from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 10:58 PM
subject Les libéraux maintiennent le cap; Job numbers proof no election needed: Flaherty
Cher Stephen,
Ça fait longtemps que je t’écris! Je suis désolé mais j’étais vraiment occupé. J’avais décidé d’aller à Toronto pour aider mon ami Mohanad avec un projet de rénovation pour le jeudi-vendredi passé. Ça va dire que je suis parti en autobus tout de suite après travail mercredi soir, puis quand je suis arrivé vers 1h00 le nuit Mohanad ne repondre pas au téléphone; il était tombé endormi. J’avais essayé pendant un demi-heure à l’appeler et finalement j’ai trouvé un hôtel — le Bay Street Hotel — qui est plus un crackhouse qu’un hôtel, et mes voisins avaient parlé tout le nuit de les façons diffèrent de préparer le Chrystal Meth; les murs sont comme les feuilles de papier. Jeudi et vendredi j’avais travaillé avec Mohanad comme peintre. Vendredi soir j’ai pris un autobus de nuit; je n’avais pas dormi. Samedi j’ai parti en voiture pour Québec; c’était le mariage de Fannie et Sébastien. Claudine était la célibrante. Le mariage était dans leur maison. Le dimanche matin je me suis levé tôt pour rencontrer Caro, son père et son frère au centre-ville à 6h00 pour aller prendre le traversier à Lévis; on a tous là pour courir le demi-marathon de Deux Rives. Je l’ai fini en 1h52, David et Caro tout en moins de deux heures. Malheureusement, Yves, le père de Caro, qui était là pour un marathon complet (42 km), était forcé de quitter après 19km. Il avait trop mal à pied. C’est dommage pour lui.
Lundi jusqu’au Jeudi je travaillais; il y a beaucoup des choses à faire entre déménagement, rénovations, le de-install puis les gros problems qui arrive. Ce semaine c’était encore Time Left. Jeudi on a fait un Bunker Party dans le nouvelle espace. On a jeté les tournevis vers un morceau de contre-plaque et un marteau vers une veille toilette. J’ai mangé avec les techs et quelques préposés à un restaurant chinoise, puis on était aller au Bar le Remise après. Je ne suis pas entrer trop tard, mais j’avais trop bu, puis j’ai tombé endormi sur le plancher dans le bureau.
Ce matin on se levé tôt, comme habitude (hier j’étais au travail par 6h la matin), puis on a regardé quelques émmisions de Lost: Saison 5. C’est bon ça; j’aime le coté science-fiction, surtout l’aspect de voyager dans le temps.
Ce soir on est au vernissage de l’expo de groupe que Emmanuel Galant a organisé pour Atelier Punkt. Il y avait tellement de monde, pas grande surprise avec un trentaine d’artistes qui participent. Je n’ai pas resté trop longtemps; j’avais trop fatigué.
Demain matin Caro et François va aller chez nous pour déjeuner. Après Clo et moi vas aller au Sutton pour un autre mariage, cet fois d’un autre ami de Clo de long date.
Je vais essayer de t’écrire quelque fois avant que je pars en Belgique. Je n’ai pas finalizer encore comment je vais l’exposer le projet. Stressant!
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 12:54 PM
subject Cérémonie en mémoire des deux soldats tués en Afghanistan; Two fallen soldiers headed back to Canada
Cher Stephen,
Bonne Fête du travail! Est-ce que tu vas travailler aujourd’hui ou non? Es-tu prêt pour les élections? As-tu hâte?
On a passé le samedi soir au Sutton, dans les cantons de l’est. On était là pour un mariage des amis de clo, noemie et fréd. La traffic en sortant de Montréal était incroyable. Plus d’un heure et demi pour sortir l’Ile! Mais la mariage était fun; la grand-mère de fréd—qui était la prèmier femme à marrié le gens au Québec—était la célibrant. L’auberge est grand, la terrain plus grand, la ciel bleu, ensoleil. On est resté dans un plus petit auberge just à coté. Clo n’est connais pas beaucoup de monde, puis on a quitté le “planche à dancer” tot pour aller voir un autre épisode de Lost dans notre chambre sur son ordinateur.
