Project Puddle Chasing

(Way safer than Storm Chasing)

“McNally’s photographs help us to look at Ottawa in the mirror of nature like never before.”

Ottawa Life Magazine (January 11, 2024)

Featuring McNally’s

photography series

Centretown Reflections

Project Puddle Chasing (it’s way safer than storm chasing) is McNally’s umbrella term (see what I did there;) for 5 + events over 5 months (October 2023—February 2024): 4 photo exhibitions + 2 House Band Reading Series shows + Centretown Reflections 2024 Calendar launch.

See “Manx Pub Virtual Photography Exhibition” on the menu bar to see just that.

“The photographs are of the buildings and streetscapes of Centretown reflected in water. A through the looking glass, upside down view…” Page 14, January 2024 edition of The OSCAR

There was also the book launch for Stephen K. Donnelly’s Rules of the Road – Breakdowns on the Musical Highway, “A raucous romp through the 90s Canadian indie music scene…,” that McNally wrote the forward for (see below).

613 letter d productions

McNally is a Centretown based writer and photographer whose work focusses on “The Other Face of Ottawa” — not the Ottawa of parliamentary bureaucracy or national news, but that place in eastern Ontario where people live and, “…we begin and end each day with a dawn and a dusk, or a dusk and a dawn if you pull night shifts.”

613 letter d productions is McNally’s publishing vehicle, and the letter “d” is for his ol’ dog, who use to appear on poster like this one from 1999:

On this page:

• Centertown Reflections: Daytime Edition: McNally’s Manx Pub solo photography exhibition (January 12—February 29, 2024)
• Centretown Reflections: Nighttime Abstractions: McNally’s photography exhibit (as part of Atomic Rooster’s World of Art Pt. 4 group show)
• 2023 Ottawa Small Press Book Fair
• Centretown Reflections 2024 Calendar
• Book launched for Steven K. Donnelly’s Rules of the Road: Breakdowns on the Musical Highway
• Now Available: “Musically Yours” by Monique and Rick Tremblay (launched at the October opening of the Atomic Rooster show).
• About/Contact

Manx Pub solo photography exhibition – Centertown Reflections: Daytime Edition: January 12—February 29, 2024

After the success of his first and second photography exhibitions (as part of Atomic Rooster’s 2 group shows from October until January) McNally is following that up with his first solo photography show.

This solo exhibition at the Manx Pub (370 Elgin Street, Ottawa) features 12 photographs from McNally’s Centretown Reflections: Daytime Edition series (a number of the photographs also appear in the Centretown Reflections 2024 Calendar).

The show is now live, and as part of the launch event (Saturday, January 20, 5 pm) McNally is hosting a House Band Reading Series (HBRS): Manx Pub Edition show. Special HBRS guests include Rockin’ Al as well as nina jane drystek (who runs the Riverbed Reading Series). Also appearing is former Jimmy George/current Kingmakers bassist Stephen K. Donnelly, who recently released his memoir Rules of The Road: Breakdowns On The Musical Highway.

McNally contributed the foreword to Rules of the Road…, as well as this one-liner elevator pitch: ““Part personal, part musical memoir, Rules of the Road: Breakdowns on the Musical Highway has a large focus on Ottawa music (not just Jimmy George) while also charting the rise of indie music from the analog tape deck days of the mid-80s to the digital era of the late 90s.”

*****

Not part of the Manx show, put this gem was included anyhow. One of Madly Cadaver’s the story of al strips (from 1995 or something). In this episode: Al gets a job at The Manx. The strips originally appeared in Zot Magazine and this one ended up on a t-shirt.

Centretown Reflections: Nighttime Abstractions: McNally’s photography exhibit (as part of Atomic Rooster’s World of Art Pt. 4 group show) October 23—December 3, 2023

As part of the opening on Tuesday, October 24 ), McNally hosted a House Band Reading Series: Atomic Rooster Edition, featuring DJ Andrew, while special guests Monique and Rick Tremblay publicly launched their memoir Musically Yours (originally scheduled to launch in 2020, but, you know, the world got in the way. Details below). Other special guests included  nina jane drystek (Riverbed Reading Series) and Grant Wilkins.

Centretown Reflections 2024 Calendar

Launched at the House Band Reading Series: Atomic Rooster Edition on October 23, 2023, McNally’s Centretown Reflections 2024 Calendar is now available and features photography from his Centretown Reflections: Daytime Edition series (which will also form part of his solo exhibition at the Manx Pub in January 2024).

While you can currently only get them from himself, McNally is working on a retail location, as well as an online Print-on-Demand version that you can order.

613 letter d productions

2023 Ottawa Small Press Book Fair

McNally attended rob mclennan’s 2023 Ottawa Small Press Book Fair (November 18, 2023) to publicly display and promote his calendars as well as Rick and Monique Tremblay’s Musically Yours (that was launched at the House Band Reading Series: Atomic Rooster Edition).

