another day of glass

Getting to blow this morning was pretty nice. it was only me and this other dude cameron, not sure if i told you about him. but he’s some older dude with the weirdest hair. its shaved on the sides and on the top its long and pulled back into a ponytail. not really my style. anyways, so it was a bit difficult with just two of us, usually we work in threes. but we blew some weird cups. its just frustrating working with this one teacher guy, ben. for some reason he makes it hard for me to experiment and try whatever. kind of sucks. so in other words, hes not too encouraging. hmm so i haven’t really beena ble to put myself into my pieces..yet.  but today is berto’s birthday and roy just dimmed his boring job down to only 2 days a week, so we shall have a bit of celebrating. i think were having a bbq tomorrow. should be nice. i love bbqs, makes me really miss grilling and drinking keg beer at my brothers in denver. good times. shit, that makes me want to come home. i relly do miss all of you, the ones i know…who read this. quite frankly, i have no idea who is reading this, except for the few of you who mention it. but other than that, it really is a bit creepy to think about. well i guess its like books. the author really doesn’t know who is going to read the material. anyways, im going to head into the city soon. im on a mission to get some good shots of the amazing graffiti, so you will have plenty to look at when im back on sunday. yea, ill keep that one short. hmm i cant remember who ive told things to or if ive told about the night with my flatmates.. ill read back. sorry. alright im going to stop writting now

Apple Log

This one may be short, havent quite decided yet. but nothing new has been spawning, so i dont really have much to chat about. yesterday i did some more sandblasting and did a bit of engraving in glass. its was pretty fun. engraving is a bit difficult when it comes to seeing what your actually doing. the glass needs to be coated with a thin layer of water, which turns what you’ve engraved, pretty invisible. but its a fun thing to do, just like drawing, but with an electric burr pen, and water of course. i could have already told you about my yesterday, but honestly, i dont remember. see? my memory is pretty shit. hmmm. anyways, today i went to my sculpture class and we just talked about this pretty interesting reading that included things from Claire Bishop, Joseph Beuys, Nicolas Bourriaud, and Hal Foster. It was mostly about art and how people-the creators and viewers can collaborate and should through the work. art brings people together to create, even if they are unaware of the situation. like installation pieces as a place to create conversation and reactions. they talk about how small human interactions and relations are diminishing from our everyday routines, like ATMs and automated wake up calls. Art can bring people together-collaboration. well i’d explain more of it but i dont think all of you who read this would be particularly interested and i wouldn’t want to transform their great words and logic into some quite unintellegent crap from my mouth. You cn check out Nicolas Bourriaud’s “Relational Aesthetics” from 1998 or Hal Foster’s “Chat Rooms” from 2004- quite intriguing. anyways, some kid on a computer across from me just made theee strangest face ive seen in awhile. makes me smile. the little things in life are always quite nice. everyone could use a smile here and there and everywhere. well i better get back to my flat, we have plans to have small snacks and whatnot with everyone in our flat tonight. so i got some apple bread form this little bakery next to the grocery store. hope its nice and tastey. hope the girls have some interesting stories, if not i guess ill have to resort to making some up, well i guess i have some pretty intersting ones myself. we shall see. goodnight everyone

 .B

her name is amy

yea, thats her name, amy. i feel like a shit bag for forgetting that one. oh well. so another long weeked.. went to a bad prom party, that actually wasn’t all that great. definitely could have been much better. it was lacking free booze and novelty. i guess since alcohol is so damn expensive out here, you have to either bring your own drinks, or i guess, pay, and pay 4 bucks for a cup about half the size of a solo. its ridiculous. well enough about alcohol… we all got kind of dressed for the occasion, i was left to the day of the party to find a dress, so i wasn’t too prommed up, looked more like a little hippie girl from Cali. I got this pretty bad green dress from saver, a thrift store out here, which by the way everyone calls “op” shops, short for opportunity.. that took me a bit to figure out. but anyways i ended up borrowing one of my friend Cas’ dresses. Ricardo and Luke definitely looked the greatest, ill upload a photo of the two of them. they DJ together under the name Leslie Salvador- their middle names brought together. pretty grand. that was a pretty fun night, ended up at a couple of different people’s houses, ending with a late night, indeeeeed. that weekend, i must say i ended up becoming an english comedy expert. watched a few Monty Python films, some other one with Mr. Bean and the guy from house, honestly, i had no idea he was even english. but watched those and a bunch of episodes of the mighty boosh. which has become my favorite show by far. just brilliant. i highly suggest checking it out, if you haven’t already, and if you don’t agree, well then i don’t even want to hear about it.

