from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Feb 1, 2016 at 11:50 AM
subject Radio-Canada: Mulcair exhorte Joly à respecter sa promesse; ‘It felt almost like a rage’: Witness tells Ghomeshi trial she was punched in head, grabbed
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the weekend at home and gallery openings on Saturday at the Belgo and Oboro. While at the Oboro opening Sol developed a nosebleed and smeared bright red blood all over his face, resembling a scene from Carrie. It took a good twenty minutes to stop bleeding, the poor guy was not impressed, but once it stopped he became his normal happy self. The kids have been binge-watching Inside Out since it is available on Netflix. Romy came over Saturday night as I was hoping to go out dancing – there was a Moonshine event at the SAT – but ended up just meeting Clo and Aaron and Steven’s and having a late supper and drinks and discussions with Alexis and Shyra, one of the artists showing at Oboro. Yesterday Rose had a playdate in Laval with her former daycare friend Sarah, and I puttered about with Sol, mostly washing loads of laundry. Cooked a risotto for supper and S. Roberts came over. Was too tired to write you last night but started watching documentaries from Curiosity Stream. I signed up for a free month-long trial. Watched a short doc on how to preserve digital memory, a theme that dovetails with my recent obsession with death. Rose is home sick with a fever and body aches, she just woke up from a brief nap and wants to do experiments before lunch.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 4:01 PM
subject Réfugiés: les bases militaires «probablement» utilisées d’ici la fin du mois; Toronto breaks Febraury warm weather record as city gets early taste of springtime temperatures
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived another Monday, then Tuesday, at home with Rose, who caught whatever throat and sinus infection Sol had. We went to a different clinic, one on Ile des soeurs after Clo called Bonjour-santé and that is where they booked us. Poor Rose threw up in the car on the way there, luckily she hadn’t eaten yet so it was mostly clear liquid, but still, not pleasant for her. She’s on antibiotics now too, and her fever subsided and she slept OK last night, but even though she was much-improved this morning her fever came back to 39.4 after her nap, so no school again today. I’m trying to sort my papers, my bookshelf, and managed to mail my posters yesterday ($75 to send via air mail to Australia!!!) I still have buttons and cards to send, and the house always seems to need cleaning and I always feel behind. The domestic routines (cleaning, supper, bath, stories, bedtime, poor sleeping, breakfast, dressing for school-daycare, cleaning, supper…) are getting me down: I feel the SAD creeping in, even as I become more patient and appreciative of spending time with the kids. Other than that, I’m not feeling terribly motivated at the moment. All my projects and deadlines and money are slowly leaking away and I feel powerless to act. Rose is nearing the end of watching her last Goosebumps episode, wiggling her loose front tooth, and we’ll head out shortly to get Sol and have an early supper and bedtime tonight. Maybe perogies. Maybe pasta…again.
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 9:34 PM
subject Femmes autochtones: la colère des familles entendue; ‘Millard looked over at me and put his hands up’: Jury hears of suspect’s arrest for Bosma’s disappearance
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived some mild depression, then a wonderful day of skiing at Mont Tremblant with my love (which included a visit to the exterior Spa Scandinave) and then the weekend with my inlaws AND my parents…in our apartment! My parents came up on Friday after their week of skiing at Sugarloaf to avoid that big blizzard that blew up the east coast, while Gilles and Rose-Marie had already agreed to come babysit the kids overnight. Clo organised and cooked a fun birthday brunch for everybody and then had reserved supper for us and 9 friends – mostly Air Canada friends and friends of Kent – at the new restaurant Plaza St-Hubert, which is located, of course, on the Plaza St-Hubert. We were given the “bureau de chef” and it was a perfect evening, though Anne and I might have become a little too absorbed in discussing potential renovation projects of a house that they haven’t even made an offer on due to a 4-storey wall in the backyard. Afterwards a few of us went to an after-party and Clo and I didn’t come home until 5:30 – it was an evening with Molly, and so much fun! We took full advantage of my parents staying over an extra night, but they hit the road back to NB by 8am, and I was a bit of a zombie all day, but after Rose and Sol and I rode the metro for a bit and then stopped for poutine and then we decided to take the metro to Dollar Cinema which was a fun adventure for the kids (Sol especially liked walking over the Décarie and watching six lanes of traffic) but the movie was terrible! Norm of the North, just bad bad bad, but Rose liked it, and Sol seemed into it as well. Today was a fairly productive day: catching up on emails, planning the weeks ahead. I’ll be doing some tech work at Artexte tomorrow prepping some AV needs before their 35th anniversary soirée, and then I’m starting the closet renovation job upstairs at our neighbour on Wednesday. This week I need to nail down some images to make into screenprints for Judith, and as well I might have found a studio to rent. Clo had a great idea, that I would be better able to sort through all my art stuff (including papers) if I had a studio to bring it all to. And having a studio will be much easier for making the works for Judith’s opening, in just under 2 months now. I’m going to look at it tomorrow. Now off to put Rose back into her bed and have a shower.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 10:28 PM
