2021
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Oct 3, 2021, 3:15 PM subject 123 – 79 – 0310
Dear Justin,
Jessica took me out on a date to a tiki bar on Friday night. We drank a fancy expensive cocktail to share amidst a decor that was probably offensive and reacist – though I think it is trying to be ironic, though that’s no excuse. I drank too much and was quite ill when we got home, and unpleasantly hung-over the next day. We went for a fancy vegan brunch at Chez Regine, then wandered in and out of some fo the antique shops in our neighbourhood looking for a lamp for the living room, which Jess rearranged the other day. Didn’t find the right lamp but did find a big speaker outside ripe for the taking, which will act as a good stand for the lamp, whenever we do find it. Today I went in to Vox to make some adjustments to some of the sound pieces, and now we are preparing for the little Veganniversary / birthday party for Jess tonight at the studio. She’s baking a complicated torte at the moment.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Oct 6, 2021, 10:38 PM subject 124 – 147 – 0610
Dear Justin,
Sorry I haven’t written lately, got busy with work and worrying about the climate crisis. We’re at 415ppm of CO2, and you still think piping bitumen left right and centre is somehow good climate policy? Seriously, give your head a shake man. The tar sands should be shut down, asap.
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- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Oct 7, 2021, 8:24 PM subject 125 – 170 – 0710
Dear Justin,
Finished reading Fieldnotes from a catastrophe, a book about climate change written over 15 years ago and it’s still scary as fuck. The Tar Sands have their own chapter, of course. I’m feeling more and more anxious about the climate and the lack of political will by you bozos actually in charge to do anything. Ultimately I’m mad at myself for not being more vocal, for not going on strikes or marches or blowing shit up. I’m just another worker bee, and museums aren’t know for being as green as their exhibitions might lead one to believe. I’m building a set of bleachers using wood from the previous show, but we are still buying and will use almost 30 sheets of new MDF, plus all the massive MSDF furniture that was built off-site, plus plus plus so much more new builds, light boxes, and carpet, and click floor, the list goes on. I can maybe reuse some materials myself for the house we want to build but we don’t have the land yet. Also Jess mentioned tonight she finds it hard to live here with the kids so we’re going to look into the possibility of finding a small studio apartment for her nearby, a room of her own. If we find something it will free up space here for the kids to each have a room, which is a good thing.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Oct 8, 2021, 10:12 PM subject 126 – 180 – 0810
Dear Justin,
Finally the 5-day work week has come to an end. Picked up the kids and then my Lufa basket. I’ve decided to try to shop for groceries less frequently and try to use less packaging. If we get dry goods and staples from the Bulk Barn (Mega Vrac) that cuts down on so much plastic. Jessica went out to a film tonight, I played classic Super Mario Party on the N64 with the kids, Sol was super upset that the NPC was winning and eventually won. I forget sometimes just how in the moment kids live, how caught up they can be in what seems to be trivial, ephemeral moments. It will pass, and he’ll be fine tomorrow. Not at all the same as the climate crisis, which will be a little bit worse tomorrow because we’re still building new pipelines to export more bitumen. Do you have any idea just how inefficient producing oil from the tar sands is? I’m sure you do because you probably sign off on all the subsidies. Do you actually believe your own doublespeak? It depresses me that you keep getting elected; I guess the majority of Canadians really don’t give a fuck about the environment, the climate crisis, their kids or grandkids, or reparations, land back or meaningful reconciliation and decolonizing.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Oct 15, 2021, 10:09 PM subject 127 – 187 – 1510
Dear Justin,
