~*...mariko mori...*~

i was planning on staying in tonight, work on my site and play some video games. that was until my friend kiki sent me an email about a special guest lecturer at ryerson polytechnic university. held at the new centre for computing and engineering (right across the street from isa and darryl's place), the kodak lecture series was proud to present japanese artist mariko mori. what kind of artist is she? well, its hard to describe. from video, to photographs, to sculpture, she goes beyond categories. you've probably seen her work before, but if you haven't here are a few examples.
mirror of water, 1997-1998



entropy of love, 1997-1998

pure land, 1997-1998

burning desire. 1996-1998

here is the description of mariko mori from the kodak lecture series:

005 Venice Biennale sensation Mariko Mori speaks in Toronto as part of the Kodak Lecture Series

Toronto – The Kodak Lecture Series is pleased to announce that New York-based, Japanese artist Mariko Mori will present a talk about her work on Friday, October 7, at 7:30 pm at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Born in Tokyo in 1967, Mariko Mori is an artist, a former fashion model and student of fashion design whose category-defying work –she has been described as a cross between a geisha girl and Gidget– has catapulted her to the top of the global art scene. Her highly stylized installations, videos, and photographs synthesize a myriad of connected influences from popular culture, science fiction, and Eastern spiritual practice. Mori's personal sense of spectacle and spirituality are often clad in a consumer culture slickness which creates an artistic vision capable of eliciting both ambivalence and enchantment.

Wave-UFO, the sensation of this year's Venice Biennale, is a stunning and novel three-person immersive environment that combines real-time computer graphics and brainwave sensory technology. Shaped like an extruded teardrop, Wave UFO is a 34 x 17-foot pod in which participants recline to watch a mesmerizing, electric display of colour, sound and motion projected on the domed ceiling above. Electrodes attached to each viewer gather brainwave data, which is transformed into visual imagery in real-time and projected onto the screen. This instant biofeedback thus incorporates the experience of watching the projection as well as the interaction between the viewers themselves.

Mariko Mori was educated at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo and the Chelsea College of Art in London and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program. She has had solo exhibitions and installations at Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Prada Foundation in Milan, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Deitch Projects.
she spent most of her lecture discussing wave ufo. wow, what an incredible piece of interactive art generated by the brainwaves of the three participants. i couldn't help but think to myself that a wave ufo would probably be something i would come across on the playa at burning man...if this piece of art could survive the desert. i wonder if she's ever been to burning man. the fusion of media and technologies with art, creativity, and the imagination make wave ufo almost impossible to fully describe. the software that runs the wave ufo is just as fascinating. it analyzes and visualizes brain activity and then projects it inside the ufo in real time. pure neo-tokyo art from a jedi who rekognizes that everything in the universe is one.

the free lecture was packed. i was so glad kiki sent me the email about the lecture last minute. mariko mori is a whacked out little japanese anime artist radically expressing herself. czech out these projection captures of three people's brainwaves interacting within the wave ufo.

here are a few reviews of mariko mori's work at the tokyo museum of art and in japan's metropolis magazine.

thanks kiki for the heads up. you made my friday night way more enjoyable than i had planned.

- normurai

~*...being a queen...serenity...*~

today darlene and i were treated like the queens that we are. we went to the shiatsu academy of tokyo on danforth and got a shiatsu massage. the word shiatsu means thumb and finger pressure and involves the practitioner applying pressure with their fingers or palms on a pattern of points all over the body.

because we were being treated by second year shiatsu students, the rate for an hour of shiatsu massage was only $30 (taxes included). it felt great to get a massage. i haven't had a one hour massage since, well, i've never had a one hour massage before. it was rejuvinating. and its great to be girly with darlene. she's such a great balance between tom boy and girly girl. she skateboards, snowboards, and surfs, and can spend hours in a makeup store.

last tuesday, darlene and i went and got our ears candled at pop design hairs studio and spa. neither darlene or i had ever had our earz candled, so it was a new experience for us. they didn't use regular candles, rather a hollow beeswax candle. its supposed to clean out the toxins inside of you, remove bacteria, and contribute to overall wellness. combined with some essential oils and a little face and neck massage, the experience wasn't really that rejuvinating. you could hear the candle causing a sort of vaccuum in your ear as it burned, but there was no real change in my well being after. unlike a massage where you feel relaxed after, the after effects of an ear candling was a bit harder to define...and it cost $5 more than our shiatsu massage. i'd more reccommend the massage over an ear candling. but it was dar dar and normie norm day to be queens at the spa. i wonder what we're going to do next tuesday.