Aside from that, spent some time at Jerome’s, like usual, got a great comment from tony. so get this. im stading there, kind of dancing alone, walk near the dj stand, where there is tony, leige, some other dude, and this girl sara who works there. tony ends up whispering to sara, speaking about me, and tony and i are friends and all, but he says “i bet that bitch uses pantene” it was soo great! later in the night he told me and leige that sara had said that, but the next day the truth came out. definitely something tony would say, well i guess he’s just someone you need to meet and experience to know what im getting at. but it was hilarious. if there is anything i remember about this place, it will be that quote. man… i bet that bitch uses pantene. ! i mean come on, has anyone ever said such a thing? i got a picture of that too. well it was a pretty good weekend, well except i left my bike at jerome’s for a few days, bad days too, like thrusday to sunday. and well somehow or someone burned through one of my brake wires, so that busted one of my brakes and the other one doesn’t work too well and makes this horribly loud screeching sound when i try to use it. kind of bummed about that. oh well, what are you going to do, it was a bad idea to leave it there, my fault. well im going to leave you with that. i need to eat and go home and well i dont know. but hope your all listening to good music and holding your heads high. laters

.B

best prom couple, Ricardo and Luke

best quote ever, and no i dont use pantene

Brigette loves Glass

So its been quite a long day of glassblowing for me, well i guess it could be longer. But my class begins at 9 and goes until 12, then we have a 2 hour break for lunch and an artist talk if we wish to attend, and then class starts back up at 2 and runs until 5. so it takes up the whole day. but that does not upset me, for im inlove with it all. I mean, that is why i came here in the first place. But im sadly disappointed to be stuck in a class of first years, who haven’t been blowing for very long, so the class moves slowly and im not getting pushed at all, which is what id like to happen. well, hopefully things pick up. but all and all im having a great time in all of my classes. They are all pretty open and relaxed, which is nice and quite different from back home at DU. I don’t mind it though. Well im headed into the city again tonight, Wednesdays are the nights to go to Jerome’s for some drinks. i really do love the place and hope to get a job there. that would be fabulous. ill ask Leige about it tonight and see what he says. oh, so i met one of my other flat mates, after a month of being here. yup, thats how much im at my place and actually interact with the other girls who live there. but she’s another aussie, a second year, is getting her BA in some random things, they weren’t too intersting, seeing how i dont remember. something like history-pretty boring. but she has some pretty damn long hair, down to her bum. its pretty nasty. well i mean she keeps it clean and all, but its just so long that it kind of creaps me out. oh and her name is.. shit.. mm. yea, well cant remember her name at this moment. im such a terribly person. well anyways, she seems a bit, tense or maybe she just likes order or something. but there is something weird about her. same with carol, my other flatmate, the one from hong kong. she tends to talk to herself…a lot, like in the kitchen and when she runs to catch her phone, oh man is that funny. but i cant laugh out loud about it… she would obviously hear me. well im going to stop snickering about my flatmates. they are all nice girls in the end… i think.   people keep coming in and speaking chinese, im surprised i can still catch a few of the things that they are talking about, kid of makes me miss the language. maybe someday ill pick it up again.  well im getting terribly hungry and need to get ready to enter the city life again. hope to hear from some of you soon.

.Brige

ooh yea, did i tell you i ate kangaroo? well it was a week or so ago, but it really wasn’t bad. a bit gamey and the only thing i could think about while i was eating it, was fur. so that kind of turned me off. but definitely something worth trying.   …i still can’t think of her name, sorry.  and chinese girls are soo funny to observe

