Living and Doing

Andrea and I made a brutal-on-purpose video when we were at school in Singapore for our Basic Audio Video class. You can now watch it online!! See it YouTube embedded above! We lived together in that dorm room for an entire year!

Christopher Hutsul is featured in the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase:

Check him out, he’s so awesome!

masculinity and friendships!! Fascinating!! Masculinity is a riddle I hope to understand perhaps one day…

Relationships Between Gay and Straight Men Are Moving Beyond Stereotypes from the NY Times

Happy pride everyone!! and happy rainy weather that cooled every body off like I think was needed. I caught some of the parade, always fun. I also treated myself to a mani/pedi this afternoon which always makes me feel like a spoiled brat - so indulgent! Sat in a coffee shop on the other side of Bellwoods where I caught the last part of Sgt. Pepper’s and the first part of Magical Mystery Tour - that was quite nice. When I got home I weighed myself on the Wii fit which is telling me consistently over the last few days that I lost roughly 10 pounds from April when I was last using it all the time. I wasn’t trying to lose weight, but I guess with biking and eating healthier in the last little while it made a difference. Soon I’ll be bikini-ready! Isn’t that what everyone wants?

I found the coolest thing when looking at my statcounter to see where people were getting to my site from: Check out We Feel Fine. I feel like the fact that someone from England found me through the site and stayed at my blog for 5.41 minutes is pretty cool - almost serendipitous. Maybe they were around long enough to catch some early millenial emo music! One can hope. One can really only hope.

So I installed my air conditioner last night into my bedroom for the third time. This means I have been living in my apartment for 3 years now. Three summers come and gone still in the same rented single bedroom. What am I doing with my life? Just kidding, I’m ok and on the fast-track to success.

Also, I’m going to a baby shower tonight. My roommate from University living in Niagara-on-the-Lake is expecting… So awesome! A bunch of my contemporaries from my past are taking that next step right now and becoming parents and I’m so happy for them. Personally, I feel too young for that still and the idea for me boggles my mind, but yeah. Everyone is different.

I’m lucky I don’t really feel that pressure to get my proverbial act together. I don’t think about it that much. If I did I would probably start worrying.  So I don’t.

In the spirit of being immature I will post for you one of my favourite songs from when I was just a young wee lass. Takes me back and I don’t think I have changed a bit. When I’m ready to fill the world with my offspring and also to own assets both liquid and fixed, I think I still will feel exactly the same. Absolutely I know we’re all going to be ok.

Riding to work today on my slow bike, I really have time to let my mind wander. Riding on Queen Street West and my old stomping grounds past the Much Music building strip, I noticed an interesting trend: early to mid-thirties males riding their long boards to work. A little bit of grey in their hip hairdos, chuck taylors, messenger bags heavy with laptops, and expensive jeans and dickies just cruising beside the streetcar tracks, taking those corners like pros. I saw about five of these stereotypes on my way in. Fascinating! At first, I rolled my eyes - I think this is the automatic reaction that I have learned from living in Toronto for the past few years (how dare you try and be cool in my city, for shame!), but it only took me a second to reconsider.

“Hey! All you guys riding your long boards is probably a pretty sweet idea!” I didnt say that, but I for sure thought that in my head. How awesome is that, right? I love it for a couple reasons. First, people are instantly transformed into ten year olds the second they put a foot on a skateboard. I love it, they look like little kids pushing their way stoically down the street to their very serious jobs at their hip design firm to deal with their big client for that presentation the team slaved over nights and weekends, but awww! How cute! You are a fifth grader! Also, in terms transportation heirarchy, I would place long boards fairly high up. It’s not as respectable as a bike, but it’s also not as evil as a car or as annoying as a streetcar and it’s faster than walking. So I think long boarders can hold their heads pretty high. And lastly, maybe for the reason the idea first turned me off, long boarding is kinda weird and cool. It’s try-hard, but that’s like all things these days it has to be so cool it becomes uncool and then because it’s uncool it’s cool again! Like mesh-back caps! So what if you’re a yuppy on a longboard to try and hang on to your youth that you imagined you were cool during? I say rock your long board like it’s nobody’s business and don’t pay attention to would-be haters like me. And good luck on that big presentation.

I’m really interested in expressions using the juxtaposition of technology and interactivity mixed with more tactile, human and/or traditional media/methods/objects. That line is kinda dense, eh? Well, let me just show you through the following short YouTube compilation that I will curate for you. Feel free to add your own links and ideas in the comments!

Perhaps a lofty title, but this is a wonderful animation piece by Christopher Hutsul and Saatchi & Saatchi Canada.

If you click on the picture of Neil and Lovemark below you will go to the Saatchi website and see the animation and the website Chris illustrated:

Read more about it in Boards >> Behind-The-Scenes.

ALSO, this is the first thing I’ve produced.

I feel a little eeried-out when I check my statcounter and see someone has found my site by googling my full name. It’s because of the paranoia/self-importance that is so integral to my character. I’ve been thinking lately about getting back into more personal blogging here at srahberry.com… the paranoia prevents me, but the self-importance (vanity) urges me on so we all know who will win that fight. So stay tuned for that. Just have to figure out where to start again. Summertime is fairly inspirational for that sort of thing.