Fill in the blanks / complétez les champs:

_    l _ v _     C h _ n _ .

as seen in Beijing, one of the residues from the ‘encouraged’ frenzy leading up to the Olympics.

graffiti as seen on 13 Dec 2008 in Beijing

earthquake

We are happy to announce that the streets of Montreal are once again graced with the Hunter S. Thompson sidekick styled art of Other. After an extended two year disappearing act to Berlin, he is back to leave traces of his lovely mind in the form of words and pictures on walls all over the city. If you don’t know his work, i would recommend you visit any number of train yards in the city. Or check his site where he often has things for sale at a remarkably good price.

The word is a sneak preview of 30 new pieces for an upcoming LA art show are going to be diseminated on the hush hush in a week. If you haven’t sent him your email yet to see… send him your mail at troy.lovegates@gmail.com, and tell him cityspk sent you…

I am still hoping that he delivers on an impending project in which people send him found sweatpants and then he paints on him. I would definately file that under one of the most unique projects ever heading. As far as the background, he tells me of his buddy Hal: There was a guy named Hal over in ottawa who found some dirty old sweat pants on the street. He wrote a story about it. How if you start looking for it there are all sorts of dirty old clothes beaten by the elements. Like a sock that turned some blue, some green and has bird shit and finger paint on it in the lane. Clothes like that — that have been sitting out for some of the seasons in a row, and starting to mix right in with the pavement. But that is a bit of a dime a dozen. The real and somewhat rarer gem is the abandoned sweat pants. It was some years ago i read his story. But he found them on a bike ride, chucked his old shorts and rode around town in the found sweat pants until he came to the bay and then he went swimming in them and they ballooned all up in the water. He said how he took a real solace in the comfort of those worn in sweat pants in the shallows of the bay. He made that throw away his…

So, now, all of that is lost to history, but i ask you still to help Other recreate the sweat pant nostalgia and send him your found sweatpants to paint on. If you wanted to set something up, you could maybe just write him at the aforementioned email. Only the most crusty need apply…

Pékin a sauté un jour avant, au 30 nov 2008 pour commémorer le 20ème anniversaire de la Journée mondiale de lutte contre le sida 2008.

En parlant de la Chine, il y a eu de progrès. Un après-midi de rencontre et du spectacle s’est tenu à côté du stade national,(Bird’s Nest). Il y avait des representants des organismes internationaux comme la Croix-Rouge en Chine, et ONUSIDA (UNAIDS). Ce sont les deux joueurs importants dans cette journée de sensibilisation. Les VIPs ont parlé, un peu trop en effet en laissant le public regardent sans d’avoir vraiment choix d’approcher le stage et les invités. D’un côté, on pourrait dire la visibilité de cet événement était agréable - comme le parc olympique est toujours plein de visiteurs. Par conséquent, la Chine a montré qu’il n’y a pas de grandes choses à cacher, même si aux niveaux provincial et municipal la transparence et la sensibilisation attendent toujours l’amélioration.

Apart the official activities at the Bird’s Nest, there is an exhibition of paintings organised by Positive Art Workshop at the French Cultural Centre.

According to the director of Beijing AiZhiXing Institute, Dr Wan Yanhai, there is still a lot of ignorance surrounding AIDS. Medical professionals who still don’t understand the mode of transmission of the virus, the lack of sex education in the secondary schools, etc. are some of the persisting problems. The situation magnifies further in rural areas or areas with minority (non-Han) population where social and cultural barriers make preventive education efforts an unhill battle.

According to a government official, there are 140 new HIV infections in China each day, a rather daunting static to say the least. Let’s hope that the Chinese people act on the local slogan of this year - “One Goal, One Dream – of a World without Stigma”, so that those affected could worrying less about discriminaion on a daily basis, and focusing on access to treatment instead.

>J’étais au Hong Kong Museum of Art 香港藝術館 pour une exposition sur les cheveux (voir les photos qui suivent), je me suis posé la question, ‘Est-ce que un gouvernement peut planifier un quartier culturel pour une ville de presque sept millions d’habitants?’

Tout dépend de votre définition de l’art et de la culture. Hong Kong, malgré son succès comme centre financier et comme ancienne porte principale de la République populaire de Chine, est assez anémique culturellement selon certains critiques.



