On my 7th or 8th birthday, my father got me a MX bike with shocks and fake gas tank. We road it up and down the street, it was stolen from our back yard that night. I got a red one to replace it.
It’s been a while since I updated the site, it was a bit broken for a while, problems with the theme. Finally got a new one that seems to work properly and looks good installed. These are all colour slides I’ve scanned and backlogged. They range from about 1975 to […]

Assorted Colour slides

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 It’s been awhile since I added some new photos. Been busy with my graphic novel, and Dracula, and the patreon campaign most recently. Also, it looks like I’m going to be teaching a lot more, three days a week now. That’s going to introduce some new time management challenges for […]

Baldwin St. Insanity Festival ’69 Part 1

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http://www.spiltink.org/av/bastardstalereadalong.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:59 — 12.4MB) | EmbedSubscribe: iTunes | Android | RSSOne of my reasons for starting this archive project, was to make my own exploration of who my father was a bit easier, for a memoir comic i’ve been working on called ‘A […]

A Bastards Tale: part 1

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Happy Throwback Thursday! I missed a week there, was having some issues with the site. Here we have another roll of film from the Toronto Pop Festival ’69 at Varsity Stadium. In this shot behind the police women, is my mother! 🙂 She’s the one giving them the funny look. […]

Toronto Pop Festival ’69: More Chuck Berry, Sly & the ...

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Happy #TBT. Here’s the next in this series [there will be a few!] covering the film Lionel shot at the The Toronto Pop Festival in 1969! This one has shots of a young looking Tiny Tim, some members of the Ronnie Hawkins band, playing while a 17-year-old Jeanne Beker dances her hart out in a yellow […]

Toronto Pop Festival ’69: Tiny Tim & Jeanne Beker.

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Happy late Throwback Thursday! I decided a while ago I would make this the standard posting day for the site here. Seemed fitting. I’ve got a few rolls from this show, though not all of them that Lionel took I think? We’ll see. This first scanned, is #5 of indeterminate. […]

Chuck Berry @ Varsity Stadium in 1969

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  Assorted negatives in an Envelop from the late ’60s, some of them very damaged. Mostly the good stuff was ok though. Haven’t done anything other than scan them and put in the water mark. Been CRAZY busy with my own work, launched a new book! Doing lots of freelance, […]

Assorted negatives in an Envelop

The Dealers
This is an old, distorted tape of Lionel, somewhat restored digitally recently [original files 1&2]. He was interviewed anonymously on the CBC as a Drug Dealer. He’s young, before he had kids I think, married to his first wife Cathy at the time. She had a baby daughter and later his first son Justin! But […]

The Dealers

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Frank Zappa @ The Rockpile! 1969-05-24, i suspect it’s the Late Show Arna and Lionel went to the show together I’m told. She sent me this photo on the right, it’s from Nash the Slash’s site, you should check it out he’s got some amazing archives. I’ve tinted it to […]

Frank Zappa 1969-05-24 @ The Rockpile

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Was told of this short silly film a few times by various friends of Lionel’s over the years, but the people who mentioned it didn’t remember who made it so I had no idea where to look for it… Ends up Lorne Gould, publisher of the “Collected Works” [1980 by […]

Tie Required

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The last roll of shots from the historic Jimi Hendrix Experience show [see pt1 and pt2 here]. Also at the end of the roll shots back stage i think, with Hendrix’s guitar? Might be, and a few at the Berkeley street loft, of Arna and Ian.