i met up with some friends at the paramount theater later to see joss whedon's first feature film, serenity. based off of the short lived television series "firefly", serenity is the name of a firefly class starship. joss whedon is known for writing and producing the television series buffy and angel. his humour and whit is brilliant. my friend bev lent me first (and only) season of firefly on dvd so i could prepare for the movie. this telelvision show is brilliant. the characters are like space cowboys, hell they even talk like cowboys. the humour is pure buffy/angel style whit. the stories are well done, and interesting. what i really enjoy about whedon's view of the future is that its not all about laser blasters and futuristic vehicles. of course they are there, but that doesn't mean a good pistol or a shotgun is ever going to be thrown aside for new technology. kinda like how star wars balanced out the ways and weapons of old with the future by having blaster rifles and lightsabers.

i could go on and on about how brilliant this telelvision series is, just rent it and find out for yourself. as for serenity, it is the new star wars. fast paced, action packed, likeable and believeable characters, clever, and humour that is not catered to children. and it looks like the peeps over at rotten tomatos agree...serenity is fresh. not to mention the very attractive cast of the serenity is more than easy on the eyes *drool*

czech out the official serenity website here.

after the movie, our krew headed over to the bishop and belcher pub on queen street. this place has been a staple on the queen street strip for decades, and its home on queen west is about to come to an end. their 20yr lease is up, and management is more than tripling their rent. so in a few weeks they'll be relocating to the top of the gaybourhood at church and bloor. i have many fond memories of the bishop and belcher. it will be missed. at least i was able to order one last big belch before the pub closes :)

- normie norm (=D)----

~*...another good friday...*~

today began with beautiful sunshine coming through my window. i very rarely ever wake up beside someone, but having darlene visiting means that i get to wake up beside a beautiful soul every morning (and have someone to cuddle with at night too). its so good to have her home. and seeing as my room used to be her room, its a comfortable place for both of us to wake up in. now i've got to find someone who will take my room when i leave for bc and still have the same privileges darlene has...come back any time and have at least a sofa to stay on(if sharing the bed is out of the question).

seeing as my camera is still fubar'd, i really have no means to take pikchaz right meow. so here's a pik of darlene and i last november when she came home to visit. yes, that is a fully bloomed rose in november.

that afternoon darlene and i went skateboarding. she's got a long board and a pool board and has been missing paved roads for the past two years. i guess there aren't too many paved roads to skate on in mexico and costa rica. we headed over to trinity bellwoods park and spent the afternoon cruising around on our skates. man, its been so long since i've had someone else to go skating with. it felt good to ride again, especially on a longboard. it feels like i'm snowboarding on cement. darlene is a good skater too. she keeps on trying to convince me to join her in brazil so i can try surfing, as she (and everyone else i know who surfs) claims that it is the best feeling in the universe. i'm a big fan of snowboarding, so i can only imagine what it must be like to tune into gaia and ride her into the shore. but the west coast is calling me, and i need to ride powder. 15 years of snowboarding and never have i ridden a full run of powder. i can't wait.

that evening i met a friend at zelda's in the gaybourhood for dinner. gawd i love zelda's. its the perfect place for a first dinner with someone. the atmosphere is bright, colourful, and proud. the food is great and the staff is fabulously gay. any place where you are seated by a drag queen and can order girly cocktails with names like jackie-oh, bitch slap, and feather boa is a wonderful place for people to be themselves without fear and enjoy a fabulous meal. i didn't see zelda that night, so my memories of massaging her boobies will just have to keep me company.

after dinner, my friend and i attended the art exhibition of my very close friend bev. i've known bev since high school. she's part of my little markham krew, a group of friends from high school that i continue to share my life with. i don't have time for shitty people in my life, and my markham krew is top shelf. what makes our krew even more fascinating, at least to me, is that my brother was very good friends with bev's older sister barb, and graham's older brother brian. two generations of kids, two generations of friends.

there were lots of markham faces that i had not seen in a long time at the show, including many people who knew my brother. and it turned out that my date was friends with my friends chris and megan, part of my markham posse. yah, i learned a long time ago that me being the people person that i am makes six degrees of separation four...sometimes three ;)

bev's art exhibition was held at a restaurant called the metropolitan. it was a beautiful space, perfect to showcase her work. bev is a talented artist and has spent the last year working hard for this show. i am so happy for her. to see more of bev's work and information on purchasing an original or a print, you can czech out her site here.

darlene is also from markham, so when she showed up at the exhibition later she blew a lot of people away. hell, i didn't know she was coming home. i just answered my door the night before and there she was.

after the exhibition, my friend and i headed over to a going away party for my friend liz. she's leaving for bc in a week. wow, it seems like so many of my friends are heading out west this year, including me. the rest of the night was sort of a blur as our poison of choice was tequila. man, i don't know what it is about tequila, but it doesn't just get you drunk, it gets you high! i think its the desert that does it...very few things can survive in the desert, so what comes from plants that can survive desert conditions isn't your normal potato spirit. i guess the same can be said about the people at burning man...the desert brings out the radical in everything it touches.

my saturday was a bit hazy. aargh. tequila. i was able to get up and have lunch with my mother at the all you can eat korean grill house, but that wasn't until late afternoon so i had time to recover from an incredible friday night.

