from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Dec 1, 2013 at 9:15 PM
subject The waning days of discount offers for senior citizens? Élections de 2015: les libéraux dominent les sondages;
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived the stag party, the paintball, the strip club, the fight, getting thrown out of the strip club, La Banquise and the quasi-fight there, the aftermath of it all, running chores on Friday, the site visit at DHC on Saturday morning with Wim Delvoye, and James, wedding ceremony and reception. Needless to say after all that I am thoroughly exhausted. I drank only a few glasses of wine last night and decided to be DD and drove a few folks home in the RV. Both Friday and today I
was able to get some work done on my CC grant and it is almost, almost ready. We all spent waaaay too much money on the stag party. With Christmas just around the corner this is a bad time to be broke. My parents are enjoying their stay and moved into Zoë’s apartment tonight. I really need to get to sleep asap as tomorrow will be a busy day: Pacart delivery of the big rock and loading of the Cory Arcangel crates, discussion on the proposed renovations, and I have to clean and gas up and return the RV. To Laval and beyond!
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 11:24 PM
subject Duffy-Wright: la GRC obtiendra les courriels de 4 sénateurs; Officer had every reason to feel fear as Michael Eligon advanced, weapons in hand
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another Monday. Work was busy for the morning, we loaded all of Cory’s crates on the Pacart trucks no problem, but there was a bit of a hiccup with the delivery of the big Rovner rock. The truck doesn’t fit in the alley beside PHI, so it ended up again at DHC. We have a couple weeks before the planned installation at PHI and I am not worried about getting it there as we are engaging the services of a professional heavy lifter anyway. In the afternoon I cleaned up the RV and drove it back. We were charged an extra day because I returned it so late but the whole rental cost only came to $400, plus $50 for gas, plus $86 for the parking ticket, so I was very close in my estimate of it costing us each between $40-50. Now I just need to get the other half of the guys to anté up. I am uploading the Everyday Goalie goes to Venice video to Vimeo, the three-minute version that won the Oboro-Georges-Laoun-Super-Short-Video prize. Here’s the link:
Goodnight!
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Dec 3, 2013 at 10:02 PM
subject Un député conservateur veut diminuer les pouvoirs du premier ministre; Pot-smoking Mountie brought trouble on himself
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I forgot to tell you that Aaron had to put Kuan down yesterday. Her back end had stopped working, and she couldn’t move. She had dragged herself to his room. She was almost 16 and had a great run for a cat. I posted a quasi-obituary on Facebook for her:
Kuan was the runt of the litter, but easily the feistiest. Born in Saint John, she grew up in Halifax from 1998-2004, living in at least 3 apartments. Scared Karen Tam half to death. Spent 2004-05 in Montreal and we had to send her brother Yaga back east because the apartment was too small for them both and she would beat him up. She tolerated Manu in Saint John, came back to Montreal in 2007 but didn’t get along oh so well with a new human arrival so it was back east in 2010. She definitely loved her golden years with Little Buddy and that back yard. She had poise and character and was a class act until the end.