Dimanche matyin on a fait un auto-cueillette des pommes à Dunham, proche de Sutton. Clo vas faire le compôt. On a visité Jo, Philippe, Nataniel et Dorion après. On a mangé le blé d’Inde et joué avec les enfants dans la parc.
On travaille tous les deux aujourd’hui sur nos ordinateurs. On vas aller tout de suite pour travailler dans un café. Après on y vas chez Amy et Braden pour leur pendaison de crémaillère; ils ont acheté un maison à Lachine.
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
cc Sophie De Weweire <info@netwerk-art.be>
date Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 12:02 PM
subject Un discours de Harper filmé à son insu; Bank of Canada sees quicker recovery
Dear Stephen,
I’ve mqde it to Aqlst. Left yesterdqy fifteen minutes before 5, dropping the cqr off on Berri qnd cqtchign the 5pm shuttle. Good thing, too; it took an hour to get to the qirport. Flight left qt 8pm. Wqtched The Hqngover for the inflight movie, which wqs hilqrious, qs well qs the short film by Sqrqh Fortin; Stéphqne’s girlfriend, for zhich Clqudine hqd trqnslqted the subtitles. I worked the rest of the flight, re-formqtting letters. Hqd q 3-hour lqyover in Frqnkfurt; reqd Bourne Supremqcy, the second in the trilogy. Nothing like the film, qnd so hqrd-boiled qnd over-the-top qnd plot-driven I qlmost feel guilty for reqding it.
Sorry about the typos above; I was using a local keyboard. The characters are all in different places.
Figured out some placement and printing issues for the exhibition. I can print all the letters A4, just need to verify the size of file folders, filing cabinet, and desk.
Netwerk is a big, big centre. There is a massive theatre, a café, offices, studios, many small, medium and large gallery spaces throughout. The original building was a cigarette factory, that afterwards was converted to make very famous decorative tassles—passementerie—for curtains. Now a very vibrant art centre. There is a canal that runs right beside it. And railway tracks. Marie-Josée gave me a tour, and I had a cigarette with Kelly Mark.
I am going to try not to go to sleep too early; it is only noon for me, but 6pm local time. I feel a little zonked. Ready for some Belgium beer!
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
cc Sophie De Weweire <info@netwerk-art.be>
date Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 4:48 PM
subject Ignatieff écarte l’idée d’une coalition; Tories earmark $75M for food safety
Dear Stephen,
Happy September 11. What did you do to commemorate? I slept in. I went out for “a beer” with Kelly last night after leaving the gallery. It turned into four or maybe even five, I can’t remember. We got lost (in Alost, ha!) while trying to find our way to the B&B; at 2am, with no traffic and no stores open, all the tiny streets and roundabouts look the same. And trying to decipher streetnames printed out on a tiny Googlemap—De Ridderstraat, Vlaanderenstraat, Nieuwstraat, Denderstraat, Dendermondsesteenweg—is next to impossible. But we made it; I just couldn’t handle the 9am alarm.
Had a nice conversation with Anja, one of the owners of the B&B, once I did get up. She had made coffee and prepared breads and jams. She told me a bit about the famous Belfry, Dirk Martens and Father Adolph Daens. Martens established the first printing press in Belgium in 1473, and of whom a statue sits in the town square that everyone refers to as “the black man”, because it has become stained black with age; maybe from years of industry? I don’t really know why. Father Adolph Daens fought for the right of the poorer classes to vote and got himself ex-communicated from the Catholic Church as a result. The Belfry of Aalst dates from 1460 and is located in one of the oldest town halls – from the13th century – in all of Flanders. It contains a carillon featuring 52 bells.
Today I printed the letters, then shopped around a bit for different style cases to place the files, but couldn’t find anything, so I am using Neils and Sophie’s filing cabinets. Sophie and Annie make fabulous meals and everyone eats together, there are usually at least a dozen of us at the table. So I’ve been eating well, not drinking too much, but I did smoke a pack of cigarettes at the bar last night. That was maybe a bit of overkill.