Special guest at the table was Steven K. Donnelly, who recently published Rules of the Road: Misadventures on the Musical Highway (for which McNally contributed the foreword).

The official launch for Rules of the Road: Misadventures on the Musical Highway is December 09, 2023, at Meow! That’s Hot (details below).

Book launch (ed) – Steven K. Donnelly’s Rules of the Road: Breakdowns on the Musical Highway

“Part personal, part musical memoir, Rules of the Road: Breakdowns on the Musical Highway has a large focus on Ottawa music (not just Jimmy George) while also charting the rise of indie music from the analog tape deck days of the mid-80s to the digital era of the late 90s.” McNally, mcnally613.com.

Available online from Donnelly’s tenvolt site. Also available locally (in Ottawa) at:

• The Record Centre – 1099 Wellington Street West
• Dave’s Drum Shop – 270 Catherine Street
• Spaceman Music – 388 Gladstone Avenue

The official launch fête was on Saturday, December 09, 2023 at Meow! That’s Hot (519 Bank Street, Ottawa). It was a combination of readings, a Question-and-Answer session about the book as well as various Ottawa songwriters belting out road-related music in an intimate setting.

It was also quite fun.

From the foreword McNally contributed:

“To say that the band Jimmy George were a hot ticket in downtown Ottawa’s emerging indie music scene of the 1990s wouldn’t really do them justice. They might have been the hottest ticket… A hot ticket that you didn’t really need a ticket for.

That’s because Jimmy George were the house band at downtown Ottawa’s Duke of Somerset Pub throughout most of the 1990s. Playing there almost every Sunday night for almost ten years, they also did a Thursday to Sunday long weekend of shows once a month. On top of that they scored other gigs around town that people would buy tickets for.

That’s right, despite being able to see Jimmy George for free about eight times a month, for many years, fans were also willing to fork out money to see them play.

Like I said, a hot ticket.

That you didn’t need a ticket for.

Mostly…A raucous romp through part of a Canadian 90s indie music scene in a town some think is a place that fun forgot.”

You can read the full text of the foreword along with an excerpt at the “Read sample” link (under the image of the cover) over at this site – Rules of the Road: Breakdowns on the Musical Highway: Donnelly, Stephen K, McNally, Brendan: 9781739066604: Books – Amazon.ca

Back cover blurb from Slo’ Tom Stewart, Furnaceface/Spaceman Music, “Captures the untamed spirit of the 1990s indie music scene better than anything I’ve ever read. I was instantly transported back to the sights, sounds and smells of a time I thought I’d forgotten: the endless parade of bands in vans and pubs and clubs—and all the offbeat personalities and insane situations that defined the heyday of alt-rock and made it so much fun, whether you were in a band or just a fan. Somebody needed to document this era, and Rules of the Road gets it just right.”

Now Available: “Musically Yours“ Monique and Rick Tremblay

Monique and Rick Tremblay launched their memoir Musically Yours as part of the House Band Series: Atomic Rooster Edition, on the opening night of Atomic Rooster World of Art: Pt 4 exhibition (Tuesday, October 23, 2023).

“A Duet’s Memoir of Life, Love, and Music”

From their website “It began with a singer in need of accompaniment and a guitar player who obliged.

Musically Yours is the soundtrack of Monique & Rick Tremblay’s life and speaks to their unbreakable bond as Young Musicians, as the Married Duo, and the Devoted Couple. A memoir of this Duet’s life in song, their love of music and their hopes in their lyrics.”

About / Contact

McNally is a writer and photographer based in Ottawa’s Centretown neighbourhood, where he spent a good chunk of the 90s booking indie music gigs in The Manx, a basement bar at the bottom end of Elgin Street.

613 letter d productions is his jalopy for getting things out in the world.

Over the years his written work has appeared on various stages across Centretown and beyond, including:

• the Ottawa Fringe Theatre Festival
• the National Arts Centre’s 4^th Stage
• various locally hosted reading series
• the Mayfair Theatre (where the movie Hot Knives: A Slacker Odyssey, directed by Peter Monet, premiered, and for which he has a co-writing credit)

His participation in the Atomic Rooster group show is his first photo exhibition, while the show at the Manx in January is his first solo photo exhibition.

Related:

One artist’s reflection on 25 years of Ottawa Fringe – Apartment613 (apt613.ca)

Hot Knives, A Slackers Odyssey – Ottawa Life Magazine

Contact information: mcnally@mcnally613.com

McNally attended rob mclennan’s 2023 Ottawa Small Press Book Fair (November 18, 2023) to publicly display and promote his calendars as well as Musically Yours (that was launched at the House Band Reading Series: Atomic Rooster Edition.