2022
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 1, 2022, 7:01 PM subject 37 – 87 – 0103
Dear Justin,
It’s hard to believe it is March already! We were hit with another mild snowstorm, the white stuff is really accumulating. Hard to believe it is Tuesday, and the week is flying by. My (genius) idea of using PL to stick the aluminum pieces (the “frame”) to the Masonite panels (the “screen”) seems to have worked! There is still so much painting to do, it feels like everywhere. Myles finished the small gallery, and will start the Project space tomorrow, and Kathryn filled the seams in the screens and sanded and added plaster and they should be ready for painting tomorrow. There is still the screen to paint in the Cinema space, and as well paint over the yellow walls in the SAS. I still can’t even remember what SAS stands for. It’s the lobby area, but inside the gallery, not the lobby area outside the elevators. Whatever. Oh, Jess and I booked flights to Vancouver for mid-April, that conference she was going to go to a couple years ago is finally happening, and it’s a great time to meet my new nephew. Also maybe I’ll drive down to Fairy Creek and help protest against logging Old Growth. I feel guilty all the time for not being active enough. It’s not enough to share posts and be a polite ally – I think I need to get much more active. But first I need to make supper.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 3, 2022, 9:58 PM subject 38 – 277 – 0303
Dear Justin,
Sorry, not time to write. Last night we watched Coco – another tearfest! I had a crazy day at work, huge delays in production because the PL didn’t stick to the aluminum, so the screen panels needed to be pulled apart and put back together. We have 3 working days left next week, and tomorrow I leave at noon from work to drive to NB to get the kids. We drive back on Sunday. Oh, and the bleachers arrived yesterday and we needed to carry the steel supports up the four flights of stairs, so now my shoulders and neck are stiff and sore. I have been doing yoga and stretches every morning this week and my lower back feels better. Anyway I am in bad need of a shower and need to pack and it’s already getting so late.
Do you have any regrets now of being a member of NATO and trying for years against better judgement to bring Ukraine into it?
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 7, 2022, 9:48 PM subject 39 – 52 – 0703
Dear Justin,
We got snowed in near Edmunston last night, deciding to stay in a motel instead of pushing through on icy roads. The drive down had been clear and easy, hanging with my folks and a surprise visit from Trevor and Jordyn was nice, and I took the kids to Judith and Robert’s cottage Saturday night. It was great to catch up on all the drama with the anti-vaxxers she went through last month, and also to discuss future plans. But since I am really in the thick of things I went straight into work after dropping the kids off to their Mom, and the show has to be open Thursday and still lots to do. I suspect a couple long days, some late evenings. I’m tired and sore now and feeling brain fog and body ache. Did not sleep well Friday night on couch nor last night in motel room. The kids were happy that there was a pool and hot tub and it felt like we were the only guests at the Travelodge, which is a weird feeling to have with so many armed conflicts around the world and the displacement of so many people. Just one more level of guilt.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 9, 2022, 7:20 AM subject 40 – 136 – 0903
Dear Justin,
Happy belated International Woman’s Day. I missed it, was totally and completely wrapped up with the install. Today is our last full day to work on it, there are still so many loose ends. Going in early today and will most likely be leaving late. At least we’re not being invaded and bombed, and thankfully we dodged a bullet and do not have a mortgage.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 10, 2022, 10:48 PM subject 41 – 177 – 1003
Dear Justin,
We managed to get it done, the show was technically up and open by 11am this morning, although I fussed around honing different elements for the rest of the afternoon. Also finished that screen for FIFA, and am helping them install it tomorrow. I’ve been exhausted all week, but also started a 21-day stretching program, to help with my chronic back pain. I’d tell you more about it but Crowley just left a really stinky poo in his box and I can’t stay in here any more.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 13, 2022, 1:19 AM subject 42 – 154 – 1203
Dear Justin,
