Plenty of Nothing

Cinq Mille

The best-looking banknote in a denomination of 5000. Republic of Cameroon, 1962.

This is the 5000th post on Plenty of Nothing. The blog began in 2006 and has been daily since 2010.

The Best of Plenty of Nothing, Volume 2: Drawings

Unarigoe chapter 1, page 8 (October 30, 2011)

From a Photograph by Kimbei Kusakabe (January 22, 2013)

Liliane Welch Comix (January 6, 2014)

Classmates 2 (April 24, 2014)

Log Stove, page 1 (September 10, 2015)

The Best of Plenty of Nothing, Volume 2: Photos

Still More Halifax Colours (July 31, 2015)

Doors of Kingston #2 (June 24, 2012)

Stone (September 11, 2014)

Frozen Solid (January 15, 2014)

City Hall Face (September 27, 2011)

1980s Blog

The Best of Plenty of Nothing: Modernity

Condos Are Closing In (May 14, 2009)

Toronto is a Big Shopping Tesseract (October 21, 2006)

Trueman Atrium (August 8, 2010)

Atrium, Rowe Building, Dal (March 27, 2011)

Citadel High Front (October 28, 2010)

The Best of Plenty of Nothing: Ottawa

Shiny (October 30, 2007)

Fleur-de-Lys (June 17, 2007)

Chateau-Style Office Block (March 31, 2007)

Wavy (September 12, 2008)

The Smallest House in Ottawa (March 16, 2009)

The Best of Plenty of Nothing: Flora

Peony (June 17, 2009)

Poppy (June 21, 2009)

Ginkgo leaves (October 29, 2007)

Hollyhocks (July 4, 2007)

Apple (May 6, 2010)

The Best of Plenty of Nothing: Comics

Shinobue After Kitagawa Utamaro (November 8, 2010)

Starring Cate Blanchett (July 9, 2010)

Does it spell-check? (July 30, 2010)

There was a snowball fight. (December 13, 2009)

She didn't have to bring my Mom into it. (December 29, 2010)

The Best of Plenty of Nothing: Statues

Laura Secord Loses Snowball Fight (January 14, 2008)

Joseph Brant, Urban Warrior (May 14, 2008)

Spare Personhood? (April 17, 2007)

Terry Fox (May 1, 2010)

Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville (January 6, 2008)

I like to photograph statues. They're very cooperative subjects. Still photography invests them with a greater illusion of life, paradoxically by making everyone else immobile. And you can use their environment to tell stories.

According to our stats page, Kate Beaton came to look at Laura Secord, but she probably went away disappointed because the picture is quite sad. The previous night's blizzard has left Secord looking beaten and troubled, like a girl who has been ganged up on in the school yard.

Notice that someone has attached a lock to Joseph Brant's gorget? They had to remove the statue to get it off.

One of the Famous Five makes a gesture used by panhandlers in the nearby Byward Market.

Terry Fox, the important part.

Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, with his back toward Parliament, looks alienated by the way history has turned out.

I left out Window-Smashing Bear Escapes! because the season, colours and mood set it apart from these five, but it demostrates perfectly how context is all. Douglas

The Best of Plenty of Nothing: Photos

Coniferous (August 19, 2009)

Gothic (August 20, 2009)

Basilica (March 7, 2008)

No (August 18, 2009)

Life and Death (September 8, 2007)