- that still working on finishing my burning man blog guy

~*...a welcome surprise...*~

tonight i was treated to a more than pleasant surprise. two years ago my friend darlene left for mexico and costa rica to surf and she handed down her room to me. my room is one of those rooms you would never see advertised, its one of those places that gets passed down from one person to another. the apartment is the second and third floor of a house with a living room, bedroom, storage room, bathroom and kitchen with laundry on the second floor, and the third floor equal in size to all of that but open with attic ceilings. my room is about 30'x30' with 15' tall ceilings. not a day goes by where i am not thankful for the place i live (or the price i pay for it).

on tuesday i was chatting with darlene on msn. she was in mexico city. i asked her when she was coming home to visit. she didn't know but asked if it would be ok if she just showed up at my door one day. i told her that my place is her place, and that the door would always be open. well, tonight the doorbell rang. my roommate asked if i was expecting someone. as i walked downstairs i was thinking to myself "i wonder if its darlene home to surprise me."....and it was.

she had her surfboard and two skateboards with her along with her suitcase. i'm so glad that she's here. its so good to have her back, to have someone to share stories about our crazy adventures, and to have a good friend to cuddle with. maybe i can convince her to come with me to bc and spend the season snowboarding. she's such a skate/snow/surf betty :)

i tried to take a pikcha of us, but my camera is officially playa'd. so here's a pik of darlene and i the last time she was in toronto visiting.


- normie \m/^_^\m/

~*...harvest festival...sept17-18...*~

let's start this entry off with the most recent happennings, harvest festival this past weekend. if there is a single one night party to attend in ontario all year, it is harvest. celebrating the autumn equinox, harvest brings the best people together for an evening of dancing and celebration. put on by alieninflux and promise, the celebration has been held at aldida farms about an hour north of toronto. two years ago, harvest changed venues to the wholearth farmstudio two hours east of toronto in hastings, ontario just north of coburg. it is a celebration of self-expression and community, and an event not to be missed.

seeing as my camera is still hosed from burning man, all of the pix i am including in this blog entry have been taken by other photographers. i will give credit to each photographer as i post the picture, however if you are the owner of the pikcha and would like for me to have it removed from my blog entry, please send me an email with your request.

my friend pat came in from london to pick my ass up in the tee dot early saturday afternoon. after packing up the car with camping gear and my mountain bike, we headed out of the big smoke around 3pm and headed east towards coburg. i love celebrating with patrick. i met him first year at university, and that guy is still there! he's finishing his final year for his phd in genetics. yah, he's a smart cookie...which is why i love partying with him. he presents such a scientist's view of thingz....he's a good balance to my dredi point of view.

we arrived in coburg and stopped to pick up booze and some food, then headed north towards hastings. my goodness, ontario sure is beautiful. autumn is just beginning and the leaves are starting to change colour. fall in ontario is simply breathtaking.

each year there is a large game of capture the flag played at harvest festival around 5:30pm. we arrived just after 5:30, so i missed the game...which is probably a good thing. last year i played capture the flag and had a blast, but after i was so tired from running (and combined with booze) that i passed out at 1:30am. i woke up at 6:30pm and began my social interaction. i was throwing a frisbee around and had so much energy people were asking me what i was on. my response was "5hours of sleep". not this year.

photograph by OTIS

we set up our camp and i got on my bike to czech out the venue. i was the only one with a bicycle this year, and i'm sure i've inspired people to bring one for next year. going from the camping area to the barn, pyramid, and party area is a pretty big trek. the bike made going back and forth so much easier. and i totally decorated my bike with flashing glow sticks and some lightning wire that i bought earlier that day. yup, you can tell i've been to burning man. hey, how else are you supposed to see me at night time? the lightning wire on my front tire only lasted so long. i lent my bike to someone, they rode it around, and brought it back with the battery pack for the lightning wire gone :(

photo by alex d

don't let my actions fool you. the shirt says so, so believe it!
photo by the watcher

the farm was set up so beautifully. such a gorgeous place to celebrate. the lighting was incredible, and it was made even more breathtaking by the extremely bright full moon. it was so bright that it created shadows! daam that sun is such a big burning ball of gas that it lights up a piece of rock so brightly that it casts shadows on us at night. and to think that our sun is small in comparison to its other cousins in our own galaxy.