I just missed you today. Apparently you were in town and only a few blocks from where I work attending the Paul Desmarais memorial service. This is the first line from his obit back in October:
DESMARAIS, PAUL GUY–Passed away peacefully at Domaine Laforest, Sagard, in the region of Charlevoix, Quebec, on October 8, 2013, at the age of 86 after a full and happy life of family, friends, business, philanthropy, and service to Canada…Born in Sudbury, Ontario, on January 4, 1927…Paul studied commerce at the University of Ottawa and law at the Osgoode Hall until taking on the challenge of rescuing his family’s failing bus company. A visionary entrepreneur, he merged it into Quebec Autobus, Provincial Transport and Trans-Canada Corporation Fund. In 1968 he acquired control of Power Corporation of Canada, a public company organized in 1925 to hold electric power facilities which had been nationalized by the 1960’s. Over the following decades Paul oversaw its transformation into a financial, industrial and communications company with major interests in North America, Europe, and Asia…
But of course you know all this. And if you’ve been reading my letters you knew all about Kuan as well.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 10:37 PM
subject Énergie: le PCC et le NPD expriment leurs divergences; If the Reform Act can be faulted, it is for leaving the means of picking a leader to the parties to decide
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived a sleepless night as Rose must have caught a stomach bug and threw up most of the night. None of us slept, even Sol was awake probably because lights were on, their bedroom stank of vomit, it was an event. I stayed home with her for the morning and my parents came and stayed with her for the afternoon as I had pre-reno budget breakdown meetings, pre-install planning meetings, pre-press Xmas card layouts, in short, a busy-ish afternoon. Stopped by the opening of Sous les projecteurs – Les finalistes 2013 des Prix Pierre-Ayot et Louis-Comtois. I was originally going to bring Rose so she and Thomas would have a play date but of course one does not do that when a gastro is involved. Thomas had other kids to play with, but he has a soft spot for Rose. The exhibition consists of the three finalists for the Prix Pierre-Ayoy (Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf, Sayeh Sarfaraz et Kim Waldron) and the three finalists for the Prix Louis-Comptois (Milutin Gubash, Manon LaBrecque et Stéphane La Rue). The show was lit very dramatically. Now Sol is screaming and all uncomfortable, has not really slept since going down at 7:30, I am worried he has the bug too, and just hasn’t vomited it all up yet. Could be another sleepless night. I had manic energy as a result of the lack of sleep from last night, I wonder what 2 nights in a row will do? Oh, and with one full week to go before my next pay I am officially broke, so much so that I had an insufficient funds come up on the old Interac terminal when I went to Modiana to buy formula and bananas. I have managed to use up most of my $300 overdraft, and my credit card is still 2/3 full. At least I paid rent already this month. Shit, and I have acupuncture tomorrow. At least Nancy never cashes my cheques on time. OK, he’s asleep. I’m heading to bed too.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 9:44 PM
subject Le monde politique canadien rend hommage à Mandela; Gangsters seemed to know Mayor Ford better than most Torontonians
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another day of work with a session of acupuncture in the late afternoon. The session put me into a deep power nap and I felt great afterwards. My energy and motivation have been generally on the upswing lately, despite the past few nights of little sleep and the major partying last week. Tonight we had supper at my parents’ apartment. Clo is getting Rose into bed now and my goal is to write to you and get ready for bed and be asleep by 10 or so. Have a couple new New Yorkers to dive into. I could be preparing a bit more for my artist talk at UQAM next Monday, but I think I have enough images and videos online to carry it. It was Anne-Marie Ninacs who asked me to come for her class. They are 2nd year students but there are 66 of them so I am a little nervous, but not too much.
I’m back. Had to go recite Pinocchio (the short version) for Rose. This must be the 21st night in a row. She has finally asked to see the film and if we have time may watch it this weekend. It scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Damn, not on iTunes. Only the 70th anniversary re-issue on Amazon, for over $30. Found a few 1999 DVDs for around $5-10 plus $15 shipping. Maybe I’ll just rent it from a video store? I placed a bid anyway, $7 my maximum. I don’t have time to fart around on eBay all night. I wanted to go to bed half an hour ago!
Aarg! No! Facebook just stole another 15 minutes from my life!
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 9:44 PM
subject Dossier autochtone: Paul Martin blâme les conservateurs; Screen-printed underwear, outdated safety videos among items illegally using copyrighted government material
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived the Oblique Mystique at SKOL on Friday night. There was a great turnout and while the gallery didn’t make a ton of money (no cover charge and the 50/50 didn’t happen, so all proceeds came from the bar), it gave Alexis and I lots of ideas for future events.
Saturday I survived Rose’s dance class in the morning, then Xmas tree shopping at the market in the afternoon. Did you know that is seems standard practice now to charge $10-15 per foot for a tree? We finally found a guy whose prices were much lower and we even haggled a bit and so got ourselves a 6-footer (a bit crooked) for $38. I am soooo busted, but whatever, ’tis the season. It is our first tree, Clo and I and our little family. My mom was very excited to decorate it; my parents brought a huge plastic bin full of decorations. It is still half-full as we are trying to keep things a tad minimal.
