I am not an archivist. I am the sort of girl that, if you lend me a book, chances are you won't get it back because I will drop it in the bathtub while I'm reading it. That's why I have deep respect and admiration for people like Brock Silversides who actually collect, preserve, and catalogue cultural artifacts. Silversides is Head of the "Media Commons" at the University of Toronto Library, who have acquired the archives of Toronto's lefty weekly NOW Magazine. According to Silversides' essay in the catalogue, the NOW collection consists of "writing/editorial and research files, taped interviews and printed transcriptions, advertising and promotional material, artwork and graphics, office and administrative files, financial records, circulation records, legal files, awards, [and] memorabilia..." Tonight was the opening of a show of about 150 photographs from the 80s, culled from the collection (34,000 photos in all) by Silversides. My two favourites are Bob and Doug Mackenzie (aka Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) of SCTV, shot by Patrick Harbron, and weirdo punk/alt. bandaged-up zombie musician Nash the Slash as Uncle Sam playing a violin, shot by Andre Pierre. The series of protest shots is also compelling, as are all the photos of youngster local politicians with bad hair and silly 80s fashion. The free, low-production-values catalogue, pictured above and below, is a perfect take-home souvenir.
I was surprised to find myself quite moved by the event. NOW founders Michael Hollett and Alice Klein each spoke with real passion about the bubbling energy of Toronto and it's people. This city is so gawky, it's like a perennial teenager churning with potential energy, a balloon that's always inflating but never bursts. This NOW archive, which includes a full bound set of every issue, is a real core sample of activism and art from the little city that tried and tried and tried. We want it all in Toronto, and we sometimes think we can get it. The listings, letters, lefty commentary and cultural repository that is NOW are both thoroughly taken for granted and thoroughly indispensable. As I rode home from the event along Harbord Street, I was passed by a woman that I can only describe as a "downtown cyclist." She was hip and cute and familiar, with heavy-rimmed glasses, a trim leather jacket, and, of course, a fresh copy of this week's NOW tossed into the milk-crate-basket strapped to her rack.
The phrase, "familiarity breeds contempt," may encapsulate Toronto's cultural situation in a nutshell. We do get on each others' nerves in this town. But we are also ambitious and passionate and looking at these photographs from NOW Magazine I see that familiarity is also fertile. In some weird way, everything that happened on the pages of NOW, from before I even moved here, belongs to me. If you live in Toronto, go see this show, it's part of our heritage and it's sitting in the palms of our hands. (Also, the rare book library is totally cool! Look up...)
Now and the 80s is on at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, 120 St George Street, til December 21st, 2004.
The exhibition also had a cat-in-space photograph that was photoshopped with outerspace stuff and rings/ripples. This is a bad rendering of it, from memory, by me.
It's now official, I miss Toronto.
agh! Don't succumb. all the art stuff happens either at 401 Richmond (as per usual) or at the Mercer, Drake, or the Gladstone. And guess what...Mercer, the Drake, and the Gladstone are two blocks apart!! That's two blocks of near-certain-death for cyclists on Queen who are trying to get from some normal place on Queen West so some other more normal place further west, doding cabs and come-from-aways in cars drawing their stoles closer about their shoulders in angst that this is a "bad neighbourhood" and worrying that their nice little cars will get busted into. Hipsters run amok! They're causing traffic flow problems and a same-venue-art-glut that'll give ya an anneurism if you keep going back.
Hey, sounds like a familier rant to me. I live right smack dab in between the Drake (fake) hotel and the Gladstone. My cycling route is definitely affected by the hipster hoards.I recently had to dodge a fire dancer performing on the street (right on the actual road) in front of the Drake. I feel like i'm living in the middle of a circus. My neighbourhood sure could use a bank, bakery or hardware store. But alas, the Drake has just bought two more buildings on the block and word is there is a mega nightclub opening accross from Mercer Union. It's getting to be that the most fun I have these days is to ride my little 70's bannana seat bike on the sidewalk as fast as i can right through the crowds. woooweeeeee!
Right. I'm getting a headache thinking about it. Actually, maybe it's just that Newcastle hasn't discovered the splendor of.....the roti.
oooh. That's bad news. People need roti to live.
I went to Stephen Leacock high school with Mike Myers.
He smelled funny. Could never figure out of what.
