"garden party on a summer's eve", or "happy birthday jasmine"

In an event that seemed eerily like a re-enactment of Alice in Wonderland, Jasmine celebrated her birthday while everyone else had a wildly fantastic un-birthday.

(the birthday babe herself)

The dinner table in the forest: where guests gathered to enjoy Katy's fine curry dinner. Some remained to finish off the wine and smoke the hooka. Sadly no tea, nor any white rabbits of any kind.

Hmm, is that a toadstool that Joel is sitting on as he blows smoke rings. . .?

"that's it. back to winnipeg"

Well, with much excitement, we got to go to our home city for a week or so. The city is strikingly beautiful in the summer. It's so lush and green and there's so much to take in. Quite the change of pace from sleepy St. Stephen. Yes, this is a long post, but I sure did see a lot in a few days. This is just a glimpse of the places and people that captured my attention.

Congrats Barb and Isaac! The wedding on June 16th took place in the lovely Leo Mol Sculpture Garden. (my dear Barbaloo is a former roommate, as well as long-time friend of Matt as well). Isaac is a pretty awesome mate from New Zealand -- he's heaps of fun and I look forward to getting to know him better when we're back in the 'Peg next year. (Kiwis are crazy! ...in a good way).



We got to hang out at Barb and Isaac's new apartment and get to know the kiwis a bit. Many old apartments have this feature of external porches to access the suites. It becomes a great hang out spot in the summer (and place to have your bbq), and it's no surprise that Barb and Isaac already know everyone in their building. Matt is enjoying his first slurpee of the year and waiting for the gang to get back with groceries for grilling.

Hanging out at Tony and Shayla's place: We decided to take a picture of just the girls. From left: Jeanette, Kristine, Shayla (sister-in-law), Maria, Jac, Karin. This is our gang from housegroup. Seriously amazing people who share the same beliefs, values, and desire to see justice restored in our city and world.

Matt took this shot and it ended up looking like an ad for macintosh. Maybe I should put a big X or blackspot on the apple logo that shines front and centre, and then it could be published in adbusters.

This is what they do in life, the brothers. (Tony on guitar). They drink coffee or beer (depending on moods and weather), and they jam.

The fabulous four reunited again. These four gals were roommates at 521 Gertrude, the best house ever. From left: Crystal, Jac, Barb (the bride!), and Ren. We go back.
Best thing was, we took a pic like this at my wedding 2 years ago, in that exact standing order. It will be cool when we get all four pics in a series.

On a lovely evening -- the nights are so hot in Winnipeg, it's great -- we wandered around the forks and saw the new million-dollar downtown skate park. This is just one small part of the massive skate plaza, where the hardcore advanced skaters go. These guys are good.

Sunday morning at Winnipeg Centre Vineyard.

We popped into Don's Photo on Portage Ave. and bought a much-needed camera case.

I love how there are so many buildings in the city with bizzare angles. Here, the Lindsay Building looks like its just as thin as a sheet of paper against the sky. The radial form of the city layout causes the streets to meet at odd angles, and I think it creates very interesting streetscapes, and really neat buildings. There are lots of triangular buildings like this all over town.

. . .The old wine bar in the exchange, Decanters, was bought out and renovated by new owners.

After much trekking around downtown, we stopped to rest for a while in a shady little chess plaza nestled between buildings.

I was very excited to finally be able to have a street dog. It had been much too long.

This is a shot of the ceiling of the Toad on Osborne, one of my much frequented pubs.
Just the perfect amount of sketchy.



More pics to come. . . hopefully soon.

best place in town

A stroll down to the axe factory on a warm sunny afternoon. . .
This building is probably one of the most fascinating buildings in town. It's funny how many people drive by it more than once a day and don't even glance.

Here's where I spent a couple hours, reading, jumping from rock to rock, and wading in the water.

So many good mailboxes in Charlotte County. . . perhaps I should begin a photo series. . .

On the way home we stopped for seafood take out and ate it on the waterfront. I took an obligatory postcard type shot to show that the town of St. Stephen isn't entirely ugly. . .

Deer Island

Saturday was Matt's 28th birthday. So, off we went with 10 others to catch a ferry to deer island where we rented a couple suites, had barbecued steak, made a campfire on the beach, hung out in the 'hot' tub, and embarked on general exploratory adventures.




Matt loves to skip rocks. A lot. He's really very good at it.

Apparently this is a cement mixer. When he saw this photo, Matt immediately recognized it as something he used to make at his foundry job years ago.

A fascinating little antique shop on the side of the road. No one was around except these little guys looking out onto the ocean. Classic New Brunswick-style quirkiness.

After leaving the island we went into Saint John, had some donairs, and enjoyed the great weather.

Sometimes - only once in a very small while - the air smells so good outside that I just want to breathe in more than I am physically able. I become conscious of my own breathing; the exhales are now a mere waiting period for the next inhale.
. . .I think this happens mainly in May.
I move closer to the open window.
And then, its funny, but three floors down someone lights a cigarette and that tiny little stick of burning organic matter is capable of entirely consuming the smell of spring.
It's quite amazing even with the whole huge outdoors and how big spring is, that one tiny source can emit such a smell that competes and overpowers all the goodness that is outside right now.
I cannot help but note the contrast of what might be the best smell ever with one of the most horribly offensive.

