Spare Changes

In Travelling (for Ryan Nowe) by ~coinoperatedbear

Ryan loved Doctor Who.

I mean obsessively. Seriously obsessively. He could tell you every detail from every episode of the series, old and new, and had a replica scarf and hat from the Tom Baker doctor.

One night, we were at the Montreal House in Peterborough seeing The Burning Hell who played the Doctor Who theme before colliding it with their much-better-when-live song “The Second Cigarette” (seriously, Mathias, if you ever decide to do a live album, the faster, funkier Second Cigarette would be a premiere choice) and Ryan went absolutely nuts.

It wasn’t just the good Doctor though, Ryan had a special place in his heart for all sci-fi, even the godawful movie Jumper which, honestly, people in Peterborough only went to see to see what they could recognize as being distinctly Peterborough (frankly quite a lot actually).

Life wasn’t all science fiction though for Ryan. He had a developmental issue that I couldn’t quite place and never felt comfortable enough to ask. His attempts to pick up women didn’t work very well if at all and if he drank, he usually went a little crazy but whenever I saw him he was always smiling and he was always downtown. Ryan lived and breathed downtown Peterborough and while that may not sound like much of anything to those of you who haven’t been there since the flood and seen all of the wonderful things that have come and gone, the vibrant music scene, the small businesses, the wonderful cafes, it was his world and, all things considered, it was pretty awesome.

Every time I’ve gone back since moving away, I’ve seen Ryan. To be overly poetic, he was downtown Peterborough’s perpetual man-child heart that kept everything going and kept everything fun even if it got a little weird and crazy. I only found out about an hour ago that he passed away last night and I already miss him like crazy and I know it will hit me again next time I’m home and I look for him and he’s not there, just a Ryan-shaped hole at the corner of Hunter and George.

Rest in peace my friend, safe travels.

Music Appreciation Series Volume 1: Tom Waits - Alice

Side B
We’re All Mad Here
Watch Her Disappear
Reeperbahn
I’m Still Here
Fish & Bird
Barcarolle
Fawn

Music Appreciation Series Volume 1: Tom Waits - Alice

Side A:
Alice
Everything You Can Think
Flower’s Grave
No One Knows I’m Gone
Kommienezuspadt
Poor Edward
Table Top Joe
Lost In The Harbour

butcherbilly:

The Post-Punk / New Wave Super Friends by Butcher Billy

Click here to get art prints and t-shirts at society6.

Ask me anything!

I really should be more careful about typing URLs so early in the fucking morning.

Having our pup up in February pretty much tops that list. Second is getting back into school.

Ask me things!

http://coinoperatedbear.tumblr.com/ask

You know what would be awesome? If you asked me stuff!

Toronto: Morning To Night by ~coinoperatedbear

Selfie for no reason

Today was a hell of a day for art projects. It started early with a three part photo trip stretching from Uptown Waterloo to the Grand River Trail and ending in the Galt section of Cambridge. I skipped Kitchener this time, maybe next time, or when I do this again in Stratford.

I spent a good chunk of the day working on these photos. The ones taken in Uptown were a warm up as I worked in Snapseed, cropping each photo to a 3x3 grid and working within that framework to build well placed shots. Then, through colour manipulation and the adding of various textures, I gave the photos their own senses of foreboding. I was aiming to emulate the album artwork of early 4AD releases, tweaking each photo so that nice pictures on a sunny day became far darker and more sinister. I think I only used actual Instagram filters on about 5 of the 40 photos uploaded from the walk.

Yes, I took well over 40 photos (actually I probably took at least twice that many before the batteries finally died and I came home for lunch), many with a wide angle lens, some with Camera FV5 and some (for the best results) the native Android camera app. I got a few really nice macro shots but mostly landscape and urban settings that fit what I wanted. I went through the best of each shot (some shots I took multiple times to ensure clarity), cropped, straightened if necessary, and edited until each one was ready. This took a few hours working in Snapseed which is a fucking lifesaver of an app and I recommend it to anyone looking for something with more editing control than Instagram. Each photo got me closer to my goal and taught me more about editing, the importance of following the 3x3 grid structure and creating the mood through editing.

If you liked it, then awesome.

If you didn’t, that’s awesome too.

The other big news is I’ve finished the first half of the first section major, multi-piece project. There are 15 pieces in all for this section. Those of you who saw my recent Klaus Nomi portrait will understand the format I’m working with. A lot of the work I’ve done over the past 6 months or so has involved a great deal of exploring texture in digital art and these pieces are no exception. This has so far been about a month in the making and I can’t wait to show you!

So yeah, http://instacanv.as/coinoperatedbear is the place to go :)

I put you through a lot from today’s photo walk, so thank you!