NAME: My full birth name is Firuz Azahar (Frankie) Bin Abdul Hamid Daud. Firuz Azahar is my given name, Frankie is my English name, and then bin means son of, and then I have my dad’s entire name after that. We don’t really have family names so I ended up a Daud. It’s too bad we went with my dad’s last name because my mom’s last name is Sheik Jaffarr which is about a million times cooler.
OCCUPATION:Right this secy I’m doing visual effects for a feature film called Blood Pressure which is going to premiere at the Bussan Film Festival, developing a documentary series for Discovery, and also doing a bunch of ad agency spots for the NBA. I often have trouble explaining what I do because I don’t work for a company and I don’t always do the same thing. I suppose you could argue that I’m unemployed. I’m often a creative lead or creative director, so people come to me with ideas and I have to figure out how to realize their projects. I’ve also been known to do graphics, 3D animation, compositing and VFX work, editing, shooting, and directing. I’m just a handy guy to have around when creative stuff is happening, especially in film and video post-production. It actually really irks me when people describe me as a jack of all trades and master of none because I think I’m absolutely brilliant at everything I do. Like even something I do completely as a hobbyest that I would not feel comfortable charging a client for like photography. Sometimes I’ll meet photographers and look at their work and think, “heh, you’re stuff sucks compared to mine”. When I have to fill out a form like at the airport or something I always just say storyteller because it covers a lot of bases and it’s simple.
WHERE YOU HEADING: I’m going to a barbeque for this guy who is leaving the city. It’s like a going away party. We’re so happy for him because he gets to go away. I wish I would go away. I don’t think anyone would have a barbeque for me though.
WHAT ARE YOU RIDING: A Marin Larkspur CS3. It’s a hybrid between a road bike and a mountain bike. There is a nice little sticker on it that says it was designed using Autodesk software. I like the way I have a cup holder. The only two things I don’t like about my bike are that I don’t have a really big basket or a kickstand. I have this friend named Brian Schlachta who is a pretty hardcore cyclist and he made fun of me for wanting those accessories, but it’s so inconvenient if I want to carry stuff that isn’t a drink and my bike is always falling over when I’m not on it.
WHY DO YOU RIDE?: Definitely not for health or environmental reasons because I don’t believe in those. I suppose I just enjoy it. I used to like walking everywhere, but it’s terribly inefficient. It would take me ages to go anywhere. Cycling is a happy medium where I have a lot of space and feel free, but I can get paces in minutes instead of hours.
IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT BIKING IN OTTAWA WHAT WOULD IT BE: Just one thing? Do I have infinite power and resources? If it’s just one thing I would raze OC Transpo to the ground and replace the 95 route with a train. I guess that’s two things, so if I could only do one it would be just raze OC Transpo to the ground. It wouldn’t really be productive for cyclists, but it would rid the world of my most hated enemy. You might wonder what that has to do about cycling, but I’m only able to do one thing and I think the root cause of anything sucky about Ottawa can be traced back to how our public transportation system is the most awful one I could imagine. I like cycling, so it would be great if there were less cars on the road, but Ottawa is some place where everyone drives because people tend to live in the suburbs so, “you need a car”. You don’t actually need a car. There are just no practical alternatives to going from Cumberland to Barhaven or whatever it is people in Ottawa do because our public transportation is garbage. You know what everyone needs in Ottawa instead of a car? A train. Just build a train. It’s not that complicated. Europeans built a train that goes through a chunnel under the ocean. If I could improve the experience of biking in Ottawa It would require a multifaceted approach from city planning, infrastructure, driver’s education, to artistic and creative development, but really in my mind it all starts by razing OC Transpo to the ground.
WHAT ARE YOU WEARING:
- Shirt: I got my shirt at H&M, so it’s pretty boring. It was on sale. It does have a picture of a naked lady on it. Lately I guess those are my favourite kind of T-shirts.
- Shoes: Counterfeit Supras
- Jeans: counterfeit Cheap Mondays
- Glasses: counterfeit Carreras
- Bracelet: A bracelet someone in the street made for me when I was in Paris. It’s not a friendship bracelet. It’s a reminder not to interact with other people bracelet.
WHAT’S WITH ALL THE COUNTERFEIT CLOTHING?:I got them all from the Silk Market in Beijing. I’m really into counterfeit clothes. I’m kind of into aesthetics so I like it when clothes are considered and designed, but I don’t like “designer clothes”. I don’t see any value in paying a lot for some guy’s name on a label. I would rather just use their designs as a jumping off point to make my own clothes with my own ideas. I’ve dabbled in downloading pirated designs and cut patterns online, but until 3D printers are viable and capable of rendering a material that isn’t that plastic resin stuff, the tailoring involved in pirating one’s own clothes is just too time consuming to be practical. Fake designer clothes can look okay at first glance, but aren’t manufactured very well. I have no interest in designer clothes, but I love counterfeit clothes. Counterfeit clothes are great because they look nice, are as detailed and well manufactured as the real version, and cost so little they are disposable. It reminds me of Jean Baudrillard and the simulacra. When I was at the Silk Market I bought a blazer, a jacket, a dress shirt, two pairs of jeans, two pairs of sneakers, and two pairs of sunglasses and it cost the equivalent of $20. If I were to go to the H&M with $20 I might be able to get a plain t-shirt and a pair of socks, or one t-shirt with a naked lady on it if it was on sale.
IS YOUR PHONE CONSIDERED AN ACCESSORY?: I wear my phone around my neck from a lanyard. People here seem to think that’s odd, but in Asia it’s quite common to do that. When I saw it it made so much sense because I always see people dropping their phones or misplacing them. That never happens to me. It’s good too because your phone doesn’t take up space in your pocket and I find my pockets too bulgy anyway. It throws off my whole silhouette. Men don’t get to have a ton of accessories so maybe our choice in gadgets reflects our personal style too? If that’s the case I have a Google Nexus S. At the time I purchased it, it was the flagship Google phone. i-bullshit is up there on the list of things I don’t understand. And by understand, I mean like.
FAVOURITE SPOTS TO BIKE: Oooh, I have so many. I like biking west along the river during the spring when all the animals have babies. It’s super cute. I especially like the Canadian geese because they kind of look like dinosaurs and their little chicks are so fluffy and nice and follow the mom around. The only problem with that path is it’s filled with goose poop so you can’t really stop or anything. I also like biking in any city that has a grid system, especially in the fall. It’s just such an easy and pleasant feeling to be on a flat road for a long time and see the scenery go by you.
FAVOURITE PLACE TO STOP AFTER A RIDE: Elgin Street Diner. Sometimes I get on my bike just because I feel like having a poutine, but I can’t really justify it. I wonder if I cut out poutine if I would enjoy cycling as much.