subject Ban Ki-moon va saluer le retour du Canada sur la scène internationale; Soaring drug seizures at border due to better intelligence gathering: CBSA
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived another day of partial effectiveness. Mailed out most of the remaining tax forms for donations to my campaign; started some digital sketches for the Tuck new works. Waited to hear back from Sarah at Artexte but in the end with their electrical difficulties they set up things themselves and didn’t need me. I visited a studio for sublet and I think I’ll take it; I’ll be working right beside Pavitra, who is working on her upcoming show at Oboro. Tonight Clo is still out from after work, I picked the kids up and we baked a cake when we got home while I made supper. They are going a little stir-crazy I think, what with being cooped up inside so much, and they need to run and blow off steam. Rose was in bed and asleep by 8pm, but Sol lies in bed and stays awake. He listened to almost all of Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack before I attempted to read a new book Rose-Marie got us that is designed to help kids fall asleep but that didn’t help and now he is lying beside me in our bed still jerking awake if I make a sudden move. He wasn’t impressed that I said I had to work, that I had to write a letter. Tomorrow morning I meet Michael to move the washer-dryer and start the demo upstairs in Judith’s apartment, then I need to run to Optica for a post-mortem about the VIVA! debate. I wonder if it is pertinent to mention that since becoming PM you have yet to respond to any of my letters? Is it because I don’t discuss the burning political issues of the day: ISIS, climate change, the pipelines? What are your feelings on the Ghomeshi trial? How do you really feel about the TPP (I sure as heck don’t like it). Anyway, Sol has fallen asleep, I might watch a documentary or crack open Infinite Jest.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Feb 11, 2016 at 10:51 PM
subject Trudeau veut un siège au Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU; Liberal house leader Dominic LeBlanc subject to ethics ‘screen’ involving powerful Irving family
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived a couple days already working upstairs, though Michael handled most of the demo as I had double-booked the first day with the post-mortem about the political debate hosted by Optica. They’ve managed to go through the footage – remember we recorded on three cameras – and edited it into six segments. Since you missed it you can now find out what seven of your opponents were discussing that night well over 100 days ago. Why does it feel longer? Today I picked up the kids just past lunch as they both had yearly checkups with their doctor. It was the last time they’ll see her, as Dr. Lucie is retiring in June. We’re on “the list” to find a new family doctor. I asked her to prescribe for me again a vasectomy. It was actually fun having the kids to myself for an extended period – Clo took the bus to Quebec City this afternoon to represent oboro at the opening of Mois Multi – except Sol was a little terror and screamed the whole time during his examination. He had repeatedly told me he didn’t want to see the doctor (before a short nap in the car), saying “the doctor makes me sad” but I think he must have retained a memory of getting a vaccination last year, and this past week at daycare they have been focusing on emotions. My own emotions are mostly positive lately, no complaints, though on the physical side my back has been aching again – same spot as a few months ago. Should I spring for a massage or just keep popping naproxen?
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 11:44 PM
subject Entretien: Air Canada respecte l’esprit de la loi, dit Ottawa; Canada’s CF-18s are coming home. What did they accomplish? No civilian casualties and 251 airstrikes
Dear Justin,
I am still alive.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 12:28 AM
subject La popularité du gouvernement Trudeau à la hausse; This law may be stopping Canadians from playing Jeopardy! What is the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation?
I am still alive. Sorry I haven’t written lately: life has been very busy. I took on a small renovation project at my neighbour upstairs and it took a little longer than I anticipated. Last weekend I went out dancing with Iliana who is back from a stint in NYC and we saw Session Victim at a club downtown. I was on my favourite drug – it was two weekends in a row, but I never really did get the blues. Didn’t have time. I am stressed about being being behind on the new artworks for Tuck; I’ll hit Graff this week to bang out a bunch of silkscreen bases, which still need to be finished, though a digital sketch I made of you is almost ready for a once-over with a Jiffy marker to give it that human touch. Last night Pip took Clo and I to see Tanya Tagak performing to a projection of Nanook of the North: it was a spellbinding birthday gift for Clo. I bought the vinyl version of Animism; it’s pink. As I’m sure you know the album won the Polaris prize in 2014 but I hadn’t gone out of my way to get it before now, partly because I’m old and don’t listen to new music much. That’s not true! I guess I thought I knew what throat singing sounded like but I had no idea, really. Anyway, Clo has gone out dancing tonight, I was with the kids for the afternoon and evening as she also had oboro work to catch up on. Rose went to an electronics bracelet-making workshop there this afternoon, we had initially thought the school Bal de neige would be happening this afternoon but the rain put an end to that. It didn’t stop Sol from playing out in the front yard by himself after we picked up groceries, as there was stick lots of heavy sticky snow to play with. His outerwear is so waterlogged now. He was great for his swimming lesson this morning and has also been much better this past week on the potty; we’ve had another caca and a few pipis to date. We’re getting there, slowly but surely!
