Winter in Winnipeg

I love winter. I love snowflakes and hot cocoa and the spirit of the season that causes strangers to become friends and friends to become family (even if it only lasts until 11:59pm on December 25). Some of my fondest memories involve growing up in Winnipeg, a true winter city where the citizenry seem to thrive on temperatures below -40 degrees celcius. As a child, there were three things that I always looked forward to: 

• Visiting Santa's Village at Eaton's Department Store: So iconic was this display that it is now permanently featured at the Children's Museum of Winnipeg. Mimicking a turn-of-the-century street with animated fairytale vignettes in every shop window, it was a place that enchanted both young and old alike. I believe I spent more time staring in wonder at Sleeping Beauty than I did asking Santa for bounty. The best part was afterwards when my mother would take me to the bakery on the 4th floor and purchase Italian tri-colour cookies. Best. Dessert. Ever. And so damn hard to find nowadays. 

Coincidentally, it was the Eaton's Santa of 1986 that made me stop believing in the jolly fat man. After failing to deliver me a Puffalump on Christmas, I started to question the myths that society was coaxing me to believe as fact. I never told my parents that I stopped believing. I didn't want to hurt their feelings by admitting I was athiest at the age of six. I also didn't want to stop our seasonal visits to Santa's Village. 

I found this picture online of the display, but it doesn't do it justice. You really had to be a child growing up in Winnipeg in the 80s to truly understand how magical a place this was. 

• Skating and Sledding at St. Vital Park: By my father's account, I was a pretty good skater as a kid. I don't know why I dropped this hobby (the invention of Nintendo, perhaps?) but I do remember how much I enjoyed skating at St. Vital Park with my dad. And I know it meant a lot to him as well because skating was a huge part of his own young adulthood (he was a former hockey player who came thisclose to playing in the NHL). There never seemed to be anyone at this frozen over lake and I often felt as though the winter wonderland it presented belonged solely to me. Gliding under the stars like a whirling dirvish with snowflakes falling on my nose was a pursuit that connected me with Mother Nature in both a tangible and spiritual way. I would never stop believing in her like I did the dude who denied me the Puffalump. 

Also at St. Vital Park was my favorite sled run. It was high and it was looooooonnnnngggg. Over the years I went through a variety of launch vehicles (tobaggan, magic carpet, saucer, sledge), each one left me believing that in the moment I was actually breaking the sound barrier. The icy track also made it's way through a forest. It doesn't sound safe, but I never got hurt while going down it. Key word: "down". One year when I was about five or six-years-old, I slipped and fell flat on my face while walking back up to the launch point. I immediately started wailing and when my dad came to get me up, the white snow was all hue-dyed red with blood. Lots of blood. I spent the remainder of the evening in the ER. In retrospect, it was okay though as we got hot chocolate and a maple dip donut on the way home.

Perhaps this post isn't about winter memories so much as it is about just desserts? 

Impact

I recently designed the 2011-2012 SIAST Annual Report. Three alternate covers were created that each showcased an area where SIAST met the theme of "impact" including introducing new programs to meet industry demand, encouraging involvement in non-traditional careers and empowering the Aboriginal community through education. The document was wire-o bound and included silver foil on the cover. It is the piece I am most proud of during my tenure (so far):

New York Gallery Uploaded

Check out images of my recent visit to New York City by clicking here.

Pedestrians walk along Brooklyn Bridge: 

The coffee shop made famous by Seinfeld: 

Catching some zzzzzzzzz's on the C-line:

Manhattan parking:

Peekaboo on the Highline:

Procession of Ghouls

On October 26, I made my way to Harlem to witness the 2012 Halloween Extravaganza and Procession of Ghouls at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine (the 4th largest Christian church in the world). It began with a screening of Nosferatu set to a soundtrack from a live organist and proceeded into some of the creepiest costumes I have ever seen. It was awesome! 

Hurricane Sandy, Part II

I've never experienced a hurricane before. I was stranded in Denver two years ago after a tornado formed at the airport. I was all shook up by a mild earthquake while in Japan in 2009. But a hurricane is its own entity; there is a weird, slow anticipation to its arrival. The days prior to Sandy hitting shore, the newscasts kept talking about how they expected it to be the "storm of the century" and that we were all doomed. I took this with a grain of salt, as Americans aren't known for their subletly. Of course they were going to hype everything up to be bigger, faster, more!!! This instance, they were correct though. I just personally see the destruction in my immediate area of Flushing, Queens (which wasn't that hard hit), but watching the news paints a very sad, dismal picture of the broader tri-state region. 

The wind started to pick up at around 5:00pm local time on Monday. Within an hour - and sustained for several - it was beyond gale force at over 90 MILES per hour in some areas. I was sitting on my hotel room bed, watching live news reports of what was happening outside, and started to become scared that my window was going to burst open. Roughly every 30 seconds or so, a wind so strong would pound down on it and I could feel it come through the walls and actually shake my mattress as I was sitting on it. That was all I needed to spend the evening on the bathroom floor. I didn't get any sleep but it eased my mind somewhat. I kept the television on for company and they started reporting on a massive fire somewhere else in Queens...I could hear sirens faintly taking off in the night in the distance. It was a long night. 

I ventured out the next morning to see the aftermath:

This wind-bent sign was directly outside my hotel: 

Bottom level of a Target store a few blocks away was flooded:

Hurricane Sandy

I was slated to return to Canada on Sunday, October 28. Heading to the airport, I observed that the weather wasn't too bad and that flights were still soaring off into the skies. I was confident that I would be watching reports of Hurricane Sandy from home on my couch in my Snuggie the next day. However, at approximately 2:00pm, I was informed that my flight was cancelled. I asked to be put on stand-by (which never happened) and was handed a sheet by Air Canada with hotels in the area: 

Love the giant "F*$# You" in Sharpie. 

But more problematic after I received this, was that none of the phone numbers actually worked. The only message I received was that the numbers were not in service. The Air Canada reservations line redirected me to use their website; they must really hate human-to-human commuication, eh? I've never been to New York before, had no idea what was near LaGuardia airport (I barely knew north from south) and had an impending SuperStorm™ to worry about. After talking to a non-Air Canada airport employee, I started phoning other hotels in the general area and finally found one in Flushing, Queens that had a room available. 

By the time I got to the hotel, all of the restaurants in the immediate area were closing. People who know me, know I LOVE Target and now I can say it is honestly my salvation as it was the only thing open where I could get food for the next few days. Shelves were nearly picked clean with people in a frenzy to stock up with last minute supplies. I stockpiled fruit, yogurt, water, chips and Hostess cakes. Didn't say it was all healthy food, it was what was available. And I actually like Hostess cakes. 

I hunkered down for the evening, waiting for Sandy's full impact to hit the next evening. 

...to be continued.

David LaChapelle at PDN Photoplus:

I was* in New York City to attend the 2012 PhotoPLUS Conference and Expo. It was a great event that provided me much needed insight on the technical aspects of photography, but also offered a score of inspiration from such world-renowned visual artists as Art Streiber and one of my favorites, David LaChapelle, deliverer of the keynote "Art or Artless":

If you don't know who David is, he's the one all the hipsters are taking a picture of. 

We all have pre-conceived notions of people in the public eye. I always believed David to be somewhat of a punk auteur, relishing controversy and the subsequent public furore that results from it. But in listening to him speak, and he seems quite soft-spoken and humble, I now view him as someone with a different way of viewing things who simply wants to share his vision with the world. Make society question things, rather than blindly accept them. 

Art is not speech, it is conversation. 

To view David's work, click here.  

*I was supposed to be home by now, but am stranded in New York because of Hurricane Sandy.