The vast landmass reclaimed from sea in Kowloon, what in the future would be the West Kowloon Cultural District, is still undergoing quasi public consultation. Many people asked if arts and culture can be “planned” or “engineered”. Hong Kong is quite eager to shake off the image as a cultural dessert, which has been depicted in various local and international media. If art and culture document human experience, a city of close to seven million should be overflowed with culture. After all, that’s similar in size to Québec, and the latter has plenty of water, physically and culturally! (Un)sustainable development, environment, economy, non-business interest, creativity, cultivation and toruism and internaitonal statue are just some of the issues on people’s lips. What would you do if you are the Hong Kong government bureaucrats running the show? Yes, they want the cake and have it too! It will interesting to come back five, and ten years down the road to see the changes.

Saint John, New Brunswick is a city with an interesting and rich history. In recent years, Saint John has been experiencing a bit of a boom, due to energy initiatives that are taking place and it’s interesting to see the city thriving and excited about its future. A recent book by Brenda Peters-McDermott, Urban Renewal Saint John: A City Transformed features photos that document the progression that the city experienced through urban renewal from the 1950s to the 1980s. Below are some photos from the book.

I was born and raised in Saint John, which has long been known as the industrial hub of New Brunswick, but Saint John is so much more than an industrial city. Looking at the unique history of the city, there’s so much that we have to offer. Canada’s oldest incorporated city, and the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, Saint John is located on the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. Saint John was discovered in 1604, and boasts one of Canada’s sixteen Martello Towers . It also boasts North America’s oldest city market, which has a ceiling designed similar to the hull of a ship. With numerous historic homes and remarkable architecture such as The Gothic Arches, wandering the streets of uptown Saint John is a treasure trove of aesthetic pleasures. Pictures of Saint John’s City Market and the Gothic Arches are below.

Below is a piece of a documentary by Hemmings House Pictures about the challenges of homelessness in the city. This documentary also discusses current issues of poverty surrounding some of the lower income project housing that was built during the urban development of the 1940s. Hemmings House Pictures is an award winning film and television production company based out of Saint John, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia. They have done numerous documentaries and videos for local artists and concerts or festivals. Samples of more of their work are available online .

In 1877, the city had a devastating fire that tragically destroyed over 1612 structures including churches, banks, hotels and most public building. Making news worldwide, many residents were displaced but the community banded together and rebuilt most of what is now the uptown area, although many heritage buildings are still intact. Adam Mowery , a local musician has a song “the port city is burning.” In fact, the city boasts many local musicians and artists such as Hospital Grade , The Wooden Wives, Jessica Rhaye and so many others. The local art/music scene has so much reciprocity, love and so many people who believe in Saint John, are invested in making it a great place to live and recognize that a city is what you make of it, and they are doing everything to ensure that “Johners” can be proud to call the port city their home.

Saint John is also the birthplace of Stompin’ Tom Connors (musician) and Donald Sutherland (actor) among other celebrities.

Modular People is a record label based in Sydney, Australia. One of their most popular acts right now is The Presets , a Sydney-based electronic dance duo, consisting of Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes. In 2005, they released their debut album, Beams, to a positive critical response. Their second album, Apocalypso, released in April 2008, was a commercial and critical success, winning the ARIA Awards for "Best Dance Release" and "Album of the Year" that year.

Modular Recordings and Universal Music Australia have launched an innovative widget to coincide with the release of ‘Talk Like That’, the 3rd single by The Presets from the album Apocalypso.

The link below, should take you to it: http://www.clearspring.com/widgets/48e30dc74ff0a340?p=48eb3fbc289dd4ce

The widget invites people to leave messages for the band and one another in real time. The concept is the first of its kind. It’s almost like a huge instant messenger, where the messages appear simultaneously on every site the widget is placed. It also relates back to the website http://www.talklikethat.com , where clues are placed for participants to win prizes.

I like the song Yippiyo-Ay and the subtle aussie lyrics.

Take you from the 80’s - Bimbos rock the latex - Dingos catch the babies - Oooh stop……..

Write a message , have a listen , and enjoy.

