T-Shirt City

Sean printed up some Mex-I-Can shirts last week. We took a couple to the restaurant and three of our servers immediately stripped out of their T's so they could sport the testers. Check it: Wouldn't you drop your top to get this bad boy on asap? You can pick these up in any one of a rainbow of colour options, in ladies sizes small through large. This red one is a small, the medium isn't much bigger, and the large is only slightly bigger than that. You can get them for guys in more standard sizes small through extra large. Men's large is exactly this awesome: Just read that expression -so hip it hurts him to wear! Mens and ladies T's cost $20. If you're looking for something a little less cotton, a little more collar; something more couture than casual? Here's the (awesomely alliterative) answer to your wardrobe woes: Let's move in on that design: Bet you didn't think you could buy this kind of cool, am I right? WRONG! For just 25 bones, you too could be kicking around your kitchen like this: You can pick one up at Downtown Bike Hounds bike shop and gallery--located at 6 Cannon Street, right at the corner of James North--starting at the end of September.

Westitalia

Fancy this -I was just invited to exhibit at the Westitalia festival this September, so if downtown Hamilton is too far for you to go...well then...you're lazy. But if it's really too far for you, I will come as far as Westdale. Vendors Alley is located on King Street West, near Marion, and is open Saturday the 13th (10am-dusk) and Sunday the 14th (12-5pm). I'm sharing a space with local artist Katy Leask, who will be selling framed originals, prints and cards. Katy does black-and-white and colour drawings in pen and ink and they're awesome so you should get in on the ground floor before she's too big for you to afford.

Makers Market

I know this is perhaps a little far in advance but I am going to be at the Hamilton Makers Market on Saturday, September 6th from 10am-3pm. This is the market held at Ferguson Station, on Ferguson Street between King and Main. There are a whole whack of excellent vendors selling jewelery, art, purses, fun knitted toys and locally grown fruits and veggies. I'm working on a few smaller paintings of Hamilton-area buildings, but I should also have prints of some of my bigger paintings, packages of postcards, etc. In the meantime, you can still buy paintings, posters and cards at Mixed Media on James North.

08-08-08-0-awes8me

Thanks to everyone who came out last night despite the threat of thunderstorm and the lure of summer vacation. Special thanks to Mex-I-Can for providing three pounds of tongue-heaven-tortilla-deliciousness, Aaron Goldstein, Cam Malcolm, Mike Ventimiglia and Bryce Clark for playing a sweet all-night set (you can see them again, Sunday August 10, at Hamilton's Festival of Friends), and Dave Kuruc and Teresa Devries for having me at Mixed Media this month. Also, this is exciting -the staff at Mex-I-Can paid me a visit at the end of the night and liked my painting of the restaurant so much that Sean is in the process of screening the image on to T-shirts for potential sale at everyone's favourite Mex-taurant! Yay! I love that place! Here are a few pictures including one I found on the Skyscraper Page. This first one was taken by Flar. The rest can be found here. Aaron Goldstein and the Espanola band Jeremy Fisher and Popular Priced Electricians A bunch o' paintings Youngest art appreciator present, wearing some moccasins I made him More paintings...

Downtown, Dine Alone, and a New Disc

Published in HMag : November 2008 All roads lead to Jackson Square. Just ask The Arkells.

“It’s kind of an amazing place,” says keyboardist Dan Griffin. “Jackson is the centre of the city and, for better or worse, [The Arkells] have a lot to do with that area. Whenever we end up down there, there’s always a story to tell.” Those stories are the inspiration behind many of the songs on Jackson Square, the Arkells’ first full-length release, named for the divey downtown shopping centre. For example, the band’s first single, anti-work anthem, Oh, the Boss is Coming! is based, in part, on lead guitarist, Mike DeAngelis’ experience working at a Jackson call centre. Abigail is a love story set in the mall’s former HMV outlet. Heart of the City is similarly located in downtown Hamilton.

Fans of the band might recognize a few of the songs on Jackson Square from Deadlines, an EP that was released on Quarry Records back when The Arkells were Charlemagne (a name they dropped after signing with Toronto’s Dine Alone Records last year). Six of the twelve songs on Jackson Square are repeats. “It’s good to see them the way they are now though,” Griffin says. “There are completely different arrangements that evolved out of years of playing the songs live.”