Jimi Hendrix Experience @ Maple Leaf Gardens Pt 3

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The second roll of photos of a historic Jimi Hendrix show, the night of May 3, 1969 at Maple Leaf Gardens. There’s been a fair bit of interest in prints of some kind, I’m working on a couple of solutions, and should have something to present with the 3rd Roll of film from […]

Jimi Hendrix Experience @ Maple Leaf Gardens Pt 2

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This is the first of 3 posts. You can find the second and third sets of shots from this show here and here. legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix was arrested at Toronto International Airport on May 3, 1969 at 9:30 a.m. after customs found small amounts of heroin and hashish in […]

Jimi Hendrix Experience @ Maple Leaf Gardens

front yards on Heward Ave (3)
I just got back from a trip to Toronto, and brought back another pile of Lionel’s things. This time it was 8 trays of colour slides, photos Lionel took mostly in the mid 70s. This first batch is all shots taken in or around Heward ave, the house Lionel owned and lived in […]

Colour slides | moments of life on Heward ave

Arthur Brown at the Rockpile 1969 16 copy
Next 4 posts will all be Live shows. This one is at the historic Rock Pile – April 12, 1969. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown is an English psychedelic rock band formed by singer Arthur Brown in 1967. To give you an idea of what the show might have […]

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown @ The Rock Pile

02-09-Clive A. Smith makin' faces 1
This set of photos goes with the next post, a set of live concert shots. Arna and Lionel hanging out with friends, before and after a big night of live music. Clive Smith is one of the founders of Nelvana, formally one of Canada’s largest animation studios. In the early […]

Hanging out with Clive, Billy, Ralphie & Co.

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Photos from a live show put on by 1050 CHUM, physician not sure who the act is or the date, will have to look that up.

1050 CHUM festival in a park

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30 more, ed mostly i think un-published poems. I recognize a few lines here and there, some are maybe earlier drafts of poems in the collected works book.

Of your fatherless child

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This set is almost entirely of a dress rehearsal for a play, not sure of what company, i’ll have to ask a few people see if I can find out. Might be Theatre Passe Muraille or a precursor. Nope, confirmed by a few people it’s not, may be a Hart […]

All of life a stage

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Visitors to the Berkeley street loft, pharmacy a convertible, friends playing Frisbee in the park, and a burned out home.

Smiles games and ashes

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A few shots of the buildings around the Berkeley street loft, a very lovely guest reeding in it, a tough looking lady in leather, and lots of photos from a screening of The good the bad and the ulgly. I have photos like that, from films on TV usually, stills […]

The good, the bad, and the beautiful

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This set is a little meta, in amongst the shots you can see contact sheets here and there, people looking at them, talking about them. I wonder what they are of. I’ll see if i can’t deduce it for later. Also a few great shots of a biker and his […]

Taking about photos

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Here’s a three rolls of film from what looks like sometime in the summer. Scenes from around Toronto. People hanging out in the Beaches. The Island faeries and on the island with a dog. Children and older folks out and about in what I think are parts of Cabbage town. John McNeily and […]

106 photos of summer

02-03-18 Ravi Shankar
So for the 20th post on the site i’m skipping ahead a few sheets to a treat. This was probably one of Lionel’s first live show shoots. I’ve some later one’s that came out a bit better. Not sure if this is the same place, or day. One set is […]

Ravi Shankar & a show at The Riverboat

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Most of these shots, i think were probably taken by Ian Argue. Looks like Arna Lionel and he visiting Lionel’s mother, Libby. My grandmother. Also two shots in someone’s kitchen, not sure where. Might not even be from the same roll, they are not on the contact sheet but were in […]

A haircut at Libby’s

you ask me why i like you
More poetry! About half way though the folder now, here’s a few more, 30 to be exact. One is a draft of a poem that appeared in the book, the rest i think are unpublished and predominately hand written.

The halls that shine with sliding sound

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Somewhere by the side of the road in southern Ontario Lionel and Arna pulled over and took these photos. The one of Arna in profile standing in a slight wind is really striking. Some really nice shots of the landscape too, I love the texture of the grass. I’ll have to […]

Landscapes and the ladies of Berkeley street

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Couple of rolls of photos of what i think is mostly Toronto in the summer. I have this lens still, along with a 28 wide angle for my Nikon F. It’s a bit crappy now though. Some of the few bits of camera equipment I’ve been able to hang on to. I was supposed to get it all, […]

Summer in the city

flop pad cartoon - Lionel draws the average university dorm.
So in case you didn’t know, I’m a cartoonist. Arna my mother is an artist, she works in animation. In part this explains my involvement in the arts. But not only was Lionel also very creative, he was a avid reader of comics, introducing me to my first undergrounds and superheros. And […]

