Images-Barss-039You should consider taking in an opening from 3-6 p.m., at the Anderson Gallery, 160 Montague St., Lunenburg, of reclaimed images from Peter Barss's classic 1973 collection, Images of Lunenburg County. I'm prejudiced. Peter (who doesn't think much of my iPhone snapshots of sunsets) is a delightful eccentric, a former relative, and a dear friend with a knack for producing images that enliven and deepen our understanding of subjects we thought we already understood. Images combined Peter's photos of sail-era fishermen with oral history about fishing in the first half of the 20th century. Fourteen years after the book's publication,  a house fire destroyed all his prints and negatives. Images (Barss) 020Fortunately, the Nova Scotia Museum had purchased a complete set of the photos, which Craig Yorke of Image House has brought back to life, using advanced photographic techniques. The Anderson Gallery will display 40 of the black-and-white prints through August 4. Everyone is welcome at Saturday's opening. Herald arts reporter Elissa Bernard has a nice tee-up for the show here. See more images here. After the jump, Peter's artist's statement for the exhibit, a lovely account of how the photos came to be, and a refreshing break from the artspeak that often characterizes this class of prose.
02 July, 2010

Contrarian reader RM thinks our post crossed the line: [T]his commentary was in poor taste. Yes, this veteran has every right to comment, but I think it is more important to respect the views of the the family of the fallen soldier. Let us make our comments without seeming to criticize the wishes of the family. Thanks to the many readers who pointed out that our link to CBC-Cape Breton reporter Bobby Nock's interview was broken, and thanks to website wizard Mike Targett for fixing it while Contrarian was helplessly sans Internet over the far Northern Atlantic....

02 July, 2010

One particularly noisome aspect of modern journalism is its fixation with grief porn: those maudlin public displays of grief over tragic events by people otherwise uninvolved in the lives of those actually afflicted. Grief porn is wholly a product of media pandering. it's a way for people to feel good about themselves -- and just incidentally show the world how good they are -- by displaying, often in bizarre or saccharin fashion, how badly they feel about the misfortunes of strangers - especially spectacular or notorious misfortunes besetting newsworthy or celebrity strangers. Well, here's a rare exception: a gutsy interview...

30 June, 2010

Writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, Maureen Tkacik explains: Phone sex is not so unlike being a reporter. A central challenge of success at both is keeping random strangers—horny guys, hostile hedge-fund managers—on the phone, talking to you, confessing to you, growing fond of you, resolving to talk to you again. And at all times, phone-sex operators, like reporters, are expected to remain detached, wise to “The Game,” objective—but in a way, that’s crap. It’s not easy to become beloved by strangers if not a single part of you truly yearns for that love. This echos Janet Malcolm's famous dictum that, "Every...

29 June, 2010

Pinto Pony Productions, a small Toronto video production house specializing in non-invasive filming techniques, took to the streets of Toronto this weekend and shot the best roundup of demonstrator-vs.-police violence I could find on YouTube. The protesters did not impress the filmmakers. The Harper Government made a serious miscalculation with its absurd expenditure on security for the G8/G20. Halifax did a G8 nine years ago for $27 million, and Pittsburg did a G20 last year for $95 million [see correction below]. Harper spent ten times that amount: $12 million an hour over the three days; three times what security for any international leaders'...

27 June, 2010

Contrarian friend and New Waterford video artist Ashley McKenzie, now serving temporary exile in Halifax, has put some of her wonderful still photos on line. McKenzie previously recorded the demolition of Sydney's Vogue Theatre in this clever video....

27 June, 2010

The scale is deceptive. This is not the ordinary crab we're used to, but a giant Japanese spider crab (Macrocheira kaempferi), whose leg span (3.8 meters or 12.5 feet) and weight (up to 19 kg. or 41 lb.) make it the largest arthropod in the world. This time-lapse video was shot over a 6-hour period. Hat tip: Enoshima Aquarium, Fujisawa, Japan, via Daily Dish....

27 June, 2010

Jane Kansas takes time out from her walk to mount the simplest, most easily understood defence I've heard of a women's right to choose face coverings like the niqab and the burka. Money quote: At the beaches of Nice, Cannes and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat most women were young and slim and topless. In all the cafes, women wore only tiny bikini bras and sarongs, or simply sat and scarfed down their Croque Madames and Ricards in their bikinis. It was what was done. I sure didn’t. I come from a place where women do not sit in restaurants in their bikinis. I would be...

26 June, 2010

The Whitest Kids U'Know present Matt Clint for Senator: Money Quote: For the last 15 years, I've lived my life in such a bland, uncontroversial, and repressed manner that it's almost unnatural. Why? Because I've been preparing to be your representative since I was a child....

26 June, 2010

Oh, not that Rolling Stone article. One you weren't expecting. Money quote: Seeger switched to a 12-string guitar and began a hymn-like finger-picked version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." He told the story behind the classic Wizard of Oz track, recounting how lyricist Yip Harburg and composer Harold Arlen held a successful two-man protest to get the studio to include the song in the film. Seeger looked up at the ceiling and apologized to the deceased Harburg for having to change the lyric "Why can't I" to "Why can't you and I?" and explained his logic: "If I'd been there...

24 June, 2010
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