the good

Could you give me a brief explanation of how Courage came to be?

Well, it all started with my mom and dad. They were teachers but were both really into antiques. At some point they decided that it might be a good idea to start selling their antiques and so they opened a little store at 60 Cecil Street. It was in a coach house behind what was a KFC at the time, right besides Grossmans on Spadina. My dad and I travelled across Canada a couple times and picked up stuff at old general store counters and flea markets.  That’s how it started. It just became better and better and better. My parents were really good at finding beautiful things and running the store, so it just worked. They wanted to do something different. They didn’t want to do what other people wanted them to do.

Where did the name COURAGE MY LOVE come from?

My dad befriended a girl called Rosemary Kelly. She was sixteen when he met her, and had run away from home. She started working for us and living in our home. My parents were trying to figure out what to call the store and she said, “Well, why don’t you call it Courage, my love.” Rosemary always said love after everything. My dad was like, “Yah of coarse, that’s it.“  It was really a perfect name for the store, because they were giving up a lot to run it. 

Wow, that’s amazing. Courage is full of exotic looking things from other parts of the world, like Mexico. Do you travel a lot for the store?

Yah, we do.  In the 90s, we were doing really well so we started travelling and buying stuff from other countries and sending shipments home. It was before any one else was doing it really.  My parents just started buying tons of cool stuff on their travels. They shipped beds made in Indonesia and clothes from Bali back to the store…they really went all out. We still have stuff from that time. It was good time to be looking beyond antiques and vintage because vintage really wasn’t that popular then, it was going down hill.

Really?

Oh yah, in the 90s people weren’t really buying vintage. I mean they were a little bit, but not like the 80s when vintage was really hot and everyone wanted to look like a rockabilly. It slowed down in the 90s and ethnic stuff was what everyone wanted to have. We were getting our stuff from places no one else was going to.

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Natty high waisted trousers, waist coat and watch fob. This is Michael Louis Johnson. He is a Toronto musician extrodinaire. Catch him play in the Lemon Bucket Orkestra and at the Communist’s Daughter, every Saturday at four. 

Some graffiti I encountered on my walk to work. The first was tagged on my fence! 

Caroline 

All but one of the abandoned bikes we painted on College Street (between Huron and Spadina) have been removed! We spray painted them so the City would see that they were abandoned and take them off of their bike posts. It took longer than expected, but finally there are more parking spots for cyclists in front of the Lilian Smith Library! Hooray! 

Caroline

The day before our big good bike clean-up, I was approached by a local artist who wants to rescue the Good Bikes from scrap metal by turning them into a big sculpture. Vanessa and I loved the idea and so we agreed to drop our best Good Bikes at her Parkdale studio the next day. 

As the pile of good bikes grew in the back of our U-haul, they began to resemble the very sculpture we had envisioned her creating! It was a little sad to have to dismantle them; but we are excited to see this tangled mess of colourful bikes re-imagined by interested artists, mechanics, and maybe even some welders!?  If you have ideas for related projects, email us!

Caroline

With our Good Bikes spread throughout the city,  cleaning them up responsibly with little support from the City seemed a daunting task. That is, until Brian Platten came along. 

After reading Ben Spurr’s latest article on the Good Bikes in NOW Magazine, Brian called us at the Gallery to offer us his U-haul, his tools and his weekend. We drove all around Toronto retrieving our bikes: Some went to an artist in Parkdale, who wants to weld the bikes together to make a larger Good Bike sculpture; others were dropped off with people who’ve asked to adopt them; and Brian took the rest of the bikes to a recycling plant. 

Our bike clean up was epic.  Brian was not only patient but extremely helpful, loading all of the bikes into his U-hual himself. He even sawed a sad looking bike in half to release it after its lock had been stuffed with glue. Riding around the city in Brian’s truck was great fun. He told us stories about his dog, his family, his love for rock n’ roll and B-rated horror flicks. He even took us to visit Smash his favourite furniture store. 

When we told Brian how grateful we were for his time and truck, he told us that he was happy to help and that it was the least he could do. As we drove by the village of tents for Occupy Toronto, he remarked that in these tough times artists are often hit the hardest. He believes that pursuing a career in the arts is both a noble and scary pursuit, and that he tries his best to help artists by moving their art or furniture for them in his spare time. “It’s my way of doing my bit to help,” Brian said. “If everyone did their bit, we’d live in a much better world.” 

It was surprisingly sad to say goodbye to Brian at the end of our day together. Thank you so much Brian, for your overwhelming kindness. 

P.S Brian moves everything from furniture to art to electronics. If you need a mover - email him at bnd.haulage@gmail.com. Honest, the man is a super hero. 

Dear Vandal —- Don’t you realize that by writing “NOT ART” on our bikes, you’ve turned them into Duchampian objects? Love it! Thanks. —- Love, The Good Girls

A perfect macchiato from Coffee Pocket; Toronto’s teeniest café. The best things really do come in small sizes.

Caroline

After reading a disappointing article about The Good Bike Project and replying to some rather nasty emails from Good Bike critics, Vanessa and I found this   recording in our inbox. We gave it a listen and were so touched we just about cried. The recording is by Sam (age 7), Maeve (age 5) and their mom Alison. They have recently joined The Public Art Project, a collaborative project by  iEARN-Pangea to learn more about public art and share their thoughts and findings with people from around the world. 

