august 17 iam

In 2015 I was in Paris for a spell. At one point during that spell, my friend Rich Aucoin, was also in Paris for a spell of his own, and we met up a handful of times to drink, carouse, carouse, and drink. One on of those occasions, he introduced me to some of his friends. One of them was an artist from Chicago who introduced me to the work of an artist and educator named Nick Briz, whose work captivated me. I watched some of his videos and felt seen. He and I thought a lot of the same things about the internet, but while I was a somewhat interesting alcoholic who wasn't taking care of his mental health, Nick was following through and doing the thing. At the time, a video titled How To / Why Leave Facebook was the thing he was most known for. A few years after returning to Toronto —— then going to Manitoba, then Los Angeles, then back to Manitoba, and then back to Montreal –— I interviewed Nick for Cult MTL. He and I became friends, and fell into a rhythm of catching up a few times a…