Month: December 2015

Brightest Day, Blackest Night (Festival of Lights, Candy Cane Lane)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Ah winter has finally arrived, and it looks like it won’t be leaving any time soon! I was nervous for a bit there. Thought we were going to witness another Super El Nino equivalent to the one we had back in 1997. That year we didn’t know what to do, when the snow simply would not stick around until New Years.

But that famous Edmonton snow is here now folks! Rest easy.

The snow is everywhere, and with it the cold of winter combined with the limited daylight make for an interesting combination. One which can have depressing effects if you don’t know how to combat it.

The time of year when both heat and light is precious.It’s somewhat regrettable how we yearn for cold in the summer and heat in the winter, when we should instead be celebrating the possibilities of the current season.

Which is why we could benefit from a lesson from Rome.

The Romans had no issue with this concept of seasons and prepared for the winter solstice with vigour. Saturnalia was an ancient Roman holiday held in service of the Roman god Saturn. It was a period of merrymaking and is the unofficial predecessor of the Christmas holiday (read: feasts, rest from work, servants are served, dinner clothes, gift-giving, and toy gifts for children). If you aren’t familiar with Roman mythology, Saturn was a god that represented agriculture and ruled the world for a time. A time which the Romans called the Golden age, when the earth was filled with food and labour was non-existent.

The Augustan poet Vergil had this to say of Saturn,

He gathered together the unruly race [of fauns and nymphs ] scattered over mountain heights, and gave them laws … . Under his reign were the golden ages men tell of: in such perfect peace he ruled the nations.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information about the holiday Saturnalia which comes from one particular source. The best known work that provides the most detail on the event was written by Macrobius. In it, he refers to Saturnalia as a festival of light which leads up to the winter solstice. Candles are used everywhere to represent truth and knowledge and merriment is the order of the day.

I thought that the acknowledgement of Saturn’s dominion and care-taking of other species was particularly interesting, especially in light of (future bad pun) the timely event I’m going to share with you today dear readers.

You see, and this isn’t a new theory, there are many accomplished philosophers and intellectuals out there that believe humans take their moral cues from whatever appears to be higher in power and influence than themselves, whether it be law, principles, or spiritual. Thus, even though Saturn and Saturnalia have disappeared from the forefront of mythology and belief for several centuries, the themes present still exist to this day.

Which is why I think the Festival of Lights put on by the Edmonton Valley Zoo is a fascinating event that mirrors those ideas of bounty, dominion, care taking, truth, and knowledge just ahead of the Christmas season and in time with Saturnalia.

Okay maybe not really, but I had you going there for a while didn’t I?

Truthfully, the Festival of Lights is a staple of the Edmonton holiday season, much like Candy Cane Lane, the Citadel’s Christmas Carol, and the Festival of Trees. And no matter what your belief system, I think we can all agree that whatever the roots or reasons of these types of traditions, what is most important about this time of year is thinking of others and your place in the world.

This year the Festival of Lights took place between December 4-13 between the hours of 5-9 PM.

Wait, hold up timotheories, are you saying that this event already came and went? Why yes, dear readers, I am. But I wouldn’t ever share something timely with you that was no longer relevant. That’s just silly.

No, fortunately for you, I heard from How To Douglas, that there is a special one shot of the Festival of Lights this Sunday, December 20th from 5-9 PM. So why don’t you come check it out? The Edmonton Valley Zoo can be found at 13315 Buena Vista Road, and you will definitely enjoy all of the art installations, the lights, and the night sky. Sometimes they feature a skating rink and snack stand.

And if you are disappointed by that fare, you should also check out Candy Cane Lane, which is located at 148 Street between 100 Avenue to 92 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

These types of events only come around once a year, and showcase some incredibly creativity on the part of the home owners and patrons that organize them. If you haven’t been before, check them both out. And if you have, and it’s been a little while, please go and support your local community!

That’s all I’ve got this week folks! 7 more sleeps until Christmas, and one more week until I take a bit of a hiatus. So please check out next week’s articles or spend some time getting caught up on posts you’ve missed.

Tim!

 

Living With Less (Becoming A Minimalist)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Remember that “2nd ever” timotheories interview I did with Andrew Wedman a while back?

Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about Andrew’s outlook on life and business. His attitude is pretty straightforward – do more with less. As we make our way through this stressful season, it occurs to me that a lot of my normal stress revolves around managing the stuff in my life VS the people in my life VS the pursuits of my life. Christmas just escalates it.

Each of these areas can be managed, thus today’s post is in dedication of the pursuit of purity!

We are all faced with the challenge of whether to pursue more material and social wealth than we currently have. The challenge isn’t openly shared, as this topic isn’t the right type of macabre for most and the simplest truths are often the most difficult to see. Simply put, if we made this widely known, retailers and publications would be bad at their jobs.

