See, in 2005, I got my MA and MPhil and Ive been considered an alum eventhough Im still working towards the PhDid. Anyway, as an alum, I can vote. But they wouldnt want me to vote. Everyone I vote for loses. Most people wont say who they vote for- which is always funny, to me, in the US cause its, like, ya only got two choices...- but I dont have those issues. In every single provincial and federal election I could vote in, Ive always voted New Democrat with the exception of the 2000 federal elections when I voted for the Greens. Ill also say I wont be voting for either party in the upcoming federal elections. More politics later. Anyhow, every single time, the party I voted for has lost along with the MPP, MLA or MP Ive voted for in my riding. Same thing with Yale. The candidates Ive picked? Lost. The last election I won was when I voted for student council president and, even then, I won by default. Long story but Kevin who won, went kina crazy and tore up the student council office. Had to go into hospital. Visited him. Very One Tree Hill very 90210. As his campaign manager, and someone who ran the year before (and lost), I ran again in a special election. This time I won. The drama. Anyhow, that's the last time I picked an election winner. Since then my track record's not been so hot.
Totally disjointed but here it goes: last night I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery for the Fred Herzog exhibit. A friend said its really good to see especially if you know Vancouver and the places he took pictures off from the 1940 and 1950s and how things have changed. Im new to Vancouver so I dont have that kind of memory of the place. His pictures were nonetheless arresting. He had lots of pictures of Chinese workers and immigrants who were essential in building Vancouver as a port town, as a global city. He also had some pictures of black people- the shot at the PNE or Untitled, Pender Street, Chinatown with a father and daughter walking their dog.
Vancouver and British Columbia- and you can say this about most places, sure- is a place of erasure. It's settled land, stolen land and First Nations are symbolically invoked and present in the visual landscape along with other groups and peoples who arent as present or taken to not have existed at all, like black Canadians, for example. Herzog's pictures are a cultural document as much as they were stylistically innovative- the program rightly notes that he was one of the few working in colour in the 50s when more focus was on black and white.
I was able to pick out some of the areas he took pictures of but there was another kind of recognition and recollection that I got which I wasnt banking on. Along with the Herzog exhibit was a show called "Photography as Theatre." Im walking around the gallery and see, from across the room, Cindy Sherman's "Untitled, #96" which I saw at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1999. I have a framed copy- of the exhibit poster, not a reproduction- in my apartment or, rather, in storage in New Haven. I turned the corner and there was Yasuma Morimura's "To My Little Sister: For Cindy Sherman" and next to it was his "Portrait (Futago)" both of which Id seen before at the San Francisco MOMA.
It was a little bit jolting to unexpectedly see photographs and paintings I really like. The recollection of seeing the image, even more than the image itself as I encountered them now in the present, but at an earlier period in my life, in another city, was a cause for pause. "Portrait (Futago)" is a take on Manet's "Olympia" which I've never seen and is in the Louvre. In this foreign city, Vancouver, Im seeing things Ive already seen and making plans to see what I havent. There was also a Rodney Graham in the lobby which Id seen at the LA MOCA a couple of summer ago.
See, in 2005, I got my MA and MPhil and Ive been considered an alum eventhough Im still working towards the PhDid. Anyway, as an alum, I can vote. But they wouldnt want me to vote. Everyone I vote for loses. Most people wont say who they vote for- which is always funny, to me, in the US cause its, like, ya only got two choices...- but I dont have those issues. In every single provincial and federal election I could vote in, Ive always voted New Democrat with the exception of the 2000 federal elections when I voted for the Greens. Ill also say I wont be voting for either party in the upcoming federal elections. More politics later. Anyhow, every single time, the party I voted for has lost along with the MPP, MLA or MP Ive voted for in my riding. Same thing with Yale. The candidates Ive picked? Lost. The last election I won was when I voted for student council president and, even then, I won by default. Long story but Kevin who won, went kina crazy and tore up the student council office. Had to go into hospital. Visited him. Very One Tree Hill very 90210. As his campaign manager, and someone who ran the year before (and lost), I ran again in a special election. This time I won. The drama. Anyhow, that's the last time I picked an election winner. Since then my track record's not been so hot. 
Totally disjointed but here it goes: last night I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery for the Fred Herzog exhibit. A friend said its really good to see especially if you know Vancouver and the places he took pictures off from the 1940 and 1950s and how things have changed. Im new to Vancouver so I dont have that kind of memory of the place. His pictures were nonetheless arresting. He had lots of pictures of Chinese workers and immigrants who were essential in building Vancouver as a port town, as a global city. He also had some pictures of black people- the shot at the PNE or Untitled, Pender Street, Chinatown with a father and daughter walking their dog. 
Vancouver and British Columbia- and you can say this about most places, sure- is a place of erasure. It's settled land, stolen land and First Nations are symbolically invoked and present in the visual landscape along with other groups and peoples who arent as present or taken to not have existed at all, like black Canadians, for example. Herzog's pictures are a cultural document as much as they were stylistically innovative- the program rightly notes that he was one of the few working in colour in the 50s when more focus was on black and white. 
I was able to pick out some of the areas he took pictures of but there was another kind of recognition and recollection that I got which I wasnt banking on. Along with the Herzog exhibit was a show called "Photography as Theatre." Im walking around the gallery and see, from across the room, Cindy Sherman's "Untitled, #96" which I saw at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1999. I have a framed copy- of the exhibit poster, not a reproduction- in my apartment or, rather, in storage in New Haven. I turned the corner and there was Yasuma Morimura's "To My Little Sister: For Cindy Sherman" and next to it was his "Portrait (Futago)" both of which Id seen before at the San Francisco MOMA. 
It was a little bit jolting to unexpectedly see photographs and paintings I really like. The recollection of seeing the image, even more than the image itself as I encountered them now in the present, but at an earlier period in my life, in another city, was a cause for pause. "Portrait (Futago)" is a take on Manet's "Olympia" which I've never seen and is in the Louvre. In this foreign city, Vancouver, Im seeing things Ive already seen and making plans to see what I havent. There was also a Rodney Graham in the lobby which Id seen at the LA MOCA a couple of summer ago.
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