There have been many of articles written about The Good Bike Project over the past few months. However, most of them focus on the negative rather than the positive and few journalists have taken the time to learn about what each colour of bike represents before they report on the project. Thank you so much Sam, Maeve and Alison, for taking the time to learn about our project and sharing your thoughts and ideas with us! You have summed it up perfectly! We are so thrilled that you will be the owners of our very last Good Bike. It’s a blue bike for community builders. How fitting!

Mix by Dave. Cover by Caroline.

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I have spent more time than I would like to admit YouTubing TED Talks, so naturally I was thrilled to be accepted as a delegate for this year’s TEDX Toronto event.

Redefinition was the theme of the day. The event’s speakers ranged from tech wizards to doctors to activists and teachers. Nicholas Shiefer, a grade twelve student, discussed his frustration with current search engines. For his high school science fair he developed a new kind of search engine that uses networks to represent words.  Ariel Garten talked about a mind-controlled computing system she has designed that could be used to help people with ADHD. Rob Spence (aka Eyeborg) spoke about the positive advancements technology has had on prosthetic limbs using his own personal story as an example. Spence lost an eye as a child and has since then replaced it with a camera which he considers essential to his career as a documentary film maker. Joshna Maharaj is trying to revolutionize hospital food; and Dr. Brian Goldman spoke honestly about the mistakes he has made as a doctor in order to expose the misconception that doctors are infallible. Goldman believes that doctors should not have to deny mistakes out of fear and shame, but should be encouraged to be open about them in order to prevent the same mistakes from being made by others. Adam Garone, founder of Movember, spoke candidly about how he has redefined the moustache for men; and Carlyle Jansen, the founder of Good For Her, spoke about redefining relationships through adventure and honesty. 

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Last week, I attended a figurative drawing class at City Hall. The class took place before the ten o’clock Council meeting in which Ford’s proposed cuts to the Arts were to be debated. All unlookers were invited to draw the Counsellors as they debated the fate of the Arts. Those who submitted their drawings at the end of the meeting will be included in an art show called “Drawing Lines: Figurative Studies of Toronto City Council.” The date and location of the show is still to be announced.

As I approached City Hall, sleepy and hungry, I was pleased to find a number of picnic benches in the centre of the square. On them, dozens of people sat squished together, sketching in their notebooks. I sat beside David, a five year old boy, who had brought with him crayons, markers and a few pads of paper. He announced proudly as I sat down that he was “the best drawer in his family.”  

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Vanessa

Toronto gal Eva Tolkin is setting shop for a limited time on Queen Street, where she’ll be selling covetable vintage items from an important Montreal collection. Think fall, fur fabulous! Her press release reads: For the first time Toronto will have access to an elusive house in Montréal that has provided the film, theatre, and music communities with vintage pieces for a half-century. The limited run pop-up rolls into town with a large selection of fur, coats, and over 100 women’s hats, aiming to style unique outfits for the season. Be sure to check this white-hot sale, which will include art and other wares, while the pickings are plentiful!

A number of weeks ago, we were contacted by Iva, a student at Humber College (Lakeshore Campus). She expressed her frustration at drabness of the the school’s surround saying “commuting everyday through cement-filled and highway-crossed Etobicoke is not the most visually appealing of experiences.” Iva’s thought was to add colour to the area with a GOOD BIKE. Though we’d allocated spots for all of the project’s official bikes, we were keen to team up with Iva. We all decided on a light blue bike, which I painted early on Saturday morning at my parent’s house in Etobicoke. I met Iva nearby and equipped her with all she’d need to plant the bike including a lock and some extra spray-paint. She wrote later: “My dad and I put it up right away. You have no idea how excited I am to go to class tomorrow and pass by it, and see how people look at it!”  Thank you, Iva! — Vanessa

On August 27, we joined The Bicycle Commons and a number of other cycling community groups at the St. James Town Bike Redux, a free bicycle clinic that set-up shop at the Wellesley Community Centre. Mechanics from Bike Sauce, The Toronto Cyclists Union, Charlie’s Freewheels and a number of other organizations came together to tune-up, repair and teach. There was even a bicycle wash station! It was a sunny, perfect day and it was so affirming to see so many people come together in the name of cycling and sustainable community.

Unable to offer too much assistance to the capable mechanics, The Good did what we do best: paint bikes! That is, we painted one working bike donated to us by a comrade and offered it up in a pay-what-you-can raffle. Whilst selling tickets, eating heaps of food (as provided by the ever-magical Bicycle Commons team) and covering the sidewalk with chalk drawings, we made friends with Sharan, who was washing his bike and waiting for a tune-up. Sharan was interested in our orange bike and asked us many questions about the painting process. He told us that he wanted his bike to be lots of colours, and so we wrote down the different steps we go through making our good bikes.

He bought a raffle ticket for $0.25 with confidence, as he’d won money for his dad on a lottery ticket earlier that day. Turns out, Sharan was enjoying a lucky streak as he ended up being the winner of our raffle! After much jumping around and celebrating, we handed Sharan his bike, his lock and key, and a tote with spray paints in it. He asked if he could use our vinyl letters to write his name on the bike and we obliged wholeheartedly. We’re so happy to have made such a good friend. Hope you’re enjoying your bike, Sharan!