the wonders of rosemary

so to all of you who thought i was dead, im not…obviously. But I am sorry about the loong delay between now and my last post. I just had a long weekend that didn’t prop me in a library in front of a computer, which quite frankly isnt bad. Its good to let the brain and eyes take a rest from the cyber world. So ill go through a short runthrough of the weekend, which started on wednesday, and will begin again tomorrow, also wednesday, for me here, atleast. anyways.. Wednesday started at St. Jerome’s for a bit. listened to some DJ’s and had some drinks, mm don’t think too much happened that night. But i did make arrangements to hang out at the skatepark the next day with Leige and his brother Miles, both of whom tend the bar and Leige is aprt manager at Jerome’s. So we met there the next day and headed to the skatepark, downtown not too far from federation square. There actually weren’t many people there, at all. about 4 or 5. it was nice. we only had 2 boards, so i got to skate for a bit and paid 5 bucks to rent one out i guess from the shop near the park. it was nice to finally get a skate in. And then that night, Leige mixed at jerome’s for a while, then we headed to some place called the Carlton Club where some other people were DJ’ing. honestly, everyone i know out here is a dj, or their brother is or their girlfriend.. but it seems like everyone and its pretty good easy money. i should really try to pick it up. i havent tried really, since that first time at ricky’s. but anyways, friday night we went to this fundraiser party for an upcoming artists magazine, “white elephant”. should be good. everyone invovled seems real great. but there was this great beer served at the party, an organice blonde beer. ill have to take a photo of the label, which is also quite pretty itself. the party was fun, miles’ band played, people mixed, and everyone mingled and soon drifted home. But i must say, people stay out and party allll night looong, like until the wee hours, well i guess mid morning hours of the day. I dont know how this society stays alive and doesnt shrivel into zombies. i need my sleep. but sometimes i begin to think i get too much sleep, sometimes 12, 13 hours. that cant be healthy. damn, i keep making these blogs soo long. sorry about that again. i guess that what happens when you try to fit a week into one post. hmm saturday was luke’s birthday at some pub in northcourt, pronounced northkit, so i sounded like an idiot trying to ask for directions. but it was a bit of a tram ride away, i was pretty nervous of getting lost, seeing how i dont have a working mobile yet and i hadn’t the slightest fo where i was heaed. but i made it. it was a nice place, but a pint was 8 bucks! rediculous. after there, we headed to some couples house, lucy and karl. cute place, karl is some designer for a japanese company, not sure what. but they had some expensive collectors items that were pretty sweet. but we made some french fries, which were so amazing. new recipe for all of you to try.. slice potatoes into thin circles or whatever, put them in a bowl of milk and tear rosemary needles off the stema nd put them in with the bowl. mix it  all around and leave to sit for a bit and then spread them out on a buttered baking sheet and pop em intot he over. flip them at some point and then take em out when you think they are ready. im not good with times and whatnot, but youll figure it out. but let me tell you, best chips ever! well id keep writing, but i need to do soem research for my glass class tomorrow, we need to have a proposal with sketches of 3 bowls and 3 glasses that we are going to produce and some research on an artists who will influence us. so im off. but hope your all well, and i apologize about the lengthiness of this. ill be back to write tomorrow. hope your all sleeping well

  .B

School has finally begun

Sorry about not editing these posts, I get kind of wrapped into typing and then my eyes are a bit lazy to reread. But i think its been pretty legible so far. Okay, so classes actually started today. I had my jewelry and metals class this morning at 9 and then a glass class at 2. The jewelry class was pretty short for everyone who had been in the studio before, but i had not, so i got to stay and learn how to make a ring, pretty simple. But we got some assignments, pretty loose and easy ones at that. In two weeks we just need to build small 3D things-looking at different building techniques. Not too hard, and pretty fun if you ask me. And the studio space is huge, like everything else in the building- the building, inside and out, looks more like a museum than a school space. its pretty awesome. So that class was fun, the teacher is real nice and extremely knowledgeable, well as far as what we did today. On my way to my glass class, i actually had the hardest time getting there. The studio is on the roof, sort of-7th floor. But the elevator doesn’t go up that high, ends on the 6th floor, so you have to walk up a floor. But for some reason, i couldn’t find the right elevator and i ended up getting stuck in the stairwell. Apparently it was the fire escape, so the door on each floor was locked from the stairwell, so i had to walk all the way down to the first floor, and then walk all around the building, go back up, asked some lady at a desk about it, she didn’t even know there was class on the 7th floor, or how to get there. So a this point im 15 minutes late, kind of freaking out. it was terrible. At one point I didn’t even think I was going to make it to class. But I finally did. Everyone was kind of hanging out, the teacher- a young girl, didn’t care that I was late. She explained that there were 3 different part in the class, and I was in my own, because everyone else was onto other things, like it was their 3rd class or so. so the whole class is doing different things, pretty strange. But i got a syllabus and whatnot, her and i talked casually about it all, she said i could leave, so i was only there for a bit. This class ended up being a slumping and sandblasting and etching glass class, not exactly what i wanted, but it will be fun. It was all pretty strange how we weren’t doing anything and how relaxed it all was. pretty cool. I ended up talking to the head of the ceramics and glass department, this guy George, i think i mentioned him earlier, but hes a real nice guy. We had spoke earlier about me being in a blowing class, but it would interfere with ceramics, so we got that all situated, so now im in two glass classes, making me a glass major this semester, which is pretty awesome. no complaints right there. So my semester is looking quite great, as long as i don’t get stuck in the dark stair well again.

