review: books, music, galleries

yesterday afternoon, katherine and i met at pages to commence research and recording for her new podcast project (watch imperfect offering for news). after a short stint at pages (where they're proudly displaying a cool poster promoting the men), we sped to art metropole. great fun, perusing the shelves and chatting with staff member and language-based conceptual artist tonik rockonski.

we then hightailed it to music(in)galleries, an afternoon gallery hop organized by the association of improvising musicians. the new gallery, located in artscape's live/work building, featured victor bateman on solo bass. (upright bass and cello are my two favourite instruments right now; i want to learn.) the new gallery was a treat to see, as conor and i live quite close and often wonder what this building looks like inside.

doug tielli and scott thomson's duelling trombones at mocca provided synchronistic dischord and mood to the darkness awakens show on the walls. this is one creepy show; shary boyle has given me nightmares.

we bumped into gary barwin outside of camera, and then made our way to katherine mulherin for my favourite stop on the tour. dave clark (drums and assorted sonic paraphrenalia) and ellen waterman (flute) exuded glee as they explored how many ways they could interact audibly with their instruments, their bodies, and the gallery space. kris knight's paintings of disturbed innocence leapt off the walls as dave and ellen paraded through their corner of the space. i recommend checking out kris' work (both his madame deficient series and i wanna be a pirate...).

next stop for us was the david kaye gallery, where two young artists furiously collaborated on a sketch of anne bourne, jake oelrichs, and john oswald as they improvised. we then meandered over to the gladstone hotel, where mike hansen and paul dutton provided the final destination for the walkabout. the audio was too loud, excruciating at a few moments, but that didn't seem to deter a spilled-onto-the-streets audience of 80+. their vocal/turntable improvs were hella cool, and it was clear both performers had fun and listened to each other as they worked.