Rapid City 2

This was the second year for the show I organize. This year was great, so many good times.

Jamie and Jose had started Funktion Gallery in January, and when I saw Jose in London at Gettin Schooled I asked if he'd be interested in having Rapid City, in whatever form it might have taken, at their gallery. He said he'd be into it so we got to planning.

Originally the dream list was the group already participating, plus Kirpy from Australia, Rimeligbarsk from Norway, and Orticanoodles, Lucamaleonte and Zibe from Italy. They either didn't respond to my messages or couldn't participate. Regardless, the group came together pretty well. Philly808, truemarmalade, brutal, OnPatrol, Pahnl, stix, smolik, kate, jose, jamie.

On the friday, Erik and I headed to London to buy paint. Before he was crippled, Erik was going to live paint so we both needed to buy paint. Regardless, we met up with Nikki and Alex K to show Erik the town. We went downtown and bought paint at Grooves, ate at Prince Al's and went to Victoria Park and watched some satanic bartender throwing bottles. We parted ways around 5pm when Nikkie and Alex went to get Jenna in Woodstock, while Erik and I went back to Sarnia to prepare for the night. I cut stencils while Erik did the internets.

We waited for the girls to arrive, then we went downtown for First Friday. We went to the Gallery and the Lawrence House. I met the paper cut artist and lost my entourage. By this time it was around 9. The rest of them went to Harveys while I went in to start taking down the student show. I had most of it down by the time they got back. It was around 9:50 when we left for the train station to get Jamie and Jose. We all waited at the station except for Alex, who stayed in the car. "I wish this plane had wings". They arrived and we were on our way. We stopped at a variety store, before going to "rippers and beer" (the Trinity for a beer). We were sitting at the bar just relaxing, someone asked a question about the stage area, and we all wandered in. The woman behind the bar then turned the room on, with a single switch. We hung out in a deserted, old strip club for a while before heading home. Everyone hung out while I cut stencils until my face hurt.

The next morning we got up and got ready to go to the gallery. We started setting up the show, and started getting ready for live painting too. Kate arrived with her paintings right when I was panicking that I didn't have enough to fill the space properly. Erik had forgotten his paintings in Michigan, but luckily his mom brought them to Sarnia morning of the show. The show was all hung around 11, aside from Smolik; I'd given him some not so hot directions on how to get to the gallery, I still feel bad for that, but he arrived eventually, so all was well. We hung his paintings then got down to live painting.

Live painting went well, Jose, Jamie and Smolik were all awesome. My stencils had spent the better part of a week lightly folded in a box, so they were a bit wavy when I went to use them. Despite that I think they went well. I think my Pandemic Warning Level went the best.

We were wrapped up with painting around 4:30 or 5. We headed to Loblaws to get stuff for a BBQ, which was super rad. We bought so much food, and ate so much food. We played Apples to Apples (aka SHARKS TO SHARKS) after that. Amputees. We followed that up with a Death Sentence viewing. I Need Guns. After that we were all pretty tired, but Jamie wanted to do something, so we decided to go back to Trinties for a beer, but that was closed so we tried to go to Ups and Downs. Jose had forgotten his ID, however, so Jamie and Nikki went in, while Jenna, Erik and Jose stayed outside. We stood around for a while, when Erik had the idea for some light painting. We tried a few in the parking lot, but found a better spot near the train tracks. Time passed quick and Jamie and Nikki returned after two pints and a pint respectively. We did so much before we moved to the bench near the water. It was about 2am before we went home.

The next morning we awoke and got out of the house around noon. We didn't have much going on so there was no rush. Jamie did touch ups while we jockeyed the structures around and there was the bubble machine. We took a little walk around ArtWalk and went into a flea market where I lost Nikki and Erik and they geeked out about cameras, which was good because Erik found a 3D camera. I continued around ArtWalk and found Monique's booth. We generally just hung around Sunday. A bunch of us took a picture for some workshop thing. We drew a bunch of stuff on the walls of the gallery.