Today we survived a visit to Femke’s to celebrate her birthday. Clo had reserved them tickets to see a puppet show of the Gingerbread Man in the morning, then Etienne made a risotto for lunch. In the afternoon we received Greg and Rebecca over who were in the city for Hanukkah. We had supper here and then I drove them to the airport. Clo and Rose watched La Guerre des Tuques tonight and then she went to bed without much of a fuss. Sol, on the other hand, had a nice long nap in the afternoon and did not go to sleep until 8:30.
I need to shower and prepare for my day tomorrow. My talk at Anne-Marie’s class tomorrow night is causing me a bit of stress as I have not really prepared anything beyond repairing a few website links. Better than nothing, I suppose.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 10:13 PM
subject Le Canada revendique le pôle Nord; Fat CPP is a tempting target for political raids
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another Monday. Was late for work but I was also driving an empty 12-foot cube truck in a snowstorm. Work is going well, the techs are making fast work of the demolition. I went to UQAM after work to give my presentation and though I was a bit nervous, it went well.I was able to crack many jokes at my own expense even in French, and I think the students appreciated hearing about the evolution of the Dear PM project. I also unveiled to them my infiltration project, and also how it is so very open-ended and undefined. As in, I have no idea where it is heading, but that there should be some sort of conclusion leading up to or during the 2015 election. If I am still president of the association in 2014 and can concentrate on finding a willing candidate. Please let me know if you plan to drop a “star candidate” into Papineau to face off against Trudeau. I already don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to this folly, and I don’t want what little work I do to be for naught.
I might win an eBay bid on the 1999 limited edition DVD release of Pinocchio. Have fingers crossed. I re-read the “short version” to Rose again tonight when I came home. I think it has been a month in a row now, every night.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 9:53 PM
subject Le Canada espionne à l’étranger pour le compte de la NSA; Trudeau unapologetic about Commons absences
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived an early morning, as Sol was up at 5 wide awake and refused to go back to sleep. We think he is teething. I survived a somewhat hectic day at work and then took the cube truck up to the old studio to move out the last of my junk that was stored there. Pat and everyone are moving to the adjacent building where the Pied Carré project has secured 3 floors of spaces for artist studios with a 30-year lease. Had leftovers for supper after loading my crap into the basement and putting Sol to bed. Clo and Rose went grocery shopping and I just spent the past 45 minutes trying to get her to bed. Now off to hang some laundry, check some Facebook and go to bed. I’m exhausted.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 10:06 PM
subject Post-Mandela: les relations Canada/Afrique du Sud sont en déclin; Why you’ll pay $1 a stamp and won’t get mail delivered to your door in urban areas
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived a real diaper explosion this morning. Luckily Sol has few that explode beyond the boundaries of his clothing but this morning was a clear exception. Afterwards it was work as usual, then supper at my parents’ apartment. Sol fell asleep there. He was up a couple times through the night and lately is far more difficult going back to sleep. Shit, he’s awake again. Gimme a sec.
He settled down, just needed to be held a bit. Luckily Rose had already fallen asleep. I need to have a shower and get to bed, another night exhausted. No energy left even to research what to wear to the Christmas Party (the theme is Grease, the movie not the substance), or even surf Facebook.
Here are some factoids regarding Canada Post:
1867: Confederation. The Post Office Department is created and Alexander Campbell is appointed the first Postmaster General.
1874: Free door-to-door letter carrier delivery of mail begins in Montreal.
1886: Free national mail service from Halifax to Port Moody, B.C. begins.
1899: The NorthWest Mounted Police get out of the mail delivery business when they contract out mail delivery in the Yukon.
