Manhunt | timotheories

I Am an Art-bitch (Latitude 53)

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Tim Kuefler

I’ve written about the band CSS once already in recent months, as an opener to a Melodic Monday entry on Grimes, in fact. But because this is a music reference, I’m okay to play like a broken record and write about this week’s Timely Thursday entry on timotheories with a repetitive start.

Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS) is a rock group from São Paulo, Brazil. The band came together in 2003, which was the year I entered into university for my undergrad BFA in art and design. For the next few years, I became accustomed to their new rave sound. This is back when there was a bar called HALO in the downtown core of Edmonton.

A long time ago, in an Edmonton far, far away, for you younger readers.

Anyways, CSS had this great little ditty called Art-bitch (chorus to follow), and when my graduating class was putting together their final submissions to the exhibition and supplemental catalogue, I witnessed several lyrics come together in the titles of some of my friends final pieces. Titles like Art-bitch, Art-lick, and Art-hole.

Lick lick lick my art-tit
Lick lick lick my art-tit
Suck suck suck my art-hole
Suck suck suck my art-hole

I ain’t no art-ist
I am an art-bitch
I sell my panties to the men i eat
I have no port-fo-lee-o
Cuz i only show
Where there’s free al-co-hol

This is significant because a band like CSS represents an aesthetic gone by, and fashion is often closely associated with visual arts. For instance, new rave took elements from both new wave and rave to produce a fashion look (and sound) that incorporates fluorescent clothing, and similar visual accessories, ie glowsticks. It even had a shelf life, much like fashion, because by the time it got really popular in mid-2008 it kinda just died right then and there. The use of synthetic music combined with apathy and anarchism made it perfect for artists to capitalize on.

And this is totally applicable to the memories I associate with a key group of friends at that time, many of whom continued on their art journey almost immediately after university and are now making waves all over the world, but in totally different ways then they did a decade ago, kinda.

One of those friends now works at Latitude 53, the same one who organizes Manhunt-Edmonton.

Incidentally, I went to see an art opening at his invitation back in January. It was for students of the UofA at Latitude 53 and called Bridging Encounters. This is where I heard Grimes new album blasting away, that’s right, Art Angels was playing in the background. Yes! I thought, this means that the revolving aesthetic is still alive and well.

Which is why I’ve spent all this back story building up to an event that is happening this saturday and which I’m pretty excited about. Latitude regularly hosts exhibitions of two kinds. In their main space artists and curators can submit proposals twice a year, which are reviewed and then selected by a board. A second option exists in the ProjEX Room, where artists and groups can submit work that is midway through it’s process; allowing the audience to contribute in the research and development.

That’s where the exhibition, The Menagerie, comes in. Edmonton visual artist Lisa Jones will be hosting an artist talk on her work this Saturday at 2PM at Latitude 53.

It’s exciting because she is a painter, who is exploring aspects of her physical self and identity through an analogy of the circus! It promises to be a good one! The Facebook event is here, and the Latitude 53 link is here. Address is 10242 106 St NW.

What do you think dear readers? Any fond memories of your art past? Any triggers? Please leave some comments and of course subscribe if you haven’t already to say updated on timely events in my journey and local events!

Tim!

Run To The Hills (Manhunt pt.2)

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Tim Kuefler

Remember that post last week about hide-and-go-seek tag? Yeah, this one.

Well I want to tell you more, because I didn’t get to finish my story, and I promised I would explain the rules of Manhunt. Okay that’s not entirely true, I decided not to finish the story because as you know, I like cliffhangers. That and I needed a break to invent a jazzy name for my Thursday edition posts and I finally came up with one – TIMELY THURSDAYS.

It’s clever, trust me.

Fine, you don’t believe me? Want me to spell it out? Maybe give you a definition for starters?

time·ly

ˈtīmlē/

adjective

done or occurring at a favorable or useful time; opportune.

“a timely warning”

synonyms: opportune, well timed, at the right time, convenient, appropriate,expedient, seasonable, felicitous

“his refresher course on giving CPR proved to be very timely when a colleague collapsed at work”

It’s timely because the event notice will conveniently get posted in advance of the weekend OR will *gasp* be about a recurring event in Edmonton which you may or not already know about. Now, I apologize in advance to my global readership, because this means you likely can’t participate when I post timely things.

But no fear dear readers, you know I wouldn’t leave you hanging if I can help it, and I’m intentionally telling you global folks about my local cultural events to inspire you to check out events in your own home towns.

Now let’s review Manhunt some more and I’ll start by explaining the rules for you.

The rules are fairly simple.

bring a visible armband, so that fellow manhunters can distinguish you from the general public
there is one manhunter at the start, determined by playing several rounds of bubble gum, effectively whittling players down until the 2 person round wherein they play rock, paper, scissors to determine who is IT
whoever is IT has to give other players 120 seconds to run and/or hide, after that, play begins
the game lasts for approximately one hour, during this time other players can become tagged and join the hunt for free players
play only happens within the boundaries designated at the start of the game, anything is fair play space within the boundaries as long as it is open to minors. you run the risk of getting kicked out of private property though, so make your own decisions there.
if you exit the boundaries for whatever reason, you are now tagged
once the game is over, all manhunters will call out “OWL SWOOPING” in unison. if this happens and you have not been tagged, YOU WIN!

The game makes a lot more sense now, yes? It’s pretty much hide-and-go-seek tag for adults. And an excellent way to spend an hour or so of Wednesday night.

But that’s not entirely why you’re reading this post.

