from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 11:34 PM
subject Gouvernantes: pas de dépenses supplémentaires, dit le bureau de M. Trudeau; Video shows angry crowd ‘take law into their own hands’ and try to prevent Toronto officer from making arrest
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived another day of unemployment, added a few profiles to an online job bank, updated my website, and unclogged the bathroom sink drain. It was disgusting. I wonder if IKEA chooses to make their pipes unusually narrow, white and almost-level because they love that their clients will eventually have to deal with the accumulated black matter. Speaking of that stuff, I’ve been trolling still a few conservative facebook pages and boy oh boy did they ever explode over news of your kids’ nannies on the public payroll. It doesn’t matter that the costs aren’t new, it’s just bad optics. You ran a campaign denouncing the fact that wealthy people shouldn’t take advantage of universal child care benefits. I do suppose you are in a slightly special situation, being PM and all, but heck, Jack Layton rode a bike to work, so maybe you could either put your kids in daycare or pay your own nanny. Also, this debate is such a distraction. Tonight was a members’ night at Skol, there was chili and drinks and we watched part 1 of Society of the Self. I had forgotten just how much influence Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, had over the molding and shaping of public opinion in the 20th century. Scary to find how little we’ve learned. Now Rose has come out of bed and fallen asleep on the couch. The sleeping merry-go-round continues. I’ll put her to bed and then have to think up a silly trick for the lutin to have done, part of our advent calendar Xmas countdown. This holiday more often than not puts me into a terrible mood.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sat, Dec 5, 2015 at 10:56 PM
subject Les libéraux prêts à légaliser la marijuana; ‘Canada is back’: Al Gore praises Quebec for $25.5 million contribution to tackle global climate change
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the past few almost-sleepless nights, as Sol had night terrors or a nightmare or something that kept him up Thursday, and that night I was out for the Xmas supper with the folks from Graff, and Friday S. Roberts came over for supper and a film and Clo’s mom was here as well, but mostly I’ve been feeling like a zombie because I’m just not getting enough sleep. I did, though, find a door for our bedroom at EcoReno and cut it to the right size and primed and painted it over the past two days, which is how long it takes when there are ten panes of glass. Today was the last day of gymnastics class for Sol and hip-hop dance for Rose; we need to make decisions on what classes to put them in for the winter session. How was your Throne Speech? I missed it. Any concrete plans to repeal the nastier parts of C51? I’ve started up Infinite Jest again, after a multi-month hiatus. My goal is to read a bit tonight but be asleep before midnight.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 11:05 PM
subject Parti conservateur: la course à la direction lancée; ‘Bad luck on their part’: Wrong number calls to Mountie’s cellphone lead to drug bust
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived another Monday – housework, computer work, artwork, then getting the kids, and dealing with an unexpected caca explosion all over poor Sol and our new couch fifteen minutes before my OPP meeting and Rose’s piano lesson, and then when we finally got him bathed and cleaned up and in pyjamas the car wouldn’t start, so we walked, which was actually nicer as the weather is balmy for this time of year. Doesn’t feel like Christmas is in less than 3 weeks except for the rising tension and anxiety when I start to think of getting gifts ready in time. How do you deal with the holiday season? We’re trying to keep the magic going for Rose and Sol, the lutin is often found in the morning in the middle of some strange activity, like reading a book about digestion with a bunch of Sol’s dinosaurs. I’m off to arrange something for him now, then to bed and a few more pages of Infinite Jest, maybe I’ll get to page 100!
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Dec 9, 2015 at 10:12 PM
subject Les déficits de 10 milliards $ représentent un «objectif», précise Trudeau; NDP re-introduces transgender rights bill in the House of Commons
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the first of three strike days this week, but was also home with Sol, who has picked up a gastro. He had diarrhea again yesterday at daycare and so I kept him home, though everything was dry on the bum front. We decorated the Christmas tree, which was delivered yesterday to the school, and where I spent the bulk of the afternoon, as I am on the OPP and specifically, the comité sapins de noël, though I haven’t contributed an awful lot, just helped with the pickup and before that would read and occasionally respond to group emails, but you can probably imagine what my written French is like. For the early part of yesterday I was working on my Freshbooks account – cloud accounting – and it was really drawing me in. It’s fascinating. Really. So now the tree is decorated, we have other decorations up, some lights, some cute felt banners Claudine made last year, but there is still no snow. Tonight Clo had a Viva! board meeting and I watched a Netflix flic with Rose and Sol, Arthur Christmas – a cute animation produced by Aardman, the creators of Wallace and Gromit – and Sol fell asleep midway through as he hadn’t napped. He had been not only watched Paw Patrol all day but THE SAME EPISODE over and over – the one with the snow monster. The kid is obsessed. Has Hadrian started watching it?