People only really learn when they are ready to. I can say this confidently from personal experience.

As Art Buchwald once said,

The best things in life are not things.

Or to put it more bluntly, Tyler Durden said,

We buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like.

Let me elaborate.

I was fortunate to grow up with the environment and opportunities I did. We all choose to either blame others or our situation for our stock in life OR we accept our beginnings and work to change what is possible, accepting responsibility for our own life.

For instance, I learned some interesting things when I was growing up. Because my parents determined that one of them should stay at home during the day while my sister, two brothers and I all made our way through primary education, I learned that there was a difference between material wants and basic needs of life. This was because while my parents owned their home outright, and we had enough to cover food, utilities and school costs, there wasn’t a lot of money in the bank for extras.

That didn’t mean I missed out on simple pleasures, but I simply had a stronger appreciation of them when I did have sweets and toys. Now what I didn’t immediately realize as a youth, but figured out years later was that it may well have hurt my pride and felt embarrassing when we couldn’t afford to go on trips or we didn’t have a collection of stuff to entertain ourselves with and had to interact with those who did (and judged), but there is an incredible burden that comes with having too many objects in your life.

I learned this by the process of moving away when I was 23. I first moved from home with my family of 6 to 1 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend at the time, then moving into a larger 3 bedroom a couple of years later with my girlfriend and sister, then having more room after my sister moved out.

Where the lesson came in was when I lost my job, and decided to move back home.

I had a lot of stuff at that point. A whole house of stuff. While my sister and one brother didn’t live there any more, moving home with enough stuff to fill a 15′ x 25′ room was tough. And that was after I got rid of a dining table, a living room suite, a bedroom suite, lots of old art, and countless trinkets.

Sharing space with people while having personal objects to watch out for is problematic. You’ve invested money into those possessions and you have to protect your investment, but who really has time to enjoy and manage 1000s of objects, no matter what they are?

It becomes a burden.

This is why it is important to define your space and dedicate your efforts to a specific area of life. As soon as you do this, you realize what is important to you, and having hot topic technology or whatever doesn’t pull at you as easily.

Heck, I collect movies, music, and books, and people sometimes question my collection. That’s a good thing. No one in their right mind should collect as much of that stuff as I do. I do it because I need to to accomplish my goals. The truth is this, of course I cannot possibly look at all of these things simultaneously or even regularly, but I’ve set up my space so that those objects serve as a directory of ideas and reference for my art. Because those objects fuel my life purpose they provide value for me. But if I started collecting trinkets, kitchenware, clothes and sports equipment (for example), then I would lose my focus.

Check out this article from the blog Becoming Minimalist for more information on the concept.

Thus end’s today’s post on managing objects. Do you think you too much stuff? Is your stuff preventing you from making your art? Leave some comments and let me know what you think of this theory.

Tim!

 

 

Moonshine (The Transporter Refueled review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Moonshine, white lightning or hooch if you prefer, is one of the ways that we could get alcohol if we want, and in times of great restriction like The Prohibition era, it was probably the best way.

But we don’t really need moonshine anymore, now that there are so many other kinds of alcohol out there, with interesting flavours, and which undergo incredible distillation before being released into the marketplace.

But what the heck does that have to do with this movie review? You’re about to find out.

 

 

 

The Transporter Refueled (2015)
Cast: Ed Skrein, Ray Stevenson, Loan Chabanol, Gabriella Wright, Radivoje Bukvic
Director: Camille Delamarre
released on blu-ray December 8, 2015
*** 3/10

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IMDB: 5.0
Rotten Tomatoes: 17%, Audience Score 32%
The Guardian: **/*****

Camille Delamarre is a French editor and director. This is his second time directing for the big screen and his previous work was the District 13 remake, Brick Mansions, which featured the greatly missed Paul Walker, David Belle, and RZA.

Brick Mansions was rated very poorly, but I personally really enjoyed it. I might be slightly biased as I am huge Paul Walker fanboy, and I’ve never seen the original District 13.

So I had high hopes. But were they misplaced?

Let’s cover the story a bit before I detail my thoughts.

 

It’s 1995 in France, and a group of teenage prostitutes see a van roll up and a man get out, then opens fire on the group. The man, a Russian named Arkady Karasov (Radivoje Bukvic) and his partners, Yuri and Leo Imasova kill many of them, but let one pimp survive to share the story. One of the girls, Anna (Loan Chabanol) is traumatized by what the events.

Meanwhile, Karasov recruits Maissa, one of the previous pimps girls as his own and she gets in his car. Karasov then yells at the other girls to get to work. Anna stands there crying.