I promised I would tell you more of my exploits from last week, and I don’t want to disappoint. Now where did we leave off? I had just won the first game of the championship two-parter. And it turns out I had earned enough points to jump in front of the season pack leader by almost 10 points.

It was effectively ON.

But what would my next game play like, you ask? Well, we decided to play game 2 on slightly different boundaries. We played between Grierson Hill and Jasper Avenue and also between 100 St and the corner of 95a st that Grierson Hill Starts at.

Look! A map for reference!

So what did I decide to do? What any sane person would do with a huge lead and who wanted to keep it that way. I hid in the bushes on Grierson Hill, just east of the Shaw Conference Centre.

In hindsight it probably wasn’t that safe of a move, because lots of homeless people sleep there, and I had definitely seen my share of patted down shrubs on my trek for a hiding spot. But that’s not the point of the story. The point is I hid. I hid for a good 50 minutes.

It gave me lots of time to take pictures of the sky, the embankment, catch up on my texting, think about my life and what I was doing with it, and also nap for a bit.

But then time was up.

So I went back to the start of the map. And guess what I learned? Everyone else hid too!

Well dear readers, that meant that because only three players were tagged, that everyone who didn’t get tagged earned about 3 points. Which also meant that I won. That’s right, the other gentleman who was in the running also hid, and because I was already ahead of him, our scores in the second game washed each other out, so I was still up by 3 points.

Damn it felt good to be a champion. As an elder owl who had taken a 7 season hiatus, I was humbled by the endurance of this sport, and my ability to participate in it still.

This was probably one of my top 10 moments of the year. And that ain’t no theory.

Tim!

That Queasy Feeling Will Go Away, I Promise (Manhunt pt.1)

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Tim Kuefler

Do you love tag? Wait… another post you say? Three in one week? Have you gone crazy timotheories?

No dear readers, I have not gone crazy – I have come to a realization. If you want to win in life you have to give it your all. That means you step up and do what your heart tells you to do.

In my case, that’s being an advocate for the arts, in all of her glorious forms.

So I’m gonna ramp it up from here on out: more posts, more variety, but also more Frequency. And we all loved that movie right? RIGHT?!?

Okay cool.

Today’s post is gonna be centred around events, the kind that you personally can get involved in, but only if you live in the fair City of Champions. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Now, I realize that is not the title of the city anymore, but I like it, and I want it to make a comeback. And because I believe in the arts, and Edmonton’s ability to support them, I think the title still fits.

The first event I want to share with you, is one that is very near and dear to my heart. An event that happens weekly, usually from late March to early November of each year. It’s been around for just over a decade.

Back to my first question. Have you ever played hide-and-go-seek tag as a child?

Most of us who grew up in Canada have, I mean, most of us all over the world have. Well, my friends, I still play tag. That’s right, I am a grownup that plays tag. I haven’t been playing consistently for the past 10 years, I took something of a hiatus between 2008 to 2014, but I started playing again this year. And I have to say, it has been just as fun as I remember it back when I was a university student.

Have any of you heard of Manhunt Edmonton before? I know lots of people my age and +/- 7 years apart have. If you have its because Manhunt Edmonton has made its way around town through word of mouth for a long time.

They even have a Facebook group if you want to receive regular reminders. Right here.

Okay cool.

Now that I’ve told you about it, I’ve fulfilled my requirement to mention something interesting that happens on the regular. But I can’t end this post without telling you something super fun about it and recounting a story.

As I mentioned earlier I haven’t played in years, but this was my comeback year, fo sho. I knew it as soon as I played my second game with the group this season (back in June) and then went out for a “teambuilding” activity after the game. *Hint* teambuilding is code for drinks and war stories of the nights events.

And you guessed it, I’m going to tell you a short story about the championship games that happened last night.

The games were set up back-to-back, with double points awarded to whoever hid or got tags during the match. Normally every first game of the month is a points game wherein you receive 1 point for every person that you tagged or 1 point for every person that had been tagged if you made it to the end without getting caught. Savvy?

Well on championships night, its double points.

I wore all black. I am not a good runner anymore, so I wore all black.

Why did I wear all black? Because I had a plan. My plan was to find a hiding spot and camp for as much of the first game as I could, so I could get a lot of points. Its really hard to get a bunch of tags, because as you tag people, they become Manhunters too, and so I hid.

I know you’re intrigued about the details, so I’ll come back to the rules of the game some other time, I promise.

This is where it gets interesting – Before the game started I ate a giant carrot, because one of my friends, and one of the regulars, was kind enough to share them. Well, it wasn’t a good idea, because I had to run away from a couple of ladies who were “IT” within the first 15 minutes of the game.

Did I mention that the map was the 4 blocks encompassing the Citadel and Canada Place? Not a lot of hiding options, so I ran through the Citadel into Canada Place and around the east side of the building until I could find some cars to hide behind. But I finally ditched them and hid behind some bushes. Just in time to see another manhunter get tagged at some bushes in front of the Citadel. Then I took my chance after they left and hid in the same place.

Like a black rock.

But I felt queasy crouching there. For a good 35 minutes I felt queasy. Carrot queasy. Similar to that adage of not eating before you swim. Then I realized the game was coming to a close. And I got a different kind of queasy feeling, the feeling that the game was over and I didn’t know how it had played out.

When I got back to the start I learned the truth, the truth was that I had won the game. And that everyone, and I mean all of the other 13 players had been tagged within the first 15 minutes, so I got double points. 26 of them to be exact, putting me into the lead of the entire 30 or so players this season.

But Tim, you said there was another game that night, didn’t you? Well you’ll have to wait until my next post to find out how that played out.

Because I’m out of theories.

Tim!