Re-recordings of songs like Tragic Flaw, Champagne Socialist, and Blueprint prove a polish that wasn’t there on Deadlines, a disc that was released in January 2007. New songs include John Lennon, a super catchy ode to summer, and The Ballad of Hugo Chavez, a bright, bouncy song that, despite its dark subject matter, begs for a sing-along.

Lead singer Max Kerman’s vocals, inconsistent and somehow flatter on the Charlemagne EP, are strong and controlled on Jackson, showing a greater range that does justice to his lyrics. Arrangements are solid, thick, fuller and more realized than they were pre-Arkells, resulting in an album that is tight, upbeat, optimistic and unpretentious. Jackson Square is a throwback to the kind of good-timey rock-and-roll that’s almost been replaced by scarves, skinny jeans and rock’s recent who-can-care-the-least attitude.

As far as The Arkells are concerned, Dine Alone deserves some of the credit for this. Kerman has said there are few Canadian indie labels that could provide The Arkells with the kind of support and resources that Dine Alone has, and Griffin agrees. “For us, the only problem with working for a label was that we wanted to find some people who were as excited about the music as we were,” Griffin says. “We wanted to find people who had the same goals.” Thanks to the hard work of Dine Alone staff, 2008 has been a landmark productive year for The Arkells. In addition to releasing Jackson Square in October, the band recently shot a video for their first single Oh, the Boss is Coming! with the help of a Factor video grant. They also set out on yet their third Canadian tour. Since May 2008, the band has toured with Burlington’s Saint Alvia Cartel and blues heavyweights, The Black Crowes. This fall, they share the stage with well-matched east coasters, Matt Mays and El Torpedo.

If you missed them when they played the Casbah last week, you’ll have to head to Quebec to catch them before December. Otherwise, check their website for upcoming local dates. All roads back lead to Hamilton sooner or later.

Matthew de Zoete Looks up from the Bottom of the World

Published in Hmag: October 2008 The first time I saw Matthew de Zoete live, the place was empty. I should mention that the venue was my living room, and the “show” was a last-minute rehearsal between de Zoete and his pedal steel player (AKA my roommate). De Zoete wanted to go over a few songs before a late afternoon show that day. At the time, they were preparing for a duet at the Festival of Friends. This fall, when de Zoete tours Canada in support of his latest CD, Bottom of the World, many of his Ontario shows will feature the backing band that played with him on the record. “My first record featured more session players,” de Zoete says. “On this one, I was recording with musicians with whom I had developed deep musical and personal relationships.” One of these musicians was Dave King. King, who produced de Zoete’s first album, Across the Sea, returned to produce and drum on Bottom of the World. “I like working with Dave because he never tells me what I want to hear, but always what he honestly thinks,” de Zoete says. “I wanted to go through that sometimes challenging process again…So far, his opinions have only improved my music.” King also offered up the century-old barn near Binbrook where de Zoete and crew spent much of last fall and winter recording the 12 songs on Bottom of the World.

Where the songs on his debut album were laced together by a thread of loneliness, his follow-up is more positive. Across the Sea evoked a strong sense of separation. It was infused with the suffocating sea of its title. De Zoete sang of time, distance, reaching out and being removed. Bottom of the World is more optimistic. Songs like What are the Odds? and Idiodyssey (I’m a Sailor), where de Zoete sings I’ll always make it home to you/Tie me to the mast and hear me say/I’ll be home today, offer a fresh perspective. They sound almost like an epilogue to Across the Sea.

“[The album] deals with the basic issues of my own life which are, for the most part, quite common to the human condition in general,” de Zoete says. “I don't claim that it makes any broad statements or elucidates the meaning of life in a revolutionary way, but I think, to a small degree, it uses the individual to illuminate a few general themes and truths.” A lovely example of this is Not on Fire, a song that sees east coast songstress Jenn Grant harmonizing with de Zoete, about sexual apathy grown out of routine.

The release party for Bottom of the World falls in the middle of a three-legged fall/winter tour that will see de Zoete playing more than 40 dates, coast to coast, including some in the United States. Catch him while you can -at the Casbah on November 1.

Breaking Down Borders

Published in HMag: September 2008 When Dundas photographer Terry Asma entered the United States to work in 2006, he did so easily, and without incident. He had the correct paperwork. A passport. A plan. The same cannot be said for the thousands of southern immigrants who make similar attempts each year.

