end of Ledra Street

Just thinking borders and crossings on the approach of the Performing identity symposium - the photos below show the change in the main promenade, Ledra Street, between last year and this. The first two photos I took in May of 2006, the wall blocking the north/south a bit of a tourist spot complete with observation post; the second photo from a few weeks ago during a press conference at the same site, post-wall. Replacing that and the observation booth is a type of temporary barricade most often seen at the edges of parks during festivals, a rather switch to an informal, obliquely temporary (although such temporariness, as we have seen, can last a great length of time!) impediment to passage...+a

PI/CB venue and hotel

Below, a few images of where we'll be holding the Performing Identity symposium, fyi. Top left is the Castelli Hotel, where many of you are staying. If you walk about fifty metres down the road, you will come to the symposium venue, the Kasteliotissa. The image top right is of the interior of the space (taken during a saxophone event there today); the remaining images are various exterior shots. If you travel a bit further down the road, not very far, you come to one of the crossing points of the 'green line.'

more nail art

Performing Identity / Crossing Borders: the cyprus symposium is set to begin. Arrived in Nicosia yesterday. Tomorrow a basic checkin day with hotels, venues, other such odds and ends. And, of course, always throw some colour in there to signify an event!

Toronto>Cyprus

Riding the subway in tee-dot up to finch 2 collect some belongings (my travel stuff distributed about the city, disorderly) before doing lastminute oddenders here as I leave the nation on tuesday. Somehow, all is pulling 2gether for the symposium, may 3-6, Performing Identity / Crossing Borders. Now have all the presentations in (well, mostly) so delegates can read ahead and the symp time will be more discussion than delivery.

Thinking about cultural politics, nationalism, identity & identification - on the subway, a ream of red as fans head to a Raptors game, icons of support temp-tatt'd to arms and cheeks - and what it leads to. On Beverly st yesterday, saw a group of youth sharing a schoolyard court. They were all using the same orangey lowbounce ball. But the group close to me, south asians whom I guessed hailed from south india, practiced their cricket bowling - the other group, all east asian, played street hockey, adorned with standard icehockey gear. Every once in a while, an errant ball went from cricket 2 hockey or versa, and a stick or hand wd return the sphere to rightful team & sport. I stood transfixed by this for some time, not sure why, the game, the history, the nation (however that comes to mean!). And now, shortly, to cyprus. Info, as always, @ www.cicac.ca.

_____
CiCAC
Centre for Innovation in
Culture and the Arts in Canada
p. 250.852.6284 w. www.cicac.ca

I started a joke, video shoot

A faux fur, a rented PTCruiser, and a dog... all that was needed for a short video shoot on the south hills of Kamloops. We went shooting a short video this past week, produced/directed by David Bateman, inspired by the BeeGees song, "I Started a Joke." Starring David, with Hiromi Goto and Gita as extras. Bill Greene as videographer, Ashok as set photographer... below, contact sheets of the shoot. Video to be released in the next couple of months...