photo by ektoplasm

there is something incredible about canada, and about the electronic dance community in toronto that is unmatched throughout the world. from the diversity to the freedom, it may not be perfect but no one does it better. as much as burning man was a life changing experience for me, there is nothing like dancing and celebrating with a few hundred of your friends...people who know you, who love you, who trust you. being able to be yourself without fear is a freedom so many of us take for granted. sure, i was able to radically express myself on the playa, but at least here in canada we can radically express ourselves with a joint in our hands and not be afraid of being treated like a terrorist by the authorities. there were no police at harvest, just open minded and responsible individuals celebrating together.

photograph by OTIS

i picked up these flashing glow sticks for $1.50 each in chinatown. they are about six inches long, battery operated, and have multiple light settings from solid to flashing. i brought them with me to harvest and attached them to my poi. nighttime poi without the possibility of setting myself on fire, schweet.

photo by ektoplasm

the music was as diverse as the people dancing. from techno, to psytrance, to house music, and down tempo in the morning, there was always something for everyone to enjoy. i spent most of my time in the pyramid enjoying more down tempo beats.

photos by chubbs

there was free food provided by the kind kitchen all night, including a wonderful vegan soup and corn on the cob. its like om for a night.

the light of the moon combined with a gorgeous mist created a very eerie and trippy atmosphere all night.

photo by alex d

photo by chubbs

but the highlight of the evening is always the lighting of the fire. this thing is huge! it was prefaced by some incredible fireworks. you could feel the heat emanating from the fire from far away. beautiful. it was like the burning of the man. people cheered, danced, fire spinners gracefully wielded their poi and fire staffs.

photo by chubbs

photo by alex d

it is so good to be back home. its parties like harvest that remind me how blessed we are to live in canada, and more importantly how diverse toronto is. the electronic dance community is top notch here.

we partied into the early morning, dancing together, tossing around frisbees, and enjoying all dat jah has blessed us with *puff* *puff* kudos to the alieninflux krew and promise for the best harvest yet. it may very well be my last for a while as i leave for the west coast in just over three months. thank you to everyone who made the vibe what it was. thank you to patrick for being my partner in crime. and thank you to a very special someone who continues to make me feel perfekt about myself when i am in her presence.

photo by kife

you can czech out the reviews on tribe and the om messageboard.

it seems as though i've lost a pair of poi at harvest. they are black rubber with red, white, and silver ribbon on a long silver chain. i lent them to a girl named tamara to spin with by the pyramid in the morning. i do not remember getting them back, and in my haste to leave i forgot about my poi.

i miss them. if anyone saw them, or has them, or knows someone who found them, please send me an email.
gracias

photo by the watcher

this city and this community kicks ass. i'm glad to be a part of it. i will truly miss you guys when i leave. there's nothing like riding around and having so many people yell out my name. it reminds me that they have been influenced by me as much as i have been by them, by you.

namaste
- that proud to be canadian guy

~*...the phenormenon returns from black rock city...*~

wow! nothing i ever imagined could have prepared me for burning man. you just have to be there to understand it. extreme examples of creativity and imagination constantly served up at random in the middle of the desert for a week. it was the most intense and life altering experience ever.


i will post a full review of my ten day adventure in nevada real soon, but i must say it is also great to be back home. gawd i love canada. burning man is a different universe, but then again so is nevada.



last night i got to hang out with my friend sal who just moved to toronto from calgary. we had drinks on the black bull patio and watched every race, creed, colour, and orientation walk by on queen street. diversity abounds at burning man, but not anywhere else in nevada, and it made me miss black rock city and toronto.

after drinks with sal, i rode over to darryl and isa's place for a bbq. daam their patio is huge and has an incredible view of the city.

then i went to betty's, a bar at king and sherbourne, to celebrate my friend dana's completion of her thesis defense. i am so happy for her. she is done her phD. congratulations dana. its been a life changing year for you, and i'm glad i was able to be a part of your celebrations.

my digicam got fubared from playa dust, so most of my pix that i took at burning man didn't turn out. my camera lens is hosed :( i'm glad i brough a disposable camera with me though, so i'll scan those pix real soon. in the meantime, let me requote ani difranco.

it's good to be back home, oh how i missed this time zone. strangers are fascinating, their mysteries never end, but there's nothing like looking at your own history in the faces of your friends.

only 347 more sleeps until i return home to black rock city.

