lash of the turk

Hey bike riders - do you get streaks of popped tires like I do? Seems like I'm fine for a year, then I'll have a couple weeks of tire-popping bullshit. Is it just me?

. . .

Check out this scene on the bus today, on the way back from Vancouver. I swear, every time I'm in that city something like this happens:

While shifting his position, the guy sitting next to me turns and burps right in my face without covering his mouth. He was clean-cut, but judging from his greasy face and the smell of his breath, he was up drinking until the wee hours of the morning and hadn't yet brushed his teeth.

Jay (weary): "Duuude. What the fuuuuuck."

Burper: "Oh sorry man, sorry, I have a bad mouth."

Jay: "You just burped in my face, man."

Burper: "I know I know... I'm sorry. But I covered my mouth, I covered my mouth."

Jay: "No you didn't!"

Then he got up and moved to the back of the bus. Fuck, man. People should just not be living that close together.

poems in three dimensions

No comment.

typical B.C. weather

Spent the day up on the mountainous backbone of Vancouver Island, among the low-hanging clouds. The mist was so thick it felt like you were drinking with each intake of breath.


Spectrum of Salal colours, on the way up from my favorite stream bushwhack. I love that white misty backdrop.


Springtime in the clearcut. Every year I'm amazed at how quickly the buds appear on the trees around here. There's only about a month of real "winter" in my mind, where everything really feels still and lifeless. Already there are long bright green chutes poking through the underbrush and fresh tips on the evergreen branches. Shit don't stop growin' 'round here!

8 pages

The last few days were 0% art-making, so all I've really created is a bunch of ideas in my sketchbook. Here they are.

0% art-making, but a lot of art-showing. Man, it feels good to finally be showing stuff after spending quite a while just making. That's half the point of art, ain't it? Showin' it?

Next up is an illustration gig, website stuff, and film-festival-submission-mania. This time around, I have a better idea of how the festival thing works. There's kind of an order of festivals you're supposed to hit, because some will only take your film if it's a premiere, and if you get into THIS festival, then THAT festival will almost certainly take it, etc etc.

But I decided today that I'm not going to do it the "right" way.

While making this film, my priority has always been to tell something honest, to share an idea, and to make something I'm proud of. I was always wary to not think about "doing well in festivals", because that's something completely out of my control. After screening the film to some close friends last night, I realized that I made the right choice with my priorities. I've ended up with a piece that I can share with pride because it's really an honest part of me, so I'm not relying on festival acceptance to justify all the work I've done.

So I'm going to send it to places that have meaning for me, and to everywhere else I can, but my submission plan is going to be based on my own priority, which is sharing with as many people as possible.

make eye contact and look away

Back in the city. Art show opening tonight (5PM at the Roundhouse, if anyone's interested), and finishing up the sound for my film tomorrow.

I'm feeling the usual city-sadness and frustration. Try to make eye contact - if someone senses you're looking at them, they'll intentionally look away. Public space in the city is incredibly lonely, sprinkled with rare bits of niceness when you share a laugh with a stranger.

Going over the Cambie Street bridge into the downtown core, I was shocked (again) at how fast this city is growing. You can almost see it expanding. It reminded me of some satellite views over China's coast:

You can actually see the surface of the planet drying up and dying. Road networks look like disease spreading through veins. We dominate nature, make our ultimate priority "human and economic growth", and become a planetary virus.

A bus stops in front of me. It's packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people with blank faces - emotionally "turned off" to deal with the close quarters. A gloomy-looking passenger stares out the bus window, through the coffeeshop window, and sees me. I smile and he looks away pretending he didn't notice.

diggin it

I'm diggin' the looks of my studio room at the moment. Lots of technical stuff. I like how quickly things change depending on what I'm working on. Makes me feel like a mad scientist.

I spent way too long photoshopping that image up above. It was one photo exposed to the monitors (so all black except for monitors), and another photo exposed to the light outside (so the monitors were bright). I got tired of fucking around with it so the laptop monitor looks like shit. Next time I'll turn off the monitors for the second photo, which will make things look more real.

I recently realized that most PC-using professional computer graphics people use a dual monitor setup. Because of that, I'll probably never do it just to be a dick. I will also say reactionary things like, "I like it oldschool", and "Single monitor setups are like having thumbshifters on your bike. That shit keeps you real."

More News:

There is something very nice about walking through a quiet mist and getting a whiff of woodsmoke from a nearby house. Especially when it's mixed in with the smell of the ocean at low tide, or the sound of lapping waves.

vancouver memories part III

All the photos are done. Thirteen years of travel and memories in there. I have to colour correct the shit out of this to get the colours all spanky.

Last realization about Vancouver - there are three places I've always liked, ever since the start: Wreck Beach, Third Beach, and the Downtown East Side.

The power was out for a good part of last night and today. Nice and quiet house for a while with no humming fridge or anything. I had a one-man party last night - went down to the beach with a couple beers to feel the snow and hear the waves, then came back and wrote by candlelight until 5 am. I was super stoked about whatever I wrote, but I haven't had time to read it yet. Guaranteed its at least 75% garbage.

Just looked - here's one thing:

"I can't wait to see some documentaries by Iraqis about whatever has happened over there. It's gotta happen."

True.