Engineer's Daughter

the moon is slowly rising

Cybele Lyle

Cybele Lyle

Cybele Lyle

Through July 4 - Cybele Lyle: The Moon Is Slowly Rising at Et al.  The first thing any visitor to Et al. notices is that the gallery is below a dry cleaning shop, but then once in the exhiibition space you might observe that it has a slightly quirky shape, a crook in one wall as the room narrows toward the back.  Cybele Lyle brilliantly used that shape as a starting point for this show, first constructing a maquette of the gallery in her studio, building architectural forms into the model, and then photographing the whole shebang multiple times and from every angle.  Those photos became the basis of the tonal screenprints hanging in the exhibition, with the maquette images layered one on top of another or contrasted against landscapes that seem to be fighting the boundaries of the containing lines.  As a finishing touch a set of the life-size versions Lyle's wooden "brackets" fill the gallery, creating something of a pathway to the prints for the viewer but also defining the physical limits of the unusual space.  The short text that accompanies the show references a "place where printmaking's repetition of motion and form tap into what is constant and what changes" not unlike the moonrise described in the title.  In the process of creating this work Lyle has turned her artistic practice inside out and laid it bare for anyone who cares to look, and it is a beautiful sight to behold.

See also:

• Et al.
• Cybele Lyle

matokie mix 06.29.14

mix

marry me a little

Through June 29 - Marry Me a Little at TheatreWorks.  For someone who isn't that into musicals this was a musical-heavy week for me, with viewings of both Once and then Marry Me a Little.  Both were entertaining and possessed of great tunes, but MMaL emerged the victor for me thanks to the sheer brilliance of Stephen Sondheim's songwriting for the stage.  It's a revue which means the plot is a flimsy one engineered to allow a string of songs from other shows (Follies, Company, A Little Night Music, more) that weren't originally sung together.  Two 20-somethings (the very talented Sharon Rietkerk and A.J. Shively) live and long for love a floor apart from each other, so close yet so far, and the clever staging has them set in the same space even though they are meant to be in separate apartments.  The setting has been updated to present-day SF, which allows for some amusing moments involving things like iPhones and recycling bins, but again the real highlight is the music.  Sondheim has so much fun with lyrics and syncopation, and my favorites are always the male/female duets where the singers can seem at cross-purposes but meld the disparate pieces together into a satisfying whole.  Here it all adds up to a surprisingly true-to-life emotional experience, and I left the theater with a smidge more hope in my heart than was there when I entered it.

alpha serpentis

Agalloch w/ Nathanaël Larochette Alpha Serpentis (Anthem Records)

Agalloch normally operates in the realm of thoughtful black metal, but here they team up with Nathanaël Larochette of Musk Ox (who also collaborated with them on their recent album The Serpent & The Sphere) for a single short side of gorgeous instrumental acoustic folk.  Pressed on transparent vinyl too, the better to show off that astral ouroboros artwork on the sleeve interior.

canaille

Barcelonaplein, Amsterdam.  November 22, 2007.

vancouver 2014

Full set of pics here

Monday
-mental soundtrack ---> The New Pornographers
-a hop, skip, and a jump and I'm in another country and gaping at First Nations artwork at YVR
-an entire apartment to myself at the charming Times Square Suites Hotel, perfectly located in the West End steps away from Stanley Park
-dinner at Guu with Garlic: Guuu'd Ale + marinated eggplant + wasabi-marinated mountain potato + soy milk real tofu (cooked at my table) + daikon kimchi + asparagus with aioli dip
-a caramel-coffee buttery bun and a chai tea latte at PappaRoti
-already making new friends left and right because Canadians are so damn nice
-a glorious sunset and a Steamworks Frambozen from my hotel's rooftop patio