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 4:10 PM
subject Justin Trudeau enfonce le pays dans les déficits, affirme Ambrose; B.C. pleads with Amazon to stop selling serial killer Robert Pickton’s self-published book
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the weekend and some mild depression. I was actually getting over it and was feeling on an upswing this morning as I was efficiently ticking things off the list: kids to school and daycare on time, made copies of the Elections Canada report for our auditors (they forgot to make a copy!) and met with an insurance agent and as of today Clo and I have life insurance. We pay $560/year and are covered to $250K if one of us dies so the mortgage can be covered. I was banging off emails and exchanging tax info with Kim when I got a request from Clo, Elections Canada needs more info, I forgot to send a bunch of stuff:
– Facture du vérificateur
– Reçus de dépenses
– Reçus de contributions
– Relevés bancaires
– Bordereaux de dépôt
– Copies de chèques
So now my bad mood is back. If anything will stop me from running in future elections it will be the fucking paperwork.
Planning Skol Nuit Blanche karaoke and tonight is OPP. I finished upstairs and even managed to reconnect the hot water without it leaking all over the place. I just needed to fiddle with it a bunch.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 4:30 PM
subject Réfugiés: Ottawa ralentira la cadence après avoir atteint les 25 000; Health Canada warns about anti-cancer pill that could release cyanide when ingested
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I am surviving the *$!@#?&*%$#!!! paperwork from Elections Canada, but just barely. I couldn’t for the life of me to get my printer at home working so since I had a lunch date planned already with the DHC education team I took the loaner PC laptop downtown with me and was able to print the last few receipts from their office. I find it a bit odd that even copy stores won’t allow one to hook up a laptop to their network to print files, but whatever, it’s done, and almost everything is sent in, or almost. I’ve also started the ball rolling on our personal taxes for 2015 as I am trying to figure out if I need to beef up my RRSP contribution but finally it seems that since I can carry over business expenses from the CC grant I received in 2015 (for the bronze) into 2016, and I plan to make the bronze this year and spend a shit-ton of money on it, then I end up witha bit of a return. Our daycare costs have gone up but that’s Couillard’s austerity jack-off measures for you, what a tool. I think if I was ever to see him up close I wouldn’t hesitate to punch him in his smarmy face. Anyway I’ve got to run get the kids supper already in the oven Eliot will come tonight after rugby practice and be very hungry, teenagers eat lots! And drink lots of milk, be forewarned.
Remember after the American Independence Upper and Lower Canada let in about 40,000 United Empire Loyalists as refugees?
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 1:58 PM
subject Mulcair accuse Trudeau d’avoir manqué de respect envers des groupes autochtones; Court acquits mom who admitted killing stepchild based on faulty forensics
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the weekend alone with the kids, which included taking them both swimming on Saturday and Sunday, and as well I survived Nuit Blanche and karaoke at Skol, and as well I survived the Oscars So White last night, which I missed completely because who really cares about that stuff? We survived Eliot’s visit with us, he was a wonderful guest. We also now have a cat, a 4-year old fairly large black cat named Marvin (though for the past three days Sol has been calling him Knowly – go figure). Marvin stays hidden somewhere in the basement during the days and we only see him during bed switchups in the middle of the night. He’s a bit meowly then but not so bad. I also survived a night out with Iliana on Thursday, starting at Le Ritz and ending at strange little Greek bar in Park Ex where they permit smoking indoors! I survived Clo in Boston for three days at a conference, hence my weekend with the kids, which was fun but a tad tiring: they don’t let me sleep in on the weekends and I didn’t want them watching any videos before 9am. On Friday I wandered around the house like an aimless unemployed person listening to podcasts and stumbled on one on Radiolab about a couple who made a video game about their infant son who developed numerous brain tumors. The game is called That Dragon, Cancer and there is a documentary about the making of it called Thank You for Playing. So I was basically bawling my eyes out as I wandered between the house and trying to unstick my car from the ice, eventually giving up and calling CAA to haul me out so I could go pick up Marvin. Made me see an aspect of gaming in a whole new light, as dealing with death, and the death of an infant, is some hard-core emotional shit. And my art? Pretending to be a goalie? Pretending to be a politician? Maybe I’m pretending to be an artist, too. Today I’m finally moving some crap into the studio I’m renting, and I’m going to Graff to prep a screen for the Tuck series. Still procrastinating on Dear PM, the tour, the book, the grant applications, and still procrastinating on the bronze. I just want to get high and go dancing all night long.
DEAR PM 