- that black rock city phenormenon guy \m/^_^\m/

~*...burning man...exodus...*~

sunday, september 4

sunday: day of rest
all those days of sublime sensuality, what's left to do? sunday is your day to rest. lounge around with your lover. say goodbye a little longer, make it last a little longer, give your sex long lasting freshness! hosted by everyone in brc.


photo by don davis

random one time sunday event in black rock city

sunday gospel music service
10:00am
bring your tambourine, your hallelujah's, your voice, and your dancing shoes. an ecumenical/spiritual sermon will follow. glide ensemble, oakland interfaith gospel choir and singers from brc! hosted by: brc performance center


photo by stephen datnoff

the morning sun beat down on my dredi self with a new kind of intensity that sunday. it was my last sunrise on the playa, the last morning i would greet the sun in black rock city. as i gazed into the horizon, i couldn't help but feel sadness, sadness that i would not be able to do this again until next year. sadness that all of the creativity and randomness of burning man would only be a memory to me instead of the living the life i lived each day in black rock city. sadness that i would not be surrounded by such radical expression in the 'real world'


photo by tristan savatier

i walked back towards our camp stopping as often as i could to soak up whatever creativity and imagination that randomly presented itself on my journey through the desert. i stopped at the clock tower and climbed its stairs for one last time. i took some time to reflect on the time that i had spent, shared, created in the past 6 daze as a citizen of black rock city. what does it mean to be a citizen of black rock city? a citizen of black rock city is someone who is who they want to be without fear, someone who sees more than his fellows and records more than he sees.

looking out over the expanse of the playa, i was reminded that the energy that flows through black rock city doesn't just exist here but everywhere. if it exists inside me and all of citizens of black rock city, then it also must exist within everyone. it just took the playa people and black rock city to remind me that it has always existed inside of me, and you. what i believe to be real is limited by my own experiences, what i believe is possible...and burning man shattered my world by showing me that there are infinite possibilities.

that night, the clock tower was burned to the ground, without us there to witness the burn :(

i made it back to our camp and passed out. what an incredible saturday night, sunday morning, entire week in the middle of the desert.

i woke up to find our whole krew packing up our camp in preparation for our exodus. to my dismay, we were not staying for the burning of the clock tower or the temple of dreams. it was hitting me, burning man was coming to an end for me.

we cooked up all of the food we had left, and gifted our neighbours with hot hamburgers. they were so stoked to have some kind of hot food to eat. we then gave away our canopy tents, all of our chairs, and our bicycles to tony and steph, a couple from calgary who were camped next to us. they had a beautiful sculpture of two bodies united as one at their camp as well as a stamp with the design on it. inspired by the love they spoke of, i embraced their image and made it my own.

i jumped on my bike for one last cruise through the playa. i headed towards d.o.t.a. on the esplanade to say goodbye to my friend olivia. it was so amazing to spend time with her on the playa, and i had to make sure i said goodbye. on my way back, i rode my bike through a wall of cardboard boxes. yes, that's what it was there for...a wall of cardboard boxes piled up on each other so that you can ride as fast as you can and smash through them. gawd i miss the randomness of the playa.

after a quick stop at center camp, i said my goodbyes to the radically different universe that was my home for the past 6 days and headed back to our camp for one last time. we said goodbye to tony and steph and posed for our last round of pix.

our exodus took over 40minutes just to leave the playa. the lineup of cars and rvs was huge. this was the last piece of burning man i saw as we turned onto the cement road...

next stop...fernley for some good old north american fast food.

big ups to scott, karen, willy, shallen, ryan, court, sue, yvonne and my boy turtle...burning man krew 2005!


it wasn't difficult to identify the burners at the fernley truck stop: the playa dust on their clothes and body gave it away. it was good to have some fast food in my system. did i just say that? yah, the french fries from wendy's went down nicely. even better was the use of their washrooms. aah, running water and soap. i had forgotten how long it had been since i had a flushing toilet and running water. washing my face never felt so good, same goes for the huge crap i took too.

we scarfed down our fast food and began our 10 hour journey back to las vegas (more like my 10 hour nap, yay for not being a driver!). society, and the world that we live in the other 51 weeks of the year, was creeping back into existence for me and my burning man krew.

the temple of dreams burned that sunday evening without us. when the man burns, it is accompanied by cheers and screams. when the temple burns, it is a time of silence and reflektion. je me souviens.

photo by scott taggart

burning man forces you to see everything differently if you choose to take the journey. my life has been forever changed because of a festival called burning man.

normaste

- phenormenon \m/^_^\m/