional Development Grants provide financial assistance to individual professional artists and arts professionals so they can reach their next level of artistic or career development."

Here are the results of the 2005 recipients for both professional development and for arts fellowships - I've rearranged the data out of curiousity:

2005 Chalmers Recipients (Male)



  • Grossman, Ben, Elora, $22,000

  • Hoolboom, Mike, Toronto, $45,000

  • Nemerofsky Ramsay, Benny, Toronto, $40,000

  • Oswald, John, Toronto, $37,800

  • Pitman, Walter, Toronto, $3,700

  • Quirt, Brian, Toronto, $24,000

  • Thomas, Jeffrey, Ottawa, $32,500

  • Acquaah-Harrison, Kobèna, Toronto, $10,500

  • Belluz, Scott, Toronto, $7,300

  • Vaillancourt, Laurent, Hearst, $14,930

  • Basilières, Michel, Toronto, $18,000

  • Bendtsen, Tom, Toronto, $12,000

  • Cockburn, Daniel, Toronto, $25,000

  • Leonard, Craig, Toronto, $17,000

  • Lopes, Damian, Barrie, $38,300

  • Manzano, Jorge, Toronto, $29,000

  • Monahan, Gordon, Meaford, $25,000

  • Kumar, Ravi, Mississauga, $6,700

  • Nandy, Manjusri, Pickering, $5,300

  • Wilson, Lee, Newmarket, $5,000




419,030 / 20 = average 20,951.50


Highest Grant awarded $45,000

Lowest Grant awarded $3,700


2005 Chalmers Recipients (Female)



  • Dey, Claudia, Toronto, $14,200

  • Gibb, Camilla, Toronto, $27,400

  • Mills, Sonja, Toronto, $28,400

  • Robertson, Suzanne, Toronto, $25,000

  • Aplin, Julia, Toronto, $7,500

  • Johnston, Amanda, Toronto, $9,000

  • Lochead, Christina, Toronto, $11,200

  • McDonald, Sheona, Toronto, $11,000

  • Peerbaye, Soraya, Toronto, $14,500

  • Such, Jennie, Toronto, $9,000

  • Bartley, Wende, Toronto, $18,000

  • Firth-Eagland, Alissa, Brantford, $15,000

  • Norris, Jude, Toronto, $20,000

  • Heti, Sheila, Toronto, $34,000

  • Ivanochko, Sasha, Toronto, $25,000

  • Phillips, Paulette, Toronto, $15,000

  • Schogt, Elida, Toronto, $25,000

  • Valcin, Nadine, Toronto, $16,700

  • Headley, Charmaine, Toronto, $10,000

  • Nowacka, Malgorzata, Toronto, $5,500

  • O'Shea, Meagan, Toronto, $2,250

  • Tankus, Edith, Toronto, $10,500

  • Terry, Rebecca Hope, Toronto, $8,750




362,900 / 23 average 15,778.26


Highest Grant awarded $34,000

Lowest Grant awarded $2,250

* one recipient not included (Burchell, D., Toronto, $6,000)

The discrepancy between the male and female recipients was $76,130.00 - I would say the gender scales at the Ontario Arts Council are a bit off balance.

Now - when you think that feminists need a sense of humour, or if you think that this is all just about who was most qualified - please take this into account. This is not about individual discrimination. There are systems in place that keep women down in sweeping gestures. If you look at these numbers and think it's an accident or a coincidence - think about why you would leap to that conclusion.

Stepping off soap box and back to work now.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Going Natural...


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30 years of trying to tame this head of curly hair. Hats, products, assorted hair torture - all chasing a dream of straight hair that you can roll out of bed with and never think twice about. I grew up with my grandmother & co. telling me how much people pay in salons for hair like this. As a teenager with long hair i always wore it in a braid or a ponytail to try and straighten it. Very briefly, in a particularily 'femme' phase I would let it loose and have something close to ringlets. My head was a bit crooked though because my hair weighed so damn much. When I came out at 16 I cut it all off and have never had very long hair since. I wish I had the patience to grow it out so I could play around with other hair styles - but this is what happens...
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Wednesday, May 10, 2006

'Aunt Lois' on teen delinquent activities...


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Dana does an impersonation of her aunt...

 

Part II of Carribean Food Day

 

 

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Why isn't everyone fat?


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Part I of Carribean Food Day.
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Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Thinking about Development


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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

The Panel


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A few weeks ago I was on my first panel, at the Q-Me (Queer Media) conference in New York City.

It went really well, I met lots of new people that are interested in videoblogging, and it opened my eyes a little to the potential of queer media on the internet.  I still haven't had a chance to spend some time seriously thinking about what my goals and dreams are in the big picture of my own vlog... I need to do this soon.  Part of the reason I'm so determined to get to Vloggercon is to be able to talk about these issues with other vloggers.  Let's talk about advertising, sponsorship, making a living off doing what you love. Let's talk about access, availability, making this something that anyone can do.  Let's talk about who is doing this and why, and who's missing from the picture.  I want to teach people how to videoblog, that I know for sure.  I want to take up queer space on the internet.  I want my voice to be out there - amongst the L Word, Queer as Folk and Rosie Cruises.  Someone might benefit from this, and I certainly have benefited greatly from being a part of this community.

Warning - the clip is a bit long - and I say "like" a lot.

If it's not obvious from the clip, I'm blip.tv's biggest fan.  

And big thanks to H. for being the videographer... when I come out to california, I'm gonna teach you how to vlog - mark my words. 

 

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Fundraising - Vloggercon 2006 or BUST!


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School's out, I'm in debt and need to work as much as humanly possible in the next four months... that's the short version.

 

The longer version?  I really want to fly to San Francisco and participate in Vloggercon 2006 the weekend of June 10th & 11th.  I've set up a fundable "group action" here:

https://www.fundable.org/groupactions/lukasatvloggercon2006 

If you go and make a pledge of $20 or more, you will get a unique, hand-made "Make Vlogs Not War" silk-screened item from me as a huge THANK YOU!

I'm already almost half way there... hope to see you in June.

 

 

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