Personas – Metropath (ologies) – an installation

I was shown this today and found it utterly fascinating.

It is a superb installation by Aaron Zinman entitled Personas which “shows you how the internet sees you”.

Brilliant.

A Number of Names – Sharevari… Dancers on The Scene, Detroit

I saw this recording of an early 80’s dance show from Detroit today and it seriously blew my mind.

Sharevari has always been one of my favourite proto-techno/electro tracks and to see these folks dance to it is simply superb.

If you look closely there is some rather serious “gurning” going on in that studio.

My favourite is the ginger-haired white fellow, giving it his best shot… they cut away from him pretty quickly…

Holy Ghost – I Will Come Back

I love this homage to New Order’s Confusion video.

And it features the always lovely Nancy Whang…

Thanks for the T-Shirt Nancy BTW… I wore it last night to great effect!

Legowelt – Equestrian 707

Over the years I have met Danny (AKA Legowelt) a few times.

Twice in Toronto and once in Glasgow…

Legowelt, gingerz, db and TLR

… and I have always adored his music…

But THIS VIDEO takes the (doggy) biscuit.

Get ready…

See?

30 in 20 Exhibit

A few months back I was approached by Zach Kellum of Dundas West Gallery space The DepARTment to participate in an utterly fascinating project. I had met Zach previously whilst presenting wines for one of the Charlie’s Burgers dinner parties and he seemed like a thoroughly nice fellow. His proposition was to host a series of events based around the photographs and artifacts of a certain Mr Toni Harting and his wife Ria.

Photograph by Rick O'Brien

In the Summer of 1973, after coming into a modest inheritance,  Toni (then 46) and Ria (then 30) decided to rent a VW Camper van and travel around some of the finest restaurants in France… “collecting” 30 Michelin stars in 20 days… hence the title of the exhibit. Toni, being a photographer, travelled with his camera and managed to take some of the most remarkable pictures throughout the trip.

Ria Harting having lunch at L'Oasis

One has to remember that things were so very far removed from today when it is commonplace in restaurants to see bloggers and others taking digital photos of their food and the like. Saying that, even today I would imagine that it would still be seen as being rather gauche to take photos in the grandest of French Michelin 3-Star restaurants? Many of Toni’s photographs look as if they have been taken covertly… no mean feat when one considers the size of a 35mm camera back in 1973. But it’s not only the pictures taken inside these hallowed houses of gastronomy that shine.It is also the many pictures that Toni took of their travels across France, living simply from the back of the VW Camper… it is the juxtaposition of these images with the restaurant ones that really makes the exhibit for me.

A picnic lunch under a tree

There is a certain humility that comes through in so many of the shots that I simply adore.

One of my favourite pictures in the exhibit.

Alongside the photographs are all of the restaurant menus that the Hartings collected from their travels. When Zach first showed these to me I remember sitting there in sheer wonderment as I pored over the menus of Maxim’s, Paul Bocuse, La Pyramide, and L’Oasis. It was around these menus that we decided to plan a series of 4 events, where local Chefs would replicate many of the dishes from these menus and I would select a suitable wine to accompany. Zach had assembled a dream team to put together these events: Arlene “Force Of Nature” Stein from Hart House, Malcolm Jolley of Good Food Media, the illustious Greg Bolton of Pantry and my bad self. Along with Chefs Jamie Kennnedy, Eric Walker (Pantry), Bertrand Alépée and Jason Inniss (Amuse Bouche), Tawfik Shehata (Vertical) and John Lee (Chippy`s), and Donna Dooher (Mildred`s Temple Kitchen) we presented a selection of hors d’oeuvres-size replications of a multitude of 1973 menu items to an enraptured audience… saying that, there is one more to go tomorrow night! Donna’s evening is completely sold out and I am very much looking forward to being there later to say congratulations to everyone involved.

Some of the archival menus on display at 30 in 20

Photograph by Rick O'Brien

I have quite a few more pictures from the events in a Flickr set here.

Terroir 2010 Board Meeting September

Last night we had another successful boardmeeting for Terroir 2010. Anne Jasper of The Vine was kind enough to allow us to use her lovely new office space for the meeting (and serve us some wonderful Sauvignon from Valter Scarbolo alongside some rather delicious pizza from Lil’ Baci. For those of you unfamiliar with Terroir, it is a Toronto-based Hospitality Industry Symposium that is moving into its fourth year. In previous years I have assisted by sitting on a couple of panels for the wine breakout sessions, but this year I made the decision to commit a little more time to the event and actively contribute by sitting on the Terroir 2010 board.

