Square Zero 3

If you're reading this before 8pm on Sunday Night (May 31) you should get yourself over to Rideau Street to see Square Zero 3.

It's a really cool set of performance pieces put on by Collective Gulp and sponsored with City of Ottawa funding.

In the first piece, an old-school overhead projector is part of the performance. Excellent fun and makes for cool James Bond opening bits.

In the second piece, Alexis and Elizabeth have fun with randomness.

In the third piece, Megan Jerome tells beautiful stories and sings beautiful songs with her beautiful voice. One of them is an ode to the Ottawa man who wears aluminum foil and plastic. It might make your eyes get all wet.

square zero 3: intimate exchanges May 29, 30, 31, 20098:00pm Movement Arts Ottawa 111a Rideau Street 3rd Floor $12/$10

Links:

• My Flickr Photos of SQ3
• The ArtEngine Calendar

Another Garage Sale Tip and Photos

As I was taking a closer look at this item with a telescoping arm, one of the women selling at this location said, "it's for picking up golf balls."

Another woman instantly added, "if you don't know what it is, you don't need it."

"Good point." I put the stick down. Even though I love telescoping rods.

I've got other photos from yesterday's sale up on Flickr including some stitched panoramas.

Also up on Flickr:

• My trip to Leuven shots
• People watching carp spawning in Brown's Inlet
  

Tomorrow is the Great Glebe Garage Sale

Tomorrow is the Great Glebe Garage Sale. If you are not sure how to approach it, please refer to my schema for the Great Glebe Garage Sale from last year.

Other Link:

• The GGGS FAQ
• OttawaStart's GGGS page

Leuven: Shopping for a Weapon?

Zander thinks De Blick, a store just near the centre of Leuven, should change its name to “In Case of Zombies Break Glass”.

I agree. Unless I find a Walmart here, De Blick is where I'll be heading if there is a zombie outbreak in Flanders.

Belgian: Tea Over Packaging

On the one hand, it is terrible that when you order a tea at STUK, the bags comes in little cardboard boxes.

On the other hand, it is fun to turn the boxes inside out and make harmless toy robots with them.

Leuven: Pasta Joints

So far, most of the restaurants we've tried serve pasta. Particularly spaghetti bolognaise. The restaurant with this posted menu is next to the excellent bread and soup place. We may go there.

But if we do, I will not be ordering a salad. Or frites.

Belgium: Chicken on the Spit

Does anyone know Flemish? I can't find an online Flemish-English translator. I think these cheery chickens are saying “ook, you're going to eat me”.

Kiekekot makes really good chicken on a spit for what is a reasonable price by local standards.

A warning: If you eat your half-chicken, all of your potato salad, then eat some of Manon's potato salad and some of Manon's half-chicken, you may find yourself waking up 8 hours later with indigestion that tastes just like the delicious blend of herbs and spices the chicken was stuffed with. Except the blend may not seem quite so delicious at 3AM. This may happen even if you ate your chicken with 4 or 5 slices of whole wheat bread.

Leuven: Where to go for a good huidverslapping?

As much as I would like to be beautiful and well, I'm not sure about that machine the health care practitioner is rubbing on that model's rear end. I'm also not sure I would be into either sinaasappelhuid or huidverslapping.

Leuven: This is no door

It looks like a door, but it is no door. I believe more things should have this type of sign on them.

This sign is also useful for its Rosetta stone property of telling you how to say "this is no door" in Flemish, English and French.

The restaurant that has this sign, an excellent place for bread and soup, is where I learned the following useful bits of Flemish:

• boterhammen - sandwich
• kip - chicken
• koffie verkeerd - coffee with milk
• cheese - kaas
• spek of hesp - bacon or ham

You can also pick up some useful bits of Flemish by watching English shows that are subtitled on the hotel room TV. Manon and I both made a point of memorizing "Dat was vreemt" ("that was weird") while watching a pair of Australian guys interview a lame-o Belgian magician.

Leuven: Spot the Workers

So far my experience is that Belgian workers do not seem to like being photographed. Perhaps they are self-conscious about their outfits.

The Bicycles of Leuven

I am blogging from the Condo Gardens Leuven over their "free" wifi. It is incredibly slow. I could shell out five euros and get a connection that is "8 times faster", but I think that would only take me to very slow and I'd be feeling annoyed about paying the money.

Leuven is a charming Medieval town in Belgium. I've been here for about 36 hours, but most of that has been spent sleeping. Still, I've taken 139 photos. Many of bicycles.

This is because there are a lot of them and they're different from what I see in Ottawa.

Almost all of the Leuven bicylces:

• are both old and old-fashioned;
• are 1-speed or 3-speed; and
• have dynamo-powered headlights and lots of reflectors.

Many have charming paint jobs.

Keir's Mixed Media

I managed to get in to the Atrium gallery last week and took some close shots of Keir's pieces, Askew and Hardened.

I reached out to straighten Askew, but then I realized what I was doing.

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Tony Fouhse vernissage at Petite Mort

I had a brief conversation with Tony Fouhse at his opening on Friday night at Gallery La Petite Mort.

Tony: Sneaking pictures?

Me: Sneaking, being obvious, taking...

Tony: Or up close and personal? Like these?

Me: These are definitely up close. No sneaking.

Tony: Not with that kind of camera.

[I proceed to introduce myself, remind him of the time Sally Robinson organized a dinner for Jody Benjamin after Jody told the Ottawa Citizen that if she could have dinner with any four people she'd choose me, the Other Dave, Tony Fouhse and Cindy Deachman.]

Tony: And I'm thinking their were ribs involved.

Me: I think you're right.

[The conversation stalls and there is an awkward pause.]

Tony: Excuse me, I've got to go blog.

Me: Me too.

[Oddly, Tony's blog didn't get updated until 2 days later. Maybe he had to go twitter?]

Young at Art at Centrepointe

I dropped by Ben Franklin Place on Thursday and discovered they were getting ready to launch the Young at Art exhibition.

I returned on Friday and was able to see the work displayed in the hallways and display cases, but could only look at the work inside the Atrium Gallery through the windows.

This exhibition should banish any concerns you might have that today's digital world and "everybody passes" school culture is creating unmotivated, unskilled young people. The art on display is remarkably strong.

Some of it is even on sale. For example, a striking mixed media piece called Hardened by young Keir MacDonald that you'll come across directly on entering the Gallery.

This show goes to May 26 and there are also shows in Kanata and Orleans.

Ben Franklin Place 100 Centrepointe Drive Ottawa, ON About Young at Art