Thursday, May 20, 2004

Having lotsa fun


Would somebody please remind me to mark July 12th down in my agenda? Thanks. That is the day the Chantal Pontbriand told me to call her, so as to remind her to come on over for a visit to the gallery. Woo-Hoo! I don't know whether to fall down and faint, or to jump up for joy.

Last night I went to the Concordia Alumni Association reception to honor Chantal Pontbriand. It was a blast! I got to see Chris Riley (scroll down, all the way down) Sharon Schmerer, John Aylen, Robert Winters, Laurel Smith, Pierre-Francois Ouellette, and met Leah and Norbert. But the highlight of the evening was being (re) introduced to Ms. Pontbriand by Mr. Winters. The look on her face was priceless.

After her speech (during which one woman to fainted, I won't speculate as to what the cause was exactly) I then asked her, as she was in town, if I could set up an appointment with her to come see the gallery. She had during the (re) introduction mentioned that she was a very busy woman, and was only in town for two days a week, and that because of all her traveling she absolutely had to get to her cottage (no Balconville for her, no 85 hour weeks tirelessly promoting Canadian Art, not even a single baseball game). And that this was now the reason why she was unable to cross the street to come to the gallery.

I took all of it in, without saying a word, but was successful in getting her to at least say the words "the week of July 12th." I'll keep everybody appraised of how things shake out.

Now, you're probably wondering why I have such a jones for Ms. Pontbriand. Well, first off I wouldn't quite call it a "jones" even though I did write the word. It's more like my reaction to a scab or a toothache. Where even though I know it ain't good for me I still pick and poke. I find it endlessly intriguing as to wonder why she has such difficulty setting foot in Zeke's Gallery, and what this could possibly mean for the future of the universe. Not like I have anything better to do.

But, back to the reception. One of the things that I found very interesting was how on the website for the event they wrote "With honorary patron Stéphane Aquin, curator of contemporary art at the MMFA." However, he wasn't there, nor was any mention made of his absence. They did state that Guy Cogeval was not able to attend because of some conflict, and they also mentioned that Michèle Thériault was not able to attend due to some other conflict (or maybe perhaps the same one?) however they were able to rope in Geneviève Cadieux who said what I think were nice words about Ms. Pontbriand.

Ms. Pontbriand's speech wasn't all that informative, but there was one thing I found sort of interesting, in that she related how in the "heady" days of the late-sixties and early seventies she started Parachute, and it struck me as how there are way too many people who are so thoroughly enamored of their adolescence. If you were to stop just about anybody in the street and ask them what was their favorite music, I'd bet you dollars to donuts, that they'd name a group that was very popular when their were in between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. And that the most influential movies, books, paintings, whatever, to them were from the same period.

What is it about stagnating as one grows old? Why can't people continue to embrace the "new" as they get old? I dunno? their loss.

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