When I was a kid I used to think guerillas were gorillas. I wondered what the big deal was with gorilla warfare. Why were the gorillas fighting, and why did people care so much? Why was it on the radio every day? And who was arming and training all these gorillas anyway? There were other things I didn’t understand too. Like why, whenever there was a terrorist attack, various terrorist organizations would claim responsibility for it, as if it were something to be proud of. I was pretty sure that if I planted a bomb that killed dozens of people, I’d keep quiet about it, and if they caught me, I’d deny it. What was especially mystifying, from the perspective of a child, was the concept of admitting guilt even when you were innocent.
Anyway. Here’s a shout-out from Laura Twiss to all the gorilla knitters out there.
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Subject: Guerilla Knitters Unite!
Anyone interested in participating or volunteering?
Inspired by urban art and craft interventions around the world, this February 2010, Spins & Needles + the National Capital Commission (NCC) will transform the Ottawa-Gatineau winter landscape with a large-scale public urban art intervention that remixes warmth, cold, art, craft, music and the city.
It will take place during the famous Winterlude festival, one of the largest winter festivals in the world, which attracts over 1 million Canadian and international visitors annually during its 3-week run.
We’re calling on artists and the public, individuals and groups, of all ages and all creative levels to be part of this intervention. Submit a covering, or cozy, to be installed around trees, lampposts and other elements at two Winterlude sites: Confederation Park and Parc Jacques-Cartier. Cozies can be of varying sizes and made of textiles or other materials, as long as they can be wrapped around something.
Contributions will be labelled with each participant’s name, uploaded online and geotagged.
More details on where to submit your pieces to be announced shortly. The deadline for submissions is February 1st, 2010.
Want to participate but not sure how to make a cozy? We’re also on the lookout for volunteers! These include:
Cozy installers, to put up cozies around both sites
Cozy photographers, to take photos of cozies around both sites.
Send us an e-mail at spinsandneedles@gmail.com. if you’d like to volunteer.
For more information visit http://www.facebook.com/l/e8f6e;www.spinsandneedles.com/winterlude2010 or e-mailspinsandneedles@gmail.com.
This is a great use for all those bizarre collars in one skein wonders!
Do they only want Ottawan’s to participate or can an expat like me send something along?
Hi Zoom it has been a while since I talked to you here-
I also thought that it was gorillas fighting and combined with The PLanet of The Apes movies I was one worried and confused kid.
I also thought that face-lifts meant they lifted off your face and you took your chance with the one that was revealed underneath
What did others think about things when they were kids?
I thought the Pulitzer Prize was the the Pull-it Suprise!
A friend once told me that her parents had the book-I’m Ok You’re OK on the shelf, and she thought it was- IMOK You’re okay!- the story of an eskimo girl with problems that were overcome.
thinking of you often Zoom and reading you always-
P.S. You were in Peterborough! But I live in Peterborough!
P.S.S. Oh and I had a good time remembering last year’s incidents around the tall dark stranger and your art in his dressing room.
All of this added up to me finally de-lurking here for a sec..
Bye!
Yeah, I too wondered if guerillas were gorillas.
Patti’O, your comments are really funny.
When I was a kid we had a stove that had “OVEN FOUR” printed on it. Now I realize that it was a bilingual oven imported from Canada, but at the time I thought they meant “oven 4” and wondered why such a label was needed since it was obvious that the stove had an oven and 4 burners! It was one of the mysteries of my childhood until I came to Canada and learnt some French.
I also thought “chicken pox” was “chicken porks”, some weird kind of hybrid meat. When someone mentioned chicken pox to me one day, I asked “does it taste good?”
Oh Lucy, one of my brothers once spent half a day looking for Sortie PQ. He figured it had to be important when all the exits went there.
Mudmama, I’m sure you can participate too.
Patti’O, what a lovely surprise. I like it when you delurk. It wasn’t just you and me and Lucy who thought that about the gorillas – GC thought they were fighting too. I remember taking some comfort from the fact we don’t have gorillas here in Canada.
I also thought we lived inside the earth, which was more or less hollow. And that a full-time job meant 24 hours a day…I wondered how people managed that kind of grueling schedule.
I thought of you when I went through Peterborough. We stopped for ice cream at the Baskin & Robbins. Dulce Espresso.
Lucy, I laughed out loud at your hybrid chicken porks.
Grace, it sounds like you didn’t set him straight!
The Pull-It Surprise! … goddamn I haven’t laughed that hard in ages!
My Dad was always talking about rabid foxes and I thought he was saying rabbit-foxes and I wondered if I was ever going to see this strange half rabbit, half fox creature.
I love the Pull-it Surprise!
Oh man, Pull-It Surprise! How wonderful! I also had the gorilla-guerilla thing, though I think I knew they were people, I think I thought they fought LIKE gorillas, which always made me wonder how they did it.
I know I had plenty of those funny mixups, but of course on the spot, I can’t think of a single one! I’ll try to think some up to add though!
Chicken Pox can cause massive scarring of the skin that may not clear, that’s bad`.~