With Barack Obama’s U.S Presidential win, history has been made . Here is a photo montage, which captures the fight for voting rights for African-Americans to today. Obama’s win caused me to reflect on a documentary that I had seen about six years ago.

Growing up in the Maritimes, it took a Non-Maritimer to introduce me to the documentary Remember Africville , which opened my eyes to a piece of Nova Scotia’s history. Around the time of the American Revolution , approximately 3000 Black persons moved to Nova Scotia. Their settlement was not easy and according to the Nova Scotia museum website, their descendants still struggle today for employment, access to education and human rights. There is more information about Nova Scotia’s Black loyalists online.

Remember Africville is a documentary, produced by the National Film Board , that is pieced together from archived photos and film. Africville was a small community in the north end of Halifax, Nova Scotia that was founded in 1840 by former slaves who escaped slavery during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Inhabited by approximately 400 people, the community of Africville was a place where the residents were able to live in privacy and away from racism.
Below is a photo of Africville by photojournalist Bob Brooks :

As urban development progressed, the city neglected to provide Africville with running water, sewage, electricity or fire or police protection. In fact, the city saw Africville as a dumping ground, literally moving the city dump to the edge of Africville, among one of the many problems that the city forced upon this community. When the residents petitioned the city for amenities that, by this time, were considered standard, they were told it would be considered but it never was. By the mid 1900s, Africville was seen as very problematic for the city of Halifax. In 1964, as part of an urban renewal program, the city decided to relocate the residents of Africville into project housing, such as Uniacke Square , around Halifax, effectively disbanding the community of Africville. None of the families or landowners had a choice, their compensation was minimal if at all and they were forced out as bulldozers razed the community to the ground.

Remember Africville , made from archived photos and films, was created in 1991 and it speaks to lawmakers and former residents and descendants of Africville. The film won the Moonsnail Award for Best Documentary at the Atlantic Film Festival , and more than that helped to get the story of Africville out to the world. Although perhaps one of the most severe cases of racial discrimination in Canada’s history , many Canadians still haven’t heard about Africville. CBC has created an archive of radio and television footage devoted to telling the story of Africville.

Below is a snippet of Remember Africville .

Image par Daniel Raphael Cooper, Flickr Creative Commons

Pourquoi je vous parle de tout ça ? hé bien les nouveau locaux de Kung Fu Numerik / Turbulent on une superbe vu sur la dite “montagne”. Je me suis donc juré de faire une photo du Mont-Royal chaque jour ou je suis au bureau, sous un angle ou avec un traitement diffèrent.

Les photo sont visibles ici : http://www.flickr.com/photos/turbulent/sets/72157608308147312/
Pour l’instant on à a peut prêt 1 mois de mont-royal au jour le jour, avec même la première neige !

Toutes ces photos seront bien entendu sur cityspeak !!

DaJuYuan, Shenzhen

If you are just looking at the few skyscrapers against the clear blue sky and brand name stores, with the somewhat present palm trees here and there, you would think that you are in Miami, Florida. Not! Meet Shenzhen, the (fishing) village turned special economic zone and up-and-coming, if not already there tier-one Chinese city.

Situated across the river from Hong Kong, the geographic location help propelled its rise in the past thirty years. Depends on how you play with the numbers, the per capita GDP of Shenzhen rivals that of better known heavy weights such as Beijing and Shanghai.

Selon certains urbanistes, l’avenir de la région de Hong Kong-Shenzhen a besoin de mettre ensemble des ressources de Hong Kong, Shenzhen et quand même Zhuhai et Macau, comme géographiquement la “San Francisco Bay Area” aux États-Unis. La raison d’être pour cette suggestion? La concurrence de Shanghai, la première ville chinoise au nom de population et d’économie. Autrement, lorsque Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism / Architecture, il y a eu des oeuvres provisionnées par les militants-artistes traitées sur le sujet de développement urbain. Hong Kong est déjà la ville la plus densément peuplée du monde. Pour rendre la région plus performante et durable, le partage de ressources et d’infrastructures, etc., fait jaser beaucoup de monde. Chose certaine, la Chine veut répliquer des résultats de Shenzhen ailleurs, en améliorant la région encore.