I'm finally posting some of the awesome shit I got.

Let's start with new shoes & necklaces.

No, actually, let's start with Happy Holidays! And very best wishes to you. Today has been a blissful day, and there's a steak & guiness pie in the oven, and a new sewing machine (!) under the tree! For me! I already have ideas for more projects, now that I've got a sewing machine to fiddle with again.

Okay, back to new shoes. Here are three lovelies that I'm so excited about.

i. The Camper oxfords. Chris bought them for me - by the way, Camper is having a sale until the end of Feb, which hardly ever happens. They're simple, practical and gorgeous.


ii. Les Prairies de Paris grey oxfords. I've been looking for great grey shoes forever, and with the amazing craftsmanship on these girls, and the twist on classic oxfords with the elastic, I couldn't resist. I think the elastic makes them sort of ballerina-y, no?


iii. Dries Van Noten boot-shoe things. Kick ass and comfy. Very good for toughening up my girly dresses.

I had been looking for a magnifying glass forever, and UO is selling one, and even though it's mass-produced I love it. The sweet peas-in-the-pod necklace was a beautiful anniversary gift from Chris.

Tomorrow or Saturday I'll finally pull out all of the ding dang clothing I've got recently and document it. Finally!

By the way, the Les Prairies shoes were from Jonathan + Olivia, a Vancouver store that just opened here in Toronto a few months ago - on Ossington. They've got great designers (they're the only store that carries Les Prairies in Canada, I think) and they're really, really nice. Which is appreciated when I'm spending a bit of money.

Photo by Zoe Bridgman

Michael Govan almost made my head explode.

I spent a recent Friday night and most of Saturday at a symposium on museum and exhibition design called From Jurassic Park to Rothko's Chapel, sponsored by U of T's newly re-named faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.

Leading American curator Michael Govan was the keynote speaker, and there was such a buzz in the air while he was speaking. He led us through his experience bringing art to post-industrial spaces - like Dia Beacon - and how working with artists like Robert Irwin and Walter de Maria changed the way he thought about 'the gallery' and 'the object'; he became more interested in the way that the actual space changes and affects how the visitor sees. He worked closely with Irwin to renovate the Dia Beacon from an old Nabisco factory to a contemporary art space, and the results are, of course, remarkable:

Photo by Listen Missy! on Flickr.

Photo by Darrell Silver.

Photo by tud5000 on Flickr.

His experience working with an artist (Irwin) as opposed to an architect to shape the space made him realize how alienated most artists are from the very spaces in which they show their work, and how he wanted to break that model.

And I say: ROAD TRIP.

As a side note, Govan collaborates with Irwin extensively, and if you're interested in Irwin's work, or even if you're not, I urge to read Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler. I actually encourage you to read anything by Weschler. Have I written about this book before? I think so, maybe.

Anyway, Govan's experience as Director and CEO of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is quite the counterpoint to his earlier work. He has always resisted working in the white box of the contemporary gallery space, and now he is finding new ways to be inventive within that frame. Exhibits like the Magritte exhibition designed by John Baldessari and Jorge Pardo's highly controversial Pre-Colombian installation have challenged the traditional view that exhibition design should emphasize the object, not contribute to the meaning of the exhibit itself.


I nearly squealed when Govan talked about Chris Burden's Urban Light installation, which features solar-powered antique streetlamps that Burden collected from all over Los Angeles in a design that recalls an ancient temple.

There were so many more ideas and images to process, but I imagine I'll have more to say in pieces over time.

Any exhibits/artworks that have been inspiring you lately?

Suggested reading.

So, you know how I feature awesome book titles from The Monkey's Paw from time to time? Well, this one takes the cake.

Cauldwell, D.O.:
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS -- A STUDY OF WET DREAMS
Haldeman-Julius Publications, Girard, KS, 1948.





And this one's pretty fantastique:

Rodale, J.I.:
THE ITCH AND WHAT TO DO BESIDES SCRATCHING
Rodale Books, Emmaus, PA, 1971.



Available just in time for the Holidays! You're welcome.

Some new pictures.

I developed some new pictures from a little jaunt we took a few weekends ago and I'm quite please by the results. So I'm sharing them. With you!

We spent a Sunday morning at Balls Falls, which is a most beautiful badly-named place. You can walk right out on to the top of the falls, and if you take a little hike from there, you meet some horses frolicking.



This is from a nearly-demolished old church. It's being torn down to make room for some more condos. Yay!

I took this a while ago. Beautiful sweets from The Red Tea Box.

More trees in Vineland.


I'll be posting soon about my new best friends, which happen to be a pair of Dries Van Noten shoes I scored. Uh-huh.