A couple glitches remain: I need to find a new paper-shredder, as of course the one I brought is wired for North America. Luckily I found one that I can pick up tomorrow morning, about a 20-minute walk from the gallery. The other glitch is that I neglected to transfer all the PM responses from my computer to my USB key and of course now the battery is dead. So I’m hoping I still have a backup on Claudine’s computer, and that I can reach her before the morning. I think I have a couple hours left in me, time enough to sample a few more beers; Nelson Henricks just came by, I think I can convince him to go for at least one. Plus I should buy it; he just solved my computer problem: I just have to use any euro mac cable and plug that direct into my power adaptor; you know, the way it was designed, d’uh.
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
cc Sophie De Weweire <info@netwerk-art.be>
date Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 8:25 AM
subject Une rentrée parlementaire qui s’annonce courte; Canadian soldier killed, four injured in Afghanistan IED blast
Dear Stephen,
I’ve made it to Zurich, and no I did not drive. Finally found a somewhat reasonably-priced flight, but I had to stop over in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. The flight to Zurich was delayed but Krishna and his girlfriend Juliette still came to pick me up. We then proceeded to drink some wine. A tad too much wine; Krishna slept in and is missing a day of work, and I threw up on the carpet. What class. I haven’t seen him in seven or eight years and it seems we haven’t changed all that much.
The opening at Netwerk on Saturday was really fun. I think they had a good turnout. There was a river fair occurring on the street beside the gallery, so the afternoon felt really animated. The round table was casual, informative, perhaps a tad long, but lots of fun as well. The exhibition looks really good; Rober Racine’s documentation of his performance of Vexations is incredible, and Rodney Graham’s “Lobbing potatoes at a gong” is hilarious. I am still amazed at the facilities, the staff, the community at Netwerk. And the funding! It puts Canada to shame, it really does. Saint John might be a “Cultural Capital” for 2009 but it in no way compares to what Aalst, a city of comparable size and density, provides for culture. We artists in Canada have come to accept peanuts as the norm.
Anyhow, of course after the opening Kelly and I wanted to continue drinking, we ended up at Café Paris with Marie-Josée and Claire. They left after eating; Kelly and I stayed until the ambiguous closing, then went for frites down the street, just past where Father Daens was born. I think we were up until 4 in the morning.
So Sunday I mostly organized transport. Ate with Philippe and Anja and their daughter Flore; they were very hospitable and friendly. I did have a little time to see the inside of St. Martin’s Church, and the Ruebens painting, but then had to get on the train to Brussels.
Now that Krishna has an unexpected day off we are off to explore a little bit of downtown Zurich, see some art and drink some beer.
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
cc Sophie De Weweire <info@netwerk-art.be>
date Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 2:07 AM
subject Un an de congé payé avant la retraite : pactole pour les cadres de la santé; U.S. House scolds Republican who told Obama ‘You lie’
Dear Stephen,
I’m heading off to Basel this morning. Spent yesterday at the Kunsthaus here in Zurich and then walked over to the west side to see the Migras Museum für Gegenwartskunst. It is like the Belgo, only with really hot commercial galleries mixed with not-for-profits. Saw shows by Pipilotti Rist, Douglas Gorden, and my new favourite artist / theorist / teacher, John Miller. I even bought a book of his selected writings. Something to read on the train.
Today the goal is to see the Schaulager, basically a massive warehouse / storage facility and exhibition centre that holds most of the Museum for Gegenwartskunst and the Emmanuel Hoffmann-Stiftung collections. Unfortunately i awoke with a cold yesterday which turned worse last night. Krishna made a nice chili and we ate wraps but everyone was exhausted; we all went to bed before 10pm. I woke up every hour to blow my nose. Went through a whole pack of tissue.