Terroir Mission Statement:

Terroir believes it is vital to the future of the hospitality industry that we celebrate our diverse culture of professionals by building a strong and accessible collective. We are committed to recognizing and encouraging each individual that invests knowledge, experience, tradition, exceptional skills, inspiration, and invention to the business of hospitality. Our group envisions opportunities to create forums and venues where industry members can come together to support, educate, inform, invest in, and recognize individuals and teams within our professional environment.

Terroir 2010 Board Meeting

The meeting went extremely well, with much being discussed with regards to the various speakers and break-out sessions for Terroir 2010. I seem to remember putting my name forward to put together this coming Terroir’s program… oh well, I must dust off my old desktop publishing skills I suppose…

Andrew Weatherall – Live at the Hare and Hounds 12.6.09

Mr. Weatherall once again

So, it’s Wednesday… and that means that it’s Weatherall time once again.

Here I present a bloody fantastic two-part set that he played earlier in the year.

Part one is here.

Part two is here.

Enjoy!

Dirty Mind

I was listening to the rather excellent DJ History podcasts the other evening and Bill Brewster played a superb cover version of Prince’s Dirty Mind by OST & KJEX FT. MUNG… and I have been unable to get the song out of my head ever since. I was thinking of posting a video of Dirty Mind up here but I notice that one cannot see a Prince video for love nor money up on Youtube… legal shennanagins no doubt.

However… I did find this…

Which amused me no end…

Jamie Drummond is “Totally Obsessed with Hernias!!!”

Yes, I have been in hospital for a wee while… going through a straightforward incarcerated umbilical hernia repair…

“Hernia Schmernia” so many people said to me… well, I haven’t been under the scalpel since I was a wee boy of 8 years old when I had an appendectomy, so this was a rather big deal for me.

It all began one night in New York City… we think it did anyway…

Laura and I were down in NYC for the weekend to catch up with some friends and attend David Mancuso’s Loft party. On the Friday we had arranged to meet up with a couple of pals for drinks before going for a vegan cooking class at the home of my very good friend Sal Principato of Liquid Liquid fame. The problem was, after meeting with Simon and Spencer, things went a little crazy and rather too much crisp and dry rosé wine was consumed…

Some drinks before the cooking class at Sal's

and so by the time we arrived at Sal’s pad I was a little squiffy. Much hilarity ensued as Sal taught us how to cook the most delicious vegan dosas, and we were having a great time until I decided that it would be a great idea to climb atop one of Sal’s kitchen stools in order to take a special aerial photograph of our frivolities. This was a terrible idea as I proceeded to crash to the floor, hitting our low table, destroying almost every one of our host’s wine and water glasses, and smacking the bone directly behind my right ear quite severely on the aforementioned table. Our evening ended quite abruptly soon after this incident… I wasn’t feeling too great either… I still wonder to this day if I did some kind of strange damage to my hypothalamus or pituitary gland with that glancing blow to the head?… as it was just after this catastrophe that everything began to go a little pear -shaped for Mr. Drummond…

Sal schools Laura in dosa making... before the crash

The next evening Laura and myself met up with a couple of her friends and had the most delicious 8 course dinner at the wonderful Hearth restaurant in the Lower East Side. When we returned to our friend’s apartment things began to feel very strange indeed. I had to wake Laura up in the middle of the night as it felt as if my bellybutton was turning inside out… and, as a matter, of fact it was…

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Anrew Weatherall 6 Mix – 1st of August 2009

Weatherall on a chair... with a lady.

It`s been a little while since I last posted as I haven`t been feeling too great as of late. Hopefully all of that is all behind me now!

Here`s the new 6 Mix from Mr. Weatherall. I am listening to it right now and it is great. Listen to it here.

Tracklisting

D Edwardson – Cutting the Funk
The Kickstands – Scrambler
Tom Allalone & the 78s – Crashland
Unknown Artist – Penny
Tav Falco – Real Cool Trash
Dex Romweber Duo feat .Jack White – Last Kind Word Blues
Reichmann – Titel
The Urban Voodoo Machine – Orphan’s Lament
Terry Hall & Mushtaq – Ten Eleven
Blind Blake – John B. Sail
Tinariwen – Imdiwan Afrik Tendam
Brenda Ray – Starlight
Ian Hunter – Arms And Legs
Lotus Plaza – Quicksand
Paul Haig – Ghostrider
The Crestones – Motorcycle
Crocodiles – Flash Of Light
Detachments – Heard A Lie
Detachments – Heard A Lie (Weatherall Disco remix)

ANDREW’S SATURDAY NIGHT DISCO
The Glimmers – Est Si Esta No
Unknown – White Label
Mugwump – Tellakian Circles
D.A.F – Do You Love Me Too (Coko Carina edit)
Neville Watson – Time To Lose Control
Pressure System – The Voice From Planet Love
Andrew Weatherall – Liar With Wings (Ian Weatherall & Ian Carter remix)