(My extreme aversion to second-hand smoke likely stems from my childhood. My dad would light up in the car on the way home from well, anywhere, and it would be january-type cold, the window down a bit, blowing icy air into my face in the backseat. I would beg him to close the window, and then when he did the smell made my head spin. He would smoke in the house too, but things are always easier to deal with when you aren't cold).
ahhh, scent and memory.

Hm, they must be done.

inhale. . .

As I was perusing Kunstler's "Eyesore of the Month" entries, I was amused to discover a picture of the new Canadian Human Rights Museum - "the largest centre for human rights in the world" - and even more amused that he called it "a wad of discarded scotch tape".
After a little more research, I discovered that the design was a global competition that gained a response from 61 architecture firms in 21 different countries.
Not overly impressed with the giant scotch tape ball, I looked up the designs of the other finalists, only to discover more abstract sculptures made of various other refuse products. (scrap metal, broken mirror, etc.) So much for that.

Let's just review how many things are wrong with this picture:
The winner of the design contest, Antoine Predoc, is an american from New Mexico. Going out on a limb here, but wouldn't it make sense to have a Canadian designer create the Canadian Museum of Human Rights? Apparently, the architect doesn't need to understand our context and history, or have any attachment to the project whatsoever.
And then there's the Canadian climate that he seemed to completely disregard. But I guess New Mexicans wouldn't think about such a thing as a heating bill.
Furthermore, you would think that a building built for human rights would be the perfect candidate to showcase sustainable building practices. But no.

Let's see. . . what else is wrong with this picture?
That the field of architecture has been made so irrelevant to our culture today that no less than 61 firms invested a lot of time, money, and effort into entering a contest just for the chance at maybe getting the job. Granted, it's a very prestigious project, but shouldn't the clients be seeking the right firm, not architects clamoring for a chance to get hired? Architecture firms are fighting over the few good projects across the world just so they get a break from designing costco stores. Our society values economy, not beauty. Why hire an architect and pay for quality materials when its cheaper to just build a box. think: office towers, retail stores, new bank buildings. . .
And contemporary architects are only making matters worse. To further the irrelevance of the field of design, architects in their insecure position in society have gone abstract. Let's try even harder to get noticed. Let's prove to the world that we are important.
Extreme form, theory over functionality. . . resulting in buildings that no longer serve the needs of the people who use the space, buildings that sever rather than integrate the existing urban fabric, that are dehumanizing in scale, only to passify the ego of the architect. If you need more visuals, just page through the monthly eyesores from kunstler.com
And don't even get me started on the male dominance of the field. (What a very male thing to impose your erection upon the landscape).

I leave with an abstract (no pun intended) from Antoine Predoc describing the form of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights:

Our proposal for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights reinforces an optimistic recollection of the history of the struggle for human rights, with an intention to uplift, made legible in an architecture of dualities: light and shadow, ephemera and stone, gravity and weightlessness, reflection and opacity, earth and sky. The massing, the spaces within, and its materiality reinforce the Museum as an embodiment of a universal humanitarian consciousness, necessarily a vessel of knowledge and history charged with hope. Rooted in humanity, the architecture renders palpable the communal and universal struggle for human rights.

. . .ummm, what?


PS. They actually expected us to write stuff like this in architecture school.

maine for a day

First stop was to a great little cafe in Don's hometown. (The Italian sandwiches were incredible).
The Snapple lid says something like "dalmation puppies are born without spots" to which I disagree. Dalmation puppies are the only animals I have seen being born in my life, so I would like to think my memory is accurate here. However, I suppose I was only ten. . .

(we still don't know who won because it went on for too long. So we took a photo of the game board to analyze who was going to win, but that just make our heads hurt.)

This building is in Don's town and he wants to buy it someday if it's ever for sale. He wants to live there but I think it should also be a restaurant for fine dining. The river actually runs under it and it sounds powerful but peaceful too.

Ok. Strange experience. . . .americans are so odd. . .
We decide to go in, mainly to see if it was as nice on the inside as the outside, which it was not, and Don warns us about the blasting music and stench of aftershave. He was too right. It hits you like a wall when you enter. I have no idea how the angsty teenage staff manage to remain sane in that work environment. They probably go home and kill small animals after work.
The music was louder than many dance clubs and it sounded like neo-boy-band pop with a lot of bass.
Of course the clothes are uninteresting and overpriced. Especially after being in Europe everything looked so characteristically American. (Hundreds of the same polo shirt with a moose on it in an array of trendy stripes and solids). And as we staggered out of the store when we couldn't possibly take another minute, I had to take this photo which I call "America in a Nutshell". (Don is attempting to pose like one of their models).






I was showing Andrea how to manipulate depth of field.





Don's sister Andrea took us out for sushi. She is great and funny and definitely related to Don.
I call this one "Brewsters on Cellphones".





Don had never had sushi before, so naturally (?) he just ordered randomly off the menu with no idea what he was getting. And he loved it. If you ever needed proof that Don would eat anything. . .

We think these are pieces of radish. Jury's still out.