Im off to dinner

.B

Tired

So after the long weekend of long nights which create long days, i find myself exhausted, and its only not even 7 pm. But I will try to make this interesting, because it really was. So the “womb party” or whatever you want to call it, well that was pretty fun. there was a big womb looking thing on the stage, made out of stretchy fabric, and some weird things hanging all over the place, some stripper poles and a sweet little DJ booth that looked over the whole scene. Ricky has pictures on his camera, ill put them up this weekend. But everyone was dancing and having a ball, it was great. Luke and Ricky ended up playing a late night set during it all too. Overall, the place was pretty smokey, people were taking their shirts off, it was wild and bizzare, but fun. in the end, it was just a great late night workout of dancing. Got home pretty late that night… but that still didn’t stop us from going out the next night to this nice place called the Toff. Luke and Ricky were scheduled to play around 12 with some other guy. This place was rather nice. A bit upscale, well not upscale, but more posh and classy but cool. good lighting and interesting projections on the walls. The other dj, some kid with these great blue glasses, was into playing disco mix music, which was fun, but Ricky and Luke definitley hit it up with there tracks. they play more well, im not sure what type of genre you would put it in, techno-electronic-dance-house- well its just greatness. maybe i can get a track of theres and put it on this, i don’t know if that is possible though. But that was a fun night too, we were probably there until about 2 or 3, just dancing and hanging out. There was this one great part of the evening when the other DJ was mixing, and no one was dancing on the floor, people were just around, sitting, drinking, talking, whatever. But this one kid just busts out some moves, all alone, dressed all in black. It was a perfect image. I really wish i got a shot of that. He was pulling some old school moves that were so perfect, but wouldn’t work for anyone else. It was simply epic. But that night ended and the next day begin with more music and dancing…again. The whole weekend of Luke and Ricky and dancing never ended it seemed. It was this bar Jerome’s birthday or something, i’ve written a bit about Jerome’s previously. the place is pretty good. real nice relaxed atmosphere, mixed with a back alley type place. But Ricky and Luke were scheduled to play there around 2 in the afternoon, so we all headed there and ate some BBQ  while they played some records and we ended up dancing more. its hard not to dance when the play, they are always playing good tracks. oh and there is this girl, emma, who ricky is sort of dating, if you will. but we got to talking and she makes shoes, bringing back the trade, i guess. But i must say ive never met anyone who makes shoes, its pretty rad. you can check out her website at emmatheshoemaker.com. different style from what were used to, but worth seeing. She was wearing a prototype and they are really nicely crafted. i was impressed. To end the crazy long ass weekend, we all came together, i think there were 8 of us, all crowded back at the house, drinking some wine, sitting next to the heater and watching this ridiculous english comedy that Roy had. It was brilliant. so weirdly hilarious and unimaginable. but it is called Garth Merenghi- the darkside. you can check it out on youtube. funny shit right there. well im going to start a new post about class, i didn’t want to make this one extremely long,  its probably already extremely long, apologies.

. sleepy B

survival

so im in Luke’s studio right now, so i have to make this short. but i survived the crazy late nights and ridiculous dancing of the weekend and I actually don’t feel half bad. Legs still work, my eyes are open, but i do reckon i need a nap. But the boys played some amazing sets- Luke and Ricky DJ-ing.It was pretty grand. well i just wanted to let everyone know that i am still alive and will write of the crazy times soon, most likely tomorrow. but take care.

Sincerely yours, B-Rabbit

Pool, anyone?

Nothing freakishly exciting has happened, yet. tonight is this girls’ going away party, and for some reason or another it has been referred to as the following.. “the womb party,” “the faggot party,” and “the lesbian party,” and one other but it has slipped my mind. not the greatest names in my book, but it should be quite interesting. I think there are a bunch of DJs playing, so it should be good.