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 11:10 AM
subject Jusqu’à 50 000 Syriens au Canada d’ici décembre 2016; Liberals tout debt-to-GDP ratio as a ‘fiscal anchor’ as deficit predictions balloon
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the gastro; I think I caught it from Sol, who also passed it to Rose. It’s been a shitty week all around, both literally (on the couch, in the bed, on the kitchen floor) and figuratively (lost patience with the kids, feeling of depression and general hopelessness). How was your week? Nice work in Paris with the Climate accord, now let’s make it happen. And I read a puff piece in the Huffington post about how you took the time to help a kid having a bad day on a school trip visiting Parliament Hill. I could use a helping hand, just to get through this season. We’re all on edge with one another around the house. It probably didn’t help that Michael came over on Thursday and Friday to shoot some art videos in our basement and needed to make a tar-like substance to use as a prop in torturing his credit cards. The stench from the bubbling mixture of molasses, corn starch, sugar, soy sauce and god-knows what else has permeated the whole house and makes me gag, still, and must have contributed to my bad mood vibe. But also, no snow, and less than two weeks from Christmas, and the show is done at le Lieu and I’m making an aller-retour demain to get the works, and I still need to issue my receipts for the campaign and mail the sérigraphies and i just feel so far behind, on everything, and am feeling passionless. I’m sure if you or I were to ever bother reading the past post-exhibition letters I’ve written to your predecessors over the years we’d see a pattern of highs and lows, and I’m conscious of it and make real mental efforts to overcome it, but sometimes it just sucks me down and I get stuck trying to justify the point of it all. I want to be like a bear, and hibernate for the winter. I wouldn’t mind surviving on a diet of nuts, berries and fish, either, though I draw the line at eating bugs. Roots and shoots and some salad are nice. What to prepare for supper? Already I must think of this, because tonight is piano lessons for Rose but also an OPP meeting to which I will bring Sol and hope that we have eaten early enough and that he has his evening caca before we go. The house is a mess. Clo and I have been binge-watching the Netflix series Fargo, which with its’ themes of not necessarily good vs. evil but the very nature of civilized from the uncivilized, or the caring from the uncaring, the social or the individual – it all depresses me again. As a family we went to the MAC on Saturday to see the exhibitions, it was a good outing, only a few minor crisises (due to tiredness and hunger) but both kids likes the shows, I did too, but again, can’t help feeling a little stiffed by the system, as in, why 3 solo shows? Dana Schutz: nice painting, she’s good sure but does it warrant a solo show from an institution like the MAC? Same for Patrick, he filled the space but it felt repetitive near the end – too many turntables! But a nice home-town showing, and his works looked and sounded great – I love the 1000-year watch – but it also feels like an exercise in aesthetics – look how nice this dark rider and horse look amidst the swirling snow – and Camille Henrot’s Grosse Fatigue is a fabulous video but now it’s been 2 years since we last saw it in Venice and though it had a much larger space (and blue carpet!) at the MAC, for me its’ power has dimmed. Or is that just me? Maybe I am just suffering myself from a “grosse fatigue”. That’s what it feels like. Just tired. Worn out. I need to take this holiday time and slow down and be more present from my kids and family and close friends and try to have fun? I’m not sure if I can do that without feeling guilty but I’ll try. Guilty about what? About privilege, the fact that even as an unemployed white male I have the resources to go on vacation with my family and eat well. The guilt I sometimes feel about just claiming to be an artist; is artwork the same as other types of work? The inequities of value, scale, economics, austerity, it’s all getting me down. Anyway, I’d best get cracking on some of those receipts, get some packing tubes ready, fire off some overdue emails, check on the Christmas lists again. I’ll try to get back into the habit of writing you in the evening, and more often, but no promises, as the next few weeks promise to be very busy. I’m sure you are busy too. Where are you spending Christmas?
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 11:42 AM
subject Financement d’un stade à Montréal: Ottawa ferme la porte; North Korea’s ‘unduly harsh’ life sentence for Canadian pastor blasted by Ottawa as ‘serious violation of Vienna Convention’
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the aller-retour to and from Quebec City yesterday to collect the exhibition. Frédérique had already dismantled and packed nearly everything, I just needed to put away the cheap plastic hockey net and load the car. The rain in Montreal was a veritable snowstorm in Quebec. I managed to get the car stuck in the parking lot, making me question the state of my winter tires. To my eyes they look OK but then again, they’ve been on the car all year, and summer driving can’t be that good for them. We have another set that Gilles gave us but the rims are badly rusted. I should probably have a garage put the newer tires on the old rims. I should also clean the interior of the car thoroughly before we head to NB as it looks very much like a pigsty.
Oh, thanks for signing the birthday certificate for my friend Clark. I had forgotten that I ordered it, and he posted an image to Facebook and was quite surprised and I think a little honoured to get it. Although he is only 41 and the certificate congratulates him on his 65th birthday.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 2:11 PM
subject Terrorisme: Ottawa veut un accès rapide aux données des suspects; STEP program won’t be chopped, says Ceci
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived a whole bunch of Xmas partying: supper with the education team from DHC last Wednesday, Oboro last Thursday (and I was in a foul, foul mood for about 48 hours before and after), then Emily’s annual get-together on Friday followed by Peter and Swintak and where I decided it would be a great idea to not only take some MDMA at about 1:30am but also share it with almost everyone who was still at the party, resulting in a very, very late night (I think we got home at 5am), and later on Saturday we packed up the car and kids and gifts and did a Hubert-family Xmas in île Perrot (my nephews receive too many gifts. One of them got a drone! A Millenium Falcon with 4 propellers embedded in a soft foam casing, it runs off 6 AA batteries, can you believe it?) and drove back later that night in a partial snowstorm which had me worrying about the state of our winter tires, but yesterday Pierre from Canadian Tire looked at them and said that they still had life in them, and in fact they were in better state than our extra winter tires which I had stuffed in the trunk in order to compare, and maybe switch up if need be. Sunday was the neighbours get-together chez nous which started at 4:30m and ended with an impromptu spaghetti supper and kids up late watching the original Guerre des Tuques, and then last night was the AC crew get-together chez nous. I’m avoiding Facebook and haven’t even been on the computer to check email in what feels like a week. Today we are packing and prepping, I had the car cleaned, there is a lot of stuff to bring, and we plan to hit the road super early tomorrow morning. Hopefully we’ll arrive at my folks before 7 or 8pm. What are your Christmas plans? We’d like to do some downhill skiing, my mom thinks that there may be some snow at Poley, but it’s so darn warm everywhere. Climate change or just El Nińo?
-chris
DEAR PM 