Tuesday
-mental soundtrack ---> Lambchop
-a morning stroll to English Bay and then a False Creek Ferry to Granville Island for a wander amongst the shops and design studios and into the Public Market
-a chocolate sprinkled donut from Lee's and a cheese-filled bagel at Siegel's
-mind blown in the superb Museum of Anthropology, housed in Arthur Erickson's modernist concrete take on traditional North-West Coast post-and-beam architecture, with a crash course in First Nations art and much time spent amongst the 10,000+ objects from around the world imaginatively curated in the Multiversity Galleries
-lunch at Fable: Blue Buck Ale + Barnston Island green salad with spiced granola, apples, BC cranberry vinaigrette + tomato soup
-homemade waffle maple berry ice cream at Rain or Shine
-orienting myself at the Vancouver Lookout with 360-degree vistas 169 meters in the air
-SeaBus to Lonsdale Quay in Northern Vancouver, the most beautiful commute ever
-a snakebite and salt-and-vinegar chips on the deck at the Cheshire Cheese Inn
-dinner at Bao Bei: Izio's Choice + shan tofu with chickpea tofu, local greens, straw mushrooms, kimchi cucumber, chili, cilantro + assorted ice creams (Vietnamese coffee, mango and condensed milk caramel, almond and preserved kumquat)
-a Dragon Fly at the Keefer Bar

Wednesday
-mental soundtrack ---> Mungolian Jetset
-breakfast at De Dutch: an Amsterkoek pannekoek with Edam, eggs, Hollandaise + a Nederland victory
-a stop at Thierry to grab a pain au chocolate for later
-the glory of the greenery (and the colors!) at the VanDusen Botanical Garden and the victory of reaching the monkey puzzle tree at the center of their hedge maze
-lunch at Fisherman's Terrace: hot tea + mini sticky rice in bamboo leaves + vegetarian crispy goose + triple mushrooms in rice noodle wrap + shredded taro pancake
-and apparently I needed milk tea with boba on top of that because Aberdeen Centre Asian mall food court
-Adios España!
-chic shopping in Yaletown, including throw pillow lust at Chintz & Company, delicate/tough jewelry purchases at Woo To See You, and amazing space-themed clothing (and a zinger of an iced dirty chai) at Global Atomic Designs
-First Nations art both high-end (at Inuit Gallery) and more in my price range (at Hill's Native Art)
-massive disappointment at Vancouver Art Gallery after learning I would miss the Janet Cardiff exhibition opening by only one day, mood lifted by Bollywood film crew outside
-only day 3 and I can already give accurate public transit directions
-dinner at Blue Water: Jacob's Ladder + abalone mushroom barley risotto with goat cheese, artichokes, green peas, madeira reduction
-a Moscow Mule at Yew

Thursday
-mental soundtrack ---> Bahamas
-breakfast at Acacia Fillo Bar: banitza filled with spinach and feta and served with sour cream
-a rented bike from Spokes and a transcendent morning ride along the Stanley Park Seawall complete with mountain vistas, totem poles, baby ducklings, and cavorting pinnipeds
-lunch at the Teahouse in Stanley Park: Road 13 Honest John White + assorted bites (truffled mini peaches, hummus, roasted chickpeas, a trio of cheeses, warm olives, pecan crisps) + absolutely perfect creme brulee
-the giant koi of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
-a tour of the excellent Rodney Graham exhibition at the Rennie Collection (itself situated in a very beautiful and historical building) and a chance to visit the Martin Creed and Dan Graham pieces in the rooftop garden just as a storm was blowing in
-dinner at Motomachi Shokudo: veggie ramen worth lining up in the rain for
-another bun from PappaRoti

Friday
-mental soundtrack ---> Julianna Barwick
-breakfast at Forage: steel cut oats with quinoa, flax, cinnamon cashew froth + warm scone with honey butter
-one last walk through my tree-lined neighborhood
-an easy bus-to-SkyTrain journey back to YVR
-flight delay just means an excuse to sample a flight of BC whites at Vino Volo

show 304

playlist

matokie mix 06.15.14

mix

show 303

playlist

zippy-zo zippy-zay zippy-zappy zoopy-zee

 

Despite being a huge Wes Anderson (and Roald Dahl) fan I'd never gotten around to seeing Fantastic Mr. Fox, but I was happy to remedy that situation this week.  The film is just pure delight, and Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach get excellent mileage out of the humor that results from animals acting out familiar human emotions but then also resorting to their more biological instincts.  I have a hunch that with his long obsession with capers this is the heist film Anderson has always been dying to make, and the stop-motion animation allows him to put together some pretty spectacular and imaginative action sequences.  It is an unmistakably Wes Anderson film (so many familiar voices and symmetrical scene compositions) at the same time that Roald Dahl's original story feels very much intact, including the author's darker streak and his refusal to refusal to talk down to children in his tales.  And of course any movie that includes an animated Jarvis Cocker as a banjo-strumming folk singer is guaranteed to win my heart.