SpaceyTino
|
I am not an archivist. I am the sort of girl that, if you lend me a book, chances are you won't get it back because I will drop it in the bathtub while I'm reading it. That's why I have deep respect and admiration for people like Brock Silversides who actually collect, preserve, and catalogue cultural artifacts. Silversides is Head of the "Media Commons" at the University of Toronto Library, who have acquired the archives of Toronto's lefty weekly NOW Magazine. According to Silversides' essay in the catalogue, the NOW collection consists of "writing/editorial and research files, taped interviews and printed transcriptions, advertising and promotional material, artwork and graphics, office and administrative files, financial records, circulation records, legal files, awards, [and] memorabilia..." Tonight was the opening of a show of about 150 photographs from the 80s, culled from the collection (34,000 photos in all) by Silversides. My two favourites are Bob and Doug Mackenzie (aka Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) of SCTV, shot by Patrick Harbron, and weirdo punk/alt. bandaged-up zombie musician Nash the Slash as Uncle Sam playing a violin, shot by Andre Pierre. The series of protest shots is also compelling, as are all the photos of youngster local politicians with bad hair and silly 80s fashion. The free, low-production-values catalogue, pictured above and below, is a perfect take-home souvenir.
I was surprised to find myself quite moved by the event. NOW founders Michael Hollett and Alice Klein each spoke with real passion about the bubbling energy of Toronto and it's people. This city is so gawky, it's like a perennial teenager churning with potential energy, a balloon that's always inflating but never bursts. This NOW archive, which includes a full bound set of every issue, is a real core sample of activism and art from the little city that tried and tried and tried. We want it all in Toronto, and we sometimes think we can get it. The listings, letters, lefty commentary and cultural repository that is NOW are both thoroughly taken for granted and thoroughly indispensable. As I rode home from the event along Harbord Street, I was passed by a woman that I can only describe as a "downtown cyclist." She was hip and cute and familiar, with heavy-rimmed glasses, a trim leather jacket, and, of course, a fresh copy of this week's NOW tossed into the milk-crate-basket strapped to her rack.
The phrase, "familiarity breeds contempt," may encapsulate Toronto's cultural situation in a nutshell. We do get on each others' nerves in this town. But we are also ambitious and passionate and looking at these photographs from NOW Magazine I see that familiarity is also fertile. In some weird way, everything that happened on the pages of NOW, from before I even moved here, belongs to me. If you live in Toronto, go see this show, it's part of our heritage and it's sitting in the palms of our hands. (Also, the rare book library is totally cool! Look up...)
Now and the 80s is on at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, 120 St George Street, til December 21st, 2004.
- sally mckay 10-08-2004 7:43 am
The exhibition also had a cat-in-space photograph that was photoshopped with outerspace stuff and rings/ripples. This is a bad rendering of it, from memory, by me.
- sally mckay 10-08-2004 8:53 am
It's now official, I miss Toronto.
- kelly 10-11-2004 3:49 am
agh! Don't succumb. all the art stuff happens either at 401 Richmond (as per usual) or at the Mercer, Drake, or the Gladstone. And guess what...Mercer, the Drake, and the Gladstone are two blocks apart!! That's two blocks of near-certain-death for cyclists on Queen who are trying to get from some normal place on Queen West so some other more normal place further west, doding cabs and come-from-aways in cars drawing their stoles closer about their shoulders in angst that this is a "bad neighbourhood" and worrying that their nice little cars will get busted into. Hipsters run amok! They're causing traffic flow problems and a same-venue-art-glut that'll give ya an anneurism if you keep going back.
- sally mckay 10-11-2004 6:19 am
Hey, sounds like a familier rant to me. I live right smack dab in between the Drake (fake) hotel and the Gladstone. My cycling route is definitely affected by the hipster hoards.I recently had to dodge a fire dancer performing on the street (right on the actual road) in front of the Drake. I feel like i'm living in the middle of a circus. My neighbourhood sure could use a bank, bakery or hardware store. But alas, the Drake has just bought two more buildings on the block and word is there is a mega nightclub opening accross from Mercer Union. It's getting to be that the most fun I have these days is to ride my little 70's bannana seat bike on the sidewalk as fast as i can right through the crowds. woooweeeeee!
- mnobody (guest) 10-11-2004 6:41 pm
Right. I'm getting a headache thinking about it. Actually, maybe it's just that Newcastle hasn't discovered the splendor of.....the roti.
- kelly 10-11-2004 9:39 pm
oooh. That's bad news. People need roti to live.
- sally mckay 10-11-2004 10:20 pm
I went to Stephen Leacock high school with Mike Myers.
He smelled funny. Could never figure out of what.
SpaceyTino
- tino (guest) 10-14-2004 12:41 am