Some Silly Doodles

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Not really sure if it is a quarry, looks like one. Ian Arna and Lionel going for a dip somewhere. Another shot of Arna and Lionel in happier times together. One of the nicest things about going through these old shots is finding those. I wonder who’s taking them when he’s in the frame. Ian […]

The streets and swimming in the Quarry

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This is a big interesting set. I think it’s all one roll, hard to be sure. It’s mostly of what i think is the streets of Downtown Toronto. Will try to find out and ad that info here when i do. But the really interesting thing about these shots are […]

Streets and People

John McNeily with a pipe
Along with all the negatives, there are a few prints printed by Lionel i assume, in some cases mounted on boards. Scanned them tonight, an interesting selections of images. Some of the prints were in rough shape. cleaned up a few things but mostly left them as is. I’m using these as […]

Assorted old prints from the Trunk

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Some more words. The first three are actually drafts of poems that appeared in the book, so not unpublished. But it’s interesting to see them typed up here just the same. The rest I think, are Un-published and not seen publicly, if ever, in over 30 years!

Last night the kichen table resisted my thoughts

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Some more shots of Arna, kittens, and folks at Berkeley street, also looks like a gimps at the garage on the first floor. Some photos of a fair, people playing bingo. The CNE maybe? And kids, smoking a pipe? Lionel loved kids, there are a lot of shots of kids playing in the […]

Cats Kids Bingo and Berkeley Street

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Of course i can’t be sure, maybe he shot these, put the camera down, and then picked up the day of the landing. Or maybe it was in the other order. But it looks like this roll was shot the day Apollo 11 touched down on the moon. Arna, my […]

Sometime after July 20, 1969

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This is a nice set. My mother is in some of them, getting dressed in the first place she and Lionel lived in together. She was an art student at OCA and an artists model. I have a great story to post later about how they met… “This is before Rochdale, before you! […]

Over a truck and billboard painting factory on Berkeley Street

life as a whole
Pulled out the big folder of peotry today, there’s a lot there that was not published in the Emanation Pess book, scanned a few of them to post today. These were typed on a huge humming electric typewriter that’s still around – an old girlfriend of mine has it. The […]

Un-published poetry

Birthcertificate
Going through his papers I found some interesting stories about Lionel in the form of documents. The first two here are landmarks, there one is his birth certifique, advice the other a letter of thanks for his eyes. I always wondered who looked though his eyes after he died. I […]

Beginnings and Endings

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Scanned another sheet tonight. These were it seems from the same set as the last, or are just unmarked. I’ve called them 02-01B for now. They are from 1969 as well. Looks like he was a little sloppy rinsing his negatives early on, there’s some streaking from developer left on them when they were hung to […]

More negatives from the Trunk

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http://www.theitalianmachine.spiltink.org/av/Lionelprose.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:36 — 5.8MB) | EmbedSubscribe: iTunes | Android | RSSLionel Douglas: Selected excerpts of “Collected Works” published in 1980 by Emanation Press. This is a book of my fathers work published a year after his death by friends. Not sure if they have […]

Lionel Douglas. The collected works

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I have this trunk. It’s filed with negatives. My father’s photos. Mostly B&W, i’ve been meaning to scan them, get them archived and published in some manor. Decided to start this site in part as an excuse for that. Get things rolling. The Binders of negatives in the trunk are […]

The Trunk of Photos

Lionel on one of his bikes
So, why “The Italian Machine Project”? Lionel was Jew-ish after all…? The machine in question was a bike, a Ducati Super Sport in a film that featured a fictional version of Lionel and captured a bit of the mythical version of him many remember. The Italian Machine was actually meant to […]

The Italian Machine

Death of a Biker
Lionel left a big impression. I’ll post other bits of evidence of this, but it goes a long way towards making the point, to post this. A two page spread published in one of Toronto’s major weekly papers, three months after his death. It’s an impressive hagiography, if not a little bit biased. Like most things […]

A well remembered friend