Sorry I haven’t written in while, it was a very busy week. Had Monday off with the kids – they went to their aunts for birthday celebrations on Sunday. The rest of the week was work, getting kids to school and home, then my folks’ arrived by plane Wednesday, getting them from the airport, their flight delayed an hour, feeding them, getting kids to bed, taking my folks to their Airbnb near Prince Arthur so it was loud and they didn’t sleep well. Thursday I ordered dumplings from that great place on the Plaza, it’s called La Maison de Mademoiselle Dumpling, for all of us. My folks hit the road early this morning and got back to the Bog and harvested 10lbs of string beans from their garden. They really enjoyed their visit with Aaron, Karen and Delaney. Not looking likely that Jess and I are going to do the cross-USA trip this winter, even though the border will be open to ground crossing, it is just too much money and too rushed a trip, even at 6+ weeks. Anyway today I dropped a piece of MDF on my foot and by end of day could hardly walk on it, came home early and put the foot up and napped on the couch for a bit, adding ice packs every hour or so. Jess nursed me, and made supper, and now is finishing a big book binding order – a book of poetry with actual tree leaves bound into it. We’ll bit another episode from season 1 of Murder She Wrote. Oh, and hydrocarbons – fuel – in drinking water in Iqaluit? Fix it, and all the other water issues on reserves and off.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Oct 18, 2021, 10:24 PM subject 128 – 33 – 1810
Dear Justin,
Another day, another handful of dollars. Had a really great weekend btw, Jessica and I really had a fun uninterrupted time together – and lots of really good sex, which is always nice. Today we finished the sides of the bleachers, which required a number of cross cuts per piece on the table saw. No lost digits! Started taping the joints together. Booked James to help Myles with the deinstall and wall construction at Vox next week – that whole project is stressing me a bit as I cannot really do any pre-planning effectively. I guess I could have taken a day a week to do Vox things, maybe I still can if I get a good jump on getting these bleachers finished and the three big cases covered in sheet metal. Hmmm time keeps on slipping, slipping into the future.
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- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Oct 19, 2021, 8:07 PM subject 129 – 96 – 1910
Dear Justin,
Another day, another fistful of dollars.Making good progress on the bleachers, taping and plastering. Of course we had to open up a section to crawl through and plug in an extension for a video monitor that was only noticed by Sebastien late yesterday. Good thing we hadn’t plastered that section yet. Met Jess after work at a café called ORR on Papineau, then we walked home and made supper and watched Murder She Wrote, and we’re about to watch another while sewing and stitching things together for halloween costumes. I am making a video game character outfit for Sol, from Brawlstars. Oh, also gathering images for that SKOL publication, the angle the writer is taking is the political campaign.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Oct 20, 2021, 10:27 PM subject 130 – 139 – 2010
Dear Justin,
Have you ever had one of those days where your legs and knees and back just ache like crazy at the end of the day? Those days you get up early, take the metro to work, sand and plaster and paint primer and eat lunch and sand and plaster and paint primer again, contemplate the years you have lived, what a different person you were 20 years ago, think about the inevitability of death and wonder again, are you ready for it now, if it happened now or soon? I would want to make sure my loved ones know how much I love and admire them, and I would want them to know I did as much as I could to make the world better, for them and the many less fortunate and privileged as us. I doubt whether I did enough. I could do more. I could go to Fairy Creek and try to save Old Growth forest. I could go to Blue River and join the Tiny House Warriors. But you get back on the metro, pick up your son from school, walk down the Plaza to stop at gaming stores to look at Pokemon cards, walk home, make supper which is throwing a salad together and steaming the frozen dumplings you just picked up from Maison de Mademoiselle Dumpling, then play some Uno, then read bedtime stories, then wash dishes, more dishes and prepare lunches, empty the compost, stopping only to admire the full moon, thinking it is the same moon that has faced humanity since the dawn of our time, has been the exact same face watching us change. Do you ever wonder, man, how you could be doing so much more? They hate you in Alberta anyway, just shut all the oil and gas shit down now, the transition can literally be a switch, you go from black to green, one minute you’re fitting pipes for Black the next you’re laying panels for Green.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Oct 22, 2021, 10:04 PM subject 131 – 137 – 2210
Dear Justin,
