Clouds

Welcome to the inaugural Discursives: No. 001, “Clouds”. I’m delighted that you’re here. 

Discursives is an interactive and highly personal digital art project.

Each issue is themed. Take a non-linear, associative journey between waypoints that connect music, art, history, ideas, film, literature, memories. Follow digressions, or stay on the main path to follow the theme.

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As you’ll see in this issue, and in each issue to come, I can’t help it, every thing reminds me of another thing and before you know it, I’ve vaulted through the joys and perils of seven (eight, nine, dozens of!) different pieces of art and memories and fragments of ideas. Maybe we know each other, or maybe we don’t, but the beauty of the big and exciting internet world is that we at least have this thread between us. 

This past week, while preparing "Clouds":

• On repeat: Faten Kanaan’s “Fin aoȗt, début septembre” - the perfect song for this exact time of year - and Sarah Kinsleys’ “Fleeting”, which runs over the end credits of the (fun and appealing) Megan Park-helmed Sterling Point.
• Lots of time spent at the TIFF Lightbox, and saw Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma (sexy! deathy!), Chronovisor (perfect, absolutely perfect, my fave of the year so far and absolute catnip to a lapsed Catholic with a childhood Foucault’s Pendulum obsession), and Careful (Guy Maddin in attendance, a gem).
• Big laughs at Jon Bennett’s performance of his award-winning one-man show, Fire in the Meth Lab, at Sweet Action Theatre. You can check out an audio-only iteration of his work, recorded in Vancouver in 2020. 
• A first-ever CNE (Canadian National Exhibition for my non-Canadian friends) experience, though on the wrong night to see Drake as Iron Man. My friend and I took a ride through the haunted house and ate deep-fried oreos, life is now complete. 
• Finished Famesick, Lena Dunham’s latest memoir.
• Peach chutney made with fresh and juicy Niagara peaches, from a recipe sent to subscribers of The Spice Trader newsletter, accompanied most of my meals. The Spice Trader is an olive oil, salt, and spice store on Queen West in Toronto and there are some recipes on its website but you’ve got to sign up to the (free) newsletter to get everything - like cucumber and peach salad, spicy pesto, seed crackers. Worth it!
• I heard a real life “RIP Dolly Parton” at the TIFF Lightbox cafe, Varda, this week, said by a fellow patron who mistook a photo of director Sarah Polley (part of the Filmmakers Drinking Coffee series) for one of Dolly. His friend burst out into “Islands in the Stream, this is what we are”. RIP to Dolly.

And now for some clouds.

xo Kat