But last night, me and Roy road our bike back over to Brunswick to the Retreat. Another few bands were playing for free, i guess most of the show that go on there are free, which is awesome. But we listened and then played some games of pool by the nice warm fire place. their pool is pretty strange compared to ours. The balls are noticeably smaller and there were only two colours- red and yellow and the 8 ball of course, which remains black. And the pool sticks are much skinnier in diameter as well. And there are strange rules, for instance, if you hit your opponents ball first, before hitting yours in a pocket, the other team gets two shots. It might be that way for any shot, not sure. but that was weird, makes the game kind of interesting though. But we won the first game and then played a game against a pair of lesbians from Scotland. Anyhow, they kicked our asses. But during this game I started to talk to one of the bouncers, some big dude from Russia. We got into talking about some politics and population and just some world problems and how even he is afraid to walk the streets of New York City alone at night. It was funny to hear form such a big man, but I guess it does remain to be true. Well, we left the pub and headed down the street, ending up at some weird bar place that had a large band playing some sort of Mexican salsa/flamenco dancing music. Everyone was dancing and some couples were quite good too. We only stayed for a dance or so and then I made the decision to leave. I think it was a good one too. Not really our scene. So we left the lesbians there and went home. sleep was nice after it all. Tonight, well… I honestly have no idea what is to come. Hopefully ill be alive to write about it tomorrow. oh for some reason that reminds me of the delicious pita pizzas we made yesterday. simple and cheap make- some tomato paste, a bit of cheese to start, sliced mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, red peppers and some mozzarella-like cheese, topped with a bit more cheddar cheese, or as they refer to it here “tasty cheese” or perhaps it was the even better, “extra tasty cheese”. yea. well that was delicious, i well recommend it, with a bottle of $2 wine to accompany it.   laters

.B

finally some foose!

its true, I finally found a fooseball table. I was soo excited about it too. I mean it isn’t the best one out there-has bank corners, one ball, and the players faces are hilarious-the nose, mouth and chin are all just a line of ripples. but its free, so that is nice. But it was a wednesday, no tuesday night, and me and roy decided to check out these two bars that we always pass, right near their flat. I kept seeing this one place that was all lit up with nice dim red lights and the other place always had a couple sitting together at the window bar stools- very inviting and cozy, quaint places. So we went to the red light place first- its name- Jawa Bar. not too sure what that means. But the bartender lady had moved to Australia 6 years ago from Czechoslovakia. she had these nice long black dreads and a crazy accent molded from english/Aussi/Czech, it was pretty unique. so we each got a pot, i tried a vegetarian prawn cracker. I wasn’t too sure how it was veggie- prawn is a seafood thing. Oh well, im not a veggie, so it didn’t bother me so. But the little place was great, had records playing, books to read on shelves, a fooseball table in a room with couches and table side lamps, nice graffiti lined the walls of the spiral stair case. it was pretty great. nice and small. and on the last saturday of every month, they have this thing callde swizzle night or something. Some DJs mix all kinds of great music. Sounds fun, ill have to go when the time comes around. And yes, ill get some photos when I get a minute. So we left that place and headed on up the street to the next place. This next place is called Prudence Bar. Both are real close to each other and about a minute walk from the flat, so its great how close they are. Makes for an easy ride/walk home, and there too. So the second place was also nice and dimly lit, good atmosphere for a place. this place also had records playing, it was real nice. its cool to see people, besides myself and the few others that i know, still play records- and cooler that it was at a pub with only one tender. And both places were playing real great music too. So we got a pot again and happened to run into Sunday. She will be moving in with the guys, well today actually. but I don’t think she will be actually living there for a bit. But she is pretty cool, i like. She has one of those styles that i cant really explain. A picture will do. But it will be nice to have a girl around to hang with. anyways, she came with this other girl..shit i cant remember her name right now. hmm oh well. so we went out in the back, which is kind of outside, and dressed with benches, some heat lamps, table and chairs- a nice little back beer garden. But the place also has a nice upstairs with two rooms with dinning table almost and couches and chairs. sunday said that they used, well maybe still do, having poker nights there. that would be a fun night to go there on. im not any good at poker and i dont really like the thought of gambling. But that was a nice little night of drinking. It looks as if those two places will become regular spots. but tonight we have plans to go back the the Retreat and check out another band, which should be good fun. but I better get going, the library is going to close soon and I have to catch a train downtown. have a nice night, well I guess day, for you people on the other side of the world.

.B