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
cc Sophie De Weweire <info@netwerk-art.be>
date Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 7:13 AM
subject Chirugie esthétique: le Collège des médecins se fera plus vigilant; Second Canadian soldier killed by IED in a week
Dear Stephen,
I am back, safe and sound, in montreal. Left yesterday morning early; almost lost my laptop in zurich airport, but it was found; flew to vienna, then brussels (where I couldn’t find postcards, nor a post office, and therefore shut down my five postcards from five cities project before it really began), then arrived in frankfurt just in time for boarding, then watched a series of bad films during the trans-atlantic flight (terminator redemtion; aliens) as well as some quality canadian shorts, including Next Floor (finally!), then hung out in Toronto airport, ate some fish n chips, almost missed the flight back to montreal, where claudine met me at the airport. She is really showing now! And is often uncomfortable, as her insides are being pushed all around. We have an ultrasound scheduled for first thing this morning, then I am off to work for the rest of the day. I must have reverse jet-lag; I feel wide awake, though expect to crash early tonight. Probably while packing boxes, or even just planning to pack boxes. The next few weeks promise to be very full.
I heard briefly that the NDP will support your government, with the help of the Bloc. Isn’t this is the exact same “intolerable” situation you accused the Liberals of courting with their talk of the coalition last December? Isn’t this a tad hypocrytical?
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
cc Sophie De Weweire <info@netwerk-art.be>
date Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 8:39 PM
subject Michael Ignatieff met Jack Layton au défi; Canadian soldier’s body returned home
Dear Stephen,
How was your weekend? Mine was a mix of relaxing, trying (unsuccessfully, I might add) to get re-adjusted to local time, and dismantling things and patching holes in the apartment. Claudine had already started packing some boxes. I posted our brown bucket chairs, the TV, DVD player and VCR all on Craigslist and have people interested in all items, though no-one has actually showed up yet.
I made my biggest frottage painting yet this afternoon, it is 6 meters long. I stretched it across the street but it was still not long enough to go from curb to curb. I will have to go 10 meters next time. And next time I’ll let the passing cars leave their marks, and not bother with paint at all. But it looks impressive. I’ll put it up for the Mile End studio tour next month.
Yesterday was an opening at Oboro, an older German artist named Rolf Julius, very subtle sound installations, with delicate speakers mounted behind glass, or suspended from the ceiling, or covered in dirt. A group of us went for supper at the Khyber Pass afterward, but it felt a bit disjointed and I became crusty early on. I was just tired and cranky and not feeling very social.
My friend Karen is flying to Ottawa tomorrow for a celebration at Rideau Hall of “ethnic” artists who have recently had work added to the Art Bank. Michaëlle Jean will be there, will you? If you are I’ve asked Karen to ask you about the letters. Although I imagine you are busy with work, now that Parliament is back in session. Did you have a good summer break?
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
cc Sophie De Weweire <info@netwerk-art.be>
date Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 7:48 AM
subject Le MSSS fait des réserves; UN seeks to spur climate talks
Dear Stephen,
Back to work this week, hitting the ground running. After work I met Clo at a sushi restaurant on Bernard, then we biked home, then she went off to an aqua-size class for pregnant ladies, and I continued packing / dismantling things in the apartment. Had a phone conference with Alex and Goody-B in Saint John to discuss her installation at the NBM. Goody-B drove up to SJ from Maine to visit the Museum and check it out today. I’m running out of time to deal with Third Space stuff at the moment. After work tonight I have hockey; my team won both their games last week, with Remi in net. Now I have inferiority complex. OK must go make lunch and head to work.
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
cc Sophie De Weweire <info@netwerk-art.be>
date Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 9:24 PM
subject Layton dénonce la politique énergétique de Harper; Harper pledges up to $2.6B in lending to Africa
Dear Stephen,
Work is keeping me busy. After work last night I picked Clo up in the car, which I had taken to work because we needed to move it for the afternoon parking ban and I didn’t have time to go searching for a new space and plus I was feeling lazy. So after work we went to Patati Patata for supper, you know how I love their mini hamburger / fries / salad plate. I dropped Clo off at Cagibi so she could work on a translation text; she has been really busy with extra contracts as of late. I went to my studio and organized a bit. Karen called me and her dad dropped her off at my studio and we took weird photos and talked and caught up. She said you didn’tgo to the event at Rideau Hall on Monday night but then she said she thought you hadn’t been invited. Had you been? Are you being slighted from cultural events in your own backyard? It might help your image if you went to something that involved culture once in awhile.
Tonight I made supper, bought a bottle of wine and continued with the apartment; taking things apart, filling holes in the walls, sorting and packing boxes. Gotta love moving!
-chris
DEAR PM 