1981: Canada Post is privatized and becomes a for-profit company. The Postmaster General position is replaced by a CEO, the first of whom is Michael Warren.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 10:55 PM
subject Le sénateur conservateur Hugh Segal quittera la chambre haute; Andrew Scheer reminds MPs of their right to speak in Commons
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived a very very cold day. It seemed to get colder throughout the day and we started at -17. Made a risotto for Kim and Thomas who came over for a play date. Kim won the Prize Pierre-Ayot last night, which was unveiled at the PHI Centre. Rose and Thomas really play well together. Sol is out of sorts, he is teething, drooling and crying all over the place. Also he was up all night last night so nobody slept well. Clo is out with her Birgitte gang and I am on my way to bed, exhausted as per usual.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 8:54 PM
subject Des ministères fédéraux ont des contrats avec Statfor; Canadian doctors developing guidelines on right way to withdraw life support
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived the DHC-ART and PHI Centre staff Christmas party last night. As you know the theme this year was Grease and the company had hired a dance instructor to teach us the basic moves to accompany the song Greased Lightning. I ended up with Martin as a dance partner and during our freestyle component he scooped me up and spun around many, many times, so much so that when he finally stopped I was quite dizzy and could barely stand. Our team won, and his spinning move so impressed the instructor that she selected Martina and I to a final dance-off to You’re the one that I want. Martin won easily, he is a really good dancer. The rest of the night was fun, too, lots of dancing, everyone got progressively quite drunk though I myself didn’t drink too much and even left before the party was over, catching a cab with Victoria and a random lady on the street, though due to the storm the cab ride took over an hour. I heard later that some others had worse luck, 2 hours or more, and in one case the cab became stuck.
Today I hung out with the kids, my folks had stayed overnight and let me sleep in until about 10, it snowed all day but we never really found a good moment to get all bundled up to go outside. I made a roti du palette with mashed potatoes on the side, which was delicious, but now I am hungry again. Clo is going out to ski, the conditions are amazing. I myself am going to bed. I want to be well-rested for the transport and installation of the big Rovner rock.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 9:30 PM
subject Financement des partis: les Libéraux visent un record; Rob Ford emblematic of the dark place where our politics are headed
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another Monday. I also survived the deep-freeze, and the transport of the Rovner Rock. Claude was late due to all the snow, but he and his assistant were super-efficient, and it took them less than 1.5 hours to grab the rock from 451, load it onto his flatbed truck, drive it to Phi, unload it, uncrate it, transfer from cradle to pallet jack and back again, nestle it into place and pack up. We were done by 5. Grabbed a few groceries on the way home. Clo had made supper and then I took out garbage and recycling and then shovelled out the car as S. Roberts is borrowing it tomorrow. Good exercise I suppose but I also feel sore in all my joints and don’t know if this is a combination of age and cold weather or if I am coming down with that wicked bug that everyone seems to be catching. I’ll keep you posted. Meantime, I’m going to bed.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 9:32 PM
subject Journaliste «pédophile»: Rob Ford s’excuse, la poursuite maintenue; Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra unflinching on price increases, delivery cuts
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived a busy day at work, what with the meetings, the debates over different aspects of the prosed renovations, and the installation of Hitlakdut, the Big Rovner Rock. The afternoon was full of complications (a 50-foot HDMI cable that was fished through the ceiling tiles but didn’t work and a VGA needed to be fished through instead, for but one example). In the end we had a workable image up and running by 5:30 with just some details to iron out tomorrow.
My parents picked up Rose, as Clo had an event at the SAT to attend, so she was gone when I arrived. My mom made “kitchen soup” (soup made from leftovers) which was quite tasty. The kids were good, everyone went to bed on time! I’m washing more laundry, our dryer died again (doesn’t like to start in the cold cold weather). Rose had an accident last night and when that happens the laundry load almost doubles.
I’m going to attempt washing the Grease goop out of my hair again tonight. The stuff i put in is called modelling clay and hasn’t all been removed despite 2 washings. I also need a haircut. I also need to get my Xmas shit together, make a list, check it twice and do some shopping before the weekend. I am behind!
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 11:25 PM
subject Harper confirme qu’il sera dans la course en 2015; Prostitutes need to find a way to get politicians’ attention
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived skiing to and from Emily’s Xmas party, a visit from Père No ël at Rose’s daycare, a day of shopping, a HUGE pay crisis for one of the techs, which involved following email chains and texting an calling a half-dozen people along a chain of command right up to Penny, who thankfully saved the day and whipped a cheque up at 4:30 on a Friday so Phil doesn’t go without any money for Christmas or January rent for that matter. Last night I survived the Oboro Xmas party, an end-of-year lunch with Phoebe and Penny, and S. Roberts’ PHD defence. Oh, and I survived the most recent snowstorm, and tonight Claudine cut my hair. I’m off to have a shower and try to convince her to join me.
-chris
DEAR PM 