Ring The Bell

Looks to me like somebody's hit a milestone. The little blog that could, or might have been able to but didn't, turned 5 years old yesterday. I'm a day late in my celebrations but I've made up for it with a festive new banner! So, happy birthday, Neon Heresy. I've been at home all week with the flu. So, in the more coherent moments I thought about the span of time since I moved to Toronto. The blog and this particular span of my life are one in the same. It's good to see a sort of trail behind me. I like this blog journal idea.

So, on it goes. After being put on my ass for a week, I'm returning to health with a bigger appreciation for normal energy levels and the ability to think straight. As well, an appreciation for Bobby Flay and his endless losing throwdowns. I've been bored and tired lately but, for now, that's over. I'm happy to say I have a lot of shit to do.

Since I haven't posted in a month, I suppose it doesn't really matter but these photos are just a few more from (Canadian) Thanksgiving up in Owen Sound. I suppose open spaces and sky still are feeling pretty exotic to me right now.

Shooting through windows is always so perfect. Always carry a window.

I was a little bit obsessed with photos of this trailer. I'm not sure what the story is but it's just out the back of my Mom's place and its Orange and Brown racing stripes just jump out. So much space!

My sister is playing gameboy or something after dinner. Does gameboy have Whack-a-Mole? Maybe it's not a gameboy.

And we finish with the next generation of woodsy photogs in the family. This is my nephew exploring the fields with us with Grandma's new camera. He was a natural.

in Canada, we almost never say rutabaga

I hitched a ride with my sister up to Owen Sound for Thanksgiving at Mom's. Shannon and I took a lot of pictures. We ate a bunch of turkey and sat on chairs. Please enjoy one of those things below.

Alls about MTL

I had an amazing time in Montreal a few weeks ago. This photo is proof, obviously.

Good luck to my friends in Artist Bloc right now while they curate the Happiness Project for Pop Montreal.

More photos here.

Roy Was The Bridge

Not a virtuoso and not a dullard. Both would be better.

Travel-worn, he sank to the edge of his suitcase and balanced, breathing in the diesel fumes of the coaches pulling in from their queues. A woman introduced herself as Helen and asked him if he was going to Mendoza. She was scooping polenta out of a tube and moving it around in her mouth while she waited for him to answer. He understood that either she, herself, was Helen or that somebody named Helen was of some interest to her but really had no way of knowing because she wasn't speaking English. He hated admitting that he didn't understand. It didn't look particularly important. He thought that she might just go away if he didn't talk back.

Helen was curious about this man. She had a long ride in front of her and she was in the habit of finding a suitable companion for these trips, if not for company, then just for the appearance of safety. Her name wasn't actually Helen. She had to start somewhere, though. She might tell him her real name if he doesn't turn out to be unstable.

He had slept badly for a week now. He didn't want for much more than to be horizontal and not creaking upright on and off the wheels of his luggage. He watched Helen without curiosity. She was attractive, he noted. After a couple of minutes he wondered if he hadn't better say something to her. Her intent proximity was starting to unnerve him.

"Helen?"

"Si? Helen."

"Hi Helen. You should know: I don't speak Spanish. I'm sorry."

"You should be."

"Well...I am."

day in the junkshun

not talkin bout pogey

Sometimes it's just something pretty.

It's coming up on this blog's 5 year anniversary. "Life In Toronto" quickly turned into just "life" so I had to change the name. Plus, that name sucked. There wasn't much forethought. I imagined I'd write a few entries here and some people back home might get a kick out of knowing how I was doing.

A lot of things have changed and the great majority of people are content to read status updates on Facebook rather than raking through individual blogs anymore. I suppose I'm ok with that. There were times when I was neurotically concerned with who was reading here and I'd check for comments the way I now check my Twitter feed. These days I'm just glad I still have it around. It's the only record of its kind for any major period in my life. To me, even the gaps in posting are important. Times away from the computer screen.

I miss the thrill of the early days. Meeting people. Arguing, fighting, talking about ideas. It was pretty great and pretty hard to explain to people who didn't have blogs of their own. Strangely, the conclusion I came to last night when I was trying to pin down how I had so much more to say back then was that I was unemployed for the first 3 months, and for another 4 or 5 after that I still didn't have many friends in the city or have an actual social life.

Having a job to go to every day really dominates a person. That thought led neatly into my concerns about my photo portrait project I'm working on so I decided I'd use Facebook to troll for potential subjects. It sounds obvious and plain and ultimately pretty useless to note what working 9-5 does for/to us. But, having to work with the scraps of time left over after "work" is done and all the responsibilities of normal life have been attended makes for a pretty serious handicap when going up against other artists who don't. It's a bigger issue than taking up a block of time that could otherwise be used for personal fulfillment. It separates us from those who don't have to do it. It bonds us together with all those who do. It instills a patience, if not an all out sense of fatalism about our ability to live out the dreams we had when we were younger, that those who don't have to split their existence up don't develop.

Maybe it's just my way of justifying my choices but I am thinking that there is some intangible something common and strong among the people who live these dual lives.

If you come across this post and you are one of these people then drop me a line.

Dan Pink on Motivation OR Try ignoring THIS you soulless jackals!

So, it turns out that science is behind me! Yes!

All the typical crap of the day in day out 9-5 existence, with managers and more managers and meetings and incentives? WRONG. Not the way to be doing it, folks.

This guy is a bit of a cheeseball, but I definitely am on board with what he's saying. Where I work, we had a big group bonding day about a month ago and we had to come up with ideas that would make it a better place. One of the many ignored suggestions I made was to have more relaxed hours so that it's more about the task completion than the hours I am anchored to my desk. It got a big laugh and they moved on. No joke, you idiots!

Anyway, enjoy. Use it to promote your own mini-uprisings.

all around

I read two articles this morning about wasps in the city. Slow news
day, I guess. In retrospect, I have noticed a lot in my backyard this
year but since I have so much going on back there I assumed that was
just normal.

I got edged out of the food court again at lunch so I ended up at my
favourite alternate spot. Wasps everywhere. Like they were trying to
make the point that I must not have gotten from the snoozey articles.
I didn't get stung but I thought I would show you how many were
clustered around me. Didn't manage to capture much with my phone.

Anyway, looks like there are more bugs in the city than there are in
the woods. Like I needed another reason to get off the grid.

I'll be throwing up some photos of my brief weekend road trip to Elora
very soon. Pictures without purpose. Water and sunlight and shadows.

Road trip

Road trip, originally uploaded by NeonHeretic.

This is the only picture, so far, of my trip up to Killarney. It was an awesome day to start out on the hike. Getting to that stage of highway where there are only rocks and trees on either side was satisfying. Very satisfying.

The rest of the pictures are on film and not yet developed. I didn't get to complete the whole week. It turned out to be too much for us but it was still great to get out of the city and stomp around in the forest.

I'm all primed up for more road trips. Getting there is almost ALL of the fun!

blue light is the best light

Parallels - Ultralight (Official Music Video)

My friends in Middleschool (Aaron, Norm and Dan) got their work featured on NOW weekly today. The above video for Parallels was shot about a month ago. I was fortunate enough to be on hand with a camera that day and I figured now would be decent timing to show a bit of the behind the scenes...scenes.

Slideshow (small) Slideshow (big)