Fade to Pink...

Another year -- the window dancers have found their pants; the favourite drag outfits boxed until Halloween...

Prescription for a Faltering, Limping Walk

I'm battling a sinus infection. A first for me, a result of the real joy of spending a week with a family with young kids, one of them in daycare -- apparently the very well source of every sniffle generating germ ever spread by kid snot :)

With the infection riding along, on top of a history of recent and profound sloth that looked like about a year of doing nothing for physical fitness at all, I ran every step of the Pride Run yesterday. To say I ran it is a bit of a stretch, as it was more of a tentative, frightened shuffle really. I didn't want to have to stop for cardiovascular reasons (out of breath, burning, pounding chest), which was a very real possibility, given the deficit of activity and surplus of belly fat, couch lounging, and junk food slurping that have become my life. I also had some real worry about my knee, which had again kyboshed a growing excited expectation a few months ago that I was going to be able to run again -- I spent two months doing fake runs (on the treadmill at the gym) without any knee implications, only to run outside four evenings (and what a glorious four jogs they were -- like being reborn, really) and have my knee fall apart so that walking to work was difficult for three or four weeks.

Anyway, I ran 28:05.5. That's not much faster than how fast I can WALK 5 km -- really. I didn't quite frankly break much of a sweat. The photo (taken by Who Is Here Now) where I am runnin..., er, moving, shows, as it has captured my strike form, just exactly how slowly I'm moving.

I'm usually pretty conservative when starting an exercise regime, so the kind of stiffness I have today (so that a normal walking gait is impossible) is rare and quite amusing--it feels (and looks) like someone stole my quadriceps.

Ah, the joy of a once-a-year runner.

Happy Pride!

A Couple o' Boys (and their penises) from Saskatchewan

I'm going to miss this opening because of the new job's commitments, but got a sneak preview at the gallery last weekend. The (expected, but in this case overly profound) discrepency between the photographs of the art work and the art itself in person prompts me to encourage folks to take the time to see this show.

"Play Boys: A Two-Man Exhibition" opens this Thursday night at craig scott gallery (CSg) on Berkley, south of Queen. Both artists (Zachari Logan -- boy with, ahem, gun -- and David Folk -- boy in bed with socks) are doing the MFAs at University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. The oil on canvas works are self-portraits. For those who notice certain attributes of the paintings' subjects, you will be interested to know the artists will be in attendance at the gallery on Thursday. Logan also painted the baseball player (delightfully called "Wrong Team") Go here: www.craigscottgallery.com for more, but really, these works just don't translate well to digital images, at all.

The works are big (larger than life size), but young artists = relatively (measured against the size of the works, certainly) inexpensive prices. Buy a nude for above the couch for Pride.

I quite like both sets of work, but Logan's stuff really is masterfully done and very painterly (which is so, so lost in the images).

Check it out, ya'll. Tell Craig Scott I sent you -- maybe I'll get a discount on my next purchase :)

These Boots are Made for Walking

My first pair of boots I purchased, I think, in late high school. Light brown Frye's. The boots were way too small as I have narrow feet and I did not then realize that just about every boot is going to have some heel slip. So for in store comfort I went for snug. Getting the mothers on and off was often a two person bugger of a chore. Don't remember what I did with them, although I'm sure I just tossed 'em as I do recall the leather sole was worn through on the forefoot of one of them. The last time I remember wearing them was when My Favourite Lesbian took me horseback riding (would have been mid-80s when said lesbian and I were dating!). It was a cold winter day and as I say the boots were way too small -- I froze my toes so badly I remember only that; not how much I confirmed my belief that horses are pretty muscles with teeth and sharp rocks for feet.

The boots pictured here I got from Alberta Boot Company (a bit of a Calgary instittution) on a very recent jaunt to Alberta for a few days. Wanted the kangeroo uppers with ostrich feet (and stingray toe guard--I ain't kidding) but a thousand dollar price tag later, I settled for the MUCH cheaper calf-leather, dress c'boy boots pictured here. Already they are damn comfortable, but with Toronto's heat it'll be September before I wear them again, likely.

Metaphorically, did some other walking, recently. I've left Great Big College Inc. I start a new job tomorrow. I'll blog more about the leaving and the new job later -- I've got to get the AC into the window now -- but I will say I've moved even further from Bay Street (both literally and figuratively). Gonna miss the college though, despite the great opportunity I'm going to.

And I must say I'm delighted with the product-shot photo I took of the boots too!

Nigel Nolan

Of my small art collection (a guy only has so much wall space and NO storage space) the majority of the works are by a single artist, Nigel Nolan. This is the latest work of his I've acquired. "Rosario V" Rosario being Spanish for rosary. Nigel paints in Buenos Aires and Toronto. Oil on canvas -- NIgel's first group of works in oil. The canvas he's used is incredibly heavy. Not sure if in the resolution of the photo for posting here you can see it, but in this side-lit photograph check out the texture of the canvas! The cross on the chest is in silver leaf.

Nigel has a website: nigelnolan.com where you can see his prints (he's a master printmaker; he lays the inks on in layers of discernable depth) his charcoal drawings (check out "Sales Help") and his watercolours.

For some of his latest works (and some of his last watercolours) you need to go here:
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/artpage/35453.html

Rosario V is remarkable for me in the dichotomy created between the beatific or serene countenance, and the violence of the rosary against the throat; at once the subject is accepting of and repelled by everything the Rosary means to or expects of him.

Thanks Nigel. You've done it again.