Since 1993, more than 5,000 would-be immigrants have died trying to make their way into the United States from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. The various reasons for this are highlighted in The Migrants’ Journey, Asma’s current exhibit at Hamilton’s Workers Arts & Heritage Centre (WAHC).

“This is an important piece, not only as a documentary piece, but as a labour arts piece,” says Renee Wetselaar, executive director of the WAHC. When Asma and his longtime partner, writer Katrina Simmons, asked Wetselaar for feedback on a grant proposal in 2007, she immediately encouraged them to submit the finished project to the WAHC programming committee.

Asma’s exhibit showcases six weeks worth of photos, taken in 2006, at various points along traditional migratory paths in Mexico, Central America and the US. “It’s all about respecting human rights and treating people fairly,” Asma says of his project. “The migrant issue isn’t unique to the US but some of the politics in the US make for some unbelievable stories.”

Perhaps most central part to this story is the US-Mexico border wall; one of the main reasons the path from the south to the States has claimed so many lives. What started as 22km of fence along the San Diego border has grown to hundreds of kilometers of strong, steel barrier that run throughout California, Arizona and Texas. There are gaps in the border wall and there are simple sections of single-wall fence, but there are also segments that are triple-thick. The wall in San Luis, Arizona, a hotspot for migrants, consists of three layers of fencing. The long, dusty hallways that run between them are patrolled by trucks and helicopters. They are illuminated by stadium lighting. Activity is monitored by radar, radio and surveillance cameras. Where the American government has not yet erected barricades, radical citizens’ groups have.

The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps is one of these groups. An organization comprised of 12,000 volunteers, the Minutemen believe that those who oppose border fencing actively “risk the security of [the] nation...by allowing a border wide open for terrorists, rapists and drug dealers to cross.”

“To be fair to the group as a whole, they have legitimate concerns about people being illegal in their country,” Asma concedes. “But after talking to many of the migrants, I understand that most pay taxes, but can’t take advantage of the health care system, and most are doing work that Americans don’t want to do.” Chris Simcox, president of the organization, says that in addition to border patrol, the Minutemen assist “lost and abandoned individuals” in need of water and first-aid. They build high-tech security fences on private ranch land. They destroy makeshift migrant camps. In Asma’s photos, they scan the horizon through binoculars, holsters on hips. They are armed, not for show, but for confrontation. Though Simcox maintains they merely act as eyes and ears for legitimate border patrol, there have been reports of Minutemen shooting at migrants before they even set foot on US soil.

It is these obstacles that force migrant workers to create routes where there are none. They spend days crossing deserts. They wade across fast-moving rivers, their belongings held overhead. Those that can’t swim pay exorbitant fees to be ferried across the Suchiate River from Guatemala to Mexico. Many of Asma’s photos depict migrants knee-deep in water, steadying giant rubber rafts, climbing atop “decks” made of plywood skids. Once in Mexico, these travellers wait in rail yards, to climb aboard shunting fright trains bound for the US. The train ride lasts five days and the risks are many. Freezing temperatures as the trains summit mountain passes, and difficulty breathing in tunnels are some of the less serious issues. Train gangs, looking for vulnerable migrants, are a constant threat. Rape and robbery are common. Many migrants fall, or are pushed, from the trains, losing limbs in the process. If they make it to the US border, they can end up paying more than $2000 per person to be transported across the border by “coyotes” -Americans who have made a booming business out of smuggling people. After such a journey, even those who planned on returning home are hesitant to relive the experience. Because of this, the US is home to more than nine million undocumented workers from Mexico and Central America.

“[This] is an issue that is increasingly impacting Canada, which is now bringing in 170,000 migrant workers annually, many from Mexico,” says Carole Conde, programming chair of the WAHC. This is why the WAHC chose to exhibit Asma’s work now, to coincide with Southern Ontario’s intense fall harvesting period. According to Asma, the show also overlaps with the history of our own city, one that was built on the backs of immigrants from around the world, searching for a better life. “I don’t know anyone in my circles that hasn’t had a relative somewhere along the way migrate from someplace,” he says. “So we’re all immigrants, some of us just happen to have been here a little longer than others.”

The Migrants’ Journey runs until December.