Jamie and Jose got on the train back to Toronto around 7. There were spur of the moment decisions among the chaos that was taking down the show where it was decided that Erik would say another day, go to London that night and come with us to Toronto. We packed up the car and got on our ways. Nikki, Jenna, Alex and Erik headed to London after we crammed the car full of stuff. I stayed in Sarnia that night, and took the train to London the next day.

I got into London around 7am or some other absurd time. I wandered around with Jamie's paint until I had the bright idea of going to the market for breakfast. I got there, got cash and wandered until I decided to get a bagel. I ate upstairs reading the paper and then got on the bus to Nikki's house. I got there sort of late compared to when I thought I would, but oh well. We packed up and got on our way to Toronto, with a stop in Woodstock to drop Jenna off before work. We got into Toronto and got to Funktion Gallery at what seemed to be noon. Jose wasn't there yet, but Clem was, so we unloaded the car. Not much longer after we unloaded, Jose arrived. We hung around a little longer before heading downtown. We got a little lost, but finally found a $10 all day parking spot. We walked around, went to Urban Outfitters for some sport theft and a shit-ton of Banksy books. At some point we went to one of the several Aldos in that big mall where Nikki had no luck with shoes and Erik bought some shoes. We had Big Slice for lunch, I had 105% of a slice with a bunch of "hot" sauce. Later we met up with Jamie at The Bomb Shelter, and went for coffee at a rad little coffee shop. It was nearing time to go home, so we headed back to the Gallery where the crew had gathered. We said our goodbyes and were on our way.

I was off to Toronto at some absurd hour on Friday morning. I crashed my bike on Thursday, a bit unfortunate to meet all these people with gross hands and knee, but not much I could do about that. I crashed on the train tracks right near the sign of the guy crashing on the train tracks, so Jamie, Jose and Erik had a good laugh at that. I was in such a rush getting ready for the train that I forgot my ticket at home. I ended up buying another one, but they said I could refund the one I forgot, so I guess it's ok. I got into Union Station around 11 I think, meeting Jamie. We discussed how to take the subway to get to the gallery, but I was too nervous about getting lost, so I just took a cab. Will was supposed to be at the gallery when I got there, but since I took a cab, I got there before him. I walked around a bit looking for disposable cameras, or lunch, but no luck. BRUTAL's paintings arrived on the Monday after the Sarnia show, so I brought them with me to Toronto. I hung them and one of Kate's paintings when I got into Toronto. I walked towards Hits and Misses and had some mediocre pizza. I got the Iron Lung//Hatred Surge Collaboration 7" and Trial - Are These Our Lives? LP. I got back to the gallery and hung out with Will and that other guy that I don't think I really met. Jose arrived at some point. We finished hanging the last bit of art and cleaned up the gallery a little bit.

I forget the timeline exactly but here are things that happened that night:
- Nikki, Alex and Alex came by

- Kate and whoever else coming by
- taxi dropping off a stripper and the driver driving away laughing
- Smolik came by
- Selling a record
- Selling Rogue Astronaut
- not a lot of people coming
- Arizona Sweet Tea
- Chito's pizza
- hanging out on the stoop
- Jamie getting there
- Chito's pizza
- watching Mega Shark VS Giant Octopus with Jamie, Will, Brendan and that other girl
- taking a cab to Jamie's house, and telling the driving to go "wherever that biker goes"

I slept on Jamie's couch, that was pretty good for sleeping, but kinda uncomfortable for sitting on. We got up somewhere around noon. We brought a bunch of stuff to the gallery on the streetcar. There weren't any good breakfast places, but there was Chito's pizza. Not much happened on Saturday, so we just hung out. They were prepping for a book/album launch that night, so I helped clean the courtyard a little, and watched this dude paint over Jamie's big piece. I left around 4, taking another cab to the train station. I got home around 10 I think.

Another good weekend. I hope the show sells well in Toronto. Can't wait to go back to Funktion Gallery, such a good place.