I just came back from the ER at the Glen. Drove Jess there at 5pm as her week-long battle with growing anxiety was hitting a fever pitch (no fever though). She was seen so quickly because of the pressure she has been feeling in her chest, and an ECG showed an abnormality that turns out might not be too severe, something called a Bundle Branch Block. She is staying overnight as they will run more tests tomorrow morning and then send her to see a psychiatrist, finally. She was very panicked about the ER and afraid she would be sent home without any help addressing the source of it all, the anxiety. I ordered sushi delivered to the kids and they put themselves to bed. I can’t be in two places at once. Yesterday I spent all day working on the screen and projector install for FIFA, I feel like I haven’t stopped to rest once in the past three weeks. Not true, driving to and from NB was restful, and the few minutes in the hot tub in the hotel on our way back, and the couple power naps this past week, and also my 15-minutes of stretching in the mornings, so there is some R&R in there. I just don’t stress about the future in the same way Jess does.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 14, 2022, 10:30 PM subject 43 – 35 – 1403
Dear Justin,
I’m stressed about the screen. I went into the Place des Arts FIFA Pop-up space to switch some cables and the screen is warping wildly. I went to Vox to grab some airline cable but didn’t have time to stretch both corners taught, as I was getting the kids after school. I was having such a productive day until then. I had painted the inside doors of the small gallery grey (we didn’t paint them before because I thought the doors would always be open but didn’t account for groups), and put a fresh coat of flat white on the large projection surface. This is all after getting up early to make lunches, and getting a haircut last night about an hour after finally coming home from our second hospital – the General – with Jess after meeting with a psychiatrist. She felt moderately better after speaking with the youngish resident, who also advised her to reduce her meds to 5mg – she had re-started at 20, down from the 40 she had been on for years. She’s still waking up with anxiety and a racing heart, but the beta blockers will hopefully bring her blood pressure down. I wonder if my blood pressure will go up if I can’t fix this warping screen issue tomorrow? How has your anxiety levels been recently? You do know you can’t solve war with more war, right?
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 15, 2022, 10:25 PM subject 44 – 126 – 1503
Dear Justin,
What a catastrophe! The screen I made for FIFA was super-warped and nothing I did today made any difference. Aseman, who selected the films to show in this pop-up space, was there all day today helping. I tried airline cable, steel studs as bracing, changing the hanging system, nothing worked. In the end we took it down, hid it behind a curtain and used a smaller, fabric travel screen, which worked almost perfectly. So much for my design and fabrication skills, and I’m out about $500 as I can’t sell the screen to FIFA. I might be able to find a way to use it in the next exhibit at Vox, so maybe all is not lost. I just hope I can get back to work on Anahita’s light box tomorrow and don’t fuck it up.
Tonight I caved and got a Disney+ subscription so we could watch Turning Red, which was amazing. One of the best Pixar to date, I think. I’ll keep the subscription until we watch Hamilton and then let it go. I should let Netflix go as well. Maybe even Spotify. I can get by with torrents.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 16, 2022, 10:20 PM subject 45 – 175 – 1603
Dear Justin,
Took that warping screen back from the Place des Arts and hid it in the basement storage, for now. Intended to work on that light box but only managed to organize and tidy a bit the workshop, then had some other Vox admin things to do, more prep for the next show in the fall, like how to hang 160 pieces of paper behind glass without buying 160 clip frames, that sort of thing. Had a phone call with my psychiatrist who I told about Jessica’s predicament and he’ll help look into it. I’ll mediate a conversation between Jess and her GP tomorrow morning – remember he doesn’t speak English and her French is not great. Oh and while getting too and from work and while making supper and washing dishes I was listening to new Maintenance Phase podcast episodes taking down Jordan Peterson.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 17, 2022, 10:31 PM subject 46 – 213 – 1703
Dear Justin,
Another day of messing up my own projects. I cut a couple pieces a half inch too short, throwing my glueing schedule off by a day. I’m already so behind on this light box! I came home for lunch to help Jess with an appointment with her GP, since he barely speaks English and she speaketh little French. The wheels of the health care system move slowly, very slowly, but I think she is making progress. I’m thankful that my mental health seems ok, it can be so debilitating when it’s not. I’m going to finish repairing the velcro on Sol’s winter boots – just in time for spring.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 19, 2022, 12:48 PM subject 47 – 221 – 1902
Dear Justin,
Finally made some decent progress on the light box yesterday, as well as started the Sketchup for Imaginaire Radicale 2, the next show at Vox in the fall. Had a low-key night with Jessica at home watching off-grid houses videos. She worked late at the CEP and had technical difficulties with the Risograph, which is adding to her stress level and probably contributing to the morning heart palpitations.