Fast forward 15 years and Anna receives a call while eating and tells the other party that the plan is in motion.

We see a group of six thieves coveting a black Audi. The owner, Frank Martin (Ed Skrein) watches and use his phone to open the doors and knock two of them over. The gang leader notices Frank and demands the keys. But Frank disagrees and he disables them all with martials arts. But not before realizing he is now late and driving away quickly.

Frank greets his father Martin Sr. (Ray Stevenson). Martin Sr. tells his son that he late and they start discussing Martin Sr’s retirement. Frank recieves an unlisted phone call, but declines to answer while driving.

Meanwhile, Qiao is waiting in a hotel room with two men for Anna to arrive. The accountant is upset that she is late. When Anna arrives she shoots the accountant and guard almost immediately. They then drop another dead prostitute in the mix, and set the room on fire before leaving.

Frank and his father are having dinner while they discuss what Martin Sr. has planned for the future. We learn that Martin Sr. was likely a spy during this exchange just before Frank gets another call from the unlisted number. This time he answers and Anna asks him about a job. They agree to meet for 2PM the following day.

Karasov is on his yacht with Yuri, Imasova and Maissa who is now his kept woman. They learn that there has been an “accident” with the accountant.

Karasov and Maissa meet with Inspector Bectaoui (Samir Guesmi) who wants Karasov to identify the woman and if she is one of his “hostesses.” Karasov doesn’t like the implication and makes a threat to the inspector before leaving.

Frank meets with Anna and covers his terms. No names, no changing the deal mid transaction, and he cannot know what is being transported. This is for his own protection. Anna agrees and explains he will be transporting her and two packages  which total 104 kilos altogether. This will happen at the Mediterranean Bank in three hours.

 

And that is the end of that, as they say.

Pros: It is incredibly efficient and both the story and action keep up the pace quite well. If you’ve seen the original trilogy, you’ll being entertained, however mindless it is.

Cons: It’s efficient to the point of being sterile and doesn’t live up to previous entries.

Runtime: 96 minutes

Points of Interest: Ed Skrein left Game of Thrones to make this movie. This is not a prequel of how Frank Martin became The Transporter, it’s a retelling. Which is pretty telling I think.

There are so many better action movies out there at this point, that something so methodical and derivative just isn’t going to make a big enough mark. You should probably just drive away from this one.

 

 

 

Moonshine tastes pretty “good” when well made and when you don’t have a lot of options.

But it’s also incredibly powerful and can make you very sick if done wrong.

So why put yourself through that experience, especially when some people make it from car radiators? The Transporter Refueled reminds me of moonshine because it can do the basic trick of being visually interesting and fits the genre, but just isn’t as enjoyable as other offerings. Plus I don’t want anyone to be blinded by this.

See you tomorrow for some wisdom. Please leave comments and thoughts below!

Tim!

Daylight Savings Time (G-Eazy When It’s Dark Out review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Every year most North Americans set our clocks back an hour in the fall to get more daylight during the winter months, and as a result, that first day of daylight savings time really feels nice. But then it really hurts in the summer when you lose an hour.

What a stupid practice. It doesn’t benefit everyone, and we all know it isn’t real. For centuries, we would just accept that when it got dark out it was time to go to bed and when it was lighter for longer periods, we would work and play for longer.

Which leads me to this week’s album review.

 

 

G-Eazy – When It’s Dark Out
released December 4, 2015
***** 5/10

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Gerald Earl Gillum, known professionally as G-Eazy, is an American hip hop artist and producer. Signed to RCA records since 2014, he has now released two studio albums for that label.

I’ll start the review off with this anecdote. I was not expecting to review another white indie rapper so soon off the heels of MGK. But that is one of the perks of writing reviews on music I am either less familiar with or have no background on.

I haven’t listen to his debut album, but judging from the reviews and feedback out there, this is an improvement over his first effort.

Because hip-hop is founded in heavy cultural roots of south bronx african american youth, it always comes down to honesty and earnestness. Personal stories of whatever kind whether it’s hardship or success. This is something which I think we sometimes forget now that hip hop has exploded and now become the most listened-to genre of music globally.

Does G-Eazy prove he understands this on When It’s Dark Out?

I think so.

But I’m a little hesitant with that statement.

I think he really is telling us how hard it has been for him to become successful, and I think he has faced challenges with relationships, and I think he wants to have fun.

But I don’t know how compelling it is.

Don’t get me wrong, it can be fun to listen to, because the lyrics can be interesting at times, and the production value is super high. Which is a testament to the costs spent on making this album happen. But as G-Eazy says so himself

“The sophomore album is one of the most treacherous obstacles for any rapper… I dug as deep as I could until I was literally drained of inspiration.”