Spent the day in the shop on the table saw, ripping 2x6s and sheets of MDF. It’s completely bonkers just how much new material is bought for these expos at the CCA. You’d think that an architectural museum would be a little more conscious of such waste but it really seems like they have no idea that the planet is on fire, and that they are directly contributing to it. We did manage to re-use a lot of 2x4s and 2x6s from the last show, so there is that. Also, I haven’t been paid yet because they had old banking account info so now I can test myself to see if I can survive on what I have in my chequing account until the 2nd of november. The cheque from Artexte came last week and I got the child benefit and also some random amount from EI, so I should be ok, although Jessica will be paying for her own place as of next week, and for the 1 of November so I need to carry the full rent her plus my studio – now my monthly rent is over $1000 again. Anyway, best not to think of money too closely. We’re going to pick pumpkins tomorrow at la ferme Quinn, and hopefully spend the rest of the weekend relaxing, finishing the halloween costumes and maybe checking out some of the Indigenous filmmaking at Imaginative dot org, and catching up on some sleep! Jessica often keeps me up, her libido is far more insistent than mine.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Oct 25, 2021, 9:21 PM subject 132 – 35 – 2510
Dear Justin,
What a whirlwind weekend, and we didn’t even do all that much, but I feel drained somehow, and my lower back is killing me. We went to pick pumpkins at Ferme Quinn on Saturday, met SRoberts and the girls there, Valerie had her finger pecked by a chicken so that happened. Her first bloody cut! We selected some great pumpkins but I forgot the largest one on the trail before getting aboard the tractor. Sunday I took Rose to Poubelle du ski to update her rental package, that was an hour or so of waiting in lines, my favourite activity. Took the kids to Renaissance and we finally got Rose a red shirt that she is happy with for her Mario costume. Got some groceries, then loaded up the car a couple times with Jessica’s things and moved them into her new place – she signed the lease on Friday and was in more or less settled Sunday evening. I made the mistake of switching sides of her fridge doors so it doesn’t open into the wall, it is in theory a very simple task but then reality sets in, and bolts are rusty or stripped, there are more screws than necessary, certain parts don’t mirror effectively, etc. Anyway it is our first week apart, it is easier to focus 100% on the kids and I can go to bed earlier. Or shave and shower and finish halloween costumes for the kids. Had a day at Vox today to help James and Myles with the de-install and prepping a bit for the walls that need to be built. Back to CCA tomorrow to finish the three humongous tables, fingers crossed my plan works. Lots of mitred cross-cuts to make tomorrow on the table saw, wish me luck.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Oct 31, 2021, 3:18 PM subject 133 – 134 – 3110
Dear Justin,
Happy Halloween. It’s a rainy one here, Jess and I are going to a screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show at Dollar cinema tonight, in costumes. She’s the Empress from the Tarot, and spent a whole week making the billowing gown from the fabric she bought that had been hand-printed with pomegranates. I’m going as Margot Tennenbaum, mostly because I am missing a finger (not the same one) and I like wearing eyeliner. The kids were really excited all week and we had their costumes ready for school on Friday. It was a crazy busy week: the kids had a swimming lesson on Wednesday out at a private pool in Anjou (their mom had signed them up and paid for it), but I was good with lunches, and the mitre cuts went ok and the big long tables were assembled and almost all plastered and primed by Friday. Jess stayed at her studio all week and we met up for a date night Friday after the RBC protest. It was a great protest. Lots of creative and artful interventions, including pouring oil on the driveway right in front of the entrance at Place Ville Marie. Do you know that RBC is the 5th worst bank globally for funding fossil fuel, and the worst in Canada? That they have funded fossil fuel projects to the tune of $208-BILLION since 2016? Imagine if you went to COP26 and actually had the guts to demand that the banks divest from toxic projects, and fund transitions to a sustainable economy? Too bad you are only the PM, and powerless in the face of the oil and gas lobby. Oh, and I’m interested to see how Marc Miller’s statement about Land Back will play out over the coming weeks and months. Easier said than done, sure, but he’s the one in the driver’s seat. Or he’s riding shotgun and you’re in the driver’s seat. Whoever is driving, is it an electric car?
I’ll leave you with a complicated chant I learned during the protest:
RBC! Get off it!
Injustice lines your pockets! You’re making dirty profits! Divest from all that’s toxic!
(repeat) —
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
DEAR PM 