Winter Cabin Chic at Chat Noir

New arrivals: Throw on a camp blanket and get cozy with some artifacts from Camp Knockabout, including vintage oars, canoe paddles and more!

It's Snowing!

Snow flurries off and on all day today at Chat Noir. Just in time: we just put out a ton of new and vintage Christmas ornaments and winter-y home decor.

As well, tomorrow is the annual Winter Lights and Music event in Downtown Guelph --lots to see and do all around Market Square. And don't forget the Santa Claus Parade, this Sunday!

LP Records in Guelph

Vinyl Records at Chat Noir Antiques, Guelph

At Chat Noir we are always buying and selling vinyl.

Our small but eclectic selection of records --usually about 4 or 5 crates of primo stuff-- ranges from classic rock like Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd to 80s pop and New Wave like Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol, The Cars, and Duran Duran. Plus we always have weird oddball stuff (SEE BELOW) as well as jazz, country (Johnny Cash), punk (Clash, Sex Pistols), Canadian (Stompin' Tom), soul, funk, and even the occasional modern pressing and recent indy darling (Radiohead, Cat Power). We also have 45s and 78s. We buy records too! With cash money!

Chat Noir Vinyl Spotlight: Paul Griffin Pours On Some Soul Sauce


Recent arrival! Besides having a classic cover, this 1968 album of Hammond organ dance music by New York session musician Paul Griffin is surprisingly listenable, given its exploitation-style presentation. Turns out Griffin is the missing link of 1960s and 70s rock. This guy had his fingers in every pie! Born in Harlem, he learned piano at a Baptist church and went to the Fame highschool before moving on to the legendary Apollo and a touring gig with 50s sensation King Curtis. Griffin eventually settled down to work as a studio back-up man for the New York record companies and played organ and piano on records for Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, The Shirelles, Wilson Pickett, Paul Simon, Quincy Jones, Nina Simone, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and tons more. He played the gospel-style piano you hear on Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" and Don McLean's "American Pie" (a song I've always hated). He's also the pianist on "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" (another hated classic) and many more hits by the likes of Steely Dan, Neil Diamond, John Denver, etc etc. So, great cover, great story, some funny song titles, and some mildly groovy instrumental numbers. Amen! Check it out! Griffin died in 2000 at 62 years old but his spirit lives on in Paul Griffin's Soul Sauce!

New Book: Dirty Dishes by Amy Lockhart

New at Chat Noir:

We just received a small number of copies of Amy Lockhart's Dirty Dishes!

Let's all go voyageur-ing inside the unusual mental landscape of this very original artist.

Published by Montreal's Drawn and Quarterly Books, this selection of the comics and plastic art of Guelph-based animator and cartoonist Amy Lockhart is a delightful gem of a book.

Originally published at $16.95, we now have copies available at the bargain price of $12!

About the author: Amy Lockhart is part of a new generation of independant animators. Her artwork and award winning films have been exhibited internationally. She studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, completing an artist residency at the Quickdraw Animation Society and completing a fellowship at the National Film Board. She has exhibited at The California Institute of the Arts and the Adam Baumgold Gallery in New York. She currently works and studies at the University of Guelph and is preparing a new film, "Dizzler in MASKHERAID."



From the publisher:

This PETIT LIVRE is a first class ticket into the creepy cute and totally absurd world of Straw-Baby, and the mind of its creator Amy Lockhart. It chronicles the various facets of her process/thinking from her paintings and drawings to cardboard sculpture of objects from her everyday life. Also included are stills from her animations and photos of costumes used in her videos. Amy works in a variety of mediums, including animation, film and video making, acrylic painting, drawing, costume making, comics and small press books and combines the various mediums as much as possible and let them feed into each other and out of each other.

Full Color, 96 pages, 4 3/4 by 7 1/2 inches

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