I want to include here some words from Bill McKibbon about renewable energy. He sites you and your short-sightedness in a recent article titled “In a world on fire, stop burning things” for the New Yorker:
“A few years ago, at a petroleum-industry conference in Texas, the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, said something both terrible and true: that “no country would find a hundred and seventy-three billion barrels of oil in the ground and leave them there.” He was referring to Alberta’s tar sands, where a third of Canada’s natural gas is used to heat the oil trapped in the soil sufficiently to get it to flow to the surface and separate it from the sand. Just extracting the oil would put Canada over its share of the carbon budget set in Paris, and actually burning it would heat the planet nearly half a degree Celsius and use up about a third of the total remaining budget. (And Canadians account for only about one half of one per cent of the world’s population.)
Even on purely economic terms, such logic makes less sense with each passing quarter. That’s especially true for the eighty per cent of people in the world who live in countries that must import fossil fuels—for them it’s all cost and no gain. Even for petrostates, however, the spreadsheet is increasingly difficult to rationalize. Bond supplied some numbers: Canada has fossil-fuel reserves totalling a hundred and sixty-seven petawatt hours, which is a lot. (A petawatt is a quadrillion watts.) But, he said, it has potential renewable energy from wind and solar power alone of seventy-one petawatt hours a year. A reasonable question to ask Trudeau would be: What kind of country finds a windfall like that and simply leaves it in the sky?”
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 21, 2022, 10:47 PM subject 48 – — – 2103
Dear Justin,
Went in to Vox and worked some more on the lightbox, and I think I managed to solve the puzzle of how to create an inlay for the iPad. Will know for sure tomorrow. Also have to find a way to beef out one side by 1/4″ that somehow I compressed in the initial glueing and so the box is not square. I can’t cheat the top, but I think I can cheat the side. Tonight Jess and I went to another Buddhist meditation teaching class tonight at the centre near her studio. The topic was karma. And then we re-arranged the living room when we came home, it feels more spacious and the couch is now facing the bookshelves.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 22, 2022, 10:45 PM subject 49 – 96 – 2203
Dear Justin,
Another day, another bit of money. Worked on the lightbox, and worked on plans, and cleaned a little the woodshop. Listened to some podcasts, the usual, though I didn’t have time to get into Sandy and Nora yet. I set up my first batch of comics to sell on eBay, it took all night to get the photos right and go through all the fine print. And then Jess and I watched Queer Eye and had quesadillas, and then I ended up back on the computer getting sucked into troll-town-twitter about the Friday for a Future climate march, sending petitions and letters and tweets to RBC and other greenwashing bank behemoths, or the likes of Jason Kenny who don’t even pretend to be green in the least, it’s all go oil go oil go oil goil goil goil my precioussssss
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 23, 2022, 9:41 PM subject 50 – 335 – 2303
Dear Justin,
Wow, it’s really amazing to see how much the mainstream media are so on-board with your warmongering propaganda. And where is the Anti-war movement? Please tell me you are not going to increase Canada’s defence spending to 2% of GDP. We already spend between $25-28 billion per year, getting to 2% would be at least $20 billion more, per year. Is the $200 million we provide directly to NATO considered part of military spending or is it another additional? And for what? I know you can’t see clearly with your war goggles all fogged up, but more military spending can only lead to more war and more death. Sending C-18s to “patrol” the skies, is this part of a military operation? Is this war? Sending frigates, is this war? Where does it end? All this fighting over territory and resources, imaginary lines drawn on a map, real people feeling the consequences of Fools pretending to be KIngs. Fuck you, and Fuck Melanie Jolie, and the NDP for propping you up.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 24, 2022, 8:41 PM subject 51 – 405 – 2403
Dear Justin,
It sure is a relief that CoViD19 is over, and mask mandates are dropping, and life can all return to “normal”. Oh, wait, we have to expect a big spike in cases because of all the relaxing health guidelines? Does this mean the truckers won? Did they win our freedom back from the clutches of tyranny? My Ex caught CoViD last week, she had the kids but has been double-masking at home, they were texted today and still negative. Sol is going to Quebec City for the weekend with his BFF Zack; I have Rose from tonight on. Worked a bit on the lightbox today, sanded and primed and re-sanded, added some mud to smooth it up. Finished a first draft of the plans for the fall show. Got my beard trimmed at a local barbershop before work. Made supper but Jess is at D&D tonight and Rose just wants to chill on her computer, so I am continuing with comic book stuff and sending emails to boycott RBC and to end fossil fuels subsidies and maybe watch Captain Marvel or something to take my mind off real world woes.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 27, 2022, 10:52 PM subject 53 – 369 – 2703
