After all that

Hello, again it's been too long.

Nous Vous again is going through a transitional stage, an evaluation period after recent activities and changes in circumstances. Every now and then we like to take a short period to reflect upon what's been happening and allow other things, besides work, to happen. Over the past couple of months Nic & Will have moved down, settled and found a studio in London, which overlapped with 'Pick Me Up' at Somerset house, which was great, and myself (Jay) taking an opportunity to vacate England for a while and travel to NY, Toronto & Montreal, which I'll talk about briefly later.

After some consideration, we've decided to take our website down temporarily, but will be updating and developing gradually adding more and more content over the coming weeks/months, making it more exciting and interesting as we go along, we do have additional work and projects that are back dated now that we would like to make available to view in some manner (maybe just here) at some point soon. We simply didn't feel the website & content was representative of where our collective heart is aiming, and with Nic & Wills' the move and some time out (time to think) we've decided to change our tact a little - hoping to concentrate more on pursuits that adhere to our ideals. i.e. doing alot more self-initiated publishing projects as a focus of our practice, while we adjust to our new working method, something that we put on the sidelines, but were gratefully reminded of having produced lots of new things for 'Pick Me Up'. Hopefully that explains that... Any comments always welcome.

My Trip, I didn't take a camera with me so don't have any photo's unfortunately. The highlight of my trip and my main preoccupation was food, especially in Toronto & Montreal.

NY way in: Travelled quite a fair amount of the City in one jet lagged day, excitement prevailed. Highlight of the day was the 'Museum of American Folk Art' which is right next to the Moma, which I totally couldn't be bothered with, MOAFA was defo the best choice. Went to Whitney Biennial, which I personally didn't particularly enjoy and there was too much for my tired face. Had a quick trip to Greenwich & Soho, heard a loud obnoxious London accent in my ear walking through Soho later on, turned around- Jason Stathom.

Toronto: We stayed with my cousin who lives near Bloor St, where there's lots of nice places to hang out eat & drink coffee - as a general rule - book shops open in the evening. 'Mother Dumplings' in China Town - they just serve dumplings - really great & super cheap. Same day we'd gone to have a look at the Ontario College of Art & Design, ace! This image says it all really, great piece of architecture.

Kensington Market on a sunny day - West Queen Street, Magic Pony shop/gallery, Narwhal to see Paul Wackers paintings/drawings - really amazing, bought Paul Wackers book. Really nice friendly people working there. Here's an example of Paul Wackers work:


Went to Skydome to watch a ball game, BJ's vs Oakland. Open roof, streaker fun time - then to Karaoke bar for drinks.
Got a bus from China Town to Niagre Falls, went out on the maid in the mist, absolutely mind blowing natural scenery contrasted with a really horrible fabricated Casino town right next to it. Weird! but good.
Last Day went to 'Aunties & Uncles' for brunch (Banana & Oatmeal pancakes w/ maple syrup), had to wait 30mins to get in on a Sunday, but well worth the wait.

Montreal: Coffee at Olympico, Drawn & Quarterly book shop - brills!, Mile End, St.Viateur Bagels - free bagels for looking like/sounding like I just walked off the set of Coronation street, the owners wifes' favourite show. Patati Patata for Tofu burger, busy but nice atmosphere. Brunch at Aux Vivres, a vegan restaurant that I can highly recommend, most inventive and good value for money food I've eaten, again had to que for a while to get in, but more than worth it, went twice. Casa del Popolo for drinks, Cagibi's. Was supposed to meet up with Julien Vallee - but we missed one another (Sorry) - see you next time! Picnic on Mont Royal. Generally a lively, exciting place to be, recommend a visit.

NY 2nd: Stayed with Jessica Williams (aka paperheart) in Brooklyn - she was a lovely host and great hanging out with her and chatting. It was great seeing all her artwork in her lovely flat and the artwork she's collected off other artists I admire. Went out for food at Columbian restaurant & drinks together, along with Espen Friburg, who it was a pleasure to meet and chat with, sitting in bar with a boules court in it. Jessica & Espen drinking some nice fruit beer - not too sweet. Met up with Dave & Graham from Tokyo Police Club in Williamsburg (wasn't feeling great this day after eating my all American breakfast too fast), hung out there for a while. Bontanical gardens (Free on Tuesdays) really nice.

Miss plane home - got the next one.

I'm going to add some more Nous Vous related updates in my next post which will be happening soon, with some images and things of recent activities / documentations.

JC / NV