Sometimes I get messages from people who think I’m Gary Roberts the hockey player. Today I got one from a coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins!
See screenshot:
Jan 28 2012
Strait-Jacket
Exhibition logo
There’s a small art exhibition currently showing at 778 King Street West, called STRAIT-JACKET.
From the outside, you’d hardly know it existed; it’s housed in a very nondescript building and the only clue to its existence is the stainless steel plaque on the wall bearing the “Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation” name, along with another, tiny plaque at the entrance for the hours of opening. You’d very easily miss it if you were to walk by—I only happened to know about it because a friend once told me about the place.
Ydessa Hendeles has a private art collection, which she rotates and shows in this gallery throughout the year and it’s free to the public.
Time Out Toronto wrote the following about this patron of the arts:
Described by Art News as one of the 50 most influential people in the art world, Ydessa Hendeles has helped put Toronto on the international art map. When Hendeles was a dealer, representing artists like Jeff Wall and Jana Sterbak, she began collecting art herself and later went public. She has showed artists like Cindy Sherman or Louise Bourgeois before they became famous and her 1,000-strong collection contains the best in contemporary art.
I walked by the gallery today and decided to drop in to see what was on display. The staff there was very friendly and informative and pointed me in the direction of the stairs to go view the exhibit, leaving me to enjoy it on my own.
The first pieces I saw were a series of 24 Punch and Judy etchings by George Cruikshank, from 1828, along with an original puppeteer’s Punch and Judy booth.
There was jewellery, such as The Bat; The Crocodile; The Dangling Bear; The Hanging Bear; The Octopus, by Marcel Dzama, five articulated 18k gold charms, detailed with diamonds and rubies. Also, two of Joan Crawford’s gold charm bracelets, which she wore in the 1964 Columbia Pictures movie Strait-Jacket.
Photo of the info sheet on Joan Crawford's charm bracelets
Other interesting pieces in this gem of a gallery include:
- Les Bourgies: copper figurines on tin shelves, with wax candles in front of each one, casting larger, flickering shadows of the figurines on the walls behind.
- Survivors: Ydessa Hendeles’ own collection of twelve partial sets of 19th and 20th century “Punch and Judy” glove puppets.
- Ever is Over All: a double video projection in a stark, dark room, with peaceful music playing to slow motion scenes of a young woman in a blue summer dress and red shoes, walking down a street smiling as she smashes car windows along the way with a metal rod in the shape of a flower stalk (a smiling police officer walks behind her, seemingly oblivious to these acts of vandalism!).
One of the puppet sets from "Survivors"
Video projection of "Ever is Over All"
I’m happy I visited Ydessa’s gallery today, I’d been meaning to do so for quite a while now; it’s a great space to view art collections and, hey, it’s free admission after all!
Jan 16 2012
Finally! Apoptosis explained, using nifty animation.
I’m sure you’ve spent many a night lying awake in bed wondering about your immune system; how it works and what would happen when one of the ‘soldiers’ in your immune system’s army encounters a diseased cell, right? Like, how exactly do your innards cope with these rogue, infected cells?
Well, Drew Berry has created some nifty animations of the inner workings of the cell at the microscopic level, one of which shows what happens when one of your body’s killer T cells seeks out and finds another cell infected by a virus or bacteria (infected cells are recognized by tiny traces of the intruder, antigen, found on their surface, which the killer T cell detects with receptors on its own surface). The process is called Apoptosis, which as one commenter on the video on YouTube puts it:
Basically it is a cascade of proteins activating other proteins. Eventually, the end product protein breaks down the cytoskeleton of the [diseased] cell, which determines the cell’s rigidity and structure, causing the cell to essentially disintegrate.
The killer T cell produces one type of protein, which produces another inside the infected cell, and so on and so on, until a certain protein (caspase 3) is produced that has the effect of causing the diseased cell to ‘pop’ and disintegrate, making it easy for phage cells to clean up the mess by ingesting the smaller bits and bobs that hang around like they’ve nothing better to do.
It’s a fascinating process that’s now easier to visualize with the help of animations such as the ones Drew Berry has spent many, many months researching and putting together.
Here’s the apoptosis clip (just over 4 minutes long), which shows how the process works.
More cool and geeky animations can be found at Molecular Movies, a portal to cell and molecular animation.
Jan 14 2012
Coffee and people
I love my local coffee shop, where I sit and read as two guys on my right argue passionately in Russian, a little old lady sips her tea on her own and glances sharply over the top of her newspaper at the two guys arguing, and an ochre-robed Buddhist monk serenley sips an espresso as he ponders Nirvana.
Jan 13 2012
Wile E. Coyotes!
I used to love watching the Looney Tunes cartoon show Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner when I was a kid. In each episode, the two protagonists were placed in an predator/prey scenario in which the coyote would use all kinds of absurdly complex contraptions and elaborate plans to pursue his quarry, instead of relying on natural animal senses and cunning.
It was a great show and a lot of fun to watch!
Where I grew up, in England, the largest animal that would fill the coyote role would be the red fox. They’re not really known to be dangerous in the U.K., unless you happen to be a chicken or rabbit. You wouldn’t get a press release from the local council, for instance, warning people to beware of foxes at this time of year (at least, not that I’m aware of).
So I was bemused yesterday to see such a press release from the City of Toronto, about winter sightings of coyotes in the city. Apparently, this is a normal event.
Residents in the city of Toronto who live on or near ravines and forests (typical coyote habitat) should expect to have more coyote sightings during winter months.
Coyotes may approach pets that are not supervised, especially cats and small dogs. It is always a good idea to keep an eye on your pet while they are outside. It is very unlikely that a coyote will be attracted to a child; however, close supervision of children is also important.
I never imagined, all that time ago as a child watching the antics of Wile E. Coyote, that I would eventually live in a country where coyotes are regular wildlife. Not to mention other predators such as wolves, although the chances of seeing those larger carnivores within the city limits are fairly slim (I hope!).
That said, this particular city notice about coyotes didn’t surprise me as much as the sign below, which I saw while hiking in the hills around Whistler, B.C. a few years ago!
You Are in Bear Country!
Author Info
I was born in England, spent part of my childhood in Zambia and eventually immigrated to Canada. This is a blog about the news and events in my life, my interests in politics, religion, human rights, science, reason, and the odd post here and there about my cats.
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