I just don’t think that inspiration he exerted makes this album one that we are going to remember. Because his stories are not meaningful enough. He looks confident and has an interesting wardrobe, but this is one of those cases where fake it till you make it might have worked more in his favour.

Some of the more interesting tracks are Random, One of Them, Sad Boy, and Everything Will Be OK.

There are a couple of music video for Me, Myself & I and You Got Me which I think will visually help demonstrate the confidence, image, and where the music doesn’t quite say anything.

At the end of the day, this one wasn’t really for me, but who knows, he may improve even more on his next record and start implementing thoughtful lyrics. When that happens, watch out.

 

 

 

When It’s Dark Out reminds me of daylights saving time, we are trying to simulate music now that is very specific and culturally significant. Sure you can move the clocks forward and backward and the daytime still exists, but we know better. This is just retailers dream.

Tim!

 

Breakin’ The Law (Art and Deviance)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Have any of you experienced serendipity recently? Or ever for that matter?

No, I’m not writing about the John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale lukewarm romcom of the early 2000’s, I’m referring to the phenomenon where you get lucky and find something of value when you weren’t looking for it and more importantly, weren’t expecting it.

I mentioned this past Thursday that I would be going out to H20 Lounge to see an old friend and that I would also be singing some karaoke with him. Which would have been awesome if we would have made it there. Unfortunately for me, the birthday boy decided he wasn’t up for it and we headed elsewhere that night. Let’s call my friend Rick for the sake of the story.

But fortunately for you dear readers, that result gave me the ammunition I needed to write today’s post.

Oddly enough, despite this being a valuable story, I have mixed feelings about what happened.

I mention this because I’ve been thinking about the law a lot this weekend.

You see, it’s Christmas time, and during Christmas, people have a lot of fun getting together with loved ones, but they also can choose to put themselves in dark situations where they are around unscrupulous acts. Not that this doesn’t happen at other times of the year or in other parts of the world, but because we think about “magic” “miracles” “love” and other niceties a lot at this time, I think it’s important to consider other more hidden aspects of the spectacle. And how ugliness can come up.

Here is where the serendipity comes in.

I had planned on singing a karaoke version of Breakin’ The Law by Judas Priest in memory of another buddy of mine, who I believe fell into some hard times a few years back, and as a consequence drifted apart from me, my friend Rick, and some of our other close friends. Let’s call my long-lost friend Bob.

Bob had always loved Judas Priest, and I have a specific memory of him singing Breakin’ The Law and dancing around our locale dive bar during Rick’s 21st birthday, 9 years ago. One of the highlights of the performance was when Bob decided to prance around the bar, which resulted in him ripping his pants and us having a great story to tell later.

There is one specific part Judas Priest sings of the song, which for me, has tremendous significance but also weight.

So much for the golden future, I can’t even start
I’ve had every promise broken, there’s anger in my heart
you don’t know what it’s like, you don’t have a clue
if you did you’d find yourselves doing the same thing too

I wrote another post recently where I theorized about how artists collect from around them and “steal” when it’s warranted.

Because I didn’t get to sing that song, I kept thinking about it, more and more. Which led me to consider how breaking the law impacts artists.

Do we as artists realize the difference between laws that are “good” and laws which are dangerous? For instance, a law which prevents people from killing others or themselves (intentionally or not), is a completely valid law, and one which I hope no one would ever contest or put themselves in a situation where they do test they law and regret it.

If a law is good, then you should never break it, no matter what the circumstance, but when you test the limits of other laws, I think we experience some interesting results.

Take for instance street artists. Many people see street art as something which defaces private and public property. But I think what is more important to consider is the aesthetic of the artist and their ability to deliver something which either challenges or enhances the environment.

Here is a link which really identifies the second scenario. And here are some more just for fun.

You see, people can break the law and still provide beauty for the world to share in, but there are factors of power, deviance, and social norms to consider too. Which is incredibly interesting.

Ever heard of the concept of syllogisms? Let me illustrate it for the sake of those who haven’t.

All informative things are useful.
Some websites are useful.
Therefore, some websites are not informative.

The same thing can be said of art making.

All crime is deviant behaviour.
Some art is deviant.
Therefore, some art is criminal.

But where it gets challenging and that statement is problematic is understanding that just because something deviates from the norm, it doesn’t mean that all art which deviates is criminal, and I would argue further that it might not be a “good” law which makes that particular deviant art criminal behaviour.

A great many people would rather if we stuck to common sense on the matter and assumed that the law is always good, but the problem with that rationale is that it breeds power and control for those who understand the system and work within it to get their every wish.

But what do you think dear readers? Do you have some examples where this would prove to be wrong? Do you have examples to reinforce my theory? Comments! Leave them!

Tim!