Dear Justin,
Slept in until almost 11am this morning! But hard a hard time getting to sleep. Started watching Wanda Vision last night and maybe that kept my mind active. It’s so fun and weird and well-made! Ran some errands with Rose, to the bulk barn (magasin zero dechets), post office (to mail a letter pleading not guilty to a radar speeding ticket I got when coming back from NB with the kids), and the grocery store (granola bars and grapes and other lunch foods for the kids). Picked up Sol, who had a great weekend with Zack. Went to a hockey game, an indoor water park, played hide-n-seek in the hotel, went to an arcade, sounds like 9 year-old boy heaven. Made onigiri and fresh rolls for supper and lunches tomorrow. Watched more Wanda Vision, put the kids to bed, talked with the Captain and made plans for our Vancouver trip. Took some more photos of comics for some online appraisals. Meeting Comic Book Guy tomorrow for a local look. We’ll see what comes of all this.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 28, 2022, 2:41 PM subject 54 – 265 – 2803
Dear Justin,
I sold 3 boxes of comics for $1500 this afternoon. It feels like the best outcome, as selling them individually would have been very time-consuming. I still have the 10 most valuable books away getting graded, and they could pull in possibly $2500, so overall not bad. The injection of cash helps me cover rent and bills this month, and also 3 new tires, as I stopped at Touchette on my way home and booked an appointment for later today to get the summer tires on and 2 are over 70% worn, and the other that is ok is not the same as the one I replaced last year when the tire came off, and since it is all-wheel drive I could screw things up with an oddball tire. So there goes $764. Also I got a call from a police officer investigating damage I allegedly did parking into a car back in November, probably hitting it with the trailer hitch. Feels like a downturn in luck. Nothing terrible, not like the news I got from Sarah about her nephew who recently committed suicide at 18 years old. I can’t imagine what Pan is feeling right now, losing a child has got to be the worst kind of pain. This pandemic, these wars, this inaction on climate, our inability to work together to solve collective issues, it is destroying our youth. We need more than thoughts and prayers.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 30, 2022, 10:16 AM subject 55 – 365 – 3003
Dear Justin,
Listened to an interview with Jennifer Howard, the NDP chief of staff, on the Backbench, and it almost gave me hope that politics is not always a cynical bloodsport, that you are all in it to somehow help people and advance good policy. And sometimes we agree and sometimes not. I still vehemently disagree with your environmental agenda. You may say we need more time to make a transition to a greener economy but the science says otherwise, and so does common sense. Continuing with fossil fuel subsidies and buying pipelines is just the wrong thing to do, period.
Anyway, I’m still at work, I need to carve down about 1/16″ on the light box opening for the iPad, so that’s still not completely finished, and I’m still organizing cables and speakers and inventory and the woodshop at Vox, trying to get mentally and physically ready to do a painting blitz at the studio, finally, after months and months – almost a year? You know what they say about time.
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
from chris lloyd to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mar 31, 2022, 10:05 PM subject 56 – 511 – 3103
Dear Justin,
Welcome to the Sixth Wave, at least here in Quebec. How do you insulate yourself from bad news? I don’t even have to open the emails I get, the subject headings do enough damage. Here are just a few:
A massive release of US oil is in the works.
World’s biggest banks continued to pour billions into fossil fuel expansion in 2021.
We will never know the truth about Portapique.
Your offer is expiring soon!
Hoodwinked: Facebook’s been fooled – and Apple too – by fake data requests.
La Russie envisage désormais l’emploi de l’arme atomique en représaille aux sanctions…?
Let sunshine in with spring cheer.
So I guess it’s not all bad news, but hard to compare news of spring with potential nuclear war. Especially since Spring has been so slow in springing.
My friend Colin out in Calgary is hoping to publish a children’s book about gardening, and asked me to make some sketches that could be used. I’m to draw a Peter Potts – a literal flower pot – and Dan de Lion (he’s French) and a couple radishes.
Oh, and Sandy and Nora are so, so mad about your “suck and blow” deal with the NDP. Not mad at you per se – they expect you to be opportunistic – but mad at the NDP for giving up what little power they had for almost dental care and maybe pharmacare plan. And now everyone will go along with the $16-billion increase to the military. The dogs of war are barking now!
—
- ° Chris Lloyd
- ° 514 295-3048
- ° chris lloyd projects
DEAR PM 